Monday, 11 November 2013

USAHitman | Conspiracy News

Britain ‘snooped’ on Icelandic officials’ emails to recover cash from broken banks

Posted: 09 Nov 2013 04:45 PM PST

An Icelandic MP says Britain spied on Iceland while wrestling to rescue its citizens’ cash from collapsed Icelandic banks after the financial crisis. Birgitta Jónsdóttir claims she received a tip-off from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Jónsdóttir, who represents Iceland’s Pirate Party, maintains that the UK’s intelligence agencies systematically intercepted messages sent by Icelandic negotiators when Britain tried to recover savers’ cash held in the country’s banks that went bankrupt.
Jónsdóttir, a prominent WikiLeaks supporter, said that she was tipped off to the spying in 2010 by Assange, Iceland’s Visir newspaper reported.
Having received the tip-off, she warned members of Iceland’s negotiating team not to send emails to each other.
“The UK authorities had very good access to everything that was going on between members of the team. It is the role of intelligence, for example MI5, to spy on other countries, especially if it concerns their national interests. Their duty was to gather information and intelligence about us, and the duty of the Icelandic government was to do everything to protect us against such espionage,” Jónsdóttir told the newspaper.
The revelation could reignite tensions between the UK and Iceland, which were stoked in 2008 when the UK government used anti-terrorism legislation to freeze an Icelandic bank’s assets in the UK. The British Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, Alastair Darling, seized the funds of Landsbanki’s Internet bank, Icesave, to protect UK depositors’ money after the Icelandic government reacted to Landsbanki’s toxic debts by nationalizing the bank.
Last week, Britain got involved in another major spy scandal when it was reported that the UK has been allegedly using its Berlin embassy to spy on the nearby Bundestag, as well as the office of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
A new report also revealed that British intelligence agency GCHQ allegedly helped its counterparts in France, Germany, Spain and Sweden develop methods of mass surveillance of internet and phone traffic in the last five years.
Documents supplied by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden to the Guardian newspaper show the UK Government Communications Headquarters’ enormous influence throughout Europe. GCHQ is part of the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence-sharing partnership between the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The documents detail how the agency developed and promoted spying processes, built relationships with telecommunication companies and evaded national laws that restrict the surveillance powers of intelligence agencies.
Earlier reports revealed by Snowden showed that the US has been monitoring the communications of up to 35 world leaders, including Merkel and Brazilian President. Communications of hundreds of millions of people across the world were also monitored, the leaked documents revealed, including British, French, Spanish and American citizens.
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Guardian editor to be grilled by British MPs over Snowden leaks

Posted: 09 Nov 2013 04:03 PM PST

Alan Rusbridger, the editor of the Guardian, is to be questioned by British lawmakers next month over the publishing of intelligence files leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, after UK spy chiefs warned that it had damaged national security.
“Alan has been invited to give evidence to the home affairs select committee and looks forward to appearing next month,” a Guardian spokesman said.
UK spy chiefs were questioned Thursday by the intelligence and security committee. The Committee is made up of MPs and peers and normally takes evidence in secret. This hearing was televised but with a two minute delay for national security reasons.
The head of MI6, Sir John Sawers, said that the Guardian’s actions had been irresponsible.
“They’ve put our operations at risk. It’s clear that our adversaries are rubbing their hands with glee – Al-Qaeda is lapping it up,” he said.
While the head of GCHQ, the UK equivalent of the NSA, Sir Iain Lobban, said that his organization had monitored terrorist groups discussing in “specific terms” how to avoid communicating in such a way that could be detected.
Rusbridger, who has been the editor of the left-leaning British daily since 1995, defended his papers actions saying that it has provoked debate on the issue of mass surveillance where MPs failed to do so.
He said the Guardian was entitled to report on invasive technologies beyond anything “Orwell could have imagined.”
“The ability of these big agencies, on an international basis, to keep entire populations under some form of surveillance, and their ability to use engineering and algorithms to erect a system of monitoring and surveillance, is astonishing,” he said.
The first Snowden leaks were broken in the Guardian by Brazil-based journalist Glen Greenwald.
In August, the Guardian revealed that it decided to destroy the computer hard drives containing copies of secret files leaked by Edward Snowden after the threat of legal action from the government.
Also in August, Greenwald’s partner, David Miranda, was detained at London’s Heathrow airport under the Terrorism Act for ferrying documents between Greenwald and Berlin based film maker Laura Poitras, who has also been working on stories related to the NSA files.
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US Navy admirals under investigation in widening bribery scandal

