Deaths and Injuries in Police Custody

[kittygrrl]

I think the only word that fits what happened in Baton Rouge, murder. The video taken by the store manager, shows exactly how it happened to Alton Sterling. It's unspeakable, despicable violence on a man who was just selling cd's. I can't imagine how painful this must be for his children. His oldest son broke down crying for his daddy to come back during a statement read by his mother. It's heartbreaking. It's wrong. It has to be stopped right now!

We need to get involved in local politics and demand a more diverse police force. No excuses, from the police that they can't find qualified people of color. They are there but there has always existed an undercurrent of racism in our police departments in general so recruiting people of color isn't serious. Police attitudes about policing communities needs to change. Instead of lip service police should turn-in their armored tanks and hum-vees, and get involved in the community they serve and develop relationships with the locals. If that's not your thing, don't go for a career in law enforcement. Not every cop needs to carry a gun. There are other means of controlling a person other then shooting them. They need to retrain the police in general to use lethal force as a LAST resort and not allowed to draw their weapons for a minor offense (ie, selling single cigarettes or cds in front of a store). They need to understand they will go to jail if they make that choice. Police need to have penalities (ie, leave without pay) for using their gun on a citizen, no matter what the reason is. Police really have no penalites associated with using their guns instead of non-lethal methods of subduing an individual and so shoot first and deflect later works. The public wants to feel safe and so they are willing to give police card blanche on shooting whenever they feel it's necessary without the consequences a normal person on the street would face if he uses his gun. Police are not gods and their judgement and attitude can be/is far worse then a person on the street. Yes they have to be cautious, Yes they have to be attentive, but they need to be subjected to the same laws that a regular citizen would be subject to, not protected from prosecution because they are more "special". We do not live in a perfect world and they (the police) are far from perfect.

[Andrea]

N.Y. Attorney General probes video of Delrawn Small being shot by off-duty cop within seconds of approaching officer's car

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ag-probes-video-victim-delrawn-small-punching-off-duty-cop-article-1.2704876

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office is reviewing a damning video that shows a 37-year-old man getting fatally shot by an off-duty cop within seconds of approaching the officer’s car — contradicting earlier accounts that the cop was defending himself, officials said.

The surveillance video, which the attorney general’s office acquired earlier this week, shows Delrawn Small approaching Police Officer Wayne Isaacs’ 2002 Nissan Altima on Atlantic Ave. and Bradford St. in East New York, Brooklyn. The confrontation happened just after midnight July 4.

Small buckled over and grabbed at a passing car within seconds of approaching Issacs’ driver side window. He stumbled off and falls to the ground in between two parked cars.

Moments later, Isaacs, also 37, got out of his car. He tucked what appeared to be a gun under his shirt as he looked at Small’s body, according to the video.

Small’s outraged relatives said Friday night the footage was proof that the killing was not justified.

“The video is as clear as day. That everything they told us from the very beginning was a lie. Was a lie,” Small’s brother Victor Dempsey said. “Every single thing. And I don’t know how to feel now. All I know is my brother was murdered. Point blank period murdered.”

The victim’s sister, Victoria Davis, said she choked back tears watching Small stagger and fall to the ground.

“To just watch him stumble from car to car, knowing that he suffered, knowing that he was afraid, that was hard,” she said. “That’s not a video that I would ever want to see again.

The fatal shooting took place in front of Small’s girlfriend and three kids.

Isaacs, a three-year veteran of the NYPD, was returning home from a 4 p.m.-midnight shift when he allegedly cut off Small’s 2016 Kia, witnesses told police. When the vehicles reached a stoplight, Small exited his car, approached Isaacs’ vehicle, and was shot.

Isaacs told investigators that Small had punched him at least two times before he opened fire.

He remains on active duty as Schneiderman’s office investigates. The NYPD is also conducting a departmental review.

Small’s neighbors were “ecstatic” the video surfaced.

“They tried to paint him out to be some gorilla — like, he jumped out the car to go attack this person not knowing that he was a cop,” said Octavius Sullivan, 36, who has known Small since they were boys.

Attorney Roger Wareham, who is representing Small’s family, said the video was proof Isaacs lied and should be arrested immediately.

“If the cop’s story is obviously false, why haven’t they arrested him?” he asked.

Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner, the Staten Island man who died after being placed in a chokehold by an undercover detective in 2014, said Friday the video sickened her.

“This video so upsets me. It’s horrible. They lie all the time,” said Carr, as she joined a Black Lives Matter protest in Harlem.

