Homeless in Arizona

NSA Surveillance - Lady Liberty Raped

This letter to the editor was run in the Tempe edition of the Arizona Republic on either a Friday or Saturday around July 25 or 26 or August 2 or 3 in 2003. I didn't keep track of the exact date.

I emailed it to a bunch of newspapers on Tuesday, July 9, 2013 at 3:39 PM

Yea, sure, the cops won’t forcefully fingerprint people

Dear Editor:

Yea, sure, the cops won’t forcefully fingerprint people.

When I am stopped by the police I always take the 5th and refuse to answer police questions. I’m not a criminal; I’m just using the Constitutional rights the Founders died to create for us.

That never works out like it does on TV and the officer always gives me a lame reason on why “I don’t have any Fifth Amendment rights” in this case, and that “I HAVE to answer his questions”.

Things almost always get worse. Next the officer usually violates my 4th Amendment rights by illegally searching my wallet looking for an ID card, which I don’t carry.

I suspect when I run into a cop with a fingerprint scanner, after I refuse to voluntarily submit to a fingerprint scan; my fingerprints will be forcibly taken against my will.

I’m not a psychic, that’s just based on my past experiences of being stopped by the police.

Mike Ross

PS – A couple of weeks ago on June 25, I was again falsely arrested, this time in Chandler and I videotaped the last 9 minutes of the 15 minute or so false arrest.

You can see that video on YouTube.com at this URL:

Chandler police false arrest video

“when a suspect requests to remain silent or requests a lawyer the police shall IMMEDIATELY cease questioning”

In my experience I have found that for some reason Miranda v Arizona NEVER applies when you are around a police thug with a gun and a badge. Never, never, never. Well you are in a court room and then the cops for some odd reason realize that Miranda v Arizona DOES apply.

I have more on the false arrest at:

False arrest by Chandler Police

Source

Valley police departments utiliizing digital fingerprinting

By Michelle Mitchell The Republic | azcentral.com Tue Jul 9, 2013 9:35 AM

A hand-held device that resembles a cellphone and taps fingerprint databases to help police officers identify people in the field is catching on with several departments in the Valley.

Officers say the devices are a valuable tool — particularly when they encounter people who aren’t carrying ID cards or who give false information.

“With these finger scanners ... you’re talking less than a minute (and) you know who you’re dealing with,” Chandler Sgt. Joe Favazzo said.

“The safety factor and the time-saving factors are just amazing.”

Not everyone is as sold on them, however, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, which has voiced privacy concerns.

The devices also raise concerns about identity theft and how that personal information is stored and transferred, particularly if a person is not charged with a crime, said Alessandra Soler, executive director of the ACLU of Arizona.

The devices are not designed to store fingerprint data — although they could be modified to do that — but to transfer the information through the officer’s existing in-car computer system, said Robert Horton, spokesman for manufacturer MorphoTrak.

Police departments in Mesa, Tempe and Phoenix began a pilot program last year using the MorphoTrak scanners.

Tempe and Mesa have now expanded those pilot programs.

“We were sold on how fantastic they are,” Tempe Police Sgt. Mike Pooley said.

“It gives us a very quick response.”

Tempe had 14 scanners during the pilot and recently purchased 30 more.

Other departments have signed on, including Chandler, which bought 36 scanners; Scottsdale, which purchased 10, and Peoria, which bought five as a trial.

Chandler police skipped a smaller-scale pilot after hearing about their effectiveness from Mesa police officers through the East Valley Gang and Criminal Information Fusion Center, Favazzo said.

The cost of the scanners varies, but Valley cities paid about $1,200 to $1,800 per unit.

The devices allow officers in the field to scan a person’s fingerprints and compare them to local, state and federal databases.

The scanners will save officers time when someone does not have identification or provides false information, Favazzo said.

Without these devices, officers run variations of the name and birth date provided in an attempt to locate a driver’s license, warrant or other information about the person, Favazzo said.

If that does not work, officers will take the person to the station, fingerprint them and wait for identity information.

“It will also let us know right away if we are dealing with a violent felon before we ever transport them,” Favazzo said.

The Tempe Police Department recently discovered by using the mobile fingerprint scanner that a man they had encountered was wanted by the FBI, Pooley said.

“We would have ended up letting this guy go,” he said.

Police departments find that the devices save them money by not having to transport people to the station and that they act as a force multiplier by keeping officers on the street, MorphoTrak’s Horton said.

The device will scan two fingerprints and the officer will receive a response in 30 seconds to several minutes, he said.

The Phoenix Police Department, which received three scanners last year as part of a pilot program, still is evaluating whether to expand the program, Sgt. Tommy Thompson said.

“Obviously as technology advances, we want to be involved in those advances, but we want to make sure they meet our needs and they’re a useful tool,” Thompson said.

Officers say they are sensitive to privacy concerns expressed by the ACLU.

Mesa officers are not trying to collect personal information, Sgt. Tony Landato said.

“We’re not taking a census,” Landato said. “We’re just trying to ensure the accuracy of the information that we’re taking down.

“If we can do this in a way that’s quicker for the officer and quicker for the citizen, then, hey, we both win.”

The state and FBI fingerprint databases that the scanners check do not contain citizenship or immigration-status information, although that could be possible in the future if the scanners are connected to Department of Homeland Security databases, Horton said.

The state ACLU’s Soler said departments should create policies that inform people who are not under arrest that they have the right to refuse submitting their fingerprints.

“It’s critical that we think about these things before rolling out these new high-tech systems, and more often than not that doesn’t happen,” she said. “In this day and age when the technology so far outpaces the privacy laws, the individuals end up giving up a lot in terms of their privacy.”

The use of fingerprint scanners falls under existing Mesa Police Departm1/2ent policy, Landato said.

