Tag: Police

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Chicago Cop Investigated For Demanding Sex From Trans Woman Or Face Jail Time

(image via Flickr/Paul Woolrich – CC license)

A transgender woman alleges a Chicago Police sargeant forced her to perform oral sex on him to avoid being arrested.

On March 5, the woman arrived at Rush University Medical Center and told the staff she had been sexually assaulted, reports the Chicago Tribune.

According to the unnamed woman, she was in an area on Fifth Avenue in the Lawndale neighborhood known for prostitution. She admitted she was with a man who she referred to as her boyfriend.

A Chicago police car pulled up and asked her what she was doing in the area. The woman says she explained she was “going home.”

According to her statement via police report, he allegedly told her that if she didn’t want to go to jail she would have to perform oral sex on him saying, “Because that’s what you do.”

She says she was ordered to get in the front seat of his car, and the sargeant drove off leaving her male companion there.

He allegedly stopped in an alley, exposed himself and ordered her to perform the sex act in the vehicle. At some point, the woman says she was able to preserve DNA evidence.

During the alleged sex act, the 39-year-old woman says the officer told her, “I can make you one of my regulars.”

At the hospital, she gave staffers the DNA evidence that she said would prove her story.

But she left the hospital before filing a police report saying she was fearful of “retaliation” by police officers.

Eventually, police detectives were able to discern the woman’s identity but found contacting her to be difficult. At the same time, detectives searched through surveillance video in the area she said the assault took place.

Weeks later, detectives became aware the woman was in police custody for a shoplifting charge and were able to interview her.

The Tribune reports that the Chicago Police Department “stripped the officer of his police powers on April 6 based on the findings of an internal investigation.

A week later, the sergeant was allowed to officially retire from CPD without being charged in connection with the alleged assault.

Police say they are still awaiting the results of DNA testing.

According to the Tribune, this isn’t the officer’s first brush with internal police charges.

In 1997, he was investigated after it was discovered he threatened to plant drugs on a suspect unless they handed over a gun. While Internal Affairs recommended he be fired, he was eventually given a 30-day suspension.

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Florida Judge Dismisses Charges In Phony Police Sex Sting

In August, I reported on a police sting operation that resulted in the arrests of 13 men having consensual sex in a private area of the Pleasure Emporium Adult Boutique in Hollywood, South Florida.

Now, Judge Ginger Lerner Wren has dismissed all the charges against two of the defendants.

At the time of the arrests, police officers had gone to the trouble of paying $25 to enter locked, private rooms at the back of the Pleasure Emporium in South Florida where men were masturbating and engaging in oral sex.

The state had argued that an unsuspecting patron of Pleasure Emporium could accidentally observe the sexual activity.

But the judge disagreed.

“The Court finds that the Pleasure Emporium is not a public place under F.S. 800.03 where the patrons who access the private viewing theaters where consensual sexual activity occurs in the presence of other consenting adults objectively and subjectively possess a reasonable expectation of privacy,” Judge Wren wrote in her ruling.

Following the raid, the police department released the names and photos of those arrested to the media. Several major media outlets published that information which, in effect, outed some of them to their coworkers and families.

One man was apparently fired from his job due to the public outings.

Rhonda F. Gelfman, a lawyer who represented one of the defendants, told South Florida Gay News, “We are quite pleased with the court ruling, and justice was appropriately served,”

Unfortunately, some of the other defendants have already pleaded guilty to their charges.

Gelfman said that while it might be difficult to get their guilty pleas thrown out, “We may be able to assist them.”

Meanwhile, the Sun-Sentinel reports that while the Hollywood Police Department is spending it’s time busting gay men for consensual sex, the HPD is none too worked up about investigating actual sex crimes.

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DC Police Officer’s ‘Stop & Frisk’ Turns Into Body Cavity Search

Did this police officer go too far in searching a citizen during a 'stop and frisk' in Washington DC?

 Picture this: It’s September 2017, you’re hanging with buds outdoors, planning your upcoming birthday celebration when suddenly you find yourself the subject of an invasive stop and frisk.

