Well at least they didn't just shoot her or drag her out of her car and kneel on her neck until she was dead.

Police chief caught on video intimidating pregnant Black woman because she was taking too long in the pharmacy drive-thru

Sky Palma
August 20, 2021





The community in Homestead, Pennsylvania, is calling for their police chief to step down after he was caught on video yelling at a pregnant woman in the drive-thru of a local pharmacy, WPXI reports.

The woman says she was waiting to pick up medication for her sick child, but the pharmacy was moving slow that day -- which apparently prompted Police Chief Jeff Desimone, who was in plainclothes at the time, to turn on his lights to try to get her move, which she did not.

Desimone then called police on the woman.

City council members met during a meeting to discuss the incident where they voted to suspend him without pay for three days.

Watch video of the incident below:



https://www.rawstory.com/homestead-police-chief/

 

Graphic Vid Shows Louisiana Trooper Bashing Black Man With Flashlight During Traffic Stop
VILE

Corbin Bolies
Breaking News Intern

Published Aug. 25, 2021 1:30PM ET

Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office
A harrowing video shows a Louisiana state trooper beating a Black motorist 18 times with a flashlight during a traffic stop, even as the man promised to comply. The May 2019 video was kept hidden for more than two years before being obtained by the Associated Press. “I’m not resisting! I’m not resisting!” Aaron Larry Bowman yelled to officer Jacob Brown, who pummeled him for 24 seconds. The incident left Bowman with a broken wrist, jaw, and ribs, and a head wound that needed six stitches. The incident was disclosed in a federal investigation into the Louisiana State Police department following the 2019 death of Ronald Greene, who was also killed in a police altercation. The state also launched an investigation into the incident last year, though not before Bowman filed a civil lawsuit.

Brown, who resigned in March, arrived at the traffic stop after Bowman was removed from his car because he “was in the area and was trying to get involved,” according to testimony he gave to investigators. The department said Brown engaged in “excessive and unjustifiable actions,” and he was later charged with second-degree battery and malfeasance for attacking Bowman. He also faces state charges for violently arresting two other Black motorists.

Read it at Associated Press

https://www.thedailybeast.com/graph...-with-flashlight-during-traffic-stop?ref=home


https://www.thedailybeast.com/graph...-with-flashlight-during-traffic-stop?ref=home

 

Attorneys seek to block media from attending hearing for man accused of killing Newport News police officer (yahoo.com)

Attorneys seek to block media from attending hearing for man accused of killing Newport News police officer

Once again, there’s an attempt in Newport News to block the media from attending a court hearing that would otherwise be open.
This time, it’s not for a police officer charged with murder, but for a man accused of killing a Newport News police officer early last year.
It began when a lawyer for Vernon E. Green II — charged with second-degree murder in the January 2020 slaying of Officer Katherine M. “Katie” Thyne — filed a motion in early August asking that certain evidence be barred from Green’s trial.
Then, on Aug. 12, that attorney, Newport News Public Defender Edward Webb, and Senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Dennis Guthinger filed a joint motion asking that the media be barred from attending the hearings about that evidence.
They assert that the media should be excluded because it’s a “high-profile case,” and “permitting the media to report on the proceedings would be prejudicial to Green and may result in further public hostility toward Green.”
“Such coverage serves no public interest and can only lead to circumstances that will impede justice and prevent Green from receiving a fair trial,” the joint motion maintains.
The lawyers go on to assert that a Circuit Court judge can kick anyone out of any court hearing if their presence “would impair the conduct of a fair hearing,” provided that “the right of the accused to a public trial shall not be violated.”
In other words, Webb and Guthinger envision kicking the media out of the hearing but letting the rest of the public stay.

The evidence that Webb wants excluded from the trial includes that Green is a convicted felon; that he was on probation for a past case; that he was recently convicted on a federal gun charge pertaining to the incident; that he was out on bond on a North Carolina bank robbery charge when he tried to flee from the officers; and that a “cooler bag” found outside his car after the fatal crash contained a large amount of cash.

Most of that information has already been publicly reported.

The Daily Press and The Virginian-Pilot broke the story about Green being out on bond on the 2016 armed robbery charge.

The newspapers also broke the news that Green was on probation on a 2003 cocaine possession case out of Newport News and had other charges on his record.

Moreover, the fact that Green pleaded guilty to a federal gun charge in the officer death case has already been widely reported by the Daily Press, The Pilot and other media outlets.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia issued three news releases touting the arrest, guilty plea to the gun and marijuana charges, and a resulting 10-year prison sentence in April.

The only unreported fact included in the motion to exclude evidence is that a cooler bag found outside Green’s car after the fatal crash included not only a gun and Green’s identification — as previously reported — but also “a substantial amount of cash.”

“Some of the cash found in the cooler, including an unusual number of $2 bills, may have been linked to another bank robbery in Charlottesville ... but the details of that connection remain undeveloped,” the motion says.

