The police misconduct thread

[Calboner]

Every day I read about incidents of outrageous conduct by police, most of it unlikely ever get the perpetrators subjected to any criminal charge, let alone any criminal penalty. I am starting this thread so that I can have the references in one place. Here is what has come to my attention just today:

Georgia cops shoot man, take him to hospital, but leave him handcuffed until he dies

Kevin Davis was detained at Grady hospital in Atlanta after being shot three times by a DeKalb County police officer, who was responding to a 911 call made by Davis and his girlfriend when she was stabbed by another man at their apartment in the suburb of Decatur.

His sister, Delisa, spent his final hours begging police to allow her to see him, but they refused until he died. “They denied us access to him because they didn’t want him telling us what really happened that night,” she told the Guardian. In his last known remarks, Davis told a medic that an officer simply arrived at his home “and began shooting”.

Davis had been arrested and charged with aggravated assault against the police officer, Joseph Pitts, because he allegedly ignored an order to drop a revolver he was holding. Davis’s girlfriend, April Edwards, said he grabbed the unloaded gun and approached their front door after their dog was shot and they feared that her attacker may have returned with a gun.

Pitts shot Davis in disputed circumstances. Police have said that Davis approached Pitts, who was in the corridor outside the apartment, shouting: “You shot my dog.” Pitts had shot the three-legged pitbull dead, later alleging it “charged” at him after he opened the door to Davis’s apartment. Police also said Pitts ordered Davis twice to “put down the gun”.

But according to hospital files obtained by the Guardian, after arriving by ambulance Davis told an emergency room medic in his last known remarks “that police came to his house after there was an altercation with his girlfriend and began shooting”.

His family’s attorneys said witnesses did not hear Davis say anything to the officer, and that the 44-year-old did not even make it past the threshold to his apartment. They said neighbours recalled hearing shots fired almost instantly after an order to drop the revolver.

Grandfather visiting from India partly paralyzed after police throw him to the ground

Madison, Alabama police last week roughed up a 57-year-old Indian citizen who was walking on the sidewalk outside his son's home, leaving the older man temporarily paralyzed and hospitalized with fused vertebrae.

"He was just walking on the sidewalk as he does all the time," said his son, Chirag Patel, this morning. "They put him to the ground."

No crime had been committed. Madison Police on Monday issued a statement saying the department had suspended the officer and were investigating the use of force in this case. The police statement wished the man a "speedy recovery."

There's a video, but I haven't the stomach to watch it.

This is from yesterday's news--also with a video that I haven't watched:

Video shows man throwing rocks gunned down by police in hail of bullets while trying to run away

The Bellingham Herald reported that “more than a dozen witnesses” watched Pasco police officers confront a man outside Vinny’s Bakery and Cafe on Tuesday. The man was observed throwing a rock at a passing vehicle before police arrived.

According to the witnesses, the suspect was holding a rock, and appeared to threaten officers.

Ben Patrick said that he was just yards away when he saw officers try to shock the man with their Tasers.

“The guy was trying to pull the Taser (prongs) out of his arm,” Patrick recalled.

Cellphone video that was posted to YouTube shows the man confronting police before the officers fire three shots, and then begin chasing the suspect.

The officers appear to corner the man in the blurry video, and about 10 more shots are fired.

“It was just a rock!” one of the witnesses yells at the officers.
In the video, a motionless body can be seen lying next to a building with officers standing over it.

“He’s already dead!” a witness says as the officers handcuff the suspect.
Patrick told The Bellingham Herald that the man’s back was turned to officers when he was shot to death.

 

[Drifterwood]

You are a violent people and a violent culture.

You worship men who spoke of noble ideals for mankind and then enslaved and exterminated to take what was manifestly theirs.

It doesn't matter what you do to savages, it never has.

 

[Calboner]

Although police seem to be largely immune to prosecution for their criminal acts in this country, at least the victims and their families have a chance of getting a judgment against them in civil courts:

1. Lawsuit: NY Cop Broke Leg Of Boy, 10, For Filming Him | Crooks and Liars

Courtney Silvera, age 10, was eating cereal at 7 a.m. on Jan. 30, 2013, when the police knocked on the door. They were looking for his mother's ex-boyfriend, who had possibly violated an order of protection. His grandmother, who is suffering from brain and lung cancer, answered the door but had difficulty understanding the cops' reason for being there, New York's Daily News reports. So Courtney grabbed his mom's cellphone and began recording the conversation.

One cop didn't like that, so he kicked the boy in the shin, breaking his leg, according to a complaint filed in Brooklyn Federal Court and seen by the Daily News.

The narrative goes on from there and gets worse. But not as bad as this one:

2. Cop Sits On Pregnant Woman’s Belly, Beats Her Until She Has Miscarriage

Harris explained that the incident happened when she went to the Albany Police Department back in May of 2011. She was there to pick up her son – a minor – after he had been arrested.

