*NOTE*: This is an incredibly long post. I hope you'll still read it.
Updates will be added as time goes on.
Updates will be added as time goes on.
Too many police officers step way out of line and it needs to be addressed.
Right now in Ferguson, MO, there is a large number of things happening: The following is a recap so far. Followed by a variety of other cases of police brutality.
"Mike Brown was an 18 year old walking home from his grandma’s around 2PM when he was stopped by police. To be clear, there isn’t a consensus on what happened afterwards. Police allege that he attempted to wrest an officer’s gun and was killed as he fled. A witness recounts that he fled, but never attempted to take an officer’s gun. What is clear, is that he was unarmed and shot ten times in the back.
As the community gathered to hold a vigil, the Ferguson Police stopped by with a S.W.A.T team and dogs. As the days pass, their armament has escalated. Each night, the community is expected to follow a curfew and disperse under pressure from a large, militarized police force that spans Ferguson and St. Louis County departments.
Journalists have been arrested.
Here are some media reports:
If you notice a common thread between all the reports, the criticism is starting to move away from Mike Brown’s death and into the looming gravity of militarized police. Republicans, Democrats, Conservatives, Liberals, and even Libertarians seem to unanimously agree that militarized police is an excessive response. Partisan differences seem to be whether or not the response escalated the violence or overreach of government is the greater sin, but the agreement that it’s excessive.
Even Ted Cruz, notorious member of the Tea Party, thinks the arrest of reporters was wrong.
Here are some criticisms that focus on militarized police:
The other unified point of criticism is the lack of leadership, transparency, and disregard for the first amendment right to press as police attempt to silence journalists. In fact, the links above are accounting for the arrest of two WaPo reporters. In contrast, WaPo reporters have only been arrested twice in 2014: in Tehran and Ferguson.
Some important things to note:
Al Jazeera Reporters being tear-gassed only to have their equipment confiscated. Here’s the video.
Sniper aiming to kill unarmed protester before riots
Wood bullets used. Wood bullets have been discontinued by many municipalities for lethality. They splinter and cause serious injury. They also require long distance use or can be lethal.
I’m not an expert, but trying my best to understand what’s going on and to spread news so we can all react. While many of us can’t do much more than type, there is still ways we can pressure for intervention or stand visibly against what’s happening. Tweeting may feel “useless” or small compared to being on the ground, but sharing our horror at the depravity of the militarized response can help pressure intervention.
Last night, I tried calling the Missouri governor to express concern, but all I got was a voicemail at his office and no answer at the governor’s mansion. After tweeting out the numbers I used, people were saying that somebody was picking up — at midnight! The governor has since cancelled his trip to the county fair. The fact that it took public pressure to change his plans says a lot about the state of leadership in Missouri. If they need help with perspective, let’s do it.
Here’s how Missouri politicians can be reached:
Governor Jay Nixon
@GovJayNixonmogov@mail.mo.gov
Office: (573) 751-3222
Mansion: (573) 751-4141
Fax: (573)-526-3291 / faxzero.com
Senator Claire Mccaskill
@clairecmc
Office: (202) 224-6154
Fax: (573) 334-4278 / faxzero.com
Senator Roy Blunt
@RoyBlunt
Office: (202) 224-5721
Fax: (202) 224-8149 / faxzero.com
Lastly, people are organizing vigils and rallies around the country in response. If you’d like to attend, you can follow #NMOS14 on Twitter. If you’re in Chicago, it’s happening Thursday 8/14 at 6pm in Daley Plaza.
If you want to follow some people on Twitter who are on the ground:
Just adding to this list: Journolist’s roundup of relevant articles; they seem to be posting new roundups daily."
