Posts Tagged ‘police killings’

A year of reckoning: Police fatally shoot nearly 1,000

Posted: December 27, 2015 by gamegetterII in Police state USSA
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Nearly a thousand times this year, an American police officer has shot and killed a civilian.

When the people hired to protect their communities end up killing someone, they can be called heroes or criminals — a judgment that has never come more quickly or searingly than in this era of viral video, body cameras and dash cams. A single bullet fired at the adrenaline-charged apex of a chase can end a life, wreck a career, spark a riot, spike racial tensions and alter the politics of the nation.

In a year-long study, The Washington Post found that the kind of incidents that have ignited protests in many U.S. communities — most often, white police officers killing unarmed black men — represent less than 4 percent of fatal police shootings. Meanwhile, The Post found that the great majority of people who died at the hands of the police fit at least one of three categories: they were wielding weapons, they were suicidal or mentally troubled, or they ran when officers told them to halt.

The Post sought to compile a record of every fatal police shooting in the nation in 2015, something no government agency had done. The project began after a police officer shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in August 2014, provoking several nights of fiery riots, weeks of protests and a national reckoning with the nexus of race, crime and police use of force.

Race remains the most volatile flash point in any accounting of police shootings. Although black men make up only 6 percent of the U.S. population, they account for 40 percent of the unarmed men shot to death by police this year, The Post’s database shows. In the majority of cases in which police shot and killed a person who had attacked someone with a weapon or brandished a gun, the person who was shot was white. But a hugely disproportionate number — 3 in 5 — of those killed after exhibiting less threatening behavior were black or Hispanic.

Regardless of race, in more than a quarter of cases, the fatal encounter involved officers pursuing someone on foot or by car — making chases one of the most common scenarios in the data. Some police chiefs and training experts say more restrictive rules on when to give chase could prevent unnecessary shootings.

 

Like a growing number of police shootings, the death of David Kassick on a snow-covered field near his sister’s house in Hummelstown, Pa., was captured on video — a technological shift that has dramatically altered how Americans perceive officers’ use of deadly force.

In two minutes and 10 seconds of harrowing footage, the Kassick video serves as an almost perfect Rorschach test in the national debate over when it is justifiable for an officer to take a life.

Lots more @ WaPo here

Community leaders ask judge for arrests in Cleveland boy’s death

Posted: June 9, 2015 by gamegetterII in Police state USSA
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By Kim Palmer

CLEVELAND (Reuters) – Community leaders asked a judge on Tuesday to issue arrest warrants for two Cleveland policemen in the 2014 fatal shooting of a 12-year-old boy carrying a replica handgun even as prosecutors mull charges against the officers.

* it was NOT a “replica handgun”-it was an Airsoft handgun with the orange safety tip removed

The move, a signal of distrust in the community toward the authorities handling the case, represents an attempt to bypass the local prosecutor’s office by using an obscure Ohio state law that allows citizens to request an arrest.

The two officers involved in the shooting are white and the boy, Tamir Rice, was black. This is one of a number of cases bringing fresh scrutiny to the issue of police use of force in the United States, particularly against minorities.

“Today, citizens are taking matters into their own hands utilizing the tools of democracy as an instrument of justice,” Olivet Institutional Baptist Church pastor Jawanza Colvin said in a statement.

Cleveland’s police department agreed last month on a plan to minimize racial bias and the use of excessive force after the U.S. Justice Department found a pattern of abuses against civilians by the local police.

 

A mourner reads the obituary from the program during …

A mourner reads the obituary from the program during the funeral service for Tamir Rice in Cleveland …

Rice was shot outside a city recreation center last Nov. 22 while he played with a Airsoft-type replica handgun used in play combat.

Rookie police officer Timothy Loehmann fired at Rice twice within two seconds of arriving at the scene with his partner Frank Garmback in response to a 911 emergency call about a man with a gun outside the recreation center, according to authorities. The sixth-grader died the next day.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty has said the evidence in the shooting will be presented to a grand jury to decide on whether to bring charges against Loehmann and Garmback after a county sheriff’s department completed its investigation last week.

Rice family lawyer Walter Madison said his clients were worried about the transfer of the case to the prosecutor in light of the acquittal of Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo in May in another case.

Brelo, who is white, was charged with two counts of voluntary manslaughter in the deaths of a black man and a woman.

Those who will present citizens’ affidavits to a judge asserting “probable cause” in Rice’s death include a Case Western Reserve University professor and local clergy.

