Republicans Claim to Love Freedom but Seem to Love White Supremacy More: GOP Blocks DC Law Revising Its Punitive Criminal Code in Order to Keep More Blacks in Greater Confinement

From [HERE] The Republican-controlled U.S. House flexed its power over D.C. on Thursday in voting to block a pair of local bills, with support from dozens of Democrats as well — the curtain-raiser this session in a long history of congressional interference in the city’s local governance.

The House voted in favor of resolutions disapproving of the two D.C. bills: one that would allow noncitizens to vote in local D.C. elections, and another marking a major revision of the city’s criminal code, which has not been comprehensively updated since 1901. While the House Democratic whip urged Democrats to vote against both resolutions, 42 Democrats joined Republicans to reject the legislation allowing noncitizen voting and 31 joined Republicans to reject D.C.’s Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022. The bills now head to the Senate, where Democrats have just a narrow majority.

“We have two acts from the Washington, D.C., council that will dilute the vote of American citizens and endanger city residents and businesses,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said of the D.C. bills on the floor Thursday, arguing that it was Congress’s “responsibility” to intervene.

The votes deal a blow to local officials who implored members of Congress to stay out of the city’s affairs, although it is exactly the type of interference they had been bracing for after the GOP took control of the House this year. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), the District’s nonvoting representative, said there is “never justification for Congress nullifying legislation enacted by the District.”

“I can only conclude that the Republican leadership believes D.C. residents, the majority of whom are Black and Brown, are unworthy or uncapable of governing themselves,” she said on the floor. [MORE]

One Of The Deadliest Federal Prison Units Is Closing

From [HERE] The federal Bureau of Prisons is closing the notorious Special Management Unit at Thomson penitentiary in Illinois, after frequent reports of violence and abuse (article available here(link is external)). Previous coverage available here.

An investigation last year by NPR and The Marshall Project found that Thomson had quickly become one of the deadliest federal prisons, with five suspected homicides and two suspected suicides since the unit opened in 2019. The report also uncovered conditions that stoked violence, where volatile prisoners were locked down together in small cells(link is external) for nearly 24 hours a day, often despite repeated warning signs.

A Bureau of Prisons spokesperson said in an email on Tuesday that they "recently identified significant concerns with respect to institutional culture and compliance with BOP policies" at Thomson, requiring "immediate corrective measures."

Officials would not comment on where those previously held at the SMU at Thomson were being transferred. Those housed in the general population and the minimum security camp will remain.

The move comes just weeks after another man at Thomson, 32-year-old Victor Gutiérrez(link is external), was found unresponsive in the prison and died, according to a Justice Department press release. The department has not released his cause of death.

Men at Thomson have also reported abuse at the hands of staff(link is external), including being placed in painful four-point restraints for hours or days at a time.

The special management unit was originally housed at Lewisburg Penitentiary in Pennsylvania, a facility known for similarly high rates of violence among prisoners and shackling by staff. It's unclear whether the unit, which is meant to separate the most disruptive people in federal prison from the general population, will reopen elsewhere.

Thomson was built in 2001 as an Illinois state prison, but sat empty for years until it was bought by the Justice Department.

Illinois Abolishes Life Without Parole Sentences for Children

From [HERE] Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a new law on Friday that extends parole eligibility for people convicted of offenses when they were under 21, making Illinois the 26th state to abolish life-without-parole sentences for children.

Illinois provided parole review for most young people in 2019, but that Youthful Parole Law did not apply to people sentenced to natural life imprisonment, people convicted of first degree murder of a law enforcement officer, or people convicted of predatory criminal sexual assault.

The new law, Public Act 102-1128, eliminates the first two exceptions and, because people under 18 cannot be sentenced to natural life for predatory criminal sexual assault, it finally abolishes all life-without-parole sentences for children under 18.

It also means that most people sentenced after June 1, 2019, for offenses when they were under 21 will now become eligible for parole after 10 years for most offenses, 20 years for first degree murder and aggravated sexual assault, and 40 years for natural life sentences.

Rep. Rita Mayfield (D-Waukegan) co-sponsored the bill in the House. “Even when a crime is particularly severe, it should be recognized that a legal minor with their whole life still ahead has the potential to be reformed,” she said.

“[P]rison should be a place where people have the opportunity to transform themselves and become better people and productive members of society. I believe that giving everyone a chance at redemption is a moral duty.”

The bill passed the House with bipartisan support in 2021 before arriving in the Senate, where Sen. Don Dewitte (R-St. Charles) called on his colleagues from the Senate floor to offer hope to youthful offenders.

“I consider myself a law-and-order Republican, but I also believe in rehabilitation,” he said. “[I]f you believe that, given guidelines and benchmarks, these convicted young people can reach to prove that they can become contributing members of our society, then don’t just vote your conscience, vote your Christian conscience. Vote that people can redeem themselves.”

The bill passed the Senate with three-quarters of the vote on January 10, 2023.

Last week, lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 2073, which would make both the 2019 and the new law retroactive to people currently in prison. Restore Justice says that would provide parole eligibility to 3,253 people who are incarcerated for offenses committed when they were under 21.

Legal Scholar Finds that the Death Penalty is “Largely Controlled by a Handful of [White] County Prosecutors” and Whether a Defendant is Put to Death Depends Upon Race and Where He/She Lives

From [HERE] In a 2022 article published in the Idaho Journal of Critical Legal Studies, author Sidney Balman, examines the relationship between racism and geographical arbitrariness in the application of the death penalty in the U.S. As in other areas of society, he finds that Black lives are not valued equally with others. He cites the Supreme Court’s decision in McCleskey v. Kemp (1987) as the main legal obstacle to reversing this bias affecting capital punishment. “Today,” he writes, “McCleskey has come to stand for the Court’s refusal to address the racially disparate imposition of death across the nation.”

When examining the geographical disparities found in the application of the death penalty, the author argues that the bulk of cases is “largely controlled by a handful of county prosecutors,” and that the imbalance is getting worse. He concludes that “the overlap between racism and geography is not just a coincidence.”

If It's Not Immoral When the Government Murders People Why Is it Bothering Government Workers? ‘Relentless Pace’ of Murders by Oklahoma Executions Traumatized Corrections Staff

From [HERE] Oklahoma’s “nonstop executions” traumatized corrections staff, leaving them vulnerable to mental health distress and botched procedures, nine former Department of Corrections officials warned last month (article available here(link is external)).

