police state

Police Behaving Badly 4.21.15

Tony Thompson, 2 Comments

Two police officers in Philadelphia challenged an African-American college student to a quick game of basketball.  2 days later, they tried to arrest him:

Samir Hill, a 5-foot-7 point guard at Allegany College of Maryland, was playing against some neighborhood kids when the officers approached, reported Complex.

The 21-year-old Hill said the officers joked that they didn’t look very good and “started talking trash” – so he challenged them to a game.

“We gave them ball first, (and) I was playing on the court two-on-two with my friend Josh — they almost scored on him,” Hill said, as his friend loudly protested in the background. “We get the ball, and everybody starts pulling out their cameras. The first cop, I crossed him and laid it up.”

A pair of short video clips posted on Vine, showing Hill beating the officers on crossover dribbles, went viral.

“He’s like, ‘I don’t play basketball, I play football,’” Hill said. “So he put his partner on me — the second one, the one I made fall. Everyone went crazy.”

Hill never learned the officers’ names, but he said they tried to arrest him two days later, after pro athletes — including former NFL star Chad Johnson — shared the video clips on social media.

“I think it was because of the video, but they said it was the people I was around,” Hill said. “I don’t think it was that though, because most of the kids I hang around are college kids. I think they just wanted to take me down to the district to show who I was.”

He said the officers took him to the police station saying they thought they saw him with contraband, but they eventually let him go without charge.

“They didn’t explain it to me,” Hill said. “They just took me in there, handcuffed me to a bench for an hour and a half. They were doing a search on the car. They searched the car for like an hour. They didn’t find nothing, and they let me go. The whole time they were telling me how they weren’t going to lock me up, that they were targeting my friend.”

“We thought he had contraband.”

Based on what evidence? That he’s black? Is that it?

They never, ever have to justify their “suspicions”. They make them and act as if everyone is supposed to just accept that they’re being honest. They’re aided by the false assumption many have that police officers are inherently trustworthy authority figures.  They aren’t. They are flawed human beings with the same hangups and issues everyone else has. They’re just as prone to racism, sexism, homophobia, or transphobia as the civilian population. They make decisions based on implicit biases, play fast-and-loose with logic, and are prone to cognitive biases-just like everyone else.  Unfortunately, they are in positions of power and the decisions they make-decisions that are often faulty-can have devastating consequences. And they so often do. Cops should be held to a higher standard if they’re going to have power over civilians.

* * * *

In what may become a case of the word of a black suspect versus the word of police officers (and we know who is going to be regarded as more trustworthy between the two), a Marine veteran is facing 15 years for allegedly assaulting police officers during a routine traffic stop. Oddly enough, evidence that could substantiate his claims of innocence appears to be missing:

Stuart Fitzgerald, who is black, was pulled over May 26 for flashing his high beams while driving in Orange County, Virginia, and police said he refused to sign a citation and stayed inside his vehicle when he was ordered out, reported WUSA-TV.

Video recorded by a dashboard camera shows an officer opening the car door less than two seconds after his first attempt, and the 53-year-old Fitzgerald steps out of the vehicle while the officer keeps one hand on him.

What happens next is unclear, because some audio and images from the dashboard camera and six others at the scene are missing or still haven’t been collected by investigators.

Video shows an Orange County sheriff’s deputy throwing Fitzgerald onto the four-lane highway, but there is no audio during that segment due to what has been described as a malfunction.

The footage also partially shows Fitzgerald’s head repeatedly hitting the patrol car’s hood – but the deputy claims Fitzgerald intentionally did that to himself.

Fitzgerald said he did not remember what happened at that point, but suffered a chipped tooth and facial injuries as a result.

Authorities said that Fitzgerald struggled until officers “placed him on the ground and restrained him,” but he denies fighting with police.

“I definitely was not, because I’m not a fool,” Fitzgerald told the TV station. “I’m not going to resist. I’m not going to fight them — I know better than that.”

The president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense League agrees with defense experts who say the video does not show Fitzgerald attacking officers, but the missing evidence essentially puts his word against the law enforcement officers’ accounts.

* * * *

Corrupt Cleveland police officers obstruct justice, refuse to testify against killer cop

Former Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo is currently on trial for manslaughter, after gunning down two unarmed people on November 29, 2012. Police pumped nearly 140 bullets into a vehicle occupied by Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams. While at least 13 officers are known to have fired weapons at the vehicle, Brelo faces manslaughter charges after he jumped on the hood of the car and sprayed the two victims with 49 bullets through the windshield of the 1979 Chevy Malibu they occupied.

As the trial entered its third day, prosecutors expressed frustration with Brelo’s fellow officers, who have refused to provide witness testimony in the case.

Shortly after officer Michael Demchek was called to the stand, he announced that he would be pleading his fifth amendment right not to incriminate himself. Prosecutors disputed Demchek’s right to take the fifth, saying that there is nothing in his testimony that would be used to incriminate himself.

Prosecutors responded to Demchek’s assertion of his fifth amendment right, by saying:

“This is what the state has been talking about – the blue wall – this individual would not come testify. He’s a police officer. His loyalty should be to the citizens…”

Amazingly, as lawyers for Demchek and Brelo sat quietly by, Judge John P. O’Donnell argued with prosecutors on Demchek’s behalf.

Demchek is one of a group of officers who has refused to testify as to what they saw the night that Russell and Williams were killed. Two other officers were granted immunity in exchange for their testimony. An additional two officers are demanding immunity, in exchange for witness testimony.

On March 31, prosecutors filed a formal brief with the court, in which they stated that the cops have refused to cooperate with the state, and asked that they be treated as hostile witnesses. WEWS in Cleveland reports that at least 16 officers with vital information on the case have refused to cooperate with prosecutors. Police union representatives are openly discouraging cops from talking to prosecutors or providing witness testimony.

Well, there are 16 officers who show their contempt for the court. What fucking assholes. They’d rather remain silent than testify against one of their own. Fucking tribalism.

* * * *

Caught on video, Washington cop admits to quotas, falsifying charges, & extorting the poor

The video starts out with the officer proclaiming how stopping these teenagers on the last day of the month, just helped him reach his quota.

“This is the last day of the month. I get every stat I need just off of you guys,” says the officer as he begins his rights violating confession.

“So you guys gotta make quota, huh?” asks the detained teen.

“We don’t have a quota. We have expectations. And what that means is, you will make so many arrests a month, you should write so many tickets a month, and you should haul so many dumbasses to jail a month. If we’re gonna pay you $100,000 a year, we should expect something back from you, shouldn’t we?” says the officer.

When the man replies, ‘yes’ that he understands what the officer just said, the cop then asks, “Would you like to be part of my quota tonight?”

The young man then asks the cop, “On what grounds [would you arrest me]?”

To which the cop replies, “‘On what grounds?’ Oh, I don’t know, I’ll think of something. How about aiding and abetting reckless driving?”

The officer basically admits that he will simply make up any charges he wants, just to make an arrest.

“Fair enough,” says the man, trying to prevent himself from being kidnapped by this officer for no reason.

“You better wipe that smile off your face brother, or I’ll show ya,” says the officer.

It doesn’t stop there, this officer then exposes himself for the true power-tripping tyrant that he is.

“Now, let me tell you what the difference between being a smart guy and a dumbass is. You sit there with that shit-eating grin on your face, let me see some id!” says the tyrant officer.

The young man then replies as he’s going to show the officer his ID, “It’s cool I got a clean record.”

That’s when the officer becomes brutally honest about how he can abuse his power to ruin innocent lives.

The officer replies, “Yeah, but you know what? I’m the guy that can make that record look dirty.”

At this point the officer then admits how the entire system is funded through this type of shakedown and extortion racket.

“You are a guy that’s gonna end up giving the city a lot of money,” says the officer explaining how the state aggressively pursues poor people to pay their exorbitant salaries. 

The officer then proceeds to massively flex his authority as the teen isn’t bowing down fast enough, screaming, “Shut up! Shut up!”

Here’s the video:

* * * *

U.S. Marshal goes berserk smashing woman’s phone for recording him on public sidewalk

In a YouTube video dated April 19, someone apparently positioned across the street from the incident captured video of a woman who was recording a group of men wearing tactical gear in South Gate, California.

The woman can be seen talking to the officers and recording them while they seemed to be ignoring her.

Eventually, a man carrying an assault rifle and wearing a different style of tactical gear walks toward the woman. As she backs up, he lunges at her, grabbing her cellphone with both hands. There is a brief struggle for the phone, but the man easily overpowers the woman and slams the device to the ground.

Here is the video of the incident:

The poor dears. I wonder why they are so opposed to being filmed. Aren’t they the good guys?

