Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., 68, was killed by White Plains police officer Anthony Carelli, 34, on Nov. 19, 2011.
The jury--made up of five whites and three non-whites (two Latino women and one Black man) deliberated for close to a day before deciding the city of White Plains and officer Carelli did not violate Chamberlain’s civil rights by commiting excessive force.
The jury also rejected the family’s allegation that the officers illegally assaulted Chamberlain. The case was the result of a $21 million federal wrongful death lawsuit.
Chamberlain had accidentally triggered his medical alert. When the medical-alert agency did not get a response from Mr. Chamberlain, it dispatched the police to check on him. He repeatedly told police that he didn’t need help and that he wanted them to leave the premises during the 90 minute stand-off. During the stand-off audio recordings revealed the officers called him nigger and taunted him with racial slurs. Officer Steven Hart said “Stop, we have to talk nigger.”
Police forced their way into his apartment anyway, tased him and then shot him, a heart patient who was unarmed and in his boxer shorts. A former Marine and corrections officer, he had bipolar disorder, as well as arthritis and respiratory illness.
He told officers, "I don't need you! I didn't call you!" he yelled at the officers.
Police claimed that they were worried that someone else might be inside the apartment and also claimed they feared for his safety.
When the door was finally yanked off officers hit Chamberlain with a Taser and four beanbag rounds.
But according to police that wasn't enough to stop the senior citizen from lunging at them with a knife, four officers testified at the trial.
"I believed Sergeant Martin might be killed," Carelli testified. "(Chamberlain) was closing in."
Martin said he was thankful for his colleague's decision to open fire.
"I thought I was going to be stabbed," Martin testified. "I don't think I would be standing here. Officer Carelli saved my life." [MORE]
"A mind that is filled with belief is a mind which can project anything according to the belief. When you see things always remember this." [MORE] In the presence of Blacks racists cannot see things as they really are. Racism white supremacy is a virus in the mind. [MORE] The racist's eyes are filled with thoughts and all sorts of idiotic programming about niggers clouds their thinking. Anything done in this sleeping statewill be stupid. Maybe this is what happened to the white jury when they saw this video of Ray Tensing shooting Samuel DuBose in the head after a 'no front tag' traffic stop.
From [HERE] and [HERE] Cincinnati trial judge Megan Shanahan declared a mistrial on Saturday after the jury [10 whites] declared that it was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on murder and manslaughter charges in a case involving the shooting of the unarmed Samuel DuBose, a black man, by white Police Officer Raymond Tensing in July 2015. Shanahan previously encouraged the jury to reach a verdict stating that there was sufficient evidence to decide the case, but accepted the jury's deadlock status after nearly three days of deliberations.
White officer Ray Tensing fatally shot Samuel DuBose, 43, during a traffic stop as Mr. DuBose started to drive off. Mr. Tensing, 26, claimed that Mr. Dubose’s car was dragging him and that he fired at him because he feared he would be run over. The encounter was captured on video and set off protests.
Mr. Tensing was charged with murder and voluntary manslaughter. A murder conviction — which requires jurors to find that he had intentionally killed Mr. DuBose — carries a sentence of 15 years to life in prison.
A conviction on voluntary manslaughter — which requires them to find that he acted in a fit of rage or sudden passion — carries a sentence of up to five years.
The jury of 10 whites and two blacks began deliberating just after noon on Wednesday.
On July 19, 2015, Mr. Tensing pulled over Mr. Dubose’s 1998 Honda Accord a few blocks south of campus for having no front license plate.
Body-camera video released by prosecutors shows Mr. Tensing asking Mr. DuBose for his license and Mr. DuBose eventually acknowledging he does not have one with him. Mr. DuBose shows the officer the missing license plate in his glove box.
After the officer starts to open the driver’s door, Mr. DuBose pulls it closed and restarts the car. In several chaotic seconds, the engine can be heard revving, the officer reaches into the car with one hand, yells “stop” twice, and draws and fires his gun once with the other hand.
