This blog stays updated with cases of Police Brutality against Black Men and the Black Community. These are just the cases that we are fortunate enough to hear about. But, there are several "unsung victims" whose story has never been told or videotaped. Infamous cases such as Rodney King and Oscar Grant are not isolated incidents. They exist amongst a corrupt system of impunity. Who am I? I am a “Concerned Member of the Black Community.”
Kayla Phillips, 21, was stopped by police in February at the 59th St. and Lexington Ave. subway station after purchasing a Céline handbag from Barneys at 61st St. and Madison Ave.
Four plainclothes cops accused a black woman of credit card fraud after the Brooklyn mom bought a $2,500 designer bag from Barneys — stoking a fresh round of outrage against the store.
Kayla Phillips, 21, a nursing student from Canarsie, told the Daily News she had long coveted the orange suede Céline bag. Armed with a cash infusion from a tax return, she took her Bank of America debit card and headed to the Madison Ave. flagship store on Feb. 28.
Phillips made the purchase without incident but says she was surrounded by cops just three blocks away, at the Lexington Ave. and 59th St. subway station.
“There were three men and a woman,” she recalled. “Two of them attacked me and pushed me against a wall, and the other two appeared in front of me, blocking the turnstile.”
The cops started peppering her with questions and demanding to see her ID.
Phillips’ attorney, Kareem Vessup, says an additional civil rights lawsuit against the NYPD and Barneys is pending.
The 5 p.m. confrontation was eerily similar to a clash between cops and 19-year-old Trayon Christian, who filed a discrimination suit this week accusing Barneys and the NYPD of racially profiling him. Christian, who is black, alleged he was followed into the street by undercover cops and accused of fraud after he used his debit card to buy a $349 Ferragamo belt at Barneys on April 29.
The young Queens man was cuffed and taken to the 19th Precinct stationhouse, but released with no charges, his discrimination suit said.
“They kept asking how I could afford this expensive bag and why had I paid for it with a card with no name on it,” said Phillips.
When a black teen went into a high end department store called Barneys New York and purchased a belt with his own debit card, a racist employee immediately alerted undercover NYPD cops which responded within second for this high-end store arrested the teen under suspicion he was using a stolen debit card.
The teen was taken to a mid-town Manhattan precinct where the NYPD was able to verify that the debit card was not stolen like the Barneys employee suspected and released him. The average New Yorker would have to wait up to a hour for a cop to respond to a crime while this upscale department store was able to have a person arrested within seconds of them walking out the door..
It is clear that Barneys as well as the NYPD see all young black men as criminals and could not comprehend how a young black teen could afford a $350.00 belt with all the racial profiling and oppression they are forced to endure here in America.
No black, Latino or liberty loving white person should ever spend a red cent in a Barneys store ever again !
"A young black man is suing both the NYPD and Barneys for wondering how in the world he could afford a $300 product, then harassing and arresting him. Trayon Christian, who was 18 at the time, bought a Ferragamo belt he'd been coveting from the department store after receiving a paycheck from his work-study job. "I wanted to go to Fifth Avenue, I knew exactly what I wanted," he told the Daily News. But on his way out, he was handcuffed. Two undercover detectives accused Christian of using a forged debit card after being alerted to the purchase by the store. Even after Christian showed identification, he was taken to the station and held for two hours before being released with an apology...".* Ana Kasparian, Cenk Uygur, Ben Mankiewicz (What The Flick?! and TYT Sports), and John Iadarola (TYT University and Common Room) break it down on The Young Turks.
As the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation holds protests in several cities today, we bring you the shocking story of Mohamed Bah, a 28-year-old college student from the African nation of Guinea. He was shot dead by New York City police officers on September 25, 2012. Police arrived at Mohamed Bah's apartment after his mother, Hawa Bah, called 911 because she thought he was depressed and wanted an ambulance to take him to the hospital. Police claimed he lunged at officers with a knife. But many questions remain unanswered. We are joined by Hawa and her attorneys, Mayo Bartlett and Randolph McLaughlin, both longtime civil rights attorneys.
Grieving relatives of Kylen English said they do not believe the 20-year-old threw himself off the Salem Avenue Bridge on July 16 while he was in police custody.
The Dayton Police Department has released in-car audio of the incident during which English is heard to say to an officer driving him from Grandview Hospital to the Montgomery County Jail: “Do you believe you go to heaven if you kill yourself?”
Seconds later — with the sound of what police said was English banging his head against the cruiser’s back window — English said, “I want to die.”
Chief Richard Biehl said English’s mother told police her son had a history of depression and self-harming behavior.
On Tuesday evening, eight of English’s aunts and cousins gathered in a house on Athens Avenue to a remember a happy young man they said was defamed by the media.
They said they saw no signs of depression or suicidal tendencies in the young man, and they don’t believe the police department’s explanation of events.
“He was not violent; he was not angry. That’s not the person we knew,” said Marsha English, an aunt. They said he was raised by the whole family of aunts and his grandmother.