(there may have been a touch of snark in the above)

Police Behaving Badly 4.21.15
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Police Behaving Badly 4.8.15

Tony Thompson,

I began the ‘Police Behaving Badly’ series last year as a way of documenting the stories of police officers who engaged in questionable, unethical, immoral, or illegal behavior. At the time, I knew that there were cases of on-duty cops sexually assaulting women, that cops had been caught stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from drug suspects, that it was not uncommon for officers to use excessive force, and that police brutality and racism often go hand-in-hand. What I didn’t know was how often this shit occurred. I didn’t know how pervasive these problems were. Like many, I trusted law enforcement officials. As I read more and more stories of police officers behaving badly, I came to realize that these individual cases pointed to a more significant problem-rampant corruption within law enforcement across the country as well as sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and racism. Not just individual officers either, but entire police departments (the New York and Ferguson PDs immediately spring to mind). I learned that this shit happens all the time and as a result, this series will continue for a very, very long time (as long as I’m blogging most likely). Here are a few of the most recent examples of Police Behaving Badly:

Minneapolis cop threatens to break teen’s leg during traffic stop

A video has surfaced that appears to show a Minneapolis police officer threatening to break a teenager’s leg during a traffic stop. Hamza Jeylani, 17, who recorded the cellphone video, told MRP News that he and his friends had left a YMCA on March 18 when police pulled them over. The four young men, of Somali descent, believe that they were victims of racial profiling, and an advocacy group is now calling for a federal investigation, according to the Huffington Post.

Jeylani’s smartphone captured about 30 seconds of the encounter. An officer says, “Plain and simple, if you f–k with me, I’m going to break your leg before you get the chance to run. I’m being honest; I don’t screw around.”

When one of the young men asks why they are being arrested, the officer responds, “Because I feel like arresting you.”

The teens were handcuffed and detained for about 45 minutes while the officers searched their vehicle. But the young men were not charged with a crime.

A video of this latest example of authoritarian mentality among police officers is available at the link.

* * * *

Washington, D.C. cops beat married couple as their children watch

A married couple claims they were assaulted by Metropolitan police last week, and they have the video and their two small children as witnesses to prove it.

Forrest and Chadon Boggs were near their home, with their children when police showed up on the scene.

Officers arrived at the 1500 block of E Street NE last Wednesday after saying they heard reports of people fighting. When officers arrived, they saw that there was no fighting.

As Forrest Boggs was walking by the officers, he says spat on the ground. But Officer Blier, with the Metropolitan police department claimed Boggs spat on his police cruiser.

“Boggs [husband] … spat a wad of saliva onto Ofc. Blier’s scout car rear window and then continued to walk E/B in the alley,” police said in their report.

“I did spit, but I didn’t spit on his car,” said Boggs.

Even if Boggs would have spat on the officer’s car, what happened next was completely unjustified.

“This is straight-out police brutality, and we have videos to show it,” said Forrest Boggs.

The officer on a power trip approached Forest Boggs and began to assault the man. The two fell to the ground and the officer got on the back of Boggs. At this point, Chadon Boggs walked over to the officer who was assaulting her husband and began to voice her disapproval.

Chadon says that when her husbands cell phone and hat fell, she bent down to grab it, and that’s when her attack began.

We can see on the video as an officer walks up to Chadon Boggs and shoves her so hard that she flew back several feet, smashing into the cruiser.

Police officers then got on top of the woman and began beating her with a baton.

“An officer came and rushed up and shoved me onto the back of a police car and took his stick out and began to start hitting me with the stick,” she said.

According to WJLA, the husband and wife were charged with assault on a police officer. Both were taken to hospitals, where Chadon Boggs received four stitches.

* * * *

Texas cop caught on video punching Air Force veteran-after she says she is pregnant

The footage shows Deanna Jo Robinson, an Air Force veteran, being restrained from behind by the unidentified officer and another deputy during a March 4 incident at her parents’ home, where she said sheriff’s officials forced their way in without a warrant to take her 18-month-old son on orders of Child Protective Services (CPS).

The video, taken from a surveillance camera inside the home, cuts out after the officer raises his hand to hit her again. Robinson, who said she was struck four or five times, can be heard saying several times that she is pregnant.

“I’m 38 weeks pregnant, and with my stomach again repeatedly pressed into that counter, and with my 18-month old son watching his mother be assaulted, and him screaming in fear,”she told WFAA-TV this week. “There’s nothing that warrants what they did to me.”

Robinson spent six days in county jail after being arrested and charged with assault on a public servant, resisting arrest and interference with child custody. She said she took the boy with her to her parents’ house after getting into a shoving match with her husband several days earlier.

According to the Observer, CPS officials removed the husband’s other three children away from his custody a day before Robinson’s encounter with police. One of the children’s teachers reportedly alerted the agency regarding the couple’s altercation. All four children are currently in state custody.

Video of the officer hitting Robinson was posted online last weekend. Sheriff Randy Meeks announced the investigation on his department’s Facebook page, saying it came in response to an “Internet allegation.”

Sure would be interesting to see how right-wing authoritarians react to this story. After all, they claim to support the military as well as law enforcement and are known to clutch their pearls and become outraged at any criticism directed at either group. They’ll probably just blame President Obama. Or liberals. Or teh gays. Or all three. Yeah, probably all three.

* * * *

Watch: Cops plant drugs on man after dragging him from car and beating him (video)

On that January night, Floyd Dent was pulled over by Officer William Melendez for an alleged traffic violation. Dashcam video shows a seemingly docile Dent being pulled out of his car and mercilessly hammered by Melendez. No one knows why the officer did so. Melendez’s report says Dent gave him a “narcotic stare” and had his fists clenched and later bit him. The video seems to show a different story. You can be the judge of who is telling the truth, below.

A subsequent search of the vehicle says that crack cocaine was found in the car, but now that charge — the only one remaining against Mr. Dent — seems to have fallen apart, and Officer Melendez, who has previously been fired for filing false reports and charged for planting evidence, is right at the center of it.

Dent claims he doesn’t do drugs and a test following the arrest squarely backs that up. And now a new video has surfaced showing “smoking gun” evidence that Dent was, indeed, framed. The video shows Melendez pulling a small baggie from his pocket. This baggie appears to be similar to the one he claims to have found inside Mr. Dent’s car.

Floyd Dent’s attorney will be in court with this evidence to attempt to get this last remaining charge dropped.

You can watch the video at the link.

* * * *

Biker threatened with jail if he doesn’t apologize for swearing at a cop, he stands his ground

In a video uploaded to Facebook on Wednesday, Michael Cates filmed a disturbing interaction between police and retired truck driver, Russel Ayers. The recording shows police threatening Ayers with incarceration after he refused to apologize to an officer, after calling him a “f*cking asshole.”

The confrontation took place after the officer’s partner allegedly came close to plowing through a group of bikers on Highway 62 in Thomasville, North Carolina. The cruiser was reportedly going 100 mph in a 60 mph zone, with no siren or lights.

Police Behaving Badly 4.8.15

Police Behaving Badly Link Round-Up 4.1.15

Tony Thompson,

Euharlee Police Department chief, assistant chief charged with theft of government funds

The Euharlee Police Chief Terry Harget and Assistant Chief Richard Smith were arrested today and charged with theft of government funds and violation of oath of office today, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

According to the GBI:

Bartow County District Attorney Rosemary Greene requested the GBI initiate an investigation concerning misconduct by Harget and Smith.

Harget and Smith were employed by the Bartow County School System as crossing guards in an off duty capacity.

The investigation revealed that Harget and Smith were being paid for performing the off duty assignment while also receiving on duty pay from the City of Euharlee.

The investigation also determined Chief Harget was receiving pay from the Bartow County School Police while having on duty Euharlee officers perform the crossing guard duty for which Harget was being paid.

* * * *

FRESNO DEPUTY POLICE CHIEF KEITH FOSTER, 3 OTHERS ARRESTED ON DRUG CHARGES

Deputy Chief Keith Foster is accused of distributing and possessing oxycodone, marijuana, and heroin. He was arrested on Thursday after a year long investigation by the FBI and ATF.

Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer met with his staff to address any questions they have after the announcement — and also to reassure them that no one, including officers, is above the law.

Deputy Chief Foster is one of three deputy chiefs in the department. Chief Jerry Dyer says Foster’s job is to oversee patrol — and each of the four policing districts in the city. Foster became a deputy chief eight years ago.

At the news conference Thursday afternoon, Chief Dyer said he was just made aware of this case — after Foster was arrested on Thursday. Federal investigators are not revealing details of the investigation, other than to say they have surveillance, which includes Deputy Chief Foster. Investigators were authorized to use wire taps on telephones.

“This is a very sad day for the Fresno Police Department, the citizens of Fresno, and the law enforcement profession,” said Dyer.

When Chief Dyer was asked what a stunning arrest like this means for the citizens of Fresno, his officers and the criminals they fight against each day — he replied, “The message I want to send to everyone, when we place this badge on our chest, it’s a badge of honor. There’s a lot of responsibility that goes along with it. It is important that we do everything we can to maintain and enhance the trust our citizens have in us. When this of this nature happen it doesn’t erode that trust.”

The chief says he hopes his officers can still hold their heads up high. He stressed that Deputy Chief Foster and the others arrested are innocent until proven guilty.

Three others are also in custody in this case. Federal authorities say 41-year-old Rafael Guzman worked with Foster to distribute heroin. Foster’s relative, 48-year-old Randy Flowers is accused of conspiring to distribute oxycodone. And 35-year-old Jennifer Donebedian was arrested for conspiracy to distribute marijuana.

Two other arrest warrants were issued today, along with 10 search warrants conducted by the FBI and ATF. Deputy Chief Foster and the others will be in federal court Friday afternoon to determine if they will get bail.

