Police: Blacks attack Asian students on IU campus

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Indiana University police say a group of African Americans used racial slurs before attacking and robbing a group of Asian students.

Police say the attack happened about 4 a.m. Sunday and say they're searching for suspects.

In a news release, university police say eight Asian students were walking to a dorm on the Bloomington campus when five black males and three black females approached them.

Police say the blacks used anti-Chinese slurs and words were exchanged.

Police say four of the Asians were assaulted or robbed. They say one was treated at a hospital for facial injuries and released.

Police say the attackers stole an iPad, an iPod, two sets of head phones, and a cell phone.

Investigators plan to review security videos to look for clues.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Police Chief Claims Racism In Fight With Town Council

BROOKLYN, Ind. -- Dozens of people rallied Friday in support of a small town police chief who they claim is being targeted because he is black and on an opposing side of a small town political quarrel.  The town council of Brooklyn, a small community in Morgan County, intended to meet in executive session to discuss the future of Chief Chris Hester, Channel 6 News Rick Hightower reported.  Because of a technicality in the public notice posting about the meeting, councilors couldn't proceed.  Hester and media members weren't allowed inside.
      Outside, Hester was backed up by about 100 supporters as he claimed at least one council member made racially sensitive remarks about him and wants him ousted as chief.
      "I believe (racism) by one or two of them, yes. I believe they're just still stuck in the 1800s, 1900s," he said. "I have proof. I have audio, and I have witnesses. This is just absolute harassment, in my opinion."
      Four Indiana State Police troopers were on hand to ensure no trouble erupted between opponents."It's just discrimination against people I think is wrong," said Erika Underwood, one of Hester's supporters. "Chris is a very good person and policeman."
      Council members left without speaking to the media, but 6News interviewed Frank Sams, one of the men Hester accused of making racial remarks, later at his home."I have no idea why they would ever think it's racist," Sams said, adding that he doesn't think there is audio of him uttering a racist remark.
      "I'm unhappy with the job he's doing."Sams claimed that Hester hasn't cut speeding in town and that he's hard to find.
      An executive session was rescheduled for Oct. 21. It will be followed by a public meeting where the council could take action against Hester, who filed complaints with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

IMPD Officer Bisard maintains innocence in email to colleagues

     

      Indianapolis - Officer David Bisard, the Indianapolis Metro Police officer charged with reckless homicide in an Aug. 6th crash that killed an Indianapolis man, maintains his innocence in a recent email to his colleagues on the K-9 unit.
      Eyewitness News Crimebeat reporter Steve Jefferson obtained a copy of the email. Bisard appears to criticize his fellow officers for their lack of support.
      "I am so displeased with the K9 unit save for two people...you guys don't believe in me at all. I am innocent and you all have let outside people influence your opinions of me...I haven't heard from any of you except for the two," Bisard writes.
      "I sent this to you because I had a lot of respect for you before all of this and I don't care if you spread it around the unit but you had better relay my innocence because that is what I am. Innocent," he adds.
      Bisard has not spoken to the media about the case. His blood alcohol content was tested at .19 two hours after the deadly crash that also severely injured two other motorcyclists. Charges related to DUI were thrown out on a technicality. The case prompted a shake-up at IMPD and forced the city to review procedures when officers are involved in crashes.

(WTHR)  

BMV Commissioner Held on Public Indecency Charge After Arrest at Downtown Restroom

  

      Bureau of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Andrew J. Miller was arrested Wednesday after police say he exposed and touched himself in front of an undercover officer in a Downtown public restroom.
     Miller, 40, Carmel, was held in the Marion County Jail on an initial charge of public indecency, records show. Bail had not yet been set.
      Police arrested Miller after they say he masturbated and asked an undercover officer to touch his genitals in the men's bathroom at Claypool Court, 110 W. Washington St., at about 1:30 p.m., according to police records.
      Jane Jankowski, spokeswoman for Gov. Mitch Daniels, declined comment on Miller's arrest.
      Miller was appointed to the $115,000-a-year post of BMV commissioner in December 2008. He previously was director of the state's Office of Disaster Recovery.
      Miller had had served as director of the state Department of Agriculture from 2005 to July 2008. Before joining state government he was vice president of research, development and marketing for Weaver Popcorn and held posts at Proctor & Gamble, Nabisco and ConAgra.
      The Claypool Court men's room, located across the street from Circle Centre Mall, is known to police as a "cruising" spot where men meet for sex. In 2001, police arrested Indiana Board of Education member Denver McFadden after he exposed himself to an undercover officer.
      After his arrest, McFadden lost his seat on the Board of Education and resigned from his $75,000-a-year job as the New Albany-Floyd County school district's director of elementary education. A jury later found him guilty of misdemeanor public indecency and he was sentenced to a year's probation.

(INDYSTAR)

No Pay, No Spray: Firefighters Let Home Burn!!

       

       Firefighters in rural Tennessee let a home burn to the ground last week because the homeowner hadn't paid a $75 fee.

