Police Brutality, Insensitivity and Militarism/Robotism is all the Rage Now!

[Magda Hassan]

You have to wonder if the flurry of such cases is related to some change in PD policies/behavior or if it is only that more people are carrying around cameras and/or reporting the incidents.

Yes, the availability of hand held cameras and videos with mobile phones has made the visibility of these attacks much higher. However, there seems to be no follow through at the judicial level. The evidence of criminal murder, assault and brutality is there for all to see but then what happens? No consequences apparently.

In the UK there was an (unofficial?) agreement that there would be no consequences after they murdered the Brazilian man. The police threatened to not protect anyone if they were forced to account for their actions when armed.

[Drew Phipps]

It is to be hoped that the widespread availability of smartphones with video capability will eventually force the judicial system to be more responsive. The court system, being bound to hoary judicial tradition and precedent, is usually the last place to look for acceptance of more modern community standards, or even acceptance of more modern technology.

Not that I am suggesting that is always a bad thing. It is useful to be reminded of our founding traditions and principles from time to time, and I would shudder to see a court system run by public polls (which seems to be meat and potatoes for other "law-makers").

[David Guyatt]

Yeah, let's scare the kids shitless, and get them used to the new police state they live in.

US school districts given free machine guns and grenade launchers

Calls to hand back weapons and gear, from M16 rifles to mine-proof vehicles, obtained under Pentagon scheme

• Associated Press in Los Angeles
  
• theguardian.com, Thursday 18 September 2014 05.30 BST
  
• Jump to comments (211)
  

An MRAP armoured vehicle of the type acquired by US school districts under a Pentagon giveaway of military equipment and weaponry. Photograph: Steven Valenti/AP

School police departments across the US have taken advantage of free military surplus gear, stocking up on mine-resistant armoured vehicles, grenade launchers and scores of M16 rifles.
At least 26 school districts have participated in the Pentagon's surplus program, which is not new but has come under scrutiny after police responded to protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, with teargas, armour-clad military trucks and riot gear.
Amid that increased criticism, several school districts have said they will give some of the equipment back but others plan to keep it. Nearly two dozen education and civil liberties groups have sent a letter to the Pentagon and the justice and education departments urging a stop to transfers of military weapons to school police.
The Los Angeles unified school district, the nation's second-largest at 710 square miles with more than 900,000 students enrolled, said it would remove three grenade launchers it had acquired because they "are not essential life-saving items within the scope, duties and mission" of the district's police force.
But the district would keep the 60 M16s and a military vehicle known as an MRAP used in Iraq and Afghanistan that was built to withstand mine blasts.
District police Chief Steve Zipperman told the Associated Press that the M16s were used for training and the MRAP, parked off campus, was acquired because the district could not afford to buy armoured vehicles that might be used to protect officers and help students in a school shooting.
"That vehicle is used in very extraordinary circumstances involving a life-saving situation for an armed threat," Zipperman said. "Quite frankly I hope we never have to deploy it."
Law enforcement agencies around the country equipped themselves by turning to the Pentagon program, which the defence department has used to get rid of gear it no longer needs. Since the Columbine school shooting in 1999 school districts have increasingly participated.

Federal records show schools in Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada, Texas and Utah obtained surplus military gear. At least six California districts have received equipment, state records show.
Democratic congressman Adam Schiff said while there was a role for surplus equipment going to local police departments "it's difficult to see what scenario would require a grenade launcher or a mine-resistant vehicle for a school police department".
In Texas, Tina Veal-Gooch, executive director of public relations at Texarkana ISD, said the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, led the district to acquire assault rifles and it had no plans to return them.
In Florida, Rick Stelljes, the chief of Pinellas county schools police, said the county possessed 28 semi-automatic M16 rifles. They had never been used, and he hoped they never would be, but they were "something we need given the current situation we face in our nation. This is about preparing for the worst-case scenario."
School officials in Utah's Granite school district and Nevada's Washoe county school district said they did not have any immediate plans to give back the M16s they received.
San Diego unified school district said it was painting its MRAP white and hoping to use the Red Cross symbol on it to assuage community worries, said Ursula Kroemer, a district spokeswoman. The MRAP had been stripped of weapon mounts and turrets and would be outfitted with medical supplies and teddy bears for use in emergencies to evacuate students and staff, she said.
Jill Poe, police chief in southern California's Baldwin Park school district, said she would be returning the three M16 rifles acquired under her predecessor.
"Honestly I could not tell you why we acquired those," Poe said. "They have never been used in the field and they will never been used in the field."