Mr. DuBose, a father of 12 was shot in the head by the white cop. The authorities said that several bags of marijuana and more than $2,500 in cash were found in the car. His license had been suspended indefinitely months before. [obviously the cop did not know any of the above information until after he murdered Dubose because he does not have x-ray vision and does not have the gift of prophecy - but a racist journalist/jurist might find those facts compelling in some way]
A report by a risk-consulting firm hired by the university said that the video showed that Mr. Tensing was not being dragged, that the car had barely moved before the gunshot was fired and that Mr. Tensing had made several critical errors — including drawing his gun and reaching into the car.
The white cop was wearing a T-shirt depicting a Confederate flag under his uniform at the time of the shooting.
From [HERE] A jury with only one black member was selected Monday to hear a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a mentally-ill African-American man fatally shot by a white cop in Westchester in 2011.
The eight-member panel - including two alternates - is made up of four white women, one white man, two Hispanic women, and one black man.
They will decide the outcome of a $21 million federal suit brought by family of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., 68, who was killed by White Plains police officer Anthony Carelli, 34, on Nov. 19, 2011.
Before opening arguments, lawyers for the Chamberlain family and the White Plains Police Department fought as the jury was whittled down from a pool of 45 candidates. Of that initial group, just three - or 6.6% - were black.
That breakdown of the jury is below the racial makeup of the six suburban counties from which the panelists were drawn. The counties are 68% white, 11% black and 17% Hispanic, according to the latest U.S. Census data. The jury was selected from Westchester, Sullivan, Putnam, Orange, Rockland, and Dutchess counties. [MORE]
Kenneth Chamberlain, a 68-year-old retired Marine, was shot and killed five years ago by White Plains Officer Anthony Carelli in his apartment at 135 S. Lexington Ave. after police broke down his door "to respond" to his medical alert device.
Chamberlain had accidentally triggered his medical alert. His original medical alert was canceled and he repeatedly told police that he didn’t need help, but police forced their way into his apartment anyway and shot him, a heart patient who was unarmed and in his boxer shorts. A former Marine and corrections officer, he had bipolar disorder, as well as arthritis and respiratory illness.
When the medical-alert agency did not get a response from Mr. Chamberlain, it dispatched the police to check on him. Ninety minutes later, after he had been called Nigger and taunted with racial slurs by white cops, according to an audiotape, and subdued by both a Taser weapon and beanbag rounds, he was shot and killed by a bullet from an officer’s .40-caliber pistol.
“At the end, he is saying, ‘Mr. President, I can’t hold them back; they are breaking through,’” said Debra S. Cohen, a lawyer for Mr. Chamberlain’s family, which has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the City of White Plains and the officer who fired the fatal shot. [MORE]
From [HERE] Documents obtained by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS show missteps by police that led to a black man being bitten by a K-9 officer and kicked by a police officer this past June.
A settlement agreement written by St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell to K-9 Officer Brian Ficcadenti outlined the evening of June 24. Video of the incident was released Friday for the first time.
The incident happened just after 10 p.m. June 24 on the 1800 block of East Seventh Street in St. Paul.
During a news conference Friday afternoon, St. Paul Police Public Information Officer Sgt. Mike Ernster said police were responding to a fight involving a large group of people and were told one person had a gun.
The person with the gun was described as a black man with dreadlocks who had been wearing a white T-shirt, according to the settlement agreement.
According to Ficcadenti’s report, which is outlined in the settlement agreement, Ficcadenti saw people “scatter in multiple directions” and did not see any weapons or fighting when he arrived. Ficcadenti drove around the block and came to an alley, where he saw a row of parked cars with a black man sitting in one car talking on the phone.
“You reported that you believed because the male was black, had dreadlocks and was wearing a white T-shirt, he was the person who was in possession of a gun,” the settlement agreement states.
The documents say Ficcadenti said he ordered the man to put his hands in the air but that the man only put one hand up.
“You reported he did not comply with your orders and you released your dog believing he was ‘about to pull a firearm on you’ and that it was necessary to prevent a ‘lethal force encounter,’” the document says.
The K-9 officer apprehended the man, and other officers arrived at the scene. They told the man to keep his hands visible, but he either could not or would not comply, Ernster said.
One of the responding officers then kicked the man in the ribs three times, police say.
The man was handcuffed and found to be needing medical attention. The man was taken to Regions Hospital, where he spent two weeks recovering. The man's attorney says the man had serious bites to his leg, multiple broken ribs and collapsed lungs.