Posted: 09 Nov 2013 04:02 PM PST

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Two Navy admirals have been placed on temporary leave after their access to classified materials was suspended. This comes as part of a growing investigation into allegations that Naval officers illegally accepted bribes from a military contractor.
Vice Adm. Ted Branch, director of naval intelligence, and Rear Adm. Bruce Loveless, director of intelligence operations, were reported on Friday to be part of an ongoing probe after they were each accused of having illegal and improper relations with Leonard Francis, CEO of Glenn Defense Marine.
“The suspension was deemed prudent given the sensitive nature of their current duties and to protect and support the integrity of the investigative process,” a Navy statement announced.
“The allegations against Admirals Branch and Loveless involve inappropriate conduct prior to their current assignments and flag office rank. There is no indication, nor to the allegations suggest, that in either case there was any breach of classified information.”
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) began its investigation in 2010. While a Navy spokesman maintained neither has been charged with a crime or service violation, the US attorney’s office in San Diego, California has charged Loveless and Branch with passing along classified information, according to the Washington Post.
Branch and Loveless join Commanders Jose Luiz Sanchez, Michael Vannak Khem Misiewiz, and NCIS Supervisory Special Agent John Beliveau as subjects of the NCIS investigation into corruption and bribery at the Navy’s Singapore outpost.
Each of the three senior officials have been arrested because of their alleged dealings with the man known as “Fat Leonard.” Prosecutors say the Malaysian businessman used his personal connections to bribe Navy officers with prostitutes, luxury travel accommodations, Lady Gaga concert tickets, and $100,000, among others.
Leonard is accused of using these favors to persuade officers into providing insight on upcoming law enforcement probes and contract reviews. He is especially known for the lavish Christmas parties he has thrown every year, decorating his 70,000 Singapore home with decorations so outlandish that spectators would visit.
“He’s a larger-than-life figure,” retired Rear Adm. Terry McKnight told Fox News. “You talk to any captain on any ship that has sailed in the Pacific and they will know exactly who he is.”
Francis and Glenn Defense Marine are also accused of defrauding the Navy out of more than $10 million by overcharging for fuel, tugboats, docking, sewage disposal, and many other services.
“It’s pretty big when you have one person who can dictate where ships are going to go and being influenced by a contractor,” McKnight said. “A lot of people are saying how could this happen?”
Sanchez and Misiewicz are believed to have begun notifying Glenn Defense Marine of Navy ship activity in 2009 and continuing to do so until April of this year. Beliveau is accused of ferrying information to Francis even after the Navy investigation started and may have given “Fat Leonard” advice on how to answer questions.
Misiewicz was already well-known before he was apprehended by law enforcement. As a child the future Navy Cmdr. was rescued from a violent region of Cambodia and given a new life by an American woman. His emotional return to the region in 2010 was the subject of international media coverage.
Yet prosecutors say Francis was already reengaged in a heated recruitment effort with Misiewicz in his sights. Misiewicz allegedly accepted tickets to a theater production of “The Lion King” in Tokyo and was soon referring to Francis as “Big Brother” in personal emails.
The charged defendants could be sentenced to five years in prison if found guilty of conspiracy to commit bribery. Francis is being held without bail.
Exactly how Loveless and Branch may have known Francis is not clear, but both officers had stints in the Pacific during their careers. Branch previously served as assistant to the commander of the Pacific fleet before he was promoted to vice admiral in February. Loveless held a command position at the Joint Intelligence Operations Center at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii from 2009 to 2012.
The Washington Post previously reported that the Navy terminated $200 million in contracts with the company in September of this year.

