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Well of course AG Sessions would do this. After all this is the man that Coretta Scott King warned the public about in her letter to Congress in 1986. The same dude that the GOP controlled Judiciary Committed refused to support to be a federal judge because of all the repeated allegations of racism against him.
Donald Trump's attorney general said Tuesday the Justice Department will limit its use of a tactic employed aggressively under President Obama — suing police departments for violating the civil rights of minorities.
"We need, so far as we can, to help police departments get better, not diminish their effectiveness. And I'm afraid we've done some of that," said Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
"So we're going to try to pull back on this," he told a meeting of the nation's state attorneys general in Washington.
Sessions said such a move would not be "wrong or insensitive to civil rights or human rights." Instead, he said people in poor and minority communities must feel free from the threat of violent crime, which will require more effective policing with help from the federal government.
Typical Republican double-speak. We are going to pullback on going after police departments for rampant civil rights violations ... but the move won't be "wrong or incentive to civil rights".
Again, you aren't getting it. How does suing into compliance work? All you're doing is defunding system that are grossly underfunded to start with. "Nothing's been fixed but we have more money now, yay!" Put pressure on the city councils and mayors to sack the offending police chiefs and officers, but FFS keep your hands out of the cities', already cash-strapped, pockets.
"I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character." - M.L.King Jr
Again, you aren't getting it. How does suing into compliance work? All you're doing is defunding system that are grossly underfunded to start with. "Nothing's been fixed but we have more money now, yay!" Put pressure on the city councils and mayors to sack the offending police chiefs and officers, but FFS keep your hands out of the cities', already cash-strapped, pockets.
I think you have a misunderstanding about how a consent decree that a local police department reaches with the DOJ works. It's NOT a lawsuit in the sense of the DOJ looking for a monetary payout. Or even like a lawsuit where a victim (or the family thereof) of police department sues for a monetary payout. Instead, what happens as a result of the DOJ investigation which results in findings like this ....
... is that the DOJ files a civil suit against the local police department and reaches an agreement to settle the case. The objective isn't a monetary payment to the federal government but instead to get the local police department to reform its practices to bring them into compliance with federal civil rights law. And very often than not this is extremely difficult to do at the local level because the police unions are too powerful in local politics to effect any meaningful change at that level. "Voting the bums out" sounds great in theory. But all too often the new elected officials the local electorate gets to vote on to replace them are beholden to the same police unions. And here in Missouri STL and KC are the only two cities left in the country that don't even have local control of the police departments. The Board of Police Commissioners in these cities are appointed by the Governor. But even in most cities where this is not the case very often it takes the DOJ which is not beholden to local politics to compel some of these local police departments to make improvements when it comes to respecting the civil rights of ALL the local citizenry. These agreements have "teeth" because they are court-enforced and not up to the local police department to pick and choose if and/or when they will comply. So it's especially troubling that AG Sessions is hellbent on holstering one of the most effective tools the federal government has for combatting systemic police brutality, excessive ticketing of the poor to fund local governments, civil asset forfeitures, etc.
The city of Baltimore and the U.S. Justice Department have reached an agreement on a consent decree that will require the city to enact a series of reforms to its police department.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch will announce the details of the consent decree at Baltimore City Hall on Thursday, according to the Justice Department.
Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh announced plans for a special meeting Thursday of the city’s spending board, which would have to approve terms of the agreement.The announcement comes weeks after Lynch publicly urged Baltimore officials to reach a court-enforced plan to reform the troubled police department. The agreement, which would mandate that the reforms that will be overseen by an independent monitor, would also have to be approved by a U.S. District Court judge before it becomes binding.
DOJ officials opened a civil rights investigation of the Baltimore Police Department following the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray, an unarmed black man who died in police custody.
The death sparked days of unrest and violent protests that roiled the city and highlighted serious problems within the police department. Six police officers who took part in the arrest were charged but none were convicted for the death of Gray, whose neck was severed inside a police van.
DOJ released the findings of its investigation in Baltimore in August, concluding that the department routinely violated citizens' constitutional rights and describing the relationship between the city’s African-American community and the police as "broken."
During the Obama administration, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division opened 25 civil pattern-or-practice investigations into policing operations across the country, a controversial strategy that is likely to be used much more sparingly by the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.
Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s attorney general nominee, has expressed his opposition to the use of such court-enforced agreements to require law enforcement reforms.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said that Sessions told him during a meeting last week that he was not prepared to commit to following through on recommendations that the Justice Department is anticipated to release in the coming days in its investigation of the Chicago Police Department.
