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As Igor Volsky at Think Progress noted yesterday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) got called out during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing when repeating the NRA's talking points about why background checks for all gun purchases supposedly won't work. It was nice to see someone stand up to Graham and the bullying we've seen from him during these hearings.

Police Chief Embarrasses Lindsey Graham At Gun Hearing:

During a heated exchange at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) proposed assault weapons ban on Wednesday, Edward Flynn pointedly interrupted Graham’s claims that the federal government is failing to deter individuals from misrepresenting themselves in the background check process by failing to prosecute people who were rejected from purchasing a weapon as a result of their false claims.

Flynn argued that rather than embark on a “paper chase,” law enforcement officials are focused on preventing people from purchasing guns illegally, eliciting loud applause from the audience:

GRAHAM: When almost 80,000 people fail a background check and 44 people are prosecuted, what kind of deterrent is that? I mean, the law obviously is not seeing that as important…. We absolutely do nothing to enforce the laws on the books…

FLYNN: Just for the record, from my point of view, the point of a background check…

GRAHAM: How many cases have you made? How many cases have you made?

FLYNN: It doesn’t matter, it’s a paper thing. I want to stop 76,000 people from getting guns illegally. That’s what a background check does. If you think we’re going to do paperwork prosecutions, you’re wrong. [...] We don’t make those cases. We have priorities. We make gun cases. We make 2,000 gun cases a year, senator, that’s our priority. We’re not in a paper chase. We’re trying to prevent the wrong people from buying guns. That’s why we do background checks. If you think I’m going to do a paper chase, then you think I’m going to misuse my resources.

[...] Indeed, the “low number of prosecutions in 2010, the most recent year for which data are available, is consistent with other years” and is often seen as a poor use of resources. Prosecutors must prove that “the person knew they were lying when they tried to purchase the firearm” in order to secure a conviction which “usually carries a maximum sentence of just six months.”

UPDATE: The Rev. Al Sharpton spoke to Chief Flynn following his testimony and got his reaction to the heated exchange he had with Graham during the hearing. Flynn expressed his frustration over his dealings with Graham and I wanted to share at least this short portion of his conversation with Sharpton about the hearing:

FLYNN: And I found extraordinarily frustrating as I sat there... every one of those Senators with Lindsey Graham got up there and said, oh, we respect your work and oh, we're so sorry about the tragedy in Newtown, but, oh by the way, we're not going to do anything about it. Well, that's unacceptable. And you can't help but become a little agitated when somebody engages in a piece of sophistry that says, look over here, nobody prosecuted these people for filling out their paperwork wrong. No, but we've locked up thousands of gun offenders and the paperwork that was done prevented hundreds of thousands of more from getting guns illegally. So the background check worked.

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I'm fairly sure Graham knows that, but as long as he's worried about some TeaBircher giving him a primary challenge, he's going to continue with the sophistry.

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The small town of Bay Minette, Alabama is telling people convicted of small crimes to choose Jesus or choose jail.

Starting this week, the city judge will implement Operation Restore Our Community (ROC), which gives misdemeanor offenders a choice between fines and jail or a year of Sunday church services.

"Operation ROC resulted from meetings with church leaders," Bay Minette Police Chief Mike Rowland told the Alabama Press-Register. "It was agreed by all the pastors that at the core of the crime problem was the erosion of family values and morals. We have children raising children and parents not instilling values in young people."

Critics charge that the program is unfair to some minority religious groups because of the 56 participating churches, none are mosques or synagogues. And Atheists have no choice but compromise their beliefs or go to jail.

Pastor Robert Gates told WRKG that the program was a win-win for everyone involved.

"You show me somebody who falls in love with Jesus, and I'll show you a person who won't be a problem to society," he said.

ACLU of Alabama director Olivia Turner called the policy "blatantly unconstitutional."

"It violates one basic tenet of the Constitution, namely that government can't force participation in religious activity," she said, adding that the ACLU is "considering options for response."

Think Progress' Ian Millhiser noted that the program would even be considered illegal under conservative Justice Antonin Scalia's view of the Constitution.

"In his dissenting opinion in Lee v. Weisman, Scalia wrote that the state may not use the 'threat of penalty' to 'coerce anyone to support or participate in religion or its exercise,'" Millhiser wrote. "Telling someone -- even someone convicted of a crime -- that they must participate in a religious service or go to jail clearly fails Justice Scalia's test."

