So five out of the six LEOs involved in this brutal beating are still on the streets? As the caller stated, "Nobody is coming forth because of the the higher-ups." Amazing-corruption at it's best. Nothing new here to see.
Wheres the video that captured the video beating?
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01:14 PM
madcurl Member
Posts: 21401 From: In a Van down by the Kern River Registered: Jul 2003
We may have figured out why it took the District Attorney investigators three weeks to start talking to witnesses on the Kelly Thomas police beating case… According to this unsigned note that just came in to our website, Chief Sellers is a close personal friend of DA investigator Stan Berry, who was immediately assigned to the high-profile Fullerton case:
I suggest you check into the connection between Investigator Berry and FPD Chief Sellers. Sellers hired Berry when he was the Chief at Seal Beach PD. Sellers and his wife Rita Fraser-Sellers, are close personal friends with Berry and his wife, Kristen Berry, the Dispatch Supervisor in Seal Beach. They socialize together, vacation together and entertain each other in their respective homes. Of all the DA investigators, why choose Berry, other than he will help cover for his friend. Presumably that case assignment was a decision made by the DA Tony Rackauckas. I have confirmed that Berry worked as an investigator under Chief Sellers for the Seal Beach Police Department.
As for as the familial socializing, entertaining and vacationing together…maybe the Chief can clear that one up for us.
If our informant is correct, this would be a huge conflict of interest in a very high-profile investigation.
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01:20 PM
Aug 4th, 2011
madcurl Member
Posts: 21401 From: In a Van down by the Kern River Registered: Jul 2003
FULLERTON, Calif. (AP) — In the nearly two decades since his son descended into madness, Ron Thomas has worried every day that the schizophrenic 37-year-old would die of exposure or illness on the streets. He never imagined the end would come in a violent confrontation with police. The death last month was the end of a trajectory that began when Kelly Thomas was in his early 20s and started showing the first signs of what would later be diagnosed as schizophrenia: he shuttled between addresses, preferred to sleep on the floor and stopped showering. In treatment, Thomas did well and was able to hold down a job — but when he stopped taking his pills, he disappeared onto the streets. He racked up an array of charges, from public urination to assault with a deadly weapon, and alarmed his parents with his bizarre behavior. "My daughter and I have talked for years that we'd get the call that something had happened to him, whether it was from organ failure because he's not drinking enough fluids or the elements or maybe gang activity," said his father, Ron Thomas. Last month, he was sitting on a bench at the Fullerton Transportation Center, a hub for buses and commuter trains where homeless people congregate, when six police officers arrived to investigate reports of a man burglarizing cars nearby. Police said he ran when they tried to search his backpack and that he resisted arrest. The incident was captured by a bystander with a cell phone, and bus surveillance tape released Monday showed agitated witnesses describing how officers beat Thomas and used a stun gun on him repeatedly as he cried out for his father. On the cell phone video, a man can be heard screaming over a fast, clicking sound that those on the tape identify as a stun gun being deployed.
Thomas was taken off life support five days after the July 5 altercation. His father said Wednesday he was stunned when he learned police officers caused his son's severe head and neck injuries. "When I arrived at the hospital to see him, I honestly thought that gang bangers had got a hold of him like the cowards sometimes do and just beat him with a baseball bat in the face," he said. "Immediately my thoughts were to get with Fullerton police ... and I didn't learn until a certain amount of hours later the truth. That put me in absolute shock." A police spokesman, Sgt. Andrew Goodrich, said the case was an isolated incident. "We have a good department full of good individuals," he said. "We've made more than half-a-million law enforcement contacts over the past 4.5 years ... This is the only instance of this kind that's happened." Goodrich said officers receive training on how to deal with the mentally ill and the homeless. But an attorney representing the department, Michael D. Schwartz, said that "public perception of officers' trying to control a combative, resistive suspect rarely conform to those officers' training, experiences, and what those officers were experiencing at the time or reality." The revelations have caused growing outrage in this quiet college town. More than 70 people spoke at the City Council meeting Wednesday, and a city councilwoman called for the resignation of the police chief. Thomas' father and others were planning a protest outside the police station this weekend, the second in as many weeks. "My son needs a voice," he said. "Now, the people have become Kelly's voice and, yeah, I'm leading the charge." Kelly Thomas was an outgoing child who loved to play the guitar, participated in Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts and aspired to be a wildland firefighter, said his father, who raised him alone after he and Thomas' mother divorced. After his diagnosis, he went to a live-in facility that provided meals and monitored his medication, his father said. Thomas was able to hold down a job at a gas station and then a printing facility and even started to train with the California Department of Forestry and Protection. But each time he began to improve, he stopped his medications and wound up back on the streets, moving between Yorba Linda, Placentia, Fullerton and Cypress — all places where he had once lived or had family and friends. One of the hardest parts of his death has been hearing their son described as homeless, the father said. "That's the heartbreaking part for all of us. We all have ideas of what we'd like our kids to be like and to do in life. With Kelly, we didn't get to realize that and it constantly broke our heart," his father said. "Kelly wasn't homeless at all, he had so many homes, but he wanted to be a drifter and he did." Life on the streets led to criminal charges. He pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm in 1995 and since 2004 has had a string of arrests for a host of lesser crimes including public urination, trespassing, battery, unlawful camping, petty theft and vandalism. He racked up traffic violations for jaywalking and failing to obey traffic signals. His mother sought a restraining order against him in December 2010 after he refused to leave her front porch, took off his clothes and urinated by the front door, according to court papers. In the same court papers, his mother alleged that Thomas grabbed her by the throat when they shared an apartment, although it was unclear when the incident occurred. The family said they sought the order to try to get him into treatment as his behavior spiraled out of control. On the day of the beating, bystanders said Thomas was approached by two officers and ran from them. Bus surveillance video showed witnesses talking about the confrontation to the driver of a bus that pulled up minutes later. In the grainy, black-and-white video, a woman who appears upset says: "The cops are kicking this poor guy over there. ... He's almost halfway dead." A male witness says the man, identified as Thomas, was sitting on a bench when he was approached by two officers and ran from them. The man says police used a stun gun on Thomas six times. "They caught him, pound his face, pound his face against the curb ... and they beat him up," the man said. "They beat him up, and then all the cops came and they hogtied him, and he was like, 'Please God! Please Dad!'" The police department has turned over the investigation to the district attorney's office and placed on paid administrative leave six officers involved in the beating. The FBI also launched a probe into whether the officers violated Thomas' civil rights in the incident. People with untreated mental illness make up about one-third of the nation's 600,000 homeless, said Kristina Ragosta, legislative and policy counsel for the Treatment Advocacy Center. More needs to be done by police departments to train officers in how to recognize symptoms and deal with people with mental illness, said Elaine Deck, the senior program manager at the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Sometimes, an untrained officer can make a situation worse, she said. "Handcuffing them may escalate the behavior where the officer may think they are trying to calm the person," Deck said. "They may not know that this may actually escalate a response."