Sochi spacewalk: Olympic torch ventures out from ISS for first time

Posted: 09 Nov 2013 04:00 PM PST

Russian cosmonauts have taken the Olympic torch for the Sochi 2014 Winter Games out for its first-ever spacewalk on Saturday. The “cosmic” torch will be the one to light the Olympic flame in February.
Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazansky have taken the Olympics’ main symbol into space outside the station, handing it to one another in an imitation of a more down-to-earth torch relay.
“Prior to that, the cosmonauts will attach a holder, carrying a hermetically sealed box with a camera, to the surface of the space craft. The rest of the ISS crew will also film their colleagues,” a representative of Russia’s Mission Control told RIA Novosti.
The cosmonauts have promised to make a spectacular show of the spacewalk and said they’d chosen a really good location for the photo shoot. The torch was front and center, with the Earth behind it in the background.
Kotov and Ryazansky did not venture far from the ISS. They had the torch, specially modified for the space mission, safely attached to a cosmonaut’s spacesuit by a slidewire.
The photo shoot with the Olympic torch lasted an hour out of the six-hour-long mission of the Russian ISS crew members in space, during which they also dismantled and mounted several items of the station’s equipment. They also checked the ISS’s surface for possible damage done by micro meteorites.
While in space the torch was not alight as flames are not permitted on the ISS. It arrived on the International Space Station on a Soyuz spacecraft, November 7. The torch will be relit with gas once it returns to Earth on November 11, and will eventually light the main flame of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics on February 7.
Meanwhile, the record-breaking 65,000-kilometer torch relay across Russia is well under way. As part of the epic journey, the torch has already visited the North Pole.
Among other landmark destinations are the bottom of the deepest lake in the world – Lake Baikal, as well as the top of the Mount Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe.
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Chinese troops will have boots on the ground in Hawaii on Tuesday

Posted: 08 Nov 2013 04:15 PM PST

By Judi McLeod
Aloha Hawaiians! If you see what you think are soldiers from the Communist Peoples Republic of China Army wandering about in your neck of the woods Tuesday through Thursday next week, your imagination is not playing tricks on you.
For the first time in history the U.S. Army will host the Communist Peoples Republic of China’s Army on American soil Nov. 12-14, 2013.
But don’t worry while Chinese soldiers will have boots on the ground in Hawaii, they are only really “simulating”. “Simulating humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to a fictional third country”.
You can’t make this stuff up when GridEx 2 is doing it for you.
GridEx 2 (there was already a GridEx 1in November of 2011) is a massive ‘emergency drill’ planned to take place across the whole of North America with thousands of utility workers, business executives, National Guard officers, FBI antiterrorism experts and officials from government agencies, in the United States, Canada and Mexico (who) are preparing for an emergency drill in November that will simulate physical attacks and cyberattacks that could take down large sections of the power grid. (New York Times, Aug. 16, 2013).
The exercise is touted as a unified move “to test the resiliency of the U.S. power grid to withstand major damage causes by a natural disaster or deliberate attack”.
“Fears about the possible detonation of a nuclear warhead in the skies about the United States, for the purposes of creating an electromagnetic pulse aimed at sizzling electronics on the ground, have led a number of public figures to call for significant steps to strengthen the power grid. Ex-CIA head R. James Woolsey is planing a campaign to convince state governments to pass laws requiring utilities to harden their electronics against potential EMP attacks.
“A key objective of GridEx 2 is to learn how governments would handle a loss of electrical power that is large enough to drastically affect the delivery of common and essential goods and services.” (NYT)
Hoping that the U.S., Canada or Mexico aren’t GridEx 2’s “fictional third country” and that the soldiers out on reconnaissance in Blue Hawaii don’t stamp ‘Made in China’ on it.
The New York Times reported on GridEx 2’s massive, Nov. 13-14 drill on August 16, but never mentioned the participation of the Peoples Republic of China’s Army.
China’s Xinhua Agencies kicked in on November 6 reporting that American and Chinese soldiers will train together in the November exercise.
“The US military Pacific Commander, Samuel Locklear, said here Tuesday that a joint humanitarian assistance and disaster relief exercise to be held this month helps improve the relationship between the United States and China.” (Xinhua Agencies, Nov. 6, 2013)
”Locklear told a news briefing that the Pacific Command’s Army component commander in Hawaii has been looking forward to the Nov. 12-14 exercises “for some time”, as the Army will host the People’s Liberation Army soldiers of China to train together in a field environment, simulating humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to a fictional third country.
“Summing up his expectations for the joint exercise, Locklear said both militaries can learn something in disaster management and “better prepare tomorrow than yesterday”.
“In relation to our ability to do this with our Chinese counterparts”, he said, “this kind of exercise gives us a place to start, and get into the rhythm of understanding and trusting each other.”
“The joint exercise was announced during an August visit to Washington by Chinese Minister of National Defense Chang Wanquan, as China and the United States expand their military-to-military relationship and explore cooperation opportunities in non-traditional security areas.”
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Public Officials Admit They Have Been Scamming Citizens At Red Light Cameras

