$6.75M Settlement After Authoritarians at Milwaukee Jail Murder Terrill Thomas. Black Man Denied Drinking Water & Water for Flushing Toilet or Washing for 8 Days in Pre-Trial Solitary Confinement

INSPECTOR Schmidt Will Get $1 Million Pension

[Discount “Justice”] From [HERE] and [MORE] The family Terrill Thomas, a Black Man who died inside a Milwaukee County Jail has settled a lawsuit against the county and a private health company for $6.75 million.

The award is one of the largest settlements in connection to a jail death in the U.S., according to HuffPost.

A 25-page complaint filed in Milwaukee federal court alleges that staff at the Milwaukee County jail repeatedly ignored 38-year-old Terrill Thomas’ requests for water for days.

Thomas’ children – Terrill Barnes, Curtis Piggee and Amari Thomas-Acosta, a minor, along with his mother Michelle Thomas-Acosta – sued Sheriff Clarke, Milwaukee County, the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division and Armor Correctional Health Services Inc. Richard E. Schmidt, inspector for the sheriff’s office, and two corrections officers are also named as defendants in the wrongful-death lawsuit.

Although much has been made of the fact that the suit involved former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, a step and fetch-it servant of the white supremacy system and one of Donald Trump’s loyal proxymoronic supporters, he was nevertheless a Straw-Boss. According to the complaint, Inspector Richard Schmidt, racist suspect in photo, “was ultimately responsible for the health, safety, security, welfare and humane treatment of all inmates at the Justice Facility. “ At all times Schmidt had oversight of the medical, clerical, correctional officers, and staff assigned to the Justice Facility. At all times he also oversaw, supervised, and had control over the management and operation of the entire Sheriff’s Department, and was responsible for the MSCO’s policies, procedures, and training.”

On April 14, 2016, Thomas was arrested by Milwaukee police after officers responded to reports of shots being fired at the Potawatomi Casino, according to the complaint. Thomas was charged and transferred to the Milwaukee County jail the next day.

On April 27, he was supposed to undergo medical evaluation to determine if he was competent to stand trial for five counts of charges against him. But this didn’t happen because on April 24 he was found dead in his solitary cell.

Thomas’s body showed no injuries, but his “biochemistry testing revealed profound dehydration,” the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office said. The death was ruled a homicide.

While he was held by Milwaukee Police, Thomas demonstrated signs of acute psychological disorders, disrupting the City Jail and causing officers to expend more time in securing him and keeping him safe until transfer was effectuated to the Milwaukee County Sheriff.

Prior to transfer to the jails care and custody, the Milwaukee Police had Thomas examined at Columbia-St. Mary’s Hospital, where he was medically cleared for transfer to the Milwaukee County Sheriff. At the time of the transfer, Milwaukee Police advised Correctional Staff of the conduct, actions and necessary measures the Milwaukee Police employed to maintain Thomas and keep him safe during his brief time in custody of the Milwaukee Police and prior to transfer.

That because of his conduct and offenses charged, Correctional staff identified Thomas for immediate placement in the Special Housing Unit (4- D) of the Facility, which is a segregation unit, with solitary confinement in one-man cells and locked in twenty-four hours per day.

The complaint states “At some point in time the water system to Thomas’ cell was terminated, which denied him any running water, water for flushing the toilet, or to even permit him to wash his face, while confined in that cell.

Citing prosecutors, The New York Times reports that Thomas was moved into isolation after stuffing a mattress cover in the toilet and flooding his first cell. As punishment for his bad behavior, prosecutors said former jail lieutenant Kashka Meadors instructed former correctional officer James Ramsey-Guy to shut off the water supply to Thomas’ new cell.

It was never turned back on.

That from April 15th to April 23rd, 2016, Thomas made several and repetitive requests for water to jail guards, all of which were ignored and resulted in him being denied water. The complaint said video surveillance in the Segregation Unit substantiates his repeated complaints of not having water to guards.

Inmates told Thomas’s family that before dying he had begged for drinking water, the family told WISN, a local ABC-affiliated television station.

His water tap was reportedly shut off because he had previously flooded his cell, Marcus Berry, an inmate, told the Journal Sentinel newspaper. Berry epeatedly urged corrections officers to give Thomas water the day before he died, they claim.

“I could tell he was getting weaker,” Berry said. “One day he just lay down, dehydrated and hungry.”

“Mr. Berry was in a cell across from Terrill Thomas the last six days of Terrill Thomas’s life. Mr. Berry’s urging and pleas were repeatedly ignored by the defendants,” the complaint states.

By April 24, 10 days after his arrest, Thomas was reported unresponsive in his cell during a routine check by a guard.

When medical staff arrived, Thomas was lying naked on the floor of his cell, which was noted as “normal behavior” by the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office, according to the lawsuit.

Jail staff reportedly noted upon finding Thomas that he had “dried blood around his groin and trailing down his right leg, which was clearly visible upon inspection of his naked body.”

The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner ruled his death by dehydration a homicide, according to the complaint. His family says Thomas was “subjected to a form of torture by being intentionally and/or recklessly denied hydration.”

“Prisoners confined near Terrill Thomas’s cell overheard his cries for water for days, yet correctional, medical and psychological personnel ignored those cries and never gave Terrill Thomas water, presumably as some misguided form of punishment or retribution for the alleged crimes that brought him to the justice facility,” the lawsuit states.

“The amount of pain and suffering Terrill Thomas went through is really hard to comprehend, and a ton of this is captured on video,” James End, a layer with First, Albrecht & Blondis who worked on the case, told HuffPost in an interview. “The amount of suffering that Mr. Thomas went through was just tremendous, and that I think would be recognized by any person who took any time to listen to the facts of this case.”

STRAW BOSS FIGHTING FOR WHITEY. SHERIFF DAVID Clarke is a traitor to Blacks aNd a SNAG ($nitch-ass Negroes Aiding Governments. 2) COINTEL-BROs. 3) Smile Negro And Grin—while I put it In), A walking corpse engaged in self hatred, who carries out Step-n-Fetchit type actions for the dominant immoral majority (the psychopathic white power semi-organism), i.e., the Rhodes, Rothschild, Anglo Saxon Zionist power clique, UNKNOWINGLY at the expense of him/herself and KNOWINGLY at the expense (sell-out/buy-out) of his people and culture. [MORE]

Thomas’ children say Clarke, Schmidt, the jail staff and Armor Correction Health Service all directly participated in depriving Thomas of water.

“What happened to Terrill Thomas was a form of torture,” Erik Heipt, an attorney for the Thomas estate said. “He was a mentally ill man who needed help. Instead, he was deprived of life-sustaining nourishment — water.

“This is the sort of atrocity that should never happen in an American jail,” he added. “Ever. There’s no excuse for it.”

Thomas’ death was just one in a string of fatalities (including a newborn baby) inside the Milwaukee County Jail over a span of just seven months. After Thomas’ death, a 38-year-old female inmate and a 29-year-old male inmate died in August and October, respectively.

Three jail staffers were charged in connection to Thomas’ 2016 death after  jury recommended prosecutors charge them with felony abuse. Meadors and Ramsey-Guy were both charged with neglect of a resident of a penal facility. Meadors would go on to plead no contest to a felony charge of prisoner abuse and was sentenced to 60 days behind bars, while Ramsey-Guy got a 30-day sentence for a felony charge of abusing a resident of a penal facility.

Jail Cmdr. Nancy Lee Evans was also charged with felony misconduct and misdemeanor obstructing an office after prosecutors said she didn’t keep security footage of the guards shutting off the water supply and lied about what was in the footage. She pleaded guilty to felony misconduct in office earlier this year and was sentenced to nine months of what was expected to be house arrest.

Heipt was satisfied with the settlement and said he hopes something good will come from it.

In a statement, attorneys for the Thomas estate said that, “While no amount of money will give Mr. Thomas his life back — or allow his children to spend another day with their father — it is our hope that this case sends a message to every single jail and prison in America that this type of blatant disregard for human life will not be tolerated.”

White Baltimore Cop Charged w/Perjury & Misconduct but Prosecutors & Police Keep Reasons for Indictment Secret to Protect Corporate Police State

According to FUNKTIONARY: Corporate Police State - the enforcer of the commodification of life within the Spectacle Surveillance Society. Anyone who thinks that he or she is immune to the baseless destruction of his or her life (including immediate family members) by a "government" or corporation does live in a happy menagerie—enjoy your illusions. (See: GUPI & Judicial Victimization) [MORE]

According to Pew Survey: 71% of Blacks say "Race" Relations with Whites are Bad and 80% say Slavery Affects the Position of Black People Today

The Pew Research Center states, “More than 150 years after the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States, most U.S. adults say the legacy of slavery continues to have an impact on the position of black people in American society today. More than four-in-ten say the country hasn’t made enough progress toward racial equality, and there is some skepticism, particularly among blacks, that black people will ever have equal rights with whites, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

Opinions about the current state of race relations – and President Donald Trump’s handling of the issue – are also negative. About six-in-ten Americans (58%) say race relations in the U.S. are bad, and of those, few see them improving. Some 56% think the president has made race relations worse; just 15% say he has improved race relations and another 13% say he has tried but failed to make progress on this issue. In addition, roughly two-thirds say it’s become more common for people to express racist views since Trump became president.

Blacks are particularly gloomy about the country’s racial progress. More than eight-in-ten black adults say the legacy of slavery affects the position of black people in America today, including 59% who say it affects it a great deal. About eight-in-ten blacks (78%) say the country hasn’t gone far enough when it comes to giving black people equal rights with whites, and fully half say it’s unlikely that the country will eventually achieve racial equality.

Americans see disadvantages for blacks and Hispanics in the U.S. A majority of all adults (56%) say being black hurts people’s ability to get ahead at least a little, and 51% say the same about being Hispanic. In contrast, 59% say being white helps people’s ability to get ahead. Views about the impact of being Asian or Native American are more mixed.

Blacks, Hispanics and Asians are more likely than whites to say being white helps people’s ability to get ahead at least a little. Among whites, those who are more educated, as well as those who identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, are particularly likely to see advantages to being white.

