This is not the first time  Hopewell Police Department has been in hot water over illegal actions on the part of their officers!  One officer arrested for Sexual offenses, committed in the capacity of his police role. In August of 2006,  $85,000 in cash, firearms, drug paraphernalia, and drug samples went missing (That in the form of 1,600 items belonging to 87 cases and when the report was made in August, the items had already been missing for six months!). The entire department was suspended initially, and the VA state police provided police services for the city for a time while the investigation was initiated.  It went on for five years, and there were never any charges filed, (in some cases, because the issues dated as far back as the eighties, and therefore the statute of limitations applied, and additionally, it could not be proven just what had happened to some unaccounted-for items because the policy and procedures were non-existent, therefore no record existed and there was nothing with which to substantiate charges that may or may not have applied otherwise.  There were several changes of leadership during that period, as well as a change of City Attorney, and a total re-writing of policy, which was only just completed in early 2013.  One chief (Martin) who was police chief from 2008 (brought in during this very investigation) to 2011, resigned amidst allegations of misappropriation of funds to racial discrimination, and other issues.  Since then, the Hopewell Police Department has attained it’s accreditation, (which only eighty-some police departments in VA out of over 400, have done).  So one would hope not to see these things happening again, but hopefully aside from all the other new measures put in place, someone “in charge” at the department will make a course in Constitutional Rights part of the mandatory training and continuing education topics.  –S.T. Lloyd,

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RICHMOND, Va. — Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Virginia man who was arrested by City of Hopewell police officers as he was engaged in a First Amendment protest against President Obama while lawfully carrying a rifle. In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Rutherford Institute attorneys allege that the police violated Brandon Howards First Amendment right to free speech, Second Amendment right to bear arms, and Fourth Amendment right to be free from a groundless arrest when they confronted Howard with guns drawn and ordered him to the ground on the mistaken belief that Howard was violating the law by being in public with a rifle slung over his shoulder. Although Virginia law forbids carrying a concealed weapon and the public display of a rifle in certain cities and counties, Howards possession and display of the rifle was wholly legal and did not make him subject to an arrest. Moreover, the City of Hopewell Police Department has admitted in writing that the incident involved a violation of department policy.

via FreedomOutpost.com