From [HERE] Former Saginaw mayor Gary Loster will travel to Washington, D.C., to testify in front of the Congressional Black Caucus Friday about the death of Milton Hall. He was murdered by 5 white Saginaw Police Officers with a reported 46 shots in a five-second hail of bullets. [MORE] 

Loster plans to give a presentation about his perception of the Saginaw shooting and answer questions about the incident, hoping it will help lead to changes in police policy to ensure similar killings don't happen in the future.   Saginaw County Prosecutor Michael D. Thomas said during a press conference on Sept. 12 that the Saginaw police officers involved in Hall's death will not face state charges.

He and other members of the Concerned Citizens of Saginaw would like to see policy changes relating to the Americans with Disabilities Act and better police training for working with people with mental disabilities or post traumatic stress disorder, Loster said. Such measures are like using a mop to clean up a levee break. The issue here is not faulty equiptment or training - it is white supremacy/racism [MORE]; white prosecutors upheld the decision of white police officers to murder a black man in broad daylight - the white media remains quiet and white citizens in Saginaw support the killing. [MORE] and [MORE]. Think about it, how many white people have been killed like Milton Hall by Black officers? How many unarmed white people have been killed by Black officers in the history of law enforcement? None. 

From [HERE] and  [MORE] and [HERE] The families of two men who died during encounters with Las Vegas police filed separate federal lawsuits Tuesday against the agency and its officers, alleging negligence that proved fatal. One lawsuit was filed on behalf of the mother and father of Anthony Jones, 44, who died in December 2010 after he ran from police who pulled a gun on him during a traffic stop. The stop culminated in officers using their x-26 Electronic Control device (Taser) 19 times on the Jones who died on the scene. All officers involved were found to have acted within department guidelines, however Jones’ death was the catalyst to Metro’s change in its Taser Policy. 

In the Jones family lawsuit, four officers were named as defendants. The lawsuit alleges unreasonable search and seizure, excessive force, false arrest, battery and negligence. The lawsuit says Tasers were used on Jones for more than 100 seconds. It says that before the encounter got physical, Jones was detained without probable cause and without reasonable suspicion. [MORE] Taser International Inc., the manufacturer, also was named as a defendant. 

From [HERE] A two-year investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice has found that a North Carolina sheriff and his deputies routinely discriminated against Latinos by making unwarranted arrests with the intent of maximizing deportations. In an 11-page report issued Tuesday, the federal agency said Alamance County Sheriff Terry S. Johnson and his deputies violated the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens and legal residents by illegally targeting, stopping, detaining and arresting Latinos without probable cause. The agency also said that Johnson obstructed the federal investigation launched in 2010 by withholding requested documents and falsifying records. Federal investigators say members of the department also feared retaliation if they cooperated.

According to the report, Johnson referred to Latinos as "taco eaters" prone to drinking, drug dealing and other crimes. He ordered special roadblocks in neighborhoods were Latinos live, during which those with brown skin were stopped while whites were waved through.

Johnson also ordered his deputies to arrest motorists who appeared Latino -- even for minor traffic infractions -- while letting drivers off with warnings, according to the report. His deputies, in turn, were as much as 10 times more likely to stop Latino drivers than non-Latinos, according the federal review of the department's traffic stop records. Hispanics make up only 11 percent of the county's population. "If you stop a Mexican, don't write a citation, arrest him," the sheriff is quoted as telling supervisors within his department, according to the report.

From [HERE] The mother of a teen shot to death by police in March has dropped three Pasadena police officials from her civil-rights lawsuit against the city.

Kendrec McDade, 19, was killed by two officers who were responding to reports of an armed robbery March 24. Officers Mathew Griffin and Jeff Newlen chased McDade into a dark street in Northwest Pasadena and shot him when his hand was at his waistband, believing he was armed, police said. Investigators later discovered he was not armed and the 911 caller had lied about seeing weapons in order to get a quicker police response.

An autopsy report says he was alive and handcuffed after being struck by a total of seven bullets at close range. At least one bullet was in his back.  The federal lawsuit also alleges McDade was left on the street for a prolonged period of time without receiving first aid. 

