Stupid criminals of the week

Minnesota lawmaker ticketed for suspended driving privileges

If you’re a MINNESOTA state representative, then naturally you give the cops a Wisconsin driver’s license, right?

A Minnesota state lawmaker was cited Sunday morning for driving with suspended driving privileges.

Rep. John Thompson, DFL-St. Paul, was pulled over by St. Paul Police near Seventh Street East and Wacouta Street at 1:18 a.m. Sunday for not having a front license plate, police said.

Thompson has been an outspoken advocate for changing state law to prohibit so-called “pre-textual” traffic stops for things like expired tabs. Thompson and other supporters of such a change say the minor infractions are often used to racially profile Black drivers.

St. Paul Police say Thompson told the officer he was a Minnesota state representative and claimed he was being racially profiled. When asked for his driver’s license, Thompson gave the officer a Wisconsin driver’s license. Police said officers then learned Thompson’s Minnesota driving privileges were suspended in 2019 for failing to pay child support.

At a rally for Philando Castile on Tuesday, Thompson said, “I’m still being profiled…too. In fact, I was just pulled over Saturday for a pre-textual stop…you don’t have a front license plate and I got a ticket for my license. Anyway, I thought we weren’t doing pre-textual stops here in this state, but we are. We’re still getting ‘driving while Black tickets here in this state. As a matter of fact, in St. Paul. So let’s just call it what it is, right?”

Police denied racially profiling Thompson, saying they had no idea who they were pulling over. The officer who pulled Thompson over is working on the “Toward Zero Deaths” traffic campaign.

Source; KSTP

As to why would a MN legislator, who is on the record saying he’s been a St Paul resident for 18 years, have a WI DL?

Where did John Thompson live when he was elected to the Legislature? MN or WI? He renewed his Wis. driver’s license the same month he was elected from St. Paul.

The same month John Thompson appeared on the ballot for election to the Minnesota House of Representatives for a St. Paul seat — November 2020 — he renewed his Wisconsin driver’s license.

The question of residency for Rep. Thompson, a first-term Democrat representing St. Paul’s East Side, surfaced Thursday when the Pioneer Press reported that over the weekend he had been pulled over for driving with no front plates and furnished a Wisconsin driver’s license to a St. Paul police sergeant.

Thompson did not reply to requests for comment for this story Friday. On Thursday, he told the Pioneer Press he had kept his Wisconsin driver’s license and had not switched it over to a Minnesota one. On Friday it became clear that he had actively renewed his license numerous times, including after he was publicly presenting himself as a Minnesotan.

Public records for the 49-year-old Illinois native list numerous addresses over the years since he made his way from Chicago to the Upper Midwest, including at least one address in Wisconsin, although most of the recent addresses are from Minnesota.

HE SAID MINNESOTA

In October 2020, Thompson told the Pioneer Press that he’d lived in St. Paul for 18 years.

More legally binding, however, is what he told the Minnesota secretary of state’s elections office in May 2020, when he filed for the candidacy of House seat 67A. In his affidavit of candidacy which he signed, an address in the district is written and then scratched out, with a box checked stating that his address is private for personal safety reasons.

Checking that box activated a set of laws and rules designed to protect people who are stalked, abused or otherwise under threat of violence. As a Black activist, Thompson has received violent threats, many of them filled with racist vitriol.

According to the secretary of state’s office, Thompson would have been required to fill out a separate form attesting to his residence in the district. Presumably, Thompson filled out that form, since his name appeared on the November 2020 ballot, where he overwhelmingly defeated Republican John Stromenger in the overwhelmingly Democratic district. The secretary of state’s office wasn’t able to fully confirm this on Friday.

Under state law, a candidate for the Legislature needs to have lived in the district for at least six months on Election Day.

The penalty for falsifying such a form could be perjury, a felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison or a fine of up to $10,000, or both, according to spokeswoman Risikat Adesaogun.

HE SAID WISCONSIN, TOO?

According to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, which oversees the state’s driver’s license program, Thompson has held a valid Wisconsin license since July 2000. Thompson renewed the license in 2005, 2012 and November 2020, a spokesperson said.

Source; Twin Cities Pioneer Press

Viral video features woman telling USAF SP’s “You’re not the police”, regrets the result

The Air Force is standing behind a security forces airman who smashed the car window of a woman who was trying to enter Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho late last month.

Master Sgt. Eric Harris, a spokesman for the base, said the Air Force is not investigating because the airman involved, Tech Sgt. Ryan Green, of the 366th Security Forces Squadron, was acting within high-risk traffic stop procedures after the driver, Tatiyana Gonzalez, was stopped at the base gate for having invalid credentials. She then nearly ran over Green while attempting to flee the gate in its outbound lane, but she was stopped by a barrier that blocked the lane.

The video shot on June 26 shows Green then smashing in the car window before urging the woman holding the camera to “step out of the vehicle now.”

“I’m pregnant. Don’t f–king touch me,” Gonzalez said over what sounds like an infant crying elsewhere in the vehicle. Green tells the woman she has just committed a felony, to which the woman responds: “For what? You’re not the police.”

“Yes, we are law enforcement,” Green says, before reaching in through the window to unlock the door.

Throughout the rest of the video, Green and a second airman work to remove the woman from the car and detain her while she repeatedly asks why she is being detained. “You said it was a civil matter,” Gonzalez said.

“No ma’am, it turned into a criminal matter when I told you you were being written a citation for your car—”

“You didn’t [unintelligible] being written a citation. It’s a civil- … ”

“It’s on body camera. Congratulations.”

Gonzalez is a former spouse of an active-duty Air Force member on the base, Harris said. She was attempting to enter the base to retrieve some belongings from on-base housing, but her dependent identification, driver’s license and registration were all invalid.

At that point, Green tried to get in touch with his first sergeant to talk about the situation. Meanwhile, Gonzalez was given a citation for her invalid identification, but by that point she had become “verbally combative,” Harris said.

According to Harris, Gonzalez then attempted to drive away through the gate’s outbound lane. Green tried to stop her, but she drove right at him. Green stepped out of the way while the on-duty gate guard deployed a road barrier to close the lane. Green then “initiated a high-risk traffic stop” due to the perceived risk Gonzalez posed to Green, Harris said.

That’s the point where the video starts, with Green trying to get Gonzalez out of the car and Gonzalez refusing to do so. Then Green smashes in the window, unlocks the door from inside and pulls her out, which is in accordance with high-risk traffic stop procedure, Harris said.

The Air Force is not investigating the incident, the spokesman explained. But the base did conduct an internal use of force review which concluded that Green acted within standard procedures. Meanwhile, Gonzalez was detained and charged with violating registration provisions; eluding a peace officer; and endangering a child since her two young children were present when she attempted to flee from security forces, Harris said.

Source; Task and Purpose

Ohio Woman Arrested After Ambulance Theft At St. Elizabeth Dearborn

An Ohio woman has been charged for allegedly stealing an ambulance.

Savannah M. Meyers, 26, of Milford, Ohio, was taken into custody on July 4 and charged with Auto Theft (Level 6 Felony), Operating While Intoxicated (Endangerment), Class A Misdemeanor, Failure to Stop After Accident (Property), Class B Misdemeanor, and Reckless Driving (Speed), Class C Misdemeanor.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Dearborn County Dispatch issued a broadcast that a PTS ambulance was stolen from St. Elizabeth Dearborn late Sunday night.

Lawrenceburg Police responded to the call and eventually located the ambulance unoccupied on Nelson Drive with heavy front end damage. A white passenger vehicle had also suffered heavy rear end damage.

Meyers was located a short distance away and taken into custody without incident.

The investigation found that Meyers walked towards the ER from the area between Pine Knoll and OrthoCincy and approached the driver side door of the ambulance. She was out of surveillance camera view when the ambulance took off at a high rate of speed towards the intersection of Wilson Creek Road and Nelson Drive. Police say Meyers failed to stop at a stop sign and crashed into the back of a parked car on the right hand side of the road.

Meyers allegedly admitted to consuming alcohol and marijuana prior to the incident. She stated that as the night went on people at the party she attended stated it would “be cool” if someone stole the ambulance that was located at the hospital. Meyers added that she did not remember walking to the ER or anything after, until she was located by police.

Lawrenceburg Police were advised by St. Elizabeth nursing staff that the stolen ambulance was getting prepared to transport a subject out of the ER, but then had to wait longer for care due to no transport.

Meyers appeared in court this week for her initial hearing. She remains in Dearborn County Law Enforcement Center on $10,000 surety and $2,000 cash bond.

A pre-trial hearing is set for August 30.

Source; Eagle Country Online

Driver pointed lighter at 3 California cops before they shot him, authorities say

Three deputies fired their weapons at a driver in Norwalk on Wednesday after he allegedly pointed an L-shaped object at them that turned out to be a butane lighter with a handle, a sheriff’s lieutenant said Thursday, June 24.

It was unclear how many deputies’ hit the suspect.

The name of the motorist, who died, had not been released yet because his relatives needed to be first contacted.

The three deputies didn’t have body cameras.

There are 165 deputies assigned at the sheriff’s Norwalk station, with 135 now wearing body cameras, sheriff’s Sgt. Juan Sanchez said. The will have cameras by Wednesday, he added.

The man was driving a utility-box van belonging to a church and reported stolen in Los Angeles on Wednesday, sheriff’s Lt. Brandon Dean said.

That morning, Dean said, a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter spotted the van driving erratically on residential streets near the I-605 Freeway and Rosecrans Avenue and suspected the driver was under the influence. The airship crew asked for ground units to pursue the suspect.

Source; Mercury News

Man shot after car accident leads to fight in Warner Robins

A man was shot after a car accident turned into a fight near Todd Circle in Warner Robins on Friday.

According to a post by the Warner Robins Police Department, officers were sent to the intersection of Todd Circle at Kimberly Road in reference to two men fighting.

Before officers arrived, one of the men was shot. This happened around 5:30 p.m.

According to the post, one man had a hammer and the other had a gun. The fight started after one of the drivers got out and confronted the other driver.

The man who was shot was transported to Atrium Navicent in Macon for treatment. The other driver was detained by officers.

Source; MSN

Category: "Teh Stoopid", Crime, Dumbass Bullshit, Police, Stupid Criminals