Officer Down

Police Officer Jonathan Ginka
Norton Shores Police Department, Michigan
End of Watch: Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Age: 34
Tour: 10 years
Badge # 7384

Police Officer Jon Ginka was killed in a single vehicle crash on Henry Street, south of Ross Road, shortly after 2:30 am.

His patrol SUV left the roadway and struck a tree, causing extensive damage. He was extricated from the vehicle and transported to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries a short time later.

Officer Ginka had served with the Norton Shores Police Department for 10 years. He is survived by his wife and two children.

Rest in Peace Bro…We Got The Watch

Nemo me impune lacessit

Day is done, Gone the sun, From the lake, From the hills, From the sky. All is well, Safely rest, God is nigh. 

Another example of why you don't turn your back to people...

This woman the throat of an officer who had his back turned. Somehow someone missed the weapon on her. And the officer was not watching her while he was on the computer. This is scary.

Can never search enough. The real outrage was she was found not guilty!

A Vermont woman who sneaked up behind a police officer while under arrest and allegedly tried to slit his throat with a knife was found not guilty of attempted murder.

Jennifer Berube, 40, was acquitted of attempted second-degree murder and a lesser charge of attempted aggravated assault on Monday by a jury in Rutland, a city in western Vermont about 60 miles south of Burlington...

To my fellow cops, be safe out there. And to the jury in this case, thanks for nothing!

Thanks to Norm W for the link.

I have to say, this is a bit strange...

I've watched the news on the case of Officer Mohamed Noor shooting and killing Justine Damond last week. In my review, I've found these articles a bit thought provoking. Looking at these, they are not straight facts, not even completed analysis. They are snapshots with a heavy dose of opinion put in, as do my comments. Here we go.

Blue Lives Matter gives a decent overall look at the situation, with a link to the Star Tribune.

Possible Reason For Justine Damond Shooting Released

Minneapolis, MN – New details have been released on the shooting of Justine Damond which give a possible cause of the shooting.

The BCA released information on Tuesday from an interview with Officer Matthew Harrity, who was driving the patrol car when his partner, Officer Mohamed Noor, shot over Officer Harrity and through the driver’s door, fatally hitting Justine Damond.

In the interview, Officer Harrity said heard a loud noise prior to Officer Noor firing his weapon. The BCA said, “Harrity indicated that he was startled by a loud sound near the squad,” according to Star Tribune.

Immediately after the loud noise is when Justine Damond approached the squad car in her pajamas, and Officer Noor fired his weapon.

During the radio audio of the incident, a dispatcher references “two shots heard to the east.”

An officer responded, “We heard those sounds from the station, those are probably aerial fireworks.” It’s believed that those fireworks may be the loud noise that the officers hears.

It is not clear at this time if the shooting was an accidental discharge from being startled, or Officer Noor was responding to what he perceived to be gunshots while a person approached them, or some other reasoning. Officer Noor has still not been interviewed.

If the shooting is determined to have been accidental, criminal charges would be appropriate and are certain to be filed. If the shooting was an intentional act, then all of the circumstances would need to be judged to determine if it was objectively reasonable.

The incident initially occurred on Saturday night at around 11:30 PM when officers responded to a 911 call just north of the 5100 block of Washburn Avenue S. for a report of what sounded like a possible fight. Family members say that Justine Damond is the person who called 911.

According to unnamed “sources,” Star Tribune reports that both officers were in their vehicle as they pulled to the end of an alley on W. 51st Street between Washburn and Xerxes Avenues.

The officers were wearing body cameras, but did not turn them on until after the shooting. Early indications are that the officers were in full compliance with the department camera policy...

Some observations. One, why did the officer take his weapon out of the holster? If you heard gunshots (or fireworks) why pull the gun out while you're still in your car? Granted, pulling your primary weapon out while seated in your vehicle can be a challenge, the holsters are a point in the ass. That's why my backup 357 is loose in my pocket where I can easily obtain it. Also, I'm getting the impression this did not occur in Da Hood, so why so paranoid.
As far as the camera is concerned, they generally are not turned on until after you leave the car. Every idiot will scream "cameras should be on at all times...' but this is not practical. Batteries die if you use them 24/7, hell, getting through a shift can be a challenge. So yes, the seem to have been within policy.

Tse being said, Front Page Magazine has a radical idea on why the officer fired:

'First Somali' Officer Mohamed Noor Murdered Australian Woman

...This is what happens when you put diversity over public safety.

Justine Damond, an Australian woman, called 911 to report a sexual assault happening nearby. Instead she was murdered by Mohammed Noor, a Somali migrant with multiple complaints against him after only two years on the force.

And body cameras weren't turned on.

