Police Behaving Badly 1.2.15

Surveillance video exposes cops as liars after assaulting and arresting a man who filmed them

A Virginia man visiting a friend in Baton Rouge was thrown to the ground, assaulted and arrested after filming an officer roughing someone up.

Daniel Clement, 22, of Flint Hill, has now sparked an internal affairs investigation within the Baton Rouge Police Department as the surveillance footage he obtained disputes the claims made by officers.

According to WAFB, Clement was one of several people police arrested outside the Varsity Theater near LSU just after midnight Monday. Witnesses say paramedics were first called to the scene to assist a female who had passed out after a holiday party that was being held inside.

Police were then called to the scene “in reference to EMS and Fire needing assistance with a large hostile crowd making threats and not letting them do their jobs,” a responding officer wrote in his probable cause report tied to Clement’s arrest.

However, the police apparently did not know their actions were caught on the building’s surveillance cameras and clearly lied about what happened, claiming that Clement “jumped on that officer and began pushing that officer off of his friend.”

Clement told WAFB a different story and one that lines up with what we see on the surveillance footage.

“I saw a police officer push somebody and I’ve always been told if something like that is going on, it’s important to have an objective source of data for what happened,” he said. “So, I pulled my phone out and I started filming.”

That is when a Baton Rouge police officer is seen on surveillance video walking over to Clement and snatching his phone away.

“It got ripped from my hands and as I turned to see who ripped it, another officer slammed me into the railing outside,” Clement added.

That officer is then seen on surveillance video putting his hands around Clement’s neck and body slamming him down to the ground where he partially landed on top of another officer who was apprehending someone else.

“They threw me on the ground and started throwing their knees into me,” he explained.

 “I’m not allowing them to treat people this way. Any media that can shine light on this is good because unless people are educated on problems, there’s no progress,” said Clement.

Clement was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on charges of public intoxication, battery on police, resisting an officer and remaining after forbidden. He still hasn’t received his phone.

They really, really don’t want people filming them. Probably bc so many police officers lie about the sequence of events in these cases. Come to think of it, without video footage, police are able to play into civilian sympathies with law enforcement.  Too many people treat law enforcement officials as inherently good and honest, which automatically sets up anyone opposing police as the “bad guy”…the liars. Footage like this removes their ability to control the narrative.

* * * *

Busted! On-duty, uniformed veteran cop charged with multiple felonies

According to BND.com, Officer Brian Barker, 41, of Moro was initially charged with burglary, a Class 2 felony, and official misconduct, a Class 3 felony. He was accused of entering Reality Salon and Spa in Edwardsville on Sunday and stealing money from the register while on duty.

Prosecutors since have added another 12 charges: 10 counts of burglary, targeting Edwardsville businesses since 2012; one count of residential burglary of a home in Moro, a Class 1 felony; and one count of aggravated possession of stolen firearms, a Class X felony.

Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons said Barker was found in possession of seven stolen firearms, which had been stolen from individuals and from businesses.

When the owners of the salon reported the burglary to the Edwardsville police department, instead of sweeping it under the rug, actually handed the case over to another department for an independent investigation.

Gibbons said the situation was “really awful.” He was not sure how long Barker has been a police officer, but believed it was at least 20 years.

“We put all this trust, faith and power in police officers, but with that comes gigantic stresses,” he said. “When they breach that trust, it’s so much worse … The magnitude of this breach of public trust necessitates a very harsh penalty, and we will be seeking prison time.”

That trust, faith, and power should be earned, rather than bestowed automatically. In a fairer, more just world, that might hold true.

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Acting on bogus tip, cops raid innocent family, execute grandfather as he lay face down

An hour after the judge signed the warrant police raided Hooks’ house and took the life of this innocent grandfather.

An attorney representing David Hooks’ widow says that the September 24, shooting did not go down as law enforcement authorities stated in initial news releases, and the “true facts of this tragedy are in stark contrast” to official accounts.

At approximately 11:00 pm on September 24, Laurens County Sheriff’s deputies barged unannounced into the home of Hooks. The sheriff’s office claims Hooks was shot after he got out a firearm and started showing aggression. Hooks was met with 17 shots from SWAT officers.

Since the Free Thought Project initially reported on this killing by police in October, recent revelations show that not only were no shots fired, but the shotgun wasn’t even loaded. Even if the shotgun would have been load and Hooks would have shot at the officers, he had every right, as he was protecting his wife and home from, who he perceived to be unannounced intruders, who obviously meant him harm.

Police, adamant on trying to justify their breaking and entering and subsequent murder, searched the home for 44 straight hours and didn’t find one single shred of contraband.

Mitchell Shook is the attorney for the family and he is asking for the FBI to investigate, citing that the raid was illegal.

According to WMAZ, the family’s attorney says Hooks had four wounds, two of which he says are very problematic. Shook says that’s according to the Laurens County EMS records. He says the same information is found in the medical records from Fairview Park Hospital.

“One was to the side of the head, the other, was in his back, the back of his left shoulder, based on the evidence we see, we believe that David Hooks was face down on the ground when he received those last two shots,” says Shook.

Teresa Hooks who is still experiencing a nightmare inflicted upon her by those sworn to protect and serve, recalls that horrid night.

