I dunno, I think you give a couple of them binoculars and not have cops standing out in the wide open you can at least buy seconds which would be an eternity in this situation.
Fair enough as it would be one negotiating cop and no others.
Did the story come out on how this came to be? I can't wrap my head around it still.
Police
shot and killed at least 1,055 people nationwide last year, the highest
total since The Washington Post began tracking fatal shootings by
officers in 2015 — underscoring the difficulty of reducing such
incidents despite sustained public attention to the issue.
The new count is up from 1,021 shootings the previous year and 999 in 2019. The total comes amid a nationwide spike in violent crime — although nowhere near historic highs — and as people increasingly are venturing into public spaces now that coronavirus vaccines are widely available.
Despite
setting a record, experts said the 2021 total was within expected
bounds. Police have fatally shot roughly 1,000 people in each of the
past seven years, ranging from 958 in 2016 to last year’s high.
Mathematicians say this stability may be explained by Poisson’s random
variable, a principle of probability theory that holds that the number
of independent, uncommon events in a large population will remain fairly stagnant absent major societal changes.
That
the number of fatal police shootings last year is within 60 of the
average suggests officers’ behavior has not shifted significantly since
The Post began collecting data, said Andrew Wheeler, a private-sector
criminologist and data scientist.
“I
think the data is pretty consistent that there’ve been no major changes
in policing, at least in terms of these officer-involved shooting
deaths,” he said.
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
Sources: 19 Austin police officers indicted in protest probe
By ACACIA CORONADO, PAUL WEBER and JAKE BLEIBERG
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas grand jury indicted 19 Austin police officers on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for their actions during 2020 protests over racial injustice that spread nationwide following the killing of George Floyd, according to people familiar with the matter.
Multiple people spoke to The Associated Press Thursday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly. Austin Police Association President Ken Cassidy confirmed 19 officers are facing charges but did not have details.
It ranks among the most indictments on a single police department in the U.S. over tactics used by officers during the widespread protests — methods that led to the resignation or ouster of several police chiefs across the country.
Word of the indictments came hours after Austin city leaders approved paying $10 million to two people injured by police in the protests, including a college student who suffered brain damage after an officer shot him with a beanbag round.
Combined, the charges and settlements amounted to conservative Texas’ liberal capital of 960,000 people taking some of its biggest actions as criticism still simmers over its handling of the protests, which intensified pressure on then-Police Chief Brian Manley to eventually step down.
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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
Michigan cop charged with murder in Lyoya's death is fired
By ED WHITE
2 hours ago
DETROIT (AP) — A Michigan police officer charged with murder after shooting Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head has been fired, officials said Wednesday.
Christopher Schurr, a Grand Rapids officer for seven years, waived his right to a hearing and was dismissed, effective last Friday, said City Manager Mark Washington.
Schurr's dismissal was recommended by police Chief Eric Winstrom after a second-degree murder charge was filed Thursday.
Washington declined further comment, noting the criminal case and a likely lawsuit over Lyoya's death.
Schurr's attorney, Matt Borgula, said he wasn't representing the officer in the labor matter and had no comment.
Lyoya, a Black man, was killed at the end of a traffic stop on April 4. He ran and physically resisted Schurr after failing to produce a driver's license.
Schurr, who is white, claimed Lyoya had control of his Taser when he shot him. Defense lawyers said the officer feared for his safety.
The confrontation and shooting were recorded on video. Schurr, 31, had been on leave while state police investigated the shooting and prosecutor Chris Becker decided whether to pursue charges.
Lyoya's parents had long called for Schurr to be fired.
“Two words: about time. What took so long?” the family's attorney, Ven Johnson, said. “They knew this was excessive force and they put him on paid leave while the family buried their son in the middle of the rain.”
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you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
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another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
am about 120 miles away. I dont watch much tv news and not a fan of the local paper any more. It crossed my radar from an adbook post a few days ago. My mixed younger cousin shared something.
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
Feds charge 4 police officers in fatal Breonna Taylor raid
By DYLAN LOVAN
1 hour ago
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The federal government filed civil rights charges Thursday against four Louisville police officers over the drug raid that led to the death of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman whose fatal shooting helped fuel the racial justice protests that rocked the nation in 2020.
The charges are another effort to hold law enforcement accountable for the killing of the 26-year-old medical worker after one of the officers was acquitted of state charges earlier this year.
“Breonna Taylor should be alive today,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in announcing the charges, which include unlawful conspiracy, use of force and obstruction of justice.
The charges named former officers Joshua Jaynes and Brett Hankison, along with current officers Kelly Goodlett and Sgt. Kyle Meany.
Hankison was the only officer charged Thursday who was on the scene that night. Louisville police said they are seeking to fire Goodlett and Meany.
Local activists and members of Taylor's family celebrated the charges and thanked federal officials. Supporters gathered in a downtown park and chanted “Say her name, Breonna Taylor!”
“This is a day when Black women saw equal justice in America,” family lawyer Benjamin Crump said.
Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, said she has waited nearly 2 1/2 years for police to be held accountable.
“Today’s overdue, but it still hurts,” she said. “You all (are) learning today that we're not crazy.”
Taylor was shot to death by officers who knocked down her door while executing a search warrant. Taylor’s boyfriend fired a shot that hit one of the officers as they came through the door, and they returned fire, striking Taylor multiple times.
In the protests of 2020, Taylor's name was often shouted along with George Floyd, who was killed less than three months after Taylor by a Minneapolis police officer in a videotaped encounter that shocked the nation.
Garland said the officers who were at Taylor’s home just after midnight on March 13, 2020, “were not involved in the drafting of the warrant, and were unaware of the false and misleading statements.”
Hankison was indicted on two deprivation-of-rights charges alleging he used excessive force when he retreated from Taylor’s door, turned a corner and fired 10 shots into the side of her two-bedroom apartment. Bullets flew into a neighbor’s apartment, nearly striking one man.
He was acquitted by a jury of state charges of wanton endangerment earlier this year in Louisville.
A separate indictment said Jaynes and Meany both knew the warrant used to search Taylor’s home had information that was “false, misleading and out of date.” Both are charged with conspiracy and deprivation of rights.
Jaynes had applied for the warrant to search Taylor’s house. He was fired in January 2021 for violating department standards in the preparation of a search warrant execution and for being “untruthful” in the Taylor warrant.
Jaynes and Goodlett allegedly conspired to falsify an investigative document that was written after Taylor’s death, Garland said. Federal investigators also allege that Meany, who testified at Hankison’s trial, lied to the FBI during its investigation.
Federal officials filed a separate charge against Goodlett, alleging she conspired with Jaynes to falsify Taylor’s warrant affidavit.
Garland alleged that Jaynes and Goodlett met in a garage in May 2020 “where they agreed to tell investigators a false story.”
Former Louisville Police Sgt. Johnathan Mattingly, who was shot at Taylor’s door, retired last year. Another officer, Myles Cosgrove, who investigators said fired the shot that killed Taylor, was dismissed from the department in January 2021.
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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
Police
shot and killed at least 1,055 people nationwide last year, the highest
total since The Washington Post began tracking fatal shootings by
officers in 2015 — underscoring the difficulty of reducing such
incidents despite sustained public attention to the issue.
The new count is up from 1,021 shootings the previous year and 999 in 2019. The total comes amid a nationwide spike in violent crime — although nowhere near historic highs — and as people increasingly are venturing into public spaces now that coronavirus vaccines are widely available.
Despite
setting a record, experts said the 2021 total was within expected
bounds. Police have fatally shot roughly 1,000 people in each of the
past seven years, ranging from 958 in 2016 to last year’s high.
Mathematicians say this stability may be explained by Poisson’s random
variable, a principle of probability theory that holds that the number
of independent, uncommon events in a large population will remain fairly stagnant absent major societal changes.
That
the number of fatal police shootings last year is within 60 of the
average suggests officers’ behavior has not shifted significantly since
The Post began collecting data, said Andrew Wheeler, a private-sector
criminologist and data scientist.
“I
think the data is pretty consistent that there’ve been no major changes
in policing, at least in terms of these officer-involved shooting
deaths,” he said.
continues...
Weren't the record number of cops shot that year too?
Police
shot and killed at least 1,055 people nationwide last year, the highest
total since The Washington Post began tracking fatal shootings by
officers in 2015 — underscoring the difficulty of reducing such
incidents despite sustained public attention to the issue.
The new count is up from 1,021 shootings the previous year and 999 in 2019. The total comes amid a nationwide spike in violent crime — although nowhere near historic highs — and as people increasingly are venturing into public spaces now that coronavirus vaccines are widely available.
Despite
setting a record, experts said the 2021 total was within expected
bounds. Police have fatally shot roughly 1,000 people in each of the
past seven years, ranging from 958 in 2016 to last year’s high.
Mathematicians say this stability may be explained by Poisson’s random
variable, a principle of probability theory that holds that the number
of independent, uncommon events in a large population will remain fairly stagnant absent major societal changes.
That
the number of fatal police shootings last year is within 60 of the
average suggests officers’ behavior has not shifted significantly since
The Post began collecting data, said Andrew Wheeler, a private-sector
criminologist and data scientist.
“I
think the data is pretty consistent that there’ve been no major changes
in policing, at least in terms of these officer-involved shooting
deaths,” he said.
continues...
Weren't the record number of cops shot that year too?
More firearms all around makes everyone safer. That and less doors.
43,000,000 firearms sold in the US in 2020 & 2021. It’s working.
Police
shot and killed at least 1,055 people nationwide last year, the highest
total since The Washington Post began tracking fatal shootings by
officers in 2015 — underscoring the difficulty of reducing such
incidents despite sustained public attention to the issue.
The new count is up from 1,021 shootings the previous year and 999 in 2019. The total comes amid a nationwide spike in violent crime — although nowhere near historic highs — and as people increasingly are venturing into public spaces now that coronavirus vaccines are widely available.
Despite
setting a record, experts said the 2021 total was within expected
bounds. Police have fatally shot roughly 1,000 people in each of the
past seven years, ranging from 958 in 2016 to last year’s high.
Mathematicians say this stability may be explained by Poisson’s random
variable, a principle of probability theory that holds that the number
of independent, uncommon events in a large population will remain fairly stagnant absent major societal changes.
That
the number of fatal police shootings last year is within 60 of the
average suggests officers’ behavior has not shifted significantly since
The Post began collecting data, said Andrew Wheeler, a private-sector
criminologist and data scientist.
“I
think the data is pretty consistent that there’ve been no major changes
in policing, at least in terms of these officer-involved shooting
deaths,” he said.
continues...
Weren't the record number of cops shot that year too?
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
Police
shot and killed at least 1,055 people nationwide last year, the highest
total since The Washington Post began tracking fatal shootings by
officers in 2015 — underscoring the difficulty of reducing such
incidents despite sustained public attention to the issue.
The new count is up from 1,021 shootings the previous year and 999 in 2019. The total comes amid a nationwide spike in violent crime — although nowhere near historic highs — and as people increasingly are venturing into public spaces now that coronavirus vaccines are widely available.
Despite
setting a record, experts said the 2021 total was within expected
bounds. Police have fatally shot roughly 1,000 people in each of the
past seven years, ranging from 958 in 2016 to last year’s high.
Mathematicians say this stability may be explained by Poisson’s random
variable, a principle of probability theory that holds that the number
of independent, uncommon events in a large population will remain fairly stagnant absent major societal changes.
That
the number of fatal police shootings last year is within 60 of the
average suggests officers’ behavior has not shifted significantly since
The Post began collecting data, said Andrew Wheeler, a private-sector
criminologist and data scientist.
“I
think the data is pretty consistent that there’ve been no major changes
in policing, at least in terms of these officer-involved shooting
deaths,” he said.
continues...
Weren't the record number of cops shot that year too?
More firearms all around makes everyone safer. That and less doors.
43,000,000 firearms sold in the US in 2020 & 2021. It’s working.
Riots and lawlessness will do that then being locked down from the pandemic? Recipe for disaster.
ALEXANDRIA, La. (AP) — A woman outfitted with a tiny microphone and hidden camera walked up to a dilapidated drug house on a chilly afternoon last year looking to buy meth from a dealer known on the streets as “Mississippi.”
But as the informant disappeared inside with a career criminal with a rap sheet spanning three decades, her law enforcement handlers left her undercover on her own — unprotected and unmonitored in real time. And the devices she carried passively recorded a crime far more horrific than any drug buy.
Under threat of violence, the dealer forced the woman to perform oral sex on him — twice — in an attack so brazen he paused at one point to conduct a separate drug deal, according to interviews and confidential law enforcement records obtained by The Associated Press.
“It was one of the worst depictions of sexual abuse I have ever seen,” said a local official who viewed the footage and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the ongoing case.
“Just the audio from it is enough to turn your stomach,” the official said. “It’s a female being sexually brutalized while she’s crying and whimpering.”
Even as the woman cried and her assailant threatened to put her “in the hospital,” narcotics deputies remained down the block in the blighted neighborhood, unaware of what was going on. That’s because, as authorities told the AP, they never considered such an attack might happen and the devices the woman carried didn’t have the ability to transmit the operation to law enforcement in real time.
“It was recording but not to where my guys were monitoring it,” said Rapides Parish Sheriff Mark Wood, blaming the January 2021 incident on his inexperience from only being in the top job six months at that time. “There are always things you learn that you can do better.”
The case in this central Louisiana city of 47,000 underscores the perils confidential informants face seeking to “work off” criminal charges in loosely regulated and often secretive arrangements with law enforcement. Police rely on informants in a wide range of cases, compensating them with money or leniency in their own cases yet often providing little or no training.
Records show it wasn’t until the woman left the area on her own and contacted her handlers that deputies searched the single-family home and arrested Antonio D. Jones, 48, on charges of second-degree rape, false imprisonment and distribution of meth after recovering 5 grams of the substance in the sting.
Deputies surveilling the home after the woman went inside assumed she “must be OK” because someone else entered after her to buy drugs, said Lt. Mark Parker, the ranking officer in the operation.
Parker, who retired this month, told the AP that the sheriff's office didn't start using equipment capable of monitoring in real time until after the alleged rape, and often would send informants into stings without any recording equipment at all.
“We've always done it this way," Parker said. “She was an addict and we just used her as an informant like we’ve done a million times before. Looking back, it's easy to say, 'What if?'"
And while it’s not clear what kind of deal the woman struck with the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office, her cooperation as an informant didn’t seem to make much difference in clearing her own criminal record.
Just three weeks after her recorded assault, court records show, the woman was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia stemming from an arrest that happened about a month before the sting, and she’s been pulled over and booked on possession charges at least twice since then. The woman, who declined interview requests and is not being named because the AP does not typically identify victims of sexual assault, pleaded guilty to possessing drug paraphernalia last year and was placed in behavioral health court in lieu of jail time.
“It’s absolutely horrible,” said the woman’s attorney, Harold Murry. “She has a drug problem and I don’t know if she’s going to be able to beat it or not. But when you become a snitch, they keep your drug problem going and then they arrest you for it.”
Wood, who worked in the sheriff’s office for two decades before his election, confirmed that the alleged rape has prompted his department to finally update its equipment to keep an eye on undercover transactions as they’re happening.
“That changed everything, the way we do business," Wood said. “Technology has grown unbelievably. There’s things that we can do to keep the folks safe.”
Experts who reviewed the case for AP noted that the technology to monitor undercover transactions has existed for generations and should have been used to protect the woman in this case. The safety of the confidential informant is paramount, they said, prioritized over evidence collection or any other aim of the operation.
“I see this as a massive ineptitude,” said Michael Levine, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent who worked undercover for years and now testifies as an expert on police procedures. The deputies, he said, should “never in a million years” have sent the informant into such a high-risk setting without the ability to monitor the operation. “They’re cowards.”
David Redemann, a longtime Seattle police officer who now leads training on such stings, said the case highlights the vast disparities in law enforcement’s undercover playbook, with many agencies lacking the resources to properly train officers or monitor informant drug buys.