[Magda Hassan]

And people wonder why some like to home school!

[David Guyatt]

Here we go again. It the witness is correct that Myers had a sandwich on his hand that was mistakes by the off duty cop as a gun, then one has to ask how a gun was recovered from the scene? What does that statement really mean? Was it the cop's gun and therefore, the message is a designed to confuse PR spin? Or was it a "throwaway", used by police to CYA in unauthorized and potentially indictable deadly shooting? Or was the sandwich really a gun?

Will we ever know even?

Vonderrick Myers shooting: Off-duty St Louis police officer kills black teenager sparking new 'Hands Up Don't Shoot' Ferguson-style protests



Those demonstrating say 18-year-old high school student Myers was shot 17 times - and holding a sandwich rather than a weapon

ADAM WITHNALL

Thursday 09 October 2014

An off-duty police officer in St Louis has shot and killed a black teenager, prompting a repeat of the Ferguson protests that followed the death of Michael Brown two months ago today.
[B][B]
Police in the already conflict-ridden county of Missouri said that the officer involved was wearing his uniform but working a second job as a security guard when the incident occurred late on Wednesday night.[/B][/B]
[B][B]The officer, who is 32 years old and white, was unharmed in the incident.[/B][/B]
[B][B]Pictures from the scene on Shaw Boulevard in south St Louis showed people gathering to protest the shooting. KTVI News reported that the crowd was preparing to march on the St Louis police station, with many chanting "hands up don't shoot", a slogan that was used across the US after Ferguson.[/B][/B]
[B][B]As with the death of Michael Brown, there were conflicting initial reports on whether or not the victim, who has been named locally as 18-year-old Vonderrick Myers, was armed.[/B][/B]
[B][B]Teyonna Myers, 23, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper that she was the cousin of the man and that he was unarmed when he was killed.[/B][/B]
[B][B]"He had a sandwich in his hand, and they thought it was a gun. It's like Michael Brown all over again," she told the paper. St Louis Public Radio quoted chief of police Sam Dotson as saying that the officer fired "17 times", while alderman Antonio French, on the scene with protesters, tweeted: "At the scene of yet another young man's death. This happens too often in our city. It's a crisis that we should all be concerned about."[/B][/B]

[B][B]He later wrote: "The victim's mother was here. She fainted. An ambulance came to attend to her. There is nothing like a mother's pain at the loss of a child."[/B][/B]
[B][B]But a spokesperson for St Louis Police, Colonel Alfred Adkins, said the officer - who has not been named - approached Myers and three other men in the street and only "returned fire" after he was shot at himself.[/B][/B]
[B][B]"As [the officer] exited the car, the gentlemen took off running. He was able to follow one of them before he lost him and then found him again as the guy jumped out of some bushes across the street," Adkins said.[/B][/B]
[B][B]"The officer approached, they got into a struggle, they ended up into a gangway, at which time the young man pulled a weapon and shots were fired. The officer returned fire and unfortunately the young man was killed." [/B][/B]
[B][B]In pictures: Michael Brown shooting nationwide protests[/B][/B]
[B][B]Police said a gun was retrieved from the scene near Missouri Botanical Gardens.[/B][/B]
[B][B]Another spokesperson, for the St Louis city police division, said the officer was a six-year veteran of the department. He has now been placed on administrative leave, she said, and an investigation into the incident is ongoing.[/B][/B]

[David Guyatt]

Homeless man with a penknife - he appears to turn and walk away when he was shot over 30 times:



And this is a police dash cam:

[David Guyatt]