“I asked Senator Sessions point blank will you support increasing . . . federal resources that come into cities like Chicago, Baltimore and St. Louis that help them through these crises,” Durbin said. “He was not prepared to make that commitment.”
The Justice Department began an investigation of CPD’s pattern and practices after widespread protest in the city following the court-ordered release of video that showed the fatal shooting by a white police officer of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.
So this isn't a matter of taking away resources at the local police department level. As part of the consent decree federal resources can actually be increased for their use. But that is in conjunction with a court-enforced agreement to get their sh*t together. Unfortunately, AG Sessions only seems interested in more of the same. And we have this entire thread outlining just an inkling how that's worked out so far.
Acting like the DoJ doesn't attempt to financially burden already underfunded systems is ridiculous.
"I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character." - M.L.King Jr
Really? A $10K penalty for a police department as large as the Denver PD is "drop in the bucket" negligible.
Even if it weren't negligible, if violations of basic constitutional rights are rampant (Boston and Chicago are a good examples), then even and especially if it hurts police departments should be punished for their behavior. We should nevertheless push to actually convict government employees, police officers and such in criminal court. People can open lie in Congressional hearings without even losing their job.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
Seven Baltimore police officers -- members of the department's Gun Trace Task Force -- were accused Wednesday in a federal racketeering indictment of robbing people, claiming fraudulent overtime and filing false affidavits.
The officers are accused of stopping people -- some of whom were not even suspected of any crimes -- and seizing their money and pocketing it. In one instance, several of the officers stopped a maintenance supervisor at a nursing home and stole $1,500 that he was planning to use to pay his rent, according to the indictment.
The amounts stolen range from $200 to $200,000, authorities said of the alleged conspiracy.
"These are really robberies by people who are wearing police uniforms," said Maryland US Attorney Rod Rosenstein.
The officers schemed to steal money, property and narcotics by detaining people, entering residences, conducting traffic stops and swearing out false search warrant affidavits, according to the indictment.
Rosenstein announced the indictments at a press conference with Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis and officials with the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration. The investigation began a year ago and included electronic surveillance of the officers.
"These are 1930's style gangsters as far as I'm concerned," said Davis. "This is a punch in the gut for the Baltimore Police Department."
The officers were identified as Sgt. Wayne Jenkins and Detectives Momodu Gondo, Evodio Hendrix, Daniel Hersl, Jemell Rayam, Marcus Taylor and Maurice Ward.
CNN was reaching out Wednesday evening to see whether they have attorneys.
The arrested officers are accused of engaging in "large-scale time and attendance fraud."
In one instance, one of the officers was paid overtime when he was actually on vacation with his family in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, according to the indictment.
Two were heard on a phone call boasting about committing overtime fraud for "a whole year" and making "at least $8,000 to $10,000 a month," according to the indictment.
The charges came less than two months after the Justice Department and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced a consent decree mandating police reforms in Baltimore.
That followed a DOJ report which said unconstitutional practices of some of Baltimore's officers lead to a disproportionate rates of stops, searches and arrests of black residents, and excessive use of force against juveniles and those with mental health disabilities.
"I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character." - M.L.King Jr
"I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character." - M.L.King Jr
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
Status:
Online
Mar 3, 2017, 11:37 AM
In a thread about police discrimination and abuse, an article about solid evidence of police discrimination and abuse is posted. "It's the fault of the Democrats," you say, as though that has any bearing on the individual officers committing crimes, and the underlying police administration and culture that allowed and promoted it.
And now the current (Republican) administration has confirmed their intent to roll back on these kind of investigations, because police can't effectively serve their communities if they're not allowed to forge overtime and beat, pistol whip, and sodomize a man.
It's time we finally did blame them (the "progressives" at least). It's their policies and "leadership" that have led to this, time and time again, with the wholesale expansion of the welfare state, which in turn has destroyed families and mired entire communities in poverty. Bad cops, though despicable, aren't the root cause of this, ridiculously overburdened systems are.
"I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character." - M.L.King Jr
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
Status:
Online
Mar 3, 2017, 06:46 PM
Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants
It's time we finally did blame them (the "progressives" at least). It's their policies and "leadership" that have led to this, time and time again, with the wholesale expansion of the welfare state, which in turn has destroyed families and mired entire communities in poverty. Bad cops, though despicable, aren't the root cause of this, ridiculously overburdened systems are.
