http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090903/..._shot_in_court
Fire chief shot by cop in Ark. court over tickets


http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20090903/ca...ZAT N98Tyzg--
AP – In this Sept. 1, 2009 photo, Crittenden County Sheriff's Department Chief Investigator Thomas Martin …



By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press Writer Jon Gambrell, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 6 mins ago
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.
Payne ended up in the hospital, but his shooting last week brought to a boil simmering tensions between residents of this tiny former cotton city and their police force. Drivers quickly learn to slow to a crawl along the gravel roads and the two-lane highway that run through Jericho, but they say sometimes that isn't enough to fend off the city ticketing machine.
"You can't even get them to answer a call because normally they're writing tickets," said Thomas Martin, chief investigator for the Crittenden County Sheriff's Department. "They're not providing a service to the citizens."
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.
"You can't even buy a loaf of bread, but we've got seven police officers," said former resident Larry Harris, who left town because he said the police harassment became unbearable.
Sheriff's deputies patrolled Jericho until the 1990s, when the city received grant money to start its own police force, Martin said.
Police often camped out in the department's two cruisers along the highway that runs through town, waiting for drivers who failed to slow down when they reached the 45 mph zone ringing Jericho. Residents say the ticketing got out of hand.
"When I first moved out here, they wrote me a ticket for going 58 mph in my driveway," 75-year-old retiree Albert Beebe said.
The frequent ticketing apparently led to the vandalization of the cruisers, and the department took to parking the cars overnight at the sheriff's department eight miles away.
It was anger over traffic tickets that brought Payne to city hall last week, said his lawyer, Randy Fishman. After Payne failed to get a traffic ticket dismissed on Aug. 27, police gave Payne or his son another ticket that day. Payne, 39, returned to court to vent his anger to Judge Tonya Alexander, Fishman said.
It's unclear exactly what happened next, but Martin said an argument between Payne and the seven police officers who attended the hearing apparently escalated to a scuffle, ending when an officer shot Payne from behind.
Doctors in Memphis, Tenn., removed a .40-caliber bullet from Payne's hip bone, Martin said. Another officer suffered a grazing wound to his finger from the bullet.
Martin declined to name the officer who shot Payne. It's unclear if the officer has been disciplined.
Prosecutor Lindsey Fairley said Thursday that he didn't plan to file any felony charges against the officer or Payne. Fairley, reached at his home, said Payne could face a misdemeanor charge stemming from the scuffle, but that would be up to the city's judge. He said he didn't remember the name of the officer who fired the shot.
Payne remains in good condition at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis. He referred questions to his lawyer.
"I know that he was unarmed and I know he was shot," Fishman said. "None of that sounds too good for the city to me."
After the shooting, Martin said police chief Willie Frazier told the sheriff's department he was disbanding the police force "until things calm down." The sheriff's department has been patrolling the town in the meantime.
A call to a city hall number listed as Frazier's went to a fax machine. Frazier did not respond to a written request for comment sent to his office.
Alexander, the judge, has voided all the tickets written by the department both inside the city and others written outside of its jurisdiction — citations that the department apparently had no power to write. Alexander, who works as a lawyer in West Memphis, resigned as Jericho's judge in the aftermath of the shooting, Fairley said. She did not return calls for comment.
Meanwhile, sheriff's deputies want to know where the money from the traffic fines went. Martin said that it appeared the $150 tickets weren't enough to protect the city's finances. Sheriff's deputies once had to repossess one of the town's police cruisers for failure to pay on a lease, and the state Forestry Commission recently repossessed one of the city's fire trucks because of nonpayment.
City hall has been shuttered since the shooting, and any records of how the money was spent are apparently locked inside. No one answered when a reporter knocked on the door on Tuesday.
Mayor Helen Adams declined to speak about the shooting when approached outside her home, saying she had just returned from a doctor's appointment and couldn't talk.
"We'll get with you after all this comes through," Adams said Tuesday before shutting the door.
A white Ford Crown Victoria sat in her driveway with "public property" license plates. A sales brochure advertising police equipment sat in the back seat of the car.

__________________

What gives a government the right to outlaw nature?

War is when the government tells you who the bad guy is.
Revolution is when you decide that for yourself.
Snick's MySpace Page

WTF? No one could tell the reporter who fired the shot? Do you know if their is a follow up to this? What a bass-ackwards stinkhole little town that must be. Rare form, Goddam police.

__________________
"A word to the wise is infuriating."
"No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master."
"In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity."
"Buy the ticket, take the ride."
- The Immortal Hunter S. Thompson

Sounds just like an old west movie !!! MY God!

http://stash.norml.org/georgia-drug-...#comment-38057

I had to leave a comment on that one.


