It HAS to STOP

Police Brutality

With the availibility of new technology changing every day, we are seeing more and more cases of police brutality. I'm going to be sharing the videos when I can


From Slate.com: Recently released video from police body cameras shows how an officer in Fredericksburg, Virginia used a Taser and pepper-sprayed a man who was suffering from a medical emergency on May 4. Fredericksburg police officer Shaun Jergens resigned on May 14 although he insists he did nothing wrong. Jergens was one of three officers who responded to calls of a hit and run driver going the wrong way down a street. David Washington, 34, was driving a Hyundai that hit a jeep before stopping in the middle of an intersection, reports WTOP. When the officers arrive they demand Washington put his hands up but the driver is nearly motionless and does not say anything. “Get out of the car or I’m going to fucking smoke you,” Jurgens says at one point. Jurgens then draws his Taser before using a huge amount of pepper spray on Washington’s face. The way in which Washington barely reacted to such a large amount of pepper spray should have maybe been a hint that something was wrong. But another officer proceeds to yank Washington to the pavement and at that point he can be heard moaning. “I can’t breathe,” he says before telling the officers he has been sick for days and doesn’t know what’s wrong. He was later taken to the hospital and sources tell the Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star that Washington “had a massive stroke and was treated in the intensive care unit.” Charges have been filed against Washington for hit and run, reckless driving and driving on a revoked license.

To "Serve & Protect"

This video was uploaded by a retired police officer, so consider the source. And then be even angrier. He's angry.
Had enough yet?

Not Part of the Problem - NOT

Police Brutality

From the Daily Kos website TUE OCT 07, 2014 AT 12:17 PM PDT
Indiana man tasered and ripped from car during routine traffic stop
Below was reported on Daily Kos:

Lisa Mahone, her two children, and her boyfriend Jamal Jones were rushing to a Chicago hospital to see her mother after receiving word from hospital officials that her mother was near death.

She was pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt, handed the officer her license and insurance information and informed them they were in a hurry to see her mother before she passed. For whatever reason, the officers decided they need to see ID from her boyfriend as well. He did not have a current license due to a traffic violation and rather than let it go, they asked him to get out of the vehicle. He reached into the backseat to show them the paperwork and that is when all hell broke loose:

Jones said he didn't have an ID to give to police because he recently got a ticket. When he reached into his book bag in the back seat to get the ticket, police drew their guns.
"I don't know you and I don't know what you're going to do," an officer told Jones. He responded, "That's why I have my windows up. I'm not no harm to you right now. I got my kids in the car and you're drawing your weapon."

Jones told FOX 32 News, "So once the kids were scared, I wasn't gonna get out of the car and leave my kids in the car. He was being so aggressive."

Meanwhile, Mahone was talking to 911 operators, pleading for them to send a supervisor as her son taped the encounter on a cell phone. See their terrifying experience:

Police Brutality

I used to do scuzzbuckets of the week, which focused on regular citizens doing ugly things. Now with all the stories about Police Brutality, I just may start a series taken from the treasure trove of horrific actions of the nations police force on a regular basis.

from Addictinginfo.org, the story of police brutally arresting a terminally ill man


From the above link, here is the story:
Jeffery Brian Bane, 39, was arrested Saturday, Sept. 6, and charged with disorderly conduct, obstructing an officer and battery on an officer.


This is actually a story about police harassing and assaulting a terminally-ill man. They simply confused his symptoms for intoxication.



A statement to the Free Thought Project by his nephew, Josh Banes explains that he actually suffers from Huntington’s Disease, which he described as being “very similar to Parkinson’s.”

“Assuming because of his appearance he was high on narcotics with out reason they began to sub due him, macing and beating him in the head as he fell to his face were he was then held with a great amount of force by two officers double his size as a third one landed on his torso,” the statement read. “For the the next ten minutes as my cousins watch unattended, my uncle pleads and cries out in pain for the lack of breath and agony being applied to him.”

According to the Huntington Disease Society of America, (HDSA) the disease, which is hereditary and incurable, prompts deterioration of nerve cells in the brain.

“As the disease progresses, concentration and short-term memory diminish and involuntary movements of the head, trunk and limbs increase,” the HDSA states on its website. “Walking, speaking and swallowing abilities deteriorate. Eventually the person is unable to care for him or herself. Death follows from complications such as choking, infection or heart failure.”

A female bystander came upon the arrest and was so disturbed by what she saw that she called an ambulance and started filming with her mobile phone. After a short while she is approached by an officer and herself threatened with arrest.

“How are you involved with this guy?” he asks.