Invasive as in ‘body cavity search’ invasive.

That’s apparently what happened to M.B. Cottingham, a 39-year-old man, in the Bellevue neighborhood of Washington, D.C. last fall.

According to the New York Post, Nottingham and his buddies were chilling when up rolled two police cars. More than a couple police officers approached the group and inquired as to whether they were carrying any weapons.

This is where it gets down in the underbrush on the way to Poughkeepise.

Cottingham alleges, and there’s video tape, that Metropolitan Police Department Officer Sean Lojacono violated Cottingham’s 4th Amendment rights regarding unreasonable searches and seizures.

Nottingham openly admitted having a legal amount of marijuana on him, but Lojacono took things farther. He went for the ’search and seizure’ according to ACLU staff attorney Scott Michelman, who is representing Cottingham.

As you can see on the video from the incident, Lojacono goes beyond the ‘pat down’ and gets his hands (and maybe his thumbs) all up in Cottingham’s business.

From The New York Post:

“He stuck his finger in my crack, man,” Cottingham said to his friends during the search, video shows. “Don’t do that, man … I don’t have nothing.”

Cottingham then followed the officer’s instructions to squat down to allow the search to continue, but the officer continued prodding far beyond the standard scope of a pat-down, according to ACLU officials, jamming his fingers into the man’s buttocks and anus and grabbing his scrotum.

“Stop fingering me though, bruh,” Cottingham told Lojacano. “You fingering my a–, man.”

“I’m outside your pants, bro,” the officer replied. “Relax.”

“Don’t sit here and finger my a— like that, like I’m not a man,” Cottingham said.

Michelman says the video clearly shows a “violation of [Cottingham’s] constitutional rights and basic dignity.”

“When a routine frisk turns into a search this invasive, the officer is not pursuing a legitimate law enforcement purpose but simply degrading someone and asserting his own power,” Michelman said in a statement to the press.

Apparently, Metropolitan Police Department chief, Peter Newsham, noted during a DC Council hearing last week that he has seen the video and considers the officer’s ’touching’ inappropriate.

The NY Post goes on to say that Cottingham says he has ‘discomfort in his genital area,’ as well as ‘ongoing anxiety, depression and fear of being in public.’

“I’ve never been so humiliated in my life,” Cottingham told the NY Post. “It’s bad enough that members of my community are stopped and frisked by the police all the time. I’ve been frisked many times and even beaten by police. But this officer treated me like I’m not even a human being.”

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Viral Video: Driver Fails To Signal While Turning, Police Officer Approaches Car With Gun Drawn

This video has gone viral overnight with over 100K retweets.

Apparently, the driver was stopped for failing to signal at a turn. With a black man at the wheel, the police officer approached the car with his gun drawn.

He then pointed the gun at the driver.

For failing to signal???

I don’t know a single white person who’s been stopped for failing to signal and had a police officer draw a gun on them.

Clearly the officer repeats over and over “Ok” as his only response for legal reasons with the camera recording.

Americans need to have a discussion with our police offices. There needs to be a real dialogue.

If there was a reason to draw his gun, I’d have preferred the officer explain a rational reason. I’d have preferred he TALK with the driver. I’d have preferred he have a dialogue with the driver.

At least the officer kept calm.

Watch below.

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Going Viral: NYC Police Officer’s LGBT Pride Facebook Post Inspires Thousands

I commented somewhere recently that while I do sometimes post stories of what seems like bad judgement by a handful of police officers, I don’t hate cops. One of my best friends was a police officer for two decades.

I know there are great cops in the world. And just to prove it, here’s one now.

A New York City police officers’ Facebook post from Sunday, wherein he shares the pic above and the message below, has gone viral.