Police say no gun was found on the man or in the surrounding scene.
“The decisions and conclusions you made are troubling,” Axtell wrote in the settlement agreement. “You responded to anonymous information about a fight and man with a gun. No witness ever identified this citizen or his vehicle as being involved to you or any other officer and he was three apartment buildings away from the original call location.”
“According to your report and statement, the citizen was never seen with a gun nor did he display any aggression toward you,” Axtell continued in the report. “The entire interaction from when you gave the first verbal command until releasing your K-9 partner was less than 20 seconds.”
Axtell said Ficcadenti’s tactical decisions weren’t consistent with his police training nor his specialty K-9 training. He also said Ficcadenti’s decision to release the K-9 and run toward the citizen with his firearm in his holster was “reckless at best” and created a hazard for Ficcadenti and the assisting officers.
Ficcadenti was suspended for 30 days even though a civilian review commission recommended 10 days. He will also not return to the K-9 unit. [would he still have his job if this happened to a white person?]
'It Would Be Better If They Had No Eyes. Then There Would Be No Possibility of Misunderstanding[at least they would know they can't see'] From [HERE] and [HERE] The shooting of Walter Scott, occurred on April 4, 2015, in North Charleston, South Carolina, following a daytime traffic stop for a non-functioning brake light. Scott, a black man, was fatally shot by Michael Slager, a white North Charleston police officer. Slager was charged with murder after a video surfaced contradicting his police report.
The case is now being heard by a jury of 11 white jurors and one token black [why would the prosecutor allow a nearly all white jury to be emapaneled? Think Michael Brown/Eric Garner prosecutions. Prosecutor is white, Slager is white, Police Chief Driggers is white, judge is black but in a jury trial the jury decides all the factual issues [he is there for show or the appearance of justice]. . . Don't hold your breath in a system of white supremacy].
A Black man riding with a Black motorist who was fatally shot by a white police officer while running away from a traffic stop testified Thursday that he doesn’t know why his friend tried to flee.
“That’s a question I would like to ask him. Unfortunately, I can’t. He was murdered,” said Pierre Fulton, who worked with Walter Scott at a distribution warehouse and was riding in the front passenger seat when Michael Slager, a North Charleston police officer, pulled them over for a broken taillight.
A bystander’s cellphone recording of Scott’s death stunned the nation as the images spread on social media. Slager, who is white, faces 30 years to life if convicted of murder in the shooting of Scott, who was black. He also faces separate federal charges including violations of Scott’s civil rights.
Fulton said Scott surrendered his driver’s license and stepped out of the car. Slager then ordered Scott to get back in again, and he complied. Then, as the officer was checking the information, Scott bolted.
“The next thing you know, he was out the door,” Fulton said.
The gunshots rang out a short time later, he said.
While sitting in the car, Scott called his mother on his cellphone.
“He didn’t sound very good. He sounded in distress,” Jury Scott, 73, told the jury as she fought back tears.
“He said, ‘They were tasing me.’ I heard him groaning like he was in excruciating pain several times,” she said. “I told him, ‘You know North Charleston policemen, so just do whatever they say.’”
Solicitor Scarlett Wilson said Slager fired eight times after failing to subdue Scott with a stun gun; five of the shots hit Scott in the back and buttocks.
Wilson told the jury of 11 whites and one black in her opening statement that even if Scott wrestled with Slager over the stun gun, that provocation did not justify being shot to death.
“If Walter Scott had not resisted arrest, he wouldn’t have been shot. He paid the extreme consequence for his conduct. He lost his life for his foolishness,” she acknowledged [sounds super aggressive and compelling]
But she said Slager must be held accountable for “his decision to go too far — his decision to let his sense of authority get the better of him.”
On Friday the apt white jurors fixed their attention on the video: a cellphone recording of some of the fatal encounter. The video shows Mr. Slager firing eight rounds toward the back of Mr. Scott as he is running away from him. It was played in slow motion.
As the jury of 11 white people and a black man watched State’s Exhibit No. 237, a female juror held her right hand to her lower lip. A male juror repeatedly swallowed. Mr. Slager watched the video on a screen near the defense table as the sound of gunfire boomed, shot after shot, through the courtroom.