      Gene Cranick of Obion County and his family lost all of their possessions in the Sept. 29 fire, along with three dogs and a cat. 
      "They could have been saved if they had put water on it, but they didn't do it," Cranick told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.
      The fire started when the Cranicks' grandson was burning trash near the family home. As it grew out of control, the Cranicks called 911, but the fire department from the nearby city of South Fulton would not respond.
      "We wasn't on their list," he said the operators told him.
      Cranick, who lives outside the city limits, admits he "forgot" to pay the annual $75 fee. The county does not have a county-wide firefighting service, but South Fulton offers fire coverage to rural residents for a fee.
Cranick says he told the operator he would pay whatever is necessary to have the fire put out.
      His offer wasn't accepted, he said.
      The fire fee policy dates back 20 or so years.
      "Anybody that's not inside the city limits of South Fulton, it's a service we offer. Either they accept it or they don't," said South Fulton Mayor David Crocker.
      The fire department's decision to let the home burn was "incredibly irresponsible," said the president of an association representing firefighters.
      "Professional, career firefighters shouldn’t be forced to check a list before running out the door to see which homeowners have paid up," Harold Schatisberger, International Association of Fire Fighters president, said in a statement. "They get in their trucks and go."
      Firefighters did eventually show up, but only to fight the fire on the neighboring property, whose owner had paid the fee.
      "They put water out on the fence line out here. They never said nothing to me. Never acknowledged. They stood out here and watched it burn," Cranick said.
      South Fulton's mayor said that the fire department can't let homeowners pay the fee on the spot, because the only people who would pay would be those whose homes are on fire.
Cranick, who is now living in a trailer on his property, says his insurance policy will help cover some of his lost home.
      "Insurance is going to pay for what money I had on the policy, looks like. But like everything else, I didn't have enough."
      After the blaze, South Fulton police arrested one of Cranick's sons, Timothy Allen Cranick, on an aggravated assault charge, according to WPSD-TV, an NBC station in Paducah, Ky.
      Police told WPSD that the younger Cranick attacked Fire Chief David Wilds at the firehouse because he was upset his father's house was allowed to burn.
      WPSD-TV reported that Wilds was treated and released.

© 2010 msnbc.com Reprints

"Prominent" Suspect Finally Decides It is Convenient to Stop By the Jail and Bond Out

    
      Police arrested an Indianapolis woman Monday in the hit-and-run death of a Greenfield police officer.
Sue Anne Vanderbeck, 61, turned herself in Monday afternoon to the Henry County Sheriff’s Department, said Maj. Derek Towle of the Greenfield Police Department.
     Vanderbeck is charged with leaving the scene of an accident causing death, Towle said. The felony charge carries a standard four-year prison term. She bonded out of the Henry County Jail after being processed, Towle said, adding that his information came from Henry County Sheriff Butch Baker. Vanderbeck’s bond had been set at $10,000.
      Officer William Phillips, 32, was killed early Thursday morning when a vehicle struck his bicycle while he was training with two other officers along U.S. 40 in Henry County just west of Knightstown.
     “We’re relieved that an arrest has been made,” Towle said. “There’s still a long way to go. We realize that. But at least we can start to get some closure.”
      Greenfield, where Phillips lived and worked, is in Hancock County – the county just west of Henry County, where Phillips was killed.
      Henry County Prosecutor Kit Crane did not return a call placed to his office Monday.
Phillips’ funeral is set for 11 a.m. today Tuesday at Greenfield-Central High School, 810 N. Broadway St. The Rev. Adam Detamore of Greenfield’s Realife Church will officiate.
      After the funeral, a procession will carry Phillips’ casket from the high school – likely around 1 p.m. – and head south on Broadway to Main Street. It will proceed west on Main Street before turning back north at Franklin. The procession will proceed east at New Road before turning south at Blue Road. At Main Street, the procession will again head west – this time turning south at State Street and concluding at Park Cemetery, 621 S State St.
      Several ceremonial stops are planned along the procession. The posthumous awarding of a garrison flag to Phillips will occur near Main and Pratt streets. The procession also will stop in front of the Greenfield Police Department, where Phillips will be marked out of service over the police radio frequency for a final time.

(INDYSTAR.COM)

UPDATE!!! Henry County Preferential Treatment Not the First Time

      Police Investigators have been told that the woman who killed a police officer and fled the scene was not being arrested as a condition of negotiations to get her statement by Proscutor Crane.  Also an interesting note, Sheriff Butch Baker used to work for Henry County Prosecutor Crane as his Chief Investigator.

      Crane has handled other criminal negotiations in the past that are usually left to the police.  One case involved former State Senator Tom Saunders whose son hit a driver and killed him and then fled the scene.

      Crane negotiated this case through his Deputy Prosecutor.  That case took about two weeks to resolve and Saunder's son to turn himself in.

     In that case, Butch Baker was working for the Prosecutor at the time and is also Saunder's cousin.

