Fort Collins police officer arrest man 11/19/2011

So I was surfing around youtube looking at more police brutalities and ended up finding another video of Fort Collins police officers going overboard yet again. In a mistaken identity a man was pepper sprayed, and subdued by a number of officers. I do wonder why they needed so many officers for a man whom wasn't resisting arrest. Yes maybe screaming rather loudly, but not resisting. It's amazing what police officers are aloud to get away with. I know I will always have my cell phone out, and ready to record with any police interaction I may come in contact with. Although it doesn't seem to be brutality it seems very excessive. Let me know your thoughts.

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More on officer caught pushing a citizen

The video I posted on Sunday (showing the  24-year-old Matt Hefferon being shoved by officer Dan Calahan, leading to his arrest officer by officer Kyle Bendzsa), has sparked an internal affairs investigation. At the press conference earlier this week Fort Collins Police Chief John Hutto stated that officers had been called to old town Fort Collins at 1:45 a.m. by a pedi-cab taxi operator, who had accused  Matt Hefferon and his friends, Joshua Cullip, and Jarvis Gullatt of damaging his bike.

Matt Hefferon said he and two friends (Joshua Cullip, and Jarvis Gullet) were drinking at the Wall Street bar on Linden Street and decided to take a pedi-cab from Old Town Square to their car. He said they all jumped on the two-seat trike and it flipped, breaking a rear reflector. Hefferon said the officers told him he could either pay for the damage on the spot, or receive a ticket.

Hefferon said he was trying to explain that he wasn't able pay right away because his ATM card wasn't working. Hefferon also said that when Calahan shoved him, in the video, Calahan can be heard telling Hefferon to step back.

"I was in no position to be any threat," Hefferon said. "I wasn't in his face to begin with. As I'm sitting there explaining it to him, not even close to him, he tells me to get back. I step back and fold my arms and stare at him. That's when he punches me in the chest and tells me to get back. They keep telling me I'm resisting arrest."

He added: "I just don't feel like that's the right thing for an officer to do."

Joshua Cullip who had video taped part of the incident after he was given back his ID from the officers, told 7News: “What happened is we asked the guy for a ride, as we were loading up on his bike, it ended up tipping back because we had too much weight on it, and breaking the brackets on his reflector.”

 

 

Heffron is facing charges of criminal mischief and obstructing a peace officer. Cullip was charged with interference and Gullatt was charged with obstructing a peace officer. 

While Police Chief John Hutto said he can’t yet talk publicly about the March 25 incident caught on video, he said he is comfortable with what he called a “pretty remarkably low” level of force being used by his officers. Hutto has launched an internal investigation of the video showing officer Dan Calahan shoving Matt Hefferan, who then was cited for criminal mischief and obstructing in connection with the incident.

“I think our officers are very restrained and use force appropriately,” Hutto said.
Hutto said the video “raises questions” about the interaction between Calahan and Hefferan. But he said the vast majority of interactions between police and the public are peaceful. He said those interactions rarely get attention.

 

The growth of high-quality video recorders is starting to change the way police investigate crimes and complaints.

Several Fort Collins police officers wear mobile recorders to document their interactions with the public in Old Town Fort Collins, and police Chief John Hutto said he is a big fan of having video of police officers interacting with the public because it often helps clear up "he-said, she-said" complaints.

Hutto said it didn't appear the officers recorded in the Saturday incident were wearing video recorders, and called on the public to submit additional video of the incident. "I always welcome video," Hutto said. "I think it helps. It never tells the whole story."

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Freedom of speech

Freedom of speech in the United States is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and by many state constitutions and state and federal laws. The freedom is not absolute; the Supreme Court of the United States has recognized several categories of speech that are excluded from the freedom of speech, and it has recognized that governments may enact reasonable time, place, or manner restrictions on speech.
Criticism of the government and advocacy of unpopular ideas that people may find distasteful or against public policy, such as racism, sexism, and other hate speech are almost always permitted. There are exceptions to these general protections, including the Miller test for obscenity, child pornography laws, speech that incites imminent lawless action, and regulation of commercial speech such as advertising. Within these limited areas, other limitations on free speech balance rights to free speech and other rights, such as rights for authors and inventors over their works and discoveries (copyright and patent), protection from imminent or potential violence against particular persons (restrictions on fighting words), or the use of untruths to harm others (slander). Distinctions are often made between speech and other acts which may have symbolic significance.
Despite the exceptions, the legal protections of the First Amendment are some of the broadest of any industrialized nation, and remain a critical, and occasionally controversial, component of American jurisprudence.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_in_the_United_States

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Officer caught on video pushing a citizen.

