Racist/Corrupt/Immoral Police Thread.

[carmenjonze]

This is what a police state looks like.

Suit accusing Prince William police chief of 'watchlist' moving forward in D.C. - Inside NOVA

Sure hope the allegations are not true...

Newsham accused of creating ‘watchlist’ for journalists, activistsA federal judge has overruled the District of Columbia’s attempt to toss a lawsuit claiming that, at his former job, Prince William County Police Chief Peter Newsham created a “watchlist” of lawyers, activists and journalists whose requests for public records would be delayed or denied.

Judge James Boasberg denied the district’s request to dismiss the lawsuit filed by attorney Amy Phillips. The suit claimed that Newsham, as chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, designated people whose requests would receive extra scrutiny to limit the release of information that “may lead to criticism of the department.”

Phillips filed the lawsuit against Washington on Feb. 2 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The office of D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine filed a motion to dismiss the case on March 11, but that was denied May 2.

On June 17, Boasberg set deadlines for a list of potential witnesses, discovery and a future status hearing.

Before being hired in Prince William, Newsham was chief of the Metropolitan Police Department from 2017 to early 2021, overseeing 4,500 employees. He has denied the allegations.

“There was not a watchlist,” he said in February. “Some of the folks who have reported on this issue, what I’ve asked them to do is read the lawsuit.”

Phillips’ lawsuit is based on information provided by Vendette Parker, who was MPD’s Freedom of Information Act officer from October 2017 to January 2020. The lawsuit is accompanied by a 12-page statement signed by Parker.

[Libertas]

A smart fascist does this day one, when they get power.

It wont be safe in blue states, either.

[Motor City]

Detroit to pay $7.5M to man who claims cops switched bullets

Detroit agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a lawsuit by a man who claimed police switched bullets to pin a murder on him in 1992.

Desmond Ricks was released from prison in 2017 after 25 years, thanks to gun experts, law students at the University of Michigan and his unwavering insistence that he was innocent.

“I’m not greedy. I’m thankful,” Ricks, 56, told The Associated Press after the City Council approved the settlement Tuesday.

“It’s a blessing to be alive with my children and grandchildren. It was a blessing to not lose my life in there,” Ricks said of prison.

He was convicted of fatally shooting a friend outside a restaurant in 1992. Police seized a gun that belonged to Ricks’ mother and said it was the murder weapon.

In 2016, the Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan law school asked a judge to reopen the case. Photos of two bullets taken from the victim, Gerry Bennett, did not resemble the bullets that were examined by a defense expert before trial decades earlier.

The actual bullets surprisingly were still in Detroit police storage. Examinations showed they did not match the .38-caliber gun identified as the weapon..........

[carmenjonze]

San Francisco Chronicle
@sfchronicle

Here's a look at the number of stops made by SFPD, relative to San Francisco's demographic population. For instance, for every 10,000 Black residents in the city, police stopped 2,313, compared with 389 for every 10,000 white resident.

Read more here: https://trib.al/REjofHg



https://twitter.com/sfchronicle/status/ ... 3126660096

[carmenjonze]

From the SF Chron link, above - ‘Are the police capable of changing?’: Data on racial profiling in California shows the problem is only getting worse

In San Francisco and Los Angeles, The Chronicle found, Black people were nearly 6 times more likely to be stopped by police than white residents in 2020, when factoring in the relative city populations of the racial groups. In Oakland, Black people were 5.3 times more likely to be stopped. In Sacramento, Black people were 3.7 times more likely to be stopped.

Despite being stopped and searched far more often than white people, Black people were less likely to be found carrying contraband, the data shows. They were, however, more likely to have force used against them.

The disparities persist despite broader efforts to curb police abuses energized by the Black Lives Matter movement, and despite an array of moves statewide and nationally to decrease the total number of stops.

This is not a training issue.

This analysis, published in the 2022 RIPA report, found that in darker conditions, the discrepancy in the rates at which Black and Hispanic people were stopped compared with white people fell by two percentage points. In other words, darkness reduced the racial disparities seen in stops of darker-skinned people. This suggests that officers’ perception of race is playing a role on its own — not just neighborhood type or arrest rates.

This is not a training issue.