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12:34 PM
Aug 6th, 2011
madcurl Member
Posts: 21401 From: In a Van down by the Kern River Registered: Jul 2003
Dirty officers don't learn how-to plant evidence over night. "All four and a retired police sergeant were convicted of engaging in a brazen cover-up that included a planted gun, fabricated witnesses and falsified reports. The five men were convicted of all 25 counts they faced."
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal jury on Friday convicted five current or former New Orleans police officers of civil rights violations in one of the lowest moments for city police in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: the shooting deaths of a teenager and a mentally disabled man as they crossed a bridge in search of food and help. Three officers and one former officer were convicted of civil rights violations in the shootings that killed two people and wounded four others on the Danziger Bridge less than a week after the storm. All four and a retired police sergeant were convicted of engaging in a brazen cover-up that included a planted gun, fabricated witnesses and falsified reports. The five men were convicted of all 25 counts they faced. The case was a high-stakes test of the Justice Department's effort to rid the police department of corruption and brutality. A total of 20 current or former New Orleans police officers were charged last year in a series of federal probes. Most of the cases center on actions during the aftermath of the Aug. 29, 2005, storm, which plunged the flooded city into a state of lawlessness and desperation. "It's a huge verdict for the government," said Shaun Clarke, a defense attorney and former federal prosecutor who moved from New Orleans to Houston after Katrina. "Of all the cases concerning alleged misconduct by police officers after Katrina, this was the one that had the highest national profile." U.S. Attorney Jim Letten echoed that, saying the verdicts send a message that "public officials, and especially law enforcement officers, that they will be held accountable and that any abuse of power will have serious consequences." Convicted in the shootings were New Orleans police Sgts. Robert Gisevius and Kenneth Bowen, Officer Anthony Villavaso and former officer Robert Faulcon. They face possible life prison sentences. Jurors found Faulcon guilty in the fatal shooting of Ronald Madison, a 40-year-old mentally disabled man, but the jury decided his killing didn't amount to murder. Faulcon, Gisevius, Bowen and Villavaso were convicted in the death of 17-year-old James Brissette. Jurors didn't have to decide whether Brissette was murdered because they didn't hold any of the defendants individually responsible for causing his death. Retired Sgt. Arthur "Archie" Kaufman and the other four defendants also were convicted of engaging in a cover-up. Kaufman, who was assigned to investigate the deadly encounter on the bridge, wasn't charged in the shootings. New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who invited the Justice Department last year to conduct a thorough review of the police department, said the verdicts "provide significant closure to a dark chapter in our city's history." In March, the Justice Department issued a blistering report that said New Orleans police officers have often used deadly force without justification, repeatedly made unconstitutional arrests and engaged in racial profiling. Landrieu has said he expects the federal review to bring about court-ordered reforms. Five former officers pleaded guilty to participating in a cover-up of the bridge shootings and testified during the trial. Another former officer, retired Sgt. Gerard Dugue, has a separate trial scheduled to start in September. Brissette's mother, Sherrel Johnson, said she was relieved by the verdict after "a long, hard six years" and would now try to move on. But she lamented what her son has lost. "For him there will be no prom, no baby, no nothing. My child will never have nothing," she said. Madison's relatives said in a statement the family had waited six years to "find out what really happened on that bridge." Madison's sister Jackie Madison Brown read the statement, which also said that after an event like Katrina, "all citizens, no matter what color or what class, deserve protection." After the verdict was read, Justice Department prosecutor Bobbi Bernstein became emotional, hugging the families of Madison and Brissette and holding hands with two of Madison's sisters. Defense attorney Roger Kitchens, who represented Villavaso, said he believed negative media coverage of the case tainted jurors. "At this point, I don't think it's possible for a New Orleans police officer to get a fair trial in the city of New Orleans. And I don't think they got one today," he said. Prosecutors said police had no justification for shooting unarmed, defenseless people trying to cross the bridge in search of food and help mere days after Katrina struck. Defense attorneys argued, however, that police were shot at on the bridge before they returned fire. Faulcon, the only defendant to testify, said he was "paralyzed with fear" when he shot and killed Madison, as he chased him and his brother, Lance Madison. Faulcon didn't dispute that he shot an unarmed man in the back, but he testified that he had believed Ronald Madison was armed and posed a threat. Prosecutors contended that Kaufman retrieved a gun from his home weeks after the shootings and turned it in as evidence, trying to pass it off as a gun belonging to Lance Madison. Police arrested Lance Madison on attempted murder charges, but a grand jury later cleared him.
