THE FAIRFAX COUNTY POLICE OUT OF CONTROL

June 16, 1987, plainclothes police actually "infiltrated" high school graduation party in a private home in Vienna.  The hosts' son was a member of Students Against Drunk Driving.  The parents who gave the party for their son notified those attending the party with "Please, No Alcohol" signs and brought in at least 25 adults to help monitor the party. 

The mistake they made was in notifying the cops in advance and getting a booklet of party tips from them.  The cops then infiltrated the party and arrested children and adults for drinking.  They also arrested and handcuffed the hostess, whom they handcuffed and charged with being drunk in public and forced to spend the night in jail.  The hosts, who did everything right, pleaded no contest to charges of aiding and abetting the consumption of alcohol by minors.

This actually happened.  The cops really did this.

Cops swarmed on to the property while other cops set up a roadblock.  One partygoer said "My mother walked up to the roadblock with my aunt to see if any guests were having problems. “  A cop told her, 'I'm not on your property anymore, you're on my property.  Now back off.'  My aunt tapped her on the shoulder and said, 'Let's get out of here,' but the cop said, 'She's not going anywhere.’  Then he started giving her sobriety tests, making her touch her nose, making her lean backward until she was almost flat on her back.  But she passed.  Then he pulls out this Breathalyzer and shoves it at her and says, 'Blow,' while he is pressing all of these buttons.  Without showing the results to anybody, he says, 'You're under arrest.’  Then he handcuffed her and took her to jail."

This actually happened.  The cops really did this.

The raid on the house was apparently pre-planned even though the police said it wasn’t.  One of the cops on the scene dropped a sheet of paper that indicated that the party -- along with four other gatherings being held in the area that night -- had been targeted for possible infiltration even before it began.  Some cop assigned some students to write 500-word essays, while other officers chose to make arrests.

This actually happened.  The cops really did this.

 In exchange for the plea, other charges against the hostess were dropped.

  

THE DIRTY DANCING PATROL

In April of 1977…..that was 1977……the Fairfax County police actually warned people that if they danced on Sunday’s they would be arrested.

This actually happened.  The cops really did this.

A blue law from 1954 forbids dancing in Fairfax County on Sundays. That month two cops actually walked into a bar at Tysons Corner's Ramada Inn and ordered about 100 people to stop dancing and issued a court summons to the motel.

This actually happened.  The cops really did this.

A police captain actually sent cops around to different establishments in his district to inform bar managers of the ordinance.

ARRESTED FOR DRINKING IN A BAR

In December of 2003, the Fairfax County Police went undercover in 20 local bars to arrest people whom they felt were drinking too much.  They raided bars in Herndon and Reston on five nights and arrested nine people public drunkenness.  Seven of the 9 challenged their arrests.

 This actually happened.  The cops really did this.

Daniel Crowley was arrested in a bar in Reston on karaoke night just before Christmas.  His crime was drinking six beers.  A female undercover cop actually sat near him and counted the drinks.

This actually happened.  They really did this.

"I didn't know what was going on," Crowley testified in Fairfax County General District Court “I'd paid my tab, and I was ready to go home”.

Crowley was convicted of public intoxicated and ordered them to perform 25 hours of community service.

Then he was arrested.

"I'm not happy with the way they can walk into a restaurant and do as they please," Crowley said of police.  "I don't want to go to places in the atmosphere where you don't know who is who."

Patrons and bar owners alike said that those who were arrested were drinking responsibly and causing no commotion.  Crowley and his drinking companions disputed police testimony that the cops saw Crowley, though the darkened bar, spilling beer in his lap, slurring his speech and having trouble staying upright on his seat. 

Under cross-examination from Crowley's attorney, police acknowledged that neither they nor bar patrons had complained that Crowley was acting unruly or meddlesome.  They also testified that he did not disobey their orders, even though he declined to submit to a breathalyzer test.

Pat Habib, he designated driver in her dinner party drank one alcoholic drink and it up two sodas.  After she finished the second soda, undercover police yanked her outside for a sobriety test.  The cops said that they had received a complaint about an unruly blond woman matching her description.  Then she watched as police tested other women looking nothing like her.

Instead of explaining why they were acting Nazis, the cops actually defended their actions by saying the people they arrested deserved to be arrested "They drew attention to themselves by their actions.”  Said their spokesperson.

"It does smack of a pending police state if law enforcement is going into establishments to monitor behavior”, said Lynne Breaux, executive director of the Metropolitan Washington Restaurant Association.

At Champs, a bar in Reston, general manager Kevin O'Hare described police as "antagonistic.”  He said they "pulled" people from their chairs who were making no commotion.  "They're always welcome to come in anytime," he said of police.  "It's not an issue when they talk to our guests.  But when they actually pull people out of their seats, it is an issue.  When it's borderline harassment, it's an issue."

The Board of Supervisors actually took a stand on this one, on the side of the cops.

THE NAKED COFFEE GUY CASE

October 19 2009, Erick Williamson of Springfield was arrested for drinking coffee in the nude in his kitchen.  The idiocy started when the wife of a police officer phoned her husband to complain that she was looking into the victim’s house and saw him naked. 

The arrest, dubbed the Naked Guy case, made international headlines and, once again, the Fairfax Police, made the county look ridiculous in the eyes of the world.  (The first time being the raids on bars to search for drunks, the second being the "This ain’t America no more" election day video recording) 

By their own admission, police raided the house, enforce, with guns drawn ("just in case we encountered a hostile individual," the officers explained) and no warrant to enter the property where they found the culprit asleep…with his pants on. 

Pulled outside on his lawn, a cop asked Williamson if he could take his picture.  Williamson said no.  The cop took the picture anyway and showed it to the woman who had complained for positive identification, which they got.  They returned to the house and arrested Williamson.  It took a jury less than twenty minutes to find Williamson not guilty.

….BUT NO LAWS WERE BROKEN

On April 10, 1990, ten members of the police department's "jump-out team" including two supervisors, came to work at midnight armed and dressed in the team's full uniform of dark military-type fatigues, drove together to a Leesburg apartment building, outside the jurisdiction of the department, to deliver a "strong message" to a man who had threatened the wife of a cop.  Believe it or not, the Fairfax police spokesman Warren Carmichael said that no laws were broken and, he added, no force was used by the officers that night.  The Board of supervisors said and did nothing.

I’M A GOVERNMENT WORKER, I DON’T TOLERATE COMPETITION SO I’LL HAVE YOU ARRESTED

In October of 1998, Lt. Larry A. Jackson was “retired” from the police force.  Jackson had two community volunteers Melvin and Susan Entwisle, arrested when they tried to start a Little League in competition with the one he headed.

 Jackson had the couple arrested for trespassing on school grounds after they tried to recruit players for their new baseball league.  The couple filed a $ 150,000 lawsuit against the police department, alleging that Jackson abused his authority as an officer to support his position in the Bucknell Little League.  The taxpayers picked up the bill.

Y’All IN DIXIE NOW, BOY

The Fairfax County Police and the Black population

In 1967, Chris Stokes, became Fairfax County's first black police officer.  Stokes said that when he applied for the job, he had to take a polygraph test that lasted two hours and 20 minutes. 

Six whites who applied with him also took the test, but theirs lasted only 50 minutes.  Stokes was the county's first community relations office.  Stokes later testified that another officer assigned to the community relations office told Stokes that his job was to keep an eye on Stokes. 

Stokes, who left the police force in 1973, said his repeated attempts to become a detective in Fairfax failed, apparently because he was black.  Several years later, he joined a federal suit against Fairfax County that charged that the county discriminated against blacks and women in its hiring and promotion policies. 

The police responded by claiming that Stokes was thief and a “Liability” as a policeman.  But in 1982, the County offered a settlement offer of $ 2.75 million to be distributed to 685 discrimination victims, including Stokes.

On August 23, 1974 the cops shot an unarmed 26-year-old black man six times by a white cop.  The cop said that the black man had resisted arrest on a driving on an expired license charge.  The man was not driving at the time his license was checked.  Witnesses, who were all white, said the cop came into a 7-11 store where the black man was, and cracked him across the head with a club for no apparent reason. 

When the man fought off the attack, the cop fire six shots, hitting the man in the stomach.  The shooting lead to three hours of rioting by some black citizens in Herndon.  Seventy-five very heavily armed police responded.

 A grand jury investigated the shooting but on August 30, about sixty outraged black citizens of Herndon called a meeting with police to protest the killing.

The county eventually paid $25,000 in an excessive force, wrongful arrest suit with the dead man’s brother.  The cop got to keep his job. 

After the killing, the police made many, many, promises about hiring more black cops but by 1981, the federal government found that the police had made little progress in hiring blacks and made even less progress in promoting them.

February 11, 2001 the police shot another black man, their favorite target, followed in a close second by Hispanic males.  The cops shot the man while searching a home.  The man either refused to leave the room or didn’t leave the room fast enough.

On September 18, 1993, a headline read “Fairfax police get 'live fire' training”....the question here is…why?  They get all the free practice they want shooting down unarmed citizens.

In February of 1996, the Fairfax County police union used drawings of what appear to be a black bellhop, a dark-skinned waiter, and a white couple dancing in an advertisement promoting a dinner-dance.  A black officers' organization demanded an apology from the union, saying the advertisement-depicted blacks in stereotypically subservient roles, and some officers said it reflected a long-standing racial tension within the department.  The president of the Fairfax County Police Association said the union didn't intend to offend anyone.

In late May of 1986, the Fairfax County Police arrested Vernon Dean, a Black Redskins Cornerback for striking his fiancé.  The problem was, the fiancé insisted that the football player never laid on a hand on her and "never hit me"

"I am being cited as a victim of an assault” she said “no one ever laid a hand on me, not once . . . If everything had happened the way they [police] said, I wouldn't have been able to walk, much less work.  It is such a joke.”  She added that the only person who was assaulted was Dean, who was, as she said "attacked by several police officers" Berry and Dean were arguing in public near Leesburg Pike when a cop drove by and told Berry to go with him to the McLean station until her and Dean “Cooled off”.

The cop did not arrest Dean for assault although the police later claimed that Dean assaulted Berry on Leesburg Pike.  The cop drove Berry back to the station and Berry called Dean to pick her up, when he arrived, the cops tried to keep them from leaving together.

 "I kept saying (to the cops) we'll be all right.”  Dean said.  Then the cops took his arms and he went down on to the floor "I'm gasping for air”; Dean said I'm saying, is all this necessary?  The four cops who jumped him from behind chipped his tooth and blacked his eye.  "They're claiming he assaulted a police officer," Berry said.  "That's crazy.  If anyone, especially Vernon, had hit me with a fist, I wouldn't be here telling you right now."

Dean’s lawyer said , "I'm saying they [police] attacked him because he was not cooperating with their decision to intervene in what was essentially a domestic squabble . . . This is something that's been blown out of proportion by police trying to cover up their conduct.  It's typical of the way they deal with black athletes.  A police officer comes on the scene, a black guy is involved . . . The cops say to him, 'I don't care who you are,' then they say a guy is resisting arrest . . . They always say they're assaulting the police.  It's a typical excuse police give for reprehensible conduct . . . They have to justify the arrest.  I'm getting tired of it...  Vernon probably said some things to the officers they didn't like.  Police have to justify their conduct”

May 10, 1989, the Fairfax County Police offered a man $1,000 to repair damage to his teeth caused by one of five cops who beat the man across the mouth with his nightstick while the man was handcuffed.  Here’s the surprising part, the man that was handcuffed and beaten by the police was black and the five cops who beat him were white…..I know, I didn’t believe it ether. 

The man, Steven Martin, a 27-year-old lawn service employee, was visiting his sons in Reston.  At the same time the cops were looking for a black man whom they say had assaulted a cop.  So they stopped Martin and arrested him on charges of trespassing and being drunk in public. 

