Only In America

Off-Topic Off Topic
#21

Well…maybe not only in America…but whats next

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Conventions/story?id=5668622&page=1

ABC Reporter Arrested in Denver Taking Pictures of Senators, Big Donors

DENVER – Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he and a camera crew were attempting to take pictures on a public sidewalk of Democratic senators and VIP donors leaving a private meeting at the Brown Palace Hotel.

Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he was attempting to take pictures of Democratic senators and VIP donors leaving a private meeting at the Brown Palace Hotel.
(ABC News)
More Photos
Police on the scene refused to tell ABC lawyers the charges against the producer, Asa Eslocker, who works with the ABC News investigative unit.

(Click here to watch video of the arrest.)
A cigar-smoking Denver police sergeant, accompanied by a team of five other officers, first put his hands on Eslocker’s neck, then twisted the producer’s arm behind him to put on handcuffs.

A police official later told lawyers for ABC News that Eslocker is being charged with trespass, interference, and failure to follow a lawful order. He also said the arrest followed a signed complaint from the Brown Palace Hotel.

Related
PHOTOS: On the Money Trail at the DNCWATCH: ABC News Reporter Arrested in DenverMore From Brian Ross and the Investigative TeamEslocker was put in handcuffs and loaded in the back of a police van which headed for a nearby police station.

Video taken at the scene shows a man, wearing the uniform of a Boulder County sheriff, ordering Eslocker off the sidewalk in front of the hotel, to the side of the entrance.

The sheriff’s officer is seen telling Eslocker the sidewalk is owned by the hotel. Later, he is seen pushing Eslocker off the sidewalk into oncoming traffic, forcing him to the other side of the street.

It was two hours later when Denver police arrived to place Eslocker under arrest, apparently based on a complaint from the Brown Palace Hotel, a central location for Democratic officials.

During the arrest, one of the officers can be heard saying to Eslocker, “You’re lucky I didn’t knock the f…k out of you.”

Eslocker was released late today after posting $500 bond.

Eslocker and his ABC News colleagues are spending the week investigating the role of corporate lobbyists and wealthy donors at the convention for a series of Money Trail reports on ABC’s “World News with Charles Gibson.”

Click Here for the Investigative Homepage.

#22

Yeah, what next! Illegal, warrantless gov’t wiretapping of American citizens? Torture in violation of signed treaties like the Geneva Convention? Carpe Blanche “Nat’l Security Letters?”

#23

Yeah…

An ABC News producer is arrested for filming democrats leaving a hotel meeting! WHY??

Some think the democrat is “fair, above board, freedom loving, truthful, the answer to your prayers?” Well look again!

I can’t wait to see the “spin” on this one!

Maybe they will try and ban cameras too…LOL

#24

They were arrested by the Denver Police… and when’s the last time a politician banned a camera?

ABC News Producer Arrested

By Howard Kurtz
DENVER – An ABC News producer was arrested outside a downtown hotel here Wednesday while he and a camera crew tried to shoot footage of corporate donors leaving a meeting with a group of Democratic senators.

Asa Eslocker, who works with the network’s investigative unit, was charged with trespass, interference and failure to follow a lawful order. He was released four hours later on a $500 bond.

“We expect to see this kind of behavior in Myanmar, not in Denver, Colorado, at a national political convention where a reporter is trying to videotape big-money donors trying to meet with elected officials,” said ABC spokesman Jeffrey Schneider.

Footage of the incident showed one police officer constantly pushing Eslocker as the producer walked backwards across the street, and another officer placing his hand around Eslocker’s neck. Eslocker kept saying that it was a public street and asking what law he was violating. Schneider said Esocker never entered the Brown Palace Hotel, where the meeting was taking place.

The footage was shown on ABC’s “World News” tonight. Eslocker was working with chief investigative reporter Brian Ross, who does stories on conventions and donors every four years. Schneider said the arrest was initiated by an off-duty sheriff’s officer working as a security guard for the Brown Palace.

Jamie Glennon, a spokeswoman for Denver’s Joint Information Center, said Eslocker “was advised numerous times by the police before he was apprehended to stop blocking the sidewalk and entryway to the hotel.”

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/08/27/abc_new_producer_arrested.html

#25

Ya well, if they guy sitting on the trigger switch of an atomic bomb arsenal is high on crack from the night before, then I think it’s a dam good idea that he be subject to random urine tests, for the benefit of society. (But probably he doesn’t have to do this and the guy who delivers your mail does have to because god forbid he might put the mail in the wrong slot cause of his high the night before!)

