Tag: police brutality

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Louisville Police Fires Pepper Balls At Local News Crew

(screen capture)
Louisville’s NBC News affiliate reports the station’s own reporter, Kaitlin Rust, and photojournalist James Dobson, were hit by pepper balls reportedly fired by an LMPD officer during a protest in downtown Louisville Friday night.

It was previously reported that the officer was firing rubber bullets, but Jessie Halladay with the Louisville Metro Police Department said LMPD officers do not use rubber bullets, and it was likely that was Rust and Dobson were hit with pepper balls.

In response to what happened to Rust and Dobson, WAVE 3 News General Manager Ken Selvaggi issued a statement saying, “We strongly condemn the actions of the LMPD officer who tonight repeatedly fired at and hit our reporter and cameraman, both of whom were courageously and lawfully covering breaking news in their community. There is simply no justification for the Louisville police to wantonly open fire, even with pepper balls, on any journalists under any circumstances.”

During night two of several hundred protesters gathering downtown, crowds appear to be larger and police are continuing their efforts to clear the area.

Watch the brief video clip of the encounter below. One commenter on the YouTube page wrote, “It’s almost like they [police] are trying to start a war with civilians.”

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Fired Police Officer Who Knelt On George Floyd’s Neck Arrested

George Floyd, handcuffed on the ground as former Officer Derek Chauvin kneels on his neck
From NBC News:

The Minneapolis police officer shown on video putting his knee on the neck of George Floyd has been arrested, according to Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington.

Derek Chauvin, who was fired on Monday along with three other officers involved in the detainment of Floyd, was taken into custody Friday.

Video showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for at least eight minutes on Monday night. The police department initially said Floyd “physically resisted” the officers and that he died after “suffering medical distress.”

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the FBI are both investigating Floyd’s death.

Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced Friday afternoon. In related news, the local ABC News affiliate KSTP reports Chauvin and Floyd both worked as security guards at the El Nuevo Rodeo club on Lake Street, according to Maya Santamaria. Santamaria owned the building for nearly two decades, but sold the venue within the last few months. “Chauvin was our off-duty police for almost the entirety of the 17 years that we were open,” Santamaria said. “They were working together at the same time, it’s just that Chauvin worked outside and the security guards were inside.” So, it’s difficult to imagine the two men didn’t know each other. And then to find themselves in this odd situation? Something doesn’t add up here…

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Four Minneapolis Police Officers Fired Following Death Of Black Man

Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd
The Minneapolis Police Department has fired four officers involved in the death of George Floyd, a black man who died while being arrested on Monday. He was reportedly being detained as a possible suspect in a bad check-writing case. The incident, showing one officer kneeling on the neck of handcuffed Gregory Floyd as he lay face down on the ground, was recorded and shared across social media on Monday night. In the video, Floyd can be heard saying he could not breathe many times. As the video continues, he seems to lose consciousness. Floyd was later pronounced dead at the Hennepin County Medical Center. You can see portions of the video footage below. Warning: extremely disturbing.

“The man looked already dead before the ambulance even got there. He was clearly trying to tell them he couldn’t breathe and they ignored him,” Darnella Frazier, one of the people who filmed the incident, told NBC News. The police department has told reporters that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has been contacted to independently investigate. Additionally, the department announced the FBI would also be investigating. The names of the four officers have not been released by the Minneapolis Police Department. The news of the firing of the officers was shared by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Twitter where he called the decision “the right call.” “Four responding MPD officers involved in the death of George Floyd have been terminated,” Frey wrote. “This is the right call.”

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Video: Sheriff’s Deputy Body Slams 12-Year-Old TWICE

From ABC News:

A sheriff’s deputy caught on security video twice body-slamming a child under the age of 12 at a North Carolina middle school was fired on Monday morning and state investigators are deciding whether to file criminal charges against him, officials said.

The deputy’s termination is “effective immediately,” Vance County, North Carolina, Sheriff Curtis Brame told ABC station WTVD in Durham, North Carolina. The disturbing incident occurred on Thursday at the Vance County Middle School in Henderson, about 40 miles northeast of Durham.

In the school surveillance video, the deputy, a school resource officer, is seen walking with the child down a hallway when suddenly he lunges at the boy, lifts him off the ground and slams him to the floor on his back. Without checking the child for injuries, the deputy picks the student up again and throws him to the floor a second time and drags him down the hall and out of the view of the camera, according to the footage.

Trust and believe, if an adult man picked up a child of mine and body-slammed them like this, he’d be more than fired. This comes less than a week after a Florida sheriff’s deputy, caught on video slamming a 15-year-old student face-first into the pavement, was fired. Remember – Attorney General William Barr says people need to show more respect to law enforcement. This isn’t how you inspire respect.

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NYPD Fires Officer For Chokehold Death Of Eric Garner

New York City Police Commissioner James O’Neill

From The New York Times:

The New York City police officer whose chokehold was partly blamed for Eric Garner’s death in police custody in 2014 was fired from the Police Department on Monday, ending a bitter, five-year legal battle that had cast a shadow over the nation’s largest police force and the city it protects.

The police commissioner, James P. O’Neill, dismissed the officer, Daniel Pantaleo, just over two weeks after a police administrative judge found him guilty of violating a department ban on chokeholds.

“The unintended consequence of Mr. Garner’s death must have a consequence of its own,” Mr. O’Neill said. “Therefore I agree with the deputy commissioner of trial’s legal findings and recommendations. It is clear that Daniel Pantaleo can no longer effectively serve as a New York City police officer.”

The leader of the city’s largest police union immediately denounced the decision, saying Mr. O’Neill had bowed to “anti-police extremists” and that Mr. Pantaleo’s dismissal sent a message that the city did not stand behind its officers when they make arrests.

