Please post all of the completely insane COPWATCH stories here

[charrington]

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) — A federal lawsuit that accused a southern Illinois sheriff's deputy of zapping three children with a stun gun at an emergency youth shelter and threatening to sodomize one of them has been settled for $750,000, according to court documents.

David Bowers and a fellow Jefferson County deputy who the lawsuit alleged watched Bowers' misconduct at the center near Mount Vernon acknowledged no wrongdoing as part of the deal. One-third of the settlement's payout — covered by the sheriff's department's insurer — will go toward attorneys' fees.

Bowers and fellow deputy Lonnie Lawler still work for the department, where their boss — Sheriff Roger Mulch — has defended their actions, insisting the law enforcers followed protocol and did "nothing out of the ordinary." Mulch also has noted that separate investigations by his department and Illinois State Police determined the deputies did nothing wrong.

No criminal charges were ever filed.

Mulch declined to comment on the matter Tuesday, citing the advice from his attorney. Bowers and Lawler do not have listed home telephone numbers and could not be reached by The Associated Press.

Messages left with attorneys who pressed the lawsuit were not immediately returned.

The lawsuit, filed in July of last year, accused Bowers and the other deputy of lashing out unprovoked in the incident at the Southern Thirty Adolescent Center that houses youths ages 11 to 18, often with behavioral issues.

Calling the deputies' actions "extreme, outrageous and unjustified," the lawsuit did not release the names or ages of the three boys shot with the stun gun. The fourth kid was a foster child who did not live at the center, according to the lawsuit.

The suit claims that Bowers and Lawler went to the center on July 4, 2008, in response to a report that three teenagers were acting unruly. But the young people suing the deputies were not those disruptive children, the lawsuit said.

Bowers allegedly pushed one boy toward his bed and repeatedly shocked him with a stun gun. Bowers then held down a second boy, stunned him several times and threatened to sodomize him, ultimately causing the child to soil himself, the lawsuit claimed.

A third child complied with the deputies' demands that he sit on a couch, but Lawler handcuffed him before Bowers zapped him repeatedly, the lawsuit said.

The fourth child, a girl, pleaded with the deputies to stop but Lawler handcuffed her. Bowers lifted her off the ground, pressed her against a wall and choked her, the lawsuit alleged.

"Do you want to live or die (expletive)?" the lawsuit claimed Bowers asked the girl before she was thrown into a closet, vomiting.

Michael Bertrand, vice president and chief pr...
MORE
http://www.chicagodefender.com/article-8419-lawsuit-over-ill-deputys-use-of-stun-gun-settled.html

[charrington]

Police clash with demonstrators in Parliament Square during protests over student fees. Photograph: Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images

Police have been accused of attempting to prevent seriously injured protesters being treated at the same hospital as officers hurt during last week's tuition fees demonstration, igniting claims that one student's life could have been put at risk.

The mother of 20-year-old Alfie Meadows, who required brain surgery after allegedly being hit by a police truncheon, claimed that when her son was taken to Chelsea and Westminster hospital officers objected to him being treated there.

Susan Matthews, 55, said that only the intervention of an ambulance worker allowed her son to receive urgent medical treatment for the stroke he suffered after receiving his injury. "If he hadn't, Alfie would have been transferred and he could have died," she said.

After allegedly being hit by police, the philosophy student fell unconscious and later sustained bleeding on the brain.

His mother added: "The ambulance man took us to Chelsea and Westminster hospital. That [hospital] had been given over to police injuries and there was a standoff in the corridor. Alfie was obviously a protester and the police didn't want him there, but the ambulance man insisted that he stayed."

She said that he was then asked to take Alfie to another hospital. "The ambulance man was appalled and he said: 'I'm getting angry now, and I'm not going to do this.'

"The senior nurse in charge took us into a resuscitation room to keep us away from the police because, she said, they were finding it upsetting to see protesters in the hospital."

The injury to Alfie, a second-year undergraduate at Middlesex University, is already the subject of an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Yesterday afternoon investigators interviewed Alfie at Charing Cross hospital in west London, where he was taken for surgery as his condition began to deteriorate. His mother, an English literature lecturer at Roehampton University, said that her son had made a good recovery after a three-hour operation.

"The first thing Alfie said when he woke up was about how many other people had been hurt and how the police had been striking and bashing everyone. Any one of those kids there could have been Alfie.

"I'm from the generation of Blair Peach [hit over the head by police at a London demonstration in 1979] and we knew that anyone could die if ...

MORE
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/dec/12/police-injured-protester-hospital

[Freeski]

The idea of a "system" doesn't work with "freedom". Take your pick.

