Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Monday, April 28, 2014
Charges Dropped Against White Police Officer Who Killed Unarmed Black Teen
The charges against a former Arkansas police officer who gunned down a 15-year-old boy in August of 2012 using the defense that he thought the teen was attempting to run into him with his vehicle have now been dropped and the family of the young man who lost his life is now left still searching for justice.
via Arkansas Online
A judge has dropped charges against a former Little Rock police officer whose manslaughter trial in the fatal shooting of a teenager while on duty in 2012 twice resulted in deadlocked juries.
Josh Hastings returned to court Monday morning for a hearing before a third trial that had been scheduled to begin next month.
But at the proceeding before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen, prosecutors requested dropping the charges instead of going to trial.
Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Johnson noted the facts were largely undisputed but that the two mistrials brought to light that “this is a unique case where there can be no unanimity of the jury.”
“We believe that he should have been found guilty,” Johnson said while acknowledging he now believes getting that verdict would be impossible. “Not just difficult. We have no good-faith basis we would ever get a jury to unanimously convict.”
The dismissal does allow the charges to be refiled, though Hastings’ defense attorney said afterward that it’s hard to imagine that would occur.
Johnson noted the family of 15-year-old Bobby Moore, whom Hastings fatally shot, objected to the decision to dismiss charges.
Deazzaray Perkins, Moore’s older sister, blasted prosecutors for dropping the charges “when they know this man was in the wrong.”
“He killed a 15-year-old child,” she said in an impassioned statement to reporters by the front steps of the courthouse. “They think we’re supposed to be OK with it? I’m not … That was my baby brother. It’s been three years.
Hastings on Aug. 12, 2012, shot Moore while investigating a report of vehicle break-ins at the Shadow Lake apartment complex in Little Rock.
Hastings says he opened fire while Moore drove a vehicle toward him, but prosecutors in the first two trials contended that the vehicle was not moving toward Hastings and that he acted recklessly in opening fire.
Hastings was fired from the force after police investigated the shooting. His attorney, Bill James, said Hastings will seek to get his job back.
This shooting took place only 6 months after acquitted child-murderer George Zimmerman gunned down unarmed teen Trayvon Martin and sadly, both cases have seen the same outcome. What will it take for these men and other like them to be held accountable for their reckless actions???
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Planting Guns & Drugs: Cops BUSTED for Planting Drugs in Marijuana Dispensary
"Two former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies have been charged with conspiracy, perjury and altering evidence in connection with planting guns inside a medical marijuana dispensary to justify two arrests in 2011, prosecutors said.
"Julio Cesar Martinez, 39, and Anthony Manuel Paez, 32, were charged with one felony count each of conspiracy to obstruct justice and altering evidence as a peace officer, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. Martinez was also charged with two felony counts of perjury and one of filing a false report.
"Both men were booked Friday and released on $50,000 bail each. They are scheduled to be arraigned June 17. Prosecutors said if the former deputies are convicted of the charges, they face more than seven years in state prison."
Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss the stupidity behind the cops' behavior and the reasons why police officers would plant evidence.
Hot Texas Heat Kills Prisoners In Their Cells, So What? Say Lawmakers
"Lawmakers in Texas on Tuesday defended the lack of air-conditioning in state prisons after a report linked 19 inmate deaths to extreme heat.
A study released by the University of Texas Law School's Human Rights Clinic warned that the state was violating the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, and the human rights of inmates by refusing to put air-conditioning in prisons.
Data collected from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) showed the temperatures inside facilities like Hutchins State Jail could reach as high as 105 degrees in summer months."* The Young Turks hosts Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian break it down.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Post Racial America: Cliven Bundy's Racist Rant At Press Conference
"I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro," he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, "and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids -- and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch -- they didn't have nothing to do. They didn't have nothing for their kids to do. They didn't have nothing for their young girls to do.
"And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?" he asked. "They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I've often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn't get no more freedom. They got less freedom."
Watch the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbnRnhrNFEY
"And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?" he asked. "They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I've often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn't get no more freedom. They got less freedom."
Watch the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbnRnhrNFEY
Cliven Bundy Defends Saying Blacks Were Better Off As Slaves
Despite facing a slew of backlash, including some from members of his formerly allied Republican party, conservative rancher Cliven Bundy is standing by his blatantly racist comments that black people were better off as slaves.
via CNN
Cliven Bundy — the Nevada rancher turned conservative folk hero for bucking the federal government’s attempts to stop his cattle from grazing on public land — admits he doesn’t understand the bipartisan uproar over his comments suggesting blacks might have been better off under slavery.
