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.”
"Thousands of New York police officers attended the funeral Saturday for Rafael Ramos, one of the two police officers killed in Brooklyn last week, and they were joined by colleagues from across the country for what the New York Times says was “one of the largest send-offs in the history of the department.” At a time of increased tension between police and the communities they serve, many felt the need to express support for the cops. But it was clear that requests to leave politics out of Ramos’ funeral in Queens had fallen on deaf ears as soon as New York Mayor Bill de Blasio got up to speak.
Hundreds of police officers who were outside the church turned their backs to the monitors that were broadcasting the service as soon as de Blasio took the podium. The move was a stark illustration of how tensions between police officers and de Blasio have not cooled a week after police officers turned their back on the mayor at the hospital after the shooting."* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
"Patrick Lynch is the 51-year-old president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the largest and most influential union of the New York City Police Department. You might recognize his name: Over the weekend, Lynch blamed Bill de Blasio for the Saturday deaths of two Brooklyn cops who were murdered by a lone gunman from Georgia. “That blood on the hands,” he said at a press conference, “starts on the steps of City Hall, in the office of the mayor.”
To understand why he would say something so wrong and inflammatory, you need to delve into Lynch’s long, checkered history of issuing similarly insane statements. His public declarations over the past 15 years are essentially pro-police agitprop: Cops can do no wrong, while victims of their state-sanctioned violence always had it coming. They are also a deep well of masculine anxiety, hurt feelings, and barely disguised racism."* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
The spokesman for the Ferguson, Missouri police department is now on administrative leave without pay after making inflammatory comments about a memorial dedicated to a young man killed by a Ferguson police officer.
Michael Brown was killed by officer Darren Wilson in August. Since then, the officer never faced an indictment and left the force.
The Los Angeles Police Department is facing new anger from the community after the release of an autopsy report in the death of a 25-year-old unarmed black man.
The release of the autopsy comes more than 4 months after two Los Angeles police officers shot and killed Ezell Ford in South Los Angeles. The report shows that Ford was shot three times at close range, including once in the back.
"The official autopsy report for Ezell Ford, an unarmed, mentally ill black man shot to death by Los Angeles police in August, was released by the county coroner's office Monday after the Los Angeles Police Department lifted an investigative hold that had blocked the report from public view for over four months.
The coroner's investigation ruled Ford's death a homicide by multiple gunshot wounds.
Ford, 25, was killed by LAPD officers Sharlton Wampler and Antonio Villegas, both on gang enforcement detail, shortly after 8 p.m. on Aug. 11 in the Florence neighborhood of South LA. The report provides the first detailed account from authorities of his injuries.
According to the autopsy report, Ford was shot three times, resulting in two fatal wounds and one nonfatal."* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
"Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson will not face charges in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, a grand jury has decided. Violence has broken out as protesters threw bottles and rocks at police and set a police car on fire." This story along with police brutality stories from New York City set off a new wave of protests.
The family of an Alabama teen who died in jail following an arrest for disorderly conduct in November is now calling for an investigation into what happened. Family members of 18-year-old Sheneque Proctor reportedly believe that an asthma attack prompted by a “violent” police arrest triggered her yet-to-be-explained death.
A new petition has been circulating in response to a young woman who is now being called the “female Eric Garner.” The petition is demanding that the federal and state governments investigate the death of Sheneque Proctor. The 18 year old young woman died in police custody at Bessemer City Jail after she was arrested on November 1st.
According to Proctor’s relatives, she was at a hotel attending a party with friends when police arrested her for disorderly conduct.
Proctor is reported to have complained to the police that she had problems with asthma but her words allegedly fell on deaf ears. The next morning, she was found lifeless in her jail cell.
Bessemer City Attorney Shan Paden commented, “I know the case. I know we had a death in the jail. Erring on a conservative side, not to protect the city but to protect the rights of an 18-year-old, the city of Bessemer will not disclose any information.”
According to Proctors family, she suffered from asthma and the police were violent with her during her arrest.
Proctor’s family is asking that people sign the petition so that they can get some answers about their beloved daughter.
We’ll definitely be following this story and will continue to keep you updated as it unfolds. In the meantime, you can read more about the petition HERE.
A Texas county judge — who spared a wealthy, white teen jail time for killing four people while drunk driving — sent a younger, black boy to juvenile detention last year for killing just one man.
In March 2012, Judge Jean Boyd sentenced a 14-year-old black boy to juvenile detention for killing someone with one, powerful punch, the Tarrant County News in Dallas reported.