“Reports from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary describe near-constant mock executions being conducted within earshot of prisoners’ cells, staff offices, and visiting rooms,” according to a letter to state Attorney General Gentner Drummond. “Correctional staff have communicated privately with visiting defense mental health experts about the distress they are experiencing due to the nonstop executions.”

The letter, dated Jan. 13, asked to petition courts for a revised execution schedule “spacing them a minimum of several months apart to ensure the safety and well-being of the state’s correctional employees.”

“That relentless pace of executions means the prison never really returns to normal operations after the emotional and logistical upheaval of an execution,” the former DOC officials wrote in the letter.

The letter from former corrections officials cited statistics showing an increased risk of suicide, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and substance abuse for those who carry out executions. 

Pennsylvania Governor Blocks Death Penalty, Calls for Lawmakers to Repeal. PA Death Row is 61% Non-White and Mostly Black (50%) in a State that is 81% White

From [HERE] Gov. Josh Shapiro said Thursday he will not allow Pennsylvania to execute any inmates while he is in office and called for the state’s lawmakers to repeal the death penalty (article available here).

Shapiro, inaugurated last month, said he will refuse to sign execution warrants and will use his power as governor to grant reprieves to any inmate whose execution is scheduled.

In doing so, he is exercising an authority used for eight years by his predecessor(link is external), Gov. Tom Wolf, to effectively impose a moratorium on the death penalty in a state where it has been sparsely used. Shapiro went further, asking lawmakers to repeal the death penalty and calling it fallible and irreversible.

“Today, I am respectfully calling on the General Assembly to work with me to abolish the death penalty once and for all here in Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said. The state, he said, “should not be in the business of putting people to death.” The first execution warrant came to his desk last week, Shapiro said.

Pennsylvania’s death row is 61% non-white despite the fact that the state is 81% white. Half of the state’s death row is Black.

Twenty-seven states allow the death penalty, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

On the campaign trail last year for governor, Shapiro had said he was morally opposed to the death penalty, even though he had run for attorney general in 2016 as a supporter of the death penalty for the most heinous cases. Shapiro is shifting his stance amid shrinking support nationally for the death penalty.

Pennsylvania has 101 men and women on its shrinking death row, according to statistics from the Department of Corrections. The state has executed three people since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, as courts and now governors have blocked every other death sentence thus far.

All three men who were executed gave up on their appeals voluntarily. The state’s most recent execution took place in 1999.

White TX Authorities Murder John Balentine to Get Revenge for His Murder of 3 White People. White DA Struck All Black Jurors. Black Man's White Trial Atty Wrote a Note Calling Trial a "Lynching"

From [HERE] A man convicted of killing three teenagers while they slept in a Texas home more than 25 years ago was executed on Wednesday, the sixth inmate to be put to death in the US this year and the second in as many days.

John Balentine, 54, whose attorneys argued his trial was marred by racial bias, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, for the January 1998 deaths of Edward Mark Caylor, 17, Kai Brooke Geyer, 15, and Steven Watson, 15, in Amarillo. Prosecutors said all three were shot once in the head.

During Balentine’s trial, his attorneys passed handwritten notes among themselves essentially predicting a “LYNCHING” and rhetorically asking whether this might be a “justifiable LYNCHING.” Balentine’s appellate attorneys have argued that such overt use of race-laden terminology, especially in a case with a Black defendant and three white murder victiims, exemplified racial animus that permeated throughout the case.

Balentine’s attorneys also argued that the prosecutor’s strikes of two Black prospective jurors—which resulted in an all-white jury—were racially discriminatory. Furthermore, the jury foreperson used racist epithets, indicated he despised interracial relationships, and told his fellow jurors that a life sentence was “not an option” and that sentencing Balentine to death was “biblically justified.” During deliberations, he intimidated the other jurors who had expressed opposition to the death penalty.

Balentine appeared jovial as witnesses entered the death chamber, asking if someone could massage his feet. After a brief prayer from a spiritual adviser who held Balentine’s left foot with his right hand, the prisoner gave a short statement thanking friends for supporting him. Then he turned his head to look through a window at seven relatives of his three murder victims and apologized.

The mothers of each of the three victims were among the witnesses.

The AP claims: Balentine took two breaths as the lethal dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital began flowing, snored twice, yawned and began snoring again loudly. The snores – 11 of them – became progressively quieter, then stopped.

At 6.36pm, 15 minutes after the injection, a physician pronounced him dead. The victims’ witnesses shared high-fives. They declined to speak with reporters.

Caylor’s sister, who was among the witnesses, was Balentine’s former girlfriend. Prosecutors said the shootings stemmed from a feud between Caylor and Balentine. Ballentine argued that Caylor and others threatened his life over his interracial relationship. Balentine is Black. The three victims were white.

Balentine confessed to the murders. One of his attorneys said Balentine turned down a plea agreement that would have sentenced him to life in prison because racist threats made him afraid of being attacked or killed while incarcerated.

Lawyers pursued two legal strategies. The first was to argue that the trial and sentencing were tainted by racism. Balentine was also among five Texas death row inmates who sued to stop the state using what they allege are expired and unsafe execution drugs. Despite a civil court judge in Austin preliminarily agreeing with the claims, the state’s top two courts have allowed three of the five inmates in the suit to be killed. Robert Fratta, 65, was put to death on 10 January and Wesley Ruiz, 43, on 1 February.

Prison officials said the state supply of execution drugs is safe.

Balentine’s attorneys also alleged the jury foreman in his case, Dory England, held racist views and bullied other jurors who wanted to sentence Balentine to life. Lola Perkins, who had been married to England’s brother, told Balentine’s attorneys England “was racist against Black people because that is how he was raised”.

In a declaration before his death in 2021, England said he pushed for Balentine’s death sentence because he worried if the accused was ever released England himself “would need to hunt him down”. England also said he threatened to report another juror to the judge for making prejudiced comments when the person “started going off about this Black guy killing these white teenagers”.

Balentine’s attorneys alleged prosecutors blocked prospective Black jurors and Balentine’s trial lawyers referred to sentencing proceedings as a “justifiable lynching”.

