The identifying characteristic of a police state is that it moves with armed or illegal force to usurp the proceeding government, and then uses it's improperly gained position of "authority" to gain personal benefits for it's members and supporters, using the implied or direct threat of, or actual, armed force to meet it's ever expanding goals.
The Rule of (objective) Law is displaced in those countries, or city, as police-state tactics take over.
Pittsburgh business and individual residents or visitors have increasingly been victimized by the illegal actions of officers who routinely violate objective laws that all citizens are supposedly limited by, and businesses have been virtually blackmailed into using uniformed "off-duty" officers for what I have termed a police protection racket .. and lately that racket has been openly supported by our current Mayor-by-default, who with police support has further extorted "his" cut of the illegal guard action, by raising the fees that captive businesses must pay for the use of these illegal guards, whose misdeeds while working have caused losses to City taxpayers in the millions of dollars... some of these "deals" done outside the court system in "compromise settlements" that do not cost the illegal off-duty police officer a cent.
But now, another inside deal has been cut, with court approval (Judges have to run for office too, and need FOP support) for an officer who has been accused of violating a law .. and this particular "deal" points out directly what happens in a police-state city.
While Pittsburgh business managers who make cash night deposits, legally licensed security staff of licensed private detective agencies, jewelry merchants who travel with their goods, and muckraking news staff have their gun collections and rights to protect themselves from street thugs seized when hit with a Protection From Abuse (PFA) case, the police and their friends in the Court have decided that the same rules that pertain to all "lesser" citizens do NOT pertain to the police of Pittsburgh. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07297/827927-52.stm because they are "special".
FLASH: In a free country everyone is equal, there are NO special classes of people.
Of course, in a Police State or City, the Police are all powerful, and get themselves "special rights". In Pittsburgh this means, among other things, having official sanction for covering your license plates with FOP stickers so your numbers can not be given a speeding or parking ticket, parking wherever you want, even illegally, while you work an illegal after-hours security job where you sometimes get cash, and sometimes have to kick some of your "take" upstairs to your supervisors ..... and in this latest case, you can be exempted from mandatory gun confiscation, where (like 35 brother officers) http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07292/826680-53.stm you have been served legally with PFA papers.
PFA's are within the public domain, and the same "street thugs" that can read in the paper that Party A is not allowed to protect himself/herself legally any more, can also read that Party B is under the same restriction: What makes your badge toting off-duty police people any more vulnerable to street crime than the legal security guard, licensed private detective or business owner?
Given that it is well known that to harm a police officer will bring an inordinate amount of police retribution and presence not available when a lesser citizen is attacked, I would expect that no one could be safer from harm than an off duty policeman, armed or not. In Pittsburgh or elsewhere. I mean look at the line up of police at the courthouse during a trial of someone daring to attack one of "theirs". http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07300/829055-85.stm
Does anyone think that this kind of armed show of force (Were these armed men on or off duty, I wonder .... if they were off duty, what are they doing at a courthouse in uniform and armed, while a jury deliberates? If they were on duty, what "public duty" were they performing, at public expense with such an armed and uniformed show of force?
Just a thought.
I wonder what would happen if (loaded) sidearm and rifle toting Vietnam Vets in ragtag uniform showed up at the courthouse and lined up to glower at incoming jury members and judges .... because someone shot one of "theirs" .. would the public stand by and say baaaaaaaaa, or would there be some serious questions asked by the Post Gazette and others?
The Pittsburgh police, who are highly paid for, and supposedly take seriously, safety of, it's citizens, have never to my knowledge, gone to bat for any of the hundreds of honest and hard-working "normal" citizens who have had their self-protection guns taken from them under a PFA, and as a matter of fact, have been there johnny on the spot to TAKE them from the lesser citizen's Pittsburgh homes - probably (what do you bet) offering their off-duty armed and illegal services to protect those PFAers who plead that they need to carry a weapon for their own safety at or on the way home from work.
The fact that many PFA's issue from unhappy girlfriends, boyfriends, and spouses who have a vested interest in "stretching the truth" sometimes more than a little, to get a PFA issued does NOT make this matter better, it makes it worse: Armed police, sometimes with SWAT gear, dogs and machine guns with silencers can show up at any plain citizens door to seize sometimes valuable collections from an unsuspecting PFA accused citizen, who can be "legally" shot dead for resisting this seizure.
The same Chief or Sheriff who can and does authorize such armed seizures can and probably has sent armed officers out that are under the same restriction of use of a firearm, due to having a PFA filed against that or those officers .. but that is "OK", the POLICEMAN'S gun is necessary for his/her protection, right?
What about the rest of us, Chief/Mayor/FOP head Malloy? Where is your sanction for OUR exemption from objective law? Why can YOUR guys keep their self protection subsequent to a PFA, but it is ok with you if all others not "yours" have theirs seized? Especially when you and "yours" are highly paid to take risks ......... and YOU are responsible for the safety of the citizens in your City, who also need to protect themselves?
I actually expect no reply from you, guys ...... for years you have sanctioned illegal actions of your officers and deputies, and bilked estimated hundreds of millions of dollars for your illegal services... and who knows what else.
I for one understand that in an armed Police State you guys and your political pals do not have to answer to anyone but yourselves. Perhaps this is why the police and politicians are so determined to take all the guns and even larger capacity magazines from the "lesser" citizens ....... calling it Democracy?
I saw a great t-shirt one time. Two wolves, sitting at a dinner table looking hungrily at a sheep sitting at the same table. The wolves had forks and knives, and the sheep had nothing but a big unworried smile.
The shirt read: "Democracy is two wolves and one sheep sitting down for dinner, voting for whats for dinner: FREEDOM is when the sheep have a gun AND a vote.
When Pittsburgh's sheep at long last discover your game and decide to take action, I expect and hope that it will not be too late to re-establish a great City, after the criminals now in control are indicted and prosecuted.
I hope my actions speed this evolution.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
City Enters Organized Crime Ring - SUCKERS ARISE!
While on one hand the new administration spends taxpayer money trying to find out why new business has little interest in moving to Pittsburgh, and at the same time the other hand pushes away the law books, slaps moral codes aside, and digs deeply into the pockets of helpless businessmen who are already stuck in Pittsburgh.
This does not take a brain surgeon to figure out: When you screw over current business, new business is tougher to get, and current business is tougher to retain! Where did the mayor get his degree, and in what?
