on sale now at amazon

on sale now at amazon
"I don't like this book because it don't got know pictures" Chief Rhorerer

“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”

“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”
“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”

The officer Christian Chamberlain Award for “Fuck you, I’ll get away with it anyway” Fairfax County police . Police brutality

Oakland CA pays $43k to settle a lawsuit by a man claiming cops beat him w/batons & maced him on a false stand-alone resisting charge [0] bit.ly/zivXmH

Aransas Pass TX police are being sued by the family of a man still in a coma after cops allegedly beat him. The police say he fell when they stopped him for riding a bicycle while intoxicated. [3] bit.ly/xP94Ly

RCMP officer faces assault w/bodily harm charges after accused of excessive force on a detainee in April 2011 [2] bit.ly/zqvx4b

RCMP officer convicted of assaulting & forcibly confining a teen while investigating a noise complaint [0] bit.ly/xRviwO

Fairfax County Police Officer David Ziants award for kill somebody and the worst thing that happens to you is you get fired.

Hamilton MA police sgt critically injured a Beverly MA cop when he shot him several times then he fatally shot self as police closed in on him. [0] wapo.st/xdENj0
 Hamilton ON cop with history of excessive force cases is being investigated for fatally shooting a man who was driving a van. [0] bit.ly/zK1ycy

The Fairfax County Police Officer Jeffrey Hand Award for Creative Income Production. Fairfax County Police. Police Brutality

East St Louis IL police officer faces theft charges after caught stealing Rolex in federal sting operation [0] bit.ly/z0ygHJ

Lawrence KY cop fired and another still suspended for allegedly fixing tickets in exchange for sports tickets [0] bit.ly/AkJvEW

Somerset Borough PA cop arrested for allegedly taking bribe in exchange for not filing charges against suspect [0] http://bit.ly/A2RoqF
 Pinal Co AZ sheriff’s dept under federal investigation for alleged illegal political activity by employees [0] bit.ly/zHQ2iH

 Alice TX cop & clerk on leave while investigated for treating traffic citation in an unspecified “irregular manner” [2] bit.ly/x3wbDn
4 Patton Village TX cops indicted along w/3 cops from other agencies & other officials on corruption charges [0] bit.ly/A3vdiM

The officer Christian Chamberlain Award for “Fuck you, I’ll get away with it anyway” Fairfax County police . Police brutality

Lincoln AR cop investigated by special prosecutor for shooting teen he claims had a knife that cops couldn’t find [0] bit.ly/AiO5BA
•Oakland CA pays $43k to settle suit to man claiming cops beat him w/batons & maced him on false resisting charge [0] bit.ly/zivXmH
 •RCMP officer convicted of assault & forcible confinement on a teen while he was investigating a noise complaint [0] bit.ly/xRviwO

 •RCMP officer faces assault w/bodily harm charges after accused of excessive force on a detainee in April 2011 [2] http://bit.ly/zqvx4b

 •New York NY cop sued for detaining woman & having her drugged, straightjacketed & forcibly hospitalized simply for being tipsy even though she wasn’t causing a disturbance. [3] bit.ly/z82d2M

Fairfax County Police Officer David Ziants award for kill somebody and the worst thing that happens to you is you get fired.

•Philadelphia PA cop convicted of 1st degree murder for shooting neighbor to death, manditory life sentence [0] bit.ly/zmBKVo

 •Toronto ON police officer charged w/murder over fatal shooting incident during raid 2 years ago [0] bit.ly/wm3AV3

The officer Christian Chamberlain Award for “Fuck you, I’ll get away with it anyway” Fairfax County police . Police brutality

North Chicago cop taped punching suspect faces suspension

NORTH CHICAGO, Ill. (WLS) - A police officer caught on tape clobbering a man in the booking room of the North Chicago Police Department is facing suspension without pay.

Officer Emir King will also attend anger management classes and sign a “last chance” agreement, according to North Chicago City Attorney Chuck Smith, who won’t say how many days King will be off work until an agreement is signed.

A police surveillance video of the July 2010 incident in which King punched Paul Smith, now of Lake Villa, in the head, then shoved him into a wall, was shown in December at a City Council meeting by Ralph Peterson of Waukegan.

Peterson was a first cousin of Darrin “Dagwood” Hanna, who died on Nov. 13, a week after he was allegedly beaten and Tasered during his arrest by six North Chicago police officers. Independent investigations into the death by the Lake County Coroner and Illinois State Police have yet to be either completed or made public.

Peterson, who along with other members of the Hanna family, is leading a protest against what he claims is a pattern of rogue policing in the department, comes to meetings of the City Council armed with photos, witnesses and alleged and confirmed victims of police brutality. On Monday, he spoke against two more officers, including Brandon Yost, one of those present during Hanna’s arrest and who allegedly sports spiderweb tattoos on his elbows. Peterson claims the tattoos symbolize gang membership and/or violence against black men.

“We’re looking into that,” Smith said Wednesday. “Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s a lot we can do. There’s no law against having a tattoo. I can only recommend discipline based on violation of rules.”

Peterson also publicized an October 2010 incident in Gurnee in which off-duty Officer William Bogdala displayed a gun during a confrontation with a motorist and his passengers over a loud car stereo.

The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office declined to press charges in the matter.

Smith said neither he nor Mayor Leon Rockingham had been made aware of the incident, now under investigation.

“Newsome knew,” Smith said.

Police Chief Michael Newsome was placed on leave Jan. 3 after more allegations of excessive force emerged. Rockingham also launched an independent internal investigation headed by retired State Police Col. Robert Johnson. He previously placed the officers involved in the Hanna arrest on desk duty.

Smith said interim Chief James Jackson helped craft the discipline for King.

Johnson is also investigating Hanna’s arrest and the arrest of four other men who required medical care for injuries: Walter Wrather, who suffered a broken tibia from a bite by a police dog; Paul Smith, who underwent brain surgery after he was arrested for burglarizing a car stereo store; Christopher Harper, who said he was repeatedly Tasered outside Frank’s Lounge where he works; and Windell Gilliom, who was allegedly beaten in two separate incidents.

Eighty-eight complaints of excessive force have been lodged against the department in the past four to five years, according to Rockingham.

Johnson on Monday updated council members on the status of each investigation in closed session.