[Andrea]

FBI investigating after cellphone video shows police fatally shooting unarmed man in Fresno

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-video-shooting-dylan-noble-20160707-snap-story.html

Cellphone video showing Fresno police officers shooting an unarmed 19-year-old man lying on the ground at a gas station has sparked protests and prompted the FBI to launch an investigation.

The shooting, which occurred last month but generated debate this week after the video was made public, is the latest in a series of police use-of-force incidents caught on tape.

The video shows Dylan Noble lying on the ground on June 25 as two officers with their guns drawn stand feet away from him. As officers yell “Keep your hands up” and other commands, one shot is fired. Seconds later, a third officer approaches the pair, and another shot rings out. At one point during the video, Noble can be seen raising his arm and saying, “I’ve been shot.”

The witness video does not show the moments just before the fatal shooting. Two shots already had been fired at Noble before the recording began.

Police Chief Jerry Dyer told The Times on Thursday that Noble twice raised his shirt with his left hand and used his right hand to reach under his shirt into his waistband. The officers, he said, feared for their lives.

Officers warned Noble not to reach into his waistband because they believed he was trying to retrieve a firearm, Dyer said.

That’s when an officer fired two shots with his handgun. Those shots, he said, are not depicted in the witness video. The officer then fired another shot. A second officer delivered the fourth and final shot, one round from a shotgun.

The video, Dyer said, doesn’t tell the whole story of the shooting, which lasted about 2 minutes and 20 seconds. It was originally posted Wednesday by the Fresno Bee.

The officers’ body cameras will show exactly what happened, since they were standing 12 to 15 feet away, he said. The department will review the officers’ actions to determine why they fired at Noble while he was on the ground and if there were other options, he said. Officers have to make split-second decisions, Dyer noted.

“There is going to be questions,” he said. “It’s an unfortunate tragedy that occurred in this city.”

The FBI and the U.S. attorney general’s office have agreed to investigate the shooting and will have access to all evidence, Dyer said. The chief said he didn’t want the public to think the police department isn’t “fair and objective” in its handling of the investigation and that FBI oversight would provide more transparency.

“Anytime an unarmed individual is shot, especially when their life is taken, there is a tendency for the public to rush to judgment and come up with their own conclusions,” Dyer said.

The body camera videos, he said, would be released once the district attorney’s office has concluded its investigation. Noble’s family will be allowed to view the videos before they are publicly released, Dyer added.

According to the police department, officers responded to a report of a man walking with a rifle about 3:20 p.m. and observed a black pickup speeding as they searched the area. They tried to stop the truck, but it continued traveling for half a mile. The truck eventually pulled into a Chevron gas station, police said.

The shooting has sparked an online petition demanding that the Fresno Police Department release body camera footage of the incident. The shooting comes amid national outrage over the number of shootings by police involving black men. In this case, Noble was white.

Lt. Burke Farrah said Noble refused to show his hands and tried to conceal one hand behind his back, then in his waistband. Noble, he said, got out of his truck.

Officers repeatedly ordered Noble to show his hands and get on the ground. That’s when Noble turned toward the officers with one hand still behind his back, telling them that “he hated his life,” Farrah said. Police said Noble advanced toward officers, who then fired four shots. Farrah told The Times that Noble did not have a weapon.

Noble was taken to an area hospital and died during surgery.

A large vigil held days after the shooting drew a crowd of officers, who blocked the road for safety, police said.

Fresno residents and friends and family of Noble carried a large Confederate flag as they confronted police, while others posted signs at a memorial that said “Justice for Dylan,” and “White Lives Matter.”

Dylan Noble’s father, Darren Noble, said in a statement that his son did not have emotional or mental problems and that any suggestion he wanted to die is false.

The officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave. Dyer declined to release the officers’ names because he said they have been receiving threats on social media. One officer has 20 years’ experience with the department, and the other officer has worked in law enforcement for 17 years, Dyer said.

The Fresno County district attorney’s office has conducted interviews, collected evidence and attended Noble’s autopsy, said Assistant Dist. Atty. Steve Wright. Prosecutors are waiting for the results of toxicology tests, which could take six weeks, before they review the case. A complete investigation will take at least two months, Wright said.

At least one use-of-force expert said the chief’s statement that the shooting sequence lasted more than 2 minutes was odd.

“That would be highly unusual. It’s usually no more than five to 20 seconds between the first and last shot,” said Charles "Sid" Heal, a former Los Angeles County sheriff's commander.