Mayor Ravenstahl SHOULD have immediately disbanded the group of outlaw officers, who work private protection jobs on private contract, "off duty" (but in city uniform, and who can tell they are off duty? - which is the whole point that enables this protection racket). INSTEAD, the greedy political part of our new mayor-by-default has decided to join INTO this racket, and has given it his SANCTION, for, in a manner of speaking, a "cut of the action", that is. I say manner of speaking, since he did not take this cut of the illegal action from the officers - which might have affected the FOP support in the next election, instead the city has placed an additional TAX (they call it a "management fee") on the very businesses who have no doubt been leaned on to use these uniformed criminal actors as guards at usurious rates, when these same businesses could hire legally licensed and bonded uniformed guards (many who are highly trained retired policemen or military men) for FAR LESS MONEY, and, more importantly, with less legal exposure for themselves.
Generally, a corporation or individually owned business is exempt from civil liability under the Civil Rights laws, and as a point of law, can not even be prosecuted or legally charged with violation of a person's civil rights - but a corporation or individual who hires ANY civil servant in uniform that has police powers, that protection is GONE! In cases where a legal guard acts within his legal scope of power, the employer is NEVER liable for tort action under the civil rights laws, but where the same employer uses (even in states where such work is legal - in Pennsylvania it is NOT) off duty police, particularly in uniform, legal liability for HUGE civil rights claims can and does flow through to some employers.
So, if you believe, as I do, that the City of Pittsburgh is committing not only criminal actions, in sanctioning and not stopping this long tolerated police protection racket, and that also they have increased the legal risk to the very employers that have more than likely been pressured to use their illegal "off-duty" contracted guard service, paying a shamefully overpaid rate .... SPEAK UP!
I would welcome comment posted here from competent legal professionals and/or security agencies that are not illegally owned by current policemen with arrest powers.
Where is the District Attorney on this? Sitting on the sidelines, like a good Democrat, watching his fellow law enforcement professionals (HA!) wallow in the trough.
The laws are quite clear on this matter, no sheriff, police officer, county detective or constable may in any way contract his/her services as a guard, watchman, patrolman or any of the similar duties outlined in the Private Detective Act - the only exception being a constable that may get paid for watching polls.
Since there is an organized movement within the Pittsburgh FOP and Pittsburgh Mayors office to enable officers to work off duty in uniform, I say that there is an illegal police protection racket operating within the city, that fleeces bars, business owners and others of MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, and puts them at higher legal risk for action under the Civil Rights laws.
The baseball team is not the only group that should carry the name "Pirates"... as far as this legal analyst is concerned.
Mayor, FOP heads, Mr Sheriff, Mr District Atty: If you disagree with my assertion, why are you afraid to speak up?? I invite you to comment.
Or are you all going to continue to hide behind the great wall of silence?
If so, remember what happened to the Berlin Wall, when the citizens got up their nerve: How long will it be until this becomes an issue in "da Burgh" that you think your gang owns?
How many more millions of dollars of lawsuits will the City pay out of taxpayer funds, before the taxpayers realize that if there were legal private guards doing this work, as there should be ... those lawsuits would be paid completely by the legal detective agency's insurance carrier. Talk about stupid?
You political "leaders" and your crony uniformed sheriff and police enforcers must really think the residents of our town have "kick me" stamped in invisible ink on their foreheads!
Suckers, arise and put a stop to this greed and madness, call or write the mayor and the D.A.
or, just continue to be duped: your choice.
This does not take a brain surgeon to figure out: When you screw over current business, new business is tougher to get, and current business is tougher to retain! Where did the mayor get his degree, and in what?
Mayor Ravenstahl SHOULD have immediately disbanded the group of outlaw officers, who work private protection jobs on private contract, "off duty" (but in city uniform, and who can tell they are off duty? - which is the whole point that enables this protection racket). INSTEAD, the greedy political part of our new mayor-by-default has decided to join INTO this racket, and has given it his SANCTION, for, in a manner of speaking, a "cut of the action", that is. I say manner of speaking, since he did not take this cut of the illegal action from the officers - which might have affected the FOP support in the next election, instead the city has placed an additional TAX (they call it a "management fee") on the very businesses who have no doubt been leaned on to use these uniformed criminal actors as guards at usurious rates, when these same businesses could hire legally licensed and bonded uniformed guards (many who are highly trained retired policemen or military men) for FAR LESS MONEY, and, more importantly, with less legal exposure for themselves.
Generally, a corporation or individually owned business is exempt from civil liability under the Civil Rights laws, and as a point of law, can not even be prosecuted or legally charged with violation of a person's civil rights - but a corporation or individual who hires ANY civil servant in uniform that has police powers, that protection is GONE! In cases where a legal guard acts within his legal scope of power, the employer is NEVER liable for tort action under the civil rights laws, but where the same employer uses (even in states where such work is legal - in Pennsylvania it is NOT) off duty police, particularly in uniform, legal liability for HUGE civil rights claims can and does flow through to some employers.
So, if you believe, as I do, that the City of Pittsburgh is committing not only criminal actions, in sanctioning and not stopping this long tolerated police protection racket, and that also they have increased the legal risk to the very employers that have more than likely been pressured to use their illegal "off-duty" contracted guard service, paying a shamefully overpaid rate .... SPEAK UP!
I would welcome comment posted here from competent legal professionals and/or security agencies that are not illegally owned by current policemen with arrest powers.
Where is the District Attorney on this? Sitting on the sidelines, like a good Democrat, watching his fellow law enforcement professionals (HA!) wallow in the trough.
The laws are quite clear on this matter, no sheriff, police officer, county detective or constable may in any way contract his/her services as a guard, watchman, patrolman or any of the similar duties outlined in the Private Detective Act - the only exception being a constable that may get paid for watching polls.
Since there is an organized movement within the Pittsburgh FOP and Pittsburgh Mayors office to enable officers to work off duty in uniform, I say that there is an illegal police protection racket operating within the city, that fleeces bars, business owners and others of MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, and puts them at higher legal risk for action under the Civil Rights laws.
The baseball team is not the only group that should carry the name "Pirates"... as far as this legal analyst is concerned.
Mayor, FOP heads, Mr Sheriff, Mr District Atty: If you disagree with my assertion, why are you afraid to speak up?? I invite you to comment.
Or are you all going to continue to hide behind the great wall of silence?
If so, remember what happened to the Berlin Wall, when the citizens got up their nerve: How long will it be until this becomes an issue in "da Burgh" that you think your gang owns?
How many more millions of dollars of lawsuits will the City pay out of taxpayer funds, before the taxpayers realize that if there were legal private guards doing this work, as there should be ... those lawsuits would be paid completely by the legal detective agency's insurance carrier. Talk about stupid?