 

Police Officer Likely Fired the Bullets That Killed 8-Year-Old Girl Fanta Bility at Football Game, Says DA

 

Suburban Heroes: Lake Zurich police officers lauded for saving two lives (dailyherald.com)
Suburban Heroes: Lake Zurich police officers lauded for saving two lives
A pair of Lake Zurich police officers have been lauded for saving two local residents' lives this summer.

In separate incidents, officers Andrew Heer and Greg Kingery used CPR to help rescue people experiencing medical emergencies.

Since then, both have received departmental lifesaving awards and commemorative uniform pins.

On July 13, Heer responded to a call of an unconscious person at a home. He found a 31-year-old man who wasn't breathing, had no pulse and was turning blue. Relatives said the man had a history of heart trouble and an internal pacemaker, police said.

Heer administered CPR until Lake Zurich paramedics arrived and took over.

The man resumed breathing and was taken to a hospital. He survived.

Heer, a five-year veteran of the department, called the experience "rewarding."

"It's an amazing feeling knowing my CPR training was used to save a life," he said. "The Lake Zurich Police Department has placed me in a position to be successful through our various practical, hands-on training exercises."

On Aug. 2, Kingery -- a two-year veteran of the department -- responded to a call to investigate an unconscious person at a different home.

A neighbor had gone to the house to check on the 70-year-old resident and found the woman on the floor and not breathing, police said.

The neighbor had started CPR with assistance from a 911 dispatcher, and Kingery took over when he arrived.

The woman eventually resumed breathing and was taken to a hospital. She, too, survived.

"After she regained consciousness, I remember breathing a sigh of relief," Kingery said. "I didn't really think about the 'what ifs' in that situation. All I thought was how I had a job to do, and I couldn't fail her."

Police Chief Steve Husak had praise for both officers.

"While I expect our personnel to do their jobs each day, it is refreshing to hear about officers going the extra mile to save the public that we serve," Husak said in a news release.

 

Videos of White Louisiana Troopers Beating Black People Were Hidden for Years, Says Report
UNDER THE RUG

Jamie Ross
News Correspondent

Published Sep. 09, 2021 5:32AM ET

AP

Sickening videos of white Louisiana State Police troopers delivering brutal beatings to Black and Latino people were routinely concealed by their bosses—sometimes for years—according to the Associated Press. An AP investigation uncovered at least a dozen cases over the past 10 years in which troopers are said to have “ignored or concealed evidence of beatings, deflected blame, and impeded efforts to root out misconduct.” In one example, the AP reports that a white trooper can be seen slamming a flashlight into a Black man 18 times—breaking the man’s jaw and his ribs—but the footage was reportedly mislabeled and wasn’t looked at for 536 days after the event. Col. Lamar Davis, the state police superintendent, said the agency had recently overhauled its excessive force policies. “No instance of excessive force is acceptable,” he said, “and when the department learns of such misconduct, an immediate review is launched leading to administrative and/or potential criminal investigations.”

Read it at AP

https://www.thedailybeast.com/video...le-were-hidden-for-years-says-report?ref=home

 

Lorain Police officers shot (fox8.com)
Two Lorain Police auxiliary officers shot; suspect at-large
Sep 5, 2021
LORAIN, Ohio (WJW) — The Lorain Police Department is asking for the public’s help to identify the suspect who allegedly drove by and fired shots into a car, hitting two auxiliary officers early this morning.

Just after 2 a.m., two Lorain Police Auxiliary Officers, in full uniform and in their personal vehicle, were on their way home after working a support patrol shift.

 

'If he got me on the floor I was dead': Black woman recalls terror from Chicago cop while walking her dog






https://www.rawstory.com/chicago-cop-black-dog-walker/

 

Part of police reform must include ending qualified immunity for police officers. because it allows the sadists to run free in police departments and get off on abusing injuring and killing people and police chief's to allow it because they don't pay for the lawsuits. The tax payers do.

$3m deal reached in rough arrest of Colorado woman with dementia
US police officer pushed Karen Garner suspected of shoplifting against hood of his car and fractured her arm, suit claims.


Body camera video from the Loveland Police Department shows Karen Garner on the ground while being arrested [Loveland Police Department via AP]
9 Sep 2021
A United States city has agreed to pay $3m to a woman with dementia who was roughly arrested by police last year, money her family said now will pay for the around-the-clock care she needs following the incident.

Then-Officer Austin Hopp arrested Karen Garner, 73, after she left a store without paying for $14 worth of items in Loveland, Colorado, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Denver in June 2020.
Police body camera video shows that after she turned away from him, he grabbed her arm and pushed her to the ground. She was still holding the wildflowers she had been picking as she walked through a field. A federal lawsuit that Garner filed claimed he dislocated her shoulder and fractured her arm.

Hopp pushed Garner against the hood of his car, she tried to turn around and repeated that she was trying to go home. He then slammed her back against the car and forced her bent left arm up near her head, holding it, saying, “Are you finished? Are you finished? We don’t play this game.”


The civil money settlement is one of a number of legal settlements reached between US cities and victims of police violence which has become a focus for local authorities and activists nationwide following the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.