Mohammed Noor was a diversity hire. Part of the usual pattern of community policing bringing in recruits who match the demographics of local areas. This isn't always a bad idea. Until problematic figures have their problems swept under the rug because... diversity.

Mohamed Noor had little more than two years’ experience on the force...

...Noor joined the Minneapolis Police Department in March 2015 and is the first Somali-American police officer assigned to the 5th Precinct in the southwest part of the city.

In total, he reportedly has had three complaints made against him in two years — including the lawsuit.

Two are from 2017 and one from 2016 is closed and according to Lou Raguse of Kare 11 is marked ‘not to be made public’.

The two incidents we know about involved women. Including this latest one. And that's a distinct pattern. And a very predictable one.

Ms Damond, dressed in her pyjamas, reportedly approached the driver’s side window of the police car when it arrived in the alley and officer Noor shot across his partner at Ms Damond more than once from the passenger seat.

Firing from inside a car. And across your own partner. At a woman wearing pajamas who had reported a sexual assault.

“This was not a woman who would have presented any kind of threat to police. She was a gentle, loving person,” said Joan Hargrave, who lived down the street and befriended Ms Damond a year ago through a shared love of dogs.

She didn't present a threat to police. But maybe she represented a threat to the Somali mindset and the Islamic psyche...

I've watched this event with interest. The BLM crowd is screaming about how fast the process works when a black cop shoots a white woman. Hate to tell you, it's moving slow. And people are still putting out stuff with no support or justification (see part about him being Muslim).

Again, let this process play out. The officer has rights, the shooting needs to be investigated to insure it was justified, an if not, the legal process again the officer can begin.

Another person tells cops, "Don't do your job."

I've subscribed to Reason magazine for years and I regularly listen to their podcast. I've often described my politics as conservative with some libertarian tendencies. But I have many issues with the the Libertarian Party's platform. They are for open borders (as opposed to the current Democratic party which wants no borders.)

Now I've found this article interesting. The author (A columnist for the Chicago Tribune) basically wants cops to cease making traffic stops. My first thought was, "Moron, to be effective, police work has to be assertive..." Here are some of the highlights.

Curbing Traffic Stops Would Save Lives

So why do cops rely so much on the practice? Enforcing traffic laws is a large share of what they do.

Steve Chapman

Last weekend, in the wee hours of the night, Chicago police stopped a car carrying four people. When officers approached it, they saw a passenger holding a gun. The outcome was a familiar one: an 18-year-old man was shot by police...

Mr. Chapman, perhaps you missed the story from the Chicago Tribune. You are giving the reader an impression of four kids just joyriding and the police shot for no reason. From your newspaper's article:

...Officers stopped the car in an alley between Mulligan Avenue and Mobile Avenue. While the officers were asking the driver for a license and registration, the officers saw that one of the backseat passengers, the 18-year-old man, had a gun, Nagode said.

"The subject did have a weapon in his hand," he said. "He was making several statements where he was threatening in nature."

The officers exchanged words with the man, but Nagode said the 18-year-old did not put down the gun...

Mr. Chapman, perhaps you didn't know this, but private possession of a firearms in Chicago is basically illegal. Also, an 18 year old cannot possess a pistol, period. You are trying to imply the cops were wrong in stopping the vehicle and defending themselves. News flash, they were not.

...Too often, traffic stops lead to tragedy. Philando Castile was shot to death in his car by a police officer in Minnesota. Last week, a mistrial was declared for a University of Cincinnati officer prosecuted for killing 43-year-old Samuel DuBose, whose car had a missing front license plate. Sandra Bland, yanked out of her car by a Texas state trooper after allegedly failing to signal a lane change, died in jail. All three victims were black.

Yes, I saw the video of the Castile stop. Not the Facebook live stream his girlfriend did, but the one of the officer. Where the first thing he does is tell him, "Don't reach for it...Don't reach for it!" Can we say we say Mr. Castile did "reach for it," no, we didn't have that point of view. But it's not the lie put out that the cop fired without warning and for no reason.

I've been a cop for almost two decades and yes, occasionally, I get stopped. And it's rare I am not carrying a weapon. So the first thing I do as the officer approaches is put my hand out and announce, "Officer, my hands are where you can see them! I am armed!" I show him my ID, he knows I am authorized to carry a weapon, and we go on.

By the way, Sandra Bland did not "die in jail," she killed herself in jail. And the trooper is at no fault for her death. Once she was accepted by the county jail, she is their responsibility. From what I've read there are some issues with the jail staff, but the trooper is not responsible for that.

...Cops are also at risk. In March, a police officer died in a shootout with a passenger who ran from a car that had been pulled over in Tecumseh, Okla. In June, a police lieutenant was fatally gunned down after a stop in Newport, Arkansas..."