"The Cleveland Division of Police engages in a pattern of excessive use of force, is badly trained in the use of firearms and is a danger to the people it serves, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder declared Thursday, bringing to a close a 20-month investigation prompted by the shooting deaths of two black residents. The findings come a month after a Cleveland policeman shot dead a 12-year-old black boy playing with a toy gun and at a time of national outrage over police tactics after a spate of shootings of unarmed black civilians by police officers across the nation.
“Since March of 2013, the Justice Department has closely examined nearly 600 use of force incidents,” Holder said. "The Department of Justice and the City of Cleveland have come together to set in motion a process that will remedy these issues.”
As a result of the findings, Mayor Frank Jackson signed a statement of principles that will lead to a consent decree calling for new equipment and training for Cleveland police. The agreement between the city and the U.S. Department of Justice assigns no guilt, but lays out a set of tasks to complete and goals to attain that “will result in more effective and constitutional policing,” Holder said."* The Young Turks hosts Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian break it down.
“A 25-year-old man is dead after he was pepper sprayed in an encounter with security at the Northland Center mall. Investigators are still awaiting the results of an autopsy following a struggle between McKenzie Cochran and security guards who used pepper spray to subdue him. Southfield Police say Cochran was observed outside a store a couple of days ago and had revisited the store Tuesday evening. The owner felt uncomfortable and called for the mall security. ” – ABC 7 -
This happened today on my way to the post office. The kids were 12. They had supposedly pushed one of their classmates down. However when the victim was asked, he said those weren't the guys. They were still taken away. 12. Years. Old. Sarah Doneghy
"The Cleveland police officer who fatally shot a 12-year-old holding a replica gun in November was deemed unsuited for police service two years ago, newly released documents show.
Timothy Loehmann, now 26, was employedby the City of Independence Police Department in Independence, Ohio, for six months in 2012, the Guardian reports. In an internal memo from that November, Independence Deputy Chief Jim Polak criticized Loehmann’s behavior during a firearms training .” *
“Thursday, the St. Louis County Police department in Fenton decided to weigh in on the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland.
The status message, entitled “Kids will be Kids?” was posted to the Fenton police department’s Facebook page.
Fenton is near Ferguson and also a part of St. Louis County. The status post didn’t focus on the actions of the officer in the Rice shooting but instead directed its attention to the role children may play."* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
"In video taken as the group passed through the tiny town, marchers appeared to keep their heads high as the hostile protesters--one of them wearing something akin to a KKK hood--yelled obscenities and told them to get back to work.
I've been brought up to know how to deal with people like that,' marcher Cheyenne Willis told the Missourian. 'I ignore them and keep moving forward...The comments that we saw are pure ignorance.'” *
“The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department revealed this week that five deputies were under investigation for allegedly sending racist text messages while on duty.
In a statement on Tuesday, Sheriff Phil Plummer said that two of the five deputies — Sheriff’s Capt. Thomas J. Flanders and Detective Michael J. Sollenberger — had been placed on indefinite paid administrative leave starting on Dec. 1. ” *
"The deadly shooting of a black, unarmed drug suspect by a white Phoenix police officer who mistook a pill bottle for a gun demonstrates the challenges law enforcement agencies face at a time of unrest over police tactics.
Phoenix police say the officer feared the suspect was armed during their struggle, but some critics say the officer went too far. Despite the department's efforts to be transparent with information, protesters marched Thursday night against the fatal shooting of 34-year-old Rumain Brisbon.
About 150 took part in the march through the streets of downtown Phoenix to police headquarters, while also calling for an end to what they say is a nationwide epidemic of police brutality."* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
"The deadly shooting of a black, unarmed drug suspect by a white Phoenix police officer who mistook a pill bottle for a gun demonstrates the challenges law enforcement agencies face at a time of unrest over police tactics.
Phoenix police say the officer feared the suspect was armed during their struggle, but some critics say the officer went too far. Despite the department's efforts to be transparent with information, protesters marched Thursday night against the fatal shooting of 34-year-old Rumain Brisbon.
About 150 took part in the march through the streets of downtown Phoenix to police headquarters, while also calling for an end to what they say is a nationwide epidemic of police brutality."* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
"While Akai Gurley was dying in a darkened stairwell at a Brooklyn housing development, the cop who fired the fatal bullet was texting his union representative, sources told the Daily News.
Right after rookie cop Peter Liang discharged a single bullet that struck Gurley, 28, he and his partner Shaun Landau were incommunicado for more than six and a half minutes, sources said Thursday.