An agonising death in custody that shames Italy



Rome's chief prosecutor, Giuseppe Pignatone, met the dead man's family

MICHAEL DAY

ROME

Tuesday 04 November 2014

The agonising death of Stefano Cucchi in police custody five years ago is one of a litany of violent crimes suspected to have been perpetrated by the Italian law authorities.
[B][B]
But outrage over a court's decision to clear 11 people, including three prison officers, of involvement in the killing has led campaigners to hope this is the development that might change things.[/B][/B]
[B][B]Rome's chief prosecutor, Giuseppe Pignatone, met the dead man's family on Monday in the hope of taking the fight for justice to Italy's supreme court. Mr Pignatone released a statement saying that he was even prepared to reopen the investigation into Cucchi's death. "It is not acceptable… that a person dies, and not from natural causes, while in the care and responsibility of the state," he said.[/B][/B]
[B][B]The junior Justice Minister, Cosimo Maria Ferri, declared it "correct and just to reopen investigations". There had been gasps in court on Friday when appeal judges cleared the accused for lack of evidence implicating them in the death of the 31-year-old architect, who was held for drug offences in October 2009.[/B][/B]
[B][B]Soon after his detention the slightly built man was transferred to a prison hospital wing. He died there a week later on 22 October. A post mortem examination showed the victim was severely dehydrated and also had two broken vertebrae and ruptured internal organs. The medical service at Regina Coeli Prison said Cucchi had accidentally fallen down some stairs. His parents, Rita and Giovanni Cucchi, were denied permission to see him during his entire time in hospital until he died.[/B][/B]
[B][B]A photograph of the dead man's face, coloured purple with bruises, was held aloft in the court on Friday by the prosecution, and later by Cucchi's, sister, Illaria. Politicians have joined Amnesty International and Cucchi's family in expressing outrage, that once again, someone has died in custody and no one has been judged to blame.[/B][/B]
[B][B]Gianni Alemanno, the conservative former mayor of Rome, said: "We need to know what happened otherwise the apparatus of the state will have no credibility." At the weekend fans in football stadiums held up banners saying "The law is not equal for Cucchi".[/B][/B]
[B][B]Antonio Marchesi, the director of Amnesty International's Italian division, told The Independent that he saw positive signs in the reaction to the Cucchi verdict, together with moves in parliament to introduce the specific offence of torture. "These things suggest that violence in custody is becoming a big issue."[/B][/B]
[B][B]Prosecutors say Cucchi was brutally assaulted by prison police officers. The victim's health was thought to have deteriorated when prison hospital staff failed to treat his metabolic illness. Some of their colleagues doctored Cucchi's medical records to conceal the violence and medical incompetence.[/B][/B]
[B][B]The appeal court judges upheld a lower court's decision last year to acquit three prison police officers and three nurses of manslaughter charges. In addition, it struck down original convictions of four doctors and a hospital staff member accused of manslaughter.[/B][/B]
[B][B]In January 2013, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg fined Italy €100,000 for its inhuman living conditions for prisoners. And in 2012 the then Justice Minister, Paola Severino, acknowledged the shocking levels of violence, abuse and overcrowding in Italian prisons and pushed for reforms that have yet to be adopted.[/B][/B]
[B][B]Yesterday, the speaker of Senate, Pietro Grasso, appealed for new witnesses to come forward to help uncover the truth about Cucchi's death.[/B][/B]

.

[David Guyatt]

From inquisitr.com

Kaldrick Donald Police Shooting: Cop Arrives To Help Mentally Ill Man, Kills Him In Own Home Instead

A bizarre and tragic police shooting in the tiny Florida town of Gretna has residents there wondering how a police officer called to a home to help a mentally ill man take his medication ended up taking the young man into a bathroom where he shot the man dead, firing at least three shots.

