The Post’s data relies primarily on news accounts, social media postings and police reports. Analysis of more than five years of data reveals that the number and circumstances of fatal shootings and the overall demographics of the victims have remained relatively constant.
Rate of shootings remains steady
Despite the unpredictable events that lead to fatal shootings, police nationwide have shot and killed almost the same number of people annually — nearly 1,000 — since The Post began its project. Probability theory may offer an explanation. It holds that the quantity of rare events in huge populations tends to remain stable absent major societal changes, such as a fundamental shift in police culture or extreme restrictions on gun ownership.
Black Americans are killed at a much higher rate than White Americans
Although half of the people shot and killed by police are White, Black Americans are shot at a disproportionate rate. They account for less than 13 percent of the U.S. population, but are killed by police at more than twice the rate of White Americans. Hispanic Americans are also killed by police at a disproportionate rate.
The rate at which black Americans are killed by police is more than twice as high as the rate for white Americans. Filtered by gun possession:
3,642 people shot and killed by police match your filters (58%)
2,599 people do not match your filters (42%)
Filtered by knife possession:
1,076 people shot and killed by police match your filters (17%)
5,165 people do not match your filters (83%)
Filtered by car as a weapon:
199 people shot and killed by police match your filters (3%)
6,042 people do not match your filters (97%)
Filtered by toy weapon:
226 people shot and killed by police match your filters (4%)
6,015 people do not match your filters (96%)
Filtered by Other weapon:
527 people shot and killed by police match your filters (8%)
5,714 people do not match your filters (92%)
Filtered by unarmed:
402 people shot and killed by police match your filters (6%)
5,839 people do not match your filters (94%)
I'm not sure if this was a response to my post or not. But also supports that the majority of those shot were armed. Counting toy guns and unarmed together that is 10% of shootings.
Relax, its context, particularly this part:
Black Americans are killed at a much higher rate than White Americans
Although half of the people shot and killed by police are White, Black Americans are shot at a disproportionate rate. They account for less than 13 percent of the U.S. population, but are killed by police at more than twice the rate of White Americans. Hispanic Americans are also killed by police at a disproportionate rate.
The rate at which black Americans are killed by police is more than twice as high as the rate for white Americans.
I have never disputed that. I assumed you were responding to my comment about the number of unarmed shooting victims. A claim was made that only a small portion of shootings are for armed individuals, and that most are unarmed. That isn't true. Since you provided a breakdown of statistics I assumed that was what you were getting at. If that wasn't you were responding to then I did not mean to comment.
It seems to me, IMHO, its another attempt to minimize the issue, particularly the comment about lighting strikes and the bolded below. Compared to white folks being shot and killed by police, I'd consider it an "epidemic." If you don't, think what the response would be if 2 to 5 times as many whites were shot and killed by police, armed or unarmed.
Minimization seems to be the strategy. That and victim blaming. Both the victim and their family members. Or relying on a link from a county newspaper from a county that's 65% white and blacks make up 5% of the population. But that's just me.
The Post’s data relies primarily on news accounts, social media postings and police reports. Analysis of more than five years of data reveals that the number and circumstances of fatal shootings and the overall demographics of the victims have remained relatively constant.
Rate of shootings remains steady
Despite the unpredictable events that lead to fatal shootings, police nationwide have shot and killed almost the same number of people annually — nearly 1,000 — since The Post began its project. Probability theory may offer an explanation. It holds that the quantity of rare events in huge populations tends to remain stable absent major societal changes, such as a fundamental shift in police culture or extreme restrictions on gun ownership.
Black Americans are killed at a much higher rate than White Americans
Although half of the people shot and killed by police are White, Black Americans are shot at a disproportionate rate. They account for less than 13 percent of the U.S. population, but are killed by police at more than twice the rate of White Americans. Hispanic Americans are also killed by police at a disproportionate rate.
The rate at which black Americans are killed by police is more than twice as high as the rate for white Americans. Filtered by gun possession:
3,642 people shot and killed by police match your filters (58%)
2,599 people do not match your filters (42%)
Filtered by knife possession:
1,076 people shot and killed by police match your filters (17%)
5,165 people do not match your filters (83%)
Filtered by car as a weapon:
199 people shot and killed by police match your filters (3%)
6,042 people do not match your filters (97%)
Filtered by toy weapon:
226 people shot and killed by police match your filters (4%)
6,015 people do not match your filters (96%)
Filtered by Other weapon:
527 people shot and killed by police match your filters (8%)
5,714 people do not match your filters (92%)
Filtered by unarmed:
402 people shot and killed by police match your filters (6%)
5,839 people do not match your filters (94%)
I'm not sure if this was a response to my post or not. But also supports that the majority of those shot were armed. Counting toy guns and unarmed together that is 10% of shootings.
Relax, its context, particularly this part:
Black Americans are killed at a much higher rate than White Americans
Although half of the people shot and killed by police are White, Black Americans are shot at a disproportionate rate. They account for less than 13 percent of the U.S. population, but are killed by police at more than twice the rate of White Americans. Hispanic Americans are also killed by police at a disproportionate rate.
The rate at which black Americans are killed by police is more than twice as high as the rate for white Americans.
I have never disputed that. I assumed you were responding to my comment about the number of unarmed shooting victims. A claim was made that only a small portion of shootings are for armed individuals, and that most are unarmed. That isn't true. Since you provided a breakdown of statistics I assumed that was what you were getting at. If that wasn't you were responding to then I did not mean to comment.
It seems to me, IMHO, its another attempt to minimize the issue, particularly the comment about lighting strikes and the bolded below. Compared to white folks being shot and killed by police, I'd consider it an "epidemic." If you don't, think what the response would be if 2 to 5 times as many whites were shot and killed by police, armed or unarmed.
Minimization seems to be the strategy. That and victim blaming. Both the victim and their family members. Or relying on a link from a county newspaper from a county that's 65% white and blacks make up 5% of the population. But that's just me.
I wasn’t minimizing anything. A claim was made that only a small portion of people shot by police are armed. That wasn’t true. Not even close to true. I provided a link with data that disputes that claim. I wasn’t interested in the lightning part, just the number of armed vs unarmed. When I searched for the data I did a quick skim of the top search results, and they were all from what appeared to be pro-cop or right leaning. So it’s not surprising they included a comparison to lightning strikes. But I wouldn’t really expect anti-cop sources to be quoting that the vast majority of shootings are armed either. That doesn’t fit the “open season” headlines we’ve been getting. The way the media covers it they want to go think most shootings are unjustified unarmed men.
Use-of-force cases prompt state debates over officer records
By COLLEEN SLEVIN
Today
DENVER (AP) — Lawmakers in more than 20 states have considered bills this year to make the disciplinary records of police officers public or to share them with other agencies, a push that comes amid high-profile deaths at the hands of law enforcement. About 20 states still largely prohibit their release, however.
Supporters of greater transparency say it could help improve police accountability, build trust with the community and prevent officers with disciplinary problems who leave one department from being hired by another.
Opponents say the release of such records could harm the reputations of officers with only minor infractions or even put them in danger. They also argue that disciplinary actions are part of personnel records, which are exempt from state open records laws.
But amid growing nationwide protests against alleged excessive force by police officers, at least 16 states have contemplated measures to release such records, or summaries of them, publicly. Another eight have discussed making the records accessible to other law enforcement agencies.
In Utah, Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed a bill in March providing legal immunity to law enforcement agencies that share background information about former employees with other agencies looking to hire. State Sen. Jani Iwamoto, a Democrat in the GOP-dominated Legislature, introduced the legislation in response to the case of a University of Utah officer who resigned while being investigated for allegedly sharing explicit photographs of a victim in an alleged extortion case who was later killed. The officer was later hired by police in Logan, Utah, who did not know about the probe.
“We want people to feel that they can report a bad cop,” said Iwamoto, who also successfully sponsored another bill to ensure that police disciplinary investigations are completed even if an officer resigns while one is in progress.
Without legislation in place, lawyers advised police departments not to share disciplinary records lest they be sued, Iwamoto said.
In North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature, lawmakers want to create a confidential database from which law enforcement agencies in the state can track all disciplinary actions to prevent officers from hiding past problems when looking for a new job.
“We enable agencies to better screen individuals ... so that we can weed out who the bad apples are,” said Republican state Sen. Danny Britt.
Under an expansive police reform bill Britt is sponsoring, authorities also would track all use of force by officers resulting in serious injury or death. And the legislation would create an “early warning system” to collect data on citizens' complaints and any transgressions with the aim of correcting an officer's behavior before it leads to a deadly outcome.
Maryland has gone further, approving the release of records related to formal misconduct complaints. The Democrat-controlled Legislature overrode a veto by Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who objected to the public release of complaints that haven't been substantiated. Supporters contend the public has a right to see how police departments investigate complaints against officers.
The proposals come amid a national reckoning over the killings of Black people at the hands of police. Efforts to get access to police disciplinary records have increased along with public awareness of the issue, which has grown since the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, said Rachel Moran, an associate professor and founder of the Criminal and Juvenile Defense Clinic at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis.