Jail surveillance video shows Kylen English, handcuffed with his hands behind his back, calmly standing in the sally port on the evening of July 16. In the grainy stop-action video, English is seen collapsed on the floor, part of his body hidden by a shelf.
The family believes an officer used a Taser on him, a charge Biehl said made no sense.
According to police, English hurled himself head-first into the sally port’s cinder-block wall. The video, which captures an image every 1 second to 1½ seconds, does not show that.
All Tasers issued to Dayton officers contain an imbedded computer chip that records the usage of the weapon, including the date and length of time. At the request of the Dayton Daily News, Biehl produced a printout of the firing data for the officer’s Taser.
It was used once July 16, at 3:49 p.m. for 2 seconds. Biehl said that would have been a test of the weapon at roll call. Checking the day prior, the Taser was fired once at 3:51 p.m.
Jail policy prohibits officers from bringing their sidearms and Tasers into the jail. On the video, the officer is seen opening the trunk and appears to place his weapon or weapons inside. Video inside the jail shows the officer’s firearm holster empty, but does not provide a clear view of his Taser holster.
English was arrested after a distraught 55-year-old woman called 911 about 7:30 p.m. July 16 to report that English was trying to kick down her door. She said English was the boyfriend of her 16-year-old niece and the woman had been sheltering her niece from English.
Surveillance video in the apartment hallway showed English violently kicking and pounding on the door.
Biehl has said English injured himself in the sally port to such an extent that the jail would not accept him. He was taken to Grandview Hospital and medically cleared.
While being transported back to the jail, police said the 6-foot, 210-pound English, who was handcuffed, but not belted to his seat, dove out the broken window, jumped off the bridge to his death.
The county coroner’s office initial findings were that English committed suicide. The office is awaiting the results of toxicology tests. The internal investigation is expected to take several weeks.
Editor’s note: This is a chronology of the events leading up to the death of Kylen English. It was constructed from various interviews, police statements, reports, transcripts and videos.
Dayton Police Officers Travis Salyer and Alex Magill are dispatched to 206 Yale Ave. on a 911 call about a burglary in progress. The caller states a black male tried to kick in her apartment door. The caller told police that English was the boyfriend of her 16-year-old niece, whom the caller, the girl’s aunt, was sheltering after English allegedly assaulted during the winter.
Unknown time
Magill locates English at 1358 Harvard Blvd. Magill arrests English and places him in the back of a police cruiser without incident.
8:23 p.m.
Magill transports English to the Montgomery County Jail. While being escorted into the jail, English hits his head against the wall. Jail medics say English’s pupils weren’t responding properly. Staff at the jail refuses to take English due to the possible injuries and tells Magill to take him to the hospital.
8:45 p.m.
Magill tells dispatch, “This gentlemen I just brought to jail actually just got refused. I’m going to be transporting him to Grandview Hospital for treatment of his injuries.”
9:35 p.m.
English arrives at the hospital. He is evaluated and medically cleared. Before the trip back to the jail, English says, “Can I get a phone call please?” Magill responds, “Yeah, give me just a minute.”
9:36:07 p.m.
Magill leaves hospital to return English to jail. “537 Dispatch. Transporting adult male to jail, again. Currently 67A,” Magill says over the police radio.
9:36:16 p.m.
Magill says, “Kylen, just so you know, if you start acting goofy again, it’s going to be on camera this time.”
9:36:39 p.m.
Magill says, “I’d hate for you to have to pay for that medical bill.”
9:36:44 p.m.
English says, “Do you believe you go to heaven if you kill yourself?”
9:37:54 p.m.
Magill says, “Depends on what you believe in.”
9:37:57 p.m.
First sound indicating English is hitting the window with his head, banging noises begin.
9:37:59 p.m.
Magill says, “Hey, partner.” He then begins to pull over.
English says, “I wanna die” and banging noises are heard.
9:38:03 p.m.
The cruiser stops just as glass from the window shatters.
9:38:09 p.m.
Magill shouts “Holy (expletive).”
9:38:11 p.m.
Magill calls dispatch.
Magill: “537 dispatch, need crews on Salem Street bridge.”
Magill: “Medic, my guy just jumped out my car window and hooked over the bridge.”
Magill: “On Salem Street Bridge, uh just north. I’m sorry, just north of Robert. It’s going to be on the west side of the river. I’m sorry, east side of the river.”
Dispatch: “Is he going to be in the water?”
Magill: “No, he’s on the rocks.”
Dispatch: “OK, we’re going to get someone down here on the bike path. On the east side of the river right under the bridge.”
Magill: “The crews that are responding here, try and get someone on the bike path, if you can. I’m not sure where you get on. Try to drive down towards the south, north ... however you get on.”
9:39:20 p.m.
Magill: “537 dispatch. Do you have medics started this way?”
9:40:28 p.m.
