General Police Abuse Thread

[fgalkin]

In the vein of the North Korea thread, stories about police abuse of power have become common enough as to be routine. With that in mind, rather than post a new thread whenever cops do something to overstep their authority (which happens every day now), we can all post them here.

So, to start things off...


New Jersey man escapes 5 year sentence after dash cam footage clears him, indicts cops

Evidence from a dashboard camera on a police cruiser ended a nightmare for a New Jersey man facing false charges of eluding police, resisting arrest and assault.

Prosecutors dismissed all the criminal charges against Marcus Jeter, 30, of Bloomfield, N.J. and instead indicted two Bloomfield police officers for falsifying reports and one of them for assault after the recording surfaced showing police officers beating Jeter during a traffic stop, according to WABC of New York. A third has pleaded guilty to tampering.

Jeter’s defense attorney requested all recorded evidence, but the police failed to hand over a second tape until additional evidence surfaced of a second police car at the scene. The tape showed Jeter complying with police, even as one punched him in the head repeatedly.

Without the tape, prosecutors had been demanding a five-year prison sentence.

Watch the WABC report, below.

http://videos.rawstory.com/embed/player ... ntent_item

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/22/n ... icts-cops/

Have a very nice day
-fgalkin

[fgalkin]

And another one:

Two Brooklyn cops sideswiped a parked SUV, then arrested a man sitting in the passenger seat of the vehicle, accusing him of damaging their car, a suit charges.

And the officers would have gotten away with their lie — had the whole bizarre drama not been caught by a security camera.

Robert Jackson, 31, told The Post his nightmare began when a police car heading the wrong way on one-way Watkins Street in Brownsville scraped against a parked Ford Explorer, which belongs to his girlfriend.

Jackson, a maintenance worker, said he was sitting in the legally parked car outside of his apartment when the accident happened. He got out of the vehicle and walked up to the officers.

“I was smiling, like, ‘How’d you run into me?’ ” he recalled. “Then the cop said, ‘Dude, you ran into me.’ ”

“I just wanted them to fix the damage and apologize, but it didn’t turn out that way,” Jackson said. “They were trying to cover it up.”

At that point, things got even more surreal

The two cops checked the block for surveillance cameras before arresting him for destruction of city property, according to the lawsuit filed by Jackson in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
“When they thought no cameras were on. I saw their gloves go on, and that’s when I was arrested,” Jackson said.

But fortunately for Jackson, the officers, Christopher Oliver and Shazad Shigri, missed one camera on the home of one of his neighbors, Jackson said.

The video, reviewed by The Post, corroborates Jackson’s story.

It shows the police car going the wrong way down the street on April 17, 2013, and scraping the parked SUV as the officers try to make room for a truck to pass.

Though charges were eventually dropped, Jackson had to spend a night in a “filthy, overpopulated, rat- and rodent-infested cell,” his suit says.

“The officer who arrested me said if I took care of the expense on my vehicle, they would take care of their vehicle and I wouldn’t have gotten arrested,” Jackson recounted. “He knew he was wrong.”

The NYPD referred comment to the city Law Department.

The city Law Department said only, “We will review the complaint.”

The suit charges that the officers “falsely claimed that [Jackson] was operating the parked motor vehicle and that [Jackson] caused the parked motor vehicle to strike the NYPD vehicle.”

Jackson was arrested for destruction of city property, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, the suit states.

But he was officially charged only with unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle because he had a suspended license.

The criminal complaint drafted against Jackson says he had the keys in the ignition — which could support the unlicensed-operator charge — when the crash happened, but Jackson said that’s not true.

“If he’s claiming that he was not in the driver’s seat and the car was not on — if either of those claims are truthful, then he wasn’t operating the car under the law,” said Todd Greenberg, a defense attorney and expert on traffic law who is not involved in the case.

The suit, which names the city and the two police officers, seeks unspecified monetary damages.

— Additional reporting by Daniel Prendergast

http://nypost.com/2014/02/21/cops-hit-m ... t-up-suit/

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[fgalkin]

Here's a video captured by a friend of a friend of the NYPD protecting and serving:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202392388963371

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Kamakazie Sith]

Here's a video captured by a friend of a friend of the NYPD protecting and serving:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202392388963371

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Why is this one posted here? Do you have more information because I'm not seeing the brutality or the abuse.

[Kamakazie Sith]

This site posts weekly if not daily updates and tracks police abuse cases for statistical data. It tracks them as far as possible from when they hit the news to the conclusion.

http://www.policemisconduct.net/

The site experienced some funding issues and went down in 2010. It's been reactivated.

I think you'll find the annual report under statistics to be very informative.

[TheFeniX]

This one is an oldie, but goodie for me. It's hilarious in a terrifying way.

You're a 31 year-old police veteran. A 15-year-old girl just kicked her shoe at you and is being a bratty teenager? Decision time:
1. Let it go because you're a grown ass man.
2. File additional charges because why not?
3. Shut the door until she calms down.
4. IT'S GO TIME MOTHERFUCKER!

Option 4 is obviously the best choice.

Schene told investigators through an e-mail conversation with his lawyer that once he was assaulted by the girl kicking her shoe at him, he entered the cell to “prevent another assault,” according to court documents. Schene also said the girl failed to comply with instructions in the holding area.

Man, fuck this guy. How pathetic can you be? Even Bush Jr. can dodge a shoe.

From the same site: Why are you hitting me?" We'd wonder the same thing, but we're too busy trying to figure out why 3 cops need to be involved in the arrest of a girl illegally riding her bike on the sidewalk. Or why we're arresting her at all? QUICK GET THE PEPPERSPRAY because "non-compliance" is a straight jump into an ass kicking.

Was there ever a time where police couldn't escalate violence because they feel like it? Cops can force a physical confrontation, then use the fact that you struggled while getting beaten and your limbs twisted into unnatural positions against you, even if you direct nothing at the officer.

I've heard it called "pain compliance" which is awesome except everyone who has touched a hot stove knows that people react to pain and usually try to get away from it. That reaction doesn't end because you repeat "stop resisting."

But being violently non-compliant and being non-compliant usually ends the same way when dealing with police: you get your shit stomped when really the cops should be asking "why are we wasting thousands of tax-payer dollars beating and arresting someone for riding a bike illegally?" Identify, ticket, release. The fact that every little fucking this in country is an arrestable offense at all is so mind-bogglingly stupid, I wonder how cops can get anything done.

I remember talking to a Dallas, TX cop on another board who made the quip "given enough time, I could find something to arrest pretty much anyone for." And somehow, this isn't a problem for him? Just like how no one can really kick me off public property until cops show up and start on with something like "controlling a situation" or the hilariously overused "obstruction" which can include stupid shit like calling an asshole cop an asshole, or just standing not far enough for a particular cop on a particular phase of the moon.

[fgalkin]

wrong thread, please delete

[Simon_Jester]

My concern is that "control the situation" as interpreted seems worryingly like "make like an army of occupation." I think we've partly created this problem by forcing police to get into headbanging matches with the most violent and resistant elements of society, and antagonizing those elements to make them more violent and resistant, until the police are used to basically having to beat people with a club just to get their attention.

This predictably becomes abuse when it happens to, well, anyone who isn't trying to pick a fight with the cops.

[Guardsman Bass]

Here's a good reason why police should wear always-on shoulder cameras, and why people should be allowed and encouraged to film them in action:

Evidence from a dashboard camera on a police cruiser ended a nightmare for a New Jersey man facing false charges of eluding police, resisting arrest and assault.

Prosecutors dismissed all the criminal charges against Marcus Jeter, 30, of Bloomfield, N.J. and instead indicted two Bloomfield police officers for falsifying reports and one of them for assault after the recording surfaced showing police officers beating Jeter during a traffic stop, according to WABC of New York. A third has pleaded guilty to tampering.

Jeter’s defense attorney requested all recorded evidence, but the police failed to hand over a second tape until additional evidence surfaced of a second police car at the scene. The tape showed Jeter complying with police, even as one punched him in the head repeatedly.

Without the tape, prosecutors had been demanding a five-year prison sentence.

[Broomstick]

Was there ever a time where police couldn't escalate violence because they feel like it?

Not really -- arguably, despite the exceptions posted here, we have less police brutality than in the past. Isn't that a scary thought?

All those rulings on suspect rights - being read your rights, access to a public defender, limits on how long you can be held, etc - came about because of abuses the courts said were out of line and are no longer routine, even if they still happen too often.

[Guardsman Bass]

Police before the 1960s had more latitude to do "street justice" beatings, so the present might be an improvement over that. They also used to be notoriously corrupt, particularly in some of the bigger cities - New York City's police department had a number of scandals in the 1970s and 1980s with drug-related corruption.

What probably has gotten worse over time is the abuse of civil forfeiture laws, because of the War on Drugs. Law Enforcement tends to fight any civil forfeiture reforms that direct seized money away from the departments tooth-and-nail, as here in Utah (where they finally managed to get the legislature to gut the civil forfeiture referendum that passed back in 2000).

