It’s not really a name worth remembering, as the person who is identified by that name is not worth the oxygen that he removes from the atmosphere during respiration.

Paul Schene is the criminal scumbag who beat the shit out of a 15-year old girl and dragged her around by her hair in Seattle (warning: shocking video). He also happens to be a police officer, suckling on the public teet to feed himself between abusive episodes. Oh, and he’s possibly also a murderer, as I discovered (and put the Huffington Post onto) a year ago today.

As far as I know, he hasn’t yet departed the mortal coil and departed for hell yet, so I’m wondering: does anybody know where he is now?

I just emailed Sgt. Sean Whitcomb, the media relations director for the Seattle PD:

Hello there – I’m a journalist from New York. I’m just wondering – what ever happened to Paul Schene? Is he still on administrative leave? If so, is it paid or unpaid? Has the case against him progressed at all?

I’ll let you know if he responds. Sgt. Whitcomb had this to say:

Hey Justin,

I work for the Seattle Police Department. Paul Schene formerly worked for the King County Sheriff’s Office. I believe he was fired, charged, acquitted by “hung jury” and awaiting retrial. Call either KCSO or check the Seattle Times for the latest updates.

Best regards,

Sean

…..so, I’ve emailed the only email address I can find for the KCSO (sheriff@kingcounty.gov) and asked the same question.

Another Update:

Sgt. Jim Laing of the King’s County Sheriff’s Office says:

Paul Schene was terminated for cause by the Sheriff on September 9, 2009 after an internal investigation. He was charged with assault and tried in January, 2010. This resulted in a mistrial. He is to be tried again on June 1, 2010.

Also:

I am getting quite a lot of traffic for the search phrase “Paul Schene.”  I have checked and in fact this page is the #1 search result for that phrase.  I surmise that Paul has now read this article.  So, Mr. Schene, what say you?  I want to offer you the opportunity to be seen as a human being and begin to clean up your tarnished name.  I’ll post whatever response you have – front, top, and center of this post – if you send it immediately.  If, on the other hand, you wait until the end of your trial in an effort to “decline to speak while legal action is pending,” an excuse I find detestable, you will lose this opportunity to control the content that is most strongly associated with your name in the world.  I suggest starting with a sincere apology.  Email me at justin@justinholmes.com.

Her life is prolly pretty messed up for a while.

From the San Jose Mercury.

Very quick facts: Tony Arambula found an armed intruder in his home.  The intruder fired a weapon either into or inside the home, but nobody was hit or hurt.  Tony then grabbed his own gun and managed to “gain compliance,” to use police parlance, from the intruder without shooting him.  He then called 911.

When Phoenix police arrived on the scene, Tony’s wife informed them that her husband “was the man with the gun” holding the intruder until they arrived.

The cops marched in and immediately, which is to say without warning, shot him.  In the back.  Six times.

The cops then repeatedly called him a “motherfucker” before one of them finally says, “I shot the guy.  I fucked up.”  His supervisor then says, “Don’t worry, I’ve got your back.”

And it’s all on tape – yep, the 911 tape.

Fortunately, Tony lived, although he will likely be disabled for life and may need an amputation.  Of course, he is now suing the department and the city of Phoenix and the trigger-happy officers.  Next time Tony won’t make the mistake of calling 911 – he’ll probably just shoot the intruder thug instead, which will probably be better for everybody.

Mahalo has the details and the recording.

I’ve been staying out of the folly of video posts about the Pittsburgh G20, but this video is worth a watch.  This is by no means the worst thing that happened or was recorded, but the videographer in this case is really outstanding.

I teach a class on recording police, including encounters in which the journalist is or is not involved.  This journalist did everything correctly.  I wonder if he / she was looking exclusively through the viewfinder?  That is my surmise.

Great job.  I’m sure the cops will not be held accountable for this assault.

Border agents told Anderson that a dog had indicated the presence of contraband in his vehicle. At some point, thankfully, he turned on a video camera. Shortly thereafter, his car windows were broken and he was horribly brutalized by police officers, including being shocked by electrostun weapons over and over again.

Please take the time to watch both of these videos. The first is his account of the situation; the second is actual footage.

Warning: The second video contains audio of the pastor being shot by multiple TASERs and is highly disturbing.

Police brutality in the United States of America is completely out of control. Does anyone have any suggestions? With each passing day, I feel more and more strongly that we must divest every police officer in the country of electro-torture devices such as TASERs. These are tools of government control and brutality, nothing more.

Join the new anti-TASER facebook group here.

….and here’s a Facebook group dedicated to stopping the wall on the border.

It seems that this guy was, as per usual, in no way threatening the officer, although he does yell like an idiot at the end.

A google search for the phrase “Connecticut Governor” yields a drug-policy reform site as the #1 result, dropping her official website to #2.

What does this mean?

While Google doesn’t tell the public exactly how its pagerank system works, we know that it primarily assesses links.  It sees each link as a “vote” that the website being linked to is relevant to phrases near the link.

In this case, the phrase “Connecticut Governor” normally points to the official website for the office of the Connecticut Governor.  However, now, with all the attention on the movement to decriminalize cannabis in Connecticut, it seems that there are more and/or stronger links for the phrase “Connecticut Governor” to the website of the Drug Policy Alliance, one of the leading organizations advocating sensible drug policies in Connecticut and around the world.

A few years ago, a concerted effort, called a “Google Bomb,” was made to tie the phrase “miserable failure” to George W. Bush.  This event, on the other hand, seems to be entirely organic and incidental.

Was this intentional and targeted?

As far as I can tell, absolutely not. There is no evidence of efforts to actually game the pagerank system.  Instead, it just seems that many thousands of people saw fit to link to drug policy reform websites when writing about the Connecticut Government.

Why is this politically significant?

As a tech-activist, I often observe that certain types of trends formulate first on the web and later on the streets and in the statehouses.

In this case, I believe this to be the clearest indication yet that drug policy reform is not a second-rate issue or a “third rail,” but is actually the #1 domestic policy concern across a wide array of the American populous.

Check out this screen shot: