Video catches Indianapolis Metro Police kicking Subdued Latino Man after chase

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An early morning chase today ended with a man being Tasered and kicked by police officers who said he was resisting arrest and trying to escape. A WTHR (Channel 13) helicopter took video of officers kicking Felipe Alvarado, 26, at least five times as he was on the ground. In the end, Officer Jason Scott appears to shove Alvarado’s head down with his foot. One blow appeared to strike Elverado's head while arms were pinned behind his back. Police said the officers' actions appeared to be justified. "The kicks are beyond reasonable force," said the Rev. David W. Greene of Second Baptist Church on the city's north side. "I'm questioning the mentality of police officers. Do they believe they are above the law?" Today’s chase began about 6:45 a.m., when witnesses told police a man who had broken into several vehicles was fleeing in a van near Mitthoefer Road and East 21st Street.

The driver led police on a 10-minute pursuit that ended when the van spun in a field north of 21st Street and Riley Avenue. Police said the man ran across nearby railroad tracks, where officers caught him. One fired his Taser, Mount said, sending the man to the ground. The video shows two officers struggling to subdue the man. The video apparently shows one officer kicking the suspect three times and the other kicking him twice. Scott then approaches and uses a foot to deliver a blow to the man’s head. Mount said Scott appeared to be using his foot to push the man’s head down while the man was in handcuffs.
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NYPD Disciplines White Officer Who Stopped Black Commander

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A white city police officer has been disciplined after acting in a discourteous manner after he confronted a black motorist in the borough of Queens. On May 2, two officers approached and began questioning a motorist who was sitting in his car. One of the officers tried to wrest open the car door. It turned out the motorist was Douglas Zeigler, the head of the Police Department’s Community Affairs Bureau and the highest uniformed black officer on the force. The incident comes at a time when the New York police are coming under increasing scrutiny for racial profiling. During the first three months of the year, the police stopped and frisked a record 145,000 people—most were black or Latino. [MORE]

Cogressional Public forum on Police accountability may lead to changes in Funding

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A congressional committee Monday heard civil rights crusaders, academics and frustrated Sean Bell supporters demand a massive overhaul to police departments in New York and nationwide to end excessive force deaths. "This is not a New York matter anymore _ it is international," said Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which held a public forum on police accountability at the Customs House in lower Manhattan, N.Y. The committee, which has influence over federal funding of police departments, will recommend changes in police training, funding and policies to reduce instances of racial profiling and excessive force.

Like other such cases of deadly force, the 50-shot killing of Bell, 23, has again called into question police conduct. Last month's acquittal of the three undercover officers charged in the Nov. 25, 2006, death led to citywide protests calling for civil rights prosecution of the officers and immediate policing reforms.
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16 Year Old Latino Boy Stomped in Alley by Denver Police Officer was Handcuffed, Unarmed

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Police Report says Officer Jumped on his back at least 4 Times
A Denver Police officer was arrested Thusrday after being accused of beating a 16-year-old boy. The officer in question is Charles Porter, a member of the Denver Gang Unit. Porter, 40, was arrested and booked into jail Thursday. He is now facing second degree felony assault charges in the beating of Juan Vasquez. He has since bonded out. He has also been suspended without pay. Porter's accused of kicking, punching and beating Vasquez three weeks ago in an alley in North Denver while Vasquez was handcuffed and on the ground. The statement of probable cause signed by police Sgt. Paul Jimenez states that on April 18, a foot chase ensued after Porter saw Vasquez consuming what appeared to be alcohol in the 1500 block of West 37th Avenue. The statement adds that two Denver police officers witnessed the incident and identified Porter as the officer who jumped up and down on Vasquez's back.

Felipe Vasquez. said "they beat him bad. If I did that to a 16-year-old kid, I'd be in jail right now. They beat my little brother inside out. They kicked him, they kicked his body and made his liver bleed," said Felipe. He said the beating was so brutal, the family posted fliers all over the neighborhood asking anyone who may have witnessed the beating for more information,.