McDade also does not fit the profile of the kind of person who would normally commit armed robbery. He has no gang ties or prior arrests, was a star football player in high school, and was a student at Citrus College at the time of his death. [MORE] 

The complaint filed on behalf of McDade’s mother, Anya Slaughter, dismisses Police Chief Phillip Sanchez, Lt. Phlunte Riddle and Det. Keith Gomez.

From [HERE] The family of a Latino man shot dead by an L.A. County sheriff's deputy has filed a $5 million wrongful death lawsuit against the department. The family says surveillance video shows that Jonathan Cuevas posed no threat during the 2010 incident. Video shows a squad car pulling up next to three men walking along the street. A deputy flashes a light at them. As he exited the car Cuevas, 20, started running and the deputy shot at him.

"He fires six shots running towards Jonathan, and the seventh shot he stands over Jonathan and shoots him right through the torso, as a coup de grace kill shot," said James Segall-Gutierrez, an attorney for the Cuevas family. Police claim he was unarmed but according to Cuevas' attorney there were no fingerprints on the alleged weapon. The attorney also says the police have given inconsistent descriptions of the gun. 

"Was he armed? Yes. Is the whole story being told now? No. Let's not forget who has already investigated this: Internal Affairs, Office of Independent Review monitoring that. Homicide Bureau. The District Attorney," said Sheriff's Spokesman Steve Whitmore.

From [HERE] Mother of man killed by Wichita police in Dollar General robbery speaks out Doris Johnson first saw the store videos of her son getting shot to death 17 days ago. She sees it replay in her dreams every night, the bullets hitting him as he staggers out the store in a shower of shattered door glass.

Police released the videos Aug. 28, hoping to show that they had no choice in shooting DeJuan Colbert as he robbed a Dollar General store in south Wichita on Oct. 30. They say the videos, and the still-photo screen grabs they released with it, show that Colbert rushed three police officers at the store’s front doors holding a knife. Prosecutors on Aug. 28 announced, based in part on the videos, that the officers were justified in shooting Colbert 15 times.

Johnson sees it all differently. She said it took her 17 days to feel strongly enough about it to make a public statement on Thursday. She said the video shows cold-blooded murder. She said she does not see a knife, and that the video clearly shows her son trying to run away, rather than hurt anyone.

The store videos show an officer entering the store, gun drawn. It then shows Colbert running toward the officer at the door with an object in his hands. In the video the object looks like a bag of money - not a knife. Officer claims that he did not follow commands but he begins shooting while he is making the command. The officer fires when Colbert is only about a foot away, and other officers behind the first one open fire, too. Colbert staggers at the door entrance, and collapses as glass shatters in both doors and cascades down onto the pavement where Colbert falls.

From [HERE] A Louisville man says he was beaten by at least two Metro Police officers earlier this month.  Andre' Mulligan has filed a complaint with the Professional Standards Unit of LMPD.

He says he simply told an officer to slow down, and that led to the violent confrontation:  "So when the officer was speeding through, I was kind of right here and I said, 'Slow down.' Officer stopped and backed up and said, 'What did you say?'" Mulligan says that's when things got violent.  He says it happened outside a downtown Louisville nightclub on Labor Day weekend.  Mulligan says the officers roughed him up and then put him inside a police car, where the beating continued.

He says it didn't stop until he pretended to pass out. "I kind of...literally kept praying because like when I was in the back of that car and he was trying to kill me, I literally thought that was my last day."

"And I was like, sir what are you doing...I'm not resisting or anything...he said you're resisting and all of a sudden he said boom! Slammed me dead on the ground." "He said you're under arrest for public intoxication and I'm like well okay, I haven't had anything to drink and I put my hands behind my back." Mulligan admits once inside the inside the police cruiser he called the officer a name...and says that's when the beating continued.

"And when I did that, he opened the door back up and jumped in and just started stealing me. Boom, boom, boom, boom." Mulligan was eventually arrested and taken to Metro Corrections. He says the mug shot shows his head was bruised and swollen from the attack.

