Tulsa Police Patrol Car Tribute to Marine

Tulsa Police Unveil Patrol Car Dedicated To Veterans
News on 6
September 27th 2018

TULSA, Oklahoma - A newly wrapped patrol car is making its debut at the Tulsa State Fair. It’s dedicated to a former officer who died while serving as a Marine in Iraq.

Jared Shoemaker was killed in action in Iraq in 2006 after his reserve unit was deployed.

Tulsa Police unveiled the car Thursday. It’s decorated in Marine Corp camouflage with red, white and blue. The department said it’s dedicated to Shoemaker and other veterans who serve on the police department.

"To represent the Marines who work for our department, the Marines who lost their lives, the Marines still fighting for our country," Sergeant Richard Meulenberg said.

After the fair, the car will hit the streets as part of normal patrols.

It will also be used in the upcoming Veteran's Day parade.
go here to see the rest of this patrol car

Maine Law Enforcement front line on mental health?

Increasingly, Maine police on front lines for mental illness interventions
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD
BY EDWARD D. MURPHY
July 15, 2018

Involuntary committals are up, as are related service calls, forcing a shift in how authorities train for and perform their jobs.

Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce poses for a portrait at the county jail on Thursday. Staff photo by Derek Davis

Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin J. Joyce said calls related to people in crisis are spiking.

Maine is seeing a surge in involuntary committals – cases where people are held for mental health issues against their will – that is changing how police do their jobs.

The number of those committals has risen steadily in the last decade, from 344 in 2009 to 401 last year, an increase of nearly 17 percent. In another measure of mental illness affecting law enforcement and the courts, the number of Mainers found not competent to stand trial has leapt from seven in 2008 to 136 last year.

As state-provided services for the mentally ill dwindle, more front-line intervention work is performed by Maine’s law enforcement community, significantly changing how police train for and perform their jobs.

The number of calls for service that were mental health-related for the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office rose from 383 in 2013 to 486 last year, an increase of nearly 27 percent. This year, the pace is continuing to rise, with 278 calls for service through early July, according to figures from the sheriff’s office. And those numbers don’t include calls for other issues – such as domestic violence or a disturbance – that are rooted in mental illness but categorized differently.
read more here

Marine Veteran Killed As Contractor, GoFundMe Account Used By Selfish "Friend"

After their dad died, a family friend set up a GoFundMe account to help. Then she raided it.
Washington Post
By Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
October 17, 2016

Holder pleaded guilty on Wednesday to felony theft by conversion. She will spend two years in prison and eight on probation.

This cached photo shows Barry Sutton’s daughters as they appeared on a GoFundMe site made by a woman who bilked a town out of nearly $5,000. (Via GoFundMe)

Barry Sutton was working as a civilian contractor when he was killed by a car bomb in Afghanistan last year, but he received a soldier’s homecoming.

Police escorted his casket from the airport to a funeral home in Rome, Ga. People stood on either side of the procession route, waving flags. An honor guard presented colors at his funeral — paying tribute to the former police officer and sheriff’s deputy.

Amid the fanfare, Brandy Holder, a family friend, told people that she wanted to organize something special.

According to his obituary, Barry Dean Sutton had served in the Marines Corps and worked in law enforcement, first with Georgia’s Floyd County Police Department, then with the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office. He was also a school resource officer at Armuchee High School, his alma mater. He was working for DynCorp when he was killed in Kabul at the age of 46, the obituary said.
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WWII Veteran's Family Wins Settlement After Being Shot By Police Beanbag

Family Agrees to $1.1M Settlement in WWII Veteran's Death
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MARKHAM, Ill.
May 24, 2016

Court documents show relatives of a 95-year-old World War II veteran who died after being shot with a beanbag gun by a police officer, who was trying to disarm him, have agreed to a $1.1 million wrongful death settlement.

Park Forest Police Officer Craig Taylor responded in July 2013 after an assisted-living facility staff member reported John Wrana Jr. had become combative. Wrana was shot five times with the beanbag gun before he dropped the knife he was wielding. He died hours later of internal bleeding.

Sharon Mangerson, Wrana's stepdaughter and executor of his estate, had filed a $5 million wrongful death lawsuit in 2014 alleging, among other things, that Wrana's civil rights were violated.

Park Forest recently agreed to a $1.1 million settlement, with $800,000 covering legal fees and costs and the rest going to family members.
read more here

Call to Save Veteran Almost Cost Him His Life

Veteran suffering from PTSD to sue Gilbert Police for alleged excessive use of force 
KTAR News 
Cooper Rummell 
March 28, 2016

Attorney’s also claim in the document that Cardenas was Tased later on in the evening while he was strapped to a gurney at a local hospital. His heart stopped but doctors were able to revive him.

PHOENIX — A Phoenix-area veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder plans to sue the Gilbert Police Department for alleged excessive use of force.

