Cop's Arrest Jeopardizes Drug Cases

The Poughkeepsie Journal reports (abridged):

Defense attorneys for 10 people charged by the Dutchess County Drug Task Force have 30 days to file additional motions in Dutchess County Court, after a task force member involved with their cases was charged with lying to police.City of Beacon Detective Sgt. Richard Sassi Jr., 34, a Drug Task Force member, is facing a charge of third-degree falsely reporting an incident, a misdemeanor.

The attorneys will be able to file new motions that challenge the legitimacy of the evidence against their clients, ask for an additional hearing or withdraw any guilty pleas.

“The officer’s credibility is now, quite properly, the subject of intense scrutiny,” said Thomas O’Neill, who represents one of the defendants.

While a misdemeanor seems like a rather minor thing to most of us, it is important to keep in perspective that this is a police Detective Sergeant we are talking about. When a civilian is charged with a crime, police will go out of their way to scrape up every last charge on the books that can be construed in any way as being applicable, even seeking to make felony charges stick for relatively minor offenses. On the other hand, police never arrest another police officer under any circumstances, unless they are absolutely forced to, and even then will only charge the bare minimum that they must in order avoid looking outright incompetent or even criminally complicit. Usually, it will be when an officer is caught right in the middle of a crime, red-handed, that other police will be forced to arrest an officer. Or, in this case, when the officer was caught with his pants down.

The local media has been rather protective of the Sergeant, but this blogger was not so kind. Gotta love the non-corporate press when it comes to getting the real scoop. Please show your support for visiting the orginal site where the following article was posted, by clicking the link in the title.

The Detective Who Tried to Put The Moves on the Informant

Name: Detective Sgt. Richard Sassi Jr.

Known for: Litigiousness, unwanted seductions, brutality allegations. 

Fatal mistake: Ineptly seducing an informant.

The circumstances: In August 2012, Sassi, a detective sergeant in Beacon, N.Y., decided to visit one of his confidential informants. According to Sarah Bradshaw of the Poughkeepsie Journal, Sassi arrived at the informant’s apartment with beer and amorous intentions, allegedly touching her leg and fumbling with her shirt in what appears to have been an exceedingly awkward and creepy situation. (Talk about non-consensual encounters.) Sassi was interrupted when the uncomfortable informant heard a strange noise outside.

The noise turned out to be the informant’s boyfriend, who entered the apartment. A presumably nervous Sassi hid in a closet and, according to Bradshaw, here’s what happened next:

The boyfriend found Sassi in the closet, wearing only his boxers, court records said. He pushed the police officer and threw his clothes out of reach, and tried to take cellphone photographs of him. Sassi is accused of pointing his gun at the boyfriend, saying he was a police officer and the man should back up. Sassi then called 911 to report a robbery, identifying himself as “Mike Smith,” according to court records.

It wasn’t long before the authorities realized that there was no robbery, and that the mysterious “Mike Smith” was actually their colleague, Det. Sgt. Sassi. He was suspended from duty and faces a third-degree misdemeanor charge of lying to authorities, not to mention the bemused scorn of his co-workers. ‘“Our policy is a minimum of two officers have to be present when meeting with informants,”’ said Beacon’s current police chief, adding that “drinking is prohibited for on-duty officers and that sexual relations with informants ‘would not be proper.’ ” Well, it would’ve been nice to have known that at the time, you stupid chief!

Background: Where to begin? Sassi has been a Beacon police officer since 2001, and was promoted to detective in 2007, under controversial circumstances. He is the son of Beacon’s former police chief, also named Richard Sassi, who was suspended and demoted in 2006 by then-mayor Clara Lou Gould after, among other things, pursuing an internal affairs investigation against Beacon policeman Jose “Tony” Rios, who was promoted to detective ahead of his son. Mayor Gould accused Sassi Sr. of “gross insubordination” and said that his “misconduct has resulted in a complete lack of trust on all levels of City government.”

It’s not hard to understand why the younger Sassi was initially passed over for promotion. In 2007, Sassi Jr. was named in a lawsuit alleging that he and another officer beat and pepper sprayed a man during a 2002 traffic stop, then “grabbed his head and banged his face into the sidewalk.” (The city paid a $20,000 settlement in the case.) A U.S. District Court memorandum mentioned “a report by the local branch of the NAACP where unspecified ‘community members’ voiced concerns about Officer Sassi's harassment and arrogance.” And in 2006, according to Beacon City Council Member Lee Kyriacou, Officer Sassi earned $90,000 of his $150,000 salary in overtime pay.

Despite all that, Sassi filed two separate discrimination lawsuits against the City of Beacon in 2006, claiming he had been denied a promotion to detective because of the city’s unfair anti-nepotism policy. Sassi explained that, because of his father’s status, he had been “humiliated, public embarrassed [sic], subjected to per se defamation, held up to public ridicule, impaired in his professional career, damaged financially, rendered anxious and upset, and otherwise rendered sick and sore.”

"Nepotism doesn't apply here because Officer Sassi wasn't qualified enough for the job," said Kyriacou at the time, noting that, as opposed to the candidate who was ultimately promoted, "Officer Sassi has no detective training, is not bilingual, and did not get an award for heroism. The only thing that puts him above the rest is his last name.”