[TheFeniX]

Here's a good reason why police should wear always-on shoulder cameras, and why people should be allowed and encouraged to film them in action:

Just as I agree people who target law enforcement or judges, etc should be entitled to harsher penalties, those that abuse the system need to be handled in the same way. In both cases, you're undermining Law Enforcement's ability to keep the peace.

And if the prosecutor was aware of the tape before he pushed for criminal charges, his ass should rot in prison as well. Abuses like this, no matter how rare, make it next to impossible to trust law enforcement. And the general slaps on the wrist they get for misconduct don't help.

[Wing Commander MAD]

Police before the 1960s had more latitude to do "street justice" beatings, so the present might be an improvement over that. They also used to be notoriously corrupt, particularly in some of the bigger cities - New York City's police department had a number of scandals in the 1970s and 1980s with drug-related corruption.

What probably has gotten worse over time is the abuse of civil forfeiture laws, because of the War on Drugs. Law Enforcement tends to fight any civil forfeiture reforms that direct seized money away from the departments tooth-and-nail, as here in Utah (where they finally managed to get the legislature to gut the civil forfeiture referendum that passed back in 2000).

I wander if that isn't a symptom of lack of funding police departments. There are certainly plenty of issues that we hear about that could be fixed by better training and more professionalism (I'm thinking smaller jurisdictions here in particular) and yet we still have all these issues. I can only assume that the training standards and standards of conduct are as low as they are as a result of the lack of political will to pay for the kind of policing we expect. What really should probably happen is that funding for police should be done away with at the local level, and instead handled at the state (or ideally federal level) and be done in such a way as to not become a political issue. That way you at least can be sure that the standards for equipment, training, pay, etc. are the same whether its small police department in a town of 2,500 or a major metropolis. It'd probably also do wanders for corruption if you had non-locals controlling the police. I can't help but think that the little fiefdoms like Joe Arpaio's wouldn't exist, if only because they you couldn't rely on just the locals supporting them. I likewise can only assume that cover-ups and other forms of corruption would be harder to hide in a larger organization.

[Guardsman Bass]

"Funding" is certainly part of why they fight civil forfeiture reform so fiercely. Some municipal governments explicitly let them keep the money seized in forfeiture because it allows them to defray the costs of funding the police department, and because they "know" that the police officers doing forfeiture won't seize money from "the right people" (meaning white and well-off).

[Johonebesus]

Here's a video captured by a friend of a friend of the NYPD protecting and serving:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202392388963371

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Why is this one posted here? Do you have more information because I'm not seeing the brutality or the abuse.

It depends on what initiated the encounter. From what I saw, the guy was sitting and trying to produce whatever documents the police wanted with one cop getting in the way by holding his jacket and both looming over him. I couldn't tell exactly what happened when he got up, but it looked like the cops decided to arrest or at least restrain him and it escalated.

If they had a very good reason for stopping him to begin with, then maybe his belligerence was the problem. Otherwise it looks like they treated him with disrespect and suspicion, and he reacted the way most middle class Americans would. It seems to me the burden should be on the police to remain courteous and respectful and try to keep the citizens they're dealing with calm.

One thing I see again and again in these sorts of stories is an aggressive, even bullying attitude on the part of the police. Remember that cute video from years ago with the state trooper very calmly dealing with a guy in a pick up truck having a temper tantrum? That's the way police should act. Most of the time we would expect the trooper to drag the dumb-ass out out of the truck, taze him, and haul him off to jail. There are too many instances of cops taking what could be minor little interactions and turning them into violent arrests for no better reason than because the citizen was disrespectful. Especially in New York, I'm not willing to give the State the benefit of the doubt.

[Kamakazie Sith]

Here's a video captured by a friend of a friend of the NYPD protecting and serving:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202392388963371

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Why is this one posted here? Do you have more information because I'm not seeing the brutality or the abuse.

It depends on what initiated the encounter. From what I saw, the guy was sitting and trying to produce whatever documents the police wanted with one cop getting in the way by holding his jacket and both looming over him. I couldn't tell exactly what happened when he got up, but it looked like the cops decided to arrest or at least restrain him and it escalated.

If they had a very good reason for stopping him to begin with, then maybe his belligerence was the problem. Otherwise it looks like they treated him with disrespect and suspicion, and he reacted the way most middle class Americans would. It seems to me the burden should be on the police to remain courteous and respectful and try to keep the citizens they're dealing with calm.

One thing I see again and again in these sorts of stories is an aggressive, even bullying attitude on the part of the police. Remember that cute video from years ago with the state trooper very calmly dealing with a guy in a pick up truck having a temper tantrum? That's the way police should act. Most of the time we would expect the trooper to drag the dumb-ass out out of the truck, taze him, and haul him off to jail. There are too many instances of cops taking what could be minor little interactions and turning them into violent arrests for no better reason than because the citizen was disrespectful. Especially in New York, I'm not willing to give the State the benefit of the doubt.