“We do this 10,000 times a day around the country, and not everybody has transmitting equipment,” Redemann said. “Is this tragic as hell? Absolutely. We need to learn from what happened here."
Law enforcement’s use of confidential informants is akin to a black market in which “deals are made under the table and often undocumented,” said Alexandra Natapoff, a Harvard law professor and leading expert on informants.
Not only are informants treated as disposable pawns, she said, but qualified immunity has made it very difficult to sue the police when things go off the rails.
“As a matter of common sense and humanity, police should take obvious, straightforward precautions to protect their informants,” Natapoff said, “but there is no law that says they have to.”
With few exceptions, states have been slow to track or regulate law enforcement’s use of informants, even in the wake of high-profile oversights. In 2009, Florida lawmakers adopted Rachel’s Law, the first comprehensive legislation in the country governing use of informants, after the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Rachel Hoffman in connection with an undercover drug sting for Tallahassee police. Among other things, the law requires police consider the “risk of physical harm" to the informant.
None of the deputies who arranged the undercover buy in Louisiana were disciplined, the sheriff said, and no other law enforcement agencies were asked to examine the handling of the case. A spokesman for the Alexandria Police Department said the agency had not been made aware of the sexual assault, even though it allegedly happened in the city and the suspect Jones has an extensive criminal history dating to 1992, including convictions in neighboring Mississippi for robbery, car theft, aggravated assault and drug distribution.
Jones is scheduled to stand trial Oct. 17, having refused a plea offer from prosecutors. His attorney declined to comment.
Last month, as AP was reporting this story, prosecutors without explanation reduced Jones’ charges from forcible second-degree rape to third-degree rape, or simple rape, significantly lowering the amount of time he could spend behind bars if convicted.
Prosecutors did not respond to requests for comment on why the charges were reduced or why the informant was charged with drug crimes even after her cooperation in the ill-fated sting.
Weeks before the charges were reduced, Rapides Parish District Attorney Phillip Terrell defended the deputies’ handling of the case, telling AP “there is no indication in my file that law enforcement did anything wrong.” The prospect of any informant coming under attack “had not crossed their mind,” the district attorney said, adding he was “certain they wish this would not have occurred.”
“They never thought of that, and had they known that was occurring they would have certainly stopped it,” Terrell said. “One of their big concerns now is the safety of the confidential informant.”
___
Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org. Follow Jim Mustian on Twitter at @JimMustian.
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another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
3 murder verdicts vacated in case investigated by killer cop
By KEVIN McGILL
Yesterday
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Three men imprisoned since the 1990s for a fatal New Orleans drive-by shooting were ordered freed on Wednesday, their convictions vacated by a judge after prosecutors cited the involvement of two notorioulsy corrupt police officers in their case.
Kunta Gable and Leroy Nelson were 17 when they were arrested shortly after the Aug. 22, 1994, shooting death of Rondell Santinac at the Desire housing development in the south Louisiana city. Also arrested with them was Bernell Juluke, then 18.
The men were ordered released on Wednesday by a state judge who vacated their convictions, acting upon a joint motion by defense lawyers and District Attorney Jason Williams' Civil Rights Division.
The motion described numerous problems with the original case. Among them, it said, the state failed to disclose evidence undermining the case against the men.
The motion also said the jury didn't know that officers Len Davis and Sammie Williams — the first officers on the scene — were known to cover up the identity of perpetrators and manipulate evidence at murder scenes at the housing project to cover up for drug dealers they protected.
Davis was later convicted for arranging the death of a woman who filed a complaint against him in an unrelated matter and is facing a federal death sentence.
The motion also said the only witness to the shooting, Samuel Raiford, did not initially describe three suspects, adding, “the first time three perpetrators were mentioned by anyone is by Len Davis after the three defendants were pulled over.”
The teens were arrested a short time after the shooting but there were no signs of guns or shell casings in their car, according to the 24-page motion.
The prosecutor Williams said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon that there was extensive documented evidence of Davis' illegal misconduct while operating “under color of law."
“He engaged in illegal drug trafficking, framed individuals who got in his way, and even went so far as to order the murder of a private citizen who dared to report his systematic abuses,” Williams added.
Juluke’s attorney, Michael Admirand, said in an emailed statement after the release that they were grateful to the court, the prosecutor and others for their work “in correcting this grave injustice."
“I am relieved that he has finally been vindicated, if disheartened that it took so long,” Admirand said of his client's newfound freedom.
The attorney added that Juluke had maintained his innocence from the moment of his wrongful arrest.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
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another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Judge Nicholas Ayoub announced his decision after hearing testimony last week and seeing video about the death of Patrick Lyoya in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
A jury will decide whether Christopher Schurr 's use of deadly force was necessary “after a full and fair trial,” Ayoub said.
Schurr repeatedly told Lyoya to take his hands off the officer's Taser, according to video. The refugee from Congo was on the ground when he was killed.
Ayoub only had to find probable cause to send the case to the Kent County trial court, a low standard of evidence at this stage under Michigan law.
“The law recognizes that law enforcement officers are required to make split-second decisions of life and death in dangerous and strenuous circumstances,” Ayoub said. “The reasonableness of those actions can hardly be fully and fairly judged by one person in a black robe with 20-20 vision of hindsight and from the comfortable and safe vantage point of the high perch of the armor-plated judge’s bench.”
Schurr's attorney argued Friday that the officer was defending himself while Lyoya wouldn't give up. A forensic video analyst, Robert McFarlane, testified that Lyoya failed to comply with 20 commands.
“He pushed. He shoved, popped his arms,” lawyer Matt Borgula said.
Schurr, an officer for seven years, was fired in June after being charged with murder.
A lawyer representing Lyoya's family, Ven Johnson, said a trial will be a key step toward “obtaining full and complete justice.”
Grand Rapids, which has a population of about 200,000, is 160 miles (260 kilometers) west of Detroit.
Lyoya’s killing by an officer came after numerous others in recent years involving Black people, including George Floyd, whose death in Minneapolis sparked a national reckoning on race; Daunte Wright, who was shot during a traffic stop in suburban Minneapolis; Andre Hill, who was killed in Columbus, Ohio; and Andrew Brown Jr., who was killed in North Carolina.
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
1995 Milwaukee 1998 Alpine, Alpine 2003 Albany, Boston, Boston, Boston 2004 Boston, Boston 2006 Hartford, St. Paul (Petty), St. Paul (Petty) 2011 Alpine, Alpine 2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
LAPD officer unjustified in shooting that killed girl, 14
Today
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles police officer violated policy when he fired a rifle at a suspect inside a clothing store last year, killing a 14-year-old girl in a dressing room, a civilian oversight board ruled Tuesday.
Officer William Dorsey Jones Jr. fired three times when police responded to a Burlington clothing store in the San Fernando Valley where 24-year-old Daniel Elena Lopez had brutally attacked two women on Dec. 23, 2021.
Valentina Orellana Peralta was shot and killed as she prayed in a dressing room with her mother, Soledad Peralta. Jones also killed Elena Lopez.
The Police Commission ruled that Jones was justified in firing once but that his two subsequent shots were out of policy.
Police Chief Michel Moore previously found in his own review that all three shots were unjustified.
Now that both the chief and civilian panel have issued their findings, Jones could ultimately face disciplinary action or even firing. However, he can appeal any disciplinary decision in state court.
An after-hours call to Jones's attorney, Leslie Lee Wilcox, seeking comment wasn't immediately returned Tuesday.
Police were called to the store in North Hollywood following reports that a man was behaving erratically and wielding a bike lock. He attacked two women, including one who fell to the floor before he dragged her by her feet through the store’s aisles as she tried to crawl away.
Following 911 calls, Los Angeles police walked through the store in a formation, body-camera video shows. Wielding a rifle, Officer Jones pushed to the front of the pack even as other officers repeatedly said “slow down” and “slow it down.”
The officers saw a woman crawling on the blood-stained floor and Lopez on the other side of the aisle, according to the video footage. “Hold up! Hold up!” another officer screamed just before Jones fired three shots.