Randall Sherrod, one of Balentine’s attorneys, said he could not remember the note but denied that he or the other attorney, James Durham Jr, had racist attitudes toward Balentine. Durham died in 2006.

The US supreme court on Wednesday declined an appeal from Balentine’s attorneys to halt the execution so his claims of racial bias could be properly reviewed.

A defense request for the Republican governor, Greg Abbott, to temporarily stay the execution also failed and the Texas court of criminal appeals denied a request to stay Ballentine’s execution over allegations that “racism and racial issues pervaded” his trial. The appeals court denied the stay on procedural grounds without reviewing the merits.

On Wednesday, the Texas board of pardons and paroles unanimously declined to commute Balentine’s death sentence or grant a 30-day reprieve.

“Without a thorough judicial consideration of Mr Balentine’s claims, we can have no confidence that the death verdict isn’t tainted by racial bias,” said Shawn Nolan, one of Balentine’s attorneys.

For Amusement a Memphis Cop Texted Photos of Tyre Nichols After Brutal Police Beating, Murder

From [HERE] As Tyre Nichols sat propped against a police car, bloodied, dazed and handcuffed after being beaten by a group of Memphis police officers, one of those officers took a picture of him and sent it to at least five people, the Memphis Police Department said in documents released by the state on Tuesday.

The documents painted a picture of repeated misconduct by the officers, starting in the first moments after Mr. Nichols was pulled over for a traffic stop, through an arrest carried out with excessive force and continuing on through the many minutes when Mr. Nichols lay on the street in dire need of medical help.

Sending the photograph to acquaintances, including at least one outside of the Police Department, violated policies about keeping information confidential, according to the documents. But police officials said it was also part of a pattern of mocking, abusive and “blatantly unprofessional” behavior by the officers that also included shouting profanities at Mr. Nichols, laughing after the beating and “bragging” about their involvement.

The revelations came in internal affairs documents that the Memphis Police Department sent to a state agency, in which the department asked for the five officers — who have been charged with second-degree murder in Mr. Nichols’s death — to be decertified, meaning they could no longer work as police officers anywhere in the state.

In the documents, police officials described how the officers worked together as they severely beat Mr. Nichols, appeared to relish the assault afterward and then made a series of omissions and false claims in their reports about what happened.

Demetrius Haley, the officer who sent the photographs and who forced Mr. Nichols out of his car, also never told Mr. Nichols why he had been stopped or that he was under arrest. After Mr. Nichols ran away from the officers, several of them caught up with him a few minutes later and unleashed a series of punches and kicks while he was being restrained. And when one officer met with Mr. Nichols’s mother afterward, the officer “refused to provide an accurate account” of what had happened, the police officials said.

Despite policies requiring officers to activate their body cameras during “all law enforcement encounters and activities,” none of the officers’ body cameras captured the entire incident, according to the documents. One of the officers, Emmitt Martin III, at one point put his body camera in his car, the documents said.

In reports after the Jan. 7 assault, at least two of the officers said that Mr. Nichols had tried to grab an officer’s gun — a claim for which there is no evidence, according to the documents — while leaving out details of the beating.

All five of the officers were fired by the Police Department, as was a sixth who had fired a Taser at Mr. Nichols as he ran away. City officials said on Tuesday that seven more police officers were being investigated for possible policy violations in connection with the beating of Mr. Nichols, who died three days after the assault.

“We’re still adding names to the list,” Cerelyn Davis, the city’s police chief, said at a City Council hearing on Tuesday in which council members sought accountability from police and emergency management officials.

In the newly released documents, police officials said that Mr. Haley had admitted to sending a photograph of Mr. Nichols to at least five people, including two fellow officers, a civilian employee of the department and a female acquaintance. A sixth person also received the photo, the records state.

Mr. Haley’s lawyer, Michael Stengel, declined to comment, and lawyers for the four other officers did not respond to messages seeking comment late Tuesday.

The state agency, the Tennessee Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission, received the decertification requests on Jan. 25. A hearing has not yet been scheduled.

Videos of the beating that were released by the city last month appeared to show Mr. Haley taking pictures of Mr. Nichols a few minutes after the beating, when the officers had propped him up against a police car. The videos show Mr. Haley shining a flashlight on Mr. Nichols and appearing to take a photograph with his phone. He then looks briefly at his phone and, a few seconds later, appears to take another picture.

Memphis Police Department policy prohibits officers from using personal cellphones while performing patrol duties.

Lt. Essica Cage-Rosario, the president of the Memphis Police Association, wrote letters for each of the five officers, saying that the union objected to the department’s move to fire them before the state had completed its investigation into Mr. Nichols’s death. Lieutenant Cage-Rosario also said that the department had not provided the union with body camera video or statements from the officers and witnesses before moving to fire them, adding that those were “only a few examples of the GROSS violations” of the officers’ right to due process.

Police body camera and street camera footage appear to show Demetrius Haley taking cellphone photographs of Mr. Nichols.

The documents also fault several officers for not providing information to emergency medical workers who arrived after the beating. Mr. Haley, the documents say, did not assist medical workers who asked that he remove handcuffs from Mr. Nichols, and other officers did not disclose details about the beating that could have helped the workers provide better care.

A state board last week suspended the licenses of the first two emergency medical technicians who arrived on the scene, saying they had not provided medical care to Mr. Nichols for 19 minutes after arriving. The fire chief said that the lieutenant in charge of the E.M.T.s had never gotten off the fire truck.

Police officials also said in the documents that a civilian had witnessed at least part of the encounter and had recorded the officers with a cellphone. The witness’s opinion of the incident, according to the documents, was that officers had “left the injured subject lying on the ground, handcuffed and unattended.”

Only one officer, Justin Smith, made a substantive comment as part of the Police Department’s termination proceedings. Police officials said Mr. Smith had held Mr. Nichols by one of his arms while his partner pepper sprayed Mr. Nichols and struck him “excessively” with a baton.

In his prepared statement, Mr. Smith said that he had been the first officer to call for medical help and also said that Mr. Nichols “was violent and would not comply.” The videos released by the city do not show Mr. Nichols ever striking the officers.

The police had stopped Mr. Nichols, a 29-year-old FedEx worker and photographer, on the evening of Jan. 7 as he drove along a street near his mother’s house. The officers reported that he had been driving recklessly, though the police chief has since said the department could not find evidence of that.