While California didn’t begin collecting such data until 2018, some local agencies, such as San Francisco and Oakland, began tracking their own data years earlier. Their data suggests that the disparity in racial profiling has been an intractable problem.

In San Francisco and Oakland, data going back to 2014 shows vast, persistent gaps between the cities’ Black and white stop rates. In Oakland in 2016 and 2017, Black people were about 10 times more likely to be stopped by police than white people, according to a Chronicle analysis of city data.

This is not a training issue.

Chief David Swing of the Pleasanton Police Department, who co-chaired the RIPA advisory board for 2021 and is past president of the California Police Chiefs Association, said one of the biggest shortcomings with RIPA data is that it doesn’t indicate whether those being stopped live in the area or are commuters passing through, which could skew the numbers in cities such as L.A., where people drive more.

He said the Police Chiefs Association recommended that the state add a box to RIPA forms for officers to check whether the person is a resident, so the stop rate for racial groups can more precisely be compared with census data. The change is being considered by the California Office of Administrative Law. He said more accurate data would improve the extent to which it can be used to identify patterns of profiling.

“All of us bring bias into our lives from our experiences,” he said. “It’s about recognizing that and (having) awareness, and acting in a way that is fair and impartial for those that are involved.”

This is not a training issue.

[Libertas]

Put that on my FB, thanks.

SF police are notorious racists and bad.

[Motor City]

Lawsuit alleges Texas police officer paralyzed man in jail

.....According to the lawsuit, after a trip to a local hospital to exclude other reasons for Shaw’s slurred speech, Gillen took him to the Jefferson County Correctional Facility. At one point when Shaw refused to comply with commands, jailers restrained him against a wall. Gillen grabbed Shaw, flipped him into the air and body-slammed him head-first on the concrete floor, leaving him paralyzed.

A hospital examination showed that Shaw suffered several spinal fractures that have left him paralyzed from the chest down, the lawsuit alleges.

“Mr. Shaw’s life has been greatly impacted in the worst way,” said his attorney, Harry Daniels of Atlanta. “He was once an able-bodied young man before he was assaulted. He can no longer stand or walk. He is a prisoner of his own body. He spends a majority of his day in bed due to the fact he doesn’t have the resources to hire a full-time caregiver.......

[carmenjonze]

Ex-Baltimore Police sergeant who planted BB gun on man hit with a car is sentenced to 21 months in prison - Baltimore Sun

A federal judge sentenced ex-Baltimore Police Department Sgt. Keith Gladstone to 21 months in prison Wednesday for his role in planting a BB gun on a man another officer hit with a car eight years ago.

Gladstone’s sentencing comes three years after he first pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to deprive someone of their civil rights. Gladstone has cooperated with federal prosecutors ever since, and his cooperation led to the conviction of four other officers, including two more involved in the gun-planting scheme, Assistant U.S. Attorney Leo Wise said in court.

“There’s no dispute this is a very egregious abuse of trust by Mr. Gladstone,” U.S. District Court Judge Catherine Blake said when handing down the sentence. He is to report to Bureau of Prisons custody no later than Aug. 29.

In March 2014, police Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, the disgraced leader of the corrupt Gun Trace Task Force, ran over a man, Demetric Simon, with his car in Northeast Baltimore. Jenkins couldn’t find drugs or a gun on Simon, and called Gladstone to see whether he would help.

Not a training issue.

[carmenjonze]

23-year-old Black man shot while running away from San Bernardino police - CBS News

[Motor City]

23-year-old Black man shot while running away from San Bernardino police - CBS News

At the end it says the police are working with a public relations firm to release further information.

[carmenjonze]

At the end it says the police are working with a public relations firm to release further information.

Stage-managed cops. Just what the world needs.

[carmenjonze]

Detective told suspect she’d drop case if he stopped sharing child pornography - LB Post

Investigative missteps

by the Long Beach Police Department are complicating the case of an LBPD officer facing prison time for trading images online of children being sexually abused.

Anthony Brown, 57, will face a federal judge Monday where prosecutors will ask for a sentence of five years and 10 months after Brown pleaded guilty in March to distributing child pornography.