Posted: 08 Nov 2013 04:06 PM PST

by Michael Lotfi
Citizens in counties around the country have taken their cases to court when it comes to red light cameras. More often than not, the cameras are found to be unconstitutional. When a driver currently gets a ticket from a red light camera in the city of Murfreesboro, TN, the tickets warn that if payment is not received then the driver registered to that vehicle will lose their license, be reported to the credit bureau, which will negatively impact their credit, and have points issued against their insurance.
However, according to the most recent city council hearing, none of that is true. Tennessee state law, as well as city ordinances, prohibit such action being taken against motorists. The tickets that motorists receive in the mail are essentially making false threats in an attempt to bully them into paying fines that they actually do not have to pay.
According to a group called Citizens Against Photo Enforcement (CAPE) it’s time for the cameras to go, and this new evidence proves the point. A CAPE co-founder provided us with the following statement:
“Despite the fact that the city council decided to continue the automated camera system for one more year, we consider yesterday’s council meeting a tremendous success. One year ago when we originally discussed organizing opposition to the cameras, it was almost certain they were going to double the amount of cameras in our city as well as possibly add speed enforcement cameras. In this current decision, they have decided to only maintain the existing camera infrastructure and not expand the system. There was also healthy questioning to Police Chief Chrisman about the effectiveness of the system that was not present in the past. Most important, the council acknowledged publicly that despite the tickets directly threatening the loss of one’s license and reflecting negatively on one’s credit report, they cannot take any substantial action against those who choose not to pay and simply ignore the ticket. This is because under Tennessee State Law, automated traffic cameras which issue tickets cannot issue moving violations. Because of this, they cannot reflect this on your driving history nor report this charge to a credit agency. In the words of Murfreesboro City Councilman Eddie Smotherman whom was the only one who voted no to continue the contract, paying a ticket in the current system is little more than a complimentary payment.”
The group plans to continue their fight to stop the red light cameras, and say that the new evidence from the council hearing has state-wide implications.
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Reindeer Eyes Change Color in Wintertime

Posted: 08 Nov 2013 04:02 PM PST

By Michele Berger

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Scientists in 2011 discovered that reindeer have a built-in AC system to keep from overheating in their natural fur coats. Recently, researchers found these mammals also have a unique way of coping with extremely dark Arctic winters: Their eyes change color.
During the sunny time in their habitat, reindeer have yellowish-gold eyes, but during the cold season, the eyes turn a noticeable hue of blue, a new study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B reported.
It’s because of changes in a light-reflecting tissue layer behind the retina, according to Science. “This structure, called the tapetum lucidum (Latin for ‘bright tapestry’), gives the eye’s light-sensitive neurons a second chance to detect scarce photons in low-light conditions. (The layer also

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produces the ‘eye shine’ that can make animal eyes appear to glow in the dark.)” In other words, it makes the eyes extremely sensitive to light.
“Most people are familiar with the way a cat’s eye reflects light back to enhance night vision. In fact many animals have this reflective layer,” said lead researcher Glen Jeffery, of the University College London Institute of Ophthalmology, in a news release. “Arctic reindeer possess this reflective layer, too.”
“This is the first time a color change of this kind in the eye has been shown in mammals,” he added.
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For the First Time Ever, a Prosecutor Will Go to Jail for Wrongfully Convicting an Innocent Man