Mr. Haley and other officers approached Mr. Nichols’s car, with at least one officer aiming his gun at the car. Mr. Haley, shouting obscenities, pulled Mr. Nichols out of the car while officers yelled conflicting orders and threatened to hurt him. “You guys are really doing a lot right now,” Mr. Nichols said as he lay on the pavement. “I’m just trying to go home.”

When Mr. Haley tried to pepper spray Mr. Nichols’s face, Mr. Nichols got up and ran away as another officer fired his Taser at him. A group of officers caught up with him several minutes later — less than 100 yards from his mother’s house — and repeatedly beat him for nearly three minutes.

Mr. Haley arrived to that second scene after officers had found Mr. Nichols and was not present for much of the assault. When he arrived, officers were in the process of handcuffing Mr. Nichols, who was groaning in pain, and had pinned him to the ground on his stomach. Even so, Mr. Haley ran up and delivered a strong kick to Mr. Nichols’s head or upper body.

Mr. Nichols was left bloody on the concrete, and he repeatedly fell over after officers propped him up next to a police car.

His death sparked protests in several cities after the videos were released, and the Memphis Police Department said it was disbanding the unit that the officers had been assigned to. Known as Scorpion, it was created to target neighborhoods with high crime rates. The department also suspended two officers, one of whom had fired the Taser at Mr. Nichols as he ran away. Later, as that officer’s body camera continued rolling, the officer said, “I hope they stomp his ass.”

At the council hearing, Chief Davis said that the seven additional officers facing discipline, who have not been identified, included several who had not actually been at the scene of the assault. She said the department struggled from a lack of supervisory staff, saying that it was a bigger problem than training and that the department had been short on higher-ranking officers for years. [MORE]

All 26 Criminal Charges Against a Corrupt NYPD Narcotics Detective Dismissed because Prosecutors Withheld Evidence

From [HERE] NYPD detective Joseph Franco developed a late career habit of letting perps walk. Very late career. He was fired. But not before wreaking enough havoc, prosecutors were forced to toss nearly 100 convictions.

Franco spent two decades working for the NYPD. How much of that was honest work is unknown. He was charged with perjury in 2019. That was just the beginning. The Manhattan DA’s office decided to look into other investigations Franco contributed to. Investigators found several more instances where Franco’s reports and statements did not match recordings of drug buys Franco claimed to have witnessed. The end result was Franco being hit with 26 criminal charges, including perjury and official misconduct.

Franco is just one of several habitual liars working for the NYPD. Hundreds of convictions and cases have been tossed in the last couple of years because some officers preferred their wins to be unearned. 

Ironically, Detective Franco is once again the beneficiary of official misconduct. His prosecution has been dismissed with prejudice because prosecutors decided to do a little cheating themselves.

A New York State judge, Robert M. Mandelbaum, found that prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office had failed to turn over evidence to the detective’s lawyers on three occasions, a major ethical violation, and dismissed the charges.

“As you have heard,” Justice Mandelbaum told jurors, “to date there have been two different occasions that you have heard about where the prosecution failed to disclose certain evidence.”

“It now turns out that the prosecution failed to disclose additional evidence only learned about today,” he added.

This is not an unusual occurrence. For years, it has been common knowledge that prosecutors tend to withhold evidence that won’t help their cases. In 2013, then Chief Judge Alex Kozinski (Ninth Circuit Appeals Court) called out the common practice of screwing defendants to obtain easy wins. 

There is an epidemic of Brady violations abroad in the land. Only judges can put a stop to it.

“Brady” evidence is exculpatory evidence, something prosecutors love to withhold from defendants. Far too many prosecutors feel the criminal justice system offers too much justice to accused criminals. To ensure a steady stream of victories, prosecutors simply withhold anything that might poke holes in their own cases. Self-interest is a powerful motivator. Forcing people to defend themselves with inadequate resources is just part of the process.

This misconduct has produced some immediate action, however. Prosecutor Stephanie Minogue was immediately booted from her position as deputy chief of the Police Accountability Unit. This move suggests something more unseemly than the standard operating procedure of withholding exculpatory evidence from the detective’s defense team. Minogue’s removal from the Accountability Unit hints that she wasn’t all that interested in holding Detective Franco accountable.

If so, then this wasn’t prosecutorial cheating meant to give the DA’s office an unearned win. This may have been prosecutorial tanking: easily discovered misconduct meant to allow Detective Franco to walk away from criminal charges this prosecutor possibly didn’t feel like pursuing. Cops and prosecutors work hand-in-hand and enjoy an extremely incestuous relationship. A successful prosecution would just create friction in this mutual admiration society — one that could result in fewer prosecutions and convictions in the future.

Whatever it actually is, it’s ugly all over. The DA’s office has shown it can’t be trusted any more than the cops who have cost it dozens of convictions.

Shot in the Head By Accident?Overwhelmingly White Jury Finds White Philly Cop Not Guilty in Manslaughter of Michael Dean. Unarmed Black Man Never Posed a Threat During Traffic Stop in Liberal City

WHITE COP CARMEN DECRUZ HAD A Violent past as a police officer. He was named in an excessive force lawsuit for his actions surrounding the apprehension of aBLACK teenage suspect in 2017. DeCruz and his partner at the time were accused of intentionally running over a 15-year-old boy and leaving him under their squad car while it idled for 10 minutes and burned the 15-year-old boy’s body. The teenager’s mother filed the lawsuit that specifically named DeCruz and blamed him and his partner for third-degree burns to her son’s “torso, thighs and pelvis while pinned beneath the running vehicle.” [MORE]

From [HERE] and [HERE] A Bell County jury has found a former Temple police officer not guilty on charges connected with the shooting death of Michael Dean.

Prosecutors said Carmen DeCruz shot and killed Dean, an unarmed Black man from Temple, during a traffic stop in 2019.

DeCruz has been found not guilty of manslaughter and a less charge of criminally negligent homicide in his death.

The prosecution rested its case Tuesday against DeCruz after calling a final witness during day 10 of the court proceedings.

The judge allowed prosecutors to add an additional charge of criminally negligent homicide against DeCruz, which is a lesser charge compared the manslaughter count brought by a grand jury.