In cases where lethal force was used, “each and every shot must be justified as protecting the public or officers,” Heal said.

Deadly force could be deemed justified if the officers feared for their lives because Noble made repeated furtive movements, refused to show his hands and refused to follow commands, Heal said.

Once Noble was on the ground after the first shots, officers would have had to reassess the threat, Heal said.

The officers will need to explain the last two shots seen in the video, the expert said.

“Why didn’t officers move in after the third shot and restrain him? Fourteen seconds is a long time to wait,” Heal said. “Sometimes we get criticized for handcuffing dead people. But this is why we move in and restrain people.”

Ed Obayashi, another use-of-force expert who consults with county governments throughout California, said that even though the video fails to capture the entire shooting sequence, it does raise questions about whether the officers perceived the same threat.

“We hear a third shot on the video and apparently that officer perceived a threat and then 14 to 16 seconds later there is a discharge of a shotgun at the individual on the ground,” Obayashi said.

“At that time, four or five officers have a direct field of vision of the man on the ground. And yet we have a backup officer with a shotgun firing that fourth shot alone,” Obayashi said. “Usually, four of five officers in the field of vision will all open fire at once,” he said.

[Andrea]

EXCLUSIVE: Judge orders rare phone probe to find video that may show NYPD cops beating mentally ill man

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/judge-orders-rare-phone-probe-fatal-nypd-video-article-1.2703389?cid=bitly

A federal judge has initiated an independent — and what may be an unprecedented — investigation of possible tampering with a cell phone that allegedly contained a video of a fatal confrontation between NYPD cops and an emotionally disturbed man, the Daily News has learned.

Brooklyn Magistrate Judge Roanne Mann ordered the city to hand over the cell phone to Stroz Friedberg, a highly respected cybersecurity firm that she chose, for forensic examination and retrieval of the video.

“If the video does not presently exist on the cell phone, Stroz Friedberg shall attempt to determine whether the video previously existed on the cell phone, and if so, whether and when the video was deleted or the cell phone was subject to any tampering or wiping,” Mann stated in the order.

Sources told The News that the cell phone does not presently contain a video of the June 8, 2015, incident that ended in the death of Mario Ocasio and is the subject of a wrongful death lawsuit in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Mann, the chief magistrate judge for the Eastern District of New York, shocked lawyers for the city and Ocasio’s mother on Wednesday when she announced that forensic findings will remain confidential for the time being, and suggested that the parties pay the $30,000 cost of the analysis.

“No one has ever heard of a judge doing this before,” said a knowledgeable source.

Citing an ongoing police internal investigation, the city had reluctantly provided Mann with four CDs containing data downloaded from the cell phone that belonged to witness Kashif Osagie.

Then last January, the judge ordered the city to deliver the phone itself for independent examination.

The suit contends that the video will show that cops beat Ocasio with batons and that his death was caused, in part, by excessive force.

Cops were summoned to Ocasio’s Bronx apartment by his girlfriend Geneice Lloyd who reported that he was “bugging out,” according to court papers.

His cause of death was cardiac arrest “during excited delirium due to acute intoxication by synthetic cannabinoid (marijuana),” the filings say.

Osagie started recording, then handed off the phone to Lloyd who continued recording what transpired.

Osagie told The News that if his phone does not contain a video of Ocasio being restrained, “it was either altered or deleted.”

The city has called Ocasio’s death tragic, but strongly denied the cops did anything improper.

[Andrea]

Atlanta officer fired after fatally shooting man in Midtown

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/atlanta-officer-fired-after-fatally-shooting-man-in-midtown/396539310

Officer James Burns with Atlanta police was fired more than two weeks after police said he shot and killed a man suspected of breaking into a car in Midtown.

It all unfolded on June 22 in the parking lot of Monroe Place apartments off of Piedmont Road.

Initially, we were told Burns shot and killed a 22-year-old when he attempted to take off in a car. Now, police said that the officer actually had no idea who was in the car and that he had no evidence of car break-ins at the time.

They said when the 34-year-old shot into the vehicle, he violated the department’s policy.

Police said he was fired for using "unnecessary and unreasonable" force in the shooting.

Burns was hired by the department in 2013.

