We previously discussed the case of Fire Chief Don Payne in Jericho, Arkansas where he went to court for a second time in one day to complain about the police use of abusive speed traps in the small town. An argument erupted in front of Judge Tonya Alexander and Payne was shot from behind by one of the officers. Now, a local prosecutor has decided that Payne should be criminally charged but no officer will face a charge in the case. West Memphis City Prosecutor Lindsey Fairley appears to believe that shooting an unarmed man surrounded by officers is an appropriate use of force.
When Payne went to complain to the court, he found seven officers in the courtroom. One of them shot him with a .40 caliber handgun in the hip from behind.
Fairley says that the officers had every right to detain Payne. That, of course, does not include the right to detain through the use of potentially lethal force under Tennessee v. Garner.
Fairley says Payne went after officers, and the officers had every right to detain Payne. There is of course a considerable difference between the right to detain and the right to use potentially lethal force.
There have been widespread complaints against the local police who are accused of doing little else but ticketing citizens for driving a couple miles over the speed limit to sustain their small department.
Like other citizens, he had reached his limit. The town of only 174 residents used to be policed by deputy sheriffs but added its own small force in the 1990s. However, they soon found that the officers appeared to do little else than write traffic tickets to pay for their department to the point that residents complain that they are reluctant to go outside in their vehicles. One resident, Albert Beebe, complained that “[w]hen I first moved out here, they wrote me a ticket for going 58 mph in my driveway.”
I fail to see how use of lethal force can be justified for an unarmed man surrounded by seven officers but Fairley either has some different information or different understanding of the constitutional use of such force.
For the full story, click here
Land of the Free indeed…
Here’s a real worl exemple: Haute-Gaspésie county, Quebec, Canada, pop 10 000, 6 (six!) police cars 2 ski-doo, so the police station has maybe what? 20 cops max. These officers are enought for the whole county. The last murder was like 8-10 ears ago.
And yes almost everyone here have guns for hunting (90% succes rate for moose hunting)
Speed trap are for tourists (who just speed throuth our towns anyway), has every one here knows where the cops set them up.
Our own town of 254 has no police station neither does the next one, and the next one, and the …
Oh and you can actually try to talk your way out of a ticket without fear of being tasered. I know, I have.
“The weird have definitely turned pro.”
Buddha,
That was supposed to have been our side and yet somehow we’re still bumbling along making the same amateurish mistakes and wondering why we’re not getting anywhere.
Chief of Police, Somewhere in the South,
Chief I live down here so I know what you say is true. Just drove down from “up north” and I’ve got to say that I have never seen so many people stopped for tickets in five days then in all my 47 years of driving across this country. Miles of road without speed limit signs, speed limits being suddenly reduced and notices of “traffic fines doubled areas.” At the same time I must say that South Carolina’s Interstate roads are the worst anywhere and I’ve driven the back roads of Wyoming/Montana. Ticket writing is an obvious alternative to taxation, but tell me Chief doesn’t it ultimately corrupt the police by making them cynical about their purpose as law enforcement officers? Your ironic statements regarding this small town are obvious and true.
What gets missed though is how in a section of the country that has always been high on “law and order,” their own policies undermine it. As a resident of the South I feel safe to say that the hypocrisy factor “down here” rises to dizzying heights.
Buddha Is Laughing,
You too come on down. You are cordially invited to our next shin dig. We can burn a few just for you too. You interested you sissy?
rofl
Ahem.
You may be an old fart, Mike, but you’re our old fart and being an old fart doesn’t make you wrong.
The weird have definitely turned pro.
Mike S,
You are an old fart. Don’t you know that’s the way that the South does business? Come on man where you been? A town of 174 needs 7 police officers, drug sniffing dogs, a jail that can house at least 174 less of course the People who are essential. Such as the Prosecutor, Judge, Bailiffs, Guards and whoever else we deem necessary. There is money to be made and he who wastes time makes no money. Every since the Federal Government cut the funding we have to raise capital. I invite you to do 58 miles an hour in your drive way. Man that is unsafe for certain.
Have I become an old fart, or is this country’s policing becoming increasingly bizarre? I read the original story and was dumbfounded by it. A town of 174 and a police department of seven? No one knows where the ticket money’s gone. The police chief shut the department down? Methinks we are seeing a conspiracy among all the towns legal authorities and the potential for all of them to be prosecuted.
This is Arkansas after all. Only state that I know of that has to have an act of the legislature for people to say it correctly, which is incorrect. But then what do you have when you have 32 people in the same room? A full set of teeth.
I live near this place, but I never heard about the incident. I have heard about the speed trap, though, and avoid that area like the plague.
I believe the original article indicated that the police department could not account for all of the money collected by the writing of excessive tickets. Is it possible that Fairley shared in the gains from the ‘legal’ extortion program that they set up?
I agree with the prior statement that the Feds need to go in and investigate both the police and prosecuter.
A snippet of conversation overheard . . .
“I guess I wonder how they treat tha’ others providin’ critical social services, such as those paramedics and doctors. I hear they tasered ol’ Doc Boogen. And he’s damn veterinarian! To think ol’ Doc B delivered that cops child! Ungrateful so and so. I’ll tell you this for free . . . I shiver to think what they do to the pharmacists, yezzir, I do.”
Don’t you think it would be hard to be a small town cop if you did not even get to shoot uppity fire chiefs in court?
West Memphis City Prosecutor Lindsey Fairley needs to be investigated by the state bar and the FBI.
I smell kickback.
If s/he thinks this is doing their job in the pursuit of justice? S/he’s not fit to be a member of the bar. End of line.
What kind of witness will the Judge be in any subsequent action by the prosecutor and/or th evictim? Is she afraid of the police also? I would expect civil charges against the officers and the police department and maybe it is time for the citizens to use their voting power to rid themselves of these police officers and the chief. Let’s add the prosecutor to that list as well!
Seem relevant that the original complaint against the police was that they were…abusive?
Off topic but here’s a good one – what say the Professor
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/09/three_teens_sue_newark_bears_h.html
Three teens sue Newark Bears for booting them from stadium for refusing to stand during ‘God Bless America’
NEWARK — It is a matter of etiquette and, since the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks eight years ago Friday, almost a test of one’s patriotism.
When “God Bless America” blares from the loudspeakers at ballgames, fans rise from their seats. At Newark’s Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium, woe to the fan whose fanny remains planted.
In a lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Newark, three Millburn High School students contend Newark Bears president and co-owner Thomas Cetnar berated them, cursed at them and then booted them from the ballpark after they failed to stand for the song during the seventh-inning stretch.
“Nobody sits during the singing of ‘God Bless America’ in my stadium,'” Cetnar bellowed during the June 29 incident, according to the suit. “Now the get the (expletive) out of here.”
Its a wonder it didn’t blow his leg off or kill him. Maybe next time he will know better than to go to court.
I remember commenting on this story and including in a post too.
It is bizarre in the extreme.
I think that the prosecutor Fairly fears for his own safety, or they all have overdosed on Just Us Juice.
http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2009/09/pop-cap-for-jesus-and-justice.html
The relationship between the police and prosecutors is too incestuous for me.
“I fail to see how use of lethal force can be justified for an unarmed man surrounded by seven officers but Fairley either has some different information or different understanding of the constitutional use of such force.”
*************
Well it’s a common misunderstanding you have there JT. The prosecutor obviously feels the compulsive, reflexive need to protect the police department from all comers in order to preserve the “police state” mentality in the town. You- similar to the ABA standards* for prosecutors – believe our public servant here has the obligation to do justice. It’s a small exception to the standards for third world states like Texas and Arkansas.
* “The duty of the prosecutor is to seek justice, not merely to convict.”