But he understands what he meant by those comments, and he’s not backing down.
“I don't think I'm wrong,” Bundy told CNN’s Bill Weir on Thursday night. “I think I'm right.”
He claims, then and now, that he won't do business with the federal government — because, in his view, nowhere in the Constitution does it say that Americans can’t use land owned by the federal government.
This stance made him a darling of conservatives in the media and Republican circles upset over what they've deemed government overreach. But he didn’t stop talking. That’s where his new trouble began, which threatens to overshadow his original fight.
Speaking to reporters over the weekend, he recalled driving by a public-housing project in North Las Vegas and seeing “at least a half-dozen (black) people sitting on the porch, they didn't have nothing to do.”
“Because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he added in comments first reported by the New York Times and later seen on video. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton.
“And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”
The remarks have since gone viral, drawing widespread condemnation from Democrats and Republicans alike. The rancher said he doesn’t feel “abandoned” by the uproar by the likes of right-wing radio firebrand and Fox News host Sean Hannity, who has ripped what he called the “ignorant, racist, repugnant, despicable comments.”
Asked Thursday by CNN to elaborate, Bundy explained he’d been simply “wondering whether (blacks) are that much better off in the situation we’re in now.”
He backtracked somewhat, insisting he “didn’t really mean it to compare (African-Americans’ current plight) with slavery. I meant to compare it with maybe life on the farm or life in the South, where they had some chickens and the gardens, and they had something to do.”
CNN’s Weir at one point challenged the Nevada rancher about whether he was any more or less a “welfare queen” as those who get entitlement checks — since his cattle have been feeding off the government, literally, by eating grass on public land.
Bundy’s response: “I might be a welfare queen. But I’ll tell you I’m producing something for America and using a resource that nobody else would use or could use. I’m putting red meat on the table.”
Friday, April 18, 2014
Convicted & Sentenced But They Forgot The Most Important Part
"Michael Cornelius Anderson was arrested in 1999 for armed robbery. He helped rob a Burger King manager. He was then sentenced to 13 years behind bars. He posted bail and waited to be taken to prison.
Except, he said, no one never came to bring him to jail. Thirteen years passed and Anderson joined a church, started a small business, got married, had children, and never left the St. Louis area.
He lived a quiet life, until a SWAT team came to his home last summer and arrested him."* The Young Turks hosts Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian break it down.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Cops Can Arrest, Taze & Shoot, But Refuse To Be Monitored
"Los Angeles police officers tampered with voice recording equipment in dozens of patrol cars in an effort to avoid being monitored while on duty, according to records and interviews.
An inspection by Los Angeles Police Department investigators found about half of the estimated 80 cars in one South L.A. patrol division were missing antennas, which help capture what officers say in the field. The antennas in at least 10 more cars in nearby divisions had also been removed.
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and other top officials learned of the problem last summer but chose not to investigate which officers were responsible. Rather, the officials issued warnings against continued meddling and put checks in place to account for antennas at the start and end of each patrol shift."* Desi Doyen (Green News Report), John Iadarola (TYT University), Dave Rubin (The Rubin Report) and Michael Shure break it down.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
The Sick, Twisted Reason This Man Lost 24 Years Of His Life
"In 1989, Jonathan Fleming was convicted of a Brooklyn murder that from day one he insisted he did not commit. After nearly 25 years behind bars, Fleming is now a free man.
Fleming explained to HuffPost Live's Alyona Minkovski that a recent reexamination of the case revealed two key pieces of evidence that led to his exoneration: one being a receipt and another being eyewitness testimony -- both of which confirmed his alibi that he was in Florida, not Brooklyn, at the time of the murder.
While Fleming says that he isn't bitter about his wrongful conviction, and is only focused on moving forward with his life, he still wants an apology."* Steve Oh, Jimmy Dore (The Jimmy Dore Show), Gina Grad (Gina Grad Show, Pretty Good Podcast) and Dave Rubin (The Rubin Report) break it down.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Army's New Hair Rules - Awkward Or Straight Up Racist?
"The U.S. Army is facing criticism for its new appearance and grooming regulations, which some soldiers say unfairly target black women's hair.
Army Regulation 670-1 was released Monday, with rules on tattoos, hairstyles, grooming and uniforms for soldiers.
One of the new regulations, which applies only to women, is a ban on twists, dreadlocks and multiple braids/cornrows that are bigger than a quarter of an inch. Army spokesman Paul Prince told the Army Times that twists and dreadlocks have been barred since 2005, but these regulations go into more detail about specific hairstyles."* The Young Turks hosts Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian break it down.
