Marion County, FL — In August of 2014, multiple deputies with the Marion County Sheriff’s office conducted a drug bust. During the bust, Derrick Price ran from deputies Jesse Terrell, Trevor Fitzgerald, James Amideo, Cody Hoppel and Adam Crawford. However, once he realized he could not outrun the pickup truck, he quickly stopped, put his hands up, and laid face down on the ground — completely surrendering. Continue reading
Like anything that happens with the State involved, such as the events which transpired in Oregon recently, people are going to be rushing to the internet to do their own investigating. The footage released by the FBI of the road block incident which resulted in the death of militia member LaVoy Finicum can be found here. Continue reading
Below is the complete “unedited” video footage of joint FBI and OSP operation that took place in January 26th with the Oregon/Bundy militia. Continue reading
More and more, Americans who are guilty of nothing more than noncompliance with the status quo are being targeted by an out-of-control system that bears virtually no resemblance whatsoever to the nation’s constitutional founding principles.
The latest example of “the system” run amok involves a Missouri home schooling family that has filed suit against a local sheriff and another officer after they forcibly entered the family’s home in 2011, used a Taser on the father, pepper spray on the mother and forced their three children into the custody of government social service workers.
Continue reading
A rapper exiting an Atlanta bank, found himself in handcuffs and on the ground with guns pointed at his head after police stopped him for making a substantial withdrawal from his account, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting. Continue reading
Tragic news is coming through on a young MMA Fighter who doctors say may never walk again following a run-in with local police.
According to reports, Donovan Duran, a promising Martial Artist was handcuffed than abused until paralyzed by the La Junta Police, in Colorado.
Officers responded to a call from Duran’s family stating that he was a drunk MMA Fighter, and the officers moved in under a drunk and disorderly violation. Continue reading
On January 30, 2015, a health food store in Henderson called the police after a disgruntled customer, attempting to return some protein powder, allegedly threatened to rob them. The store described the suspect to police as a black male wearing a black and tan t-shirt who left in an SUV. Continue reading
A Kansas couple lost their lawsuit after a federal judge essentially ruled that drinking tea and gardening were probable cause for a drug search warrant — but they forced a change in state law that could prevent similar raids.
A SWAT team raided Adlynn and Harte’s home in April 2012 searching for marijuana as part of an annual series of drug busts timed to the unofficial “4/20” holiday.
Click the YouTube link below to listen
Host of Caravan to Midnight, actor, musician, writer, investigative journalist, composer, martial artist, aviator and broadcaster, John B. Wells finds the ancient sage advice of “concentrating on just one thing” to be true. His one thing: The Arts.
John is also an internationally renowned voice-over artist with credits ranging from serving as the announcer for CBS’ The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn, to voicing promos for hit television shows like Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch and Gold Rush to lending his voice to films like Oliver Stone’s JFK and Talk Radio, as well as the popular series Unsealed: Alien Files.
In 47 out of 50 states, American police officers have killed at least one person so far this year. In some, the number of officer-involved homicides dwarfs numbers from entire countries.
A video obtained by the Colorado Springs Independent shows an incident that’s at the center of an excessive force lawsuit that’s being prepared against the Colorado Springs Police Department.
The paper released the video as part of an in-depth report looking into the issue of police brutality in Colorado Springs.
A police officer in Federal Heights, CO has pleaded guilty of attempted third-degree assault after video emerged of him beating and literally torturing a restrained suspect while his colleagues looked on.
On HBO’s Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver took up the unpleasant, and unfortunately mostly ignored, topic of torture in America done under the auspices of the CIA.
Noting that the Senate Intelligence Committee released a 6,700-page investigation of torture, with a 500-page version available to the public, Oliver sought to explain that Americans need to read the available version because they have been “dangerously misinformed” about torture.
McKinney, TX — A weekend pool party in Texas turned violent after a McKinney police officer on a power trip began brutalizing a young woman.
According to video post on Facebook, the police were called to a McKinney residence because of the large number of people attending a pool party.
The police officers were in some sort of feeding frenzy as they were rounding up young teens, armed only with their swimsuits and forcing them to a patch of grass on the roadside.
As the video begins, one officer is seen doing a barrel roll as if he’s in a war zone.
Chicago Police Officers Jerome Finnigan, left, and Timothy McDermott with an unidentified man | Photo from court fileIt’s a racially charged photo the Chicago Police Department didn’t want the public to see: two white cops posing with rifles as they stand over a black man lying on his belly with deer antlers on his head. Continue reading
New York, NY– On May 14, copwatcher Michael Barber of the Copwatch Patrol Unit was out doing a great public service in which he frequently engages – filming the police. As he was doing so, he captured something absolutely amazing. Continue reading
Late on Tuesday afternoon I sat at my desk and watched the New York Times video of Walter Scott’s shooting. I saw Scott, clad in a green shirt, running away from North Charleston Police Officer Michael Slager. The uniformed officer pumped eight shots in Scott’s direction, striking him five times. I watched as Scott fell to the ground. I listened as the unidentified witness who recorded the incident repeat in disbelief, “Oh, shit!” And then I went on Twitter. Continue reading
Here’s a statistic for you: It’s been 31 days since the release of the White House Task Force on 21st Century Policing report, but the number of fatal police encounters is already over 100 and counting. That’s an average of more than three people killed each day in March by police in America. Continue reading
What starts as a routine traffic stop turns into an argument. Tempers flare, handcuffs come out and soon, the suspect is dead — but the media can’t report which officer fired the shot that ended the driver’s life.