Attorneys for Kyle Cardenas filed a $20 million notice of claim against the Town of Gilbert regarding an incident that took place on Sept. 12, 2015.

According to the document, Cardenas was suffering from PTSD-induced delusions while staying at his parent’s house. His mother called the VA Crisis Hotline and requested a crisis team be sent to the home. Gilbert Police officers were sent instead.
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Armed Patient In Custody After VA Nurse Held Hostage

Patient holds nurse at gunpoint in VA hospital
KUSA
Blair Shiff
December 3, 2015

DENVER - A hostage situation at the VA Medical Center near East 10th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard is now over.

According to the VA Police, they initially responded at 8:20 a.m. on Thursday.

A man who was a patient at the hospital took a nurse practitioner hostage inside an exam room on the eighth floor. VA officials say he held a loaded gun to the nurse during the hostage situation.
read more here

Will Iraq Veteran Matthew Ladd Ever See Justice Jury Awarded?

WPB Iraqi war vet continues to battle city to get $888,000 verdict
Palm Beach Post
Jane Musgrave
October 29, 2015
Filed in: 15th Circuit, 4th District Court of Appeal, Civil, Florida Legislature

Former West Palm Beach police officer Matthew Ladd while serving in Afghanistan in 2005.

Two years after a Palm Beach County jury ordered West Palm Beach to pay an Iraqi war veteran $888,000 for improperly firing him as a police officer, an appeals court this week ordered the city to pay up.

But whether 30-year-old Matthew Ladd will ever see the money still remains an open question.

A jury in 2013 agreed the city used PTSD as a ruse to fire Ladd, days after a psychiatrist declared him fit for duty.

In an unusual move, city officials earlier this year filed a separate lawsuit, claiming Ladd lied to the jury about his condition. In the lawsuit, they claim they obtained medical records that showed Ladd was diagnosed with PTSD in 2007 and he was taking experimental drugs when he worked as a city cop.

Garcia claims Ladd, who served two years in Iraq and Afghanistan, wasn’t diagnosed with PTSD until 2012, two years after he was fired. He branded the city’s action “a vexatious, bad faith attempt to punish Mr. Ladd” for winning the $888,000 verdict. read more here

Police Detectives harassed at Denny's over guns?

Police Banned From Denny's Restaurant After Manager 'Harassed' Detectives Over Guns
Huffington Post
Posted: 01/03/2013

A police chief in Belleville, Ill. has banned his officers from eating at a local Denny's and accused the restaurant of "political stupidness" after a confrontation between a group of detectives and the restaurant's manager on New Year's Day, CBS St. Louis reports.

According to CBS, a diner was alarmed after spotting a female officer's weapon and alerted David Rice, the restaurant's manager. Rice subsequently approached the five detectives, who were not in uniform, and asked that they either leave the restaurant or put their weapons in their car. The officers left before being served their meal.'
read more here

Army Vet honorable discharge or discharge of honor?

Injured Army Veteran Fights Long Delays to Get VA Benefits
KMBC-TV (Kansas City, Missouri)

Jun 09, 2008
Kansas City, MO - An injured army veteran is now battling the Veterans Administration. For 17 years, Gary Connellis was a police officer in New York. He joined the Army when he was in his mid-30s, married and with a young daughter.

Connellis was injured in the line of duty. He told KMBC's Micheal Mahoney that he thought he'd be taken care of.

"I don't know who to turn to, what else to do," Connellis said.

Mahoney reported that the issue is over how badly Connellis was injured. Early Army reports describe it as chronic pain, especially in his lower back.

Other outside doctors report it as a herniated disc.

"The records are all there. This is problem within the system. A major problem," Connellis said.

A General Accountability Office report stated the Defense Department military evaluation process "often generates long delays in disability evaluations and creates confusion."

Connellis left the Army with a 30 percent disability rating, an honorable medical discharge and a severance.
go here for more
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/10329

Idaho Police Academy slogan "Don't suffer from PTSD, go out and cause it,"

Idaho police academy 'mortified' by gung-ho PTSD slogan


The Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho law enforcement leaders say they were "mortified" when a group of state police academy graduates chose a slogan that many felt was just too gung-ho.


The slogan, "Don't suffer from PTSD, go out and cause it," was emblazoned on the Dec. 14 graduation programs for 43 officers who completed the Idaho Police Officer Standards and Training Academy's latest course.

PTSD, short for post-traumatic stress disorder, typically afflicts people who have endured civilian violence, military combat and other extremely dislocating experiences.

"That's not something we encourage or condone," Jeff Black, director of the police training academy in Meridian, told the Spokesman-Review newspaper this week. "It shouldn't have been there. It was inappropriate."
go here for the rest
http://www.theolympian.com/northwest/story/309436.html


I'd really like to know what twisted POS came up with this one. It's Christmas so that is all I have to say on this one today.