August 13, 2014

Lawsuit alleges excessive force by BR police

Lying in a pool of his own blood about two months ago with his two front teeth knocked out, Brett Percle recently recalled, he watched as police officers ransacked his friend’s Baton Rouge home.

The officers, members of the Baton Rouge Police Department’s Special Response Team, were looking for marijuana and anything else that might be pertinent to an investigation into whether drugs were being dealt from the Lila Avenue home off GSRI Avenue between Gardere Lane and Nicholson Drive, according to police documents.

When the police showed up at the home, Percle, 22, was there visiting an old college roommate. He wanted to hang out and play some music at the house."

*About 2:30 p.m. on June 11, Percle and the other four people inside the Lila Avenue home heard a knock on the door. Before anyone had time to react, Percle said, a team of officers wearing black military-style outfits barged in with guns pointed at the occupants and ordered everyone to lie down on the floor.

“They were prepared for war,” Percle said in a recent interview. “Everyone had grenades. Everyone had a machine gun.”

Just inches away from a prone position, Percle felt a blow to the back of his neck, which caused his face to slam into the tile floor. Teeth went flying. Blood started flowing."
"
*Officers ridiculed Percle, he said, calling him a jack-o’-lantern. On several occasions, Percle said, officers walked up to him and asked, “How did you lose your teeth?” One suggested his teeth must have been rotten before the beating, Percle said, while another told him he must have slipped and fallen.

Percle was never arrested or charged with any crime. In fact, he said he’s never been arrested."

Loughlin, Percle’s attorney, said one goal of the suit is to prevent what happened to his client from happening to anyone else.

“I think they were over the line in this case,” Loughlin said of the police’s actions.

The attorney said there is a trend to militarize America’s law enforcement agencies, adding, “there’s got to be a check on it at some point.”

http://theadvocate.com/news/police/9969710-123/suit-alleges-excessive-force-by

August 12, 2014

Family believes excessive force by Port Arthur police caused man's death

The family of a man who died after being released by police is asking some serious questions.

Dustin Glover's family says he was unconscious when deputies signed his name to a personal recognizance bond releasing him from custody, and he died before his release was approved."

fficers say the woman who flagged police down accused Glover of taking her money. The officers who first located Glover are Patrick Britton and Hebert Otis. They say Glover fought back as they were trying to arrest him and officer Otis was injured in the scuffle.

But attorneys for the family tell a different story, saying the mentally-challenged father of three died from internal injuries he received at the hands of at least three Port Arthur Police Officers. One of those officers in question is the same one arrested on a charge of family violence over the weekend. "

In his report, Officer Otis says he did Tase Glover once in the chest, but it did not have an effect on him. Shortly afterward, officers George Clark and Gerald Bush arrived on scene and Clark Tased Glover five times.

The video shows Otis with a choke hold on Glover, and Bernsen says Otis punched Glover as well. At times, you can hear Glover squealing with pain, and claiming he had not done anything wrong.

After his arrest, Glover was taken to the Port Arthur Police Station, but then to Christus hospital St. Mary hospital. Once he was released from the hospital, he was taken to the Jefferson County Jail. According to jail documents, he vomited and was bleeding, so he was taken to Baptist Hospital in Beaumont where he died two days later. "

Video at link: http://www.12newsnow.com/story/26251863/family-seeks-answers-after-police-release-unconscious-man-who-died-moments-later

August 11, 2014

The Right to Resist: How Will YOU Fight Police Brutality?

Activist/organizer Lumumba Akinwole-Bandele on the need to challenge the right of police to terrorize our communities"

By now, we have all seen the video of Eric Garner’s murder at the hands of the NYPD. As we are still trying to make sense of his killing, we receive the news of two more murders of unarmed Black men by law enforcement. Twenty-two-year old John Crawford, shot and killed in Walmart in Beavercreek, Ohio for holding in his hand a BB gun that was being sold in the store. Unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown, gunned down by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri."

*Those who have never had to deal firsthand with the reality of police violence often ask, why not just cooperate? Why resist? Why did he run? A long and recent history tells us any encounter with the police is typically just the beginning of a series of dehumanizing and probably violent experiences. We should not be surprised when victims of police violence “resist” not arrest, but consistent police misconduct. That resisting may come in many forms. For Eric Gardner it was a simple statement - “This stops today.”