Fairfax County Police Officer Larry A. Jackson award for false arrest. Fairfax County Police. Police brutality

•Rutland VT police to pay $30k to man in racial discrimination case over detainment & fruitless strip search [0] bit.ly/yRxlj4
 •Jackson Co MI settles suit for $40k to college student detained on mental hold for anger over racial harassment [3] bit.ly/ync92w

The officer Christian Chamberlain Award for “Fuck you, I’ll get away with it anyway” Fairfax County police . Police brutality

2 Wrightsville Beach NC cops demoted & 1 fired for “performance issues” but alleged victims claim brutality & abuse [3] bit.ly/zv2Pca

Eagle Co CO jury rules man had right to resist deputies deploying electrified shield & tasers over what he claimed was just jail cell singing [0] bit.ly/wEAhnz

3 Bucks Co PA deputies fired for failing to report 4th deputy under investigation for assaulting cuffed suspect [0] bit.ly/yrFQXG

The Fairfax County Police officer Walter R. Fasci/ Sean McGlone award for sober living. Fairfax County Police. Police brutality

Spokane WA cop is going to win a settlement of almost $300,000 in back pay and will be rehired after he was fired for a hit and run accident while he was intoxicated, all because he argued that the crash was due to his medical disability… alcoholism. This settlement comes merely a month after the mayor promised to restore the city’s faith in their police department again after a number of high-profile misconduct cases. [0] bit.ly/wh0XkK

Escambia Co FL deputy fired after arrested on assaulting an officer & other charges when he refused to leave bar [0] bit.ly/wvsWz1

New Orleans LA cop arrested for violating state law by having a gun while drunk in bar after involved in bar fight [1] bit.ly/wNk4Hk

Pinckneyville IL cop suspended while investigated on allegations he tried to cover up mayor’s son’s DUI accident [0] bit.ly/wsgf6K

Chief leaps into McDonald's fray...orders large fries and gives all concerned an award




WHAT WE DO WITHOUT HIM?

The McDonald's incident in McLean Virginia



Fairfax County Police investigated the Fairfax County Police in the matter of the police assaulting teenagers in a local McDonald’s and ……wait for it…….the Fairfax County Police found the Fairfax County Police innocent.
I know…..we’re as surprised as you are.

According to the official police report what happened was that a cop opened his car door inside the McDonald’s and when he shut the car door it involuntarily took his club from his belt and smacked a kid in the face with it.
And then it happened a second time to another cop and another kid.

The department also found that the officer did not refer to the teen as a “little faggot” but rather what he said was “Sometimes bad fruit is filled with little maggots”

The report added that since there is no police oversight in Fairfax County and the culture of the police here is to do whatever they want since negative reports only stay in a cop’s folder for 30 days, all you people who complained can go fuck yourselves.    


Second Student Says Police Officer Struck Him at McDonald's

Police, students clash at downtown McLean McDonald's


At 9:23 pm. Feb.10, Peter Horst of McLean received a text from his son saying:" I was literally just assaulted by a cop."

His son Sam, 17, said he was in the downtown McLean McDonald's where a Fairfax County police officer struck him three times, took him outside for a breathalyzer test, then told him he was free to go.

He is the second student to describe how police officers struck them. Sam sent McLean Patch an e-mail message after the news-site published a story about incidents at McDonald's based on an interview with the McLean Police District Commander. He disagreed with the commander's description of events.

Nearly 30 people who left comments on the McLean Patch front page after that story, many disagreeing with the commander's report.

McLean District Commander Capt. Daniel Janickey said hundreds of students were at McDonald's on Old Dominion Drive following the Langley-McLean basketball game, an intense crosstown rivalry.

"The officers were telling them to disperse and they were not listening. The officer did use his baton to hold one individual up against the wall. No one was ever struck with a baton,” Janickey said.

“We were outnumbered tremendously. We had three officers available and the crowd was being unruly. It was unsafe situation” for the community, Capt. Daniel Janickey, commander of the McLean Police District, said last week.

"You had over 100 kids in there (at the McDonald's). They just took the place over. Some were intoxicated. They didn’t listen to management or police. The officers were trying to maintain order," he said. "This is a community and public safety issue."

The incidents are now under investigation by the Internal Affairs unit of the Fairfax police department because of allegations of excessive force.

Capt. Janickey said that night police arrested four students at the game at McLean High School and arrested a fifth student outside the McDonald's. All were juveniles and were charged with public drunkenness.

Sam Horst attended the game then headed to McDonald's. He arrived alone to find police officers outside and an army of Langley and McLean students inside.

"There were people all over the place. It was wild but not a drunken mob,” he said .

He immediately saw "two kids confronting each other." Then "Two or three police officers came rushing in the front door and sort of knocked the kids apart.”

Sam, who had entered through the Elm Street side door, was on his way to the counter to order “And the cop turned to me.”

A police officer was standing off to the side, “I had taken four steps when he started hitting me.” They had not spoken.

“He hits me three times. He rams me in the chest." The officer then pinned him against a wall.

“He was pushing the baton against my throat." Sam said he tried to move the baton to relieve the pressure on his throat.

The officer said, “He would knock me down on the ground and handcuff me,” if he didn't stop.

“The whole time I was trying to ask him what I had done wrong,” he said.

The officer takes out a notebook, asks his name then tells Sam to follow him outside for a breathalyzer test, Sam said.

"I don’t know what I had done to make him think I had been drinking,” the Langley student said.

Test done, the officer tells Sam he's not under arrest and he can go.

That's when he texted his dad.

Peter Horst, at a Friday afternoon interview with his son, said he immediately asked his son was he okay and if he had been " a smart mouth (because) you just don’t mess around with a policeman doing his thing.”

Then he heads to McDonald's and talks to a police officer.

"I’ve been disappointed" by the police statement, he said. "I'm maintaining hope that they will do what great organizations do which is acknowledge a mistake, deal with it, and move on.”

He said a police investigator had contacted the family.

"No one has more respect for law enforcement than I do” said Peter Horst, adding that he has relatives and friends who are FBI agents, DEA agents, and local police officers.

“This is not a family with a grudge against the cops. . . I am just really disappointed that they can’t just acknowledge a mistake,” Peter Horst said.

Sam, a Langley High school junior, who said he had a 3.7 grade average and who plays for the soccer team, had an ACT test, the next day.

If you witnessed the events at the McDonald's and would like to share what you saw please contact us: bobbi.bowman@patch.com

Fairfax County Police Officer “Crazy Moe” Mohammed Oluwa Jihad on your ass. Fairfax County Police. Police Brutality


6 St Martinville LA cops investigated for allegedly picking teen up by hair & beating him for dancing in public [3] bit.ly/wt42XV
2 Tacoma WA cops sued alleging excessive force when they broke man’s arm & shoulder as they dragged him out of car [3] bit.ly/y9Nj18
Poughkeepsie NY news study of 19 area police dept finds blacks tasered disproportionately more often than whites [0] pojonews.co/zaBS3L
Poughkeepsie NY news study of 19 area police dept finds officers deviate from taser guidelines in 1/5 of cases [0] pojonews.co/whyJfE

..and now a word from generic Asian guy about dogs.