“I just was driving by,” she replies. “This is insane. I’m not doing anything wrong, either, and I’m on private property,”

She demands to know why the officers are refusing to handcuff the suspect even though he is bleeding and gurgling.

“He is choking on his own blood,” she says. “I can hear it from my car.”

“Okay, but these aren’t your kids and you don’t know –” the officer says. But she cuts him off with:

“No, I don’t,” she says. “But this is wrong.”

“If you want to continue filming, that’s okay,” the officer says. “If you continue to be loud and boisterous, I will arrest you for obstructing, okay?”

“Just leave me alone,” she replies.

The Bane’s family have launched an online campaign to have the charges against him dropped.

Police Brutality in Minnesota

A black man, sitting on a bench waiting to pick up his kids, is harrassed by St. Paul police. This is disturbing. The cops are acting like they're good guys, but are real turds.

Here is an excerpt from tcplanet.net

"According to the police report, St. Paul police officers Michael Johnson and Bruce Schmidt “were called to the First National Bank Building on a report of uncooperative male refusing to leave.” The third female officer in the video has still not been identified. The name of the security guard that Lollie claims made the call was omitted from the police report “due to safety concerns.” Lollie was charged with trespassing, disorderly conduct and obstructing the legal process."


The charges were subsequently dropped.

Police Brutality in the age of cell phones

It's the age of instantly sharing stories via cell phone cameras, something that can be a good thing in these days of police brutality.

This story comes from a Walmart (of course) in Greenville, South Carolina.

Someone called 911 to report a man acting erratically outside of the Walmart. When the deputies arrived, the intoxicated individuals told them "I'm the 911". He then enters the store. In this video, you can see that excessive force was used to "subdue" the man. One deputy punches the suspect seventeen times in the head, while onlookers record the scene and scream at the cops to stop. Finally, a level headed deputy gets the testosterone filled cop to stop beating the suspect:



What ever happened to cuffing the drunk and taking him to jail?

Ferguson, Mo.

This has to stop

Copied from the Saint Louis American
Wish I knew the author, this is well written.


The family of Michael Brown leave a message on the street where he was gunned down by a Ferguson police officer on Saturday.

Posted: Thursday, August 14, 2014 8:00 am
With deep humility, we admit we did not see this coming, and not where it came – in a ring suburb, rather than in the city – though we can see where it came from.

North St. Louis County and many of its municipalities have suffered decades of economic disinvestment, loss of manufacturing jobs and disruption by highway construction and airport expansion. Those who chose to stay in these ring suburbs, or who had no other options, had to live – or die – with the consequences.
White flight, particularly to St. Charles County, first hit the school districts, then the tax base. Remaining homeowners are heavily taxed in areas with often struggling schools, little industry and dwindling businesses and services. The mortgage bubble really burst in these areas, with rampant home foreclosures. Large retail areas in North County have been abandoned. Small businesses face difficulty establishing a presence due to high prices for retail space and insurance costs. Those who stay charge more, and those who buy from them pay more.
When businesses and retail move, those who remain have to spend their money with establishments elsewhere in the region. That builds up the tax base in other areas, not their own. For those who lack reliable transportation (let alone job skills and education), there are few opportunities to eke out a livelihood locally. There is little escape.

Disillusionment, resentment and tension set in where economic opportunities, recreation and thriving businesses once flourished. The “look at us, we are on our way back” slogans boasted by chambers of commerce say nothing about those who have been treated as invisible or dispensable.
As for our youth, many of them may not be properly educated, but they are not stupid, and it is not difficult for them to hear what they are being told in the cold language of unaccredited districts and transfer students. Michael Brown graduated in the much-discussed Normandy School District, an unaccredited school district that expired not long before he was killed. He and his peers – specifically, those strivers willing to transfer to a better school district – were told they were not wanted by many other districts in the region, once those districts were no longer required to accept them.
It may take a village to raise a child, but many administrators and parents in better-resourced parts of our region had no problem saying quite publicly that Michael Brown and his brothers and sisters did not belong in their village.

So it is not difficult to understand the frustration and anger of the sons and daughters of these disinvested ring suburbs. It is even easier to understand why, when their frustration and anger turned to rage at the murder of one of their own by a cop, it was directed at the police.
Most obviously, a police officer killed Michael Brown – in cold blood, according to eyewitnesses. But our sons’ and daughters’ rage at the police started long before Michael Brown and his friend were told to get out of the street on Saturday afternoon by a foul-mouthed Ferguson cop.
In many North County municipalities, it seems police run contests to see how many young black men you can pull over, flaunting the officers’ power and the motorists’ powerlessness. Our young men especially are regularly inconvenienced and humiliated while simply trying to get where they are going. The Missouri Attorney General annually releases a report, which no black person needs to read, that documents appalling disparities in how often black drivers are pulled over and searched, compared to white people, all over the state and the region.

