The Day Ferguson Cops Were Caught in a Bloody Lie

What Happens When a Civilian Kills a Cop in Self Defense?
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/what-happens-when-civilian-kills-cop-self-defense

The careless use of SWAT teams in no-knock drug raids -- when heavily armed police burst into a home without warning -- has resulted in a long list of innocent people being killed or seriously injured in the United States. 2014 alone found SWAT teams in Georgia senselessly killing businessman David Hooks and maiming toddler Bounkham “Baby Boo Boo” Phonesavanh. And when those raids victimize people who aren’t even selling drugs, narcotics officers seldom face criminal charges and are given every benefit of the doubt. But if, on the other hand, Americans shoot narcotics officers during militarized drug raids—perhaps believing that they are being robbed and are acting in self-defense—charges of first-degree murder are likely. The case of Marvin Louis Guy in Texas is a glaring example.

Guy, an African-American man who is now 50, was the target of a no-knock drug raid on May 9, 2014. Narcotics officers, operating on a tip from an informant who claimed that Guy was selling bags of cocaine, carried out a SWAT raid on his home in Killeen, Texas at around 5:30 AM—and Guy grabbed his gun and opened fire. Charles Dinwiddie, one of the officers, was hit and died two days later. Guy was charged with capitol murder, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty despite his assertions that he thought he was acting in self-defense. Guy’s trial is scheduled for June of this year.

No drugs were found during a search of Guy’s home, only a glass pipe and a grinder—which indicates that Guy was, at worst, a recreational drug user and not a drug dealer. Journalist Radley Balko, author of the 2013 book Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces, has commented on the case in the Washington Post, saying: “The fact that the police didn’t find any drugs in the house suggests that Marvin Louis Guy didn’t know he was shooting at cops. Drug dealer or no, unless he had a death wish, it’s unlikely that a guy would knowingly fire at police officers when he had nothing in the house that was particularly incriminating.”

A very similar incident occurred in Burleson County, Texas on December 19, 2013, when a SWAT team carried out a no-knock drug raid on the home of Henry Magee (who is white). An informant had claimed that Magee had a major marijuana-growing operation, and during the raid, Magee shot and killed one of the officers, Adam Sowders. Although Magee stressed that he believed he was being robbed and had no idea he was shooting at police officers, he was facing the possibility of being prosecuted for capital murder. But in February, a grand jury decided that Magee legitimately believed he was acting in self-defense—and Magee was not indicted. The Magee case has been referenced in a Change.org petition urging prosecutors to “please drop the capital murder and attempted murder charges against Marvin Louis Guy.” The petition notes that Guy thought he “was defending his wife and home, just as Magee believed he was doing.”

Given as in the Zimmerman case, there is zero evidence that officer Wilson cared about the skin color of his attacker, it would be hard to show that he acted out of racial motivations.

Pulled over for an illegal left hand turn. Does anyone seriously believe he was resisting all through that entire beating? Does anyone even think that he was conscious after the first clubbings?

http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2011/01/alexander_landau_got_pulled_ov.php?page=2

News
Alexander Landau got pulled over for an illegal left turn -- and ended up beaten bloody
By Joel Warner Wed., Jan. 12 2011 at 5:31 PM
108 Comments
Categories: News

Update, January 20: Westword published today a much longer cover story on Landau, his lawsuit and life. Read it here: "Black and Blue: Alex Landau was pulled over for making an illegal left turn and ended up beaten bloody."
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Alexander Landau police beating 1.JPG
Alexander Landau
On the night of January 15, 2009, nineteen-year-old Community College of Denver student Alexander Landau was stopped by Denver police for allegedly making an illegal left turn. But according to a federal complaint filed yesterday, within minutes of the stop Landau was being beaten by three Denver cops, two of whom were wielding a radio and a flashlight as bludgeons. When it was all over, he was taken to Denver Health to be treated for a broken nose, lacerations and closed head injuries -- but not before he demanded somebody take photos of him.