Chief Dyer says Foster is on paid leave right now. He has been stripped of his peace officer powers and has turned in his department issued gun.

* * * *

Illinois cop takes rifle from evidence room, poses with it for a calendar spread

Here’s a pro tip for police officers around the country: if you remove something from the evidence room, don’t take a picture of it. And certainly, never, ever, include that picture of swiped evidence in the police department calendar.

But that’s what allegedly happened in the small town of Brooklyn, Illinois, where former detective Chris Heatherly is accused of grabbing a seized AR-15, which is part of a pending criminal case, and keeping it in the trunk of his car. Further, he is pictured posing with the rifle for the department’s calendar.

Other evidence from that case, including drugs and ammo, is also missing, say officials.

Brooklyn police chief Steven Mitchell noticed the rifle in the photo and brought it to the attention of state officials, who obtained a search warrant for the police department.Yesterday, the building was raided by Illinois State Police and the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department. News cameras caught glimpses of authorities removing computers, more weapons, and other equipment from the building. Heatherly has since resigned.

* * * *

 U.S. Border Patrol is out of control  

On March 20, the Michigan Attorney General’s Public Integrity Unit charged two U.S. Border Patrol agents with theft and misconduct while on duty. The two agents allegedly stole from a home while executing an agency-authorized search warrant. The case exemplifies the type of unchecked abuse and corruption that has become so rampant within the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

From 2010 to 2014 CBP agents  shot and killed 28 people. Other charges against CBP agents included drug trafficking, theft, assaults, kidnapping and rape. Investigative reports from multiple sources paint a picture of a law enforcement agency that is out of control. Even worse, most of its victims are people who cannot fight back — undocumented immigrants and refugees with limited or no access to U.S. courts.

Report after report recounts tales of unchecked abuse of power. Agents frequently respond to cross-border rock throwing with deadly force. Sometimes CBP officers step into the path of moving cars to justify shooting the drivers as a “response to deadly force.” The agency has refused to ban either practice, disregarding recommendations from a report that it commissioned. Other kinds of corruption also plague the agency. A 2011 internal study by the CBP found that the agency’s disciplinary system “does not foster timely discipline or exoneration.”

The story of failure traces back to 2001. After 9/11, any legislation to protect U.S. borders sailed through Congress. Need more agents? Done. More money? Done. Lawmakers were eager to support border enforcement. In 2003, they merged the previously understaffed Border Patrol with Customs enforcement and Department of Agriculture inspectors to create the CBP. The new agency now has more than 60,000 employees, a $12.4 billion annual budget and a reputation for corruption and abuse. On average, at least one agent is arrested daily for misconduct, according to PoliticoMagazine’s Garrett M. Graff.

What happened was predictable. But no one bothered to consult law enforcement experts. Effective law enforcement requires high standards, careful screening of candidates for criminal backgrounds and for psychological fitness, and intensive training by experienced officers. The rush to fill a lot of vacant positions meant inadequate screening and skimping on training.

“[Illegal entry] is now less than a third of what it was in the year 2000, and it’s at its lowest level since the 1970s,”  Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said in October. The estimated number of undocumented immigrants in the United States has dropped by more than a million since 2006. Yet throwing money at CBP remains a way for Congress to boast of protecting borders and getting tough on immigration. The agency continues to grow, with 2,000 new jobs listed in 2014.

“From an integrity issue, you can’t grow a law enforcement agency that quickly,” Robert Bonner, the former federal judge who headed up CBP’s reorganization, told Politico last year. Not only did the old Border Patrol more than double in size, it also merged employees from customs, immigration and agricultural inspectors.

CBP’s record on corruption and abuse is appalling. The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) has documented cases of excessive force, drug smuggling, theft and numerous other abuses. “Between 5 and 10 percent of border agents and officers are actively corrupt or were at some point in their career,” James F. Tomscheck, the former CBP chief of internal affairs, told CIR in August.

 * * * *

Video: Cop tries to humiliate immigrant cab driver about speaking English

This story was a coin toss. Do I include it under the link round-up for ‘Police Behaving Badly‘ or ‘The week in racism‘? I went with the former, but this story of a bigoted cop is also an example of racism in the U.S.:

In the video, the officer who pulled over the Uber driver allegedly hurled insults at him, including about the way he spoke.

“Stop it with your mouth!” the man could be heard shouting at the driver. “Stop it with your ‘For what, sir? For what, sir?’ Stop it with that bullshit and realize the three vehicle traffic law violations you committed! Okay?! Do you understand me?! I don’t know what fucking planet you think you’re on right now!”

“I’m not planning, sir,” the driver said. “I’m here.”

“Planning?! I said ‘planet!’ I said ‘planet!'” the man could be heard saying before slamming the driver’s side door.

The passengers who recorded the incident commiserated with the driver and could be heard telling the driver it wasn’t his fault and talking about how out of control the officer was being. According to the conversation, the incident was sparked by the driver honking at the officer who was attempting to park along the street but didn’t have a blinker on.

In the video, the officer returned to the car and continued to yell at the driver when the driver attempted to agree with him.

“Now let me tell you something, the next time you do it again, you’re getting your” the officer could be heard shouting, before the driver said “okay.”

“Okay, what?!” the officer screamed. “You gonna let me fucking finish?!!! Stop interrupting me!”

“Okay,” the driver could be heard saying. “Apologize. I’m sorry.”

“Well, who do you think you’re talking to here?!” the man shouted.

The verbal attack continued as the video shifted to show the man’s face.

“How long have you been in this country?!” the officer asked at one point. “I got news for you! And use this lesson! Remember this in the future! Don’t ever do that again! The only reason you’re not in handcuffs going to jail and getting summonses in the precinct is because I have things to do! That’s the only reason that’s not happening! ‘Cause this isn’t important enough for me! You’re not important enough! Don’t ever do that again!”

The Uber driver, who was pulled over on Monday in the West Village of New York City, reported the altercation to the NYPD who assigned the case to the Internal Affairs Bureau, according to the Daily News. Officials are reportedly attempting to ascertain whether the officer was a member of the NYPD or an outside agency since the driver wasn’t given a summons, according to what Uber told the Daily News

Oooh, look at the big bad cop. Making fun of the way a cab driver speaks. Throwing a temper tantrum. Acting in a completely disrespectful and discriminatory manner. I wonder how many times he’s acted like this in the past.

If you’re interested, video of the incident is available at the above link. Oh, and the officer has been identified as Patrick Cherry, a detective with the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Police Behaving Badly Link Round-Up 4.1.15

Police Behaving Badly 3.26.15

Tony Thompson,

It is an unfortunate fact of life here in the U.S. that a lot of gun owners are reckless and irresponsible in their handling of firearms. It’s one thing when those people are average citizens and another thing entirely when those reckless, irresponsible individuals are law enforcement officers. These are the people who are ostensibly charged with serving and protecting civilians. Unfortunately there are a lot of law enforcement officials who threaten, brutalize, and kill those they are charged with serving and protecting. Former Delaware County cop Stephen Rozniakowski is one such official. With a bulletproof vest strapped to his chest and a gun in hand, Rozniakowski kicked down the door to the home of Valerie Morrow and proceeded to kill her and injure her daughter:

Hours after the 40-year-old mother had obtained the order on Monday, the man she’d feared the most – Stephen Rozniakowski, an enraged Delaware County cop with a history of harassment – grabbed a gun, strapped on a bulletproof vest, kicked down the door to her Glenolden home, ran up the stairs and shot her, authorities said.

“He came up the steps with his gun drawn, and as soon as he saw Mrs. Morrow and her daughter in the hallway, he started repeatedly firing at them in their direction, striking Mrs. Morrow and also hitting her 15-year-old daughter,” Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan said yesterday.

Morrow was pronounced dead in the house. Her daughter, Bridget Cruz, was shot in the left bicep. “Bridget fled into her bedroom, while, unfortunately, her mother lie dying in the hallway,” Whelan said.

Morrow’s husband, Tom, a part-time cop in Morton Borough, then reached into his nightstand for a revolver and returned fire, which Whelan said may have stopped a larger shooting spree. He shot Rozniakowski multiple times, but did not kill him.

When Tom Morrow, who was out of bullets, heard Rozniakowski reloading his gun, he leaped out of the second-story bedroom window and ran on a broken ankle to a neighbor’s house to call 9-1-1.

* * * *

Vallejo police kill man with fake gun in Target parking lot

On March 21, representatives of the Vallejo, California police department say they received a report of a man armed with a knife, in the parking lot of a local Target store. According to official police statements, the man was ordered to drop the knife, but didn’t. He then reached for what officers say they thought was a gun, according to police Vallejo police Lt. John Whitney. The gun turned out to be a fake gun.

Police say that a note was found in the man’s vehicle, an advance apology to police, for ‘making them’ kill him.

Police have not released the man’s name, nor the name of the officer, or officers, who shot him. Whitney also did not provide details on the number of times the man was shot by police.

The man later died at a local hospital from gun shot wounds.

The number of officer-involved shootings in Vallejo is dozens of times higher than the national average.

In May of last year, a report from KQED showed that the rate of officer involved shootings in Vallejo is dozens of times higher than the national average, and more than 20 times higher than that of surrounding communities. The report called into question the practices of the police department regarding internal investigations, among other issues.