You political "leaders" and your crony uniformed sheriff and police enforcers must really think the residents of our town have "kick me" stamped in invisible ink on their foreheads!
Suckers, arise and put a stop to this greed and madness, call or write the mayor and the D.A.
or, just continue to be duped: your choice.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
"No Fault" Government - Monopoly with Other Peoples Money
In deciding what should be done about the illegal Pittsburgh police protection racket that has been allowed to flourish within our city, and just who might do it, it is critical that one understands just who the police are-and it is NOT the warm fuzzy "We are only here to protect and to serve YOU" story that the "deputy dog" puppet espouses to our school kids.
In a big, and in a very real way, the police are the "armed enforcement squad" of the Mayor's office, and of his/her whim. If, as recently under Mayor Murphy, the Mayor decides that "something should be done" about jaywalking, it is the city police officers who are called in to "enforce" this whim - and in that case, they handed out many tickets that had huge fines attached to them. When the newspapers and others complained, the fines were dropped, and the police (on "orders from above") stopped writing tickets for jaywalking. Note that it is still a crime, this jaywalking .... just not a crime that the Mayor wants a focus on, "today."
The police chief, directly appointed by the mayor, can not really be expected to be a free agent in the "war on crime" .. and must largely support "mayorial policy" when it comes to which laws to focus on and to prosecute.
The mayor, on the other hand, must be re-elected, in order to survive as Mayor - and the large block votes MUST be listened and catered to, in order for the next election to benefit him.
What BETTER way to "buy" these votes than with public money?? .. a mayor must think!
Mayor Murphy was recently caught by the feds making a deal with taxpayer money, in exchange for the firemen union votes .. no one in power has yet made the connection between this improper deal and the continuing one with the police, though .. or maybe they have, but have been told to "stand down"?
What happens when these deals with public cash are cut? Mostly, these illegal actions have already been shielded under the umbrella of "public servant" laws, that allow these "Public" criminals to skate unpunished, because .. when it comes to public "service" .. the whole thing is a "no fault" GAME where real money and real people are quite separate from the elite politicians, and the no fault political result of improper, ill thought out, or just plain stupid actions of politicians, whose actions are separated by law from the pain, damage and devastation they usually cause. Not even an "I'm sorry" need be uttered by these criminals .. after they perform illegal and self-serving acts .. unless they violate civil rights laws, in which case they can be held accountable for improper or illegal actions.
So, with the above "rules" in mind, one can see that the police protection racket can NOT be expected to cure itself ... the insiders have millions of dollars to gain and probably nothing to lose by attempting to continue this shameful practice.
I personally, over a ten year period, have tried to have criminal charges filed against the police department which would stop this illegal practice, only to have the DA continually refuse to press charges .. his political right, though it is morally wrong - and in my mind makes him an accessory to this crime, if not a criminal conspirator himself.
I will shortly file civil charges to stop this illegal practice.
Since the courts have long granted that money gained through illegal pursuits is contraband which should be seized, I wonder what the court will say about the illegal earnings of the police officers who have worked this scam against the public businesses under their control "on duty"?
Any guesses?
In a big, and in a very real way, the police are the "armed enforcement squad" of the Mayor's office, and of his/her whim. If, as recently under Mayor Murphy, the Mayor decides that "something should be done" about jaywalking, it is the city police officers who are called in to "enforce" this whim - and in that case, they handed out many tickets that had huge fines attached to them. When the newspapers and others complained, the fines were dropped, and the police (on "orders from above") stopped writing tickets for jaywalking. Note that it is still a crime, this jaywalking .... just not a crime that the Mayor wants a focus on, "today."
The police chief, directly appointed by the mayor, can not really be expected to be a free agent in the "war on crime" .. and must largely support "mayorial policy" when it comes to which laws to focus on and to prosecute.
The mayor, on the other hand, must be re-elected, in order to survive as Mayor - and the large block votes MUST be listened and catered to, in order for the next election to benefit him.
What BETTER way to "buy" these votes than with public money?? .. a mayor must think!
Mayor Murphy was recently caught by the feds making a deal with taxpayer money, in exchange for the firemen union votes .. no one in power has yet made the connection between this improper deal and the continuing one with the police, though .. or maybe they have, but have been told to "stand down"?
What happens when these deals with public cash are cut? Mostly, these illegal actions have already been shielded under the umbrella of "public servant" laws, that allow these "Public" criminals to skate unpunished, because .. when it comes to public "service" .. the whole thing is a "no fault" GAME where real money and real people are quite separate from the elite politicians, and the no fault political result of improper, ill thought out, or just plain stupid actions of politicians, whose actions are separated by law from the pain, damage and devastation they usually cause. Not even an "I'm sorry" need be uttered by these criminals .. after they perform illegal and self-serving acts .. unless they violate civil rights laws, in which case they can be held accountable for improper or illegal actions.
So, with the above "rules" in mind, one can see that the police protection racket can NOT be expected to cure itself ... the insiders have millions of dollars to gain and probably nothing to lose by attempting to continue this shameful practice.
I personally, over a ten year period, have tried to have criminal charges filed against the police department which would stop this illegal practice, only to have the DA continually refuse to press charges .. his political right, though it is morally wrong - and in my mind makes him an accessory to this crime, if not a criminal conspirator himself.
I will shortly file civil charges to stop this illegal practice.
Since the courts have long granted that money gained through illegal pursuits is contraband which should be seized, I wonder what the court will say about the illegal earnings of the police officers who have worked this scam against the public businesses under their control "on duty"?
Any guesses?
Thursday, February 8, 2007
90% DISCOUNT on Concealed Weapon Permits!! Retired "Police" only need apply!!
PERSONAL ATTN:
Sheriff Mullen
Allegheny County Sheriffs Office
Dear Sheriff Mullen:
I note that the state legislature has allowed your department to increase the fee charged by yourself for the issuance and renewal of concealed firearms carry permits, and that you have indeed increased these fees – to your department’s profit.
You have increased the fees for SOME of us, that is.
I note in review that you have made a decision to charge retired police officers only 10% of the fee that you charge any other retired, employed or unemployed citizen; the fee you list for these select citizens (retired police) is $2.50, while you charge $25.00 (cash only, no checks) for the same service to less privileged citizens. WHY IS THIS?
Retired, or for that matter on-duty police and sheriffs in Pittsburgh, and all over the country for that matter, involve themselves in criminal activity, are in some cases caught and prosecuted, making them ineligible for a Pennsylvania carry permit. Surely your office conducts the same criminal history review for retired police officers as they do for retired librarians, when a renewal comes up, don’t you?