Defense attorneys for the former police officer say that Dean reached for his weapon during the traffic stop and his death was accidental. DeCruz waived his right to testify on his own behalf.

The jury was apparently overwhelmingly white. The media has been describing it as “made up of 1 Black man, 1 mixed-race woman and 12 other people who are white and/or other races.” BW takes this to mean 2 non-white people and 12 whites. [MORE]

On Dec. 2, 2019 Michael Dean was stopped by Carmen DeCruz in his vehicle. According to a police affidavit, DeCruz was seen on body camera video walking in front of his patrol vehicle during the traffic stop with his handgun drawn. 

DeCruz made contact with Dean on the passenger side of the car and ordered Dean to turn off the vehicle and give him the keys, according to the affidavit.

DeCruz is seen reaching into the vehicle in an attempt to gain control of the keys with his left hand while holding his firearm in his right hand. DeCruz had the gun pointed at Dean with his finger on the trigger, according to the affidavit.

While DeCruz pulled the keys with his left hand, his right hand also pulled backward and caused the handgun to fire, striking Michael dean in the head, the affidavit said.

The affidavit stated that body camera video showed DeCruz pulling Dean from the vehicle and other officers administering medical aid until medics arrived.

Dean died at the scene. The State wanted the jury to find Decruz guilty of Manslaughter, not Criminally Negligent Homicide. According to the State, criminally negligent homicide in this case was if DeCruz did not know police policy and did not know his finger was on the trigger. Prosecutors say Decruz was aware of both.

The Defense argued the dash camera shows DeCruz’s finger in the index position on the gun – not on the trigger when walking to the passenger side of Dean’s car.

On Monday, former Temple Administrative Lieutenant Brad Hunt testified as a prosecution rebuttal witness. Hunt was on the scene of the deadly shooting handling traffic control, but he did not have any contact with Decruz or Dean.

Prosecutors asked Hunt if it was Temple Police policy to drive up and cut off a vehicle during a pursuit. He testified that it was not and that the police academy does not teach that move either.

Hunt did say the police department updated its pursuit policy six years ago, and that Decruz completed a refresher course in 2018.

During the afternoon, Temple Police Lieutenant Paul Newby testified that when an officer is in a high risk pursuit, it is ideal to wait for at least one other officer before approaching the offender.

Newby also told the court that when in a pursuit, an officer’s gun should be holstered or at least drawn closer to the officer’s body.

‘Just an Accident:’ $12 Million Settlement Reached After a Richland Cop Shot a 12 Year Old Black Boy in the Knee During a Raid though He Posed No Threat

From [HERE] Attorney Al Hofeld announced that his clients have reached a $12 million settlement after 12-year-old Black boy was shot in the knee by a SWAT officer during a raid in May 2019 at their south suburban Markham, Illinois, home.

Hofeld said the settlement came with a public apology from Richton Park and the officer who shot Amir Worship. However, the family says the settlement is not enough.

According to CBS Chicago, nearly four years ago two dozen officers from Country Club Hills and Richton Park burst into the suburban Chicago home where Worship lived with his family to serve a warrant for the mother’s boyfriend around 5 a.m.

The officers aimed assault rifles at Amir and his mother in their bedrooms while yelling demands. Amir, then 12 years old, was shot in the knee by Officer Caleb Blood after complying to their demands.

The officer claimed that the shooting was an accident, but Amir is still suffering from PTSD from the event and is permanently disabled after his kneecap was shattered. His mother said he’s lost confidence in himself.

Amir, now 16-years-old, has undergone five orthopedic knee surgeries on his right knee and is expected to need knee replacements when he gets older.

“When he goes to put his flashlight back in his vest, and then returns his arm and his hand to the handle and the trigger of the gun, the gun discharges,” Hofeld said in a statement back in 2019. “But as soon as it was clear that this 12-year-old boy didn’t pose any threat and there was no one else in the room who posed any threat, he should have moved his gun down, put it on the safety position, so it could never be discharged.”

The mother’s boyfriend was wanted for drug possession and possession of weapon with an expired firearm identification card. Both charges were dropped.

Amir’s mother filed a lawsuit against the city of Country Club Hills, the village of Richton Park, and four police officers. Blood, the officer who shot Amir, was fired but no further action has been taken against him.

“The evidence obtained in discovery shows that officer Blood’s shooting of 12-year-old Amir was unconscionably reckless, and Officer Blood must be held accountable,” said Hofeld.

The family has called for Cook County State’s Attorney to reopen the investigation into Blood’s actions on the morning of the incident. The Illinois State Police did an investigation and Richton Park Police did two investigations, but neither found any wrongdoing in the three investigations that were conducted.

“The accidental shooting of innocent, 12-year-old Amir, which could have resulted in his death, should never have occurred,” read an apology in part from The Village of Richton Park. “We acknowledge the traumatic, physical and mental harm done to him and his family. We sincerely hope and pray that Amir and his family will fully recover, mentally and physically, and live long, healthy, and productive lives.”

Video Shows a White Cop Shoot a 66 year Old Black Man in the Back 5X as He Fled and Never Posed a Threat. Stopped Unlawfully For No Apparent Reason in Columbus (OH), a White liberal city

From [HERE] People in Columbus are asking for answers from police about a man who was shot over the weekend while running from police during a traffic stop.

Michael Cleveland, 66, was shot at least once Sunday afternoon in the 1000 block of Wilson Avenue.

In an interview moments after the shooting, Beverly Coleman told 10TV that she received a call that Cleveland, who is the father of her children, was shot.

“I was nervous and I'm shocked and I'm still shocked. I can't believe it,” Coleman said Sunday evening.

Coleman questioned what led up to the shots being fired and why police felt the use of force against Cleveland was necessary.

“He's a good person, he don't bother nobody, he's a real good person,” Coleman said.

Video released by police on Monday shows two officers in a cruiser following a black Dodge truck. Officers recognized Cleveland seconds after he drove by. The officers continued to follow Cleveland until he parked behind a building, got out and ran away.

Body camera footage shows people marching in the background of where Cleveland was running. As Cleveland was running in between two buildings, officer Joshua Ohlinger, a five-year veteran of the department, fired six shots.

Pastor Frederick Lamarr and his church members were holding their monthly “Stop the Violence” event, with as may as 70 people marching along Wilson Avenue.