Former officer Hopp and another officer who responded to help him both face criminal charges for assault, a rare consequence for police in the US because of the legal doctrine of “qualified immunity” which protects police in most instances.

In June, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for the murder of George Floyd whose death had triggered the US protests. Sweeping police reform proposals are stalled in the US Congress.






Police station surveillance video showed Hopp and other officers talking about the arrest, laughing, and joking at times as Garner sat in a holding cell.

Officials in Loveland apologised to Garner and her family in the announcement of the proposed settlement on Wednesday and listed steps they have taken in response to her arrest, including a pending independent investigation and changes to how it reviews cases when police use force.

“The settlement with Karen Garner will help bring some closure to an unfortunate event in our community but does not upend the work we have left to do,” City Manager Steve Adams said.

The announcement came a day after the death of a 19 year old, who was armed with a knife and in a reported mental health crisis when he was shot by a Loveland police officer last month.

Garner’s lawyer, Sarah Schielke, released internal reports that show that some supervisors had signed off on Hopp’s use of force against Garner, including some who noted they had watched the body camera footage.

While the settlement will allow Garner’s family to provide her with the best care possible, Schielke said full justice required a change in leadership. Everyone who was involved with Garner’s arrest or fostered an environment where it could happen should lose their jobs, she said, offering to donate $50,000 to a dementia or Alzheimer’s charity if the city’s police chief resigned or was fired in the next month.

Chief Bob Ticer told The Denver Post that he did not plan to step down.

“I understand the emotion, I understand those demands,” he said. “But my responsibility here is to ensure the investigations (into the Garner incident) that are moving forward are handled professionally.”

Garner, a mother of three and a grandmother of nine, has not talked about what happened since the day after, when she kept asking why this had happened to her, her daughter-in-law Shannon Steward said.

“I don’t want to see this happen to anyone else’s families again. I don’t want to see it,” said Garner’s daughter Alissa Swartz, who had sprigs of wildflowers pinned to her shirt as did Steward.

Garner is not aware of the settlement, which will have to be approved by a probate court because of her condition and administered by a conservator, Schielke said.

At a court hearing last month to weigh the evidence against him, Hopp’s lawyer Jonathan Datz argued that police supervisors determined his actions to be acceptable. A representative from Datz’s office declined to comment to The Associated Press on the city’s settlement offer, which is separate from the criminal proceeding.

Investigators found that Hopp had filed reports to mislead his superiors and protect himself, according to his arrest affidavit. He did not mention Garner’s shoulder injury in an initial report.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/9/3m-deal-reached-in-rough-arrest-of-woman-with-dementia

 

Jason Raynor, murdered Daytona Beach policeman, honored outside Nascar race (news-journalonline.com)

DAYTONA BEACH — Race fans paid tribute to fallen Daytona Beach Police Officer Jason Raynor, his patrol car getting covered in messages and tributes as it was parked in One Daytona's Victory Circle in the leadup to the Coke Zero Sugar 400 race.

Raynor died in the hospital Aug. 17, 55 days after he was shot in the head while on patrol. The 26-year-old was laid to rest last week.

Joe Swetz, a former lieutenant in the Port Orange Police Department, where Raynor began his career, stopped by with his teenage daughter about 1 p.m.

"It's very somber, surreal," Swetz said. "It kind of hits home that he's really gone."
Live updates from the Speedway:Xfinity race at Daytona International Speedway postponed to Saturday due to rain

Death penalty possible:Man accused of shooting Daytona Police Officer Jason Raynor charged with 1st degree murder

Police Chief Jakari Young:Patrol car becomes an emotional memorial to fallen Daytona Beach officer Jason Raynor

Before working in Daytona Beach, Raynor was a police officer in Port Orange, where he was honored for his heroism after helping talk a suicidal woman out of jumping off the Dunlawton Avenue bridge.

"He was very tenacious. He had a passion for his job that I hadn't seen in a long time," Swetz said.

Swetz said it's been a difficult few weeks, especially for his friends who remain in law enforcement, but the way people came together to show their sympathy for the Raynor family and Daytona Beach Police Department has helped ease the pain.

"Seeing this outpouring support from the community in this time when it seems like everybody's against law enforcement, it's refreshing," he said. "It's a testament to the impact Jason had."

 

Slain Chicago cop Ella French funeral: remembered as bubbly, caring, ‘a great police officer, friend’ - Chicago Sun-Times (suntimes.com)
Slain Officer Ella French remembered as bubbly, caring, ‘a great police officer, friend’
Thousands attended her funeral Thursday. Cardinal Blase Cupich led the Mass and called French ‘a woman of empathy for the sufferings of others.’
A gray cloud hung over St. Rita of Cascia Chapel Thursday, and the rains came just as the funeral started for Chicago police Officer Ella French, killed during a traffic stop this month.

“As you can imagine, I’ve been thinking about Ella a lot,” Officer Joshua Blas told the mourners gathered at the church.

Blas was on patrol with French that Saturday night, rushing to the aid of her and Officer Carlos Yanez Jr.

“I do get sad at first because she’s gone, and I do miss her and I will always miss her. And I start thinking about all the fun we had together and all the great memories that I’ll always have of her,” Blas said.