I am requesting that you provide me with the justification used by your office for offering well paid retired police officers and sheriffs with a 90% discount for the same service for which you INCREASE the fee to the rest of us.
I would also like you to supply me with a complete and comprehensive list of what vocations are included in your term “retired police officer”. IE: are you talking about anyone who has had arrest powers, are you talking about constables and court officers?
What about retired licensed private detectives?
Sheriff Mullen, I have watched for years while you personally have conspired in a criminal manner with fellow police officers to violate state law in your administration of the illegal police protection racket that has flourished within the Pittsburgh police department for decades, and most recently I have watched while you personally have done the same thing within the Sheriff’s office. It is, of course, totally illegal for your uniformed police officers or sheriff deputy’s to perform in public uniform any manner of unlicensed contracted guard or security work for private interests.
I now watch for your answer as to why you openly set your retired fellow officers up for a 90% discount for the same public service the rest of the taxpayers have to pay retail for.
You may respond to my office address @ 110 Cutler St McKees Rocks PA 15136
Thank you,
Grant W. Stapleton
Allegheny County ccw licensee &
Licensed Private Detective
Sheriff Mullen
Allegheny County Sheriffs Office
Dear Sheriff Mullen:
I note that the state legislature has allowed your department to increase the fee charged by yourself for the issuance and renewal of concealed firearms carry permits, and that you have indeed increased these fees – to your department’s profit.
You have increased the fees for SOME of us, that is.
I note in review that you have made a decision to charge retired police officers only 10% of the fee that you charge any other retired, employed or unemployed citizen; the fee you list for these select citizens (retired police) is $2.50, while you charge $25.00 (cash only, no checks) for the same service to less privileged citizens. WHY IS THIS?
Retired, or for that matter on-duty police and sheriffs in Pittsburgh, and all over the country for that matter, involve themselves in criminal activity, are in some cases caught and prosecuted, making them ineligible for a Pennsylvania carry permit. Surely your office conducts the same criminal history review for retired police officers as they do for retired librarians, when a renewal comes up, don’t you?
I am requesting that you provide me with the justification used by your office for offering well paid retired police officers and sheriffs with a 90% discount for the same service for which you INCREASE the fee to the rest of us.
I would also like you to supply me with a complete and comprehensive list of what vocations are included in your term “retired police officer”. IE: are you talking about anyone who has had arrest powers, are you talking about constables and court officers?
What about retired licensed private detectives?
Sheriff Mullen, I have watched for years while you personally have conspired in a criminal manner with fellow police officers to violate state law in your administration of the illegal police protection racket that has flourished within the Pittsburgh police department for decades, and most recently I have watched while you personally have done the same thing within the Sheriff’s office. It is, of course, totally illegal for your uniformed police officers or sheriff deputy’s to perform in public uniform any manner of unlicensed contracted guard or security work for private interests.
I now watch for your answer as to why you openly set your retired fellow officers up for a 90% discount for the same public service the rest of the taxpayers have to pay retail for.
You may respond to my office address @ 110 Cutler St McKees Rocks PA 15136
Thank you,
Grant W. Stapleton
Allegheny County ccw licensee &
Licensed Private Detective
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Public employees doing extorted Private work? So What?
On the surface, seeing off-duty policemen lounging around in one of Pittsburgh’s bars, businesses or topless bars in uniform and “on the take” (cash please, if you don’t mind too much) with the written approval of their superiors does not seem to generate much concern from the average citizen of Pittsburgh any more. This practice, after all, has been slowly growing like a cancer on the City for decades. I have even heard comments that seem to indicate a general lack of concern that this activity is illegal, because (as the comments go) “after all, doesn’t that keep the streets so much more safe?”
Let’s follow that thought through.
In addition to policemen, the city of Pittsburgh also has men and women of many other vocations employed. City works director Guy Costa, for example, has truck drivers, plumbers, backhoe operators, cement finishers and asphalt layers on city payroll. As far as I know, these city employees are effective and efficient; they do a good job – just like most of the police, while they work on city time.
If one embraces the “morality” (it is still illegal) of the off-duty police protection racket, then one should have absolutely no problem with any of Guy Costa’s backhoe workers taking the backhoe home on a trailer pulled with a city truck, and using this rig, and city gas, to do any amount of construction work “off-duty” that they can sell on the phone while working on city time, pocketing the money they earned using city assets.
What a DEAL! The city worker need not have insurance or bonding; who needs it, except for the poor private contractors, who are not backed by pals in the City?
Like the police, who sometime make costly mistakes off duty that the city pays for, if this backhoe work goes wrong and someone sues, or if there is an accident where someone from the public is hurt while the backhoe is being operated for private profit “off-duty”… it should be the City (read: “TAXPAYERS”) who should foot the total bill, right?
We also have lots of uniformed and well-equipped firemen that work for the city, that like our police, have access to the very best of city owned radios, vehicles and training.
Now, understand, the Pittsburgh police have managed in a very sneaky and self-serving manner to get someone in the city to make it a condition of some assembly permits and construction permits, that the permit applicant hires and pays OFF-DUTY police staff very high wages, to stand around and provide illegal guard services. If these permit applicants want to hire their own licensed, insured, bonded and trained security professionals ( my company is one of these licensed guard agencies), they are denied this option, they MUST use and pay off duty police staff, even if it is illegal for the off duty police officers to contract to do this work.
So, why leave the OTHER departments and city employees out of this great deal - if you think this type deal is legal?
If anyone within the Cities control wants to get a permit to re-do their driveway, or to dig a hole, why shouldn’t the Public Work’s employees get one of their insider’s somewhere in the city to make it illegal for ANYONE to use someone other than an off duty city works department employees, at time and a half or higher .. pay the truck driver, please, cash if you don't mind? You are a construction company who counts on work from the city of Pittsburgh area ?? Well, you can find something else to do for a living .. YOU are no longer needed in the City .. “our guys” can handle this work here, from now on!
What about having empty warehouses and commercial buildings, along with any gathering place with more than 50 people in it at one time, being forced by some new ordinance that would make it MANDATORY to have them hire off-duty uniformed city firemen to stand around for cash under the table .. after all, we WOULD be safer, too – what a WIN WIN! And, these hard working fireman guys of “ours” could use a little extra folding cash for the family, couldn't they? Licensed fire alarm companies do the same job cheaper and legally, you say? Who cares .. they can get their work outside our City .. “our guys” will be handling this fire-protection work from now on!