“It was an injustice what I saw,” testified Feidin Santana, who recorded the video on his way to work on April 4, 2015.
Mr. Santana, the only witness to the shooting besides Mr. Slager, said he had been first drawn by the sight of Mr. Scott running. Moments later, Mr. Slager came into view.
Mr. Santana said he had heard the buzz of a Taser and watched Mr. Slager punch Mr. Scott’s side. Using his cellphone’s camera, Mr. Santana taped the men as they tussled.
Then Mr. Slager opened fire, and Mr. Scott fell to the ground. Mr. Santana testified that the officer handcuffed Mr. Scott, who was not moving.
“At any point, did you see Walter Scott coming at Officer Slager?” Ms. Wilson asked.
“That never happened,” Mr. Santana replied.
Mr. Slager, who was fired after the shooting, could be sentenced to life in prison if he is convicted of murderin state court, where his trial will resume on Monday. He has also been indicted on federal civil rights charges.
The video could resurface in the state trial, in which Judge Clifton B. Newman on Friday denied a defense request to block the footage from being played in slow motion. The recording is also expected to be crucial evidence in the federal case.[MORE]
An attorney for the Scott family, Chris Stewart, told reporters after the court adjourned following a full day of statements and testimony that the family is not concerned a nearly all-white jury is hearing the case. [sounds incompetent]
“All you need in this case is everything all juries have: two eyes and a brain. It doesn’t matter what color they are, because they have eyes that can see that videotape,” he said. [lol - eyes filled with thoughts!]
The parents of a Black man who was fatally shot by police in South Los Angeles in 2014 reached a tentative settlement with the city of Los Angeles over a civil rights and wrongful death lawsuit in which they alleged their son was killed while lying on the ground unarmed.
The notice of settlement was filed Oct. 26 by attorneys for Edsell and Tritobia Ford, the father and mother of Ezell Ford. The agreement was reached during a mandatory settlement conference five days earlier, according to the plaintiffs' attorneys court papers.
No terms were divulged. The court papers said the settlement was "conditional" and it was not immediately clear if the resolution requires approval by the City Council.
Ford, 25, was shot in the 200 block of West 65th Street in South Los Angeles at 8:10 p.m. on Aug. 11, 2014.
According to the lawsuit filed in March 2015, Wampler and Villegas -- who were named defendants along with the city and LAPD -- "intentionally and/or negligently fatally shot unarmed decedent Ezell Ford multiple times with their firearms" after he had complied with their order to lie on the ground.
The officers knew Ford was "mentally challenged" and that he was not committing a crime at the time, the lawsuit stated.
The shooting prompted several protests and calls for a speedy and transparent investigation. Activists have contended that eyewitnesses dispute the police account of events. [MORE]
A federal judge on Tuesday accepted a $1.9 million settlement agreement between the family of Sandra Bland and Waller County officials and the state trooper who arrested her.
Bland, 28, was found dead in her jail cell in July 2015, days after she was arrested for a minor traffic infraction.
The death became a symbol for the Black Lives Matter movement during a period when violent encounters between law enforcement and black people sparked a national conversation.
Shortly after Bland died, her mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, sued Waller County officials and law enforcement for negligence.
As part of the settlement, county officials agreed to improve how inmates are booked and supervised at the jail and other facilities lacking immediate access to medical services, according to the Houston Chronicle.
The settlement was first announced in September. Bland family attorney Cannon Lambert told KTRK-TV that the Department of Public Safety will pay $100,000, an amount capped by state law, and the Waller County Jail will pay the remaining amount. [MORE]
From [HERE] White Minneapolis officials announced Thursday that the two officers involved in Jamar Clark’s shooting death will not face any disciplinary action.
Minneapolis Police Chief Janée Harteau and Mayor Betsy Hodges announced the findings of the Internal Affairs investigation at a press conference Friday. Harteau said she met with Clark’s family earlier in the day.
Minneapolis Police Chief Janée Harteau and Mayor Betsy Hodges announced the findings of the Internal Affairs investigation at a press conference Friday. Harteau said she met with Clark’s family earlier in the day.
Harteau said the investigation determined the incident did not violate any MPD policy and the officers will not be criminally charged.