After waiting five hours for her son, Harris told Officer Ryan Jenkins that it had been an extremely long time, and she needed to return home soon to take care of her other children.

“Defendant Officer Jenkins stated that he did not appreciate the tone in which she was communicating with him, and further stated that if she continued he would take her head and ‘put it to the floor,’” Harris charged in the lawsuit.

She reiterated that she needed to take care of her other children. That’s when Officer Jenkins made good on his threats and decided to use force against the obviously pregnant woman.

“Defendant Officer Jenkins, without provocation, grabbed plaintiff, who weighs less than one hundred twenty (120) pounds, by her neck and slammed her to the ground,” the lawsuit explained.

“Plaintiff momentarily blacked out and came to with defendant Officer Jenkins sitting on her back, and with his knee on her arm. Plaintiff was pregnant at the time.

“Defendant Officer Jenkins put handcuffs on plaintiff and slammed her against the wall. Plaintiff was placed into an interrogation room after she was beaten and handcuffed.”

In utter agony, Harris begged for medical attention, but every officer she spoke to refused her request.

For her troubles, she was charged with obstruction, and spent the night in the Dougherty County Jail.

 

[Calboner]

Apparently there are some limits to what a law-enforcement officer (in this case, a sheriff's deputy) can do with impunity--even in Georgia. This one has been fired and subjected to criminal charges.

Georgia deputy fired after handcuffing 12-year-old to pole, beating and Tasering him

According to the boy’s mother, she asked Walter to speak with her son because she was worried about him “running with the wrong crowd.”

“That’s all the situation was supposed to have been,” she explained. “That the officer come over, speak to my son, talk to him verbally, just conversation. No physical contact, no nothing.”

According to neighbors the off-duty officer came by the house Tuesday evening while the boy’s mother was at work after which they heard the boy — identified as Brandon– crying in the yard.

One neighbor stated he saw the deputy handcuff the young man to a pole holding up a basketball backboard before he began punching him “like he was a boxer.” He added that the deputy also used his service baton to hit the Brandon in the legs, knocking him to the ground.

Neighbors also reported that the officer used his Taser on Brandon, although Walter told investigators he just used it to menace the boy.

Asked by a reporter if he had been Tasered, Brandon replied that he had been ‘electrocuted.”

 

[Calboner]

Now here's something you don't see every day (Raw Story, February 18, 2015):

California man who claimed police brutality caught on video punching himself in the face

Newly-released footage shows a 33-year-old California man punching himself in the face while in an Oregon jail, undermining his claim that he was attacked by detectives, the Eugene Register-Guard reported on Tuesday.

The video, taken from surveillance footage, shows Aleksander Robin Tomaszewski in the Lane County Jail last month after being charged with sexual abuse and stalking. Throughout the video, Tomaszewski walks to the back of the cell and hits himself. The Register-Guard reported that he punched himself more than 40 times in the 4-minute video.

According to the Associated Press, Tomaszewski later filed a complaint accusing local detectives of assaulting him while interviewing him.

 

[554279]

You are a violent people and a violent culture.

You worship men who spoke of noble ideals for mankind and then enslaved and exterminated to take what was manifestly theirs.

It doesn't matter what you do to savages, it never has.

It's OK you can't always tell how your children will turn out now can we?

 

[Mercurygirl]

You are a violent people and a violent culture.

You worship men who spoke of noble ideals for mankind and then enslaved and exterminated to take what was manifestly theirs.

It doesn't matter what you do to savages, it never has.

Naive and sanctimonious.

 

[Calboner]

The incident to which this suit pertains occurred in Washington state 2012: police officers, having already arrested the person whom they had entered a house to arrest "for violating his community supervision," went with guns drawn (for what fucking reason?) to see who else was in the house (for what fucking reason?), found a guy in bed, and, after waking him up, shining flashlights into his face, and demanding that he show them some identification, fired sixteen bullets into him (the article doesn't say how many shots they fired that missed) when, in compliance with their demand, he reached for his wallet, because they believed (for what fucking reason?) that he was reaching for a gun.

State to pay $2.5 million to man shot 16 times by police | The Today File | Seattle Times

Rongen and Thompson, along with other law-enforcement officers, went to the Auburn-area home to arrest a man sought for violating his community supervision. After taking that man into custody, they went to a darkened, lower-level bedroom and confronted Theoharis with guns drawn.

Theoharis said he was napping, oblivious to their presence.

Theoharis asserts he woke to two people pointing flashlights in his eyes, with one asking him in a normal voice if he had any identification.

He said he responded, “Yeah, it’s right here,” and reached to the floor for his wallet.