Other officers arrive on the scene.
Magill says, “He head-dove out of the cruiser while in the middle of driving, got up again and jumped over the bridge like a no-hand swan dive. My camera’s on.”
9:40:38 p.m.
Magill says, “I had just ... I cuffed behind his back ... BAM, BAM, he jumps out ... Swan-dives over the bridge.”
9:40:38 p.m.
Magill says, “He’s right here, he’s breathing ... kind of.”
9:40:45 p.m.
Police Lt. Kim Hill arrives on the scene.
9:40:59 p.m.
Magill says, “I mean, no hesitation. None.”
10:18 p.m.
English arrives in the emergency room of Miami Valley Hospital.
10:21 p.m.
English is pronounced dead at Miami Valley Hospital.
Kylen was an aspiring singer and YouTube sensation...
Watch Rev. Kenneth Glasgow and Michelle Alexander,
Author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,”
in this new video, “Our Turn to Dream,”
created to spawn a mass movement against mass incarceration
When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave the "I Have a Dream" 50 years ago, he had no idea Jim Crow would be replaced with another oppressive system: mass incarceration and the drug war. It's our turn to dream.
This video was produced in partnership with the NAACP, NAACP of Alabama, National Congress of Black Women, Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, PICO, Healing Communities, V.O.T.E., Project South, The Ordinary People Society, Operation People for Peace, New Jim Crow Movement (Jax), YourBlackWorld, All of Us or None, Drug Policy Alliance, Dream Defenders, CURE, Advocare, Campaign to End Jim Crow, Formerly Incarcerated & Convicted People's Movement, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Southern Coalition for Social Justice, and Direct Action for Rights & Equality (DARE).
At the beginning of this video, you hear a prison guard shouting, “He’s down, he’s down,” and then, a moment later, with shock in her voice, “That’s a goddamn hammer!”
The deplorable beatings you’re witnessing occurred on New Year’s Eve, just before midnight, on Dec. 31, 2010. It’s taken two years and nearly eight months for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to release this video. A very persistent family member of one of the victims finally persuaded them to give it to her, and Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, a strong advocate for justice for prisoners, posted it to YouTube for the world to see.
Kelvin Stevenson: Prisoner Beaten
This photo of Kelvin Stevenson
immediately after being beaten by guards
with a hammer-like instrument
on Dec. 31, 2010, is seen for the first time
in the video of the beating finally released this month.
The family member who retrieved the video describes it as “Georgia inmates being beaten with a hammer-like object while handcuffed,” and she adds: “The Georgia Department of Corrections denies this happened but were caught on tape. The officer responsible was never arrested or reprimanded. The district attorney had the video and never sought charges.
Miguel Jackson is shown shortly after his beating with a hammer-like object.
This photo has become an icon of the historic Georgia prison strike of Dec. 9, 2010.
“Within the entire GBI (Georgia Bureau of Investigation) file,” says Rev. Glasgow, “no GBI investigative agent or prison official identifies the guard on the video who is clearly beating non-resisting Miguel Jackson and Kelvin Stevenson with the hammer-like object.
“If you look closely, you will see a very large man lying on top of Kelvin Stevenson as the other guard batters his head with the hammer. Eye witnesses state that Stevenson was also handcuffed at the time.
“For all those who watch this and ask what’s the whole story, first of all ask yourself why no GBI agent or prison official reported this – at least not in the ‘official report’ – when this is their video.
“The family and advocates want justice and humane treatment, the situation investigated, and the officer in that video arrested.
“The family is demanding justice for this barbaric, inhumane act. We ask everyone to help by contacting District Attorney Tom Durden at (912) 876-4151 .”
“This is how your loved ones are being treated in Georgia state prisons,” Rev. Glasgow concludes.
Why was such fury unleashed on these prisoners?
The 13th Amendment prohibits slavery in the U.S. with one critical exception: “except as a punishment for crime.” And Georgia’s prison system takes that literally. Prisoners in Georgia must provide their labor for free; they work both inside the prison and are hired out to private employers.
On Dec. 9, 2010, in a move described as the “biggest prisoner strike in U.S. history,” thousands of Georgia prisoners across the state refused to leave their cells. “Chief among the prisoners’ demands,” the New York Times reported, “is that they be compensated for jailhouse labor.”
By locking themselves in their cells, Georgia prisoners refused for one day to be slaves. In response, Georgia authorities went to war defending slavery with the fury of the Confederacy.
“In an action which is unprecedented on several levels, Black, Brown and White inmates of Georgia’s notorious state prison system are standing together for a historic one day peaceful strike today, during which they are remaining in their cells, refusing work and other assignments and activities,” wrote Black Agenda Report managing editor Bruce A. Dixon, who lives in Georgia and helped form a committee of prisoner advocates.
“This is a groundbreaking event not only because inmates are standing up for themselves and their own human rights, but because prisoners are setting an example by reaching across racial boundaries which, in prisons, have historically been used to pit oppressed communities against each other,” he wrote on the day of the strike.