Garner died on July 17, 2014, after Officer Pantaleo tackled him from behind, then, along with other officers, jumped on top of Garner.

Video footage of the arrest showing Garner struggling for breath and repeatedly saying — “I can’t breathe” — quickly went viral and galvanized the Black Lives Matter movement.

Garner was being arrested on charges of selling untaxed, individual cigarettes on a street corner. For that crime, he was choked to death.

After watching the video himself, O’Neill said he came to two conclusions: Garner should not have resisted arrest; and that while Pantaleo began the interaction appropriately, the officer escalated to a prohibited chokehold.

I have this to say: at the time of his death, there were four – FOUR – police officers holding Garner down.

Nine times Garner, who was unarmed, said, “I can’t breathe.”

With three other police officers with him, couldn’t Pantaleo have loosened his (prohibited) chokehold just a bit?

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No Charges For Officer Involved In Chokehold Death Of Eric Garner

(stock image via Pexels/Rosemary Ketchum)

There will be no charges for the police officer who put Eric Garner in a chokehold which ultimately led to Garner’s death five years ago.

From The New York Times:

The Justice Department will not bring federal charges against a New York City police officer in the death of Eric Garner, ending a yearslong inquiry into a case that sharply divided officials and prompted national protests over excessive force by the police, according to three people briefed on the decision.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn intend to announce the decision not to bring criminal civil rights charges on Tuesday morning, just one day before the fifth anniversary of Mr. Garner’s death. That is the deadline by which they would have to file some of the possible charges against the officer, Daniel Pantaleo.

The decision extinguishes the hopes of the Garner family and their supporters that Officer Pantaleo might face prosecution in a case that ignited demonstrations and debates over the use of force by police officers and led to changes in policing practices across the United States.

Police officers were attempting to arrest Garner for selling individual cigarettes to passersby on the street, thus avoiding sales tax, when the episode escalated ending with Pantaleo choking Garner.

Bystanders recorded the incident where Garner could be heard saying, “I can’t breathe.” But Pantaleo did not release Garner. A medical examiner concluded that the pressure on Mr. Garner’s neck and chest set off a fatal asthma attack.

Pantaleo has been on desk duty since the incident five years ago which has allowed him to continue to get paid and add time to his pension.

And from New York State Attorney General Letitia James:

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Police Threaten To Shoot Father In The Head After 4-Year-Old Wanders Out Of Dollar Store With Doll

A little girl wandered out of a Dollar Family Store in Phoenix, Arizona, with a doll.

The parents didn’t know the child had the doll until they got home.

As they parked at their apartment complex, a police officer responding to a shoplifting call drove up, the officers got out and this happened.

“When I tell you to do something, you f*cking do it!”

 “I’m gonna f*cking put a cap right in your f*cking head!”

Just a tad over the top, no?

The father was kicked and punched, and the young girl was injured as well.

The family has filed a $10 million lawsuit for the trauma they experienced.

Police Chief Jeri Williams issued this statement about the recent excessive behavior saying she’s disturbed by “the language and the actions of the officer” and there will be an investigation, but does discuss suspension or pay.

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NFL’s Michael Bennett Says He Was Singled Out By Las Vegas Police For Being Black

Michael Bennett

Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett tweeted today about an experience many African American men endure.

The short version of the story: after attending the Mayweather-McGregor fight in Las Vegas, Bennett was walking back to his hotel with hundreds of people. Folks heard what sounded like gun shots and began running. But police singled out Bennett, pulled their guns on him saying they would “blow his fucking head off.”

He was cuffed and thrown in the back of a police car.

He was eventually released with no apology or explanation after they realized he’s not a thug, but a Super Bowl champ.

Bennett has rightfully hired famed civil rights attorney John Burris.

Read his full account below.

From TMZ:

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Utah: Police Officer Under Investigation After Roughing Up Hospital Nurse

Whoa.

The Washington Post is reporting the story of a police officer who assaulted a nurse because she refused to allow the officer to draw a patient’s blood without a warrant.

By all accounts, the head nurse at the University of Utah Hospital’s burn unit was professional and restrained when she told a Salt Lake City police detective he wasn’t allowed to draw blood from a badly injured patient.

The detective didn’t have a warrant, first off. And the patient wasn’t conscious, so he couldn’t give consent. Without that, the detective was barred from collecting blood samples — not just by hospital policy, but by basic constitutional law.

Still, Detective Jeff Payne insisted that he be let in to take the blood, saying the nurse would be arrested and charged if she refused. Nurse Alex Wubbels politely stood her ground. She got her supervisor on the phone so Payne could hear the decision loud and clear. “Sir,” said the supervisor, “you’re making a huge mistake because you’re threatening a nurse.”

Payne snapped. He seized hold of the nurse, shoved her out of the building and cuffed her hands behind her back. A bewildered Wubbels screamed “help me” and “you’re assaulting me” as the detective forced her into an unmarked car and accused her of interfering with an investigation.

According to additional reports, present at the time were University of Utah police & Department of Public Safety officers, who did not intervene.

Watch below.

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Trump To Police: “Please Don’t Be Too Nice”

Speaking to an audience of police officers in Long Island, New York, Donald Trump encouraged the officers not be “too nice” to folks they arrest.

“When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in. Rough. I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice.’

“Like when you guys put somebody in the car, and you’re protecting their head, you know, you put your hand up like, ‘Don’t hit their head?’ And, they’ve just killed somebody? I said, ‘You can take the hand away.’”

Note the one guy in a cowboy hat on the right not applaud.

Remember when folks were considered innocent until proven guilty?

(h/t JoeMyGod)