Police Shootings / Possible Abuse Threads [merged] (5 Viewers)

[Eeyore]

Organ theft?

Federal lawsuit claims heart missing from inmate's body, remains not properly preserved

Disturbing allegations were raised in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday concerning the storage and preservation of a state inmate's remains.Brandon Dotson died

abc3340.com

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Organ theft?

Federal lawsuit claims heart missing from inmate's body, remains not properly preserved

Disturbing allegations were raised in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday concerning the storage and preservation of a state inmate's remains.Brandon Dotson died

abc3340.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

Seven officers from a half-dozen agencies crowded around a car just after midnight on June 11, 2022 near a tiny old mining town in Colorado.

Behind the wheel was Christian Glass, a scared 22-year-old who’d called 911 after his car became stuck on rocks; he was having some type of mental health crisis, repeatedly telling officers he was afraid to get out of the car.

He’d committed no crime, but Clear Creek Sgt Kyle Gould, supervising remotely, gave his deputies permission to breach the vehicle.

They first alternated between coaxing and sternly ordering Christian out, and then, about an hour after they arrived and joined by officers from other agencies, more aggressively demanded that he exit.

Officers swarmed the car as Christian became more terrified in the driver’s seat. One jumped on the hood, and two more deployed tasers – as Christian cried, prayed and screamed, thrashing around inside the vehicle while clutching a small geological knife he’d earlier offered to toss out of the car.

The man who’d told him not to throw it, Clear Creek deputy Andy Buen, fired five shots into the vehicle, killing. Christian had never left the car.

“Oh my god,” one officer can be heard saying in the body camera footage. “What did we do?”

Within months, Buen was charged with second-degree murder, official misconduct and reckless endangerment; his next court date is days before Christmas.

Gould pleaded guilty on 16 November to duty to intervene and report excessive force – agreeing never to serve again as a security or law enforcement officer.

Now the additional six officers at the scene have been charged with the same offence – a development Christian’s family has been pushing for since his killing.

The officers are being prosecuted under legislation passed by Colorado lawmakers in 2020, in the wake of the killings of George Floyd, Elijah McClain and similar incidents of violent police brutality across the country.

At least 17 other states have also mandated duty to intervene laws in the same time period, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, and what happens in Colorado with these officers may indicate how the laws play out across the nation.

Successful prosecutions – and punishments that could permanently end law enforcement careers – mark a new step in increased and more proactive self-policing, but prosecutors are also faced with choosing just how wide to cast the net.

The laws enshrine the duty to intervene that many agencies already had “on the books” – but “just because that policy was there doesn’t mean that it had been followed or that there were any repercussions when it was broken,” Colorado State Rep. Leslie Herod, who helped spearhead and push through the legislation, told The Independent.

Now, it is spelled out explicitly in statutes that officers must intervene if witnessing the use of excessive force by another – and if they’re convicted of failing to do so, then their careers in law enforcement are over.……

Officers’ ‘duty to intervene’ is enshrined into law. But will it stop killings?

As one Colorado deputy faces a murder charge in the killing of Christian Glass – who was fatally shot after calling 911 in June 2022 – six more are being prosecuted for failing to intervene. Another has already pleaded guilty. New laws are casting a wider net across law enforcement in...

www.the-independent.com

 

[bigdaddysaints]

it's like, you're making me late for dinner, let's just shoot and kill him, we can get home earlier.. smh

 

[Optimus Prime]

New surveillance video from inside an Indiana jail shows how a 29-year-old man who died in the summer of 2021 from dehydration and malnutrition was left naked in solitary confinement for three weeks with no medical attention.

The footage was released on Wednesday by the family of Joshua McLemore as part of a federal civil rights lawsuit against Jackson county, Indiana. The suit accuses the local sheriff, jail commander and medical staff of causing McLemore’s death through deliberate indifference, neglect and unconstitutional jail conditions while he was in a state of psychosis.