On Dec. 9, 2010, in a move described as the “biggest prisoner strike in U.S. history,” thousands of Georgia prisoners across the state refused to leave their cells. “Chief among the prisoners’ demands,” the New York Times reported, “is that they be compensated for jailhouse labor.”
Even then, retaliation had begun: “We have unconfirmed reports that authorities at Macon State Prison have aggressively responded to the strike by sending tactical squads in to rough up and menace inmates,” Dixon reported.
By locking themselves in their cells, Georgia prisoners refused for one day to be slaves. In response, Georgia authorities went to war defending slavery with the fury of the Confederacy.
Dixon has stayed on the story ever since, writing in “Starving for change: Hunger strike underway since June 10 in Georgia’s Jackson State Prison,” published July 2, 2012, in the Bay View, about the continuing retaliation that still has not let up:“State corrections officials responded with temporary cutoffs of heat, water and electricity in some buildings, along with an orgy of savage assaults and beatings across multiple institutions statewide. In one instance, corrections officials apparently conspired to conceal the whereabouts and condition of one prisoner who lingered near death in a coma for most of a week while they shuffled him hundreds of miles between prisons and hospitals.
“State corrections say they rounded up 37 whom they believed were the strike leaders and put them under close confinement at Jackson, the same prison where Troy Davis was executed last year. Most of these prisoners have remained there in close confinement, with severely restricted access to visits, communication and their attorneys, and without medical attention for the past 18 months.”
In his July 2012 article, Dixon was reporting on a hunger strike by some of those men: “Since June 10, according to accounts from prisoners and their families and Rev. Kenneth Glasgow of The Ordinary Peoples Society and the Prodigal Child Project, an undetermined number of prisoners at Georgia’s massive Diagnostic and Classification Prison near the city of Jackson have been on a hunger strike.”
“Some of these men are the Jackson State Prison hunger strikers. After two weeks, according to the families of Miguel Jackson and Preston Whiting, they are weak from hunger and subject to fainting spells. But they seem to believe they have little to lose. They are, a letter from one of them asserts, "‘starving for change.’”
By this time, the photo of Miguel Jackson’s swollen face after his literal hammering had become an icon of the Georgia prison strike. Dixon wrote: “One of the strikers is Miguel Jackson, who was taken in handcuffs from his cell at Smith State Prison 18 months ago, removed to a secluded area out of range of the video cameras that monitor almost every inch of most Georgia prisons, and beaten with a hammer-like object. Jackson is one of several brutalized prisoners whose injuries have been untreated since.
“Despite a blizzard of demands by his attorney, prison officials have refused Jackson and other prisoners medical attention for months. And although they have not eaten in two weeks, Jackson’s wife said, at the nine-day mark when medical necessity usually demands prisoners be removed to the infirmary, prison officials simply told Jackson, ‘You’re going to die,’ and left it at that.”
The photo of Miguel Jackson’s swollen face after his literal hammering had become an icon of the Georgia prison strike.
Now we know that Miguel Jackson’s beating was not out of range of the video cameras. The video shows both Jackson and Kelvin Stevenson being beaten and later sitting in wheelchairs, bloody and bandaged.
Now the California prisoner hunger strike is being billed as the largest and longest in history. Originally involving 30,000 prisoners across the state, dozens still surviving on water only since July 8, 2013, are approaching two months of starvation. For their families and advocates, this video showing the fury of prison guards against prisoners who refuse to be their slaves is particularly chilling.
As we fight for the human rights of our brothers and sisters behind enemy lines in California, let us also remember the prisoners in Georgia who are still being brutally punished for their brave one-day work strike – clearly a precedent for all the prison strikes that have followed, including the current California strike. We who know that prisoners are human and deserving of human rights must unite with families and advocates in Georgia in their demand for an end to the retaliation and with all people of good will to end prison torture everywhere.
SF Bay View editor Mary Ratcliff can be reached at editor@sfbayview.com or (415) 671-0789 .
Cleveland officials are suspending 63 police officers for their roles in a November car chase that ended in the shooting deaths of an unarmed man and woman, The Plain Dealer reports.
Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath said the officers violated police protocol during the chase, according to the newspaper.
Officers' offenses include engaging in a chase without permission and providing false information on police reports, the Plain Dealer reports. The officers will be suspended temporarily, with no one officer being suspended for more than 10 days.
Police officials have not yet reviewed the 13 officers who were involved in the shooting itself, but that's coming in the next and final stage of the investigation, officials told The Plain Dealer. More than 100 officers had some involvement in the chase.
Malissa Williams, 30, and Timothy Russell, 43, were each shot about two dozen times in a police chase that turned deadly. They were shot at 137 times while in their car, which was parked in a middle school parking lot after the chase.
Police called it a "full blown-out" firefight. No officers were injured, and about 60 police vehicles pursued the suspects during the 25-minute chase.