The practices of every fucking police department in the U.S. need to be called into question. Scratch that. They all need to be completely overhauled. Would that this actually happened.

* * * *

Police behaving badly? How about a police department behaving badly?

Drivers as well as their passengers in Topeka Kansas will soon be subject to a new policy requiring everyone to put their hands up during police stops.

Police say they are implementing this policy because “we all want to go home to our families, and this makes it safer for us to approach vehicles to gain that compliance. It gives us a chance to survive these encounters.”

However, the implications regarding this practice are horrid, and many residents are up in arms about being forced to be up in arms.

“Every day somebody’s getting shot by a police officer, and it’s like ‘oh my goodness, will I be next?’, or will I be okay?” said one resident.

Local officers are citing the three tragic shooting deaths of officers in a two year period as the reasoning behind this policy.

“As we all know, we’ve lost three officers in less than 2 years and as a result of that we’ve had to take a hard look at the way we’re conducting business, particularly as it relates to car stops.” said TPD School Resource Officer Matt McClimans.

While this policy may seem like it has good intentions, nearly every aspect associated with it is tyrannical.

First of all, this “policy” was not approved by the taxpayers. No citizens got to vote on its implementation, and it is going to be enforced with potentially deadly force.

Secondly, it treats ALL parties stopped by police as criminals.

One resident summed it up perfectly by saying, “Make us feel safe, not automatically make us feel like criminals.”

“To put my hands up, I mean, I just can’t see how people are not offended by that,” said one resident.

“I think that is too aggressive, and unnecessary, and I don’t agree with it,” said another.

“Police and community interactions are tough enough as it is and the more demands, the tougher it’s going to be, and the more problems you’re going to have,” explained a resident.

Besides treating everyone they come in contact with as a criminal, forcing people to put their hands up creates a slew of other problems as well.

How would someone hold the police accountable by filming their own interactions if they are forced to raise their hands? All too often innocent people are vindicated after being beaten and assaulted by police, only because a cell phone was recording. This would end that.

Imagine a situation in which someone tries to point their phone out of the windows while they attempt to raise their hands, the end result would not be pretty if officers mistook the phone for a gun.

What if a passenger in the vehicle is paralyzed, or temporarily disabled and they cannot raise their hands? Is this an immediate death sentence?

Finally, what about all the people who have been shot by police despite having their hands up? Looking through our archives here at the Free Thought Project, we can see that holding one’s hands up, most assuredly does not protect you from being shot by cops.

The bottom line is, while the deaths of these three officers are certainly tragic, treating every person stopped by police as a criminal is also tragic.

How about looking at WHY police are stopping people and look to reduce those interactions. Do the police really need to pull people over, en masse, for victimless crimes, such as seat belt violations?

Instead of treating everyone like criminals, why don’t police stop acting as strong arms for the state’s revenue collection racket?

* * * *

Words cannot accurately convey the level of disgust I have with the actions of the police officers in the next story. 2 police officers in Charlotte, NC beat a 3-month-old so badly that the newborn is in a vegetative state and likely won’t survive. 

A bond hearing was held on Wednesday for Robert Jeffrey Taylor Jr., 45, who worked for the York Police Department as a corporal.

Taylor was arrested for abusing his 3-month-old baby so badly that he is not expected to survive.

The infant’s mother, Audrey Schurig, 36, is also a police officer. She was arrested as well and charged with unlawful neglect of a child or helpless person for leaving the baby in his father’s care despite allegedly knowing about the abuse and failing to protect her child.

Jaxon Jennings Taylor, their 3-month-old son, was abused so brutally on February 15, that he is unable to move or eat without a feeding tube. Despite being in a vegetative state, he “is in some pain” and exhibits “periodic cries,” according to 16th Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett.

* * * *

A Webster, MA police officer may regret parking in a handicap spot

In a short video uploaded to YouTube on Monday, a Webster police officer, illustrates his above the law mentality.

A citizen with a camera decided to film the officer, who was illegally parked in a handicap spot at a McDonald’s restaurant.

When asked if he’s allowed to park there, the officer confirms that he can do whatever he wants.

“So you get to park wherever you want ?” the officer is asked.

“That’s right” replies the officer.

When he starts getting worked up, the officer seemingly threatens the man filming him.

“Do you know who I am?” asks the illegally parked cop.

But the man filming stood his ground as he was the one in the right.

After a brief exchange, the officer tries to turn the tables on the man. He asks for his name and starts to use his police powers as a means of intimating a man for pointing out his wrongdoing.

Meanwhile unemployed and low-income USAmericans are demonized and vilified for seeking government assistance so they can fucking live.

Police Behaving Badly 3.26.15

Police Behaving Badly 3.10.15

Tony Thompson, , 1 Comment

Police and prosecutors lie and in the process nearly ruin a man’s life

One of the worst days of Douglas Dendinger’s life began with him handing an envelope to a police officer.

In order to help out his family and earn a quick $50, Dendinger agreed to act as a process server, giving a brutality lawsuit filed by his nephew to Chad Cassard as the former Bogalusa police officer exited the Washington Parish Courthouse.

The handoff went smoothly, but Dendinger said the reaction from Cassard, and a group of officers and attorneys clustered around him, turned his life upside down.

“It was like sticking a stick in a bee’s nest.” Dendinger, 47, recalled. “They started cursing me. They threw the summons at me. Right at my face, but it fell short. Vulgarities. I just didn’t know what to think. I was a little shocked.”

Not knowing what to make of the blow-up, a puzzled Dendinger drove home. That’s where things went from bad to worse.

“Within about 20 minutes, there were these bright lights shining through my windows. It was like, ‘Oh my God.’ I mean I knew immediately, a police car.”

“And that’s when the nightmare started,” he said. “I was arrested.”

A ‘living hell’

He was booked with simple battery, along with two felonies: obstruction of justice and intimidating a witness, both of which carry a maximum of 20 years in prison. Because of a prior felony cocaine conviction, Dendinger calculated that he could be hit with 80 years behind bars as a multiple offender.

That kicked off two years of a “living hell,” as Dendinger described it, a period that is now the subject of Dendinger’s federal civil rights lawsuit against the officers, attorneys and former St. Tammany District Attorney Walter Reed.

In a scene described in the lawsuit, Dendinger recounted a nervous night handcuffed to a rail at the Washington Parish Jail. He said he was jeered by officers, including Bogalusa Police Chief Joe Culpepper, who whistled the ominous theme song from “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”

After his family posted bail, he said he was hopeful that the matter would be exposed as a big misunderstanding. After all, he thought, a group of police officers and two St. Tammany prosecutors witnessed the event.

“When I agreed to do it, I felt it was nothing more than someone asking to pick up a gallon of milk at the convenience store on the way home,” Dendinger said. “I know I didn’t anything wrong. I was worried, but people told me, ‘Cooler heads will prevail.’ “

But instead of going away, the case escalated.

Supported by two of his prosecutors who were at the scene, Reed formally charged Dendinger. Both prosecutors, Julie Knight and Leigh Anne Wall, gave statements to the Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office implicating Dendinger.

With the bill of information, Dendinger’s attorney Philip Kaplan said he got a bad feeling.

“It wasn’t fun and games,” Kaplan said. “They had a plan. The plan was to really go after him a put him away. That’s scary.”

The case file that was handed to Reed and his office was bolstered by seven witness statements given to Washington Parish deputies, including the two from Reed’s prosecutors.

In her statement to deputies, contained in a police report, Knight stated, “We could hear the slap as he hit Cassard’s chest with an envelope of papers…This was done in a manner to threaten and intimidate everyone involved.”

Casssard, in his statement, told deputies, Dendinger “slapped me in the chest.”

Washington Parish court attorney Pamela Legendre said “it made such a noise,” she thought the officer “had been punched.”

Police Chief Culpepper gave a police statement that he witnessed the battery, but in a deposition he said, “I wasn’t out there.” But that didn’t stop Culpepper from characterizing Dendinger’s actions as “violence, force.”

When Dendinger saw the police report, he said his reaction was strong and immediate.

“I realized even more at that moment: These people are trying to hurt me.”

Critical evidence uncovered

What the officers and attorneys did not know was that Dendinger had one critical piece of evidence on his side: grainy cell phone videos shot by his wife and nephew. Dendinger said he thought of recording the scene at the last minute as a way of showing he had completed the task of serving the summons.

In the end, the two videos may have saved Dendinger from decades in prison. From what can be seen on the clips, Dendinger never touches Cassard, who calmly takes the envelope and walks back into the courthouse, handing Wall the envelope.

“He’d still be in a world of trouble if he didn’t have that film,” said David Cressy, a friend of Dendinger who once served as a prosecutor under Reed. “It was him against all of them. They took advantage of that and said all sorts of fictitious things happened. And it didn’t happen. It would still be going like that had they not had the film.”

Dendinger spent nearly a year waiting for trial, racking up attorney’s fees. As a disabled Army veteran on a fixed income, Dendinger said the case stretched him financially, but in his eyes, he was fighting for his life.

After nearly a year passed, his attorneys forced Reed to recuse his office. The case was referred to the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office, which promptly dropped the charges.

Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission and himself a former prosecutor, studied the videos. He did not hesitate in his assessment.

“I didn’t see a battery, certainly a battery committed that would warrant criminal charges,” Goyeneche said. “And more importantly, the attorney general’s office didn’t see a battery.”

Now the video is at the heart of a federal civil rights lawsuit against Reed, his two prosecutors Wall and Knight, the Bogalusa officers and Washington Parish Sheriff Randy “Country’ Seal.

All the people involved in trying to ruin Dendinger’s life need to face jail time.  Remind me again why anyone should trust the police?

* * * *

 Cop cocks his shotgun and asks protesters “Are you scared?”

This is terrorism. The cop should be facing a stint in jail.

Friday night, more than 30 Black Lives Matter protesters converged on Penn Station, carrying pictures and chanting the names of people who have died at the hands of the NYPD.

After leaving Penn Station, the group drifted over to the Lincoln Tunnel entrance, and resolved to block Manhattan-bound traffic for 11 minutes—one minute for each time Garner told police “I can’t breathe.”

No sooner had the group spread itself across the two lanes of incoming traffic than a group of Port Authority police approached, says Patrick Waldo, who was among the protesters. One of the officers was carrying a shotgun.

“The officer with the gun was one of the first that I noticed,” Waldo said. “He actually had hand-on-the trigger, shotgun up in the air. We were all like, whoa whoa whoa, take it easy!”

“We mic-check that we’re gonna be there for 11 minutes,” says Kim Ortiz, one of the organizers of the protest. “And then we hear the officer rack the gun. We were like, ‘We’re armed with a banner and cardboard signs!’ He was like, ‘Are you scared, are you scared?’ And we were like ‘No, we’re not scared.’”

* * * *

Cop shoots unarmed man in face during marijuana investigation

The fatal encounter occurred when 26-year-old Derek Cruice allegedly resisted arrest during a drug investigation that turned up less than a half-pound of marijuana inside his Deltona home, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office tells Vocativ.

Authorities arrived at the house around 6.30 a.m. on Wednesday to serve a drug warrant. Shortly after, Deputy Todd Raible, 36, fired a single shot, striking Cruice in the face as he stood inside the doorway.

Cruice did not have a weapon, but authorities say he posed a threat. 

“They [the deputies] were met with resistance and a shooting incurred,” Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson told local media on Wednesday, offering few additional details.

Witnesses inside the home, however, dispute claims that Cruice posed any danger to deputies. Roommate Steven Cochran told Orlando’s WFTV that Cruice wasn’t wearing a shirt when he was shot. “It’s kind of hard to conceal anything or hide anything when this is all you have on,” said Cochran. “They entered the house and fired.”

What’s not in dispute is what officials recovered at the scene: less than eight ounces of marijuana, along with a scale, drug ledger and $3,000 in cash, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

Raible, a 10-year veteran of the force, was placed on administrative leave. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is now investigating the incident.

It doesn’t matter if he posed a danger or not, since cops all too often justify their use of lethal force with the still reliable “I was concerned for my life”.  They’re never asked to justify this concern. It’s a get-out-of-jail free card by which they’re absolved of any responsibility in the death of another human being.

* * * *

Brooklyn teen was charged with assault until this video proved the police were lying

The incident took place at Brooklyn’s Puerto Rican Day parade on June 8. Dennis Flores, founder of the neighborhood police watchdog group El Grito De Sunset Park said police descended on the revelers in the evening, something that’s become expected. “We’ve been documenting this every year,” Flores told Think Progress. “The neighborhood gets flooded with police officers. Young kids are marching, waving flags, and cops are corraling them, pushing them around, like it’s a nuisance to have them out celebrating their culture.”

Flores’ group had several activists taping the police that day, a tactic that activists across the country have found useful for monitoring police. So they were able to capture Rosario’s arrest from multiple angles, a fact that would be crucial for proving his innocence. Photos and recordings can often mean the difference between conviction and exoneration.

Rosario wasn’t afilliated with El Grito, but he also happened to be filming when an officer shoved the woman standing next to him. In fact, Flores said that’s why he was targeted. Rosario’s lawyer Rebecca Heinegg said several officers then attacked Rosario, slamming him against the gate of a closed store and beating him with batons. “Basically, my client was a victim of a gang assault by the 72nd Precinct,” Heinegg told Max Jaeger for The Brooklyn Paper.

Once the attack started, Flores said, police began pushing people back and macing them to keep onlookers and cameras from seeing what was going on. Flores said that the injury police blamed Rosario for was caused by another cop. “This officer swung his nightstick and missed, hit another police officer across the head,” Flores said.

A grand jury decided not to prosecute Rosario for assaulting a cop in September, but he continued to face charges for resisting arrest and larceny until the District Attorney’s office offered to drop all charges as long as he stays clear of the law for six months.

The charges proved to be an economic burden to Rosario’s family, even though they were dropped. Rosario and his mother Wendy Tabarez had to attend eight court dates since he was beaten and arrested, costing wages and time off lost. For working people, an arrest can come at a high price, even if they are eventually found innocent.

* * * *

 Police brutality amid Spring Break

In a video taken by a bystander, Sgt. Bryan Bingham can be seen placing his hands around the neck of Joshua McMahan, and then slamming his head to the ground. Next, 24-year-old Justin D. Lewis attempted to intervene, seeing that McMaham was in physical danger, but he too was thrown to the ground by Bingham. Another officer can be seen in the video sitting on one of the men and wrapping his hands behind his back.

Lewis spoke to ABC Action News on Monday evening, explaining why he attempted to intervene in the arrest.

“When I got there, my friend’s face was blue. He was already passed out before he hit the ground and the cop was just not letting up,” Lewis said.

For attempting to intervene as he did, he was charged with assaulting a police officer, a claim which he strongly denies.

“I got marks, banged up. There’s times in that video I have my hands at my side. I’m tapping, tapping out. I’m not even resisting,” he said.

Local legal expert Jeff Swartz suggested that the chokehold the officer used may have been illegal but admitted that it doesn’t really matter.

“If the hold was illegal and could have been considered to be deadly force, then the officer might have a problem, but not much of one,” he said.

There is no doubt that spring break can get out of control and violent, especially when alcohol is involved. However, when responding to a fight, shouldn’t the police be concerned with breaking it up instead of joining in? The man was not resisting before the initial takedown and he most certainly wasn’t resisting after. The officer’s actions seem to have been punishment or gloating.

Not every situation requires the use of violence to resolve. Sadly, for many cops, non-violent conflict resolution is a foreign concept.

Police Behaving Badly 3.10.15

The only reasonable response

Tony Thompson

Whether its an unarmed black teen in Ferguson (AAAAAAAAAAAAH! run for the hills), a 12-year-old black Cleveland kid “armed” with an Airsoft replica (“Danger Will Robinson. Danger! Danger!), or an unarmed black woman involved in a domestic dispute (“My Spider-Sense is tingling!”), some threats are so absolutely terrifying…so horrific…so panic inducing that the most reasonable response from law enforcement is to use lethal force. Those threats, however, pale in comparison to the perilous situation an Atlanta police officer was recently involved in:

Channel 2 Action News has obtained exclusive video of the man who was shot. Video showed him hanging naked from a balcony and walking around before police arrived.

“He was doing weird movement. He was crawling on the floor, lying down on the floor,” said one witness, who asked not to be identified

The officer was responding to reports of an unarmed and unclothed man banging on doors and crawling on the ground.

“He tells me, ‘I’m OK, I’m OK.’ That’s what he was saying,” the witness said.

The witness said he told the man, identified as 27-year-old Anthony Hill, to go inside or he was going to get arrested.

“He was acting crazy but he was calm like he didn’t know where he was. He was like kind of lost in his face,” the witness said.

The responding officer, who is described as a seven-year veteran, confronted Hill.

Some witnesses and the chief of police say Hill was aggressive and lunged at the officer.

“When the male saw the officer, he charged, running at the officer. The officer called on him to step back, drew his weapon and fired two shots,” said DeKalb County Director of Public Safety Cedric Alexander.

Hill died at the scene. Some believe the shooting was justified while others aren’t sure.

Well that’s silly. Of course it was justified. This was a naked, unarmed man. We all know what a threat they are. I mean, look at this image:

Clearly this naked, unarmed man (who happens to be black, which I’m sure means absolutely nothing) presented a danger to the life of the officer, so lethal force was completely justified. I mean, what else was the cop going to do?

The only reasonable response

Police Behaving Badly 2.25.15

Tony Thompson,

Cops tase an elderly man with his hands up

While police have been getting a bad wrap all over the country, its things like this that really deserve an explanation.

When you watch the video, it’s really hard to see what caused the police to use a Taser on this elderly man, who exits the car with his hands up. The man was told to exit the vehicle several times, and when he eventually did, one of the cops apparently thought he’d teach this old guy a lesson. “Don’t you know old man to listen to me?” The cop didn’t actually say this, but he might as well have.

It’s very clear on camera, that he exited the car with his hands in the air. 

Not only is this a gross excessive use of force, and an absolute disgrace to police everywhere, but after the elderly man is on the ground, the cop is heard yelling out several times, “stop resisting, stop resisting.” This news site played the video back several times, in disbelief, and the man is already on the ground crying in pain, yet the cop continues to yell this out.