I watched the video again with the sound turned up. I can't hear what the officers are saying but I can hear what the guy is saying and he was basically telling them that he had shown him his ticket and ID. We don't know why he was stopped but I have to agree that it seems like the male officer is holding onto him for no reason. I would have a hard time buying a self defense claim because the way the officer is doing it is completely retarded.

Anyway, I retract my concern. Fgalkin was correct in posting this video here. My mistake for not properly reviewing it.

[Havok]

Abuse of power and station, if not actual civilians.

http://www.kionrightnow.com/news/local- ... index.html

[GuppyShark]

Colour me naive, but how is there a 'lack of political will' to fund the police?

It would seem like the quickest way to lose an election would be to try to block one of your political rivals introducing a bill to increase police funding. "Why is Mayor Anti-Cop opposing this measure to keep our streets safe? Why is he soft on crime?"

[Ziggy Stardust]

In the courts, you are innocent until proven guilty.

However, general police operating procedure seems to be the opposite. Assume guilt, throw them in a cell, and work it out later. That seems to be the mindset that leads to all of the shootings of people in their own homes because they were carrying Wii controllers, or whatever.

[Kamakazie Sith]

In the courts, you are innocent until proven guilty.

However, general police operating procedure seems to be the opposite. Assume guilt, throw them in a cell, and work it out later. That seems to be the mindset that leads to all of the shootings of people in their own homes because they were carrying Wii controllers, or whatever.

Depends on the crime but police can only throw you in jail if they have probable cause. In the wii case a warrant had been issued by the court so they likely had probable cause. It is also police operating procedure because that's what the law requires, especially with felonies in which case all discretion is taken away from the officer and arrest and jail are mandatory under law when probable cause exists.

By the way what I just told you is mandated by the courts.

[mr friendly guy]

Normally I don't participate much in such threads, although I am aware some members here really dislike the cops, but I got this on my subscription.



Original CNN article here

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/26/justi ... ath-video/

It was supposed to be a fun family outing to the movies, but Nair Rodriguez's 19-year-old daughter got under her skin. They fought, she said, and she slapped her daughter.
Moments later, police arrived on a domestic dispute call at the Moore, Oklahoma, theater and did not confront Nair Rodriguez but rather her husband, Luis. They took him down, and after the encounter on February 15, he was dead.
Cell phone video taken by Nair Rodriguez and released this week shows the final minutes of the takedown.
Nair Rodriguez accuses officers of brutality. Police say they were following protocol and used no undue force, although three officers have been suspended with pay.

Geez you target the wrong guy and he is dead. But apparently its "protocol".

[Lord Relvenous]

"He's fine..."

This shit always sickens me. My local area police are a bit notorious for shooting people not "technically" in need of shooting and in every case the officer has seen little to no repercussions for his decision to use an unbelievably unreasonable amount of force.

Also, I'm just going to put out that it's a situation with a minority "perpetrator" and all white police. Make of that what you will, but I'm sure it'll be a talking point surrounding this.

[Block]

"He's fine..."

This shit always sickens me. My local area police are a bit notorious for shooting people not "technically" in need of shooting and in every case the officer has seen little to no repercussions for his decision to use an unbelievably unreasonable amount of force.

Also, I'm just going to put out that it's a situation with a minority "perpetrator" and all white police. Make of that what you will, but I'm sure it'll be a talking point surrounding this.

They clearly called paramedics for him, and the video doesn't show any context at all, did he resist? how hard? There's a lot of missing footage that would be very helpful.

[Lord Relvenous]

"He's fine..."

This shit always sickens me. My local area police are a bit notorious for shooting people not "technically" in need of shooting and in every case the officer has seen little to no repercussions for his decision to use an unbelievably unreasonable amount of force.

Also, I'm just going to put out that it's a situation with a minority "perpetrator" and all white police. Make of that what you will, but I'm sure it'll be a talking point surrounding this.

They clearly called paramedics for him, and the video doesn't show any context at all, did he resist? how hard? There's a lot of missing footage that would be very helpful.

Oh yeah, the lack of context could very well turn out to be painting a completely erroneous picture here. But I'm skeptical of that.

Past that though, what sickened me was the disinterested tone of the police officer that just beat in the brains of the wrong guy. He could not give less fucks about the wife's emotional distress or the actual well-being of the citizen he just helped kill. Even is the man did resist, I would prefer the peace officers of my country to not be so unmoved by having to resort to using lethal force against an unarmed man.

[Edi]

mrfriendlyguy's thread merged to the general police abuse thread.