Confrontation between police and mentally ill man caught on video
VIDEO AT: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/04/caught-on-tape%E2%86%92-st-louis-police-beat-bludgeon-mentally-disabled-man-in-his-own-home-video/
This was brutal.
St. Louis police officers were caught on tape beating Mario Crump, a mentally disabled man, in his own home.
The beating has prompted an internal investigation.
FOX 2 Now reported:
Chief Sam Dotson says his officers were responding to a call from a woman wishing to have her husband removed from their home.
“She described her husband as acting erratically, perhaps on drugs,” said Dotson.
Mario Crump was the man. He’s now charged with assault and peace disturbance. A video recorded from a family member inside the home shows him resisting officers` commands. It also shows officers striking him with a police baton and a punch.
Crump recently found a job with help from Independence Center, an agency that helps mentally ill individuals. The man in charge of the agency says the video makes him sick to his stomach.
“I don`t think that you take a man that`s sitting in a chair in his living room, and use a club on them or, or your fists,” said Mike Keller, Executive Director.
He says Crump was having a psychotic episode. Family members told police their loved one had exposed himself and had been urinating on the floor. Keller believes officers should have found a way to diffuse the situation without beating Crump.
New Orleans Police Officer Over Steps His Boundaries As He Walks Into Man's House for NO Reason
A River Ridge man seen being arrested by a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office deputy in a video that has gone viral on Facebook said he is the victim of an unlawful arrest. Donrell Breaux, 26, also questioned the relationship between the responding deputy and the neighbor with which he had a dispute.
"I knew he (the deputy) was a personal friend (of the neighbor)," Breaux said, "and I thought it was an unlawful arrest. I don't have to submit to an unlawful arrest."
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune on Thursday (April 3) morning left a message on the answering machine of a man that Breaux identified as being the neighbor in question.
The incident occurred Sunday (March 30) in the 200 block of Marmandie Avenue in River Ridge. Part of the encounter was recorded by Breaux's friend, Eric Banegas, and posted on Facebook on Tuesday (April 1). As of Thursday, the video had been shared more than 22,800 times.
Breaux said he and Banegas were standing on Banegas' front porch and talking. He admits to using profanity, but said they were cracking jokes amongst themselves. "It wasn't to the point that we were loud and disturbing people," Breaux said.
The neighbor walked out of his house and warned the two to watch their language. Breaux said the neighbor was belligerent, prompting a brief verbal confrontation that ended with the neighbor telling them he was calling the police.
"He threatens to call the police all the time about stuff in the backyard and stuff going on inside the house. Things like there's too many cars in the driveway," Breaux said. He felt the neighbor was out of line.
About 10 to 12 minutes later, a deputy arrived and spoke for a few minutes with the neighbor, according to Breaux. "Then, he's grabbing my hoodie with handcuffs out. He said, 'Let me see some I.D.,' and grabs my wrist and says, 'You're under arrest,' at the same time," Breaux said. "I thought it was unlawful."
That's when the video begins, according to Breaux.
Breaux, who has been living at the Marmandie Avenue address since December, said he recognized the deputy as a friend of the neighbor. "I've seen him at the residence before," he said.
Breaux said the same about a second officer seen arriving to help the deputy near the end of the video. From the footage, it's not clear whether the officer is a Sheriff's Office deputy. Breaux said the second man is an officer with the East Jefferson Levee District Police Department and had also been to the neighbor's home, possibly as a guest.
"These are personal friends," Breaux said. "I wish I had friends that I could call and have them handle personal vendettas that I have with my neighbors."
Breaux was eventually taken into custody and booked with battery of a police officer, resisting arrest with violence, disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace.
The Sheriff's Office had not commented about the video as of Thursday morning.
Breaux said he is in the midst of trying to obtain an attorney. But money is an issue.
"I'm pretty pissed about the situation," he said. "I feel this is wrong because they do this all the time and nobody ever has it on video. I feel it's a problem with the police and people not knowing their rights."
11-year-old building tree fort says officer pulled gun on him, friends
11-year-old building tree fort says officer pulled gun on him, friends: 11-year-old building tree fort says officer pulled gun on him, friends
A fifth-grader says he was terrified when a police officer pointed a gun at him and his friends while they built a tree fort.
Omari Grant, 11, said he and his friends often play in a wooded area behind his home and were building a fort when a neighbor in the next subdivision called police to complain about what the boys were doing.
But no one anticipated what Omari and his mother say happened next.
“I guess the release of tension was like, ‘Mom, he had a gun in my face, Mommy. Mommy, he had a gun in my face,’” said Janice Baptiste, Omari’s mother.
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