In the critical moments after the Nov. 20 shooting, the cops’ commanding officer and an emergency operator — responding to a 911 call from a neighbor and knowing the duo was in the area — tried to reach them in vain, sources said."* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
Investigators in Tennessee are looking into how an 18-year-old man died while in police custody. The Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro reports that Andron Reed died after officers arrested him Friday night.
"Michael Brown’s death was part of a tragic and unacceptable pattern: Police officers in the United States shoot and kill civilians in shockingly high numbers. How many killings are there each year? No one can say for sure, because police departments don’t want us to know.
According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, in 2013 there were 461 “justifiable homicides” by police — defined as “the killing of a felon by a law enforcement officer in the line of duty.” In all but three of these reported killings, officers used firearms.
Eugene Robinson writes a twice-a-week column on politics and culture, contributes to the PostPartisan blog, and hosts a weekly online chat with readers. In a three-decade career at The Post, Robinson has been city hall reporter, city editor, foreign correspondent in Buenos Aires and London, foreign editor, and assistant managing editor in charge of the paper’s Style section.
The true number of fatal police shootings is surely much higher, however, because many law enforcement agencies do not report to the FBI database. Attempts by journalists to compile more complete data by collating local news reports have resulted in estimates as high as 1,000 police killings a year. There is no way to know how many victims, like Brown, were unarmed.
By contrast, there were no fatal police shootings in Great Britain last year. Not one."* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
Michael Brown was wrongfully targeted for execution in order to antagonize the black population in Ferguson to riot and create "Unrest" in order to further racial divide. Why did the Ferguson "incident" happen just days away from the 50th anniversary of the Watts Riots?; Black Boule Cape Crusaders & FBI's War on Black America
"As thousands marched on Midtown Manhattan last night in protest of a Staten Island grand jury's decision to not indict the NYPD officer who killed Eric Garner, two compassionate Americans walked into WPIX's live broadcast, noticed the camera, and mimed Daniel Pantaleo's chokehold that killed Garner.”
“St. Louis police took a man into custody on Wednesday for driving his minivan into a group of protesters and then waving a handgun at them.
According to the St. Louis Dispatch, activists were preparing for a “die-in” demonstration, which includes lying in the street, in Maryland Plaza at around 8 p.m. to protest the decision not to charge the officer whose illegal use of a chokehold resulted in the death of Eric Garner.
“As they did, a man driving a Town and Country minivan drove through the intersection and accelerated through the crowd,” the paper reported. “One woman was seen crouching on the hood of the minivan as the van continued forward. She fell off as the vehicle rounded a curve.”
After a short chase, protesters were able to stop the driver. In photos taken by the Post-Dispatch‘s David Carson, a male white driver in his 50s can be seen brandishing a semiautomatic handgun. Reports said that protesters broke the man’s window at one point."* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
A Savannah, Georgia, police officer killed a handcuffed, and armed, man as he tried to bust out of a patrol car. - LoneWolf & The Three Muskadoggies Please...
CHARLES SMITH 29 YEAR OLD BLACK MAN FROM SAVANNAH,GEORGIA WAS SHOT AND KILLED WHILE HANDCUFFED BY POLICE IN THE BACK SEAT OF A POLICE CAR. VIDEO FOOTAGE .
Police say a Savannah, Georgia, police officer killed a handcuffed, armed man Thursday as the man tried to break out of a patrol car, a shooting that stirred.
"It’s the second Eric Garner video that made me cry.
Not the one where Officer Daniel Pantaleo chokes Garner for 15 seconds before smashing his head into the sidewalk for 10 seconds as other cops hold down and cuff Garner, ignoring the pleas he issued with the last air in his lungs:
“I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.”
It’s the video shot minutes later as Garner lies dying among men and women in uniforms, men and women who seemed not to give half a damn, that broke me down."* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
"Ferguson reminds us that we still have a race problem in America. But the face of this problem is not Darren Wilson's. It's Bob McCulloch's.
Wilson, the Missouri police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager, is the target of most public ire. But no responsible person thought Wilson's killing of Michael Brown was premeditated. Even if prosecutors tried him on lesser charges of involuntary manslaughter, they might well have come up empty, and most people would have accepted that result of a fair trial.
What causes the outrage, and the despair, is the joke of a grand-jury proceeding run under the auspices of McCulloch, the St. Louis County prosecutor. In September, I wrote that it appeared he wasn't even trying to get an indictment; he had a long record of protecting police in such cases, and his decision not to recommend a specific charge to the grand jury essentially guaranteed there would be no indictment.
"* The Young Turks hosts Cenk Uygur and John Iadarola (TYT University) break it down.