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02:14 AM
Aug 16th, 2011
madcurl Member
Posts: 21401 From: In a Van down by the Kern River Registered: Jul 2003
The politically connected police chief of the Oakland public schools has been placed on paid administrative leave for allegedly hurling a series of racial slurs at fellow officers - then trying to cover up the incident - following a day of drinking at a charity golf tournament.
Police Chief Pete Sarna, 41, told officials that his use of the word "n-" was offhanded and intended to be funny, sources tell us. But San Francisco attorney Joe O'Sullivan, who is representing a white officer who filed a complaint with the school district, says the episode was anything but comic.
As O'Sullivan tells it, it started when Sarna invited three school district officers and a civilian staffer who works for him to play in a charity Oakland police golf tournament at the Sequoyah Country Club in the Oakland hills in mid-July.
As the group was headed home afterward through the Caldecott Tunnel, O'Sullivan said, Sarna turned to an African American sergeant and began cursing him, saying no blacks should be allowed to live in Orinda and that "the only good n- is a dead n- and they should hang you in the town square to prevent any other n- from coming in the area."
"There was no trigger for it - he just blurted it out," O'Sullivan said.
The attorney said the outbursts continued when they reached a white sergeant's home in Lafayette, where Sarna allegedly directed insults at his colleague's children. He let loose with more slurs at an Asian American officer as he was being driven to his home, O'Sullivan said.
Several days later, after word went around the department that a complaint had been lodged against Sarna, O'Sullivan said the chief drove the African American sergeant to a secluded location and told him, "What happened didn't happen."
Troy Flint, spokesman for the Oakland Unified School District, declined to discuss specifics of the incident. But he confirmed that Sarna had been placed on paid leave pending completion of a personnel investigation.
Sarna declined to comment while the probe is continuing.
This isn't the first time Sarna has faced troubles.
After a promising career at the Oakland Police Department, Sarna was named by then-Attorney General Jerry Brown to a $132,000-a-year job in the state Justice Department, helping to oversee hundreds of employees. He was forced to resign in August 2007, however, after crashing his state-owned vehicle and being cited for misdemeanor drunken driving.
He resurrected his career two years later, in June 2009, when he was named police chief of the Oakland schools, overseeing more than a dozen officers.
One person who knows Sarna well described him as someone who has been deeply dedicated to Oakland's youth, and its black community in particular. He noted that Sarna's wife is African American.
An off-duty NYPD officer is accused of grabbing a woman off the street, forcing her into an alley and raping her as she walked to work Friday in Manhattan.
Police say Michael Pena, 27, who was intoxicated, approached the 25-year-old woman as she was walking near Park Terrace West in Inwood and asked for directions to the No. 1 train.
He then showed her his gun in his waistband, put his arm around her, saying "you are coming with me," and took her to an alley, police said.
Police responded to the scene after a witness called 911, and Pena was arrested there.
He was arraigned Saturday on charges of first degree rape, forcible rape, and predatory sexual assault.
Calls to his attorney were not immediately returned.
He is assigned to the 33rd precinct in Washington Heights and has been on the job for three years. He has been suspended.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico state police officer has been fired after security cameras caught him having sex with a woman on the hood of a car.
Officer Bert Lopez's dismissal from the New Mexico state police was confirmed by The Santa Fe New Mexican (http://bit.ly/oIqKyd ) on Saturday. The newspaper said Lopez has 30 days to appeal the firing.
The surveillance photos were taken from a motion-triggered security camera positioned at the front gate of the county-owned La Bajada Ranch south of Santa Fe. The encounter was at the remote Canyon Ranch.
Two photos showing a uniformed officer having sex on the hood were forwarded to Santa Fe Sheriff Robert Garcia, who identified the officer as being with New Mexico State Police. He forwarded the images to State Police Chief Robert Shilling.
An internal investigation was immediately launched, and Lopez, an eight-year veteran, was put on paid administrative leave for about three weeks.
Police officials would not comment on whether the dismissal was an indication whether the officer was on duty at the time of the incident.
The dismissal came days after investigators said the officer didn't commit a crime. Officials were assured the sexual encounter was not in exchange for anything related to his position as a law enforcement officer.
"It is an embarrassing situation for the department, but we have to remember the rights of the employee afford him due process we must follow so we won't be commenting further," said spokesman Sgt. Tim Johnson.
The department refused to release the identity of the woman or details about her relationship with the officer. It was unclear when the photos were taken, but Garcia said he believed it was either late July or early August.
If Lopez contests his firing, the appeal goes to a special commission within the New Mexico state police department and then state District Court, according to the New Mexican.
Lopez was named a 2009 state police office of the year and was awarded a "Challenge Coin" in July, an honor given to officers who have gone above and beyond the call of duty.
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09:11 PM
Sep 10th, 2011
madcurl Member
Posts: 21401 From: In a Van down by the Kern River Registered: Jul 2003
Fired NM officer accused of propositioning suspect
09-08) 09:56 PDT Albuquerque, N.M. (AP) --
A Santa Fe woman says the New Mexico state police officer caught on video having sex on the hood of his patrol car propositioned her in April during her drunken-driving arrest.
Elizabeth Enriquez testified Wednesday in Santa Fe that officer Bert Lopez told her she made his patrol car smell good. And the married woman said the officer asked if she ever thought about having someone on the side to "play with."
Earlier this summer, a security camera taped a uniformed Lopez having sex with a woman on his patrol car on remote county-owned property. Police officials wouldn't say if Lopez was on duty but noted the woman wasn't connected to any of his cases.
Lopez was fired last week after the video went viral.
He testified in the DWI case. But he wasn't asked about the allegations and didn't talk to reporters outside the courtroom.
Autopsy photos of Parma man shot and killed by Cleveland police shows physical struggle
CLEVELAND - Autopsy photos and the medical examiner's report showed there was a physical struggle before a Parma man shot and killed by a Cleveland police officer July 4.