The chase started when officers thought the suspects fired shots at them near Cleveland's downtown Justice Center, but Williams and Russell turned out to be unarmed.
Officers might have thought the suspects were armed based on wrong information broadcast over the police radio, the Plain Dealer reported.
In June, one police supervisor was fired for his or her administrative role in the incident, and several others were demoted or disciplined, according to The Plain Dealer.
For the first time since slavery allegedly ended young black men are finally realizing who their real enemy is ... and it's not one another.
Your 1st grade teacher lied to you, the police aren't here to keep you safe or help you ... they are here to put you in prison or kill you !
If we as black men are to ever be free and live in peace we must separate from the children of our ancestor's slave masters. I know it sounds crazy but the videos on my channel are far crazier.
Ex-cop Spellman gave nearly 20 years of his life to the Philadelphia Police Department, retiring in 2008 after a driver rear-ended his police cruiser, knocking him unconscious and sending him to the emergency room.
Spellman, 50, a married father of four, said the officers went through his wallet without his permission, forcefully frisked him and put him in the back of the police cruiser. He said they asked why he was "so far from home," accused him of being on drugs and told him to "shut the f--- up" when he asked why he was being stopped. His cellphone screen was shattered in the process.
"It demeans you. It made me feel like I was a piece of meat," Spellman said. "This is new to me: someone on you, manhandling you. Don't tell me to 'shut the f--- up.' The whole thing shouldn't have happened. I'm a grown man trying to catch the bus."
Spellman was not charged with a crime. He said he had left the ACT Academy Cyber Charter School, where his son was taking a computer class, so he could let his wife into their home in Olney. She had forgotten her key. He said he showed the officers his retired police ID, but it didn't help.
"I don't know what's going on with this police department, but it's terrible," he said.
Lt. Thomas Fournier of Internal Affairs confirmed that Spellman had filed a complaint with his office, but said he couldn't comment on the case.
The experience made Spellman realize what can happen to innocent civilians when they become suspects in the eyes of cops. Spellman, who is black, still doesn't know why he was targeted, but he couldn't help but notice that the two cops who stopped him and the four or five backup officers who arrived were white.
"I don't want to turn it into a racial issue, but that's what it felt like," Spellman said of racial profiling. "When my son leaves the house, I'm going to tell him to be more careful of cops than crooks. Me, being an injured officer with ID, and they're giving me that much trouble? I can't imagine someone without credentials."
"The parents of a Georgia teenager whose body was found inside a rolled-up wrestling mat at school said Thursday the fact that their son was recently found to be buried without his internal organs is a new reason to suspect signs of foul play were covered by investigators.
The body of Kendrick Johnson, 17, was found Jan. 11 in South Georgia. Lowndes County sheriff's investigators concluded that he died in a freak accident, falling headfirst into an upright mat and becoming trapped. But Johnson's family believes he was killed and has been pressuring authorities into taking a second look at the case.".* Cenk Uygur, Eboni K Williams, Ben Mankiewicz and Jimmy Dore (The Jimmy Dore Show) break it down on The Young Turks.
The number of Latinos and African-Americans bitten by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department canines have dramatically increased in the past few years, a new study released earlier this week states.
While the annual dog bites for whites, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders remained very low from the years 2004 to 2012, the number of K-9 unit attacks on Latinos and African-Americans rose in the same period.
“In the first six months of this year, 100 percent of the dog bites were of blacks and Latinos,” the report stated, adding that a total of 17 dog bites had been reported up to June, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The number of Hispanics bitten by dogs increased 30 percent, from 30 bites in 2004 to 39 in 2012 ,and the number of African-Americans bitten increased 33 percent for the same time period, from 9 to 12.
The report’s researchers found that the majority of the attacks occurred in neighborhood’s deemed by lawn enforcement to “high-crime” areas and that five sheriff’s stations — Century, Lennox, Compton, Lakewood and City of Industry — had the highest number of bites, more than all the other 21 stations combined.
NYPD cops from outside areas converge on minority neighborhoods throughout New York City daily looking for minorities to beat up and frame with felony charges such as assaulting an officer and resisting arrest to meet their illegal quotas.
Politicians have stripped us of our right to bear arms to make us dependent on this gang of uniformed thugs that offer protection in exchange for the authority to extort and kidnapped people at will.
My advice is everyone is to never get caught without your video camera because these sociopaths like to hurt people and lie to the judge that it was the other way around leaving you with the burden of proving your innocence. When it's your word against a NYPD cop's, guess who the judge is going to believe ?!
Chilling new photos have surfaced from the scene where a Georgia teen was found dead inside a rolled up wrestling mat at his high school gym in January.
Both state and Lowndes County investigators determined 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson's death was an accident.
The boy was found on Jan. 11 stuck upside down in an upright mat behind some bleachers at Valdosta High School in south Georgia.