Federal drug agents may be racially profiling and unjustly seizing cash from travelers in the nation’s airports, bus stations and train stations. A new report released by the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Justice examined the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)’s controversial use of “cold consent.”
In a cold consent encounter, a person is stopped if an agent thinks that person’s behavior fits a drug courier profile. Or an agent can stop a person cold “based on no particular behavior,” according to the Inspector General report. The agent then asks people they have stopped for consent to question them and sometimes to search their possessions as well. By gaining consent, law enforcement officers can bypass the need for a warrant. Continue reading
Liberal billionaire George Soros donated $33million to social justice organizations which helped turn events in Ferguson from a local protest into a national flashpoint.
The handouts, revealed in tax filings from Soros’s private foundation, were given to dozens of different groups which weighed in on the crisis.
Organizers from professional groups in Washington, D.C., and New York were bussed into the Missouri town to co-ordinate messaging and lobby to news media to cover events using the billionaire’s funding.
On Sunday, Los Angeles Police Department officers fatally shot a homeless man. It is being reported that man suffered from mental illness and did not have a weapon at the time of the incident. The video can be seen HERE. Continue reading
Lawmakers in Missouri have put forth a bill that would bar public access to any videos taken by police. Watch the video below for the full story.
This is just another reason your government wants control of the internet.
Also listen to this interview below we did with Jason Bermas, creator of the films “Loose Change”, “Fabled Enemies”, “Invisible Empire”, and most recently “Shade: The Motion Picture”.
CLICK HERE FOR THE INTERVIEW W/ JASON BERMAS ABOUT POLICE STATE
The shooting death of a 13-year-old California boy believed to be carrying an assault rifle unfolded in no more than 10 seconds, police said. Andy Lopez Cruz, who was later found to be carrying a plastic replica, was struck by seven bullets. Continue reading
After moving to the border state of Arizona, I learned quickly that it isn’t prudent to drive a car into Mexico because the Federal Police like to pull over “American-looking” tourists and shake them down for cash (yes, Virginia, the Mexican national police force does profile).
The practice of Mexican police harassing traveling Americans for their cash is so prevalent, most insurance companies require a special rider on one’s insurance policy before covering a car trip into Mexico. Continue reading
Second Amendment activist Adam Kokesh was arrested Tuesday evening following an armed raid on his home in the Washington, D.C. area.
Police have charged Kokesh, 31, with possession of a Schedule I or Schedule II drug while also in possession of a firearm. According to the Washington Post, charging documents filed in court Wednesday morning said that hallucinogenic mushrooms, a Schedule I narcotic, were found in the raid. Continue reading
WEST PARIS, Maine — Maine State Police say a teenager from West Paris is recovering Sunday morning from gunshot wounds after being shot by a state trooper Saturday night.
James Reynolds, 18, is being treated at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, according to a news release from the Maine Department of Public Safety.
Reynolds was shot by Trooper Jason Wing as the trooper was investigating a report of a suspicious man along the Roy Road in West Paris, according to police. State Police said Reynolds was armed with a hunting rifle.
The shooting occurred at about 6:45 p.m. Reynolds was flown by a LifeFlight of Maine helicopter to the Lewiston hospital.
Wing has been placed on administrative leave with pay, which is standard state police procedure following a shooting. A team of investigators from the Maine Attorney General’s Office, assisted by state police, is investigating the incident and the final report of the shooting is likely to be released in several weeks. The Attorney General’s Office investigates all shootings in Maine involving police officers.
May 28, 2013 In Sacramento, California, a man was beaten to death by police at a metro PCS store on Folsom Blvd. He sustained 10 blows to the head with a baton, after being handcuffed, as he was unarmed. The police originally came after a worker at the store called, claiming the man was ‘talking incoherently’, and may be a threat, while he was unarmed. When the police came, the man allegedly tried to barricade himself in the store, and resist being locked in a cage by police. Following the police forcing him outside the store and handcuffing him on the ground, a female police officer proceeded to beat his head with a baton while he cried out in agony, as he was handcuffed and face down on the pavement. While the police, in desperate defense of their official story, called this man ‘violent’, resisting being locked in a cage for what he may or may not have done, is known as self defense to many. It appears even the slightest move, will grant you an instant death sentence from the constitution-less police of this new era.
Are we allowed to talk about martial law, the militarization of police, and the complete shutdown of cities on command? Or will that get the glorious law enforcers to storm and kick in our own doors now? Just what are the rules in effect today? Just what sort of precedent is being set here right before our eyes?
It was your commoner citizens who located the Boston bombing suspect after finding him hiding in a boat. This was after the martial law decree had arbitrarily been lifted, and it was now ordered permissible to go out in one’s backyard again.
Is martial law the answer to sticky incidents with fleeing suspects? Can this now apply to any suspects or any manhunt in the United States, anywhere, for any reason?
One might argue that clearing the streets under military decree is very useful for a particular purpose when pursuing a suspect: allowing a “free fire zone” of automatic .40 caliber hollow point gunfire, the known preference of the new “Homeland Security” apparatus. So what precedents are we setting now, in terms of rewriting the entire law enforcement paradigm, arguably a much more serious concern than a single 19-year-old bleeding suspect. Yeah. What the fuck actually happened last week in Boston?