"Nine Cleveland police officers involved in a high-speed car chase that left two unarmed black people dead have sued the city’s police department for racial discrimination.
The November 2012 chase, which left two people dead after police fired 137 shots, prompted considerable scrutiny of the Cleveland police department’s use of force. Both those killed were unarmed. Criticism was renewed last week after officers shot dead a 12-year-old boy, Tamir Rice, who was carrying a replica gun.
Eight white and one Hispanic officer are plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit. They claim the police department has repeatedly punished non-black officers more harshly than black officers in incidents involving shootings of black people."* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
Charles Barkley has said a lot these days about the cases of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. Most of his remarks haven't made much sense, but they are nationally-televised nonetheless. Part of the reason that Barkley gets to keep his platform is not because of his intellectual prowess, but because he makes for good entertainment for white people.
Barkley provides an interesting mix of ignorance and arrogance that is often seen in someone who doesn't understand something, but somehow feels that his wealth and fame make him a defacto expert on things he knows nothing about. The problem with Barkley firing his mouth off like a water hose is that real people are affected when he is called upon as a representative of the black community on critical social issues. In that regard, Barkley is both dangerous and irritating to those who are seeking meaningful racial progress.
These are my raw thoughts on Barkley, and I excuse my profanity on the matter. But there are times when you just have to be honest about how you feel and with this man, I have no interest in holding back.
Protests continue throughout New York City, in response to the killing of Eric Garner, who was strangled to death by police officers. Police have used Pepper spray, and over three hundred protesters have been arrested.
Before proceedings began at City Hall, a number of council members symbolically blocked traffic, showing support for the protests. After blocking traffic, the council members proceeded into city hall, joined by clergy and anti-racist activists.
"An NYPD investigation into the police-custody death of Eric Garner has begun, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said Sunday.
The city’s top cop told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the department began interviewing police officers Friday who were involved in the July arrest when Garner died. Bratton said the NYPD could not interview those cops during the criminal investigation, which resulted in a grand jury declining to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who placed Garner in an apparent chokehold.
Bratton said the NYPD investigation will take “upwards of three to four months,” but will likely be wrapped up well before the Department of Justice’s civil rights probe, which U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced last week."* The Young Turks hosts John Iadarola (TYT University), Ben Mankiewicz and Wes Clark Jr break it down.
"Attorney General Eric Holder announced Wednesday night the Department of Justice would proceed with a federal civil rights investigation into the death of Eric Garner after a Staten Island grand jury failed to indict the NYPD officer who put Garner in a fatal chokehold.
After the grand jury’s decision was announced Wednesday, Holder released a statement saying now that the local investigation is complete, the DOJ will investigate potential federal civil rights violations surrounding Garner’s death and will review all material gathered during the local investigation.
Eric Garner, a 43-year-old unarmed black man, died July 17 after a white police officer, Daniel Pantaleo, put Garner in what appeared to be a chokehold, an action NYPD strictly prohibits. The incident was caught on cellphone camera. During the video Garner, who suffered from asthma, could be heard shouting, “I can’t breathe” at least eight times. The medical examiner had ruled Garner’s death as a homicide. Charges that could have been filed against Pantaleo ranged from murder to reckless endangerment."* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
"Federal prosecutors say they will review an incident in which a Seattle police officer punched and seriously injured a handcuffed, intoxicated woman, after King County prosecutors said Friday they won’t charge the officer.
Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for acting U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes, said her office will look at the June 22 incident involving Officer Adley Shepherd for a possible federal criminal civil-rights violation.
The decision comes after King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg announced that his office would not seek a state felony charge against Shepherd, 38, a nine-year department veteran, for punching Miyekko Durden-Bosley in the back of his police cruiser.” *
The documented facts about Black history and also the facts about the true and false Israelites and why its so aggressively hidden from people of African descent. Research it for yourself
Thousands of people converge on the US capital, Washington, to demand justice for black men who have killed by white police officers. Similar protests are expected in New York and elsewhere, the latest in weeks of demonstrations across the US against police brutality against racial minorities. At a time of heightened tensions over the race issue, specifically African-Americans, in this edition of the Debate we'll ask if such marches will be enough to get Washington's politicians moving on the issue of an unjust system, seemingly stacked against African Americans. Why does 6 decades after the African-American Civil Rights Movement which sought to end racial discrimination against black Americans, the goal remain farfetched in the eyes of many Americans?
A video of 4-year-old London James in tears has nearly 8 million views on Facebook. The Missouri child is crying on camera saying a girl doesn't want to be her friend because she's black. This experience is something black people must face in this nation.