Authorities said a four-month investigation found the boy was suffocated after getting stuck the day before while trying to retrieve a shoe that had fallen in the center of the mat.
The boy's parents, Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson, said he was a victim of foul play and have called for the case to be reopened.
Kenneth Johnson says he believes his son was murdered and that his killing is being covered up.
"Someone murdered him," Johnson's father, Kenneth Johnson, told CNN. "They should be in jail."
At the very least, death scene photos broadcast on CNN appeared to point to shoddy police work at the death scene, a former FBI agent said.
"I don't believe this was an accident. I think this young man met with foul play," said Harold Copus, now an Atlanta private investigator.
Blood stains on a wall near the mat where Johnson was found. Investigators said the stains were old and that the blood was not Johnson's.
A photo of the black shoe Johnson was reaching for showed blood around the shoe but not on it.
Kenneth Johnson said he suspected the shoe was planted there.
"If he was inside the mat, reaching for that shoe, and the shoe is beneath him, why isn't that shoe covered with blood?" Johnson said.
Both the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which conducted the autopsy, have stood by their findings that the boy died accidentally.
The U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, Michael J. Moore, said he was looking into the case and would decide whether to open a criminal investigation.
A second shoe at the scene was not collected as evidence.
Copus said they should have determined whose blood it was and questioned that person.
Some of the photos showed the boy wedged inside the mat, his shoeless feet visible.
Medical examiners said the boy's head filled with blood, some of which spilled onto the floor beneath him.
The shoe investigators said Johnson was reaching for when he suffocated. There appears to be blood around it, but not on it.
Photos and a video from the Valdosta gym reviewed by Copus and CNN showed a sneaker and a sweatshirt, both stained red, lying a few yards from Johnson's body.
Investigators said the red substances were not blood, so neither was collected as evidence.
Copus said the items should have been bagged and tagged.
Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson say crime scene photos, including one showing the shoe Kendrick was said to be reaching for, raise new questions.
"If you're running a crime scene, then you're going to say that's potential evidence. Obviously, we're going to check this out and find out who does it belong to," the former G-Man said.
There were also streaks of blood on a nearby wall. Investigators determined the blood wasn't Johnson's and wasn't related to his death.
A long-running Halloween tradition in Tennessee is drawing national attention after an Instagram used shared a photo from the event showing a display with a man in black-face hanging from a noose.
A photo, posted on Instagram late Friday night, is causing a stir on social media.
The Mid-South Maze has been in the Memphis area for 13 years, but a photo taken at the maze is causing many residents to speak out. They are classifying the image as offensive and controversial.
“The issue is you have a Caucasian man with a young boy, not even an African American boy, but a young boy with black face. [It's] almost like minstrel times just hanging from a noose. It’s something that shouldn’t be tolerated,” stated concerned visitor Timothy Moore.
Mid-South Maze owner, Chris Taylor, said this is the first he has ever heard of the possible controversy.
“It’s a medieval scene out in a corn maze. There’s a little bit of black makeup on his face. He sometimes wears a mask, but it’s more camouflage,” said Taylor.
Taylor continued to explain how the young man at the noose has been working at the maze for over eight years. He said the image was never intended to offend, it was only supposed to be for fun.
Unfortunately, displays of dead people hanging aren’t exactly scarce around Halloween season. But these people should have known better than to have this young man in blackface…..next to a white man….hanging from a noose and then try to justify it by saying “he’s not even really black.”
"Two officers in Georgia are have been placed on administrative leave and are being investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigations after the Friday shooting of a man whose family had called 911 over a possible suicide attempt.
Alcia Herron told First Coast News that she called 911 requesting an ambulance because she was concerned about diabetes medications taken by her fiance, 43-year-old Jack Lamar Roberson.
But police said that they had been informed that the man had become combative while the ambulance was en route so officers were sent instead. At a press conference on Monday, Waycross Police Department Chief of Police Tony Tanner claimed that Roberson lunged at the officers with "weapons" and they were forced to shoot, killing him."* The Young Turks hosts Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian break it down.
A Georgia family is left looking for answers after their 911 call for an ambulance to help their diabetic family member resulted in him being gunned down in front of his young daughter.
The family of Jack Lamar Roberson, 43, is disputing statements made by Waycross Police on how he was shot and killed during a police shooting Friday.
“He didn’t have nothing in his hands at any time or period at all before they came, any time while they were here, anything. They just came in and shot him. He didn’t say nothing, the police didn’t say nothing, anything, it was like a silent movie. You couldn’t hear anything, all you could hear were the gun shots go off and I seen them going into his body and he just fell down,” cried Alcia Herron, Roberson’s fiance.
Herron said she called 911 to call an ambulance for Roberson. She said she was worried about medication he took for his diabetes, but instead of paramedics, officers arrived at the home on Reed Street.
The Waycross Police Department said officers responded to the home after [allegedly] receiving a report of an attempted suicide and while en route, they were updated that the man had become combative. The Police Chief Tony Tanner said Roberson lunged at the officers with two items he described as weapons and said Roberson ignored requests to drop the items.