 “I’m still traumatized,” LaMarr said. “We out there marching so if you're shooting at Mike and if you miss him, I've got children, I've got elderly.”

In the days after the shooting, LaMarr is concerned the video will bring more community outrage.

"Me after seeing it, I'm just hurt by it [the footage]. I'm hurt by the fact that where we tried to bring about resolution as far as stopping the violence, there is a disconnect somewhere, where we all are not working together,” LaMarr said.

LaMarr said he questions why police followed Cleveland in the first place.

“As I watched, it didn't like he made no, he didn't run the stop sign, he didn't do nothing as far as breaking the law, other than, maybe if he was targeted,” LaMarr said.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is handling the investigation into the shooting.

Black Strawboss Claims His 'Heart Broke' After a White Louisiana Cop Shot an Unarmed Black Man to Death for Unknown Reasons but He Keeps the Details from Public Reports Secret and Public Video Private

From [HERE] and [HERE] A Black man was unarmed when police in Louisiana fatally shot him in the chest last week after he ran away from a domestic disturbance call, authorities said.

The federal prosecutor in Shreveport, U.S. Attorney Brandon Brown, said Tuesday he’s keeping in contact with state police, which is the agency investigating the shooting.

The officer involved in Friday night’s deadly shooting at a Shreveport apartment complex has now been placed on administrative leave.

Alonzo Bagley, 43, was shot and killed Friday night in an incident involving police at the Villa Norté Apartments on Fullerton Street. Police said he appears to not have been armed when he was killed.

A spokesperson for the family said Monday it all started with a neighbor calling police because the music was too loud in Bagley’s apartment. He said Bagley and his wife were both inside when police arrived. The family spokesperson goes on to say that, at some point, Bagley ran from police and then was shot.

On Monday, Shreveport Police Department Chief Wayne Smith announced the officer involved in the fatal incident, identified as Alexander Tyler, has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, which Louisiana State Police is conducting.

Tyler was hired by Shreveport Police Department in May of 2021.

On Monday morning, members of the city council, the police chief, the mayor, and several pastors held a news conference and prayed for the family.

Louisiana State Police held a news conference Monday afternoon to update the community on the case. 

Louisiana State Police held a news conference Monday afternoon to update the community on the case. Superintendent Col. Lamar Davis, a black strawboss, first offered his prayers and condolences to the Bagley family and the citizens of Shreveport, saying these incidents “break your heart” when they occur.

Davis said police was called out Friday night to investigate the officer-involved shooting. He said preliminary info shows at 10:51 p.m. Friday, two officers responded to the apartment complex in reference to a domestic disturbance. They encountered Bagley inside the apartment. Davis said Bagley got onto the balcony of the apartment from the back door, jumped down onto the ground and ran away from the officers.

That’s when Tyler began chasing Bagley. Davis said Tyler saw Bagley after coming around a corner and fired one shot. Bagley was hit in the chest. Police said the officers began to render medical aid. Bagley was taken to Ochsner LSU Shreveport, where he later died. Davis said no weapons were found near Bagley or on his person. The killing comes just days after the ACLU of Louisiana announced a settlement with Shreveport Police Department after officers brutalized an unarmed Black man for expressing his first amendment rights. 

ACLU of Louisiana Legal Director Nora Ahmed said, “We are devastated to learn that the Shreveport police have brutalized and killed yet another unarmed Black man. Together, as a nation, we have watched another minor, routine police encounter turn into a deadly scene. 

“Just last week, we settled a case with this agency for targeting and attacking Brandon Kennedy without warning or provocation at a convenience store. It is far past time to move beyond the frame of the bad apple cop. The systemic issues within the Shreveport police department are a broken structure that has normalized racism, brutality, and impunity for officers both criminally and civilly.

“The Shreveport Police Department’s Chief of Police, who claims to be mourning with Mr. Bagley’s family, has continuously failed to enact appropriate policies and practices to hold his officers accountable for their actions. Real accountability includes direct and immediate action taken against Alexander Tyler, the man who killed Mr. Bagley, as well as a full investigation of the officers’ actions against our client, Mr. Kennedy. The Chief must be transparent with the public about why those officers were not terminated and why they have been allowed to continue to patrol the streets, endangering the Black and Brown people of Shreveport. 

“A police department that keeps officers on the force who use excessive force against those they are sworn to protect becomes the police force that kills yet another unarmed Black man. We cannot continue this pattern of abuse and the constant failure to adequately investigate excessive force.”

Strawboss Daisasking the community to remain patient as the state police conducts its investigation, which will include reviewing body and dashcam footage; he did not give a timeline on when that footage might be released to the public.

Davis said they’re still conducting a number of interviews to determine what happened; he said they have not yet interviewed Tyler. Davis also said the coroner’s office or a lab will have to determine if Bagley was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident.

Meanwhile, Bagley’s family has obtained legal representation. Haley & Associates will represent the family in any dealings going forward. Attorney Ron Haley says he believes “accountability will result in consequences in both civil and criminal courts.”

Black Strawboss Memphis Police Chief Trained with Israel Security Forces

From [HERE] THE DEATH OF 29-year-old Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police officers last month once again ignited outrage over the violent, militarized nature of U.S. law enforcement and placed scrutiny on police departments’ bloated budgets.

Among the objections to policing that are being revived are criticisms of a controversial series of trainings and exchange programs for U.S. police in Israel. Scores of American law enforcement leaders have attended the programs, where they learned from Israeli police and security forces known for systemically abusing the human rights of Palestinians.

Some of the Memphis Police Department’s top brass, including current Chief Cerelyn Davis, participated in the programs. Davis, who previously helmed the police department in Durham, North Carolina, completed a leadership training with the Israel National Police in 2013. While an officer with the Atlanta Police Department, Davis also established an international exchange program with Israeli police and coordinated department leaders delegations to Israel, according to an old résumé.

“We know, without a shadow of a doubt, that what takes place during US-Israel police exchanges does nothing to keep our communities safe,” Eran Efrati, director of campaigns and partnerships for the progressive group Jewish Voice for Peace. “But the exchanges refine and enhance the militarization rooted in American policing with Israeli tactics and technology of occupation and apartheid that are being tested on Palestinians on a daily basis.”