Geneva AL police officer charged w/felony perjury involving alleged false testimony about death of police dog [0] bit.ly/wr52Rp
Orlando FL police use of K9 that left man’s leg deformed ruled gratuitous & sadistic by 11th Circuit Court [3] sunsent.nl/waITA0


This week’s candidates for the Brian Sonnenberg Peaceful Resolution to Conflict Center Award. Fairfax County Police. police brutality

Minocqua WI cop suspended after arrest on multiple charges involving dangerous weapon in domestic incident [1] bit.ly/wd38Az

Orleans Parish LA deputy charged w/obstruction & harboring a fugitive, allegedly hid female suspect from deputies [0] bit.ly/xe46zF

The Fairfax County Police Officer Jeffrey Hand Award for Creative Income Production. Fairfax County Police. Police Brutality

3 Jackson MS cops arrested on allegations they accepted bribes to protect drug transactions in sting operation [0] bit.ly/zPF1OJ

Peel ON cop charged w/theft and breach of trust following internal investigation involving lost & found property [1] bit.ly/xtOdJS

Fairfax County Police Officer Amanda Perry award for Safe Driving. Fairfax County Police. Police brutality

South Tucson AZ cop cited on drunk driving charge after hitting parked car while on duty [0] bit.ly/zIKBL9

Shelby Co TN deputy in homeland security unit arrested on drunk driving charge in County vehicle while off duty [0] http://bit.ly/yGFkQG

New York NY police sgt suspended after arrested on drunk driving charges when he crashed into a parked car [0] nydn.us/AxhOzW
Madison AL police officer charged with drunk driving after single car accident while off duty [0] bit.ly/AoVUTX

Halifax NS cop arrested on drunk driving charge after police received tip about impaired driver [0] bit.ly/zk8uo3

Fairfax County Police Officer Larry A. Jackson award for false arrest. Fairfax County Police. Police brutality

New York NY jury awards ex-playmate $1.2mil after cops injured her in arrest based on crazy cabby’s false claims [3] nyp.st/AyMG75

Lake Co MT sheriff & 3 deputies subject of suit by fellow officers alleging civil rights abuses & corruption [3] bit.ly/AoVvlg

The Fairfax County Police Officer Jeffrey Hand Award for Creative Income Production. Fairfax County Police. Police Brutality

New London CT cop resigns while under investigation by state police on allegations he planted drugs on suspect [1] bit.ly/yVxIUc
2 Lawrence KS cops have been suspended while investigated for allegedly fixing traffic tickets in exchange for college sports tickets [0] bit.ly/zlluV0

Brooks Co TX sheriff under investigation after audit identifies questionable spending of forfeiture funds [1] http://bit.ly/zGnyun

Platteville CO police sgt under investigation on timesheet fraud allegations, chief recently pled guilty to theft [1] on9news.tv/yWyG9U

Los Angeles Co CA sheriff admits to breaking state campaign law w/uniformed ad, no plans to discipline self [0] bit.ly/w78Vmi






..and now an update from Urine Guy


Pinal Co AZ sheriff was forced to admit he was gay and resign from his role in a presidential campaign by allegations that he threatened his ex-boyfriend with deportation if he revealed their relationship. [4] bit.ly/zBHo7D


Fairfax County Police Officer Larry A. Jackson award for false arrest. Fairfax County Police. Police brutality

Waterloo ON regional police have settled a lawsuit for $5k to a lawyer claiming he was illegally detained & searched by police. [0] bit.ly/yBirTl

The officer Christian Chamberlain Award for “Fuck you, I’ll get away with it anyway” Fairfax County police . Police brutality

 Trenton NJ settled an excessive force lawsuit for $350k to a man who suffered permanent brain damage when a cop hit him in head with his flashlight while responding to a domestic disturbance call. [0] bit.ly/zytgMx

  Wilcox Co GA sheriff was indicted on 14 counts for taking part in an assault on 2 inmates along with his son, a jailer & another inmate. [3] bit.ly/yXEpSA

Desert Hot Springs CA cop was convicted on excessive force civil rights charges for unecessarily pepperspraying one detainee and then tasering another cuffed detainee in separate incidents. [0] lat.ms/zphWKE

Sidney OH cop was rehired on a union appeal after he was fired for sending a text message threatening to kill a county sheriff. [0] bit.ly/Ai89BV

The Fairfax County Police officer Walter R. Fasci/ Sean McGlone award for sober living. Fairfax County Police. Police brutality

Honolulu HI police sgt was arrested on drunk driving & negligent injury charges after hitting a pedestrian with his cruiser, though police refused to say if he was on duty at the time. [1] bit.ly/wOolue

 DeKalb Co GA cop arrested on drunk driving charge by trooper who spotted him weaving after leaving bar [0] bit.ly/xtcfBI

Fairfax County Police Officer David Ziants award for kill somebody and the worst thing that happens to you is you get fired.

Tennessee prosecutors have dismissed 95 cases involving a trooper who is being sued and was fired for letting a man he chased burn to death in a car crash. [0] tnne.ws/yxUNfs

Pear Guys sex life

 

McLean McDonalds high school crowd video posted on YouTube

click here for WJLA story on McLean assault by police



Several days after five students were arrested in McLean in the aftermath of a high school basketball game, a student claims that he was mistreated by police who responded to the scene.

Langley student Sam Horst is still in disbelief by the way he says he was treated by a McLean police officer.

“I don't know what I did to make him do that to me,” he says. “I didn't know what was going on.”

Horst says students from both schools gathered at the McDonalds off Old Dominion Road as they normally did.

The Youtube video shows students packed inside the McDonald’ when at least three police officers stepped in to disperse the crowd.

Horst says he was about to order food when suddenly the cop grabbed him. Horst told ABC7 that he was struck three times with a baton and then pushed to the wall by his throat. He was then given a breathalyzer test and released. Horst's father says he plans on filing a complaint with police.

His father says he believes police overstepped their bounds

“They banged around a 17-year-old kid for really no good reason,” says Peter Horst. “I'm so upset this happened. I'm enraged.”

McLean Patch first reported that one of the five students were arrested at the a downtown McLean McDonald's after a game between McLean High School and Langley High School.

The video, posted by the user "MHSBlackPath," shows a huge throng of students packed into the restaurant, with Fairfax County Police officers attempting to break up the crowd.

Another parent said that a police officer allegedly gave her son a bloody lip and caused him to cough up blood as a result of being struck in the throat.

Diana McColgan says her son came home with a bloody lip after an officer hit him with his baton stick.

“His lip was swollen,” she says. “He was devastated.”

Fairfax County Police won't comment on whether inappropriate action was taken pending investigation. But they say students were acting rowdy inside the McDonald’s.

“We dispersed the crowds, made one arrest,” says Lucy Caldwell, spokeswoman for the Fairfax County Police Department. “We had also made some charges. Unfortunately, underage drinking can be an issue."

Horst says all he wants is an apology.

“It seemed excessive,” he says. “It just surprises me they wouldn't just tell people what happened.”

