Attorney Matthews Bark of Orlando | Cameron to review legal protection of shoot-to-kill police officers

Source    : The Guardian
By        : Press Release
Category  : Attorney Matthews Bark of Orlando

David Cameron has ordered a review into whether armed police should have greater legal protection if they shoot terrorists and other suspected criminals.

He has asked for an inquiry amid concerns that officers who shoot to kill fear prosecution if they pull the trigger.

A government source stressed that the review has been requested in light of police concerns over the powers they have to protect the public from a Paris-style terror attack.

However, the move will be controversial because it comes in the same week that an officer was arrested and interviewed under caution as part of the Independent Police Complaints Commission inquiry into the death of Jermaine Baker.

The 28-year-old, from Tottenham, north London, died after being shot during an operation against an alleged attempt to spring two offenders from a prison van near Wood Green, north London.

It also comes after the Labour party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, expressed reservations about the idea of a shoot-to-kill policy in relation to terrorist incidents, causing senior party figures to say they disagreed. He later clarified that he would authorise the use of lethal force against terrorists in the UK in exceptional circumstances if he was prime minister.

Corbyn warned that Cameron’s review could damage community relations and raised fears it was a political stunt. He said he supports sending in the SAS in the event of a Paris-style terror attack but added: “If you want the public as a whole to have confidence in the police force and confidence they can cooperate with them in the future, any shooting on the street diminishes that confidence.

“There has to be a very robust and strong independent inquiry into what the police do. Like any other public organisation, they must be held to account.”

Angela Eagle, the shadow business secretary, said there could be a case for reforming the rules around police use of firearms but stressed the need for a balance. “There have to be safeguards because we know what happens when people are shot wrongly ... but we also need to give our armed police the confidence if they’re dealing with a marauding terrorist of the sort we saw in Paris that they can get that person down and get them on the ground and save life,” she said.

“It’s important to get the balance right, it’s got to be democratically decided. We just can’t have shoot to kill without any kind of democratic involvement. There’s no yes or no answer to that.”

Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, said the police needed to feel protected but warned against a “kneejerk response to terror attacks. “It is vital communities have complete confidence in their police,” he said. “That means nobody should be above the law, including armed officers.”

The review, which will report privately to Cameron in the new year, will be conducted by the Home Office, the attorney general and the Ministry of Justice and could lead to measures being included in the forthcoming policing and justice bill.

The Sunday Times quoted a senior government source as saying: “Terrorist incidents both at home and abroad have shown very clearly the life and death decisions police officers have to make in split-second circumstances.

“We must make sure that when police take the ultimate decision to protect the safety of the public they do so with the full support of the law and the state – there can be no room for hesitation when lives are at risk.”

In July, a top police marksman who shot a suspected armed robber, Azelle Rodney, six times at short range was cleared after 10 years of controversy surrounding the killing.

One high court judgment during those proceedings concluded there was “considerable force in the expressed concern that minute dissection of fractions of a second with the benefit of hindsight will discourage an appropriate response, in real time, to threats thereby resulting in potentially increased danger to those involved in these exceedingly difficult operations”.

(Source : heguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/20/police-who-shoot-to-kill-may-get-greater-legal-protection-under-security-review )

Attorney Matthews Bark of Orlando | A brief history of the Chicago Police Department's shady past

Source    : Mashable
By        :   ColinDaileda
Category  : Attorney Matthews Bark of Orlando

The Chicago Police Department will soon be under investigation by the Department of Justice, to the surprise of no one familiar with police in the Windy City.

The DOJ plans to investigate whether any of the department's practices contribute to civil rights violations. The DOJ's decision comes less than two weeks after a court ordered Chicago officials to release video of police shooting a 17-year-old named Laquan McDonald.
The Chicago Police Department has long been at odds with the city's community for allegedly violating the civil rights of black residents. We've reviewed some of the department's history with violations and shunning transparency, below.
The short answer is there is no short answer. At least, that's what Chicago officials want people to think.

Various city agencies spent well over a year investigating the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, all while saying the release of the video could compromise the investigation. Yet the video was made public within days of a judge's order to release it, and former officer Jason Van Dyke, who shot McDonald 16 times, was suddenly charged with murder.Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, and the Chicago Police Department have all been accused of trying to keep the video from the public.