[Initiated]

link

[Freeski]

link

Is that a demand or a request!

[egypt]

My God!  Mulch says nothing out of the ordinary was done?

No wonder it happened with a boss like that!  He is out of the ordinary in his mind!  He needs to go to jail.

Love, e

[agentbluescreen]

My God!  Mulch says nothing out of the ordinary was done?

No wonder it happened with a boss like that!  He is out of the ordinary in his mind!  He needs to go to jail.

Love, e

Nonsense, this is the only decent way to lovingly "care for the children". It must be something about protecting and defending all "the freedom".

[Freeski]

Nonsense, this is the only decent way to lovingly "care for the children".

They must never be of free minds!

[agentbluescreen]

I don't even see how they can find goons like this outside of prisons, let alone give them badges.

[charrington]

Four men from Queens, New York are suing the NYPD because they say an angry cop arrested them after another group of men laughed at the cop when he was unable to catch a fleeing marijuana suspect on foot.

The arrests were made after cops approached a group gathered at Rufus King Park in Jamaica, Queens, on the afternoon of August 19, reports John Del Signore at The Gothamist. Police saw someone throw a bag in a garbage can, so they began frisking everyone to check for drugs, and one suspect allegedly told them he'd "smoked all the marijuana."

Then the guy ran off, with one cop chasing him on foot.

When the cop returned after the guy outran him, he was out of breath, and some spectators at a nearby handball game laughed at the winded officer.

One of the cops allegedly then said, "If you think that's funny, watch what I do to them," and arrested the four men.

The bag that had been thrown in the trash contained 31 glassine envelopes of marijuana, and the four men were charged with its possession.

The men said they were locked up for more than 30 hours by cops seeking revenge on a crowd of men who laughed at the officer after he couldn't catch the suspect, reports John Marzulli at the New York Daily News.

The four men insist they didn't even laugh, according to their lawyer, Gabriel Harvis, who filed suit against the New York City Police Department and 10 unidentified officers in Brooklyn Federal Court.

The men believe they were arrested because cops wanted to take their frustration out on them, Harvis said.

"The cops knew my clients had done nothing wrong, but they didn't care," said Harvis, who represents Abdul Kabba, Isaiah Barnes, Hasan Allen and Ishmie...
MORE
http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2010/12/four_men_arrested_for_laughing_at_cops_failed_pot.php

[Damascus]

Hey pig, yea you....
Hey piggy, pig pig.... all my fears came true..

A policeman with a god complex, that is unheard of! People with a bully mentality naturally gravitate towards this profession and the system covers for them. I would like to see good cops put and end to this, but they just keep getting fired. Soon the barrel is completely rotten.

[charrington]

Man it just keeps getting worse and worse. It used to be I couldn't find but maybe 2 or 3 of these a day now I'd get banned for spamming if I posted them all.

[charrington]

 forced to agree to reforms- including being

(Atlanta, December 8, 2010)—A settlement in the Atlanta Eagle raid lawsuit will force the Atlanta Police Department to rewrite unconstitutional policies regarding arrest, search and seizure, and make other changes to protect the public from police misconduct.

These reforms require Atlanta police officers to document certain types of warrantless detentions, frisks and searches; prohibit officers from interfering with the public's right to take photographs and make video and audio recordings of police activity; require uniformed police officers to wear clearly visible nametags and identify themselves upon request; require the Atlanta Police Department to rule on citizen complaints of police misconduct within 180 days; and require the City of Atlanta to conduct mandatory in-person training of all police officers every two years regarding Fourth Amendment issues and the safe use of firearms. The agreement also requires the Atlanta Police Department to conduct a thorough and meaningful investigation of police misconduct, failure to obey the law, and untruthfulness during and after the Eagle raid. The settlement also provides for a payment of $1,025,000 by the city of Atlanta.

The settlement resolves the case of Geoffrey Calhoun, et al. v. Richard Pennington, et al., a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Atlanta and 35 individual Atlanta police officers brought by 26 individuals and two businesses. The federal court order ending the case found that that each of the plaintiffs...
MORE
http://www.lambdalegal.org/news/pr/ga_20101208_settlement-atlanta-eagle-raid.html

[charrington]

Story by Bruce A. Dixon, audio interview by Glen Ford

Georgia prisoners who began a courageous, peaceful and nonviolent protest strike for educational opportunities, wages for their work, medical care and human rights have captured the attention of the world. Black Agenda Report intends to closely cover their continuing story. Glen Ford recorded a conversation with activist Elaine Brown and one of the striking inmates in Georgia on Wednesday, December 15.