Governor Deval Patrick took an unprecedented security step, asking people in Boston, Watertown, and several other nearby communities — totaling a million people — to “shelter in place” — stay at home behind locked doors and open up only to police officers with proper identification.” – Boston Globe
“Asking?” Martial law is just a friendly request, and the Globe dutifully disseminates. CBS News counts “thousands of heavily armed law enforcement officers and scores of military-style tactical vehicles,” but is quick to have an expert standing by to justify it as “perfect sense.” Just perfect. All that for one bleeding, injured 19-year-old.
One wonders how many tank divisions and predator squadrons might have been called in if this was one of the much-fabled “cells” we hear so much about on TV. I’m not disputing the need to capture the suspect, an obviously dangerous person, given what he is accused of doing. I am disputing the federal intervention, the military suspension of the Constitution and the militarization of local policing – all greatly warned about numerous times as we descend into outright authoritarianism, clamoring for the federal troops and toys to come and save us. Not only were the public politely “asked” to stay within their homes, authorities also pushed the “media back further and further from the action unfolding (CBS).” This bodes well for a free and open society.
In the midst of all this bombing hysteria the House of Representatives (sic) passed CISPA, with more government/private sector spying. Less accountability for the mishandling of your private data, and more total information awareness totalitarianism is ensured. That is the direction that every single one of these bills travels, bar none. Nearly every act of Congress concerning security of any sort increases government and corporate surveillance powers, diminishes accountability, oversight and the public’s right to challenge their own surveillance by authorities both public and private. We are living more and more in The Matrix, with 4th Amendment protections now considered “quaint” and of a bygone era that no longer has any relevance today.
Praise for surveillance cameras has been noted since Boston with calls for more public surveillance, more facial recognition, more integration of things like traffic cameras and license plate readers.
I think CCTV cameras are much more needed in urban areas. - Rep. Peter King (R), New York, House Committee on Homeland Security
Of course he does. He thought that before this latest photo-op. The answer is always more security, more surveillance, more intrusion, and less individual protection from government and from the private corporate sector.
A tremendous catharsis overwhelmed Boston with the announced capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, as if that explained and ended everything. When you enact martial law with thousands of machine gun wielding stormtroopers and armored personnel carriers in the streets, and then make them go away, the people will be grateful. No doubt.
But this is where the story should be entering a new phase of discovery, intense investigation and disclosure. Sorry Boston; this is far from the end.
It was the FBI, apparently, who had monitored the two Chechen brothers for years, according to their own mother. Zubeidat K. Tsarnaeva claims the FBI had contacted her and her sons repeatedly over the past 5 years. She even claims that the two were “controlled” by the Feds and “set up” in some kind of sting operation. If that sounds baseless, well we have already had an admission by FBI that they “interviewed” the older brother Tamerlan back in 2011. Further, the Wall Street Journal reports that this FBI interview was in response to a “request by the Russian government.”
Scratch the vinyl. Say what?
Russian intelligence / counter-terrorism is already reported to have asked FBI to check out the older brother, now deceased, whom the FBI says blew up bombs at the 2013 Boston Marathon. The FBI admits to talking to this suspect. They then claim, absurdly to have “closed the file” because they allegedly found nothing “suspicious.”
Do these suspected terrorist files even get closed at all? We’re straining credulity here.
Magnitudes more disturbing than any of that is the actual on-the-record activity by the FBI in at least 17 “terrorism” cases with so-called “foiled plots” since the 9/11 attacks. What the FBI does routinely – and this is not in dispute – is to orchestrate terror bombings with targeted individuals. These bombings are suggested and assisted by an undercover FBI provocateur. Often fake explosives and arms are provided. The targeted individuals are strictly monitored, and then set up and arrested with spectacular headlines and a grateful public that was saved from yet another act of senseless terror. The plots are provoked by the government itself in a controversial practice that many call “entrapment.”
Was the Boston Marathon bombing such a case of a sting that was somehow allowed to succeed?
What is the evidence?
Little is known about the operational planning, other than a vague claim by the boys’ mother alleging “control” and “set up.” However, some highly suspicious evidence has emerged from the bombing incident itself. Two main things remain unexplained, and corporate media has not, to my knowledge, investigated the most disturbing evidence the public has seen so far. This corporate media blackout is indicative of unreported, behind the scenes answers likely given by authorities when nosy reporters inquire about these matters.
First: We have the cross-country coach from the University of Mobile, AL saying that authorities announced “training exercises” by the bomb squad at the start of the race. Bomb sniffing dogs were present and used, according to Alastair (“Ali”) Stevenson, who ran the race. Repeated public address announcements told the runners and spectators to “…not worry, this is just a training exercise.”
A lengthy list of justifiable questions springs to mind, which any reporter worth his lunch would immediately want to ask. Yet, none of these questions, and none of the responses to them were published last week. But how could that be?
Let’s start with the absurdity of running a “training exercise” with the bomb squad in the middle of a sprawling, 26-mile-long, city-wide event that draws 500,000 spectators and more than 22,000 runners. It’s not really a time for an “exercise,” but a time to actually protect the public, no? Am I out of line here? I’m sure someone will inform me if I am.
Is this phrase “training exercise” a public relations lie to calm the sheeple, when in fact it is not an “exercise” at all, but a live security detail searching for possible explosives?
Other obvious questions concern who participated in this exercise? Which agencies and which private entities? What were the specifics of the exercise? Did this alleged exercise open up security holes by giving away critical information about security procedures to numerous parties beyond the control of law enforcement? Were explosives, real or fake, involved? Why is information regarding this exercise covered up?