Jones told the LAPD's Use of Force Review Board that he believed someone inside the store was shooting people, that he saw a bleeding victim, mistook the bicycle lock Lopez was wielding for a gun and that he thought a wall behind Lopez backed up against an exterior brick wall that would block the officer's shots. In fact, the area contained the women's dressing rooms.
In his report to the Police Commission last month, Moore said a majority of the Use of Force Review Board concluded that Jones was “hyper-focused on his belief that this was an active shooter scenario and may have failed to conduct an objective assessment when he arrived at the scene.”
The officer “inaccurately assessed the imminence of the threat of death or serious bodily injury" from Elena Lopez when he fired three rounds in quick sequence and should have reassessed the situations after the first shot, the majority concluded.
One of the bullets went through the dressing room wall and fatally struck the teenager, whose mother “felt her daughter’s body go limp and watched helplessly as her daughter died while still in her arms,” according to a lawsuit filed by the family.
The family’s lawsuit alleges that the LAPD failed to adequately train and supervise the responding officers and “fostered an environment that allowed and permitted this shooting to occur.”
Jones also killed Elena Lopez. An autopsy report showed he was on methamphetamine at the time of his death.
__
This story has been corrected to reflect that Los Angeles Police Officer William Dorsey Jones Jr. could face disciplinary action or even firing, not Chief Michel Moore. It has also been corrected to say that Jones could appeal any disciplinary decision in state court, not to the LAPD’s Board of Rights.
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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
5 officers charged after Black man paralyzed in police van
57 mins ago
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Five Connecticut police officers were charged Monday with cruelly neglecting a Black man after he was partially paralyzed in the back of a police van, despite his repeated and desperate pleas for help.
Randy Cox, 36, was being driven to a New Haven police station June 19 for processing on a weapons charge when the driver braked hard at an intersection to avoid a collision, causing Cox to fly headfirst into a metal partition in the van.
“I can’t move. I’m going to die like this. Please, please, please help me,” Cox said minutes after the crash.
As Cox pleaded for help, some of the officers at the detention center mocked him and accused him of being drunk and faking his injuries, according to dialogue captured by surveillance and body-worn camera footage. Officers dragged Cox by his feet from the van and placed him in a holding cell prior to his eventual transfer to a hospital.
“I think I cracked my neck,” Cox said after the van arrived at the detention center.
“You didn't crack it, no, you drank too much ... Sit up,” said Sgt. Betsy Segui, one of the five officers charged.
Cox was later found to have a fractured neck and was paralyzed.
The five New Haven police officers were charged with second-degree reckless endangerment and cruelty, both misdemeanors. The others charged were Officer Oscar Diaz, Officer Ronald Pressley, Officer Jocelyn Lavandier and Officer Luis Rivera. All have been on administrative leave since last summer.
Messages seeking comment were sent to attorneys for the officers.
Though each officer faces the same charges, some seemed to take Cox's pleas more seriously than others. Diaz, who drove the transport van, pulled over after Cox complained of his injury, spoke to him and requested that an ambulance meet them at the detention center. However, Diaz did not render medical attention to Cox as he lay face down on the floor.
The officers turned themselves in at a state police barracks Monday. Each was processed, posted a $25,000 bond and are due back in court Dec. 8, according to a news release from state police.
New Haven's police chief, speaking to reporters Monday along with the city's mayor, said it was important for the department to be transparent and accountable.
“You can make mistakes, but you can’t treat people poorly, period. You cannot treat people the way Mr. Cox was treated,” said Police Chief Karl Jacobson.
The case has drawn outrage from civil rights advocates like the NAACP, along with comparisons to the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore. Gray, who was also Black, died in 2015 after he suffered a spinal injury while handcuffed and shackled in a city police van.
An attorney for Cox's family, Ben Crump, said Monday that the New Haven officers need to be held accountable.
“It is important — when you see that video of how they treated Randy Cox and the actions and inactions that led to him being paralyzed from his chest down — that those police officers should be held to the full extent of the law,” Crump said.
Cox was arrested June 19 after police said they found him in possession of a handgun at a block party. The charges against him were later dropped.
Cox’s family filed a federal lawsuit against the city of New Haven and the five officers in September. The lawsuit alleges negligence, exceeding the speed limit and failure to have proper restraints in the police van.
Four of the officers filed motions last week claiming qualified immunity from the lawsuit, arguing that their actions in the case did not violate any “clearly established” legal standard.
New Haven officials announced a series of police reforms this summer stemming from the case, including eliminating the use of police vans for most prisoner transports and using marked police vehicles instead. They also require officers to immediately call for an ambulance to respond to their location if the prisoner requests or appears to need medical aid.
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Former Texas police officer found guilty of manslaughter for the shooting death of Atatiana Jefferson at her home
By Bill Kirkos and Ray Sanchez, CNN
Updated
4:08 PM EST, Thu December 15, 2022
Aaron Dean testifies in his defense Monday at his murder trial in the death of Atatania Jefferson.
Amanda McCoy/Pool/Star-Telegram/AP
CNN
—
A former Forth Worth, Texas, police officer was found guilty of
manslaughter Thursday in the 2019 shooting of 28-year-old Atatiana
Jefferson in her home.
Dean, who is White, faces up to 20 years in prison for the conviction.
He had pleaded not guilty to murder, a charge which carried a
possible sentence of five to 99 years. Jurors were instructed Wednesday
to also consider the lesser included offense of manslaughter.
Dean, in a gray suit, showed no emotion as the verdict was read.
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Louisiana officers charged in Black motorist’s deadly arrest
By JIM MUSTIAN and JAKE BLEIBERG
34 mins ago
FARMERVILLE, La. (AP) — Five Louisiana law enforcement officers were charged with state crimes ranging from negligent homicide to malfeasance Thursday in the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene. They are the first charges to emerge from a death authorities initially blamed on a car crash before long suppressed body-camera video showed white officers beating, stunning and dragging the Black motorist as he wailed, “I’m scared!”
Greene’s bloody death on a roadside in rural northeast Louisiana got little attention until an Associated Press investigation exposed a cover-up and prompted scrutiny of top Louisiana State Police brass, a sweeping U.S. Justice Department review of the agency and a legislative inquiry now looking at what Gov. John Bel Edwards knew and when he knew it.
Facing the most serious charges from a state grand jury was Master Trooper Kory York, who was seen on the body-camera footage dragging Greene by his ankle shackles and leaving the heavyset man face down in the dirt for more than nine minutes. York was charged with negligent homicide and 10 counts of malfeasance in office.
Others, including a Union Parish sheriff’s deputy and three other troopers, were charged with malfeasance and obstruction of justice.
“We’re all excited for the indictments, but are they actually going to pay for it?” said Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, who for more than three years has kept the pressure on state and federal investigators and vowed not to bury the cremated remains of her “Ronnie” until she gets justice. “As happy as we are, we want something to stick.”
Union Parish District Attorney John Belton submitted arrest warrants for all five of the indicted officers.
Belton had long held off on pursuing state charges at the request of the U.S. Justice Department, which is conducting a separate criminal investigation. But as years passed and federal prosecutors grew increasingly skeptical they could prove the officers acted “willfully” — a key component of the civil rights charges they’ve been considering — they gave Belton the go-ahead this spring to convene a state grand jury.
That panel has has since last month considered detailed evidence and testimony related to the troopers’ use of force and their decision to leave the handcuffed Greene prone for several minutes before rendering aid. And for the first time in the case, a medical expert deemed Greene’s death a homicide.
The federal grand jury investigation, which expanded last year to examine whether state police brass obstructed justice to protect the troopers, remains open, and prosecutors have been tight-lipped about when the panel could make a decision on charges.
Greene’s May 10, 2019, death was shrouded in secrecy from the beginning, when authorities told grieving relatives that the 49-year-old died in a car crash at the end of a high-speed chase near Monroe — an account questioned by both his family and even an emergency room doctor who noted Greene’s battered body. Still, a coroner’s report listed Greene’s cause of death as a motor vehicle accident, a state police crash report omitted any mention of troopers using force and 462 days would pass before state police began an internal probe.
All the while, the body-camera video remained so secret it was withheld from Greene’s initial autopsy and officials from Edwards on down declined repeated requests to release it, citing ongoing investigations.