The cops then drove Martin to an empty elementary school parking lot where "they yanked me out of the car and threw me on the ground.”  Martin said he did not know how many officers were there, but that "they were all just surrounding me.”  Martin, whose hands were cuffed in front of his body, said an officer placed a nightstick in his mouth and twisted it numerous times, leaving one bottom front tooth so loose that a dentist told him it will probably have to be removed. 

His pants were pulled down, and the pockets were ripped out.  His shoes and two pairs of socks were removed.  Then another cop slapped him across the face.  He was then dragged before a magistrate at the county jail and released on personal recognizance.  His moth bleeding, his shoes, and socks missing, Martin walked to his sister's home in Centreville.  “He came in with blood all over him," his sister said "He said [the police] beat him up, and put the stick in his mouth.  I was mad.  I said: 'You should do something about that”

On February 14, 1979, the Fairfax County Police accidentally  killed an unarmed young black man named Stanly Hughes when four white cops accidentally fired two bullets into his body.  The cops said they accidentally mistook Hughes for a murder suspect named Kenneth E. King, so of course they killed him. 

The cops said the innocent Mr. Hughes was killed because he ran from his apartment where Kenneth King was staying and that Hughes resembled King, so, all things being equal, they shot him down.

 After mowing down Hughes police said they entered his apartment and found Kenneth King of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the chest.  Naomi N. Hughes, Stanley Hughes mother would later content that the cops fired indiscriminately at her son who ran from his apartment to escape Kenneth King.  Talk about irony. 

The Police chief, Kenneth Wilson said "We are just very displeased that this has occurred.”  But he wasn’t clear if he was talking about the shooting or the publicity the shooting brought to his department. 

Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan, who never ever disappointed with his show of support for the police said he would review the results of the internal police investigation of Hughes' death.  In the nearly four decades that Robert F. Horan Jr. had been the chief prosecutor in Fairfax, no cop has ever been charged with improperly shooting someone.

That got more than a few chuckles around the county and then added “Statistically, it's not fair to say that this department shoots first and asks questions later...  There's less use of weapons by this department than by any other department I'm aware of.”  Two weeks after Stanley Hughes was gunned down, the two cops questioned in the shooting were refusing to talk to investigators.  It didn’t matter.  An internal police investigation cleared the cops of any wrongdoing.

 December 29, 1978, the cop killed another black man and, amazingly enough, this killing too was also an accident.  In this case the cops accidentally put three bullets in to the head of a school janitor named John Jackson. 

The cops accidentally shot him three times in the head while Jackson was in the kitchen of the private Talent House School, 9211 Arlington Blvd.  Jackson was carrying a .22 caliber gun, apparently to begin his own stakeout for a thief who had broken into the school in the past. 

The police investigated the police and….yeah; you guessed it….found the police innocent and cleared the cops who shot the man dead.  Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. said the investigation found "no wrongdoing" by the cops who were the only witnesses to the shooting.  David Feldman, an attorney who is investigating the death for Jackson's family, said yesterday "It's absolutely obvious that something went wrong”, Feldman said.

"A dumb nigger" Sworn two affidavits from officers on how other officers referred to black female officer Sheila Patterson.

"You have two strikes against you, you are Black, and you are a female.  Because that is the way it is around here.”  Statement of a white officer to female officer Sheila Patterson.

"Zulu" Sworn two affidavits from officers on how other officers referred to black female officer Sheila Patterson.

In 1983 a Black officer Sheila Patterson had her chair maced by fellow cops.  Earlier, another cop sprayed mace at her from his car and explained later that spraying the mace was a joke.

In the summer of 1990, a cop called Patterson as "cruiser butt" or "cruiser ass” and after an investigation, the officer received an oral reprimand.  Two years later, in 1992, Patterson found a dead mouse in her mailbox at the police station.  An investigation ensued in which twenty-seven people were interviewed and three given polygraph examinations. 

The department never discovered who placed the mouse in the mailbox.

In 1993 Patterson filed for a race and sex discrimination complaint against the

police.  A short time later, she was fired for refusing to sign a release form after a psychological fitness-for-duty exam.

 According to the officer, she was accused of throwing a note a pad at a fellow officer and was arrested for assault (This happened after filing the charges against the department) She said the charges against her were a "Complete fabrication" and the EEOC, based on the evidence, agreed.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that the police department improperly retaliated against Patterson for filing race and sex discrimination complaints.  The cops were forced to reinstate Patterson with back pay and stop retaliating against employees and provide training to all supervisors regarding discrimination and retaliation.

"This is retaliatory, and ever since I returned in 1994, I have fought one battle with them after another," Patterson said.  "It is pathetic and outrageous that I have had to go through all this." 

In May of 1998, Patterson was fired again violating the department's regulations governing human relations and insubordination.  On the lighter side of this, the cops claimed that they had actually fired her for acting “in a rude, aggressive and unprofessional manner" toward a citizen while on duty.  There is a wonderful Yiddish word that covers a statement life that, Chupitz.  Basically, it means to act with the balls of an alley cat.

In March of 1997, an African American couple from Washington D.C. stated that white officers from Fairfax County “acted inappropriately” during a traffic stop.

In March of 1978, the Fairfax County police launched another riot when they flooded into the One South Restaurant Night Club and beat patrons with clubs, placed two of them in the hospital and arrested six others. Several patrons of the have filed brutality complaints, claiming that police went on a rampage in the club, striking and arresting patrons who were doing nothing illegal. 

The cops had gone to the club to arrest a dishwasher who worked there.  They claimed that as they were arrested the man, someone threw a bottle at them.  No one else in the club saw a bottle thrown or saw or heard anyone interfering with the arrest. 

What they did see was the two cops wrestling the man to the ground and beat him with clubs.  A patron described the atmosphere as “absolute terror, people were afraid to move to do anything” 

One patron, for no apparent reason was dragged from the club by his hair, taken outside into the parking lot and beat with clubs.  The cop then returned, grabbed another man, dragged him to the center of the floor, and beat him with a club.  A patron said the cop appeared “Absolutely berserk”

The chief of police denied his cops did anything wrong and said that if they had beaten people with club, then they were right in doing it.  "We don't have any sadist on the department," he said.

To add even levity to the situation the Police Internal Affairs office promised to investigate citizen’s complaints. In the meantime, the Board of Supervisors said and did nothing.

In 1978, There were 125 “formal complaints” about the cops meaning just over one quarter of the force had complaints registered against them.  Or one complaint every day and half.  The force in 1978 numbered less than 800 in all.

On November 14, 2011 an Alexandria man, a black man, sued two Fairfax County cops for brutality claiming the cops violated his rights under the Fourth Amendment and Title 42 of the Civil Rights Act. 

The man said that the two cops bravely used excessive force when they handcuffed and detained him on June 16, 2010. The man was walking to Rising Hope United Methodist Mission Church, where he works as a janitor, when he said the cops assaulted him.  He said the cops stopped him and asked him for identification, which he gave them.

Then they asked if they could search him, when he asked why they would want to search him, the two cops handcuffed him and then searched him. One of the cops claimed that he saw not only cocaine in the man’s mouth; his eyesight was so good that he even noticed that it was crack cocaine.

Yet he couldn’t find any in the man’s mouth when he searched him.  The, he said, the cop  threw him to the ground and on to his stomach and one of them rammed him knee in his back as the other cop choked him and then shocked him with a Taser three times.

 Then the cops tossed him into a police car while they searched the ground for evidence, one would think, for anything to support their actions. When a supervisor came along, the cops released the man with a warning.

A black Fairfax County police officer whose white supervisor asked him to shine the supervisor's shoes was justified in resigning from the police department because working conditions were "just too oppressive." a state examiner has rule in 1992.  Also in that year Fairfax County Deputy Police Chief E. Thomas Sines removed himself as a contender for the department's top job after complaints by female and black officers about a "good old boy network"

In August of 1968, Nadine Eckhardt, the wife of a US Congressman, and her two children, were stopped by Fairfax County Police for no apparent reason other than the fact that they had visited an encampment of people who had taken part in a Resurrection City in Dunn Loring. 

The cops rousted them, refused to explain themselves, checked her ID, and then sent her off on her way.  The cops had the camp under 24-hour surveillance although they couldn’t or wouldn’t explain why.  The chief of police defended the cops actions by saying that the roust was “A fundamental and essential necessity for the proper administration of the motor vehicle code”

A few days later the same cops arrested one man after he left the camp for carrying an expired license….not driving with an expired license…..carrying an expired license.  They also arrested the man who came to the police station to posts the first man’s bail.  They claimed he used obscene language.

Shopping while black in Fairfax County is not a good idea.  On August 25, 1978, a D.C. Superior Court jury has awarded $245,224 to two black men who sued Woodward & Lothrop's department store for false arrest after the men were surrounded at the Tysons Corner store by Fairfax County police officers with shotguns and drawn revolvers.  According to court records, six county cops confronted the two men as they left the store near closing time on December 3, 1975. 

The cops were responding to a call from a store security officer who suspected that the men had stolen items and were armed….so they sent six cops armed with shot guns to question them.  The two men were arrested and frisked in front of 30 onlookers and then released when the cops could not prove that the two men had stolen anything.

In 1998 Darrel Stephens was a candidate to be chief of the Fairfax County police.  Stephens was the St. Petersburg police chief in 1996 during the two nights of arson and gunfire that followed the fatal shooting of TyRon Lewis, a black motorist who was shot by a white police officer.

On March 30, 1978, the father of a 16-year old black boy beaten by police brought charges against the cops involved in the beating.  Witnesses, twelve neighbors, saw four officers beat the child with batons about the head.  He was later taken to the hospital and treated. 

Fairfax County Police Chief Col. Richard A. King dismissed the charges of brutality against his police based on an investigation of the incident…..by the police who…wait for it….found the police innocent of using "excessive physical force" Brutality charges against the other two arresting cops were dismissed without a trial board hearing because of insufficient evidence.

King said that "in the process of arresting (The boy), the officers resorted to force, which required that (The boy) be given medical treatment.”  King did not release a police version of why the child was injured during the arrest, and he refused comment on how the decision was made to drop charges against the cops because all findings of the police department's internal affairs section are not public information.

He asked that the public "have a little faith" in the integrity of his police force and said that he was breaking a precedent for the county police by publicizing internal affairs action.  He said the announcement was made to "assure the public that we do an in-depth investigation”.

At the time, three of the five other major police departments in the Washington area made public the findings of police trial boards, which usually are three or four persons panels made up of police officers or citizens.  King said he opposed the release of all trial board findings because of his feeling that internal affairs information "in general" should be kept secret.

The Board of supervisor said and did nothing.

But on June 3, 1978, a federal grand jury was ordered to look into the beating of the 16-year-old by police.  The investigation was to determine if the police department tried to cover up the incident.

The same grand jury also started to investigate the county's internal police review board, an all-cop agency that reviewed charges against the Fairfax cops.  The jury was investigating what the chief of police said was a minor incident in which a cop "roughly handcuffed and put a suspect into a squad car”, King said.  "The incident involved the use of a foot.” 

But then added he couldn’t remember all the details of the incident, Actually the charges resulted in the cop being suspended for 10 days without pay.  Why he wasn’t arrested for assault isn’t known.  They were also investigating another case that involved “the unwarranted firing of guns” which resulted in two days off with pay for the two cops involved.  "We do react to complaints.  We do react in a positive manner," King said.  "Obviously, not all complaints are valid”

…WE DON’T GO AFTER THESE PEOPLE OF COLOR BECAUSE THEY MIGHT SHOOT BACK.

Open-air drug markets seem to operate with impunity.  The National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, says that the distribution of illegal drugs in Northern Virginia is conducted by “West African and Middle Eastern criminal groups are the primary transporters of Southwest Asian heroin into Virginia,"

The report also said that “Mexican brown powdered heroin and Mexican black tar heroin available in Virginia typically are transported into the state from southwestern states and North Carolina by Mexican criminal groups.”