Clark was shot by police during an incident in north Minneapolis on Nov. 15, 2015. He was taken off life support two days later and died.
Police say Clark tried to take an officer’s gun in a struggle during a domestic abuse call, but several witnesses claimed Clark was handcuffed when he was shot in the head by one of the officers involved – Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze. In an unrelated incident Schwarze also savagely beat a Black man after a seat belt stop. [VIDEO]
“After an extensive review of this entire incident, I have concluded that these officers did not dictate the outcome of this incident,” Harteau said in a prepared statement at the press conference. “This was an outcome that no one wanted.”
In particular, Harteau defended Officer Ringgenberg’s use of a “takedown maneuver” captured by a camera mounted in the back of an ambulance. The Hennepin County Attorney’s office released the video last March, after deciding not to file charges in the incident.
He was shot in the head about 61 seconds after officers arrived, as the situation quickly escalated from noncompliance to physical violence, a narrative released by the District Attorney’s office said. At first, officers couldn’t get Clark to remove his hands from his pockets. When they tried to handcuff him, he fought back.
Officers told investigators that Clark had landed on top of Ringgennberg during the scuffle and had his “whole hand” on the officer’s gun. Schwarze dropped the handcuffs he had pulled out to subdue Clark, unholstered his service pistol and held it to the side of Clark’s mouth.
From [HERE] A mentally ill black man who died in a Milwaukee prison in April suffered from severe dehydration, a medical examiner concluded. Inmates said he was begging for drinking water days before perishing in custody. Terrill Thomas, 38, was sent to jail after two shooting episodes in which he allegedly was involved on April 14
Thomas suffered from bipolar disorder and, according to his family, had experienced a mental breakdown at the time of his arrest. His mother asked the police to take him into custody, saying her son had become violent and erratic.
On April 27, he was supposed to undergo medical evaluation to determine if he was competent to stand trial for five counts of charges against him. But this didn’t happen because on April 24 he was found dead in his solitary cell.
Thomas’s body showed no injuries, but his “biochemistry testing revealed profound dehydration,” the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office said on Thursday. The death was ruled a homicide.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff's office, which runs the jail in which Thomas died, declined to comment on the incident until an investigation is complete. The Milwaukee Police Department is leading the probe to avoid a conflict of interest. It would not comment on the matter either.
From [HERE] Kenneth Chamberlain, a 68-year-old retired Marine, was shot and killed five years ago by White Plains Officer Anthony Carelli in his apartment at 135 S. Lexington Ave. after police broke down his door to respond to his medical alert device.
Chamberlain had accidentally triggered his medical alert. His original medical alert was canceled and he repeatedly told police that he didn’t need help, but police forced their way in and shot him, a heart patient who was unarmed and in his boxer shorts. A former Marine and corrections officer, he had bipolar disorder, as well as arthritis and respiratory illness.
When the medical-alert agency did not get a response from Mr. Chamberlain, it dispatched the police to check on him. Ninety minutes later, after he had been called Nigger and taunted with racial slurs by white cops, according to an audiotape, and subdued by both a Taser weapon and beanbag rounds, he was shot and killed by a bullet from an officer’s .40-caliber pistol.
“At the end, he is saying, ‘Mr. President, I can’t hold them back; they are breaking through,’” said Debra S. Cohen, a lawyer for Mr. Chamberlain’s family, which has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the City of White Plains and the officer who fired the fatal shot.
Now the family of Mr. Chamberlain will have its day in federal court next week.
Mr. Chamberlain can be heard on the audiotape, made available by the medical-alert agency that recorded the encounter, telling the officers that he was all right and asking them to leave because he did not need or want their help. The agency also tried to cancel its request for a police call. But the officers insisted on checking on Mr. Chamberlain in person. Transcripts from the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office reveal that Officer Steven Hart, a white man, said to Chamberlain, “Stop, we have to talk nigger” before police broke down his door. Police officers forced their way into his apartment and fired a Taser and bean bags at Chamberlain to try to subdue him. Then they fired real bullets.
A former Tukwila police officer indicted on a felony charge of pepper-spraying a patient who was handcuffed to a gurney at Harborview Medical Center pleaded guilty Wednesday to a misdemeanor charge in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Nick Hogan pleaded guilty to a single count of deprivation of rights under color of law, a misdemeanor, which carries a penalty of up to one year in jail, a fine of up to $100,000 and a year of supervised release.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Theiler, who accepted the plea, said Hogan will be sentenced Jan. 27.