There were a lot of onlookers nearby, so perhaps this was for the cops benefit? 

At the end of the video, the men in uniform notice that they are being filmed, which leads the onlookers to question whether or not they should keep the film rolling.

* * * *

Cop slaps homeless person in the face for entering bus terminal

Here’s another example in the War on the Homeless in USAmerica.

A Florida cop has been suspended (with pay) after a video emerged that shows him slapping a homeless man in the face. The cell phone footage shows the officer trying to force the man, identified as Bruce Laclair by the Miami Herald, out of a bus terminal. He grasps Laclair’s arm and pushes him, causing Laclair to lose his balance and fall to the ground, hard. Laclair says (somewhat understandably) “fuck you” to the cop, who spits out, “Relax. I am telling you right now what’s going to happen. I’m escorting you out right now. You are not going to go pee. You are not supposed to be here.”

As Laclair tries to argue the officer slaps him so hard across the face he falls to the ground again (see the video below). The newspaper reports that Laclair was arrested for trespassing. It’s not clear how he managed to pull off trespassing at a bus terminal, but it’s also not surprising, since Florida has led the way in coming up with creative ways to criminalize the activities of homeless people. Multiple cities in the state have established bans on asking for money, sleeping in public and a slew of other innocuous activities that are, in practice, only applied to the homeless. The laws serve as a pretext to help police remove homeless people from certain areas and new ones are cropping up all the time; the recent cold snap hasn’t dampened the enthusiasm of Tampa’s public officials for an ordinance prohibiting the use of blankets on the street.

Homeless people are still people. They deserve the same respect and compassion as everyone else. Instead they’re shat upon.

* * * *

Cop who killed 93-year-old woman hired by Texas precinct

A former Texas police officer who was fired after shooting a 93-year-old woman is once again working in law enforcement as a “volunteer” deputy.

While serving as a police officer in Hearne last year, Stephen Stem shot and killed 93-year-old Pearlie Golden, who had fired a .38 revolver into the ground.

Prior to that, he had killed 28-year-old Tederalle Satchell in 2012 during a foot chase. Satchell reportedly did not have a weapon when he was shot, but had been carrying one earlier.

Both Golden and Satchell were black, which Stem insisted was unrelated to the shootings. The Wire pointed out that killing two people in less than two years was “a remarkable statistic for a police officer in a small town of fewer than 4,500 people that gets about 10 calls a day.”

Prior to the shootings, Stem had been suspended in 2010 for failing to report an alleged indecency with child incident before going on vacation. He was suspended once more in 2012 for pointing a gun at an innocent bystander.

Robertson County grand juries declined to indict Stem for either killing, but Golden’s death was the last straw for the Hearne Council, which unanimously voted to fire him last May.

When an officer is fired under such circumstances, I don’t think they should be eligible for any law enforcement position in the country.

* * * *

 Cop brutally attacks 78-year-old grandma for delivering cupcakes to her grandchildren

78-year-old grandmother Mary Poole was brutally assaulted and pepper-sprayed by a police officer when she attempted to deliver cupcakes to her grandchildren at school.

The children’s parents are in the midst of a divorce and custody battle, so Mary wanted to do something nice for the children. She decided to deliver a gift in a neutral setting.

“I hadn’t seen my granddaughters for some time and I wanted to see them, and so I baked some cupcakes and bought some cookies for my granddaughters’ classroom,” Mary said.

When she arrived at the school she was met by a rude Clovis Unified police officer who told her that she was not allowed to visit the children because there was a restraining order against her. In reality, there was no restraining order against her and no legal reason to keep her out of the school.

The officer was either lying or was totally mistaken about the situation.

Mary obeyed the officer and left the school. She then pulled over to call her son and tell him what happened. While she was on the phone, she was again approached by the officer who became immediately confrontational. As with most police encounters, he refused to hear any explanation that she attempted to give him, but instead demanded immediate obedience.

When she tried to explain her situation, the officer became violent with her. Next he pepper-sprayed the woman in the face twice during the confrontation, as she was struggling to free herself from the attack. The officer must have seen her struggling for safety as a sign of resistance.

“He wouldn’t listen to anything I had to say, period. Every time I tried telling him anything…I mean, I was even telling him, ‘I’m 78 years old,’ before he grabbed me. He sprayed me with mace twice,” Mary told reporters.

“And I was very frightened, and I told him to call the police and he said, ‘I am the police. He jerked me out of my car with my left arm with such great force, and then threw me onto the pavement. From there he dragged me by my left arm up to the school grounds,” she said.

The officer’s attack left Mary seriously injured with several broken bones and a dislocated shoulder.

When all was said and done Mary was taken to the hospital and left with more than $180,000 in medical bills.

Mary Poole filed a lawsuit this week, alleging police brutality and elderly abuse.

* * * *

Cop who illegally kidnapped and beat down syndrome man says he would do it again if he could

Martinez was walking to his family’s bakery on Dec. 20, 2012, when Guy yelled at him to stop, simply because the young man was wearing a black hoodie.  When Martinez did not stop, Deputy Guy became angry at him for “exercising his constitutional right not to stop for a consensual detention,” the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit states that the deputy “looked Tony in the face and then unloaded a canister of highly irritating pepper spray into Tony’s face and eyes,” beat him with a weighted baton, slammed his face into the pavement and cuffed him.  While the beating was taking place, Martinez’ sisters were screaming at the officer that their brother has down syndrome, unsuccessfully attempting to appeal to the officer’s humanity- something that he clearly lacks.

After Martinez was handcuffed, other deputies jumped in, and Martinez was taken to the hospital, detained, and then jailed for 5 hours- he was essentially kidnapped.  He was charged with resisting arrest, despite the fact that there was no reason to stop him in the first place.  Deputy guy testified that this was necessary to “document” the incident.

The family is proceeding with a lawsuit, as the department refused to comply with all three of the family’s simple demands to settle this outside of a courtroom. The family only wanted the department to apologize, release their policy on dealing with the mentally disabled, and have Deputy Guy volunteer for the Special Olympics.

Perhaps the reason Capt. Joe Rodi refused to release their policy, is the fact that there is no policy, and they are breaking California law.  As ABC pointed out:

California law states law enforcement must be trained to interact with mentally disabled people.

Under Penal Code 13515.25,

(a) By July 1, 2006, the Commission on Peach Officer Standards and Training shall establish and keep updated a continuing education classroom training course relating to law enforcement interaction with mentally disabled persons.

Basile questioned Guy and Capt. Joe Rodi under oath in a deposition.

Deposition
“Are the officers required to have that training before they go out in the field,” asked Basile.
“No, this is something that’s fairly new,” said Rodi.

That law is eleven years old – passed in 2004 to be implemented by 2006.

Deposition
“You’ve never had any classes in development disabilities, correct,” asked Basile.
“Yes,” said Guy.

The law breaking Captain of the department admitted that Guy had broken the law by even confronting Martinez on that tragic day.

“He did not have reasonable suspicion to stop and use force on him,” said Captain Rodi under oath in a newly released video deposition.

Looks like the only person who was not breaking the law in this scenario was Martinez.

To make this whole scenario even more infuriating, Guy had a history of use of force issue at his former department where he was employed for eight years.  He had only been with the San Diego Sheriff’s department for four months when he assaulted Martinez, and was still in the midst of his probationary period.

Police Behaving Badly 2.25.15

Black people cannot even take out the trash without being harassed by police

Tony Thompson,

I’ve worked in restaurants from the age of 16 on. In that time, I have performed mundane tasks such as scrubbing floors, sweeping, and mopping. I’ve also taken out the trash–a lot. I’m trying to imagine what it would be like to be arrested for trespassing while taking out the trash not once, not twice, but 62 times. I don’t know what that’s like, but unfortunately Earl Sampson of Miami Gardens, FL does:

Miami Gardens, Fla., convenience store owner Alex Saleh decided he’d try. He’d become vexed at what he saw as police harassment of his employees and even his customers.

So he installed surveillance cameras, with the specific intention of watching the detectives.

He’d become frustrated, you see, about the possibly not coincidental number of times that his employee, Earl Sampson, had been stopped and questioned by police officers — 258 times over a four-year period does seem a little like overkill. These included 100 searches and 56 jailings. As for convictions, well, they were only for marijuana possession.

Saleh told the Miami Herald it seemed odd that Sampson had been arrested 62 times for trespassing, when the vast majority of offenses were outside the very same Quickstop.

That would be the Quickstop where Sampson worked.

How the hell do you arrest someone for trespassing on the grounds of the business they work at? Could it be some racial bias on the part of the arresting officers? No, that can’t be it. If you ask a police officer, they’ll say “I’m not racist”, and we know they’ve examined their beliefs to ensure they hold no conscious or subconscious stereotypes about People of Color. It must be something else. That would be sarcasm, btw.

Earl Sampson is not the only Miami Gardens resident who has been harassed by the MGPD:

In the summer of 2010, a young black man was stopped and questioned by police on the streets of Miami Gardens, Florida. According to the report filled out by the officer, he was “wearing gray sweatpants, a red hoodie and black gloves” giving the police “just cause” to question him. In the report, he was labeled a “suspicious person.”