“Those are the memories I will focus on. Those are the memories that make me happy,” Blas said. “Ella, you’re a great police officer, friend and partner. …. I miss you.”

 

White cop says he was fired for reporting chief with KKK ties to Black Lives Matter

John Wright
September 17, 2021



Former officer Robert Black (screen shot)


A former police officer in Tennessee says he was fired for reporting his chief's suspected KKK ties to Black Lives Matter organizers.

Robert Black has filed a lawsuit alleging that Millersville Police Chief Mark Palmer and other department leaders subjected him to a culture of racist harassment and intimidation — including a female officer grabbing his genitals and, when he told her to leave him alone, asking "Why? Because I'm not a n*gger?"

Black, who is white, alleges he was targeted because he has a biracial son, with Palmer once telling another officer, "Robert is a little different. He's not one of us." Black is suing along with Joshua Barnes, a Black former officer who alleges that Palmer referred to African Americans as "n-----s," "monkeys," and "animals," and accused him of "always want[ing] to get some fried chicken and watermelon."

"Through it all, management allegedly silenced officers' complaints by instructing them to support the 'thin blue line,'" the Daily Beast reported Friday. "So Black made a fake Facebook profile, reached out to Black Lives Matter organizers, and blew the whistle on his department. Days later, he was fired. At least two other officers who allegedly clashed with management departed soon thereafter."

The police chief was previously sued in 2015 by two men who had been his first Black officers, but the case was ultimately dismissed.

"One of the former officers, Anthony Hayes, claimed Palmer took him on an unexplained visit to a former KKK leader's home, where Hayes 'was subjected to an extended conversation in the presence of KKK memorabilia,'" the Daily Beast reports. "Hayes also accused Palmer of placing a copy of a KKK magazine in Hayes' locker, with a sticky note that read 'this was left for you—don't let your subscription run out.'"

In addition to chief Palmer, Black and Barnes' lawsuit names as defendants the city of Millersville and assistant chief Dustin Carr — who is under investigation for allegedly assaulting his wife after she accused him of having an affair with a woman arrested on drug charges.

Black says after Palmer began harassing him over his biracial son, he read up on the previous lawsuit against the chief — and learned of his suspected KKK ties. That's when he set up a pseudonymous Facebook page and began seeking out Nashville-area Black Lives Matter activists, which led to his termination.

"I tried to do my job. I tried to learn, I tried to do the right thing," Black told the Daily Beast. "It seems like if you're a good guy in this type of work and you're willing to do the right thing—it's almost like if you don't toe the line, you're going to be dealt with, one way or another. And if you do toe the line, you're going to be living with the moral conflict of doing things you may not agree with."

Watch a report on the lawsuit from Nashville's Channel 5 below.

 

Husband of NYPD Officer Killed on 9/11 Rips Anti-Cop Politicians (breitbart.com)
NYPD 9/11 Widower Slams Anti-Police Politicians on 20th Anniversary
The husband of the only female New York City police officer who died on 9/11 slammed politicians who are against the police.

Saturday marked the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The husband of NYPD officer Moira Smith, who gave her life on 9/11 in service to others, wants people to remember the sacrifice his wife and others made 20 years ago.

James Smith, 60, blasted politicians that are anti-police in an interview with the US Sun. Smith was certain that the very politicians who call for defunding the police would be photographed “with their arms around heroes and trying to bask in the reflected glory of what my wife and other officers did.” Smith went on to add, “By September 12, they’ll be back to defunding the police. I’ve no intention of being anywhere near it.”

Police Officer Moira Smith, 13 Pct | End of Tour: 9/11/01 #NeverForget pic.twitter.com/wpnscj53Ov

— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) September 11, 2021



Instead, Smith reportedly spent the day with his 21-year-old daughter Patricia. Patricia was only 2 years old when her mother died upon the South Tower collapsing. Moira had just finished helping the shocked and bloodied Wall Street worker, Edward Nicholls, and was assisting a woman suffering from an Asthma attack when the building came tumbling down.

James Smith wants people to remember the sacrifice that his wife and 59 other NYPD and Port Authority officers made 20 years ago. As of late law enforcement has faced a cultural and political assault across the nation. “When this country needed their police officers, we were the first ones there,” Smith said.

“We made a promise to never forget and we’ve clearly forgotten with the way police officers are treated today in this country, both by the public and the politicians,” he explained. “It’s disgusting. It didn’t take long to forget.”

“We were the first ones to run into the buildings to save people” he continued. “Moira lost her life to make sure that other people got a chance to go home to their families, even though she didn’t get home to hers.”

Smith points out that anti-police politicians have “forgot the lessons of 9/11: there are people willing to give their lives to help you. It’s a sad state of affairs.”

 

How about the black cop that shot dead an innocent unarmed Australian woman in her pyjamas in the US and will now walk free?