Going only by “Big Fat Loser,” (the officer chronicles his weight loss on the account), he writes:

I’ll be out there working at Pridefest today wearing this shirt under my uniform for a lot of reasons.
For my step brother.
For my priest.
For my aunts who died before they could be legally married.
For my cousin.
For all of the cops I have worked with over the years, including one of the best partner’s I’ve ever shared a sector car with.
For my classmate in High School who’s parents made him sleep in a tent in his yard.
For the man who cried on my shoulder about losing his partner on 9/11.
For every call I went to where someone got kicked out of their house or who’s family just didn’t understand.
For anyone who’s had to hide who they are.
I’ve got your back.
Love is Love.
#loveislove #pride #pride🌈 #prideparade #nypd #igotyou #freehugs

(h/t JoeMyGod)

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Baton Rouge: Three Police Officers Killed, More Injured, In Possible Ambush Attack

Three police officers have been shot dead in the US city of Baton Rouge, and three more have been injured, officials say.

One suspect is dead and two others may still be at large.

The local sheriff’s department spokeswoman told WAFB TV the incident began shortly before 09:00 local time. The spokeswoman said officers had responded to reports of shooting. A witness said the shooting appeared to have broken out before law enforcement officers arrived at the scene.

President Obama released this statement, which reads in part:

I want to be clear: There is no justification for violence against law enforcement. None. These attacks are the work of cowards who speak for no one. They right no wrongs. They advance no causes. The officers in Baton Rouge; the officers in Dallas – they were our fellow Americans, part of our community, part of out country, with people who loved and needed then, and who need us now – all of us – to be at our best.

(Click image to enlarge)

Developing.

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Florida: Orange County Sheriff & Fire Departments Get Down For #KeepDancingOrlando Campaign

It’s all awesome when the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and the Orange County Firefighters get involved in the #KeepDancingOrlando campaign.

A video posted to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook page begins with a mock press conference announcing an “important announcement by Sheriff Demings.”

“We’re here for an important announcement today. I wanna keep Orlando smiling. Keep dancing, Orlando!” Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said before placing a boom box on top of the podium.

“Hit it,” Demings says, and when he presses play, the unmistakable beat for Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” starts to play.

Demings begins to dance first, sliding enthusiastically, and members of the OCSO soon follow suit.

The onlooking crowd, acting as members of the press for the video, cheer and throw up the papers they’re holding to join in on the dancing.

The #KeepDancingOrlando challenge was created to channel positive energy and honor the 49 victims of the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub on June 12, the OCSO wrote on Facebook.

(h/t JMG)

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English Cop Pops Proposal At London Pride

We’ve seen many public proposals between same-sex couples here in the U.S. with the arrival of marriage equality, but it’s not so common in the UK.

But London got to share in a couple’s happy moment right on the streets of this year’s Pride Parade when a constable marching in the parade with his department stopped along the way to get down on one knee and propose to his boyfriend.

ITV News reports that the constable stopped along the parade route where his partner, Jonathan Sammons, was watching and got down on one knee. The two exchanged a kiss to the roaring of the crowd and then the constable rejoined his fellow police officers.

The newly elected Mayor Sadiq Khan marched in the festivities, too.

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Baltimore Police Officer Edward Nero Found Not Guilty In Freddie Gray Case

Baltimore police officer Edward Nero

Baltimore police officer Edward Nero has been found not guilty of all charges in the case of Freddie Gray, whose injuries and subsequent death occurred while in police custody.

Videos of the arrest, and Gray’s death seven days later, sparked days-long protests and standoffs with the police.

From USA Today:

Nero, who is white, was the second of six officers to face trial and the first to obtain a verdict. The first case ended in a hung jury and will be retried.

Gray, 25, suffered a spinal injury while in police custody on April 12, 2015, and died a week later. Prosecutors say he suffered the injury while traveling without a secured seat belt in the back of a police van.

Nero, 30, had declined a jury trial, and Judge Barry Williams heard testimony that wrapped up last week. Nero was found not guilty of assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment.

Nero’s lawyers argued that it was the responsibility of the officers in the police van to secure Gray.

The Baltimore Police Department issued a statement saying Nero will still be subject to investigative review, and will remain in an administrative capacity while that investigation continues.