Hogan, 36, originally had been charged with a felony in the Harborview incident and faced up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 if convicted.
The Harborview incident occurred May 20, 2009, while Hogan was transporting an "uncooperative" man wanted on a warrant to the hospital to be treated for a split lip suffered in a fight.
At the hospital, Hogan said he delivered three “knee strikes” to the handcuffed Black man’s head after he was slow to get out of the police cruiser, and then — once inside the emergency room — shoved and tackled him, sparking protests from hospital security officials.
The Black man was handcuffed to a gurney, where he taunted Hogan, who responded by spraying him in the face with pepper spray.
Hogan told his commander he never considered just moving away from M.S., and acknowledged “he triggered my threat response.”
In pleading guilty, Hogan signed a restrictive plea agreement that effectively prevents him from ever working in law enforcement again. At the same time, it provides for consideration at sentence for taking responsibility for his crime.
The agreement also orders that he pay an as-yet undetermined amount of restitution to the victim, identified in court documents only by the initials M.S.
The agreement requires that Hogan resign his law-enforcement commission for at least 15 years, meaning he can no longer be a police officer, and he is barred from seeking work in the private-security field where Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Miyake said he might “have control or authority over someone else.” He also cannot hold a job where he has to carry a firearm.
The city of Snoqualmie hired Hogan in 2012, after he was fired by Tukwila.
New details in the case of Sam DuBose reveal that the former University of Cincinnati police officer accused of killing him was wearing a T-shirt depicting a Confederate flag under his uniform at the time of the shooting.
The shirt was presented as evidence in the murder trial against Ray Tensing on Friday, according to USA Today. Along with the Confederate flag, Tensing’s shirt read “Great Smoky Mountains, 1934.”
The ex-cop’s family members, as well as others in the courtroom, were reportedly surprised by the evidence, Cincinnati.com reports. Ohio Senator Cecil Thomas (D-OH), who was in the courtroom while it was being presented as evidence, told the site that the shirt “speaks to Tensing’s mindset.”
“The flag is contrary to everything the African-American community represents,” Thomas told Cincinnati.com. “Every officer is representing the community... He had to wake up, make the conscious decision to put it on as part of his uniform. He had to recognize in his own mind what he was wearing.”
Tensing, who is white, pulled the 43-year-old over near the college’s campus on July 19, 2015 for not having a front license plate. After DuBose, who is black, failed to produce a license, the then-cop told him to step out of the car. When DuBose refused, Tensing reached in the unarmed man’s car and fatally shot him in the head.
The former officer claimed that he fired his gun because DuBose was dragging him with his car and almost ran him over. The body camera footage, however, shows that wasn’t the case.
During a press conference after Tensing was charged, Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters said that Tensing “purposefully killed” DuBose and called the incident “the most asinine act I’ve ever seen a police officer make.” During Friday’s trial, a use-of-force expert testified on behalf of the prosecution that DuBose didn’t present a threat to Tensing at the time of the shooting, according to the Associated Press.
Blacks are Subjected to Random Terror & Arbitrary Punishment in White over Black System of Unequal Power. From [HERE] Muskogee police released body cam video of an officer using pepper spray on an 84-year-old woman. Officers were chasing the woman’s son when he ran into the house. They asked to him to come out and he refused.
They then went into the home and used a Taser on the suspect. The women then came out and police commanded her to turn around. FOX23 counted about 40 seconds in the video between that command and when she was pepper sprayed.
White cops were chasing the young Black man because he allegedly ran a stop sign and did not pull over when cops tried to effectuate the stop. [check out the white police chief in video trying to justify this bullshit. A white individual within a system of racism/white supremacy has the implicit or explicit support of that system IF they choose to practice racism. MORE]
Because We Said So Nigger. From [HERE] Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel offered an update on Monday morning, August 22nd on the investigation into the officer-involved fatal shooting of 23-year-old Sylville Smith. Schimel said the video in this case, that so many in the community want to see, will not be released anytime soon. Also no video or other details about why the cops stopped the car or what made it "suspicious" to cops has been released.