I mean, you could maybe cite some sources.
We could talk for a second about Reagan's drug policies.
We could talk about how the crack epidemic fueled by CIA/Contra cocaine was devastating to the African American community.
Between 1984 and 1989, the homicide rate for black males aged 14 to 17 more than doubled, and the homicide rate for black males aged 18 to 24 increased nearly as much. During this period, the black community also experienced a 20–100% increase in fetal death rates, low birth-weight babies, weapons arrests, and the number of children in foster care.[7] In 1996, approximately 60% of inmates incarcerated in the US were sentenced on drug charges.
When a white police officer shoots an unarmed black man hiding behind a box spring IMMEDIATELY after saying "Show your hands!"
Note: shooting occurs at the 3:00 minute mark.
The Louisville (Ky.) Metro Police Department has released body-camera video showing the shooting of an unarmed black man that occurred almost immediately after an officer shouted at him to put his hands up.
According to the Courier-Journal, Police Chief Steve Conrad said that he was reserving judgement until the completion of an internal investigation after the video was released Thursday.
The victim, 38-year-old Bruce Warrick, is currently in the hospital in critical condition after being shot in the stomach.
The incident unfolded Wednesday morning as three officers searched an abandoned house after receiving reports about a man using drugs outside the residence before going inside.
In the video, officers are seen shouting as they walk around inside the house, identifying themselves multiple times and asking anyone there to come out with their hands up.
Eventually, Officer Sarah Stumler approaches a box spring leaning against the wall. Peeking behind the box spring, she sees Warrick hiding. Stumler shouts, “Show your hands,” before almost immediately discharging her weapon.
She fires once and then is heard saying, “Shit.”
Officers guide Warrick to the floor as he doubles over in pain and place handcuffs on him. The officers wait for an ambulance, applying pressure to Warrick’s wound. Stumler can be heard saying, “You’re fine, man,” and “You’re OK, just hold on.”
Warrick had to undergo surgery to remove parts of his intestines and pancreas, activist Christopher 2X, who was speaking on behalf of Warrick’s mother and grandmother, told the Courier-Journal. 2X said that one of Warrick’s cousins has seen the footage and appreciated the disclosure, “but felt nothing he saw gave him an indication that his cousin was posing a threat to the officers in the room.”
2X acknowledged that Warrick’s family was aware of his drug issues, adding that Warrick, who is now homeless, was enrolled in substance-abuse classes and spoke with his family more than a week ago and was in “great spirits.”
“What his mother and grandmother have told me about him is that he had trouble with substance abuse but he was a very passive individual,” 2X said. “It was not uncommon when he was depressed or anything like that to go to abandoned houses and sleep there.”
I'm waiting to read your sources citing welfare for destroying families and communities a larger scale than this.
I never said that welfare was more culpable than the failed "war on drugs", together they landed the 1>2 punch that has devastated the black community.
"I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character." - M.L.King Jr
Not justifying that shoot, though I imagine it's pretty terrifying to find a suspected perp silently hiding in an obstructed place (an ambush position).
"I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character." - M.L.King Jr
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
Status:
Online
Mar 6, 2017, 01:31 PM
Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants
I never said that welfare was more culpable than the failed "war on drugs", together they landed the 1>2 punch that has devastated the black community.
You literally called the Democrat's social policies the "root cause."
Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants
It's time we finally did blame them (the "progressives" at least). It's their policies and "leadership" that have led to this, time and time again, with the wholesale expansion of the welfare state, which in turn has destroyed families and mired entire communities in poverty. Bad cops, though despicable, aren't the root cause of this, ridiculously overburdened systems are.
If you don't believe that welfare is more culpable than the war on drugs, and the war on drugs was/is wholly a Republican/Conservative policy, why is it time to blame the progressives for anything?
Not justifying that shoot, though I imagine it's pretty terrifying to find a suspected perp silently hiding in an obstructed place (an ambush position).
or to parse that, "not justifying that shoot but here's a justification."
This space for Hire! Reasonable rates. Reach an audience of literally dozens!
or to parse that, "not justifying that shoot but here's a justification."
That's not what I said at all, but I didn't expect better, so...
"I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character." - M.L.King Jr
If you don't believe that welfare is more culpable than the war on drugs, and the war on drugs was/is wholly a Republican/Conservative policy, why is it time to blame the progressives for anything?