In the US, the FBI has launched an investigation into the hanging death of a black teenager in North Carolina months after it was declared a suicide.
17-year-old Lennon Lacy was found hanging from a swing set in the rural predominately white town of Bladenboro, where racial tensions run high. His mother said he had showed no sign of suicidal thoughts or depression. However, four days after his death, police claimed that he took his own life. Lacy's family and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People called the death suspicious for months, especially after Lacy's grave was desecrated only a few days after his burial. The FBI will now probe the case, after authorities raised doubts about the initial findings.
Lennon Lacey was found hanged back on August 29th. Due to the actions of local officials after his death and how the investigation is being handled, it is clear that this was a lynching. The FBI is now involved.
"The president of the Cleveland Patrolmen's Association on Monday refused to back down from criticizing a Cleveland Browns player as "pathetic" for wearing a shirt calling for justice for two unarmed black males who were killed by police officers in Ohio.
Cleveland Patrolmen's Association President Jeffrey Follmer on Sunday issued a statement criticizing Browns wide receiver Andrew Hawkins for wearing a shirt saying, "Justice For Tamir Rice and John Crawford," before the team's game. Tamir Rice, 12, was shot to death by Cleveland police last month while carrying a pellet gun. Crawford, 22, was killed by police officers in August while holding a toy rifle in a Walmart in Dayton, Ohio.
"It's pretty pathetic when athletes think they know the law," Follmer said on Sunday. "They should stick to what they know best on the field. The Cleveland Police protect and serve the Browns stadium and the Browns organization owes us an apology."
After Hawkins explained on Monday that he wore the shirt thinking of what could happen to his 2-year-old son, Follmer refused to back down."* The Young Turks hosts Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
"The grand jury witness who testified that she saw Michael Brown pummel a cop before charging at him “like a football player, head down,” is a troubled, bipolar Missouri woman with a criminal past who has a history of making racist remarks and once insinuated herself into another high-profile St. Louis criminal case with claims that police eventually dismissed as a “complete fabrication,” The Smoking Gun has learned.
In interviews with police, FBI agents, and federal and state prosecutors--as well as during two separate appearances before the grand jury that ultimately declined to indict Officer Darren Wilson--the purported eyewitness delivered a preposterous and perjurious account of the fatal encounter in Ferguson.
Referred to only as “Witness 40” in grand jury material, the woman concocted a story that is now baked into the narrative of the Ferguson grand jury, a panel before which she had no business appearing."
Take a listen to one man's opinion on whites, aliens, and Race, stating that Blacks seems to be the only race that originated and evolved with the Mother Earth. What do you think?
http://democracynow.org - Authorities in New Jersey have said they hope a historic warming of ties between the United States and Cuba will help them capture and imprison Black Panther Assata Shakur. "We view any changes in relations with Cuba as an opportunity to bring her back to the United States to finish her sentence for the murder of a New Jersey State Trooper in 1973," said State Police Superintendent Colonel Rick Fuentes. The encounter left both the officer and a fellow Black Panther, Zayd Malik Shakur, dead. Shakur has said she was shot by police with both arms in the air, and then again from the back. She was sentenced to life in prison but managed to escape and flee to Cuba, where she has lived since 1984. What will happen to Assata now? We put the question to two attorneys: Michael Ratner and Martin Garbus.
Watch more coverage of the Assata Shakur case and hear her speak in her own words
"Calling it a “great and fundamental injustice,” a South Carolina judge on Wednesday vacated the 1944 murder conviction of 14-year-old George J. Stinney Jr., the youngest person executed in the United States in the last century.
Judge Carmen T. Mullen of Circuit Court did not rule that the conviction of Mr. Stinney for the murder of two white girls in the town of Alcolu was wrong on the merits. She did find, however, that the prosecution had failed in numerous ways to safeguard the constitutional rights of Mr. Stinney, who was black, from the time he was taken into custody until his death by electrocution.
The all-white jury could not be considered a jury of the teenager’s peers, Judge Mullen ruled, and his court-appointed attorney did “little to nothing” to defend him. His confession was most likely coerced and unreliable, she added, “due to the power differential between his position as a 14-year-old black male apprehended and questioned by white, uniformed law enforcement in a small, segregated mill town in South Carolina.”"* The Young Turks hosts Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
Another case of US police violence against African-Americans: An unidentified white officer has allegedly struck a black 12-year-old boy in New York City.