"We still have no good explanation why it took so long," wrote the Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn on Nov. 24. "What piece of information, what testimony, what conclusion from which governmental body were they waiting for? Or, as we are left to conclude, were they simply biding their time, hoping the video would never be released and that this incident would simply fade from memory?"
Though criminal charges are rarely filed against Chicago police officers, the city often has to deal with civil claims against their officers.

In fact, Chicago police paid $521.3 million in settlements, legal fees, judgments awarded, and more from 2004-2013, according to a study published by the Better Government Association.
And at the time that study was published, 500 lawsuits were still pending.

Though the BGA couldn't find the total number of lawsuits filed against Chicago police during the same time period, they did find 1,611 lawsuits filed in relation to police misconduct between 2009-2013. Most of them alleged police had used excessive force.
In 2015, more than 99% of all civilian complaints against Chicago police have resulted in no officer discipline, according to The New York Times.

Between 2011-2015, civilians filed 28,500 complaints against officers, 97% of which resulted in nothing.

Simon Balto, a history professor at Ball State University who is writing a book on race and policing in Chicago, recently wrote that Chicago's ability to make civilian complaints vanish "would be an almost impressive feat of obfuscation, were it not so maddening and socially harmful.”
The man pictured above, former Chicago police officer Jon Burge, led a ring of officers who tortured dozens of victims between 1972-1991. The torture often led to false criminal confessions. Chicago issued a reparations package in May worth $5.5 million. The package will provide 50 victims with free college tuition for them and their families, free counseling, and up to $100,000 to spend how they choose.

The city's police have long been stained by Burge and his gang of officers, but that's not the only massive Chicago police scandal to make headlines this year.

In February, The Guardian revealed an alleged Chicago police "black site" where officers reportedly hold arrestees without listing them in booking databases. At the holding site, known as Homan Square, police would reportedly shackle arrestees and deny them attorneys. At least one person was found dead after police put him in what The Guardian said was called an "interview room."

(Source : http://mashable.com/2015/12/07/chicago-police-department-history-investigation/#j_rpwrktoaqL )

Drug Defense Attorney Matthews Bark Of Orlando | Saudi Arabia Executes People Over Drugs

Source    : Salon
By        :  Ben Norton
Category  :  Drug Defense Attorney Matthews Bark Of Orlando

Saudi prince Abdel Mohsen bin Walid bin Abdulaziz was caught in an airport in Lebanon on Monday with over two tons of drugs.

Lebanese security found 40 suitcases full of more than 4,000 pounds of amphetamine pills and cocaine on the prince’s private plane, which was on its way to Saudi capital city Riyadh. A security source told AFP that this was the largest smuggling operation ever foiled by Beirut International Airport security.

While this may seem like just another case of rich and powerful aristocrats going wild, the implications of this drug bust are much more insidious: In Saudi Arabia, people are executed over drugs. And not rarely — several times a month, on average.

In fact, just hours after the Saudi prince was caught with thousands of pounds of drugs, a Pakistani drug smuggler was executed by the Saudi government.

Roughly half (47 percent) of people executed in Saudi Arabia are killed for drug-related offenses, according to Amnesty International. From August 2014 to August 2015, Amnesty documented 175 Saudi executions, an average of one every two days.

Every four days then, on average, the Saudi government executes someone for drug-related offenses — while its own princes are caught in airports with tons of drugs.

Although an extremist theocratic absolute monarchy in which women are not granted equal rights, Saudi Arabia — which has the world’s second-largest proven oil reserves — is a close Western ally.

When the Saudi regime was appointed to be the head of a U.N. Human Rights Council panel last month, the U.S. State Department said it “welcomed” the news, happily adding “we’re close allies.”

The Saudi regime officially has the world’s third-highest execution rate, after China and Iran. Yet China has almost 50 times more people, and Iran’s population is roughly three times that of Saudi Arabia.

Beheading is the most common form of execution in the kingdom. Firing squads are not uncommon either.

Critics have pointed out that, while Western governments and media are absolutely outraged at the brutal beheadings carried out by ISIS, those same governments and media are largely silent about the regular beheading of people by the Saudi monarchy.

Equally hypocritical are the standards by which the Saudi royal family are treated. Abdel Mohsen is by no means the first prince to be caught up in controversy. Mere days before he was caught in Lebanon, female staffers at a Beverly Hills mansion filed a lawsuit against another Saudi prince, Majid bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, accusing him of sexually abusing them and using illegal drugs. Staffers say the prince, who was doing cocaine and heavily drinking — another illegal activity in Saudi Arabia — ordered them all to strip naked, while uttering “I am a prince and I do what I want.” They also say the prince engaged in homosexual sex, which is punishable by death in the Saudi regime.