(FOX59)

More "Horseplay" at IMPD Causes Damage to Police Cruiser

     
      An Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department car was damaged when a horse in the city's mounted patrol kicked the left headlight, then defecated on the hood, police said Thursday.
      "Baker", a mounted unit cared for by IMPD Officer Stephen Gorgieski, was working Downtown on Saturday night when the animal damaged the 2009 Ford Crown Victoria police car at the corner of Illinois and Maryland streets.
      Officer Jeffrey Taylor reported the incident, and an evidence technician was called to photograph the damage.
      No disciplinary action will be taken against "Baker", Lt. Jeff Duhamell said.

(IndyStar)

Good Ole' Boy System Alive and Well in Indiana!

      Not counting the recent Bisard situation in Indianapolis, I am trying to remember a time when a local public official or a group of public officials made a more blatant act of "special treatment" to a "prominent person" than they have this week in Henry County, Indiana.  I mean, granted, what would one expect from a Sheriff named "Butch" and a prosecutor named "Kit"?  Click on the link at the end of my rant and read this story that Fox 59 reported earlier about a cop killing woman who fled the scene of the crime and was interviewed days later (as arranged by some ballwashing attorney) and not arrested.  When it was discovered David Bisard committed a crime, he was in Marion County Jail posting bond less than 48 hours later.  In Bisard's case, thousands of people across the nation are enraged at that special treatment he received.
      According to Fox 59 and the Indianapolis Star, "A Sheriff's detective and State Police detective met the woman Friday at an undisclosed location to take her statement."
      Fox 59 also learned that "investigators were ordered to not arrest the woman by Henry County Sheriff Butch Baker and Henry County Prosecutor Kit Crane, who has been handling the negotiations."
      Sources tell Fox 59 the woman is reportedly a prominent person in the community and gave police a statement Friday.       
 
      This lady better have some type of diplomatic immunity from another country for this ridiculous order of "not to arrest her" to hold water.  And if she is a state representative/senator who can't be arrested because they are in session and all of that BS, we at least deserve to know who they are.  Those reasons I could at least understand, even if I don't agree with them.  BUT, I highly doubt anyone too prominent is going to be out driving after midnight in an almost 9-year-old Toyota Corolla with a loud muffler.  Maybe she is one of Butch's or Kit's deputies?  If this was just a simple accident like "Oh my God, I didn't see the glow sticks, the flashing lights or yards of reflective material worn by all of the officers on their bikes", then why not stop like a normal person.  Drunk perhaps?  Driving under the influence of a narcotic or illegal drug?  Need some time for it to clear out of your system?  Sure, why not?  Just flee the scene, leave the officer dead and bleeding.  No big deal, just have your scumbag attorney call "Butch" or "Kit" and tell them when you are good and detoxed, you will give them a statement.  Then tell them after that, when you get time, maybe your greaseball attorney can arrange your jail book-in.  Whenever it's convenient for you.  Just call Butch or Kit.  They might be off pitching horseshoes or at the fishing hole, but they will meet you at the jail whenever, ya' hear?
      I didn't grow up in Henry County, but I don't remember any prominent people in my community that had an IQ of less than 60. And I think anyone with an IQ above that would know better than to flee the scene of striking a bicyclist, cop or no cop! 
      Well, it's apparent Butch and his sheriff's posse haven't learned a thing from the David Bisard case.  Some people are above the law and Butch and the boys don't care who knows it.  Hell, they will even announce the fact to the news media.  It will be interesting to see who this person is and what special circumstances makes it so she and her attorney decide when and how she goes to jail for killing a policeman.        
               

To the family of William Phillips, my thoughts are still with you.  And I promise the ill thoughts of the investigators handling William's case won't overshadow my appreciation for the sacrifice that Officer William Phillips made for the community, the State of Indiana and to the world.

CLICK HERE TO READ ALL ABOUT THIS CRAP!!

Indiana Police Officer Killed - Police are Negotiating Surrender of Suspect

 Greenfield, Indiana -   Greenfield Police Officer William Phillips was killed in a hit-and-run accident while he was conducting police bicycle riding training with two other officers. The crash occurred on U.S. 40 near Knightstown at around 12:30 a.m. Thursday. 

      Phillips leaves behind his wife, Leslie, his sons, ages 5 and 2.  My heart goes out to the family, friends and community of Officer Phillips.

 

Ex-Marshal in S. Ind. Pleads Guilty to False Time Sheets

PRINCETON, Ind. — The former marshal of a Southern Indiana town has pleaded guilty to charges that he ordered part-time officers to submit falsified time sheets and then kept the money.  Former Haubstadt Town Marshal Micah Rulli made the plea Thursday in a Gibson County court on felony counts of theft and official misconduct. The Princeton Daily Clarion reports prosecutors dropped forgery charges and another count of theft.

      State troopers arrested Rulli in March after investigators found Rulli told two officers in the town about 20 miles north of Evansville to add hours to their time sheets and give the extra money to him for buying equipment if needed.  Police said the fraudulent pay totaled about $350.  Rulli is to be sentenced Nov. 1 and faces six months to three years in prison.

(written by AP)

The Tax Man Cometh - for Brock Walker!

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