"I kind of...literally kept praying because like when I was in the back of that car and he was trying to kill me.  I literally thought that was my last day." [small part of video on short TV report]

From [HERE] Jonesboro Police released a report and additional audio interviews from Chavis Carter's girlfriend and a woman who was on scene at the traffic stop the night Carter died in the back of a Jonesboro patrol car. Investigators have ruled 21-year-old Chavis Carter's July 28 death a suicide. The documents released Thursday don't shed much new light on how Carter wound up in the back of a patrol car while armed with a pistol.

Nothing revealed thus far proves who pulled the trigger. The medical examiners did not test for gunshot residue on Carter’s hands to determine if he had actually fired the .380-caliber handgun police say was used in the slaying. The police have not released any ballistics or other reports that might shed further light on the case one way or the other. That said, even if this was a suicide, the Jonesboro police involved are still, at bare minimum, guilty of being incompetent and responsible for the death:

“If it did happen [the way police said Carter's death occurred,] the police still have entire responsibility for it because when they take someone into custody, they’re responsible for his health and welfare,” Baden said. “If he dies in their custody they’re responsible. At the least, we’re talking about very sloppy police work — not finding a gun that he could have used to shoot one of the officers — and it’s indicative of poor training of the officers.”

As to what should have happened after the shooting, Baden said police should have thoroughly examined the police car for gunshot residue.

“They should examine whether there is blood and gunshot residue on the roof of the car, the back seat etc., because blood spatters and smoke and residue would land on the roof, the back of the seat and on [Carter's] hands,” Baden said, adding that such an examination “would permit reconstruction of how the hands were positioned at the time of discharge” of the firearm. [MORE] 

From [JURIST] A coalition of rights groups in Arizona filed an emergency motion on Thursday asking a court to block a controversial provision of Arizona's immigration law [SB 1070, PDF] until an appeal can be heard on the issue. The contested provision requires law enforcement officials to check the immigration status of persons they stop or arrest if there is a reasonable suspicion that the person is in the US illegally. A judge for the US District Court for the District of Arizona last week declined to issue an injunction against the provision , in light of the US Supreme Court ruling in Arizona v. United States [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] which upheld the provision. Among the rights groups involved in the suit are the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF).

Section 2(B) gives police too much discretion when stopping or detaining persons while “checking” their citizenship status. The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and AACJ argued in their brief that Sec. 2(B) cannot be implemented without racially profiling Latinos in violation of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. (That is, police stops and detentions of persons based on physical characteristics orpersons who look Latino to the police are reasonable in Arizona -  any stop and detention of a non-white person). Even lawful detentions and arrests become unconstitutional when the detention becomes prolonged or unreasonable. If officers rely on profiling characteristics such as a person’s ethnicity in determining whether a person should be detained for an immigration check, Sec. 2(B) becomes an unconstitutional “stop-and-identify” law repugnant to all citizens. [MORE] 

White Supremacy or Justice? Saginaw County Prosecutor Michael D. Thomas holds the knife Milton Hall had in his hand to make a point during a press conference yesterday. "The officers' lives were dangered," he said. "Especially the officer with the dog, and the dog." [MORE] From [HERE] and [HERE] Police officers who unleashed a hail of gunfire that killed a homeless Black man with a knife in his hand will not face criminal charges, prosecutors said Wednesday. A joint probe by the Michigan Attorney General's Office and Saginaw County Prosecutor's Office found the officers reacted properly, it was announced Wednesday.

Saginaw County Prosecutor Mike Thomas (in photo) told reporters that investigators had reviewed police reports, several pieces of evidence -- including audio recordings of phone calls made to police -- and interviewed several witnesses at the scene. "Criminal charges aren't warranted," said Thomas, noting that the officers had not acted with criminal intent on July 1 when they opened fire on Milton Hall. The 10-week investigation was necessary because "the Saginaw Police Department was not going to investigate itself," he said. Hall's family said that he had a history of mental illness.