Kaldrick Donald, 24, died as a result of the shooting and the police officer, Sergeant Charles Brown, was also reportedly injured in some sort of a physical altercation with the mentally ill man. But Brown was treated at a nearby hospital and released and has since been placed on paid "administrative" leave from the police department in Gretna, pending an investigation of the fatal shooting.
Gretna is a town of fewer than 2000 in northern Florida, near the city of Tallahassee. The shooting is the latest in a string of police shootings across the country in recent months.
Donald's mother, Juanita Donald, had called police in the past to help with her severely troubled son. She told a local TV station that the normal procedure was for police to take Kaldrick Donald to The Apalachee Center, a nearby behavioral health facility, where professionals then administered the necessary medication for Kaldrick's condition.
The exact nature of Kaldrick Donald's mental illness has not been made clear and, indeed, details of the police shooting that ended his life on October 28 remain sketchy. But what is clear is that this time, when Juanita Donald called police for assistance with her son at around 9:30 am last Tuesday, something went terribly wrong.
According to police, Kaldrick Donald and Charles Brown somehow got into a fight. But according to Juanita Donald, her mentally ill son "didn't want to be bothered" and was simply trying to walk away from the police officer when the physical altercation began.
That altercation, she said, was started by Brown who grabbed her son and first shot him with a taser. At that point, the situation took a deadly turn.
"He rushed my son off in the bathroom and I heard three shots," Juanita Donald said. "I was like, You shot my son.' And he was like, I had to.' I said, No, you didn't have to."
The mom said that after the shots she heard her son say, "I want my mama,' after he shot him, and then I didn't hear anything else."

Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/1589172/cop-sho...PJFfsDx.99

[Peter Lemkin]

In the USA, another child shot dead by police. Child was doing nothing but playing with a toy gun. He was aged 12. If the police shoot to kill all children with toy guns, there won't be many children left....

CLEVELAND A rookie police officer has just shot a 12-yr-old child to death on a playground.
The child was playing with a toy BB gun.
Police claim that the toy looked real and that they were "forced" to shoot the child.
However, the community and the boy's family say that the cops were trigger-happy.
They believe that the cops were trigger-happy for several reasons:
1) The citizen who called 911 on the boy clearly warned the dispatcher that child's toy gun was fake(raw recording below). This means that a warning was given ahead of time from which any reasonably sane and intelligent person can extract two facts: (a) we are dealing with just a small child playing on a playground, not an adult, nor a criminal, and (b) the child's toy is fake. To any normal conscious human being, these two facts entail that there is zero chance of an actual deadly threat.
(If you have been trained day-in and day-out to be in a constant state of cowardly, irrational fear toward your fellow citizens that's to say, if you are a modern day police officer then, sure, you might "fear for your life" in front of a harmless child.)
2) The boy did not act aggressively toward the police there was no verbal or physical confrontation, as admitted by the police commentary itself. He never at any time pointed the toy at officers. That's worth repeating: the child never, at any time, threatened the officers or pointed the toy at them. He was merely playing on the playground.
3) The police should be trained to distinguish between a live threat and a playful 12-yr-old child. They should not just blindly open fire and shoot non-aggressive people simply for holding an object, gun or otherwise.
4) Even if the boy's toy HAD been a real gun which it wasn't, but let's assume for the moment that it was, just for the sake of argument the 2nd amendment of the constitution gives citizens the right to keep and bear arms. The police do not have the right to just blow away anybody for holding a gun.
Due to these reasons and more, the police indeed seem to be trigger-happy at best; eager to use force without discretion so they can pretend to be "heroes" and get career boosts, at worst.
The incident began when a rookie officer and his partner pulled into the parking lot and noticed some people near the playground, after receiving a 911 call, according to reports.
The 911 caller told the dispatcher that the boy's toy was fake.
The rookie cop showed up to the scene and claims that he saw a "black gun" resting on a table.
He claims that the child went and picked up the bb gun and put it in his waistband.
Why the cop simply did not rush the child and prevent him from picking up the "gun" when he first saw it on the table remains a mystery.
[B] Listen to 911 Call
[/B](my question, however, is why would someone call the police about a child with a fake gun....unless they want that child to be shot?! The police should be convicted of murder and the 911 caller needs to be in Court too.)

