Kelly Thomas – Homeless man was beaten to death by Fullterton Orange County Police, the police are currently in court. This is happening every day without anyone knowing or being prosecuted for it, every day police get away with this…
14 shots, is a little over the top dont you think? Two shots from a police gun would have been 100% sufficient, yet they are backing up the officers who fired 14 shots? Come on New Zealand Police, we are not all dumb!
A police investigation into the fatal shooting of a Hawke’s Bay man last year has found that the officer who fired the shots was justified in doing so.
Lachan Kelly-Tumarae, 19, died after being shot by police on March 28 last year. Police met with his family today.
Detective Superintendent Andy Lovelock said one shot hit Kelly-Tumarae in the abdomen, and one passed through his right thigh.
There was also a second shot to his right leg and a bullet fragment entered his left shoe, causing a superficial injury to his foot.
Neither of these two shots would have proved fatal.
The police investigation has found that the police officer fired 14 shots at Kelly-Tumarae.
A number of shots were discharged before the officer realised he was firing too low.
The threat remained to police and the officer fired more shots that resulted in Kelly-Tumarae falling to the ground.
Lovelock said events happened “very quickly” and it was only 26 seconds from the time Kelly-Tumarae stepped out of his car with a loaded 12-gauge shotgun until the shooting was over.
He got out of the car presenting the firearm at police. He did not respond to warnings from police.
He had posed a significant threat to police, pointing his loaded shotgun at police in a car at point blank range. He was also wearing a full cartridge belt slung across his chest. Four police officers confirmed they saw Kelly-Tumarae with the shotgun and pointing it at their colleagues.
After Kelly-Tumarae fell to the ground, he was handcuffed by police due to his aggressive behaviour. When police saw the extent of his injuries the handcuffs were removed and the officers provided immediate First Aid.
He was taken to hospital by ambulance, with a police officer in the back assisting ambulance officers and another officer driving the ambulance.
Lovelock said the multiple number of holes in Kelly-Tumarae’s clothing were due to several factors including; the shirt being cut in places for forensic testing, some shots are believed to have gone through folded pieces of fabric and pieces of shrapnel had left holes.
There were already some cuts, tears and cigarette burns in the shirt before the shooting.
Lovelock said the police investigation was now complete and the case would now be referred to the Coroner.
An IPCA investigation into the shooting has yet to be finalised.
( Yeah and im sure the Independent Police Coverup Authority will ensure that the officers are backed up, Im sure the IPCA would allow any officer to get away with murder – Any police officer complained against gets away from the IPCA. )
An unarmed sheep shearer tasered this week has joined critics saying police use the devices far too quickly and often, as even more are set to be rolled out on the frontline.
Close to 1000 tasers will soon be in all frontline police cars a result of a review last year, which will also see guns in patrol cars.
Shearer Peter Papa was unarmed, though not willing to co-operate, when he was stopped and tasered by police with 50,000 volts.
Peter Papa - Tasered Sheep Shearer
“(I) just freaked out. I got tasered pretty much straight away, (there was) not much warning,” he told ONE News.
Papa ran when four cops had showed up at his Paihiatua home to arrest him on minor outstanding matters.
A police dog was set on him, but it was the sting of the Taser that finally sent him crashing to the ground.
“They’re like fish hooks and they stick into you, especially if you’re not wearing any clothes. I had to get them cut out by a doctor,” he said.
Papa was arrested and charged but is now considering laying a complaint.
Police would not comment on this case, but did say anyone found facing the law ultimately chooses how the situation will end.
“Police do not dictate the use of what tactical option gets used, the offender or suspect does. We aim to de-escalate any situation where force has to be used,” said Superintendent Barry Taylor, NZ police national manager operations.
As part of the $8.8 million fit-out to arm the frontline, around 700 tasers will be moved from police stations to patrol cars and several hundred more will be ordered to make up the numbers.
The fit-out will include a bush master rifle, a glock and body armour, which, along with the taser, will be locked into more than 900 police cars by the end of June.
In the past six month, around 1200 extra police have been trained on how to use a Taser.
The criminal charges against Kim Dotcom in the United States may never get to trial, the judge overseeing the case has told the FBI.
United States district court judge Liam O’Grady said he didn’t know if “we are ever going to have a trial in this matter” after being told Dotcom’s file-sharing company had never been formally served with criminal papers by the US.