Video footage shows a plain-clothed officer punching the boy repeatedly as he was being handcuffed by four other officers. A second 12-year-old boy was also handcuffed. The kids had supposedly pushed one of their classmates in school. New York police department's internal affairs bureau is currently investigating the incident. Public awareness has grown about unwarranted police violence against blacks in past months after the killing of three black men this summer at the hands of police. However, no officers have been indicted, arrested or formally charged for the deaths.
"It’s the second Eric Garner video that made me cry.
Not the one where Officer Daniel Pantaleo chokes Garner for 15 seconds before smashing his head into the sidewalk for 10 seconds as other cops hold down and cuff Garner, ignoring the pleas he issued with the last air in his lungs:
“I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.”
It’s the video shot minutes later as Garner lies dying among men and women in uniforms, men and women who seemed not to give half a damn, that broke me down."* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
Family Sues Cops After Death Of Gregory Towns Jr. While In Custody
ATLANTA (AP) -- The family of a man who died after Atlanta-area police used stun guns on him has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the former officers and the city, the family's lawyer said.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Fulton County Superior Court, says East Point police officers used their stun guns as many as 13 times on Gregory Towns Jr. while he was handcuffed. The lawsuit claims former police sergeant Marcus Eberhart and former corporal Howard Weems used excessive force in the April 11 incident.
"It's just heinous," attorney Chris Stewart told The Associated Press in a phone interview Thursday. "This isn't one of those cases where he punched an officer and they had to Taser him to calm him down."
The lawsuit comes amid increased attention on police use of force in the wake of the fatal shooting in of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Following that shooting, local police in Ferguson donned riot gear and fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters who refused to disperse and, at times, broke into nearby businesses.
While many police officers use their authority appropriately, there are some who view any act of disobedience as a call for extreme action, Stewart said.
"In our case, it wasn't about color, obviously, because the officers were black," Stewart said. "It was about power. He didn't walk when they said walk. He didn't stand when they said stand. And he didn't move fast enough when they said move."
Calls to a number listed for Eberhart seeking comment went unanswered. Weems referred questions to his lawyer, Dale Preiser, who declined to comment. East Point acting city attorney Brad Bowman said the city doesn't comment on pending litigation.
The lawsuit describes the family's version of events when police confronted Towns, 24.
Officers approached Towns as he was leaving his son's mother's apartment complex after having a domestic dispute with her, the lawsuit says. When officers approached and asked to talk to him, he ran away and officers caught up with him after he tripped over a tree branch and fell.
Officers handcuffed Towns and ordered him to get up and walk to a patrol car, but Towns said he was too tired from running. Weems threated to use his stun gun on Towns if he did not get up, the lawsuit says. Towns got up but soon fell over again, telling officers he was tired.
Stun gun logs Stewart said he obtained from the police department show the officers then used their stun guns on Towns as many as 13 times in a 30 minute period, though the police report indicates the stun gun was used fewer than five times, Stewart said.
Weems and Eberhart violated the department's stun gun policy, which says stun guns should not be used on someone who's handcuffed, should not be used to escort or prod someone and should not be used on someone who's offering only passive resistance, the lawsuit says.
An autopsy report from the Fulton County medical examiner's office says Towns died from "hypertensive cardiovascular disease exacerbated by physical exertion and conducted electrical stimulation." The report lists the manner of death as a homicide and cites stun gun use by police.
Eberhart resigned and Weems was fired and is in the process of appealing his termination, East Point spokeswoman Renita Shelton said.
The East Point police department, under the direction of former chief Woodrow Blue who resigned earlier this month, acted admirably in the wake of Towns' shooting, Stewart said. Immediate action was taken and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was called in right away to review the circumstances surrounding the shooting. Unlike in Ferguson, the community in East Point felt that the situation was immediately addressed and handled appropriately, Stewart said.
The GBI has completed a report on the case and turned it over to the office of Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard, who will decide whether to present the case to a grand jury, Stewart said. Howard's office is still investigating, spokeswoman Yvette Jones said.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Towns' estate and his infant son, seeks compensatory and punitive damages.
Mall Security Guards Who Killed Unarmed Black Man Won't Be Charged
A prosecutor announced Thursday that no criminal charges will be brought in the case of an unarmed black man killed while being restrained by mall security guards.
McKenzie Cochran, 25, died at the Northland Mall in the Detroit suburb of Southfield in January. A day after he had been asked to leave the building over suspicious behavior, Cochran returned and reportedly told a worker at a mall jewelry store that he wanted to kill someone. The worker called security, and when Cochran wouldn't leave, guards pepper-sprayed and restrained him. He struggled on the ground as three officers held him for several minutes, one with a knee in his back.
