Fairfax County Police Watch: Hundreds Protest Against Police Brutality Following Death of Migrant Worker

People gather to protest police brutality

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —A group of people gathered in front of the old City Hall to bring attention to the death of Michael Brown and others Saturday.

Brown was fatally shot by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer last August.

The group Black Lives Matter organized the event. Hearts were laid on the steps, the building and the sidewalk.

“On these hearts are some of the last words of the police brutality victims, their names, ages, circumstances of their deaths,” said Ashley Belcher, a spokesperson for Black Lives Matter.

Belcher said the demonstration is out of love to remind the community that black lives still matter. She said the movement continues to grow.

Washington Protests 2015: Hundreds Protest Against Police Brutality Following Death of Migrant Worker

By Claudia Balthazar

Hundreds of children and adults protested against police brutality in Washington Saturday amidst a fatal shooting of a migrant orchard worker in Pasco.

The group demanded justice for Antonio Zambrano-Montes who police killed on Tuesday for allegedly throwing rocks at them, according to The Associated Press.

Some of the large signs during the protest, led by the victim's family, read, "Stop Police Brutality: It was just a rock!!!" "Use Your Training, Not Guns," and "Good Police We Respect You."

The crowd also marched to the location where the shooting took place.

Felix Vargas, chairman of Consejo Latino, a group of primarily Latino business leaders, called for a federal investigation into the shooting while demonstrators demanded a full review of the Pasco police department.

Franklin County Coroner Dan Blasdel will order an inquest. He said the results will be open to the public.

Meanwhile, the victim's family filed a $25 million claim in damages against the city of Pasco, New York Daily News reports.

Police confirmed Friday that Zambrano-Montes, who is also a citizen of Mexico, was not armed during the shooting.

Officials are still investigating the incident where it has been reported that Zambrano-Montes was throwing rocks at the cops before they opened fire. Police say the victim's threatening behavior led officers to shoot him after a stun gun could not calm him.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto reiterated the country is against police using lethal force.

"I have directed the secretary of foreign relations to support his family so they feel the backing and support of the government of Mexico, so they don't feel alone and so there is a close monitoring of the investigation into this regrettable and outrageous occurrence," he said.

Detectives will be interviewing at least 40 witnesses for the investigation and will be reviewing dash-cam video footage.

Three other fatal police shootings in Pasco have been cleared by prosecutors.

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.