Fairfax County Police Officer Amanda Perry award for Safe Driving. Fairfax County Police. Police brutality

Arkansas Supreme Court rules against Little Rock AR police finding use of force reports not exempt from disclosure [0] oshko.sh/xWEixX


Fond Du Lac WI cop arrested on DUI hit & run charges after witness reported him hitting a parked car off duty [0] ow.ly/1Gxc0o

Springfield MI cop resigns on allegations of DUI hit & run while off duty last month, still not charged [1] bit.ly/zCRBdj

Espanola NM cops under investigation for letting cop found passed out drunk in running truck to go home w/o charge [0] ow.ly/1GxrkX

Ohio state trooper arrested on drunk driving charges with a .16BAC after she was stopped for doing 102MPH [0] ow.ly/1GwWnd

Union City CA cop who heads police union arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence during cellphone stop [0] ow.ly/1Gxb70




This week’s candidates for the Brian Sonnenberg Peaceful Resolution to Conflict Center Award. Fairfax County Police. police brutality


San Francisco CA cop charged w/felony assault & misd battery for injuring woman he dated a nightclub party [0] ow.ly/1Gx6u7


Morgan Co AL deputy arrested on domestic violence & strangulation charge in addition to 2 DV warrants [0] bit.ly/A1qGo7




The Fairfax County Police Officer Jeffrey Hand Award for Creative Income Production. Fairfax County Police. Police Brutality

Alabama state trooper arrested on felony theft & ethics charges for using position to steal gasoline [0] bit.ly/x5KF8m

Memphis TN police lieutenant sentenced to 4yrs after pleading guilty to bribery charges [0] bit.ly/yFR5ZU

Athens-Clarke GA cop charged w/facilitating a bribe by arranging for DUI suspect to pay other cop to fix ticket [0] bit.ly/AwFJWO

Marlboro MA cop gets deal from chief after confessing to stealing over $8000 from evidence, retires w/o charges [1] bit.ly/AgPSRi


Miami-Dade FL cop sentenced to 8yrs prison in plea deal for using badge to help cousin rob $130k from gambler [0] cbsloc.al/ylXUNz


Portales NM police capt pleads no contest on felony tampering w/public records charges for shredding tickets [0] bit.ly/xLEM8U


Westchester CT cop takes plea deal for accepting bribes to help drug dealer move drug money through airport [0] lohud.us/wT7Xna

 
Eaton Co MI deputy sentenced to 15 days jail for embezzling cash payments for citations by out of state motorists [0] bit.ly/Ai4iix
 2 Vineland NJ cops arrested on theft charges for allegedly mishandling funds for police union they ran [0] ow.ly/1GxbIJ
Oklahoma City OK police sgt arrested on obstruction allegations she tipped of the subject of a drug search warrant [0] ow.ly/1Gxbe0

Fairfax County Police Officer Larry A. Jackson award for false arrest. Fairfax County Police. Police brutality

Miramar FL cop gets special treatment from judge, no record for falsifying records to cover up warrantless search [0] thesent.nl/wqKlQf

 Fort Worth TX undercover cop may have botched drug bust against TCU students by targeting wrong person [0] ow.ly/1Gxtrn


The officer Christian Chamberlain Award for “Fuck you, I’ll get away with it anyway” Fairfax County police . Police brutality

 Scotts Bluff Co NE deputy fined after found guilty of disturbing peace by yelling profanities inside a jr high school [0] bit.ly/zC3bB9


Fairfax County Police Officer “Crazy Moe” Mohammed Oluwa Jihad on your ass. Fairfax County Police. Police Brutality

Florida state patrol’s decision to exonerate a trooper who tasered a cuffed woman in the back as she tried to run awa is being questioned by several law enforcement experts. That woman is now in a permanently vegetative state due to brain trauma caused by the tasering. [3] is.gd/hhoTzn


 Orange Co FL sheriff questioned for hiring trooper w/history now facing 2 lawsuits for brutality and false arrest [3] is.gd/MstOk4

 
Barren Co KY sheriff, 3 deputies and 1 drug task force officer indicted on several charges for beating a cuffed man in custody after a chase. [3] bit.ly/z8DZEi

Fairfax County Police Officer David Ziants award for kill somebody and the worst thing that happens to you is you get fired award.

Wichita KS police are being urged by residents to change their policy allowing cops to speed without lights or sirens after a 12-year-old girl was fatally struck by a cop en route to a call. [0] ow.ly/1Gxrrb


Scottsdale AZ cop investigated for 6th fatal shooting where he killed an unarmed man while he held his young grandson. [0] http://bit.ly/xV1XEi

This week’s candidates for the Brian Sonnenberg Peaceful Resolution to Conflict Center Award. Fairfax County Police. police brutality


Fort Dodge IA police lieutenant arrested on felony burglary charge for assaulting a man in his own apartment with the officer’s girlfriend. [1] bit.ly/xzHleb

“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”

Los Angeles Co CA sheriff’s dept is being sued by a sergeant claiming a fellow sergeant who belonged to a gang of deputies called the Vikings was only given 15 days leave for repeated death threats that including pointing a gun at him and mouthing that he was going to kill him. Apparently one of the commanding officers on the disciplinary panel also belonged to the same gang. [3] lat.ms/xtF5nU

The officer Christian Chamberlain Award for “Fuck you, I’ll get away with it anyway” Fairfax County police . Police brutality

2 Austin TX cops fired & 2 suspended over incident where one of the officers slapped a woman in the face while she was strapped into a gurney. The other officers got in trouble for lying about it or not handling it properly. [0] bit.ly/zA3a2l

Crosby Co TX sheriff has been indicted on official oppression and assault of a public servant charges in an unspecified incident involving a Lorenze TX police officer [1] bit.ly/wVbKSJ

Fairfax County Police Officer David Ziants award for kill somebody and the worst thing that happens to you is you get fired award.

White Plains NY police sued by family of 68-year-old man who was shot to death by cops who allegedly harassed him and used a racial slur in attempt to force him to open his door while they were responding to a false alarm that the alarm company retracted. [2] bit.ly/y6Xhcy
Houston TX cop was suspended 30 days and is the subject of a lawsuit for fatally shooting a bar patron who was trying to protect a woman being harassed while he was drunk and off duty. [3] bit.ly/xyLPff

Bluefield WV police are being sued by the mom of a man who died after jailed for public intoxication after found unconscious in his car. was suffering from medical condition [3] bit.ly/weUdSR

Fairfax County Police Officer Larry A. Jackson award for false arrest. Fairfax County Police. Police brutality

2 Lake Placid NY cops are the subject of a lawsuit for allegedly beating and detaining a woman for objecting to a search but then releasing her without any charges. [1] bit.ly/yT5Zow

Totonto ON police sued by a lawyer claiming he was arbitrarily arrested by cop who didn’t have a name tag and gave a fake name during G20 protests [2] bit.ly/y18FZ8

New York NY police are facing at least 6 new lawsuits over bad drug raids that occurred even after the department allegedly implemented promised reforms after a high-publicity bad raid in 2003. [4] bit.ly/wjfbO7


The Fairfax County Police officer Walter R. Fasci/ Sean McGlone award for sober living. Fairfax County Police. Police brutality

San Antonio TX police sgt in coverup for suspected DUI after found pantless near crashed city-owned truck retires [0] bit.ly/yQGCOy

Erie Co NY deputy gets fine & ordered to apologize in plea deal for crashing into house while drunk [0] bit.ly/AvWcKm

Morrow GA police chief gets probation in plea to DUI after found asleep at wheel in intersection by own officers [0] bit.ly/wIFKxi

Windwmere FL cop with a history of drug arrests was fired on allegations of time card fraud. [0] thesent.nl/AiLseP

Buchtel OH police chief arrested after attempting to buy prescription medication from an undercover officer in a sting operation. [0] bit.ly/wI8Io5

Do you fuck'n believe this?