Cell phone video shows Cochran crying out and saying, "I can't breathe," as shown in footage above from local outlet WJBK. He also asked for bystanders to call 911 and said he was dying.
"Stop resisting," a guard repeated several times during the incident, captured in a longer cell phone video from a bystander:
The Oakland County Medical Examiner's Office ruled Cochran's death an accident in March, naming the cause of death as position compression asphyxia.
Though she acknowledged that mistakes were made, Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper said Thursday there was no proof of criminal intent, reports CBS Detroit.
"This is not an issue of whether these security guards were negligent," Cooper said, according to the Detroit News. "It's whether they were criminally negligent."
Cooper told reporters that the guards weren't trained to restrain Cochran properly. Security called local police but, in part because dispatch misidentified their location in the mall, it took 10 minutes for officers to arrive on the scene.
Cochran's family's attorney Gerald Thurswell told The Huffington Post that security also failed to tell the police that they were dealing with someone who had threatened to kill, which could have prompted a more urgent response.
Thurswell has filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of Cochran's family against the mall, the individual guards and the security company, IPC International. But he told HuffPost that for Cochran's mother, it's not a substitute for criminal charges.
"The family was devastated," Thurswell said. "Her son's life was taken, a 25-year-old who didn't do anything wrong at all, and the people who killed him are not being held accountable through the criminal justice system."
Ron Scott, spokesman for the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, addressed Cochran's death on Thursday.
"I don't know what an accident is, when you've got the knee in the back, compresses the chest cavity, which most police departments do not do, and security do not do, and then you say, 'He caused his own death by resisting,'" Scott told My Fox Detroit.
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES: Surveillance footage from an Ohio Walmart store, where police killed a young black man who was holding a toy rifle (sold in Wal-Mart) and talking on his cellphone, shows he was was shot from the side as he moved to run away from advancing officers.
The family of a young black man who was killed by police in an Ohio Walmart while holding an unloaded BB rifle and speaking on his cellphone have called for action to be taken against a 911 caller who claimed he was pointing the gun at people.
John Crawford III was shot dead last month by an officer responding to an emergency call made by Ronald Ritchie, a shopper standing 100ft away, who repeatedly stated to the dispatcher that Crawford was pointing the air rifle at customers.
Ronald Ritchie, lied on 911 call
Surveillance footage and audio recordings released after a grand jury declined to indict the officer who shot Crawford showed that Crawford was holding the rifle at his side and pointing it to the floor at the time when Ritchie alleged that “he just pointed it at, like, two children”.
Crawford’s father and the family’s attorney said that Ritchie, 24, should be questioned by police over the discrepancy between the footage and his allegation, which he made about 80 seconds before Crawford was shot, and confirmed when asked soon after. Knowingly “making false alarms” is a crime under Ohio law punishable by a fine or jail sentence.
“He was the catalyst, if you will, in the whole sequence of events leading up to my son’s death,” John Crawford Jr told the Guardian. “It was a crank call. He excited the call, and exaggerated the call, and frankly it was just a bunch of lies.”
Ritchie declined to comment in an online message on Friday. He has previously maintained that Crawford posed a threat to shoppers and that the 911 call was justified.
Special prosecutor Mark Piepmeier stressed on Wednesday that the responding police officers were led to understand that Crawford was an active threat. One even called back to the dispatcher to check that the 911 caller said Crawford was pointing the rifle at people. “If he’s not there, we may not be here,” Piepmeier said of Ritchie at a press conference.
Michael Wright, the attorney for the Crawford family, said Ritchie “should be questioned on why the footage and what he said does not match”. Wright said: “He’s basically lying with the dispatchers, he’s making up the story. So should he be prosecuted? Yes, I believe so.”
Ritchie had said of Crawford near the start of his 911 call: “He’s, like, pointing it at people.” He subsequently told the Guardian that “at no point did [Crawford] shoulder the rifle and point it at somebody”, stressing instead that he had been “waving it around” and that the muzzle moved in the direction of other shoppers.
The surveillance footage released on Wednesday shows Crawford passing shoppers with the gun at his side. After arriving in a corner of the store, he is seen swinging the rifle at his side and holding it towards a store shelf containing pet products while standing alone and talking on his cellphone for five minutes.
The children who Ritchie appeared to claim were under threat from Crawford were in the store with their mother, Angela Williams. Williams, 37, died of a heart attack in the panic that ensued among customers following the police shooting. “I hope that he’s happy with himself,” her teenage son said of Ritchie in a Facebook post earlier this month.