And, guess what? “We” (the City) also have accountants, painters, drivers, lawyers, engineers, architects, typists, food workers ……. Why should THEY be left out of this great Public employee/Private work racket?
..... AND, our poor uniformed meter maids. If law and order for the community and concern for overtime income for "our" people are things that should govern our actions .. What would be wrong with allowing those meter maids to keep on their uniforms, print out their own parking tickets (mail the fee to their home, not the traffic court) and do their "official job" off duty, and after hours, for their own private monetary benefit?
If only "we" don’t get caught …. just THINK about all the wonderful things "we" could do, in this Great City.
Maybe this is why many people say the best view in Pittsburgh is the one in the rear view mirror of your U-Haul truck, as you depart for safer and more free places.
Let’s follow that thought through.
In addition to policemen, the city of Pittsburgh also has men and women of many other vocations employed. City works director Guy Costa, for example, has truck drivers, plumbers, backhoe operators, cement finishers and asphalt layers on city payroll. As far as I know, these city employees are effective and efficient; they do a good job – just like most of the police, while they work on city time.
If one embraces the “morality” (it is still illegal) of the off-duty police protection racket, then one should have absolutely no problem with any of Guy Costa’s backhoe workers taking the backhoe home on a trailer pulled with a city truck, and using this rig, and city gas, to do any amount of construction work “off-duty” that they can sell on the phone while working on city time, pocketing the money they earned using city assets.
What a DEAL! The city worker need not have insurance or bonding; who needs it, except for the poor private contractors, who are not backed by pals in the City?
Like the police, who sometime make costly mistakes off duty that the city pays for, if this backhoe work goes wrong and someone sues, or if there is an accident where someone from the public is hurt while the backhoe is being operated for private profit “off-duty”… it should be the City (read: “TAXPAYERS”) who should foot the total bill, right?
We also have lots of uniformed and well-equipped firemen that work for the city, that like our police, have access to the very best of city owned radios, vehicles and training.
Now, understand, the Pittsburgh police have managed in a very sneaky and self-serving manner to get someone in the city to make it a condition of some assembly permits and construction permits, that the permit applicant hires and pays OFF-DUTY police staff very high wages, to stand around and provide illegal guard services. If these permit applicants want to hire their own licensed, insured, bonded and trained security professionals ( my company is one of these licensed guard agencies), they are denied this option, they MUST use and pay off duty police staff, even if it is illegal for the off duty police officers to contract to do this work.
So, why leave the OTHER departments and city employees out of this great deal - if you think this type deal is legal?
If anyone within the Cities control wants to get a permit to re-do their driveway, or to dig a hole, why shouldn’t the Public Work’s employees get one of their insider’s somewhere in the city to make it illegal for ANYONE to use someone other than an off duty city works department employees, at time and a half or higher .. pay the truck driver, please, cash if you don't mind? You are a construction company who counts on work from the city of Pittsburgh area ?? Well, you can find something else to do for a living .. YOU are no longer needed in the City .. “our guys” can handle this work here, from now on!
What about having empty warehouses and commercial buildings, along with any gathering place with more than 50 people in it at one time, being forced by some new ordinance that would make it MANDATORY to have them hire off-duty uniformed city firemen to stand around for cash under the table .. after all, we WOULD be safer, too – what a WIN WIN! And, these hard working fireman guys of “ours” could use a little extra folding cash for the family, couldn't they? Licensed fire alarm companies do the same job cheaper and legally, you say? Who cares .. they can get their work outside our City .. “our guys” will be handling this fire-protection work from now on!
And, guess what? “We” (the City) also have accountants, painters, drivers, lawyers, engineers, architects, typists, food workers ……. Why should THEY be left out of this great Public employee/Private work racket?
..... AND, our poor uniformed meter maids. If law and order for the community and concern for overtime income for "our" people are things that should govern our actions .. What would be wrong with allowing those meter maids to keep on their uniforms, print out their own parking tickets (mail the fee to their home, not the traffic court) and do their "official job" off duty, and after hours, for their own private monetary benefit?
If only "we" don’t get caught …. just THINK about all the wonderful things "we" could do, in this Great City.
Maybe this is why many people say the best view in Pittsburgh is the one in the rear view mirror of your U-Haul truck, as you depart for safer and more free places.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Office of Municipal Investigations - are you sleeping?
After several years of filing complaints about officers working in uniform illegally, and having the nerve to park their private cars in clearly marked "No Parking" spots while they did this illegal work, I have gotten no response to my formal complaints, although OMI claims (look at their web page) http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/omi/ that at the end of an investigation they will send notice to the complainant as to the disposition of the complaint.
I have repeatedly visited or emailed the office, and have had my requests for a meeting with their head totally ignored.
Today I once again contacted the city department of OMI, and sent a copy to the Mayor of Pittsburgh. Here is a copy of the email. I was once lots nicer in my communications with them, but believe me, after 5 years of being ignored and stonewalled by these deadbeats, this is the best I can squeeze out for them.
"roy dean" roy.dean@city.pittsburgh.pa.us
Mr. Dean,
Recently I came in to your office for perhaps the 10th
time, noting that I have not had resolution letters
given me on the many complaints I have filed in the
matters of Pittsburgh police officers parking
illegally and working so called "off duty" jobs
illegally.
I also repeated my request (this time making it a
demand) to meet with your OMI head to discuss this
lack of attention, and the fact that your office is
violating it's own dictates by not notifying me of the
resolution of my complaints.
I gave you pictures of license plates and of the
vehicles that the plates were on while they were
parked illegally, and I gave times, places and dates
of where this illegal work was being done, and in most
cases gave you the officers names. I also have
pictures of some of these officers, taken as they were
working illegally. WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED?
If you contend that this illegal parking and
contracted off duty work in police uniform is legal, I
demand to have a copy of the law(s) which you have
based your determination on. I have cited the laws
under which this work is illegal, and I now DEMAND an
answer from your office,and an IMMEDIATE MEETING with
your head to discuss your lack of response to date.
I await your response with interest.
Grant W. Stapleton
February 5, 2007
COPY: Mayor's Office
I have repeatedly visited or emailed the office, and have had my requests for a meeting with their head totally ignored.
Today I once again contacted the city department of OMI, and sent a copy to the Mayor of Pittsburgh. Here is a copy of the email. I was once lots nicer in my communications with them, but believe me, after 5 years of being ignored and stonewalled by these deadbeats, this is the best I can squeeze out for them.