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's office released Ficker's autopsy report Friday.
The report released Friday showed Daniel Ficker, 27, died from a gunshot wound to his trunk with lung, spinal cord and skeletal injuries. It said he had 30 additional, non-lethal injuries, including puncture wounds that indicate a Taser was used on him at least once.
The ME's report also said there were no illegal drugs in Ficker's system, but he was intoxicated. He had twice the legal driving limit of alcohol in his blood.
In the ME's report, an initial screening test makes it appear Ficker tested positive for marijuana. However, further screening revealed that no marijuana was present, according to Dr. Krista Pekarski, who performed the autopsy.
Journalists are allowed to view autopsy photos and report on what they saw.
NewsChannel5 investigator Sarah Buduson is the only reporter who viewed the photos at the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's office Friday.
Buduson said the photos show large bruises on Ficker's face and upper body. She said there were also numerous small bruises, scrapes and cuts on Ficker's body, including on Ficker's face, neck, chest, back, head, shoulders, hands and knees.
Terry Gilbert, the attorney representing Daniel Ficker's family, said the report raises questions about what led to Ficker's death.
"The bottom line is this. You have an unarmed man with two police officers coming to his house waiting for him and even if there is some kind of resistance or fight, it doesn't justify shooting him at him at close range in the chest," said Gilbert.
Parma police said Cleveland police officer Matthew Craska shot Ficker just after midnight on July 4.
Craska and an off-duty officer, Dave Mindek, had gone to Ficker's home because Mindek suspected Ficker took jewelry from Mindek's home during a party on the night of July 3, according to Parma police.
Cleveland police radio traffic obtained by NewsChannel5 showed Craska asked permission to go to Ficker's Parma home the night of the shooting.
"See if you can get a boss's OK to go to (address) Wareham in Parma to get some further info for this," said Officer Craska on the tape.
Parma police said the officers waited for Ficker at his home until he arrived with his fiancee, Tiffany.
That's when Officer Craska confronted Ficker and shot him after Ficker became combative, according to Cleveland Police.
Before dying, Ficker can be heard on the police radio traffic telling Tiffany he loves her.
Officer: "Shots fired. male down." Ficker: "Tiffany, I love you."
Daniel Ficker's mother, Bernadette Rolen, told NewsChannel5’s Paul Kiska after the tapes were released that she finds it "hard to believe that just after midnight on a busy Fourth of July weekend that alleged missing jewelry was such a priority it couldn't wait.”
Cleveland police decline to comment on the autopsy report.
The said are waiting for Parma police to complete their investigation before looking into both police officers' actions that night.
Police officers can go into another city without notifying that police department, but a Cleveland police spokesperson said officers do call the other police department ahead of time, the "majority" of the time.
most cops are power hungry D-bags few are not....and i mean very few, and even fewer are actually good decent huamn beings but now we are getting into powerball odds numbers here. i found that even if your honest and know the law a cops can give and will give you a ticket anyway and screw you over just in wasting your time. i feel that the world would be alot better without them and really all we need is taser armed security guards roaming the streets. everytime i see a cop get killed unfortunatly the first thing i think is...he prolly deserved it. a crappy thought to have shure but one that has been formed over the many years and poor encounters with police. did i deserve some of what i got form the cops.....of course to say i didnt deserve a ticket because i was speeding is just ignorant but the injury from the attitude that comes with geting a ticket is uncalled for. not to mention something more serious. for example lets say some one waws truely being stupid or asshatish (anywthing non life threating works here) how often do we see people just so ok i give up and then the cops slam them to the ground instead of just handcuffing them? as if a machoman randy savage bodyslam to concrete or dirt is really necissary. i dunno thats my 2 cents prolly only worth 2 cents but what ever i dont ever see the police situation getting any better unless cops have something to fear which short of someone going on an automatic rifle rampage taking out 300+ cops i dont think they will ever.
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08:00 AM
Sep 21st, 2011
Doug85GT Member
Posts: 9704 From: Sacramento CA USA Registered: May 2003
Update on the Kelly Thomas murder by police officers. Watch the 2nd video at the bottom.
What really caught my attention was what the DA said about the recording. He in effect said if there was no microphone on the officers and no surveillance video, then these two cops would have gotten away with murder (my words, not his).
Kelly Thomas Death: Officer Manuel Ramos Charged With Murder
By AMY TAXIN and GREG RISLING, Associated Press.
Associated Press Writers Gillian Flaccus in Orange County and Thomas Watkins in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
SANTA ANA, Calif. -- Two police officers were charged Wednesday in the death of a mentally ill homeless man in Southern California who was beaten and repeatedly shocked with a stun gun during his arrest, authorities said.
Officer Manuel Ramos was charged with one count each of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the death of 37-year-old Kelly Thomas after a violent confrontation on July 5 with officers, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said at a news conference.
Police Cpl. Jay Cicinelli was charged with one count each of involuntary manslaughter and excessive force, he said.
Rackauckas said a review of the evidence showed Thomas was acting "in self-defense, in pain and in a state of panic."
"His numerous pleas of `I'm sorry,' `I can't breathe,' `Help Dad' (were) all to no avail. Screams, loud screams, didn't help," the prosecutor said.
The prosecutor said police officers have a right to use reasonable force in the performance of a lawful duty but citizens have a right to self-defense, even against the police.
Lorie Fridell, an associate professor of criminology at the University of South Florida, said it is highly unusual for a police officer to be charged with murder.
"It is quite appropriate in such cases to hold officers to account," Fridell said. "Often, however prosecutors will give officers the benefit of the doubt."
Ron Thomas, Kelly Thomas' father, said he was pleased with the charges but still suffers every day as a result of his son's death.
