Fairfax County Police Watch: 06/06/15

Help build a definitive guide to every unreleased video of police brutality

By Shaun KingFollow

Across the country, videos of extreme police brutality and murder exist, but are being concealed by police departments, prosecutors, and even media organizations. For nearly nine months, a deeply disturbing video of the Salt Lake City, Utah, police killing of Dillon Taylor existed, but was concealed not only by police and the district attorney, but even by the Salt Lake City Tribune.

In the video, we learned that Taylor, unarmed and committing no crime, posed no real threat to the officer and was listening to music on his headphones. We also witnessed the gruesome aftermath of what it truly looks like when someone is shot at point blank range by the police and then summarily treated like a criminal. It's one of the worst things you'll ever see in your life and should inform how you feel about the true impact of police brutality.

Ultimately, it's my strong belief that every video of police brutality and murder should be released immediately—not after prosecutors decide not to do anything, not after all charges are dropped, but as soon as it is humanly possible to load them to YouTube. The videos are public property, paid for by tax dollars, and inform the public far better than fictional press releases ever will.

Sadly, the Taylor video was not the only video being concealed by police and prosecutors. Below we will include a list of every police violence video that we know exists that people in power refuse to release.

In the comments section, please add more links and details and we will update this post to include them.

Natasha McKenna was killed by police in Fairfax County, Virginia, on February 3. The police have confirmed that a video exists but refuse to release it.

Matthew Ajibade was killed by law enforcement on January 1 in Savannah, Georgia. The police have confirmed a video exists but refuse to release it.

Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times and killed by Chicago police on October 20, 2014. His family received $5 million in a settlement, but officials refuse to release the video of his killing. It has since been reported that police deleted 100 minutes of video from a nearby Burger King.

Ernest Satterwhite was shot and killed by police in South Carolina, but police refuse to release the dashcam footage.

Jonathan Ferrell was shot and killed by a police officer in Charlotte, North Carolina, but police refuse to release the video.

Kashad Ashford was killed by New Jersey police, but they refuse to release the video.

Lawrence Graham III was shot—apprently three times in the back—and killed by police in Fayetteville, North Carolina, but police refuse to release the video.

Ricardo Diaz Zeferino was completely unarmed when police in Gardena, California, shot and killed him, but they refuse to release the video. His family was given a $4.5 million wrongful death settlement.

Brandon Tate Brown was shot and killed by police in Philadelphia in December 2014, but officials refuse to release several videos of the shooting.

If you know of any additional cases in which police refuse to release videos, please post them in the comments section below or email them to shaun@dailykos.com and we will add them to the list.

ORIGINALLY POSTED TO SHAUNKING ON THU JUN 04, 2015 AT 08:47 AM PDT.

ALSO REPUBLISHED BY BARRIERS AND BRIDGES, POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY GROUP, AND DAILY KOS.

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.