The lengthy and detailed complaint is the latest in a string of high-profile cases of alleged police brutality incidents that have captured local headlines and led to the resignation of Denver Manager of Safety Ron Perea. The issue was even discussed during the swearing-in ceremony of interim mayor Bill Vidal earlier today.

Alexander Landau police beating 2.JPG
Landau's story may add fuel to the fire -- especially since one of the officers named in his complaint, Randy Murr, also played a role in the controversial police beating of Michael deHerrera. The complaint filed on Landau's behalf notes that in the process of the traffic stop, police found marijuana on Landau's passenger, a fellow student named Addison Hunold, and proceeded to search Landau's car. Apparently the situation spun out of control when the cops asked Landau if they could search his trunk and Landau stepped towards them, asking if they had a warrant. Allegedly the three officers then on the scene - Murr, Ricky Nixon and Tiffany Middleton -- then proceeded to punch him in the face and then, once he fell over, beat him for several minutes, with one officer yelling, "He's going for the gun." According to the complaint, when it was all over, Landau heard one officer say to him, "Where's that warrant now, you ******* nigger?"

Things would only get worse for Landau, who spent several days in jail after being treated at the hospital. In the meantime, according to the complaint, the officers involved in the incident "conspired and/or acted in concert to have [Landau] falsely charged and prosecuted for criminal attempt to disarm a police officer." That included attempts to "intimidate and coerce Mr. Hunold into initially giving inaccurate, distorted and incomplete statements" when he was brought to the police station after the incident, with one officer allegedly telling Hunold, "That nigger's not your friend."


Alexander Landau police beating 3.JPG
A police jacket at the scene of the incident.
And a few days later, according to an e-mail quoted in the complaint, Detective James Medina, an officer looking into the case, wrote to the officers involved that District Attorney Alma Staub "stated she would reject this case of attempt to disarm a peace officer based on the facts presented and I would need further details on the incident." In response, Nixon reportedly wrote in an e-mail that he had "spaced" mentioning something in his original report of the traffic stop:

"I spaced putting this in my statement, but prior to Officer Middleton cleaning the blood off of her weapon, I observed what appeared to be the imprint of the webbing of the hand in blood on the backstrap of her gun, I'm not too sure if this helps out or not."

The complaint notes that Middleton herself never mentions Landau touching her gun in any of her reports, and even noted in one e-mail, "I was never assaulted by Mr. Landau." However, Nixon's report was apparently enough for the District Attorney's Office to charge Landau with attempting to disarm a police officer -- charges that were dropped several months later, not long after Landau's defense lawyer was granted internal affairs files for the detectives involved. In addition, a police Internal Affairs Bureau investigation into the incident found that the "actions of the officer were within the policies of the Denver Police Department."

But now Murr, Nixon and Middleton are facing a lawsuit filed by John Holland, Anna C. Holland-Edwards and Erica T. Grossman alleging the three violated Landau's civil rights thanks to "race-based police brutality." Police chief Gerald Whitman and the City and County of Denver are also named as defendants for having "ongoingly encouraged, tolerated, ratified, and acquiesced to a dangerous environment of police brutality."

A request for comment from Denver Police spokesman Sonny Jackson has not yet been returned. Check out the entire complaint, with photos, below.

I was thinking earlier while I was straightening my kitchen, I was wondering if perhaps there is some kind of race war going on with racists, perhaps they are joining the Police force just to wage some kind of war with blacks and minorities? I know it's far fetched but something is clearly going on.

As I've mentioned, I've got lots of cops in my family.

I see no more racism among them...than in the other people that I know.

That being said, however, I do see racism in the general population that I know.

It is not dead...not by a long shot.

I just hate to see it at all...in people who carry guns and who are allowed to use them with impunity the way cops often are.

Homeland Defense and the Patriot Act shoveled tons of money to local governments to increase the size of their police force and there were all sorts of military gear handed down to the level of school districts recieving armored assaultvehicals and M-16's/M-4s.

