From [HERE] and [HERE] A family is outraged after a 7-year-old boy, a special education student, was handcuffed by the NYPD at his school. NYPD cops handcuffed Joseph Anderson because he was ‘acting in a threatening manner’ at school after becoming upset while decorating an Easter egg.Cops say they were protecting the boy and others after his emotional outburst. His mother says it was just plain wrong. 

School staff threatened to send him to the hospital if he did not calm down - and he jumped up, saying: ‘I just want my mummy,’ his mother told the New York Daily News.

The NYPD has also defended its actions, with a spokesman saying he was ‘acting in a threatening manner’ and another source claiming he was waving scissors. ‘He was a danger to himself and others in the classroom,’ a spokesman told the New York Daily News.

The lawsuit, filed in US District Court in White Plains, N.Y., alleges Pleasantville Police Officer Aaron Hess showed a “reckless disregard for human life, most specifically the life of Danroy Henry Jr.” The lawsuit alleges that Henry's civil rights were violated, and seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Henry’s family said they wanted to use the lawsuit to compel New York authorities to release evidence in the case, including audio and video recordings, as well as Hess’s testimony about the incident and his personnel file.

Henry, a 20-year-old junior at the university located in Pleasantville, was shot outside a bar in the early morning hours after a homecoming game celebration. Two officers fired, but it is believed that Hess fired the fatal shots.

Several witnesses, including passengers of Henry’s car, said he drove away because an officer had ordered him to leave the fire lane. Before he could slow down, Hess jumped in front of the vehicle, onto the hood, and started firing, they said.

The passenger in the car, Brandon Cox, told authorities that Henry slowed down before he was shot by police. [MORE] According to witness testimony, Henry was handcuffed and placed on the sidewalk, where he lay dying. He was left on the street for 15 minutes without any medical attention.

"What was your sense at the moment you realized he [Luis Mendonca] was in handcuffs?"

"I couldn't believe I did it, did this type of force on this guy that was already handcuffed. I was disgusted," said DeCarlo in court.

DeCarlo is on trial for allegedly striking and kicking Luis Mendonca in Providence back in October of 2009. DeCarlo claims he used necessary forced to subdue Mendonca, because he was resisting arrest. The incident was caught on video by a nearby surveillance camera. [SEE it HERE] 

Mendonca was knocked unconscious and suffered a severe gash in his head that was closed with eight staples. Mendonca's attorney claimed his client was in a coma for two days following the incident. 

The death of Jesus Manzo was the final of three unrelated, fatal shootings of Latino men by deputies in Vista during a five-day span in the summer of 2005.

The shootings angered many in the city's Latino community ---- the population in Vista was about 42 percent Latino at the time ---- and sparked protests and allegations of racism in the Sheriff's Department.[MORE]  The families of the men each filed civil suits; the one involving Manzo is the last to be resolved.

According to the district attorney's report, deputies went to Manzo's Newport Drive home on Aug. 1, 2005 to question him about a stolen car and to check whether he was on a gang injunction.

Manzo fled when deputies approached. After a search, he was confronted by Deputy Lew Schott. When Manzo reached toward his waistband, Schott shot him once in the chest. Deputies later found that he had a multipurpose tool similar to a Leatherman.

Suit Alleges Pattern and Practice of Using Overly Aggrgessive Tactics in Black Areas

From [HERE] and [HERE] WEST MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Jury selection began Monday in a $250 million civil lawsuit [READ] filed against two West Memphis police officers involved in the shooting death of 12-year old Deaunta Farrow. The trial is expected to last a week. Last October, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from officers Erik Sammis and Jimmy Evans, who maintained the lawsuit shouldn't go to trial.

The officers were conducting nighttime surveillance when Sammis fatally shot DeAunta Farrow. Police have said the boy was holding a toy gun in a dimly lit parking lot. When “the suspect” didn't drop the "weapon", Sammis said he feared for his life and opened fire. Only then, he says, did he realize that the “gun” was a toy gun and that he had just shot and killed a 12-year-old child.

Farrow's family and the family of a boy with Farrow at the time of the shooting sued the officers, saying they used excessive force and violated their civil rights. Family members and others who were eyewitnesses say DeAunta Farrow was gunned down without cause. 

From [HERE] and [HERE] The officer who is a target in a federal probe of the police department claimed he pushed a handcuffed prisoner because the man had spun toward him in a threatening manner and invaded his personal space.

But a review of the security tapes of the May 2010 incident involving Evan Cossette, the police chief's son, and the prisoner, Pedro Temich, shows there is about a six to eight second gap in the security tapes that could have been picked up by a camera in the booking area outside the holding cell. Police now say that tape has been erased.

The gap coincides with the time when the prisoner would have made the move that Cossette described to internal affairs investigators.

Officer Evan Cossette is seen on surveillance video pushing a handcuffed man, Pedro Temich, in a holding cell after he was picked up for intoxication in Meriden last May. In the video, Temich hits his head on a concrete bench and Evan Cossette is seen moving the unconscious Temich, but never calling for medical assistance.

The family says police mistreated the 46-year-old Beard and could have done more to save his life. Beard died while handcuffed outside his apartment.

Deputy Public Defender John F. Montoya said the inmate, Federico Bustos, suffered severe bruising two months ago to his face, stomach, chest, right arm, both legs and feet. Bustos' left eye was so swollen that Montoya said he initially feared his client had lost the eye.

Sheriff's officials repeatedly turned down his requests to allow a public defender's investigator into the jail with a camera to document the injuries, even after he obtained a court order permitting photos, he said.

"He was so severely beaten that I could not initially recognize him," Montoya said. "I don't understand what the Sheriff's Department is trying to hide."

Neighbors who witnessed Thursday night's confrontation say Philadelphia police are covering up the truth. And they claim cops on the scene, most of whom were white, used the "n" word at Kwende Williams, 20 and residents after the shooting.

A friend of Williams, who would give her name only as Hasana H., said she witnessed cops pull up beside Williams as he left a corner store at 29th Street and Huntingdon. He began to run, and police followed, yelling at him, "Throw the gun down or I'm gonna shoot your ass up," she recalled.

Multiple witnesses said yesterday that police were chasing Williams down Newkirk and, as he eluded authorities, he threw a gun into a vacant lot.

"After he threw the gun, the cops shot him three times" in the back, said Christina, who said she saw the shooting from her house and asked that the Daily News withhold her last name. "Never once did he turn around and look. The cops were behind him. I knew he was wrong for carrying a gun, but he never pointed the gun at the cops." "Why'd they have to shoot him [three] times in the back?" asked friend Latoya Armstrong.

The witnesses said that once Williams fell, police handcuffed him and kicked him as he bled on the sidewalk.

"I've seen them kicking him, called him a n-----," Hawthorne said. "F--- this n-----," police said, according to Hawthorne. Armstrong and others said police began shoving and pushing residents who openly criticized them for the shooting. "The cops didn't care," she said. "No type of remorse for anybody. The cops were just mean.

At a hearing Friday, a bond $20,000 was set for Sgt. Edward Howard Jr., 48, on charges of felony aggravated battery and official misconduct.

According to prosecutors, on the evening of October 11, while leaving King Gyros on South Vincennes Avenue, a 19-year-old man and two friends were arrested by two Chicago police officers for criminal trespassing. The man immediately complied with the officers' orders to place his hands on the squad car. He was searched and handcuffed without incident.

Witnesses said Howard then arrived on scene and struck the man three times across the face with an open hand. The third hit was forceful enough to send the man backward and off balance. The blows resulted in cuts, bruises to the man's lips and swelling to his face, prosecutors said.