Ritchie also told several reporters after the shooting that he was an “ex-marine”. The Guardian disclosed last month that he was thrown out after seven weeks in 2008, after being declared a “fraudulent enlistment”. He states that the problem was a mix-up in his paperwork.
In January 2012, Ritchie pleaded guilty in the Montgomery County municipal court to theft. All records of the incident have been expunged by the court and the Huber Heights police department. In 2010 he was fined $250 and given a year’s probation after being convicted by Miamisburg municipal court of possession of drug paraphernalia.
Ritchie and his wife, April, have not spoken publicly since his Guardian interview. Both have changed their names on social media. The day before he called 911 about Crawford, Ritchie posted a meme on his Facebook page featuring the comedian Gabriel Iglesias. “Me, racist? The only race I hate is the one you have to run,” it read. The post has since been removed.
One month later, Ritchie shared with his friends a story from the Tea Party News Network about a group of black men assaulting a white couple in Missouri. The story condemned President Barack Obama and Eric Holder, the attorney general, for ignoring the attack after speaking publicly about the killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old, in Ferguson, Missouri, last month. It described them as “race hustlers”.
April Ritchie told reporters following the Walmart shooting that she had warned other shoppers to avoid Crawford in the store. When the Guardian requested an interview with April Ritchie via social media, she replied in a message that she was not April Ritchie. After being reminded that she was, she threatened to “contact the police and file harassment charges”.
HOUMA, La. – A deputy in the Terrebone Parish Sheriff's Office shot and killed a 14-year-old boy as two deputies investigated reports of a group of people with weapons running into an abandoned home just before 6 p.m. Tuesday, according to the sheriff's office.
The incident happened in Kirkglen Loop after deputies were called to the scene just before 6 p.m. The teen who was shot and killed was identified by relatives as 14-year-old Cameron Tillman who was a student at Ellender High School.
The deputy was not identified by name, but the Terrebonne Sheriff's Office said he is an African-American, 7-year veteran of the patrol division, a field training officer and a member of the TPSO SWAT team. A spokesman for the department said the officer has no previous disciplinary infractions during his career.
The sheriff's office said that two officers were responding to the call. "While attempting to make contact with the suspects inside of an abandoned residence on the street, shot an armed suspect."
State Police, who took over the investigation due it involving an officer with the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's Office, said only that "a weapon was recovered in close proximity to the 14-year-old's body."
Family members dispute the contention that Tillman was armed. Andre Tillman, Cameron's brother, was inside the abandoned house at the time of the shooting. He said somebody knocked on the door. "My little brother thought somebody was just clowning, because somebody is always clowning by the door. He opened (it) and the man just shot him. He didn't have nothing in his hand."
Louisiana State Police Trooper Evan Harrell said what happened exactly is under investigation.
The incident, according to Harrell, began with a 911 call around 6 p.m. with a caller informing police that several suspects ran into a house with weapons on Kirkglen Loop.
"What transpired on the scene is being processed right now," said Harrell. "Because the officer and the 14-year-old deserve a thorough investigation."
Three suspects are in custody -- two juveniles and an 18-year-old, Harrell said. A fifth suspect escaped out the rear of the residence, according to the deputy's initial statement. Harrell said the home was abandoned at the time.
"The individual that was fatally wounded, his family, everybody deserves a proper investigation, and that's what we're here to do," Harrell said. "And until we get everything nailed down, squared away, we'll be out here as long as it takes."
Residents of the loop said the run-down brick home the shooting took place in had been vacant for more than a year. Local kids were often seen going in and out of the building, which neighbors said had been empty since its last occupant left.
Family and friends described Tillman as a timid and respectful teenager. He was a "tremendous athlete" starring in both basketball and football during junior high, said family friend Michael Legarde, who is a teacher at Ellender.
Legarde said Tillman and his sons were close friends for most their lives and that Tillman was taking a year off athletics to focus on his studies.
"He had heard all the hype about high school and just wanted to concentrate on his grades for the first year," Legarde said.
Legarde said Tillman lived a few streets down from the house where he died. He added that he believed "there was no way" Tillman and the others were robbing the home because it was completely empty. He knew this because he considered purchasing the property to add to about 20 others he rents out in the neighborhood.
"I look at him as one of my sons," he said looking out at a sea of blue lights illuminating the neighborhood. "It's a shame. This was a good kid, never caused any trouble."
Josh Miles, Tillman's cousin, echoed those sentiments. "He stayed out of trouble. He was just a good kid," Miles said. "I told the sheriff that as scared as he was, he'd never point anything at anybody."
