Police raid home of police misconduct blogger in Phoenix
This apparently happened last month on March12, and Scott Greenfield is right, the blogosphere has been too quiet about it. According to Carlos Miller at Photography is not a Crime, blogger Jeff Pataky's home was raided March 12 and his "computers, routers, modems, hard drives, memory cards and everything necessary to continue blogging" were taken, along with his personal files and documents relating to Pataky's pending lawsuit against the police department.
Maricopa County Judge Gary Donahoe signed the search warrant allowing the police to go into Pataky's home and take his computers.
Pataky blogs at Bad Phoenix Cops, where he has chronicled misconduct by the Phoenix Police Department, including officers Mike Polombo and Heather Polombo, and Jack Harris. Many of the tips that Pataky receives come from within the police department, and I wouldn't be surprised if the primary motive for the raid was not just retaliation, but an effort to find out who the tipsters are.
Not many bloggers write about police misconduct, whether for fear of their safety or fear of retaliation such as having your home raided, and I applaud those who do. I join Greenfield in encouraging bloggers to pick up this story, and "let the police know that we are watching them as well, and that if they attack a blogger for writing, their misconduct will be exposed as far and wide as possible."