The comment has been seized on by Dotcom’s lawyers, who say it could lead to the extradition case in New Zealand being tossed out.
It follows a paperwork error by New Zealand authorities, who seized Dotcom’s property without giving proper notice. The restraining order on his property was finally granted last week.
Kim Dotcom with his twins
Megaupload was the world’s biggest file-sharing website and claimed it was responsible for 4 per cent of internet traffic.
Dotcom faces a court hearing for extradition to the United States after a warrant was issued for him and six others on criminal copyright charges relating to music and movies on its computer servers.
Lawyers acting for the US have said they will argue Dotcom should be extradited because he was a member of an organised criminal group, which carries a sentence of five years.
The US Government needs to get over the hurdle of a five-year jail sentence to meet the criteria for extradition. Copyright charges in NZ carry a maximum of four years.
Judge O’Grady raised the prospect of there being no trial while hearing arguments over FBI applications to wipe Megaupload’s vast database of members’ files.
He said further study needed to be made of the failure to serve Megaupload, adding; “I frankly don’t know that we are ever going to have a trial in this matter.”
He said the arguments around the future of the data on the 1100 computers servers seized from Megaupload could be “premature”. He wanted more information on why Megaupload had not been served.
The FBI’s lack of service meant Megaupload was “kind of hanging out there”, Judge O’Grady said.
Dotcom’s US-based lawyer, Ira Rothken, said it was the defence’s understanding that it was not legally possible for Megaupload to be served with papers accusing it of criminal acts.
He said it would be possible to serve the company with papers for a civil case and – as happened in NZ – for individuals to be remotely charged with crimes.
“My understanding as to why they haven’t done that is because they can’t. We don’t believe Megaupload can be served in a criminal matter because it is not located within the jurisdiction of the United States.”
Mr Rothken said he would have expected the FBI to have had the same legal advice, having described the case as the “largest copyright case in the US, which also means the world”.
Mr Rothken said a key defence against extradition was the claim by Dotcom and others that they were accused of offences not covered by the law on extradition.
Prosecutor Jay Prabhu told the Virginia court hearing it might not matter because Dotcom owned 68 per cent of the company.
He said it was not a case of a corporation which might normally turn up. “It’s seven people who actually don’t want to show up.”
Meanwhile, legal negotiations are under way to have jewellery and personal effects belonging to Dotcom’s wife, Mona, returned.
Source: NZHerald
Source: Fairfax News
One of the country’s top policemen was found guilty of serious misconduct after accusations he used police letterhead to dodge a $200 parking fine.
However, Superintendent Bill Harrison retired on May 17 last year, before an independent investigation was completed so no disciplinary action was taken.
The investigation into Mr Harrison, the national manager of youth services, was launched in December 2010, two years after Wellington City Council waived the fine.
Mr Harrison said yesterday he accepted the decision because “when you’re at that level of organisation you have to be held accountable for errors of judgment”.
The Dominion Post is able to reveal the outcome of the investigation after it fought to make the details public. Police initially refused to release information, saying Mr Harrison’s “strong” privacy interests outweighed the public interest, among other reasons.
However, following a complaint by the paper to Ombudsman David McGee, police were this week forced to release the outcome.
Police conduct acting national manager Charlie Busby said the independent investigation concluded Mr Harrison breached police conduct. An independent disciplinary hearing that followed found him guilty of serious misconduct, Mr Busby said.
The investigation was launched after Mr Harrison wrote to the council on September 25, 2008, when a police vehicle was ticketed on Harris St, Wellington, for not displaying a current registration label.
Using police national headquarters letterhead, he asked for the ticket to be waived. “I attach a copy of the current label that, through an oversight, was incorrectly displayed (behind the old label),” he wrote.
But certified documents obtained by The Dominion Post show the registration label Mr Harrison attached to his letter was issued one hour after the car was ticketed.
Wellington City Council said it waived the fine because the registration was current. The label supplied by Mr Harrison showed a later time because it was a replacement, it said.
A suspended policewoman has been charged with being a party to theft, being a party to impersonating a police officer and assault.
Karis Charnley, who is not on active duty over an employment matter, appeared in the North Shore District Court today.
