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Cops Invented a Reason To Cite Man Who Flipped Them Off

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Cops Invented a Reason To Cite Man Who Flipped Them Off


A Delaware man was ticketed after he flipped off local police—and newly released body camera footage appears to show that officers knew the citation was unlawful but decided to punish him anyway.

In March 2022, Jonathan Guessford, a 54-year-old resident of Smyrna, Delaware, was confronted by police as he stood on the side of a road, holding a sign that read “radar ahead,” a warning to drivers about a police speed trap.

Two Delaware State Police officers, Stephen Douglas and Nicholas Gallo, seized Guessford’s sign and ripped it up, according to body camera footage. As Guessford drove away, he flipped off the pair who pursued him, the officers even reaching speeds of up to 100 mph. After stopping Guessford and being joined by a third officer, Raiford Box, body camera footage shows the officers planning how to justify punishing Guessford.

“We can lock him up for disorderly conduct,” Box tells the officers over a phone call captured by the body camera footage. “It might not go anywhere, but we can definitely lock him up for disorderly conduct.”

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“He stuck his middle finger out of the car and I’m like ‘game on.’” Douglas says after the officers have exited the car, having pulled Guessford over.

“After a while, he ‘ll do something stupid,” Box added later. “We can lock him up, take his kid, put his dog in the impound…for now it is what it is,”

Eventually, Guessford was cited for breaking a law regulating hand signals for bicycles and other non-motorized vehicles. However, body camera footage from after the incident shows that Box knew the citation wasn’t lawful. In a phone call with another officer, Christopher Popp, Box explained that officers cited Guessford for improper hand signals.

“Yeah, you can’t do that. That’ll get dropped,” Popp says. “I told him that’s gonna get thrown out,” Box replies, adding, “Eventually, he’s going to do something really stupid and then we are going to be able to really lock him up.”

“We need to look at something more that applies, like maybe, something stupid, like parked in the roadway, something like that that will fly,” says Popp. “Unfortunately, I mean, we can’t pull people over, we can’t write them tickets for telling us to fuck off or giving us the middle finger, stuff like that. You know, that is their right to do so.”

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While the citation against Guessford was later dropped, he filed a lawsuit in February, alleging that police violated his First Amendment rights.

The officer’s “motive for the traffic stop and issuance of a traffic ticket was to punish Plaintiff Guessford for exercising rights secured under the constitution,” the suit reads. “The adverse actions taken against [Guessford]—stopping his motor vehicle without reasonable suspicion or probable cause—would substantially interfere with the exercise of First Amendment freedoms.”

Since the incident, one unnamed officer has been disciplined, according to a Delaware State Police spokesperson.



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Delaware

Hunter Biden team tells Delaware court they're 'not ready' for gun trial date

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Hunter Biden team tells Delaware court they're 'not ready' for gun trial date


Hunter Biden’s legal team appeared to seek a delay for his impending June 3 trial date in Delaware, which was set by a federal judge two months ago.

The first son was not in attendance Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Delaware’s largest city, Wilmington, but attorney Abbe Lowell as well as Special Counsel David Weiss were. Weiss sat in court taking notes during the proceedings.

Special counsel attorney Derek Hines told the court the Biden matter is a “simple case,” and that he was prepared to go forward with Judge Maryellen Noreika’s June 3 trial date.

Hines predicted the trial would take less than a week.

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HUNTER BIDEN INDICTMENT MUDDIES WEISS’ CREDIBILITY AS WHISTLEBLOWERS FEEL VINDICATED: ATTORNEY

However, Lowell told Noreika, “We are not ready,” for that start date, which appeared to frustrate the judge. Noreika asked Lowell for an explanation, pushing back that the case is not complicated.

Lowell said he is working on both Biden’s Delaware and California cases simultaneously, and instead proposed a September trial date in Wilmington.

He indicated he plans to file an appeal by Wednesday with the Third Circuit seeking an injunction to block the trial from commencing before merit-based motions are worked through.

SHAPLEY ATTORNEY: HUNTER BIDEN PROSECUTOR ‘ALL OVER THE MAP,’ SHOULD TESTIFY TO CONGRESS

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Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, arrives with attorney Abbe Lowell at the O’Neill House Office Building. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

A 56-page indictment against Biden was handed down in Los Angeles in December, which included felony charges and laid out his salacious spending habits and lifestyle while cataloging alleged related tax violations.

In Delaware, other issues scheduled to be presented in court Tuesday pertained to admissibility of evidence. Both the defense and prosecution were reported to be preparing “in limine” motions to exclude certain information from the jury as part of a typical timeline in normal litigation.