 

He's not going anywhere any time soon.
Justine Damond: US court overturns cop Mohamed Noor's murder conviction | Daily Mail Online

 

Colorado police department has pattern of racial bias and excessive force: investigation

Faith Miller, Colorado Newsline
September 19, 2021







The Aurora Police Department has a pattern and practice of violating residents' legal rights, state-appointed investigators declared in a 112-page report published Wednesday.
Aurora police showed a pattern and practice of racially biased policing, excessive use of force and “failing to record required information when it interacts with the community," according to the investigators, who were appointed by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser.

Officers used force against non-white racial and ethnic groups 2.5 times more often than they used force against white people, according to the report.



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The investigators also found that Aurora Fire Rescue had a pattern and practice of illegally administering ketamine. The powerful sedative, which can cause dissociative effects, is sometimes used by first responders to calm or subdue people having a mental health emergency.

Weiser said his team read almost 3,000 reports regarding the use of physical force by Aurora police officers and conducted dozens of interviews. The 14-month investigation also encompassed more than 220 hours of in-person ride-alongs with officers and firefighters, nine months of observing weekly Force Review Board meetings, and feedback from “scores" of Aurora community members, according to the report.

Aurora police failed to abide by the requirements of Colorado's Senate Bill 20-217, which requires officers to have a legal and public safety basis for making a stop, Weiser said during a news conference Wednesday.

SB-217 allowed Weiser's office to conduct a “pattern or practice" investigation into Aurora police and fire departments.

“This pattern or practice authority, as it's known, is a tool the federal government has had for some time," Weiser explained, “but Colorado became a national leader by providing our department with the ability to engage in such investigations."

Weiser said he recommends and urges the city of Aurora to enter into an agreement with his office to ensure it comes into compliance with the state and federal law. People whose rights were violated by Aurora police or paramedics should reach out to Weiser's office to provide their input in crafting the agreement, called a consent decree, Weiser said.

The city will be required to hire an independent monitor to oversee changes at the police and fire departments, Weiser said. This will include “elevating" standards and training of officers and paramedics to meet the legal requirements, and adding more accountability for misconduct.

Renewed attention on Elijah McClain
The Aurora Police Department vaulted into the national spotlight in June 2020, after videos went viral showing the violent arrest of George Floyd, a Black Minneapolis man who died at the hands of a white police officer — sparking protests against police brutality and racial injustice nationwide.

Protesters in Denver and Aurora brought new attention to the local case of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old who died after his violent arrest in August 2019 by Aurora officers. McClain was contacted by officers while walking home from a convenience store and was injected by Aurora Fire paramedics with a dose of ketamine that was far too high for someone his size. He was hospitalized after the incident and taken off of life support several days later.

Following an outcry over the deaths of McClain and other Black people detained by police, state lawmakers passed a sweeping police accountability measure and Gov. Jared Polis signed it into law. Senate President Leroy Garcia, a Pueblo Democrat, and Sen. Rhonda Fields, an Aurora Democrat, along with Reps. Leslie Herod and Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, both Democrats from Denver, led SB-217.

Lawmakers must ensure the Colorado attorney general's office gets the financial resources it needs — whether from the state budget or perhaps through federal help — to investigate other local police departments as needed under SB-217, Herod told reporters Wednesday. She encouraged Colorado residents to report police misconduct to Weiser's office.

“It's definitely happening in Aurora," Herod said during a virtual news conference. “It's likely happening in other places as well."

Weiser's team analyzed internal Aurora police data, dating back to 2018, to uncover the department's pattern of racially biased policing, according to the report. The investigators found statistically significant disparities in the way police interacted with, arrested and used force against Black people and other people of color as compared with white people.

“These disparities persisted across income, gender, and geographic boundaries," the report said.

On their ride-alongs with Aurora police officers as they responded to calls and interacted with community members, investigators saw officers “using force to take people to the ground without first giving them adequate time to respond to officer commands," the report said. Officers also would frequently tell people “stop resisting," even when they did not appear to be resisting the officers' control.

Aurora police officers failed to document police stops as required by SB-217, the investigators found. The state law requires agencies to record, and ensure there is a legal basis for, all police stops, even investigative stops — a category for which Aurora has “little to no" documentation, according to the report.


The investigators found statistically significant disparities in the way police interacted with, arrested and used force against Black people and other people of color as compared with white people.

The report also noted that current Aurora police policies don't adequately describe when it's appropriate to conduct an investigative stop, also known as a “Terry stop" or a “stop and frisk." When agencies don't meet certain legal standards for conducting investigative stops, the practice has been tied to racial bias.

Meanwhile, the investigators found Aurora Fire's ketamine review process was inadequate to ensure paramedics followed the law on when and how to inject people with the powerful sedative. The review process “failed to identify problems when ketamine was inappropriately administered or was administered at the request of police, and therefore did not improve its processes and training to prevent future violations."

A new Colorado law, which Polis signed July 6, prohibits officers from “using, directing, or unduly influencing" the use of ketamine upon another person and from “compelling, directing, or unduly influencing" a paramedic to administer ketamine. The law, House Bill 21-1251, was in part a response to McClain's death.