The nationally representative survey of 6,637 adults was conducted online Jan. 22-Feb. 5, 2019, in English and Spanish, using Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel.1 In addition to exploring the public’s views about the state of race relations and racial inequality in America, the survey also looks at personal experiences with racial and ethnic discrimination and the role race plays in people’s lives. Among the report’s key findings:

Most Americans say it’s now more common for people to express racist or racially insensitive views; more than four-in-ten say it’s more acceptable.

Most Americans (65%) – including majorities across racial and ethnic groups – say it has become more common for people to express racist or racially insensitive views since Trump was elected president. A smaller but substantial share (45%) say this has become more acceptable.” [MORE]

Suit says 6 Cops at Fulton Jail Tortured Black Man to Death when They Tased, Beat & Pepper Sprayed Him & Then Applied a Water Hose to His Face While Restrained in Chair. Arrested for Trespass

From [AJC] The family of a Black man who died while in custody last September after he was repeatedly shocked with a Taser has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Fulton County jail and its health care provider. The suit, filed Wednesday in federal court, alleges “excruciating pain and suffering.”

Antonio May, 32, of Macon, had been taken to the Fulton County jail after he was arrested throwing rocks at the windows of the American Cancer Society building downtown. The suit says May struggled with mental health issues and had tested positive for amphetamines at the time of his arrest.

He arrived on what deputies had allegedly dubbed “Taser Tuesday,” according to to the complaint. Attorneys for May’s family said that phrase came from inmates and employees at the jail.

“What does that speak to the condition and treatment of individuals in Fulton County Jail?” said Teddy Reese, one of the family’s lawyers, who appeared at a Wednesday news conference outside the federal courthouse.

Fulton County Sheriff Ted Jackson is named in the suit. Through spokeswoman Tracy Flanagan, he declined to comment.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has said May was combative with jail staff, leading to a confrontation. Jail staff then used a stun gun on May and pepper-sprayed him.

After he was decontaminated from the pepper spray, he became unresponsive and died, GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles said.

May had been taken to the jail after Grady Memorial Hospital physicians diagnosed him with Substance Abuse Psychotic Disorder. Upon his arrival, May told a medical technician with NaphCare, Inc., the jail’s medical provider, that he was suicidal, the complaint alleges.

“As opposed to putting Mr. May in the Special Medical Observation Unit at the Fulton County Jail and giving him detoxifying chemical sedation, due to his mental health issues and due to him testing positive for amphetamines, the medical professionals at NaphCare, Inc. released Mr. May to the jail deputies to place Mr. May in a general holding cell,” the suit states.

While in the holding cell, May allegedly exposed himself, said attorney Michael Harper, who also represents the dead man’s family. Six deputies from the jail’s Direct Action Response Team unit responded and tased, beat and pepper sprayed May repeatedly, the suit alleges.

May was then placed in a restraining chair, a spit mask on is face, and taken to shower for decontamination.

“When the water from the shower did not remove all of the pepper spray the deputies put a water hose to Mr. May’s face while he was restrained in the chair,” the complaint says. May was pronounced dead minutes later.

“(May) was failed by everyone he came into contact with from the moment he arrived at the jail, which culminated with him being tortured and killed and lying in a pool of his own blood,” Harper said.

The Fulton County Jail, which opened in 1989, has previously faced legal action over its treatment of inmates. Federal court oversight of the facility ended in 2015, 11 years after the Southern Center for Human Rights sued, alleging crowded, dirty and dangerous conditions. The Southern Center also sued in 1999, claiming the facility provided inmates with inadequate health care.

In 2017, the jail’s medical contract was awarded to Correct Care, which subcontracted with the Morehouse School of Medicine to provide doctors and nurses. The contract was terminated after five inmates died within 75 days of each other late in 2017. Three, believed to be in withdrawal from opioid addiction, committed suicide. The other deaths were a diabetic man whose glucose levels were spiking and a woman who died naked on the floor of her cell after complaining she was having difficultly breathing.

Lawsuit claims Chicago Cops Pointed Rifles at Kids, Handcuffed an 8-year-old boy for 40 Minutes & Stole Money During Another “Niggerizing" Search of a Black Family's Home

Niggerized - "unsafe, unprotected, subjected and subjugated to random violence, hated for who you are to the point you become so scared that you defer to the powers that be while willing to consent to your own domination." - Dr. Cornell West quoted in FUNKTIONARY.

Anon states Nigger does not define who we are, it defines what is being done to us.

Atty says it is the 6th Lawsuit in Past 12 Months Where Non-White Kids Had Guns Unnecessarily Pointed at Them by Chicago PD. From [HERE] An Illinois family has filed a civil rights lawsuit alleging Chicago police officers used excessive force during a home raid in March when they pointed guns at children and handcuffed an 8-year-old boy. Attorney Al Hofeld, Jr. filed the lawsuit Wednesday after CBS Chicago broke the story Tuesday about the March 15 incident, during which officers executing a search warrant at the home of Domonique Wilson ordered Wilson and her three children, ages 6, 8 and 9, out of the home at riflepoint.  

Hofeld said the family was freezing and drenched in rain as they were made to stand outside the home, and Wilson's 8-year-old son Royal was handcuffed for between 35 and 40 minutes and suffered bruising to his wrist. The children, he said, were terrified, fearing they would be shot. All remain emotionally traumatized and suffer nightmares and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, he said.

"None of these children, none of these family members presented any threat whatsoever, real or apparent, at any time to any of the police officers on the scene," Hofeld said during a Wednesday press conference. "None of the family members resisted or fled. There was zero reason to point guns at them."

Royal Wilson told CBS Chicago he was scared for his little sister and didn't know what was going to happen to him. 

"They made me stand up straight and my hands behind my back, and they had them tight," Wilson told the station. "My legs were shaking."  

Speaking at the press conference, Domonique Wilson said she felt helpless as she watched her child crying because the handcuffs were too tight.

"I had to reassure him, nothing is going to happen to us," she said. "Hold on, stay strong and keep watching mommy."

Chicago police told CBS Chicago it's not the department's protocol to handcuff children. They said the handcuffs were removed once officers learned Royal's age. In a statement, the department said the subject of the search warrant — Wilson's adult son, according to Hofeld — was at the home, and officers had information there was an assault rifle inside. The warrant, obtained by CBS Chicago, says a confidential informant said the adult son had a illegal guns in the home and that he had "interacted with" the individual "over the past year at [the Wilsons'] residence."

"Due to the risk involved with a weapon that could penetrate body armor, the occupants of the residence followed verbal direction given over a public address system and exited the residence without needing to breach the door," Chicago police said in a statement to CBS Chicago. 

But no guns were found and no arrest were made, the station reports. Wilson's address was listed on the search warrant, but Hofeld said her adult son never lived at the home — he only happened to be staying overnight the morning of the raid.

The family also said officers tore apart the family's ceiling during the search and confiscated cash.

The police statement said the department "makes every effort to ensure the validity and accuracy of all information used to apply for an execute search warrants."    

CBS Chicago has reported on other instances of police pointing guns at children during raids during a year-long investigation. Hofeld said the Wilson family's lawsuit is the fifth he's filed against the Chicago police department during which children of color had guns unnecessarily pointed at them by officers, and a sixth case is pending. He said he represents 15 children "who in total illustrate for Chicago the silent mass trauma of kids of color caused by the police department's routine practice of pointing guns at children."

In all six cases, Hofeld claims officers were executing a search warrant at a wrong residence or based on erroneous information. But he said children can be traumatized during residential raids "whether the search warrant is sound or not."  

Hofeld's lawsuit points to a Department of Justice finding during its 2017 investigation of the Chicago police that the department has a "pattern or practice" of using less-than-lethal, excessive force against children for non-criminal conduct. Hofeld's lawsuit alleges that suggested reforms haven't been enacted.   

In March, Lori Lightfoot, now the newly sworn-in mayor of Chicago, responded to CBS Chicago's reporting and called on police superintendent Eddie Johnson to "own and take responsibility" for the issue. Johnson has declined interview requests from the station.

The station's investigation into how police raids affect children has reportedly led to proposed legislation, House Bill 51, which passed the Illinois Senate with a unanimous vote Tuesday and is now headed to the state House for a vote. It outlines steps officers would have to take when children are present during police activity to ensure they're safe, both physically and psychologically.

"Nobody should get treated the way that me and my family and all these other families got treated," Wilson told CBS Chicago. "These are children that are being traumatized — being woken up out of their sleep to guns pointed at them, thinking that they're about to get shot down."

US Govt Doesn’t Dispute that Border Patrol Murdered a Mexican Teen but Claims Agents Aren’t Liable b/c It Occurred Across an Imaginary Political Border & Involved a Non-Citizen. Sup Ct to Decide

NO REMEDY FOR UNPROVOKED SHOOTING BY GOVERNMENT AGENTS? According to FUNKTIONARY: Sovereign immunity - ''government" so-called, applying the law of the jungle to its relationship to the people. We are bound by the written law but those who wrote the law are bound by the law of the jungle. Makes you feel like a fool, doesn't it? Minority rule majority fooled? Surely, on earth as it is in heaven. Why would we ever allow "government" to assert the position that it is not bound by the same law that binds us? The answer is that we are fools sweet-talked by judges into believing that the "natural state of affairs" is to bind the people by law, and the "'government" by fiat. "Government" has replaced religion as the opiate of the masses using the Media as its subduing gasses (fumes of subterfuge). (See: CHAOS, Overrulers, Judicial System, Constitution, Law, Domestication, Justice, Economics, Civilization, Weitiko Disease & "Government") 

territorial borders - occult political conjurations superimposed upon natural human relations creating the imaginary partition of the planet earth. (See: Political Borders, Government, Assumptions, Beloved Community & Kingdom of Heaven).

LAW OVER HUMANITY SYSTEM. From [HERE] The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to consider once again whether the family of a Mexican teen has an implied right to sue in U.S. courts for his fatal cross-border shooting by a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

The high court granted cert in the case of Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca, who was 15 when he was shot and killed in June 2010 by an agent on the Texas side of the border. The Supreme Court had returned the case to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New Orleans for further review in 2017.