 Dominican and African American criminal groups are the dominant wholesale and mid-level distributors of South American heroin in Virginia."

**

THEY AIN’T MUCH IN AN (ALMOST) FAIR FIGHT

February 26, 1975.  A robbery suspect got the drop on four detectives who had come to arrest him.  He disarmed two of them and fled in a hail of gunfire.

 SPEAKING OF DRUGS…………………

June 12, 1972, a judge reversed defendant's conviction for unlawful possession of LSD and remanded for a new trial that the search warrant used by Fair fax County police lacked probable cause.

On May 2, 2000 another court in a different case reversed a guilty verdict against a man convicted for drug possession with intent to distribute because evidence was seized in unlawful search due to illegal entry.  The cops forget to mention they were cops so they could get into the house and conduct a search.

On the other hand, in 1987, four Fairfax County 911 dispatchers and call-takers resigned after an internal investigation produced allegations that they had used illegal drugs.

In December of 1978, 28-year old Donald Ferguson died after three days in jail because the police (who then ran the jail) refused to give Ferguson prescription drugs and kept him in leg irons and hand cuffs for two days and refused to give him water or food.  The police investigated and cleared themselves of any wrongdoing.  The facts of the investigation are held secret by the police.

August 29, 2000, a district judge ruled that a Fairfax County cop was not immune from a judgment for violating the rights of a woman by stealing her medical records.  With probable cause, the cop entered the file room of a substance abuse treatment clinic and searched for the plaintiff's confidential treatment records along with many other patients' records.

In May of 1994, two Fairfax County cops and the coordinator of the department's wellness program were charged with unlawfully possessing anabolic steroids without a prescription.  Just to teach them a lesson, the two cops were sent home for three months WITH PAY.

RIGHT DOOR, WRONG DOOR, AS LONG AS WE GET TO BE DRAMATIC LIKE TV COPS, IT DOESN’T MATTER.

In January of 1975, the cops kicked open the door to the wrong house during a narcotics raid.  The ten cops….you would think one of them would have figured out they were at the wrong address….busted up the house and left behind $60,000 in damage.  They refused to pay for damage and the Fairfax Supervisors refused to settle a $30,000 damage claim brought against the county…well at least the Board of Supervisor finally did something.

THOSE GOSH DARNED DANGEROUS FURTIVE GESTURES

fur•tive (fûrtv)adj.

1. Characterized by stealth; surreptitious.

2. Expressive of hidden motives or purposes; shifty.

“When I review evidentiary hearing transcripts for appeals, I cringe when officers opine about what they saw defendants do. Officers are always 100% sure about what was going on, whether their opinions match the facts or not. A lot of the time, an officer’s opinion about what a defendant did can make a defense motion fail. Any movement by a defendant is a “furtive gesture” suggesting he was hiding something. If the defendant says his pants were falling down and he had to pull them up, the cop will say the defendant was trying to hide something in his pants.”  Matt Brown, Attorney at law.

In November of 2009 a bipolar man named David Masters, an unarmed motorist, was shot dead by the cops as he sat in the driver’s seat of his car.  Masters was wanted for allegedly stealing some flowers from a planter.  But in Fairfax County, even stealing flowers from a planter can get you killed by the cops.

Masters was a former Army Green Beret and the son of a retired U.S. Army colonel.  He had long suffered from bipolar disorder.  He also had a massive heart attack in 2007 and had a pacemaker installed.

The police refused to release the name of the shooter and the Board of Supervisor said and did nothing about that.  The cops told, they didn’t ask, they told the Board of Supervisors that there would be no public hearing to determine whether there was any wrongdoing.  And, the cops told the Board of Supervisors, that reporters would have almost no access to any information surrounding the incident of any kind. 

Almost needless to say, Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond Morrogh announced that he would not be filing any charges against the officer who shot Masters.

Morrogh found that the shooting was justified due to that gosh darned “furtive gesture” thing again.  But the only eyewitness to the furtive gesture was the cop who shot the man dead.  There was dash-cam video of the shooting, or maybe there was, (Although the cop denied it, there is dash-cam video of Masters’ shooting.) 

The public will never know.  "Unfortunately, we had a mentally ill man who was behaving bizarrely”, Morrogh said.  "His family indicated he was behaving under delusions, that he might feel he was under attack if approached by the police.  I think that's the explanation for his actions."

Michael Pope, a reporter who covers Northern Virginia for the Connection Newspapers chain and for the Washington, D.C., NPR affiliate WAMU, filed a series of open records requests with the Fairfax Police Department related to the Masters shooting.  All were denied.

 Then he asked Fairfax County Police Public Information Officer Mary Ann Jennings why her department won't at least release the incident report on Master's death, given concerns raised about the shooting.  "Let us hear that concern”, Jennings shot back.  "We are not hearing it from anybody except the media, except individual reporters."

Jennings also told Pope that releasing police reports to the press would have a "chilling effect" on victims and witnesses coming forward to report crimes. 

Next Pope asked Jennings why her department would not release the name of the cop who shot Masters.  "What does the name of an officer give the public in terms of information and disclosure?”  Jennings asked, "I'd be curious to know why they want the name of an officer”.

It sounded like a threat against the reporter.  

It looked like another 70 years would go by without a Fairfax County cop being

charged for an on-duty shooting, but then, due to international attention that the case drew, the cops finally admitted that masters were not armed.  Bad news for the cops came when the FBI announced that they would be investigation the case.  Realizing they were trouble, the cops reversed a long practice of withholding the names of cops who gun people down and sold out the cop who shot Masters and released his name to the public.

When the case drew more and more attention from around the world and a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting is continuing.  The cops realized they were caught red handed they fired the cop who killed Masters, terminating him under the guise of improper use of deadly force.

Justice is open to everyone in the same way as the Ritz Hotel is open to everyone. Judge Sturgess

December 14, 2006 the cops cornered and shot an unarmed robbery suspect.  There was no civilian witness to the shooting.  The man, who was black, was hiding in a crawl space with no way out when the cops ordered him to come out of the crawl space.  The man refused and made what police said was "several furtive gestures”, although they declined to say what those gestures were.  They then fired two shots into the suspect, killing him.

WHICH OFFICE IN THE POLICE DEPARTMENT WILL REISSUE THIS GUYS DIGNITY?

“This is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice.”  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

On May 26, 2010, a Fairfax County jury….in only 10 minutes …found a schoolteacher not guilty of molesting a 12-year-old girl in their school gym.  The cops had charged the teacher with aggravated sexual battery and abduction. 

The entire case against him was based on the testimony of two sixth-grade girls who said the teacher had picked up one of the girls in the middle of the school gym, carried her into an equipment room, laid her down on a mat, and massaged her shoulders, groping her in the process. 

He did admit to lightheartedly picking up one of the girls and twirling her in the air.  However there are no mats in the equipment room where the girls said he carried one of them.  The main accuser, who acknowledged having a grudge against the teacher for threatening to discipline her for her bullying behavior on the school bus patrol, said the teacher briefly touched her breast and buttock during the incident. 

The cop who investigated the child molestation claims never looked at the room where the alleged incident was supposed to have occurred.  School administrator explained to her that the room could not fit the tumbling mats that the lying 12-year-old accuser claimed she was placed.

In fact, when staff and parents tried to tell the police investigator in the case what actually happened, she threatened them with prosecution for obstruction of justice.  The school district investigator confirmed those claims.

When the accuser’s close friend and corroborating witness to the incident quickly tried to retract her story, her mother said, the cop refused to hear what the little girl had to say.  The cop told the mother “if she changes her story, they’re going to wonder why she changed her testimony.  She said, ‘I know how to do my job.  Don’t tell me how to do my job”

Shortly after the little girl recanted, Fairfax County launched a Child Protective Services investigation into the witness’s mother for alleged inappropriate behavior by her boyfriend.  The witness’s mother was eventually cleared of any allegations of misbehavior.

The Jurors said the prosecution had no case, and after reading their legal instructions, it took the seven women and five men about 10 minutes to come to their unanimous decision.  Four jurors said they thought that the teacher should never have been arrested in the first place.

Several months after the teacher was acquitted, Fairfax prosecutors dismissed another of the cop’s child abuse cases when the investigator acknowledged that she had misstated some key facts in her sworn testimony.

The cop has not been fired.  The Board of Supervisors said and did nothing.

“Power-lust is a weed that grows only in the vacant lots of an abandoned mind.”  Ayn Rand

SPEAKING OF CHILD MOLESTATION AND INCEST……………….

“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”

In May of 1995 the Fairfax County Department of Family Services accused a long serving member of the Fairfax Police Department of molesting his daughter.  In July 1996, the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court of Fairfax County entered an order finding that the children were abused and/or neglected.  The cop was eventually found guilty of raping his 11-year old daughter.

On August 16, 1991, a County cop was sentenced to two months in jail after pleading guilty to a charge of sexual battery although he was indicted on a felony charge of forcible sodomy.  After pleading guilty to the reduced charge, he was sentenced to 12 months in jail with 10 suspended.  Pretty good deal actually.  Think you would get the same deal?

In 2009, a Fairfax County cop was charged with sexually assaulting former girlfriend. The charge was forcible sodomy.

In November of 1984, a D.C. police officer tried to tell Fairfax County police two months that a Springfield man was involved in child prostitution, but his call was never returned. The police denied it of course, but could not explain why the DC cop would accuse of them of such a thing.

 In Feburary of 1971, a Fairfax County cop was arrested and dismissed from the force in a connection with a charge that he contributed to the delinquency of a 15-year-old Springfield girl.

SPEAKING OF ABUSING CHILDREN…………………….

“When honor and the Law no longer stand on the same side of the line, how do we choose?”  Anne Bishop

On July 2, 1975, a Fairfax County cop was convicted of assaulting a 16-year old boy.  The judge found that the cop punched the boy in the face after the boy got into a fight with a teenage friend of cops.  The police leaped into action and sent the cop home WITH PAY after the conviction.

ANYWHERE ELSE IN AMERICA IT WOULD BE CALLED MURDER

“Law never made men a whit more just.”  Henry David Thoreau

September 4, 1974: As horrified neighbors watch, police break up a teenage lawn party with batons.  One teen was arrested.  He later committed suicide in his jail cell, not an uncommon happening in Fairfax County.  The Board of supervisors said and did nothing.

DRIVING-CHALLENGED

One of the problems with handing over an almost unlimited amount of other people’s cash to people who have spent their lives in salary is that they have no true understanding of the value of the money their spending.

 In August of 1991, the cops could not explain why more than $1 million worth of brand new police cars were sitting unused on a fenced grassy lot; their batteries disconnected depreciating and deteriorating.

 An off the record answer from the cops was that they bought one million dollars’ worth of cars they couldn’t use because they thought the big sedans they favor would no longer be manufactured.  Then it was learned that the cops had actually spent $3,200,000, not $1,000,000 to buy twice as many cars they needed.  The Board of supervisors said and did nothing.

In March of 2008 a female cop with the Fairfax County Police sped through a red light without her siren on and struck and killed 33-year-old Ashley McIntosh, a kindergarten teacher's assistant.

 The cop sped through the intersection without putting on her brakes. The police said that the cop had been dispatched to a call about a fight in progress but have never provided any proof that there was actually such a call.  And for good reason. There was no fight. Eventually the cops admitted that the matter at hand was the arrest of a shoplifter.

Witnesses said the cop didn’t have her siren on. The police must have known that. The interviewed people who saw the woman killed. But they insisted they didn’t know if the siren was on or off.

The in-car video camera was active and working at the time of the crash, but the police refused to release it to the press or discuss what it showed. Nor would they release the cops name to the public.