"That's exactly what I hoped for," Ron Thomas said of the charges.. "It makes me feel fantastic that this is happening, it's the justice we need."
Bill Hadden, an attorney representing Cincinelli, didn't immediately return a call for comment. A call to a home number for Ramos rang unanswered.
Arraignment was scheduled later Wednesday.
Six officers were placed on paid administrative leave after the incident that occurred while police were investigating reported vehicle break-ins at a transit hub.
Thomas suffered severe head and neck injuries and was taken off life support five days later.
Thomas suffered from schizophrenia and lived on the streets even though he received support from family and friends.
Police said Thomas ran when officers tried to search his bag. A struggle followed when they tried to arrest him for investigation of possession of stolen goods.
Video from a bystander's cell phone taken from a distance showed parts of the bloody encounter in which Thomas can be heard screaming for his father.
Surveillance video aboard a bus showed agitated passengers telling the driver that officers beat and repeatedly used a stun gun during the arrest.
After the incident, the police chief went on medical leave and the embattled City Council hired a law enforcement expert to investigate Police Department practices.
Incensed community members held demonstrations and started an effort to recall the mayor and two councilmembers over the incident.
Ron Thomas, the father of the dead man, filed a claim seeking damages from the city.
He has previously released his son's medical records showing Thomas suffered broken bones in his face, choked on his own blood and was repeatedly shocked with two stun guns.
News reports show Cincinelli left the Los Angeles Police Department after losing an eye in 1996 while working as a probationary officer.
Cincinelli, who was 25 at the time, was shot during an on-duty gunfight during a traffic stop less than three weeks after graduating from the Police Academy, according to news accounts.
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06:38 PM
Sep 29th, 2011
avengador1 Member
Posts: 35468 From: Orlando, Florida Registered: Oct 2001
(10-31) 13:28 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Four San Francisco police officers have been fired this year for departmental violations ranging from using force without justification to obtaining confidential information about people from a law-enforcement database, records show.
The officers' names were withheld in documents released by the San Francisco Police Commission because of state laws that keep police personnel records confidential. Many other details of their cases were sketchy.
The four cases cited in the documents:
-- An officer was fired for using a police database without authorization to obtain and disclose confidential information.
-- Another officer was fired for illegally arresting and violating the rights of an onlooker to an unspecified police action in 2009. The officer also made "callous and alarming comments" to a civilian, the commission said.
-- Also in 2009, an officer was accused of detaining and arresting someone without lawful reason, using profanity and writing an inaccurate report. That led to the officer's firing.
-- A fourth officer was fired for treating a supervisor with disrespect, lying to a supervisor and failing to "respond to an inquiry from a supervisor in a truthful and non-evasive manner" in 2010.
Three other officers accused of misconduct have retired this year.
One had been accused of compromising a criminal investigation "by entering into a sexual relationship with a key witness" while the case was pending in 2010, the commission said.
A lieutenant retired after being accused of "repeatedly failing to set an example of efficiency, sobriety, discretion, industry and promptness" in 2008.
Another officer retired after being accused of inappropriately soliciting a student this year.
The documents also reveal that two officers were suspended this year.
One spent three months off the job for using steroids in 2010. The other was suspended for 10 days for a variety of misdeeds, including driving a city car for personal use and spending city money to ship personal items to and from Europe. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-b...76.DTL#ixzz1cOsOcWja
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05:14 PM
madcurl Member
Posts: 21401 From: In a Van down by the Kern River Registered: Jul 2003
LAPD sergeant is pepper-sprayed, arrested on burglary charge-too funny.
A Los Angeles police sergeant was arrested Sunday on suspicion of burglary after a woman found him inside her home near the San Bernardino National Forest and sprayed him with a potent form of pepper spray that is typically used to ward off bears, authorities said.
LAPD Sgt. Lucien Daigle allegedly fled but crashed his car a few miles from the woman’s Mentone home, said San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Sgt. Paul Morrison.
Daigle reeked of pepper spray when he was approached and had valuables inside his car that belonged to the woman, Morrison said.
It was only during the booking process, Morrison said, that deputies learned that Daigle, 44, was an LAPD sergeant.
Authorities said there is no indication that Daigle, a Highland resident, is acquainted with the victim. “It was a burglary,” Morrison said.
He was recently assigned to Olympic Division from Central Division where for many years he was a skid row drug expert. He has been placed on administrative leave by the LAPD. The department has launched an internal affairs probe.
Morrison said the break-in occurred sometime before 6:20 p.m. Sunday in the 8900 block of Tres Lagos Drive in Mentone, a remote community near Redlands.
The homeowner told deputies she had taken her dogs for a walk and returned to find a man inside her home, Morrison said.
“She had sprayed the intruder with bear pepper spray. It is five times more powerful than pepper spray we use in law enforcement,” he added.
Daigle sustained minor injuries from the traffic collision and was taken to an area hospital for treatment before he was booked. He was later released on $125,000 bail on Monday. http://latimesblogs.latimes...ed-for-burglary.html
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05:27 PM
Dec 8th, 2011
madcurl Member
Posts: 21401 From: In a Van down by the Kern River Registered: Jul 2003
San Mateo pays family of boy pepper-sprayed by cop
When an agitated 7-year-old special education student clambered onto a bookshelf at his San Mateo school, aides called the police. Officer George "Randy" Heald told the boy it wasn't safe on the unsteady furniture and that he had to get down.
The boy refused, and the officer blasted him with pepper spray, touching off a debate over whether the chemical agent should ever be used on children.
San Mateo agreed last week to pay $55,000 to settle a federal lawsuit filed by the boy's family, claiming he had been treated like a "common criminal." Earlier, the San Mateo County Board of Education, the county's Behavioral Health and Recovery Services agency and the Belmont-Redwood Shores School District paid an undisclosed sum to settle claims against them in the same lawsuit.