"roy dean" roy.dean@city.pittsburgh.pa.us
Mr. Dean,
Recently I came in to your office for perhaps the 10th
time, noting that I have not had resolution letters
given me on the many complaints I have filed in the
matters of Pittsburgh police officers parking
illegally and working so called "off duty" jobs
illegally.
I also repeated my request (this time making it a
demand) to meet with your OMI head to discuss this
lack of attention, and the fact that your office is
violating it's own dictates by not notifying me of the
resolution of my complaints.
I gave you pictures of license plates and of the
vehicles that the plates were on while they were
parked illegally, and I gave times, places and dates
of where this illegal work was being done, and in most
cases gave you the officers names. I also have
pictures of some of these officers, taken as they were
working illegally. WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED?
If you contend that this illegal parking and
contracted off duty work in police uniform is legal, I
demand to have a copy of the law(s) which you have
based your determination on. I have cited the laws
under which this work is illegal, and I now DEMAND an
answer from your office,and an IMMEDIATE MEETING with
your head to discuss your lack of response to date.
I await your response with interest.
Grant W. Stapleton
February 5, 2007
COPY: Mayor's Office
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Blog Q & A: or Questions, we got Questions
Since posting the first two blog entries, I have had many questions asked of me, most of which fall into one of three categories:
1. Are you crazy or just kidding about this? If this is illegal, why haven’t I heard about it, or why has nothing been done about it before?
2. You sound like you are against police in general and Pittsburgh law and order in particular! These cops, even off duty, are “on the job” – don’t they have “special rights” when it comes to things that normal citizens don’t have?
3. Aren’t you afraid of retribution, making statements like this, about the police? After all, “they have more guns than you,” the old saying goes – right?
Since these are all good and worthy questions, I will answer them here, for all to read, rather than answer these one at a time in person:
1. No, I am not crazy or kidding about the illegal activity these political insiders have been getting away with right out in the open, in front of everyone – as a matter of fact, I am as serious about stopping this illegal protection racket in Pittsburgh as is a two-week toothache without medical insurance!
I have been watching this amazing police corruption going on around me in da burgh - undiscovered and unpunished - for a long time now, and I have been feeling a little like the little boy in Hans Christian Anderson’s fable about “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Convinced at last that, like that little boy in that fable, I am the only one who can see the truth. I am, like he did, now coming to the public with the truth of the matter.
Why come forward in a blog, and not in a quiet word to higher law enforcement than the Chiefs of the Pittsburgh Police – who have and are themselves illegally involved in this CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY? Another saying goes: “Been there, done that.”
Over several years I have officially contacted the mayor, deputy mayor, the chief of police, the law department for the city, the (totally worthless under the current director) Office of Municipal Investigations (OMI), the head of the local FOP union and their atty., and I have personally served illegally working off duty officers notices that their contracted employment was illegal. After getting no response to reporting on this illegal activity, I went to the District Atty. for Allegheny County, and delivered to him a legal brief that outlined by chapter and exact citation, which laws were being violated, and by exactly which officials and officers. When the district atty. refused to do his duty to arrest and prosecute these criminals, I attempted to file these same criminal charges on my own (through a district justice), as is the right of any citizen who personally sees criminal activity taking place – but the district atty. refused to accept my paperwork. Does everyone know that a district atty. is legally able to “pick and choose” what criminals he wishes to prosecute?
Only the County Police have held their heads above this corruption, while the sheriffs and Pittsburgh police and their rapaciously greedy FOP union have all wallowed like pigs in the mud at this illegal protection money-trough. Read the following article http://www.post-gazette.com/neigh_city/20030815fopcity5p5.asp and note that Jim Hasara of the County Police is saying in this article that he knows that it is ILLEGAL for his county police to do this “off-duty” work (His old boss, Jim Roddy knew, because I personally met with him and told him so). It is also illegal for the sheriffs and Pittsburgh police to do this work, and it is illegal and criminal conspiracy for the chief of police and the sheriff to allow their employees to contract out their labor as security for private employers in an illegal fashion - and even more so when these criminal officers are given official permission to masquerade as public servants with their uniforms on, while officially “off-duty,” and illegally being paid to do work for which they are forbidden by state law to do.
After being ignored at the city and district atty. level, I would have gone to state officials early on with this complaint, but until recently I was working as an aide and legislative analyst for a member of the Penna. House of Representatives, who told me that he knew that this work that the police were doing was illegal, but who also demanded on the threat of me being fired that I NOT report this further. Now that Jeff Habay has been arrested, convicted and faces jail himself, for his own ethics breaches, I am no longer constrained by this threat of losing my job for telling the truth about the legal and ethical actions of the Pittsburgh police. The funny thing in the case of Habay is that once convicted and let out of confinement on house arrest – he was required by the Court to obtain work, and until I had to write his judge a official letter detailing the law and how Habay was violating it, convict Habay got (with help from his friends) work as an well-paid illegally contracted for SECURITY GUARD, just like the off-duty Pittsburgh police who he shielded with threats to me while I worked for him .. Hummm.Why the judge ordered Habay to quit his illegal job, but there were no police charges filed in this matter of illegal employment is your guess… all I know is that within my letter to the judge I asked that Habay be charged in this illegal employment scheme, and that he was only ordered to cease working – I have seen no charges filed by the D. A. in this matter either – Steve, who are you shielding in this particular decision not to prosecute for this latest violation of the Private Detective Act … still the criminal element within the police, or who -since it certainly can't be Habay himself?
2. No, I do NOT hate or disrespect law and order in general OR the Pittsburgh police or the Sheriff of Allegheny in particular. As a former sworn officer myself, I feel a continuing brotherly bond for fellow citizens who now work, as I once did, “on the job.” I do draw a “thin blue line” though, when a fraternal friend goes “off the reservation” and crosses that line, and who commits a crime against the very citizens he is sworn to protect. This fraternal feeling of mine evaporates completely when the officer(s) band together to fleece the very sheep they are hired and paid to watch over - and then arrogantly refuse to cease and desist this self-serving crime when notified informally that their actions are illegal.
After being a policeman long ago, I was a bonded international security expert and bodyguard, a bonded courier, and later a private detective, criminal investigator, and legislative aide. I have worked in law enforcement and law creation service almost all of my life. Including former Atty Generals and many current and retired law-enforcement personnel .. most of my friends are or have been involved in upholding US and state laws. I value the laws that keep society together, and I can tell you I have personally worked in foreign countries under police state law, and it AIN'T, folks, a place you want to live. Saying this, I see Pittsburgh as being a city under police rule, not the rule of morality or of public Law. As a matter of fact, after investigating this protection racket for years, I KNOW it is! (keep reading my blog, and soon you too will know this sad fact).