"Wholly a Republican/Conservative policy"? Ask Obama, whose administration was prosecuting federal drug cases at a historic rate, kicking over medical MJ dispensaries for no other reason than to look like he was "tough on drugs".
"I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character." - M.L.King Jr
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
Status:
Online
Mar 9, 2017, 03:55 PM
Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants
"Wholly a Republican/Conservative policy"? Ask Obama, whose administration was prosecuting federal drug cases at a historic rate, kicking over medical MJ dispensaries for no other reason than to look like he was "tough on drugs".
I suppose it'd be too much to ask for you to cite your sources.
The Obama administration, which two years ago unveiled a new clemency initiative, has commuted the sentences of 1,023 federal prisoners, including 79 on Tuesday — a total the White House says is more than the last 11 presidents combined. That effort, which relies on the Justice Department for recommendations of good clemency candidates, could fall by the wayside in a new administration.
Under Holder, the Justice Department in 2013 began a policy initiative known as "Smart on Crime" that directed prosecutors to avoid seeking mandatory minimum prison terms — punishments that limit a judge's discretion and are typically dictated by the quantity of drugs involved in a crime — for low-level, nonviolent offenders.
Justice Department officials say prosecutors appear to be following the directive: The number of federal drug prosecutions dropped in the last year. The cases that were pursued involved more serious crimes, and officials said fewer than half of all drug cases in fiscal year 2015 involved charges with a mandatory minimum sentence.
Maybe he felt guilty about his AG going after so many "dangerous" medical MJ dispensaries? Maybe he shouldn't have had them rounded up and prosecuted in the first place?
It was yet another dick move from out supposedly "coolest" POTUS.
"I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character." - M.L.King Jr
To say that anything Obama did was the "root cause" of the war on drugs that influenced arrest rates, prison crowding, etc, is silly. The war on drugs dates back to Reagan, at least.
Huh? I didn't say anything about Obama being the root cause of the war on drugs.
"I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character." - M.L.King Jr
And so the plot has thickened in the case that originated this thread. Turns out there was a second video from the convenience store that sheds an entirely new light on Mike Brown's actions. Unfortunately, I can't post it directly because it's not on YouTube yet. But you can see it for yourself by following the NYTimes link below.
TL/DR Version
1. Mike Brown visited the same convenience store right after 1 AM on the day he was killed.
2. Some sort of exchange took place with store employees. He handed them a small bag of ... something. Which they then examined and smelled. Afterwards, they got 2 large boxes of cigarillos, put it in a bag, and handed it to Brown.
3. Brown starts to leave with the bag of cigarillos. Then changes his mind and returns to the counter. He gives the bag back to the store employees for safekeeping. They then stored in behind the counter. The entire interaction strongly suggests that Brown and the store employees knew and trusted each other. Otherwise, he wouldn't have had the store employees "hold it for him" as it's called in street parlance.
4. STL County PD barely mentioned Brown's prior visit to the store in its official investigation report and never released the video. They claimed it was "irrelevant" to the case including his subsequent visit to the store where he got into an altercation with a (different?) employee over what appears to be the same two boxes of cigarillos. STL County PD said it was a simple "strong arm robbery". The second video suggests Brown was actually retrieving the items he had earlier traded (marijuana?) for.
DETAILED STORY
In the two and a half years since Michael Brown, a black 18-year-old, was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., the explosive case has been parsed in intricate detail. Witnesses offered varying descriptions of the fatal encounter. Investigators examined bloodstain evidence on the street where Mr. Brown died. And the police released a security video from a nearby store that showed Mr. Brown pushing a worker and taking cigarillos minutes before the shooting.
But a second, previously unreported video from that same convenience store included in a new documentary is raising new questions about what happened in the hours before the shooting on Aug. 9, 2014.
The footage shows Mr. Brown entering the store, Ferguson Market and Liquor, shortly after 1 a.m. on the day he died. He approaches the counter, hands over an item that appears to be a small bag and takes a shopping sack filled with cigarillos. Mr. Brown is shown walking toward the door with the sack, then turning around and handing the cigarillos back across the counter before exiting.
Jason Pollock, a documentary filmmaker who acquired the new tape, says the footage challenges the police narrative that Mr. Brown committed a strong-armed robbery when he returned to the store around noon that day. Instead, Mr. Pollock believes that the new video shows Mr. Brown giving a small bag of marijuana to store employees and receiving cigarillos in return as part of a negotiated deal. Mr. Pollock said Mr. Brown left the cigarillos behind the counter for safekeeping.
