Charges Dropped! Body Cam Footage Showing Cops Plant Drugs Vindicates Man

After body camera footage was released showing a cop plant cocaine in a man"s wallet, the man"s charges have been dropped.

Brother Of Las Vegas Gunman Arrested On Child Pornography Charges

The story of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock"s family just keeps getting weirder.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting one of Paddock"s younger brothers, Bruce Paddock, has been detained in North Hollywood on suspicion of crimes related to child pornography. Paddock, 58, was taken into custody Wednesday morning.

The LAPD said a man was detained in the 5300 block of Laurel Canyon Boulevard on suspicion of crimes related to child pornography. However the LAPD would not reveal the name of the man. Sandra Breault, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Las Vegas, declined to say whether Bruce Paddock’s detention was connected to the agency"s investigation into the concert shooting.

Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock

The Paddocks" father, Benjamin Paddock, was famously revealed to be a former bank robber and con man who once made the FBI"s "most wanted" list. Paddock"s family has mostly avoided the media, though his youngest brother, Eric, spoke out when reporters descended on his Florida home in the days following the shooting. Eric Paddock said he wasn"t close with most of his brothers, but had once been involved in a lucrative real estate venture with Stephen. He said he was shocked to learn that his brother had been the shooter, and said his brother gave no indication that he might carry out such an atrocious act.

The 64-year-old Stephen Paddock opened fire on a Las Vegas crowd of 20,000 people attending a country music festival on Oct. 1. Paddock killed 60 people, including himself, in the meticulously planned attack for which investigators have so far failed to identify a motive. The quest to find why Stephen Paddock, a wealthy real estate investor and professional gambler, did what he did has so far yielded no results.

Meanwhile, police have repeatedly changed their timeline for the shooting, and MGM Resorts, the owner of the Mandalay Bay hotel, has taken efforts to stop more information about the timeline of events from leaking to the public, for fear it could face lawsuits from Paddock"s victims.

LAPD Opens Rape Investigation Into Harvey Weinstein

Disgraced former Hollywood studio head Harvey Weinstein is hiding out at a $2,000 a night rehab center in Arizona since the New York Times published an expose about the mogul’s history of sexual assault and harassment - a history that has been littered with settlements and NDAs - two weeks ago.

Since then, more than 30 women have come forward to accuse Weinstein of misconduct ranging from harassment to groping to rape, prompting law enforcement agencies on two continents to open sex crime investigations.

And on Thursday, the number of open investigations climbed to four when the Los Angeles Times reported that the LAPD has opened an investigation into Weinstein over an alleged sexual assault that reportedly took place in 2013. The investigation was launched after a two-hour meeting with his accuser earlier Thursday.

An Italian model-actress met with Los Angeles police detectives for more than two hours Thursday morning, providing a detailed account of new allegations that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted her at a hotel in 2013.

 

She is the sixth woman to accuse Weinstein of rape or forcible sex acts. Los Angeles police Capt. Billy Hayes confirmed that the department has launched an investigation into the matter.

 

It is the first case related to Weinstein to be reported in Southern California. New York police already have two active sex crime probes and London’s Metropolitan Police is investigating allegations made by three women.

 

The new allegation could be legally troubling for Weinstein because it falls within the 10-year statute of limitations for the crime that existed at the time of the alleged incident, legal experts say.

The woman, who has not been named, provided a detailed account of the incident to the LA Times.

In the latest case, the 38-year-old woman, who has asked not to be named because she is fearful of retaliation and concerned about protecting her children’s privacy, first contacted police on Tuesday, through her attorney, David Ring. Two detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division’s rape special section took her statement on Thursday, describing how Weinstein pushed his way into her hotel room, dragged her into the bathroom and allegedly forcibly raped her.

She told the Los Angeles Times that the incident occurred at Mr. C Beverly Hills hotel after she attended the 8th annual Los Angeles, Italia Film, Fashion and Art Fest in February 2013. She had previously met Weinstein once, briefly, in Rome after being introduced by an acquaintance.

 

At that time, he invited her up to his hotel room, but she said she declined. She said they spoke briefly at the film festival, but he didn’t appear to recall meeting her.