In Maryland, the move is part of a sweeping police reform package that was prompted by the 2018 death of Anton Black, a 19-year-old African American who died in a rural Maryland town after officers pinned him to the ground for more than five minutes as they handcuffed him and shackled his legs.
One of the officers, Thomas Webster, had nearly 30 use-of-force complaints lodged against him while previously working in neighboring Delaware. Webster also had been charged with second-degree assault in that state for allegedly kicking a Black man in the head, but was acquitted in 2015.
Anton Black’s sister, LaToya Holley, said she hopes the new law translates into quicker answers for the families of anyone who dies at the hands of police.
“They need to work on trust,” she said of law enforcement. "There isn’t that much trust in the community.”
Other states seeking to address policing problems had already taken action before this year.
In 2018, California lawmakers voted to allow public access to records of officer shootings and other major uses of force. New York lawmakers last year repealed a law that had blocked public disclosure of disciplinary records for police officers, firefighters and correctional officers. Hawaii took similar action, allowing the public to learn the details of more than 80 cases of unwarranted assault and more than 100 cases of officers filing false reports or covering up infractions.
In New Jersey last year, state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, without waiting for legislation, ordered local and state police to release the names and summaries of disciplinary records of officers who had been fired, demoted or suspended for more than five days. Grewal said the information was needed to promote community trust and police accountability amid protests against the death of George Floyd in Minnesota.
For their part, members of New Jersey’s Democrat-controlled legislature considered but have failed to pass a bill this year to make police records public, though an early warning system of the kind being considered by North Carolina is already in place.
Meanwhile, nothing has come of Grewal's order yet because of a legal challenge by law enforcement unions. They argue that personnel records are exempt under state open records laws, and that officers and their families could be put at risk if they are made public. They also object to releasing information about past confidential disciplinary agreements for problems such as drinking and domestic violence.
Pat Colligan, president of the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association, said many officers who have dealt with problems like that have gone on to have good careers. Colligan said he would support the release of records only for major infractions, such as excessive force and civil rights violations, from now on.
He also would like to see the state's early warning system be given a chance to provide officers with help or weed out those not meant to wear a badge.
"People have to stop assuming every officer is a problem officer,” he said.
____
Associated Press writers Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey; Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu, contributed.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Last Tuesday, 32y drunk woman (if i say ''black'', maybe I will be accused of being a racist), hit with her car a policeman..there is a video of her, before the strike, who screams ''f** the police''.. i didn't see any protests..
Athens 2006. Dusseldorf 2007. Berlin 2009. Venice 2010. Amsterdam 1 2012. Amsterdam 1+2 2014. Buenos Aires 2015. Prague Krakow Berlin 2018. Berlin 2022 EV, Taormina 1+2 2017.
I wish i was the souvenir you kept your house key on..
Last Tuesday, 32y drunk woman (if i say ''black'', maybe I will be accused of being a racist), hit with her car a policeman..there is a video of her, before the strike, who screams ''f** the police''.. i didn't see any protests..
I was going to post this in the "Abuse of the Police" thread but I could not find it. I guess I will leave it here. Happened last night just up the road from me. No protests planned, nor national news attention. Salman Mohammed is a name that doesn't fit the narrative.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A Metro officer shot while responding to a fabricated call of a shooting at a South Nashville home Tuesday evening has been released from a Nashville hospital, according to police.
Officer Brian Sherman was transported to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for treatment of gunshot wounds to his left arm after he was shot on Sugarloaf Drive, where officers had responded to a call of a shooting around 6:10 p.m.
“This was a ruse or a setup to get the police to come to the house,” Aaron said during a news conference Tuesday night.
Three officers, including Sherman, went to the front door of the home and as soon as they knocked, police said the door was opened and multiple shots were fired at officers.
Aaron said officers did not fire back at the shooter, but added that gunman, identified as Salman Mohammed, eventually exited the home, armed with a rifle. Officers attempted to negotiate with the 22-year-old, but said Mohammed put the rifle to his head and pulled the trigger, fatally shooting himself.
Last Tuesday, 32y drunk woman (if i say ''black'', maybe I will be accused of being a racist), hit with her car a policeman..there is a video of her, before the strike, who screams ''f** the police''.. i didn't see any protests..
sure, random crime = institutional racism. totes the same.
Last Tuesday, 32y drunk woman (if i say ''black'', maybe I will be accused of being a racist), hit with her car a policeman..there is a video of her, before the strike, who screams ''f** the police''.. i didn't see any protests..
sure, random crime = institutional racism. totes the same.
I want reform, which should happen, you can't bash every cop that's out there though.
Last Tuesday, 32y drunk woman (if i say ''black'', maybe I will be accused of being a racist), hit with her car a policeman..there is a video of her, before the strike, who screams ''f** the police''.. i didn't see any protests..
sure, random crime = institutional racism. totes the same.
I want reform, which should happen, you can't bash every cop that's out there though.
Last Tuesday, 32y drunk woman (if i say ''black'', maybe I will be accused of being a racist), hit with her car a policeman..there is a video of her, before the strike, who screams ''f** the police''.. i didn't see any protests..
sure, random crime = institutional racism. totes the same.
I want reform, which should happen, you can't bash every cop that's out there though.
I don't.
You're rational though. There are people that give no F's though. If Trump could start a riot on the Capitol why couldn't groups of people fully turn on police? A more national scale like seattle had.
what did we see. dude in a crosswalk with bike, cruiser lights on from same direction pulls into gas station at speed, dude then turns back around the way he came, seeming to flee the cruiser. mororcycle cop lays his bike down to catch the guy.
he was being chased to start.
I hate these types of clips. false narrative to start by the videographer and people choose to suspend critical thought and believe the initial interpretation spoon fed them.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
what did we see. dude in a crosswalk with bike, cruiser lights on from same direction pulls into gas station at speed, dude then turns back around the way he came, seeming to flee the cruiser. mororcycle cop lays his bike down to catch the guy.
he was being chased to start.
I hate these types of clips. false narrative to start by the videographer and people choose to suspend critical thought and believe the initial interpretation spoon fed them.
all for calling out abuse. where there is abuse.
just be fucking honest about it.
Critical thought only goes into Twitter clips when someone doesn’t agree with what they see unfortunately. When someone agrees with what’s being spoon fed, they don’t think twice about it.
what did we see. dude in a crosswalk with bike, cruiser lights on from same direction pulls into gas station at speed, dude then turns back around the way he came, seeming to flee the cruiser. mororcycle cop lays his bike down to catch the guy.
he was being chased to start.
I hate these types of clips. false narrative to start by the videographer and people choose to suspend critical thought and believe the initial interpretation spoon fed them.
all for calling out abuse. where there is abuse.
just be fucking honest about it.
Critical thought only goes into Twitter clips when someone doesn’t agree with what they see unfortunately. When someone agrees with what’s being spoon fed, they don’t think twice about it.
It’s where the Big Lie dug in and gained ground, for sure.
One contributor to this larger problem is that people expect people whose entire publicly funded education regarding US history has been a fantasy to have critical thinking when it comes to sussing out the truth on social media.
The Big Lie starts right there in the classroom.
I can’t tell you how many times I have to tell my daughter that something she’s learning in history is a warped white supremacist version of it.
what did we see. dude in a crosswalk with bike, cruiser lights on from same direction pulls into gas station at speed, dude then turns back around the way he came, seeming to flee the cruiser. mororcycle cop lays his bike down to catch the guy.
he was being chased to start.
I hate these types of clips. false narrative to start by the videographer and people choose to suspend critical thought and believe the initial interpretation spoon fed them.
all for calling out abuse. where there is abuse.
just be fucking honest about it.
Critical thought only goes into Twitter clips when someone doesn’t agree with what they see unfortunately. When someone agrees with what’s being spoon fed, they don’t think twice about it.
It’s where the Big Lie dug in and gained ground, for sure.
One contributor to this larger problem is that people expect people whose entire publicly funded education regarding US history has been a fantasy to have critical thinking when it comes to sussing out the truth on social media.
The Big Lie starts right there in the classroom.
I can’t tell you how many times I have to tell my daughter that something she’s learning in history is a warped white supremacist version of it.
Extend power and influence through education. Modern day imperialism.
what did we see. dude in a crosswalk with bike, cruiser lights on from same direction pulls into gas station at speed, dude then turns back around the way he came, seeming to flee the cruiser. mororcycle cop lays his bike down to catch the guy.
he was being chased to start.
I hate these types of clips. false narrative to start by the videographer and people choose to suspend critical thought and believe the initial interpretation spoon fed them.
all for calling out abuse. where there is abuse.
just be fucking honest about it.
I had a similar thought. Even Stevie Wonder can see this wasn’t about J-waking. Multiple vehicles were already chasing him at high speed. Clearly there was a previous incident not shown here. So giving this narrative of being tackled and raised for jaywalking is just deliberately spreading the fear and hatred of cops. End result is going to be more altercations and more violence. Not sure why people want that, but that’s what the result is going to be. I’m not sure I even agree with abuse or excess force in this case. We don’t have any information. Any time someone grabs a knife or goes for the cop’s gun the comments are blaming the cops for not taking him sooner. But when they do it’s abuse? If this was all because he ran a stop sign a few blocks over, then yeah it’s excess. But given the response a little common sense says that’s doubtful. If he pulled a knife on someone and then fled, then I see nothing wrong here.