On remand, the 5th Circuit ruled that Hernandez’s family could not sue. The 9th Circuit at San Francisco reached the opposite result in a similar case involving a Border Patrol agent in Arizona. The facts are as follows:

On June 7, 2010, Sergio Adrián Hernández Güereca, a 15-year-old Mexican national, was with a group of friends in the cement culvert that separates El Paso, Texas, from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Now all but dry, the culvert once contained the waters of the Rio Grande River. The international boundary runs down the middle of the culvert, and at the top of the embankment on the United States side is a fence. According to the complaint, Hernández and his friends were playing a game in which they ran up the embankment on the United States side, touched the fence, and then ran back down. At some point, Border Patrol Agent Jesus Mesa, Jr., arrived on the scene by bicycle and detained one of Hernández’s friends in United States territory as the friend ran down the embankment. Hernández ran across the international boundary into Mexican territory and stood by a pillar that supports a railroad bridge spanning the culvert. While in United States territory, Mesa then fired at least two shots across the border at Hernández. One shot struck Hernández in the face and killed him. According to the complaint, Hernández was unarmed and unthreatening at the time. [MORE]

Contrary to elite media reports, the US Govt in its filings does not dispute the above facts. Their defense simply revolves around immunity for the above stated actions.

The case raises the question of whether a plaintiff who plausibly alleges that a federal law enforcement officer violated Fourth and Fifth amendment rights while serving within the official scope of employment can sue for damages under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. 

Specifically, the Government has argued that the 4th Amendment does not apply to persons outside the US and a so-called Bivens case has never been used to sue for damages on a 5th Amendment basis and may only be used for suits for 4th Amendment violations committed by federal agents. Leaving the teen’s family with no remedy. The Government’s response states:

“…the cross-border shooting at issue here must present a “new context” for a Bivens claim. Id. at 817. Because Hernandez was a Mexican citizen with no ties to this country, and his death occurred on Mexican soil, the very existence of any “constitutional” right benefitting him raises novel and disputed issues. Id. There has been no direct judicial guidance concerning the extraterritorial scope of the Constitution and its potential application to foreign citizens on foreign soil.

To date, the Supreme Court has refused to extend the protection of the Fourth Amendment to a foreign citizen residing in the United States against American law enforcement agents’ search of his premises in Mexico. United States v. Verdugo–Urquidez, 494 U.S. 259, 110 S.Ct. 1056, 108 L.Ed.2d 222 (1990). Language in Verdugo’s majority opinion strongly suggests that the Fourth Amendment does not apply to American officers’ actions outside of this country’s borders. Hernandez, 885 F.3d at 817; see also Verdugo–Urquidez, 494 U.S. at 274–275, 110 S.Ct. at 1066. In Hernandez, the Court itself described the Petitioners’ Fourth Amendment claims as raising “sensitive issues.” Id.; Hernandez v. Mesa, ___ U.S. ___, 137 S.Ct. 2003, 2007, 198 L.Ed.2d 625 (2017). “

The plaintiff’s have explained that no other remedy is available. Stating,

Two federal statutes—the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) and the Westfall Act—combine to ensure that result. On the one hand, the “foreign country exception” to the FTCA means that, because the locus of the injury at issue was in Mexico, any claim against the federal government will be barred by sovereign immunity. See 28 U.S.C. § 2680; Sosa v. AlvarezMachain, 542 U.S. 692, 700-712 (2004). On the other hand, the Westfall Act provides that, so long as Agent Mesa was acting within the scope of his employment when he shot the Hernández family’s son, state tort law claims are barred, and an FTCA claim against the federal government is the exclusive non-Bivens remedy. See 28 U.S.C. § 2679(b). That is so even though an FTCA claim is unavailable due to the “foreign country” exception to the FTCA. Gutierrez de Martinez v. Lamagno, 515 U.S. 417, 420 (1995). [MORE]

There is no statute similar to Section 1983 that explicitly provides individuals with a means to sue federal  officials who violate federal rights while acting under color of federal law. However, the Supreme Court held that, even without a specific statute, federal officials may be sued for damages and injunctive relief for violations of the 4th Amendment. These lawsuits are usually referred to as Bivens  actions. Federal courts have jurisdiction to hear Bivens  actions under 28 U.S.C. § 1331(a). A Bivens  action is the federal equivalent of a Section 1983 action.

In Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, this Court held that a damages action will lie against federal agents, acting under color of federal authority, for their alleged violation of a plaintiff’s constitutional rights. 403 U.S. 388, 395-397. (1971). The Court grounded such claims in the proposition that the ‘“very essence of civil liberty”’ requires that there be a remedy for injuries to rights. Id. at 397 (quoting Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 163 (1803)); accord id. at 392 (‘“[W]here federally protected rights have been invaded,”’ courts can ‘“adjust their remedies so as to grant the necessary relief”’). In Bivens itself, then, Bivens’s lack of available remedies for the violation of his Fourth Amendment rights justified creating a judicially-implied cause of action for damages.

This is the second time the court has entertained this case. In 2017 the Supreme Court sent the case back to the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit requesting the court reconsider in light of an earlier decision that disallowed the claims by the teenager’s family.

The court of appeals has twice ruled that the border-patrol agent could not be held liable for shooting the teen. The Supreme Court will hear the case during its next term, which begins in October.

ACLU Seeks $100M for Family of Non-White Migrant Woman Shot in the Head while Hiding & Posing No Threat to Border Patrol Cop after Crossing Imaginary Political Border

From [HERE] The American Civil Liberties Union is seeking $100 million on behalf of the family of a Guatemalan woman who was shot to death by a U.S. Border Patrol agent, is reporting.

The legal claim was filed Thursday – one year after Claudia Patricia Gómez González, 20, was killed.

The ACLU claims she “posed no threat to anyone, as would have been obvious from the slightest glance.” The claim says she was unarmed.

CBS News said that Gómez González, along with several migrants, had crossed the southern border and were confronted by a Border Patrol agent, who opened fire.

The claim, filed by the ACLU of Texas, demands $50 million each for personal injury and her wrongful death.

"Her life was as valuable as anyone else's, and her family deserves justice for their loss," said Andre Segura, the group's legal director. "Our government has a responsibility to treat everyone lawfully, humanely, and with respect regardless of how they came into this country."

The officer was searching for “illegal activity” in a culvert on a residential street in Rio Bravo, a border town about seven miles south of Laredo, when a group of undocumented immigrants started to hit him with “blunt objects,” United States Customs and Border Protection said. The officer, whose name was not released, fired at least one shot with his handgun, fatally striking the woman in the head.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrol's parent agency, maintained a member of the group rushed the agent and ignored orders to get on the ground. It claimed the agent fired one round.

A woman who lives next door to the site of the shooting disputed the federal agency’s account of the events, saying that the property does not have a culvert and that she did not see any weapons that the group could have used.

“They were on the very corner on that lot where there was a tree,” the woman, Marta V. Martinez, said in an interview Thursday morning. “There was no weapon. They were hiding.”

In an unpublished video viewed by BuzzFeed News, the sounds of ambulance sirens and crackling Border Patrol radios get louder as Martínez walks closer to the back of the empty lot, which is overrun by brush and trash.

“Come over here,” a Border Patrol agent can be heard saying in a mix of English and Spanish to a migrant man, one of the people Claudia had been with. “Come with me... What’s your friend’s name?”

As the border agent takes the man into custody and walks him toward the street, he points in Martínez’s direction and tells another agent that there are two more migrants on her property. They were hiding inside a dark and crumbling trailer home that occupies a spot on the lot.

Moments later, Martínez’s camera points to Claudia’s motionless body. She’s facedown in the brush near the chain-link fence that divides the two properties.

“Hey, we don’t want footage in there,” an agent tells Martínez.

“Why did you guys shoot him?” Martínez says, ignoring the agent.

“Hey, no, please, don’t get into this,” the Border Patrol agent says.

Martínez stays near the fence and continues to record. Claudia’s head is pointing to one of the front corners of the property, and her feet are near the fence. When the agent flips Claudia’s body over, the video captures Martínez’s horrified gasp. Blood covers the woman’s face. Martínez said that’s when she realized how young Claudia was.

“Oh my god, she's a girl, and you guys shoot her in the face,” Martínez says to the agents, her voice rising with shock.

That’s when Martínez went live on Facebook and started to follow the Border Patrol agents around her property as they detained two more migrant men. She asks repeatedly why the agents shot the young woman. At times, her tone is scolding.

“Why did you kill that woman? You killed her!” Martínez is heard saying to the agents. “I saw you with the gun.”

Later that day, CBP put out its first version of what had happened. In a statement, it said a lone Border Patrol agent had discovered a group of migrant people near a culvert. “Initial reports indicate that as the agent attempted to apprehend the group, he came under attack by multiple subjects using blunt objects,” the statement said, describing Claudia as “one of the assailants.” The agent, the statement said, then fired at least one shot and killed Claudia.

Two days later, CBP issued another statement, this time omitting any mention of blunt objects. It said a 15-year veteran of the Border Patrol had been “allegedly assaulted” and “rushed.”

“According to the agent, the group ignored his verbal commands [to get on the ground] and instead rushed him,” the statement read.

Martínez’s unpublished video, which she’s turned over to the FBI, challenges those accounts. For one, several agents are visible, though whether they arrived before or after the shooting isn’t apparent. For another, Claudia’s body is in the bushes near the fence that separates the empty lot from Martínez’s. Martínez thinks Claudia probably was hiding.

“It really angers and saddens me at the same time,” Martínez said. [MORE]

Gómez González had left for the U.S. after living in poverty and not being able to find work, CBS News reported.

Judge Finds White Rochester Cop Guilty of Misdemeanor Assault on Christopher Pate. Punched Black Man in the Face After He Refused to Show ID a 2nd Time During a False Arrest

From [HERE] and [HERE] Rochester Police Officer Michael Sippel was found guilty of third-degree misdemeanor assault against Christopher Pate and is scheduled to be sentenced July 25.

The ruling came in a ‘bench trial,’ which is decided by a judge, and not a jury. 

Sippel and his partner, Officer Spenser McAvoy, attempted to stop Pate because he appeared to resemble a suspect. The incident escalated as Pate first refused to show identification, then showed an ID and repeatedly said he had done so.