The charge is tied to at least 10 pictures or videos of children being sexually abused that Brown admitted to distributing through the social media website MeWe, where prosecutors say he also participated in graphic chats fantasizing about forcing a fictitious 13-year-old niece and 8-year-old daughter into having sex with men. In a plea agreement, Brown admitted to sharing at least one of the sex-abuse images while he was on duty at the Long Beach Airport.

Brown’s attorneys have argued he deserves only the mandatory minimum sentence of five years, in part because federal prosecutors rarely, if ever, pursue such cases based on so few images of child pornography. Prosecutors responded by saying they have no way of knowing the extent of Brown’s wrongdoing because he wiped his phone clean before police searched it.

A detective soon tied the phone number to Brown and then, not yet realizing Brown was a police officer,

Uh-huh…

called to tell him about the complaint that his account was sharing sex-abuse images. According to court documents, Detective Laurie Barajas told Brown she was going to drop the case, but if she ever got another complaint about him, she’d reopen it and pursue felony charges.

Can’t reform this.

[ZoWie]

At the end it says the police are working with a public relations firm to release further information.

Everyone's paying publicists these days. Everyone. You name it.

I can back that statement up with experience.

It's part of the problem. Reality is lost in all the bursts of flak. News directors and editors more often than not assign based on who has the sexiest pitches in their releases. I would objectively say that maybe two stories are breaking nooz if it's an especially bad day, otherwise it's all assigned and largely based on hype. This is a topic I know from the inside.

You won't believe this, but my wife is on the phone right now explaining the reality of showbiz PR to an intern. She just basically said word for word what I'd written a second before.

In politics, it seems clear that the Republicans have had the sexiest hype for about 30 years now. They grabbed the high ground in Ray Gun's first term, and never gave it up.

[carmenjonze]

Not a training issue.

Can't be reformed.

Police: Cincinnati officer caught on body camera using racial slur - WLWT

They don't call it Klancinnati for nothin'.

The report states that as Valentino pulled into the driveway of the station, she saw several cars lined up waiting to pick up students from Western Hills University High School.

Valentino then activated her lights and siren, signaling for the vehicles to move, and when they didn't, she became audibly angry.

Valentino put her window down and told the drivers to move when, according to the report, a Black male student walked by and gave Valentino the middle finger. Valentino got angry and could be heard on her body camera saying the slur in response to the teenage student.

Valentino said she was "frustrated due to the traffic and individuals not taking her seriously."

"This is a hard job,

Boo hoo.

and I was getting to a point where I was really being affected by it. I have been on for 14 years."

"Officer Valentino believed she had been desensitized by music and hearing people talk on the street. Constant exposure has allowed this slur to slip into Officer Valentino's vernacular," the report states.

:problem:

[Libertas]

Fire all cops, rehire.

[ProfX]

Wholly corrupt cops, Batman!

EXCLUSIVE: NorCal sheriff orders raid on Indiana Batmobile garage, allegedly as favor for friend
https://abc7news.com/batmobile-raid-ind ... /12083955/

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Holy political favors, Batman! That's the allegation against San Mateo County Sheriff Carlos Bolanos for sending a four-man team across the country last week, to raid the garage that builds Batmobiles.

Turns out, one of the sheriff's friends ordered a Batmobile and wasn't happy with how long it's taking.

Your public money paid for the trip last week by the sheriff's investigators - four round-trip plane tickets, three nights of hotels, meals, rental cars, and a lot of overtime.

[snip]

"I was horrified. I've never gone through anything like this ever before in my life, I am on the side of good. As a Batman fan since I was 2 years old, this was a completely opposite side. I love '66 Batman and Batman always stood with the law."

[snip]

We ran the case by Tony Brass, former prosecutor for San Francisco and the US Attorney's Office. He told us, "I just can't imagine why it's in criminal court. It shocks me that it's in criminal court."

He says this squabble over a luxury item, the Batmobile, belongs in Indiana civil court - with no involvement by the San Mateo County Sheriff's Department.

"It simply defies reason, in my view, why so many people, so many high-ranking members of law enforcement, would have to go and enforce something so unnecessary? And so trivial?"

[snip][end]



Dammit, Batman, this is what happens when you let Robin drive.