[Andrea]

This article describes how multiple steps in the criminal prosecution system can ruin the life of an innocent person:

BUSTED

https://www.propublica.org/article/common-roadside-drug-test-routinely-produces-false-positives?utm_campaign=comms&utm_source=comms-FB&utm_medium=email&utm_term=cops&utm_content=http s://www.propublica.org/article/common-roadside-drug-test-routinely-produces-false-positives

Amy Albritton can’t remember if her boyfriend signaled when he changed lanes late that August afternoon in 2010. But suddenly the lights on the Houston Police patrol car were flashing behind them, and Anthony Wilson was navigating Albritton’s white Chrysler Concorde to a stop in a strip-mall parking lot. It was an especially unwelcome hassle. Wilson was in Houston to see about an oil-rig job; Albritton, volunteering her car, had come along for what she imagined would be a vacation of sorts. She managed an apartment complex back in Monroe, La., and the younger of her two sons — Landon, 16, who had been disabled from birth by cerebral palsy — was with his father for the week. After five hours of driving through the monotony of flat woodland, the couple had checked into a motel, carted their luggage to the room and returned to the car, too hungry to rest but too drained to seek out anything more than fast food. Now two officers stepped out of their patrol car and approached.

Albritton, 43, had dressed up for the trip — black blouse, turquoise necklace, small silver hoop earrings glinting through her shoulder-length blond hair. Wilson, 28, was more casually dressed, in a white T-shirt and jeans, and wore a strained expression that worried Albritton. One officer asked him for his license and registration. Wilson said he didn’t have a license. The car’s registration showed that it belonged to Albritton.

The officer asked Wilson to step out of the car. Wilson complied. The officer leaned in over the driver’s seat, looked around, then called to his partner; in the report Officer Duc Nguyen later filed, he wrote that he saw a needle in the car’s ceiling lining. Albritton didn’t know what he was talking about. Before she could protest, Officer David Helms had come around to her window and was asking for consent to search the car. If Albritton refused, Helms said, he would call for a drug-sniffing dog. Albritton agreed to the full search and waited nervously outside the car.

Helms spotted a white crumb on the floor. In the report, Nguyen wrote that the officers believed the crumb was crack cocaine. They handcuffed Wilson and Albritton and stood them in front of the patrol car, its lights still flashing. They were on display for rush-hour traffic, criminal suspects sweating through their clothes in the 93-degree heat.

As Nguyen and Helms continued the search, tensions grew. Albritton, shouting over the sound of traffic, tried to explain that they had the wrong idea — at least about her. She had been dating Wilson for only a month; she implored him to admit that if there were drugs, they were his alone. Wilson just shook his head, Albritton now recalls. Fear surging, she shouted that there weren’t any drugs in her car even as she insisted that she didn’t know that Wilson had brought drugs. The search turned up only one other item of interest — a box of BC Powder, an over-the-counter pain reliever. Albritton never saw the needle. The crumb from the floor was all that mattered now.

At the police academy four years earlier, Helms was taught that to make a drug arrest on the street, an officer needed to conduct an elementary chemical test, right then and there. It’s what cops routinely do across the country every day while making thousands upon thousands of drug arrests. Helms popped the trunk of his patrol car, pulled out a small plastic pouch that contained a vial of pink liquid and returned to Albritton. He opened the lid on the vial and dropped a tiny piece of the crumb into the liquid. If the liquid remained pink, that would rule out the presence of cocaine. If it turned blue, then Albritton, as the owner of the car, could become a felony defendant.

Helms waved the vial in front of her face and said, “You’re busted.”

Andrea: Clink the link for the rest of the article

[Andrea]

Body-cam footage shows Georgia cops tased the wrong man within 38 seconds of meeting him

http://theweek.com/speedreads/636190/bodycam-footage-shows-georgia-cops-tased-wrong-man-within-38-seconds-meeting

When several Savannah, Georgia, cops approached 24-year-old Patrick Mumford, they were looking for another African-American man named Michael Clay. And though Mumford identified himself as "Patrick" when asked for his name, body camera footage from the officers involved shows just 38 seconds elapsed from the beginning of the encounter to when one officer says to another, "All right, tase him!"

While Mumford is seen expressing confusion and refusing to stand up to be arrested, he is not armed or actively attacking the police. He is also correct in his protest that there is no warrant against him, a claim he could confidently make because he had just returned from visiting his probation officer. (He is on probation following a first-time arrest for a nonviolent marijuana offense.)

After the officers tase Mumford twice, they check his wallet and discover he was telling the truth about his identity. Though the police begin insisting their actions were predicated by Mumford's refusal to show his ID, the footage indicates they never asked for it before attacking him.

Mumford was charged with misdemeanor obstruction following this confrontation. Though that charge was dismissed, he is still scheduled for a probation revocation hearing which his attorney says could cause him to go to jail, lose his job, and miss college classes.