"Unfortunately, police think that pepper spray is not really a weapon, that it doesn't do any permanent harm," said the boy's attorney, Michael Sorgen. "It turns out it's not necessarily true."
But San Mateo police say they have no restrictions on the use of pepper spray against children, and a top department official defended its use on a boy who was "out of control."
"The end result was that the child was taken under control," said Deputy Chief Mike Callagy.
Bolted from school The boy, identified in the lawsuit under the pseudonym Adam G., was enrolled in a special-education class at George Hall Elementary School in San Mateo. He has learning difficulties, dyslexia, anxiety disorder and social-skill problems.
On June 10, 2010, the boy refused to do a classroom assignment, left the campus and was forcibly returned to school by classroom aides. Agitated, he threw chairs in a classroom and climbed on top of a bookshelf and a cabinet, refusing to come down, said the suit the family filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
A therapist and teacher decided to call the police. Heald, a veteran officer just months from retirement, told the boy that "if he did not come down by the count of five, he would be pepper-sprayed," the complaint said.
Adam did not know what pepper spray was, the suit said. Heald explained to the boy that pepper spray "was like hot pepper and that it would make (him) cry and maybe throw up," attorneys for the officer and the city wrote in court papers.
Heald counted backward from five and then "blasted pepper spray in Adam's face," prompting the 51-pound boy to cry in pain, rub his face and come down from the cabinet, the suit said. The boy was then committed for a psychiatric evaluation.
The incident left Adam "more deeply anxious and fearful," the suit said. His parents transferred him to a Menlo Park learning center, where teachers "engage Adam in positive learning and do not resort to physical restraints or calling the police to address his emotional behaviors," the suit said.
In court papers, attorneys for Heald and the city said the boy had responded to the officer's warnings with "growling noises" and "clawing-type" hand gestures.
Safest strategy After Heald counted down to one, the boy suddenly scooted from a bookshelf to a less stable cabinet that supported a television set, they wrote. There was a piano below the cabinet, and Heald concluded the boy "needed to be immediately removed" for his own safety, the attorneys said.
The officer believed the pepper spray was the "safest and least intrusive way" to gain control of the boy, they wrote.
Callagy, the deputy police chief, said Heald "used the tools that he had to the best of his ability. It is unfortunate that the child was out of control in that situation. But we support the officer's actions and what he did under those circumstances."
Heald, 50, retired in March after 27 years on the force and could not be reached for comment.
Kamran Loghman, a chemical-exposure expert who helped develop policies on the use of pepper spray for the FBI and the state Department of Justice, blasted the decision to spray the chemical on the boy.
"I think it's an absolute absence of wisdom and intelligence," Loghman said. "You don't use a weapon on a child unless he had something that is extremely dangerous in his hand, that may cause death to himself or others, like a gun."
Act like adults He added, "Many of us have children who almost on a daily basis don't listen to their parents. What do we do? Throw vinegar on them? Pepper-spray them? As adults, we have to remain adult-centered, try to be calm and take situations under control."
Geoffrey Alpert, a University of South Carolina criminologist who studies police use of force, said he had never heard of an officer pepper-spraying a child.
"There's so many ways to deal with people, and unless you're being a threat, I don't understand why pepper spray or any other type of that kind of uncomfortable force would be used on a child," Alpert said.
But Alpert said there are instances in which exceptions can be made when it comes to police tactics and children.
In Miami, police used a Taser shock weapon on a 6-year-old boy in 2004. "Everyone went ballistic, but what happened was that he had a shard of glass and was about to cut his wrist," Alpert said. Under the circumstances, he said, using the shock weapon was a reasonable decision.
The lawsuit settlement with Adam G.'s family calls for police, school and county officials to draft policies that dictate "what are the appropriate situations for the police to be called in for assistance based on student misconduct," said Sorgen, the boy's lawyer. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-b...CN.DTL#ixzz1fydLmvgR
The skinny: Cops normally seen speeding in the area and people have been complaining about. Cop was seen speeding without lights or sirens on. Kills two people walking outside the crosswalk and are killed. No blood test taken of officer involved and people are pissed!
Deputy in fatal crash was responding to stolen vehicle call
The Kern County sheriff's deputy who drove a patrol car that struck and killed two pedestrians in Oildale Friday evening was responding to a report of a stolen vehicle with a suspect still at the scene, Sheriff Donny Youngblood said Monday.
And, according to the California Highway Patrol, which is investigating the crash, Deputy John Swearengin was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
An alcohol and drug screen was not performed on Swearengin because he didn't show any signs of intoxication -- which is standard procedure, CHP Officer Robert Rodriguez said.
Numerous other questions about the deadly collision remained unanswered Monday, including how fast Swearengin was driving and whether the vehicle's emergency lights and siren were on.
Rodriguez said the investigation is ongoing and could take weeks to complete. He said information from the patrol vehicle's internal computer, sometimes referred to as a black box, will be downloaded to see such things as how fast Swearengin was driving at the time of impact and whether he tried to brake.
Youngblood told reporters at a news conference Monday that Swearengin, a five-year veteran, has been placed on paid administrative leave. While the CHP conducts its investigation, he said, the Sheriff's Department will conduct an administrative investigation.
Swearengin was headed to the area of Highway 65 and 7th Standard Road for the stolen vehicle report, Youngblood said. He received the call just before 7:30 p.m.; the crash happened soon thereafter.
Youngblood said California law prevents him from commenting on specifics of the administrative investigation, but he'll release information as it becomes legally available. He also released the department's emergency driving policies, and said those policies will be reviewed by sheriff's command staff once the CHP investigation is complete.
"Any time a significant incident occurs, such as Friday night's accident, we take it very seriously and examine our actions," Youngblood said.
