POLICE BRUTALITY CASES: WALTER SCOTT MURDER & MORE

[HairOfTheDog]

Baltimore PD Practices -- Scathing Report from DOJ Investigation

The DOJ has completed its investigation of the Baltimore PD. The conclusions are as bad or worse than those of the Cleveland PD.

The investigation found that the civil rights of citizens, of all colors, were routinely violated. It doesn't surprise me, but does piss me off. This shit goes on in a lot of cities.

- UNCONSTITUTIONAL STOPS/FRISKS:
Baltimore PD officers pulled over, stopped, and frisked people with no probable cause whatsoever all the time. African Americans were the target of such unconstitutional police actions much more frequently, with one black man stopped 30 times in a year without doing anything that merited arrest or ticketing.

- PUBLIC STRIP SEARCHES:
Citizens were forced to strip and be searched in public without probable cause. One woman was pulled over for an alleged busted tail light (sound familiar?), made to get out of the car, ordered to strip in public so a female officer could search her, and told she had to comply when she hesitated to undress right there. A female officer put on gloves and searched her, including anal cavity, right there on the spot (with witnesses present). The woman had nothing on her and was sent on her way.

Luckily, the gloves the female officer used had been discarded on the scene and recovered when the woman complained, so what she and the witnesses described was verified. The Baltimore PD had been accused of the same public strip searching w/o probable cause many times. When questioned about the violation of the woman's civil rights, the male officer said, "I turned away when she undressed". Effin' dipshit.

- HARASSMENT/RETALIATION:
New patrol officers were told by training officers to stop people who weren't in violation of any rules or laws. When some new officers objected because they had no cause to do so, the training officers told them, "then make something up." Citizens who objected were regularly retaliated against by police who arrested them and cited their mouths as weapons. Seriously.

- BRUTALITY:
Excessive and undue force was used regularly by police against community members.

There's a whole lot more in the 163 page report, and the Baltimore PD has a laundry list of mandatory systemic and training changes which must be made. The new Chief of Police and the Mayor had already started making some of them before the investigation was complete.

SOURCE: DOJ Report and Stats: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documen...-FINAL.pdf

[Duchess]

Wow. I think most of us knew there was stuff like this going down but thinking & knowing are two very different things. That's just awful, so shameful and plays a tremendous role in why the police are so disrespected there.

That one guy was pulled over more than twice a month, every month, for a fricken year. Daaaamn.

[HairOfTheDog]

An Atlanta PD Officer has been fired, thankfully so for the sake of public safety.



Three-year department veteran James Burns went to an apartment complex on Father's Day evening, in response to a report from an off-duty officer that someone might be trying to break into cars in the parking lot of his girlfriend's complex.

While Burns was looking around for a potential burglar, 22-year-old Dervius Rogers was driving out of the complex and attempted to drive around Burns' squad car, which had its siren light on.

When Rogers didn't stop on command, Burns shot into the car and hit the driver in the head, killing Rogers. Rogers' sedan rolled into the parking lot of bar and smashed into an SUV.

Burns claimed that he feared for his life because he thought the suspect was going to run him down. However, surveillance from the complex contradicted that claim and showed that Rogers attempted to drive away from Burns, not at him.

The internal investigation concluded that Burns had no probable cause to consider the then-unknown driver a suspect. (It's since been confirmed by police that Rogers was not the suspect.)

Officer Burns did not know if the suspect he was chasing was inside the car and fired at it as it drove away from — not toward — the cop, according to a report released Wednesday.

“He had no idea who was in the vehicle. He had no idea if that was the vehicle he should be concerned with. He just discharged his weapon," Sgt. Warren Pickard told the media. “The officer simply acted in a way that we cannot support.”

Georgia’s Bureau of Investigation is looking into the shooting for any possible criminal violation.

Ref: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national...-1.2711661

UPDATE 8/31/16: A Fulton County grand jury indicted James Burns on charges of felony murder, aggravated assault, making a false statement and two counts of violation of oath of office in the June 22 killing of 22-year-old Deravis Caine Rogers, according to defense attorney Drew Findling. Burns has been out on bond since his arrest.

[Duchess]

Wooooo. Good!

[Blindgreed1]

Finally Kaeperkick can stand for the National anthem again.

[HairOfTheDog]

Wooooo. Good!

I thought of LC when I posted the original story; I could see her labeling it a case of "Driving While Black."

Anyway, I wish Rogers had stopped instead of driving around and away from Burns, but Burns should never have shot into the car when his life was obviously not being endangered and he had no probable cause to stop the driver. So, I'm glad lyin' former officer Burns was indicted too; the tides seem to be changing as more people refuse to view such police conduct as excusable.