Earlier this year, the Mississippi Supreme Court suspended Mississippi Justice Court Judge Theresa Brown Dearman for 30 days for forcing people charged with crimes to attend church as a condition of bail.

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This is just disgusting. There should be a criminal investigation of these two officers.

2 officers out of jobs in wake of repeated Tasering of woman:

Janice Wells called the Richland Police Department when she feared a prowler was outside her clapboard house in the rural west Georgia town.

The third-grade teacher had phoned for help. But within minutes of an officer coming to her backdoor, she was screaming in pain and begging not to be shocked again with a Taser. With each scream and cry, the officer threatened her with more shocks.

"All of it's just unreal to me. I was scared to death," Wells said in an interview with the AJC. "He kept tasing me and tasing me. My fingernails are still burned. My leg, back and my butt had a long scar on it for days."

The officer in question is Ryan Smith of the Lumpkin Police Department. Smith was called to back up an officer from the Richland Police Department because the sheriff's office in the county, Stewart, had no deputies to send.

Smith resigned as a result of the incident. The other officer involved, Tim Murphy of Richland PD, was fired for using pepper spray while trying to arrest Wells.

Their headline doesn't mention that one of them already found a new job.

Yet his former boss, Lumpkin Police Chief Steven Ogle, was shocked when he saw the video.

"I couldn’t believe it,” Ogle said. “You don’t use it [a Taser] for punitive reasons, to prod someone. It was evident it was an improper use of force. He was an excellent officer other than that incident."

Smith resigned just as Ogle started the process to fire him, the chief said. Smith now works for the Chattahoochee County Sheriff's office.

Yeah, I'm sure he was just a wonderful officer, other than this one incident where he decided to torture this woman. Digby had more.

Small Town Life In Real America:

Be very careful when you call the police to come to your home. It might not go the way you think it will. Read on...

Full transcript via CNN below the fold.

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Another day, another chance for Fox Noise to demagogue the issue of illegal immigration. This time it's Bill O'Reilly and Chris Wallace's turn, following the lead of their cohorts over at Fox & Friends. The Obama administration has hired former Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt to lead their outreach office at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE. Media Matters has more on the attacks made on Fox & Friends that were repeated by O'Reilly and Wallace on The Factor. Anything to attack the Obama administration and drum up fear of those evil dirty brown people who just might be turrists coming here to destroy our way of life for the "real Americans".

Fox absurdly claims ICE official doesn't "believe in immigration enforcement":

Fox News falsely claimed that new ICE official Harold Hurtt is "a sanctuary city supporter" who doesn't "believe in immigration enforcement," since he has expressed concerns about local police "in the field" enforcing immigration law, concerns that are widely held among law enforcement leaders. In fact, Houston under Chief Hurtt was not a "sanctuary city," according Fox's own definition, and he has reportedly said that in his role at ICE, "he will support local law enforcement agencies' decision to participate in any ICE program of their choosing, even if it involves questioning suspects on the street about their status."

Fox calls Hurtt a "supporter of sanctuary cities," which "do not check for immigration papers".

...In fact, Houston cooperated with ICE when Hurtt was serving as police chief

Hurtt said that at ICE, he will support local decisions on enforcement of immigration. The Houston Chronicle reported on June 23 that Hurtt, who served as Houston's police chief from 2004 through 2009 and was selected to be the director of the Office of State and Local Coordination at ICE, expressed "concerns" about "officers in the field" asking about immigration status, citing "resource capabilities," and concerns that fewer members of immigrant communities would "com[e] forward to report crime." The Chronicle further reported:

Hurtt said that in his new role, he will support local law enforcement agencies' decision to participate in any ICE program of their choosing, even if it involves questioning suspects on the street about their status.

"That's a decision that needs to be made at a local level," he said.

ICE official in 2006: "Houston is not a sanctuary city, by the definition." The Houston Chronicle reported on June 30, 2006, that Bob Rutt, the agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Houston, said that "Houston police notify ICE when officers arrest people wanted by ICE. He said officers also call his agency when they suspect violent criminals might be in the country illegally, and they help out on some criminal operations." Read on...

But in O'Reilly and Wallace's world, he's a "sanctuary guy". Transcript below the fold.

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