The chief of police called McIntosh's parents to express his sympathy and then ruined the moment with a joke by promising "a comprehensive, balanced, and fair investigation of the crash”.

When the family hired a lawyer, the police stopped communicating to anyone about the killing. The victim’s family received no updates from police on what happened, nor were they contacted from the department's victim services unit.

The public and the family launched an online petition urging police "to conduct a fair, impartial, and full investigation”. More than 600 people signed it in two weeks.

When asked to explain the foot dragging of the police investigating themselves, the cops said “we want to make sure we have all the facts, analyzed every bit of data to have a complete package to present to the commonwealth's attorney." Or, in other words “We’re really in trouble now, this has made the national news, and we don’t know what to do next”

Over 700 people attended McIntosh’s funeral.

In 2010 the County agreed to pay McIntosh’s family $1.5 million. The cop who hit her paid nothing. The police department budget went untouched.  They got away with it.

The cop was charged with reckless driving but found not guilty, which, even in Fairfax County, came as a shock.  Then another judge ruled that the cop was not entitled to "sovereign immunity”, as a government official performing her duties, because her actions were grossly negligent.  The cop was doomed anyway.  The department has a way of punishing those who embarrass it, because as everyone knows, only the department is allowed to embarrass itself. The cop was placed on administrative duties and the department took no disciplinary action against her. Then she was accused of falsifying her time cards and forced to resign.

In February of 2011 Ashley's Law was passed by the two houses of Virginia's General Assembly 137 to 1.  The law requires those operating police cars and fire engines in Virginia to activate emergency lights and sound sirens before driving through a stop light, slow down and yield to other cars, or stop completely if they wanted to keep the siren silent.

The Fairfax County Council did and said nothing to help pass Ashley’s Law.

In 2008 it was reported by the Washington Post that at least 370 Fairfax County cops commute to work at the taxpayers’ expense by using county cars for the trip. The people of Fairfax County pay for the cars gas, maintenance, insurance, and tolls, to the cost of, in 2008, $2.5 million dollars a year. The report said that the cops also the cars for as personal vehicles, and some have used patrol cars on fishing and hunting trips. At the same time, Chief of Police Rohrer said he did not have enough vehicles for the force, although his fleet of 1,304 is the second largest in the area, behind Prince George's County

As we’ve already seen, the Fairfax County Police are driving challenged.  On May 20, 1970, a Fairfax County cop ran over a 5-year-old County boy, crushing his left arm and pelvis.  A Fairfax County police spokesman said that the department was investigating the incident but the results of the investigation were never released to the public.

Three months later, a cops who claimed he was chasing a phantom “speeding motorist “crashed his police cruiser into a third car.  And yes, as you probably guess, the phantom speeding motorist escaped.  A Fairfax County police spokesman said that the department was investigating the incident but the results of the investigation were never released to the public.

January 23, 2006: Business owner Jatinder Baboota was on his way to one of the five gas stations he owned when a Fairfax County police cruiser slammed into the right side of his car, killing him.  Police did not disclose the crash to the public.  Police said Baboota was at fault for turning in front of a police car with its lights and sirens on.  However, an investigation by the family disputes that the cruiser had on its lights and siren and suspects the cops were speeding and lied about the details to authorities. 

On August 24, 1961, a Fairfax County cop slammed his car into 70-year-old citizen’s car, killing the citizen’s elderly brother.  The cop on the scene denied that she had made any mistakes and said she was driving at normal speeds even though she hit the car fast enough to throw the man through the windshield.  After killing the man’s brothers, the cop gave the man a ticket.

EXTRA SPECIAL TREATMENT FOR EXTRA SPECIAL PEOPLE

 In June of 2010, the wife of powerful Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar was arrested for drunk driving after she slammed into a parked car and took off.  The cops waited for three hours before administering a blood test to her and to be even more extra special nice, they dropped the hit and run charges.

 But when the breath test administered at jail three hours after her arrest showed a 0.11 percent blood-alcohol level, above the 0.08 percent legal limit, the cops were really worried because now they had to press charges.  Here’s the lighter part of the story, the cops said a three-hour lag between the incident, and the breath test is within the normal range because of the time it takes to transport someone to jail.

The jail is in Fairfax, she was arrested in McLean about fifteen minutes away.  Later on when she was found guilty in court, the mandatory jail sentence imposed on her was suspended.  Outraged the politics playing by the police, the Board of Supervisors demanded an international investigation….no, that didn’t happen either.  In fact, the Board of Supervisors said and did nothing.

October 3, 2006: A Fairfax County Cop struck and killed a bicyclist who was trying to cross-busy Arlington Boulevard.  The police released the name of the victim but not the name of the cop.  An internal investigation into the crash was also begun. 

Since the department has decreed that all information pertaining to its officer’s personnel matters is secret, the cops name was withheld from the public and the outcome of the investigation is secret as well.  The Board of supervisor said nothing and did nothing.

In October of 1966, a Fairfax County cop killed a 26-year old mother of two when he slammed his cruiser into her car.  The cop was chasing a speeder, who escaped. Surprisingly enough, the cops blamed the woman, and said she had run a red light.  Police said the cops was driving at 60 miles an hour which means he was probably during 80 to 100 miles an hour.

In June of 1966, a Fairfax Cop ran over and killed a 15-year-old boy.  The cop was on his way to a domestic dispute.  The cop said he was travelling 55 miles an hour in the 45 miles an hour zone when he struck the child.  The Fairfax County police investigated and found the Fairfax County Police innocent in the boy’s death.

THIS IS NOT A POLICE STATE IN THE MAKING. THIS IS NOT A POLICE STATE IN THE MAKING.  KEEP SAYING IT, OVER AND OVER AGAIN, AND MAYBE IT WILL COME TRUE.

“The police can't stop an intruder, mugger, or stalker from hurting you. They can pursue him only after he has hurt or killed you.  Protecting yourself from harm is your responsibility, and you are far less likely to be hurt in a neighborhood of gun-owners than in one of disarmed citizens – even if you don't own a gun yourself."  Harry Browne

In 2005, by popular demand, and the law of the state, traffic camera in six Northern Virginia jurisdictions were switched off.  Police were no longer allowed to photograph cars that ran red lights.  The cameras were a violation of civil liberties.  But the Fairfax County Police kept the camera in place and kept them rolling “to collect data”

Fairfax was the only Northern Virginia jurisdiction to require pictures.  The Fairfax police demanded it and they got. In 1996, the cop photographed applicants “so that they could more easily identify physical attributes” a police spokesman said. Police are keeping the pictures and may use them later to verify information.

In 1960, the Fairfax County Police were wiretapping phones without a court order.  Fairfax police were the only suburban Virginia police with their own wiretap equipment.  The Board of Supervisors knew about it and endorsed it.  In 1966, the chief of police was called to Washington testify before the US Senate because of the chief’s statement that “We do wire taps in cases where we need them”.  Meaning that the Fairfax County Police alone decided where they were needed.  When a Senator suggested to the chief that his men might be breaking the law by discussing what was said on a wiretap, the chief said that it wasn’t a worry because his men only spoke to each other.  Let me repeat that.  The chief said that it wasn’t a worry because his men only spoke to each other.  The Senator called that “a fine spun theory of law” 

In July of 1996, a cop smashed his car into a motorist’s car.  The cop said he was chasing a stolen car.  A Fairfax County police spokesman said that the department was investigating the incident but the results of the investigation were never released to the public.  The Board of supervisors said and did nothing.

On June 2, 1995 an off duty Fairfax County cop saw a man driving erratically.  The cop stopped the man who admitted he had been drinking The off-duty cop arrested defendant and, although an on-duty uniformed cop was then on the scene, the off-duty cop transported him to the police station, where defendant gave a breath test.  In granting the motion to suppress the arrest and breath test, the court ruled that the off-duty cop had only the authority of a private citizen, and while he could arrest defendant for a breach of the peace, such as dangerous driving, his authority ended upon the arrival of the on-duty cop.

In 2008, a Virginia State Crime Commission study found there were at least 1,227 traffic pursuits by cops in Virginia in one year, 15 percent of which ended in crashes.  And those wrecks killed 11 violators but no cops.  How remarkable is that?

WE’LL JUST MAKE A LAW FOR THAT.

“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.”  Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome

 For several decades the Fairfax County Police had been charging citizens involved in accidents with "Failure to maintain proper control of a vehicle" until 1980 when a Virginia State Senator establishes that there is no such on the books anywhere in America including Fairfax County.  Several weeks after the practiced is forced to stop, the legislator was involved in a minor fender bender.  Police recognize him and arrest him for reckless driving.

“When there's a single thief, it's robbery. When there are a thousand thieves, its taxation.” Vanya Cohen

In October of 1998, the police announced yet another moneymaking crack down of drivers for "aggressive driving" and "road rage".  Road traps are an old southern cop trick to make money, and this crackdown was a real moneymaker. In the 1990s, the cops, ticket pimps for the Board of Supervisors, gave out more than 60,000 tickets a year in that racket.

In April of 1997, the Fairfax County police released an "urgent bulletin" that someone had stolen one of their very expensive unmarked cruisers, a burgundy Ford Crown Victoria.  The car wasn’t stolen.  A cop had taken the car home with him to Prince William County, where he and most other cops on the Fairfax County police force live. The cops said that another cop had “mistakenly took the wrong car home”

…..THE OPERATIVE WORD HERE IS STUPID

In March of 2008, the cops misunderstood a complaint from a Springfield trucking company about an employee who had been fired while driving trailer that belonged to the company.  Fairfax Police wrongly assumed he had stolen the trailer and used GPA to track the man to Georgia.  Fairfax phoned the Georgia state police who arrested the man at gunpoint.  He served 34 days in jail.  A Fairfax County jury found the driver innocent and awarded him $50,000 in damages for malicious prosecution, $200,000 for false imprisonment and $340,000 in punitive damages, just under Virginia's cap of $350,000.  The people of Fairfax County paid the tab, the cops walked away scot-free and the Board of supervisors said and did nothing.

SPEED AGAIN AND WE’LL PULL YOUR TONGUE OUT

October 10, 1980: A federal court finds that two Fairfax Police cops used excessive force against a citizen after he was arrested for speeding.  The court found that the cops pulled the man from the car by his hair, handcuffed him, and pushed his head repeatedly into the cars fender.

In 1988, there was a fatal car crash involving a speeding squad car and a citizen. The cops blamed the citizen.

BEATING THE LAW INTO THEM, AND GETTING AWAY WITH IT.

"Brutality and insolence of policemen have increased greatly, and the Police Commissioners seldom, if ever, convict officers for these offenses. Humble citizens of all races today are in more danger from the policemen's clubs than they are from the assaults of criminals. The inaction of the Commissioners in the cases of the Negroes is entirely consistent with their general conduct in all citizens' complaints."  Frank Moss, October 1, 1900

On November 16, 1987, a female undercover cop shot and killed a drug suspect named Jose Carlos Rodriguez, by defended the killing by stating that it was an accident and that the reason he shot the man dead was that the man had “startled” him.  The Fairfax County Police investigated the shooting by the Fairfax County cop and as hard as it is to believe, they found the cop innocent and said that the shooting was caused "an unintentional reflex".

  "This was strictly an accident," said the cops "She fired it but without any intention of having it fired.  He kind of came up like a jack in the box.  It startled her, and she shot the gun.”  …sending bullet into Rodriguez’s head.  On the lighter side of things, the Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. said he would review the autopsy results and the findings of the police department's investigation.

“There is plenty of law at the end of a nightstick.” Grover Whalen

On June 28, 1989, Troy M. Davis, a Black day laborer who lives in Ohio and travelled to the DC area for work was arrested for disregarding a red light.  The cops determined he was drunk, took him to the Mount Vernon Police Substation and that’s where the beatings started, at least according to Davis.  He acknowledged that he swore at the cops as they took him to his cell and said that once inside the cell, one cop grabbed by the throat and started choking him while another handcuffed him.  The cop who was choking him slammed Davis’s head into a windowsill, which knocked him out.  When he woke up he was in the Mount Vernon Hospital, getting 15 stitches sewn into his head.

“The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual crime.”  Max Stirner

 In September of 1990, Victor M. Cruz, a Salvadoran native and resident of the District of Columbia sued the police for $60 million claiming that excessive force used by the police while they were arresting him resulted in permanent brain damage. 

Cruz said the police clubbed him after he was handcuffed and subdued for traffic violations.  …… for traffic violations.  Cruz’s lawyer noted that it is "ironic that the same kind of police brutality that Mr. Cruz sought to escape in El Salvador ends up victimizing him just a few miles from our nation's capital”.  Cruz was allegedly worked over after he was charged with driving while intoxicated, driving on a suspended license, reckless driving, and failing to stop for police.  The cop he accused of doing most of the beating was fired. 

AND SO ENDED HIS CAREER

On February 4, 1979, Fairfax County Deputy Chief told a county panel that his department’s procedures for investigating an officer accused of brutality is decided in favor of the department and the officer and unfair to the public.

I HAVE A DEEP, PATHOLOGICAL NEED TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY

"We do not want a police state, but we need a state of law and order, and neither mob violence nor police brutality have any place in America."  Hubert H. Humphrey

On July 16, 1957, a 62-year-old man named Elmer Sours watched a car fly out of control and hit a tree.  Sours ran to the car and told the driver to sit still until help arrived, and then stayed with the victim. Witnesses say that a cop, age 26, arrived on the scene and shoved Sours from behind, knocking him away from the car, pushed him on to the ground and handcuffed him.  The cop lied to the judge and said that Sours refused to move from the scene but the ambulance crew said that Sours was 15 feet from the accident and moved another ten feet when the cop screamed at him to move back.  The judge acquitted Sours and criticized the cops conduct.  A day later, two cops were speeding across the county and turned their car over.

On August 14, 2955, the 19-year old son of a Falls Church Dentist was sitting in a car with a friend, acting loudly, as teenage boys tend to do.  A Fairfax County cop, without warning, came over to the car and punched the boy in the face.  According to police, the boy and his friends then beat the cop up.  The cops dropped the case before it went to court.

On November 7, 1963, a Fairfax County cop was accused of tossing 17-year-old boy in the back seat of his cruiser, handcuffing him and slapping him repeatedly.  Then he arrested him on traffic charges.  He slapped the boy in the presence of at least a dozen cops and citizens.  The cops did nothing to stop him but two of the witnesses, one was a Justice of the Peace, reported the assault.  The police investigated and in light of overwhelming evidence, found the cop guilty and suspended him for two weeks with pay but made the suspension retroactive, meaning the time he had been sent home while the case was investigated would serve as his punishment.  The cop said he didn’t punch the boy over and over again, but had only pushed him.

 YEAH, WE’RE PRETTY MUCH GONNA DO WHATEVER THE HELL WE WANT TO DO…AND WE’LL GET AWAY WITH IT.

On August 14, 1979, witnesses watched as a gang of Fairfax County Police clubbed a hand cuffed man they had arrested for drunk driving.  The man, who was recently released from the hospital for a gall bladder operation, was bent over a fence and punched in the face by officers and then slammed on to the hood of his car.

 A month later…..at public expense….the Fairfax County Police launched a public relations campaign to improve their image.  The cops had already killed two unarmed and innocent civilians that year. 

Making matters worse, of the 95 complaints filed against the cops by the people of Fairfax County, the cops and the cops alone determined that only 27 of the 95 complaints were worth investigating.  Only one cop was suspended…for one day without pay.  Another received an oral reprimand. 

That same month, outraged citizens formed a group called Fairfax Citizens for Improved Law Enforcement.  The group issued a public statement that it opposed the police plan to create a citizen’s advisory group which it called "Window dressing". 

The few people in the county, who support the police version of a powerless advisory committee, were, almost needless to say, the board of supervisors….who shared office with the police.  To appease the public, in February, fourteen elected representatives from Fairfax County launched an investigation into racism and brutality by the Fairfax County Police department.

 The officials promised that they would examine the unusual deaths of three healthy men within six months of being held in the county jail and the men’s accusation of police brutality while they were held.  After the first day of publicity photos, the group was never heard from again and the cops went on doing what they wanted. 

AMAZINGLY ENOUGH THE COPS DON’T KEEP TRACK OF THE PEOPLE THEY BET UP

In 1991, the Fairfax County Police announced that the department does not compile data on police brutality complaints and that it has decided that all matters pertaining to police personnel are protected by the States secrecy laws and it does not have to share any information with the general public….so there.

MOW THAT LOUD AGAIN AND WE’LL KILL YOU

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.” Friedrich Nietzsche

On May 22, 1980: At 11:00 PM, police responded to a call about a man mowing his lawn.  An argument broke out and one of the two cops beat the man to the ground with his flash light.  A second cop was also accused of holding the man while he was being beaten, but…and despite witness testimony…the second cop denied he was present for the beating.  The man’s nose, rib, and hand were fractured in the beating.  The man sued in federal court.  The Taxpayers paid and the mice that make up the board of supervisors said and did nothing.

By 2010, the Fairfax County Police have been named as a defendant in over 200 court cases in less than twenty years. One suit every six weeks for two decades.

HOW BAD DOES IT HAVE TO BE WHEN THE TEAMSTERS THINK YOU’RE A THUG?

"When the police are indistinguishable from the bad guys, then society has a serious problem." Lynne Abraham

May 21, 1985 Two Fairfax County cops moonlighting as security at a local cement manufacturing company assault striking workers who were standing on public property.  The Teamster International calls the attack "A stunning case of blatant police brutality"

NOW HERE’S A SURPRISE……………..

On April 19, 1981 a Washington Post feature story runs with the lead in headline "Fairfax Police: Highest Number of Misconduct Charges in Suburbs"

On September 27, 1980 four citizens watched what they called "police brutality" when a Fairfax County cop beat a man into submission with a flashlight after he resisted arrest. 

The cop demanded that the on lookers assist him in the arrest, they refused, out of fear of the cop "might turn his flash light on us".

 Police later traced one of the on lookers by his license plate and eight hours after the incident, went to his home and arrested him for refusing to assist the cop.  It is, to anyone recollection or recorded history, the first time in the Washington area that a citizen was arrested for refusing to partake in an arrest.

I DON’T CARE WHAT IT COSTS, I DON’T LIVE HERE

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”  Carl Sagan

1972: The cost to operate the county police, fire services, courts, and welfare services was $69,000,000.  By 2010, the police budget alone will exceed $150,000,000

 In 2008 the average salary for a cop in Fairfax County was about $86,000. (That same year crime was up in the county by 6%)

THE LORDS OF THE PUBLIC DOLE TAKETH AND….TAKETH

In January 1975 the County Supervisors ordered the cops to cut back spending by 3%.  The cops responded that “it will consider the cuts” but that they, the police, are "still in the discussion stage" and informed the board of supervisors that if other departments in the county cut their budgets first, the police might not have to reduce their spending.  The county was facing a $13 to $23 million dollar deficit and ordered all department, not only the police, to reduce spending by 3%.

In 1984 the police department requested almost $25,000 for shoes for its cops.  The department argued that since the county pays for the officers uniforms it should pay for their shoes as well.

The police entered county politics in 2009.  Facing unprecedented cuts in public safety jobs and programs due to a $650 million budget shortfall, the Fairfax County police union hired a consultant and commissioned a poll of likely voters. Their hope was to use the results to convince county supervisors that residents would rather spend tax dollars on fighting gangs and keeping unsafe vehicles off the road than on parks and libraries.  The survey costs the union $30,000.

In 1996 the annual police overtime costs to the county exceeded $9,000,000 among less than 800 officers.  By 2008, Fairfax County cops base salaries range from about $45,000 to $81,631.  Sergeants were paid a minimum base of about $74,000 and a maximum of $85,713, though some cop and sergeants earn more by working overtime.

FREEBIES

It wasn’t until 1966 that Fairfax County Police officially stopped taking “Discounts” on free food.  At Tops Drive in chain, the cops got a 50% discount on their orders.

THE ROYAL ENTITLEMENT AIR FORCE

In 1991, it was reported that the Fairfax County Police Air force of four helicopters was costing county taxpayers $4,000 a day and required 17 full time employees (Other reports put it at 18 employees) to keep it flying.  At that point, the Fairfax County Police had one fewer helicopter than the entire Virginia State Police yet it averaged only a one-day use as a backup ambulance service and assisted in a few arrests each month. 

In the midst of their military escalation, the cops complained that they were understaffed “in critical areas” but refused to reassign even one of the 18 helicopter crewmembers to those areas. 

The District of Columbia is the only other police department in the region that has a helicopter but its use is strenuously restricted to the business of policing.  However, the always publicity conscious Fairfax County Police Department was quick to line up free photographs and demo rides for school children with their fleet. 

The Air Force was always used to give a retired cop a joy ride and fly high-level cops out to county paid conferences in nearby West Virginia  The police go their first $3,000,000 for two helicopters in 1982, (plus an additional $378,000 for pilot training) the same year that the County limited teacher’s salaries to a 3% increase. 

On August 24, 1993, the cops crashed one of their chopters in an almost comical mishap; the police pilot and the co-pilot and the ground crew forgot to unplug the million and half dollar copter from a battery unit on the ground.  In November of 1993, after no opposition from county supervisors, (I know, that’s a given, but I felt I should point it out anyway), the cop spent $1.5 million to replace the crashed helicopter.

WHY GO THROUGH A WHOLE CAREER WITH ONLY BEATING SOMEONE WHEN YOU CAN KILL THEM TOO?

October 26, 1993, a Fairfax cop shot and killed Jesus B. Arreaga, in a stairwell at the Meadow Woods apartment complex, because the cops saw the handle of knife Arreaga had in his waistband, mistook it for a gun and shot him.  Because as we all know, a knife handle looks almost exactly like a gun handle.  I think we can suspend reality and agree on that for a moment.

WE WILL KILL YOU TO KEEP YOU FROM KILLING YOURSELF

On November 3, 1993, a man was threatening to kill himself with a knife after a domestic dispute, so the cops shot and killed him.  It’s that simple .It was the fifth time that year and the second time in the last week that county police have been involved in a shooting.

SHOOT FIRST, LIE LATER

From 2005 through 2010, nine people were killed in Fairfax County police-involved shootings.  Twelve people have been wounded.

OUR POLICY ON DEALING WITH THE MENTALLY ILL?  KILL THEM!

“A recent police study found that you're much more likely to get shot by a fat cop if you run.” Dennis Miller

Ian Smith, Herndon man who was shot by a Fairfax County police even though he was known by police to be severely mentally ill.  When the cops gunned him down, he was wielding a plastic replica of a pistol with a red tip on the end of it.  The cops were close enough to see that it was a toy because he was gunned down at very close range, close enough to leave burn marks on his clothes.

 In 1972, the Fairfax County Police started using hollow tipped Dum-Dum bullets that expand inside their victim s bodies, almost assuring death.  By the rules of international treaty, the US Military has not used the bullets since 1900.

“It is easier to commit murder than to justify it.”  Aemilius Papinianus

 In January of 2006, the Fairfax County Police SWAT team shot and killed an unarmed optometrist named Salvatore Culosi while they were arresting him for suspicion of sports gambling.

A Fairfax County detective said overheard Culosi wagering on a college football game at a bar. That in itself seems strangely coincidental.  The cop said he then befriended Culosi. During the next several months he talked Culosi into raising the stakes on friendly wagers. The cop pushed the betting up to one single bet of $2,000 in a single day, enough to charge him with running a gambling operation.