On a different but related note: Angela Corey, the Florida State Attorney behind the George Zimmerman and Marissa Alexander prosecutions, lost her re-election bid yesterday. She's finally out.

Corey often charged to the max (even when the evidence didn't support the charges, in my opinion). Her loss wasn't a surprise, given some of her case defeats and changing public opinion about the priorities and practices in the criminal justice system.

Jeff Ashton (Casey Anthony lead prosecutor) also lost his State Attorney re-election in Orlando, after serving just one term -- his loss did reportedly take a lot of people by big surprise.

[HairOfTheDog]

North Carolina

Charlotte is in a state of emergency following a night of protests, looting, several injuries and arrests, and the critical shooting of a protester.



The protests started after a father was shot outside of his son's school on Tuesday. Keith Lamont Scott (left) was shot by officer Brentley Vison (right).

Vison and other cops were attempting to serve a warrant; turned out Scott was not the guy they were looking for. Members of the community and Scott's family contend that he was sitting in his truck, reading a book, and waiting for his son to get out of school -- like he did every week day. They say he was unarmed.

Police say Scott was armed, he didn't follow instructions, and he was shot dead because they felt he represented a danger to their lives. Police and city officials say they found a gun at the scene, but did not find a book.

Vison was not wearing body cam, but other officers on the scene reportedly were and video of the incident exists.

However, the police will not release the police video footage and the community is demanding transparency. The police contend they won't release the video because it's an ongoing investigation. And, at a time when most states are pushing for more transparency in regards to police shootings, NC has passed a law preventing release of some types of police shootings.

[HairOfTheDog]

Oklahoma

An unarmed black man was shot in Tulsa on Friday night. Terence Crutcher's vehicle was stalled with the engine running on the street, obstructing traffic. A couple of people called 911 to report him on the road and acting strangely.



Police Officer ^ Betty Shelby was not responding to the 911 calls. She was en route to a domestic disturbance call when she came across the abandoned vehicle. She stopped to investigate and says Crutcher (pictured right) walking towards her with his hands in the air (which she thought was weird, but I don't) wasn't responsive, and she assumed he was on something and armed. About a minute and a half later, other cops showed up at the scene and dash cam along with copter cam starts rolling.

Crutcher was tased by another officer right before he was fatally shot by Shelby, from a distance while he had his hands up against the car. An officer heard on audio says just before the shooting that Crutcher "looks like a bad dude." Shelby says she thought he was reaching for a gun through the driver's side window.

Turns out, there was no gun on Crutcher and no gun in the vehicle. The family's attorney (Crump) says the driver's side window was rolled up, in any event. Here's the video of the shooting (it is disturbing), along with some local news commentary and interviews with Terence's twin sister and Attorney Crump.



LE promptly released the police cam and announced an investigation was underway. The chief admitted that the video was very disturbing and there are too many people being shot.

Anyway, protests in Tulsa have been peaceful and the community is pushing for continued transparency, an unbiased investigation, and justice.

[HairOfTheDog]

In the aftermath of the Tulsa and Charlotte shootings...

Trump insinuated that the female officer in Tulsa probably 'choked' because she was so scared and that she and officers like her probably don't belong on the job yesterday while he was doing African American outreach. He said he was very troubled by the shooting.

Clinton called for calm and more mutual respect between the police and community members while the investigation into the facts is conducted. She also said that the long list of police shootings of black men was 'unbearable' and needs to become 'intolerable.'

More athletes are joining Colin Kaepernick's silent protest and Richard Sherman of the Seahawks spoke out yesterday about the problem of police shootings, supporting Kaepernick's position. Sherman stands for the anthem, but he's speaking out.

[Duchess]

She stopped to investigate and says Crutcher (pictured right) walking towards her with his hands in the air (which she thought was weird,

She is a stupid cow who has no business wearing the uniform nor carrying a gun. If I were black and in the presence of cops I would have my hands in the air too. That should have been enough to show every cop there that he was willing to comply but no, again it was just too much to ask that a LEO have a handle on what's going down. This crap is infuriating.

[HairOfTheDog]

She stopped to investigate and says Crutcher (pictured right) walking towards her with his hands in the air (which she thought was weird,

She is a stupid cow who has no business wearing the uniform nor carrying a gun. If I were black and in the presence of cops I would have my hands in the air too. That should have been enough to show every cop there that he was willing to comply but no, again it was just too much to ask that a LEO have a handle on what's going down. This crap is infuriating.

It doesn't make justifiable sense to me at this point either.

