By Eric W. Dolan
Police officers are heroes. They voluntarily put themselves
in harm’s way to serve and protect every citizen, and society grants them
powers above and beyond the average citizen to achieve their mission.
Unfortunately, this power can be abused, turning the heroes
into villains. Extra power, in a free society, must be coupled with extra
responsibility, and exposing misconduct is key to holding those with power
accountable.
Black men arrested for being with white girl
Landry Thompson, 13, was visiting Houston, Texas to attend
dance classes this month. Her mother had given dance instructor Emmanuel Hurd
full guardianship over her during the trip.
But police began questioning Thompson, Hurd and another
dance instructor while they were at a gas station. The police later decided to
handcuff the dance instructors and trainee. Thompson was placed in the custody
of Child Protective Services, but she was released back into the custody of
Hurd about 11 hours later.
“I was horrified,” her mother, Destiny Thompson, said. “She
was with the people I wanted her to be with. She was with people I trusted. And
now she was taken away from those people and in a shelter with people I didn’t
know.”
Police officers humiliate mentally disabled man
Police officers in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan allegedly
forced a mentally-challenged black man to sing songs and “dance like a chimp.”
Video of the incident was published in November, leading to
the suspension of five officers. The entire department will now receive
sensitivity training.
“An officer has
stepped forward to take responsibility for the video and for interacting with
Mr. Scipio in that fashion. The officer has been removed from patrol duty
pending the conclusion of our investigation,” Grosse Pointe Park police
spokesman Greg Bowens told the Detroit Free Press.
Texas police officer handcuffs and rapes teen during traffic
stop
Also in November, a police officer in San Antonio, Texas was
accused of raping a 19-year-old woman during a traffic stop. Officer Jackie Len
Neal pulled over the teen and said that her car was reported stolen. Even
though the victim was able to produce evidence that she had purchased the car,
Neal reportedly handcuffed her and placed her behind his police cruiser, where
he allegedly raped her.
The woman contacted police and Neal was arrested.
“I am angry. I am outraged. It’s a punch in the eye to the
police department, this kind of conduct,” San Antonio police Chief William
McManus told a local media outlet.
California cop calls transgender woman a ‘nasty shemale’
before raping her
A similar incident allegedly occurred in California. In
October, a transgender woman accused an El Monte police officer of raping her.
The victim said she was walking to her friends house when
the officer stopped her to ask if she was “a nasty shemale.” The officer
allegedly took her to an empty parking lot, groped her and ordered her to have
sex with him. The woman’s lawyer said she complied with the officer’s demands
out of fear.
Racially-abusive stop-and-frisks caught on camera
In both Philadelphia and New York City, police officers were
caught berating young African-American men who they had stopped to search.
A 16-minute video uploaded to YouTube in October showed
Philadelphia police officer Philip Nace telling two black pedestrians that they
“weaken the f*cking country” because they were “freeloaders.” The two men were
stopped and searched after saying hello to another pedestrian. Nace was
assigned to a disciplinary unit and is
under investigation.
Another video uploaded to YouTube in October showed a NYPD
officer threatening to arrest a black man for being a “f*cking mutt” during a
stop-and-frisk. Another officer added: “Dude, I’m gonna break your f*ckin’ arm,
then I’m gonna punch you in the f*ckin’ face.”
Police accuse woman of making up rape claim about serial
rapist
In June, a woman sued several police and city officials in Lynnwood,
Washington after she was accused of lying about being raped.
The woman told police in 2008 that she had been tied up and
sexually assaulted by Marc Patrick O’Leary. Though doctors found abrasions on
her wrists and vagina, detectives accused the young woman of fabricating the
incident. They charged her with filing a false report, but the charge was later
dropped.
In 2011, O’Leary was sentenced to more than 300 years in
prison for raping three women and attempting to rape a fourth. Federal agents
uncovered hundreds of photos of his victims, including the woman accused of
filing a false report.
Louisiana cops arrest men for agreeing to gay sex
The Baton Rouge Advocate revealed in July that a sheriff’s
office task force in Louisiana had arrested at least a dozen gay men under the
state’s defunct sodomy law.
Louisiana’s criminalization of sex between two people of the
same gender was invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2003 Lawrence v. Texas
ruling, but the law remains on the books.
The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office used the law to
set up sting operations targeting gay men. Undercover police officers arrested
men who agreed to have private, unpaid sex with them. The sheriff’s office
later apologized for the anti-gay sting operations and said it would “consult
with others in the legislative and judicial branches to see what can be done to
remove this law from the criminal code.”
Support marijuana legalization? You might be a criminal,
says police chief
A South Carolina police chief in November threatened to
arrest a person who criticized drug prohibition on Facebook.
In response to an update posted on the Columbia Police
Department’s Facebook page, a man complained that authorities appeared to be
more concerned with arresting harmless “stoners” than violent criminals.
“Thank you for sharing your views and giving us reasonable
suspicion to believe you might be a criminal, we will work on finding you,” the
Columbia Police Department said in response. Interim Police Chief Ruben
Santiago later admitted to posting the reply.
Standing while black
Everyone has heard of “driving while black,” but 2013
brought us a new racially-infused crime: standing (or waiting) while black.
Police in Rochester, New York arrested three black teenagers
this month as they were waiting for a school bus to pick them up. Their high
school basketball coach, Jacob Scott, had arranged for them to be picked up to
take them to a scrimmage.
Police said the three teens were blocking “pedestrian
traffic while standing on a public sidewalk.” They refused to disperse and
attempted to explain to police why they were idling on the sidewalk, only to be
arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.
“These young men were doing nothing wrong, nothing wrong.
They did exactly what they were supposed to do and still they get arrested,”
Scott remarked.
Police officer shoots up minivan full of kids
A New Mexico state police officer opened fire on a minivan
loaded with children in October.
Officer Elias Montoya had stopped a woman, Oriana Ferrell,
for speeding near the town of Taos. The woman attempted avoid the speeding
ticket by driving away, but was pulled over by Montoya yet again. But Ferrell
again tried to flee after a brief scuffle with the officers. Montoya then fired
three shots at the minivan, which was carrying five children. No one was
injured.
Montoya was placed on administrative leave and later fired.
Ferrell was also arrested and charged with child abuse, fleeing an officer and
possession of drug paraphernalia.
Forced repeated and humiliating cavity searches
At least four people accused law enforcement authorities of
conducting warrantless and intrusive cavity searches in 2013.
Two women sued Texas officials in July for what they
described as “disgusting” cavity searches. Texas state trooper Nathaniel Turner
allegedly used a single glove to perform cavity searches on both women after he
claimed to smell the scent of marijuana in their car.
In November, a man sued New Mexico officials alleging that
he was forced him to undergo several invasive medical procedures in a futile
search for drugs. Police forced David Eckert to receive an X-ray of his
abdominal area, multiple anal probes, an enema and stool examination, and a
colonoscopy under sedation.
Another New Mexico man later said he was subjected to
similar medical procedures by the same police department.
Earlier this month, a woman from New Mexico sued Texas and
U.S. officials for allegedly subjecting her to “multiple, redundant and
increasingly intrusive searches.” The woman said she was subjected to vaginal
and anal cavity searches, along with X-ray and CT scans. No drugs were found,
but the woman later received a $5,000 bill from the University Medical Center
of El Paso.