Ferguson Update:
"yesterday afternoon—thursday, august 14th—ferguson & stl police were taken out of control of ferguson and replaced with MO highway patrol, led by captain ron johnson, who grew up in the area. his first order of business was to order police to remove their masks and cease violent tactics.orange cones replaced tanks, the police line vanished, not a drop of tear gas was in sight and families felt safe enough to have their young people out protesting with them. without the fear tactics and police intimidation, people came out in droves to support ferguson.the discussion of mike brown cannot end here. the relief is palpable and the decrease of tension under johnson’s excellent leadership is a huge mercy, but justice has not been served yet. now, hopefully, citizens will get to work together with the legal system for swift and transparent justice for mike brown & the countless other black men & women across the nation who have been unlawfully treated, and in many cases died, at the hands of police. let all of us use the alleviated atmosphere to focus the conversation, focus the nation. #mikebrown"
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"1. Eric Garner executed on July 17th, 2014. Put in illegal choke hold and strangled by the NYPD
2. Pregnant lady gets put in an illegal chokehold by an NYPD officer for “illegally grilling” while her seven year old daughter watches July 27th, 2014
3. NYPD enters wrong house and drags a naked woman across the floor, then pepper sprays her four year old grandson August 2nd, 2014.
4. Man shot and killed by police for holding a toy gun in a Walmart, Dayton, Ohio - August 6th, 2014
5. Unarmed Black teen shot ten times by the Ferguson Police while walking home with his friend from the convenience store - August 9th, 2014
Since July 17th there has been five reported occurrences exemplifying the police and American justice system’s lack of reverence for Black life. These are the five stories that were able to attract at least minimal attention. Who knows what is going on out there covered up (like the Ferguson police is trying to do with Mike Brown’s murder), unrecorded, and unknown. In the past 23 days the police have perpetrated the humiliation, degradation, and murdering of Black dignity,souls, and people. Knowledge is power. Do not rely on mainstream media to give you the full/accurate story. They will always be complicit in the devaluing of Black life because Blackness has been criminalized in America. Please spread these stories and add any more that you know of under the hashtag #badges are the new hoods. We need to start documenting, and spreading information. They will try to silence us as they did to Ramsey Orta, and Alba Lekaj, the people who filmed the NYPD harasing and murdering Eric Garner. But united we can make a difference. Knowledge is power. Stay woke Black America, Stay woke."
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TW: Police brutality - NYPD goes into wrong apartment, drags naked grandmother out of her home, pepper spray 4-year-old & arrest 12-year-old August 2, 2014
A Brooklyn grandmother who had just taken a shower was dragged from her apartment by about 12 cops who then stood by for more than two minutes while she was naked in the hallway, according to video that emerged Friday. Denise Stewart was in her Brownsville apartment on July 13 when police — responding to a domestic disturbance call at the building — pounded on her door at 11:45 p.m. and demanded entry. Stewart, 48, cracked the door wearing only a towel wrapped around her body and underpants — and was yanked into the hallway by cops over the screams of her family and neighbors. The video shows a chaotic scene as a dozen or so male officers burst into Stewart’s apartment, while several others struggle to subdue and cuff the nearly naked woman in the hallway outside. Stewart’s towel got lost in the scuffle, leaving the grandmother dressed only in underpants. “Oxygen, get my oxygen,” the mother of four can be heard saying to the cops, as they propped her bare body against the wall. A cop shouts, “OK, OK,” and darts out of the screen. Neighbors videotaping from the stairwell started shouting as Stewart, who has severe asthma, fainted and fell to the floor.
“Yo, her mother got asthma …y’all wicked, y’all f——— wicked,” shouted one woman.“Her asthma! Her asthma! Her asthma,” screamed another woman. For approximately two minutes and 20 seconds, Stewart was bare-breasted in the hallway as additional police officers tramped up the stairs and through the hallway, glancing at her as they passed by.
When cops hauled Stewart’s two sons and two daughters out of the apartment and cuffed them, a female cop finally draped a white towel over Stewart’s exposed torso.
Reached at her home Friday, Stewart told the Daily News she was traumatized. “It’s disgusting and embarrassing. I’ve been married 16 years. It took my husband 10 years to see my nakedness,” she said. “I didn’t do nothing wrong,” she said, crying as she recounted the ordeal.
The NYPD said they’d gotten a 911 call to the Kings Highway address but didn’t have an apartment number. They heard shouts coming from Stewart’s apartment. When they knocked, she told them they had the wrong place and tried to shut the door, police said.
Stewart’s 12-year-old daughter had “visible injuries” to her face, cops said. She told officers her mother and older sister beat her with a belt, police said.