My husband has been a high school baseball coach for 40 years now and Saturday a police officer in my community dropped off yet another personal reference questionnaire for a former player applying for a police position (this will be the 8th time he has done this over the past few years for former players).
Once completed he makes a call to the candidate to reiterate how important it is that they don’t become an asshole like some other officers. This candidate actually made it to the big league but hey, being a professional athlete is slim to none so now he needs a normal job after being released. Husband loves coaching (and he’s very good at it- very relatable) but finds life lessons and discussions about life way more important when teaching children. Hopefully his discussions over the years instilled enough moral obligations in these young men to invoke change, even if it’s just in our small part of the world. Time will tell.
How many more are like these NYC finest? What percentage overall, from big cities to small towns? Any guesses? Back the Blue. Just comply.
NYPD officer set up tow-truck bribery scheme, used racist slurs, bragged about his ‘Klan’ haircut, feds say
Last January, New York police officer Robert Smith was about two months away from retiring.
But before he left the department, federal prosecutors said, he was set on recruiting another colleague to take over a year-longs bribery scheme he ran with the help of Officer Robert Hassett.
Smith and Hassett took thousands in cash from a tow truck company, according to court records, in exchange for sending victims of car accidents to the firm. Around the time he retired, Smith enlisted Officer Heather Busch, another of his colleagues from the Queens precinct, to take part of the illegal operation, the government said.
On Tuesday, authorities arrested and charged Smith, 44, Hassett, 36, and Busch, 34 with multiple counts of bribery and conspiracy in connection with the tow-truck scheme, according to an indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Smith, whom prosecutors said repeatedly used the n-word, expressed his support for the Ku Klux Klan and threatened to “shoot” his contact at the tow company if he ended up being a “rat,” is also accused of transporting heroin for an unnamed criminal organization after he retired.
“As alleged, the defendants shamelessly violated their oaths of office and the public trust by trading their badges for cash payments,” United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Mark J. Lesko said in a statement.
Lawyers representing Smith, Hassett and Busch did not immediately respond to messages from The Washington Post early Wednesday.
In New York City, officers responding to a crash scene are required to use a database system to assign tow trucks at accident scenes and are forbidden from handpicking companies.
Instead, starting in September 2016, Smith and Hassett allegedly told the drivers to use just one tow truck company, which isn’t identified in court records. In exchange, an individual with the business bribed the officers with thousands of dollars in cash directly paid to them or deposited in a mailbox they had access to, prosecutors said.
In January of 2020, Smith and Hassett allegedly expanded their deal with the tow company. For the next three months, both officers used NYPD databases with names of recent drivers who’d suffered car accidents and sold their contact information to the tow company in exchange of more than $7,000 paid in cash, prosecutors said. Then, the tow truck company would sell that information to physical therapists and personal injury lawyers.
As Smith prepared to retire, he allegedly recruited Busch in March 2020 in exchange for more than $1,000 from the tow firm.
Around that time, Smith was also pressuring the tow company to help him set up a deal to transport drugs, prosecutors said. His contact eventually introduced him to an unnamed drug organization and in June 2020, Smith allegedly met with two of the organization’s drug traffickers about setting up a deal.
In July 2020, Smith drove from Uniondale, N.Y. to Queens to give someone a bag containing a kilogram of heroin while carrying his weapon, federal prosecutors said, in exchange for roughly $1,200 in cash.
On Tuesday, all three officers were arrested and charged in connection with the bribery scheme. The three appeared in court later that day.
Prosecutors argued that Smith, who pleaded not guilty, shouldn’t be released because he “poses a significant danger to the community and a flight risk.” Prosecutors also told U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl L. Pollack that there was additional evidence that Smith had participated in “shakes,” or robberies, as an NYPD officer.
At one time while still on the force, prosecutors said, Smith texted: “Bro I robbed everyone,” referencing individuals and businesses he tricked as part of the bribery scheme. In another message after he had retired, Smith allegedly texted a person and said he would brandish his gun in front of Black individuals just to see their reaction.
“Bro I point my gun out the window now at n------ and watch their reaction and drive away,” Smith wrote. “Hilarious.”
Other times, Smith, prosecutors said, called himself “the perp that got away” who would have been “locked up so many times” were he not a police officer. After he retired, Smith wrote he had shaved his head like the Ku Klux Klan.
“Now the real [S]mith will shine. I even shaved my head. Klan,” he wrote.
Hassett and Busch were released on bail after pleading not guilty, WNBC reported. Smith is being held without bail. Both Hassett and Busch have been suspended without pay, an NYPD spokesperson told The Post in an email.
“There is zero tolerance in the NYPD for corruption of any kind,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot F. Shea said in a statement.
The three are scheduled to appear in court on May 19, court records show.
How many more are like these NYC finest? What percentage overall, from big cities to small towns? Any guesses? Back the Blue. Just comply.
NYPD officer set up tow-truck bribery scheme, used racist slurs, bragged about his ‘Klan’ haircut, feds say
Last January, New York police officer Robert Smith was about two months away from retiring.
But before he left the department, federal prosecutors said, he was set on recruiting another colleague to take over a year-longs bribery scheme he ran with the help of Officer Robert Hassett.
Smith and Hassett took thousands in cash from a tow truck company, according to court records, in exchange for sending victims of car accidents to the firm. Around the time he retired, Smith enlisted Officer Heather Busch, another of his colleagues from the Queens precinct, to take part of the illegal operation, the government said.
On Tuesday, authorities arrested and charged Smith, 44, Hassett, 36, and Busch, 34 with multiple counts of bribery and conspiracy in connection with the tow-truck scheme, according to an indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Smith, whom prosecutors said repeatedly used the n-word, expressed his support for the Ku Klux Klan and threatened to “shoot” his contact at the tow company if he ended up being a “rat,” is also accused of transporting heroin for an unnamed criminal organization after he retired.
“As alleged, the defendants shamelessly violated their oaths of office and the public trust by trading their badges for cash payments,” United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Mark J. Lesko said in a statement.
Lawyers representing Smith, Hassett and Busch did not immediately respond to messages from The Washington Post early Wednesday.
In New York City, officers responding to a crash scene are required to use a database system to assign tow trucks at accident scenes and are forbidden from handpicking companies.
Instead, starting in September 2016, Smith and Hassett allegedly told the drivers to use just one tow truck company, which isn’t identified in court records. In exchange, an individual with the business bribed the officers with thousands of dollars in cash directly paid to them or deposited in a mailbox they had access to, prosecutors said.
In January of 2020, Smith and Hassett allegedly expanded their deal with the tow company. For the next three months, both officers used NYPD databases with names of recent drivers who’d suffered car accidents and sold their contact information to the tow company in exchange of more than $7,000 paid in cash, prosecutors said. Then, the tow truck company would sell that information to physical therapists and personal injury lawyers.
As Smith prepared to retire, he allegedly recruited Busch in March 2020 in exchange for more than $1,000 from the tow firm.
Around that time, Smith was also pressuring the tow company to help him set up a deal to transport drugs, prosecutors said. His contact eventually introduced him to an unnamed drug organization and in June 2020, Smith allegedly met with two of the organization’s drug traffickers about setting up a deal.
In July 2020, Smith drove from Uniondale, N.Y. to Queens to give someone a bag containing a kilogram of heroin while carrying his weapon, federal prosecutors said, in exchange for roughly $1,200 in cash.
On Tuesday, all three officers were arrested and charged in connection with the bribery scheme. The three appeared in court later that day.
Prosecutors argued that Smith, who pleaded not guilty, shouldn’t be released because he “poses a significant danger to the community and a flight risk.” Prosecutors also told U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl L. Pollack that there was additional evidence that Smith had participated in “shakes,” or robberies, as an NYPD officer.
At one time while still on the force, prosecutors said, Smith texted: “Bro I robbed everyone,” referencing individuals and businesses he tricked as part of the bribery scheme. In another message after he had retired, Smith allegedly texted a person and said he would brandish his gun in front of Black individuals just to see their reaction.
“Bro I point my gun out the window now at n------ and watch their reaction and drive away,” Smith wrote. “Hilarious.”
Other times, Smith, prosecutors said, called himself “the perp that got away” who would have been “locked up so many times” were he not a police officer. After he retired, Smith wrote he had shaved his head like the Ku Klux Klan.
“Now the real [S]mith will shine. I even shaved my head. Klan,” he wrote.
Hassett and Busch were released on bail after pleading not guilty, WNBC reported. Smith is being held without bail. Both Hassett and Busch have been suspended without pay, an NYPD spokesperson told The Post in an email.
“There is zero tolerance in the NYPD for corruption of any kind,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot F. Shea said in a statement.
The three are scheduled to appear in court on May 19, court records show.