Disturbing videos, some of which were reviewed by the Guardian, show McLemore as he was left in a small, windowless cell for 20 days straight in Jackson county jail in July and August of 2021. The cell had no bed or bathroom and had fluorescent lights on at all hours.

In the footage, McLemore, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, appears detached from reality, speaking gibberish, rolling in filth and his own waste and becoming clearly emaciated. He received daily meals through a small slot in his jail door, but appears to have rarely eaten them. He had extended human interactions on only four occasions – when guards used intense force and restraint devices to drag him out to clean the cell or give him a shower.

McLemore ultimately lost 45lbs during his stay, but never saw a doctor or mental health professional, the suit says…….

Man with schizophrenia was left naked in jail cell for weeks before death, video shows

Joshua McLemore died of malnutrition after 20 days in windowless Indiana jail cell with no medical treatment

www.theguardian.com

The family of a man who died after starving in an Indiana jail while being held in solitary confinement for three weeks has secured a $7.25m settlement, thought to be the state’s largest ever in connection with the death of an incarcerated person.

Joshua McLemore’s estate reached the settlement with the government of the county where the jail is. Wrongful death lawsuits against the jail’s physician and its medical services provider, Advanced Correctional Healthcare Inc, are still pending.

McLemore – who had a history of schizophrenia and substance abuse – died in 2021 at the jail in Jackson county, Indiana. His estate filed a lawsuit in April 2023, alleging that the lockup’s staff failed to provide proper care and violated his civil rights by failing to monitor his condition.

The lawsuit detailed how McLemore had refused to eat while in the jail. He was locked, naked, in a small, windowless cell for 20 days after his arrest on 20 July 2021.

Video surveillance from the jail showed McLemore incoherently talking and screaming in his cell – and by early August, he was too weak to lift his own body.

“By the time staff finally sent Josh to the hospital, his condition was so dire that the local hospital did not have the clinical resources to treat him and he had to be airlifted to a larger hospital in Cincinnati, where he died two days later,” court records state.

McLemore died of multiple organ failure on 10 August 2021 after losing nearly 45lb while in solitary confinement.……

Family of man who starved to death in Indiana jail awarded $7.25m settlement

Agreement thought to be the largest in state’s history involving an incarcerated person’s death

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

Not sure if this belongs here or in its own thread
===================


The nation’s largest pharmacy chains have handed over Americans’ prescription records to police and government investigators without a warrant, a congressional investigation found, raising concerns about threats to medical privacy.

Though some of the chains require their lawyers to review law enforcement requests, three of the largest — CVS Health, Kroger and Rite Aid, with a combined 60,000 locations nationwide — said they allow pharmacy staff members to hand over customers’ medical records in the store…….

The revelation could shape the debate over Americans’ expectations of privacy as Texas and other states move to criminalize abortion and drugs related to reproductive health.

Pharmacies’ records hold some of the most intimate details of their customers’ personal lives, including years-old medical conditions and the prescriptions they take for mental health and birth control.

Because the chains often share records across all locations, a pharmacy in one state can access a person’s medical history from states with more-restrictive laws.

Carly Zubrzycki, an associate professor at the University of Connecticut law school, wrote last year that this could link a person’s out-of-state medical care via a “digital trail” back to their home state………

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/12/12/pharmacy-records-police-privacy-abortion/

 

[Optimus Prime]

An irate mother in Mississippi slammed local police when they detained her 10-year-old son and hauled him off to jail for urinating behind her car.

Latonya Eason was at an attorney’s office in Senatobia for legal advice on 10 August when an officer saw her son Quantavious Eason peeing outside, WHBQ reported.

“I was like, ‘Son, why did you do that?’ He said, ‘Mom, my sister said they don’t have a bathroom there,’” Ms Eason told WHBQ. “I was like, ‘You knew better, you should have come and asked me if they had a restroom.’”


The child was initially going to be let off with a warning, the officer telling Ms Eason: “‘Since you handled it like a mom, then he could just get back in the car.”