“We hope that this is just the beginning of what this law can do to protect Coloradans," said Mari Newman, a civil rights lawyer who is representing the estate of Elijah McClain in a federal lawsuit. Newman added that she hoped other Colorado police departments wouldn't “wait for the attorney general to conduct a similar investigation" before changing racist practices.

Grand jury indictment
The city of Aurora, its police and fire departments, and the people implicated in McClain's death could face further consequences beyond the attorney general's oversight.

A grand jury, convened by Weiser to investigate the death of McClain and file charges if necessary, indicted three officers and two paramedics on 32 total counts, including reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. The five men — Officers Nathan Woodyard, Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt, and paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec — were formally charged Sept. 1 and turned themselves in to Glendale Police Service. They each posted a bond of $10,000, according to a Glendale Police spokesperson.

Initially following McClain's death, former 17th Judicial District Attorney Dave Young had cleared Woodyard, Rosenblatt and Roedema of all criminal wrongdoing.

But an independent review commissioned by the city of Aurora found that Aurora police officers and paramedics mishandled the encounter that led to McClain's death, according to a February report.

The Aurora City Council commissioned the firm 21CP Solutions to make broader recommendations about police department policy, and those recommendations were released in August. In recent months, Aurora police have begun implementing changes aimed at restoring trust with the community — such as acquiring an updated body-worn camera system in July and commissioning an outside organization to draft new use-of-force policies.

Aurora police did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. Aurora Mike Coffman tweeted a statement: “Most of the findings are not new and our Chiefs of Police and Fire Rescue have been working hard for over a year to address many of them," Coffman said. “I'm confident that the issues raised in the Attorney General's report, along with the other outside investigations commissioned by our city, will be corrected and that we will achieve an outcome that respects the rights of everyone who lives and works in our diverse community."

Weiser's investigation team found that the culture of the Aurora police contributed to the frequent use of force by officers. Officer training doesn't address the department's specific needs, and current policies are “are short on detail or practical guidance, often doing little more than reciting the legal requirements set forth in court cases and applicable statutes or regulations," the report said.

The department also fails to hold officers accountable for improper use of force, according to the report. Instead, it relies on “formal and informal systems that favor findings that officers followed policy and that hamper candid feedback on how to improve."

Another cause of the patterns and practices of civil rights violations, according to the report: Aurora City Charter gives an entity called the Civil Service Commission, which oversees the hiring of police officers and firefighters, the ability to overturn disciplinary actions against officers.

The city of Aurora cooperated with Weiser's investigation team throughout the investigation, the report said. But if the effort to come together with the city on a consent decree proves unsuccessful, the attorney general's office plans to seek a court order forcing the police and fire departments to make changes.

The investigation team appointed by Weiser included several people who worked as law enforcement officers, including a former chief of police in Arlington, Texas, according to the report. Other team members were said to have had extensive experience as prosecutors or public defenders.

“We appreciate that the risks that first responders take must stand equally alongside a deep commitment to the rule of law," the report said. “By working to elevate law enforcement, our community can both be safe from danger and free from racial discrimination. Indeed, it is critical that community members can trust that law enforcement operates fairly and is worthy of their trust."



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Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: [email protected]. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and Twitter.

https://www.rawstory.com/aurora-police-department/

 

WATCH: White cop allows police dog to repeatedly bite Black suspect pinned against squad car

John Wright
September 23, 2021





A white officer in Missouri allowed his police dog to repeatedly bite a Black suspect who had been pinned against a squad car by two other cops while being arrested this week.

And the incident Monday in the St. Louis suburb of Woodson Terrace, caught on video by a bystander, is being likened to police tactics used against Black protesters during the civil-rights movement.

"The cellphone video shows the dog biting the man's foot as he yells out in pain. The dog's handler holds it by a leash but allows the biting to go on for about 30 seconds," the Associated Press reports. "After the officer pulls off the dog, the man appears to take a step to run but stumbles, and the dog lunges at him again, this time biting a leg for another 30 seconds until the officer stops the animal. Officers then handcuff the man, who seems to be barely able to walk as he is led to a squad car."

According to a news release posted on Facebook by the Woodson Terrace Police Department, the officers encountered the suspect while responding to a report of a person trespassing at a business and refusing to leave. The department said the suspect threatened to kill the officers, claimed to be "a sovereign citizen," appeared to be on drugs, and tried to wander into rush hour traffic, forcing them to block it so he wouldn't get hit.

"The subject was then warned several times that if he did not comply the K9 would be released," the release states. "The subject continued to resist causing minor injuries to one of the officers so the K9 was released and the K9 gained control of the suspect's foot. The suspect went to the ground and the K9 was pulled off the subject. After the K9 was pulled off of the suspect the officers attempted to place the subject into handcuffs but due to the subject being under the influence of drugs he continued to resist and the officers were unable to restrain the subject. The subject got up and attempted to flee from the officers and the K9 was released again biting the suspect on his leg. The officers were able to handcuff the subject and the K9 was pulled off."

After video of the incident sparked outrage online, the St. Louis Post Dispatch's editorial board wrote Tuesday that the officers used the dog "just like Birmingham's infamous public safety chief, Bull Connor, did in the 1960s to deter Blacks from marching for equal rights."