Body-camera footage presented at the trial showed the physical confrontation, which resulted in Pate sustaining a broken bone in his face, among other injuries. Sippel was indicted by a Monroe County grand jury. Officer Spenser McAvoy, Sippel’s partner, was not indicted.

“Based on the credible direct and circumstantial evidence before this court, I find the People have dis-proven justification beyond a reasonable doubt and by the same standard proven Michael Sippel guilty . …” The incident was later said to be a case of mistaken identity

The Rev. Lewis Stewart of the United Christian Leadership Ministry, said the verdict “is a victory certainly for the community.”

However, he criticized Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley for failing to indict McAvoy, and he also said Sippel should have been indicted on a felony charge rather than a misdemeanor. “If it were a regular citizen that had assaulted someone and broke (a) bone, that person would have been up for a felony charge.”

Mayor Lovely Warren issued a statement saying that the  verdict “sends a clear message that the City of Rochester and our Police Department does not, and will not, ever look the other way when our officers act inappropriately.  Any allegations of misconduct will be fully investigated and, if necessary, prosecuted.”

She also said that, “the Rochester Police Department remains committed to building trust and respect with the community it serves. The actions that led to this trial are a reminder that we must rededicate ourselves to this goal. “

Rochester Interim Police Chief La'Ron Singletary released this statement:

“As Interim Chief, I respect the decision of the court. As Interim Chief, I am also limited as to what I can comment on in relation to the outcome of the criminal court case, as there are internal departmental proceedings involving Michael Sippel in which I am responsible for rendering the final disposition. With respect to the court’s decision, the internal departmental proceeding will resume as it had prior to the criminal court case commencing, during which Michael Sippel will remain on suspension from the Rochester Police Department."

‘Somebody owes me lunch!’: A Black Prison Cop [infected w/Master's Yurugu virus] Celebrated a Black Woman’s Suicide. Michigan Prison Ignored Janika Edmond’s Many Calls for Help, Suit Settled for $860k

Ma'afa - {Kiswahili)—word-concept that means the ''Great Suffering" of Afrikans at the hands of the Europeans (Caucasian consciousness, i.e., the White Presumacy of White Supremacy) in the Western hemisphere. 2) the great disconnection from the cultural womb of Mother Africa by her kidnapped and enslaved children into foreign lands. The Ma'afa (a uniquely Afrikan experience perpetrated against Afrikans) carries the Yurugu virus. The process of the Ma'afa is Europeans committing cultural genocide (i.e., the killing of the genes) against Afrikan people with the main objective of erasing our cultural memory, which by design, breaking down the cultural (immune system) of the Afrikan people. In the Ma'afa we become the host for the Yurugu virus. It infects us and affects our thinking, spirituality, behavior and approach to life—regardless of the physical proximity of the Caucasian or jurisdiction to his system of justice or commerce—to the point where we destroy ourselves. (See: Culture, Yurugu, Double Consciousness, Afrikan Consciousness, Virus, Universal Consciousness & Antigen) FUNKTIONARY

From [WashPost] and [HERE] Shortly after 2 p.m. on a Monday in November 2015, an inmate in the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility, a sprawling prison in Ypsilanti, Mich., cried out that she “wants Bam Bam,” slang for an anti-suicide smock.

Janika Edmond of Adrian, Mich., knew she posed a danger to herself. The 25-year-old had been in this position before. Beset by major depressive and mood disorders, she had attempted suicide on numerous occasions while incarcerated, according to court filings. Several months earlier, the inmate, with closely cropped hair and the words “Beautiful Disaster” tattooed on her chest, had asked to be put on suicide precaution for her own safety.

Her latest cry for help was issued from a shower area where she had been stationed while waiting to be placed in an isolated cell. At least a dozen correctional officers were in earshot of the prisoner, lawyers allege. She was on mental health outpatient status at the time. None came to her aid.

Instead, one appeared to celebrate the inmate’s anguished appeal, according to a civil complaint reviewed by The Washington Post.

“Somebody owes me lunch!” Dianna Callahan, a prison guard, gloated, according to the legal filing, which cites video records maintained by the Michigan Department of Corrections.

The guard raised her fist into the air, pumping it three times and flashing a thumbs-up sign. She repeated, “Somebody owes me lunch!”

Now, the state owes Edmond’s family $860,000, as part of a settlement agreement in a wrongful-death lawsuit that arose from the episode. The settlement was approved last week by Judge Robert H. Cleland of the U.S. District Court in Detroit.

“It’s horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible,” an attorney for Edmond’s family, David Steingold, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “It’s a catastrophe that should never have happened if the prison officials had just done their jobs.”

But evidence from the scene suggests officials had different incentives. One minute after Callahan’s celebratory gesture, she engaged another prison official in talk of a Subway sandwich — her prize, Steingold observes, for winning a bet among the correctional officers about whether the notoriously volatile inmate would again become suicidal.

Two minutes later, choking sounds emanated from the shower area. The noises continued for several minutes, and no one intervened, as detailed in the complaint, which describes a timeline confirmed by a transcription of video footage prepared by the Michigan State Police and obtained by MLive.com.

Nearly 20 minutes after she had first called for help, Edmond was discovered lying in the shower. She had a bra around her neck.

She had entered the prison in 2013 for a probation violation stemming from charges of assault with a dangerous weapon. She was scheduled to be released as early as April 2016, according to the federal lawsuit.

Prison staff administered CPR and applied an automated external defibrillator. Paramedics arrived and discovered that she still had a pulse. They transported her about 10 miles to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, where the inmate’s mother was turned away, according to the complaint, told that Edmond could not receive visitors. It took the Michigan Department of Corrections 24 hours to alert family members to the inmate’s suicide attempt, the filing maintains.

Edmond was declared brain dead on Nov. 6, 2015, four days after being transported to the hospital. She was pronounced dead five days after that.

The complaint asserts that the failure of the correctional facility to “properly treat Edmond’s mental illness and its actions in discriminating against her and punishing her because of it, exacerbated her mental difficulties, including her suicidal ideations, and caused her suicide.”

A spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections declined to comment on the settlement.

Suicides accounted for 7 percent of all deaths in state prisons in 2014, representing the largest share observed since 2001, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported. Female prisoners are at least nine times as likely to die by suicide as is the general female population, according to a 2017 study published in the peer-reviewed Lancet journal.

Meanwhile, how little about such episodes is clarified by official accounts was made stark earlier this month with the release of cellphone footage recorded by Sandra Bland in July 2015, before she died by suicide in a Texas jail. The fresh insight into her interaction with a Texas state trooper led her family to renew its call for accountability. (The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides free and confidential support for people in distress.)

Callahan was suspended in the days after the incident inside the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility, which is the only prison in the state that houses women. She was fired the following spring. The officer with whom she had allegedly spoken about a Subway sandwich, Kory Moore, was also fired, but she was later reinstated after arbitration. Moore, who was supervising Callahan as resident unit manager at the time of Edmond’s suicide, ultimately left her position, MLive.com reported.

According to the news outlet, it was not until state officials read media reports about the terminations that they opened an investigation into the circumstances of the suicide. According to the complaint, state police first learned of the episode from a county medical examiner, who contacted a state trooper seeking information that he was unable to obtain from the prison.

The corrections agency later acknowledged it should have notified Michigan State Police more quickly. It also pledged to clarify its policies about when an inmate death requires contacting the police.

Unambiguous, however, were policies obliging staff to respond immediately to warnings of suicidal behavior by inmates, as the complaint notes. “When a mental health emergency is suspected, custody staff shall place the prisoner in an observation room,” one directive states. Another declares, “If a prisoner engages in suicidal or self-injurious behavior which is life threatening, staff shall immediately respond.”

“At no time relevant hereto,” the civil complaint alleges, “did any MDOC staff member immediately respond to Edmond’s life threatening suicidal behavior.”

Callahan pleaded no contest last year to a charge of involuntary manslaughter, avoiding a trial.

In addition to the local criminal case, the episode spawned the federal lawsuit, first filed in February 2017, as well as a similar suit, filed that April, in the county court system.

The federal suit, a final version of which was filed in June of last year, named the Michigan Department of Corrections and 12 of its current and former employees as defendants. It sought damages for loss of “love, society and companionship,” among other deprivations, on behalf of Sheila Clarke, Edmond’s aunt and the representative of her estate.

Ultimately, she settled for $860,000. Some of that sum will cover legal fees and other costs. What remains of the settlement, nearly $550,000, will be split evenly between Edmond’s adult siblings, Jacob Christopher Edmond and Cazz Vinson Jr.

The money is insufficient to salve their loss, Steingold said. Family members, who were not immediately told of Edmond’s condition, arrived at the hospital to “witness doctors pulling the plug on her,” he said.

She knew she needed help, the attorney said. She sought it out. Instead of coming to her assistance, however, the officer charged with her protection “ordered her winnings.”

Investigation of Alabama Prison Reveals a Pattern of Officer-on-Prisoner Assaults, Officer Complicity in Widespread Drug Trafficking & a Growing Rate of Abuse & Violence

From [EJI] In October 2018, after receiving dozens of reports of officer-on-prisoner assaults – including one reported murder of an incarcerated man – and officer complicity in drug trafficking, EJI re-initiated its investigation at Elmore Correctional Facility (formerly "Staton Annex") and adjacent Staton Correctional Facility in Elmore, Alabama. EJI's investigation, which included interviews with dozens of incarcerated people, former officers, and staff, has uncovered a pattern of officer-on-prisoner assaults, officer complicity in widespread drug trafficking and extortion, and a growing rate of abuse and violence. 

Inadequate staffing at Elmore/Staton has created serious security conditions and put incarcerated men at risk of unprecedented levels of violence. In the past three years, 11 incarcerated men were killed at Elmore/Staton, which had an annual homicide rate over that period of 144 homicides per 100,000 incarcerated people – a rate that is 20.5 times the national average.

