Fairfax County Police Watch: The national police problem

To our amazement, the police haven’t been charged with child molestation since last week

Today’s murder charge

Utah County UT sheriff’s dept is part of a lawsuit filed by a couple claiming false arrest & malicious prosecution for the murder of their dad in a case where they claim they were kidnapped as well. [2] bit.ly/pjJ72U

Cops have a deep need to humiliate woman…..think about….they work with mostly men…don’t like women….just say’n that’s all

Seattle WA police sergeant with that department’s domestic violence unit was arrested on an assault charge after police spotted him dragging his girlfriend through a parking lot at Octoberfest in a domestic dispute over drink tickets. [0] bit.ly/oxDUAW

Lake Hallie WI cop resigns after charged with misdemeanor battery related to the harassment of an unspecified woman [1] bit.ly/nBFfJL

A judge has ruled that 2 Minneapolis MN cops violated the rights of a man who they strip searched in public in front of others on a video captured by a security guard working at a nearby building. Rulings like this are rare and the jury award phase of that civil case will start in December. [3] bit.ly/rnDt5w

Farmington NM cop suspended after arrested on allegations he beat his girlfriend while on vacation in Michigan [0] bit.ly/pAaVLw

Baltimore MD cop already convicted for extortion now charged with assault for allegedly attacking his wife [0] bit.ly/nL95iZ

9th Circuit court has ruled that Seattle WA police used excessive force when they tasered a pregnant woman in her car for refusing to sign a traffic ticket, which is a non-arrestable offense. However, the court ruled that the officers have immunity to the suit because taser guidelines were not well defined at the time of the incident. bit.ly/qwTEwt

Standard creepy cop behavior

2 Los Angeles Co CA deputies reassigned while investigated on allegations that one of the deputies had sex with a female inmate while the other stayed nearby. [0] http://lat.ms/pq9twv

Drunk/ Drugs

Miami Beach FL police lieutenant already facing demotion over his role in a cop’s drunken ATV crash into tourists is now accused of fudging his timesheets. [0] bit.ly/paMbSG

Truro MA police chief has been suspended after arrested for allegedly crashing his police cruiser while intoxicated [0] bo.st/nc17LI

Owyhee Co ID sheriff asked to resign while in the midst of unspecified investigation by Attorney General’s Office [3] bit.ly/qFHZNq

Warren OH cop charged w/DUI after crashing into other car, arrested last year for DV incident that injured 2yr-old [1] http://bit.ly/rm1YU2

Yakima WA cop suspended 1mo for false info on drug warrant, 2 suspended 1wk for buying beer w/city credit card [0]

Abbotsford BC police constable charged w/obstruction after investigation into his possible DUI cruiser crash [0] bit.ly/opTezc bit.ly/qqWj61

Yeah, he was pretending……….

Cresskill NJ cop given unspecified discipline for gag photo showing him in uniform pretending to smoke a joint [2] bit.ly/nd8frR

Common thief

Superior WI cop charged with theft for stealing at least $2,000 from dept’s informal fitness center fund [0] bit.ly/oLNop6

Philadelphia PA cop arrested on theft charges after internal investigation into unspecified allegations [1] bit.ly/oMHJti

Beating unarmed citizens

New York NY cop was charged with falsely arresting a man for insulting him after an allegedly racially-motivated stop-and-frisk incident. The report claims the officer called a woman he knew after the incident and told her he “fried another n—–”. He was also charged with extortion on allegations he beat a man he believed had stolen his truck then demanded $5,000 from him. [0] on.wsj.com/qbPV9S

New York NY police tactics are being questioned after a video shows a mounted officer apparently spurring his horse into a crowd of trapped OccupyWallStreet protesters who were so packed together that they had nowhere to go. The horse appears to drop to it’s knees in panic. [2] http://t.co/NprSoXji

New York NY police deputy inspector is now under investigation for punching OccupyWallStreet protester on video and for another video apparently showing him drag a woman through an orange net barrier to arrest her. [0] bit.ly/oxXhO2

2 Detroit MI cops are the subject of a lawsuit alleging excessive force at a casino, the third such case involving police at that casino in fact. This suit comes after an investigation found they used “inappropriate behavior” during the incident even though that finding never resulted in disciplinary action. [1] bit.ly/nwl4lY

9th Circuit Court also ruled similarly in a case involving Maui HI police who tasered a woman while she was trying to calm her husband down during a confrontation between him and the cops who were responding to a domestic complaint. Again, the court granted immunity to the officers even though they found the action excessive. bit.ly/oIYZVV

A Southaven MS police lieutenant and 6 other officers are the subject of a lawsuit alleging they forced a family out of their home at gunpoint after they received but didn’t properly investigate a questionable burglary tip from a caller who based his suspicion on seeing a garage door opened. [3] bit.ly/ppKTtG

A New York NY police deputy inspector who appeared in our news feed on Friday punching a protester in the face on video is apparently the same white-shirted officer who was shown, in the video above, in some questionable use of force incidents on a photographer and a woman right before his fellow officer peppersprayed a group of women for no apparent reason. [3] bit.ly/pFoWFV

Unicoi County TN sheriff faces indictment on official misconduct, aggravated assault, theft & evidence tampering charges [1] bit.ly/n4KJYA

San Diego CA police officer in the above video used some questionable tactics on Occupy San Diego protesters by apparently applying a choke hold to at least one protester then spraying several others, including the person taking the video. It appears, from this video at least, that he was the only one using force and pepperspray on the protesters during this incident. [3] bit.ly/pDCWCe

New York NY police on this video appear to tell an Occupy Wall Street protester that he can walk through a police line and promise him they won’t arrest him if he does, then arresting him for doing it. [3] bit.ly/qlUsZw

New York NY police in this video above make some highly questionable arrests outside and inside a Citibank branch where Occupy Wall Street protesters were trying to close their accounts. The really questionable one is where a woman, claiming to be a customer, is grabbed by a man in plain clothes then dragged inside to be arrested. This is really disturbing because the official statement is that the people arrested at that incident were charged with trespassing for refusing to go outside when the manager told them to. [3] bit.ly/qI6xyn

Figures

Alorton IL police chief who was in the running for chief of East St Louis PD was decertified as an officer after a probe finds he had a felony record [1] bit.ly/nMhPCv

Failure to signal

Franklin Co OH settles suit for $4,317 to father of daughter who’s car was hit by deputy changed lanes w/o caution [0] bit.ly/qmystX

Violation of 1st Amendment rights

Cincinatti OH is being sued by Occupy Cincinatti protesters claiming citations police gave them for protesting at a park after 10pm are a violation of their 1st Amendment rights to free speech and free assembly. [0] bit.ly/qLM7f7

Refusal to divulge tracking records

Wilmington DE is being sued by the ACLU after police cited terrorism laws in their refusal to divulge taser and cell phone tracking records [3] bit.ly/pNRxon

Neglect of duty

Upper Providence PA board votes to fire cop for unspecified neglect of duty and conduct unbecoming an officer [2] http://bit.ly/nDa3G0

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.