Police Brutality 2013

Archive for 2013

Connecticut Cops Brutally Beat Up a Suspect In Local Park

Posted on: February 1st, 2013 10 Comments

Three Connecticut police officers were put on administrative leave after an incriminating video of them beating up a suspect was released online by an anonymous user. Veterans of the Bridgeport Police Department – Elson Morales, Joseph Lawlor and Clive Higgins were caught on tape kicking and stomping on a man previously incapacitated with a stun gun.

A shaky video that goes in and out of focus captures the moment the suspect is shot with the stun gun and knocked to the ground paralyzed. One of the officers exclaims “Nice shot!” and walks over to the fallen man, kicking him as the other cop is standing by.

He quickly joins in and they go on kicking and stomping on the helpless suspect. Sirens can be heard in the background as another patrol car is arriving to the scene, and the third officer uses the chance to join his coworkers and land a couple of kicks himself just before the backup arrives.

There were a couple of witnesses observing the brutal beating, but that didn’t keep the cops from acting the way they did. President of the Greater Bridgeport branch of the NAACP, Carolyn Vermont, described the cops’ behavior as “totally unacceptable”.

“No person should be treated as an animal, no matter what they are charged with”, she said.

Police Chief Joseph Gaudett Jr. refused to reveal the name of the suspect or the charges against him, but it was confirmed that he is currently serving prison time.

The victim didn’t file a charge against the three cops but Chief Gaudett assures the public they’re currently on leave and under investigation.

Journalist Cuffed for Shooting NYPD’s Stop-and-Frisk Action

Posted on: January 31st, 2013 3 Comments

There has been a lot of controversy about New York City police’s stop-and-frisk policy which in most cases leads to harassment of innocent people. The statistics show that around 85% of people stopped were Latino or Black and 82% were innocent of any crime. But most NYPD cops go on with it, and in the light of current ruling that proved part of the stop-and-frisk unconstitutional, the last thing they want is the physical evidence of this practice.

Brooklyn-based photojournalist Shimon Gifter happened to catch one of these scenes on tape and ended up with a broken camera and handcuffed. He was going about his usual business, looking for interesting things to shoot for a couple of Jewish websites he works for, when he heard cops calling for backup not far away.

Gifter rushed to the spot expecting to find an intense scene. Instead he saw a couple of cops standing on the corner talking and a man cuffed in the back of the police van. He started talking to the bystanders to find out what happened and discovered that there was some sort of dispute but the rest of the suspects had run off.

Shortly after, four young men showed up at the scene and even though it didn’t look like they had anything to do with the previous altercation, they were detained by police. Gifter, who was standing about 100 feet from the scene, started shooting them. One of the cops warned him to stop because the suspect were juvenile and Gifter agreed and switched to recording other parts of the scene. That’s when a sergeant grabbed him from behind and handcuffed him, telling him he was under arrest for disobeying police orders.

Gifter protested, stating that filming isn’t illegal, but the cop snatched his camera and dropped it on the ground seemingly on purpose. Gifter was released after 10 minutes and later realized that the harsh police reaction was probably connected to the recent fuss about stop-and-frisk. He is still trying to recover footage from the broken camera and has contacted the internal affair division demanding for this incident to be investigated.

Three Schaumburg Cops Arrested For Stealing and Reselling Drugs

Posted on: January 30th, 2013 5 Comments

Another scandal involving Illinois police has unveiled a plot to steal drugs seized from dealers and resell them, and three Schaumburg officers are now under arrest. Just as things were beginning to settle down after Shaumburg police chief was recently accused of harassing his ex-girlfriend but cleared of charges, the latest incident put this police department in the spotlight again.

Officers John Cichy, Matt Hudak and Terrie O’Brien who were working for the Schaumburg’s special investigations division are now facing multiple felony charges that could lead to decades of jail time. Their conspiracy started in 2010 when officer Hudak arrested a man on drug charges and made a deal with him, making him a police informant. But in mid 2012, Hudak and his crew made the informant buy and sell drugs on their behalf which went on for more than 6 months straight until an unrelated event spoiled their plans.