Staff and incarcerated men report there is often no officer presence in the housing units. Staffing levels are grossly inadequate for sufficient monitoring or security. At Elmore, for example, as few as eight officers are at times responsible for managing the entire prison, with a population of over 1100 men. A single officer is typically assigned to a dorm of 198 men and rarely enters the dorm. Basic security functions, including searching for contraband and controlling movement in the facility, have been all but abandoned.

As a result of the freedom of movement and absence of staff, stabbings, assaults, and extortion are regular features of daily life in these Alabama prisons. These conditions have in turn fueled an epidemic of drug use, untreated mental illness, and a thriving underground economy. Drugs, weapons, and other contraband flow through the prisons unregulated and sometimes aided by correctional staff. Incarcerated people accumulate debts to other incarcerated people, who enforce collection through violence and sexual assault. 

This economy, and the physical and sexual violence and torture employed to collect debts, is so entrenched that the pleas of incarcerated people and their families for protection from extortion are routinely ignored. 

According to multiple sources, drug overdoses and serious violence have become so common at Elmore that groups of two to three incarcerated men are regularly assigned to "ambulance teams" that are tasked with going into housing units to retrieve men who are overdosing on drugs or injured in assaults. On an average day at Elmore, an ambulance team will retrieve 30 men who are so intoxicated they require medical attention. On a single day in fall 2017, an ambulance team retrieved over 100 incarcerated men who were overdosing.  

The consequences of officer misconduct and complicity in the drug overdose epidemic at Elmore and Staton have been deadly. On December  9, 2017, 35-year-old Billy Smith died at Jackson Hospital in Montgomery, Alabama, after being violently assaulted at Elmore. EJI received information from multiple credible sources implicating Elmore officers and leadership in the assault. A lieutenant, sergeant, and several officers were in the shift office when the assault occurred. Mr. Smith was later sent to the hospital, where he died on December 9, 2017. The prison reported Mr. Smith's death as a "natural death."

In October 2018, an intellectually disabled young man was found by officers to be in possession of a cell phone. The officers placed one of his hands in handcuffs and then body-slammed him onto the floor, head first, before cuffing his other hand. After they dragged him a few feet outside the dorm, the officers were joined by a sergeant. An officer then put on a pair of rubberized gloves and punched the handcuffed man in the ear. He immediately collapsed and was unable to get up.

This widespread extortion and officer complicity also impacts the families of incarcerated people. One family reported to EJI that between 2015 and 2017 they paid over $6000 to officers and other incarcerated men who threatened to kill their son if they did not cooperate. The young man was assaulted on a number of occasions and was at particular risk of violence because he was intellectually disabled and suffered from severe mental health issues. The family made payment on over 50 occasions in the short period that their son was at Elmore and, when they could no longer afford the escalating requests, the young man was sexually assaulted. The trauma from this experience continued even after he was released, ultimately leading to his hospitalization for psychiatric treatment after he returned home.

Former officers and staff reported that abuse and excessive use of force in confronting non-threatening incarcerated men is commonplace. They identified the failure of leadership to hold abusive officers accountable as a principal reason officers and staff resign. One officer reported that, on his second day as an officer, he saw his fellow correctional officers pull a man off his bunk, beat him, and drag him through the dorm. During such assaults, cadets were instructed to leave the area and not intervene, which led many cadets to accept the abuse as part of the system's operation.

The culture of violence and abuse of power at Elmore has been documented repeatedly by EJI over the past six years. EJI filed a complaint with the Department of Justice in 2013 after an investigation revealed a pattern of excessive physical violence at Elmore, where correctional staff at the highest levels have been found to have engaged in extreme and excessive violence against incarcerated men. EJI found that a group of officers were taking men into isolated areas of the prison where they were handcuffed, stripped naked, and beaten. Several incarcerated men were beaten so severely they required hospitalization and suffered permanent injuries. The warden and other high-ranking prison officials were implicated in some of the beatings and misconduct. 

Several officers involved in beatings at Elmore reportedly were previously accused of sexual abuse of women at Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Alabama, or physical abuse of male prisoners at other Alabama prisons. Alabama Department of Corrections officials were notified about criminal misconduct but failed to hold institutional officers and leadership accountable. EJI subsequently filed an official complaint with the Department of Justice, asking it to intervene. The department launched a criminal investigation at Elmore in 2014 that led to indictments of officers for criminal misconduct.

The first of a group of officers who beat handcuffed inmates at Elmore pleaded guilty in federal court in 2017 to assaulting a handcuffed inmate.

On April 1, 2019, the Justice Department announced that it had obtained a second guilty plea to a brutal officer-on-inmate assault that took place in February 2019. The department also found that Elmore officers not only beat and brutalized handcuffed prisoners but also falsified reports in violation of the law. Sergeant Ulysses Oliver pleaded guilty in federal court to criminal abuse of a prisoner. EJI identified Mr. Oliver as one of the officers who engaged in misconduct at Tutwiler Prison for Women, where he was accused by several women of choking, assaulting, and sexually abusing women. Despite these reports, he was elevated to sergeant and transferred to Elmore.

While the recent conviction of Mr. Oliver is a long-awaited response to widespread abuse of incarcerated men by some correctional staff at Elmore/Staton, serious and significant reforms aimed at reducing violence and abuse have not yet been implemented.

Indigenous Panamanians say Nike Appropriated an Ancestral Artistic Symbol for Use in a Shoe Design & Seek Compensation

After Unjustly Enriching Themselves from Slavery, Banksters at JP Morgan Seek to Enslave Blacks w/Monetized Debt Under a Pretense of Reparation & Wealth Creation

The following fluff piece from Fortune should be considered in the context of the following from FUNKTIONARY

JAMIE DIMON, CEO OF JP MORGAN. IN 2004 JP MORGAN CHASE ADMITTED THAT IT PROFITED FROM THE ENSLAVEMENT OF BLACKS. IT ACKNOWLEDGED OWNING 13,000 SLAVES. COO JAMIE DIMON [RACIST SUSPECT IN PHOTO] SAID J.P. MORGAN WAS SORRY FOR CONTRIBUTING TO A "BRUTAL AND UNJUST INSTITUTION" AND OUTLINED HOW IT PLANNED TO REPAIR THE DAMAGE. [MORE]

WELLS FARGO & JP MORGAN ARE THE CHIEF FINANCIERS OF PRIVATE PRISON COMPANIES [CORECIVIC & GEOGROUP] PROFITING OFF THE INCARCERATION OF NON-WHITE IMMIGRANTS [MORE]

JPMORGAN CHASE & CO RARELY LENDS MONEY TO BLACK PEOPLE. [MORE] AND HAS CHARGED THEM MORE FOR CAR LOANS. [MORE]

JP MORGAN ALSO GOT PAID EXPLOITING INMATES RELEASED FROM PRISON USING THEIR DEBIT CARDS/ [MORE] AND [MORE]

Bank - formerly a safe place to store wealth—now a place that expropriates wealth with credit that its agents create out of nothing (Federal Reserve Banks) or via theft of an alleged borrower's promissory note by fraudulent concealment and unequal protection under the law (in member Commercial banks). The place where "the actual process of money 'creation' takes place." 2) a system of recording, tracking, and altering entries (fiduciary accounting media units) upon notice (authorization) by its producer-participant creator-redeemers. 3) a place where you will never be left a loan. Bank is short for "bankrupt." All banks that pretend to practice fractional reserve banking (really fictional—thus the pretense) are inherently bankrupt, i.e., it cannot redeem all the 'money' titles (notes) it has issued. Since what is being used as "money" is intangible, there is nothing (no thing or substance) with which to redeem. Whenever you see the word "bank" clearly overstand that a con game is being perpetrated on you and whoever participates in that system of sanctioned (allowed) transparent theft. (See: Cultural Induction, ROB. Currency Switch, Dollar, Gangbanking, "Credit" & "Monetized Debt")

banker - a person who "creates" "money" psychologically by simply recording numbers (through fraudulent concealment; ill-defined property rights as to who exclusively "owns" the deposit) in/on a "depositor's" account and fools the "depositor* of the Uniform Commercial Code negotiable instrument into believing he/she is really a "borrower." 2) a person who loans nothing and charges interest (vapor) on the privilege to record and keep track of numbers manually and electronically. 3) one who operates or manages a bank operation (bank-job). 4) a pawn broker with a shave. (See: Bankster, Bank Loan, Gangbanking, Usury, Interest, Fractional Reserve Banking, Fictional Reserve Banking, Central Bank, "Credit" & Currency Switch)

bankers - pillagers of the community (through usury, inflation, credit-debt, vaguely-defined property rights, vapor charge, and fraudulent concealment) disguised as pillars of the community. 2) Vaudevillains. (See: Bankster, Gangbanking & Usury)

banking - a fraudulent mis-information system (distorting actual property rights) and practice prohibited by at least six states in their earlier constitutions. 2) a history of fraud and deceit; conceived in inequity and born in sin. 3) the process by which people pledge existent wealth and a negotiable IOU for fiduciary media in the form of "monetized debt." 4) a dis-information system designed by and for the aristocratic/phallocratic non-producing class. 5) a legalized crime. Without contributing anything in return, banking (win-lose; zero-sum paradigms) siphon off the property and prosperity that win-win economies can produce. Chain-banking (gangbanking) drain economies until we reach the end of the dirty game called "monetize debt" and the pathological system of exploitation through which it operates—debt-based economies. Banking tricks for imperceptibly siphoning economies (transferring wealth via stealth) are pervasive as the weather, though none of them counts as truly economic. Stealing is never economical. Creating fictitious value (creating deposit credits) and pretending it to be a "loan" of actual existing (already earned) symbolic value isn't exchange. It is subterfuge, fraud and deception. Profiting from contrived scarcity isn't exchange. It is theft through manipulation and control of information. Speculating on currencies isn't exchange. What good does betting on the weather have to economies? If you control weather patterns and the relative exchange value of political currencies, then you can make a windfall profit—but don't include it as exchange. Cornering and controlling markets isn't exchange. Creating imaginary demand and then charging interest on fictitious value isn't exchange. Banking, under the scarcity-premise of debt-based economies distorts and abort exchange, rather than facilitate it. Banks don't need bailing out— they need hauling out—reconfigured where they are strictly prohibited by law to create surrogate exchange-value (purchasing power, i.e., "money" in whatever form) in excess of the actual service-value they provide to customers as general ledger accounting and clearinghouse systems for and between those who actually produce value and wealth and the symbolic media that act as claims on them in open exchange. When you truly overstand modem banking, the crime is as easy to detect as someone breaking into your home and exiting with your belongings. The legalized crime of banking is as pervasive as the air »e breathe but that's not an environment we should either accept or bequeath. (See: Scarcity, Exchange, "Credit," Value, Political Money, Gangbanking, Debt-Based, "Monetized Debt," Voluntary Exchange, Plutocracy, Monetary System, Fascism, Monetary Realism, Dollar & LOP-Sided Banking)

COIN OPERATED TOKEN PROXYMORONS FOR JP MORGAN

From [Fortune] By combining its philanthropic and business resources, J.P. Morgan has embarked on a new leading initiative called, Advancing Black Pathways.  J.P. Morgan understands that there are substantial racial differences in three key areas:  Career advancement, wealth opportunities, and within the education system. Under the inspired leadership of Sekou Kaalund and Thasunda Brown Duckett, these two powerhouse individuals, along with their team are dedicating time and energy to implementing programs, partnerships, and ideas that will create the economic success needed in the Black community.