He was an 11-year-old boy on his way to football practice.

A Fusion investigation has found that he was just one of 56,922 people who were stopped and questioned by Miami Gardens Police Department (MGPD) between 2008 and 2013. That’s the equivalent of more than half of the city’s population.

Not one of them was arrested.

It was all part of the city’s sweeping “stop and frisk” style policy that may be unparalleled in the nation.

According to a review of 99,980 “field contact” reports, they were stopped, written up and often identified as “suspicious” — but just like the 11-year-old boy — the encounter was recorded in a public database, and they were let go.

Thousands more were arrested after being stopped by the police, raising the total number of people ensnared by the policy to 65,328 during the five-year period.

“I have never seen a police department that has taken the approach that every citizen in that city is a suspect. I’ve described it as New York City stop-and-frisk on steroids.” said Miami-Dade County Public Defender Carlos Martinez.

Last year, a Miami Herald report exposed how the MGPD repeatedly stopped and arrested employees and customers of a local convenience store including, Earl Sampson, who was stopped more than 200 times.

Fusion’s analysis of more than 30,000 pages of field contact reports, shows how aggressive and far-reaching the police actions were. Some residents were stopped, questioned and written up multiple times within minutes of each other, by different officers. Children were stopped by police in playgrounds. Senior citizens were stopped and questioned near their retirement home, including a 99-year-old man deemed to be “suspicious.” Officers even wrote a report identifying a five-year-old child as a “suspicious person.”

Fusion’s Investigation also found evidence that some field contact reports may have been falsified. There were many instances were multiple reports were filed just minutes apart – all claiming to stop the same person. Other reports claimed a person was stopped on the streets by police, when in fact, they were actually in jail at the time.

Two officers from the MGPD told Fusion that high-ranking department officials gave them orders to “bring in the numbers” by conducting stops and arrests. One officer said he was ordered to stop all black males between 15 and 30 years of age.

Nope. No racism or racial bias to see here folks. Just keep walking.

Black people cannot even take out the trash without being harassed by police

Police Behaving Badly 2.9.15

Tony Thompson, ,

If a cop were to punch a 13-year-old student with a closed fist, resulting in the student being knocked to the floor, one would think the student did something incredibly egregious. Brutally beating another student perhaps. Bringing a weapon such as a knife or a gun to school maybe. Cutting in line at the cafeteria?  Not a good reason at all to punch a child. Unless you are former Louisville Metro Police Department officer Jonathan Hardin.

Jonathan Hardin, 31, a sworn LMPD officer who worked as a school resource officer at Olmstead Academy North, is accused of assaulting two students at the school on two days in January. According to the warrant, both incidents are captured on surveillance video.

The first incident, according to his arrest warrant, took place Jan. 22 when he allegedly hit a 13-year-old student in the face with a closed fist, knocking him to the floor.

The reason? According to paperwork filed, the student cut in line in the cafeteria.

The school resource officer cited the student with menacing and resisting arrest.

Five days later, on Jan. 27, Hardin was accused of putting a 13-year-old in a choke hold, causing him to lose consciousness. He later allegedly handcuffed the student instead of getting him medical treatment then drove him home not telling his parents what happened.

Dr. Bill Smock concluded the choke hold caused a brain injury to the student creating a great risk of death to the child.

“They’re very serious charges,” said Louisville attorney Thomas Clay, “One of them carries 10 to 20 years in the penitentiary, it’s assault first degree.”

Clay said the current charges against the officer are consistent with what his clients experienced in the summer of 2014, when Hardin was working at the Gentleman’s Academy, a program that was a joint effort between LMPD and the University of Louisville.

Clay is suing Hardin, Officer Clayton Reeves and Colonel Yvette Gentry on behalf of a 14-year-old and his mother.

I wonder what explanation, if any, Hardin offered for his use of excessive force. His response to a 13-year-old cutting in line brings to mind the NYPD’s racially biased Broken Windows policy. The policy basically states that policing lower tier crimes like jumping tolls, trespassing, or vandalism creates an environment of law and order, thus preventing more serious crimes from occurring. Looking at Hardin’s actions through the lens of the Broken Windows style of policing, stopping a teenager from cutting in line makes some degree of sense (although I’m not convinced that Broken Windows policing is an effective deterrent to more serious forms of crime). What doesn’t make sense is punching the kid! But then many police officers across the country often have anger management issues and many of them are far too quick to make use of excessive force. It’s almost like they’re not being trained to serve and protect, but to treat civilians like wartime combatants or something!

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This next example of bad behavior comes from a Coast Guard officer, rather than a police officer, but it’s in keeping with the idea of uniformed people in positions of power behaving badly.

A Coast Guard member shot two colleagues at a Cape Cod condo complex early Thursday, lit a car on fire to hamper police, planted fake bombs and then opened fire on officers, authorities said.

The episode, which police chief in the town of Bourne called “crazy and hectic,” left one woman dead, another woman and an officer wounded, and the suspect in custody.

Coast Guard spokesman Ross Ruddell said both women involved were stationed on Cape Cod, while the suspected gunman was a man stationed in Virginia. Ruddell said he could not disclose their names or how they knew each other.

The man set a vehicle on fire to block the only road into the condo complex and set up devices resembling bombs, authorities said. The state police bomb squad examined the devices and determined they were all fakes that contained no explosives, Massachusetts State Police spokesman David Procopio said.

The suspect was taken into custody at gunpoint about a half hour after the 2:15 a.m. attack.

What started as a response to reports of a vehicle on fire turned into a “crazy and hectic scene,” Bourne police Chief Dennis Woodside said. He said police also received a 911 call from one of the victims from inside a condo.

Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe called the shooting of the officer “an ambush.” Officers made their way around the burning vehicle on foot and were pinned down by gunfire.

The wounded officer, shot in the back below his bulletproof vest, took cover between two vehicles, his colleagues unable to reach him. Woodside described the officer as a veteran with at least 10 years of service.

The officer lay wounded for about 15 minutes before the suspect was arrested. Even then, police remained wary because they were not aware if there were other gunmen.

Two colleagues grabbed the officer and carried him through the woods and snow so he could be taken to the hospital, where he was stabilized and improving, the chief said.

Just after 2:45 a.m., after police apprehended the suspect, officers made their way to the unit where they found the two women who had been shot, one fatally.

* * * *

San Francisco cop caught choking a sleeping hospital patient, then falsely arresting him

A San Francisco sheriff’s deputy is facing four felony charges and a misdemeanor after he randomly assaulted a sleeping patient at S.F. General Hospital and then lied about it.

The 33-year old deputy, Michael R. Lewelling, filed an official police report in November of this year claiming that the victim had assaulted him with a wooden cane. The victim was then arrested and charged with a felony and a misdemeanor.

However, surveillance footage of the assault shows that it was Lewelling that approached a sleeping man, and actually assaulted him.

According to KRON4, District Attorney George Gascón says the surveillance tape:

“depict(s) the victim hunched over in a chair sleeping in the Emergency Room’s waiting area, awaiting a doctor’s appointment later that day. Deputy Lewelling approaches the victim as he is starting to wake up.

He subsequently appears to engage in a conversation with the victim, at which point the victim slowly stands up, using a cane for assistance. Once up, he attempts to take a step towards the exit. While the victim is attempting to walk away, the defendant grabs the back of his collar, pulling him back into the seat and knocking his cane away.

The victim never raised his cane in a threatening manner. A few seconds later, he appears to grab the victim’s throat and begins to choke him. The battery continued, and the victim was then placed under arrest.”

After reviewing the surveillance footage, prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Lewelling for perjury, filing a false police report, filing a false instrument and assault under the color of authority. He also faces a misdemeanor count of battery.

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Family asks cops to check on 74-year-old vet after surgery, and they break in and kill him

Gastonia police Chief Robert Helton explained at a press conference on Sunday that a family member had asked officers to check on James Howard Allen on Saturday afternoon, The Charlotte Observer reported.

Helton said that Allen’s family had asked for the welfare check because the 74-year-old veteran had recently undergone surgery.

An officer first visited Allen’s home at 10:20 p.m. on Saturday, but there was no answer.

Gastonia police then contacted the Gastonia Fire Department and Gaston Emergency Medical Services at 11:30 p.m. and a “decision was made to enter the house, concerned that he may be inside in need of emergency assistance,” Helton said.

According to the chief, Gastonia police Officer Josh Lefevers announced himself before coming through the backdoor of the home, but Allen was pointing a gun at officers when they entered.

“He was challenged to lower the gun down,” Helton insisted. “The gun was pointed in the direction of the officers, and a shot was fired that fatally wounded him.”

The shooting left Allen’s family demanding answers.

“(He) probably woke up, someone’s breaking in on me, so when you’re by yourself you try to protect yourself,” Allen’s brother-in-law, Robert Battle, told WSOC.

Otis Thompson, a friend of Allen’s, said that his first reaction would have been to “grab a gun too.”

“You kicked the man’s door in,” Thompson remarked. “He’s disoriented and he’s in his own house, privacy of his own home.”

Sister Mary Battle said that she understood that police were probably frightened, but she pointed that her brother “wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

Helton told reporters that the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation had been asked to investigate the shooting. The Gastonia Police Department followed its standard procedure for officer involved shootings and placed Lefevers on administrative leave.