* What are a people who experience consistent systemic forms of violence at the hands of law enforcement and are just as consistently denied any justice expected to do? Nearly 49 years ago to this day, Watts, California went up in flames in response to police terror. As America turns it attention to the rage in and around Ferguson, Missouri this week, rest assured that unless this pattern of police killing stops, there are sure to be other cities in line for similar uprisings. If we are concerned about the possibility of similar uprisings, we have a responsibility to make sure the overpolicing, brutality and killings in our communities end. "

How will you resist?"

http://www.ebony.com/news-views/the-right-to-resist-how-will-you-fight-police-brutality-403

July 29, 2014

Bratton's Broken Windows and the Death of Eric Garner

*While history appears to repeat itself, some things are changing. For one, the practice of regularly filming cops has become an invaluable tool in the communities that are policed the most. Who knows what the story coming out of the Garner death might have been had Garner's death not been recorded by residents or if it had happened somewhere out of view, in an alley or something Whereas with so many incidents of brutality being usually out of the public eye -- with the obvious exception of the infamous Rodney King beating -- the video put the public front row to Garner's death. That's what makes the case so damning -- and unspinnable. Police brutality has a new face: ours. We're seeing brutality victims left and right. These aren't simply pictures dampened by the tears of grieving families anymore. We can hear Garner's words, feel his frustrations and now see his death frame by frame with no doubt left in our minds. "

*This is what people mean when they say brutality is a pattern, a culture. The problems don't only lie with the street cops, they persist even at the oversight level. In the case of Garner, supervisors failed to even mention the chokehold to investigators -- which suggests a culture within the department that covers the ass of its own."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josmar-trujillo/the-changing-face-of-poli_b_5619603.html

July 26, 2014

Fox News hosts mock and chastise citizens for filming the police

Part of why people who watch Fox News are so ignorant.

July 24, 2014

Excessive force cited in lawsuit against Austin police officer

AUSTIN (KXAN) — An Austin police officer is named in a federal lawsuit that claims excessive use of force.

The suit filed in federal court Monday shows Officer Jason Cummins arrived at a domestic dispute call Aug. 11, 2013. While other officers handled the female caller’s complaint, Cummins focused on the next door neighbor Enemencio Roy Alaniz Jr., who was watching the scene from his doorway.

When the man refused the officer’s command to leave his apartment, the suit alleges Cummins kicked in the screen door and fired his Taser striking Alaniz. Police justified the take-down because Alaniz engaged in ‘empty hand defensive resistance,’ according to the lawsuit. He was arrested and taken to the Travis County jail.

A court judge later dropped a charge against Alaniz of failing to obey a lawful order, according to the suit. An Austin Police spokesperson says the department will not discuss pending litigation.

An appendix attached to the lawsuit lists 46 ‘use of force’ incidents dating back to Oct. 2010 said to involve Cummins. They range from using pressure points or a kick to subdue a suspect to deploying a Taser or pepper spray."

* To confirm if the number shown in the suit is accurate and to ask if 40 is an unusual number of use of force incidents for a younger officer, KXAN requested the same list from APD as well as Cummins’ personnel file which would show performance reviews and any commendations. City records show Cummins, 28, joined the city payroll Sept. 14, 2009. This year he earned about $83,000 total, superceding his base salary of nearly $70,000.

The suit goes on to allege Cummins was trained by the Austin Police Department and that “the customs and policies allowed…provided for Officer Cummins’ conduct.”

http://kxan.com/2014/07/22/suit-excessive-force-by-apd-officer-blamed-on-inadequate-training/

July 23, 2014

Federal monitor ordered for Newark police for civil rights violations

New Jersey's largest police department will be placed under federal oversight for repeatedly violating residents' civil rights, using excessive force and failing to discipline officers for a wide range of misconduct, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.

The Newark Police Department, a 1,000-member force that patrols one of the most violent cities in the Northeast, will be subject to court-ordered reform, a move that comes after a three-year investigation into rampant misconduct in the agency, according to the Justice Department and court documents.

The federal investigation was launched in 2011, less than a year after a scathing report from the American Civil Liberties Union said the police department was incapable of policing itself."

The investigation found that city police officers had no constitutional basis for 75% of the pedestrian stops they conducted in recent years. It also determined that officers often used excessive force during arrests but underreported the level of force used."

“Our investigation uncovered troubling patterns in stops, arrests and use of force by the police in Newark. With this agreement, we’re taking decisive action to address potential discrimination and end unconstitutional conduct by those who are sworn to serve their fellow citizens,” Atty. Gen. Eric. H. Holder Jr. said in a statement."

*The department received 989 excessive-force complaints against officers from 2000 to 2009, according to records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.