Police shootings of children spark new outcry, calls for training to deal with adolescents in crisis
A Washington Post database of fatal force incidents finds most children shot by police are minorities and less likely to be armed than adults shot by police
Stavian Rodriguez squeezed his 15-year-old body through the drive-through window of the Okie Gas Express convenience store, poking his hands out first so police could see they were empty. He jumped to the ground, holding his hands in the air, and then lifted his shirt to reveal a gun tucked into his front waistband. Using the tips of his thumb and index finger, Rodriguez gently pinched the end of the barrel far from the trigger — and dropped the weapon to the ground.
As the gun hit the pavement, Rodriguez reached for his rear pocket; a volley of bullets burst out and the teenager sank to the ground, surveillance and camera footage show. Dozens of Oklahoma City police officers had responded last November to the 911 call at the convenience store, where Rodriguez was a robbery suspect. Five of them shot 13 bullets into the teen, from his head to his feet.
He is one of 112 children who have been fatally shot by police between Jan. 1, 2015, and Monday, according to a Washington Post database that tracks fatal police shootings. Over the same period of time,6,168 adults were shot by police.
“They knew he was a child. They were joking about whether he was in there calling his mom,” said Cameo Holland, Rodriguez’s mother, referring to conversations recorded on officers’ body cameras. “No one was asking, ‘How do we tactically approach this so no one dies today?’ ”
The five officers who fired lethal shots into Holland’s child are now facing first-degree manslaughter charges. This is a rare response by prosecutors who tend to side with police investigators who routinely clear officers of wrongdoing. Prosecutors must also weigh whether they can persuade jurors, who tend to trust police more than other witnesses. The department said the officers shot because they perceived a threat and the officers’ attorneys say the shooting was justified.
The long-standing question of how fatal police shootings of children could be avoided and lives spared has engulfed the nation in recent weeks. The debate was renewed by the death of 13-year-old Adam Toledo, who was killed by an officer on March 29 in Chicago and further fueled by another fatal police shooting of a knife-wielding 16-year-old, Ma’Khia Bryant, on April 20 in Columbus, Ohio.
Three other children were shot and killed by police during the three-week span between Toledo’s and Bryant’s deaths.
Police leaders have asked the public to withhold judgment in the Toledo and Bryant cases until the investigations into their shootings are complete. But they acknowledge that communities are less likely to listen as they become increasingly weary and distrustful of police. A Washington Post-ABC News poll in April showed 55 percent of Americans said they were not confident that police are adequately trained to avoid excessive use of force — up from 52 percent last July and 44 percent in 2014.
Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said he hopes the public will recognize that officers are faced with instant life-or-death decisions and that even a child can be dangerous, especially if armed.
Of Officer Nicholas Reardon, who shot Bryant, Yoes said: “I assure you he wasn’t focused on her age. He was focused on the knife. He was looking to save a life. Even children can pose a threat.”
Lawrence Miller, a clinical, forensic and police psychologist based in Palm Beach County, Fla., said that there is no national standard or set of protocols regarding how officers should handle encounters with children.
He and other police training experts said they know of no academies or programs that offer specialized training to officers in this area, as they do for other segments of society, such as the mentally ill.
“They need to talk to them like they are children, not yell a bunch of commands at them,” Miller said.
Of the 112 people younger than 18 who have been fatally shot by police, according to The Post’s database, five were shot and killed by Columbus Police Department officers, the most of any single agency. Only nineother departments had multiple fatal shootings of children. The other 87departments with such shootings since 2015 recorded the death of one child.
The database shows that the circumstances leading up to the shootings of children are varied, with about half beginning with a robbery, a traffic stop, a stolen car or a 911 call. Most of the incidents took place during daytime hours; only one appears to have involved alcohol use by the child; and 19 of the children were experiencing a mental health crisis at the time of the shooting.
The database shows that children are frequently armed with a gun or knife during these fatal police encounters, but not as often as adults who die by police gunfire — 63 percent of the time for children vs. 76 percent for adults.
Sixty-six percent of the children who died in fatal police shootings were Black, Latino, Asian or Native American compared to 44 percent of adults who were racial minorities.
Children also were more often shot while running from police: 50 percent compared to 33 percent of adults.
The youngest of the children who have died were 6-year-olds — Kameron Prescott in Texas and Jeremy Mardis in Louisiana. Both were killed as police fired at but missed the suspects who were their intended targets.
The renewed focus on shootings of children owes much to their visibility: Videos of the Toledo and Bryant killings went viral, prompting national protests and stinging rebukes of police from high-profile celebrities and politicians.
Public pressure prompted police officials to quickly release body camera video of the incidents. In one, Bryant, who was Black, appears to be swinging a knife at two girls before she is shot. In another, Toledo, who was Latino, is running from police before he stops and turns, tossing an object behind a fence that police say was a firearm. A split second later, after turning toward the officers with his hands raised, he is shot in the chest.
Among the 112 deaths of children in the database, only five incidents have resulted in officers being criminally charged, according to a Post analysis. Four officers in three cases have been found guilty on charges that ranged from murder to aggravated assault. An officer in a fourth case faced a single homicide charge, which allowed jurors to chose between murder or manslaughter, but they ultimately acquitted him.
In the fifth case, the five officers who fired the lethal shots at Rodriguez last year were charged in March with first-degree manslaughter. They have pleaded not guilty. No trial date has been set.
Prosecutors dispute the police department’s and the union’s characterization of the events that led to Rodriguez’s death. The department initially said in a news release that the teen was shot because he “did not follow officers’ commands” and had been “holding a pistol” when he climbed through the window.
“Our brave officers leave their families behind and walk into dangerous situations every day to protect and serve this community,” Oklahoma City Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 123 Vice President Mark Nelson said in a statement several days after the shooting. “Officers often provide commands in tense moments to ensure the safety of all individuals involved. Police training and experience tells us furtive movements and a lack of following commands present a deadly threat.”
Since then, however, additional videos became public — from police body cameras, news camera crews and surveillance cameras — and a more complex picture of what happened that night in November began to emerge.
Court documents say security footage from inside the store, along with a police interview with the clerk, shows that the robbery began with Rodriguez pointing a gun at the employee as he demanded money. Another teen, 17-year-old Wyatt Cheatham, loaded packs of cigarettes into a backpack. (Cheatham entered a guilty plea on April 19 on a felony charge of robbery with a firearm.)
Both youths left the store briefly, and after about two minutes, Rodriguez returned alone and demanded more money, according to court records.
The clerk escaped out the window and used a security system to lock Rodriguez inside, court records say. He called 911 and officers poured into the parking lot within minutes, several taking cover behind the gas pumps.
For more than 10 minutes, officers yelled conflicting and overlapping commands to Rodriguez as he hid inside the store, video and court documents show. In charging documents, prosecutors said there appeared to be no commanding officer organizing the response.
Police body camera videos also captured officers joking about Rodriguez and the robbery during the standoff. “He’s probably calling his mom,” one says. Another says, “Oops,” and Officer Bethany Sears laughs and adds, “I messed up,” speculating on the teenager’s state of mind as he hides.
Minutes later, Rodriguez stuck his hands through the window and pulled himself through. On a half-dozen videos, officers can be heard simultaneously yelling different commands at him — “Hands!” “Facedown! On the ground!” “Drop it!”
A strobe light from at least one of the patrol cars — often used to disorient suspects — flashed into Rodriguez’s face.
As he dropped the gun to the ground, the teen reached for his left rear pocket.
At that moment, Officer Sarah Carli fired a less-lethal round — a 40mm foam projectile — that struck the teenager, according to prosecutors.
Almost immediately, the other officers fired at him, the video shows. “A cellphone was recovered from the left rear pocket he had his hand in at the time he was shot,” the prosecutors’ affidavit said.
On a body camera video, Rodriguez winces in pain as officers yell at the teen to show his hands. Officer John Skuta could be heard repeatedly muttering “Damn it.”
Then officers quickly huddled, video shows, and one of them told Officer Brad Pemberton to shut off his body camera video. Police are only required to leave their cameras on when they are interacting with the public, according to department policy.
Pemberton, Sears, Skuta and Officers Jared Barton and Corey Adams were those charged with first-degree manslaughter, which carries a sentence of between four years and life in prison.
Attorneys representing the officers who have been charged say the shooting was legally justified because Rodriguez reached toward the back of his pants after he dropped the gun. At that moment, they say, officers thought he could have been reaching for a second weapon.
“This case is ultimately about whether each individual officer responded to a perceived threat in a way that was reasonable and in accordance with the law,” the attorneys said in a joint statement. “Five officers, with similar training, came to the same conclusion when the suspect made a sharp movement toward his waistband after being told to show officers his hands and get on the ground. While the results were tragic, the officers’ actions were reasonable and legally justified under the circumstances created by an armed robbery suspect.”
David J. Thomas, a forensics psychologist and former police officer, said there is a natural assumption that officers know how to respond differently in tense encounters if it becomes clear that they are dealing with a child.
“They think they will put on their father’s hat or mother’s hat and be able to sit down and talk to a child without being a macho cop,” he said. “Or have a big brother or big sister conversation. Training for this — it just doesn’t exist.”