She says, “Between 10:30 and 11, I turned the light off upstairs. I heard a car coming up the driveway really fast, and I looked up the upstairs window. I saw a black vehicle with no lights. I saw 6 to 8 men, coming around the side of my house, and I panicked. I came running downstairs, yelling for David to wake up. He was in the bedroom asleep, had been for about an hour and a half. When I got downstairs to the bottom of the stairs, he opened the door and he had a gun in his hand, and he said, ‘Who is it?,’ and I said I didn’t know. He stepped back into the bedroom like he was going to grab his pants, but before he could do that, the door was busted down. He came around me, in the hall, into the den, and I was gonna come behind him, but before I could step into the den the shots were fired, and it was over.”

She goes on to say, “Initially, I thought that I was going to die, I thought I was going to be shot, I thought a gang had broke in, and up until I heard the radios the dispatch radios, I had no idea.”

Teresa Hooks was then handcuffed and detained in her front yard while her husband lay bleeding out inside, only to watch his lifeless corpse be carried out on a stretcher hours later.

David Hooks was a successful businessman who owned two thriving businesses. His construction company worked on military bases, including Hunter Army Airfield and Fort Stewart.

As such, he was vetted and underwent background checks by state and federal authorities including the Department of Homeland Security and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Based on those background checks, he was granted a security clearance which allowed him to work on these military bases. He was not a drug user or distributor.

I’d add that even if he were a drug user or distributor, he shouldn’t have been gunned down like that. He should have been charged and faced the judgement of the courtroom.

* * * *

In uniform and armed, FL deputy caught stealing $176 in Wal-Mart products

Generally speaking, when I go grocery shopping, while I might think to myself, “I’ll take this item and I’ll take that item”, I don’t mean “take” in the sense of stealing the item.  I mean “take” as in “place into my basket or cart to be paid for once I reach the checkout aisle”.  For one Sheriff’s Deputy in Florida, “take” meant “steal”:

Over five visits, Theodore Parrish, 51, shoplifted $176 worth of goods from a Coral Springs Wal-Mart, said Dani Moschella, a spokeswoman for the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

For the final two thefts he was armed and wore his Sheriff’s Office uniform, a police report said.

“It was mostly food and household items such as paper towels, eggs, ramen noodles, frozen fish fillets, bacon, bleach, topsoil and a poinsettia [that Parrish stole],” Moschella said.

According to a police report, while using the self-checkout kiosk on five separate occasions Parrish intentionally failed to scan some items, bagged them, placed them in his shopping cart and left the store at 6001 Coral Ridge Drive.

“The defendant acted in a surreptitious manner during each event, looking around and timing his movements,” the report said. “After the theft was completed, the defendant would pass all points of sale with the stolen items and leave the store.”

Wal-Mart notified BSO about the thefts Dec. 10. Wal-Mart would not give the sheriff’s office permission to release the surveillance video to the media, Moschella said.

Parrish turned himself in Tuesday afternoon. He was charged with misdemeanor petit theft.

Parrish has been suspended with pay, Moschella said. His annual salary is $65,627. He has worked for the agency since March 2000.

* * * *

Witnesses contradict police accounts of traffic stop that led to the shooting death of Jerame Reid

Police in Bridgeton stopped a car about 9:20 p.m. for unspecified reasons in a residential neighborhood, and multiple people said they witnessed two officers open fire on 36-year-old Jerame Reid.

Prosecutors said “during the course of the stop a handgun was revealed and later recovered,” but investigators have not specified whether the weapon was found before or after Reid – a passenger in the car – was shot.

The driver, whose name was not released, was not injured and was taken into police custody afterward.

Officers Braheme Days and Roger Worley have been placed on administrative leave while the shooting is investigated.

Zakeeda Hill, 28, and her 12-year-old cousin, Josh Scurry, said they watched the traffic stop and shooting from a home across the street.

Hill told The Daily Journal that the car’s occupants insisted to officers that they didn’t have anything and asked police why they had been pulled over.

Suddenly, they said, officers opened fire. Hill and Scurry each agreed they heard at least seven gunshots.

Tahli Dawkins, 34, told the Press of Atlantic City that he watched officers approach the car with their weapons drawn and yell “don’t effing move” at the occupants before suddenly opening fire.

Denzel Mosley, 17, witnessed the incident from the attic of his house, which overlooked the shooting scene.

He told KYW-TV that both of Reid’s hands were in “plain sight,” and the teen said he never saw a gun.

“They were telling him, ‘Get out the car,’” Mosley said. “(Officers were) like, ‘Stop!’ and they started shooting.”

The traffic stop was recorded on cell phone video by one witness and posted online, but it does not show the shooting directly.

Ben Mosely, a retired sheriff’s deputy, told WPVI-TV he watched the incident from his bedroom window.

He said Reid had gotten out of his car but then tried to get back into the vehicle when officers opened fire, but – based on his own police training — he does not believe the shooting was justified.

“I saw a disarmed man go down to the ground and get shot,” Mosley said. “That’s exactly what I saw.”

All the witnesses agree the incident escalated quickly from a traffic stop to a fatal shooting.

But…but…but…the cops would never lie. They’re paragons of truth and honesty, rather than human beings with the same biases and prejudices that plague other humans. So of course that means all the witnesses are lying or mistaken. Just like the witnesses to Michael Brown’s murder.

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Police Behaving Badly 1.2.15
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