“We’re not going to fingerprint somebody unless we’ve got them under arrest or we have their consent,” he said.

Tempe police are writing a policy that would require officers to get consent from a person who is not under arrest, Pooley said.

“Right now, there’s no authority that can compel a person to put their fingers on one of these gadgets, short of them being arrested,” said Sigmund Popko, clinical professor of law at Arizona State University.

While drivers are required to provide a license if they are pulled over, a passenger or pedestrian who is not in violation of a law would not be required to provide identification or fingerprints, said attorney John Phebus, vice chair of the criminal-justice section of the State Bar of Arizona.

“Most people don’t know you can say no,” Phebus said. “When you’re in that moment, it’s awful hard to say no.”

Reach the reporter at michelle.mitchell@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-7983.

NSA Surveillance - TSA goons destroying America

Police, politicians against medical marijuana for wrong reasons

Letter: Police, politicians against medical marijuana for wrong reasons

Posted: Monday, September 9, 2013 2:17 pm

Letter to the Editor

Let’s not let Arizona’s Medical Marijuana Act get in the way of the “War on Drugs”, which is basically a full employment jobs program for cops.

Proposition 203 clearly says that ALL forms are marijuana, which includes concentrated forms of pot like hashish and hash oil are legal for medical marijuana patients: “ARS 36-2801.7 ‘Marijuana’ means all parts of any plant of the genus cannabis.”

But despite that the cops are falsely arresting medical marijuana patients who use concentrated forms of marijuana like hashish and hash oil and charging them with possession of CANNABIS, which the cops say ISN’T marijuana.

That is also why Arizona DHS Director Will Humble says that 5 year old Zander Welton can’t have his marijuana medicine which will stop his seizures. You can’t expect a 5 year old to smoke a joint, so Zander Welton is supposed to put hash oil under his tongue so his body will absorb the beneficial CBD which stops the seizures. But cold, cruel, uncaring Will Humble says hash oil is a crime, not medical marijuana.

Even with Prop 203 it’s still a crime to drive when you are stoned on pot. The only exception is medical marijuana users are not considered guilty of DUI because they have marijuana metabolites in their body. Marijuana metabolites can stay in a person’s body for weeks after they have smoke a joint and don’t mean a person is stoned.

But despite that the cops are falsely arresting stone-cold sober medical marijuana patients for DUI, simply because they have marijuana metabolites in their body.

The cops use the convoluted, cockamamie logic that because medical marijuana is “recommended”, not “prescribed” like other drugs that Prop 203 doesn’t mean what it says.

If the police and politicians hate Prop 203 because it cuts into their “war on drugs” jobs program, they should at least obey the law, while they attempt to change it. The same thing we did before we passed Prop 203.

Mike Ross

Tempe

While the previous letter was published in the online version of the East Valley Tribune I didn't see in in the printed version of the newspaper.

I wonder if David Dorn will accuse me of making up the whole thing????

Drug war is just job program for some

Letter: Drug war is just job program for some

Posted: Saturday, September 21, 2013 8:44 am

Letter to the Editor

Sheila Polk forget to mention what most police officers consider to the the greatest danger of marijuana in her recent editorial (The Arizona Republic’s ‘My Turn,’ evtnow.com/5uw, Sept. 13).

Legalize marijuana and next thing you will be ending the “War on Drugs”, which is basically a full employment jobs program for cops.

According to Federal statistics over 51 percent of the people in prison are there for victimless drug war crimes. Some statistics say over two thirds of the people in American prisons are there for victimless drug war crimes.

End the “War on Drugs” and the hundreds of thousands of cops, prosecutors, judges, public defenders, probation officers and prisons guards who have high paying jobs throwing people in prison for victimless drug war crimes will be out of work.

Now that’s one incredibly dangerous thing about legalizing marijuana from a cops view point.

Mike Ross

Tempe

Congress is running the printing presses at full speed!!!

Letter: Congress is running the print

Posted: Thursday, October 31, 2013 9:02 am

Letter to the Editor

Congress loves to brag that it is keeping taxes low by borrowing 46 percent of the money it spends to operate the U.S. government and passing the bill on to our children.

If you had to pay the FULL cost of operating Congress’s pork barrel spending your taxes would increase by 86 percent.

Can you imagine your taxes almost doubling to pay for the full cost of the lousy government we get?

Of course it’s just smoke and mirrors when Congress claims that our children will pay for their pork barrel spending.

The bottom line is that Congress is running the printing presses at full speed to pay for their pork and we, not our children are paying for it thru a real, but indirect tax called inflation.

Mike Ross

Tempe

They are crooks, not idiots

Letter: Congress does have smart members

Posted: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 2:12 pm

Letter to the Editor

I disagree 100 percent with L.J. Rupp’s letter that seems to say the members of Congress are a bunch of morons and idiots who can’t get anything done!

The members of Congress are anything but morons and idiots and are probably some of the smartest thieves and crooks in the world. If a Nobel Prize were given for thievery the members of the U.S. Congress and U.S. Senate would probably win it year in and year out!

Mike Ross

TEMPE

Source

Arrogant amateurs behind health law

Mon Nov 18, 2013 6:03 PM

What the American public is witnessing in regard to the health-insurance-reform law are two very evident facts:

1. The Affordable Care Act was largely authored by academics and politicians who believe they alone could best proscribe what is “best” for John Q. Public and, in the process, they’ve demonstrated their flair as arrogant, rank amateurs. How dare they presume to define “adequate” health-insurance coverage for you or for me?

2. The implementation of this immensely complex and badly written legislation was left to our federal bureaucrats and their cronies. What did we expect with these skill sets?

— L.J. Rupp, Cave Creek

Here are some prior letters to the editor.

More letters to the editor.