But Michael Brown was not pulled over while driving. He was told to get out of the street while walking. For offering what was initially, according to an eyewitness, the mildest of resistance to a rude and unnecessary police order, this unarmed teen was shot in the middle of the day, and his bullet-riddled body left by police to lay in the street for hours, as if to provide a grisly example.

That did it. That’s what drove people (not just young people) to act out their pent-up rage. That’s what drove people to demonstrate (which is within their rights). That’s what drove people to the candlelight vigil on Sunday. And that’s what drove a few who disregarded the greater good to lash out at what was in front of them. The resulting chaos created an opportunity for looters – many of them, according to reported arrests, not from the immediate area – to smash and grab from what businesses remain.
We can’t bring Michael Brown back. But we can insist on a prompt, credible, transparent investigation – under the leadership of the U.S. Department of Justice, we urge – and that his killer be brought to justice. The officer should receive the constitutionally guaranteed due process he did not give to his victim. When his name is finally disclosed – as should have been done immediately – there must be no effort to bring him to the vigilante justice we see too often delivered from behind the authority of a badge.

We also must insist – as a life-or-death matter essential to the peace and functioning of our society – on an immediate and thorough review of police policy, procedure and training throughout the region. There are successful models of police/community cooperation that can be adopted. We must diversify our police departments – the Ferguson Police Department reportedly has three black cops in a staff of 53. We must train police officers who patrol minority neighborhoods in how to better understand the people on their beats and interact with them in a spirit of mutual respect. And we must stop protecting police officers when they use unwarranted force, against black men or anyone.

In the meantime, our angry youth and many supportive citizens remain on the streets, taunting police in riot gear with snipers sprawled on what amount to tanks, training high-powered rifles on unarmed black people with their hands in the air, chanting, “Don’t shoot!” among other things we won’t print.
We commend St. Louis Alderman Antonio French, state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal and community activist and writer Tef Poe, in particular, for showing leadership on the streets in these tense days. It is clear, now more than ever, that many more of us need to leave our offices, churches and comfort zones and engage more directly with our angry and misdirected youth.

“We as leaders can help redirect their justified anger,” French tweeted in the heat of the battle. “But we can’t do it from churches or our living rooms. We have to be with them.”

It should also be painfully clear, now more than ever, that this is not a black problem, but a problem for our entire region and others like it across the nation. True, if our community were more organized and voted its strength, then municipalities like Ferguson would not have the utterly inadequate mayors and police chiefs that are making life-or-death decisions today – and making them very badly, with fatal consequences.

But these consequences have regional impact. In countless editorials, we have urged our corporate and political leaders to do more to include African Americans in educational, economic and social opportunities for the greater good of the region. Over and over, we have exhorted, our region cannot thrive when we consign so many of our youth to the oblivion of failing schools and poor job skills. Now, more than ever, it is clear that our region needs to do more to include African Americans from the earliest ages for the region not only to thrive, but simply to function peaceably.

We believe it is because not nearly enough capable people with resources in this region have heeded our plea that we have reached this crisis point of complete breakdown, when the St. Louis region has entered the world’s spotlight, not as one of its great places to live and work, but as one of its war zones. We need peace. But first, we need justice and equity, so that Michael Brown’s death is not wasted, like so many young black lives before his, and with them the future prospects of this region and nation.

I can't breathe.....

Over 100 Broadway stars, directors, producers, musicians, choreographers, designers and technicians from some of the most prominent productions gathered in front of the police station in Times Square on Tuesday. They wanted to send a message about police violence and the killing of Eric Garner. ‪#‎itstopstoday‬ ‪#‎blukluxklan‬






Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpfTos6NroM

Update: December 3, 2014

A grand jury decided not to indict a New York police officer in the apparent chokehold death of Eric Garner, a Staten Island man who died shortly after being accosted by police for selling loose, un-taxed cigarettes in July. […]

Garner was about 350 pounds and suffered from asthma. In cell phone video that captures the moments leading up to Garner’s death, Garner is seen being wrestled to the ground by [NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo] who appears to have Garner locked in a chokehold, with an arm gripped around his neck.

Garner, a 43-year-old father of six can be heard in the video pleading “I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.”

Garner died en route to the hospital soon after. Pantaleo was placed on modified duty.


Above article is from: MSNBC.com