I live here, and my family and friends live here, and this is where I have chosen to try to make an honest living, doing the very same things the police have illegally usurped but that I am licensed to do. The illegal and immoral actions of a few crooked police are interfering with my right to live in a free country governed by the laws of men, not governed by the biggest gang or the gang with the most guns. I will NOT live in a police state (or a police city) and keep my head bowed and bahhha like a tame sheep, that is NOT the American way.
But, having said this, I am in NO way anti law, or anti police.
I have happily and at my own request sat on a local board of citizens who have put together at great effort and cost a series of “Law Enforcement Appreciation” luncheons, one of which honored my friends, (former) Sheriff Pete DeFazio with an award that he merited, I felt. Now, as a licensed criminal investigator, with evidence at hand, I am calling Pete, and his deputies who performed illegal work with his approval .. CRIMINALS. Nothing personal or hateful with that, it is what it is.
While I speak of CRIMINALS, the new acting Sheriff is, in my view, twice the criminal that the former sheriff was, because William Mullen, now our county’s proud acting sheriff, also was a co-conspirator in the illegal protection racket - when he worked for the Pittsburgh police department, prior to making an “insiders jump” to acting sheriff. I have no respect at all for Sheriff Mullen, as, along with then Chief McNeely, he flatly refused to meet with me to discuss resolution of this matter short of legal action.
Sheriff Mullen, if you are reading this, I say to you now in public, what you would not listen to in private before: that some of your deputies are contracting out their services in your uniform, and are working illegally with your permission, just like certain of the police officers under you before did. This makes them criminals, and you even more so, as I charge here and now that you are guilty of criminal conspiracy to violate sections of the County Code and the Private Detective Act of 1953.
Since there seems to be some who may not believe my evaluation of the law in this town, I invite you to sue me for calling you a criminal (I am calling you just that) if you truly believe your actions and those under you are in keeping with the laws of our Commonwealth. If you have had competent legal advice you will already know you are a crook, and you will not dare to sue me, because that might be the only way I can get this protection racket to be heard by the court.
We will talk about where all the money gathered by these officers and deputies goes later.
As far as "special rights" for police, other than the "rights" offered by law of arrest powers, to be used ONLY ON BEHALF OF THE PUBLIC interest, while on official duty .. when it comes to speeding, parking, drug use, gambling, driving drunk or other violations of the public laws (to include the restriction placed against police with arrest powers NOT being allowed to contract their services as security or guard work to the public) police officers should be held to a HIGHER, not a LOWER standard than the average citizen. All moral police officers know this, as I suspect do most average citizens: One can not be entrusted to enforce the very laws that he does not obey himself - Particularly where violations of the law puts large amounts of cash into the officers pocket.
Am I afraid to bring this illegal activity to light?
Well, sure, who wouldn’t be? I said above that I was not crazy! I have already had anonymous calls warning me to stop this investigation “in the interest of my health,”and I have been assaulted in the Strip district by an uniformed off-duty officer, when I asked him if he was on or off duty. Also, in the past, several of these illegal off-duty uniformed thugs working the Strip “barked” derisively at my lovely date, trying to egg me on, and the list can go on.
When I first tried to bring this illegal activity to light, and attempted to bring this information to Allegheny County District Atty. Steve Zappala, Steve, admittedly one of the “good ol boys,” not only refused to take my testimony to impanel a Grand Jury to investigate this serious police crime, he also refused to honor my request for witness protection for myself and my family, or even to issue or loan me a bullet proof vest, as I requested.
So, yes, I worry about reactions of the organized criminals whose activities I bring out into the light of day, but in no way will I allow that worry to stop me, or even to slow me down:
In this case, as in many others (though I hate to say it exactly this way) another saying is valid: “What does not kill me, only serves to make me stronger”
Stay tuned .. much more to come
1. Are you crazy or just kidding about this? If this is illegal, why haven’t I heard about it, or why has nothing been done about it before?
2. You sound like you are against police in general and Pittsburgh law and order in particular! These cops, even off duty, are “on the job” – don’t they have “special rights” when it comes to things that normal citizens don’t have?
3. Aren’t you afraid of retribution, making statements like this, about the police? After all, “they have more guns than you,” the old saying goes – right?
Since these are all good and worthy questions, I will answer them here, for all to read, rather than answer these one at a time in person:
1. No, I am not crazy or kidding about the illegal activity these political insiders have been getting away with right out in the open, in front of everyone – as a matter of fact, I am as serious about stopping this illegal protection racket in Pittsburgh as is a two-week toothache without medical insurance!
I have been watching this amazing police corruption going on around me in da burgh - undiscovered and unpunished - for a long time now, and I have been feeling a little like the little boy in Hans Christian Anderson’s fable about “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Convinced at last that, like that little boy in that fable, I am the only one who can see the truth. I am, like he did, now coming to the public with the truth of the matter.
Why come forward in a blog, and not in a quiet word to higher law enforcement than the Chiefs of the Pittsburgh Police – who have and are themselves illegally involved in this CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY? Another saying goes: “Been there, done that.”
Over several years I have officially contacted the mayor, deputy mayor, the chief of police, the law department for the city, the (totally worthless under the current director) Office of Municipal Investigations (OMI), the head of the local FOP union and their atty., and I have personally served illegally working off duty officers notices that their contracted employment was illegal. After getting no response to reporting on this illegal activity, I went to the District Atty. for Allegheny County, and delivered to him a legal brief that outlined by chapter and exact citation, which laws were being violated, and by exactly which officials and officers. When the district atty. refused to do his duty to arrest and prosecute these criminals, I attempted to file these same criminal charges on my own (through a district justice), as is the right of any citizen who personally sees criminal activity taking place – but the district atty. refused to accept my paperwork. Does everyone know that a district atty. is legally able to “pick and choose” what criminals he wishes to prosecute?
Only the County Police have held their heads above this corruption, while the sheriffs and Pittsburgh police and their rapaciously greedy FOP union have all wallowed like pigs in the mud at this illegal protection money-trough. Read the following article http://www.post-gazette.com/neigh_city/20030815fopcity5p5.asp and note that Jim Hasara of the County Police is saying in this article that he knows that it is ILLEGAL for his county police to do this “off-duty” work (His old boss, Jim Roddy knew, because I personally met with him and told him so). It is also illegal for the sheriffs and Pittsburgh police to do this work, and it is illegal and criminal conspiracy for the chief of police and the sheriff to allow their employees to contract out their labor as security for private employers in an illegal fashion - and even more so when these criminal officers are given official permission to masquerade as public servants with their uniforms on, while officially “off-duty,” and illegally being paid to do work for which they are forbidden by state law to do.