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Videotaped Philadelphia Police Beating of Black Men a Case of Mistaken Identity, Cover-Up Alleged

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Attorneys for three men beaten by Philadelphia police claim the officers concocted a story that the trio were shooting suspects to cover up a case of mistaken identity , an allegation police vehemently deny. The lawyers said their clients , Brian Hall, 23, Dwayne "Lionel" Dyches, 24, and Pete Hopkins, 19 , were not involved in a shooting. Police chased their car and beat them because they mistook Dyches, a passenger, for a man allegedly involved in the fatal shooting of an officer last weekend, the attorneys said. Dyches' attorney, Eldridge Suggs, showed photos of Dyches and suspect Eric Floyd at a news conference Friday and called the resemblance "uncanny." Floyd was eventually captured and charged in the murder of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski. "All they've done is make up some facts to account for the beating," Suggs said. "And the reason why they beat this man is because he looked so much like the cop-killer."

Police and city leaders have denied a cover-up.
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Frederick County (MD) Deputy Won't Face Criminal Charges for Killing Black Man with Taser

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(AP) The attorney for a Frederick County sheriff's deputy who delivered a fatal electronic shock to a 20-year-old man says his client is gratified that he won't face criminal charges. A grand jury ruled Friday that Corporal Rudy Torres was justified in using his Taser to subdue 20-year-old Jarrel Gray after Gray did not obey commands to show his hands last November. Gray was shocked twice and died three hours later. Torres' lawyer, Patrick McAndrew, says his client's actions "were legally justified and in accordance with agency procedures." Ted Williams, a lawyer hired by Gray's family, says he wasn't surprised the grand jury did not pursue charges.

He says no Frederick County deputy has ever been indicted for, in his words, "murdering a black man." Williams says the family may take the case to the Justice Department.

Judge reinstates Notorious B.I.G. lawsuit

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A judge has reinstated a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the family of slain rapper Notorious B.I.G., reversing an earlier decision to dismiss the case. U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper threw out the lawsuit March 21 after determining the family missed a state deadline for bringing a claim against the city and two former police officers. The lawsuit was originally filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, then moved to federal court. The family appealed, and the judge reversed her decision after finding federal claims in the case can proceed, according to court papers obtained Thursday. Cooper gave the family 20 days to file a new lawsuit and drop the state claims. B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was gunned down March 9, 1997, while leaving a party at a Los Angeles museum. The 24-year-old performer's killing remains unsolved.
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Philadelphia Police Officers Suspended After Brutal Taped Beating of Unarmed Black Men - What will Black Mayor Do About it?

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See Video [HERE]
 Seven more police officers were taken off street duty Thursday as investigators look into the videotaped police beating of three shooting suspects during a traffic stop. Thirteen of the estimated 15 officers on hand during the Monday incident have been taken off the streets as investigators pore over the television news footage, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey told a news conference Thursday. The officers were videotaped beating three unarmed African American men. A local television news helicopter captured the scene of around a dozen officers pulling the victims from their car and kicking and punching them as they lay on the ground. The beating occurred after the shooting death of a police officer who had been pursuing three robbery suspects, two of whom were later caught. The three victims have all been charged with assault, conspiracy and endangering another person. The officers who beat them have not been charged.

The commissioner pledged to send the department's preliminary investigation to prosecutors by next week. If prosecutors decline to file charges, he will deal with the officers involved internally, he said. The Internal Affairs unit is still working to enhance the tape and identify all of the officers in the footage, a department spokesman said. [MORE] and [MORE]

Black Mayor & Black Police Chief say Race was not a Factor
nutter.jpg"There's no excuse for that type of behavior, and we certainly want to take action," Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said. Mayor Michael Nutter said he was "tremendously disappointed" by the officers' behavior and vowed to deal with the matter. "The conduct was unacceptable," he said. "It did not live up to the professional standards we have set for the police department."  He added that the incident has "virtually nothing to do with race; it has to do with crime." "This is about proper police conduct, regardless of the race or ethnicity of the individuals involved," Nutter said. "We are not satisfied with the activity; it does not matter what the race of any particular defendant is." [MORE]

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Facing Pressure Black Governor vows to Examine Undercover NYPD Procedures

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paterson.jpgGov. David Paterson pledged to examine undercover police conduct on Thursday, a day after more than 200 people were arrested protesting the acquittal of three detectives involved in the shooting death of an unarmed man. Paterson said he understood the activists' frustrations as he stood with the slain man's fiancee and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who were among the demonstrators arrested while disrupting evening rush hour traffic. But the governor stopped short of endorsing their actions. "No civil servant can condone civil disobedience," Paterson said, but he added: "They felt that they had no other choice but to take the action that they took, and I respect the decision that they made to take that action."

The governor's involvement was a measure of the emotion and unrelenting attention surrounding the shooting of Sean Bell, who was gunned down hours before he was to be married in November 2006. The gunfire stirred complaints about police tactics, and the acquittals on April 25 in state court prompted some activists to question the prospects of justice for minorities. Bell was black as were two of his friends wounded in the shooting; the officers are black, Hispanic and white.
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Denver Police Officer Arrested in Beating, Stomping of Latino Teenager

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A 12-year veteran of the Denver Police Department was arrested Thursday on a felony charge of second-degree assault after accusations that he used excessive force against a 16-year-old. Officer Charles Porter, 40, has been suspended without pay from the department. He had been assigned to the gang bureau prior to the charges.
The suspension is in connection with alleged excessive force against Juan "Willie" Vasquez, who suffered a lacerated liver, kidney injuries and broken ribs on April 18 near West 37th Avenue and Pecos Street. An incident report was unavailable late Thursday. Vasquez has undergone at least two surgeries at Denver Health Medical Center and still has a tube inserted into his back to expel bodily fluids, said his brother Felipe Vasquez, 27. "He said they jumped on him with both feet," the brother said. "He said they beat him and hit him with a flashlight, and they left him there and gave each other high-fives, and then the ambulance came. Then they said, 'What happened, did you fall?' "
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Maryland Agrees to settlement in Central Booking Beating Death of Unarmed Black Man - Attacked by 25 Officers

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The Maryland Attorney General's Office has agreed to a settlement with the relatives of a man who was beaten to death at the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center after a struggle involving correctional officers.  Relatives of Raymond Smoot have agreed to drop their $130 million wrongful death lawsuit in exchange for the settlement. Dwight Pettit, an attorney who represents the family members, says it was the family's decision to settle. He wouldn't disclose the amount.  The settlement will have to be approved by the Board of Public Works.

Smoot was killed in May 2005 after a struggle broke out involving 25 to 30 correctional officers. Relatives of prisoner Raymond Keith Smoot said he was "savagely beaten" by guards. At a news conference they arranged at a niece's home, family members provided photos they took after Smoot's initial treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital; the photos show his face covered in bruises, his eyes blackened and blood-soaked gauze in his mouth.
"They cracked my uncle's skull," said the niece, Delvonna Smoot. "They crushed his face. This did not look like the Raymond Smoot we knew." [MORE] and [MORE]

Sharpton arrested (released) as hundreds protest NYC police shooting

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The Rev. Al Sharpton was among dozens arrested Wednesday as demonstrators blocked traffic at the height of the evening rush hour to protest the acquittal of three detectives in the 50-bullet shooting of an unarmed black man on his wedding day. Police said 216 people were arrested, including Sharpton, two survivors of the shooting and the slain man's fiancee. They lined up and put their hands behind their backs as police arrested them on disorderly conduct charges.

Sharpton, the two survivors and the fiancee were released about four hours later, said Sharpton spokeswoman Rachel Noerdlinger.

The demonstrators prayed, sang and chanted slogans including "no justice, no peace" as they converged on six heavily used bridges and tunnels that carry traffic to and from Manhattan island. The protests were part of a coordinated campaign to urge federal authorities to investigate the shooting of Sean Bell in November 2006.
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NFL Player says Austin Police Used Excessive Force

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Chicago Bears running back Cedric Benson believes officers used excessive force against him and plans to fight charges he operated a boat while intoxicated and resisted arrest on a Texas lake over the weekend. "He denies that he was intoxicated," attorney Brian Carney said Monday. "He denies that he resisted arrest."

Benson is scheduled to appear in Travis County Court on May 19 to face charges stemming from an incident Saturday night. Benson failed a sobriety test while operating a 30-foot boat on Lake Travis near Austin and resisted arrest before being hit with pepper spray, Travis County Sheriff's Department spokesman Roger Wade said Sunday.

He was released from jail early Sunday on a $14,500 bond. The charges are class B misdemeanors, each punishable by up to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine. Benson's version of what happened is drastically different from the police's description. "There was no resistance on my part," Benson told the Chicago Tribune. "Was I drunk? No."

Police say Benson was operating the boat with 15 passengers when a Lower Colorado River Authority officer stopped him for a random safety inspection. He failed a field sobriety test on the officer's boat and was uncooperative when the officer tried to take him ashore, the authority said.
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TV video shows Philly officers kicking, hitting 3 suspects

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A half-dozen police officers kicked and beat three men pulled from a car during a traffic stop as a TV helicopter taped the confrontation. The video, shot by WTXF-TV, shows three police cars stopping a car Monday, two days after a city officer was shot to death responding to a bank robbery.

The tape shows about a dozen officers gathering around the vehicle. About a half-dozen officers hold two of the men on the ground. Both are kicked repeatedly, while one is seen being punched; one also appears to be struck with a baton. The third man is also kicked and ends up on the ground. "On the surface it certainly does not look good in terms of the amount of force that was used," Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said. "But we don't want to rush to judgment."
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Conyers vows thorough probe into NYPD Shooting of Sean Bell

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The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee on Monday met with the family of a man fatally shot by police just hours before his wedding, promising a thorough federal investigation of the incident.  Three New York police detectives were acquitted Friday on all counts in the case of Sean Bell, an unarmed man killed in a hail of 50 police bullets outside a strip club on November 25, 2006. Bell's two friends, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, were wounded in the shooting.

"We are going to be putting together the federal strategy," said Rep. John Conyers, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a Michigan Democrat. "This is important." "We want to make sure that justice is served and that a message is sent out, not just to law enforcement but to the young people of this country, that these kinds of tragedies have to end in this country," he said. The Justice Department said it was conducting an independent investigation to determine if the trio's civil rights were violated.

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More Foul Tapes, Records of S.C. Troopers Using Excessive Force, Slurs Against Blacks

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One case that hasn’t been investigated yet involves allegations that a black Columbia college student on his way to a new fast-food job was stopped and handcuffed to a guardrail on I-77 by a trooper, according to a letter from his mother to Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, which was forwarded to DPS investigators. It also alleges that he was made to pull down his pants and remove his shoes and that he was taunted with a racial slur.

The allegations also include that officers ripped apart the dashboard of the car, which he had borrowed from his mother, and then gave him a $400 ticket when he couldn’t prove the car was covered by insurance, which she insisted it was, according to the records.  "Eric was devastated by the officer’s behavior and reminded me that I say they are there to protect and serve," Celeste Pinckney wrote March 7, according to a copy of a transcribed letter released Friday.

The officer was on a Patrol motorcycle, according to the letter, which isn’t equipped with video cameras.

The racial slur allegation came seven weeks after Gov. Mark Sanford withdrew his nomination of the current DPS director, Jim Schweitzer, after viewing a videotape showing a white state trooper using a racial slur and threatening a black man.
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Pressure on Black Governor of NY to Act in the Wake of the Sean Bell Case

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Civil rights groups are aiming to rouse the activist side of Governor Paterson this week in the aftermath of a not guilty verdict for three detectives who killed an unarmed black man, Sean Bell.

Doubting that federal prosecutors will bring new civil rights charges against the detectives, the activists are resting their hopes for action on the former state senator from Harlem, who once protested alongside them after the 1999 shooting of another unarmed black man, Amadou Diallo.

Mr. Paterson was arrested for civil disobedience during the Diallo protests on almost the same spot where yesterday a civil rights lawyer, Norman Siegel, a state senator, Eric Adams, and leaders of a civil rights group, 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, called on him to use his new power as governor to make changes to a system they say is ineffective in punishing police brutality.

Some of the changes proposed by the activists are ones Mr. Paterson himself has called for in the past, including the creation of a permanent post for an independent state prosecutor to investigate and prosecute police corruption and brutality - a post the governor has the power to create.
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Defense argues Immunity in Suit Alleging Excessive force at VA. Beach Jail: Mentally Ill, Restrained, Black Woman Brutally Beaten by Officers

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A federal magistrate said he will recommend within two weeks whether a lawsuit filed by a woman who alleged she was the victim of excessive force in the Virginia Beach jail should move forward. Janace Johnson, 60, who has schizoaffective disorder, in September sued the city of Virginia Beach, the state, Sheriff Paul Lanteigne, two sheriff’s deputies and a policeman.

A federal judge in March threw out all Johnson’s claims except for the ones alleging excessive force by sheriff’s deputies. The suit had alleged that she was wrongfully arrested and prosecuted. It also said Johnson did not receive necessary medical care and that law enforcement officers used excessive force against her while she was in the Virginia Beach jail. On Monday, a lawyer for Lanteigne and two sheriff’s deputies argued that his clients are protected by “qualified immunity,” which can shield government employees from claims of civil damages. Attorney Jeff Rosen said his clients were just doing their jobs when they wrestled Johnson to the ground after she refused to follow orders and after she hit a sheriff’s deputy in the face.
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NYPD is Probing Whether Officers Taunted, Prank Called Bell Family after Verdict

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The NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating a cruel prank call to the family of Sean Bell's fiancée that originated from the Manhattan offices of a prominent police union, The Post has learned.
"Ha, ha, ha," someone said in a 1:15 p.m. Friday phone call to the home of Nicole Bell's father Les Paultre, according to a police source. The number for the Sergeants Benevolent Association came up on the caller ID.
"It was just horrible to get that phone call after coming back from the cemetery," said Nicole Bell. Her father said, "The guy was taunting us, laughing. It was horrible because we had just come back from the court and the cemetery." The president of the union, Edward Mullins, said, "If the accusations are true, we will deal with it." [MORE]

Outcome of Sean Bell Case leads to call for Special Prosecutor

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A coalition of civil rights advocates on Sunday urged changes in the handling of police misconduct and brutality complaints after the acquittal of three officers involved in the shooting death of an unarmed man on his wedding day. They also called for a permanent state-level special prosecutor to investigate such cases.

"The verdict in the Sean Bell case proves it is almost impossible to successfully prosecute cases of police misconduct, especially in homicide cases," said lawyer Norman Siegel, former head of the New York Civil Liberties Union. "The verdict underscores the need for systemic change in the way New York handles these important and at times high profile cases, and to improve community relations," said Siegel, an outspoken advocate on civil rights and law enforcement issues.

Three city police officers were cleared Friday in the November 2006 shooting death of Bell outside a night club where he had just left his bachelor party. Two friends were wounded in the volley of 50 shots fired by the undercover officers and two colleagues. The officers charged said they thought they were in mortal danger, but no gun was found in Bell's car.
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