But several more officers suddenly arrived on the scene and the boy was detained.

Mother slams police for detaining 10-year-old son for public urination

I’m just speechless right now. Why would you arrest a 10-year-old kid,’ mother says

www.independent.co.uk

A 10-year-old Black child who urinated in a parking lot must serve three months’ probation and write a two-page book report on the late NBA star Kobe Bryant, a Mississippi judge has ordered.

Tate county youth court judge Rusty Harlow handed down the sentence Tuesday after the child’s lawyer reached an agreement with a special prosecutor. The prosecution threatened to upgrade the charge of “child in need of supervision” to a more serious charge of disorderly conduct if the boy’s family took the case to trial, said Carlos Moore, the child’s attorney.

“I thought any sensible judge would dismiss the charge completely. It’s just asinine,” Moore said. “There were failures in the criminal justice system all the way around.”

The child’s mother has said her son urinated behind her vehicle while she was visiting a lawyer’s office in Senatobia, Mississippi, on 10 August. Police officers in the town of about 8,100 residents, 40 miles (64km) south of Memphis, Tennessee, saw the child urinating and arrested him. Officers put him in a squad car and took him to the police station.

Senatobia police chief Richard Chandler said the child was not handcuffed, but his mother said he was put in a jail cell, according to NBCNews.com.

Days after the episode, Chandler said the officers violated their training on how to deal with children. He said one of the officers who took part in the arrest was “ no longer employed”, and other officers would be disciplined. He didn’t specify whether the former officer was fired or quit, or what type of discipline the others would face.

Chandler did not immediately respond to a voicemail message Thursday. Reached by phone, a staffer for Paige Williams, the Tate county youth court prosecutor appointed to handle the case, said the attorney could not comment on cases involving juveniles.

It was initially unclear whether prosecutors would take up the case. Moore said he had planned on going to trial, but shifted strategy after prosecutors threatened to upgrade the charges and the child’s family chose to accept the probation sentence because it would not appear on the boy’s criminal record. The 10-year-old is required to check in with a probation officer once per month.

Moore said he doesn’t believe a white child would have been arrested under similar circumstances.

“I don’t think there is a male in America who has not discreetly urinated in public,” Moore said.…….

Judge sentences Black child, 10, to three months of probation for peeing in public

Mississippi judge also orders child to write a book report on Kobe Bryant after officers arrested him for urinating in a parking lot

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

A California city has agreed to pay $11m to the family of a man who was killed by police in 2021 when officers restrained him in a prone positionfor five minutes as he struggled to breathe.

The city of Alameda, just outside of San Francisco, announced on Thursday that it had settled the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the estate of Mario Gonzalez, a 26-year-old who was killed in a similar manner to George Floyd in a case that led to protests and national outrage. The city said it was paying $11m to Gonzalez’s seven-year-old son and $350,000 to Gonzalez’s mother.

The police encounter, which was captured on body-camera footage, raised concerns about deadly restraint tactics and led to scrutiny of local officials who initially said Gonzalez had a “medical emergency” without disclosing the use of force and then blamed the death on drug use.

On 19 April 2021, Alameda police encountered Gonzalez in a park after two residents called police to report a man talking to himself. One 911 caller said, “He’s not doing anything wrong. He’s just scaring my wife.” A second caller said he had alcohol bottles.

The first officer who arrived spoke for several minutes with Gonzalez, who appeared dazed and disoriented, but was speaking calmly. The officer called for backup and when a second officer arrived, they grabbed him to handcuff him behind his back and forced him to the ground. A third officer showed up and three of them held him face-down with their bodyweight on top of him, including for three minutes and 45 seconds after he was already handcuffed, the family’s lawyers said.

Footage captured Gonzalez gasping for air and saying, “I didn’t do nothing.”