By the time she became chief in Durham, Davis seems to have changed her tune on such programs. The apparent coolness on the police-Israeli relationships came following pressure from local activists and a national campaign to end U.S.-Israel police exchanges.[MORE]

Black Councilman (NJ) Busted for Cocaine Possession with Intent to Distribute

From [HERE] Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renée M. Robeson announced today that a joint investigation by the Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office’s Narcotics Task Force and the Flemington Borough Police Department led to the arrest of an elected member of the Flemington Borough Town Council on charges of distributing and possessing with intent to distribute controlled dangerous substances.

Malik D. Johnston, a/k/a Pippin J. Folk, 46, Democrat of Flemington, was charged with second- degree distribution of cocaine, second-degree distribution of methamphetamine, second-degree possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, and second-degree possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. According to the prosecutor, on various occasions between December 2022 and February 2023 in Raritan Township, Johnston sold quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine to an undercover police officer. Further investigation revealed Johnston to be in possession of additional quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine with intent to distribute while in the Borough of Flemington.

Prosecutor Robeson credited the Flemington Borough Police Department and the Narcotics Task Force — which includes members of the New Jersey State Police Kingwood Station — for conducting a model investigation that led to the subject charges.

“The joint investigation demonstrates the expertise and professionalism of Hunterdon County’s law enforcement community. Illegal drug manufacture and distribution continue to pose a significant threat to public health and safety, which will be detected and prosecuted according to law.”

Second-degree charges may result in criminal penalties including, but not limited to, a term of imprisonment between five and ten years and a fine not to exceed $150,000.00.

Johnston is lodged at the Warren County Correctional Center awaiting his first appearance in court.

Despite having been charged, every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Raised in a single-parent home, the councilman told TapInto in 2020 that when he went out to play, “there were broken needles on our playgrounds. At one point, I lived in a homeless shelter. That was the point in my life where I saw that my contribution to society could transform it for others.”

He moved to Flemington and became an electrical apprentice through Hunterdon Polytech.

“I will be an advocate for those who live here now, and those who will choose Flemington in the future and will work together for a more inclusive Flemington,” said the candidate, who would become a councilman. “I’m passionate about volunteering and want to create more opportunities to connect our residents and engage in change together.”

Under the Ostensible Purpose of Crime Reduction, Portsmouth Cops Upgrade Cameras, Buy Gun Shot Software and License Plate Readers for the Real Purpose of Surveilling People and Locking Up Blacks

From [HERE] The Portsmouth Police Department is upgrading its camera technology and installing gunshot detection software and license plate readers in an effort to deter crime and reduce response times.

A new integrated camera system called Fusus is expected to go live within the next few weeks. It will plug into the nearly 400 city-owned traffic and surveillance cameras that are already in operation.

The department is also working to install portable automated license plate reader cameras and gunshot detection software, both through Flock Safety. Once active, police say the technology will be able to detect reported stolen vehicles and trigger an alert to officers in the area with vehicle and direction of travel information. The gunshot detection software will cover about a little more than 3 miles and will activate all cameras in the area when gunfire is detected.

About $1.3 million from the city’s share of federal pandemic relief funds will help cover the cost of the project, in addition to the installation of more cameras in city-owned parking garages, for example. Portsmouth Police spokesperson Victoria Varnedoe told The Virginian-Pilot that some costs are still being estimated, but the two software systems will rely on about $325,000 of annual funding from the budget.

“We’re working on this new technology,” Varnedoe said. “It is coming and we are very close to getting it put together and operational.”

Once installed, the information from Fusus will feed into Portsmouth’s real-time crime center — another project still in the works. In a presentation to City Council in September, Chief Stephen Jenkins said the center could be staffed at all times with employees and volunteers who have graduated from the department’s Citizens Academy.

He also called the technology a “force multiplier” at a time when the department is struggling with staffing shortages. He said the software will help officers more accurately detect when and where crime is occurring, improve response times and monitor throughout the city during special events.

Capt. R. Ferrell told The Pilot he expects it to be a crime deterrent, and added that the department is currently talking with residents and business owners to ask if they want to register their cameras into the system.

Other cities in Hampton Roads have deployed similar gunshot detection systems and license plate readers. Adoption of the technology hasn’t been without some controversy, however, as privacy advocates have argued the license plate reader technology gives law enforcement the ability to track motorists’ every move.

Matt Callahan, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU of Virginia, said such technology is an “unfortunate and often unnecessary” use of public dollars. Among the biggest concerns is the use of such data to illegitimately enforce criminal laws, he said.

“Generally speaking, the ACLU opposes the expansion of surveillance technologies by and large,” Callahan told The Pilot. “(One) of the initiatives that the ACLU has been behind is a movement to pass local ordinances that require law enforcement agencies that want to gain new surveillance technology to go to the public and ask for public input about the use of the technology and what kind of safeguards should be in place ... The absence of public buy-in to surveillance technology really has the potential to make us all less safe.”

A bill made its way out of the House of Delegates on Tuesday that, if enacted, would require the Commonwealth Transportation Board to regulate license plate reader systems on state- or city-owned highways and delete most of the data stored after 30 days unless it’s being used in an active law enforcement investigation.

Jenkins previously said Portsmouth’s license plate reader data, managed by Flock Safety, will be purged after 30 days.

“We don’t retain any data when it comes to license plates or people’s personal information regarding that,” he said.

Varnedoe emphasized that registering into the Fusus system is optional. She said officers could monitor the city’s cameras in real time, but permission would be needed to access footage from the cameras of residents and business owners.

As part of a separate initiative, residents can currently register their cameras in a video sharing partnership by visiting the department’s website and clicking on “Surveillance Camera Mapping Program” under the “Crime” tab on the homepage.

How an FBI Informant Derailed Denver’s BLM Movement

From [HERE] An outlandish guerrilla militant who drove a silver Hearse to Denver-area Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 was secretly a federal informant with a sex crime conviction, a new podcast reveals.

The informant, Mickey Windecker, pushed an activist to buy a gun for him, resulting in the activist’s guilty plea on weapons charges. Other Denver-area activists accuse Windecker of inflaming otherwise-peaceful demonstrations, encouraging people to break windows, and leading marches directly into police traps. Windecker’s informant status was first reported this week on the podcast Alphabet Boys, which explores Windecker’s case and FBI involvement in the Colorado protests.