The little matter of who was involved brings up big main question number two.
Second: Photographic images from the finish line / bombing of the Boston Marathon show a collection of suspicious characters acting in some semi-official capacity. What little can be discerned from the photos suggests they may be military mercenary contractors, possibly from a company called Craft International.
These men wore large black backpacks, very similar to the exploded backpack seen in photos immediately after the bombing. They also stand in positions very near the location of one of the bombs. They communicate with one another. One seems to hold a device in hand, perhaps a radiation detector. Others, who are dressed identically, rush over to a FBI bomb squad truck, which arrives minutes after the detonations. They talk with FBI personnel.
This all suggests that these men were coordinating with the FBI bomb squad all along. Is this the “exercise?” It also suggests that the FBI’s bomb squad (a federal entity) was already present before the bombings even happened. Why is a federal bomb squad unit at a marathon race even before bombings occur?
I’ll unload just one more question, concerning these mysterious, unnamed operatives. How can private military mercenaries be involved in any way, shape or form with domestic security on US streets, and notably at an event that turned out to be highly insecure, in the extreme?
Perhaps our society has reached that tipping point into utter insanity and breakdown.
The two brothers Tsarnaev have been established by the FBI as the only perpetrators, the onlysuspects, the only reason for the Boston bombings to have occurred. An FBI press conference went so far as to caution the entire media and public against looking elsewhere:
For clarity these images should be the only ones, I emphasize the only ones, that the public should view to assist us. Other photos should not be deemed credible and they unnecessarily divert the public’s attention in the wrong direction and create undo work for vital law enforcement resources. - Special Agent Rick DesLauriers, the head of the FBI’s Boston office
I find it hard to interpret this diktat as anything other than a direct order to narrow one’s thinking and evidentiary standards. The entire nation has been cautioned that all other evidence is to be deemed by the civilized world as not “credible.” As George W. Bush said a decade prior, at the United Nations: “Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories…”
One might expect such direct state orders inside Soviet Russia, but in our allegedly free society with its proudly proclaimed “free press” this is disturbing. The FBI has just discredited the entire concept of investigative journalism and assumed the role of sole authority on all information related to this case. The media is cautioned not to entertain any additional facts, no matter how they may appear to bear on the case. Nothing that doesn’t come directly from the Federal Bureau of Investigation is to be considered “credible” by anyone. Period.
So, is this the end of the so-called “free society?” Land of the free, home of the brave? Or is our new paradigm the land of the surveilled and controlled, home of the cowering, with martial law and propaganda for all?
And with so many thousands upon thousands of law enforcers available at the touch of a button, how about sending, say, one of them to investigate at least 14 counts of manslaughter and massive criminal negligence at that Texas fertilizer plant explosion? Or is that not in the script?
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev lies in critical condition since Friday evening, but as of Sunday morning:
“Boston Mayor: Bombing Suspects Acted Alone” – Reliable Stenography by Time Magazine & Associated Press
How the hell would he know?
Several hours later:
Bombing suspect throat injury prevents questioning Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for now - Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is in a hospital, sedated and unable to be interrogated because of a throat injury. Authorities want to know if anyone else was involved. – Christian Science Monitor
Welcome, my son. Welcome to the machine. – Pink Floyd
Joe Giambrone is a filmmaker and author of Hell of a Deal. He also edits The Political Film Blog, which welcomes submissions. polfilmblog at gmail.
(RT) -A 17-year veteran of the New York City Police Department pled not guilty Thursday to charges that he supplied police paraphernalia and weapons to a stickup crew, which then used the equipment to rob drug dealers.
Officer Jose Tejada is accused of involvement in a string of 2006 and 2007 robberies in which he is alleged to have provided NYPD badges, uniforms and even police vehicles to a group of thieves. Tejada, 45, who had been assigned to police Harlem, was in uniform and on duty at the time of at least one of his alleged crimes.
He’s been connected to three of the more than one hundred robberies the crew is supposedly behind, with some dating back to 2001. Tejada is charged with conspiracy to commit robbery, conspiracy to distribute drugs including heroin, cocaine, MDMA, and marijuana, as well as an unlawful use of a firearm charge, according to local NY1 news.
Prosecutors say Tejada was caught in an “ongoing Internal Affairs Bureau investigation” and has been suspended from the department after holding a family of three at gunpoint while his colleagues searched their home.
He also is accused of checking the legal status of other robbers in the gang and letting them know when it was safe to flee then reenter the United States.
“Obviously it is sad and disappointing anytime a police officer is arrested,” said NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly.
Tejada is the second officer to be charged as part of the robbery crew, which began in 2001 and has “netted more than 250 kilograms of cocaine and $1 million in narcotics proceeds,” prosecutors told the Times.
Emmanuel Tavarez, an eight-year veteran of the force, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in May 2012 after being convicted of similar crimes. Twenty other members have been implicated in the years-long investigation.
At least 46 demonstrators were arrested along Church Ave. in East Flatbush. Police struggled to control a hostile crowd that broke away from a planned peaceful vigil for Kimani (Kiki) Gray, 16, killed by police on Saturday night.
Gray’s sister Mahnefeh was among those arrested. A police officer suffered a gash in the face when a tossed brick hit him, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said, and a window was smashed in an inspector’s car.
RELATED: WITNESS CLAIMS 16-YEAR-OLD KILLED BY COPS HAD NOTHING IN HANDS
“They didn’t have to kill him,” Makaeo Williams, 18, said as police on motorcycles tracked alongside him. “I’m feeling mad inside. I’m angry. That’s why I’m out here.”