Posted: 07 Nov 2013 04:05 PM PST

By Mark Godsey
Today in Texas, former prosecutor and judge Ken Anderson pled guilty to intentionally failing to disclose evidence in a case that sent an innocent man, Michael Morton, to prison for the murder of his wife. When trying the case as a prosecutor, Anderson possessed evidence that may have cleared Morton, including statements from the crime’s only eyewitness that Morton wasn’t the culprit. Anderson sat on this evidence, and then watched Morton get convicted. While Morton remained in prison for the next 25 years, Anderson’s career flourished, and he eventually became a judge.
In today’s deal, Anderson pled to criminal contempt, and will have to give up his law license, perform 500 hours of community service, and spend 10 days in jail. Anderson had alreadyresigned in September from his position on the Texas bench.
What makes today’s plea newsworthy is not that Anderson engaged in misconduct that sent an innocent man to prison. Indeed, while most prosecutors and police officers are ethical and take their constitutional obligations seriously, government misconduct–including disclosure breaches known as Brady violations–occurs so frequently that it has become one of thechief causes of wrongful conviction.
What’s newsworthy and novel about today’s plea is that a prosecutor was actually punished in a meaningful way for his transgressions.
I give speeches about the Innocence Movement, and tell stories from real cases, all around the world. No matter where I am, when I finish speaking the first question usually is, “What happened to the police/prosecutors who did this to the poor guy?” The answer is almost always, “Nothing,” or worse, “The police officer was promoted and now is the chief of his department.” The adage that the powerful go unpunished is no truer or more visible than with police officers and prosecutors in America–even when they send innocent people to prison from their misconduct.
My client Roger Dean Gillispie of Dayton, Ohio, for example, spent 20 years in prison as a result of police misconduct. In 2007, we presented overwhelming evidence that the police officers, like Anderson in the Morton case, failed to turn over evidence to the defense before trial that would have cleared Gillispie. We also supplied the court with evidence that the police officer in charge had harassed and intimidated witnesses helpful to the defense, and had manipulated the evidence. Before going to court to clear Gillispie, we met with the local prosecutors, hopeful that they wouldn’t tolerate such misconduct and would do a thorough (and neutral) investigation to get to the truth. Instead, they simply denied everything in knee-jerk fashion, and fought to keep Gillispie in prison until a federal court finally found government misconduct and threw out his charges in December 2011. To this day, the police officer in the case has not been investigated by a neutral, independent body. The only thing he has received is promotions.
Rogue cops and prosecutors going unpunished is the rule rather than the exception. In Illinois, two police officers whose improperly grueling interrogation techniques led to the wrongful conviction of Juan Rivera and others were not penalized when their 3rd degree tactics came to light. Rather, they were recently hired at taxpayer expense to teach interrogation courses to other police officers around the state.
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Largest Civil Disobedience In Walmart History Leads To More Than 50 Arrests

Posted: 07 Nov 2013 04:03 PM PST

Surrounded by about 100 police officers in riot gear and a helicopter circling above, more than 50 Walmart workers and supporters were arrested in downtown Los Angeles Thursday night as they sat in the street protesting what they called the retailer’s “poverty wages.”
Organizers said it was the largest single act of civil disobedience in Walmart’s 50-year history. The 54 arrestees, with about 500 protesting Walmart workers, clergy and supporters, demonstrated outside LA’s Chinatown Walmart. Those who refused police orders to clear the street after their permit expired were arrested without incident. Those who fail to post $5,000 bail would be jailed overnight, Detective Gus Villanueva, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman, told The Huffington Post.
Their primary demand to Walmart: pay every full-time worker at least $25,000 a year.
One of the protesting Walmart workers, Anthony Goytia, a 31-year-old father of two, said he believes he will make about $12,000 this year. It’s a daily struggle, he said, “to make sure my family doesn’t go hungry.”
“The power went out at my house yesterday because I couldn’t afford the bill,” Goytia told HuffPost. “I had to run around and get two payday loans to pay for my rent from the first” of the month. “Yesterday we went to a food bank.”
To make ends meet, Goytia said he sometimes participates in clinical trials and sells his blood plasma. He has been asking his managers for full-time employment for a year and a half. Instead, he said, they hire temporary workers, who can be fired at any time.
Goytia was one of several dozen Walmart workers in Southern California who went on strike Wednesday and Thursday, calling for an end to low wages, unpredictable part-time hours and retaliation for speaking out. They were joined by other employees on their days off and dozens more who rode buses from Northern California.
The strike, protest and arrests are the latest in a series of worker actions across the country coordinated by OUR Walmart, an advocacy organization with ties to the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. The actions in Los Angeles this week are the first in what organizers said would be a series of protests leading into the holiday shopping season.
The protesters said Walmart can afford to pay every worker at least $25,000 a year — pointing to Walmart’s $17 billion profit from the latest year and the founding Walton family’s fortune, which equals the wealth of the bottom 42 percent of American families.
Walmart CEO Bill Simon disclosed in a presentation recently that 475,000 Walmart workers are paid more than $25,000 a year. That leaves 525,000 to 825,000 Walmart workers earning less than $25,000. House Democrats seeking to boost the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour have criticized Walmart for its low wages.
Walmart invited HuffPost to speak to a couple associates working in the Chinatown store during the protest Thursday. In the presence of a consultant working for Walmart, two employees — Do Nguyen, 29, and Aldo Hernandez, 55 — said that they are treated well by their employer. Nguyen, who has worked for Walmart for almost a year, said that asking for a minimum of $25,000 is “a national issue, not a Walmart issue.”
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US Police Have Killed Over 5,000 Civilians Since 9/11

Posted: 06 Nov 2013 04:12 PM PST

By Katie Rucke

Though Americans commonly believe law enforcement’s role in society is to protect them and ensure peace and stability within the community, the sad reality is that police departments are often more focused on enforcing laws, making arrests and issuing citations. As a result of this as well as an increase in militarized policing techniques, Americans areeight times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist, estimates a Washington’s Blog report based on official statistical data.