Smith was fatally shot near 44th and Auer on Saturday afternoon, August 13th. The incident touched off several days of unrest in Milwaukee's Sherman Park neighborhood. Authorities have said Smith was fleeing police and that footage from the officer's body camera clearly shows Smith holding a handgun and turning toward an officer when he was shot.
Schimel indicated he is not releasing the body camera video associated with this case at this time. He said there were two officers with body cameras in close proximity of Smith at the time of the shooting.
"The body camera video is just one piece of information among many sources of information. They give only a narrow and incomplete glimpse of the overall picture. I can tell you now, viewing the body camera videos will not answer all of your questions," Schimel said.
Schimel said release of the videos would compromise the integrity of the investigation, which is ongoing.
"It is sometimes necessary to confront witnesses with information they didn't know or they didn't know we knew," Schimel said. "We are still collecting information and we will have follow-up questions for some of the witnesses who were interviewed already." Whah? Smith is gone. An investigation into what crime? Oh a crime by a cop! Its just cops protecting cops from lawsuits.
Schimel indicated all critical witnesses have been interviewed at least once. A neighborhood canvass has been done. Schimel said the unrest that occurred after the shooting of Smith did slow the investigation.
Schimel said this case remains a top priority for the DCI Milwaukee office.
Schimel said the family of Smith will be the first to see the body camera video once it's cleared for release. That won't happen until a decision is made as to whether the officer who shot Smith will face any charges. That decision will be made by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm. A spokesman for Chisholm's office did not comment on Monday's press conference.
"It will be released after the district attorney is done with his final determination," Schimel said.
Schimel indicated there have been requests from officers to see the video -- but Schimel said the investigation is better served by not showing them the video.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said shortly after this officer-involved shooting that he was shown a still image from the body camera video, and said he saw a gun in Smith's hand.
FOX6 News asked Schimel why the DOJ won't release that still image.
"The way the gun is positioned, the position of Mr. Smith when the officer made his decision to discharge his weapon, all of those things are part of that important determination. Releasing more than what the mayor has stated, I believe, could compromise the integrity of the investigation," Schimel said.
Schimel said reviewing the body camera footage from this incident is challenging because the first parts don't include sound.
"I believe it`s a 30-second delay before the audio starts after the incident recording begins," Schimel said.
Schimel told reporters he expects the Milwaukee Police Department is conducting its own internal investigation relating to disciplinary matters, but he had no information related to that. He said it is necessary to have a strong "firewall" between an internal and criminal investigation.
"In an internal discipline investigation, those interviews are compelled. Either talk to us and answer our questions or be fired," Schimel said. "In a criminal investigation, all interviews must be voluntary if we are ever to use them. Therefore, we can't know what's happening in the internal investigation."
Sylville Smith's sister told FOX6 News her brother knew the officer in this case, adding that they went to high school together.
Milwaukee Public Schools officials said there are no records of the two ever attending the same high school.
Schimel on Monday would not comment as to whether Smith and the officer knew one another, but he did say investigators are looking into that possibility.
"We are piecing together detailed histories for both the officer and Mr. Smith to determine if there is any pre-existing relationship that may have affected the events that day," Schimel said.
As for a timeline for a decision, there were no specifics offered Monday, but Schimel said he believes a charging decision will come faster than it did in the Dontre Hamilton case in 2014. That took about six months.
Schimel on Monday confirmed that some of the state investigators working this case are retired from the Milwaukee Police Department. Schimel said he does not see that as a conflict of interest because there is no direct relationship to the officers involved.
Video of the immediate moments after police killed Manuel Diaz. In the video Diaz was still alive--and police stood there for over three minutes and did nothing. Instead, they seem more concerned with pushing witnesses away from the scene. [MORE]
From [HERE] The Ninth Circuit ordered a new trial Wednesday after a jury that heard inflammatory evidence sided with the Anaheim, California, officer who shot Manuel Diaz to death in 2012.
Diaz, 25, was killed after a short foot chase by police on July 21, 2012, sparking days of violence and street protests in Anaheim.
Nicholas Bennallack, the officer who fired the fatal shots, testified that he suspected Diaz was in a gang based on the way he dressed. Based on his experience in the area, he believed criminal activity was afoot.
