Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
This is becoming an old story. Blogger gets fed up with an out-of-control police department and starts exposing their actions to the public, police department proves the blogger right by trying to prosecute the blogger for vague crimes that really amount to "saying bad things about powerful people." But in this case, the police actually raided the blogger's home and seized virtually everything.
In what should send a frightening chill down the spine of every blogger, writer, journalist and First Amendment advocate in the United States, Phoenix police raided the home of a blogger who has been highly critical of the department.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.
Maricopa County Judge Gary Donahoe signed the search warrant that allowed at least ten cops to raid his home in North Phoenix on March 12 while handcuffing his female roommate for three hours as they tore the place apart.
Pataky, who was out of town on a business trip during the raid, also believes police were retaliating against him for the content of his blog, much of it which comes from inside sources within the department.
"They broke into my safe and took the backups of my backups," he said in a phone interview with Photography is Not a Crime on Wednesday.
"I can't even file my taxes because all my business plans are gone. They took everything."
The warrant apparently listed "petty theft" and "computer tampering with the intent to harass" as the probable cause for the warrant, neither of which would justify seizing so much material. And the petty theft charge is truly absurd:
The allegation of "petty theft" against Pataky stem from photos he posted on his blog of police name plates that appear to have been taken from within the department. He said he actually made the plates himself.
Interestingly, almost everything he gets on the department comes from good cops within the department blowing the whistle:
"We were going to shut down the website after that but then all of a sudden all these good cops started hitting the site and sending us tips," he said.He said they would also deliver all kinds of internal documents from within the department exposing everything from a cop with multiple DUIs to another cop whose son was a child molester and was trying to get on the force (and was eventually arrested).
"We have about 50 to 100 retired and active cops who provide us information," he said.
Police apparently believe one of the tipsters is an officer named David Barnes, who fell out of favor with the department in 2007 when he was a detective and went public with claims of mismanaged evidence at the city crime lab.
Police also raided Barnes' home and according to Pataky's inside sources, plan to raid the homes of more cops.
I'd say it's time for the FBI to do a serious investigation of this police department. I suspect things there are every bit as bad as they were in Atlanta.
Politics
Comments
Posted by: WScott | April 7, 2009 9:57 AM
Seriously, that's awful. I agree that someone should be looking at the situation very hard.
Posted by: Bob O'H | April 7, 2009 10:00 AM
Arizona has a certain nutcase sheriff, Joe Arpaio, who is the Sheriff, as it happens, of Maricopa County.
Was this raid Phoenix PD or Maricopa county Sheriff?
Posted by: Jesse | April 7, 2009 10:11 AM
I didn't know about this site, now the cops have helped splash it all over the internet. The stupidity of these cops is nerly as bad as the gross issues they have bungling tried to cover up.
Posted by: Richard Eis | April 7, 2009 10:14 AM
What's scary is that the Phoenix PD is the lesser offender around here. The County Sheriff is Joe Arpaio. Yes, that Joe Arpaio.
Posted by: D. C. Sessions | April 7, 2009 10:49 AM
The Phoenix Police chief, Jack Harris, wants to squash criticism. Let him know that his efforts are backfiring:
Jack.harris@phoenix.gov
And Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon: mayor.gordon@phoenix.gov
Posted by: Dr X | April 7, 2009 10:57 AM
Sorry, looks like the email for chief harris is no longer working. Looks like Mayor Gordon's address is still valid.
Posted by: Dr X | April 7, 2009 11:21 AM
Okay, email the chief's assistant:
lisa.coombe@phoenix.gov
Posted by: Dr X | April 7, 2009 11:27 AM
I have been wondering where all the BLACK WATER guys have been going, now I know, there working for the idiot sheriff JOE.
Posted by: alaskana | April 7, 2009 12:14 PM
I've linked to this story at TPMCafe.
Please, in our discussion, let's not get side-tracked by any question of the accuracy of the blog, because that authentically doesn't matter. If they are brilliant muckrakers or as crrazy as Bachman and King, they don't deserve this, and the protests should be equally strong.
Posted by: Prup (aka Jim Benton) | April 7, 2009 12:41 PM
One of the signs of creeping fascism is when the laws are no longer enforced against people with powerful government connections.
Neocons illegally started a war, committed torture and other war crimes, staged 9-11 with controlled demolitions of three buildings, illegally wiretapped our phone calls and emails, AND THERE WERE NO INVESTIGATIONS OR PROSECUTIONS.
This is same phenomenon on a smaller scale. We must not let outrages like this pass! All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.