Good cop or bad cop?: Let’s give Det. Sgt. Sassi the benefit of the doubt here. It’s possible that he was denied a promotion because of discrimination. It’s possible that he never read the section of the cop manual that said it was inappropriate to seduce an informant. It’s possible that, back in 2002, that traffic violator really had it coming.

But it’s not likely. Bad cop.

So all in all, if drugs are so bad that we have to set up all these task forces and spend huge amounts of tax dollars on this bullshit "war on drugs" shouldn't it be a felony to compromise an investigation by committing a crime? If he is found guilty, is this cop going to reimburse the taxpayers for the millions of dollars in man-hours that went  into building these cases that are going to get tossed now because he committed a crime?






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"I Can Write You a S#itload of Tickets"

This may seem like a relatively minor incident overall, but it is downright frightening when you consider the true gravity of the situation. This isn't about just another "bad apple" but rather symptomatic of the regular oppression the civilian population faces in this nation on a daily basis. This is a nation where our so-called protectors can hit someone with a car, and then blame the victim for it. Where a cop can commit a crime, and then prosecute the innocent for it.



It is all the more frightening when you realize that a simple traffic incident can spiral out of control so badly, that a person could wind up being thrown into solitary confinement and tortured for two years without ever going before a judge, simply on the word of one cop.

Man Held In Solitary For 2 Years Without Trial





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Man Held In Solitary For 2 Years Without Trial

This is an absolutely chilling example of just how depraved our justice system has become, and how detrimental to public safety the law-enforcers really are.

Stephen Slevin was locked in a New Mexico solitary confinement cell for 22 months. He was never convicted of any crime. Being locked away anywhere without due process is a horrid thought to any freedom-loving American, but what this man endured goes well beyond that.

Solitary confinement alone is considered by many to be inhumane, or downright torture by some definitions. Even under the most sanitary and well-monitored standards, the effects on a person's mental state can be devastating. Mr. Slevin spent his time rocking back and forth, and even lost his desire to go free while in his Dona Ana County Jail cell. But still, what he endured went beyond being locked away and completely forgotten about by the world.

Even under solitary confment conditions, it is common practice to allow prisoner one hour per day outside of their cell. In this case, that standard was rarely adhered to, even for sanitary reasons. Denied showers, Slevin's skin became infested with fungus. Denied basic hygiene maintenance, his toenails grew so long that they wrapped around his foot. Denied medical care, he was forced to rip his own tooth from his skull.

What he endured goes far beyond what any normal person can possibly even comprehend.

All of this, based on an allegation that he was driving while intoxicated in a stolen car. It was later shown that the car belonged to a friend, and the intoxication was never proven.

In a subsequent civil lawsuit brought by Slevin and his attorneys, he was awarded $22 million dollars, which has since been reduced to $16 million in arbitration. But the money will never replace what was lost, or repair the damage done.

Mr. Slevin is now battling cancer.

Click here to read NBC's coverage of this story. 


Click here to see a video of how quickly an innocent person could wind up in this situation.





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Cop Fires Gun In NY High School Hallway by Accident

In the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy there has been a big push to put armed guards, police, even troops in our schools. Personally, I don't believe that militarizing our school and turning them into prison camps any more than they are now is really the answer. Making a uniformed target for someone looking to shoot up a school is not exactly a well thought out tactic either.

But I am no anti-gunner. I believe the solution is simple. Lift the ban on school employees from exercising their 2nd Amendment rights. There is no need to hire additional resources or enact new laws, when the 2nd Amendment has been there for us since the nation was founded. There is no reason why a person who is legally permitted to own and carry a gun should not be allowed to carry it with them to work. Teachers and staff at schools should not be barred from exercising their rights, but rather encouraged.

Now, when we see indicents like this, there is no reason whatsoever to believe that police are some sort of special superhumans that make them any more qualified than the rest of us to carry a firearm.

In this particular incident, a part-time Town of Lloyd police officer and School Resource Officer for Highland High School accidentally discharged his service weapon in a school hallway.


Print stories are viewable here and here.

Here is another example of how police are not perfect:


UPDATE:

What are the odds of two accidental discharges in a school on the same day? This story out of Manchester, Connecticut now where a SWAT officer was wounded in an unintentional shooting. 

MANCHESTER, Conn. (AP) — The campus of Manchester Community College was locked down Wednesday after a student reported seeing a man with what she believed to be a gun in his waistband, and one of the officers involved in the response was apparently injured in an accidental shooting. -SOURCE

UDPATE 2: The officer in the Highland case has resigned. He does not face any criminal charges.


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Secrets and Mysteries of An Underground World

It's no secret that underground places have long offered a refuge for mankind, particularly in times of trouble. The ancient underground cities of Cappadocia are a wonderful example of the lengths man will go to in order to use the Earth for protection against danger.