Diane Roberson said her son didn’t have any weapons in his hands.
“If you’re any type of man you’ll come to me and you’ll tell me why you stood up there and told a lie. Two knives? We don’t own two decent knives,” said Roberson’s mother.
Roberson said her son was not aggressive. He is survived by his mother, sisters, fiance and two daughters.
Additional reports confirm that Roberson’s 8-year-old daughter and his fiance were present as police gunned him down.
There are definitely a few things that don’t add up with this story. We’ll keep you posted as details continue to emerge…
"A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the appointment of an independent monitor and a community advisory board to ensure that an Arizona sheriff is complying with constitutional requirements after finding his office engages in racial profiling."*
PHOENIX -- PHOENIX (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the appointment of an independent monitor and a community advisory board to ensure that an Arizona sheriff is complying with constitutional requirements after finding his office engages in racial profiling.
U.S. District Judge Murray Snow found in May that the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and Sheriff Joe Arpaio singled out Latinos and deputies unreasonably prolonged detentions.
It was the first finding by a court that the agency covering Arizona's most populous county engages in racial profiling after a small group of Latinos sued the sheriff's office for violating their constitutional rights, saying they were being detained simply because of their race.
Snow had delayed ordering remedies in the case to allow time for both parties to reach agreements, but disputes over key issues prevented consensus.
In his ruling Wednesday, Snow ordered that a monitor be appointed to oversee the agency's re-training of deputies and ensure the office is complying with constitutional requirements. Snow also ordered the creation of a community advisory board aimed at helping restore the public's confidence, among other remedies.
"In conducting its activities, MCSO shall ensure that members of the public receive equal protection of the law, without discriminating based on actual or perceived race or ethnicity, and in a manner that promotes public confidence," Snow wrote.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is working on behalf of the plaintiffs, hailed the ruling as a victory.
"Today's order is really going to put some sunlight into the corners of the MCSO that have been such a problem in terms of people's civil rights. It's a great day," said ACLU lawyer Cecillia Wang.
Arpaio's office had vehemently opposed the appointment of a monitor, arguing it would mean every one of his policy decisions would have to be cleared through the observer and would nullify his authority.
"I have received a copy of the court order and I am in the process of discussing it with our attorneys," Arpaio said in a statement. "We are identifying areas that are ripe for appeal. To be clear, the appointed monitor will have no veto authority over my duties or operations. "
Arpaio's lawyer, Tim Casey, said he was still reviewing the 59-page order, but noted he was "pleased with its very moderate sensible tone."
"The sheriff is still in exclusive charge of the MCSO," Casey said, adding their concern all along was that the monitor would have too much authority.
"The monitor cannot tell us what to do or not to do," Casey said, referring to the monitor's role in the ruling as overseeing training and procedures, among other things. "The court will make the ultimate decision on whether or not the MCSO is in compliance with its order, and we're very pleased with that."
The judge's order also mandates that the sheriff's office install audio and video recording devices in patrol vehicles and requires deputies to notify dispatch of the reason they are making a traffic stop prior to contacting the vehicle's driver "unless exigent circumstances make it unsafe or impracticable."
Arpaio's attorneys had resisted the latter, telling the judge such an added measure would be burdensome and risky for deputies.
"That's an area that we remain concerned about," Casey said Wednesday.
However, he added, the "exigent circumstances exception might help solve that problem."
Snow's ruling doesn't altogether bar Arpaio, 81, from enforcing the state's immigration laws, but it does impose a long list of restrictions on the sheriff's patrols, some of which focused heavily on Latino areas in the county.
The ruling prohibited the selection of "particular communities, locations or geographic areas for targeted traffic enforcement based to any degree on the racial or ethnic composition of the community."
The order also prohibits using race as a factor in deciding whether to stop a vehicle with a Latino occupant or detaining Latino passengers only on the suspicion that they're in the country illegally.
The U.S. Justice Department filed a similar lawsuit last year that also alleges racial profiling by Arpaio's office. Its suit, however, claims broader civil rights violations, such as allegations that Arpaio's agency retaliates against its critics and punishes Latino jail inmates with limited English skills for speaking Spanish. Arpaio has denied the claims.
The recent police-related deaths of 43-year-old Allen Kephart in Lake Arrowhead, California and 37-year-old Kelly Thomas in Fullerton, California have sent shockwaves through the their respective communities. Indeed, both are being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The death of Thomas, a homeless schizophrenic beaten into a coma by Fullerton police, is also being investigated by the Orange County District Attorney's Office. His case is not the first time Orange County law enforcement has been accused of applying excessive force to a mentally ill homeless man.
In October 2007, 28-year-old Michael Patrick Lass was living on the streets of Santa Ana when police stopped him for having an open container of alcohol. At the time of his arrest he was alcohol-dependent, schizophrenic, bipolar, and had a history of seizures.