“There was some type of exchange, for one thing, for another,” Lesley McSpadden, Mr. Brown’s mother, says in Mr. Pollock’s documentary, “Stranger Fruit,” which premiered Saturday at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Tex., and examines the shooting from the family’s perspective.
But Jay Kanzler, a lawyer for the convenience store and its employees, strongly disputes that version of events, and said the new footage is unrelated to Mr. Brown’s later visit to the store.
“There was no transaction,” Mr. Kanzler said. “There was no understanding. No agreement. Those folks didn’t sell him cigarillos for pot. The reason he gave it back is he was walking out the door with unpaid merchandise and they wanted it back.”
In the two and a half years since Michael Brown, a black 18-year-old, was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., the explosive case has been parsed in intricate detail. Witnesses offered varying descriptions of the fatal encounter. Investigators examined bloodstain evidence on the street where Mr. Brown died. And the police released a security video from a nearby store that showed Mr. Brown pushing a worker and taking cigarillos minutes before the shooting.
But a second, previously unreported video from that same convenience store included in a new documentary is raising new questions about what happened in the hours before the shooting on Aug. 9, 2014.
The footage shows Mr. Brown entering the store, Ferguson Market and Liquor, shortly after 1 a.m. on the day he died. He approaches the counter, hands over an item that appears to be a small bag and takes a shopping sack filled with cigarillos. Mr. Brown is shown walking toward the door with the sack, then turning around and handing the cigarillos back across the counter before exiting.
Jason Pollock, a documentary filmmaker who acquired the new tape, says the footage challenges the police narrative that Mr. Brown committed a strong-armed robbery when he returned to the store around noon that day. Instead, Mr. Pollock believes that the new video shows Mr. Brown giving a small bag of marijuana to store employees and receiving cigarillos in return as part of a negotiated deal. Mr. Pollock said Mr. Brown left the cigarillos behind the counter for safekeeping.
“There was some type of exchange, for one thing, for another,” Lesley McSpadden, Mr. Brown’s mother, says in Mr. Pollock’s documentary, “Stranger Fruit,” which premiered Saturday at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Tex., and examines the shooting from the family’s perspective.
But Jay Kanzler, a lawyer for the convenience store and its employees, strongly disputes that version of events, and said the new footage is unrelated to Mr. Brown’s later visit to the store.
“There was no transaction,” Mr. Kanzler said. “There was no understanding. No agreement. Those folks didn’t sell him cigarillos for pot. The reason he gave it back is he was walking out the door with unpaid merchandise and they wanted it back.”
Regardless of what happened at the store in the early-morning hours, the new security footage does not resolve long-simmering questions about Mr. Brown’s encounter with Officer Darren Wilson along a Ferguson street that day. Officer Wilson, who claimed that he feared for his life and had been assaulted by Mr. Brown, was cleared of criminal wrongdoing by a county grand jury and federal civil rights investigators. He resigned from the Police Department.
Mr. Brown’s death and the sometimes violent protests that followed raised broad questions about how police officers treat black people, both in the St. Louis area and across the country, and many remain steadfast in their belief that Mr. Brown was murdered.
Protesters were particularly offended by the Ferguson Police Department’s decision to release the video that showed Mr. Brown shoving the store clerk, perceiving it as part of an effort to defame and demonize the young man. Ms. McSpadden, who also spells her first name as Lezley, questioned why that tape was released publicly while her son’s earlier visit to the store had been kept quiet.
“They destroyed Michael’s character with the tape, and they didn’t show us what actually happened,” said Mr. Pollock, who spent more than two years in Ferguson conducting research for his documentary, and who questions the decision to not charge Officer Wilson. “So this shows their intention to make him look bad. And shows suppression of evidence.”
The St. Louis County Police Department briefly mentioned Mr. Brown’s early-morning visit to the store in a lengthy report on the case, which tipped Mr. Pollock off to the existence of an additional video.
Sgt. Shawn McGuire, a spokesman for the county police, said in an email on Saturday that footage of the earlier encounter had not been released because it was not relevant to the investigation.
He added later that he could not confirm the video’s authenticity.
Spokesmen for the city of Ferguson and the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday.
Mr. Brown’s parents have filed a federal lawsuit against Officer Wilson, the city of Ferguson and the former Ferguson police chief. A civil trial is scheduled to start next year.