Allen was African-American…

* * * *

In a team-up between Police Behaving Badly and Irresponsible Gun Owners, a Mississippi couple is seeking help from the FBI because local police officers drew a gun on their 6-year-old autistic son.

Angela Thompson Roby said the incident happened while officers from the Ridgeland Police Department were executing a search warrant on Friday against her 23-year-old brother, Carneigio Gray, inside their mother’s home.

“My son was telling the police officers to stop, to not do that, please don’t hurt his uncle,” she told WBRC. “That’s when the guns were drawn on him and my mother was telling them, ‘Hey please don’t point your gun at my grandbaby. Please don’t do that.’”

The Jackson Clarion-Ledger reported that, according to police, they called for backup when Gray resisted arrest. He had a warrant for contempt of court after he failed to appear to answer drug paraphernalia charges from three years ago.

Roby and her husband have contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Attorney General’s office. But a police spokesperson, Lt. John Neal, said the couple had not filed a complaint with the department.

“We’ve got policies and procedures for citizens to file complaints, and there are channels that are in place for citizens to lodge complaints with us to where they can be investigated,” Neal told the Clarion-Ledger. “If this family feels they’ve been wronged, our doors are open. We’d be happy to talk to them.”

I wonder why this BLACK family didn’t contact their local police department about this. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the perception on the part of many African-Americans that police are racist and untrustworthy. No. It must be something else.

Police Behaving Badly 2.9.15

Police Behaving Badly 2.3.15

Tony Thompson, ,

17-year-old Kristiana Coignard (pictured above) walked into the Longview Police Station at approximately 6:30 pm on January 22, 2015.  She didn’t leave the station alive:

Kristiana Coignard, a 17-year-old girl who until recently had been a high school student in Longview, Texas, walked into the Longview Police Station at about 6:30 p.m. on Thursday evening. She picked up the courtesy phone for after-hours visitors and asked to speak to an officer. Moments later, she was dead — shot “multiple times” by police.

But why? Three officers have been placed on paid leave by the Longview Police Department in connection with the shooting that killed Kristiana before her life had a chance to begin. What led them to open fire on the lone teenage girl remains unclear.

According to police, when the officers went out to the lobby in the police station located at 302 West Cotton Street, in the East Texas city of about 80,000, Coignard “came at” the officers with some sort of weapon.

Neither Longview police nor the Texas Rangers, who are now in charge of investigating the fatal shooting, would say what the alleged weapon actually was. But Longview Mayor Jay Dean described the slain teen as “a female wielding a knife.”

“When police arrived to assist her, that’s when she confronted them,” said police spokesperson Kristie Brian, quoted in the Longview News-Journal newspaper. “She did brandish a weapon. I don’t know what kind it was. She came at the officers and was shot.”

Multiple police officers couldn’t subdue a supposedly armed teenager?  Lethal force was deployed against this girl, despite the fact that they don’t know what kind of weapon she supposedly had.  I can’t even…

* * * *

In what will surely become yet another case of “fearing for our lives”,  police officers in Denver recently shot and killed a 16-year-old girl

Several dozen people with candles and protest signs gathered near the alley where Denver police officers fatally shot a 16-year-old girl on Monday, recalling her bright smile and demanding answers about the deadly encounter.

Police shot the teenager early Monday morning after they say she struck and injured an officer with a stolen car. Authorities did not release the girl’s name, but friends identified her as Jessica Hernandez.

“We’re angry about it. It’s another life taken by another cop,” said 19-year-old Cynthia Valdez, a close friend and schoolmate of the girl. “She was trying to find her talent. She wanted to find out what she wanted to be. … Who knows what she could have been?”

Few details were immediately released after the shooting in an alley in the older, middle-class residential neighborhood. The four other people in the car were not injured by the gunfire, and all were being questioned as part of the investigation, police said. It was not clear whether any had been arrested.

Police Chief Robert White said an officer was called to check on a suspicious vehicle and a colleague arrived after it was determined the car had been reported stolen.

In a statement, police said the two officers then “approached the vehicle on foot when the driver drove the car into one of the officers.”

White said both officers then opened fire. The officer hit by the car was taken to a hospital with a leg injury.

A leg injury. That tells us nothing.  Was it a broken leg? Did he have a contusion? Was it just a scrape? Did he get impaled? Exactly what type of injury justifies killing a teenager? And no, I don’t give a rat’s ass about a stolen car. A young girl had her life ended by a police officer. That’s the tragedy here.

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Seattle police officer arrested a 70-year-old black man without justification

According to former state Rep. Dawn Mason (D), officials “tried to convince me nothing was wrong” when Officer Cynthia Whitlach arrested William Wingate for allegedly threatening her with his golf club.

The Stranger posted dashboard camera footage on Wednesday of Wingate’s arrest after recently acquiring it through a public records request. The video shows Whitlach stopping her patrol car in front of Wingate, then ordering him to let go of the club, which he uses as a makeshift cane.

Wingate, a retired veteran and local bus driver, can be heard saying in the video that he has used the club to help him get around for 20 years.

“You just swung that golf club at me,” Whitlach tells him at one point.

“No I did not,” he replies.

Whitlach then claims that it happened “right back there,” adding that “it was on audio and video tape.”

However, both the department and city council member Bruce Harrell said there is no proof to back up Whitlach’s allegation.

“The allegation that he swung at the police car wasn’t corroborated by any other facts and was not caught on any video,” Harrell told the Stranger. “What was caught on video was him minding his own business with the golf club at his side.”

Three minutes after encountering Whitlach, Wingate is arrested by another officer, Chris Coles. He was subsequently charged with harassment and obstruction. Mason said she became interested in the case after seeing footage of Wingate needing a footstool to be able to get into a paddywagon.

70-year-old William Wingate rides in a paddywagon after being arrested last July [YouTube] (via Raw Story)

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KY cop became angry after Super Bowl and ‘football-kicked’ his wife in the head: police

The Courier Journal reported that Louisville Metro Police Officer Jonathan Osborne’s wife, Sharon, told deputies that she had been driving her husband home from a Super Bowl party in Indiana when he “suddenly became very angry and punched her in the right side of the face.”

According to a probable cause affidavit, the assault caused Osborne’s wife to swerve and crash into a tractor outside of Ray’s Lawn and Garden Center. That’s when Louis Mossey and Victoria Wimp, who happened to be driving behind the couple, pulled over to provide assistance.

The document said that Osborne snapped at Victoria Wimp, telling her to shut up when she asked if the couple was hurt.

Louis Mossey recalled that Osborne was still beating his wife after the crash.

“He said Mrs. Osborne was on her hands and feet trying to retrieve some papers when Mr. Osborn kicked Mrs. Osborne in the head in what was described to me as a ‘football-style’ kick, causing Mrs. Osborne to fall backwards. Mr. Mossey then said Mr. Osborne moved over top of Mrs. Osborne and tried to choke her out,” Clark County Sheriff’s Deputy Barret Cook noted in the affidavit.

Mossey admitted to police that he struck Osborne to stop him from attacking his wife. Sharon Osborne later told deputies that Mossey had held her husband down until help arrived.

Sharon Osborne was treated for a possible broken arm and other injuries after being transported to Clark Memorial Hospital.

Officers described Osborne as “very intoxicated” and combative. They said that he tried to spit at officers and kick out the window of a patrol car.

Osborne was charged with aggravated battery, domestic battery, battery, resisting law enforcement, criminal recklessness and public intoxication. He was being held at the Clark County jail in lieu of $30,000 bond.

He should be fired immediately. This type of behavior should not be tolerated in civil society, and especially not from the people who are charged with ‘serving and protecting’ the public.

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Cops kill nearly 100 people in January 2015, while none of them are killed by suspects in that time

The Officer Down Memorial Page, which tracks the deaths of police officers, is reporting zero officer deaths from gunfire in 2015.

Line of Duty Deaths: 13

Automobile accident: 5
Heart attack: 3
Struck by vehicle: 2
9/11 related illness: 1
Gunfire (Accidental): 1
Vehicle pursuit: 1

In contrast, Killed By Police has logged at least 91 people killed by police in the month of January alone.  At least 1,106 people were killed in 2014, a number which calls into question the integrity of the FBI’s previous estimate of around 400 per year.

Unlike the independent logging done by Killed By Police, the FBI collects their statistics only from reports voluntarily given to them by law enforcement agencies.  Only around 750 agencies, or 4 percent, out of 17,000 law enforcement entities across the United States offered this data to the FBI.

Those who prefer to turn a blind eye to police abuse often refer to police as heroes who “deserve to make it home to their families” or speak of the difficulties of a job where your life is perpetually at risk.

Police use these lines often, pushing the stereotype and narrative perpetuated by media of our police living in constant action movies where bad guys and villains are always on the prowl searching for ways to harm them.  Any conversation about police by their apologists could easily be a conversation about Batman rather than our revenue generators in blue.

Unfortunately for them, this narrative cannot hold up to simple facts.  Being a police officer is significantly less dangerous than many labor jobs, and is not even in the top 10 most dangerous positions in this country.

Police Behaving Badly 2.3.15