By all accounts, Terence Crutcher immediately put his hands in the air when confronted by Shelby. She and her partner radioed for back up when he reportedly wasn't responding to commands and he quickly had 4 or 5 cops all around him. He wasn't aggressive with the cops, but he was tased with his hands up against the car and then, simultaneously or immediately thereafter, he was fucking shot dead despite the fact that he was doing nothing threatening.

I hope it can be determined definitively from enhanced video whether the driver's side window was rolled up or down. In either case though, there was no gun in the vehicle, so Terence could not have been reaching for a gun. Plus, Shelby initially said she checked out the vehicle (when she thought it was abandoned, before she saw Terence walking towards her).

It doesn't add up to me. I won't be surprised if he was in fact on drugs, but that's irrelevant to me. Was he threatening the lives of others and was he shot in self defense? Sure as hell doesn't look that way to me based on what's available to the public at this time.

[Maggot]

It looks like riots not a "protest"

[HairOfTheDog]

They're not mutually exclusive, Maggot. There were peaceful protests in Charlotte all day; some of the peaceful protesters reportedly dispersed when idiots hijacked the protests and began rioting (looting, vandalizing, and engaging in violence). Other protesters stayed and tried to talk sense to the rioters.

[Duchess]

I hope it can be determined definitively from enhanced video whether the driver's side window was rolled up or down.

I saw an enhanced still photo taken from the video. The family's attorneys were showing it the other day and the window is up.

[HairOfTheDog]

I hope it can be determined definitively from enhanced video whether the driver's side window was rolled up or down.

I saw an enhanced still photo taken from the video. The family's attorneys were showing it the other day and the window is up.

Yeah, it looks to me like it's rolled up (with a vertical blood streak) in the enhanced photo Mr. Crump presented as well.



I read that cops are now contending it wasn't 'all the way rolled up' though. I'm glad there's photo evidence and it's being further enhanced and scrutinized.

If it's proven to be rolled up all the way or almost all the way, it really hurts Shelby's credibility. She claims she checked out the vehicle before Terence appeared, so she would know for certain that the window was not rolled down, though that's what she claimed in order to justify the shooting during the post-shooting questioning.

And, there would be no way for the window to have been down when she first checked it and then rolled up when Terence was shot. Neither Terence nor any other officer was at the vehicle after she checked it out and before Terence was tased/shot at the driver's side door.

Anyway, whether the window was up or down, Officer Shelby would know there was no gun in sight given that she checked inside when she first arrived at what she thought was an abandoned vehicle, right?

On a separate but related note...I just read that Shelby's husband (also a police officer) was in the helicopter when the other copter cop radioed that Terence "looked like a bad dude" from way up overhead. http://heavy.com/news/2016/09/dave-shelb...est-david/

[Duchess]

I just read that Shelby's husband (also a police officer) was in the helicopter overhead when the other copter cop radioed that Terence "looked like a bad dude" from way up overhead.

I heard that said in the audio but I didn't know it was her husband until just now. How the hell would he know the guy looked like a bad dude. What a crock of pure shit. The man is driving something that families all over the world drive. He's wearing khakis for godssake AND the guy commenting is several hundred feet in the air. This is all bullshit from my point of view. They are trying to justify the killing. Fuckers.

[SIXFOOTERsez]

Isn't this the guy they found PCP in his car? Or was that the other one?
There is all kinds of shit wrong on this one, sounds like Scot lost her shit and pulled the trigger.
If this is the pcp guy that might explain why he didn't do what he was told and maybe why his car was "Stalled in the middle of the road with the motor running" I don't know about everybody, but if my car starts to stall, I get it off the road, not centered across the strip in the middle of the road. Sounds like another bad collision between an idiot and a poor excuse for a cop

[HairOfTheDog]

I just read that Shelby's husband (also a police officer) was in the helicopter overhead when the other copter cop radioed that Terence "looked like a bad dude" from way up overhead.

I heard that said in the audio but I didn't know it was her husband until just now. How the hell would he know the guy looked like a bad dude. What a crock of pure shit. The man is driving something that families all over the world drive. He's wearing khakis for godssake AND the guy commenting is several hundred feet in the air. This is all bullshit from my point of view. They are trying to justify the killing. Fuckers.

Her husband didn't make the remark; he was inside the copter with the officer who did.

And, yeah, I agree, based on what we saw (from the same vantage point, copter cam), it just looks like a big black dude walking with several police officers behind him at a traffic incident. I don't see any unbiased indication that he looks like 'a bad dude' either.

[Sonny223]

Can't we all just get along?

[Duchess]

One of the reporters I follow just tweeted that the DA has bought charges of 1^st degree manslaughter on Betty Shelby. I can't find any mainstream media reporting it yet though so...