The Jails Were Not Made To Be Mental Hospitals

Russell Ables is by no means the only person in Oklahoma being treated this way. This weekend I spoke with other families who share a similar injustice. All of it is happening because 20 years ago the state politicians bought the line that we don't need residential mental health facilities anymore.

August 28, 2017 at 08:26AM, from
via

The Norman Pipe Shop Acquittal

  The Cleveland County District Attorney’s office has a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the agencies in the county who do asset forfeiture regarding the division of assets seized. The division is generally; for values over $500 the DA’s office gets 35% while the agency gets 65%; for values under $500 the DA’s office gets 100%. These MOU’s are requestable under the Freedom of Information act and/or the Open Records Act.

  These Not Guilty verdicts have many implications for Oklahoma in many different aspects.

  The biggest implication is the Jury determined the government telling you how they believed someone would utilize an item you sell does not constitute you knowing an item will be used for a particular purpose, nor does it mean that you have to agree or believe that is how the item will be used.

  This has many broad implications. Let’s just look at gun control. It is illegal to sell a gun knowing that individual you are selling it to is buying it for the purpose of committing another crime. That is a legitimate law, but there are many people who believe guns are only used to kill and commit crimes. They don’t believe there is any legitimate purpose for an honest citizen to own or purchase a gun.

The recent police involved shootings...

I have purposely refrained from commenting on the recent police involved shootings. I have a long standing practice of not jumping to conclusions before we have all the facts. I will leave that to the main stream media and the Obama Administration. But, with the recent attack on the peaceful Black Lives Matter protest and murder of police officers in Dallas I feel compelled to speak out. Notice I said attack on the Black Lives Matter protest as that is exactly what it was. I also didn't say White police officers as they weren't all white. It wasn't just white people, or black people, or Asians or Hispanics, etc. that were attacked, it was all of us. This was an attack by an individual who was so overcome by hate for white people and police officers that he wanted to kill his fellow human beings and didn't care who might get in the way. Black lives didn't matter to him. No lives mattered to him. 

The only thing that mattered was killing white people. This is why the idea that saying anything other than "Black Lives Matter" is racist is so very wrong. Yes, black lives matter, and I actually understand what the originators of the slogan were trying to say. The problem is what you were trying to say becomes irrelevant as soon as you try and pretend that saying "all Lives matter" is somehow racist. It completely defeats the meaning of the original slogan. I agree, we need to put ourselves in the shoes of those who are different than us. I have been a police officer for a long time and I have never stopped someone for the so called offense of Driving While Black. Nor do I know of any police officer who has, but I'm not ready to say it doesn't happen and I would concede that somewhere it probably does. With that said people need to put themselves in the shoes of police officers as well. We have a dangerous job and even though line of duty deaths is going down, assaults on officers aren't. You can argue there is no so called war on cops all you want, but I strongly believe the recent events in Dallas pretty much proves you wrong. (Disregarding my personal opinion that using the word "war" to describe it is wrong. )

Concealed Carry Instructor Stops Mall Terrorist

Jason Falconer confronted the crime in progress. Dahir Adan is rumored to be the lone attacker. He is identified as a Somali native and recent refugee.

from FB-RSS feed for Peace Officers and Liberty http://www.soonerpolitics.org/5/post/2016/09/concealed-carry-instructor-kills-mall-terrorist.html

Which Lives Matter?

by Stephen Mills, Chief of Police, Apache, OK
  I have purposely refrained from commenting on the recent police involved shootings. I have a long standing practice of not jumping to conclusions before we have all the facts. I will leave that to the mainstream media and the Obama Administration.

  But, with the recent attack on the peaceful Black Lives Matter protest and murder of police officers in Dallas I feel compelled to speak out. Notice I said attack on the Black Lives Matter protest as that is exactly what it was. I also didn’t say White police officers as they weren’t all white. It wasn’t just white people, or black people, or Asians or Hispanics, etc. that were attacked, it was all of us.

  This was an attack by an individual who was so overcome by hate for white people and police officers that he wanted to kill his fellow human beings and didn’t care who might get in the way. Black lives didn’t matter to him. No lives mattered to him. The only thing that mattered was killing white people.

ERAD Gets A Sweetheart State Contract To Confiscate Assets From Public

  There has been a lot of chatter lately about the state's new contract with the ERAD group. For those of you that don't who they are, in a nutshell ERAD is a company that assists law enforcement agencies in seizing money stored on magnetic strip cards, predominately under the guise of asset forfeiture. They do this for an initial set up and equipment fee and then a set percentage of all money seized. This arrangement is similar to percentage agreements with Desert Snow, a company that teaches asset forfeiture techniques to agencies for a percentage of the seized assets. While I have no problem seizing the assets of convicted criminals, the current civil asset forfeiture laws are fraught with constitutional problems and ripe for abuse and misuse. Even by otherwise ethical officers trying to do the right thing. Desert Snow's training information even further amplified this problem, but that's another topic.

Informed Treatment Bill Vetoed By Fallen

Peace Officers and Liberty

  It's that time of year again, the rains are falling, the birds are singing and the Oklahoma legislature is sending bills to the Governor to sign. Unfortunately the bills aren't all as needed or welcome as the rain and the birds. Governor Fallin in her infinite knowledge of what is best for the rest of the state has vetoed a very important parental rights bill regarding medical vaccinations and signed two bills I would have very much liked had never been sent to her. Governor Fallin vetoed House Bill 3016 requiring doctors to give parents written information about the vaccines being administered to their children at the time of immunization.

  Gov. Fallin stated the bill could have led to a drop in vaccination rates and increase chances for communicable disease outbreaks. She based this assumption on disputed information provided by the Oklahoma Medical Association and the Oklahoma Association of Pediatricians stating doctors would be required to provide parents with a 34 page appendix of outdated information written well above their heads. Both groups are for mandatory vaccinations of children and now we learn not only do they want to force vaccinations on you they also don't want to have to tell you anything about the vaccination. If they think the parent actually knowing about the vaccination their child is getting will lead to lower vaccination rates, what does that say about the actual vaccination?