Actually LT Weatherford was investigating a vehicle break in, not on a traffic stop:

The Arkansas State Police said on Tuesday that Weatherford was responding to a vehicle break-in when he was shot.

...When an officer stops and approaches a vehicle, both the cop and the driver are vulnerable. Any wrong move or misjudgment can turn the encounter deadly.

"Traffic stops and domestic violence are the highest-risk calls—you have no idea what you're walking into," John Gnagey, executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association, told the Orlando Sentinel in 2010...

A seven year old quote, kinda weird. I guess Google was lazy the day you wrote this.

Even when motorists get off unharmed, the experience can be frightening, infuriating or humiliating. Stops breed fear and distrust of law enforcement, particularly among minorities.

"Even when motorists get off unharmed,..." You are implying people getting "off unharmed" is not common. From the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2011 62 million Americans had interaction with police, of which approximate 13 million were traffic stops. If 10% of those stops/investigations ended in injury or death of the officer or a citizen, we would be talking about 1.3 million people. Hate to tell you, there is not an epidemic of violence around traffic stops.

...So why do cops rely so much on the practice? Enforcing traffic laws is a large share of what they do. Ignoring motorists who drive too fast or ignore signals could foster chaos on the road...

And to let you in on a secret, it also leads to other crimes, such as Driving While Intoxicated, Operating with a Suspended License, no insurance, etc. Also, going back to that 18 year old who was shot in Chicago. Did it occur to you the four kids (around 20, at least one armed, out at 3:00 am) what were they doing. Likely planning a criminal act. The fact they were stopped (speculation on my part) may have prevented another crime later on in the night. You stop them with a traffic stop, arrest them for illegally carrying the weapon, and the armed robbery they were planning never occurs.

But there are other ways to combat bad driving. University of California, Berkeley law professor Christopher Kutz points out that police in France do traffic stops at less than one-third the rate that American cops do. In England and Wales, it's one-fourth.

The obvious alternative is using cameras. Speeders and red-light runners can be detected and ticketed by electronic means. Upon paying the fine, says Kutz, the offenders could be required to show that they are licensed and insured.

I've gotten citations from red-light and speed cameras, and while I resented the fines, I was grateful that I wasn't detained on the roadside by an armed officer. The time I got a mere warning for (barely) failing to come to a complete stop on an empty suburban street after midnight was considerably less pleasant.

Forgive me, but you claimed to have "...(barely).."failed to come to a complete stop. OK, we'll take you at your word for the moment. However, if police switched to only camera enforcement of traffic laws, what will preclude people from covering their license plates, steeling license plates of similar vehicles, etc? BTY, I will lay money the next column comes up from you will be complaints about being fined without being proven guilty of a crime, such as running a red light.

...Being a gray-haired white male, I've been pulled over only three times in my adult life. Castile, 32, had been through that experience 49 times—and "was rarely ticketed for the reason he was stopped," according to the StarTribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Joel Anderson, an African-American reporter for BuzzFeed, said on Twitter last month that he's been stopped more than 30 times since he started driving—including five times for seatbelt violations when he was wearing his seatbelt...

"...rarely ticketed for the reason he was stopped?" OK, was he ticketed for something else? I didn't see a breakdown of what Castile had been stopped for and the results, if you have that, please put it out. Oh, to be fair, why don't you restate Mr Anderson's claim, "He alleges he was stopped five times for seatbelt violations when the was wearing his seatbelt."

Traffic stops are often an excuse for cops to search a car for drugs and guns. Curtailing police reliance on this pretext would free motorists from being dragooned to "consent" to searches for which the cops lack probable cause.

If the cop doesn't have probably cause, the driver can say, "You ain't going in there without a warrant..." I agree, stand up for your rights.

...True, the change would let criminals operate at less risk. But hassling the innocent to catch the guilty is an abuse of our constitutional principles. In Illinois last year, police conducted 2.17 million traffic stops. Just 8,938 yielded contraband—one bust for every 242 stops...

Yes, it would let criminals operate at less risk. And the general public at more. Before Rudolph Giuliani came in and instigated, among other things, "Stop and Frisk," New York was a war zone. The Big Apple had over two-thousand murders in 1990.

Sorry Mr. Chapman, effective policing, by it's nature, must be aggressive. We must go out and find the criminals, if possible, before they strike (see your example of the 4 hood rats stopped by CPD). You may not like the fact we do this job, but don't worry. In spite of your bad opinion of the cops, we will still respond to you when you're getting your ass kicked. To paraphrase Jack Nicholson's great speech:

We live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.