Update story on the strike and support efforts of the newly formed Concerned Coalition to Protect Prisoner Rights below the fold. Click the flash player below to listen.

GA Prison Inmate Strike Enters New Phase, Prisoners Demand Human Rights, Education, Wages For Work

Story by Bruce A. Dixon, audio interview by Glen Ford

The historic strike of Georgia prisoners, demanding wages for their labor, educational opportunities, adequate health care and nutrition, and better conditions is entering a new phase. Strikers remain firm in their demands for full human rights, though after several days many have emerged from their cells, if only to take hot showers and hot food. Many of these, however, are still refusing their involuntary and unpaid work assignments.

A group that includes relatives, friends and a broad range of supporters of the prisoners on the outside has emerged. They are seeking to sit down with Georgia correctional officials this week to discuss how some of the just demands of inmates can begin to be implemented. Initially, Georgia-based representatives of this coalition supporting the prisoner demands included the Georgia NAACP, the Nation of Islam, the National Association for Radical Prison Reform, the Green Party of Georgia, and the Ordinary Peoples Society among others. Civil rights attorneys, ministers, community organizations and other prisoner advocates are also joining the group which calls itself the Concerned Coalition to Protect Prisoner Rights.

Prisoners have stood up for themselves, and the communities they came from are lining up to support them. Today, at a groundbreaking for a private prison 300 miles southeast of Atlanta in Millen GA, residents of that local community opposed to the private prison are greeting the governor and corrections brass with a protest. They will be joined by dozens more coming in from Atlanta who will respectfully urge state authorities to talk to the prisoners. We understand that one person there has been arrested. Black Agenda Report will have photos and footage of that event on Thursday.

The braod-based Concerned Coalition to Protect Prisoners Rights fully supports the heroic stand of Georgia's prisoners. “This isn't Attica,” one representative of the coalition explained. “No violent acts have been committed by any of the inmates involved. We hope state corrections officials will be as peaceful and respectful as the prisoners have been, and start a good faith dialog about quickly addressing their concerns.”

Right now, the ball is in the hands of state corrections officials, and reports are that in some of the affected prisons, authorities are fumbling that ball, engaging

“They transferred some of the high Muslims here to max already,”...
MORE
http://blackagendareport.com/?q=georgia_prison_strike_interview_update_dec15

[Popol Vuh]

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma City police arrested a teen caught using a permanent marker at Roosevelt Middle School.

According to the police report, the 13-year-old used the marker to write on a piece of paper. The ink bled through the paper and stained the desk.

Teacher Delynn Woodside told police she'd seen the student using the marker earlier, but when she asked him to give it to her, he tried to hide it.

Woodside called police to report the incident and the boy was arrested. He was taken to the Community Intervention Center. He faces charges of possession of a permanent marker on private property.


http://www.news9.com/Global/story.asp?S=13728873

[Dok]

OMG!! Thats a real story!!! 

[Letsbereal]

It can’t get more crazier said Frazier.

Yes it can said Dan!

[citizenx]

Where the fu#% is that a crime?  (Oklahoma City, apparently.)

"He faces charges of possession of a permanent marker on private property."

Does it matter whose property it is?  Your own?  WTF?

[Freeski]

KOCO - OKLAHOMA CITY -- Police gave a citation to a middle school student after they said he brought a permanent marker to class. It happened last week at Roosevelt Middle School, according to the police report released on Tuesday. According to the report, a teacher noticed a student her class using a black permanent marker. The student was writing on a piece of paper, which caused it bleed over onto the desk. When spotted, the student attempted to hide the marker, but the teacher found it next to him, according to police. Police said having the marker at school violates a city ordinance of possession of aerosol spray or a broad-tipped indelible marker on private property without consent of the property owner. Calls to the Oklahoma City Public School District were not returned to Eyewitness News 5.

http://krmg.com/blogs/the_krmg_morning_news_blog/2010/12/krmg-morning-news-stack-of-stu-260.html

Using marker at school leads to OKC teen’s arrest
A Roosevelt Middle School teacher made a citizen’s arrest Friday on an Oklahoma City student who was caught using a permanent marker to write on a desk.

“No person may possess an aerosol spray paint container or broad-tipped indelible marker on any private property unless the owner, agent, manager, or other person having control of the property consented to the presence of the aerosol spray paint container or broad-tipped indelible marker,” the ordinance reads.

http://newsok.com/using-marker-at-school-leads-to-okc-teens-arrest/article/3525774#ixzz18smsD5Up

Crazy beyond belief!

