Phoenix Police Seize PCs of a Blogger Critical of the Department

logicassasin sends in a story about a blogger in Phoenix, AZ, who runs a site that is critical of the local police department. The police recently raided his home and seized his computer hardware. "Jeff Pataky, who runs Bad Phoenix Cops, said the officers confiscated three computers, routers, modems, hard drives, memory cards and everything necessary to continue blogging. The 41-year-old software engineer said they also confiscated numerous personal files and documents relating to a pending lawsuit he has against the department alleging harassment — which he says makes it obvious the raid was an act of retaliation." A local publication quotes Pataky saying, "We have heard internally from our police sources that they purposefully did this to stop me... They took my cable modem and wireless router. Anyone worth their salt knows nothing is stored in the cable modem."

Comments

Re:No one left to speak for me

[BitZtream]

Hahahah they came for the bloggers.

Are you fucking kidding me?

You don't even know what this guy did/didn't do, or why they took his shit, and you assume he was innocent and didn't deserve it?

Lets make this use an evolution analogy for this, since most slashdotters perfer that religion.

We have you, a cage at a zoo, and a sleeping bear. The bear represents the cops, you prepresent the blogger.

Now when you get into the cage, of your own free will, and then proceed to poke the bear repeatedly with a pointy stick. He'll eventually wake up and eat you for breakfast.

Now any normal person would say 'Duh, saw that one coming'. And I for one would have to thank the bear for working together with evolution to take your dumb ass out of the gene pool.

I don't care how right or wrong you think you or he is, if you continually fuck with cops, you're a god damn idiot if you don't think they will eventually get tired of it and do something about it. Thats true for any one, not just cops. Fuck with the girl scouts long enough and they'll probably end up beating your ass too.

But only in 'the free world' do we, as humans, think that there are no repercussions for our actions.

You neither no what the guy did in the first place, what he said on his little blog, nor why the took his stuff.

You're assuming the cops are guilty of committing a crime with absolutely no idea at all what happened. All you know is what some other bloggers wrote, GOOD source of info there, no bias or anything.

Get a fucking grip, $10 says this guy did something illegal as shit and is just a bumbling idiot.

$20 says the guy is a fucking moron regardless of what illegal activities he did.

$50 says you're an idiot for jumping to conclusions with no facts what so ever. In America, people, ALL people are innocent until proven guilty, and you've already decided the cops are guilty and done so based on some story written by one of the accused.

Let me make it better. I caught you fondling 12 year old girls last week, now you're going to jail where you will promptly be beaten and raped.

I have just as much credibility as the people who are writing about what happened to this guy, so there for you (and the rest of slashdot) must assume you are guilty. The police will be at your door shortly.

Twit.

Re:The real question is

[BitZtream]

What anti-virals is your friend taking that he experiences withdrawl symptoms from? I'm not aware of any that cause that sort of side effect.

I am aware of several narcotic pain killers that are prescribed along side those anti-virals which when taken in excess would certianly make you appear drunk, and would cause you to experience withdrawl symptoms.

Sounds more to me like your HIV infected friend is a drug addict who got caught having to sober up unexpectedly after being on the road driving when he shouldn't have been.

Its funny how we assume the cops are always lying corrupt mofos, but never by any chance could it be the ones that the cops are dealing with that are the liars could it? Naw, your friend must certainly be a perfect soul, he/she is, after all, your friend, its not possible there could be a side to them that you are unaware of, or that they could mislead you to protect themselves.

Nope, that would never happen.

Re:The real question is

[dotgain]

Presumptuous fucker, aren't you?

Given no evidence either way, you'll side with the police given half the chance. I don't know whether you're one of them or just a straight out misanthrope - but one thing's for sure, you are not being objective. You're a horrible, dangerous person who has added nothing to this thread other than alerting others to your existence.

Re:To quote a fellow slashdotter's sig:

[dotgain]

Wow - hope you feel smart. Wouldn't want people getting the impression that a projects working title is no less permanent than what it's released with, noooo.

Re:Phoenix has done screwed up.

[MindlessAutomata]

His naivety is pretty cute, though. He's like the little kid that says babies come from storks or something. It's adorable.

Re:Phoenix has done screwed up.

[mi]

ACLU time, and even up to the supreme court. The Phoenix police department is about to get a federal raping.

One would think so, but... Phoenix is governed by a Democrat since, at least, 2004. I doubt, a Democrat federal Administration would target their own. And, before you ask, yes, I believe, Blagojevich would've still been comfortably miss-governing, had the previous President been a Democrat.

Yeah, "troll" and "flamebait", right. The people issuing glum warnings and dire predictions about America becoming a "police state" and — my favorite — being "just like" Germany of 1937, not only always vote Democrat, but are the most active and vocal part of Democrat electorate. And yet, the worst abuses of power by the governments Federal and local alike tend to happen on the Democrats' watch...