Family members tried to prevent them from arresting Stewart, who bit an officer’s finger during the struggle, police said.
Stewart’s lawyer, Amy Rameau, said she was told by a Legal Aid attorney also assigned to the case that the 911 call came from a different apartment on an upper floor — and cops went to Stewart’s door by mistake.
Cops removed the 12-year-old from the apartment and say she refused to get into the police car and kicked the door.
A police spokesman said the child kicked out one of the police van’s windows, with the broken glass cutting the chin of one of the cops. The cops were treated at local hospitals and released.
Denise Stewart was charged with assaulting a police officer, and — along with her oldest daughter, Diamond Stewart, 20, — resisting arrest, acting in a manner injurious to a child and criminal possession of a weapon.
Stewart’s son Kirkland Stewart, 24, was charged with resisting arrest. The 12-year-old was charged with assaulting a police officer, criminal mischief and criminal possession of a weapon. Diamond Stewart’s 4-year-old son was also pepper sprayed, the family said. “They manhandled (Stewart) and behaved in a deplorable manner,” Rameau said. “She feels completely mortified. This is about human dignity. ”The city’s Administration for Children’s Services was called to investigate but didn’t find any evidence of neglect, said Rameau. “There were no injuries to the child as alleged in the complaint,” the lawyer said. A police spokesman said the incident is under investigation by Internal Affairs. Source
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Unlike the beautiful 6-year old Jonbenett Ramsey who received coverage all over the media - every tabloid, newspaper, news channel, talk show, 7-year old Aiyana Stanley was killed by a police officer during a raid while she was sleep and her murder received very little coverage.
Police, searching for a murder suspect, threw a flash grenade through the window of her family’s apartment around midnight. According to Aiyana’s father, it landed on the couch, setting Aiyana on fire. A police officer’s gun then went off, and shot Aiyana in the neck.
Aiyana was asleep on the living room sofa in her family’s apartment when Detroit police, searching for a homicide suspect, burst in and an officer’s gun went off, fatally striking the girl in the neck, family members said.
Her father, 25-year-old Charles Jones, told The Detroit News he had just gone to bed early Sunday after covering his daughter with her favorite blanket when he heard a flash grenade followed by a gunshot. When he rushed into the living room, he said, police forced him to lie on the ground, with his face in his daughter’s blood.
“I’ll never be the same. That’s my only daughter,” Jones told.
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Sgt. Thomas McVicar of the Jersey City Police Department shot 22 year old Kwadir Felton, leaving him blind, after Kwadir pulled a gun on him, he claims. Kwadir Felton denied the accusation, stating that he doesn’t even carry guns.
"I don’t understand!" Felton yelled at a police officer before his mother was removed from the courtroom. "You didn’t have to shoot me in the head for no reason! You trying to charge me with something I didn’t do!"
Sign the Change.org petition and get this story out there.
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After storming into her apartment early in the morning while she was still in bed, Henrico, VA police tied up 75-year-old Ruth Hunter with zip ties and began grilling her about drug use and storage. Then, realizing that maybe, just maybe, she was not their target, they left for a neighboring apartment — leaving her tied up while their incompetent investigation continued.
So far, the police have done nothing to make amends. “I’m very irritated and angry, he never said I’m sorry, never apologized for having the wrong house…he said you got to get someone to fix that door,” Hunter said.
Read the whole story here.
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Shanesha Taylor was arrested on March 20th by the Scottsdale Police for leaving her children ages 2 and 6 months in her car while she interviewed for a job. Ms. Taylor was homeless and could not access any child care. Her desperation to provide for herself and her children and her lack of options led her to take drastic measures in search of employment. Ms. Taylor needs support & help rather than incarceration and a criminal record that will surely decrease her chances to provide for her children in the future. We ask that Maricopa County use common-sense and provide support for Ms. Taylor and her children rather than punishment.
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Charda Gregory abducted, humiliated, violated, restrained, scalped and tortured. If this were reversed, with black police officers who were sworn to uphold peace and justice but instead were documented victimizing a white woman (who was already a victim), this news would have trumped the Olympics!