[citizenx]

What qualifies as "broad-tipped"?  Yes, I think this law is absurd regardless of the dimensions.

I wonder if he really even had a 'broad-tipped" marker.  Was he even a graffitti artist, or just a good kid who made a mistake?

Looks like someone on a power trip, and the law is crazy.

[Elder]

omg, i was just going over these types of laws with a friend.
these "permission while on private property" laws are unconstitutional.  we got into this because of the 1000 ft. gun free school zone law.
To give another person the power to decide when and where a right can be exercised is fundamentally unconstitutional.

Also, wondering why a school was classified as "private" property.  It is non-public forum public property.  Not even the same thing.

[citizenx]

Unless it was a private school.  That is what I was thinking.

[infowarrior_039]

more NEW WORLD ORDER insanity. im starting to think these teachers, principals and administrators are BRAIN DEAD MINDLESS AUTOMATONS i mean in my day, they would just give you detention time. (and im talking like 4 years ago) i mean worst supsend you for a day and send you home. no need to call the police !!!!!!!!   (unless your a weak, pathetic, mindless zombie, in which case if i was the parent. time to move to ANOTHER SCHOOL !)

[Elder]

Unless it was a private school.  That is what I was thinking.

No, it's a public school. http://www.okcps.k12.ok.us/Region3/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3

Also, vote against Obama's year-round school on the lower right: http://www.okcps.org/

[Damascus]

Hey, zero tolerance is zero tolerance. Hey buddy you got a permit for that marker(as the cop puts his hand on his gun). Later in the jail cell: What are you in for. Possession of an unlicensed permanent marking device on private property. Say what!!???!!

[Elder]

Hey, zero tolerance is zero tolerance. Hey buddy you got a permit for that marker(as the cop puts his hand on his gun). Later in the jail cell: What are you in for. Possession of an unlicensed permanent marking device on private property. Say what!!???!!

The cops are pretty trigger happy these days.  Now they arrest you, next they shoot you for not putting it down in under 8 seconds!

[Damascus]

Oh yea I forgot about that. They would probably be in court later saying, but he had unlicensed permanent marking device and he was ready to use it. I had to shoot or I would have gotten the mustache from hell.

[charrington]

He was an athlete who got a college scholarship and had aspirations of serving in the military.

His father was a police officer, and his mother a nurse, and both had long careers in the armed forces.

He, too, became a cop, with the potential for a successful career.

But somewhere along the way, Ryan G. Warme's "dark side seemed to take over," U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara said.

Warme accepted a plea deal in April, admitting that he groped a woman during a traffic stop, bought cocaine while on duty and tipped off drug dealers about a police raid.

Arcara on Wednesday sentenced the 29-year-old former Niagara Falls police officer to 13 years and nine months in federal prison.

"I have shamed my family and humiliated myself," Warme told the court in a letter. "There are no excuses. I crossed the line and used drugs. I knew better."

Before imposing the sentence, Arcara wondered what had happened to Warme.

"I'm just trying to figure out why someone who ...
MORE
http://www.buffalonews.com/city/police-courts/courts/article291270.ece

[T0RN]

There were several crimes alleged by prosecutors that were not covered in the plea agreement, and charges related to them were dismissed after the sentence was imposed.

Those accusations included the alleged rape of two women, forcing a woman to perform oral sex on him while he was on duty and threatening a woman after an attack, saying he would take her to the Indian reservation and shoot her.

He should have gotten a much bigger sentence.

[birther truther tenther]

That cop should have joined the TSA.

[Popol Vuh]

http://www.injusticeeverywhere.com/



Here's a couple of video clips posted on the above link.  The first shows a man doing nothing but cooperating with the police while being pulled over in a traffic stop.  Nevertheless he gets assaulted and has his vehicle impounded.  The second video shows a woman (at approx the 2min point in the video) get her head slammed against a concrete wall.

http://www.nbcactionnews.com/dpp/news/crime/police-release-dash-cam-video-of-carlos-mccain%E2%80%99s-arrest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBjsV2s9SNg&feature=player_embedded

[charrington]

An Atlanta teen is devastated after he says cops shot and killed his beloved golden retriever "Boomer" for doing what he's supposed to do: bark.

"I feel like my best friend is gone," said 19-year-old Jonathan King. "I feel like cold-blooded murder happened on my front lawn."

"Boomer was doing what he was supposed to do, barking at someone who isn't supposed to be on my land," said King.

King said that an officer from the Clayton County Police Department was called to his mother's subdivision in Jonesboro, Ga., to investigate a disturbance. While King says he did not witness the shooting, a neighbor told him that he saw the dog approach the cop and then immediately fall to the ground upon being shot.