Only 21 of those cases, or 2%, resulted in disciplinary action or criminal charges against the officers.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-newark-federal-monitor-20140722-story.html#page=1

July 22, 2014

Chokehold case raises police brutality concerns

http://www.msnbc.com/politicsnation/watch/chokehold-case-raises-police-brutality-concerns-310489155657

Rev. Al Sharpton weighs in on the disturbing video, that went viral over the weekend, of 43-year-old Eric Garner struggling as a police officer appears to place him in a chokehold. Plus, the tape of a California woman beaten by a patrol officer on a highway. Rev. Al Sharpton calls both attacks “unjustified.”

July 21, 2014

From Coast-To-Coast, Police Abuse Must End

Every time I comfort a grieving family member who has lost a loved one to police brutality, I hope and pray that it will be the last time. But deep down, I know it won't be.

Saturday morning, I was joined at National Action Network's (NAN) weekly rally by relatives of the late Eric Garner, a father of six who died as police officers in Staten Island placed him in an illegal chokehold. At our rally, Garner's widow was so overcome with grief that she collapsed on stage right near me as several of us then rushed to assist her. NAN also held a march in Staten Island over the weekend after family members came to us for help, and I preached at Riverside Church in Manhattan yesterday to call for a restoration of humanity. As Garner's children have to face the harsh reality of living without their father for the rest of their lives, we must demand that they receive justice. At the same time, NAN's Los Angeles chapter has rallied with others for Marlene Pinnock, a 51-year-old grandmother, who was repeatedly pummeled in the face reportedly by a California Highway Patrol officer. Both outrageous incidents were caught on videotape, and both cases demand swift action. But after watching continuous acts of police abuse and brutality from coast-to-coast, perhaps the real question is, have we reached a point where federal authorities need to step in?"

The video footage that emerged of Eric Garner's encounter with police is disturbing on multiple levels and very difficult to watch. I caution anyone who is about to view it to be prepared to witness a level of disregard for human life that should disgust and outrage us all. I cannot understand how anyone can choke an unarmed man, and continue to do so despite the fact that he is saying he cannot breathe over and over and over again. Let's put aside the fact that chokeholds are illegal; where is the humanity? This man is literally telling you he cannot breathe. And to add insult to injury, EMS workers and others that arrive on the scene also fail to do anything to revive or assist Garner as this footage shows. The level of disregard is utterly frightening. And what might you ask was Eric Garner's alleged crime? Selling loose cigarettes. "

In both the Garner case and the Pinnock case, individuals of a different race sensed that something was wrong and recorded the events. Let's not fool ourselves, if it weren't for these videos, would we have even known about the tragic death of Garner, or the vicious abuse against Pinnock? These aren't isolated incidents; all across this nation police brutality is very much alive and impacting people who aren't lucky enough to have it caught on tape.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-al-sharpton/from-coasttocoast-police-_b_5606161.html

July 17, 2014

Imagine What We Could Buy If We Didn't Have to Spend Billions on Police Brutality Cases

"The numbers are shocking. "








Every few weeks, a newspaper somewhere in America reports on a million-dollar settlement paid out in a case of police abuse. Sometimes the figures are jarring. In 2012, Chicago gave Christina Eilman $22.5 million after police released the bipolar woman into a violent neighborhood, where she was beaten and raped. Earlier this year, the NYPD agreed to pay out $18 million to various defendants roughed up at the RNC convention in 2004.

It’s true that most cases result in far smaller payouts, but they can add up to nearly a billion dollars a year for just one city. That’s eye-popping when you consider that state governments collectively spend roughly $10 billion on public assistance programs for the poor. When more money is spent consoling victims of brutality than providing assistance for low-income people, that’s both a fiscal and humanitarian crisis. "


Consider New York City. In 2012, taxpayers paid $152 million in claims involving the NYPD. That same year, Mayor Bloomberg voted to cut $175 million from childcare and afterschool programs, affecting 47,000 kids. Child programs not only provide relief to working families with maxed-out schedules, they are the best tools the city has to foster an equal society in the long term. Instead the city is spending money settling cases like the one last month involving Officer Eugene Donnelly, who drunkenly barged into a woman’s home one night and “beat the hell out of her.”

The NYPD forecasts it will spend even more on such cases by 2016. "

* Prosecutors have an extreme reluctance to pick up cases of police abuse. Federal prosecutors decline around 95 percent of such cases for two main reasons: juries are mostly conditioned to side with the police, and various impediments are in place to make prosecution more difficult

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/imagine-what-we-could-buy-if-we-didnt-have-spend-billions-police-brutality-cases