During the search of the informant’s apartment, which Carol Stream police did on an unrelated tip, around 10 ounces of cocaine were found. He revealed his connection to the three Schaumburg cops and they were put under DEA surveillance. After several illegal exchanges were secretly recorded, a sting operation got all three officers behind bars. Perhaps the most chocking thing is O’Briens’ statement that they have committed the crimes “for the thrill of it”.

Two Boulder Officers Resign Over Elk Shooting

Posted on: January 29th, 2013 No Comments

Officers Sam Carter and Brent Curnow, who were under investigation for the incident involving killing a trophy elk, have turned in letters of resignation.

Carter, who was on duty, shot and killed an elk on Mapleton Avenue and called Curnow over to help haul the carcass away and process it for meat. Curnow was off-duty at the time, but Carter didn’t report the incident to the dispatcher or file a report. After facing charges, their explanation stated that the animal was wounded and had to be put down, but the area residents said they didn’t notice any traces of injury or elk showing any kind of aggressive behavior that day.

Even though the two officers are no longer members of the force, the investigation will continue. They are facing nine charges including forgery, tampering with physical evidence, killing an elk out of season and illegally killing a trophy elk.

The shocked Boulder community has set up a memorial for the killed elk and people showed up to protest against police brutality and animal cruelty.

Tennessee Police Robbing Motorists On The Highway

Posted on: January 28th, 2013 12 Comments

If you plan on driving through Tennessee on the Interstate 40, you better not be carrying a large amount of money with you. As it turns out, the police patrols have a right to seize your cash under suspicion that it’s drug money, and keep it without any proof you obtained it in an illegal way.

The reporters from News Channel 5 interviewed one of the victims, Karen Petrosyan, whose father was arrested for driving the truck in which the officers found two large blocks of cash containing nearly $200,000.

“What’s wrong with having a large amount of cash?” asked Karen Petrosyan. ”If I am a criminal, if they allege me to be a criminal,” he said, “why would they settle? They do not just let criminals go.”

Petrosyan and his father were released with no charges, but he will still have to come back to Tennessee and prove that his money wasn’t drug related. Due to the current law, in case the owner doesn’t take legal action to prove that their money is legal, the police get to keep it all.

Ricky Chandler, Dickson police chief, admits that they use money to invest in the force, creating new teams to patrol the road. Since these teams are paid out of the seized money, their jobs depend solely on the amount of money they find. It’s no wonder these teams have collected millions of dollars so far using the civil asset forfeiture laws that are a direct breach of some of the essential civil rights.

Washington Cops Shoot Man 16 Times in His Bed

Posted on: January 24th, 2013 12 Comments

Only by sheer luck, the 29-year-old Dustin Theoharis from Auburn survived after being shot 16 times by two police officers who burst into his apartment without a warrant, looking for his arrested roommate’s gun.

Theoharis was crudely woken by two armed uniformed men who rushed into his room and started yelling out orders at him. He reacted in a way most people would, instinctively reaching for the flashlight by the bed. Detective Aaron Thompson and Corrections Officer Kris Rongen immediately responded by shooting the man 16 times.

Detective Benjamin Wheeler, one of four other officers present at the scene, came into the bedroom to find Theoharis in a pool of his blood and two baffled cops still in the state of shock. Luckily the man was rushed to the hospital fast enough for doctors to save his life.

Thompson and Rongen tried to justify their action by claiming that Theoharis reached for the gun, but no weapon was found in his room. The main reason this police action was organized was Theoharis’ roommate Nicholas Harrison, an ex-convict, failing to report for community supervision. Harrison was arrested before the raid and the police searched his place for weapons so they could charge him with parole violation.

The King County Prosecutor dropped all charges against the two officers, justifying the brutal shooting as a proper response to a “perceived risk” to their safety.

Police Taser Blind Man Mistaking His White Cane For Samurai Sword

Posted on: January 22nd, 2013 4 Comments

Police of the town Chorley, North West England, made a mistake that nearly cost 63-year-old Colin Farmer his life. The blind man was shot in the back with a 50,000 Volt taser gun after the officers mistook him for a suspect carrying a samurai sword.