On January 24, 2006, the cop called Culosi and arranged a time to come by his house and collect his winnings. A few hours later, a barefoot Culosi stepped out of his house to meet the cop and was shot dead.

The cop who killed Culosi, a 17 year veteran of being on the public payroll and trained at taxpayers’ expense in firearms and tactics, said that when he jumped from his car, the car door bounced back, striking him in the side and causing him to pull the trigger.

Let me repeat that. The cop who killed Culosi, a 17 year veteran of being on the public payroll and trained at taxpayers’ expense in firearms and tactics, said that when he jumped from his car, the car door bounced back, striking him in the side and causing him to pull the trigger.

The shot went directly through Culosi's heart. So what the police wanted the public to believe, and the story that they still abide by, was that the cops fired a shot by mistake that went directly through the victim’s heart. Vegas wouldn’t cover those odd.

The killing may have been unintentional but it was certainly negligent. There was absolutely no reason the cop should have had his hand on the guns trigger or had the weapon pointed at Culosi. 

However there are some who question whether the shooting was in fact unintentional at all.  The cops were placing bets with Culosi that much was certain but for how long? And how many cops were placing bets with him? How much did they owe him?

But why the cops used a SWAT team to arrest a gambler they we replacing bets with is still unknown. Culosi, who had no criminal record; had never owned a firearm; and presented no threat of violence, flight, or resisting arrest.

At the hospital, the cops stopped a nurse from notifying Culosi’s parents that they had killed their son. Instead the cops waited for five hours before calling the family to tell them that they had shot their son dead over a highly suspicious gambling arrest.

The cops finally admitted that using a SWAT team to arrest a suspected sports gambler was unnecessary and that they could have used "lower-risk, less complex arrest techniques”.  To which the entire  nation replied “Well duh”

In the months that followed, the detective who set Culosi badgered Culosi's friends and family. He took their names and numbers from the dead man’s cell phone and computer.

Culosi's brother-in-law, told The Washington Post  that the cop called him and menacingly asked, "How much are you into Sal for?"

A lifelong friend of Culosi's, said that the cop called him and accused him of being a gambler. The calls, Gulley told the paper, smacked of intimidation aimed at discouraging a lawsuit.

Arrogant and angry at being questioned in a county they virtually own, the Fairfax County police department is notorious for declining virtually every request for information from the media and anyone else. It took the police one year to release its investigation results to Culosi's family.  And that was done only after legal action was taken to make them provide the information to the family.

With the eyes of the world on them, the police said it would “conduct a review of policies and procedures involving” the use of SWAT teams in making arrest.  If they made the review, which is doubtful, they never made it public.

The killer cops name was released to the public only because the The Washington Post's Tom Jackman reported it based on a tip from a confidential source.

The Culosi family suspected that the cop mistook the cell phone Culosi had in his hand for a pistol and shot the young man dead.  The family hired their own investigators to exam the case. He concluded that based on the police department's own measurements of the crime scene, when the cop pulled the trigger he was away from his vehicle and much closer to Culosi than he had claimed.

Worse for the cop, by using the recorded locations of shell casings, police vehicles, and Culosi's body, the detectives produced computer animations showing that the incident could not have happened the way Rohrer said it.  And yet Rohrer was never disciplined.

The cop who shot him was demoted from the SWAT team and suspended without pay for three weeks. As lenient as the punishment was, the police union objected. They felt the punishment was going overboard. The union said that the punishment "may be politically motivated because of all the media attention" and that the suspension was "way off the charts" and that an oral or written reprimand would have been more appropriate

 Robert F. Horan Jr., the chief prosecutor and the best friend the Fairfax County Police ever had,  declined to prosecute the cop or refer the case to a grand jury.

Two months after the cops gunned down the unarmed Culosi,  the police issued a press release warning the people of Fairfax County not to gamble.

The county paid Culosi's family $2 million to settle a civil lawsuit.  The cop who shot him and the cop who tormented the family afterwards paid nothing. The taxpayers picked up the bill.  Not a single penny was taken from the police department’s enormous  budget. Nothing happened to them. Nothing changed.   

WHY KILL YOURSELF?  WE’LL DO IT FOR YOU.

On November 3, 1993, Michael Cleveland was shot and killed by cops after he threatened to kill himself.  It was the fifth time that year and the second time in the last week that county police have been involved in a shooting.

July 8, 2008, David Michael Przewlocki was killed by cops after the police responded to a report of an apparent suicidal man at Summit Square Drive.  The found Przewlocki outside his apartment on the sidewalk threatening to kill himself with a gun.  So they shot him dead.

WRITE ANOTHER BAD CHECK AND THE NEXT TIME WE WON’T MISS.

In July of 1998, a woman named Diana Elizabeth Tyler wrote a bum check.  (For $ 261.25 to a Lorton antiques store.  The check was returned because the bank account had been closed.) 

She didn’t show up for her court case and on the day in question was stopped by police for erratic driving (On an expired license).  Tyler made a run for it and sped her 1995 Oldsmobile down Richmond Highway.  The chase ended in the parking lot of a shopping center. 

When Tyler, who was unarmed, refused to leave her car…..the cops said she struggled but Tyler said she didn’t struggle….the cops shot her in the neck.  The good news (for the cops) was that they got to use one of their helicopters to fly Tyler to the hospital. 

The police were very, very quick to release Tyler’s name and address to the press but refused to give a single name of any one of the eight cops involved in the shooting nor would they explain why Tyler was shot.  Warren R. Carmichael, a Fairfax police spokesman, said the investigation of the police investigation the police “could take several weeks to complete.” 

We don’t know if it took that long or not.  The results of the investigation, if in fact there was one were never released to the public.  Carmichael, however, said "Given the circumstances of the chase, the fact that weapons may have been drawn is appropriate" The Board of supervisors said and did nothing.

WRITE A BAD CHECK, WE SHOOT YOU, STEAL LIKE A COMMON THIEF, WE SUE YOU

On January 13, 1997, reports were that the Fairfax County Police Association was suing its former president alleging he spent thousands of dollars on personal items.

KICK IN DOOR FIRST, EXPLAIN YOURSELF LATER

In October of 1988, cops raided a house looking for a murder suspect.  After searching the upper portion of the house, they went into the basement were an elderly couple from the Dominican Republic were renting a single room.  They didn’t speak English.

They were awakened by the cops kicking in their bedroom door.  Not knowing what to expect, the man grabbed a pistol.  The cops shot him in the stomach and killed his wife, shooting her five times in the throat and face.  In all the cops fired 11 shots in a matter of seconds.

Before they left, the cops ransacked the room, taking the room’s door with them as evidence.  When asked to explain the cops actions, the chief of police became indignant and told reporters “We’re not going to explain who did what or who said what” The Board of Supervisors  leaped into action and demanded an investigation of the by the States Attorney General’s office….naw, that didn’t happen and it never will happen.  

AND THEY GAVE THIS GUY A GUN

July 3, 2007, a Fairfax County cop was arrested and charged assault and burglary for allegedly breaking into an ex-girlfriend's house and threatening her.  He was also charged with stalking and misuse of a telephone. 

The ex-girlfriend said the cop pursued her relentlessly after their breakup (They had been together less than four months) and forced her to seek a restraining order against him. 

The complaint said that the cop called her numerous times and at one point, at about 6:30 in the morning, he "broke into my house and stormed upstairs, (Finding her with an ex-boyfriend) started yelling at me….  I kept telling him to get out and that he was acting crazy, and he responded, "If I were crazy I would have shot you both. 

At this point I feel it is important to state that Rick is a police officer [with] Fairfax County," Mavica wrote, adding that he was wearing part of his uniform and had his firearm strapped on.” 

He left but attempted to contact her by calling her cellphone and sending a flurry of text messages with ion message saying "pick up your phone.  25 cent texts add up quick and I'll send 1,000 today.”  The next day, the young woman found the cop sitting in front of her car.  When she attempted to leave, he began to follow her.  She called 911 and drove to a police station, she said.

On January 18, 2008, a Fairfax County cop was placed on leave after being charged with harassment of an ex-girlfriend.

AND THEY GAVE THIS GUY A GUN…………

On November 29, 1983 a cop recently released from the force was arrested and sent to a mental asylum after being labeled "armed and dangerous" after fleeing an incident involving his wife.

AND THEY GAVE THIS GUY A GUN…………

In 2000 a Fairfax cop officeraccidentallyshot another cop in the chest during a drug arrest.  The Fairfax Coalition of Police and numerous officers said an oral or written reprimand is typically given when a Fairfax officer accidentally shoots someone…..you can’t get any tougher than that now can ya?

AND THEY GAVE THIS GUY A GUN…………

On January 9, 2010, a former Fairfax County cop, whose wife was slain in 1991, was sentenced to 19 years in prison for abducting her twice in the months before her death, but he was not charged with killing her.   In 2007, Nevada authorities found the former cop living in a one-room apartment in Las Vegas and brought him in for questioning.  During several taped conversations, Webster denied killing or kidnapping his wife.  But he did say, "When I get angry, people get seriously hurt or they die”.

…AND THE GUN JUST WENT OFF, JUST LIKE THAT.  REALLY.  NO REALLY, IT DID.

In August of 1971, an off-duty Fairfax County cop shot and killed himself at his home in Arlington last night.  Arlington police ruled his death “accidental”.  Life insurance played no role in the finding.  No, really, it didn’t otherwise it could have been termed a suicide.

…WE HAVE DIFFERENT RULES THAN YOU

Although the cops worked over a man for drinking in August of 1974, less than two years earlier, in 1972, the adult son of a friend of the chief of police was released from jail on the chief’s orders after he was arrested for drunk driving.  The Board of supervisors said and did nothing.

In March of 1967, a Fairfax County cop’s behavior was so bad that the police took the very highly unusual step of firing him.  The cop had been sent to a woman’s home to investigate reports of a man exposing himself.  Several hours later, the cop returned to the woman’s home, drunk, with a female companion.  The police refused to comment on what happened next, but the woman was hospitalized.  Needless to say, the fired cop was not arrested.

THAT’LL TEACH EM

In January of 1993, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, conceding that its police promotion procedures discriminated against women.  They Board of Supervisors then punished the police by agreeing to pay cash settlements to the  bias complaints. No money was taken from the police budget and cops were fired.

In April of 1976, a Fairfax County Police detective,  a 16-year veteran was charged with  felony embezzlement.  He was convicted of malfeasance and fined $500. 

IT’S CALLED MAIL FRAUD…. BUT NOT FOR THE FAIRFAX COUNTY COPS

In September of 1984, Fairfax County Police Chief Carroll D. Buracker accused Fraternal Order of Police Lodge of "unconscionable" fund-raising tactics, charging it had sent numerous bills and past-due notices to businesses in Northern Virginia for unordered tickets to a variety show. The cop’s flyers said that proceeds from the show were going to benefit local community activities, including neighborhood watch and home security programs.  "(The) Lodge did not contribute in any way to these activities in Fairfax County," he said.  The chief of police never reported the crime to postal authorities or made arrests for fraud. The Board of supervisors….wait for it…..did nothing.

FOUR DAYS WITHOUT PAY, THE BAD GUY ESCAPES…THAT’LL TEACH HIM.

On January 18, 2007 the Fairfax County prosecutor’s office was forced to

dropped an embezzlement case against a county employee because the cop who was investigating him was also having an affair with his wife.

 A Fairfax judge called the cops conduct "deplorable and inexcusable, and a discredit to the Fairfax County Police Department"…which, if you think about, is a very difficult thing to do, all considered. 

To teach the cop a lesson, he was suspended for four days without pay and transferred though that would have no impact on his salary.  The Board of supervisors said and did nothing.