 

Later, he showed up “without warning” in the lobby of her hotel. He asked to come up to her room. She said she told him no and offered to meet him downstairs, but soon, he was knocking on her door.

 

“He ... bullied his way into my hotel room, saying, ‘I’m not going to [have sex with] you, I just want to talk,’” the woman told The Times. “Once inside, he asked me questions about myself, but soon became very aggressive and demanding and kept asking to see me naked. He grabbed me by the hair and forced me to do something I did not want to do. He then dragged me to the bathroom and forcibly raped me."

 

She told her attorney she tried to dissuade Weinstein by showing him pictures of her children.

 

After about 45 minutes, Weinstein departed.

 

“When he left, he acted like nothing happened,” the woman said. “I barely knew this man. It was the most demeaning thing ever done to me by far. It sickens me still. … He made me feel like an object, like nothing with all his power."

The unnamed woman"s story echoes accounts given by many other women, including actress Asia Argento, who was shared her own account of being assaulted by Weinstein with the New Yorker.

IN addition to the NYPD, LAPD and Scotland Yard, it has also been reported that the FBI is investigating Weinstein and fears he could pull a “Roman Polanski” by fleeing the country to “seek treatment” in Europe.

LAPD Prepares To Unleash Drones Amid Public Outcry

The LAPD first toyed with the idea of ramping up its public spying safety program with the introduction of drones back in May 2014.  At that time, the LAPD announced it had acquired two "unmanned aerial vehicles" as gifts from the Seattle Police Department, Draganflyer X6 aircraft to be exact, after a public outcry in Seattle grounded the controversial program.  Unfortunately, or perhaps not, LA"s drone efforts quickly met the same fate as Seattle"s.  Per the Los Angeles Times:

The LAPD’s dance with drones began in 2014, when the department received two Draganflyer X6 drones from police in Seattle — drones the Washington agency unloaded after heavy criticism from the public. Although the LAPD said it would deploy the drones for “narrow and prescribed uses,” civil liberties advocates questioned their use in even a limited fashion.

Less than a week after getting the drones, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said he would not fly the unmanned aircraft until the department had sought public feedback as well as approval from the Police Commission.

“I will not sacrifice public support for a piece of police equipment,” Beck said at the time.

The drones were then locked away in the office of the LAPD’s inspector general. Department officials said the move was a response to public perception and federal laws limiting use of the unmanned aircraft.

Now, some three years later, it seems that the LAPD is ready to give it"s mass public spying effort another try... 

On Tuesday, the LAPD will again wade into the heated debate, as department brass are slated to present details to the Police Commission about a possible pilot program for an “unmanned aerial system.”

The commission’s agenda said the pitch was for “limited tactical deployment” of a drone, but did not elaborate.

Earlier this year, L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell announced his agency’s plans to use a $10,000 drone to help deputies responding to arson scenes, suspected bombs and hostage situations. McDonnell said the drone would not be used in surveillance but could provide critical information from previously inaccessible vantage points.

But, while populations do tend to become more comfortable with technology over time, apparently 3 years hasn"t been enough time for the citizens of LA to decide they"re now willing to give up their civil liberties.

Before the meeting, roughly three dozen activists from various groups — including the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, Black Lives Matter and Los Angeles Community Action Network — stood outside the LAPD’s downtown headquarters, denouncing the use of drones by police.

The Police Commission should “completely reject LAPD’s latest attempt to revive its drone program,” said Hamid Khan, founder of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, an anti-surveillance group that frequently criticizes the LAPD.

”L.A. does not need further militarization by the LAPD,” said Paula Minor, an activist with Black Lives Matter.

Civil liberties advocates expressed concern over privacy as well as what they described as a lack of public input in the sheriff’s abrupt announcement. The Stop LAPD Spying Coalition staged a protest blasting the department’s use of drones.

Of course, as the LA Times notes, drones are already used by some 350 municipal agencies around the country...though we would be intrigued to know whether or not the public was asked for their opinion on those programs before they were deployed...

Drones have been hailed by law enforcement across the country as a crucial technology that can help find missing hikers or monitor armed suspects without jeopardizing the safety of officers. But efforts to adopt the unmanned aircraft have frequently drawn fierce criticism from privacy advocates for whom the devices stir Orwellian visions of inappropriate — or illegal — surveillance or fears of military-grade, weaponized drones patrolling the skies.