One argument from the special counsel’s office obtained by Fox News questioned why the jury should not hear the reasons Delaware state law enforcement did not charge Biden with a 2018 count relating to the first son’s application for and possession of a firearm while using controlled substances.

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Hunter and Joe Biden (Getty Images)

Another court document reflected evidence from the 2018 police report in which Beau Biden’s widow Hallie, who was in a relationship with Hunter at the time, purportedly tossed the gun in a trash receptacle near the A.I. duPont High School in Greenville, Delaware.

On Thursday, a federal appeals court decided against tossing the gun charges after Biden asked the Philadelphia-based Third Circuit to dismiss them.



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Today in Delaware County history, May 14

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Today in Delaware County history, May 14


100 Years Ago, 1924: Receiving complaint that drug addicts, one of them wanted by the Wilmington, Del., authorities, were in a shack at the rear of 9 Jeffrey St., Sgt. Miley and Officers Petersons, Bradley, Owens and Handy descended upon the place about 5 o’clock this morning and took into custody four persons. All denied the charge of drug addict, but were ordered held pending further investigation.

75 Years Ago, 1949: Fire which authorities believed was started by fumigation candles caused an estimated $2,000 worth of damage in an apartment in the Fifth Ward Friday afternoon. Firemen had to don masks and ease their way through the thick yellow, sulphuric smoke to fight the blaze in the second floor apartment located at 924 Walnut St. The blaze was discovered shortly before 3 p.m. by Mrs. Dorothy Chapman, who lives next door at 926 Walnut St. She reported she saw smoke seeping from windows on the second floor and she telephoned the Moyamensing Fire Company.

50 Years Ago, 1974: Delaware County employees have been given numbered tickets to attend a Republican organization rally at 8 tonight at the Alphine Inn, Springfield, the reason for the numbered tickets is to “keep out hecklers and anybody who might cause a disturbance,” according to Robert F. Kelly, county Republican chairman. He pointed out the rally was being held in the home town of the major anti-organization candidate, incumbent U.S. Rep. Lawrence G. Williams (R-7).

25 Years Ago, 1999: Baldt Anchor will be among 11 Pennsylvania companies accompanying Gov. Tom Ridge as he embarks on a trade mission to Asia, his second trip there in 18 months. Baldt, a century-old company, today only employs 30 workers at the Chester facility where it manufactures ship anchors and does a lot of business with the Navy. But Baldt is seeking to resume what was once an extensive overseas business. Baldt marketing director Karen Kelly said Baldt is looking to establish contacts in the Asian regions.

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10 Years Ago, 2014: Authorities are investigating a carjacking Wednesday night involving the wife of Chester Mayor John Linder, according to a report by 6ABC “Action News.” Mrs. Linder was forced at gunpoint to exit her gold-colored 2005 Ford Taurus at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday. After Mrs. Linder got out of her vehicle, the two men jumped inside and drove toward I-95, according to authorities. Mrs. Linder reportedly escaped without injuries. According to Chester Police Commissioner Joseph Bail, three suspects were detained for questioning and the vehicle was recovered.

— COLIN AINSWORTH



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University of Delaware student charged with hate crime for vandalizing Holocaust memorial, officials say

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University of Delaware student charged with hate crime for vandalizing Holocaust memorial, officials say



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NEWARK, Del. (CBS) — A University of Delaware student was charged with a hate crime and banned from campus after vandalizing a Holocaust memorial and going on an “antisemitic tirade,” the attorney general’s office announced Monday. 

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Jenna Kandeel, 23, was charged with several misdemeanor offenses after vandalizing the Holocaust memorial sponsored by a Jewish student group at the University of Delaware last week on Wednesday, May 8. 

Kandeel was arrested by the University of Delaware Police Department after witnesses reported she damaged “several flags at a Holocaust memorial on the UD Green and made vulgar statements about the Jewish community and the Holocaust,” according to officials. 

Kandeel admitted to the vandalism after she was taken into custody, according to officials.   

Antisemitic incidents have been on the rise across the country since the Hamas attacks against Israel in 2023. 

“We have a proud history of protecting free speech in this country, including and especially political dissent,” Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings said in a release. “But we need to be lucid enough to recognize the daylight — miles of it, in this case — between protest and hate. The Holocaust is not ancient history. 80 years later, the world’s Jewish population still has not recovered; its survivors are still with us; and I fear that we still have not learned its lessons. Seeing this ignorance on display, particularly in an increasingly antisemitic climate, should be a wake-up call. We still have work to do.”  

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