At one point, an officer said, “Think we can roll him on his side?” and another responded, “I don’t want to lose what I got.” Once Gonzalez appeared to lose consciousness, the officers then rolled him over. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The Alameda county coroner’s office, which is part of the sheriff’s department, ruled the case a homicide, but said the cause of death was “toxic effects of methamphetamine”. The coroner also said “physiologic stress of altercation and restraint”, obesity and alcoholism contributed to his death.…….

California city to pay $11m to family of man killed by police in asphyxia case

Officers restrained Mario Gonzalez in a prone position as he struggled to breathe and blamed his death on drug use

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

The family of an 11-year-old boy who was shot by police after he called 911 and asked for their help have vowed to continue to fight for justice after authorities declined to charge the officer involved.

Aderrien Murry, who is Black, was seriously wounded by police after his mother asked him to call the police when the father of one of his half-siblings became angry. They were at their home in Indianola, Mississippi.

When police arrived, Murry was shot in the chest by Sgt Greg Capers after police ordered everyone in the house to put their hands up. Murry had emerged running from around a corner and headed for the door, according to relatives.

His injuries included a collapsed lung, fractured rib and lacerated liver.

“We are committed to seeking justice for Aderrien and his family, and we will persist in our efforts to ensure accountability through the civil legal process,” the family’s lawyer Carlos Moore said in a statement to NPR.

On Thursday a grand jury decided there was no criminal conduct by Capers in the case. The office of Lynn Fitch, the attorney general, said it would therefore not press any charges. “As such, no further criminal action will be taken by this office in this matter,” Fitch said in a statement.

Murry’s family have launched a $5m federal lawsuit against the city and two police officers, accusing the police department of poor training and supervision of its officers, reckless disregard and gross negligence.

The family – and the lawsuit – have repeatedly asked for police body-camera footage of the incident to be released though the police department has not yet done so.……..

US family of 11-year-old shot by police vows to seek justice after officer gets no charges

Aderrien Murry, who is Black, was wounded by police after calling 911, and authorities declined to charge the officer involved

www.theguardian.com

 

[Tapxe]

Both sides have valid points

As the article says we only know about Eric Garner because someone heard about it on the broadcast as it was going down

I'd argue that isn't a reason to keep radio unencrypted, but rather a reason to fix systemic issues with departments.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Police crash SUV into St Louis gay bar and arrest owner for assault

Driver reportedly said he was trying to avoid hitting a dog at first, then trying to avoid a parked car, before crashing into bar

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

GREAT BARRINGTON — The plain clothed police officer who entered an eighth grade classroom to search for a book wore a body camera and recorded the incident, leading to more legal questions and concerns.

The American Civil Liberties Union and other free speech advocates say they are alarmed by the recording, as well as the entire Dec. 8 incident that took place after classes let out at W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School.

They also say they cannot recall any instances of police going to a school to search for a book. Schools and libraries have internal procedures for book challenges.

“That’s partly what is so concerning,” said Ruth A. Bourquin, senior and managing attorney for the ACLU of Massachusetts. “Police going into schools and searching for books is the sort of thing you hear about in communist China and Russia. What are we doing?”

The Berkshire Hills Regional School Committee and Superintendent Peter Dillion have, in a statement sent to the school community Tuesday, apologized for how it handled the situation, stating "clearly and unequivocally" that it does not support book banning, and committed to making all of its students feel safe.

"The recent incident at the middle school has challenged and impacted our community," according to the statement. "Faced with an unprecedented police investigation of what should be a purely educational issue, we tried our best to serve the interests of students, families, teachers, and staff. In hindsight, we would have approached that moment differently. We are sorry. We can do better to refine and support our existing policies. We are committed to supporting all our students, particularly vulnerable populations."

The ACLU has requested that body camera footage and other records related to the complaint and the investigation, Bourquin said.

It was an anonymous complaint that led Great Barrington Police to open a probe about whether parts of the book, “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, could be considered obscene material or pornographic.

The ACLU has requested that body camera footage and other records related to the complaint and the investigation, Bourquin said.

It was an anonymous complaint that led Great Barrington Police to open a probe about whether parts of the book, “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, could be considered obscene material or pornographic..........