The Saudi royal family is infamous for its decadence. These two recent cases are not isolated. WikiLeaks cables show that Saudi princes regularly throw opulent parties inundated with alcohol, drugs, and sex, while the totalitarian religious police turn a blind eye to their felonious activities.

Saudi royalty live by a completely different set of rules — while the rest of the population lives under a ruthlessly violent Western-backed feudal dictatorship, in which they can and will be executed for stepping out of line.

(Source:salon.com/2015/10/27/saudi_arabia_executes_people_over_drugs_while_its_princes_are_caught_with_tons_of_drugs_at_the_airport/)

Drug Trafficking Attorney | FL Attorney General Won’t Ask Court to Block Pot Measure

Source    : wkrg
By        :  Associated Press
Category  : Trafficking in Drugs Attorney Matthews Bark

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi isn’t going to fight a measure to legalize medical marijuana.

The Supreme Court is reviewing the proposed amendment. The court must decide whether or not the ballot initiative is misleading and whether it complies with single-subject requirements.

Bondi spokesman Whitney Ray says the office isn’t going to file anything with the high court.

Bondi opposed the amendment that appeared on the 2014 ballot. That ballot measure failed because it didn’t meet the 60-percent threshold needed to pass.

Backers of medical marijuana need to collect more than 683,000 signatures by February in order to go before voters in 2016.


(Read More : wkrg.com/2015/11/09/fl-attorney-general-wont-ask-court-to-block-pot-measure/ )

DUI Attorney Matthews Bark | The loophole in DUI convicted drivers behind the wheel

Source    : wiat
By        : Brittany Bivins
Category  :  DUI Attorney Matthews Bark

In the early morning hours of August 5, 2015, 49-year-old Allison Elliott crossed the busy Highway 280 in Birmingham. That’s when police say Michael Terry Canty, a Tuscaloosa man, hit her and left the scene. Elliott later died.

Law enforcement officials say Canty fled the scene, and he was later charged with leaving the scene of an accident and tampering with evidence. However, a WIAT investigation shows that Canty had other serious charges on his record, dating back nearly a decade.

Those include two court appearances for drunk driving, a DUI conviction and guilty plea, and a charge for driving a vehicle with an open container of alcohol. However, records indicate Canty was driving with a license on the day he is charged with hitting Elliott.

The WIAT investigative team set out to find out how that could happen. We turned to the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office for answers. The DA could not speak specifically about Canty’s case, because it is still open, but they did speak with us in a more general way about the challenges of prosecuting DUI’s.

“They’ve taken away the district attorney’s ability in some of these cases to argue for imprisonment,” said Shelby County Assistant DA Alan Miller.

Miller tells us the laws surrounding DUI cases recently changed, making it more difficult to punish someone who has multiple DUI charges.

“The second DUI offense requires you to spend five days in the county jail. The third DUI offense in a five-year period requires you to spend sixty days in the county jail. If you commit a felony DUI, under the presumptive sentencing guidelines, you are not required to serve any jail time whatsoever,’ said Miller.

A felony DUI is classified as four or more DUIs and a five year period. Miller says that’s a change, too. The law used to mandate four or more DUIs over a lifetime of driving would result in a criminal record.

Shelby County District Attorney Jill Lee says the new sentencing guidelines passed by the state legislature this year are aimed at easing prison overcrowding.

“It’s very frustrating for me. It is very frustrating, I am certain, for others in the justice system. I am sure it is likewise frustrating for folks who have to make our laws and deal with prison overcrowding,” Lee told us.

We wanted to hear directly from Canty, so we went to the home address listed in court records. When we reached the house, we were told Canty was not home, but his stepfather, Bobby Miller, was.

Miller told us Canty did not know he had hit Allison Elliott on the day Canty is charged with hit-and-run. He told us Canty told him about the accident the day it happened.

“He said I was going to work over there on Highway 280, and I hit a dadgum deer,” said Miller.

We reached out multiple times to Canty’s attorney Jason Neff, who is listed as his lawyer in court records. Neff, however, would not return our calls or meet with us when we came to his office.


(Source : wiat.com/2015/11/18/dui-and-still-driving-the-loophole-that-lets-convicted-drivers-behind-the-wheel/ )