The department's emergency driving policy, which is seven pages long, says "the safety of the deputy and the public must be the primary concern when driving under emergency conditions."
The policy says sheriff's personnel generally can't violate traffic laws except when done in a safe manner and during Code 3 operations (lights and sirens during an emergency call), or while practicing generally approved patrol procedures.
Those procedures include approaching a prowler call with lights out and driving on the wrong side of a roadway to safely approach a robbery in progress.
The policy goes on to say deputies shouldn't drive faster than is reasonable or prudent taking weather, visibility, traffic and the surface and width of the road into consideration.
Youngblood said there's no speed threshold when responding to emergencies.
Swearengin was driving west on Norris Road and the pedestrians were walking south across Norris near where it intersects Diane Drive when they were struck, CHP officers have reported. Daniel Hiler, 24, and Chrystal Jolley, 30, died at the scene.
Swearengin, 34, suffered minor injuries and was treated at and released from a local hospital.
On Saturday, mourners expressed outrage over the deaths of their loved ones. Several people said deputies routinely speed through Oildale.
At Monday's press conference, Youngblood said he can't respond to rumors about what may or may not have occurred. If a complaint is filed with the department, it's investigated, he said.
Acknowledging the anger voiced by some in the community, Youngblood asked for the public's patience, adding he has many questions of his own.
He said the department as a whole is deeply saddened by the deaths.
"This incident is a tragedy for everyone involved and for our community," Youngblood said.
Video game sting takes down East St. Louis police chief
While most cops protect and serve, former East St. Louis police chief Michael Baxton apparently likes to play. Michael Baxton Baxton pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing four Xbox 360 consoles from the FBI, reports St. Louis news station KSDK.
To be clear, the 360 is not standard issue equipment for the Feds these days. Officials had them in the car as part of a sting operation after suspicions arose about the chief's conduct.
Baxton, who faces up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000, came under suspicion of offering preferential treatment to some suspects and stealing/selling items from the evidence locker. That's when the FBI decided to test him.
[Related: UK police smuggle fake bomb onto Olympic site]
Agents bought five Xbox 360s, put them in the trunk of a car, then reported the car as being stolen. Baxton and another officer responded to the call -- and sure enough, when they saw the Xboxes, the chief ordered the officer to put four in his car and keep one for himself.
"Unbeknownst to Baxton, the unnamed officer voluntarily came forward to report other acts of misconduct occurring in Alorton and had been assisting the federal investigation from its inception. The unnamed officer was equipped with covert surveillance devices at the time of the theft -- and he audio and video recorded the entire incident," reads the court record.
Officials tracked one of the Xboxes and found it being used in Baxton's basement. But the U.S. Attorney overseeing the case said Baxton lied and tried to frame another officer when confronted.
Baxton's attorney calls the incident a "monumental lapse of judgment."
Ironically, this isn't the former chief's first brush with the other side of the law. It turns out Baxton had two felony convictions from 1982 before he was appointed: one for theft and another for burglary. Those convictions were expunged in 1989.
The town really can't catch a break when it comes to law enforcement officials. Baxton, after all, got the job of chief when the former chief was convicted of federal tax crimes.
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09:12 PM
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Feb 3rd, 2012
madcurl Member
Posts: 21401 From: In a Van down by the Kern River Registered: Jul 2003
Hmm yeah they are bad. Wait they are good. Nah they are humans, some do good things and some do bad, some do both. The important thing is punish the bad.
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03:38 PM
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avengador1 Member
Posts: 35468 From: Orlando, Florida Registered: Oct 2001
Law-abiding citizens are no longer safe from police. Once the motto for police officers was “To protect and serve,” but now it seems to be “To harass, assault and attack.”
Across the country, police officers are increasingly militarized and increasingly militant. They make up laws out of thin air, claiming that innocuous activities like watching or videotaping police activities — including arrests on public streets, walking in certain neighborhoods, parking on certain streets and putting trash in trash cans — are crimes.
While the vilest offenders are SWAT teams, even regular patrol officers become violent at the least provocation. Thanks to YouTube and similar content-sharing sites, more of these incidents are coming to light. However, capturing video of these incidents has put the videographer at risk from the police, who often unlawfully and forcibly take the phone or camera and erase its contents or remove its memory card. It’s not unusual for the videographer to be roughed up and/or threatened with arrest in the process. A list of recent incidences of police brutality and other police misconduct can be read at Injustice Everywhere.
Cops have come to think of themselves as gods above the law whose commands are to be obeyed immediately and without question. Any hesitation often leads to the “suspect” being left bleeding and broken or quivering from electricity introduced by a TASER. It doesn’t matter if the person was unable to understand the command because of a language barrier, or if the person was unable to comply due to disability or defect. Officers expect immediate and complete compliance with no questions asked.
They are shooting dogs for barking, Tasing (see here and here) and pepper spraying children in schools and shooting wheelchair-bound men in the streets. They apparently feel they operate above the law.
Many, if not most, patrol cars now carry dash cams. Sometimes, dash cam videos are preserved, which allows abused citizens — if they are persistent and dogged enough — to get justice and restitution occasionally. Such was the case shown here, where the officer threatened to shoot a suspect in the head for not revealing he had a concealed weapon in the car. Often, though, the dash cam video mysteriously disappears before trial.
According to a report by the CATO Institute, tens of thousands of raids are conducted by SWAT teams each year. The report claimed:
These increasingly frequent raids, 40,000 per year by one estimate, are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they’re sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers. These raids bring unnecessary violence and provocation to nonviolent drug offenders, many of whom were guilty of only misdemeanors. The raids terrorize innocents when police mistakenly target the wrong residence. And they have resulted in dozens of needless deaths and injuries, not only of drug offenders, but also of police officers, children, bystanders, and innocent suspects.