The police officer who searched for a book in a Great Barrington classroom also used a body camera. The ACLU has ‘deep concerns’

The ACLU is looking further into why and how police thought it was their place to go looking for a book in a classroom.

www.berkshireeagle.com

Students, staff and Gov. Maura Healey express grief, disapproval after police searched a Great Barrington classroom for 'Gender Queer' book

The search by police for the book "Gender Queer" has outraged the school community. Some students feel the pain, and talked about it at a demonstration against censorship at Monument

www.berkshireeagle.com

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

The prevailing culture in this country is a lot like climate change- early action could have avoided much of the damage; a very, very small self interested group has its hooks in an empowered minority by force of bad propaganda; there is still time to make things better- but the time is running out and the gullible, empowered minority seems incapable of good action

 

[Optimus Prime]

CNN) — A jury found Tacoma police officers Christopher Burbank, Matthew Collins and Timothy Rankine not guilty on all charges Thursday in the death of Manuel “Manny” Ellis, a Black man who died in police custody in 2020.

Burbank and Collins were acquitted of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter while Rankine was acquitted of first-degree manslaughter. All three had pleaded not guilty.

They had faced up to life in prison according to the Washington State Office of the Attorney General.

The officers were accused of unlawfully using deadly force on Ellis, 33, when attempting to arrest him in March 2020, for allegedly “trying to open car doors of occupied vehicles.” Part of the arrest was caught on video by a witness who testified during the trial. Ellis could also be heard crying, “I can’t breathe,” on police dispatch audio…….

According to court documents, Burbank and Collins “tackled and struck Ellis multiple times, applied an LVNR (Lateral Vascular Neck Restraint) on Ellis, and shot him with a taser three times, all without justification.” They also failed to render aid or call for medical help and put him in “hogtie restraints,” according to the documents.

Rankine was accused of holding Ellis in the prone position and applying pressure to his back despite hearing the man say he could not breathe, court documents said.

Defense attorneys had argued Ellis died not from the restraint but from a lethal amount of methamphetamine in his system and his preexisting heart conditions, according to CNN affiliate KOMO…..

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/21/us/manuel-ellis-tacoma-police-trial-verdict?cid=ios_app

 

[Optimus Prime]

A Los Angeles county sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a 27-year-old woman who had called 911 to report that she was under attack by a former boyfriend, police officials and lawyers for the victim’s family said on Thursday. Records show the deputy had killed another person in similar circumstances three years ago.

On 4 December, Niani Finlayson called police and “reported that her boyfriend would not leave her alone and then screaming and sounds of a struggle could be heard”, the LA sheriff’s department (LASD) said in a statement.

When deputies arrived at the apartment in Lancaster, a city in the northern region of LA county, they could hear screaming, LASD said.

Finlayson was inside with her nine-year-old daughter and had been injured by her ex-boyfriend and wanted him removed, her family’s attorneys said. The exact circumstances that led to the fatal shooting are unclear and LASD has so far declined to release body-camera footage.

LASD alleged in a statement that Finlayson had a knife and was threatening her boyfriend, at which point deputy Ty Shelton opened fire.

The family disputed the police account, saying Finlayson was clearly a victim of domestic violence who needed help and posed no threat to the officers. The coroner said she died from “multiple gunshot wounds”.

Finlayson was a mother of two, and her daughter, Xaisha, witnessed the shooting.

“The police lied that my mom was threatening them,” Xaisha said at a press conference on Thursday alongside her grandparents, calling for Shelton to be prosecuted. “She was my best friend. She was always there for me. It’s unbelievable that she’s gone and she’s not coming back. I miss my mom.”

The girl said her two-year-old sister continues to ask where their mother is and she doesn’t know how to respond.…….

Police fatally shoot Black woman who called 911 for domestic violence

Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy who killed Niani Finlayson, 27, previously had killed another civilian under similar circumstances

www.theguardian.com