It was not clear whether the tactic will work. Joe Frolik, the local prosecutor’s spokesman, said Ohio’s constitution requires all felony charges be brought by a grand jury.

Cleveland police union says Justice Department reforms would endanger police

Posted: May 28, 2015 by gamegetterII in Police state USSA
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Officers could be hesitant to draw their guns because doing so would result in more paperwork under the terms of the agreement, Cleveland Police Patrolman’s Association president Steve Loomis said Wednesday. The agreement requires an officer to complete a report each time he or she points a gun at a suspect.

“It’s going to get somebody killed,” Loomis said. “There’s going to be a time when someone isn’t going to want to do that paperwork, so he’s going to keep that gun in its holster.”

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The head of the Cleveland police department’s patrol union said aspects of the agreement that mandates sweeping reforms to the city’s police department could put officers in danger.

Officers could be hesitant to draw their guns because doing so would result in more paperwork under the terms of the agreement, Cleveland Police Patrolman’s Association president Steve Loomis said Wednesday. The agreement requires an officer to complete a report each time he or she points a gun at a suspect.

“It’s going to get somebody killed,” Loomis said. “There’s going to be a time when someone isn’t going to want to do that paperwork, so he’s going to keep that gun in its holster.”

Cleveland and the U.S. Department of Justice unveiled the agreement, known as a consent decree, Tuesday. It is meant to transform a police department that too often used excessive force and failed to conduct thorough internal investigations, according to an investigation by the Justice Department. The agreement will become legally binding once approved by a federal judge.

Loomis said he believes the 105 pages of reforms are a response to high-profile incidents that have happened nationwide, rather than to incidents that have happened in Cleveland, including the 2012 police chase that saw 13 officers fire at two unarmed people 137 times, the police shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice and the death of a mentally ill woman after officers forced her to the ground.

“This is a political agenda,” he said. “This has nothing to do with the actions of the men and women of the Cleveland police department.”

Read the rest @ http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/05/union_head_says_aspects_of_cle.html#incart_m-rpt-1

This week in excessive force

Posted: May 28, 2015 by gamegetterII in Police state USSA
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By Radley Balko

In Fort Worth, the family of a 72-year-old man killed by police who responded to the wrong address after a burglary call has filed a wrongful death suit.

The suit, filed Tuesday, alleges that an officer admitted that he never identified himself as an officer before shooting Jerry Waller, that police moved Waller’s body after the shooting, and that investigators questioned the officers involved in a way to “provide a defense to the police shooting of an unarmed innocent man.”

The lawsuit alleges that officer Richard Hoeppner trespassed on the Wallers’ property, used excessive force against Waller, and destroyed or altered evidence to make it appear as if Waller was armed and posed a threat.

Brender alleges that Waller, a father and grandfather, had been standing in his own garage, unarmed and with both hands in the air, when he was shot and killed by Hoeppner.

In addition to Hoeppner, the suit also names as defendants Hoeppner’s then-partner on the call, Benjamin Hanlon, former Police Chief Jeff Halstead, investigators Dana Baggott and Merle Davon Green, and officers B.S. Hardin and A. Chambers.

Hanlon was later fired from the department for falsifying a report on an unrelated case.

City officials did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the lawsuit. A police spokesman said the department would not be commenting. Halstead also declined to comment.

Police officials have previously said Hoeppner shot Waller after the man pointed a gun at the officer.

A Tarrant County grand jury declined to indict Hoeppner in January 2014.

Halstead, who has since retired, told the Star-Telegram at that time that the grand jury made the right decision.

“I think it was proven through the autopsy and evidence that a gun was pointed directly at officer Hoeppner and he was forced to make his decision ” Halstead said.

But Brender said Tuesday that police relied largely on “junk science” and that the autopsy and crime scene photographs indicate that Waller was unarmed and would have had his hands up at the time he was shot. He released a video Tuesday of a forensic reenactment of the shooting that he said is supported by evidence in the case.

I’m not sure an autopsy can really prove that the decedent was pointing a gun when he was shot. In any case, even assuming what the police say is true, Waller was only defending his home. There’s zero reason to think that a 72-year-old man with no criminal record would knowingly point his gun at police officers who had mistakenly entered the wrong home. Incidentally, a year after Hoeppner shot Waller, he was nominated for an award for exemplary service.

Our next story is also about a lawsuit, also in Texas, also involving an elderly man.

A lawsuit filed against the Georgetown police department alleges unnecessary force against an 81-year-old man.