[ap215]

Breonna Taylor: US police charged over shooting death

Four US police officers have been arrested and charged over the fatal 2020 shooting of Breonna Taylor.

Ms Taylor was killed in her home in Louisville, Kentucky, by plainclothes police who were executing a "no-knock" search warrant.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canad ... iano-modal

[Libertas]

Why did the local police not do this?

racism...even if the Black AG was a part of this, seeking to help his career, he is a republican of course.

Barr's DOJ would of course NOT done this. If the DOJ is taken over by trump or desantis, our lives arent worth plug nickels.

[carmenjonze]

Bystanders shot by Denver police shocked by body camera videos, disappointed in police response - Denver Post

The three victims continue to recover from their bullet wounds

Three innocent bystanders shot by Denver police while standing outside a LoDo bar last month want the Denver Police Department to publicly apologize for their injuries and announce a plan to make sure a similar incident doesn’t happen again.

Police shot the three victims — Yekalo Weldehiwet, Bailey Alexander and Willis Small IV — on July 17 while shooting at a man they stopped outside Larimer Beer Hall because they believed he was armed. The officers shot the man, Jordan Waddy, as he threw a gun to the ground. Police injured six bystanders standing nearby.

Weldehiwet, Alexander and Small spoke Wednesday after Denver police released body camera videos of the shooting, which the victims said shocked and disappointed them. The videos made it more clear that it was luck that nobody was killed, Small said.

“Now, when we have the truth, at least have the decency to come forward and say, ‘Yes, we messed up. We need more training, we take full responsibility. We need to reconsider our whole program and take accountability and learn from it,” Weldehiwet said.

Well, this is not a training issue, but ok. :problem:

Police said in a July 20 news conference that Waddy “held (the gun) in a manner that the muzzle of the gun was pointed in the direction of the officers on Larimer Street,” though later acknowledged during questioning by reporters that Waddy was holding the gun by the top, not the grip, and that it was unclear whether he could have fired the gun holding it that way.

Body camera video shows Waddy pulling the gun from his clothing and moving it quickly across his chest before tossing it to the side. He never directly pointed the muzzle at officers.

Weldehiwet, Alexander and Small did not get an opportunity to view the videos before the Denver Department of Public Safety released them publicly. Weldehiwet decided not to watch the videos because he didn’t want to relive the traumatic evening.

“If body cameras didn’t exist, we might not have any idea who shot us to this day,” Small said.

All three victims said they were cautiously optimistic about Denver District Attorney Beth McCann’s decision to convene a grand jury, which will decide whether the three officers should face criminal charges.

The three officers — Meagan Lieberson, Brandon Ramos and Kenneth Rowland — are working non-patrol assignments while the investigation continues.

Collecting fat pensions and a paycheck.

Can't reform this.

[carmenjonze]

Ex-officer to plead guilty in Breonna Taylor case - Spectrum News

Lock her up.

Throw away the key.

Former Louisville police Detective Kelly Goodlett is expected to plead guilty later this month to charges in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor according to reporting from The Washington Post.

Breaking: US attorney says former Louisville police officer Kelly Goodlett intends to plead guilty to federal charges in what would be first conviction case related to fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor https://t.co/Tobk6dBvRa
— David Nakamura (@DavidNakamura) August 12, 2022

Goodlett is set to appear Aug. 22 before a federal judge to enter her plea, media outlets reported, citing her lawyer, Brandon Marshall. Marshall did not immediately return phone calls and emails seeking comment Friday.

Goodlett will plead guilty to one count of conspiring to violate Taylor's civil rights for helping falsify an affidavit for the search of her apartment, the Courier Journal reported Friday. She faces a sentence of no more than five years in prison.

Federal charges were announced last week by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland against former Louisville police officers Joshua Jaynes and Brett Hankison, along with Kelly Goodlett and Sgt. Kyle Meany, who at the time were still employed by the Louisville Metro Police Department.

Louisville Police Chief Erika Shields immediately began formal termination procedures for Meany and Goodlett after the charges were announced. Goodlett instead chose to resign on Friday.

The charges range from unlawful conspiracies, use of force and obstruction of justice.