Farmer has suffered two strokes and is partially paralyzed and blind, so he carries a white cane to help him walk and let others know of his visual impairment. He was walking down the street around 6 p.m. to meet his friends at a local pub when one of the police officers shouted at him to stop. Farmer, who walks at a very slow pace due to his condition, didn’t assume the officer was addressing him and continued to walk. That’s when he got shot in the back with a taser gun, falling to the ground in shock and pain thinking he was dying from another stroke.

A samurai sword of the type that Mr Farmer's stick was mistaken for by a police officer

It turned out that someone had called the police claiming there was a man walking downtown with a samurai sword, and one of the cops somehow confused Farmer’s white cane for a martial arts weapon. The real suspect, a 27-year-old man was arrested later, but charged were dropped since there was no weapon found.

Farmer is now suing the police claiming damages for assault, false imprisonment and a breach of his human rights.

Akron Cop Accused of Breaking 13-Year-Old Girl’s Arm

Posted on: January 11th, 2013 8 Comments

Outraged mother of the then 13-year-old Tamika Williams is shocked that officer Jon Morgan is still working in the Akron high school where the incident occurred. The school resource officer reacted to the girl’s alleged swearing and tearing papers off the wall by assaulting her so hard he broke her arm.

One of the security cameras shows Morgan shoving the student across the hall until she hits the lockers, then turning her around and twisting her arms on her back. He is whispering something into the girl’s ear, but unfortunately the recording doesn’t have any audio. All the while the girl doesn’t seem to be resisting, and he escorts her through the hall holding her by her left arm.

Williams’ mother said that even though Tamika complained about the pain in her arm, the school nurse refused to examine her. Someone called the medics, but the call was allegedly cancelled by Morgan himself. The school’s explanation is that they wanted to spare the Williams family the medical expenses. Tamika’s older sister had to drive her to the hospital where the X-ray showed an arm fracture near her left shoulder.

Tamika requested a transfer to Litchfield middle school about a week after the incident, and her mother filed an excessive-force complaint against officer Morgan.

Man with Down Syndrome Maced and Beaten By Sheriff’s Deputy

Posted on: January 4th, 2013 1 Comment

police-beat-down-kid

An outraged North County family has contacted the media about the recent attack on their mentally disabled son. The 21-year-old Antonio Martinez was walking to his parents’ bakery around 8 p.m. when he was stopped, pepper-sprayed and beaten by a San Diego sheriff’s deputy.

Melissa Mejia, who works in a nearby shop, was the witness of the assault. She got out of the shop when she heard the commotion, and saw Martinez covering his eyes and lying on the floor while the cop was yelling at him and hitting him with a baton. Mejia ran to the bakery to alarm Martinez’ family and came back, trying to stop the cop.

“He has Down syndrome. Stop you know, it’s wrong,” she yelled at him. “He wouldn’t stop, he kept going.”

The reporters from 10News have interviewed the Martinez family who showed the bruises on their son’s face and body. The assault left him visibly shaken.

Apparently the police were looking for the suspect of a domestic violence dispute in the area. Martinez raised suspicion when he put the hood of his sweatshirt over his head while walking by the deputy. When he didn’t stop after being told to, he got pepper sprayed and knocked to the ground.

Sheriff’s Department Captain Joe Rodi visited the Martinez family to apologize and admit their mistake.

Santa Claus Arrested For Writing “Love”

Posted on: January 3rd, 2013 4 Comments

Santa Claus, also known by his friends as James Peterson, was arrested after spreading holiday cheer and chalk with young people in front of the Texas capitol building on the 21st. An occupy activist who was giving out chalk to children while dressed as Santa was well received in the plaza, but as he left, Texas DPS officers chased him down and handcuffed him. The crowd appears shocked, one woman yelling out in confusion, “You’re arresting Santa Claus?!”

Though there were dozens of people chalking – Santa was passing out chalk so that children could participate – he and one other activist were the only ones arrested. The second victim of the Texas Department of Safety was Cory Williams, who was arrested after chalking “Free Santa” on the sidewalk while Santa was in handcuffs.