The suit comes after 81-year-old Herman Crisp says he was the target of unnecessary police force and that officers left him with a broken hip. Then, the lawsuit states, police got no care for him and family members discovered him the next day.

The police were looking for Crisp’s nephew. I suspect that if Crisp had a gun, or was holding something that resembled one, he’d have met the same fate as Waller.

The final story comes from Florida.

On May 11, Justin Way was drinking and threatening to kill himself. His father, George Way, said his son was a recovering alcoholic and had been alcohol-free for five weeks.

“He just lost his job, and he had a setback,” he said.

Way’s live-in girlfriend, Kaitlyn Christine Lyons, said she’d caught Justin drinking a bottle of vodka, which she took away from him to pour out. She said he was drunk, lying in their bed with a large knife, saying he would hurt himself with it. She called a non-emergency number in an attempt to get her boyfriend to a local St. Augustine, Florida, hospital for help—and told them she did not feel threatened.

“My brother has been Baker Acted three times because he was threatening to hurt himself so I figured that would happen with Justin,” said Lyons. Florida’s Baker Act allows the involuntary institutionalization of an individual, and it can be initiated by law-enforcement officials.

“The only person Justin threatened was himself and I honestly don’t think he wanted to die.”

Minutes later, two St. Johns County Sheriff’s deputies, 26-year-old Jonas Carballosa and 32-year-old Kyle Braig, arrived at the home, armed with assault rifles, and told Kaitlyn to wait outside.

“I thought they were going into war,” she remembered thinking when she first saw the large guns. Within moments, Justin was shot dead.

This is normally where’d I’d strongly caution against ever calling the police if you believe a loved one is unstable or a threat to himself. Too many police departments get too little training in how to resolve these situations peacefully. But that isn’t even what happened here. His girlfriend called a help line. I can’t think of a more inappropriate first response to someone in the midst of a breakdown than to send the SWAT team. But it’s not uncommon. Nor is the result that we saw here.

Source http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/05/28/this-week-in-excessive-force/

Why Baltimore Blew Up It wasn’t just the killing of Freddie Gray. Inside the complex legal infrastructure that encourages — and covers up — police violence

Posted: May 27, 2015 by gamegetterII in Police state USSA
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This is a valid point- 

“I can guarantee if you look up here and look down there, it might be five people who ain’t been fucked over by the police,” says Baltimore resident Shaun Young, waving a hand at a crowd of maybe a hundred people gathered at Penn and North, site of the protests. “It’s small shit — they get taken advantage of.”

When Baltimore exploded in protests a few weeks ago following the unexplained paddy-wagon death of a young African-American man named Freddie Gray, America responded the way it usually does in a race crisis: It changed the subject.

Instead of using the incident to talk about a campaign of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of illegal searches and arrests across decades of discriminatory policing policies, the debate revolved around whether or not the teenagers who set fire to two West Baltimore CVS stores after Gray’s death were “thugs,” or merely wrongheaded criminals.

From Eric Garner to Michael Brown to Akai Gurley to Tamir Rice to Walter Scott and now Freddie Gray, there have now been so many police killings of African-American men and boys in the past calendar year or so that it’s been easy for both the media and the political mainstream to sell us on the idea that the killings are the whole story.

Fix that little in-custody death problem, we’re told, perhaps with the aid of “better training” or body cameras (which Baltimore has already promised to install by the end of the year), and we can comfortably go back to ignoring poverty, race, abuse, all that depressing inner-city stuff. But body cameras won’t fix it. You can’t put body cameras on a system.

As a visit to post-uprising Baltimore confirms, high-profile police murders are only part of the problem. An equally large issue is the obscene quantity of smaller daily outrages and abuses that regularly go unpunished by a complex network of local criminal-justice bureaucracies, many of which are designed to cover up bad police work and keep all our worst behaviors hidden, even from ourselves.

Go to any predominantly minority neighborhood in any major American city and you’ll hear the same stories: decades of being sworn at, thrown against walls, kicked, searched without cause, stripped naked on busy city streets, threatened with visits from child protective services, chased by dogs, and arrested and jailed not merely on false pretenses, but for reasons that often don’t even rise to the level of being stupid.

“I can guarantee if you look up here and look down there, it might be five people who ain’t been fucked over by the police,” says Baltimore resident Shaun Young, waving a hand at a crowd of maybe a hundred people gathered at Penn and North, site of the protests. “It’s small shit — they get taken advantage of.”