After being ignored at the city and district atty. level, I would have gone to state officials early on with this complaint, but until recently I was working as an aide and legislative analyst for a member of the Penna. House of Representatives, who told me that he knew that this work that the police were doing was illegal, but who also demanded on the threat of me being fired that I NOT report this further. Now that Jeff Habay has been arrested, convicted and faces jail himself, for his own ethics breaches, I am no longer constrained by this threat of losing my job for telling the truth about the legal and ethical actions of the Pittsburgh police. The funny thing in the case of Habay is that once convicted and let out of confinement on house arrest – he was required by the Court to obtain work, and until I had to write his judge a official letter detailing the law and how Habay was violating it, convict Habay got (with help from his friends) work as an well-paid illegally contracted for SECURITY GUARD, just like the off-duty Pittsburgh police who he shielded with threats to me while I worked for him .. Hummm.Why the judge ordered Habay to quit his illegal job, but there were no police charges filed in this matter of illegal employment is your guess… all I know is that within my letter to the judge I asked that Habay be charged in this illegal employment scheme, and that he was only ordered to cease working – I have seen no charges filed by the D. A. in this matter either – Steve, who are you shielding in this particular decision not to prosecute for this latest violation of the Private Detective Act … still the criminal element within the police, or who -since it certainly can't be Habay himself?
2. No, I do NOT hate or disrespect law and order in general OR the Pittsburgh police or the Sheriff of Allegheny in particular. As a former sworn officer myself, I feel a continuing brotherly bond for fellow citizens who now work, as I once did, “on the job.” I do draw a “thin blue line” though, when a fraternal friend goes “off the reservation” and crosses that line, and who commits a crime against the very citizens he is sworn to protect. This fraternal feeling of mine evaporates completely when the officer(s) band together to fleece the very sheep they are hired and paid to watch over - and then arrogantly refuse to cease and desist this self-serving crime when notified informally that their actions are illegal.
After being a policeman long ago, I was a bonded international security expert and bodyguard, a bonded courier, and later a private detective, criminal investigator, and legislative aide. I have worked in law enforcement and law creation service almost all of my life. Including former Atty Generals and many current and retired law-enforcement personnel .. most of my friends are or have been involved in upholding US and state laws. I value the laws that keep society together, and I can tell you I have personally worked in foreign countries under police state law, and it AIN'T, folks, a place you want to live. Saying this, I see Pittsburgh as being a city under police rule, not the rule of morality or of public Law. As a matter of fact, after investigating this protection racket for years, I KNOW it is! (keep reading my blog, and soon you too will know this sad fact).
I live here, and my family and friends live here, and this is where I have chosen to try to make an honest living, doing the very same things the police have illegally usurped but that I am licensed to do. The illegal and immoral actions of a few crooked police are interfering with my right to live in a free country governed by the laws of men, not governed by the biggest gang or the gang with the most guns. I will NOT live in a police state (or a police city) and keep my head bowed and bahhha like a tame sheep, that is NOT the American way.
But, having said this, I am in NO way anti law, or anti police.
I have happily and at my own request sat on a local board of citizens who have put together at great effort and cost a series of “Law Enforcement Appreciation” luncheons, one of which honored my friends, (former) Sheriff Pete DeFazio with an award that he merited, I felt. Now, as a licensed criminal investigator, with evidence at hand, I am calling Pete, and his deputies who performed illegal work with his approval .. CRIMINALS. Nothing personal or hateful with that, it is what it is.
While I speak of CRIMINALS, the new acting Sheriff is, in my view, twice the criminal that the former sheriff was, because William Mullen, now our county’s proud acting sheriff, also was a co-conspirator in the illegal protection racket - when he worked for the Pittsburgh police department, prior to making an “insiders jump” to acting sheriff. I have no respect at all for Sheriff Mullen, as, along with then Chief McNeely, he flatly refused to meet with me to discuss resolution of this matter short of legal action.
Sheriff Mullen, if you are reading this, I say to you now in public, what you would not listen to in private before: that some of your deputies are contracting out their services in your uniform, and are working illegally with your permission, just like certain of the police officers under you before did. This makes them criminals, and you even more so, as I charge here and now that you are guilty of criminal conspiracy to violate sections of the County Code and the Private Detective Act of 1953.
Since there seems to be some who may not believe my evaluation of the law in this town, I invite you to sue me for calling you a criminal (I am calling you just that) if you truly believe your actions and those under you are in keeping with the laws of our Commonwealth. If you have had competent legal advice you will already know you are a crook, and you will not dare to sue me, because that might be the only way I can get this protection racket to be heard by the court.
We will talk about where all the money gathered by these officers and deputies goes later.
As far as "special rights" for police, other than the "rights" offered by law of arrest powers, to be used ONLY ON BEHALF OF THE PUBLIC interest, while on official duty .. when it comes to speeding, parking, drug use, gambling, driving drunk or other violations of the public laws (to include the restriction placed against police with arrest powers NOT being allowed to contract their services as security or guard work to the public) police officers should be held to a HIGHER, not a LOWER standard than the average citizen. All moral police officers know this, as I suspect do most average citizens: One can not be entrusted to enforce the very laws that he does not obey himself - Particularly where violations of the law puts large amounts of cash into the officers pocket.
Am I afraid to bring this illegal activity to light?
Well, sure, who wouldn’t be? I said above that I was not crazy! I have already had anonymous calls warning me to stop this investigation “in the interest of my health,”and I have been assaulted in the Strip district by an uniformed off-duty officer, when I asked him if he was on or off duty. Also, in the past, several of these illegal off-duty uniformed thugs working the Strip “barked” derisively at my lovely date, trying to egg me on, and the list can go on.
When I first tried to bring this illegal activity to light, and attempted to bring this information to Allegheny County District Atty. Steve Zappala, Steve, admittedly one of the “good ol boys,” not only refused to take my testimony to impanel a Grand Jury to investigate this serious police crime, he also refused to honor my request for witness protection for myself and my family, or even to issue or loan me a bullet proof vest, as I requested.
So, yes, I worry about reactions of the organized criminals whose activities I bring out into the light of day, but in no way will I allow that worry to stop me, or even to slow me down:
In this case, as in many others (though I hate to say it exactly this way) another saying is valid: “What does not kill me, only serves to make me stronger”
Stay tuned .. much more to come
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