But then last year, the AP obtained and published the footage, which showed what really happened: Troopers swarming Greene’s car, stunning him repeatedly, punching him in the head, dragging him by the shackles and leaving him prone on the ground for more than nine minutes. At times, Greene could be heard pleading for mercy and wailing, “I’m your brother! I’m scared! I’m scared!”
At one point, a trooper orders Greene to “lay on your f------ belly like I told you to!” — a tactic use-of-force experts criticized as dangerous and likely to have restricted his breathing. A sheriff’s deputy can also be heard taunting, “Yeah, yeah, that s--- hurts, doesn’t it?”
Fallout brought federal scrutiny not just to the troopers but to whether top brass obstructed justice to protect them.
Investigators have focused on a meeting in which detectives say that state police commanders pressured them to hold off on arresting a trooper seen on body-camera video striking Greene in the head and later boasting, “I beat the ever-living f--- out of him.” That trooper, Chris Hollingsworth, was widely seen as the most culpable of the half-dozen officers involved, but he died in a high-speed, single-vehicle crash in 2020 just hours after he was informed he would be fired over his role in Greene’s arrest.
The AP later found that Greene’s arrest was among at least a dozen cases over the past decade in which state police troopers or their bosses ignored or concealed evidence of beatings of mostly Black men, deflected blame and impeded efforts to root out misconduct. Dozens of current and former troopers said the beatings were countenanced by a culture of impunity, nepotism and, in some cases, racism.
Such reports were cited by the U.S. Justice Department this year in launching a sweeping civil rights investigation into the Louisiana State Police, the first “pattern or practice” probe of a statewide law enforcement agency in more than two decades.
Scrutiny has also turned to the actions of the Democratic governor, who oversees the state police.
A legislative panel launched an “all-levels” investigation into the state’s handling of the Greene case this year after AP reported that Edwards had been informed within hours that the troopers arresting Greene engaged in a “violent, lengthy struggle,” yet stayed mostly silent for two years as police continued to press the car crash theory.
Another AP report found Edwards privately watched a key body-camera video of Greene’s deadly arrest six months before state prosecutors say they knew it even existed, and neither the governor, his staff nor the state police acted urgently to get the footage into the hands of those with the power to bring charges.
Edwards has repeatedly said he did nothing to influence or hinder the Greene investigation and has described the troopers’ actions as both criminal and racist. But he has yet to testify before the legislative panel, saying he was unable to appear at a hearing last month, instead attending a groundbreaking ceremony for an infrastructure project.
“The governor has been consistent in his public statements that he intends to cooperate,” a spokesman told the AP. “That has not changed.”
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Comments
Did the story come out on how this came to be? I can't wrap my head around it still.
Fatal police shootings in 2021 set record since The Post began tracking, despite public outcry.
Police shot and killed at least 1,055 people nationwide last year, the highest total since The Washington Post began tracking fatal shootings by officers in 2015 — underscoring the difficulty of reducing such incidents despite sustained public attention to the issue.
The new count is up from 1,021 shootings the previous year and 999 in 2019. The total comes amid a nationwide spike in violent crime — although nowhere near historic highs — and as people increasingly are venturing into public spaces now that coronavirus vaccines are widely available.
Despite setting a record, experts said the 2021 total was within expected bounds. Police have fatally shot roughly 1,000 people in each of the past seven years, ranging from 958 in 2016 to last year’s high. Mathematicians say this stability may be explained by Poisson’s random variable, a principle of probability theory that holds that the number of independent, uncommon events in a large population will remain fairly stagnant absent major societal changes.
That the number of fatal police shootings last year is within 60 of the average suggests officers’ behavior has not shifted significantly since The Post began collecting data, said Andrew Wheeler, a private-sector criminologist and data scientist.
“I think the data is pretty consistent that there’ve been no major changes in policing, at least in terms of these officer-involved shooting deaths,” he said.
continues...
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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas grand jury indicted 19 Austin police officers on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for their actions during 2020 protests over racial injustice that spread nationwide following the killing of George Floyd, according to people familiar with the matter.
Multiple people spoke to The Associated Press Thursday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly. Austin Police Association President Ken Cassidy confirmed 19 officers are facing charges but did not have details.
It ranks among the most indictments on a single police department in the U.S. over tactics used by officers during the widespread protests — methods that led to the resignation or ouster of several police chiefs across the country.
Word of the indictments came hours after Austin city leaders approved paying $10 million to two people injured by police in the protests, including a college student who suffered brain damage after an officer shot him with a beanbag round.
Combined, the charges and settlements amounted to conservative Texas’ liberal capital of 960,000 people taking some of its biggest actions as criticism still simmers over its handling of the protests, which intensified pressure on then-Police Chief Brian Manley to eventually step down.
continues.....
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www.headstonesband.com
what in the fuck?
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
DETROIT (AP) — A Michigan police officer charged with murder after shooting Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head has been fired, officials said Wednesday.
Christopher Schurr, a Grand Rapids officer for seven years, waived his right to a hearing and was dismissed, effective last Friday, said City Manager Mark Washington.
Schurr's dismissal was recommended by police Chief Eric Winstrom after a second-degree murder charge was filed Thursday.
Washington declined further comment, noting the criminal case and a likely lawsuit over Lyoya's death.
Schurr's attorney, Matt Borgula, said he wasn't representing the officer in the labor matter and had no comment.
Lyoya, a Black man, was killed at the end of a traffic stop on April 4. He ran and physically resisted Schurr after failing to produce a driver's license.
Schurr, who is white, claimed Lyoya had control of his Taser when he shot him. Defense lawyers said the officer feared for his safety.
The confrontation and shooting were recorded on video. Schurr, 31, had been on leave while state police investigated the shooting and prosecutor Chris Becker decided whether to pursue charges.
Lyoya's parents had long called for Schurr to be fired.
“Two words: about time. What took so long?” the family's attorney, Ven Johnson, said. “They knew this was excessive force and they put him on paid leave while the family buried their son in the middle of the rain.”
PATRICK LYOYA
Prosecutor who charged Michigan cop praised by his critics
Michigan officer charged with murder in Lyoya shooting
A look at high-profile killings by US police
Charging decision due Thursday in police shooting of Lyoya.
continues....
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www.headstonesband.com
https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/03/us/jayland-walker-police-shooting-video/index.html
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you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The federal government filed civil rights charges Thursday against four Louisville police officers over the drug raid that led to the death of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman whose fatal shooting helped fuel the racial justice protests that rocked the nation in 2020.
The charges are another effort to hold law enforcement accountable for the killing of the 26-year-old medical worker after one of the officers was acquitted of state charges earlier this year.
“Breonna Taylor should be alive today,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in announcing the charges, which include unlawful conspiracy, use of force and obstruction of justice.
The charges named former officers Joshua Jaynes and Brett Hankison, along with current officers Kelly Goodlett and Sgt. Kyle Meany.
Hankison was the only officer charged Thursday who was on the scene that night. Louisville police said they are seeking to fire Goodlett and Meany.
Local activists and members of Taylor's family celebrated the charges and thanked federal officials. Supporters gathered in a downtown park and chanted “Say her name, Breonna Taylor!”
“This is a day when Black women saw equal justice in America,” family lawyer Benjamin Crump said.
Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, said she has waited nearly 2 1/2 years for police to be held accountable.
“Today’s overdue, but it still hurts,” she said. “You all (are) learning today that we're not crazy.”
Taylor was shot to death by officers who knocked down her door while executing a search warrant. Taylor’s boyfriend fired a shot that hit one of the officers as they came through the door, and they returned fire, striking Taylor multiple times.
In the protests of 2020, Taylor's name was often shouted along with George Floyd, who was killed less than three months after Taylor by a Minneapolis police officer in a videotaped encounter that shocked the nation.
Garland said the officers who were at Taylor’s home just after midnight on March 13, 2020, “were not involved in the drafting of the warrant, and were unaware of the false and misleading statements.”
Hankison was indicted on two deprivation-of-rights charges alleging he used excessive force when he retreated from Taylor’s door, turned a corner and fired 10 shots into the side of her two-bedroom apartment. Bullets flew into a neighbor’s apartment, nearly striking one man.