#26

Um, there’s a difference between compulsory, universal urine testing for random citizens as opposed to people in jobs requiring life of death decisions in which the career choice in voluntary. Although, I do think there is entirely too much drug testing that is completely unnecessary in most professions. However, I think missile wing commanders, submarine skippers, and constriction personnel operating heavy equipment would obviously be those that should be tested…

Is this really that difficult a distinction to make?

#27

What gets me is that some of the school districts around where i live are implementing drug tests for those students that want to participate in sports. Then after initial drug test, random tests of athletes. I know it’s with parents permission as most are minors (under 18yo) but c’mon!

#28

whats bad is the drug which gets picked up the most is pot, which is pretty harmless but stays in your system a long time . More harmful substances like crack , cocaine or narcotics leave the system in just a day or two. you really have to just catch these guys in the act

#29

Doing drugs is illegal and until otherwise screw 'em. Sports are a privilege so if your a dirt bag and the school doesn’t want that in their sports then so be it. Start a all drug league where everyone is juiced or doped up and they can play eachother.

Problem solved,
Brian

#30

It’s already been done, time and time again in various sports at all levels.

There isn’t one sport (apart perhaps from synchronised swimming, which mightn’t be a sport anyway and where the nose clips inhibit use of the full range of drugs) which hasn’t been using the best and least traceable pharmaceuticals for the past few decades.

The top drug league, where only the best drug users using the best drugs from the best dealers can compete, is called ‘The Olympics’.

#31

Then you must be drinking American beer, there is no quality present to distinguish one from the other. :mrgreen:
I have always refused to take tests, and threatened my Employer with legal action if they caused a fuss about it, Only the police have the power to force a test for intoxicants, and then only under specific circumstances. So I do not recognize any private, or public companies assumption that they have this power to force me to prove my innocence. I they see me slewing around, drunk as a lord, then they may summon police to deal with me, and discharge my employment under the terms of our contract, but not because they just want to see. I never was made to fill a cup, the mention of lawyer was enough I guess, plus the fact that I am well known for not drinking, or using anything.
It is sad to say that too many Americans have forgotten their roots, and rights, and have become complacent little mice, ready to fulfill George Orwell’s vision of the Future.

#32

I found this article in the Toronto Star newspaper few days ago, as it relates to this thread, I found interesting.

"The head of the Toronto transit workers’ union, Bob Kinnear, says he won’t rule out the possibility of a labour disruption or legal action if the TTC goes ahead with a controversial drug and alcohol testing policy.

TTC chief general manager Gary Webster says the proposed policy, believed to be among the most far-reaching in Canada, is essential to protect workers and the public.

It would include random testing of workers and some managers in “safety sensitive” jobs. Positions are likely to include drivers, mechanics and maintenance workers.

Job applicants would be tested, as would employees suspected of using drugs and alcohol on the job or those involved in serious incidents. Workers disciplined for being unfit for work or those returning from drug or alcohol rehabilitation would also be subject to testing. Office staff and others who have no impact on the public would not.

The proposal, released in a report yesterday, still needs approval from city councillors on the transit commission. Specifics would then be developed for further approval.

Kinnear, who heads the Amalgamated Transit Union, says the plan violates the privacy of workers. He has vowed to fight it.

“We have a number of options available to us and we will take a look very closely at each (one). We will do what needs to be done to ensure that the TTC doesn’t arbitrarily impose this policy on us,” he said.

The report suggests there’s a systemic problem with drug and alcohol use that doesn’t exist, Kinnear said, adding that if the TTC suspects an employee is intoxicated it already has the right to call police.

He contests the report’s finding of 39 incidents of drug and alcohol use among TTC employees between January 2006 and June 2008, including 17 recorded since asbestos-removal worker Tony Almeida was killed in April 2007.

Although Almeida wasn’t blamed for the accident involving a subway work car that killed him and injured two others, the coroner found he had been using drugs earlier in the shift.

“The incidence of impairment (is) very low, but the consequences are very high,” the TTC’s Webster said. “The potential consequences can be catastrophic. That is an unacceptable risk. Our current policies need to be changed so we can reduce that risk,” he said.

“We don’t want anybody to believe it’s unsafe to ride the TTC. That is not the case. The point is, once is too often.”