There are now claims that the video I linked to above has been edited by the documentary filmmaker. Unedited footage is supposedly forthcoming. We shall see.
There are now claims that the video I linked to above has been edited by the documentary filmmaker. Unedited footage is supposedly forthcoming. We shall see.
OAW
"Unedited" video. As I figured it doesn't refute the contention being made despite the official statements to the contrary. First of all it's from a completely different angle than the first video. And more importantly if no "trade" was being made as the STL County officials contend then where exactly did the store employees give the package back to Mike Brown that he initially gave them? Cause I definitely didn't see it.
Funny how the story changes when the accused "officer" is finally questioned under oath. From the civil lawsuit filed by Mike Brown's parents against Darren Wilson.
^^^
This is where Wilson admits to grabbing Brown through the window of his police vehicle. Just like Dorian Johnson said from the beginning.
^^^
This where Wilson admits that the original story of Brown reaching inside the police vehicle and "going for his gun" in the holster was BS.
^^^
This is where Wilson admits that his first shot from inside the vehicle injured Brown. Afterwards Brown ran away. And then he catches a case of "convenient amnesia" about how a round he fired while Brown ended up in one of the apartment complex buildings. And how the the police investigators somehow managed to never question him about that.
^^^
This is where Wilson admits that he saw Brown bleeding on the pavement. And again the official police investigators never asked him to explain the "blood patterns on the pavement" that were totally inconsistent with someone who was running towards him.
^^^
This is where Wilson admits to shooting Brown in the face. Then tries to get a reasonable person to believe that Brown was NOT falling to the ground after that shot .... thereby enabling Wilson to shoot him again through the top of his head. Let him tell it Brown was bent over because he was "charging" at him through a hail of bullets.
^^^
And this is where Wilson admits to tampering with evidence by washing Brown's blood from his own hands and clearing his own weapon.
The thing is "legally" he has wiggle room because of the differences between the narrative that was initially told to the public, Wilson's grand jury testimony, and what he's saying in this proceeding. For instance, remember this from "Josie" who was supposedly a friend of Wilson's then fiancee and now wife? First mentioned in this thread in an exchange between eBuddy (RIP) and I back in Aug. 2014. She called into a local radio station with this story right after everything went down ...
Originally Posted by Josie
So he goes in reverse back to them. He tries to get out of his car. They slam his door shut violently. I think he said Michael [Brown] did. Then he opens his car again and tries to get out and as he stands up Michael just bum rushes him, and just shoves him back into his car, punches him in the face and then of course Darren grabs for his gun and Michael grabs the gun. At one point he's got the gun totally turned against his hip and then he shoves it away and the gun goes off.
Now Wilson's then fiancee and now wife was also Ferguson PD. And many of us think that she was the one who made that call but regardless ... this is where the notion of Mike Brown grabbing for Wilson's gun while it was in the holster came about. And the Wilson supporters in the general public ran with it! Now Wilson was never that specific in his grand jury testimony. And then when pressed in the civil proceeding he admitted that it didn't happen like that. So initially the story was thing big huge ass black dude in the person of Mike Brown punched Darren Wilson in the face and the #FakeNews going viral in right-wing media said he suffered an "orbital fracture". Turns out the guy in the picture wasn't even Wilson. Then the story was Brown punched him in the face but somehow left no mark on Wilson or his own hand. He immediately "grabs the gun" and has it "totally turned against his hip". Well how would it be against his hip if it weren't still in the holster? But Wilson's testimony leaves open the possibility that Brown "grabs the gun" AFTER Wilson had drawn it and pointed it at him. And his grand jury testimony was that Brown told him "You're too much of a p*ssy to shoot me!" before trying to do so. But if that were the case how was it "turned against his hip"? And again, the physical evidence doesn't support that anyway because Brown was initially shot in the chest standing OUTSIDE the car. Not this "struggle for the gun" INSIDE the car.
On June 23, 2012, Darren Rainey, a schizophrenic man serving time for cocaine possession, was thrown into a prison shower at the Dade Correctional Institution. The water was turned up top 180 degrees — hot enough to steep tea or cook Ramen noodles.
As punishment, four corrections officers — John Fan Fan, Cornelius Thompson, Ronald Clarke and Edwina Williams — kept Rainey in that shower for two full hours. Rainey was heard screaming "Please take me out! I can’t take it anymore!” and kicking the shower door. Inmates said prison guards laughed at Rainey and shouted "Is it hot enough?"