Georgia drug agents shoot and kill pastor, leaves behind wife and unborn child, no drugs found

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at 3:38 pm | By: Radical Russ

(WYFF TV) STEPHENS COUNTY, Ga. — A pastor was shot and killed following a drug sting in Stephens County, Ga., on Tuesday, and the officers involved and friends of the pastor are giving different versions of what led up to the shooting.
The Stephens County coroner confirmed that 28-year-old Jonathan Ayers was pronounced dead at Stephens County Hospital on Tuesday.
Shoot first, apologize to pregnant widow later... (photo from Jonathan Ayers's blog, click to read)

Ayers, a father-to-be, was the pastor of the Shoal Creek Baptist Church. He maintained a personal blog linked off the church’s Web page, jonathanayers.blogspot.com.
Sheriff Randy Shirley said that officers had been involved in an undercover drug sting at an unnamed establishment in Toccoa. He said the target of the sting was a passenger in Ayers’ car. Shirley said Ayers dropped the woman off and went to the Shell station. He said the officers followed Ayers there.

Shirley said, outside the Shell station, the plain-clothes officers identified themselves with a badge. The officers said that Ayers put his car in reverse and struck an agent. They said they opened fire on Ayers when he drove toward the second officer. Two shots were fired in the car, one hit Ayers. The officers said Ayers sped away and crashed about a half mile from the Shell station. They said they found him conscious and alert, but he died a short time later.
The woman who was the subject of the drug sting was arrested, but police are not identifying her yet. She is charged with selling cocaine. Other charges against her are pending.
Investigators said they did not find drugs in Ayers’ car.

Just how dangerous must this woman have been to have three undercover plainclothes officers firing bullets around a public gas station? Apparently dangerous enough to risk hitting a gas pump and causing a huge explosion that could’ve killed everyone at this busy gas station in broad daylight.
So why did the pastor flee when police “identified themselves with a badge”? Well, when you have three aggressive men not dressed like cops running toward you in a public place waving guns, you might just not notice the badge (if, indeed, the cops aren’t lying about producing their badges). Or maybe the pastor was having an affair with the woman and didn’t want his pregnant wife to find out. Maybe he saw the badges, but the woman was a prostitute and he didn’t want the negative press for his church. Or maybe he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong person…

One of many e-mails received by WYFF News 4 said:
“Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009, Jonathon Ayers was shot and killed by a Toccoa police officer. Ayers was at a walk-up ATM machine to get money to have tires put on his wife’s car. After getting his money, he saw men running at him. Thinking he was to be robbed, he ran for his car. He was shot through the door and the bullet went through his lung and liver. He eventually wrecked his car and was taken to Stephens County Hospital. The bleeding of his liver could not be stopped and Ayers died in surgery.
“Later, it was found that the police officer who shot him thought Ayers was involved in a drug deal. When Ayers ran, the officers open fired.”
News 4’s Kisha Foster spoke to a woman outside Shoal Creek Baptist who identified herself as Jonathan Ayers’ sister-in-law. She described him as a “godly man.” She said there are “a lot of lies going around about what happened, and the police department is trying to cover up what they did.”
The two agents are on administrative leave with pay until the investigation is complete.

The War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical Non Alcoholic Tobacco-Free) Drugs™ demonizes and dehumanizes to such an extent that on the mere suspicion that a man might be buying them from a woman, police feel justified in shooting at the suspect in a crowded public place, risking a devastating gasoline explosion by doing so. Shoot first… get a paid vacation from work… and apologize to the pregnant widow later.

__________________

What gives a government the right to outlaw nature?

War is when the government tells you who the bad guy is.
Revolution is when you decide that for yourself.
Snick's MySpace Page

out of everything, this is what rattles me the most

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Great post snick!

Just so you know, (and I am definitely not justifying what the jack-booted thugs did to that man...murdered him in cold blood, period) bullets will not cause a car or a gas station to blow up, that's just Hollywood nonsense for the most part. On the other hand, larger caliber weapons, like a .50 cal can make a vehicle explode (if the proper conditions are met) but for other reasons. Bullets are lead with a copper coating and do not create sparks. Just thought I'd throw that out there for everyone's benefit. If you're ever in a shoot out at least you don't have to worry about being burnt to death!

If someone disagrees feel free to educate me, if I'm wrong then I have no problem with that but I've watched people fire M-16s into a full gas tank without any explosions or fanfare. Another reason we shouldn't watch too much television.

The cops will probably get a slap on the wrist for outright murder. It happens all too often in our country nowadays. Did any of you watch that cop taze that 72 year old grandmother on YouTube? Electrocution or torture is now completely acceptable in the United States of America. They externalize this type of behavior in Hollywood movies all the time now. It conditions the American people by making bad behavior seem normal. That was the whole reason behind the popular television show COPS.

-the Corsican.

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