“We want Blacks to be exposed to the financial tools, so that they can effectively engage in the banking system. We want to help them become a part of the financial system and not in the shadows,” says Kaalund.  As a result of historical experiences, many Blacks find it hard to trust banks, and in fact, 17% of African American consumers do not have a bank account.  Furthermore, 33% of African American consumers rely on alternative financial services such as payday loans, and many Blacks have decided to opt out of the banking system.  Kaalund passionately says that “this is the mentality we want to shift. The opting out to opting in.” With dynamic campaigns such as Currency Conversations, J.P. Morgan has teamed up with Essence, and they are traveling the country discussing money with Black women.  Black women are usually the CFO of the household, and J.P. Morgan is curating content and programs to help educate them.  The objectives of these conversations are to help, guide, and support women on their wealth building journey. “Currency Conversations is not about selling products. It’s about having those conversations and candid finance discussions. Let’s facilitate a real and honest conversation so that you create financial accountability partners within your circle,” says Kaalund.  With financial experts and community ambassadors of all ages, Currency Conversations is looking to help 20,000 Black women across the country both pledge and make a commitment to financial success!

“Our goal is to get the needed financial tools out to the community in a culturally relevant way.  We want to relate to the community so that they can better digest and better understand what is given,” says Kaalund.

J.P. Morgan is shifting the narrative and they are focusing on the fundamentals. “When you provide individuals with a foundation, they can build on that foundation,” says Kaalund. It’s not that the Black community does not want to learn how to build wealth; they instead need help with breaking down both the mental and financial barriers that are stopping them from thriving in America.  Whether it be designing financial tools and providing support to increase home ownership or the Entrepreneurs of Color Fund that provides capital to Black businesses, J.P. Morgan has a dedicated team who understands, believes, and focuses on solutions that will help Blacks increase their net worth. With the help of a dynamic Advisory Council, both Kaalund and Duckett, have the opportunity to pour out, but in a scalable way. The two are a force to be reckoned with, and they are here to drive outcome and impact at J.P. Morgan.

This dynamic, one of a kind initiative will soon create a shift in America’s current economic disparities. [lol there is no way to measure any of this crap]. J.P. Morgan plans to create a space where the African Americans will not only learn how to thrive financially, but they will also believe that it is possible.  The discussions around financial health, the access to capital and support for Black businesses, the career advancement opportunities for students, and more are at the core of The Advancing Black Pathways initiative. J.P. Morgan is ultimately making a broader dent, so that wealth in the Black community grows. They are ready to make a large impact, and they hope other corporations will soon follow.  The Advancing Black Pathways effort is one that will leave a compelling and lasting imprint on the hearts and bank accounts of those in the Black community. With a culturally driven, uniquely designed, and committed approach, The Advancing Black Pathways initiative is giving Blacks the confidence they need to walk forward and fulfill their dreams. [MORE]

Federal Appeals Court Revives Suit Against French Bank Over Aiding Atrocities in Sudan. Banksters Processed Thousands of Transactions that Funded Genocide Campaign

BNP Paribas CEO Jean-Laurent Bonnafe speaks during a news conference.

From [HERE] The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Wednesday reversed the district court’s dismissal of a class action lawsuit against French bank BNP Paribas over aiding atrocities in Sudan.

The lawsuit was brought in 2016 by 21 refugees from Sudan’s ethnic-cleansing campaign alleging that the bank conspired with and aided and abetted the Sudanese regime. The plaintiffs’ complaint alleges that BNP processed thousands of illegal transactions through its New York offices, which financed weapons purchases and funded a militia in a “well-documented genocidal campaign.”

The reversal comes nearly five years after BNP pleaded guilty to committing large-scale violations of sanctions against Sudan, Cuba and Iran, which resulted in a record $8.97 billion fine.

Circuit Judge Barrington Parker wrote the opinion, which held that the claim is indeed subject to judicial review because the lower court “misapplied the act of state doctrine and erroneously determined that the Adult Plaintiffs’ claims were untimely.”

In the 2018 dismissal, Judge Alison Nathan said the act of state doctrine barred her from examining the validity of Sudan’s official actions. However, the reversal notes that BNP did not introduce evidence suggesting “that genocide is the 13 official policy of Sudan.” Further, the Second Circuit held that “even for purposes of act-of-state deference,” the court cannot deem “genocide, mass rape, and ethnic cleansing” as valid state actions because such acts “violate jus cogens norms.”

The case will be remanded to the district court for further proceedings.

Under Proposed Bill CA Cops Must Use Other Options Before Using Deadly Force “if reasonably safe & feasible" [how will racist DA’s, judges, jurors & cops enforce & interpret the law?]

From [HERE] and [HERE] California’s most prominent bill to restrict when cops can use deadly is moving forward, but with changes that make criminal prosecutions of police officers less likely.

Assembly Bill 392 is now co-sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, all but ensuring the legislation moves closer to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk.

Following the amendments, Newsom said in a news release that AB 392 is “an important bill” that “will help restore community trust in our criminal justice system.”

The changes signify compromise between principal co-author Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, and law enforcement groups that had opposed it.

Police unions and chiefs worried that the bill’s original language declaring that cops could only use deadly force if it was “necessary” would cause officers to second guess themselves in split-second decisions for fear of repercussion and thus compromise public safety. In April, a police lobbyist called the bill an “impossible standard.”

Currently, officers can use lethal force if their actions are considered “reasonable” to protect themselves or others.

“We need this resolution to save lives, protect public safety, and guarantee justice in every community,” Rendon said in a written statement that praised Weber’s dedication to the issue.

The language now allows lethal action only when “an officer reasonably believes, based on the totality of the circumstances, that deadly force is necessary to defend against an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the officer or to another person” and when apprehending a fleeing felon that threatens considerable harm.

The bill leaves it up to the court to analyze whether an officer’s action is justified.

The proposed bill language leaves out a specific definition of "necessary," which would leave interpretation up to the legal system to figure out case by case. The current law defines necessary as

(3)“Necessary” means that, given the totality of the circumstances, an objectively reasonable peace officer in the same situation would conclude that there was no reasonable alternative to the use of deadly force that would prevent death or serious bodily injury to the peace officer or to another person.

The most significant aspect of the bill seems to be that it attempts to make it clear that police officers should only use deadly force when they don’t have other options. The proposal states:

As set forth below, it is the intent of the Legislature that peace officers use deadly force only when necessary in defense of human life. In determining whether deadly force is necessary, officers shall evaluate each situation in light of the particular circumstances of each case, and shall use other available resources and techniques if reasonably safe and feasible to an objectively reasonable officer.

It defines the following:

(1) “Deadly force” means any use of force that creates a substantial risk of causing death or serious bodily injury, including, but not limited to, the discharge of a firearm.

(2) A threat of death or serious bodily injury is “imminent” when, based on the totality of the circumstances, a reasonable officer in the same situation would believe that a person has the present ability, opportunity, and apparent intent to immediately cause death or serious bodily injury to the peace officer or another person. An imminent harm is not merely a fear of future harm, no matter how great the fear and no matter how great the likelihood of the harm, but is one that, from appearances, must be instantly confronted and addressed.

WILL THE NEW LAW EFFECT WHETHER WHITE PROSECUTORS CHARGE THE WHITE COPS WHO SHOT WILLIE MCCOY OVER 20 TIMES INSTEAD OF TAPPING ON HIS WINDOW TO WAKE HIM UP AS HE SLEPT IN A PARKED CAR? DONT HOLD YOUR BREATH IN A SYSTEM OF INJUSTICE.

The entire proposed bill reads as follows:

SEC. 2.

 Section 835a of the Penal Code is amended to read:

 (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(1) That the authority to use physical force, conferred on peace officers by this section, is a serious responsibility that shall be exercised judiciously and with respect for human rights and dignity and for the sanctity of every human life. The Legislature further finds and declares that every person has a right to be free from excessive use of force by officers acting under color of law.

(2) As set forth below, it is the intent of the Legislature that peace officers use deadly force only when necessary in defense of human life. In determining whether deadly force is necessary, officers shall evaluate each situation in light of the particular circumstances of each case, and shall use other available resources and techniques if reasonably safe and feasible to an objectively reasonable officer.

(3) That the decision by a peace officer to use force shall be evaluated carefully and thoroughly, in a manner that reflects the gravity of that authority and the serious consequences of the use of force by peace officers, in order to ensure that officers use force consistent with law and agency policies.

(4) That the decision by a peace officer to use force shall be evaluated from the perspective of a reasonable officer in the same situation, based on the totality of the circumstances known to or perceived by the officer at the time, rather than with the benefit of hindsight, and that the totality of the circumstances shall account for occasions when officers may be forced to make quick judgments about using force.

(5) That individuals with physical, mental health, developmental, or intellectual disabilities are significantly more likely to experience greater levels of physical force during police interactions, as their disability may affect their ability to understand or comply with commands from peace officers. It is estimated that individuals with disabilities are involved in between one-third and one-half of all fatal encounters with law enforcement.