Rainey died inside that shower. He was found crumpled on the floor. When his body was pulled out, nurses said there were burns on 90 percent of his body. A nurse said his body temperature was too high to register with a thermometer. And his skin fell off at the touch.
“The shower was itself neither dangerous nor unsafe,’’ the report says. “The evidence does not show that Rainey’s well-being was grossly disregarded by the correctional staff.’’
Maybe it's different in an institutional setting, but I have my hot water heater set to past the danger warning temp so I can mix in more cold, thus increasing the amount of proper temp water I have available.
Unfortunately things like this go on all the time.
In January 2013, police raided the home of a Cleveland drug dealer, saying in a search warrant that an informant had recently bought crack cocaine there.
But the drug dealer had surveillance cameras that proved the officers were lying. He gave the tapes to his lawyer, who showed the FBI. The feds then worked to uncover a massive scandal of a rogue street-crimes unit that robbed and framed drug suspects who felt they had no choice but plead guilty to fraudulent charges.
Four years later, authorities are still unwinding the damage.
Three cops who worked for the city of East Cleveland are in prison. Cases against 22 alleged drug dealers have been dismissed. Authorities are searching for another 21 people who are eligible to have their convictions tossed. On top of those injustices, there is a slim chance that any of them will be fully reimbursed, because the disgraced officers and their former employer don't have the money.
"I always took it on the chin when I got arrested for something I know I did. But when a cop lies to get you in prison, that's a different story," said Kenneth Blackshaw, who was arrested in a 2013 traffic stop and spent two years behind bars before his drug conviction was overturned.
The detectives, Blackshaw said, knew just who to target: people with long criminal records who knew their word would never stand up against a police officer's. He is trying to recoup all that he lost, including $100,000 the cops took from his home in an illegal search.
"A person like myself doesn't stand a fighting chance for his freedom when he stands accused of something he didn't do," Blackshaw, 51, said.
Clearly this "officer" had nothing better to do than to go hassling a black man walking home from work for "jaywalking". AKA not crossing the street in the intersection.
So up in Wisconsin the sheriff's department killed an inmate by refusing to give him any water for 8 days.
When his son died in police custody last year, TJ Thomas wasn't told of the torturous circumstances surrounding the 38-year-old's untimely demise.
He didn't know that Terrill Thomas, who was being held in the Milwaukee County Jail — run by national headline making Sheriff David Clarke — on shooting charges, had been kept in solitary confinement and suffered an agonizing week without any water before dying.
"They didn't give him water," TJ Thomas told NBC News Tuesday. "He needed water."
Terrill Thomas had been in solitary confinement for seven days in April of 2016 when he died of "profound dehydration" in the early hours of the eighth day, Erik Heipt, an attorney representing Thomas' estate told NBC News.
"[In jail] you have the right to [make a] call,"TJ Thomas told NBC News. "We didn't hear from them from the time he was arrested until his death."
On Monday, an inquest into Thomas' death began as prosecutors decide whether or not any jail staffers should be criminally charged for turning off the water in his cell, the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel reported.
The inquest allows prosecutors to question witnesses under oath before a jury as they decide what legal charges should or could be filed. The Journal Sentinel said the prosecution has not indicated who they are considering charging in Terrill Thomas' death.
But Terrill Thomas' father wasn't in court on Monday.
"It's been hard, you know what I mean," TJ Thomas said. "One reason we haven't been going to that inquest going on now, it's like bringing all that up. I can't deal with it."
Assistant District Attorney Kurt Benkley told the court that surveillance video shows three correctional officers turning off the water in Terrill Thomas' cell, according to the Journal Sentinel. They did not inform a supervisor or document that the water had been turned off, Benkley said.
"Nothing like that should happen in an American jail ever," Heipt said.
Heipt said the only food Terrill Thomas was given was nutraloaf.
"It's meant to be disgusting. It's a way of using food and nourishment as punishment, which I have a problem with," Heipt said.
"Everyone [involved] should be held accountable, even if it was the county's policy that lead to something like this," Heipt said. "It wasn't just a problem with jail guards. It was also systemic failure."
The Milwaukee County District Attorney's office and Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke's office both declined to comment to NBC News on the case.
The inquest is expected to last five days, the Journal Sentinel reported.
During the start of the inquest, prosecutors claimed that Terrill Thomas lost 35 pounds, and slowly became frail after the water supply to his cell was turned off, the Journal Sentinel reported.