He was acquitted by a jury of state charges of wanton endangerment earlier this year in Louisville.
A separate indictment said Jaynes and Meany both knew the warrant used to search Taylor’s home had information that was “false, misleading and out of date.” Both are charged with conspiracy and deprivation of rights.
Jaynes had applied for the warrant to search Taylor’s house. He was fired in January 2021 for violating department standards in the preparation of a search warrant execution and for being “untruthful” in the Taylor warrant.
Jaynes and Goodlett allegedly conspired to falsify an investigative document that was written after Taylor’s death, Garland said. Federal investigators also allege that Meany, who testified at Hankison’s trial, lied to the FBI during its investigation.
Federal officials filed a separate charge against Goodlett, alleging she conspired with Jaynes to falsify Taylor’s warrant affidavit.
Garland alleged that Jaynes and Goodlett met in a garage in May 2020 “where they agreed to tell investigators a false story.”
Former Louisville Police Sgt. Johnathan Mattingly, who was shot at Taylor’s door, retired last year. Another officer, Myles Cosgrove, who investigators said fired the shot that killed Taylor, was dismissed from the department in January 2021.
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posted on BLM also
43,000,000 firearms sold in the US in 2020 & 2021. It’s working.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61218611
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you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
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another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/crime/footage-bradford-county-deputy-pointed-gun-discipline-body-camera-new/77-c5766c5b-36da-4b00-990d-6cd1cf99817b
By JIM MUSTIAN
ALEXANDRIA, La. (AP) — A woman outfitted with a tiny microphone and hidden camera walked up to a dilapidated drug house on a chilly afternoon last year looking to buy meth from a dealer known on the streets as “Mississippi.”
But as the informant disappeared inside with a career criminal with a rap sheet spanning three decades, her law enforcement handlers left her undercover on her own — unprotected and unmonitored in real time. And the devices she carried passively recorded a crime far more horrific than any drug buy.
Under threat of violence, the dealer forced the woman to perform oral sex on him — twice — in an attack so brazen he paused at one point to conduct a separate drug deal, according to interviews and confidential law enforcement records obtained by The Associated Press.
“It was one of the worst depictions of sexual abuse I have ever seen,” said a local official who viewed the footage and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the ongoing case.
“Just the audio from it is enough to turn your stomach,” the official said. “It’s a female being sexually brutalized while she’s crying and whimpering.”
Even as the woman cried and her assailant threatened to put her “in the hospital,” narcotics deputies remained down the block in the blighted neighborhood, unaware of what was going on. That’s because, as authorities told the AP, they never considered such an attack might happen and the devices the woman carried didn’t have the ability to transmit the operation to law enforcement in real time.
“It was recording but not to where my guys were monitoring it,” said Rapides Parish Sheriff Mark Wood, blaming the January 2021 incident on his inexperience from only being in the top job six months at that time. “There are always things you learn that you can do better.”
The case in this central Louisiana city of 47,000 underscores the perils confidential informants face seeking to “work off” criminal charges in loosely regulated and often secretive arrangements with law enforcement. Police rely on informants in a wide range of cases, compensating them with money or leniency in their own cases yet often providing little or no training.
Records show it wasn’t until the woman left the area on her own and contacted her handlers that deputies searched the single-family home and arrested Antonio D. Jones, 48, on charges of second-degree rape, false imprisonment and distribution of meth after recovering 5 grams of the substance in the sting.
Deputies surveilling the home after the woman went inside assumed she “must be OK” because someone else entered after her to buy drugs, said Lt. Mark Parker, the ranking officer in the operation.
Parker, who retired this month, told the AP that the sheriff's office didn't start using equipment capable of monitoring in real time until after the alleged rape, and often would send informants into stings without any recording equipment at all.
“We've always done it this way," Parker said. “She was an addict and we just used her as an informant like we’ve done a million times before. Looking back, it's easy to say, 'What if?'"
And while it’s not clear what kind of deal the woman struck with the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office, her cooperation as an informant didn’t seem to make much difference in clearing her own criminal record.
Just three weeks after her recorded assault, court records show, the woman was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia stemming from an arrest that happened about a month before the sting, and she’s been pulled over and booked on possession charges at least twice since then. The woman, who declined interview requests and is not being named because the AP does not typically identify victims of sexual assault, pleaded guilty to possessing drug paraphernalia last year and was placed in behavioral health court in lieu of jail time.
“It’s absolutely horrible,” said the woman’s attorney, Harold Murry. “She has a drug problem and I don’t know if she’s going to be able to beat it or not. But when you become a snitch, they keep your drug problem going and then they arrest you for it.”
Wood, who worked in the sheriff’s office for two decades before his election, confirmed that the alleged rape has prompted his department to finally update its equipment to keep an eye on undercover transactions as they’re happening.
“That changed everything, the way we do business," Wood said. “Technology has grown unbelievably. There’s things that we can do to keep the folks safe.”
Experts who reviewed the case for AP noted that the technology to monitor undercover transactions has existed for generations and should have been used to protect the woman in this case. The safety of the confidential informant is paramount, they said, prioritized over evidence collection or any other aim of the operation.
“I see this as a massive ineptitude,” said Michael Levine, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent who worked undercover for years and now testifies as an expert on police procedures. The deputies, he said, should “never in a million years” have sent the informant into such a high-risk setting without the ability to monitor the operation. “They’re cowards.”
David Redemann, a longtime Seattle police officer who now leads training on such stings, said the case highlights the vast disparities in law enforcement’s undercover playbook, with many agencies lacking the resources to properly train officers or monitor informant drug buys.
“We do this 10,000 times a day around the country, and not everybody has transmitting equipment,” Redemann said. “Is this tragic as hell? Absolutely. We need to learn from what happened here."
Law enforcement’s use of confidential informants is akin to a black market in which “deals are made under the table and often undocumented,” said Alexandra Natapoff, a Harvard law professor and leading expert on informants.
Not only are informants treated as disposable pawns, she said, but qualified immunity has made it very difficult to sue the police when things go off the rails.
“As a matter of common sense and humanity, police should take obvious, straightforward precautions to protect their informants,” Natapoff said, “but there is no law that says they have to.”
With few exceptions, states have been slow to track or regulate law enforcement’s use of informants, even in the wake of high-profile oversights. In 2009, Florida lawmakers adopted Rachel’s Law, the first comprehensive legislation in the country governing use of informants, after the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Rachel Hoffman in connection with an undercover drug sting for Tallahassee police. Among other things, the law requires police consider the “risk of physical harm" to the informant.
None of the deputies who arranged the undercover buy in Louisiana were disciplined, the sheriff said, and no other law enforcement agencies were asked to examine the handling of the case. A spokesman for the Alexandria Police Department said the agency had not been made aware of the sexual assault, even though it allegedly happened in the city and the suspect Jones has an extensive criminal history dating to 1992, including convictions in neighboring Mississippi for robbery, car theft, aggravated assault and drug distribution.
Jones is scheduled to stand trial Oct. 17, having refused a plea offer from prosecutors. His attorney declined to comment.
Last month, as AP was reporting this story, prosecutors without explanation reduced Jones’ charges from forcible second-degree rape to third-degree rape, or simple rape, significantly lowering the amount of time he could spend behind bars if convicted.
Prosecutors did not respond to requests for comment on why the charges were reduced or why the informant was charged with drug crimes even after her cooperation in the ill-fated sting.
Weeks before the charges were reduced, Rapides Parish District Attorney Phillip Terrell defended the deputies’ handling of the case, telling AP “there is no indication in my file that law enforcement did anything wrong.” The prospect of any informant coming under attack “had not crossed their mind,” the district attorney said, adding he was “certain they wish this would not have occurred.”
“They never thought of that, and had they known that was occurring they would have certainly stopped it,” Terrell said. “One of their big concerns now is the safety of the confidential informant.”
___
Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org. Follow Jim Mustian on Twitter at @JimMustian.
