Fairfax County Police Watch: Give these young people a medal for being good and concerned citizens.

THANK YOU MIKE CURTIS AND LORELEI MCFLY (really?) FOR ORGANIZING THIS EVENT. YOU ARE MAKING YOUR NATION A BETTER PLACE

'Night Out Against Police Crime' Held By Activists In Fairfax County

By: Michael Pope

August 5, 2015

WAMU/Michael Pope

Protesters gather outside the Fairfax County Police Department to stage an event they called a Night Out Against Police Crime.

Across America, police officers and their leaders were out Tuesday night celebrating National Night Out, a celebration of police traditionally held on the first Tuesday in August. But a growing sense of distrust of Fairfax County Police has created a rival event in Fairfax County, a Night Out Against Police Crime. The idea is to call attention to a series of high-profile cases in Fairfax County.

"Obviously the police don't want themselves to be the focus," says Mike Curtis, one of the chief organizers of the protest, which took place outside police headquarters. "But they are responsible for a great deal of serious crime here in Fairfax County with the murder of no less than seven innocent unarmed people in recent years. So we think it's important to highlight that as well."

Mike Curtis and Lorelei McFly organized the event.

One of the people attending the protest was Chuck Modaino. He came from Silver Spring. So what brought him all the way out to Fairfax County?

"The idea that you can go and kill someone in broad daylight, sometimes even on video, and not get arrested for it is so outrageous that the better question is why aren't more people out here?" asks Modaino.

Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin Roessler acknowledges his department has suffered a crisis of confidence since the death of John Geer, the unarmed man from Springfield whose death in 2013 prompted the creation of an Ad Hoc Police Practices Review Commission. The activists behind Tuesday's event began organizing after the death of Geer, using social media and public rallies to draw attention to the case and the lack of information available from the Fairfax County Police Department.

"The pressure that we've put on has helped lead to the establishment of the Ad Hoc Commission, and it's definitely raised awareness in the community," says Lorelei McFly, one of the chief organizers of the event. "Slowly our officials may be getting the idea that they can't just wait for this to blow over anymore."

By Election Day, when all seats on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will be up for election, the commission is set to issue a series of recommendations. Those recommendations could radically transform how the department works and what kind of details it releases to the public.

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.