Even though Rolling Stone is a leftist rag that’s not even good for lining bird cages,hell,it ain’t even good enough for starting fires. I don’t think kids even read it any more-never seen any of our six kids,or their boyfriends/husbands or any of their friends reading a copy.

Matt Taibbi does come up with a good one once in a while, like this…

From the article on the LeBron James: Global Superdouche broadcast-

See if those reality-show zoom-ins don’t start to creep into interviews with candidates-

This is the beginning of our big Lost in Space journey together, where news and reality-show programming fuse completely and we all end up complete morons, voting strippers and X-games athletes into the White House. I’m psyched. Are you?

Cop Escapes Charges After Shooting an Unarmed Man With His Hands Up on Video

Posted: May 20, 2015 by gamegetterII in Police state USSA
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Grapevine, Texas – Monday, a Texas grand jury chose not to indict a Grapevine Police Officer, Robert Clark, for the shooting death of an unarmed man. Ruben Garcia Villalpando, was killed by Clark as he had his hands on his head but was slowly moving towards the officer, contrary to the officer’s commands.

The officer’s dash cam video shows an initial police chase, as Villalpando attempts to evade Clark at high speeds, with Clark eventually holding him at gunpoint and orders him out of the vehicle after the chase concludes.

The officer then commanded Villalpando to put his hands on his head and walk backwards toward the front of the police cruiser. While Villalpando complies with the order to put his hands on his head, the obviously intoxicated suspect doesn’t comply with the demands to walk backwards.

Instead of walking backwards, the suspect slowly shuffles closer to the Clark, as the officer continually orders Villalpando to stop walking towards him.

As Villalpando stepped out of the camera’s view, Clark fired two rounds into him, subsequently killing Villalpando.

Toeing the standard blue line in cases such as this, Clark claimed that he feared for his life during the encounter and thus shot and killed Villalpando.

What is extremely troubling about this situation, aside from the fact that the grand jury didn’t see fit to indict and allow a jury to decide guilt or innocence, is that Villalpando, while not fully compliant, was not in any way violent or aggressive towards the officer.

An autopsy revealed that Villalpando had a .14 blood-alcohol level at the time of his death. It seems more plausible that his non-compliance was less about endangering an officer and had more to do with his inebriated state.
Propaganda video…
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/grand-jury-fails-indict-texas-cop-killed-unarmed-man-video/#GqT6hyT50LulDDoh.99

Baltimore police: Credible evidence of gang threat to officers

Posted: April 27, 2015 by gamegetterII in Police state USSA
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Via WaPo-
By Dana Hedgpeth April 27 at 11:57 AM
Baltimore police said Monday they’ve received credible information that various gangs, including the Black Guerilla Family, the Bloods and the Crips, have “entered into a partnership to ‘take-out’” law enforcement officers.

The warnings of a threat came as the funeral of Freddie Gray unfolded at a Baltimore church. Hundreds gathered to pay their respects to Gray, 25, who died in police custody — making his death the latest flashpoint in a national debate over police treatment of racial minorities.

Baltimore police advised law enforcement agencies to take “appropriate precautions” to make sure their officers were safe.

No further details were immediately available as to where or when the incidents may occur or when the threats were received.

Over the weekend, there were protests in Baltimore that at times turned violent with damage done to police cars and some vandalism of outdoor patios near the baseball stadium.

Dana Hedgpeth is a Post reporter, working the early morning, reporting on traffic, crime and other local issues.

Today’s Trifecta of Police Misconduct

Posted: April 23, 2015 by gamegetterII in Police state USSA
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Cell Phone Video Captures Police Officer Killing a Man as He Tried to Hide in a Stack of Lumber

Lakewood, WA — Daniel Corarrubias, 37, was killed by Lakewood police as he tried to hide in the Pinnacle Lumber Plywood yard.

A 7-second cell phone video captures the final moments of Corarrubias’ life as the Lakewood officer drew his weapon and fired 10 shots, hitting him in the head and torso.

Officers were responding to calls of a suspicious man walking through the parking lot of the lumber yard. When they came upon the man attempting to hide, they killed him.

According to police, Corarrubias tried to reach into his pocket, which is why they fired ten rounds into him. However, police have refused to divulge whether or not the man was armed at all.

“I know he didn’t have a weapon,” his sister said. “I want to ask police why? Why? Why they just didn’t shoot him in the arm, shoot him in the leg, maim him or something. Not murder my brother.”

