Freeze, U.S. Congress! Rep. King Criticized For Video Of Raid Posted On YouTube

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, is embroiled in another controversy. King has previously been criticized for anti-Muslim statements and his express support for the IRA, despite its listing as a terrorist organization. Now, King has triggered an investigation after he went along with U.S. Marshals on a raid of a home and gleefully filmed the arrest of a citizen, including what appears footage inside the person’s home. It is the perfect merging of entertainment, politics, and crime. In the land of the blind, the one-cameraed man is King.


King is shown in the video dressed in a black Marshals jacket and part of a raid on the residence.

The U.S. Marshals Service is investigating whether the video violated privacy policies. Ride alongs are not supposed to enter homes and certainly not supposed to enter homes with camera. The video shows King joking around about the arrest of the individual. The video seems to capture how citizens have come to view crime as a form of entertainment — a fun lark on a Friday night to be filmed and posted on YouTube. Of course, the props in this private production are citizens in the midst of having their lives turned upside down — citizens with a presumption of innocence.

King appears to adopt the persona of a reality television host in the Geraldo genre: “There’s a fugitive they’re after; he’s expected to be armed,” King explains at the beginning of the video, after mentioning that he just saw marshals “take down” two people in the Bronx. “He’s high risk. It’s gonna be down on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn, just a few blocks from where I went to High School. Anyway, more now from Lenny DePaul and the other guys you may have seen on television in Manhunters.”

Here is the video in question.

Future ride-alongs with King could present some interesting problems if he succeeds in his efforts to make it a crime to come within 1000 feet of a member of Congress or federal official with a gun. How about when a member of Congress comes bursting into your home with a video camera?

Source: TPM

39 thoughts on “Freeze, U.S. Congress! Rep. King Criticized For Video Of Raid Posted On YouTube”

  1. Ah, the world that we have wrought.

    “We should be here tonight giving the NYPD a medal,” King said. “We sit here, 10 1/2 years after September 11, and the most effective law enforcement, counterterrorism unit in the country is being attacked?” -Peter King

    http://www.newser.com/article/d9um2nj02/house-democrats-nypd-should-purge-spy-files-end-monitoring-of-mosques-cafe-conversations.html

    House Democrats: NYPD should purge spy files, end monitoring of mosques, cafe conversations

    House Democrats: NYPD should purge spy files

    By MATT APUZZO | Associated Press | May 10, 2012

    House Democrats on Thursday urged the New York Police Department to purge its intelligence databases of information gleaned from its clandestine spying on Muslim neighborhoods.

    They also criticized the Obama administration for offering tepid responses to questions about whether it endorses such tactics.

    Lawmakers introduced a resolution Thursday calling for an end to NYPD programs that infiltrated mosques and monitored even innocent conversations in cafes and bookstores. Muslim business owners were included in police files, even with no allegations of wrongdoing.

    The resolution has little chance of passing but it followed a heated debate Wednesday night over a House amendment that would have banned racial profiling by any department that receives federal money. Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., introduced the amendment, saying wholesale surveillance has proven ineffective in disrupting terrorist plans.

    “Contrary to the blanket assertions by some that the tactics have kept New York City safe, the NYPD failed to uncover two actual plots against New York City,” Holt said, referring to attempted bombings in Times Square and the New York subway system.

    That prompted a strong objection from Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., one of Capitol Hill’s most vocal defenders of the NYPD.

    “We should be here tonight giving the NYPD a medal,” King said. “We sit here, 10 1/2 years after September 11, and the most effective law enforcement, counterterrorism unit in the country is being attacked?”

    The NYPD says its tactics are all lawful and necessary to keep the city safe. Asked Thursday about what the lawmakers said, Mayor Michael Bloomberg responded: “Where do they live?”

    “I don’t think you’ll find many elected officials here who want to look at their constituents and say, `I want to stop what is perfectly legal, appropriate, has been vetted through the courts and everything else, a procedure to try to get as much information as we can from publicly available sources,'” he added.

    It’s unclear where the Obama administration stands. White House grants helps pay for the NYPD’s programs but the White House says it has no control over how the money is used.

    President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, recently declared his “full confidence that the NYPD is doing things consistent with the law.” An anonymous White House official then issued a clarification to those remarks, saying Brennan wasn’t referring to NYPD surveillance.

    Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to Congress and one of the lawmakers who introduced the resolution, said he understood the political difficulties the White House faces in wading into a debate over racial profiling and national security.

    “But transformational leadership is about standing up and doing the right thing,” he said.

    Dozens of lawmakers have been asking the Justice Department for eight months to investigate the NYPD’s tactics and determine whether they are legal. Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, the top civil rights official at the department, has not answered questions about the matter. His spokeswoman has said attorneys are reviewing the requests to investigate.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Samantha Gross in New York contributed to this report.

  2. “Rep. Peter King, during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing Wednesday, said there could be “hundreds” of Iranian-backed Hezbollah agents in the U.S. CNN’s clip showed Hezbollah agents marching — but not in the U.S.” — from the following link

    http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/cnn-runs-segment-on-terrifying-new-reason-to

    CNN’s “The Situation Room” ran a segment tonight that showed a potentially “terrifying new reason” to be worried about U.S. tensions with Iran. Rep. Peter King, during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing Wednesday, said there could be “hundreds” of Iranian-backed Hezbollah agents in the U.S. CNN’s clip showed Hezbollah agents marching — but not in the U.S. (Video follows.)

  3. Blouise, no, I don’t remember her in connection to Paula Jones but I’ll see if there’s something on YouTube. Thanks. Senility take its toll 🙂

  4. I thought I was looking at a parody, a comedy program. Farce the whole way: Finding, what he’s wanted for, on site instructions random dispersion, “which door is it”?, we are old and fat and these stairs are impossible—why did I eat that extra hamburger for lunch—hey, get a move on up there. Shit, wrong door, o christ a ladder yet. who designed this obstacle course, shut up lady, or i’ll take you in for obstructing, shit harry he gets always the worse assignments, i’ll put in for a transfer, On the roof? good, then the B team takes him. keep your head down—we ain’t wearing no helmets………transcript courtesy “your foreign language service”.

  5. Was there a warrant issued by a U.S. Judge or Magistrate?
    If so did it authorize the U.S. Marshal Service to break and enter?
    Did it authorize a member of Congress (not part of the Executive Branch) to break and enter?
    The U.S. Judge or Magistrate should be scrutinzed here to see if he authorized schmucko to go in.
    The folks who lived on the common hallway have a privacy and property interest in the property invaded and have a suit against schmucko for trespass. The suit can be brought for violation of civil rights, a warrantless search and seizure and violation of proprty, liberty, and privacy under 4th 5th and 9th amendments. Color of law is his entry with the fat heads. Warrantless makes the suit ripe for partial summary judgment.

    The guy is unfit to serve in the House of Representatives.

    Another topic: Language. Why was this not subtitled so we Americans not living in the Big Apple could understand their Brooklynese?

    His opponent in the House race should criticise the use of this raid for political purposes. Catch him coming out of C Street, K Street and hopefully catch him with a hooker in NY.

  6. “Of course, the props in this private production are citizens in the midst of having their lives turned upside down — citizens with a presumption of innocence.” — Says it all.

  7. Or Summarizing it all in another way:

    Big thieves get away with large sums==political protection. Small protests are ineffectual.
    Large protests will be met with media outcries and prosecution up to and including treason, etc.
    As Mike S. and Leonard Cohen said:
    “Everybody knows…… ”
    Keeping our fight visible and wide spread is of course one way to gather strength; and to resist “disappearing acts” and mysterious “natural” sudden deaths.
    How oh how to awaken our friends from their role as sheep willing to be shorn as long as a semblance of security is offered.

    As the real Pasturemanure wrote: “—–”

    And then our turn will come.

    Some say they are easy to make uneasy. Perhaps there is our hope.

  8. loyya,

    Ain’t it the truth. I remember Coulter from her early days when no one knew who she was. Do you recall any of her early gigs? I specifically recall her work for Paula Jones and the manner in which she promoted herself at Jones’ expense.

    She’s a perfect example of that which she demonizes.

  9. eniobob,

    Will do. As soon as the grandchild leaves I’ll start searching for comments by Ney.

  10. Alan Grayson in today’s email said that he’s supporting Jesse Jackson, Jr. who is facing off a rival dem in the primary.
    Alan G. liked his passion seen in speechs made at the dem caucus meetings over cold pizza. Quite simply JJjr’s dedication to the disadvantaged (my word for a long list by him).

    Can ev be found at congressmanwithguts.com.

  11. Poll: Progressive House Candidate Poised For Primary Win In Illinois

    Congressional candidate Ilya Sheyman, running in Illinois’ 10th District, is polling far ahead of his more moderate opponent and is poised to take the nomination on Tuesday.

    A new poll released Thursday puts Sheyman ahead of main rival Brad Schneider 45 percent to 27 percent. The poll, conducted by Public Policy Polling, shows a net increase of 20 percent for Sheyman against Schneider in just over two weeks.

    A spokesman for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which is backing Sheyman, Neil Sroka, called the race “our top-priority House race of 2012.” The group has so far raised $120,000 for Sheyman.

    If he wins the nomination, he would face Republican Bob Dold. The district shed some Republican voters in the latest round of redistricting. It looks like some good news for progressive democrats.

  12. Money talks, I walk backwards.

    EBob
    “…..GOP Has A Problem With ‘Con Men And Charlatans’”
    How can it be a problem when all of them are equally disadvantaged?

    PN
    Are you offering pro bono help?

    As for Obama, anybody hoping for a miracle from last term Obama with respect to: war, war on us terrorists, war on poor people, etc.?

  13. Blouise: ” eniobob, Me thinks this is Coulter’s way of culling the competition. This plethora of conservative “Con Men And Charlatans” is cutting into her profit margin.”


    LOL, good analysis; you can’t go wrong if you follow the money. 🙂

  14. Blouise:

    “The Republican Party has a big problem. Huge!” Yes according to your link they really do:
    BTW:Caught an interview with former Congressman Bob Ney(OHIO) on the TV this is one “ex con” who got it.He talked about his experience but the surprising thing to him and you can tell by the way he talks is that the harassment didn’t come from his fellow prisoners as bad as it came from the guards who were guarding him,if you ever get a chance to catch him in an interview,the man** REALLY** saw the light!!

  15. Thanks, Blouise. The twenty point lead with women is not surprising and that was before Romney made the statement that he is going to get rid of planned parenthood.

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