There's some people whom would watch this video and believe there was no wrongful misconduct. They may believe the officer was protecting his partner and would ask questions later. I know police officers have to take certain measures to protect themselves, and their partners. But that doesn't look like the case in this video shot last night. And yes I know, your might say, well what was the whole story? There's got to be some reason those officers were on high alert like that! But, in my opinion,
whatever the situation at hand before becomes irrelevant after the cop pushes the guy away. They didn't seem like they were trying to arrest these particular individuals. The guy talking to the cop before the push looks like he had been there for quite awhile talking to the cop with his arms folded when the push took place. Now I could care less about the cop pushing him. After the officer pushed him away which seems a bit drastic, he went back to writing in his journal immediately. That to me doesn't warrant the other officer to arrest him thereafter in my opinion. But he does.......Whats your take on it?
Here's the link to the video courtesy of Josh Cullip. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS-r3YoREj0&feature=related

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M17x

So earlier as I was saying, I love the Alienware M17x I just picked up. Not only is it very appealing to the eye but it's versatility is amazing. You can swap out the 2 GPU's it has room for, either crossfire or SLI, your choice. Throw a Terabyte HD in there with a SSD. Overall you can throw a shit ton parts in different variations in this machine. Ive never seen that from just a laptop. They even make it easy to upgrade your screen! It's about 11.8 pounds which makes the machine pretty heavy. However It does fall in the desktop replacement category. With dual slots for GPU's you can hook the laptop up to a big ass screen and play any game as if you had a desktop with all the fixin's on your floor with no problem. Then take it with you on the go at a moments notice. I got mine for pretty cheap off of a friend. Typically they go for around $1500.00 with standard specs. But I would check out craigslist.com and ebay before buying this machine from Dell. Youll get it for a lot cheaper than you would from dell, and have money left over for upgrades!

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2Pac vs. B.I.G.

I've been wanting to touch on this subject for quite awhile now. Mostly because music these days is just bad. Especially Rap. I'm not sure when or why the industry went bad but, it most definitely is, whether your talking about Rock, Rap, Dance, Pop, Whatever! 2Pac and Biggie however were the last mainstream rappers that actually could. And there's been the rivalry involving both as too who's the better rapper. It's all about who's better apparently. I personally love both of them. Equally! Why sit there and bicker about the East Coast/West Coast that was going on back then. The point is that lyrically they both were probably two of the most talented to this day. I see all these people diggin the Drake's and The LiL Wayne's of today. And upon listening to any of them, they suck! There's no talent what so ever. LL Cool J can Rap better than any of today's artists on mainstream radio any day of the week. Notorious B.I.G. could rap about what you had on, your shirt, shoe laces, belt and make it sound like it was meant to be put together to top billboard charts. You don't find that in any artists today. 2Pac lyrically didn't seem to freestyle as much as biggie. He wrote a lot and almost all of his tracks were carefully calculated to relate to his past and to raise awareness within communities all over the nation is not world. There was a lot of value and emotion within 2Pac's lyrics. No one can deny that! It's just too bad that with the like's of today's mainstream rap artists, the standard of rap fell to well below retarded. So who wins the battle in your opinion?

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Alienware

So, Ive recently encountered having to go against my will and buy a Alienware laptop. Personally I love computers. One thing I love to do is piece computers together. Alienware seems to put some pretty decent computers together complete with liquid cooling in some cases then mark up the price....way up! Typically you can buy the same components with a different computer case, even an expensive case upwards of $200.00 And still have a way cheaper computer comparable to the same Alienware for about $500.00 to a $1000.00 bucks more. Kinda seems like your paying for a name to me *Ahem Apple! I will say one thing tho. The MX series of their laptops are very versatile. And seems to be the only thing they offer that seems to make sense for the money. Weill talk about that a little more later though. So how do you feel about Alienware products? Have you ever bought one? If so how was price to performance?

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