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Quote: JERICHO, Ark. - It was just too much, having to return to court twice on the same day to contest yet another traffic ticket, and Fire Chief Don Payne didn't hesitate to tell the judge what he thought of the police and their speed traps. The response from cops? They shot him. Right there in court. ...

Wow. I don't even know what to say. I wonder what they are doing when they are out on the street.

Looky looky, they're not filing any charges against the officers. They'll probably get promoted and remain anonymous when they should just be thrown out of the police on the spot.

This sort of thing is fairly common. A situation like this is something that a TASER might be useful. Of course, TASERs are only used to torture and firearms are still used for everything else.

Im reminded of this video

Other than the details of the shooting itself, here's the key paragraph from the article:

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Now the police chief has disbanded his force "until things calm down," a judge has voided all outstanding police-issued citations and sheriff's deputies are asking where all the money from the tickets went. With 174 residents, the city can keep seven police officers on its rolls but missed payments on police and fire department vehicles and saw its last business close its doors a few weeks ago.

Why does a town with only 174 residents need 7 police officers?

Here is a table listing sworn officer to citizen ratios for the 200 largest cities in the USA. The smallest city listed is Independence, Missouri, 194 officers, 112,079 population, 1.73 per capita ratio. Granted, a city with only 174 residents... (a city???) ... doesn't benefit from the economy of scale of those larger cities, but still (7/174)*1000 works out to a per capita ratio of 40.22! The highest ratio of all the cities in that table is for New York, 39,890 officers, 8,085,742 population, 4.93 per capita ratio.

I suspect that when all is said and done the city of Jericho, Arkansas will be disincorporated and law enforcement services for those 174 people will revert to the Crittenden County Sheriff's Department.



Speaking of tasers...

Why Are Cops Tasering Grandmothers, Pregnant Women and Kids?

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The latest case, as of this writing at least, involves a Syracuse mother who was pulled out her car during a routine traffic stop. She was summarily tasered, cuffed and arrested in front of her kids by an officer who left them behind, alone in their car, while he took her to the station and charged her for resisting arrest, driving five miles over the speeding limit, and disorderly conduct -- the diaphanous charge controversially leveled on Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. earlier this year.

There's plenty more where that came from. Did you hear the one about the pregnant woman who was tasered because she wouldn't sign her speeding ticket, or the pregnant woman who was tasered at a baptism party thrown by her father, a bible-study teacher who was charged with public intoxication in his own backyard and whose wife and son were also tasered? How about the officer who tasered a pregnant woman while inside the police department?

Or the cop who tasered a girl, no lie, in the brain, because he couldn't chase her down on foot? Or the one that shoved a taser up a man's ass in Idaho? Or those who tasered and pepper-sprayed an umbrella-wielding man in a Dollar Store bathroom, and after finding out that he was both mentally disabled and deaf still decided to charge him with resisting arrest, failure to obey a police officer and (of course) disorderly conduct, charges which the on-duty magistrate refused to accept? And don't forget the belligerent baseball fan, the 72-year old grandmother, the bride and groom tasered at their wedding, the bicyclists who were tased after cops tried to run them off the road. And what about that guy who burst into flames? What about the six-year-old who was tasered after threatening to cut his own leg with a glass? (That'll teach him!)
...

Remember the uproar over the UCLA student who campus police tasered in the library? Or how "Don't Taze Me Bro" became a national catch phrase after a Florida student was tasered for asking John Kerry a rambling question? Remember how everyone thought those episodes were hilarious? Here's an account of a disabled lawyer getting tazed in court for taking too long with his argument. The man shit himself twice before the paramedics were called. Hilarious! Good thing he wasn't your lawyer eh?

Just to be clear, I don't think any of that is funny at all. Dare I ask, however, where are the tea party protesters with their "don't tread on me" flags when it comes to these actual violations of liberty?

On a positive note, it appears that while the wheel of justice turns slowly, it turns: Tarrant County medical examiner rules young man's Taser death a homicide. But just in case you get any ideas, remember what District Attorney Joe Shannon said, "The word homicide does not mean crime. It just means that the death involved another person." Another person under color of law that is...

Quote: Original post by LessBread
Why does a town with only 174 residents need 7 police officers?

That's the first thing I noticed.
In fact, why do you need parking tickets at all in a town with no more than a dozen streets?

Quote: Original post by LessBread

Why does a town with only 174 residents need 7 police officers?

Are there any towns that have fewer officers? I’d think that there would have to be minimum amount of officers necessary to run a police force regardless of the size of the town. You need people to work the night shift and you need people to fill in on days off or sick days. Also, you might need backup.

Quote:
Prosecutor Lindsey Fairley said Thursday that he didn't plan to file any felony charges against the officer

Excuse me ?! There was a scuffle. There were seven (!) officers to control one guy in a harmless fight. They shot him instead. In my book (and in most sane jurisdictions I know of) that is attempted murder or at least attempted manslaughter. In both cases, the officer would be in prison right now, waiting for his trial.

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Are there any towns that have fewer officers? I’d think that there would have to be minimum amount of officers necessary to run a police force regardless of the size of the town. You need people to work the night shift and you need people to fill in on days off or sick days. Also, you might need backup.

I don't know how things are managed in the US, but over here it is pretty common to have 1 or less officers (eg. one working half time) for very small towns. Just to handle the small little things of daily life in the community. In more serious cases, the police force of the next larger town takes over.

I suppose if you wanted 1 officer always on duty ...

24*7 = 168 hours/week

168 hours/week / 8 hours/shift = 21 shifts/week

If one officer works 5 shifts/week, you'd need 5 officers to fully cover the week with 4 shifts left over.

168 hours/week / 10 hours/shift = 16.8 shifts/week

If one officer works 4 shifts/week, you'd need still need 5 officers with 3 shifts left over.


I'm still wondering how a community of 174 people manages to incorporate itself as a city. There were more students than that in the elementary school I went to. There are restaurants that seat more people than that all over the country. And churches too.

Quote: Original post by ManaStone
Are there any towns that have fewer officers? I’d think that there would have to be minimum amount of officers necessary to run a police force regardless of the size of the town. You need people to work the night shift and you need people to fill in on days off or sick days. Also, you might need backup.

Guess what, here small towns and villages usually don't have an own police force at all.