Wells Twp OH cop sued claiming he peppersprayed then cuffed a man face down in the middle of a road where he was run over and the officer was hit by a car, leaving the man permanently disabled with brain damage. The incident apparently began when the officer approach the man and his boyfriend and demanded ID and escalated when they refused to give it. [3] http://bit.ly/wHc4Wl

McLean Student Says Police Officer Struck Him at McDonald's. Cops promise to investigate cops....chief promises to hand out award

McLean Student Says Police Officer Struck Him at McDonald's

A McLean High School senior and some friends arrived at the downtown McDonald's Friday evening to find it brimming with McLean and Langley students "smack talking" about the just-completed Langley-McLean basketball game and an upcoming beach weekend.

Then three policemen entered through the entrance facing Old Dominion Drive, said Ryan McColgan, 18.

"One had a baton," he said. "The guy with the baton shoved people with the baton." Ryan was standing beside a friend whom Ryan said the officer hit him in the back and he was struck in the throat.

"He told us to leave after we were struck," Ryan said recounting the incident as his mother listened.

"I walked out and talked to another officer because I was bleeding from the mouth,” he said. That officer gave him a towel, he said.

Diana McColgan was one of nearly 30 people who left comments on the McLean Patch front page after the website published a story about the incidents at McDonald's based on an interview with the McLean Police District Commander. She and many other commenters disagreed with the commander's report of the incidents.

In that interview Capt. Daniel Janickey said hundreds of students were at McDonald's on Old Dominion Drive.

"The officers were telling them to disperse and they were not listening. The officer did use his baton to hold one individual up against the wall. No one was ever struck with a baton,” Janickey said.

Both Janickey and Ryan said the officer held the baton across his chest. Both said he did not swing it.

The Fairfax County police department is conducting an administrative investigation, a standard policy when there are allegations of excessive force by officers.

Four students were arrested during the game at McLean High School. A fifth student was arrested outside the McDonald's. All were charged with public drunkenness, police said.

"There was nothing going on in the McDonald's," Ryan said. "... It was just a bunch of friends yelling about other friends. Talking about how we beat them. There was no fight going to happen. I don’t know why they (the officers) came in."

Ryan said the McDonald's manager never asked them to leave.

Janickey said, "We were outnumbered tremendously. We had three officers available and the crowd was being unruly. It was unsafe situation" for the community.

"You had over 100 kids in there (at the McDonald's). They just took the place over. Some were intoxicated. They didn't listen to management or police. The officers were trying to maintain order," he said. "This is a community and public safety issue."

About 10 p.m., Diana McColgan said she received a call from her son "telling me that he had been struck by a police officer twice and was bleeding."

"... He was fine when I last saw him (at the game which they both attended). And I have a hard time understanding if the police are saying no one was hit in the McDonald's how did my son get injured? Whether it was with the baton, the hand, on purpose or by accident it still happened," she said.

She and Ryan visited the McLean police station Saturday around noon looking for answers.

"My main concern was my son," she said. "I wanted to know what gave them the right to strike my son who was in the McDonald's not breaking any law. . . They handled the situation poorly," she said.

Is NYPD Running Wild? Patterns of Brutality Raise Questions About Mayor's Control of Police

Behind the NYPD's beating of Jateik Reed and the killing of Ramarley Graham is a long history of police harassment.
A series of incidents last year, in some cases where police broke the law, has sullied the reputation of the NYPD. From the department’s handling of Occupy protesters and journalists, to officers’ participation in illegal gun sales and a ticket-fixing scandal, to rape charges and reports that allege the targeting of Muslims, the NYPD’s pattern of abuse, law-breaking, and poor judgment is raising questions about whether some of New York’s finest are operating as rogue units. A disturbing series of events, including beatings and the shooting death of an unarmed teenager in the Bronx, are causing some to wonder whether Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg are condoning the behavior or are unable to impose discipline on the department.
Along with the patterns of violence, new reports show that stop-and-frisk rates went through the roof in 2011, making it a record-breaking year for the controversial practice. Stop-and-frisks may only legally be used when police have reasonable suspicion someone has a gun, but they are widely abused, and have been targeted as the source of aggressive, race-based policing and what many consider to be illegal marijuana arrests.
So far, 2012 has proven no better. Already, six NYPD officers have already been stripped of their badges and placed on modified duty for their involvement in two incidents that took place early this year. On January 26, Bronx NYPD officers beat 19-year-old Jateik Reed after allegedly seeing him hold drugs. Jateik Reed was with two friends at the time of his arrest. For one of them, the beating was his introduction to police brutality.
In a previously unreported connection, a man named Will, who did not give his last name, was arrested and allegedly roughed up with Reed's family when they want to the police department to inquire about Reed on the day of his beating.
One week later, while Jateik Reed was still locked up, cops gunned down 18-year-old Ramarley Graham, making him the third young black man killed by the NYPD in one week. Graham's grandmother and 6-year-old brother were inside the apartment where he was fatally shot. Police say they shot Graham, who was unarmed, while pursuing a small-time pot arrest. Will says he is Ramarley Graham's cousin.
Video of Reed’s arrest shows shocking brutality: Police kick, stomp, and hit Reed with night sticks as he cries for help, slamming him against a wall and beating him even after he falls to the ground outside of his home. His mother says the injuries required four stitches in his arm, and two in his head.
I first met up with Reed’s friends and neighbors on 168th and Third Ave. Standing where Reed was beaten, witnesses explained what they saw on the 26th. But perhaps more telling than their accounts of Reed's beating are stories from their day-to-day lives. For this group of teenagers, being arrested for trespassing in their own buildings, or biting their tongues as an officer puts his or her hands down their pants during a stop-and-frisk, is nothing shocking. Reed's beating was the climactic culmination of a long history of police harassment.
Police stopped Reed after allegedly seeing him ditch marijuana and crack cocaine. Next, they allege, he punched and headbutted an officer, opening a wound that required stitches. Witnesses say they never saw police recover any kind of contraband from Reed, and no one has been able to confirm police reports that Reed headbutted a police officer.
Allegations of abusive behavior that occurred following Reed's arrest raise questions about police intimidation. In addition to the death of Ramarley Graham and arrest of the Reed family, a neighbor who witnessed the beating, Javin James, told AlterNet that police entered his home and beat him after other cops arrested Jateik Reed.
Witness Testimony
Twenty-year-old Trevor, who did not want to give his last name, is a friend and neighbor of Jateik Reed’s. He filmed the video that helped bring attention to Reed's case.
Standing in the spot where Reed was beaten, Trevor told me that he, Reed, and Will “were coming home from the store, and they just stopped us for no real reason.” Returning from the corner deli, they had walked about a half-block over to the building where Reed and Trevor live.
“I told them we’re coming home -- it’s not like we’re hanging here just to hang here -- and they come out of the paddy wagon, frisk us,” Trevor told me. He said he was standing in the alcove in front of his apartment, unable to see Reed, when the officer searching him hurried away. Then, he said, “They just jumped on my friend, started beating him. I got nervous and pulled out my camera, recorded the whole situation."
At one point, the video Trevor filmed shows an officer approach him with mace. “I guess he didn’t want to be seen,” said Trevor, who said he and Will were both hit with a small stream of mace.
Eighteen-year-old Garnell also watched the arrest and beating from across the street.
“The cops were talking to Jateik,” he told me, while another cop was in the street. “He said something, I’m not sure what. And then you see them start trying to frisk him, put him on the floor.”
But Garnell, who like other boys in the neighborhood have been stopped by the cops regularly for years, said this time was different.
“They were trying to shove him down, but they weren’t trying to do it using their skills. They were trying to do it forcefully, like harm him,” he explained, “They weren’t trying to get him into hand cuffs. They were trying to get him on the floor and really beat him.”
“He was yelling out ‘Help me, help me!’’ said Garnell, but “There’s nothing I could’ve done about that because if I had jumped in, they would’ve beat me too.”
Neither Garnell, Trevor, nor James could identify what cut the officer’s nose.
“I don’t even know why they started getting violent,” said Garnell, “I know they harass us all the time, though, just for being out here. They harass us all the time.”
“There’s been plenty of times he got arrested or stopped, and nothing like that ever happened,” Jateik Reed's 17-year-old brother Jashawn Walker told me.
“Struggling” With Graham
Police initially cited a “struggle” that occurred in the bathroom where Ramarley Graham was shot, but Graham was unarmed, and even Police Commissioner Ray Kelly no longer claims that an incident occurred.
Police also said Graham ran after they pursued him for participating in a marijuana deal, but in video of Graham entering his home, he does not appear to be on the run. The video footage, obtained by New York One, also shows that several minutes passed between when Graham walked into his home and police gained entry. The officers then followed Graham into his second-floor apartment, before knocking and kicking open the door. Inside, they found Graham in the bathroom, where he was shot moments later.
As WPIX reported,
It was the NYPD who was on the run, chasing after Ramarley Graham, 18, who -- seconds earlier -- casually closed the door behind him as he entered his home. The surveillance video is dramatic and telling. The family released it Saturday afternoon, approximately 48 hours after the shooting.
The video clearly shows Graham walking into his home on East 229th Street in the Bronx Thursday, shortly after 3:00p.m. The NYPD then jump into the screen seconds later. Two officers rush toward the door, with one trying to kick down a locked door. He had no search warrant. Seconds later another officer holds up his gun and aims it at one of the residents who -- coincidentally -- was on the side of the home. A total of four officers are seen on the video.
PIX11 spoke to one resident who, was cooking during the forced entry and said that the NYPD did not identify themselves: "...they did not scream ‘police.’"