Miller, the Palm Beach County psychologist, said that children’s responses to police commands are often found “at both ends of the spectrum.” They are either quickly compliant or, he said, become confused or defiant and attempt to run away.
“They are egocentric, impulsive, unpredictable,” Miller said of teens. “They are less likely to show the kind of restraint adults tend to, unless there is a mental illness or drugs involved.”
Thomas said it would be helpful for officers to learn more about development of the human brain, which is not complete until someone reaches their mid-20s. That can make teens more impulsive.
Miller said officers often put themselves and children at risk by underestimating them, especially if they are slight in build. He said the Rodriguez case is an example of this, as police joked about the unfolding scene, and, in some cases, stood out in the open at the window where they knew the teen would have to exit.
“It should never have never gotten to that point. Being a child, in a sense, worked against the decedent. If it was an adult, they would have taken cover,” Miller said. “They would have probably had him strip down to his skivvies so they wouldn’t have to worry about whether he had a weapon on him.”
Holland, Rodriguez’s mother, said without the video that documented how police handled the incident, prosecutors would have been left with the version of events that the police department presented after the shooting.
In 66 percent of the database incidents involving children, there is no video documentation. Sometimes the only witnesses who support an officers’ contention that a shooting was justified are fellow officers at the scene.
The 2016 fatal shooting of 13-year-old Tyre King falls into this category. Like Bryant, the Black teen was fatally shot by a Columbus officer.
Kid my GF teaches was just arrested for attempted murder. He charged at the cops w a knife. The cops didn't draw their weapons, the wrestled him to the ground. One cop was cut.
Kid my GF teaches was just arrested for attempted murder. He charged at the cops w a knife. The cops didn't draw their weapons, the wrestled him to the ground. One cop was cut.
AP: Top cop in Black man's deadly arrest withheld cam video
By JIM MUSTIAN
32 mins ago
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — In perhaps the strongest evidence yet of an attempted cover-up in the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene, the ranking Louisiana State Police officer at the scene falsely told internal investigators that the Black man was still a threat to flee after he was shackled, and he denied the existence of his own body camera video for nearly two years until it emerged just last month.
New state police documents obtained by The Associated Press show numerous inconsistencies between Lt. John Clary’s statements to detectives and the body camera footage he denied having. They add to growing signs of obfuscation in Greene’s death, which the white troopers initially blamed on a car crash at the end of a high-speed chase and is now the subject of a federal civil rights investigation.
The highly secretive case has drawn national attention since last week when the AP began publishing graphic body camera videos that showed troopers repeatedly jolting Greene with stun guns, putting him in a chokehold, punching him and dragging him by his ankle shackles. And like George Floyd's death a year ago, it once again highlighted the importance of video as key evidence in police misconduct cases.
“Video doesn't lie, and the best way to protect the integrity of law enforcement agencies is with body camera footage,” said Rafael Goyeneche, a former prosecutor who is president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a New Orleans-based watchdog group.
But Clary, the highest-ranking officer among at least six state troopers at the scene of Greene's May 10, 2019, arrest, told investigators later that day that he had no body camera footage of the incident — a statement proven to be untrue when his 30-minute body camera video of the arrest emerged last month.
Clary, who arrived at the scene just seconds after troopers stunned, choked and punched Greene to get him into handcuffs, told investigators that Greene “was still, yelling and screaming ... and he was still resisting, even though he was handcuffed. He was still trying to get away and was not cooperating.”
Investigators wrote in a six-page report filed less than three weeks ago that Clary’s description of Greene's demeanor after he was cuffed on a dark roadside near Monroe was clearly a mischaracterization. Though they did not state it explicitly, the false statements were apparently intended to justify further uses of force by troopers against the prone Greene that included dragging him facedown by his ankle shackles and spraying him in the face with pepper spray.
“The video evidence in this case does not show Greene screaming, resisting or trying to get away,” Detective Albert Paxton wrote in the new report. “The only screams revealed by the video were when Greene responded to force applied to him."
The report added that Clary’s own video, published last week by the AP and later released by the state, shows Greene “lying on the ground, face down, handcuffed behind his back, leg shackles on his ankles, uttering the phrases, ‘I’m sorry’, or ‘I’m scared’ or ‘Yes sir’ or ‘Okay.’’’
Video from Louisiana state trooper Lt. John Clary's body-worn camera. Clary cannot claim he was unaware his body camera was recording, the investigators noted, citing a moment on his video when he points to his own camera in an apparent warning to one of his troopers at the scene of Greene’s arrest. (Louisiana State Police via AP)
Clary’s video shows troopers ordering the heavyset, 49-year-old Greene to remain facedown on the ground with his hands and feet restrained for more than nine minutes — a tactic use-of-force experts criticized as dangerous and likely to have restricted his breathing. Greene can be seen on Clary’s footage struggling to prop himself up on his side.
“Don’t you turn over! Lay on your belly! Lay on your belly!” Trooper Kory York yells before briefly dragging Greene by the chain that connects his ankle shackles.
“Lt. Clary’s video clearly shows Greene to be suffering,” Paxton wrote in the new report, adding that the handcuffed man can be heard “gasping for air.”
Though what happens to Greene next cannot be seen on the video, investigators wrote that “Greene’s eyes are squeezed shut as he shakes his head back and forth moaning in pain, movements consistent with having been sprayed in the face with (pepper) spray."
Video from Louisiana state trooper Lt. John Clary's body-worn camera shows trooper Kory York standing over Ronald Greene on his stomach on May 10, 2019, outside of Monroe, La. (Louisiana State Police via AP)
The records noted that around this time Trooper York asked Greene if he has his attention now and a local deputy assisting in the arrest added, “Yeah, that sh-- hurts, doesn’t it?”
Another false statement noted in the report was when Clary told investigators that his troopers sat Greene up and “immediately held his head up so he could get a clear airway.”
Clary's video, however, showed troopers saying they didn’t want to sit Greene up because they were afraid he would spit blood on them.
“Then don’t do that,” Clary tells them.
Even after Greene became unresponsive and troopers sat him up, his head was slumped down on his chest and they did not make a move to lift his head to make a clear airway for nearly six minutes.
“The officers have the duty and obligation to ensure that he is capable of breathing ... and they chose not to do that,” said Andrew Scott, a former Boca Raton, Florida, police chief who testifies as an expert in use-of-force cases.
“When he was in handcuffs, he was completely compliant. The only thing he wanted to do was turn over onto his side,” Scott added. “He couldn’t resist. He was incapable of resisting.”
Clary, who has been with the Louisiana State Police for 31 years, did not return phone and text messages seeking comment Monday. A State Police spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Union Parish District Attorney John Belton, who is pursuing a state investigation of the troopers' actions, told the AP he only became aware of Clary's footage recently.
Clary cannot claim he was unaware his body camera was recording, the investigators noted, citing a moment on his video when he points to his own camera in an apparent warning to one of his troopers at the scene of Greene’s arrest. At another point, the records say, a trooper “pointed out that Lt. Clary’s body camera was recording, causing Lt. Clary to immediately turn it off.”
The concealed video is only the latest anomaly in the law enforcement response to Greene’s death. Troopers initially told Greene’s family he died in a car crash, and later the state police issued a brief statement acknowledging there was a struggle with officers and that Greene died on the way to the hospital. There was no mention made of any use of force by troopers.
State police also did not open an administrative investigation into the troopers’ use of force until 474 days after Greene’s death. And Louisiana officials from Gov. John Bel Edwards on down repeatedly refused to publicly release any body camera video of Greene’s arrest for more than two years, until last week after AP began publishing videos it obtained.
The AP last week also obtained a 10-page autopsy report that shows state police failed to turn over to forensic pathologists even the most routine documents relating to Greene’s arrest, including police reports, collision details or emergency medical records.
“The lack of transparency reeks of a potential cover up,” Goyeneche said. “If the Louisiana State Police were vigilant and on top of its game, there would have been discipline and terminations years ago in this case.”
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Higgins: Enough of the lying – just look at the data. There’s no epidemic of racist police officers killing black Americans. | Citizens Journal | Citizens Journal
Minimization seems to be the strategy. That and victim blaming. Both the victim and their family members. Or relying on a link from a county newspaper from a county that's 65% white and blacks make up 5% of the population. But that's just me.
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When I searched for the data I did a quick skim of the top search results, and they were all from what appeared to be pro-cop or right leaning. So it’s not surprising they included a comparison to lightning strikes. But I wouldn’t really expect anti-cop sources to be quoting that the vast majority of shootings are armed either. That doesn’t fit the “open season” headlines we’ve been getting. The way the media covers it they want to go think most shootings are unjustified unarmed men.
DENVER (AP) — Lawmakers in more than 20 states have considered bills this year to make the disciplinary records of police officers public or to share them with other agencies, a push that comes amid high-profile deaths at the hands of law enforcement. About 20 states still largely prohibit their release, however.
Supporters of greater transparency say it could help improve police accountability, build trust with the community and prevent officers with disciplinary problems who leave one department from being hired by another.
Opponents say the release of such records could harm the reputations of officers with only minor infractions or even put them in danger. They also argue that disciplinary actions are part of personnel records, which are exempt from state open records laws.