(b) Any peace officer who has reasonable cause to believe that the person to be arrested has committed a public offense may use objectively reasonable force, other than deadly force,force to effect the arrest, to prevent escape escape, or to overcome resistance.

(c) (1) Notwithstanding subdivision (b), a peace officer is justified in using deadly force upon another person only when the officer reasonably believes, based on the totality of the circumstances, that such force is necessary for either of the following reasons:

(A) To defend against an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the officer or to another person.

(B) To apprehend a fleeing person for any felony that threatened or resulted in death or serious bodily injury, if the officer reasonably believes that the person will cause death or serious bodily injury to another unless immediately apprehended. Where feasible, a peace officer shall, prior to the use of force, make reasonable efforts to identify themselves as a peace officer and to warn that deadly force may be used, unless the officer has objectively reasonable grounds to believe the person is aware of those facts.

(2) A peace officer shall not use deadly force against a person based on the danger that person poses to themselves, if an objectively reasonable officer would believe the person does not pose an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the peace officer or to another person.

(d) A peace officer who makes or attempts to make an arrest need not retreat or desist from their efforts by reason of the resistance or threatened resistance of the person being arrested. A peace officer shall not be deemed an aggressor or lose the right to self-defense by the use of objectively reasonable force in compliance with subdivisions (b) and (c) to effect the arrest or to prevent escape or to overcome resistance. For the purposes of this subdivision, “retreat” does not mean tactical repositioning or other deescalation tactics.

(e) For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply:

(1) “Deadly force” means any use of force that creates a substantial risk of causing death or serious bodily injury, including, but not limited to, the discharge of a firearm.

(2) A threat of death or serious bodily injury is “imminent” when, based on the totality of the circumstances, a reasonable officer in the same situation would believe that a person has the present ability, opportunity, and apparent intent to immediately cause death or serious bodily injury to the peace officer or another person. An imminent harm is not merely a fear of future harm, no matter how great the fear and no matter how great the likelihood of the harm, but is one that, from appearances, must be instantly confronted and addressed.

(3) “Totality of the circumstances” means all facts known to the peace officer at the time and includes the tactical conduct and decisions time, including the conduct of the officer and the subject leading up to the use of deadly force.

If a Black Cop Pinned a White Woman Down on the side of the highway & Punched her in the Face Over & Over Again [DEADLY FORCE], would Criminal Charges be filed?

“Laws Protect No One.” Laws will not change the relationship between racists and Black people or the master servant relationship between Government and people. FUNKTIONARY warns, “obsessions with law bring oppression by law.”

Neely Fuller explains that an otherwise neutral law or policy becomes a "non-law" when it is used by racists in such a manner as to promote injustice. It is the application of policy or laws by racist citizens, prosecutors, jurors and judges that creates injustice for non-whites.  At any rate, if there were a legislative remedy to address the unnecessary and disproportionate use of deadly force on Black and Latino people it would be a law created and funded by white legislators, administered by white Government workers, enforced by white prosecutors and remedied by white jurors and judges - the same racist suspects who participate, perpetuate and/or benefit from this system of white domination and control.

The system of White supremacy/racism, a system of vast unequal power between whites and blacks is the source of police brutality and so many other problems affecting Black people. To end or neutralize white supremacy Black people must end or neutralize white power. This can begin as soon as Blacks stop participating in, legitimizing, consenting to and drop out of white people’s fantastic con game.

New Videos Show Min Cops Trying to Cover-Up the Killing of Justine Damond. But it’s Historically Rare for a Black Cop to Shoot or Get Away w/Shooting an Unarmed White Person in White Supremacy System

“In Death of a Dark Nation” Anon explains, “It is rare for a white police officer to be punished for using excessive force against a black man, woman, or child. It is just as rare for a black police officer to use excessive force against a white person.

In fact, the authors were unable to find a single instance of a black police officer shooting or killing an unarmed white person in the history of modern law enforcement. This is not surprising but it is absolute proof that the black individual operating within a system of white supremacy cannot mistreat whites even if he or she is wearing a uniform, a badge, and carrying a gun." [MORE] 

BLACK PEOPLE MAKE UP 13% OF THE US POPULATION.

Note than Anon is also necessarily saying that it is even more rare for a Black cop to get away shooting or killing an unarmed white person. BW can only find 2 perhaps 3 episodes [Dillion Taylor in Utah and allegedly Ofc Christopher Dorner in LA] involving a Black cop shooting an unarmed white person in the history of modern law enforcement. The cop who shot Taylor was not charged. If you know of any others let us know.

Similarly, prominent researchers have documented a pattern of discrimination in the application of the death penalty based on the race of the victim, race of the defendant, or both, in nearly every state that uses capital punishment. Blacks who murdered whites were found more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks." [MORE] and [MORE] In fact, the Baldus study found that Blacks are 22 times more likely to be put to death when the victim is white.

According to [FTP]New details are emerging about the tragic shooting of Justine Damond, a white woman shot to death by Officer Mohamed Noor, a Black police officer. On April 30, Noor was convicted for murder and manslaughter in Damond’s death. And now, evidence from the trial — in the form of body camera footage and 911 recordings — is being released.

On that fateful night, officer Noor was sitting in the passenger seat of his patrol car and opened fire through the driver’s side door hitting Damond at least once in the abdomen. Noor and his partner were responding to her 911 call about a possible sexual assault. Noor’s pending appeal explains:

“Mr Noor reacted to a dark alley in the middle of the night, a thump on the squad, a voice, a body appearing at the driver’s side window, the startled announcement of fear by officer Harrity as he reached for his firearm, and his observation that the person in the window was raising their right arm,” the lawyers wrote.

“Mr Noor’s actions to defend his partner and himself, in the context of that night, are not evidence of the depraved mind envisioned by Minnesota courts for the last hundred years.”

Conveniently, for Noor and his partner, it was revealed at the time that neither of them had activated their body cameras. The dashcam, we were told, was not recording any video footage either.

Now, however, with the release of this new evidence, we see that the entire department has a problem with turning off their body cameras.

As the Star Tribune reports:

PROSECUTORS RAISED THE SPECTER OF POLICE SECRECY AT TRIAL, NOTING THAT SEVERAL OFFICERS AT THE SCENE ONLY SPOKE TO INVESTIGATORS AFTER THEY WERE SUBPOENAED TO APPEAR BEFORE A GRAND JURY. THEY ALSO SCRUTINIZED BODY CAMERA USE, AND THE VIDEO EVIDENCE SHOWED REPEATED CONCERN AT THE SCENE FOR NOOR AND HIS RIGHT TO NOT SPEAK ABOUT THE SHOOTING,EVEN WHILE EFFORTS CONTINUED TO SAVE DAMOND.

“It sounds like sex noises, but it’s been going on for a while and I think I just heard, ‘Help.’ And it sounds distressed,” Damond told the dispatcher on the original 911 call. She then called back a few minutes later to see where the officers were. Five more minutes would pass before Damond’s 911 call would be her death sentence.

When Damond walked out to talk to the officers, Noor shot and killed her.

Since 2016, Minneapolis has required all officers to wear and activate body cameras “at all times when they could reasonably anticipate that they may become involved in a situation for which activation is appropriate,” as noted by HuffPo.

But these officers conveniently managed to turn off both of their body cameras and the dashcam before entering the alleyway in response to Damond’s call about an alleged sexual assault taking place behind her home.

What’s more, nearly every officer on the scene whose body cameras were actually working, either turned it off or were caught helping Noor, advising him to stay quite.

Imagine for a moment that a regular civilian had just shot and killed an innocent woman, would they receive this same treatment as witnessed below? [the folks at FTP are a little naive. Racist authoritarians have been known to give white people who murder Blacks 1st class treatment, for ex. George Zimmerman and Dylann Roof.]

When officers arrived at the scene they were responding to a “shots fired” call, so they began looking for a suspect. However, once they realized there was no suspect and the cop shot an innocent woman in her pajamas, they immediately began coaching Noor and turning off their body cameras.

When Officer Jesse Lopez arrives on the scene, he tells a visibly distraught Noor, “You all right, kiddo? Just keep to yourself. Keep your mouth shut until you have to say anything to anybody.” He then puts him in a vehicle and drives him away from the scene.

In one video, officer Joseph Grout is heard telling someone his body camera is recording: “I’m hot right now. I don’t know if we’re s’posed to be or not.”

Then, even more disturbing is the fact that when Noor’s supervisor, Sgt. Shannon Barnette showed up and Justine Damond was dying in the street, Barnette called Damond’s phone.

“Hey Justine, this is Sgt. Barnette, Minneapolis police,” she said. “Say I know you called in the unknown trouble call of a woman screaming and I have a question for you, it’s pretty important.”

Prosecutors also brought up damning evidence against Barnette at the trial. According to KARE 11, Barnette admitted in testimony that she did not mean to record the below video. Her body camera captured it, without sound, because the cameras include a 30-second cache prior to pushing the button.

Prosecutors say Noor is demonstrating to Barnette how he fired the shot.

“Did you find out the direction he shot?” someone asked Barnette. “He was in the car,” she replied.

But on the witness stand, as KARE reports, Barnette said Noor never told her anything about the shooting, even though under MPD policy she was supposed to ask a couple of basic questions, like the direction of the shot.

Barnette is also captured on her own body camera turning it off and on.

“The blue wall of silence is alive and well,” Lawyer Bob Bennett, who negotiated a $20 million settlement for Damond’s family, said of the content of the videos. “Who were they protecting and serving?”

Joseph Daly, an emeritus professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, had a similar view about the impact of the body-camera videos, according to the Star Tribune.

“I think the public is going to see a conspiracy of silence,” said Daly. “The public’s going to look at this and say, ‘Is this what police officers do all of the time when they get in trouble? They tell them to keep their mouth shut?’ ”

We agree.