Posted by: Alan8 | April 7, 2009 12:52 PM
Relatively speaking, you guys don't have much to complain about. At least Pataky is still alive, for now.
The police department in Prince George County, Maryland, a 50% black suburb of Washington, D.C., have been literally getting away with murder for years. Drug busts regularly include dead suspects. One off duty cop, who got away with murder, actually followed his victim into Virgina and killed him there. They also got caught releasing police dogs onto homeless people a few years ago.
How's that for "serve and protect"?
Welcome to the fascist police state.
Posted by: Kevin Schmidt | April 7, 2009 2:00 PM
This police behaviour needs to be exposed. The public everywhere needs to make it known that this sort of abuse is absolutely unacceptable. The police and attorney general need to be prosecuted and made an example of. If this sort of behaviour is tolerated even a little we will all soon find out what it means to live in a police state were all our/your right s won't be worth a conterfiet dime. No more police misuse of authority period it is up to us as citizens of America to stop this horse crap right now.
Posted by: Craig | April 7, 2009 2:22 PM
We've seen US police carry these tactics with them wherever they go. In South America it's US police and military trainers who aid state terror. The Abu Ghraib torturers were National Guardmen whose day jobs were as cops and prison guards. That's where they honed the skills they showed to such good effect in Iraq.
There's a certain justice about these chickens coming home to roost.
Chris Herz
Vheadline.com
Posted by: Chris Herz | April 7, 2009 2:29 PM
The Constitution calls for a "Well regulated militia".
This is nothing of the sort. It is unconstitutional, and thus a federal offense, to allow a police force to run a muck and break the law.
The offending police, their captain, the prosecutor and the judge should all be prosecuted in federal court.
Posted by: Kevin Schmidt | April 7, 2009 2:35 PM
Cops have been rioting in this country for years, just ask folks who were in Chicago in 68. Our recent history is rife with corruption in high places, as noted by Alan8, and there is precious little appetite among those in the fraternity to jail any of the good ol boys, regardless of political party. John Conyers, the Congressman from Michigan who has held the most informative hearings into Bush-era malfeasance, is trying to get the current Attorney General to appoint a Special Prosecutor to look into the reign of W and the boys. As to the Phoenix cops and Sherrif, the bad pub won't hurt them until or unless a vigorous federal investigation takes hold, and even then one must be aware that it will be an investigation by fellow law enforcement.
Posted by: Stephen W. Davis | April 7, 2009 2:42 PM
Phoenix PD. Sheriff Joe doesn't do actual investigation, even for harassment. That whole "evidence" thing doesn't get headlines, after all.
Now, filing charges against reporters? That's different.
Posted by: D. C. Sessions | April 7, 2009 4:42 PM
No sign of a prosecutor in the loop at this time.
As for the judge, bear in mind that regardless of theory bench warrants are pretty much available for the asking anywhere in the USA.
Posted by: D. C. Sessions | April 7, 2009 4:52 PM
Too bad this isn't hosted on a mainstream news site with comments. No doubt the fascist bootlickers would come out in droves to defend these pigs, happens every time.
Posted by: Tyler DiPietro | April 7, 2009 6:20 PM
HAHAHAHAHA DISREGARD THAT. It's already happened at the good site. Get this: the guy deserved it because he was a "cyberstalker."
Posted by: Tyler DiPietro | April 7, 2009 6:33 PM
Wow, isn't this the same city in the sun which has elected and protected Sheriff Joe Arpaio for so many years? I have to say I won't be spending any time or money in Phoenix in, well, forever!
Posted by: mckathiki | April 7, 2009 9:39 PM
There were ten cops there and yet the female roommate needed to be handcuffed for THREE HOURS? She must have been quite the terror to need that kind of restraint for so long. She wasn't even the one they were after. I would be livid if I were her. I'd be livid if I were either, actually.
Posted by: Leslie | April 7, 2009 9:51 PM
Hey, at least they waited until he was gone, so they didn't have to shoot him in the chest!
Leslie:
The cost of conducting the raid, for the Phoenix PD was probably several thousand dollars. The cost for the civil suit which will be filed by the young woman's attorney can be added to that figure.
Posted by: democommie | April 8, 2009 8:24 AM
My state and city pisses me right the fuck off sometimes.
Posted by: marilove | April 8, 2009 1:39 PM
""We were going to shut down the website after that but then all of a sudden all these good cops started hitting the site and sending us tips," he said. "
But this gives me hope. Thank the spaghetti monster that there are still good cops who are willing to risk their jobs to help this man. Sigh.
