Fairfax County Police Watch: And yet the Fairfax County Police don't need oversight

Washington DC Metro Transit police officers were caught on video picking up a man from a wheelchair then throwing him face first down onto the sidewalk where he laid bleeding while people around him apparently called for an ambulance. There aren’t any other details on this one yet but, in the snippet of video that is available above, there does not appear to be any justification for this one. [3] http://bit.ly/jYVdMB (UPDATE: DC Metro Transit police claim the use of force was justified and charged the man for drinking in public and assaulting an officer, they also allegedly arrested another person at the scene for trying to assist the man after he was injured.

3 La Marque TX police officers are the subject of a lawsuit alleging that they beat and tasered a man who sought help because he thought he was having a heart attack and that man then died as a result. This one strains at the credibility margin but apparently a bystander who tried the help the alleged victim and called 911 says that the man wasn’t resisting or being aggressive when police assaulted him. The police reports from the time of the incident indicate that they believed the man was drunk when they responded to the medical assist call and found him rolling around in a ditch and that he allegedly grabbed for one of their guns. [3] http://bit.ly/m82M3f

Tulare County CA settled a lawsuit for $1,500,000 to the family of an unarmed man who was fatally shot in the back by a sheriff’s detective. [3] http://bit.ly/jYXmC3

A Frederick County MD deputy who was assigned as school resource officer has been indicted for allegedly having sex with a female 14-year-old student from that school. [0] http://bit.ly/iP5ohe

Cleveland OH police accountability practices are being called into question after a report found that 39% of use of force incidents involved people who were never convicted of any criminal act. [3] http://bit.ly/kQCFYy

Cleveland Heights OH police apparently refused to test a rape kit from a woman who apparently survived a 2-day long rape by an alleged serial killer/rapist. [3] http://bit.ly/lyf0FO

The Maricopa County AZ sheriff’s department was found to have mishandled over 400 sex crimes cases in a report released recently. Many of these involved serious criminal allegations including ones that involved children. [3] http://bit.ly/mm9zfH

A Dickson TN DICE unit and the 23rd Judicial District Drug Task Force were caught on video conducting questionable traffic stops in an apparent attempt to conduct searches on cars in hopes of finding money to confiscate using forfeiture laws. Interestingly this was apparently captured during a ride-along by news crews as well. [3] http://bit.ly/loohBn

The Houston TX police union is apparently retaliating against a medical examiner who found that a man who died after being put into a choke hold by an off-duty cop outside a bar was a case of homicide. The finding resulted in a homicide trial which resulted in a not-guilty verdict against the cop in question. So now the union is trying to get her fired by claiming she has a bias against police because of her testimony. [0] http://bit.ly/knarOW

A Lincoln County GA deputy has been charged driving under the influence of prescription medication while behind the wheel of a police cruiser. He was previously fired from the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office after he failed a drug test. [0] http://bit.ly/ln0hSY

During a Lower Merion PA township commissioners meeting that was stunned when a woman recounted how she was allegedly stalked by then sexually assaulted by a twp police officer who then claimed that another officer illegally detained her afterward in an effort to silence her another story was eclipsed. Apparently, during the same meeting a different police officer made allegations that the department practiced racial discrimination when they allowed a promotion exam to expire so they could avoid promoting a black officer who ranked highest on the test results. [3] http://bit.ly/kBT0sV

A Delaware State trooper has been charged with filing a false document based on time sheet fraud allegations. [0] http://bit.ly/kurH06

A Denver CO police officer is under investigation after he hit a fellow officer with his police car while that officer was directing traffic at U2 concert. [0] http://bit.ly/lQx5iw

Morrogh finds cop he doesn’t love. In other news, hell freezes.

Probe of fatal police shooting goes to federal authorities

By Justin Jouvenal/Post

The Fairfax County prosecutor has turned over the investigation of a fatal police shooting of an unarmed Springfield man to federal authorities, citing complications with the five-month-old case.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh said the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia has agreed to continue the probe into the death of 46-year-old John Geer, who was shot during a standoff with Fairfax County police in August. No one has been charged in the incident.

“There is a conflict of interest that has arisen in the case,” Morrogh said Thursday. “And there is a second potential conflict of interest that has arisen out of my office. . . . This is the prudent thing to do.”

Morrogh declined to describe the nature of the conflicts because the investigation is ongoing. The U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday that it could not confirm or deny any investigation or comment on pending investigations.

Police went to Geer’s Pebble Brook Court home on Aug. 29 because of a report of a domestic disturbance. Geer’s father, Don Geer, said his son was upset because his girlfriend, the mother of his two children, had decided to leave him.

John Geer had thrown his girlfriend’s belongings in the front yard. She called police and told them that Geer had a firearm. Police said they tried for about 50 minutes to persuade Geer to leave the home, but he refused.

Don Geer said he watched the climax of the encounter. He said that he could not hear what officers were saying to his son but that he saw him standing with empty hands resting on top of a screen door at the home’s entrance.

At some point, John Geer began to slowly lower his hands and an officer opened fire, hitting Geer in the chest, his father said. Geer retreated inside and closed the door. A SWAT team eventually entered the home and found Geer dead.

Don Geer said detectives later told him that his son did not have a gun on him at the time of the shooting but that there was a holstered handgun a couple of steps from the front door.

Don Geer said it appeared to him that the shooting was unjustified, but he was unsure what to make of the probe being turned over to federal authorities.

“I don’t know whether that’s good or bad — if I had a better idea of why they are doing it, I could form an opinion,” he said.

Geer and friends of his son have been critical of how long the investigation has taken, but Morrogh said police and prosecutors were working to explore all the evidence. He did not think federal prosecutors would have to start from scratch.

“No one wants these things to linger on,” Morrogh said.

Our ink will outlast his career

Under the reign of former Chief of Police Rhorer the Fairfax County Police arrested a man for not wearing clothes in his house while he made coffee, set up an eye doctor on a gambling charge and then used the SWAT team to kill him. An investigation into the charge that the Doctor’s primary clients were cops has never been investigated. The police gunned down an emotionally unstable man because cop who shot him wrongly assumed the man was trying to escape. He wasn’t. The cops also shot dead four other citizens under highly questionable circumstances. The department under Rhorer was sued multiple times by citizens. So did they fire Rhorer? Naw they promoted him. According to news reports Rhorer draws a salary of $191,168 per year as Deputy Fairfax County Executive as well as a concurrent pension from the Fairfax County police of $173000 per year.

Occupation by force

According to the most recent U.S. Census figures, nearly one in five Fairfax residents (17.5 percent) is of Asian descent while Hispanics make up nearly 16 percent of Fairfax’s overall population. Those numbers drop considerably when applied to the Fairfax County Police Department, where only 4.3 percent of officers are Asian and 4.1 percent Hispanic. White officers make up 84 percent of Fairfax County’s 1,360-member police department, significantly higher than the county’s general population (54 percent white). Almost 90% of the force lives outside the county.