Almost 350 public safety departments in the U.S. have acquired drones, nearly half of them last year, according to a study Gettinger’s center published earlier this year. Many of those drones are no more advanced than those used by hobbyists, he said.

Some agencies have adopted the technology without much public reaction. Still, Gettinger said, skeptics have expressed apprehension not just about how police use drones today, but how they might use the technology in the future.

“We’ve just hit the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “The systems are going to evolve, and that’s going to bring with them questions about how they’re going to be used.”

But we"re sure it"s fine, people in positions of power rarely abuse their power...

Is Terrorism Transforming America Into A Police State?

Authored by Ted Galen Carpenter via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

For at least three decades, experts have noted the growing militarization of America’s police forces. The proliferation of Special Weapons and Tactics forces, or SWAT forces, is the most obvious example of that trend. Originally, such units were designed to deal with exceptionally dangerous situations (such as mass hostage incidents) in which lightly armed police would be outgunned. Not surprisingly, the first SWAT contingents originated in America’s largest and most dangerous cities.

That situation has changed dramatically. Small cities and even some modest-sized towns now have such heavily armed units utilizing military hardware and traveling in armored vehicles. They look—and act—far more like military combat units than anyone’s traditional conception of police. And the missions of SWAT forces have greatly expanded since their original formation. Increasingly, local authorities use them in routine matters that involve little or no danger of major violence from the targets of police action.

A recent incident in Hutto, Texas, a sleepy, outlying suburb of Austin, illustrates just how dangerously promiscuous the utilization of SWAT teams has become. On June 26, local police conducted a raid to implement a search warrant on a house in a low-crime, middle-class neighborhood. The alleged crime? Police suspected that some residents of the target house were involved in gambling. Investigators were backed up by a SWAT unit with nearly a dozen officers in full combat regalia pouring out of an armored vehicle.

Needless to say, the neighbors were both stunned and alarmed to see such an operation take place in their quiet community. One mother stated: “I went to my daughter’s room and looked outside their window to see if I could get a better view of what was going on, and there was a man in fatigues with a sniper rifle laying in my neighbor’s driveway.”

What was even more striking is that the police spokesman admitted to a reporter that the authorities “had no reason to believe” that the residence undergoing the search was involved in any violent activity. In other words, police were using paramilitary tactics and forces to execute a search warrant involving a nonviolent (indeed, victimless, crime) in a low-crime neighborhood. Such arrogant bullying should alarm anyone who cherishes domestic civil liberties.

Unfortunately, such incidents have become all-too-common as local authorities seek new missions to justify the existence of SWAT teams and to keep the personnel alert and well trained. The expansion of SWAT units and missions is closely correlated to the existence of federal programs making surplus military hardware available at little or no cost to local police forces.

Such deadly toys have become a prime justification for law enforcement budget increases and the receipt of federal grants in communities around the country.

The war on illegal drugs has been the primary justification that authorities use to create and expand SWAT units, and antidrug raids are their primary mission. The drug-war rationale has some plausibility, since narcotics traffickers are sometimes extremely violent criminals. As concerns about terrorism became more salient, especially after the 9/11 attacks, that mission augmented the drug-war justification. Politicians, even in small communities with virtually a nonexistent possibility of being a terrorism target, highlight the alleged danger (along with the menace of illegal drugs) to pump-up police budgets and gain the military hardware from Washington.

Thus far, efforts to rescind or even curtail the federal program have proven unsuccessful. The militarization of America’s local police proceeds unabated. That is an alarming development. General Colin Powell, at the time chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, observed that the military’s purpose is to “kill people and break things.” Military forces operate in enemy territory and tend to view all people there as potential adversaries who could prove deadly to them.

The purpose of America’s police forces is (or at least should be) totally different. Their legitimate role is to protect the life, liberty and property of people living in a free, constitutional republic. It is extremely unwise to confuse or conflate that role with the function of the U.S. military. Yet, that is what is occurring at an alarming rate.

The Posse Comitatus Act, which Congress passed in 1878, severely restricts the role of the military in domestic law enforcement. Unfortunately, that restriction has experienced significant erosion in recent decades, with some prominent political figures deriding the statute as “archaic.”