Posted by: marilove | April 8, 2009 1:41 PM
Alan8 wrote: "staged 9-11 with controlled demolitions of three buildings,"
And I laaaaughed.
I'm against the sort of fascism described in the original post, but this kind of conspiracy bullshit doesn't help matters at all.
Posted by: marilove | April 8, 2009 1:50 PM
Marilove. It is not bullshit. They WERE controlled demolitions. Believe your eyes, not the nonsense you are told. Also if not true please explain to me the molten metal under all three buildings. The New York Times said the metal was finally put out in December 2001. It has never happened before or since.
Posted by: bansidh | April 8, 2009 6:54 PM
bansidh,
Citation, please?
I have watched the Twin Towers collapse numerous times, and it does not look like a controlled demolition. Watch videos of controlled demolitions and you will see distinct explosions prior to collapse. In the videos of the Twin Towers, people have to slow down the footage and highlight the area where these explosions allegedly occur, precisely because they are not clear and evident explosions as you would find in a controlled demolition.
Rather, it looks like a building where the supports for one floor have given out so that the upper floors dropped onto the lower one, buckling its supports, and so on to subsequent lower floors (the pancaking that is so clear in the videos). The puffs of smoke that are highlighted on the videos are caused by this, and are in fact subsequent to the collapsing floors, not antecedent as they would be in a controlled demolition.
Also, have you ever wondered how they managed to wire up three buildings for demolition with no one noticing? I've yet to see an expert in controlled demolitions come forth to say that it's an easy thing to do surreptitiously.
George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld are pigs and war criminals, but no one has yet demonstrated that they would purposefully commit a massive terrorist attack against their own country.
I'm sure nothing I'll say will sway you from your fetish for conspiracy theorizing, but I don't want to leave you unanswered so that you can think you stunned us into silence with your brilliance.
Posted by: James Hanley | April 8, 2009 7:36 PM
Oh, and bansidh? Don't use a youtube video as "evidence".
Posted by: marilove | April 9, 2009 1:59 PM
Amazing how you people believe Pataky's version as gospel truth without waiting for both sides of the story to come out.
Posted by: Jump | April 12, 2009 10:32 AM
I have lived in Arizona my entire life.
Do a google for "Sheriff Joe".
This story is all too plausible.
Posted by: marilove | April 13, 2009 12:48 PM
To whom may it concern between 15 th ave & camelback and 17 th ave camelback the phoenix police are attacking minorities who are walking , riding a bike , for no reason giving them citations for anything harassing black women in the night I have left messages for the chief of police jack Harris and have not received a return phone call !! I WAS ACCOSTED SUNDAY MORNING BY A OFFICER D. LUKE WHO STRADDLED THE FRONT AND A ANOTHER OFFICER STRADDLED MY BACK BIKE TIRE MR. LUKE WAS SO CLOSES TO MY FACE THAT I COULD SMELL HIS BREATH . ACCUSING ME OF HAVING A WARRANT WHICH I DO NOT AND NEVER HAD IT WAS DARK AND THERE WERE 3 POLICE OFFICERS 2 BLOCKING ME AND THE OTHER ON THE SIDE WHILE I AM TRYING TO GET SOMEONE TO SEE WHAT WAS HAPPENING ! I AM NOT A DOPE DEALER I AM NOT A PROSTITUTE NOR A GANG BANGER I WAS JUST RIDING MY BIKE TO GET SOME ICE I WAS TREATED WITH BEING ARRESTED I ALSO WAS YELLED AT AND WAS TOLD BY MR. LUKE THAT HE HAD NO SUPERVISOR PROVOKING THAT SITUATION TO THE EXTREMELY MAX THAT HAD TO STOP BEFOR SOMEONE GET HURT ! I WANT TO KNOW WHAT ARE MY RIGHTS? I WAS ASKED ONCE OF A MALE OFFICER COULD PAT ME DOWN AT ONE POINT AND I SAID NO!
I HAVE BEEN ASKED WHO DO I LIVE WITH ? WHAT ARE MY RIGHTS SINCE ONE ONE SEEM TO BE DOING ANYTHING ABOUT THIS !
THANK YOU
Posted by: ann | April 15, 2009 1:48 AM
There's a film coming out Friday called American Violet that will hopefully become a conversation-starter for the nation about police, particularly drug task forces, "using military tactics to terrorize poor people" in competition for federal funds.
Posted by: Jon Lester | April 15, 2009 2:07 AM