But amid growing nationwide protests against alleged excessive force by police officers, at least 16 states have contemplated measures to release such records, or summaries of them, publicly. Another eight have discussed making the records accessible to other law enforcement agencies.
In Utah, Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed a bill in March providing legal immunity to law enforcement agencies that share background information about former employees with other agencies looking to hire. State Sen. Jani Iwamoto, a Democrat in the GOP-dominated Legislature, introduced the legislation in response to the case of a University of Utah officer who resigned while being investigated for allegedly sharing explicit photographs of a victim in an alleged extortion case who was later killed. The officer was later hired by police in Logan, Utah, who did not know about the probe.
“We want people to feel that they can report a bad cop,” said Iwamoto, who also successfully sponsored another bill to ensure that police disciplinary investigations are completed even if an officer resigns while one is in progress.
Without legislation in place, lawyers advised police departments not to share disciplinary records lest they be sued, Iwamoto said.
In North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature, lawmakers want to create a confidential database from which law enforcement agencies in the state can track all disciplinary actions to prevent officers from hiding past problems when looking for a new job.
“We enable agencies to better screen individuals ... so that we can weed out who the bad apples are,” said Republican state Sen. Danny Britt.
Under an expansive police reform bill Britt is sponsoring, authorities also would track all use of force by officers resulting in serious injury or death. And the legislation would create an “early warning system” to collect data on citizens' complaints and any transgressions with the aim of correcting an officer's behavior before it leads to a deadly outcome.
Maryland has gone further, approving the release of records related to formal misconduct complaints. The Democrat-controlled Legislature overrode a veto by Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who objected to the public release of complaints that haven't been substantiated. Supporters contend the public has a right to see how police departments investigate complaints against officers.
The proposals come amid a national reckoning over the killings of Black people at the hands of police. Efforts to get access to police disciplinary records have increased along with public awareness of the issue, which has grown since the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, said Rachel Moran, an associate professor and founder of the Criminal and Juvenile Defense Clinic at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis.
In Maryland, the move is part of a sweeping police reform package that was prompted by the 2018 death of Anton Black, a 19-year-old African American who died in a rural Maryland town after officers pinned him to the ground for more than five minutes as they handcuffed him and shackled his legs.
One of the officers, Thomas Webster, had nearly 30 use-of-force complaints lodged against him while previously working in neighboring Delaware. Webster also had been charged with second-degree assault in that state for allegedly kicking a Black man in the head, but was acquitted in 2015.
Anton Black’s sister, LaToya Holley, said she hopes the new law translates into quicker answers for the families of anyone who dies at the hands of police.
“They need to work on trust,” she said of law enforcement. "There isn’t that much trust in the community.”
Other states seeking to address policing problems had already taken action before this year.
In 2018, California lawmakers voted to allow public access to records of officer shootings and other major uses of force. New York lawmakers last year repealed a law that had blocked public disclosure of disciplinary records for police officers, firefighters and correctional officers. Hawaii took similar action, allowing the public to learn the details of more than 80 cases of unwarranted assault and more than 100 cases of officers filing false reports or covering up infractions.
In New Jersey last year, state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, without waiting for legislation, ordered local and state police to release the names and summaries of disciplinary records of officers who had been fired, demoted or suspended for more than five days. Grewal said the information was needed to promote community trust and police accountability amid protests against the death of George Floyd in Minnesota.
For their part, members of New Jersey’s Democrat-controlled legislature considered but have failed to pass a bill this year to make police records public, though an early warning system of the kind being considered by North Carolina is already in place.
Meanwhile, nothing has come of Grewal's order yet because of a legal challenge by law enforcement unions. They argue that personnel records are exempt under state open records laws, and that officers and their families could be put at risk if they are made public. They also object to releasing information about past confidential disciplinary agreements for problems such as drinking and domestic violence.
Pat Colligan, president of the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association, said many officers who have dealt with problems like that have gone on to have good careers. Colligan said he would support the release of records only for major infractions, such as excessive force and civil rights violations, from now on.
He also would like to see the state's early warning system be given a chance to provide officers with help or weed out those not meant to wear a badge.
"People have to stop assuming every officer is a problem officer,” he said.
____
Associated Press writers Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey; Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu, contributed.
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i didn't see any protests..
Prague Krakow Berlin 2018. Berlin 2022
EV, Taormina 1+2 2017.
I wish i was the souvenir you kept your house key on..
https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/metro-officer-shot-during-apparent-setup-released-from-nashville-hospital/
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A Metro officer shot while responding to a fabricated call of a shooting at a South Nashville home Tuesday evening has been released from a Nashville hospital, according to police.
Officer Brian Sherman was transported to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for treatment of gunshot wounds to his left arm after he was shot on Sugarloaf Drive, where officers had responded to a call of a shooting around 6:10 p.m.
Metro police spokesperson, Don Aaron said officers had responded to the home after a man called 911 to report his brother had shot his mother and gunshots were being fired inside the residence.
“This was a ruse or a setup to get the police to come to the house,” Aaron said during a news conference Tuesday night.
Three officers, including Sherman, went to the front door of the home and as soon as they knocked, police said the door was opened and multiple shots were fired at officers.
Aaron said officers did not fire back at the shooter, but added that gunman, identified as Salman Mohammed, eventually exited the home, armed with a rifle. Officers attempted to negotiate with the 22-year-old, but said Mohammed put the rifle to his head and pulled the trigger, fatally shooting himself.
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Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
The Big Lie starts right there in the classroom.
I can’t tell you how many times I have to tell my daughter that something she’s learning in history is a warped white supremacist version of it.
So giving this narrative of being tackled and raised for jaywalking is just deliberately spreading the fear and hatred of cops. End result is going to be more altercations and more violence. Not sure why people want that, but that’s what the result is going to be.
I’m not sure I even agree with abuse or excess force in this case. We don’t have any information. Any time someone grabs a knife or goes for the cop’s gun the comments are blaming the cops for not taking him sooner. But when they do it’s abuse? If this was all because he ran a stop sign a few blocks over, then yeah it’s excess. But given the response a little common sense says that’s doubtful. If he pulled a knife on someone and then fled, then I see nothing wrong here.
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NYPD officer set up tow-truck bribery scheme, used racist slurs, bragged about his ‘Klan’ haircut, feds say
Last January, New York police officer Robert Smith was about two months away from retiring.
But before he left the department, federal prosecutors said, he was set on recruiting another colleague to take over a year-longs bribery scheme he ran with the help of Officer Robert Hassett.
Smith and Hassett took thousands in cash from a tow truck company, according to court records, in exchange for sending victims of car accidents to the firm. Around the time he retired, Smith enlisted Officer Heather Busch, another of his colleagues from the Queens precinct, to take part of the illegal operation, the government said.
On Tuesday, authorities arrested and charged Smith, 44, Hassett, 36, and Busch, 34 with multiple counts of bribery and conspiracy in connection with the tow-truck scheme, according to an indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Smith, whom prosecutors said repeatedly used the n-word, expressed his support for the Ku Klux Klan and threatened to “shoot” his contact at the tow company if he ended up being a “rat,” is also accused of transporting heroin for an unnamed criminal organization after he retired.
“As alleged, the defendants shamelessly violated their oaths of office and the public trust by trading their badges for cash payments,” United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Mark J. Lesko said in a statement.
Lawyers representing Smith, Hassett and Busch did not immediately respond to messages from The Washington Post early Wednesday.
In New York City, officers responding to a crash scene are required to use a database system to assign tow trucks at accident scenes and are forbidden from handpicking companies.
Instead, starting in September 2016, Smith and Hassett allegedly told the drivers to use just one tow truck company, which isn’t identified in court records. In exchange, an individual with the business bribed the officers with thousands of dollars in cash directly paid to them or deposited in a mailbox they had access to, prosecutors said.
In January of 2020, Smith and Hassett allegedly expanded their deal with the tow company. For the next three months, both officers used NYPD databases with names of recent drivers who’d suffered car accidents and sold their contact information to the tow company in exchange of more than $7,000 paid in cash, prosecutors said. Then, the tow truck company would sell that information to physical therapists and personal injury lawyers.
As Smith prepared to retire, he allegedly recruited Busch in March 2020 in exchange for more than $1,000 from the tow firm.
Around that time, Smith was also pressuring the tow company to help him set up a deal to transport drugs, prosecutors said. His contact eventually introduced him to an unnamed drug organization and in June 2020, Smith allegedly met with two of the organization’s drug traffickers about setting up a deal.
In July 2020, Smith drove from Uniondale, N.Y. to Queens to give someone a bag containing a kilogram of heroin while carrying his weapon, federal prosecutors said, in exchange for roughly $1,200 in cash.
On Tuesday, all three officers were arrested and charged in connection with the bribery scheme. The three appeared in court later that day.
Prosecutors argued that Smith, who pleaded not guilty, shouldn’t be released because he “poses a significant danger to the community and a flight risk.” Prosecutors also told U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl L. Pollack that there was additional evidence that Smith had participated in “shakes,” or robberies, as an NYPD officer.