The so-called War on Drugs is undoubtedly the casus belli for the increased militarization of the police. SWAT officers are armed and armored as well as, if not better than, soldiers. Drug task forces receive Federal funding to purchase assault weapons, armor and armored vehicles to use in drug raids. They no longer serve warrants by knocking on doors or by picking up suspects on the streets. Instead, they bash down doors or use chain saws to gain entry.
SWAT teams argue their safety requires they swarm into homes. But that doesn’t negate the fact that they create an explosive situation that often leads to innocent people being harmed or killed. Sadly, they often force their way into the wrong residence.
The instance in Tucson, Ariz., in which Iraq veteran Jose Guerena was shot 60 times by SWAT officers in his home is prima facie evidence of the danger these situations create.
In the early morning hours Guerena’s wife, Vanessa, saw a man pointing a gun at her through the window. She awakened her husband, who was asleep after working the night shift. Thinking a home invasion was in progress, Guerena told his wife to get into a closet and grabbed his gun.
The SWAT team forced open the door and opened fire on Guerena, then stood by and watched him bleed for an hour before letting paramedics treat him. By then, he was dead. SWAT officers then lied about who shot first. The safety was still on Guerena’s gun, indicating he never fired. Nothing illegal was found in Guerena’s home.
It is grounded in conservative American psyche to defend oneself and one’s home. Yet responding to an unannounced and violent intrusion by police will leave you as dead as it left Guerena.
And even if you aren’t shot dead, the police have no qualms about destroying your residence. They claim it is police procedure to gas the house, tear up floor boards, kick in doors and walls, and strew contents of cabinets and furniture to the winds. Requests for compensation are ignored, even if nothing was ever found.
But it’s not just suspected drug dealers who feel the wrath of police officers. Just ask Marianne Godboldo of Detroit. Police thugs forcibly removed her daughter for the crime of Godboldo not giving her daughter a pill prescribed by a physician.
Most people dismiss claims of an increasingly violent and aggressive police force as either conspiracy theory or sour grapes by criminals. Minorities have long seen their claims of police brutality dismissed out of hand by white America. Many people naively believe that if they don’t commit a crime, they won’t have anything to worry about from police. But it’s high time that people see this for what it is and connect the dots on the news stories of today.
Congress has just authorized having as many as 30,000 unmanned drones patrolling the U.S. skies. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are greatly expanding the definition of extremist and terrorist to include people performing normal activities or objecting to paying taxes. The USA Patriot Act and the National Defense Authorization Act have given government carte blanche to detain Americans without charge and without trial and ship them to the Guantanamo Bay prison resort.
In a series of debates on socialism in 1914, John Basil Barnhill said, “Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty.” The government fears the people and the coming conflagration it has sparked. By tightening its grasp on liberty through the militarization of the police force, the pendulum is swinging to where the people are now beginning to fear their government.
Where this will lead is anybody’s guess, but I predict it won’t be pretty.
Off-Duty Deputy Accused of Pulling Gun on Pregnant Couple
The Kendall County Sheriff's Department has launched an internal investigation into an alleged incident involving an off-duty deputy pulling a gun on a pregnant woman in a Walmart express lane. Just one week from her due date, Nicole Thurmond said she feared for her life while checking out at a Walmart store in Oswego on a recent Sunday. "I felt someone close behind me. He started being really rude and said, 'Don't you know how to count? You are holding up the whole store," Thurmond recalled. Thurmond said she didn't know it at the time, but the man in plain clothes was off-duty deputy Craig French. Thurmond's husband had been getting eggs at the time and said he could see his wife was upset when he returned to the checkout area. "There was a guy in her face, yelling at her," said Jason Thurmond. "In an aggressive manner he steps toward me, and I just push him back to keep him away from my wife and myself, and before I knew it I just froze because he pulled out a gun."
Jason Thurmond said the man didn't show his badge, was "waving a gun in a store," and at one point asked them if they were on welfare. "At one point I turned by back to him, because I was afraid if it did go off, at least it hits my backside and not in the front where my baby is," said Nicole Thurmond. The couple said that only after he waved the gun did the man identify himself as a sheriff's deputy.
Jason Thurmond was arrested and charged with misdemeanor battery for the shove he admits he gave the deputy. The Thurmonds have since filed a formal complaint with the department. "I'm a big believer in karma. Someday he'll be the one who can't move very fast. He'll see," said the expectant mother. The Kendall County Sheriff's Department said in a statement the incident is under an internal investigation to determine if the deputy’s actions "are consistent with the rules and regulations of the Sheriff’s Office." The investigation is separate from any criminal investigation by Oswego Police, the department said in a statement.
Most of my experience with police has been negative. They pounce on me for a traffic violation and won't do a thing when I'm victimized by criminals, but I really don't want to go back to the "wild west" when fast guns and back shooters ruled. Like em or not we need em.
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12:45 PM
Feb 15th, 2012
madcurl Member
Posts: 21401 From: In a Van down by the Kern River Registered: Jul 2003
LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — The FBI says a fatal shooting in a Southern California Immigration and Customs Enforcement office occurred as an agent was being counseled on his performance by a high-ranking ICE official.
Federal officials on Friday identified the gunman as 45-year-old supervisory special agent Ezequiel Garcia and the victim as 51-year-old Kevin Kozak, deputy special agent in charge of the Los Angeles area.
The officials say Kozak is in stable condition, recovering from six gunshot wounds. He is described as alert and talking.
Officials say Garcia was fatally shot by a third agent who intervened. That agent is on administrative leave and his identity is being withheld.
[This message has been edited by madcurl (edited 02-17-2012).]
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05:17 PM
Feb 22nd, 2012
madcurl Member
Posts: 21401 From: In a Van down by the Kern River Registered: Jul 2003
"monumental lapse of judgment"-yeah right. It's called stealing 