Some of these forces did poor vetting of their candidates. Look at the Cleveland Police Dept not reading the personel file of the officers who shot the 12 year old kid. His previous department didn't think he had the emotional stamina to handle firearms.

Or the cop who shot a 13 year old kid with a toy rifle playing in a field known for the place the neighborhood kids playing "Army". His FB page self describes himself as concidering law enforcement as a formof "contact sport".

Seriously. There's something wrong that needs to be fixed and can be fixed easily.

But then, Frank, you're NYC. I'm in Texas and I see it a lot. A lot.

Teenager in handcuffs saves police officer's life

15 January 2015 Last updated at 13:38 GMT

The moment an arrested, handcuffed teenager saved a police officer who was having a heart attack has been released.

Fort Lauderdale officer Franklin Foulks was processing Jamal Rutledge when he had a heart attack and collapsed at the Fort Lauderdale Police Department Booking Facility.

Mr Rutledge, who was handcuffed at the time, began to kick the security fence and shout for help.

The medical staff who later attended to officer Foulks said that the quick response of Mr Rutledge was largely responsible for the policeman's survival.

It is all over, there will be 0 charges against Wilson.

We'll see how well he does in civil court. Wait until the Justice Department releases their memo over not pursuing charges.

NY ASKS FEDS TO PROBE 2013 RIKERS ISLAND INMATE DEATH
Source: AP

BY JAKE PEARSON

NEW YORK (AP) -- Federal prosecutors should launch a civil rights probe into the 2013 death of a mentally ill Rikers Island inmate who was locked in his cell for six days without care or medication, a state oversight panel concluded in a review that called the treatment "so incompetent and inadequate as to shock the conscience."

Bradley Ballard, a 39-year-old paranoid schizophrenic with diabetes, died shortly after a doctor finally went into his cell and found him naked, covered in feces and badly infected from a piece of cloth he tied tightly around his genitals.

The review by the New York State Commission of Correction, obtained by The Associated Press, said the lapses by the city and its medical provider, Corizon Health Inc., violated state law and "were directly implicated in his death."

"Had Ballard received adequate and appropriate medical and mental health care and supervision and intervention when he became critically ill, his death would have been prevented," the report said. "The medical and mental health care ... was so incompetent and inadequate as to shock the conscience."

FULL story at link.



AP Photo/Seth Wenig

FILE - In this Sept. 10, 2014, file photo, Beverly Ann Griffin, the mother of Bradley Ballard who died in 2013 at the Rikers Island jail, cries as her lawyer, Jonathan Abady, speaks during a news conference in New York. Federal prosecutors should launch a civil rights probe into the death of mentally ill Rikers Island inmate, Ballard, who was locked in his cell for six days without care or medication, a state oversight panel concluded in a review that called the treatment "so incompetent and inadequate as to shock the conscience." (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)


Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NYC_JAIL_DEATH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-01-22-23-17-36
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My god you got it as all the cops I had known in my life was racists that was eager to killed anyone without a white skin including the blacks, Latin and female cops.

How stupid can you be?

No matter how stupid she could be, she couldn't match you. Stop worrying your place as the #1 asshole of a2k is safe!

Next, start working on your reading comprehension. She never ever said "all cops" or even "most cops". You're the totalist here and thats why you're easy to refute. The issue isn't a matter of all or none. Its some. A significant some. And shes right: I know of cops and deputy sheriffs who joined to kick asses and thats what this little thread of mine is all about.

Good luck with that. BillRM doesn't even understand that putting the prefix 'un' in front of a word gives it the opposite meaning. He thinks it makes no difference.

It was merely a random thought I had that I posted here, I said in the same post it was far fetched. I am trying to make sense of all horrible abuses towards mostly (though not all)black men by mostly white cops that I have been reading and seeing on this thread.

bobsal reply to mine makes sense.

Sometimes I state the obvious because who know? Pigs may fly and BillRM might learn to read.