Truncated version: drugged at a party, abducted to a motel, wakes up during unwanted sexual violation in a motel room full of strangers, fights like hell to escape, motel employee calls the authorities, she gets arrested for destroying motel property and it just gets worst from there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoBLolqUaNg
Every officer who participated in it and even those who witnessed it and did nothing should be punished but instead they just fired the woman?No rape kit, no police report on the people inside the motel room, no investigation of her claims, no accountability for missing motel entry records, no video from the motel but she gets detained for fourteen days?
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A photo of police forcing an off-duty firefighter to the ground has gained national attention after it was revealed that the police action was taken after the man waved to the officers.George Madison Jr., an African American firefighter and youth pastor in Evansville, Indiana was threatened with a taser by police when he committed no crime.Madison says that he was riding his bike when he saw a police car approaching the same intersection.Through his work on the local fire department, he is familiar with a number of the police officers in Evansville and he thought he recognized one of the men in the car so he waved.That is not how the police interpreted it, however, as they claim that they thought he was flicking them off.The officers stopped Madison, and, according to Madison, they were getting confrontational.He then took out his phone and went to call the police chief, Billy Bolin, who he is friends with. The officers told him to hang up the phone and get on the ground.When he hesitated before listening to their order, The Courier Press reports that the officer took out his taser.'It was literally maybe inches from my face. I immediately threw my hands in the air. What he asked me to do I was more than willing to do,' Madison told the paper.‘I said “Please don’t hurt me.” The next thing I know I’m laying down the ground and they cuffed me.’The officers only began to back off after they learned that Madison was a firefighter and youth pastor.‘Once they found out I was a fireman their attitude changed,’ he said.Now there is an internal investigation underway within the police department and Madison’s friend Chief Bolin is involved.‘I know (Madison), I like him. I know the officers involved, I like the officers involved. So, my job is to try to figure out the truth no matter who you like,’ he told local 14 News.‘Just because somebody says something, we can’t automatically assume it’s the truth. I’m not saying I’m doubting anything that George has said. We have to hear both sides and get to the bottom of it.’http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2395250/George-Madison-The-moment-African-American-firefighter-pastor-handcuffed-waved-police.html#ixzz2cBQmbJM8
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This is #JonathanFerrell. Last summer, he crashed his car in Charlotte. He climbed out of his car and started walking in search of help. Police arrived, surrounded the site of the crash and Ofc. Randall Kerrick shot Jonathan multiple times in the chest, killing him. #endpolicebrutality
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A father of three died 12 hours after LAPD sergeants beat him in front of his house in South L.A.
Two sergeants from the Newton Division pulled over Omar Abrego, 37, in front of his house on the 6900 block of South Main Street on August 2, according to KTLA. He was still in his work uniform driving an Amtrak truck.The sergeants said they stopped him because he was driving erratically and almost hit a person in the crosswalk.
"After the vehicle stopped at 69th and Main, the suspect started to flee and the two supervisors caught the individual and an altercation ensued," LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith said. "As a result of that altercation…the suspect had a laceration and that’s one of the reasons they called the ambulance."
However, witnesses and family members say it was more than just a "laceration." One witness said he saw the sergeants beat Abrego for about 10 minutes and with a baton, while another said he saw a sergeant punch Abrego twice in the face with his fist.
“They were beating him real bad, and he died of the wounds,” said Yair Abrego, the victim’s brother.Abrego suffered from a severe concussion and bruises to his face and body. He later died at the hospital. One of the sergeants had a broken hand, and another had a knee injury.
Los Angeles County coroner's Chief Craig Harvey told the L.A. Times that they are still determining the cause of death and are looking into more tests. However, the initial coroner's report said that Abrego was "combative and confused with acute cocaine intoxication."
LAPD's Force Investigation Division is investigating the incident further. Abrego's funeral will take place on Saturday.
This incident happened just days before LAPD officers from the same Newton Division fatally shot 24-year-old Ezell Ford, whose family said was "mentally challenged" and complying with officers on Monday
night.
http://laist.com/2014/08/15/video_man_dies_after_bloody.php
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A community is grieving and outraged after LAPD shot and killed a man that family members say was "mentally challenged" and complying with officers' orders on Monday night.
