Police: Shooter felt tracking chip was implanted

Mental illness, legal problems plagued Tenn. hospital shooter
04/21/2010
By SCOTT BARKER,

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Abdo Ibssa believed a doctor had implanted a tracking chip in his body and was beset with legal and financial woes when police say he killed a woman, wounded two others and then killed himself Monday at Parkwest Medical Center.

Ibssa, who would have turned 39 Tuesday, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Ethiopia, used a stolen .357-caliber magnum pistol to shoot the women and then himself about 4:34 p.m. Monday, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV said Tuesday.

Ibssa was suffering psychological problems and had been committed by his family to a mental health facility in February, Owen said. Police have yet to determine what facility treated him or when he was released.

According to court records, he also faced legal and financial problems. A Knoxville man filed a $300,000 lawsuit against him in January over an altercation that left the man injured. Records also show Ibssa was embroiled in a child support dispute with his ex-wife.

Police: Shooter felt tracking chip was implanted

Mental illness, legal problems plagued Tenn. hospital shooter
04/21/2010
By SCOTT BARKER,

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Abdo Ibssa believed a doctor had implanted a tracking chip in his body and was beset with legal and financial woes when police say he killed a woman, wounded two others and then killed himself Monday at Parkwest Medical Center.

Ibssa, who would have turned 39 Tuesday, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Ethiopia, used a stolen .357-caliber magnum pistol to shoot the women and then himself about 4:34 p.m. Monday, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV said Tuesday.

Ibssa was suffering psychological problems and had been committed by his family to a mental health facility in February, Owen said. Police have yet to determine what facility treated him or when he was released.

According to court records, he also faced legal and financial problems. A Knoxville man filed a $300,000 lawsuit against him in January over an altercation that left the man injured. Records also show Ibssa was embroiled in a child support dispute with his ex-wife.

Pre-Crime Policing

Allegedly “disgruntled” man has his guns seized, and “voluntarily” surrenders to two SWAT teams and dozens of police officers for a crime that hadn’t been committed

Radley Balko | March 16, 2010

To hear them tell it, the five police agencies who apprehended 39-year-old Oregonian David Pyles early on the morning of March 8 thwarted another lone wolf mass murderer. The police "were able to successfully take a potentially volatile male subject into protective custody for a mental evaluation," announced a press release put out by the Medford, Oregon, police department. The subject had recently been placed on administrative leave from his job, was "very disgruntled," and had recently purchased several firearms. "Local Law Enforcement agencies were extremely concerned that the subject was planning retaliation against his employers," the release said. Fortunately, Pyles "voluntarily" turned himself over to police custody, and the legally purchased firearms "were seized for safekeeping."

This voluntary exchange involved two SWAT teams, police officers from Medford and nearby Roseburg, sheriff's deputies from Jackson and Douglas counties, and the Oregon State Police. Oregon State Police Sgt. Jeff Proulx explained to South Oregon's Mail Tribune why the operation was such a success: "Instead of being reactive, we took a proactive approach."

There's just one problem: David Pyles hadn't committed any crime, nor was he suspected of having committed one. The police never obtained a warrant for either search or arrest. They never consulted with a judge or mental health professional before sending out the military-style tactical teams to take Pyle in.

"They woke me up with a phone call at about 5:50 in the morning," Pyles told me in a phone interview Friday. "I looked out the window and saw the SWAT team pointing their guns at my house. The officer on the phone told me to turn myself in. I told them I would, on three conditions: I would not be handcuffed. I would not be taken off my property. And I would not be forced to get a mental health evaluation. He agreed. The second I stepped outside, they jumped me. Then they handcuffed me, took me off my property, and took me to get a mental health evaluation."

Bush Signs Bill To Take All Newborns' DNA
Health Council, Congressman Ron Paul warn new law could pave the way for a national DNA database
  
Steve Watson
Friday, May 2, 2008
 
 
President Bush last week signed into law a bill which will see the federal government begin to screen the DNA of all newborn babies in the U.S. within six months, a move critics have described as the first step towards the establishment of a national DNA database.

Police Get The Wrong House In Galveston, Allegedly
Assault 12-Year-Old Girl

Wed Dec 17, 2008 at 12:37:01 PM

It was a little before 8 at night when the breaker went out at Emily Milburn's home in Galveston. She was busy preparing her children for school the next day, so she asked her 12-year-old daughter, Dymond, to pop outside and turn the switch back on.

As Dymond headed toward the breaker, a blue van drove up and three men jumped out rushing toward her. One of them grabbed her saying, "You're a prostitute. You're coming with me."

Dymond grabbed onto a tree and started screaming, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy." One of the men covered her mouth. Two of the men beat her about the face and throat.

As it turned out, the three men were plain-clothed Galveston police officers who had been called to the area regarding three white prostitutes soliciting a white man and a black drug dealer.

Swedish Riots

"We have just occupied New School University. We liberate this space for ourselves, and all those who want to join us, for our general autonomous use. We take the university in explicit solidarity with those occupying the universities and streets in Greece, Italy, France and Spain."

Pictures from the Greek Riots.

Court sides with ACLU, strikes down Patriot Act gag provision
12/16/2008 

Filed by Stephen C. Webster

 
ACLU victorious as federal court declares Patriot Act provision a violation of the First Amendment

A federal appeals court ruling late Monday is the cause cйlиbre of the American Civil Liberties Union, as another provision of the Bush administration's Patriot Act falls to the judicial system.

Until the ruling, recipients of so-called "national security letters" were legally forbidden from speaking out. The letters, usually a demand for documents, or a notice that private records had been searched by government authorities, were criticized as a cover-all for FBI abuses.