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another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
A woman got abused on their watch. That is messed up.
https://people.com/human-interest/officer-buys-mom-car-seats-no-ticket/
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Three men imprisoned since the 1990s for a fatal New Orleans drive-by shooting were ordered freed on Wednesday, their convictions vacated by a judge after prosecutors cited the involvement of two notorioulsy corrupt police officers in their case.
Kunta Gable and Leroy Nelson were 17 when they were arrested shortly after the Aug. 22, 1994, shooting death of Rondell Santinac at the Desire housing development in the south Louisiana city. Also arrested with them was Bernell Juluke, then 18.
The men were ordered released on Wednesday by a state judge who vacated their convictions, acting upon a joint motion by defense lawyers and District Attorney Jason Williams' Civil Rights Division.
The motion described numerous problems with the original case. Among them, it said, the state failed to disclose evidence undermining the case against the men.
The motion also said the jury didn't know that officers Len Davis and Sammie Williams — the first officers on the scene — were known to cover up the identity of perpetrators and manipulate evidence at murder scenes at the housing project to cover up for drug dealers they protected.
Davis was later convicted for arranging the death of a woman who filed a complaint against him in an unrelated matter and is facing a federal death sentence.
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The motion also said the only witness to the shooting, Samuel Raiford, did not initially describe three suspects, adding, “the first time three perpetrators were mentioned by anyone is by Len Davis after the three defendants were pulled over.”
The teens were arrested a short time after the shooting but there were no signs of guns or shell casings in their car, according to the 24-page motion.
The prosecutor Williams said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon that there was extensive documented evidence of Davis' illegal misconduct while operating “under color of law."
“He engaged in illegal drug trafficking, framed individuals who got in his way, and even went so far as to order the murder of a private citizen who dared to report his systematic abuses,” Williams added.
Juluke’s attorney, Michael Admirand, said in an emailed statement after the release that they were grateful to the court, the prosecutor and others for their work “in correcting this grave injustice."
“I am relieved that he has finally been vindicated, if disheartened that it took so long,” Admirand said of his client's newfound freedom.
The attorney added that Juluke had maintained his innocence from the moment of his wrongful arrest.
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
A former Michigan police officer who shot a Black motorist in the back of the head will stand trial for second-degree murder, a judge said Monday.
Judge Nicholas Ayoub announced his decision after hearing testimony last week and seeing video about the death of Patrick Lyoya in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
A jury will decide whether Christopher Schurr 's use of deadly force was necessary “after a full and fair trial,” Ayoub said.
Lyoya, 26, briefly ran from a traffic stop then grappled with Schurr across a front lawn before the white officer shot him at point-blank range. The final moment last April was recorded on video by a man who was a passenger in the car with Lyoya.
Schurr repeatedly told Lyoya to take his hands off the officer's Taser, according to video. The refugee from Congo was on the ground when he was killed.
Ayoub only had to find probable cause to send the case to the Kent County trial court, a low standard of evidence at this stage under Michigan law.
“The law recognizes that law enforcement officers are required to make split-second decisions of life and death in dangerous and strenuous circumstances,” Ayoub said. “The reasonableness of those actions can hardly be fully and fairly judged by one person in a black robe with 20-20 vision of hindsight and from the comfortable and safe vantage point of the high perch of the armor-plated judge’s bench.”
PATRICK LYOYA
Judge to rule if ex-cop will stand trial in fatal shooting
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Michigan cop charged with murder in Lyoya's death is fired
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Schurr's attorney argued Friday that the officer was defending himself while Lyoya wouldn't give up. A forensic video analyst, Robert McFarlane, testified that Lyoya failed to comply with 20 commands.
“He pushed. He shoved, popped his arms,” lawyer Matt Borgula said.
Schurr, an officer for seven years, was fired in June after being charged with murder.
A lawyer representing Lyoya's family, Ven Johnson, said a trial will be a key step toward “obtaining full and complete justice.”
Grand Rapids, which has a population of about 200,000, is 160 miles (260 kilometers) west of Detroit.
Lyoya’s killing by an officer came after numerous others in recent years involving Black people, including George Floyd, whose death in Minneapolis sparked a national reckoning on race; Daunte Wright, who was shot during a traffic stop in suburban Minneapolis; Andre Hill, who was killed in Columbus, Ohio; and Andrew Brown Jr., who was killed in North Carolina.
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https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2022/11/14/attorneys-call-for-criminal-investigation-after-video-shows-man-beaten-by-camden-county-detention-center-deputies/
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The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles police officer violated policy when he fired a rifle at a suspect inside a clothing store last year, killing a 14-year-old girl in a dressing room, a civilian oversight board ruled Tuesday.
Officer William Dorsey Jones Jr. fired three times when police responded to a Burlington clothing store in the San Fernando Valley where 24-year-old Daniel Elena Lopez had brutally attacked two women on Dec. 23, 2021.
Valentina Orellana Peralta was shot and killed as she prayed in a dressing room with her mother, Soledad Peralta. Jones also killed Elena Lopez.
The Police Commission ruled that Jones was justified in firing once but that his two subsequent shots were out of policy.
Police Chief Michel Moore previously found in his own review that all three shots were unjustified.
Now that both the chief and civilian panel have issued their findings, Jones could ultimately face disciplinary action or even firing. However, he can appeal any disciplinary decision in state court.
An after-hours call to Jones's attorney, Leslie Lee Wilcox, seeking comment wasn't immediately returned Tuesday.
Police were called to the store in North Hollywood following reports that a man was behaving erratically and wielding a bike lock. He attacked two women, including one who fell to the floor before he dragged her by her feet through the store’s aisles as she tried to crawl away.
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Following 911 calls, Los Angeles police walked through the store in a formation, body-camera video shows. Wielding a rifle, Officer Jones pushed to the front of the pack even as other officers repeatedly said “slow down” and “slow it down.”
The officers saw a woman crawling on the blood-stained floor and Lopez on the other side of the aisle, according to the video footage. “Hold up! Hold up!” another officer screamed just before Jones fired three shots.
Jones told the LAPD's Use of Force Review Board that he believed someone inside the store was shooting people, that he saw a bleeding victim, mistook the bicycle lock Lopez was wielding for a gun and that he thought a wall behind Lopez backed up against an exterior brick wall that would block the officer's shots. In fact, the area contained the women's dressing rooms.
In his report to the Police Commission last month, Moore said a majority of the Use of Force Review Board concluded that Jones was “hyper-focused on his belief that this was an active shooter scenario and may have failed to conduct an objective assessment when he arrived at the scene.”
The officer “inaccurately assessed the imminence of the threat of death or serious bodily injury" from Elena Lopez when he fired three rounds in quick sequence and should have reassessed the situations after the first shot, the majority concluded.
One of the bullets went through the dressing room wall and fatally struck the teenager, whose mother “felt her daughter’s body go limp and watched helplessly as her daughter died while still in her arms,” according to a lawsuit filed by the family.
The family’s lawsuit alleges that the LAPD failed to adequately train and supervise the responding officers and “fostered an environment that allowed and permitted this shooting to occur.”
Jones also killed Elena Lopez. An autopsy report showed he was on methamphetamine at the time of his death.
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This story has been corrected to reflect that Los Angeles Police Officer William Dorsey Jones Jr. could face disciplinary action or even firing, not Chief Michel Moore. It has also been corrected to say that Jones could appeal any disciplinary decision in state court, not to the LAPD’s Board of Rights.
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NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Five Connecticut police officers were charged Monday with cruelly neglecting a Black man after he was partially paralyzed in the back of a police van, despite his repeated and desperate pleas for help.
Randy Cox, 36, was being driven to a New Haven police station June 19 for processing on a weapons charge when the driver braked hard at an intersection to avoid a collision, causing Cox to fly headfirst into a metal partition in the van.
“I can’t move. I’m going to die like this. Please, please, please help me,” Cox said minutes after the crash.
As Cox pleaded for help, some of the officers at the detention center mocked him and accused him of being drunk and faking his injuries, according to dialogue captured by surveillance and body-worn camera footage. Officers dragged Cox by his feet from the van and placed him in a holding cell prior to his eventual transfer to a hospital.
“I think I cracked my neck,” Cox said after the van arrived at the detention center.