Who Wins a Case where Bodycam “Failed to Activate" & Evidence Comes Down to a Credibility Contest btw a Sworn White Police Officer & a Black Teen? NJ Cop Not Guilty of Battering Monte Stewart

"The Evidence Surrounds [the belief in] Authority" & Racism/White Supremacy. An experienced trial attorney will tell you that it is very difficult to get a judge or a jury to believe a cop is lying. The "inaccurate statement(s)" almost have to be totally outrageous before most judges or a jury will go there. A better strategy, especially if the defendant is Black, is to get the judge to believe the cop is incompetent in some way or just mistaken. Reality or anything too real (such as racism) in court is simply unbelievable to judges or jurors in the fake world created in court. Many racist cops are sophisticated, masterful liars who are taught how to testify and create persuasive, detailed police reports. Mixing actual facts with nonsense sounds & looks real in court. White media are also eager and programmed to believe anything foul cops say about Blacks. In a case involving “a failure to activate body camera” and very blurry surveillance video, like this one, the evidence would essentially consist of a credibility contest between a sworn white police officer and a Black teenager[s].  Why would a cop make it up? Because they will believe it.

From [HERE] A Carteret police officer accused of assaulting a teen following a vehicle pursuit was acquitted on all charges Friday, the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office confirmed.

Carteret Mayor Daniel Reiman, the officer's older brother, said he was "thrilled' with the verdict by a jury of six woman and seven men who found Joseph Reiman not guilty.

"Justice was served. Not by a 35-second video but by an ethnically and culturally diverse jury from Middlesex County. The jury saw right through this fraudulent persecution of a law enforcement officer doing his job," Reiman said in a text message, adding the jury heard weeks of testimony and saw hundreds of exhibits.

But the mayor, who attended much of the key testimony during the trial and is also white said the case should have never gone this far.

Reiman said the case was a "persecution, not a prosecution" by the prosecutor's office and he will be asking the state Attorney General's Office to investigate.

The mayor criticized the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office for releasing the patrol vehicle video clip of the interaction between Reiman and the teen, Monte Stewart, who was 16 at the time.

"The question is, what happened to the charges filed against Monte Stewart two years ago for his criminal conduct, for his motor vehicle violations? The prosecutor's office buried these and the persecuted a police officer who was doing his job," the mayor said.

"Now they put every officer in my town in jeopardy because of Andrew Carey, the county prosecutor," Reiman said. "So, I'm filing a complaint with the Attorney General's Office. I want an investigation."

Reiman alleged prosecution was hindered and covered up and witnesses were allegedly tampered with. He declined to provide more details or specifics.

"Action will be taken," the mayor said.

The mayor there were expert witnesses in the use of force, crime scene reenactment, medical doctors and a professor of mechanical engineering.

“They (prosecutor's office) argued this was all caused by the police while it was clear as day his (Stewart's) face and head hit the windshield. They still couldn’t answer how they failed to seize the car, and why the family crushed it within days. The prosecutor's office never tested the air bag, or the windshield for blood tissue or DNA," Reiman said. [in other words non-existent evidence would have cleared him]

The Middlesex County Prosecutor's office declined comment.

Earlier this year, Carey questioned the leadership of the Carteret Police Department after Reiman appointed Dennis McFadden as the new chief.

In addition, in January 2015, Carey called and sent a letter to Mayor Reiman about a news story in which the mayor commented about a man's body found in an abandoned two-family Essex Street home. 

In the letter, Carey said the mayor was "very rude and disrespectful" to him and the prosecutor's office during their conversation and that Reiman's statements to the press about the 2015 homicide did not best serve Carteret residents.

On Wednesday, the final day of testimony, Joseph Reiman testified he did not use excessive force in apprehending Stewart after the teen crashed his father's car, which he had taken without permission, into a guide wire on May 31, 2017. 

SWORN WHITE COP TESTIFIES. Reiman testified that he did strike the teen in the head and face in an effort to handcuff him, but he denied including any false information in a police report and said he did not intentionally fail to activate his body worn camera during the arrest. He also testified that he did not use any physical force on the teen once he was handcuffed.

Joseph Reiman was indicted in September 2017 of allegedly assaulting and causing injury to Stewart following a vehicle pursuit, crash and arrest. He was accused of repeatedly hitting the teen after the boy exited the car.

He was charged with aggravated assault, official misconduct for failing to use reasonable discretion or restraint in the amount of force used to apprehend the teen and including false information on his police report. An official misconduct charge related to failing to activate his body camera was dismissed by the judge during the trial.

BLACK TEENAGER TESTIFIES. Stewart, now 18, also testified during the trial. He said Reiman repeatedly beat him, even while he was handcuffed. He said he tried to use his hands to protect his face. Stewart also testified he did not threaten the officers, reach for their guns, or have any drugs, alcohol or weapons in his possession.

Throughout the trial, Joseph Reiman was joined in court by a group of supporters. Stewart also had a group of supporters, including some who wore T-shirts with photos of the injuries on his face he allegedly suffered during the incident with Reiman.

Stewart's family could not be reached for comment. The family has a civil suit pending against Reiman. 

A media report indicated Stewart's father, Russell Stewart, who also testified during the trial, had to be restrained following the verdict and shouted that Joseph Reiman had beat his son.  

Judge Orders Release of Charles Ray Finch After 43 Yrs: Black Man Wrongly Sentenced to Death Based on False Forensic Testimony & an Eyewitness ID Manipulated by White NC Cop’s Misconduct

“No Reasonable [non-racist] Jury Would Have Convicted Him” From [DPIC] A Black man wrongly convicted and sentenced to death based upon false forensic testimony and an eyewitness identification manipulated by police misconduct has been freed from prison after 43 years. On May 23, 2019, federal district court judge Terrence Boyle ordered North Carolina to release former death-row prisoner Charles Ray Finch (pictured with his members of his legal team) from custody, five months after a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found Finch “actually innocent” of the murder. Finch, now 81 years old, was freed from Greene Correctional Institution in Maura, North Carolina, that afternoon. Finch’s daughter, Katherine Jones-Bailey, was two years old when he was convicted and sentenced to death. “I knew the miracle was going to happen,” she said about her father’s release. “I just didn’t know when.”

Following the appeals court ruling, Finch’s lawyers from the Duke Wrongful Convictions Clinic filed a motion in federal district court seeking his immediate release. The North Carolina Attorney General’s office joined in the motion. The district court formally overturned Finch’s conviction and gave Wilson County prosecutors 30 days to decide whether to retry him. With no credible evidence of guilt, a retrial is considered unlikely. If charges are not refiled, Finch will become the 166th former U.S. death-row prisoner to have been exonerated since 1973. He will be the second death-sentenced prisoner to have waited more than four decades to be exonerated. In March 2019, Clifford Williams, Jr. was exonerated in Florida 42 years after his wrongful conviction and death sentence. 

Finch was convicted in 1976 of murdering a grocery store clerk during an attempted robbery. He was sentenced to death under the mandatory death-sentencing statute then in effect in North Carolina. A state forensic witness testified at the trial that the victim had died from two shotgun wounds, and a shotgun shell was found in Finch’s car. A store employee who saw the killer flee the scene told police that the killer had been wearing a three-quarter length jacket. An eyewitness later identified Finch in three different lineups. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the sentencing statute and, in 1977, the North Carolina Supreme Court vacated Finch’s death sentence and resentenced him to life in prison.

In 2013, testimony by Dr. John Butts, then North Carolina's Chief Medical Examiner, revealed that the victim had been killed by a pistol, not a shotgun and North Carolina State Crime Laboratory Special Agent Peter Ware, the forensic scientist manager for the lab’s firearm toolmark section, testified that the bullet found at the scene and the shell found in Finch’s car did not come from the same firearm. Finch also presented testimony that the eyewitness identification procedures had been unduly suggestive. In an interview, Finch told WNCN-TV, “[w]hen I was picked up, they didn't question me or nothing. They put me there in a line-up. Straight in a line-up. And they put me in a line-up with a black leather coat on.” Chief Deputy Tony Owens claimed that he had put the jacket on another man in the lineup, but photos the defense had discovered showed that Finch was the only person in the three lineups wearing a coat. “That’s one of the highlights at the evidentiary hearing,” said Jim Coleman, Finch’s long-time lawyer and the director of the Duke Wrongful Convictions Clinic. “[W]e were able to expose that [Owens] had lied about the line-up and he had dressed Ray in a coat and he was the only one wearing a coat in the line-up.”

Coleman and the clinic have represented Finch for fifteen years, and Finch was the clinic’s first client. “We have students who work their hearts out on these cases,” Coleman said. “We feel an enormous sense of vindication.”

Oregon Abolishes Death-in-Prison Sentences for Children

From [EJI] Oregon lawmakers passed a bill yesterday that abolishes life-without-parole sentences for children and bars automatic adult prosecution of children.

Senate Bill 1008 reforms draconian and discriminatory provisions enacted by Oregon voters in 1994, when fear of juvenile crime was at an all-time high across the country. Recognizing that the feared juvenile crime wave never materialized, and that developments in neuroscience compel different treatment of children charged with crimes, lawmakers restored judicial discretion to decide when children may be tried as adults for major crimes.

Children convicted and sentenced to adult prison will now be eligible for parole after serving half their sentence, and the law creates a new mechanism for some juveniles to secure early release rather than be transferred to the adult prison system.

Governor Kate Brown and Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, as well as retired judges, prison guards, and the Oregon Department of Corrections, supported the bill, which passed the House last night with bipartisan support and a two-thirds majority vote. It now goes to the governor, who "actively looks forward to signing it," her office said.

"As people who have worked with these youth, we know firsthand that a majority of them — when given the opportunities, support and guidance — have the capacity to grow and become productive members of our communities," representatives from the prison guards' union wrote to the Oregon House.

Rep. Greg Smith (R-Heppner) supported the bill. He spoke on the floor about his work at a juvenile correctional facility. "I had a chance to work with these youths every single day," he said. "Here’s the reality: They're kids. They're kids who made a mistake."

A coalition of advocates and organizations supported SB 1008, including the Oregon Justice Resource Center (OJRC), the ACLU of Oregon, and Koch Industries. OJRC Executive Director Bobbin Singh said the legislation puts Oregon on the right track. "Moving toward a system based on what the science teaches us about brain development in young people and what actually works to reduce harm is the right choice," he said in a statement. "We all want to see accountability, but healing needs to be part of the equation."