"My neighbor told me it happened so quick that he was speechless," said King, who was down the block when Boomer was shot. "He said that he didn't think you could even pull your firearm out and discharge it that fast."
MORE VIDEO
http://abcnews.go.com/US/family-dog-fatally-shot-police-officer/story?id=12444180

[charrington]

A Georgetown police officer is on paid administrative leave during an excessive force investigation.

Internal affairs at the Georgetown Police Department and the Texas Rangers are investigating exactly what took place Monday evening in a Georgetown neighborhood.

Travis Cox, 22, now has his mouth wired shut and is recovering from a broken jaw. He says a Georgetown police officer is responsible.

"She came up and kicked me in the face," said Cox.

Cox recently graduated from the University of Texas, and is now interviewing at medical schools. However, his focus has shifted after an incident Monday night with a Georgetown police officer.

He says he was at a house party in a Georgetown neighborhood when police kicked open the door Monday night before midnight. He says he had only been at the house for a couple of minutes.

His 20-year-old sister, Kiri Cox, was also at the party. She said about 20 young adults were at the home drinking and hanging out.

She said she heard police yell for everyone to get on the ground. Kiri says she saw her brother was hurt minutes later.

"He lifted his head, and he had blood all on the side of his face. I felt it inside, and I thought, 'Oh man, they did that to my brother and messed his face up,'" Kiri Cox said.

Travis Cox says Georgetown Police officer Shanna Shelly told him to get on the ground. He says when he was down she kicked him in the face, and then put her foot on his neck. Cox says it was unprovoked.

Shelly is on administrative leave with pay while she is investigated for excessive force.

Travis Cox's parents say a police supervisor...
VIDEO -  facebook page
http://www.kvue.com/news/Georgetown-man-says-police-officer-kicked-him-in-the-face-and-broke-his-jaw-112403344.html

[charrington]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYPCFyPSszw

[charrington]

A 35-year-old former police officer from the Bell Police Department (yes, in that City of Bell) was sentenced yesterday to nine years in federal prison for sexually assaulting a female motorist and violating her civil rights, the Justice Department announced.

Feliciano Sanchez of Pico Rivera pleaded guilty to charges he forced a woman to perform oral sex on him after he pulled her over for a traffic violation in May 2007. Sanchez described in court how he took the victim from her vehicle to his patrol car and parked in an isolated parking lot nearby. With his hand on his duty weapon, Sanchez ordered the victim to perform the sex act on him.
MORE
http://laist.com/2010/12/23/former_bell_cop_sentenced_for_sexua.php

[charrington]

The mother of a Queensland boy run over and killed when police handcuffed him and forced him to lie on a road is disgusted no charges will be laid.

Andrew John Bornen, 16, was lying handcuffed and face-down on a busy suburban roadway in the Ipswich suburb of Brassall when he was struck and killed by a car on February 7, 2009.

His heart, aorta and pulmonary trunk were ruptured and he died before an ambulance arrived six minutes later.
Officers had forced the Ipswich teen down after reports a youth was armed with a machete in the area.
Advertisement: Story continues below

However, Andrew was only carrying a baseball bat when he was confronted by police and an inquest found he had not been acting aggressively.

Andrew’s mother Helen Donaldson said the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had told her today that no charges would be laid over her son’s death.

She said the bad news, delivered just before Christmas, had put her ‘‘over the cliff’’.

‘‘I was a bit disgusted myself,’’ Ms Donaldson said.

‘‘I was very upset, very emotional.

‘‘I’m down anyway, but for them to actually ring me two days before Christmas, that is what tops the cake.

‘‘... If they would have rang me and said ’look they’ve been charged with manslaughter’ then I’d be over the moon, I’d be having an excellent Christmas.’’

She said the news could have waited.

Ms Donaldson said she took comfort that the inquest had found her son was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time and had not deserved such treatment.

But she said she doubted police had learned anything from the tragedy.

‘‘I at least thought they should have been charged with something,’’ she said.

The director of public prosecutions, Tony Moynihan SC, said he had carefully considered evidence that would be admissible in any trial...
MORE
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/no-charges-over-handcuffed-teens-death-20101223-196bm.html

[freedom_commonsense]

Last time I checked this was classed as rape in most places, but I'm not au fait with the local criminal code.

[birther truther tenther]

The cop's only crime is that he doesn't work for the TSA.

[Freeski]

It's clearly rape, if the story's as it says.

[phasma]

Unreal. He deserved to do time for this. I hope the woman is ok.