Quote:Greater Manchester Police faces corruption storm after whistleblower goes to IPCC, forcing deputy head of Hillsborough investigation to step down






JONATHAN BROWN

Tuesday 18 March 2014

The deputy head of the criminal investigation into the Hillsborough disaster has stepped down from his role following the launch of a corruption inquiry and claims that a high-ranking detective allowed an unauthorised bugging operation at England's second largest police force.

Assistant Chief Constable Terry Sweeney is the most senior figure from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to be investigated as a result of whistleblower claims of "cronyism" among top officers and the alleged failure to follow correct procedures or investigate complaints properly.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said it had launched three inquiries into the actions of a number of GMP staff including the suggestion the force misled the families of victims of serial killer Harold Shipman as well as the public over the secret disposal of human tissue samples.
The second probe will examine the activities of an unnamed Detective Chief Inspector who it is claimed ordered the bugging of one of the force's offices as well as allegations that the officer's actions may have put public safety at risk.
The police watchdog is also investigating claims made by a serving officer that sex abuse allegations were poorly handled and that alleged failings by GMP were covered up.
It is understood ACC Sweeney, a former head of GMP's Professional Standards Branch, will feature as part of all three IPCC inquiries.
One of the force's most respected officers, he was a senior figure in the still ongoing inquiry into the suspected poisoning deaths at Stepping Hill hospital as well as being charged with examining reports that GMP officers attended demonstrations organised by the British National Party.
ACC Sweeney also acted as a spokesman during Operation Windermere, one of the largest ever inquiries into alleged child sexual exploitation.
The IPCC announcement comes just two weeks after Home Secretary Theresa May ordered a major inquiry into undercover policing following the publication of a report that found Scotland Yard spied on the family of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence.
Assistant Commissioner Jon Stoddart, who is leading Operation Resolve, which was launched following the publication of the Hillsborough Independent Panel's damning report in 2012, said the allegations related to ACC Sweeney's role at GMP and that he had now returned to his role at the force.
"I have taken steps to inform the Hillsborough families and other interested parties of recent developments. I and my team remain absolutely committed to supporting the forthcoming Inquests into the deaths of 96 Liverpool supporters at Hillsborough Stadium on 15th April 1989," he said in a statement.
Operation Resolve is tasked with helping the coroner to decide whether the deaths of the football fans were unlawful. The inquest is due to begin at the end of this month.
IPCC Commissioner Jan Williams said: "These are serious allegations and the gravity and nature of the allegations, and the fact that they are made against senior officers within the force, means they must be investigated independently."
The first inquiry by the police watchdog will focus on human tissue believed to include organs taken from the exhumed bodies of 12 of Harold Shipman's victims and retained for more than a decade by police in case of an appeal by the killer or his family before being secretly destroyed.
GMP Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy said the decision had been taken to spare the families who had lost loved ones further anguish. Sir Peter said decisions surrounding the Shipman investigation were "complex and sensitive".
He said AC Sweeney had voluntarily decided to step down from his work with Operation Resolve. "This is a personal decision made as he does not want the matter to distract from the operation's important work," he added.
It is believed the other two IPCC inquiries relate to events which happened within the past five years. Police have confirmed that the unauthorised bugging of a GMP office took place, the watchdog said.

Quote:Exclusive: More evidence of police corruption relating to Daniel Morgan case - Britain's most notorious unsolved murder - mysteriously missing'



Leaked files show how documents relating to notorious unsolved murder of potential whistleblower disappeared from Scotland Yard

TOM HARPER

INVESTIGATIONS REPORTER

Saturday 05 April 2014

Evidence of police corruption relating to Britain's most notorious unsolved murder mysteriously "disappeared" from Scotland Yard during the initial investigation, according to a leaked file. A police statement taken from an officer on the first inquiry into the brutal death of Daniel Morgan suggests the victim was about to blow the whistle on a case of "major police corruption" but internal police documents detailing the claim were removed from the incident room.