Hill had been had been arguing with officers in a parking lot next to a restaurant when he was shot in broad daylight, in full view of passing motorists. Saginaw County Prosecutor Michael Thomas said that the squad of police confronting him opened fire "because apparently, at this point in time, he was threatening to assault police with a knife."

However, in the video Hall does not make any sudden or threatening movement toward police. He appears to stagger around lethargically. The officers had been equipped with stun guns, though they "aren't 100% effective," Thomas added. Police also had a police dog on a leash in front of Hall so they had other opitions at their disposal -- but apparently chose to use their guns instead. After the shooting begins he makes no threatening movements towards officers - but the officers continue to shoot, like a video game. He was murdered by cops with a reported 46 shots in a five-second hail of bullets. [MORE] 

From [HERE] and [MORE] and [MORE] An elderly Black man who was beaten in jail after being arrested on false charges by city police was awarded $500,000 to settle a pending lawsuit.  The plaintiff, Aubrey Knox lost a kidney after the brutal beating. Baltimore's spending panel agreed on Wednesday to pay $500,000 to Mr. Knox and his wife Lena Knox after police arrested them on dubious charges of kidnapping their own grandson — and the grandfather was severely beaten in the city's Central Booking and Intake Facility. The Knox's charged that they were not only subjected to a police search of their house, but intrusive interrogations, threats and false imprisonment.

Aubrey Knox, 60, and Lena Knox, 58, of Northwest Baltimore, sued four police officers over the 2007 arrests, claiming they were illegally arrested and that Aubrey Knox was not protected from other inmates while in custody of jail officials. In a memo to the Board of Estimates this week, Deputy City Solicitor David E. Ralph wrote that Aubrey Knox suffered "serious" injuries, and that the city's law department had concerns about "whether there were sufficient facts" for the arrest in the first place.

From [HERE] Jordan Miles, whose accusations that police beat and falsely arrested him resulted in a mistrial in August, petitioned the court late Tuesday for another trial. Mr. Miles' attorney, J. Kerrington Lewis, asked U.S. District Chief Judge Gary Lancaster for "a trial date as soon as practicable." On August 8, 2012 an eight-member federal jury decided in favor of three white Pittsburgh police officers in the Miles case. The jury was composed of 7 whites and one black man. [MORE]

Mr. Miles, a college student, claimed undercover officers had no legal basis to approach him. Officers chased him when he ran and when they caught up with him they beat him into submission by delivering violent blows that left his face swollen and distorted. Police also used a stun gun and pulled out a chunk of his hair. The officers put him in handcuffs, and repeatedly shoved his face into the snow, causing a piece of wood to impale his gums. He is 5-foot-6 and 150 pounds and was unarmed. No weapons were found. He suffers from permanent brain damage. [MORE] 

The officers told a jury that they saw Mr. Miles acting suspiciously between two houses and that when they questioned him he ran. They mistakenly thought he had a gun and arrested him using only the force necessary, the officers said. Police said the Mountain Dew bottle looked like a gun. 

In photo white people upset Black Man defended himself against 3 psychopathic white men who attacked him over parking. From [HERE] A federal appeals court has rejected an ex-New York City police officer's request to overturn his murder conviction in the 1996 shooting of a Black man during a parking spot dispute outside his father's deli. Richard DiGuglielmo was convicted of shooting Charles Campbell in suburban Dobbs Ferry. He was sentenced to 20-years-to-life in prison. He argued his conviction should be overturned because two witnesses changed their original statements.

But the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that even given new evidence, it could not reasonably be found that Campbell was about to use deadly physical force when he was shot. DiGuglielmo has maintained he shot Campbell because he felt his father was in imminent danger. His attorney said he would continue to fight the case.

The incident happened on Oct. 3, 1996 in front of a delicatessen owned by Richard DiGuglielmo in a Westchester suburb of New York. Campbell, a 37-year-old Black man, pulled into a parking space reserved for deli customers but didn't go inside.  The owner of the deli, his son (DiGuglielmo) and another white man pasted a sticker on Campbell's window. When Campbell asked them to remove the sticker, they attacked him and began beating him. "When Campbell finally broke free, he picked up a bat to defend himself against the three men. The younger DiGuglielmo -- an off-duty New York City police officer -- shot Charles three times, twice in the heart, killing him."