TJ Thomas said he believes his son was moved to solitary confinement and his water supply shut off because he had blocked his toilet and flooded his cell.
Inmate Marcus Berry, who was in a nearby cell, said he called out to Terrill Thomas and asked if he needed water, according to a 2016 report by the Journal Sentinel. He said Terrill Thomas tried to say something that sounded like, "yes."
Just hours before Terrill Thomas died, Berry told a correctional officer who he said refused to give the father of six water, "If something happens to that man, it's your fault."
TJ Thomas told NBC News he had tried to get his son help for mental health issues.
"He shouldn't have been there. He had some mental things going on. A mental thing," TJ Thomas said. "We felt something was going on."
Heipt said that before being put in solitary confinement, Terrill Thomas was displaying signs of mental illness and was unable to ask for basic needs.
"He was punished for the manifestation of his mental illness," Heipt said. " He was not operating in world of reality. Instead of treating his mental health needs, the jail punished him for mental illness."
Several times before Terrill Thomas' death, TJ Thomas said, he asked the police for help with his son's mental health, but he said each time he was told there was nothing law enforcement could do.
Last month, the Thomas family filed a federal lawsuit saying Terrill Thomas was "subjected to a form of torture," according to the Associated Press.
Heipt said he will file a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of Thomas' estate, regardless of the outcome of the inquest.
I posted this iconic image from the Ferguson unrest way back in the beginning of this thread. This is unwelcome news coming out of STL today.
Edward Crawford returns a tear gas canister fired by police who were trying to disperse protesters in Ferguson on Aug. 13, 2014.
Edward "Skeeda" Crawford, a waiter at Sweetie Pie's in The Grove, cleans tables on Sunday July 19, 2015.
Edward Crawford, the man featured in a Ferguson protest photograph throwing a tear gas canister back toward police, was found dead overnight, his father said. Police say it appears the death was from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Crawford's father, Edward Sr., confirmed his son's death to the Post-Dispatch. He said his son's mother called him and they went together to the morgue early Friday to identify their son's body. Crawford Sr. was in tears Friday as he spoke with a reporter.
Police have not released the victim's name. But a detective confirmed the shooting, saying it was reported in the 1400 block of Salisbury Street, in the city's Hyde Park neighborhood.
He was in a car when the gun went off. Two women were in the car with him, police say. The women told police that Crawford had started talking about how depressed he was. They heard him fumbling around for something, and the next thing they knew he shot himself.
Crawford's father, 52, said he believes it was an accidental shooting, not intentional. "I don't believe it was a suicide," he said. He said investigators weren't saying much to him yet. "They're being hush-hush," the father said.
While police say it was self-inflicted, they say that doesn't conclude if the victim shot himself on purpose or if the gun discharged accidentally. The case is being handled by district detectives, not homicide investigators.
Edward Crawford Sr. said he last saw his son two days ago; he was in good spirits, certainly not suicidal.
"He was wonderful, great, always in a good mood," the father said. "He just got a new apartment and was training for a new job."
He said his son was training for a job at a Schnucks warehouse.
The younger Crawford, 27, of University City, was the father of four children. "He loved them to death," Crawford Sr. said.
In 2014, during the Ferguson protests, Crawford grabbed a smoking tear gas cylinder, fired by police at Ferguson protesters, and threw it back. In a photograph taken by Post-Dispatch photographer Robert Cohen, Crawford became an iconic image of the protests along West Florissant Avenue. Crawford found instant fame after coming forward as the man in the photograph.
The incident was part of protests on Aug. 12-13, 2014, near Chambers Road. The photograph was part of the Post-Dispatch's coverage that won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography in 2015.
For many, the act bottled up all the anger directed at police after the shooting of unarmed black teen Michael Brown. It represented defiance against police aggression. He told the Post-Dispatch that throwing the canister wasn’t an act of rebellion, but an instinct.
“I didn’t throw a burning can back at police,” Crawford told the newspaper in August 2015, after the county counselor's office cited Crawford under two county ordinances for interfering with a police officer and assault. “I threw it out of the way of children.”
The case is pending. A court date is set for later this month, County Counselor Peter Krane said.
After learning of his death Friday morning, Missouri Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-University City, reflected on social media about what he had meant.
"He is #Ferguson's hero," the senator wrote on her Twitter account. "For those of us tear-gassed, he was our local champion."
Put pressure on the city councils and mayors to sack the offending police chiefs and officers, but FFS keep your hands out of the cities', already cash-strapped, pockets.
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