Webster said safety is a “sacred trust” for the TTC. But current training, support and education programs have not been effective enough, he said.

“This is not a `gotcha’ policy. This is a policy that will have assistance programs improved for our employees, prevention programs for our employees. It will make it clear that if employees are detected to have alcohol and drug abuse, there are potential consequences.”

But even the TTC’s chair, Adam Giambrone, thinks random testing may be going too far, though he supports testing for applicants and “with cause.”

“We have to strike a balance between passenger safety and the rights of our employees,” he said.

The TTC report quotes a study by the U.S. Federal Transit Administration that showed the number of employees testing positive for drug and alcohol abuse was cut by half over a 10-year period of random testing.

Mayor David Miller also advocates caution about random testing, but supports testing with cause. “We are entitled to know that people who drive and operate this very important system are completely free from any impairment. And sadly, there have been some recent cases of people being impaired and operating these vehicles. It’s not acceptable,” he told reporters.

Councillor Michael Thompson, who sits on the commission, said he’s 100 per cent behind the proposal. “I have TTC workers in my ward and they tell me guys are drunk and guys have been smoking up,” Thompson said.

Although Canadian law and human rights policies have typically taken a dim view of substance testing of workers, Thompson said the courts have made exceptions for jobs involving operating heavy machinery, vehicles or aircraft.

The testing policy would become part of a larger set of “fitness for duty” guidelines being developed by the TTC.

#33

The shit is hitting the fan in Toronto!!
From today’s Toronto Star Newspaper:

The TTC has approved a limited drug-testing policy that will subject job applicants and workers most at risk of being impaired at work to saliva tests – if they’re in roles where safety is crucial.

The move by commissioners yesterday somewhat defused opposition from human rights advocates and union leader Bob Kinnear, who had refused to rule out a strike or legal action if workers were forced to submit to the most controversial part of the proposed policy: random testing.

Under a fitness-for-duty policy to be implemented within a year, TTC workers in safety-sensitive jobs will be tested if there is reasonable suspicion they have been using banned substances on the job, or following an incident in which drug or alcohol use is suspected as a factor.

Those caught using drugs and alcohol at work, or who are returning to work after attending a substance-treatment program, will also be monitored through testing, though it’s not clear what form that testing will take.

TTC chief general manager Gary Webster had argued for random testing of all employees as a deterrent. He suggested it was necessary to decrease the chances of a catastrophe, though proven cases of impairment have been relatively rare.

Random testing would have made the TTC’s policy among the most radical in Canada – where, unlike in the United States, courts and human rights commissions have generally deemed random tests an invasion of personal privacy.

Civil liberties experts and union officials argued yesterday that random tests would indeed violate workers’ dignity and privacy rights.

“As a union we are opposed to anyone being impaired on the job,” said Kinnear, who heads the Amalgamated Transit Union local. But “it is degrading to workers to have to pee into a cup, probably while someone watches to make sure it’s your urine.”

The issue emerged from the April 2007 death of maintenance worker Tony Almeida, who was killed in an accident involving a subway work car that also injured two others. Although Almeida wasn’t blamed for the accident, the coroner found he had been using drugs during his shift. He was caught using drugs months earlier, but wasn’t monitored after he returned to work.

A TTC report released last week showed there were 39 incidents of drug and alcohol impairment recorded among employees over the past three years or so, although not all were drivers, managers or in other safety-sensitive jobs.

Only one of nine commissioners rejected all forms of substance testing.

#34

its not just uk and usa with terrorists problems
every western country will hav them…i do know australia caught
some be4 they had the chance too blow up the MCG AND THE
WESTGATE BRIGDE how luckey is australia
i hope austrlia dont hav the same laws as uk does

#35

could you talk in recognizable english?

#36

for people that spend time in the libary
and u cant understand what that meant
theres something wrong with u

#37

I am very outdated (favorite composer/band is Richard Wagner) but still, use normal english…

#38

and my english ist normal
may be i should type in german you ,might understand me better.
ps i was trying too be funnie with you,not picking on you

#39

nah, im still trying to learn deutsch so i cant realy understand it…

#40

No, it isn’t. The spelling is very poor and there is a complete absence of capital letters, most forms of punctuation, etc.
If you have trouble with this, Firefox has a built in spell checker, and an add-in for Internet Explorer to do the same thing can be found here.