Ignore politicians, make real change. How Voters, Not Politicians, Are Reforming California's Harsh Sentencing Laws - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "California voters approved a sweeping change to sentencing on Tuesday by passing Proposition 47 and knocking most drug possession and "petty theft" charges down from felonies to a misdemeanors. Only months earlier, Governor Jerry Brown vetoed similar, and more modest, changes to California's sentencing laws, claiming that the state's plan to "realign" convicts from state prisons to county jails required more time to fully take effect. This is not the first time California voters have routed around the obstinate political establishment to address the state's massive prison overcrowding problem. In 2012, voters amended the state's longstanding Three Strikes law to allow resentencing of nonviolent, nonserious third strikes. "
Thuggish douchebaggery. Deputy suspended after video post - Times Union: "A Saratoga County sheriff's sergeant was suspended after a video posted on the Internet Friday captured him allegedly slapping a young man as the deputy insisted on searching his vehicle...
Sgt. Shawn R. Glans, 48, who has been a police officer for 27 years, was suspended without pay pending an internal investigation...
The video depicts Glans becoming frustrated as he says: "Let me see your (expletive) keys." "Why?" the young man asks. "You can't do that." "Because we're searching your (expletive) car, that's why," Glans says. The deputy then apparently slaps the young man as he says: "You want to (expletive) resist?" The slap can be heard but is not captured on the video because the camera was pointed downward.
At that point, it appears from sounds in the video that Glans grabs the young man's car keys and tosses them to someone off screen, as he says: "Search the (expletive) car." It's unclear from the video if another deputy is at the scene. Glans then tells the young man, who remains calm throughout the ordeal, that "if you've got nothing to hide in there ... we'll be on our (expletive) merry way." The young man filming the incident tells the sergeant that what just happened was "intense" and asks the officer if he's going strike him next. The sheriff's sergeant responds that he could "rip your (expletive) head off and (expletive) down your neck" "You like that, huh? I can get a lot more intense," the sergeant tells the young man.
Reached Saturday, Glans said there was more to the encounter than is captured on the video. "You saw the video. It doesn't look good," Glans told the Times Union. "I'm all about doing the right thing. I had to go to that point because of the factors that came into play. There was a gun that was involved (that) I spotted in the vehicle." Asked if he would have handled the matter the same way again, Glans said he would, but not if he knew it was being filmed. He acknowledged that he did not know the incident was being videotaped. "I was concerned. It was a public safety issue," the sergeant said. "If I had to do it all over again ... I'd probably do the same thing. If I knew the camera was there, no, because it does look bad."
Glans, who has also worked for the South Glens Falls police department, said he was in the U.S. Marine Corps before becoming a police officer..."
#TheStruggleIsReal
"Nympho Killers of the Third Reich"? Sold.