Now, Rice is back in 36th District Court in Detroit, with his easy smile and case files, but these days, he's the target, as Wayne County prosecutors stack up thousands of documents to show he should stand trial as a racketeer, swindler and drug dealer.

In six pages of accusations covering 2006-11, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office alleges Rice and his longtime girlfriend Cheryl Sanford ran a continuing criminal enterprise to commit mortgage fraud on properties in Detroit and Taylor, obtain money under false pretenses and deal marijuana and prescription drugs.

Rice, 62, also is charged with perjury in connection with a federal bankruptcy.

In all, he's facing 18 felonies -- following a joint investigation by the U.S. Secret Service, the Office of Housing and Urban Development, the Michigan State Police and the Wayne County Sheriff's Office -- carrying a maximum 20 years in prison and more than $500,000 in fines.

From left, Concerned Citizens of Saginaw representative Gary Loster, Pastor Cervin Merrill, Bishop Zachary Williamson and Tanya Welch talk to Matthew Frey (the white guy), Republican candidate for Prosecuting Attorney, outside the office of Saginaw County Prosecutor Mike Thomas. They were hoping to hear a decision from Thomas in the Milton Hall shooting case. Hope on folks! From [HERE] Because a new witness of the fatal police shooting of Milton Hall came forward today, the investigation is not yet complete, said former Saginaw Mayor Gary Loster, who spoke with Saginaw County Prosecutor Michael D. Thomas. 

Thomas told reporters gathered in the courthouse on Tuesday morning that rumors of a press conference regarding the Hall shooting were not true. The July 1 shooting is under investigation under the direction of the prosecutor with assistance from the state attorney general's office, with a separate review underway by the U.S. Department of Justice. "We did not have a press conference scheduled. The investigation is not complete, there was no press conference scheduled," Thomas said in a hallway of the Saginaw County Governmental Center, 111 S. Michigan in Saginaw. He did not provide further comments.

Two employees on the fourth floor of the courthouse, where conference was rumored to take place at 9 a.m., said the conference was cancelled the day before. One employee said at 5 p.m. Monday, workers learned the conference was cancelled, and another said he found out when he arrived at work this morning that the conference was cancelled Monday at 5:30 p.m

Tanya Welch, who was wearing a National Action Network T-shirt and pin, said she doesn't understand why staff at the courthouse said a press conference was cancelled if one wasn't scheduled.

"How do you say it wasn't scheduled when the whole building said it was cancelled?"

From [HERE] and [HERE] Luis Solivan, a 19-year-old from the Bronx, was walking home from the store last fall when an NYPD cruiser pulled a quick U-turn in his direction. He says he "got paranoid," the New York Times reports, and what happened next might help explain why: Solivan, who was unarmed, ran toward his mother's apartment, where two police officers proceeded to punch him in the face multiple times in what a new lawsuit against the department calls a "brutal and sadistic" beating. The officers charged Solivan with resisting arrest, but a grand jury decided not to indict him based in part on video of the incident captured by a neighbor through the window.

"They just started grabbing me, started hitting me," said Solivan, who, according to the police report, punched the cops and tried to grab for one officer's gun. "I was not resisting arrest." His lawyer, Ilann Maazel, explained that, without the grainy, disturbing video, Solivan likely would have been indicted. "What it shows is shocking," Maazel said. "It revealed that the police did not tell the truth and they wanted to put an innocent man in jail, potentially for many years." (Solivan was on probation for attempted murder as a youthful offender.)

According to the lawsuit Solivan filed today in Manhattan Federal District Court, the police then took him out to the hallway before using pepper spray and slamming his head into the wall, this time off-camera. The lawsuit claims the two officers chased Solivan into his home for no reason, pepper-sprayed him and beat him with their hands and a walkie-talkie. After Solivan was hand-cuffed, he was kicked and his head was thrust into a wall so hard the impact left a hole, Maazel said.Solivan claims he suffered a broken nose and other injuries. Solivan's mother and two younger brothers were in the University Avenue apartment at the time. 