At one time while still on the force, prosecutors said, Smith texted: “Bro I robbed everyone,” referencing individuals and businesses he tricked as part of the bribery scheme. In another message after he had retired, Smith allegedly texted a person and said he would brandish his gun in front of Black individuals just to see their reaction.
“Bro I point my gun out the window now at n------ and watch their reaction and drive away,” Smith wrote. “Hilarious.”
Other times, Smith, prosecutors said, called himself “the perp that got away” who would have been “locked up so many times” were he not a police officer. After he retired, Smith wrote he had shaved his head like the Ku Klux Klan.
“Now the real [S]mith will shine. I even shaved my head. Klan,” he wrote.
Hassett and Busch were released on bail after pleading not guilty, WNBC reported. Smith is being held without bail. Both Hassett and Busch have been suspended without pay, an NYPD spokesperson told The Post in an email.
“There is zero tolerance in the NYPD for corruption of any kind,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot F. Shea said in a statement.
The three are scheduled to appear in court on May 19, court records show.
3 NYP officers charged with bribery in illegal tow-truck scheme, feds say - The Washington Post
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There are no kings inside the gates of eden
Police shootings of children spark new outcry, calls for training to deal with adolescents in crisis
A Washington Post database of fatal force incidents finds most children shot by police are minorities and less likely to be armed than adults shot by police
Stavian Rodriguez squeezed his 15-year-old body through the drive-through window of the Okie Gas Express convenience store, poking his hands out first so police could see they were empty. He jumped to the ground, holding his hands in the air, and then lifted his shirt to reveal a gun tucked into his front waistband. Using the tips of his thumb and index finger, Rodriguez gently pinched the end of the barrel far from the trigger — and dropped the weapon to the ground.
As the gun hit the pavement, Rodriguez reached for his rear pocket; a volley of bullets burst out and the teenager sank to the ground, surveillance and camera footage show. Dozens of Oklahoma City police officers had responded last November to the 911 call at the convenience store, where Rodriguez was a robbery suspect. Five of them shot 13 bullets into the teen, from his head to his feet.
He is one of 112 children who have been fatally shot by police between Jan. 1, 2015, and Monday, according to a Washington Post database that tracks fatal police shootings. Over the same period of time, 6,168 adults were shot by police.
“They knew he was a child. They were joking about whether he was in there calling his mom,” said Cameo Holland, Rodriguez’s mother, referring to conversations recorded on officers’ body cameras. “No one was asking, ‘How do we tactically approach this so no one dies today?’ ”
The five officers who fired lethal shots into Holland’s child are now facing first-degree manslaughter charges. This is a rare response by prosecutors who tend to side with police investigators who routinely clear officers of wrongdoing. Prosecutors must also weigh whether they can persuade jurors, who tend to trust police more than other witnesses. The department said the officers shot because they perceived a threat and the officers’ attorneys say the shooting was justified.
The long-standing question of how fatal police shootings of children could be avoided and lives spared has engulfed the nation in recent weeks. The debate was renewed by the death of 13-year-old Adam Toledo, who was killed by an officer on March 29 in Chicago and further fueled by another fatal police shooting of a knife-wielding 16-year-old, Ma’Khia Bryant, on April 20 in Columbus, Ohio.
Three other children were shot and killed by police during the three-week span between Toledo’s and Bryant’s deaths.
Police leaders have asked the public to withhold judgment in the Toledo and Bryant cases until the investigations into their shootings are complete. But they acknowledge that communities are less likely to listen as they become increasingly weary and distrustful of police. A Washington Post-ABC News poll in April showed 55 percent of Americans said they were not confident that police are adequately trained to avoid excessive use of force — up from 52 percent last July and 44 percent in 2014.
Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said he hopes the public will recognize that officers are faced with instant life-or-death decisions and that even a child can be dangerous, especially if armed.
Of Officer Nicholas Reardon, who shot Bryant, Yoes said: “I assure you he wasn’t focused on her age. He was focused on the knife. He was looking to save a life. Even children can pose a threat.”
Lawrence Miller, a clinical, forensic and police psychologist based in Palm Beach County, Fla., said that there is no national standard or set of protocols regarding how officers should handle encounters with children.
He and other police training experts said they know of no academies or programs that offer specialized training to officers in this area, as they do for other segments of society, such as the mentally ill.
“They need to talk to them like they are children, not yell a bunch of commands at them,” Miller said.
Of the 112 people younger than 18 who have been fatally shot by police, according to The Post’s database, five were shot and killed by Columbus Police Department officers, the most of any single agency. Only nine other departments had multiple fatal shootings of children. The other 87 departments with such shootings since 2015 recorded the death of one child.
The database shows that the circumstances leading up to the shootings of children are varied, with about half beginning with a robbery, a traffic stop, a stolen car or a 911 call. Most of the incidents took place during daytime hours; only one appears to have involved alcohol use by the child; and 19 of the children were experiencing a mental health crisis at the time of the shooting.
The database shows that children are frequently armed with a gun or knife during these fatal police encounters, but not as often as adults who die by police gunfire — 63 percent of the time for children vs. 76 percent for adults.
Sixty-six percent of the children who died in fatal police shootings were Black, Latino, Asian or Native American compared to 44 percent of adults who were racial minorities.
Children also were more often shot while running from police: 50 percent compared to 33 percent of adults.
The youngest of the children who have died were 6-year-olds — Kameron Prescott in Texas and Jeremy Mardis in Louisiana. Both were killed as police fired at but missed the suspects who were their intended targets.
The renewed focus on shootings of children owes much to their visibility: Videos of the Toledo and Bryant killings went viral, prompting national protests and stinging rebukes of police from high-profile celebrities and politicians.
Public pressure prompted police officials to quickly release body camera video of the incidents. In one, Bryant, who was Black, appears to be swinging a knife at two girls before she is shot. In another, Toledo, who was Latino, is running from police before he stops and turns, tossing an object behind a fence that police say was a firearm. A split second later, after turning toward the officers with his hands raised, he is shot in the chest.
Among the 112 deaths of children in the database, only five incidents have resulted in officers being criminally charged, according to a Post analysis. Four officers in three cases have been found guilty on charges that ranged from murder to aggravated assault. An officer in a fourth case faced a single homicide charge, which allowed jurors to chose between murder or manslaughter, but they ultimately acquitted him.
In the fifth case, the five officers who fired the lethal shots at Rodriguez last year were charged in March with first-degree manslaughter. They have pleaded not guilty. No trial date has been set.
Prosecutors dispute the police department’s and the union’s characterization of the events that led to Rodriguez’s death. The department initially said in a news release that the teen was shot because he “did not follow officers’ commands” and had been “holding a pistol” when he climbed through the window.
“Our brave officers leave their families behind and walk into dangerous situations every day to protect and serve this community,” Oklahoma City Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 123 Vice President Mark Nelson said in a statement several days after the shooting. “Officers often provide commands in tense moments to ensure the safety of all individuals involved. Police training and experience tells us furtive movements and a lack of following commands present a deadly threat.”
Since then, however, additional videos became public — from police body cameras, news camera crews and surveillance cameras — and a more complex picture of what happened that night in November began to emerge.
Court documents say security footage from inside the store, along with a police interview with the clerk, shows that the robbery began with Rodriguez pointing a gun at the employee as he demanded money. Another teen, 17-year-old Wyatt Cheatham, loaded packs of cigarettes into a backpack. (Cheatham entered a guilty plea on April 19 on a felony charge of robbery with a firearm.)
Both youths left the store briefly, and after about two minutes, Rodriguez returned alone and demanded more money, according to court records.
The clerk escaped out the window and used a security system to lock Rodriguez inside, court records say. He called 911 and officers poured into the parking lot within minutes, several taking cover behind the gas pumps.
For more than 10 minutes, officers yelled conflicting and overlapping commands to Rodriguez as he hid inside the store, video and court documents show. In charging documents, prosecutors said there appeared to be no commanding officer organizing the response.
Police body camera videos also captured officers joking about Rodriguez and the robbery during the standoff. “He’s probably calling his mom,” one says. Another says, “Oops,” and Officer Bethany Sears laughs and adds, “I messed up,” speculating on the teenager’s state of mind as he hides.
Minutes later, Rodriguez stuck his hands through the window and pulled himself through. On a half-dozen videos, officers can be heard simultaneously yelling different commands at him — “Hands!” “Facedown! On the ground!” “Drop it!”
A strobe light from at least one of the patrol cars — often used to disorient suspects — flashed into Rodriguez’s face.
As he dropped the gun to the ground, the teen reached for his left rear pocket.
At that moment, Officer Sarah Carli fired a less-lethal round — a 40mm foam projectile — that struck the teenager, according to prosecutors.
Almost immediately, the other officers fired at him, the video shows. “A cellphone was recovered from the left rear pocket he had his hand in at the time he was shot,” the prosecutors’ affidavit said.
On a body camera video, Rodriguez winces in pain as officers yell at the teen to show his hands. Officer John Skuta could be heard repeatedly muttering “Damn it.”