“You didn't crack it, no, you drank too much ... Sit up,” said Sgt. Betsy Segui, one of the five officers charged.
Cox was later found to have a fractured neck and was paralyzed.
The five New Haven police officers were charged with second-degree reckless endangerment and cruelty, both misdemeanors. The others charged were Officer Oscar Diaz, Officer Ronald Pressley, Officer Jocelyn Lavandier and Officer Luis Rivera. All have been on administrative leave since last summer.
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Messages seeking comment were sent to attorneys for the officers.
Though each officer faces the same charges, some seemed to take Cox's pleas more seriously than others. Diaz, who drove the transport van, pulled over after Cox complained of his injury, spoke to him and requested that an ambulance meet them at the detention center. However, Diaz did not render medical attention to Cox as he lay face down on the floor.
The officers turned themselves in at a state police barracks Monday. Each was processed, posted a $25,000 bond and are due back in court Dec. 8, according to a news release from state police.
New Haven's police chief, speaking to reporters Monday along with the city's mayor, said it was important for the department to be transparent and accountable.
“You can make mistakes, but you can’t treat people poorly, period. You cannot treat people the way Mr. Cox was treated,” said Police Chief Karl Jacobson.
The case has drawn outrage from civil rights advocates like the NAACP, along with comparisons to the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore. Gray, who was also Black, died in 2015 after he suffered a spinal injury while handcuffed and shackled in a city police van.
An attorney for Cox's family, Ben Crump, said Monday that the New Haven officers need to be held accountable.
“It is important — when you see that video of how they treated Randy Cox and the actions and inactions that led to him being paralyzed from his chest down — that those police officers should be held to the full extent of the law,” Crump said.
Cox was arrested June 19 after police said they found him in possession of a handgun at a block party. The charges against him were later dropped.
Cox’s family filed a federal lawsuit against the city of New Haven and the five officers in September. The lawsuit alleges negligence, exceeding the speed limit and failure to have proper restraints in the police van.
Four of the officers filed motions last week claiming qualified immunity from the lawsuit, arguing that their actions in the case did not violate any “clearly established” legal standard.
New Haven officials announced a series of police reforms this summer stemming from the case, including eliminating the use of police vans for most prisoner transports and using marked police vehicles instead. They also require officers to immediately call for an ambulance to respond to their location if the prisoner requests or appears to need medical aid.
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Former Texas police officer found guilty of manslaughter for the shooting death of Atatiana Jefferson at her home
A former Forth Worth, Texas, police officer was found guilty of manslaughter Thursday in the 2019 shooting of 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson in her home.
Dean, who is White, faces up to 20 years in prison for the conviction.
He had pleaded not guilty to murder, a charge which carried a possible sentence of five to 99 years. Jurors were instructed Wednesday to also consider the lesser included offense of manslaughter.
Dean, in a gray suit, showed no emotion as the verdict was read.
continues......
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
FARMERVILLE, La. (AP) — Five Louisiana law enforcement officers were charged with state crimes ranging from negligent homicide to malfeasance Thursday in the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene. They are the first charges to emerge from a death authorities initially blamed on a car crash before long suppressed body-camera video showed white officers beating, stunning and dragging the Black motorist as he wailed, “I’m scared!”
Greene’s bloody death on a roadside in rural northeast Louisiana got little attention until an Associated Press investigation exposed a cover-up and prompted scrutiny of top Louisiana State Police brass, a sweeping U.S. Justice Department review of the agency and a legislative inquiry now looking at what Gov. John Bel Edwards knew and when he knew it.
Facing the most serious charges from a state grand jury was Master Trooper Kory York, who was seen on the body-camera footage dragging Greene by his ankle shackles and leaving the heavyset man face down in the dirt for more than nine minutes. York was charged with negligent homicide and 10 counts of malfeasance in office.
Others, including a Union Parish sheriff’s deputy and three other troopers, were charged with malfeasance and obstruction of justice.
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“We’re all excited for the indictments, but are they actually going to pay for it?” said Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, who for more than three years has kept the pressure on state and federal investigators and vowed not to bury the cremated remains of her “Ronnie” until she gets justice. “As happy as we are, we want something to stick.”
Union Parish District Attorney John Belton submitted arrest warrants for all five of the indicted officers.
Belton had long held off on pursuing state charges at the request of the U.S. Justice Department, which is conducting a separate criminal investigation. But as years passed and federal prosecutors grew increasingly skeptical they could prove the officers acted “willfully” — a key component of the civil rights charges they’ve been considering — they gave Belton the go-ahead this spring to convene a state grand jury.
That panel has has since last month considered detailed evidence and testimony related to the troopers’ use of force and their decision to leave the handcuffed Greene prone for several minutes before rendering aid. And for the first time in the case, a medical expert deemed Greene’s death a homicide.
The federal grand jury investigation, which expanded last year to examine whether state police brass obstructed justice to protect the troopers, remains open, and prosecutors have been tight-lipped about when the panel could make a decision on charges.
Greene’s May 10, 2019, death was shrouded in secrecy from the beginning, when authorities told grieving relatives that the 49-year-old died in a car crash at the end of a high-speed chase near Monroe — an account questioned by both his family and even an emergency room doctor who noted Greene’s battered body. Still, a coroner’s report listed Greene’s cause of death as a motor vehicle accident, a state police crash report omitted any mention of troopers using force and 462 days would pass before state police began an internal probe.
All the while, the body-camera video remained so secret it was withheld from Greene’s initial autopsy and officials from Edwards on down declined repeated requests to release it, citing ongoing investigations.
But then last year, the AP obtained and published the footage, which showed what really happened: Troopers swarming Greene’s car, stunning him repeatedly, punching him in the head, dragging him by the shackles and leaving him prone on the ground for more than nine minutes. At times, Greene could be heard pleading for mercy and wailing, “I’m your brother! I’m scared! I’m scared!”
At one point, a trooper orders Greene to “lay on your f------ belly like I told you to!” — a tactic use-of-force experts criticized as dangerous and likely to have restricted his breathing. A sheriff’s deputy can also be heard taunting, “Yeah, yeah, that s--- hurts, doesn’t it?”
Fallout brought federal scrutiny not just to the troopers but to whether top brass obstructed justice to protect them.
Investigators have focused on a meeting in which detectives say that state police commanders pressured them to hold off on arresting a trooper seen on body-camera video striking Greene in the head and later boasting, “I beat the ever-living f--- out of him.” That trooper, Chris Hollingsworth, was widely seen as the most culpable of the half-dozen officers involved, but he died in a high-speed, single-vehicle crash in 2020 just hours after he was informed he would be fired over his role in Greene’s arrest.
The AP later found that Greene’s arrest was among at least a dozen cases over the past decade in which state police troopers or their bosses ignored or concealed evidence of beatings of mostly Black men, deflected blame and impeded efforts to root out misconduct. Dozens of current and former troopers said the beatings were countenanced by a culture of impunity, nepotism and, in some cases, racism.
Such reports were cited by the U.S. Justice Department this year in launching a sweeping civil rights investigation into the Louisiana State Police, the first “pattern or practice” probe of a statewide law enforcement agency in more than two decades.
Scrutiny has also turned to the actions of the Democratic governor, who oversees the state police.
A legislative panel launched an “all-levels” investigation into the state’s handling of the Greene case this year after AP reported that Edwards had been informed within hours that the troopers arresting Greene engaged in a “violent, lengthy struggle,” yet stayed mostly silent for two years as police continued to press the car crash theory.
Another AP report found Edwards privately watched a key body-camera video of Greene’s deadly arrest six months before state prosecutors say they knew it even existed, and neither the governor, his staff nor the state police acted urgently to get the footage into the hands of those with the power to bring charges.
Edwards has repeatedly said he did nothing to influence or hinder the Greene investigation and has described the troopers’ actions as both criminal and racist. But he has yet to testify before the legislative panel, saying he was unable to appear at a hearing last month, instead attending a groundbreaking ceremony for an infrastructure project.
“The governor has been consistent in his public statements that he intends to cooperate,” a spokesman told the AP. “That has not changed.”
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
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