Though the U.S. government does not have a database collecting information about the total number of police involved shootings each year, it’s estimated that between 500 and 1,000 Americans are killed by police officers each year. Since 9/11, about 5,000 Americans have been killed by U.S. police officers, which is almost equivalent to the number of U.S. soldiers who have been killed in the line of duty in Iraq.

Because individual police departments are not required to submit information regarding the use of deadly force by its officers, some bloggers have taken it upon themselves to aggregate that data. Wikipedia also has a list of “justifiable homicides” in the U.S., which was created by documenting publicized deaths.

Mike Prysner, one of the local directors of the Los Angeles chapter for ANSWER — an advocacy group that asks the public to Act Now to Stop War and End Racism — told Mint Press News earlier this year that the “epidemic” of police harassment and violence is a nationwide issue.

He said groups like ANSWER are trying to hold officers accountable for abuse of power. “[Police brutality] has been an issue for a very long time,” Prysner said, explaining that in May, 13 people were killed in Southern California by police.

As Mint Press News previously reported, each year there are thousands of claims of police misconduct. According to the CATO Institute’s National Police Misconduct Reporting Project, in 2010 there were 4,861 unique reports of police misconduct involving 6,613 sworn officers and 6,826 alleged victims.

Most of those allegations of police brutality involved officers who punched or hit victims with batons, but about one-quarter of the reported cases involved firearms or stun guns.

A big element in the police killings, Prysner says, is racism. “A big majority of those killed are Latinos and Black people,” while the police officers are mostly White, he said. “It’s a badge of honor to shoot gang members so [the police] go out and shoot people who look like gang members,” Prysner argued, giving the example of 34-year-old Rigoberto Arceo, who was killed by police on May 11.

According to a report from the Los Angeles Times, Arceo, who was a biomedical technician at St. Francis Medical Center, was shot and killed after getting out of his sister’s van. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department says Arceo “advanced on the deputy and attempted to take the deputy’s gun.” However, Arceo’s sister and 53-year-old Armando Garcia — who was barbecuing in his yard when the incident happened — say that Arceo had his hands above his head the entire time.

Prysner is not alone in his assertion that race is a major factor in officer-related violence. This past May, a study from the the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, an anti-racist activist organization, found that police officers, security guards or self-appointed vigilantes killed at least 313 Black people in 2012 — meaning one Black person was killed in the U.S. by law enforcement roughly every 28 hours.

Prysner said the relationship between police departments and community members needs to change and that when police shoot an unarmed person with their arms in the air over their head, the officer should be punished.

“You cannot have a police force that is investigating and punishing itself,” Prysner said, adding that taxpayer money should be invested into the community instead of given to police to buy more guns, assault rifles and body armor.

Dissatisfied with police departments’ internal review policies, some citizens have formed volunteer police watch groups to prevent the so-called “Blue Code of Silence” effect and encourage police officers to speak out against misconduct occurring within their department.

As Mint Press News previously reported, a report released earlier this year found that of the 439 cases of police misconduct that then had been brought before the Minneapolis’s year-old misconduct review board, not one of the police officers involved has been disciplined.

Although the city of Minneapolis spent $14 million in payouts for alleged police misconduct between 2006 and 2012, despite the fact that the Minneapolis Police Department often concluded that the officers involved in those cases did nothing wrong.

Other departments have begun banning equipment such as Tasers, but those decisions were likely more about protecting the individual departments from lawsuits than ensuring that officers are not equipped with weapons that cause serious and sometimes fatal injuries when used.

To ensure officers are properly educated on how to use their weapons and are aware of police ethics, conflict resolution and varying cultures within a community, police departments have historically held training programs for all officers. But due to tighter budgets and a shift in priorities, many departments have not provided the proper continuing education training programs for their officers.