Derinkuyu, Underground city, Ancient Village or Ancient refugee settlement?(VIDEO)

But today we don't really think of underground cities as being part of our modern reality. Our houses have basements where we might hole up in case of a bad storm, maybe a tornado shelter out in the yard. Many of our cities do extend underground with utility tunnels and subway tunnels, but we don't really think of those places as underground cities. In places like London the stark utility corridors beneath the city did serve as a place of refuge from the bombs of enemies, but areas like that beneath our cities are not designed for permanent nor comfortable living.

During the Cold War some folks took to building actual bomb shelters in their basements and back yards. Larger buildings like schools and office buildings stocked more elaborate fallout shelters in their basements. Of course, the government had the most elaborate facilities dug below ground and under mountains. Thousands of subterranean nuclear missile silos were all answerable to what may be the world's most famous underground bunker.

Cheyenne Mountain Complex (VIDEO)

The Cold War is over now though. The mission of NORAD still exists, but has taken on a largely different more diversified role than the bunker was originally purposed for. Nuclear missile silos have been abandoned or sold off as unique real-estate opportunities. Fallout shelters have become the relics of a bygone era, sometimes tourist attractions, but mostly used to store old furniture.

Greenbrier Resort Bunker (VIDEO)

Nuclear Missile Silo Home (VIDEO)

Abandoned Missile Silo (VIDEO)

The threat of a nuclear holocaust being rained down on us from the skies above is over. The need for these underground secret and secure places appears to have passed. Or has it really?

Conspiracy theories abound of secret underground places of all sorts. Everything from new and ongoing construction, to secret bases infested with aliens, even to a theory that the Earth itself is actually hollow and an populated by a hidden civilization.

Mysterious Denver Airport (VIDEO)

Hidden Alien Base, Dulce NM (VIDEO)

Hollow Earth (VIDEO)

Hollow Earth, aliens? Well, maybe maybe not. That's a big leap, but we need less faith for other theories, especially when seeing is believing. There are rumors of a vast underground network of cities, massive storage facilities, roadways, and maybe even a supersonic underground railroad. The network is believed to span the entire continent with hubs in many major cities.

I personally have spoken with a truck driver who made numerous deliveries to a massive underground facility just outside of Albany, the state capitol of NY, which he described as being much like what we are about to see here in these videos. This was about two years ago now, and he said the facility appeared to still be under construction. He is not really the conspiracy theory sort at all, an old school hard working, simple sort of man, so I didn't really have any reason to doubt him. But of course, you can't believe everything you read on the internet, and my acquaintance did not provide me with any pictures that I could share with you. Fortunately, other truck drivers have captured glimpses of facilities like this all over the country.



Entrance to U.S. underground City and roadway system from Awakened Warrior of Truth on Vimeo






This particular branch of the conspiracy theory realm is often termed "D.U.M.B.S." or Deep Underground Military Bunkers. I believe this is a bit of misnomer though. From what we see there in those very real bits of footage it there is nothing specifically military, but rather they appear to be corporate controlled facilities. That is not to say that the military is not involved at all of course, or ultimately in charge even, but the corporate influence cannot be ignored.

The Iron Mountain company is a leading example of a relationship between government and the corporate world when it comes to underground secrets. Established on the banks of the Hudson River in 1951, the company was reformed in the 1970's and now it's most famous facility the one featured in this news report.


One curious point I note though, is the difference between what we see there in the Iron Mountain video, and what we saw in the other videos. The sheer difference in size, when it comes to the dimensions of the tunnels and passageways is curious indeed. Then of course, we also have to ask why companies and/or the government are going to such expense, a hidden expense at that, for such a vast underground network. Surely all of these facilities can't be there simply to store business documents and historical artifacts. 

And again, we have to consider that these facilities may be interconnected, all or most of them anyway. Numerous truck drivers have reported driving from one region of the country to another, completely underground. Frankly, I believe that much. The way they talk about it, certain details, just strikes me as credible testimony.The technological feat is impressive, but not impossible. The only reason I would really have to doubt it, is that there is no clear or obvious motivation for the power that be to go to all that trouble, unless of course they know something they aren't telling us. (Or, maybe this is just the way the uber-wealthy piss away their fortunes while the working stiff hovers on the edge of starvation in order to feed their corporate mechanisms.)

If we accept that this underground network of cities, facilities and roadways does indeed exist, then it is no stretch to accept the evidence of a massive facility under the Denver airport. The evidence of that is already strong anyway. But an airport right smack dab in the middle of the country would be ideal as a central transportation and distribution hub for goods to be transported by air, on land, and below it. Not to mention the fact too that the Denver airport is not very far from the Cheyenne Mountain facility in Colorado Springs, the central hub of U.S. military power outside of the Pentagon, and the one most likely to have command of U.S. forces after some cataclysmic event like nuclear war or perhaps an asteroid impact.

So all in all, it looks like some of the stuff that conspiracy theorists are admonished for, and called crackpots or lunatics, actually has some pretty common sense conclusions. Maybe we don't know exactly why they are doing this, but at the same time, it really doesn't seem any more far-fetched than a secret underground bunker for Congress under a famous resort.

Well, that's about it for now. Hope you enjoy the material. This is Captain Six reporting for the Underground, from the Underground, on the underground.






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