[David Guyatt]

From Zerohedge:

FBI Report Accidentally Exposes The Severity Of The Police State

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/30/2014 22:00 -0500

• ETC
  
• FBI
  
• Reality
  

in[COLOR=#333333 !important]Share[COLOR=#04558B !important]4[/COLOR]

Submitted by Cary Wedler via Alt-Market.com,
A recently published FBI report accidentally proves that while the police claim cops face growing threats from rowdy populationslike in Fergusonthe opposite is true. The report presents law enforcement deaths in 2013.
The report found that across the entire country, only 76 LEOs were killed in "line-of-duty" incidents. 27 died as a result of "felonious" acts and 49 officers died in accidentsnamely, automobile (ironically, of the 23 killed in car accidents, 14 were not wearing seat beltsa violation for which cops routinely ticket drivers). More officers die from accidents than actual murders on the job. The report also outright admits that intentional murders of cops were down from 2004 and 2009.
Further, 49,851 officers were assaulteda statistic that seemingly proves police are at risk. 29.2%, or 14,556, were actually injured (an admittedly high number). Still, a suspect fact is that 79.8% of the time, "assailants used personal weapons (hands, fists, feet, etc.)." This means that in a vast majority of cases, there was no physical evidence that assault occurred (outside of potential bruises and cuts,but this information is not public). Punches and kicks can be damaging, but nowhere near firearms and knives, which constituted a very small percentage of "assaults." The report also does not specify what constitutes an "injury," making designations of injury potentially arbitrary and subjective.
This means that the common police tactic of misrepresenting scuffles and charging people with assault could be at work (such as when a cop squeezed the breast of an Occupy protester so hard he left a bruise and in the chaos, she accidentally elbowed a cop. She went to jail for "assaulting" an officer). Of course, it's a possibility that all 49,851 officers were simply "doing their jobs," but at the very least it is important to be skeptical.
But besides direct contradictions to the logic behind institutional myths of heroic cops and dangerous bad guys, what are the implications of this FBI report?
First, that police are schizophrenic in their belief that they are in danger (this fear is proven in the recent Ferguson protests and presence of the National Guard). The overzealous militarization of local cops is enough to prove that they might as well be hiding under blankies from the American populace in spite of the fact thatviolent crime has been dropping for decades.
However, considering how well cops are armed and how efficiently the justice system protects them from prosecution for their crimes, they prove to be paranoid. 27 police officers in a country with over 300 million people died last year. Law enforcement deaths-by-murder are included in the 49,851 "assaults" against officers, which means that .05 (half a percent) died as a result of alleged attacks. Crime against cops has dropped to a 50 year low. It's more dangerous to drive a car than be a cop (this is bolstered by the fact that the number of cops who died in car accidents almost equals the total number of cops murdered23 to 27).
Second, militarization is working for the police. It is not working for the rest of us. Though there is little reliable, official data about the number of people police kill every year, tenuous reports claim it is around 400. This is already almost 15 times more than police who are intentionally killed. However, the 400 figure is a result of 17,000 local police agencies being allowed to self-report. The numbers could be far higher.
As Tech Dirt said of a 2008 FBI report that found cops had killed 391 people in 2007:

"That count only includes homicides that occurred during the commission of a felony. This total doesn't include justifiable homicides committed by police officers against people not committing felonies and also doesn't include homicides found to be not justifiable.

But still, this severe undercount far outpaces the number of cops killed by civilians."

The number of "justifiable" homocides was on the rise in 2008 (to be fair, it was rising among private citizens as well) in spite of the inconvenient fact that overall crime has been declining.
Unfortunately, the most important implication of the FBI report is the simple fact that the report exists. When the FBI takes the time to construct a meticulous report (you can read more details here) of all the ways that a tiny percentage of cops were killedbut cannot be bothered to officially count civilian deaths at the hands of cops, the reality is obvious:
The governemnt places a higher priority on their own than on the lives of those they claim to "serve," "protect," and "work for." It cares more about exonerating the police of their crimes than providing justice to those they abuse. There is no justice when the criminal is the cop.

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