"This incident bears all the hallmarks of cops deciding to issue their personal form of street justice — inflicting pain and punishment on the spot instead of waiting for the courts to do their job," the board wrote.

Meanwhile, police canine expert Michael Gould called the video "problematic," in an interview with the local NBC affiliate.

"The fact of the matter is, it's a human reflex response, you can't have an 80-pound dog puncturing your skin and be compliant. It's virtually impossible," Gould said. "There could be underlying factors that I'm not aware of, but it was disturbing and I would look into it very carefully, why other levels of force would not have been utilized. Based on what I said and saw it looked like the subject was under control."

The AP reported that St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell said in a statement that his office "is aware of this video, and we will make a thorough review of the incident."

Watch below.




https://www.rawstory.com/woodson-terrace-cop/

 

Prosecutor: Police wounded with 'near certainty' 4 of 5 outside high school football game

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-...ce-wounded-with-near-certainty-4-of-5-outside

 

Questions grow over Long Beach school officer shooting of 18-year-old woman

An 18-year-old woman shot by a Long Beach school safety officer was on life support Wednesday as friends questioned why the officer opened fire on the car she was riding in.

The woman, identified by family members as Mona Rodriguez, is the mother of a 5-month-old boy.

Rodriguez was involved in a fight with a 15-year-old girl in a parking lot near Millikan High School on Monday afternoon, then got into a gray sedan with two teenage males, said Arantxa Chavarria of the Long Beach Police Department.

As the sedan sped away with Rodriguez in the passenger seat, the officer began shooting.

Chavarria said Rodriguez was hit in the upper body, but her family says it was the back of the head.

The safety officer was driving in the area when he saw the two females fighting, Chavarria said.

Detectives believe that the two knew each other and that the older one initiated the assault. No evidence has emerged that anyone involved in the fight was armed.

Video on social media showed the sedan exiting the parking lot and nearly clipping the safety officer.

The officer, who has not been identified, is on paid administrative leave, as is protocol after a shooting, Long Beach Unified School District officials said.

District spokesman Chris Eftychiou said it is standard practice for school safety officers to carry firearms.

School police departments have become increasingly controversial amid a nationwide focus on police reform after the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May 2020.

In February, the Los Angeles County Board of Education approved a plan to cut a third of its school police officers, with activists arguing that Black and Latino children disproportionately experienced harsh tactics like pepper-spraying.

The Oakland Unified School District board voted to eliminate its school police department in June.

In a racial equity report after Floyd's murder, the city of Long Beach proposed working with the school district to "reduce the use of school police and review alternative models."

Rodriguez was not a student at Millikan High, and no students were injured, district officials said.

At a news conference in front of Long Beach Medical Center on Wednesday, friends said Rodriguez was brain dead.

A friend, Mikey Pacheco, 21, said that Rodriguez's mother and brother were at her bedside and that she would remain on life support until all her loved ones had a chance to say goodbye.

Rafeul Chowdhury, 20, the father of Rodriguez's child, said he was in the car with her when she was shot. His 16-year-old brother, Shahriear Chowdhury, was also in the car.

"I don't think my girlfriend deserved this," Rafeul Chowdhury said with tears in his eyes. "It was all for no reason. ... The way he shot at us wasn't right."

Chowdhury said he and Rodriguez had been together for two years.

"I just want justice for my girl, my baby mama, the love of my life that I can't get back ever again," he said.

In a statement Tuesday, Supt. Jill Baker said she had a "heavy heart" after the shooting, which occurred about a block from the school.

The school day ends about 2:40 p.m., and Long Beach police arrived at the scene about 3:15 p.m.

The Long Beach Police Department and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office are investigating the shooting.

There was "no justification" for opening fire when no one in the car appeared to be armed, civil rights activist Najee Ali said at the news conference.

Rodriguez's family has created a GoFundMe to help with funeral and legal expenses as well as childcare for her son, Isael.

“She was smart, beautiful, loving and anyone who knew her knew how big her heart was, how full of life she was and how much she loved her family but most especially her son who was her entire life, pride and joy," family member Yessica Loza wrote.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/questions-grow-over-long-beach-004028125.html

 

More than half of police killings in the US are unreported in government data, study finds

More than half of police killings in the U.S. are not reported in official government data, and Black Americans are most likely to experience fatal police violence, according to a new study released Thursday.

An estimated 55% of deaths from police violence from 1980 to 2018 were misclassified or unreported in official vital statistics reports, according to the peer-reviewed study by a group of more than 90 collaborators in The Lancet, one of the world's oldest and most renowned medical journals.

Previous studies have found similar rates of underreporting, but the new paper is one of the longest study periods to date.

Researchers compared data from the U.S. National Vital Statistics System, an inter-governmental system that collates all death certificates, to three open-source databases on fatal police violence: Fatal Encounters, Mapping Police Violence and The Counted. The databases collect information from news reports and public record requests.