IT WOULD MAKE US LOOK BAD IF WE TOLD YOU WHAT HAPPENED

In June of 1991 the cops decided not to tell the media of anyone else that British Royal Air Force officer was kidnapped from a Tysons Corner parking.  The officer was taken in the trunk of a car to Prince George's County, where he managed to get out using a tire iron.  Several days’ later Fairfax police arrested two suspects.

On July 12, 1991 a fight between Hispanic and black youths broke out near Jeb Stuart High School at Baileys Crossroads.  One of the youths involved was charged with attempted malicious wounding and six others were charged with disorderly conduct.

Those charges showed up on a police computer in the public information office.  For that reason, a local newspaper and called the police headquarters to get more information.  Headquarters didn’t know anything about it.  The Mason District station knew about it but didn’t release any information about it.

In July of 1991, someone burned the word “Jew” into the front yard of a West Springfield family.  The police called it a destruction of property report and prayed the media wouldn’t pick up on it.  But they did and an account of the lawn burning appeared in a local newspaper when B'nai B'rith officials and the family reported it to the paper.

WE DON’T EVIDENCE SO WE’LL HAVE YOU LIE ABOUT IT

In April of 1980 the cops arrested and jail a man on burglary based on "positive ID’ by the housemaid.  The accused man hired a private detective who had the housemaid, a non-English speaking Asian, swear out a statement that she never spoke to police, and certainly didn’t give them a positive ID of anyone.  The arresting cops were not charged with false arrest nor reprimanded although one was "counseled" on being argumentative with the falsely accused citizen on the night of the arrest.

On November 20, 1996, the court overturned the case of a man accused of murder because his arrest was made by Fairfax County Police who failed to offer the man his Miranda warnings.

August 28, 1980 A man convicted of burglary had his conviction reversed because his confession at the hands of Fairfax County Police was unlawful search and seizure 

April 5, 1988 The court reversed the conviction of a man convicted on three counts of robbery and one count of use of a firearm in the commission of a robbery because police tainted out-of-court identifications after the witnesses testified that the single photograph had aided them in their in-court identification. The cops got away with it. No one was punished or reprimanded. 

April 5, 1988: Conviction for second-degree murder was reversed and remanded by a higher court after the court found that a Fairfax County police officer knowingly testified to the contents of an out-of-court statement made by a witness on the very slick ground that the witness denied making the statement. The cops got away with it. No one was punished or reprimanded. 

June 19, 1992: A court agreed with a man accused of distributing narcotics to a minor. The court ruled that the Fairfax Police tricked him into a confession, failed to present evidence about defendant's state of mind, whether he was under the influence of any drug or alcohol. The court questioned whether he had acknowledged understanding his constitutional rights, or whether he had any prior experience with the criminal justice system. The cops got away with it. No one was punished or reprimanded. 

 June 21, 1993: A conviction for abduction with intent to defile was overturned because the evidence collected by police could find intent to molest only by resorting to surmise and speculation, evidence gathered was inadmissible and statements gathered by the police were also inadmissible.

1993: Yet another case is tossed out of court when the court agreed that the Fairfax Police illegally stopped and searched the defendant’s car.

February 4, 1994: Yet again, a court ruled with a man who said that the evidence used against him by the arresting officer's, under the circumstances, was not a particularized and objective basis for subjecting the driver to a stop of a car. The judge ruled that the stop was not consistent with Fourth Amendment principles and that the Defendant's car was not violating the law before it was stopped by the officer so the constitutionality of the stop was not reasonable.

February 28, 1994: Court over turned the case of a man arrested after a police officer, conducting records checks on the vehicles parked outside a dining establishment, entered the wrong number while checking on defendant's plate.  Believing defendant's vehicle was registered to another car, the officer stopped defendant's car when he pulled out of the establishment.  After running a check of the correct license number, the officer arrested defendant for driving on a suspended license. 

The cop testified that his only reason for stopping defendant's vehicle was his erroneous conclusion that defendant was driving a vehicle with an illegal license plate.  Defendant argued that the evidence that he was driving on a suspended license was inadmissible because the investigatory stop was precipitated by an erroneous records check resulting solely from the negligence of the officer.  The court agreed

February 9, 2000.  The court overturned the case of a drug dealer because Fairfax County Police Officers did not have reasonable suspicion that defendant was engaged in drug-related activity, and did not observe anything on his person that indicated he possessed any type of contraband.  His mere presence near the target area and on a public street did not support finding of reasonable suspicion.

February 7, 2006.  The court reversed a conviction for illegal massage because no evidence given by the police proved beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant had received, or had an expectation of receiving, compensation for giving a massage.

On October 2, 2007 A court overturned the conviction of a drug dealer because the police lacked reasonable suspicion to stop the vehicle in which drug dealer was riding.  The court found the arresting officers testimony "incredible"

On March 2, 2007 a robbery case was overturned because Fairfax County Police got a confession without informing the suspect of his rights.

August 8, 2008 Court found that the police unlawfully seized evidence and the resulting search of a suspect’s vehicle was unlawful, requiring suppression of the seized evidence.

THE MORALITY POLICE

“A hypocrite despises those whom he deceives, but has no respect for himself. He would make a dupe of himself too, if he could.”  William Hazlitt

In 1968 a Fairfax County Police Captain assigned to the McLean, station was fined $100 for "encouraging the act of abortion”.  The cop sobbed went the fine was read by the judge.  He and two others were arrested in connection with the abortion-death of a police department stenographer named Ann Smith.  Smith, who was 30 years old, was four months pregnant when she died.  The cop contacted a businessman friend of his and asked if he could arrange “To help a girl who is in trouble” 

Again, the young woman died, the cop, the married father of two, who arranged for the abortion to be conducted by a hospital orderly, got off with a $100 fine and the son of bitch cried about it.

“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.”  Jacques Anatole François Thibault

On May 8 1985, a stripper named Linda Barnett, who worked for a company called "Have Fun, Will Travel" was sent to a Tysons Corner Holiday Inn to entertain a group of men she believed were giving a bachelor party.  The man who made the appointment said that the bachelor party was for "kind of a wild bunch”

 The eight men she entertained for were Fairfax County cops with apparently nothing else to do.  The cops rented the room.  Provided themselves with snack and liquor and snacks “to look like a party” all at taxpayers’ expense. 

When Linda Barnett finished her performance, she said, the men "tried to get me to prostitute myself.”  She said she refused and they refused to pay her the $150 fee they had agreed too.  However, they did arrest Barnett on a misdemeanor charge of indecent exposure.  It took eight cops…with a budget….to arrest the five foot five inch naked lady.  The Fairfax County prosecutor dropped the charges.  The Board of supervisors said and did nothing.

SO WE ROB BANKS ONCE IN A WHILE, WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

“It's a lot of crooked cops out there.  They manipulate the system.”  Ludacris

On May 22 1987, 23-year veteran of the Fairfax County Police put a mask over his face and robbed the Central Fidelity Bank in Burke, Virginia.  He was also a suspect in at least three other area bank robberies, according to court documents, including one that FBI officials have described as "particularly violent”.

SO WE STEAL FROM THE PROPERTY ROOM EVERY NOW AND THEN, SO WHAT?

“Cops and robbers resemble each other, so there's not a lot to learn in terms of learning the logistics of committing the crime or investigating the crime.” Andre Braugher

 In April of 1987, a veteran detective on the Fairfax County Police force was convicted of malfeasance after investigators found property in home that was recovered in commercial robbery investigations and placed in a police evidence room.  The items included computer games, a radio, a tool kit, six pairs of expensive sunglasses, a 21-piece Precision tool kit, three sets of nickel-plated steel handcuffs, knickknacks from the Franklin Mint and assorted computer equipment.

EXTREME FORCE

Q: How many cops does it take to throw a man down the stairs?

A: None. He fell.

On February 23, 1980, two cops were accused of using "extreme force" on a citizen who fled the scene of a minor car accident.  The case was settled in federal court….in other words the taxpayers picked up the tab for the beating and the cops got off free of charge.  In 1980 there were 140 formal complaints against Fairfax County police, more than all of the jurisdictions in the greater DC area.  "Over the years" writers the ACLU "there seems to be a more pronounced pattern of complaints in the Fairfax County Police"

In 1997, the Fairfax County Police posted that fewer than 25 percent of murders, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, larcenies, and motor-vehicle thefts in Fairfax County were solved.  In other words, 75 percent of these crimes remain unsolved.

In 1979, there two complaints a week against the Fairfax County Police.  The police investigated the police and found that only 27 complaints deserved action….if it can be called action.  Twenty of the cops received oral reprimands and nine were given letters of  reprimand. One was sent home for one day….one day…without pay.

WE’LL ARREST YOU NOW AND FIGURE OUT A CHARGE LATER

“The purpose of a jury is to guard against the exercise of arbitrary power--to make available the common sense judgment of the community as a hedge against the overzealous or mistaken prosecutor and in preference to the professional or perhaps over conditioned or biased response of a judge.” Byron White

On June 13, 1986, of a photographer named William J. Kelly Jr., was wrongly arrested him for a sexually abusing and illicitly photographing his own two children.  Kelly was initially held without bond and jailed for seven days before he was released on bail.  Kelly said the police coerced his children into making statements that he sexually abused them and asked if the children if they ever "fooled around" with their father.  When they said "no", cops warned the children that they might be sent to a juvenile detention home if they didn't change their story. 

Kelly's 10-year-old daughter said that when she told the cops that her father had not indecently touched her or photographed her, that the cops said if you don't tell the truth, you'll go to juvenile jail . . . so I told him yes . . . .  I thought if he heard what he wanted to hear everything would be all right."  In August of 1987, a federal jury found that the cops violated the civil rights and granted him a paltry $55,000.00

On October 14, 1979, a judge dismissed all charges against members of the Rickman family who were involved in a scuffle with the cops.  The judge also criticized two cops and in throwing out the case said d he could not find "one scintilla of evidence" to support the initial drunk driving charge that prompted the incident.  The family said that the two cops who arrested Rickman attacked them without provocation in their own front yard. 

According to witnesses, on August 10 year-old Timothy Rickman allegedly flashed his lights and honked his horn at a patrol car.  The cop followed Rickman into the family's driveway and started a fight with him when Rickman allegedly refused to be questioned and called for help.  The cop called for reinforcements. 

Rickman was charged with drunk driving and assault and obstruction of justice and assault charges were brought against his father, his mother Arlene, and his stepbrother.  "They ought to put both (officers) behind the desk.  Neither one of them are ready to work in the street," Arlene Rickman said “I couldn't expect much punishment even if they found them guilty.  I'm surprised they're doing this much.  This is like a police state . . . and they really protect their own," she said. 

On the lighter side, the police said its internal affairs section, the department charged with protecting the image of the police, was going to investigate the case.  Remarkably, and I know this is hard to believe but the department cleared one of the cops involved and transferred another. 

Even the chief of police noted that the cop "not really being punished, just reassigned" Unfortunately for the cops the FBI opened an investigation into the case looking into possible use of excessive force.

“It is not a Justice System.  It is just a system.”  Bob Enyart

In July of 1999, a man named showed a lifeguard at a Reston Virginia Health Spa, a member of the spa, naked photos of himself.  A few hours later a Fairfax County Police detective wrongly arrested a man named James M. Brocco for the crime. 

The cop searched Brocco’s home and took him to jail.  The police, who run their own publicity department, immediately sent a new release stating that James M. Brocco had been arrested for indecent exposure and included a photo of Brocco with the story.  Several newspapers printed the stories.

 The actual perpetrator was later arrested.  The case cost Brocco $3,500 in legal fees.  The cop who arrested was protected from a wrongful arrest law since county government officials are protected from liability with a few exceptions.

DEAF AND DUMB

On October 16 1993 a South African diplomatic couple were having a garden party at their home in Oakton when the cops arrested them for public drunkenness.  The cops came to the home after neighbors complained about noise at the outdoor party. 