Even if the language of the act remains more or less intact, it will have little relevance if the proliferation of SWAT units continues. SWAT personnel are combat soldiers in everything but name. It matters little if they are technically police operating as part of a local government if their weapons and tactics are those of an occupying army. The old adage that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck, applies to the SWAT phenomenon. The sight of such combat forces deployed in civilian neighborhoods in the United States is jarringly reminiscent of the images Americans once believed confined to repressive police states. It is tragic that such images are now the norm in America itself.

Man Shot During Anti-Trump Protest In Portland, Police Looking For "African-American" Male Suspect

The not-so-peaceful progressive reaction to the Trump presidency continued for a third night, when thousands of protesters took their frustrations over Donald Trump"s election as the next U.S. president onto the streets on Friday and into Saturday in several cities, including Portland, Oregon - the city declared by the Associated Press as the center of America"s anti-Trump feeling - where one protester was shot.

The unidentified man was wounded on Portland"s Morrison Bridge at 12:45 a.m. local time as he and dozens of other protesters crossed it during their demonstration. In the Portland incident, police said in a statement that a man got out of a vehicle on the bridge where he confronted and then shot a protester, who was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The suspect is still at large, police added.

“One person down. Everyone needs to leave the area immediately!” police wrote on Twitter.

Before #portland #police took over medical attention was being given to him by protesters. #notrump pic.twitter.com/7ft6Mw6UUA

— Cole Howard (@RedheadNomad) November 12, 2016

Police described the possible suspect in the shooting “as African-American male, late teens, 5"8", thin, wearing black dark hoodie and saggy blue jeans.”

"Preliminary information indicates that a suspect was in a vehicle on the bridge and there was a confrontation with someone in the protest. The suspect got out of the vehicle and fired multiple shots injuring the victim,” police said in a press release.

A local witness, Cameron Whitten, told the paper that the incident took place when the demonstrators were going across the bridge. He then saw a car “with multiple occupants in it... traveling east” and one of them was holding a gun. He first shot into the air and then shot one of the demonstrators in the lower body.

Earlier in the night, protesters blocked traffic and threw objects at Portland police dressed in riot gear who responded with pepper spray and flash-bang devices. At one point, police pushed protesters back and appeared to take at least one person into custody, according to footage on a local NBC affiliate.

Police officer sprays the crowd with an irritant during a protest in Portland, Oregon,, Nov.12

Demonstrators gesture in front of the police during a protest against in Portland, Oregon,

People march through downtown Portland to protest of the election of Donald Trump, Nov. 11, 2016

People try to move away from a gas cloud during a protest in Portland, Oregon

Hundreds of protesters also marched through the streets of Los Angeles, blocking traffic as they waved signs in opposition of Trump and chanted "We reject the president elect" and "Whose streets? Our Streets".

Several hundred protestors are arrested by Los Angeles Police Department officers

Protestors detained by Los Angeles Police Department officers after a rally against Donald Trump

A protestor holds a sign during a rally against the election of Donald Trump

Several thousand activists marched through downtown Miami, with a few hundred making their way onto a highway, halting traffic in both directions.

Police officers stand guard during a protest against Donald Trump in Miami, Florida

People protest against Donald Trump in Miami, Florida

In New York, demonstrators again gathered in Washington Square Park and by Trump Tower, where the Republican president-elect lives, on Fifth Avenue.

Trump, who initially denounced Americans who protested against his election, saying they had been "incited" by the media, reversed course and praised them on Friday. "Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud!" Trump said on Twitter.

The tweets were further evidence of Trump"s mixed messages since he announced his candidacy 17 months ago. After Democrat Hillary Clinton conceded defeat early on Wednesday, he took a far more conciliatory tone than he had often displayed during his campaign and promised to be a president for all Americans.

Most of the protests across the country, which have also taken place in Washington, D.C., have been largely comprised of young adults and college students.

Security barricades now shield some of Trump"s most visible properties, including the newly opened Trump International Hotel near the White House and Trump Tower in New York.

Trump"s base of support in the election was the broad middle of the country, with voters in states that had long supported Democrats shifting to him after he promised to renegotiate trade deals with other countries.