From [HERE] and [HERE] The NAACP wants Laurel’s police department investigated by federal prosecutors. The call stems from cell phone video taken last month that shows an officer punching  a Black man in handcuffs at least three times outside the Laurel Station Bar and Grill. Leaders with the Prince George’s County chapter of the NAACP say it shows police brutality and they want the Justice Department to step in. They also want a federal probe into what they call racial profiling and discrimination in hiring. The officer in the video is currently on administrative duty.

The city of Laurel is facing a $3 million lawsuit from the Black man who has accused a city police officer of striking him in the face while he was being handcuffed outside a bar. The lawsuit, filed Aug. 8 by D’Ante’ Williams of the 4100 block of Parkwood Court in Cottage City, says Williams was handcuffed outside the Laurel Station Bar & Grill when he was hit in the face several times by PFC J. Diaz-Chavarria. Williams now is calling for a jury trial in circuit court for $3 million on claims of personal injury and mental anguish. [SEE video on TV report -

From [HERE] Almost four months after a Yonkers police officer allegedly clubbed him in the face with a nightstick, Clayton Hairston is still in pain from nine broken bones, has trouble moving his jaw and has been subject to humiliation and anxiety his attorney said Tuesday.

On Monday, Hairston filed a civil rights lawsuit in New York Southern District Court, naming the City of Yonkers and two police officers as defendants in the May 22 confrontation that Hairston says landed him in the hospital and caused permanent damage. The lawsuit seeks $40.5 million in damages.

The confrontation was tied to a minor car accident earlier that day in May, said Hairston's Scarsdale-based attorney, Constantine "Gus" Dimopolous. Hairston stopped like he was supposed to, exchanged information with the other driver and headed home, his attorney said. Later that night, two police officers showed up at Hairston's Yonkers home and told Hairston he'd left the scene of an accident. "He thought he hit only one car, but he actually nicked the second," Dimopolous said.

Hairston "didn't do or say anything inappropriate," his lawyer said, but he became exasperated when Officer Juan Ojeda kept asking his wife questions. Hairston admits asking Ojeda, "What, do you like her?" Dimopolous said. That's what allegedly set Ojeda off, the lawsuit alleges.

According to the lawsuit, Ojeda "with all his strength, swung his baton from behind his back to generate the greatest amount of force and struck [him] in the face with the batton between his nose and his upper lip." He broke nine bones in his face," Dimopolous said.

From [HERE] As the Weekly reported earlier, Anaheim Police Department officers involved in back-to-back fatal shootings in July have already returned to active duty. Not missing a beat, the Orange County Register's resident bootlicker David Whiting (who favored Fullerton police over Kelly Thomas) just happened to go on a ride-along with one of them for his latest dispatch. 

The columnist opens his article describing scenes from a recent Friday night in the city sitting in the back of a patrol car with gang investigator Kelly Phillips and Sgt. Juan Reveles. A red vehicle is driving erratically according to Whiting before being pulled over. The driver has his hands up and says 'Don't shoot!' On this occasion, Phillips doesn't, but has, in high profile cases--twice. 

As the Reg's bootlicker writes, he was fact checking his print draft when the Anaheim Police Department just happened to inform him in the interest of transparency that Phillips was the officer who fired upon and killed 21 year-old Joel Acevedo on the night of July 22. Whiting recounts the police version of events where a short pursuit of a stolen SUV on Guinida Lane ended in an exchange of gunfire where a weapon was found between Acevedo's legs.  

A day after the deadly incident, Acevedo's mother Donna Castro had called Theresa Smith, who lost her son, Caesar Cruz, in an officer-involved shooting outside the Wal-Mart at Anaheim Plaza in December 2009 and has since filed a civil suit against the city. As Smith mentioned on Democracy Now!, her sister and brother had been friends growing up with Castro. That's not all they would share in common.