Goodlett, Jaynes' former partner, was charged on information, meaning she had likely agreed to a plea deal with the government. The FBI alleges she tried to cover up the fact that the information Jaynes provided for the search warrant that led to the deadly raid on Taylor's apartment was false.

[Libertas]

Ex-officer to plead guilty in Breonna Taylor case - Spectrum News

Lock her up.

Throw away the key.

Would this have happened if Barr was still in charge?

[carmenjonze]

Some committee members reject Asheville police's plans for asset forfeiture funds - WLOS

Wonder how many conservatives in Asheville are sitting around complaining about student loan relief this morning, while their PD pulls fast-ones like this. :problem:

The Asheville Police Department is proposing to use the funding to purchase a new DNA analyzer system, replace an end-of-life bomb robot and pay for advanced forensic training for four forensic technicians.

“Especially considering the staffing crisis that we’re currently experiencing, all of this equipment and all of this training are force multipliers for us, specifically DNA analysis,” said Chief Zack.

The new DNA analyzer system is estimated to cost around $226,000 and would cut down the turnaround time for DNA processing. Currently, property crime processing takes 6-8 months in the state lab. The new system would allow DNA processing in 90 minutes.

The Caliber Flex Bomb Robot is estimated to cost around $236,000. It would replace the current bomb robot that is more than 20 years old.

:problem:

[ProfX]

Oh, why this is just lovely.

More than a dozen police officers were caught texting about killing Black people in California
https://www.rawstory.com/torrance-police-racist/

At least 15 police officers in Torrance, Ca. were caught exchanging racist text messages about killing Black people, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Some of the messages were unearthed during an investigation following the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Christopher DeAndre Mitchell in 2018 by officers Matthew Concannon and Anthony Chavez. Mitchell was shot as he sat inside of his car in a grocery store parking lot. When the family held a vigil outside of the police station the next day, the officers shared text messages calling Mitchell the N-word.

“Was going to tell you all those [N-word] family members are all pissed off in front of the station,” said one. “Gun cleaning Party at my house when they release my name??" Another officer replied, "Yes absolutely let's all just post in your yard with lawn chairs in a firing squad."

Two more officers, Christopher Tomsic and Cody Weldin were caught spray-painting a swastika inside of an impounded vehicle. A search warrant executed for the case recently unearthed at least 15 more police officers had exchanged violent, racist and homophobic messages for several years but were being suppressed by lawyers for the officers.

The documents contained racist cartoons of Black and Latino people as well as comments about lynching Black suspects and killing Black children.

“Lucky I wasn’t out and about,” wrote one. “D.A. shoot team asking me why they are all hung by a noose and shot in the back of the head 8 times each.” Another called a Black child "n*gglet." Yet another said he would “put down" Black children.

Both Tomsic and Weldin left the department in 2020 but it is unclear if they were fired or resigned to another precinct. Officer Brian Kawamoto said that he “wanted to make Torrance great again” and called Black Lives Matter protesters “savages." Tom Yu, the lawyer representing some of the officers, defended their comments.

[snip][end]

[carmenjonze]

Can’t reform this.

Not a training issue.

[carmenjonze]

Cincinnati police officer who used racial slur fired - The Enquirer

Somebody set the timer so we can see how long it takes her to get hired on some place else.

City officials approved the termination Monday of Cincinnati police officer Rose Valentino, who was caught by a body camera in April using a racial slur while stuck in traffic outside Western Hills University High School.

"I want to be clear; this type of hateful speech will not be tolerated by anyone who works for the Cincinnati Police Department, sworn or civilian,” Interim Police Chief Teresa Theetge said in a news release announcing the officer's termination.

"Officer Valentino’s clear loss of her emotions and ready use of the racial slur tarnished her ability to work with any community member or member of the Cincinnati Police Department hurt by her hateful words," Theetge said.

According to an internal investigation, Valentino said, "F---ing n-----s, I f---ing hate them!" The statement came after a male student walking by her cruiser gave her the middle finger, the report said.

According to the report, Valentino, who is white, said she does not have any racial biases that have affected her work and told investigators she does not use racial slurs.

Uh-huh.

Sure you don't, karen.

City officials said the Cincinnati chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police may file a grievance to challenge whether the department had just cause to fire Valentino.

:problem: