Maine Liberty Journal

This article seems to be describing a place more accurately called a prison than a school. Prisoners locked in rooms for 30 minutes while cops carry out one gigantic warrantless search and seizure operation based on the whim of a superintendent? Disgusting. Why isn’t this called kidnapping?

Via WCSH 6 (1026/2009):

Several local and state law enforcement agencies were at Hermon High School Monday morning with drug sniffing dogs for a scheduled drug sweep.

Units from the Bangor and Brewer Police Departments, Maine Wardens Service, Maine State Police, the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Department and Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office participated.

Authorities say the entire operation lasted about two hours, but students were only told to stay in their classrooms for about 30 minutes during the actual sweep.

Sergeant Michael Burgess of the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office says one student was cited for possession of marijauna, and another student was cited for possession of alcohol, which are both civil violations. He says the drugs and alcohol were found in the students’ vehicles in the parking lot and not in the school.

Authorities say they periodically do these sort of sweeps when they get a request from a school superintendent.

Tags: War on Drugs by Editor
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Via WMTW (10/16/09):

A 65-year-old Maine woman is in jail, accused of allegedly assaulting a state trooper with a stun gun during an investigation into whether she was hoarding animals at her house.

Carol Murphy, of New Sharon, pleaded not guilty to multiple charges Thursday in Superior Court in Farmington. Murphy was under a court order barring her from keeping animals after nearly 70 animals were found at her home in 2004 and she was convicted of animal cruelty.

According to an affidavit, Murphy used the stun gun on Trooper Aaron Turcotte on Wednesday after he showed up at her house. He was not seriously hurt.

The Sun Journal reported at least 40 domestic and farm animals — including a donkey, two alpacas and a potbellied pig – were seized the next day.

Tags: Police state by Editor
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Via WCSH (10/15/09):

Officers from seven local, county, and state police agencies met with the media to discuss the details of a major drug bust in central Maine. “I personally cannot remember such a large seizure of cocaine in the central Maine area, going back to 1989 when we arrested an individual from Alaska in a local motel that had a kilo of cocaine,” said Waterville Police Chief Joseph Massey. “It is a very large quantity of cocaine that was in our area and it was certainly nice to get that off our streets.”

On Friday October 9th, police executed a traffic stop on Hospital Street in Augusta, pulling over a van. Inside were Eric Prevost and Tabitha Waddell, whom police suspected of dealing drugs in the area. Police officers found just over a pound of cocaine and about a thousand dollars in cash on the pair. Police then searched their home, where they found a digital scale and other drug paraphernalia that leads them to believe drugs were being packaged and sold from the home.

“To disrupt this drug-trafficking group is a significant accomplishment,” said MDEA Director Roy McKinney. “Cooperation, coordination and collaboration is so important because the drug dealers do not know or do not recognize city and town boundaries.”

Waterville Police received a tip that the pair had been selling drugs throughout the area. They contacted other agencies and quickly set-up surveillance on the pair. The information they got aided the investigation greatly according to McKinney. “It is so important for citizens to provide information to the police. Information comes to us and we act upon it and as a result you see a seizure that takes place here and seizures that take place everyday across the state,” said McKinney.

Police estimate the street value of the drugs at about $50,000. Eric Prevost and Tabitha Waddell are both charged with Class A trafficking, which carries with it a penalty of up to 30 years in jail and fines up to $50,000. Waddell has been released on bail. Prevost is being held at the Kennebec County Jail in lieu of $100,000 cash bail. Both are scheduled to appear in Kennebec County Superior Court on December 8th.

Tags: Police state, War on Drugs by Editor
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Via WCSH (10/15/2009):

The Bangor Police Department is getting a federal grant that will put more officers on the street. The grant will pay the salaries for four new police officers for the next three years.

On any given day, there are usually five police officers patrolling the streets of Bangor. City Council Chairman Gerry Palmer says that’s not enough.

“We’re not a community of thirty thousand,” Palmer told NEWS CENTER. “We have a hundred thousand people out there, and people are having their accidents, they’re going through stop signs and stop lights, we need the law enforcement that we have to meet the needs and service our community.”

The City Council gave the okay for the police department to receive a federal grant to hire four new officers. Those won’t be patrol positions, but Police Chief Ron Gastia says they will be positions he normally has to take officers off the street to fill.

“What this grant will do is allow us to fill those positions without robbing from the patrol side,” Gastia told NEWS CENTER. “So we will be able to maintain our current level of staffing out there.”

The jobs will be a school resource officer, a community relations officer, and two officers for a special enforcement team that will tackle crimes that are happening in trends.

Tags: News-state by Editor
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Dash cam video of deadly traffic stop released WAFB TV9 – July 10, 2009:

The Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office has released the dash cam video of a deadly traffic stop and in doing so said its deputies followed procedure.

The video shows Deputy Chris Sturdivant as he pulls over 42-year-old Adam Stogner. The tape starts with the deputy asking Stogner for his license. It ends with an officer asking the man if he’s still breathing.

Tags: Uncategorized by Editor
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USA Today – July 13, 2009:

There are three-times more officers on our streets than in the 1970s

Tags: Uncategorized by Editor
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Tags: Uncategorized by Editor
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