The Alphabet Boys podcast shared some of its documents, including recordings and an FBI summary report, with The Daily Beast, which corroborated those documents through court records and with other Colorado activists who’d encountered Windecker.

The FBI’s national and Denver offices declined to comment. Windecker did not return The Daily Beast’s requests for comment. He spoke on the phone to the Alphabet Boys podcast, after its host, Trevor Aaronson, left notes at his old apartment.

An American Fighting ISIS Is Convicted Sex Offender

“If you post something, a story about me saying supposedly I work for the FBI, I will sue the shit out of you,” Windecker told Aaronson in a voicemail. “I will take you to court and I will break you off in court for defamation of character and slander. I have already notified my attorney about this. My previous landlord notified me and sent me these papers that you put on the old door that I used to live at, stating that I work for the FBI. I do not work for the FBI. I’ve never worked for the FBI. You get proof of me working for the FBI, then I’ll say otherwise, but there’s no proof because I didn’t work for them.”

MIT Professor Retsef Levi Urges Governments to Stop All Experimental COVID Injections. ‘The Evidence is Mounting and Indisputable that mRNAShots are Causing Serious Harm Including Death’

From [HERE] The number of health professionals urging for the suspension of COVID mRNA vaccine is increasing. The call for withdrawing the vaccine is getting stronger.
Recently, MIT Professor Retsef Levi took to Twitter to share the harm mRNA vaccines are causing in young people. "The evidence is mounting and indisputable that mRNA vaccines cause serious harm including death, especially among young people. We have to stop giving them immediately!," the MIT Expert in Analytics, Risk Management, Health Systems, Food & Agriculture Systems, Manufacturing & Supply Chain Management has tweeted.

Professor Levi's video, in which he has warned against the use of mRNA vaccine, has received more than 1 million views so far. “All COVID mRNA vaccination programs should stop immediately” “I’m filming this video to share my strong conviction that at this point in time, all COVID mRNA vaccination programs should stop immediately,” Professor Levi has said

“They should stop because they completely failed to fulfill any of their advertised promises regarding efficacy. And more importantly, they should stop because of the mounting and indisputable evidence that they cause unprecedented levels of harm, including the death of young people and children,” he continued.

“mRNA vaccines indeed cause sudden cardiac arrest”

“I believe that the cumulative evidence is conclusive and confirms our concern that the mRNA vaccines indeed cause sudden cardiac arrest as a sequel of vaccine-induced myocarditis. And this is potentially only one mechanism by which they cause harm,” he said.

“I personally became concerned with vaccine safety around the middle of 2021 when it became known that the mRNA vaccines cause myocarditis, and inflammation of the heart,” he says. “I was very concerned that it would not be detected by the existing vaccine safety surveillance systems. Motivated by that, we decided to analyze the Israel National EMS data to see if there are any signals of increased out of hospital adverse events,” he added and continued to substantiate his claims with the results of several studies.

“We detected an increase of 25% in the cause with cardiac arrest diagnosis”
“The analysis of the EMS calls and diagnosis data from 2018. throughout the first half of 2021 revealed some very concerning signals. We detected an increase of 25% in the cause with cardiac arrest diagnosis among ages 16 to 39. In the first half of 2021, exactly when the vaccination campaign in Israel was launched, a smaller increase was also detected in the older ages. Moreover, we also detected a statistically significant temporal correlation between the number of the Pfizer vaccine doses administered to this population and the number of EMS calls with cardiac arrest diagnosis,” says Professor Levi. 

“Data from the UK, Scotland, and Australia replicate the data from Israel. Additional data from Israel indicates that in 2021, the EMS in Israel conducted more than 3,000 more resuscitations compared to 2019, which amounts for an increase of 27%. Two prospective studies from Thailand and Switzerland in which vaccines were tested before and after they received a vaccine, indicate that the rates of heart damage are likely to be significantly higher than the rates detected by clinical diagnosis. This is exactly the same finding that the US. military found in 2015 when it conducted a similar study on the smallpox vaccine.”

He continued, “Another study from the Harvard Medical School detected in the blood of children with vaccine-induced myocarditis, an entire spike, which is another indication of the underlying mechanism of harm, but in fact has even broader implications about the safety of the vaccine given the repeated evidence that we have that the mRNA and the lipids are actually penetrating the blood system.”

“And finally, autopsies of people that died closely after they received the vaccine indicate that in a large number of cases, there is strong evidence that the death was caused by vaccine-induced myocarditis. So presented with all of this evidence, I think there is no other ethical or scientific choice but to pull out of the market these medical products and stop all the mRNA vaccination programs. This is clearly the most failing medical product in the history of medical products, both in terms of efficacy and safety,” he said.

“This is huge”
Sharing Professor Levi’s video on his personal social media accounts, Dr Aseem Malhotra who has been vocal against the administration of mRNA vaccines has posted: "Eminent MIT Professor & expert on drug safety analytics Retsev Levi calls for immediate suspension of all covid mRNA vaccines

‘They should stop because they cause an unprecedented level of harm including the death of young people and children’

This is huge"

mRNA vaccines work by introducing a piece of a lab synthesized mRNA which corresponds to the viral protein. When the cells produce the viral protein using the mRNA an immune response is triggered. Not just COVID, mRNA vaccines have also been studied before for flu, Zika, rabies, and cytomegalovirus (CMV). Cancer research also uses mRNA to trigger the immune system to target specific cancer cells.

How do mRNA vaccines work?
A little portion of a protein typically located on the viral outer membrane is introduced as part of an mRNA vaccine's delivery mechanism. (People who receive an mRNA vaccination are not exposed to the virus and cannot contract the infection through the vaccine).

Here are the answers to few common questions related to mRNA vaccines:

1. What is mRNA vaccine?
   mRNA vaccines use a piece of mRNA that corresponds to a viral protein.

2. How to mRNA vaccines work?
   These vaccines work by using laboratory synthesized mRNA to teach our cells how to make a protein to trigger immune response. 

3. What vaccines are mRNA?
   Pfizer-BioNTech and the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines use mRNA .

4. What are the other types of COVID vaccines available?
   The other types of COVID vaccine available are vector vaccine and protein subunit vaccine.