More anti-Trump demonstrations are planned for the weekend, including in New York and Los Angeles. A group calling itself "#NotMyPresident" has scheduled an anti-Trump rally for Washington on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day, when the New York real-estate developer formally succeeds President Barack Obama.

Lady Gaga Channels Hitler in Chilling Speech At Hillary Clinton Rally

Submitted by Josie Wales and Alice Salles via TheAntiMedia.org,

Lady Gaga made waves on social media Monday night when she took the stage at Hillary Clinton’s final rally, sporting an outfit eerily resembling a Nazi uniform. In a black military jacket complete with red armband, the pop star gestured emphatically while delivering the despotic speech, often pounding the podium and pointing at the crowd, ironically mimicking the powerful speaking style made famous by Adolf Hitler himself. At one point, Gaga declared “Hillary Clinton is made of steel. Hillary Clinton is unstoppable.”

In response to the social media backlash, sites like Huffington Post, Cosmopolitan, and ET were among many to rush to her defense, pointing out that the very-Nazi-looking ensemble once belonged to Michael Jackson, who wore the jacket when he visited the White House in 1990.  It’s unclear why the fact that it was previously owned by someone else makes it less…Nazi, especially given the fact that Jackson has been rumored to have been obsessed with the Nazi dictator.

But that’s not the only thing Lady Gaga’s media white knights conveniently overlooked.

Despite the many Hitler references, what many people — among both the media and the general public — failed to associate with Gaga’s outfit during the final Clinton rally was hiding in plain sight.

The black jacket fitted with a red armband and silver medallion is part of the same outfit worn by Jackson at the White House in 1990. At the time, the King of Pop was meeting with then-president George H.W. Bush — just three years before he was first accused of sexually abusing children.

By mid-1993, dentist Evan Chandler had accused Jackson of having an inappropriate relationship with his 13-year-old son Jordan. After the attention he got from the media due to his son’s proximity to Jackson, Chandler later talked to his attorney, bringing the accusation directly to Jackson. By August, the allegations were being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Sexually Exploited Child Unit. In the winter of 1993, Jackson’s sister, La Toya Jackson, claimed she had proof her brother was a pedophile. He later forgave her after she claimed those accusations stemmed from her financial troubles.

After the investigation was carried out in full, the LAPD cleared Jackson of unfounded molestation charges from the Chandlers. A civil lawsuit was later filed in September, and on January 25, 1994, the lawsuit was settled out of court. Jackson was ordered to pay $15,331,250, which was mostly held in a trust fund for Jordan.

In 2003, Jackson was charged with several counts of child sexual abuse and several counts of administering an intoxicating agent in order to commit a child sexual abuse felony. The trial, which began in January 2005, ended in June of the same year. The jury found Jackson not guilty.

By wearing his jacket to Clinton’s rally, it’s possible Lady Gaga may have wanted to make a statement. After all, Clinton’s husband, the former President Bill Clinton, is often accused of sexual misconduct.

Three women publicly accused the 42nd President of the United States of sexual misconduct, including rape and sexual harassment. Clinton later admitted extramarital relationships with Monica Lewinsky and Gennifer Flowers. But in 2015, a young woman alleged in a sworn affidavit that American financier Jeffrey Epstein had used her as a sex slave. At the time, she claimed she had been at parties on Epstein’s private island, along with former president Clinton.

In one of the court documents from the lawsuit, Epstein was accused of running a “sexual abuse ring,” lending underage girls to “prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known prime minister, and other world leaders.” Despite the heavy accusations, on April 7, 2015, allegations brought up by the young girl were tossed out after Judge Kenneth Marra ruled they had no bearing and should be removed from the record.

When considering Gaga’s decision to wear Jackson’s jacket to Mrs. Clinton’s rally, one might ask whether Gaga was aware of the strange similarities between the accusations made against Jackson and Clinton. Did those issues cross her mind or was it all just a strange coincidence? Or was Lady Gaga simply (and likely unintentionally correctly) attempting to channel a strong, authoritative image?

Regardless of what the answer is, the fact the media is refusing to discuss these details while simply spinning Hitler references shows few are willing to do thorough research when reporting the news.