Government data did not report 17,100 deaths from police violence

Researchers estimated official government data did not report 17,100 deaths from police violence out of 30,800 total deaths during the nearly 40-year period, speculating the gap is a result of a mixture of clerical errors and more insidious motivations.

During that period, non-Hispanic Black Americans were estimated to be 3.5 times more likely to die from police violence than non-Hispanic white Americans, with nearly 60% of these deaths misclassified – meaning they are not attributed to police violence – in official government data, researchers found.

Vital statistics reports are often used to inform health policy, and inaccurate data minimizes the problem of police violence and limits the reach of justice and accountability, Fablina Sharara, one of the lead authors and a researcher at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington School of Medicine, told USA TODAY.

"Recent high-profile police killings of Black people have drawn worldwide attention to this urgent public health crisis, but the magnitude of this problem can’t be fully understood without reliable data," Sharara said in a press release. "Inaccurately reporting or misclassifying these deaths further obscures the larger issue of systemic racism that is embedded in many U.S. institutions, including law enforcement."


Government data also misclassified 50% of deaths of Hispanic people, 56% of deaths of non-Hispanic white people and 33% of deaths of non-Hispanic people of other races, researchers found.

Similar to previous studies, the researchers found that, behind non-Hispanic Black people, non-Hispanic Indigenous people were killed by police at a higher rate than other groups. Non-Hispanic Indigenous people were estimated to be 1.8 times more likely to die from police violence than non-Hispanic white people, the researchers found.

From the 1980s to the 2010s, rates of police violence increased by 38% for all races, researchers found.

Eve Wool, a lead author and a researcher at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said the rise is evidence that efforts to prevent police violence and address systemic racism, such as body-worn cameras and de-escalation and implicit bias training for officers, have "largely been ineffective."


The top five states with the highest underreporting rates were Oklahoma, Wyoming, Alabama, Louisiana and Nebraska, the researchers found. The states with the highest mortality rate of police violence were Oklahoma, Washington, D.C., Arizona, Alaska, Nevada and Wyoming.

Deaths due to police violence were significantly higher for men than women, with 30,600 deaths in men and 1,420 deaths in women from 1980 to 2019, according to researchers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics produces national health statistics based on the National Vital Statistics System. The CDC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to the requests for comment.

'Substantial conflicts of interest'

The researchers suggested the underreporting is related to "several factors" and offered solutions for collecting more accurate data and, ultimately, eliminating police violence.

Part of the issue may be clerical, the researchers said. The coroner or medical examiner may fail to indicate police involvement in a death certificate’s cause of death section or make errors in the process of assigning certain codes, the researchers said.

Some coroners and medical examiners may also feel "substantial conflicts of interest" that disincentivize them from indicating law enforcement involvement in a death, as many work for or are embedded within police departments and many feel political or occupational pressure to disguise police culpability.

The researchers cited a 2011 survey of National Association of Medical Examiners members that found 22% of respondents reported having been pressured by an elected official or appointee to change cause or manner of death on a certificate.

Improved training and clearer instructions on how to document police violence on death certificates could improve reporting, the researchers said. They also suggested forensic pathologists should work independently from law enforcement and should be awarded whistleblower protections under the law.

"Currently, the same government responsible for this violence is also responsible for reporting on it," Sharara said. "Open-sourced data is a more reliable and comprehensive resource to help inform policies that can prevent police violence and save lives."


The researchers said America's history of systemic racism and militarized police forces underlie the high rates of police violence in the U.S.

"To respond to this public health crisis, the USA must replace militarised policing with evidenced-based support for communities, prioritize the safety of the public, and value Black lives," the researchers wrote.

The researchers noted 19 nations, including Norway and the United Kingdom, do not arm police officers or only arm select officers.

"The difference these practices have on loss of life is staggering: no one died from police violence in Norway in 2019, and three people were recorded to have died in England and Wales from police violence between 2018 and 2019," the researchers wrote.

The researchers said the study has multiple limitations. The study did not calculate nonfatal injuries attributed to police violence, police violence in U.S. territories, or residents who may have been harmed by military police in the U.S. or abroad. And every state was missing some ethnicity data.

The researchers also noted their approach relied on data from death certificates, which only allow for a binary designation of sex. The approach, the researchers said, erases the existence of noncisgender people and masks the disproportionately high rates of police violence against transgender people, particularly Black transgender people.

The study was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Fatal Encounters, run by journalist and researcher, D. Brian Burghart, "attempts to document all deaths that happen when police are present or that are caused by police: on-duty, off-duty, criminal, line-of-duty, local, federal, intentional, accidental" going back to 2000. The database has three main methods of collecting information: paid researchers, public records requests and verified crowdsourced data.

Mapping Police Violence is "an independent research collaborative collecting comprehensive data on police killings nationwide" since 2013 using official police use of force data collection programs combined with nationwide data from Fatal Encounters and original research on social media, obituaries, criminal records databases, police reports and other sources.

The Counted was project by The Guardian documenting the people killed by police and other law enforcement agencies in the U.S. in 2015 and 2016 using Guardian reporting and verified crowdsourced information.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/more-half-police-killings-us-223002158.html