The altercation that led to Lass's death took place at the Orange County Central Jail, where Lass was sentenced to serve five days after pleading guilty to public intoxication. The day Lass would have been able to leave he felt ill and asked for medical attention. Lass was ordered to leave his cell and after repeatedly looking over his shoulder while being directed by a deputy, he was tackled to the ground and a melee ensued.
"He wasn't fighting or anything and he was already in a contained area, locked in a contained area," Lass's father Frederick, says of the incident. "Immediately there was a second deputy there, a third deputy, a fourth, a fifth, and on and on it went. There was so many deputies that you couldn't count how many deputies were there."
Lass was shocked with a Taser nine times and the county's autopsy said he had multiple contusions on his body, "involving the head, neck, torso and extremities." The struggle was captured on film. "I can remember viewing the film and at one point while they are beating him Michael tells them, 'You're killing me.' Literally: 'You're killing me'," says Frederick Lass.
Frederick Lass sued Orange County and six deputies involved in the incident. Although neither was found liable in that case, Orange County later revised its Taser policy so that deputies would not be able to use Tasers on restrained suspects unless they display "overtly assaultive behavior."
While an improvement, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California says the policy didn't go far enough. Executive Director Hector Villagra sent a letter to Sheriff Hutchens in January 2009 urging still-stricter use of Tasers, pointing to five people who have died since 2005 after being stung with the weapon.
Like the cases of Allen Kephart and Kelly Thomas, the death while in custody of Michael Patrick Lass raises troubling questions about police procedures - and the power of surveillance videos to shine a bright light on the workings of the criminal justice system.
The following video includes graphic violence and viewer discretion is advised.
Written and produced by Paul Detrick. Camera: Paul Detrick, Zach Weissmueller, and Alex Manning; edited by Detrick.
Go to http://www.reason.tv for downloadable versions of this and all our videos, and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube Channel to receive automatic notification when new content is posted.
On this night, I come across a group of cops from the 44th precinct in the Bronx employing their illegal Stop and Frisk tactic to meet their monthly arrest quota. After observing a Latino male being arrested for nothing, I drove 3 blocks down... only to hear a man crying out for help.
I pulled over and saw a group of NYPD cops kicking and punching someone who was laying on the ground as I fumbled with my camera bag trying to record what could be this man's last breathes.
It is clear to me by now that black people will never receive any justice in America; we were fooled into believing that slavery ended and we would be treated equal and be able to live in peace. My people should have returned to the land from which they came and spared their children the hell we now live in under racist Ku Klux Klan members posing as police !
Also donate if you can, I built a new computer, but I am still in need of extremely important equipment and need your help to achieve my goals.
If you have already donated it was you that made the computer build possible, I can't thank you enough. I am going to start another video and I will post it soon. Thank you for your support; Nycresistance
Life may never be the same for an 8-year-old who was shot in the face a month ago.
D.J. Maiden has been in a Dallas hospital since the Sept. 3 shooting. His grandmother, Sharon Locklin, said he may never regain feeling in his jaw.
“He don’t want the kids to look at his face,” said his grandmother, Sharon Locklin. “He says, ‘I look like a monster, granny.’ I’m like, ‘No, you don’t.’”
After being at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, Maiden is now being treated at Baylor Medical Center. In a few weeks, he will undergo another surgery.
Police have not revealed what the motive for the shooting may have been. Maiden was shot at his apartment complex just days after he turned 8.
Brian Cloninger, 46, is accused of shooting the boy. He is being held on a felony injury to a child charge.
Locklin, backed by community activists, is calling for attempted murder charges.
“We don’t want him to be on the streets,” she said. “No matter what charges is, we want him to stay in.”
The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement that the serious bodily injury to a child charge is a first-degree felony that has a tougher sentence — five to 99 years or life in prison — than an attempted murder charge, which is a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison.
“The prosecutors go for the appropriate punishment to keep a dangerous criminal off the streets,” the DA’s office said. “We go for stiffer punishment, especially when a kid is involved.”
Cloninger has a bond reduction hearing scheduled for Oct. 10.
“He told his mom, ‘If that man hadn’t done this to me, I wouldn’t be here in the hospital,’” Locklin said. “He hates the hospital.”
Maiden’s mother has been at his bedside since the shooting. His siblings at home have been terrified.
“He have a 4-year-old brother; every time somebody knocks on the door, he runs to the back of the house. He’s afraid,” she said.
Dallas police were on hand for a family news conference on Wednesday. Police Chief David Brown met with the family.
“I just want to reassure them that everything the Dallas Police Department and city of Dallas can do in order to affect and follow up on this case, we will do,” Sgt. Keitric Jones said.
Maiden hopes to be home by Halloween. He’s speaking through a traic and doing some schoolwork while at the hospital.
The family has set up an account at 1st Convenient Bank in hopes of getting donations to help with medical expenses.
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