Many in the community contest police allegations that Gray pointed a gun at cops when he was shot during a confrontation with two plainclothes officers on E. 52nd St. Saturday night. Those suspicions on the street intensified Wednesday when an autopsy report revealed Gray was hit by seven bullets — three to the back.
It was not clear in what order the shots struck the teen or whether he had his back to the police when they opened fire .
RELATED: COUNCILMAN BATTLES RAY KELLY AT HEARING
A witness told the Daily News Tuesday that the youth did not have a gun in his hand. But a police spokesman said the witness told detectives she couldn’t see the incident clearly “from the angle I was at.”
A woman who identified herself as Gray’s cousin told news outlets Wednesday that the teen was carrying a gun for a friend and was trying to alert cops that he had a weapon when he was shot. A loaded .38-caliber revolver was recovered at the scene.
The trouble Wednesday night began soon after more than 200 people set off from the vigil site at Church Ave. and E. 55th St. around 8:30 p.m.
RELATED: RIOT BREAKS OUT IN BROOKLYN FOLLOWING CANDLELIGHT VIGIL FOR 16-YEAR-OLD SHOT BY COPS
Dozens chanted “NYPD, KKK, how many kids did you kill today” as they marched west on Church Ave. toward the 67th Precinct stationhouse.
But things quickly got out of hand as some protesters tried to climb on police motorcycles. Men and women were pepper-sprayed and thrown to the ground and handcuffed.
“I’m scared for everything, myself, my store, my workers,” said Salm Sami, 45, who owns the Deli, Grill & Grocery at Church and New York Aves. “This is three days of this.”
The protesters eventually backtracked to the vigil site where the parents of Ramarley Graham — an unarmed teenager fatally shot by police in the Bronx last year — were waiting. “It never seems to end,” said Frank Graham, Ramarley’s father. “The community has a right to be angry.”
But City Councilman Jumaane Williams, a frequent NYPD critic, blasted outsiders who he said escalated tensions. “Please stay the HELL out of our community will only agitate our kids,” Williams fumed on Twitter. “It’s dangerous and counterproductive.” ”
With Thomas Tracy, Joe Kemp and Rocco Parascandola
(Baltimore Sun) -A federal judge has ordered Baltimore police to halt a “veritable witch hunt” into the personal life of a man who alleges that his camera was seized as he filmed an arrest.
In a ruling unsealed Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Gauvey said the department must pay $1,000 for a “not so subtle attempt to intimidate the plaintiff” in a civil suit against the department.
She took issue with tactics employed against Christopher Sharp, who sued the department two years ago, alleging that officers deleted images from his phone after he recorded a female friend being beaten by officers at the 2010 Preakness Stakes.
The U.S. Justice Department has sided with Sharp, and the case has led to new department policies upholding the rights of citizens to record police.
But according to court records, the department continued to challenge Sharp’s credibility in the civil case — contacting his ex-wife and former employers and seeking to determine “whether or not the plaintiff is a drug addict,” according to a court filing by the department.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland is helping to represent Sharp, and argued in court filings that the efforts were intimidation and harassment.
Gauvey agreed, saying that the police inquiries were “an appalling and apparent attempt to squeeze the plaintiff with questions that would almost certainly never be permitted in court.”
In an unusual move, Gauvey ordered the payment and said the department’s attorneys would have to seek court permission for further contact with anyone as they seek to gather information in the case.
City Solicitor George Nilson said he believed the requests for information on Sharp had been “benign” and “legitimate,” but that the city is unlikely to fight the ruling.
He said the city will continue to dispute Sharp’s allegations, saying that the plaintiff has been “utterly unable” to identify the officer who he alleges took his phone despite having been provided hundreds of names and pictures of police working that day.
“Tell us who it was,” Nilson said.
In court filings, the Police Department’s chief legal counsel, Mark Grimes, had argued that Sharp and his lawyers were trying to “handcuff the BPD in its pursuit of facts.”
“In short, Mr. Sharp believes that the defendants are not entitled to a defense,” Grimes wrote.
The ACLU’s legal director, Deborah Jeon, welcomed the judge’s ruling.
“We very much appreciate the court’s recognition that overzealous and unprofessional litigation tactics such as those engaged in by BPD counsel here have no place in any case — let alone in a Maryland civil rights case,” Jeon said in a statement.
Sharp alleges that images of the arrest, along with family photos, were erased from the phone by police.
The Justice Department’s civil rights division has urged the court to find in Sharp’s favor, saying that seizing and destroying recordings without a warrant violates constitutional guarantees of due process and protections against illegal searches.
After weighing in on the Baltimore incident, the Justice Department has sided with plaintiffs in similar cases.
Baltimore police dispute the ACLU’s contention that what happened to Sharp is part of a pattern of abuse and contend that policy changes have been sufficient to guide officers on citizens’ rights to record. Officials said other cities have contacted Baltimore for guidance in drafting their policies.
But Justice Department attorneys said Baltimore’s policy changes did not go far enough.
The day after the new policy became public, police officers were caught on video threatening to arrest a man for loitering in Federal Hill. The man had been recording them as they held someone on the ground.
The ACLU had said a lawsuit could have been avoided if police had worked to develop clearer policies and had acknowledged that Sharp should have been able to record the incident. But the Police Department did not respond to that request, prompting the lawsuit in August 2011.