Detective Constable Kinley Davies also claimed that he and two of his colleagues tried to investigate the emerging allegations of Metropolitan Police malpractice but were "suddenly removed from the squad" by senior officers.
The claims are contained in a witness statement submitted to Hampshire Police, an outside force brought in to investigate police corruption in the murder of Mr Morgan, who was found in a south London car park with an axe embedded in his skull in 1987.
They reveal for the first time how early the inquiry into the private investigator's death appears to have been compromised and raise new questions over the extent of criminality in Scotland Yard.
The destruction of embarrassing evidence in the Daniel Morgan murder echoes the "mass-shredding" of Operation Othona, a top-secret anti-corruption inquiry during the Nineties, which was uncovered last month by a review of the Stephen Lawrence murder another deeply uncomfortable chapter in the modern history of the Met. The statement by the anonymous officer from Hampshire Police details an interview he conducted with DC Kinley Davies.
DC Davies paid a visit to the home of one of the suspects called Mr X for legal reasons on the night of the murder.
He said: "When Mr X opened the front door his face was like wax and he was starting to get beads of sweat across his brow, even though it was a winter's night. There was no doubt that he was expecting a visit from the police."
The officer then cryptically says he would have arrested Mr X "then and there" had another detective inspector "not been in charge".
When Mr X was finally arrested, the officer recalls him "dropping names of senior officers and solicitors" throughout his interview.
However, the most shocking disclosure is yet more claims of the destruction of embarrassing police corruption files. DC Davies told Hampshire Police that he had been to interview a witness, who cannot be named for legal reasons. The witness told them "Morgan had uncovered major police corruption and he was going to sell it to the national newspapers".
"DC Davies had fed this into the incident room but the document had disappeared and was not actioned."
The statement continues: "Nevertheless, DC Davies [and two other officers] continued to investigate the corruption allegations but were suddenly removed from the squad without any reason given by the SIO [senior investigating officer]. It concludes: "This was particularly strange."
Mr Davies, 61, who spent 28 years as a Met detective on the anti-corruption, organised crime and terrorist financing divisions, refused to speak when contacted by The Independent. However, a friend said: "There were a number of things from that time that Kinley and his colleagues found unsavoury. There were other things going on that seemed to overlap with the Morgan murder."
Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: "I am concerned that in this important investigation vital evidence may have been lost. The Commissioner rightly promised a ruthless pursuit of truth in issues of corruption and ministers have always made it clear that they will have zero tolerance of it. The Committee will be questioning the Home Secretary on these issues when she comes before us on Tuesday."
When Roy Clark, the police chief in charge of Operation Othona, was recently told about the disposal of the highly sensitive intelligence, he said: "There would be no good reason to get rid of it… It was gold dust stuff."
Meanwhile, Daniel's brother Alastair, who has led a 27-year campaign for justice, hit out last night at Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe after the Met Commissioner told MPs last week that he was considering reopening an investigation into the murder.
READ MORE: SECRET SECOND METROPOLITAN POLICE CORRUPTION PROBE REVEALED
SHREDDED POLICE CORRUPTION INQUIRY COST TAXPAYERS £8M
NEW EVIDENCE LINKS THE MURDERS OF STEPHEN LAWRENCE AND A PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR

Mr Morgan said: "I am very worried about this because the Met's handling of this case has been so appalling. It needs public scrutiny; it does not need the Met to put its hands on this case."
Asked if he thought that was a "device" by the Met to "take hold" of the case, Mr Morgan said: "It could be. We have written to him [Sir Bernard] and we have had no reply to our letters. We want independent scrutiny."
Last May, the Home Secretary Theresa May granted the Morgan family an independent judge-led panel to investigate the Daniel Morgan case following years of pressure from the family. But progress has been painfully slow.
Sir Stanley Burnton, the judge appointed to lead the panel, stepped down for "personal reasons" in November and, five months on, has yet to be replaced.
The scale of its task was brought into sharp focus last week when Craig Mackey, the Deputy Commissioner of the Met, revealed there were one million pieces of paper relating to the Morgan case in Scotland Yard's vaults.
Last month almost one year since the Home Secretary announced the panel ministers revealed it had obtained just 700 documents relating to its inquiries 0.0007 per cent of the total.
The Daniel Morgan Panel is modelled on the Hillsborough Independent Panel, the inquiry into the deaths of 96 football fans at Sheffield Wednesday stadium in 1989.
The Hillsborough inquiry was appointed in 2010 and reported in 2012. Asked whether some in the Met were still trying to cover up the corruption from 27 years ago, Mr Morgan said: "I believe that is the case… I believe certain aspects of what happened to do with my brother's murder are still being covered up… They will put their reputation before the public interest."
A Home Office spokesperson said: "The panel continues to carry out its work and the Home Secretary is planning to appoint a new chairman as soon as possible."
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: "The MPS continues to review this case and is currently co-operating fully with the independent panel established by the Home Secretary, Theresa May, to review the Met's handling of the Daniel Morgan murder investigation."
In evidence: Investigating officer's statement
Statement taken from DC Kinley Davies by Hampshire Police, 23 June 1989
On confronting the murder suspect: "When Mr X opened the front door his face was like wax and he was starting to get beads of sweat across his brow, even though it was a winter's night.
"There was no doubt that he was expecting a visit from the police."
On peculiarities that emerged during the original murder investigation: "Morgan had uncovered major police corruption and he was going to sell it to the national newspapers. DC Davies had fed this into the incident room but the document had disappeared and was not actioned.
Nevertheless, DC Davies (and two other officers) continued to investigate the corruption allegations but were suddenly removed from the squad without any reason given by the SIO (senior investigating officer). This was particularly strange."
Daniel Morgan: A case dogged by claims of police corruption
Scotland Yard has spent more than £50m on its four investigations into the murder of Daniel Morgan, a private investigator who was killed in 1987.
The unsolved case has been plagued from the outset with devastating claims of police corruption and repeated alleged attempts to cover-up historic malpractice by a Metropolitan Police force too embarrassed to admit to its own failings.
Suspects have been charged with the murder twice but prosecutions have collapsed before the trial and evidence have been heard in open court.
Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service blame their failures on incompetence.
The family claim they were ignored by several police commissioners and successive Labour Home Secretaries.
The acute sensitivities around the case emerged again last month when a review of the Stephen Lawrence murder which happened a few miles from where Daniel Morgan was found with an axe in his head found evidence that allegedly corrupt police officers bridge both cases.
The Met continued to deny this to Mark Ellison QC despite its own intelligence. The review also found that a "lorry-load" of sensitive material from Operation Othona that may have been relevant to both cases had been inexplicably destroyed in 2001 when Lord Stevens was Commissioner.
In his conclusions, Mark Ellison QC, who led the inquiry on behalf of Home Secretary Theresa May, also cast doubt on current Met assurances that the Lawrence and Morgan cases were not linked, raising fresh questions over whether Scotland Yard can ever be trusted in investigations over either murder.

Quote:Shooting dead of homeless camper sparks outrage against Albuquerque police - the department that kills more people than the NYPD



The latest shocking death at the hands of Albuquerque's Police Department has sparked protests

DAVID USBORNE

US EDITOR

Tuesday 01 April 2014

Captured by a video camera on one of the officer's helmets, the slaying by Albuquerque police of a homeless camper in the foothills outside the city two weeks ago apparently leaves room for interpretation. The city says it was justifiable self-defence. To others it looked like extra-judicial execution.

The grisly clip, which is still viewable for anyone with a strong stomach, has an awful power all of its own. But it has also become the tragic totem of a wave of civic anger directed at the city's heavily militarised police department that on Sunday erupted into hours of unrest across the downtown area, leading to serial arrests and a plea for calm from the city's mayor who said his streets had turned to "mayhem".
For James Boyd, the fury comes too late. With a long history of mental problems and episodes of violence, he was challenged by three officers on 16 March for camping in an unauthorised area near the city limits. They woke him from sleeping. A three-hour stand-off ensued until, at dusk, he is heard telling the officers he is done arguing and was "going to walk" with them. That is where the episode might have ended.