You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall -- you need me on that wall.

We use words like "honor," "code," "loyalty." We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punch line.

I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it.

I would rather that you just said "thank you" and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand the watch. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!

Jane you ignorant slut!

Saw this and I had to share it. Have a great Friday.

RIP Commander John Koenig

Martin Landau passed this weekend at the age of 89. He became quite an accomplished actor in rolls in Hitchcock's classic North by Northwest, the real Mission Impossible, and the roll that would earn him the Academy Award, as Bela Lugosi in the film Ed Wood in 1994. But to me and countless nerds, he will always be John Koenig, Commander, Moonbase Alpha.

Space 1999 came along in 1975, at the end of the Apollo program and Americans were still optimistic about our space program. In the years of Ford and Carter, we (especially 10 year old idiots from small town Louisiana) saw ourselves colonizing the moon and reaching out to the other planets in my lifetime. Well...that didn't work out.

I still love space opera but my taste have matured. I appreciate plot, character development, etc over special effects. But I didn't appreciate this back in you younger years as I do today, and it's appropriate.

I've often looked over this scene from the first season episode Black Sun. The lunar colony is heading to a black sun and almost all of the crewmen are looking at sure death in a few hours. As Koenig and his long time friend, Professor Victor Bergman (played by British actor Barry Morse) contemplate the end, Bergman brings out "Sixty year old brandy" and pours two glasses. The hardened commander contemplates what to say for a moment, and utters, "To everything that might have been." The more optimistic Bergman thinks for a second and finishes the toast, "To everything that was."

I have to say I've stolen that toast more than once, including the time I was retiring from the Army!    :<).

RIP Martin Landau, a life well lived. It's not how you're buried, it's how you're remembered. And you sir will be remembered well.

Another memorial for a fallen deputy...

I remember Friday, Auguest 29, 2015, very well. I drove home hearing of the murder of Darci's County Deputy Darren Goforth, and later that evening (actually the next morning) I posted on listening to his fellow deputies looking for a black male in a red Ford Ranger. I passed out around 0200, but he was captured around 0500 and is awaiting trial. Shannon Miles has been arraigned and is awaiting trial (likely sometime this fall) but there is some news for his family.

Memorial for slain Harris County Deputy Darren Goforth set for installation

A memorial honoring slain Harris County Deputy Darren Goforth is expected to be installed Wednesday in the Woodlawn Cemetery in northwest Houston.

Goforth, 47, was gunned down on the evening of Aug. 28, 2015, outside his patrol vehicle at a northwest Harris County gas station.

The memorial, which features a seven-foot black granite bench with a thin blue piece of glass going through the middle, is being donated by Schlitzberger and Daughters Monument Co., Watson Sign & Monuments, and Roquemore Marble and Granite

Tony Watson, of Watson Sign & Monuments, was first reached out to Goforth's wife, Kathleen, to see if she would be interested in the memorial.

"She was beyond words, happy and pleased that we were wanting to do this for her," said Kimberly Schlitzberger. "It was a hard situation that she had already gone through so we wanted to make what came next as easy as possible..."

Thank you ladies and gentlemen for your donation to his family and the LEO Family. I can't wait to see it.

I guess Black lives (don't) Matter, after all....

This afternoon, after going though my shift paperwork, I was drawn to something on Facebook. I could not hold myself back. It's the dispatch radio recording from when NYPD Officer Miosotis Familia. Just past midnight he was murdered by a thug and you can hear her partner screaming for help. You get an idea of the confusion, the terror, the hopelessness as you know's happened. Thankfully this POS was handled by the NYPD and he will never terrorize another human being. And he had a long history of that:

"...(Alexander) Bonds served about seven years in prison for a robbery in Syracuse and was paroled in May 2013, records show. Police sources initially said he had been arrested in 2013.

Wednesday was not Bonds' first attack on a police officer. Sources told the NY Daily News he previously assaulted an officer with brass knuckles.

Bonds also recently spoke critically of law enforcement on social media, the Daily News reports, noting he seemed to have had up to six different aliases.

Records show he went by John Bonds during the Syracuse robbery arrest..."

Apparently this POS didn't care you were black Officer Familia, only that you were blue. He didn't see the nurse you were also, or the three kids left without a mother. We can only speculate why he choose you, but there is no question your uniform was the major reason.

From this morning, Officer's Familia's body being transported from the hospital.

RIP Sis...We Got The Watch.

Happy Independence Day

Well, I will be riding in a parade today with the Blue Knights and spending some quality time with my family. Don't forget the real reason we're eating too much.  The original BREXIT! And please, take a few minutes to read why this day is so important.

Happy Independence Day!

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen united States of America

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton