Fairfax County Police Watch: Assaulting unarmed citizens and then hiding behind the law. Fairfax County Police

2 Fairfax Co VA cops sued by a man claiming they beat & tasered him during a fruitless Terry stop search for drugs when he was stopped while walking to his job at a church. [3] bit.ly/vBzLCL

Los Angeles Co CA jail brutality issues that have garnered a federal investigation are now being blamed on the practice of assigning deputies with disciplinary problems to the jails as a way to keep them away from the public they were accused of abusing. [1] lat.ms/vPLVpr

Country Club Hills IL cop charged w/battery for shoving his police chief when confronted with excessive force allegations but he was not charged over the allegations that he beat a man right before that. [2] bit.ly/v4GSIj

Bozeman MT police are being accused of altering evidence, including the erasure of portions of taser recordings, after an excessive force lawsuit was filed over an incident that left a man with permanent brain injuries. [5] bit.ly/vroZ15

Lubbock TX are being forced by an arbitrator to rehire cop who was fired for needlessly kicking a suspect in the stomach then accidentally tasering a fellow officer during the same traffic stop incident. No reason was given for the arbitrator’s reasons for thinking this was a good idea. [0] bit.ly/urMcWx

Bryan County OK sheriff’s lieutenant has been indicted on federal deprivation of rights charges over three excessive force incidents, one where he tasered a woman tasering woman 2x & 2 men in diff cases [0] ow.ly/1AriOy

4 Scottsboro AL police officers suspended 3-4 days w/o pay after investigation into unspecified misconduct [2] ow.ly/1AqJdK

London ON police lost a civil suit for $144k to a man who suffered broken leg in police van. The police tried to blame it on the detainee saying he injured himself by kicking at the doors but doctors testified the break was the type that occurs when the leg is twisted. [3] ow.ly/1Ar9Xi

Covington LA unspecified number of cops are being investigated after several witnesses say they beat, tasered & arrested 2 men they picked out at random while responding to an alleged bar fight. [4] bit.ly/v6EQGi

UC Berkeley CA police are also being sued by over a dozen student protesters on allegations of excessive force against #OccupyCal protesters as well. [3] bit.ly/vJVBFn

Edmonton AB cop convicted of using excessive force on suspect during arrest, this is his second excessive force conviction [0] bit.ly/rI2hsp

New Haven CT cop accused of beating & kicking man who refused to be searched by the cop he agreed to go with after asked to ID man at traffic stop [3] bit.ly/vZVujw

New York NY settled a lawsuit for $4,000 to woman who was detained 17hrs in cell with a broken toilet without charge after a police raid on a beauty shop. She alleges she wouldn’t let her leave until she cleaned the sewage off the cell floor. [3] bit.ly/sACgX5

Wheeling IL cop was fired for unspecified misconduct after he allegedly violated his last chance agreement that involved more unspecified misconduct. [4] bit.ly/uFzcyp

Oakland CA police are being sued by the ACLU & other groups over tactics used and allegations of excessive force used against #OccupyOakland protesters. [3] bit.ly/vFwPHj

New York NY city councilman was injured when arrested on resisting & obstruction charges when he was apparently tying to observe the NYPD raid on Zuccatti Park. It seems a bit disturbing that the police weren’t content to stop the media from reporting on their activities, but that they also prevented their own government’s officials from practicing some oversight as well. [5] ow.ly/1Ar8LU

Victoria BC police are being accused of clearing cops of excessive force allegations despite graphic video evidence of that excessive force, reinforcing calls to establish an external review process. [4] bit.ly/vw5hci

San Diego CA police are accused of using excessive force in a video showing an officer putting a man in a choke hold until it appeared his faced turned blue after he was confronted by officers for being inside sleeping bag at #OccupySanDiego [0] bit.ly/sqipCy

UC Berkeley CA police are being accused of excessive force again in yet another video showing cops dragging female protesters by hair during the same crackdown that resulted in a video showing them striking non-violent male and female students with batons. The university says they are looking into that to see if it was excessive and that they preferred batons since they feel they are less risky than chemical agents… yet oddly say they are considering using those for the next crackdown. [3] bit.ly/rzh4ke

UC Berkeley CA police are accused of telling a protester who suffered cracked ribs from a baton blow that he had no rights when he asked questions after his arrest. [3] bit.ly/sFmv8l

2 Newark NJ cops were disciplined for not taking an assault report from an injured woman and then referring to the apartment building where she lived in a derogatory manner. [0] ohne.ws/tcMnhD

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.