“It was the Police Department’s refusal to admit it was wrong that made me take this to court, and the department’s lawyers have done everything they could to make that process more difficult,” Sharp said in a statement released by the ACLU.
The issue of recording police garnered attention in 2010 when a motorcyclist was charged in Harford County with videotaping on a helmet-mounted camera his interaction with a state trooper who had pulled him over at gunpoint for speeding. The man was acquitted and the Maryland attorney general’s office later issued an opinion advising police agencies that people have a right to record officers.
In August 2012, police told Sharp of their intention to subpoena medical records related to a hair follicle test and served subpoenas for Sharp’s phone records and information from a previous employer, Laurel Park racetrack. In addition, they contacted his ex-wife, her current boyfriend and her mother, which his attorneys described as “running amok in Sharp’s personal life.”
Gauvey said the contacts with people in Sharp’s personal life were not necessarily improper, as it was possible that Sharp had shared his version of the Preakness incident with them. But excerpts of the depositions “presented a picture of defense counsel ‘working [the] plaintiff over’ — asking irrelevant and personal questions about his custody arrangements for his young son and his divorce proceedings.”
A. Dwight Pettit, an attorney who is not involved in Sharp’s case but who has filed numerous lawsuits against the city, called Gauvey’s decision “unusual, but very positive.”
(Memphis) An off-duty Memphis police officer, accused of threatening a man by getting the victim’s phone number from the 911 call center, is now under arrest.
Officer Darrell Malone will be prosecuted for harassment.
This comes more than three months after the incident was first reported.
The victim says he’s relieved the DA’s office is taking action.
“I’m tickled pink,” said Michael Montgomery, who thought the county forgot about his case.
“I had some real concerns that it was just being dropped.”
But it looks like someone believed he had one against Officer Malone.
He’s been arrested for harassment. Court documents show the officer turned himself in Monday after authorities issued a warrant for his arrest.
Montgomery first came forward demanding action back in October.
“It’s a complete abuse of power,” said. ”He stepped across a line that shouldn`t be stepped across.”
Montgomery says Malone flashed a gun at him on Germantown Parkway and threatened him.
When Montgomery called 911 for help, the off-duty officer was able to get Montgomery’s personal cell phone number from 911 Dispatcher Jenny Rice,.
Montgomery told us, “I got a phone call from a blocked cell phone number. It was the off-duty police officer again who had gotten my information from dispatch. He was making more threats to me.”
Since then, Montgomery has wanted Officer Malone charged with a crime, but MPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau decided Malone didn’t commit one and put him back on the job November 27th.
Now, the police department says he’s relieved of duty, again, but won’t say when that happened or why.
Montgomery’s just glad to know the system works, even if it takes a while.
“If you fight the system, it will work for you,” said Montgomery. ”You just have to knuckle down and bear with it. It may not be what you want immediately but in the end you are going to get your results.”
Officer Malone’s first court hearing has been set for April 5th. Montgomery says prosecutors tell him he has a right to attend all of Malone’s hearings but doubts he’ll go to them.
(Infowars) -An Indiana woman falsely raided by a SWAT team is suing the city of Evansville and the police department after cops smashed down her door and threw flash grenades into her home in response to “threatening” Internet posts that she wasn’t even responsible for.
“Police came up empty-handed in a search for evidence about threatening Internet posts but only after damaging the house, handcuffing the woman and her granddaughter and seizing their computers, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court at Evansville,” reports the Courier Press.
Police claim the raid, which occurred back in June, was justified due to Internet posts traced back to 68-year-old Louise Milan’s house which threatened to attack the police department, but the posts had been made by a suspected gang member who had hijacked Milan’s wi-fi connection because it was not password protected.
The lawsuit states that the actions of the officers “were done with malicious intent to cause severe mental and emotional distress to Milan.”
After smashing Milan’s window and her storm door, police threw two flash grenades into the home before ordering Milan and her daughter onto the floor at gunpoint. The two were handcuffed and paraded in front of their neighbors before police seized computers and a cellphone.
The police even ensured that a news camera crew was there to document the raid in order to “memorialize” the incident.
Alleged gang member Derrick Murray, who lived nearby, later admitted to a federal court that he had used his smartphone to hijack Milan’s wi-fi connection to make the threatening posts.
SWAT raids which turn out to target the wrong houses are a routine characteristic of America’s increasing decline into a police state.
- In October last year, police in Middletown, Delaware searching for a “person of interest” raided Steve and Jennifer Tuppeny’s house and held them at gunpoint before realizing they had the wrong house.
- In July 2010, a Minneapolis-St. Paul SWAT team raided the wrong house, shot the family dog and forced three children to sit next to the bleeding corpse of their beloved pet for over an hour.
- Police in Adams County, Colorado falsely raided the home of Jeff Fisher before shooting and killing his pet dog Ziggy when the animal attempted to run away.
- Lebanon, Tennessee resident John Adams was shot to death by cops as his wife was handcuffed in another room following another wrong house raid in September last year.
- A 12-year-old girl suffered second degree burns after police used flash grenades in executing a raid on a house in Billings, Montana last October over an alleged meth lab that never existed.
These are just a handful of cases from the last few years in what is turning into an epidemic of police abuse as a result of the failure to properly verify that such raids are targeting the right people.
(DailyMail) -A police officer allegedly gave a three-year-old girl a sexually transmitted disease when he abused her, a court has today heard.
PC James Williams, who was based at Trinity Road police station, in Bristol, is accused of assaulting the toddler in a house in the city and passing on chlamydia to her.
