Boy's family sues Calumet City police

• Calumet City--which is 52% African American--has a 90% White police force.
  

The family of a 15-year-old boy allegedly beaten by a Calumet City police officer filed a lawsuit against the officer and the city in federal court Thursday. Don Pennington Jr., who was charged with two counts of aggravated battery against a police officer Aug. 26 after he was detained for jaywalking, alleged he was beaten at the police station by Officer Louis Picicco while approximately five unknown officers stood by. The suit, which names Picicco, the unknown officers and the city as defendants, seeks unspecified damages for excessive force and assault and battery. Vicki Pennington, Don Pennington's mother, said she finds it hard to believe any information that comes from the Police Department and expects the entire incident to be swept under the rug. "How is the Police Department going to investigate itself?" she said. Protesters Wednesday night tied the alleged beating to a lack of minority officers in the department. About 52 percent of Calumet City's population is black, while about 10 percent of the department's officers are black, O'Meara said. [more ] and [more ] and [more ] Pictuted above: Blood all over Don Pennington after Police beating.  scroll down for more

Palo Alto Police will stand trial for Beating Down Unarmed 60 Yr. old Black Man

Two Palo Alto officers, accused of assaulting a Black man last summer, will stand trial, the Mercury News reported on Friday. Michael Kan and Craig Lee will reportedly face charges of assault under color of authority, and could face three years in prison. The trial will reportedly start on Sept. 13. The Mercury News also reported that Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Diane Northway denied a defense request to reduce the felony assault charges to misdemeanors. During a preliminary hearing in June, 60-year-old Albert Hopkins testified that Kan and Lee beat pulled him from his parked car, near El Camino Real, and beat him "like two sharks going at some blood in the water." They also pepper-sprayed him, and he suffered a shattered knee. Hopkins refused to hand over his driver's license during the incident, and was accused of being belligerent and admitted cursing. The incident prompted outcry from local Blacks that the Palo Alto police acts discriminatorily. After an internal investigation and a brief leave, both officers were back in the force, albeit in non-patrol jobs. Hopkins was never charged with any crime in connection with the incident. In March, he agreed to a $250,000 settlement from the city. [more ]

Minneapolis officers put on leave as handcuff video studied

Two Minneapolis police officers were placed on paid administrative leave Thursday after a video surfaced this week showing them involved in an altercation with a handcuffed man, police said. The two officers are Sgt. Carroll Holley, who has been on the force since 1973, and officer John Laluzerne, who has been on it since 1999.The video shows a group of Minneapolis officers standing around a handcuffed man lying on the ground. One officer appears to kick the man in the head before officers put him in a squad car. The video shows the man kicking out the car and an officer closing the door on his leg. The incident occurred in the Warehouse District in the summer of 2003. [more ]

NAACP holds rally in Ferriday for Black Man Killed by Police

NAACP representatives encouraged the people of Ferriday and the family of Ron Lollis to continue the fight Thursday night. Close to 200 gathered at Greater Saint Reed Baptist Church to hear state NAACP leaders talk about the killing of Lollis on Aug. 23 on Doty Road. Lollis was walking on Doty Road when a Concordia Parish Sheriff's deputy stopped him in response to a complaint earlier in the night. Sheriff Randy Maxwell has said Lollis pulled a gun on the deputy. The matter is under investigation by the state police and the district attorney's office. "This is not over by a long shot," Ferriday NAACP President Justin Conner said. "We will not be quiet. This community has been shaken but we have not fallen." Most gathered at the church Thursday think the shooting was a racial incident. The deputy is white and Lollis was black. [more ]

Tribal cop involved in fatal shooting of teen is also target of another lawsuit

Killed 17-year-old on reservation
A tribal police officer being investigated for shooting a teenager to death is also the target of a separate probe into a civil rights violation. Norman Boney Junior, 17, also known as "Manny," was shot twice in July by Walker River Paiute Indian Reservation tribal police officer Walter Valline in the Las Vegas town of Schurz. He died at the scene. A later examination showed Boney was hit in the neck and the right side. Valline is being sued for violating the rights of a motorist during a traffic stop in Crescent Valley in August 2003, according to the Lahontan Valley News. The suit alleges Valline assumed the motorist had been drinking and illegally searched his vehicle. The motorist was let go a short time later. Valline was working for the Eureka County Sheriff's Office at the time. [more ] and [more ]

Critic' of McKinney Police charged with threatening officer

• Community Beleives  Police are Arresting Leaders who Ctiticize Cops

McKinney police charged a 48-year-old woman with threatening an officer Wednesday, the second east side resident arrested on the charge within a week. Evelyn Smith, who neighbors describe as a vocal critic of police tactics in the community, faces criminal retaliation charges brought after officers arrested the woman for trespassing. The incident occurred about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday as police responded to loitering violations at the Manor House apartment complex in the 700 block of Bumpas Street, officials said. Officers arrested Smith for criminal trespass as she stood outside of the apartment's gate videotaping their activity. Apartment management had forbidden her from entering the complex, and she had received a prior warning to stay off the property, police said. On the way to jail, Smith told the officer "that the streets were going to take care of him. That she was going to make sure that he got got," Capt. Randy Roland said.  Manor House Apartments is a site of mounting racial tension between police and many black residents, who say the arrest are meant to quiet opposition to police harassment. [more and [more ]

Burge Pleads The Fifth in Chicago Police Torture Lawsuits

• Alleged that Burge or people working for him tortured 108 Black and Latino suspects
  

After allegedly eluding authorities for more than a day, former Area 2 Police Cmdr. Jon Burge was slapped Wednesday with a subpoena ordering him to testify before a grand jury in an ongoing criminal investigation of police torture. Burge, who now lives in Florida, allegedly had evaded prosecutors since arriving in Chicago on Tuesday but was served with the subpoena while at his attorney's downtown office for depositions in civil lawsuits. He spent about four hours refusing to answer questions in those suits. They allege Burge and detectives routinely tortured suspected criminals while prosecutors and the city let it go on. Burge invoked the Fifth Amendment to nearly every question except to give his own name and that of his boat and to say that he still receives about $30,000 annually.[more ] and [more ] Pictured above: Protesters came out in full force to confront a former Chicago police commander accused of torturing suspects. [more ]


Torture allegations Dog ex-police officer

• "It has been for many years an open secret that at the police headquarters where Burge worked, a large number of African-American citizens were detained and subjected to horrific forms of abuse," said Locke Bowman, legal director of the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Chicago and a lawyer for a man who says Burge's detectives abused him. [more ]

Former Death Row inmates sue Burge

Burge is being sued in separate lawsuits by former Death Row inmates Aaron Patterson, Madison Hobley, Stanley Howard and Leroy Orange. He was also questioned in a parole revocation case. Separately, Special Prosecutor Edward J. Egan was appointed more than a year ago to investigate torture allegations within the Police Department. Burge was subpoenaed in that matter. Authorities would not say when he is scheduled to testify before the grand jury. His attorney, Richard Sikes, said he instructed his client to invoke the Fifth Amendment in the civil cases Wednesday, arguing that by answering questions, Burge could trigger new charges of "furthering a conspiracy" in the criminal case. [more ]

Norfolk Police say Videotapes of Jefferson Beating are OFF limits to the Public

• After confrontation with 7 Police Officers Black Man is Dead.  VideoTape begins after he is already subdued.
  

13News got to watch the dash cam videotape of a man who died after being taken into police custody in Norfolk. It's not being shown to the public because, according to the city attorney, it's considered a personnel file and they don't want to show the last minutes of Kenny Jefferson's life on TV. While we can't show images from the tape of the August 14 incident, we can tell you what we saw: -several officers cuffing Jefferson's hands behind his back. -He's kicking his legs in the video. -Officers cuff his ankles together and bind his ankles to his wrists. -Jefferson is moved from his stomach to his back while police check for weapons. -At one point, an officer checked for his pulse, monitored him and began CPR. NAACP president John Wesley Hill watched the tape as well. He wants to see other tapes rolling from other police cars that day. This tape didn't show Jefferson getting pepper sprayed. Signed affidavits from some witnesses on Chesapeake Boulevard say they saw Jefferson's hands and legs cuffed together in a hog tied position. There are several other tapes from officer's cars during this arrest. When we asked to see the other tapes, the city attorney said they don't show anything. [more ]

A slain teen's family questions the police account of the incident.

Video caught fatal pursuit
Pennsylvania State Police said Wednesday that a video camera captured the entire police pursuit that resulted in the death of a 17-year-old William Penn Senior High School student last Friday. They also said the teen, Rashaad Randle of York, was originally being pursued for speeding. The local and national branches of the NAACP  have called a meeting for next week and plan to investigate Randle's death to find out what happened, and to see if he was targeted for a traffic stop because he was black. A man who lives near where Randle died and who said he saw what happened told Randle's family on Sunday a different story of how he died. The story, which has circulated among family, friends and a growing number of other York residents, alleges that the trooper intentionally ran the teen over several times. However, Turner-Childs said all state police vehicles are equipped with video cameras and both the pursuit and Randle's death were videotaped. The tape has been reviewed and the story circulating is inaccurate, she said. The tape, she said, is considered evidence and will not be released to the public. [more ]

Protestors Decry Police Beating of Black Teen Don Pennington

Chanting and singing, some 100 outraged family and friends of Don Pennington Jr. squeezed into the Calumet City police station Wednesday evening to file a complaint against officers the teen said beat him up after taking him into custody for jaywalking near his school. Vicki and Don Pennington Sr., the parents of the 15-year-old Calumet City boy, stoically stood by him outside the station as their former pastor read the complaint aloud and named the officer Don said hit him for no reason. "(The officer) struck a young boy in the face like he was a man, and when he struck him in the face, he hit this whole community," said Lance Davis, who now ministers at New Zion Christian Fellowship in Dolton. Davis said the black community is tired of its children being pulled over for jaywalking and treated roughly by police, adding, "If they touch another child, there will be civil unrest." [more ]

• Images: Calumet City Teen Alleges Police Brutality [more ]
• Teen says he was beaten by police [more ]

Austin Medical Examiner Inquiry of Minority Deaths by Police Ends

Travis Co. Judge Sam Biscoe on Monday announced the end to a monthlong county investigation into allegations that the office of Travis Co. Medical Examiner Roberto Bayardo has improperly handled its investigations into 11 minority Austinites killed by Austin police officers since 1998. "Based on our review of the issues ... and after our review of the information received from the [ME's] office, we have found no evidence of improprieties that would justify an official investigation at this time," Biscoe said. Rev. Sterling Lands filed a complaint with Biscoe in July, asking that he investigate 11 "senseless and unprovoked killings" of minorities by APD officers. Lands said he was concerned that in each case Bayardo's office ruled that the deaths were "justified or unrelated to any unjustified actions by law enforcement," he wrote on July 30. Further, Lands said, he was concerned about the "countless numbers of blacks who are incarcerated" based in part on court testimony provided by examiners with the ME's office. Lands also raised questions about whether the doctors had perjured themselves and whether each of the examiners had been "properly accredited and credentialed" over the past two decades. [more ]

Coroner No Longer Recommends Charges In Police Shooting

• Black Man Fatally Shot by Pittsburgh Housing Authority in March 2003

A man was shot and killed by Pittsburgh Housing Authority Police nearly two years ago. Wednesday, the coroner weighed in on new evidence in the case. A coroner is no longer recommending criminal charges against a Pittsburgh Housing Authority police officer who fatally shot a man in a housing project. But Allegheny County Coroner Cyril Wecht also said Wednesday that new evidence uncovered since that March 2003 recommendation doesn't exonerate the three officers present when Bernard Rogers, 26, was shot in November 2002. Wecht originally recommended charges against Officer Tonyea Curry, saying some evidence didn't support police testimony that Rogers was shot as he struggled for Curry's weapon. A witness, Delfonte Ellis, has testified he saw another officer, Douglas Butler, shoot Rogers -- but only as he ran out of the apartment at the Bedford Dwellings housing complex and down a set of steps. But Wecht said ballistics evidence supports police claims that Rogers was shot in the apartment while he struggled with Curry for the officer's weapon. [more ]

Family of Black man slain by Ferriday Police hires lawyer. NAACP Gets Involved

A fund in honor of slain Concordia Parish resident Fredrick "Ron" Lollis has been established, according to the family.  Also, the family has retained as its lawyer Ernest Johnson, state president of the NAACP.  The NAACP also has become involved in another police shooting. Monroe police shot William Henderson, 58, on Aug. 22, resulting in five officers being placed on leave.  Lollis was shot on Doty Road after Deputy David Hedrick responded to a complaint call. Hedrick told investigators that Lollis had a bat and pointed a gun at him during the incident, said Sheriff Randy Maxwell.  Another witness has said Lollis was carrying a grocery bag and asked the officer not to shoot. Both sides say they have eyewitnesses to the incident. Maxwell said a gun was recovered at the scene. On Wednesday, Louisiana State Police officials said its investigation is ongoing. [more ]

Officer Wants his Trial Moved From Pr. George's

• Prince George's County police have fatally shot more people per officer than any other large police department during a 10-year period. PG County is 62% Black (population 800,000).

Attorneys for a Prince George's police corporal who is charged with assaulting a suspected carjacker -- an incident that was captured by a video camera mounted in a police car -- do not want the officer to be tried in the county. In a 12-page motion seeking a change of venue, attorneys for Cpl. Brian K. Addis argue that he "stands no chance" of receiving a fair trial in Prince George's. The motion, filed Tuesday in Circuit Court, cites news coverage not only of the alleged assault but also of misconduct involving the police force in recent years. Defense attorneys attached printouts of 91 news articles from newspapers and television news Web sites.   According to police who have seen the videotape, it appears to show Addis running toward Bullock, after the suspect had stumbled out of the van and fallen to the ground, and then hitting and kicking him. The tape appears to show Addis leaning down and kneeing the handcuffed Bullock in the groin, the sources said.[more ]

Anarchist People of Color Members Arrested in New York. Need Legal Aid + Money

Bail is being set Much Higher for Minorities  For the past several days the New York Police Department has used heavy-handed tactics to harass, intimidate, and arrest predominantly non-violent protestors. Unfortunately, but not atypically, non-Caucasian dissenters are suffering the worst consequences. On Sunday, August 29th, one of the many people arrested was charged with two felony charges and bail that was set at $200,000. This person of color has the highest bail so far and supporters need to raise $20,000 in order to get him released. Other white activists arrested during this action were given minor charges. There is a fund set up at www.foodnotbombs.net for bail and commissary for this brother.  A nineteen year old African-American, Jamal Holiday, was arrested after an undercover officer on an unmarked scooter rammed into a crowd of protesters and a fight ensued, leaving the undercover officer wounded. The brother was picked up the next day at a protest because he fit a description and was wearing similar clothes as the suspect. He is spending his 20th birthday in jail under circumstantial evidence. [more ]

• At this point, we have identified six APOC affinity members who've been arrested. The process is still being established, but if you are willing to donate funds for bail and/or fines, please go [here ] and click on the Paypal icon to make a secure donation. Please e-mail apocfund@yahoo.com with questions. Via Infoshop.org
  
• Group Complains About Police Holding Area; "Guantanamo-style pens [more ]

Black Teen Beaten by Police: Stopped for Jaywalking

• "A dog doesn't deserve to be treated like this. Our children are treated like this. This was a young man on his way home from school."

15-year-old boy Don Pennington was beat down by Calumet City police officers yesterday after being picked up on a jaywalking charge. He was taken into custody, put in a holding room and he says, beaten while five other officers watched. Pennington, who said he was walking with about five other students when he was approached by Police,  was the only one taken to the police station. The jaywalking ordinance requires all minors who are charged with the violating the ordinance to be taken to the police station, issued tickets and have their parents called. Pennington said he had been waiting for about 20 minutes for his ticket when an officer came into the room and asked him to stop tapping on a wall with his two fingers. The teen said no words were exchanged before an officer allegedly grabbed him by the neck, threw him against a wall, then punched and kicked him for about five minutes as five other officers looked on.  [more ] and [more ] and [more ]

ACLU claims Manalapan Police harassed Black Youth

• Suit alleges patrolmen treated Black youths differently than whites

The complaint filed by the ACLU, New Jersey, claims discrimination based on race, and improper search and detention by members of the township police department, Patrolman Peter Chalfin and Patrol-man Steve Turner, on the evening of June 21, 2003. The complaint also names the township of Manalapan, the Manalapan Police Department and Police Chief Stuart Brown. Chalfin and Turner are white. They are seeking compensatory damages for pain, suffering and humiliation.  According to the complaint, the three plaintiffs, who are black, were with three white friends  along Park View Way near the Bucks Head playground.  Two police cars stopped across the street from the where the ju­veniles were standing and a pair of white police officers approached the three plaintiffs and their three friends. The complaint states that at the time the officers arrived, the minor plaintiffs and their three friends were not making any excessive noise. According to the complaint, Yorker was asked to take his hands out of his pockets and asked why, since he had done nothing wrong, but complied with the directive. At that point, according to the com­plaint, one of the officers "pushed him against the police car and or­dered him to stand against the po­lice car with his arms and legs spread."...[

Omaha Police Going Off: Daughter Of Baseball Great Say Police Roughed Her Up

• Police Punch Bob Gibson's Daughter while she's Handcuffed.

 The daughter of a baseball Hall-of-Famer Bob Gibson is accusing Omaha police of using excessive force. Renee Gibson points to bumps and bruises as proof of an assault, but police say they're not the ones who tried landing a punch. Gibson said she knew that police were across the hall. Officers were investigating a disturbance at the apartment building. "I came over to the door because I heard the woman next door mention my name," said Renee Gibson, recounting what happened this weekend. Gibson wanted to talk to the officers, so she opened her door. She said an officer yelled at her to go away. "I just stood here in disbelief. I didn't know what was going on. He said, 'Close the door,'" Gibson said. "And I guess I didn't respond fast enough for him, so he charged out of that apartment, over here and I tried to close the door, and he busted it open and knocked me all the way back." Gibson said the impact pushed over the TV and broke her statues, including one of her father. Gibson said the officer slugged her after being handcuffed. She has a bruise by her eye and says she is sore all over. Gibson said she has filed a complaint with internal affairs. Gibson was arrested for disorderly conduct and obstructing a police officer. She goes to court in September. [more ]