Instead, as Mr Boyd gathers up his things, one of the officers shouts "Do it". A flash-bang device is fired at his feet. A startled Mr Boyd drops his bags and seems to take out a knife. He turns away from the officers, two of whom shoot multiple live rounds into his back. Mr Boyd falls, a dog is loosed to check he has been immobilised, the officers approach and cuff his wrists.
He was pronounced dead later in a city hospital.
The killing of Mr Boyd, who was 38, prompted more than the usual handwringing because it seemed less an isolated incident than a confirmation of a pattern.
Since 2010, the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) has been involved in 37 shootings, 23 of them fatal. According to the group ProgressNow, its officers shot more people than the NYPD over the same period did in New York a city 16 times larger.
While Police Chief Gorden Eden said in a later press conference that the actions of the three officers had been justified because Mr Boyd had represented a "direct threat" to their safety, the killing is now being officially investigated by the FBI.
Even before the slaying, the US Justice Department had, for over a year, been investigating wider claims of human rights and other abuses by the APD. Neither probe is yet complete.
The Boyd slaying appears simply to have been one too many.
Or maybe it has had such an impact because it can so easily be viewed. But the city might have guessed at the trouble that was coming when a YouTube video emerged vowing retaliation for the homeless man's death. Taking credit for the threat was Anonymous, the underground collective that hacks into and debilitates the web sites of those it opposes.
Sure enough, the APD confirmed early Sunday that its website had been broken into and crippled for hours. At about the same time, the protesters, several hundred of them, were gathering in the centre of Albuquerque, New Mexico's largest city. Through the daylight hours they repeatedly marched through downtown, blocking traffic, chanting and brandishing banners demanding that the APD be cleaned out and Chief Eden be forced to resign. For the most part, the marches were peaceful if disruptive.
But by Sunday evening, the mood had changed.
Witnesses reported hours of clashes between the protesters and police in riot gear, some on horseback. News video shows tear gas canisters being repeatedly released into the crowds. In one of the more serious encounters, protesters trapped a squad car and tried to smash its windows with bricks and rocks.
"It has reached a boiling point, and people just can't take it any more," said Alexander Siderits, 23, who was among those marching on Sunday, adding that many of the city's residents were just "fed up" with the police and their record of fatal shootings.
Justin Elder, who followed the march in the safety of his car, held a sign reading, "APD: Dressed To Kill". He explained: "That's what this police force is about."
While the city was reported to be calm yesterday, on Sunday Mayor Richard Berry said its downtown area had been reduced to "mayhem", blaming outside elements for exploiting the situation.
"We respected their rights to protest obviously," he said, "but what it appears we have at this time is individuals who weren't connected necessarily with the original protest. They've taken it far beyond a normal protest."
Still unanswered is why two of the officers used lethal firearms to take Mr Boyd down instead of stunning him with the taser guns they were also reportedly carrying. They have been placed on paid administrative leave.
The broader debate is about the APD navigating the thin line between reasonable and unreasonable force to maintain order, and the apparent unwillingness of the city's leaders to make sure it isn't crossed.
"I was a police officer for a decade," says Patrick Davis, executive director of ProgressNow New Mexico. "The over-militarized approach to law enforcement is having a very real effect on people's lives here in New Mexico and our leaders who should be taking real action seem to be taking it all in stride."

San Jose, CA: Anatomy of a Police Murder and Cover Up

On February 21, 2014, the San Jose State University Police Department (UPD) murdered a community member, an undocumented Mexican immigrant. UPD Sgt. Michael "Mike" Santos shot him in the back, twice, in broad daylight, in the middle of the day, just off campus in a residential area, directly in front of the SJSU childcare center while still full of children. A stray bullet from his gunfire went through the 2nd floor window of a sorority into a bedroom full of young female SJSU students.

Antonio & The Local PD

Facts:

Antonio & SJSU

Antonio's Murder

Investigating Antonio

San Jose State & The Police

Justice For Josiah