On the first day of evidence at his trial today a jury heard the allegations against the 28-year-old came to light when the little girl complained that she was sore when she went to the toilet.
PC James Williams, of Bristol, is accused of assaulting a three year old and giving her a sexually transmitted disease
James Williams leaving court today. On the first day of evidence at his trial today a jury heard the allegations against the 28-year-old came to light when the little girl complained that she was sore when she went to the toilet
When her mother asked why, she said Williams had ‘hurt’ her and indicated how with her hands.
She also claimed Williams had exposed himself to her, the court heard.
While staying with her father the following day, the youngster repeated some of the claims to him.
Williams, who is suspended from duties as a response officer for Avon and Somerset police, denies sexual assault by penetration on a child under 13.
The girl’s mother shook as she recounted what her daughter told her had happened.
As she stood in the witness box at Bournemouth Crown Court she said the first time she took her daughter to the doctor, she did not tell him what the three-year-old was claiming.
The youngster, whose anonymity is protected by law, was diagnosed with a water infection.
But she was taken back to the GP several days later where the allegations were explained.
She was then admitted to Bristol Children’s Hospital for a full examination where tests revealed she had chlamydia, a disease usually transmitted sexually, which can cause infertility.
Her mother said: ‘I know chlamydia can cause problems for older ladies with them having children and that was one of my worst fears.’
The jury heard the girl’s infection was treated with medicine. But then two years later, tests revealed she had the infection again, having had no contact with Williams since the allegations first surfaced
Prosecuting, Kerry Barker said Williams and others who had come into contact with the girl around that time were all tested for the disease.
Mr Barker said: ‘He (Williams) agreed voluntarily to undertake tests for chlamydia and those tests showed he too had chlamydia, and it was the same strain.’
Williams was privately confronted about the allegations by the family, with the girl - now five - in the same room.
Witnesses told the jury that when asked who had touched her, she pointed at him and said that he had.
When asked again she repeated the response, but when asked for a third time she replied: ‘It’s a secret.’
The court heard from several witnesses at that ‘tense’ meeting who said Williams did not deny the allegations at the time.
The girl’s mother told the jury: ‘James didn’t really react.’
During the alleged victim’s first year in nursery school, staff catalogued ‘concerning’ and ‘sexualised’ behaviour towards other children.
After counselling sessions, her behaviour became more normal but she is still ‘very cuddly’ towards other children, her mother said.
The jury heard the girl’s infection was treated with medicine. But then two years later her symptoms returned.
Tests revealed she had the infection again, having had no contact with Williams since the allegations first surfaced.
The case continues.
(Fox) -This kid was no killer — but some callous Bronx cops sure treated him like one.
Instead of earning himself a simple trip to the principal’s office, a terrified 7-year-old boy was hauled out of class, handcuffed like a hardened criminal and “interrogated” by police for a grueling 10 hours — all over a playground dispute involving $5, his family is charging.
“My son was crying, ‘Mommy, it wasn’t me! Mommy, it wasn’t me!’ I never imagined the cops could do that to a child. We’re traumatized,” Wilson Reyes’ distraught mom, Frances Mendez told The Post last night.
“Imagine how I felt seeing my son in handcuffs!’’ she said. “It was horrible. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”
The bizarre overreaction by cops came after the child had been accused of swiping $5 from another student after school.
The money, which was supposed to be used for a school trip that never happened, had fallen on the ground in front of Wilson and two other boys, and one of them scooped it up.
Wilson was falsely accused of taking it, and he scuffled with one of the kids.
Officers showed up at PS X114 on Dec. 4 at about 10:20 a.m., and handcuffed and held Wilson in a room there for four hours. They then hauled him off to the 44th Precinct station house for another six hours of interrogation and verbal abuse, according to a $250 million claim against the city and the NYPD.
The boy protested his innocence, to no avail.
(Image credit: screenshot of YouTube video originally captured by attorney Howard Price)
(End The Lie)- Tamara Gaglione was recently paid $250,000 in damages for being pulled over for talking on her cellphone, after which she was thrown to the ground and hogtied by California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers on the shoulder of a busy freeway.
This type of behavior, while indeed disgusting, is far from surprising given that police hogtying women isn’t all that rare and a woman died of suffocation last year in the back of a Los Angeles Police Department patrol car after being kicked in the genitals and forced into the vehicle.
In this case, it seems that the dashboard camera is what ultimately held the officers accountable, just as a similar camera did in the case of a 66-year-old man who was beaten for no apparent reason.
The incident occurred in August of 2011 and resulted in charges of evading and resisting arrest and driving with a suspended license, all of which were dropped after a judge saw video footage of the incident captured from a dashboard camera of a CHP cruiser.
30-year-old Gaglione, 2 months pregnant at the time, was pushed face-first into the asphalt after an officer swept her legs with a kick. Another officer used his knee to pin her to the ground, all while she was pregnant.
Howard Price, Gaglione’s attorney, told the Huffington Post that Gaglione could hear officers talking about the video of the encounter on the way to the station.
Yet when Price requested the video in order to present it as evidence in Gaglione’s criminal trial, he was told no footage of the incident existed.
“I went back to them, and I said, ‘Look, am I stupid? This involved a chase. There must be a videotape,’” Price said.
Eventually, the prosecutor finally handed over the footage from the dashboard camera of a backup officer, although that footage showed nothing.
Once Price was told the footage did, in fact, exist, he was told that no one could transfer the video to another medium.