Even though the police did not have a warrant, Graham’s landlord, Paulette Minzie, said police put a gun in her face and searched her home for weapons. “What’s clear,” Minzie’s attorney, Neville Mitchel, told NY1, “is that there was enough time for them to reflect on what is happening, and this tragedy should not have happened."
Intimidation
Javin James, 31, was in his apartment when something drew him to the window. He watched police officers stop and frisk Jateik Reed and two of his friends. Sitting with me in a neighbor’s car, James told me what he saw.
“They’re searching the guys, then I see one of them get dropped,” James told me. Pointing to his window, across the street from where Reed was beat, James explained that after police dropped him, Reed was behind an NYPD van, and James could not see what happened behind it. Then he said, the violence escalated. He said he saw police beat Reed as he hung off the curb, before picking him up and dragging him over toward the wall. “I was yelling that they could have cuffed him five minutes ago,” he told me.
When James heard a cop ask what apartment number he was in, he walked away from the window. James told me that some other police officers then busted down his door.
As James told New York One:
"When they surrounded me and looked at me with gloves on, I knew what was going to happen. I just had time to pull my glasses off. And by the time I did that, it was 'boom' [with a punch]. I did [put up my hands] like that to shield my face immediately. I tried to protect my face. I'm shielding my face and this is exposed. He uses his right leg and stomps me here [in the torso]."
Then, Javin James says an officer tried to intimidate him into silence. “I can’t remember exactly what he said, but it was something like ‘Tell me now that you saw something,’” James said. He told me that he needs physical therapy twice a week to treat the muscle spasms in his neck and back.
But no amount of physical therapy can undo the harm that police have inflicted on Patricia Hartley. After she watched her grandson, Ramarley Graham, die, police who fired far too fast did not make an attempt to comfort her.
Instead, according to the New York Daily News:
Patricia Hartley said police threw her to the ground and stuck a gun in her face after Ramarley Graham, 18, was killed inside the bathroom of his family’s Bronx apartment.
Then, the Daily News says, Hartley was held in police custody for seven hours.
Assemblyman Eric Stevenson, D-Bronx, told the Daily News that Hartley was also being denied access to her heart medication. “I asked the district attorney a simple question: ‘Is this woman being held against her will?’” he told the Daily News. “Within 10 minutes, she was released.”
When Reed’s family went to the 42nd Precinct to find out why he was so badly beaten, police arrested and allegedly roughed them up as well.
Schuan Reed, Jateik Reed’s mother, and his brother, Jashawn, told me the violence started when they were on their way out. Schuan had been asking the officers if she could speak to the captain, but they would only give her the sergeant. “I didn’t want to speak to the sergeant. The sergeant was involved in the incident,” she told me.
Finally, they got ready to leave. “If you open the gate, it slams,” Schuan said. “I went through the gate.” Then, she says, officers came up behind them, asking her son Jashawn, “Did you slam the fucking gate?”
“I’m a grown woman,” she said, “That’s my son. If you have something to say to him, you say it to me.” Frustrated, Reed said she replied, “No, he didn’t slam the gate. He didn’t slam the fucking gate.”
Jashawn said one cop pushed him. Schuan said the officers egged on Jashawn, and “took the handcuffs off him like they wanted my son to fight them.”
“I told another cop I’m going to press charges on this officer because he pushed me,” Jashawn said. That’s when they say police dropped them. “He threw me on the floor, put his foot on top of my head, punched me in the face,” Jashawn said. “They also threw my friend [Will] on the floor -- that was at the scene when they beat up Jateik -- stepped all over him. The cop slapped my mom, called her a black bitch.”
Schuan said the officer’s name who hit her is Ferguson, but he wasn’t the only one who went after her.
After they were arrested and put behind bars, “There was another officer -- a Spanish lady -- came in the cell, like to jump me [with Ferguson],” she said, “The girls that were already in the cell ran out.” When another officer put himself between them, Schuan said, “I guess they knew to back off.”
Schuan Reed's 4-year-old son Jyaire had witnessed the arrest, and police took him into the office when they arrested the others. “I’m sitting there, wondering if they’re being mean to my baby,” Schuan told me, fighting back tears.
While Schuan Reed is familiar with the power of the police, she challenges those who charged her with disorderly conduct, obstruction of justice and child endangerment to prove she and her family were acting belligerently. “You all got cameras in there, right?” she said, “So, show it.”
Between the precinct and central bookings, the Reed family was locked up for 26 hours. The whole time, Schuan was terrified for Jateik.
Later, her fears were realized, when Jateik told her that police beat him in the van, and hit and maced him at the precinct.
She added, “When he was in central booking, he kept asking them to take him to the hospital because his head and everything was hurting, and they wouldn’t take him to the hospital. By law, you are supposed to take him to the hospital, so why didn’t they? What if he had internal bleeding? God forbid if he passed out and dropped dead in there.”
“I know he’s scared,” she said, choking up. “He told me “Ma, they’re going to do something to me.”
Schuan Reed and her family were finally released, but they still couldn’t go home. Schuan and Jashawn claim that the officers kept Jashawn’s phone, and both their sets of apartment keys. “I haven’t been sleeping in my house. I can’t go to my house because I don’t know if they’ve been there,” said Schuan, who has only had time to change one of her locks. “They could come plant something, do anything -- drugs, bugs, anything. If i come in my house to get clothes or something, I feel like somebody’s been in there. It might just be me being paranoid, but I don’t know,” she said. “The whole situation is just real scary.”
She said she feels like she’s always looking over her shoulder. “They might lose their jobs. You don’t know if they’ll come in the house and kill all of us. How can I sleep peacefully not knowing if someone will come in and kill me and my kids? Do you know what it’s like, to feel scared like that?”
Schuan worries about the emotional consequences the beating will have on her son.
“Jateik is going to have to have therapy. He’s going to feel threatened, be emotionally damaged for the rest of his life. I just wish there was something I could do,” she said, “but they have all the authority. They can falsify documents, they can falsify evidence, they can do basically whatever they want, and nobody will ever know.”