Then officers quickly huddled, video shows, and one of them told Officer Brad Pemberton to shut off his body camera video. Police are only required to leave their cameras on when they are interacting with the public, according to department policy.
Pemberton, Sears, Skuta and Officers Jared Barton and Corey Adams were those charged with first-degree manslaughter, which carries a sentence of between four years and life in prison.
Attorneys representing the officers who have been charged say the shooting was legally justified because Rodriguez reached toward the back of his pants after he dropped the gun. At that moment, they say, officers thought he could have been reaching for a second weapon.
“This case is ultimately about whether each individual officer responded to a perceived threat in a way that was reasonable and in accordance with the law,” the attorneys said in a joint statement. “Five officers, with similar training, came to the same conclusion when the suspect made a sharp movement toward his waistband after being told to show officers his hands and get on the ground. While the results were tragic, the officers’ actions were reasonable and legally justified under the circumstances created by an armed robbery suspect.”
David J. Thomas, a forensics psychologist and former police officer, said there is a natural assumption that officers know how to respond differently in tense encounters if it becomes clear that they are dealing with a child.
“They think they will put on their father’s hat or mother’s hat and be able to sit down and talk to a child without being a macho cop,” he said. “Or have a big brother or big sister conversation. Training for this — it just doesn’t exist.”
Miller, the Palm Beach County psychologist, said that children’s responses to police commands are often found “at both ends of the spectrum.” They are either quickly compliant or, he said, become confused or defiant and attempt to run away.
“They are egocentric, impulsive, unpredictable,” Miller said of teens. “They are less likely to show the kind of restraint adults tend to, unless there is a mental illness or drugs involved.”
Thomas said it would be helpful for officers to learn more about development of the human brain, which is not complete until someone reaches their mid-20s. That can make teens more impulsive.
Miller said officers often put themselves and children at risk by underestimating them, especially if they are slight in build. He said the Rodriguez case is an example of this, as police joked about the unfolding scene, and, in some cases, stood out in the open at the window where they knew the teen would have to exit.
“It should never have never gotten to that point. Being a child, in a sense, worked against the decedent. If it was an adult, they would have taken cover,” Miller said. “They would have probably had him strip down to his skivvies so they wouldn’t have to worry about whether he had a weapon on him.”
Holland, Rodriguez’s mother, said without the video that documented how police handled the incident, prosecutors would have been left with the version of events that the police department presented after the shooting.
In 66 percent of the database incidents involving children, there is no video documentation. Sometimes the only witnesses who support an officers’ contention that a shooting was justified are fellow officers at the scene.
The 2016 fatal shooting of 13-year-old Tyre King falls into this category. Like Bryant, the Black teen was fatally shot by a Columbus officer.
Continued next post
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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/ronald-greene-louisiana-arrest-video-b1850458.html
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Kid my GF teaches was just arrested for attempted murder. He charged at the cops w a knife. The cops didn't draw their weapons, the wrestled him to the ground. One cop was cut.
Kid lives.
https://www.pdcn.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=8722
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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — In perhaps the strongest evidence yet of an attempted cover-up in the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene, the ranking Louisiana State Police officer at the scene falsely told internal investigators that the Black man was still a threat to flee after he was shackled, and he denied the existence of his own body camera video for nearly two years until it emerged just last month.
New state police documents obtained by The Associated Press show numerous inconsistencies between Lt. John Clary’s statements to detectives and the body camera footage he denied having. They add to growing signs of obfuscation in Greene’s death, which the white troopers initially blamed on a car crash at the end of a high-speed chase and is now the subject of a federal civil rights investigation.
The highly secretive case has drawn national attention since last week when the AP began publishing graphic body camera videos that showed troopers repeatedly jolting Greene with stun guns, putting him in a chokehold, punching him and dragging him by his ankle shackles. And like George Floyd's death a year ago, it once again highlighted the importance of video as key evidence in police misconduct cases.
“Video doesn't lie, and the best way to protect the integrity of law enforcement agencies is with body camera footage,” said Rafael Goyeneche, a former prosecutor who is president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a New Orleans-based watchdog group.
But Clary, the highest-ranking officer among at least six state troopers at the scene of Greene's May 10, 2019, arrest, told investigators later that day that he had no body camera footage of the incident — a statement proven to be untrue when his 30-minute body camera video of the arrest emerged last month.
Clary, who arrived at the scene just seconds after troopers stunned, choked and punched Greene to get him into handcuffs, told investigators that Greene “was still, yelling and screaming ... and he was still resisting, even though he was handcuffed. He was still trying to get away and was not cooperating.”
Investigators wrote in a six-page report filed less than three weeks ago that Clary’s description of Greene's demeanor after he was cuffed on a dark roadside near Monroe was clearly a mischaracterization. Though they did not state it explicitly, the false statements were apparently intended to justify further uses of force by troopers against the prone Greene that included dragging him facedown by his ankle shackles and spraying him in the face with pepper spray.
“The video evidence in this case does not show Greene screaming, resisting or trying to get away,” Detective Albert Paxton wrote in the new report. “The only screams revealed by the video were when Greene responded to force applied to him."
The report added that Clary’s own video, published last week by the AP and later released by the state, shows Greene “lying on the ground, face down, handcuffed behind his back, leg shackles on his ankles, uttering the phrases, ‘I’m sorry’, or ‘I’m scared’ or ‘Yes sir’ or ‘Okay.’’’
Video from Louisiana state trooper Lt. John Clary's body-worn camera. Clary cannot claim he was unaware his body camera was recording, the investigators noted, citing a moment on his video when he points to his own camera in an apparent warning to one of his troopers at the scene of Greene’s arrest. (Louisiana State Police via AP)
Clary’s video shows troopers ordering the heavyset, 49-year-old Greene to remain facedown on the ground with his hands and feet restrained for more than nine minutes — a tactic use-of-force experts criticized as dangerous and likely to have restricted his breathing. Greene can be seen on Clary’s footage struggling to prop himself up on his side.
“Don’t you turn over! Lay on your belly! Lay on your belly!” Trooper Kory York yells before briefly dragging Greene by the chain that connects his ankle shackles.
“Lt. Clary’s video clearly shows Greene to be suffering,” Paxton wrote in the new report, adding that the handcuffed man can be heard “gasping for air.”
Though what happens to Greene next cannot be seen on the video, investigators wrote that “Greene’s eyes are squeezed shut as he shakes his head back and forth moaning in pain, movements consistent with having been sprayed in the face with (pepper) spray."
Video from Louisiana state trooper Lt. John Clary's body-worn camera shows trooper Kory York standing over Ronald Greene on his stomach on May 10, 2019, outside of Monroe, La. (Louisiana State Police via AP)
The records noted that around this time Trooper York asked Greene if he has his attention now and a local deputy assisting in the arrest added, “Yeah, that sh-- hurts, doesn’t it?”
Another false statement noted in the report was when Clary told investigators that his troopers sat Greene up and “immediately held his head up so he could get a clear airway.”
Clary's video, however, showed troopers saying they didn’t want to sit Greene up because they were afraid he would spit blood on them.
“Then don’t do that,” Clary tells them.
Even after Greene became unresponsive and troopers sat him up, his head was slumped down on his chest and they did not make a move to lift his head to make a clear airway for nearly six minutes.
“The officers have the duty and obligation to ensure that he is capable of breathing ... and they chose not to do that,” said Andrew Scott, a former Boca Raton, Florida, police chief who testifies as an expert in use-of-force cases.
“When he was in handcuffs, he was completely compliant. The only thing he wanted to do was turn over onto his side,” Scott added. “He couldn’t resist. He was incapable of resisting.”
Clary, who has been with the Louisiana State Police for 31 years, did not return phone and text messages seeking comment Monday. A State Police spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Union Parish District Attorney John Belton, who is pursuing a state investigation of the troopers' actions, told the AP he only became aware of Clary's footage recently.
Clary cannot claim he was unaware his body camera was recording, the investigators noted, citing a moment on his video when he points to his own camera in an apparent warning to one of his troopers at the scene of Greene’s arrest. At another point, the records say, a trooper “pointed out that Lt. Clary’s body camera was recording, causing Lt. Clary to immediately turn it off.”
The concealed video is only the latest anomaly in the law enforcement response to Greene’s death. Troopers initially told Greene’s family he died in a car crash, and later the state police issued a brief statement acknowledging there was a struggle with officers and that Greene died on the way to the hospital. There was no mention made of any use of force by troopers.
State police also did not open an administrative investigation into the troopers’ use of force until 474 days after Greene’s death. And Louisiana officials from Gov. John Bel Edwards on down repeatedly refused to publicly release any body camera video of Greene’s arrest for more than two years, until last week after AP began publishing videos it obtained.
The AP last week also obtained a 10-page autopsy report that shows state police failed to turn over to forensic pathologists even the most routine documents relating to Greene’s arrest, including police reports, collision details or emergency medical records.
“The lack of transparency reeks of a potential cover up,” Goyeneche said. “If the Louisiana State Police were vigilant and on top of its game, there would have been discipline and terminations years ago in this case.”
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
I wonder if the 8 minutes and 46 seconds after being shot is more or less agonizing than suffocation