It is alleged she supplied her police uniform to a man who used it to impersonate a police officer and seize a high-performance car, thereby allegedly committing theft.
She had originally faced charges of theft and impersonation but these were withdrawn and the new charges relaid as “being a party to” charges.
Her lawyer John Moromey told the court his client had been charged as a party to two offences but no-one had been charged with the actual offences.
A police prosecutor said the assault charge related to threatening language and would probably not proceed.
The theft of the car is alleged to have occurred when two men dressed as officers “seized” a Mitsubishi Evo car from a Devonport address, claiming it had been involved in a hit-and-run.
Fairfax News – Source
A Rotorua policeman has gotten away with assault, after the clearly crafted jury gave a not guilty response.
A jury took just over an hour today to clear David Mear, 44, of wounding Harley Collier with intent to injure him and assault with a weapon in August 2010.
Mear’s patrol partner, Constable Brian Newcombe, told Rotorua District Court earlier this week he had seen Mear strike Collier across the back of the head with his torch at least three times as Collier lay on the ground. The incident followed a police pursuit of Collier’s car through Rotorua streets.
Mear denied the charge.
He told the court he had not hit Collier with the torch while handcuffing him, but had hit him with it beforehand when Collier was still in his car, revving it “hard out” and attempting to escape from the police surrounding him.
An emotional Mear, who has been suspended from police duties since October 2010, would not comment after his acquittal today.
Throughout his trial he was supported by a large contingent of family and friends in the public gallery, including his wife and Rotorua Police Association representative Scott Thompson.
( Obviously a crafted case when the police assoication rep is hanging onto your pocket lining like a gay in an american prison )
The supporters burst into applause when the jury’s forewoman announced the verdict following deliberations that lasted slightly over an hour.
Addressing the jury, his counsel, Paul Mabey, QC, criticised the culture within the Rotorua police station that led to senior officers giving evidence that conflicted each other.
He said the constable who claimed he’d seen Mear hit Collier with his torch was a liar and urged the jury not to make a decision on “shabby” evidence.
Tauranga Crown prosecutor Greg Hollister-Jones told the jury Collier had been abused and beaten while being handcuffed and it was Mear who handcuffed him.
He asked why the officer who made the allegation about the torch beating would want to go out on a limb and drag a colleague and his section through the mud.
David Mear – Your just another cop who attempts to get away with assault….
Rotorua Police Station
On trial for assault in the Rotorua District Court is a police officer, alleged to have “face-planted” a man who had been pursued in a high-speed chase. David Mear, 44, has pleaded not guilty to wounding with intent to injure, and assault with a weapon – a police torch. Initially his name and occupation had been suppressed, but this morning defence counsel Paul Mabey, QC, told Judge Phillip Cooper he wouldn’t be pursuing the suppression orders.
The Crown claimed Mear “face-planted” a man he was involved in arresting after a high-speed chase, and hitting him with a torch. In his opening statement, Mabey said that would be totally refuted by the accused, and he branded any officer who gave evidence against Mear about the alleged bashing a “complete liar”. Police spokeswoman Jacky James confirmed Mear had been suspended from the police, pending the outcome of the trial. “Proper employment processes would then follow”.
James could not confirm whether he was still receiving pay. ( Of course hes getting paid )
Kim Dotcom has been given $60,000 a month to live on while he battles extradition.
The High Court said a $20,000 monthly living allowance would come from the interest paid on the $10 million Dotcom has invested in NZ government bonds. The remaining $40,000 will be paid in monthly instalments from a $301,000 bank account he has had returned to him.
It is understood the Crown wanted to drip-feed the $301,000, rather than pay it to him in a lump sum.
He was also today given back the use of his 2011 Mercedes Benz, and was told he could apply for more money for “other than living expenses”.
Today’s decision also gave one of Dotcom’s co-accused, Bram van der Kolk, a monthly living allowance of $9166.
Dotcom had his bank accounts and assets seized following a raid on his Coatesville mansion earlier this year. He was told today he could now “operate new bank accounts” in New Zealand.
US authorities want to extradite him to face alleged copyright charges worth $500 million by his Megaupload file-sharing website.
Last month Dotcom asked the High Court at Auckland for $28,000 a month for living costs for his wife and children, $29,000 per month to pay staff and additional money for rent.