The diplomat and his wife were walking two guests to their car when the cops arrested them.  The couple told Fairfax County cops that they were diplomats, that they had immunity from arrest and showed the cops State Department issued identification to prove they were diplomats.  It was ignored.  The cops arrested them anyway and kept them in jail for almost four hours.  On the lighter end of things, the Fairfax police said they would conduct an internal investigation of the two arresting officers' actions.  “They will likely be disciplined if the department finds they acted improperly”

THE SHORT LIVED BUT WELL INTENDED CITIZENS FOR IMPROVED LAW ENFORCEMENT

In 1979, there was a 27% increase in complaints from citizens against the Fairfax County Police.  Also in In 1979, a group called Fairfax County Citizens for Improved Law Enforcement and Community Relations called for citizen councils that could review complaint cases against the police, but, amazingly enough the Police rejected the proposal.  The Citizens for Improved Law Enforcement was formed early after the widely reported Donald Ferguson case in which a young black man died at Western State Hospital after his arrest in Fairfax and jailing there

PAPER WORK CHALLENGED

In 2010 the Fairfax County police launched a computer system was supposed to do away with a lot of paperwork and allow paper work challenged cops  to enter traffic tickets, arrest data and vital intelligence into an online system that would be instantly available to anyone who needed it.  But the cops couldn’t figure out how to work the system or found it to troublesome and as a result wrote 17,600 fewer traffic tickets in a one period a 28 percent drop compared with the same period the year before and costing the county more than $1 million in lost revenue.

In 2004, the county police bought a computer-aided dispatch system.  It didn’t work.  The cops operating the system blamed….wait for it…..the system and said that it  failed so often and functioned so poorly that they had to trash it before its minimum 10-year lifespan was up.  The cops didn’t say if they shot the system to death but the internal affairs office was expected to issue a preemptive case investigation proving everything was the system fault.   

THE SYSTEM IS WORKING JUST FINE.

In April of 1984, Mary Ryder and Claude Lineberry were arrested on bench warrants and jailed after they failed to appear in court on an assigned date.  The cops said they didn’t appear in court on hearing divorce/child support proceedings.  The court records said otherwise.  The judge in the case apologized but the Fairfax County police said they had looked into the incidents "and we're satisfied that the system . . . is fine"

REPORT TAKERS

Starting in 1971, for the next four decades, the Fairfax County States Attorney will not charge a Fairfax County police officer with a crime.  That same year, a management consulting study stated that the Fairfax County Police "are essentially neighborhood guards and report takers rather than police officers" and have a dismal record for solving crime with just 2.7% of all felonies solved versus a 21% national solved rate.

SOMETIMES OUR RECORD KEEPING BRINGS US OUT AHEAD

In 1977, there were 117 valid complaints against the cops and 27 other complaints that could not be proved or disproved.  Complaints were filed against 283 cops of whom 44 had received prior complaints in just the year before.

In 1978, there were 648 cops on the force.  About 400 were in the field.  There were 253 complaints filed against them in ten months of that year.  About one complaint per day, per cop.  Of that number, 36 were for excessive use of force.  One cop was fired for stealing funds from a police station fund.  Two cops were disciplined for “unwarranted use of their pistols”.  Three cops, under investigation resigned from the force rather than face termination.

SPEAKING OF REPORT TAKERS, DON’T BOTHER US WITH YOUR SHOOTING, WE’RE BUSY FILING PAPERS

On Feburary 2, 2008, a bipolar man named Jeffrey S. Koger was on the run.  He had stolen more than $3 million from homeowners associations that were managed by his property management company.  He bought a gun a few weeks before and had been practice shooting with it onside of his house, randomly shooting up the walls. 

That night Kroger followed a cab driven by a man named Ayman Sirelkatim.  A short time before, Kroger had driven to Alexandria and, for no apparent reason, walked up to a taxicab stopped at a light and fired several shots into the face, shoulder, and chest of the driver. 

Kroger then got back into his car and drove away and a short time later started to follow Ayman Sirelkatim cab.  Kroger rammed Sirelkatim’s cab and Sirelkatim pulled his cab into the parking lot of the Franconia station of the Fairfax County Police. 

Seeing Kroger follow him, Sirelkatim pulled out of the station lot.  However two another cab driver, Najib Gerdak and his friend Scott Duke, were in the lot talking.  Koger drove in, climbed out of his car and shot Duke and Gerdak several times, and then drove off.

 Before the shooting started, Gerdak said he went into the station to let police know that Kroger was chasing the cab driver Ayman Sirelkatim across the parking lot.  Gerdak said that there was a woman at the front desk, not in a police uniform, had her feet up and was asleep.

"She fell asleep watching TV," Gerdak said.  He said that he tapped on the window until she woke up  and told her, "There are two crazy people chasing each other out front, a cab and an SUV”.

"She tells me," Gerdak said”, 'You need to go back outside and tell the cabdriver to call his own dispatcher.  "

Gerdak then walked back to the parking lot when Kroger shot him four times.  A sixth shot struck the cross around Gerdak's neck, in front of his heart, and ricocheted.  Somehow Gerdak managed to 911 and then waited 30 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. 

In June of 2010, Gerdak sued the police for $10 million.  The case was dismissed by a reluctant U.S. District Judge because it was filed too late.  Judge James C. Cacheris said he was "deeply unsatisfied" by his own ruling earlier, "as the conduct alleged here is shocking to say the least.”  The Fairfax County Police refused to release the name of the civilian employee who refused to help him and referred to as “Jane Doe”.

In 1968, in an attempt (That failed, thank God) to intimidate merchants from opening on Sunday, the cops arrested a part time  assistant manager of a Tysons Corner drug store and charged him with violating Virginia's blue laws.  A few days later, a 35-year-old County cop was charged with shoplifting while moonlighting as a supermarket security guard….so it all kind of evens out.  Stealing from a store doesn’t come to close to stealing from the Boy Scout but that’s what a Fairfax County cop did.  He was indicted for  embezzling $280.00 from the Boy Scout of America on November 21, 1981.

2006: The sergeant's test was being investigated for possible cheating.  The outcome of the investigation is secret and will not be released to the public.

Three years later, on February 12, 2009, three Fairfax County police officials were temporarily removed from their duties after a cop for a promotional exam said he was leaked questions to the test. 

Among those suspended was a lieutenant who was an assistant commander in the organized crime and narcotics unit and former assistant commander of the McLean district station. 

A month later, on March 18, 2009, two Fairfax County cops accused in a cheating scandal involving promotional exams left the department, and two others were placed on administrative duties with pay. In March of 2009, two cops accused of cheating on a  promotional exams left the police force.  They were not arrested, jailed or fined. Pretty good that the cops gave the cops.

In 1993, 10 female cops complained to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about a "locker room attitude" in the police department and said they had been denied promotions and key assignments because of their sex.

On February 23, 1995, a jury found that a Fairfax County police lieutenant named retaliated against a female civilian employee who had complained about sexual harassment at work.  A communication aide assigned to the department's Franconia station, said that the cop had harassed her because she would not strike up a personal relationship with him. 

She said that after she filed the charges,  the cop made up a fake disciplinary charges against her.  The lawsuit initially sought $ 1 million in damages on behalf of  the woman and three female cops who also alleged that Jackson harassed them.  The charges made by the other women, who alleged abuses dating to 1982, were dropped from the case after the judge ruled that their complaints were not filed on time.

MY FRIEND THE TERRORIST

January 2008: A ranking police officer pleaded guilty in federal court to illegally using police computers in 2005 to check license plate numbers for a friend, though he said he did not know the friend was under federal surveillance and the vehicles checked were being used by federal agents in a terrorism case.

OFFICER BANK ROBBER

“A criminal is a person with predatory instincts who has not sufficient capital to form a corporation.” Howard Scott

In June of 1997, a 23-year veteran of the Fairfax County police was charged armed (Shotgun) robbery of bank and stealing more than $70,000.  The cop had three years to go before retirement.  After he was arrested, the cop was relieved of duty and placed on administrative leave with pay.

Let me repeat that. After he was arrested, the cop was relieved of duty and placed on administrative leave with pay. The cop was eventually sent to prison on the charge.  On March 24, 1998, the  cop was indicted on similar charges in Stafford County Police said the former Fairfax Count Cop  robbed the National Bank of Fredericksburg on Nov. 21, 1995, and Sept. 17, 1996.

On April 18, 1979, Adrienne Kent Lamb was charged with shooting her husband to death during an argument.  The husband was a retired Fairfax County cop.

In March of 2012 a 16-year veteran of the Fairfax County Police who resigned from the force in June 2010, took a pistol and shot his 13-year-old through the head and then killed himself.  The Fairfax County Police refused to provide information on the murder suicide.

On June 20, 2012,  a Fairfax County cop was charged with domestic assault and battery by Prince William County Police. The 44-year old cop allegedly attacked a 21-year-old man causing him injury

In 2006, a Fairfax cop was arrested for drunk driving. The cop smashed his Hummer H3 sport-utility vehicle into the back of a delivery truck and refused to take a breath test. He was placed on administrative leave with pay pending an internal investigation. The case was dismissed. The arresting cop didn’t show up in court.  Pretty good deal, huh? Think you’d get the same from the police?  And what was the outcome of the internal investigation? You’re joking right?

In 2011,  a Fairfax County cop was arrested for DWI after he crashed his car into a  utility pole.

…AND THAT’S ALL WE EVER HEARD ABOUT IT

In August of 1974, Acting Fairfax County Executive Doug Harman ordered an investigation into police misconduct after the state’s attorney started its own investigation into widespread criminal wrongdoing in the department.  Two county cops were suspended….not fire but suspended…. after refusing to answer questions about graft and corruption inside the force.

Filing a Complaint against a Fairfax County Cop.

Not really a very good idea at all.

The role of the Fairfax County Internal Affairs office is to protect the image of the police department and gather enough evidence to protect the police department against possible lawsuits by citizens who have been abused by the police.

There is a reason the Fairfax County Police never, ever, make public, any disciplinary action on its own.  It’s because disciplinary action by the department is extremely rare and on those few occasions when it is meted out, it is notoriously lenient.  Nor is the  reprimand kept in the cops file permanently. 

Why?

Because the Internal Affairs office has no interest in solving your problem or bringing corrupt and abusive cops to justice.  So filing a complaint a Fairfax County cop is virtually useless and probably dangerous. Remember, they know where you live and kind of car you drive and your car’s license plate number.     

But if you insist on filing a complaint against a cop, do it in writing.  Never ... ever...under any circumstances at all should you walk into a Fairfax County police station by yourself  or with others,  and try to file a complaint against a Fairfax County cop.  It is a dangerous and stupid thing to do.  National testing had shown that even in well-managed police departments, civilian who file in-person complaints are harassed or falsely arrested.

Again, if you absolutely feel that you must file a complaint against the police do it by certified mail.  Certified mail gives you proof that you filed a complaint against a cop.  So in the event you are harassed by the cops later on and need state or federal intervention, you have evidence that the harassment is real. 

As soon as possible write down everything that happened. You have about a three months to file the complaint, so write it down, put it away, and come back to it later. That usually takes the emotion from the complaint.

Tell the truth.  The cops are going to assume you’re a lair and will look at every word to catch you in an exaggeration or a lie.  If they do, they’ll probably threaten you with arrest.

 Your compliant should include:

The name of the cop you're filing a complaint against. Name or badge number will do.

What the cop said or did to justify the complaint.

Date, time, and location it happened.

If you have witnesses you should ask each of them to write a separate account of the incident.

In the rare event that cops try to contact you by phone or mail to do a "follow up" about your complaint, don’t answer any questions and never, ever, go down to the police station for an interview.

Everything they need to know is in your letter you sent. That’s it. End of conversation. Stick to what you said in your complaint letter and say nothing else!