According to KOMO News,

A man who says he watched security camera and cell phone video of the shooting told KOMO News 10 shots can be heard during the encounter. The source, who asked not to be identified, says the man sustained gunshot wounds to the head and torso.

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cell-phone-video-captures-police-officer-killing-man-hid-stack-lumber/#HREjGzvqorZIrvGy.99

GRAPHIC VIDEO: Cop Knocks Woman Unconscious as 6-Year-Old Daughter Watches in Horror
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cop-knocks-woman-unconcsious-front-6-year-old-daughter/#Ap68ceXmDkslcpUo.99

Police So Out of Control, this Judge Explains How and Why You should Always Flex Your Rights

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/d-c-judge-advices-citizens-engage-police/?utm_source=The+Free+Thought+Project+Weekly+Newsletter&utm_campaign=39932a1b99-RSS_FEED_NEWSLETTER12_18_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ae40e945ed-39932a1b99-211636157

Cops Runs Stop Sign without Lights or Sirens, Hits Pedestrian, Cutting Off Both Legs, 5 Hospitalized

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cops-runs-stop-sign-lights-sirens-hits-pedestrian-cutting-legs-5-hospitalized/?utm_source=The+Free+Thought+Project+Weekly+Newsletter&utm_campaign=39932a1b99-RSS_FEED_NEWSLETTER12_18_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ae40e945ed-39932a1b99-211636157

Former Cop Who Feds Say Committed a “Horrific, Violent Crime,” Found Dead in Murder/Suicide

Posted: April 21, 2015 by gamegetterII in Police state USSA
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Des Moines, IA — Former Des Moines Police Officer Mersed Dautovic was found dead Sunday morning in an Urbandale apartment along with his 24-year old girlfriend in an apparent murder-suicide, according to this morning’s press release.

Dautovic’s girlfriend was identified by authorities today as Mevlida Dzananovic. The couple was found dead in garage number 19, in an apartment complex in Urbandale after a concerned family member requested the police do a “wellness check.” While police say the weapon used is unknown at this time, autopsies show both died from strangulation, Dautovic’s being self-inflicted.

Dautovic had a clear history of violence. This news comes just weeks after Dautovic was arrested in Waukee and charged with first offense domestic assault on March 28, according to court records. The couple apparently had more than just one or two domestic disputes while living together in the Urbandale apartment complex.

Dautovic was scheduled to be sentenced today on an excessive-force charge in a case that’s been ongoing since September 2008. It’s been nearly 7 years since Dautovic and his former partner, John Mailander, brutally assaulted a man named Octavius Bonds. The officers beat him during a traffic stop in what federal prosecutors have called a “horrific, violent crime.”

Officer Dautovic and his partner delivered multiple blows to Bonds on the back of his head with steel batons during the traffic stop.

The former officer originally served 20 months in prison for the crime, charged with obstruction of justice and violating civil rights. Upon being released in January, a three-judge panel found Dautovic’s sentence too lenient, one judge calling his behavior “egregious,” and scheduling a resentencing for a harsher sentence and more time behind bars.

Mersed Dautovic was scheduled to be resentenced at 10am Monday morning, and was facing up to 14 years in prison.
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/iowa-officer-facing-jail-time-beating-innocent-man-commits-muder-suicide/#5Ff7FvVUV852ARg2.99

Man Dies After Police Break his Back and Sever His Spine During Arrest

Posted: April 20, 2015 by gamegetterII in Police state USSA
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A man who was injured while being arrested in Baltimore last week has died, just hours after hundreds of people rallied outside Baltimore Police Station to protest against how seriously he was injured.

RT.com

Freddie Gray’s stepfather, Richard Shipley, confirmed his stepson had died. His statement was confirmed by a Shock Trauma [hospital] spokesman.

According to police, Gray was first stopped by officers at 8:39am on April 12. He then managed to run away but was caught one minute later and arrested. At 8:54am he was placed in the prisoner transport wagon and taken to the Western District police station. At 9:54am an ambulance was called to treat him.

Local broadcaster WJZ-TV said that footage of the arrest filmed on a cell phone showed that he was black, and that family members identified him as 27-year old Freddie Gray.

He suffered broken vertebra and an injured voice box and had to undergo emergency spinal surgery, after which he was in a coma from which he never recovered.

Police have said that a panel has been set up to review the case which will be sent to prosecutors but have not been forthcoming with any additional information.
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/man-dies-police-break-sever-spine-arrest/#m8EG112V3A1Mwjyh.99

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