Price was then forced to go to the CHP station himself in order to record the footage for posterity.
The video Price took of the original CHP footage being played was then uploaded to YouTube and can be seen below.
“The conduct here is outrageous. What these officers did here was bewildering to me. They knew she was pregnant,” Price told the Los Angeles Times. “She never resisted arrest.”
“After first stopping on the right shoulder, she was ordered to not stop there, to go forward and get off freeway [sic],” Price explains on his website. “Because of rush hour traffic noise, she did not hear clearly what she was directed to do.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, the officers ordered her to toss her car keys out of her window, exit her vehicle and put her hands on the car.
Instead, Gaglione simply stands outside of her vehicle staring at the CHP officers, “appearing confused,” as the Los Angeles Times puts it.
When the officers are yelling, “Turn around,” it appears that Gaglione says something, although it is inaudible.
In the official report, the CHP officers claimed that she appeared to raise her arms in a menacing manner, although it is quite hard to detect if there are any menacing arm movements from the footage.
The officers then approach Gaglione with their guns drawn, sweep her legs with a kick and push her face-first into the ground.
Another officer pins Gaglione to the ground with a knee in her back, although Price contends that it was actually placed on her neck.
“At another point, it appears the woman is kicked in her left ribs,” the Los Angeles Times notes. “Eventually she is hogtied and placed in a squad car.”
“I’d never seen a gun for real before,” Gaglione said. “I just froze. I was scared they’d shoot me.”
While Gaglione maintains that she told the officers she was pregnant when they first approached her, one of the officers, Officer Daniel Hernandez, said that she did not mention that she was pregnant until she was on the ground.
In Hernandez’s report, he said that he kneed Gaglione in an effort to distract her so that Officer Roberto Martinez, his partner, could handcuff her.
The officers wrote in their report that the incident escalated because Gaglione ignored their orders and “appeared to raise her arms in an aggressive manner after hopping out of the van,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
Gaglione later sued both the CHP, the sergeant and five officers involved in the incident, “alleging that her civil rights had been violated and that she had been subjected to excessive force and malicious prosecution,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
While CHP officials would not discuss the incident itself, they said that both sides concluded that the $250,000 settlement was in everyone’s best interest.
“The CHP conducted a review of the tactics and, as necessary, took appropriate action,” stated Fran Clader, department spokeswoman.
Both of the officers involved in the incident with Gaglione remain CHP officers.
After the misdemeanor charges were dropped, Gaglione pleaded no contest to the infraction for using a cellphone while driving.
Gaglione is now the mother of a 9-month old son and moved to Pennsylvania from Los Angeles after the 2011 encounter, according to Price, who added that her son was not apparently affected by the incident.
“I will always be scared of police officers because of these knuckleheads,” Gaglione said.
(DailyMail) -Three Connecticut police officers have been put on administrative leave after they were caught on video brutally beating a suspect in a local park.
Elson Morales, Joseph Lawlor and Clive Higgins, all 10-year veterans of the Bridgeport Police Department, are shown on the tape kicking and stomping on a man they had already subdued with a stun gun.
They will remain on paid administrative leave while the May 2011 encounter is investigated.
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO
On leave: Three Connecticut police officers have been suspended after they were caught on video brutally beating a suspect in a local park
The sobering footage was uploaded on YouTube on January 18 by an anonymous user. It is unclear who filmed it.
In the video, which goes in and out of focus, the pop and sizzle of the electric stun gun can be heard before a man shouts ‘nice shot’ from off camera as the suspect falls to the ground.
Within seconds, two officers stand over the motionless man and begin kicking and stomping on him as he writhes around on the grass. A third officer drives up in a police cruiser with the sirens blaring and attacks him.
Down: The suspect, pictured, falls to the ground after being stunned with the stun gun
Pop: The pop and sizzle of the electric stun gun can be heard before a man shouts ‘nice shot’ from off camera
Attack: Two of the officers kick and stomp on the man
At one point a witness yells at the officers, ‘You got him, cut the (expletive).’
Carolyn Vermont, president of the Greater Bridgeport branch of the NAACP, slammed the police response, describing it to the Connecticut Post as ‘horrible, totally unacceptable.’
‘No person should be treated as an animal, no matter what they are charged with,’ she said.
Police Chief Joseph Gaudett Jr. said he learned about the video last week and promptly ordered the city’s Office of Internal Affairs to investigate the beating. He also notified the Bridgeport State’s Attorney.
Motionless: The suspect lies motionless on the grass throughout the attack
Investigation: The city’s Office of Internal Affairs to investigate the beating, pictured
‘I’m concerned by what I saw and ordered the Office of Internal Affairs to conduct an immediate, thorough and timely investigation,’ Gaudett told The Post.
‘If violations are found, we will take action. Our officers are held to high standards and rightfully so, and we intend to maintain these standards.’
Gaudett refused to release the name of the man being kicked and stomped by the officers in the video and what charges were lodged against him.
Attack: A third officer drives up in a police cruiser with the sirens blaring and joins in with the beating
Video: The video of the beating was uploaded on YouTube on January 18
Investigation: The officers have all been in the force 10 years
According to The Post, police sources said the man was being pursued by officers following reports that he had a gun.
When the officers finally subdued him, no gun was found, but the man was wearing a holster, the source said.
The man was charged in the incident and did not file a complaint against the police officers.
The sources told The Post that the man, who wasn’t seriously injured in the beating, is now serving prison time on unrelated charges.
