Texas Cop Loses Job for Chokehold on Woman, 2nd Cop Disciplined for Ordering Footage Deleted

The video that went viral after it was posted on PINAC Monday, showing a woman being placed in a chokehold after she refused to provide identification, led to the resignation of one officer and disciplinary action against another after a dash cam video obtained through a PINAC public records request ended up contradicting an earlier statement from the police chief."

The day the initial video was posted, Corpus Christi Police Chief Floyd D. Simpson issued a press release in which he said Lanessa Espinosa was involved in a fight with a large group of people, which is why the officers had probable cause to demand her identification.
But then the dash cam footage requested by PINAC’s growing research team revealed that Corpus Christi Police Sergeant Jerry Lockhart ordered her to delete the footage she had recorded of him placing her in handcuffs after a Nueces County district attorney officer placed her in a chokehold.

It also shows she was not part of the fight because they had that group lined up against a van away from Espinosa."

Nueces County district attorney officer Gary Witherspoon ended up resigning to avoid termination because of that chokehold.

And Lockhart was “formally disciplined” for ordering her to delete the footage, although Simpson did not specify exactly how he would be disciplined."

http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2014/12/texas-cop-loses-job-chokehold-woman/

Couple mocked Eric Garner's death miming chokehold behind WPIX reporter

What the St Louis Rams know about Ferguson is a righteous glimpse of the way forward

Protesting the death of Michael Brown is not a political act, no matter what the pundits say. These are five men who don’t want to die for being black. This is personal"


Before their Sunday NFL game against the Oakland Raiders, five players from the St Louis Rams walked onto the field, their hands raised in a now-familiar gesture of support – “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” – for Michael Brown, the 18-year-old who was killed by by the police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, and whose grieving family was denied justice last week when a grand jury declined to prosecute Wilson.

Later that same evening, the St Louis Police Officers Association issued a statement denouncing the nonviolent act of protest as “tasteless” and “inflammatory”. The cops called for the players involved to be disciplined, they demanded an apology, and they seemingly took particular offense to the players’ unwillingness to accept that the grand jury’s decision not to indict Brown means that justice was somehow served.

The next day, conservative pundits framed the players’ act as political – and the very word, political, was an accusation. "

But protesting the death of Michael Brown was not a political act – at least, not in the way it is being framed by political pundits. It was the act of black men who are or may someday parent black children. They are men with significant others and parents and siblings who also know the challenges of living and breathing while black. They are men who don’t want to die for being black. They don’t want their children to die for being black. I cannot think of a more personal act. "

*But those five football players may have offered us a glimpse of the way forward. They committed a personal act. They made a clear and concise statement that they would not stand, silently, in the face of injustice. They forced us all to look at the things from which we all too often choose to look away. They reminded us of the precarious nature of black life in America, and how that nature needs to change. "

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/03/st-louis-rams-ferguson-protesting-death-michael-brown

Body cameras for cops could be the biggest change to come out of the Ferguson protests

"Within the next five years or so, body-worn cameras will be as ubiquitous in the world of policing as handcuffs, the police radio, the gun," said Jim Buerrmann, president of the Police Foundation in Washington and a former chief of police in Redlands, Calif.

Buerrmann argues when police wear cameras, they're less likely to use force, and that members of the community place greater trust in police."

*Available evidence suggests that cameras do change interactions between police and the public. When the police department in Rialto, Calif. conducted a trial, assigning cameras to half its 54 officers at random, the use of force declined by 60 percent"

*Buerrmann sees the administration's proposal as a start, but that cameras won't immediately solve the problems of police departments that have lost the trust of their communities.

"The problems go much deeper than technology, but this is the first thing that needs to be done to move forward," he said.

Whether Obama's proposal has a chance on the Hill remains to be seen, but there is some support among lawmakers for encouraging police to wear body cameras. After Brown's death, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) proposed making cameras mandatory for any police agency receiving federal funds."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/12/02/body-cameras-for-cops-could-be-the-biggest-change-to-come-out-of-the-ferguson-protests/

Alabama Teen Arrested, Dies From Excessive Force By Police

A teen in Hunstville, Alabama, who died last year while being arrested in a drug sting, has been found to have “suffered broken ribs, had a flashlight shoved in his mouth and suffered cardiac arrest while officers sat on him,” according to AL.com.

Reportedly, the 17-year-old had choked and was vomiting while being handcuffed by police and subsequently lost consciousness. Authorities said that they were under the impression that the teen had overdosed, but a lawsuit brought on by Nancy Smith, the mother of the young man, claims that “no signs of an overdose had been found.”

Police arrested the teen after they sent an informant to buy drugs from him. Upon arrival to the scene, officers “held the teen down and inserted two pens and the butt of a flashlight into his mouth searching for contraband,” AL.com reports. Once paramedics arrived, the teen, who was 6 feet tall and weighed 130 pounds, had turned blue and was barely able to breathe. Five days later, on June 18th, 2013, the young man died at a local hospital.

According to AL.com, no drugs were found at any point. "

Smith filed a wrongful death suit in March of this year, but the suit was initially dismissed last month on “technical grounds.” City Attorney Peter Joffrion responded to the initial complaint, saying that while the death was unfortunate, he believed that responding officers "handled this matter appropriately."

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/crime/alabama-teen-arrested-dies-excessive-force-police