Ezell Ford, 24, was shot by police around 8:20 p.m. on Monday night after what authorities called an "investigative stop" in the 200 block of 65th Street in Florence. Ford was already lying on the ground and complying with orders when he was shot in the back, his mother Tritobia Ford told KTLA.
"My son was a good kid. He didn't deserve to die the way he did," she said.
"They laid him out and for whatever reason, they shot him in the back, knowing mentally, he has complications. Every officer in this area, from the Newton Division, knows that this child has mental problems," a man who only identified himself as Ford's cousin told KTLA. He was around the corner when the shooting occurred. Both the LAPD and Ford's family have declined to state whether or not he was armed, according to the LA Times. Just last month, sheriff's deputies came under fire for the beating of a mentally ill man in Compton. Today the Compton chapter of the NAACP has called for a federal investigation into the beating of Barry Montgomery, according to City News Service.
LAPD haven't said why they stopped Ford in the first place, but an LAPD press release says a "struggle ensued" which led to the shooting. Ford was taken to a hospital and underwent surgery but later died from his injuries. The officer involved in the shooting has not been identified by the LAPD.
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"A Chicago-area police officer who fatally shot a young dog in front of its 6-year-old owner on Friday was fired on Monday. Witnesses said the dog was not provoking the cops before it was shot.
Police dispatch in the Chicago suburb of Hometown, Illinois received a phone call on Friday from the dog’s owners that Apollo, a 16-month-old shepherd mix, got out of the family’s yard, and they requested assistance in finding him, Police Chief Charles Forsyth said in a statement on Facebook. The officer ‒ identified by the Justice for Apollo Facebook page as Robert Norris ‒ located the dog and followed him back to his home.Norris reported that, while attempting to coax the dog back into the house, the dog turned, growled and approached him in a threatening manner. He then withdrew his service weapon and fired one shot, striking the dog, the chief said.
But Apollo’s owner says the dog was never aggressive and did not lunge at the responding officers. She said he didn’t get defensive until Norris pulled out his gun.
“We were in the lawn and the cop already had his gun out,” owner Nicole Echlin told WMAQ. “I tried to call him in the house and he just stood there staring and I guess he showed his teeth and the cop just shot him, right in front of me and my 6-year-old daughter.”
Witnesses agreed with the owner’s account. “They never tried to control the dog, the dog wasn’t moving,”one told the NBC affiliate.
“The dog wasn’t doing anything. I didn’t see it doing anything, it wasn’t barking,” said witness and area resident Nicco Torres. “Then I saw a cop shoot the dog, the dog fell to ground on the lawn. I saw through the window the dog was on the floor shot but the dog was still moving, it was moving its legs like it was trying to run but it was laying down.”
“I don’t know why they would pull out a gun. they had so many other options,” said Echlin's 23-year-old sister and fellow owner Kristy Scialabba, who works at an animal care center in Chicago. “And to shoot a dog in front of a child that’s going to scare her for the rest of her life.”
Apollo was taken to Scialabba’s workplace, Animal Welfare League in Chicago Ridge, where he died on Saturday morning.
Echlin said her daughter “screamed” and “fell to the floor” after Apollo was shot between the eyes. "That's going to be in her head probably forever," she told the Chicago Tribune.
On Monday, Norris was fired, Forsyth announced on the Hometown Police Department’s Facebook page. “Although the Officer may have been justified under the Illinois Use of Force statute governing deadly force, I have made the decision to terminate that [officer’s] employment with the Hometown Police Department,” the chief wrote. “In addition, all reports and witness statements will be forwarded to the Illinois State Police Public Integrity Unit to be reviewed.”
"I'm heartbroken. That was my best friend. It was also my niece's best friend (and she is) traumatized,"Scialabba said to the Tribune. "It should have never happened."
In response, she started the Justice for Apollo Facebook page, created a petition calling for Norris to be fired or punished for shooting the dog and planned a protest of the Hometown PD, which has since been cancelled after the officer was terminated. “Apollo got his justice,” Scialabba wrote on Monday."
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There's so many appalling cases like these ones. Bring attention to them. Do not let the police who do these things get away them. Make a change.
Do no harm, but take no shit.
This is a good idea:
And if you are someone that is going to be apart of a protest, please, be safe and prepared:
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