There are cameras outside the housing projects where the incident occurred. Footage from them may show what Trevor’s video doesn’t.
Bogus Charges
“The police complaint alleges that the cops observed him with a bag of a substance that they recognized, based on their training and experience, was crack, and that he threw it away, along with two bags that they recognized as marijuana,” Reed’s lawyer, Gideon Orion Oliver, told me at Reed’s bail hearing, adding, “They’re basically alleging that what he had was some crack residue.”
“That sort of superhuman sensory perception,” Oliver noted, “is very typical in drug prosecutions.”
Those who know Jateik Reed call the crack charges a transparent technique to stereotype and criminalize him.
“I heard that the newspaper said cocaine, weed,” Trevor said, “They don’t got the story straight. I’ve known Jateik my whole life, and he don’t even touch crack, so that just sounds crazy,” he said. Trevor claims he saw, “No drugs at all” during the stop.
Garnell said, “Jateik is not the rowdy type to do crack, none of that. That’s not Jateik."
“If you see the police standing there, why would you have something in your hands like that?” Schuan said. “That’s not even logical. And for people to say he’s a drug dealer! A mother knows what her son does. I would know if my son was a drug dealer. I’m not stupid. If he’s a drug dealer, then why does he come to me, asking for $5, $2, every day?”
If Jateik Reed's friends are right, and he never touched crack, it wouldn’t be the first time the NYPD planted drugs.
The recent trial of former NYPD detectives accused of planting drugs on suspects reveals what could be a widespread pattern of corruption. This fall, eight officers were arrested for planting drugs on people, causing Police Commissioner Kelly to order widespread transfers in Brooklyn South and Queens narcotics units. In November, Jason Arbeeny, a 14-year NYPD veteran, was found guilty of eight counts of falsifying records and official misconduct for planting crack on suspects. At his own trial in November, Stephen Anderson, a former NYPD detective, indicated that high pressure to meet quotas makes “flaking,” or placing some previously confiscated drugs on an innocent person, common among all ranks. Anderson testified in court that, “It was something I was seeing a lot of, whether it was from supervisors or undercovers and even investigators.”
Although Jason Arbeeny admitted to planting crack cocaine on a woman and her boyfriend in 2007, the judge let him off with probation last week.
But planting drugs is not the only way cops keep arrests up. As data from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services shows, even after Commissioner Ray Kelly issued an internal memo ordering police to follow the law on pot arrests, 2011 saw more low-level pot arrests -- more than 50,000 -- than any other year in the past decade. Research by Queens sociologist Harry Levine and the Drug Policy Alliance interprets the numbers as proof that the NYPD continued using controversial stop-and-frisks to remove marijuana from pockets or bags and improperly charge people, overwhelmingly black and Latino youths, with marijuana “in public view,” which is a more severe misdemeanor than personal possession and can be cause for arrest and booking.
In the last five years, the NYPD under Mayor Michael Bloomberg made more marijuana arrests than in the 24 years from 1978 through 2001.
Many link the NYPD’s marijuana arrest crusade to Ramarley Graham’s murder. Tony Newman, spokesperson for Drug Policy Alliance, wrote:
While details of the tragedy are still unfolding, it appears that [Graham] had a small amount of marijuana on him, so walked home to get away from the cops because he didn’t want to be arrested. The cops followed him, broke into his home and killed him in his bathroom while he was trying to flush a small amount of marijuana down the toilet. The police officer who shot Graham said he believed the young man had a gun. He did not – no weapons were found.
The bottom line is that an 18-year-old is dead because of the insane marijuana arrest crusade by the NYPD...
Ramarley Graham’s “god sister,” Makeba Johnson, said she knew “Marley” her whole life. Johnson told me she wants people to know that, despite reports that make Graham out to be little more than a criminal, “Marley is not what they say. Marley is not a person that robs people or a drug dealer. Marley is a person that, at times, he probably smoked marijuana, which a lot of kids do -- I don’t say that it’s right, but a lot of kids do. He didn’t deserve to die.”
Police Harassment
The boys from Jateik Reed’s block say they are stopped from three to four times a week, though it could be as often as every day. They complain that police are rough and smart with them, but as teenagers, what seems to bother them most about the frisks is how intrusive they feel.
“They go in my pants. You’re not supposed to go in my pants,” said Jashawn Reed.
Garnell agreed. “It’s annoying because it doesn’t matter what kind of cop it is, female or male, they’re gonna frisk you. if you say something to the female about it, the female says something to you like ‘What? I can do what I want.' And they still frisk you. You can’t say sexual harassment, nothing,” he said, “And they go hard, grabbing stuff they’re not supposed to.”
“The way they search these kids -- oh my God, it’s like they found a weapon on them. To me, it’s like sexual harassment,” said Julissa Lawrence, a neighbor and close friend of the Reeds who is sick of seeing her teenage son and his friends constantly stopped by police.
Stop-and-frisks are a mechanism by which the NYPD can more easily snatch people up on drugs charges. While they are only supposed to be conducted when there is reasonable suspicion a person is carrying a gun, less than 2 percent of total stops result in the discovery of any weapon or contraband. The practice is widely abused, with police regularly neglecting to fill out the required paperwork. Since 2002, stop-and-frisks have increased by 600 percent.
What’s worse, the numbers on race make Jateik Reed look like just another statistic: In 2011, 85 percent of the NYPD’s stops were blacks or Latinos. Stop-and-frisks that involve force are much more likely to involve black or Latino people.
While marijuana arrests are the most common charge for arrests in New York City, all misdemeanor arrests are spiraling out of control. In 2010, the NYPD reported 391,892 misdemeanor charges. On Jateik Reed’s block, teenagers say they have been arrested for petty crimes so many times they have lost track.
“They’re always misjudging something, and picking people up for stuff they didn’t do. They’ll lie to you, too,” Jashawn claimed.
“Trespassing and disorderly conduct are the two mains,” Jashawn Reed said, “and jaywalking.” Jashawn claims that in October he was arrested three or four times in the span of three weeks. “I have to go court for them, pay little fines. You always gotta go to court at the end of the day, but sometimes they let you out of the precinct." Most of the time, however, “They send you through central booking, everything. It could be as long as three days.”
“Since I was like 15, they’ve been harassing me,” he said.
For Garnell, the cops started with him when he first grew facial hair. “I guess that means I’m a bad guy,” he said.
Every kid on the block could tell you stories about police snatching them up on some charge, but trespassing is what they reference most often, perhaps because the circumstances seem so ridiculous.
Jashawn said he and a friend once walked from one building to another across the street, where they stood for inside for “10 seconds,” and “as soon as we came out of the building, the police cars stopped right in front of us.” Jashawn said an officer told him they got a call about two people wearing red and blue jackets.
“How’d they get a call if we just got to the building?” Jashawn wonders.
But police didn’t take them for trespassing. “They said they were going to take us for jaywalking, and then when they finally let us out, they gave us a ticket for disorderly conduct,” he said.
Garnell, too, was arrested for trespassing, while on his way out of a friend’s building. He spent three days in jail before the judge dismissed the case.
“These kids are not out there antagonizing people, robbing people, selling drugs. They go to school and hang out together because they grew up together and there’s nowhere to go. There’s no recreational centers because they shut everything down. So what else can they do?” said Julissa Lawrence.
In an article called “House Arrest, Redefined,” the Village Voice explained how one man’s arrest for trespassing in his own home is part of a pattern:
“This kind of policing is exactly what the New York Civil Liberties Union is targeting in a new lawsuit. The group claims that the NYPD's controversial stop-and-frisk program, which stops an overwhelming majority of black and Latino suspects, is also taking place in private buildings.
Landlords citywide can sign up for a program called "Operation Clean Halls," which is intended to prevent drug use and sales through indoor patrolling.
Alexis Karteron, NYCLU senior staff attorney, told the Voice, "We were hearing directly from people that building residents were being subjected to pretty intense police practices—getting stopped in lobbies, stopped at the mailbox, at the garbage chute, in the hallway.”
Julissa Lawrence calls the all-too-common arrests “bogus charges, just to get their name and address in the book.”
Jashawn told me some of his cases catch up with him. “There’s so many I forget about it. I just had court last week because of something, and I had a bench warrant for one of those cases,” said Jashawn, who did not realize he had missed court. “It’s just too much stuff, too many tickets, too many summonses.”
Garnell says that most of the arrests and stop-and-frisks happen “right in the middle of the week,” and noted Wednesdays as the worst, with Friday also busy, “because they want you to spend the weekend in bookings. All the other days they’re not really looking for anybody.”
His observations are consistent with data that shows the NYPD follows a schedule of days designated for desk work or aggressive policing. The trend in arrests thus stems from the NYPD’s own pattern of policing, not fluctuations in actual crimes.
According to CUNY Professor K. Babe Howell’s report, Broken Lives from Broken Windows:
“The differences in the numbers of misdemeanor arrests can be attributed to decisions made regarding the deployment of police resources. In order to arrest people for minor offenses, teams of officers are organized to observe people buying drugs, to do sweeps of particular buildings, or to watch for people jumping turnstiles. "Busy arrest days," therefore, are the result of aggressive order-maintenance policing targeted at particular locations. Other days are "slow arrest days" because of less aggressive policing of these offenses.
According to statistics, the least serious offenses “make up the lion's share of the additional arrests on busy days.”
Justice for Jateik Reed and Ramarley Graham
Private donors and the Occupy Wall Street bail fund donated the $10,001 the Reed family needed to post for Jateik Reed to be released, and he walked out of jail, to the relief of his mother, last week. He still faces drug and resisting arrest charges.
While Reed’s family described his release as “wonderful,” they still want police to be held responsible for their actions, and seek more accountability from the NYPD, overall. Prosecutors demanded Reed give up his right to the 5th Amendment and cooperate with police to investigate the officers who beat him. On the advice of his lawyers, who said the relationship between the NYPD and the District Attorney’s office makes a fair investigation impossible, Reed didn’t take the deal. His attorneys are pushing for a special prosecutor to open up the investigation.
Makeba Johnson explained to me why it is too late for Ramarley Graham, but not for other youths. “I just want them to realize that because they’re police they can’t just shoot somebody and then just go on desk duty and it’s okay, because it's not fair. If we shoot somebody we go to jail. And if they shoot somebody they get desk duty,” she said, “He had no life yet, not a heartbreak yet in life.”
Schuan Reed said while she knew police harassment was bad, she did not realize how far it went until her own son became a victim. “I feel bad that it took me so long,” she said, “But I think I found my calling.”
The aggressive policing has inspired a movement, grown from the neighborhoods and communities affected, with a mission to end stop-and-frisk. Jose Lassale, a New Yorker who has been subject to stop-and-frisk himself, said being stopped is “just another day in the hood, and that’s sad that we feel that way.”
Lassale and other members of the Stop Stop-and-Frisk coalition are mobilizing, policing the police and passing out “Stop Stop-and-Frisk” buttons to empower communities and let police know they are standing up for themselves.
Jateik Reed’s friends have been wearing the buttons on their jackets, and said they, too, are ready to take a stand against racist policing, and fight back before the NYPD claims another victim.
“We just think that there needs to be a legitimate reason why they’re stopping these kids. Don’t just stop them because they’re black or their pants are sagging or they’re walking with a group of kids. They’re not hurting anybody,” Julissa Lawrence said, “Stop treating our kids like they’re the enemies. How about those people that walk around Wall Street with tuxedos and briefcases? Those could be bombs. They don’t stop them. But they stop our kids.”
The NYPD did not respond to requests for comment.