When he turned back with his wallet in his hand, he alleges, Rongen and Thompson opened fire, hitting him in the face, arms, legs and abdomen with about 16 shots.

Rongen and Thompson said they believed Theoharis was reaching for a gun.

 

[Drifterwood]

Naive and sanctimonious.

Your opinion, but it remains historically correct.

 

[Drifterwood]

It's OK you can't always tell how your children will turn out now can we?

Sometimes you lose fights with headstrong teenagers, :wink:

 

[185248]

We evolved to make guns, some evolved how to misuse them. Some evolved to abuse them, some evolved to......crap, where was I going with this

It's all to do with science and the bang theory...

Cept when something goes bang here it usually means the end of something, not the beginning.

 

[Boobalaa]

A Black Site in Chicago? Police Accused of Running Secret Compound for Detentions & Interrogations
A Black Site in Chicago? Police Accused of Running Secret Compound for Detentions & Interrogations | Democracy Now!

Exporting Torture: Former Chicago Police Detective Tied to Brutality at Guantánamo
Exporting Torture: Former Chicago Police Detective Tied to Brutality at Guantánamo | Democracy Now!
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/24/chicago-police-detain-americans-black-site

 

[Calboner]

Here we go again. I've seen videos of cops using this move on their victims: shouting "Stop resisting arrest!" as they brutally attack an unresisting, usually black, man with their clubs. Maybe it's in their fucking unwritten training manuals somewhere.

Pittsburgh man writes police chief after witnessing police brutality; sees immediate coverup (Daily Kos, February 27, 2015)

Today, I saw something which horrified me. I work downtown at First and Market. I was leaving with a friend of mine to get coffee when we saw and heard sirens. Suddenly, a young black man who I now know as Devon Davis ran within yards of us, being chased by police officers with guns drawn. He was almost immediately tackled by between 6 and 12 officers. A whole swarm, I didn’t count.

But then, as he lay pinned to the ground, the officers began beating him viciously with batons while yelling to ‘stop resisting.’ He wasn’t resisting, and he kept saying ‘I’m not doing anything.’ They beat him for a long time and when they were done, he was laying in a pool of his own blood with what news reports say is a broken leg. I was only 30 yards away. The had to carry him to the police van.

Bart Simpson accompanies two police officers on patrol:

Bart: Wow! Can I see your club?
Lou: It's called a baton, son.
Bart: Oh. What's it for?
Lou: We club people with it.​

 

[Boobalaa]

This time is Pasco, Washington.

17 Shots: Police Killing of Unarmed Mexican Farmworker in Washington State Sparks Protest

17 Shots: Police Killing of Unarmed Mexican Farmworker in Washington State Sparks Protest | Democracy Now!

 

[slurper_la]

San Francisco Police Officer Hits, Kicks Homeless Man Who Slept On Bus (VIDEO)
San Francisco Police Officer Hits, Kicks Homeless Man Who Slept On Bus (VIDEO)

 

[slurper_la]

LAPD Caught On Video Shooting Homeless Man To Death
LAPD Caught On Video Shooting Homeless Man To Death

 

[dirtyarizona]

i'd rather live in a world with police, & other law-enforcement officers, than in a world without them...........

 

[lafever]

i'd rather live in a world with police, & other law-enforcement officers, than in a world without them...........

I'd rather live in a world without over policing, where everyone's not under suspicion.
I heard somewhere the other day that in the not so distant future 1 in 3 Male African Americans will go to prison.
If it gets that bad then slums will start poping up in every city.
Next Law Enforcement will start policing around the slums like they're prisons.

C.

 

[Calboner]

A couple of years ago, a man in Louisiana served a police officer with a summons in a lawsuit (not his) for police brutality. Within the hour, squad cars converged on his house to arrest him. Police charged him with battery, obstruction of justice, and intimidating a witness. A group of police officers AND two district attorneys made statements that the man had attacked the officer. Everything was set to put him in prison for decades. Except that the guy happened to have arranged to have his wife record the encounter on video. The video proved that the charges were baseless and that the statements of the cops and the DAs were out-and-out lies.

It only took the man TWO YEARS to get the charges against him dismissed. It remains to be seen if the cops and the DAs who testified falsely against him will face criminal prosecution for their criminal conduct. I'm not counting on it. So far, they haven't even been fired.

Meanwhile, the victim has to continue to live under the threat of this perversion of a "system of criminal justice." "While Dendinger has been cleared of all charges, he still lives in Washington Parish and worries about what could happen next as he presses a high-stakes lawsuit against people who tried to lock him up."

Charges crumble after cell phone video uncovered

 

[littleguyhugedick]

What is wrong with complying with a cops order? Just do as they say. What is difficult with that? Maybe ,it is I have nothing to hide.