Though Bennallack said he feared Diaz had a gun and was preparing to shoot him, authorities did not recover another firearm at the scene. One of the bullets Bennallack fired Diaz passed from his right buttock to his left thigh. The other entered just above and behind Diaz's right ear, exiting out the other side of his head.
Genevieve Huizar, Diaz's mother, tried to hold Anaheim and Bennallack liable for excessive force and other claims, but a federal jury ruled for the defendants after a six-day civil trial in March 2014.
The Ninth Circuit reversed that decision on Wednesday, saying an error in the trial's layout caused the jury to hear inflammatory evidence that may have improperly shaped their verdict.
By failing to split the liability phase from the compensatory-damages phase, U.S. District Judge James Selna allowed the jury to consider material that was not relevant to whether Bennallack used excessive force, the appellate panel found.
Selna had deemed evidence regarding Diaz's gang affiliation and drug use relevant as to damages because the evidence could undermine the strength of his mother's love for him and their relationship.
In making that ruling, however, Selna conceded that the evidence was irrelevant as to liability because Bennallack was not aware of either Diaz's gang affiliation or his drug use at the time of the shooting.
"I just moved the door like this [gently], he's back there, he's throwing his hands up at me, he wouldn't obey my commands, he's trying to charge at me, wouldn't obey my commands" and more solid gold nonsense at 7:33.
From [HERE] and [HERE] A white Rockwood police officer at the center of a $1.2 million federal lawsuit for pepper-spraying a 20-year-old Black college student submitted his resignation a day after the lawsuit was filed, according to records.
Xavier Howard wasn't happy about it but when a white Rockwood police officer told him to put his hands in the air and walk toward him, he did.
The white officer doused him with pepper spray anyway, footage from the officer's body camera revealed.
That same footage captured audio of officer Chris Kennedy pondering exactly what charge to place against the 20-year-old black college student to justify the use of force, and it contradicted Kennedy's written account of the incident in which he said he sprayed Howard because the young man refused his command to "back away."
Now, Howard, who lost his basketball scholarship at Roane State Community College as a result of the July 2015 arrest, is suing the Rockwood Police Department, Kennedy and Kennedy's supervisor, Sgt. Randy Keahy. Among the more than $1.2 million in damages he seeks is the value of both his lost scholarship and the job opportunities a college education would have afforded him — pegged in the U.S. District Court lawsuit at $731,000.
In Howard's case, the body camera footage is at the heart of his bid to show he was subjected to unnecessary force, wrongfully arrested and his life left in tatters as a result. When he lost his scholarship, he was forced to drop out. He racked up more than $5,000 in bond and legal fees.
Howard lived with his girlfriend, Brandy Harris, in the Meadows Place Apartments in Rockwood. Howard attended Roane State on a basketball scholarship. Harris worked at a nursing home. In July 2015, the couple argued. A neighbor phoned police about the noise. Kennedy knocked and, when Harris partially opened the door, pushed on it.
The video showed Kennedy immediately focused on Howard. Harris can be heard explaining the pair had a "stupid argument" but no blows were exchanged. Howard also protested the officer's presence in the apartment and turned toward the kitchen, saying he was going to call his mother, according to documents.
The video footage showed Kennedy, who saw a small knife on top of a television near the kitchen, ordered Howard to put his hands into the air and walk toward him. Howard, still arguing, did, but — just three minutes after the encounter began — Kennedy sprayed him with pepper spray, handcuffed him and placed him in his cruiser without rendering any aid, which is required by the Rockwood policy manual.
Kennedy told Howard he was being arrested for "resisting," the lawsuit stated. The officer later asked Sgt. Keahy, who arrived after the spray was used, "what can I get him for," the video showed. Keahy suggested domestic assault. But a judicial magistrate refused to approve the charge because there was no evidence of an assault, the lawsuit stated. Kennedy then drafted a warrant for underage consumption, alleging Howard was "the primary aggressor" in a "physical domestic" and claimed Howard refused his commands to "back off" so he was forced to use pepper spray, according to documents filed in the case.
A review of the officer's personnel file shows Kennedy, a part-time hire who had been with the department less than two years, submitted a letter of resignation July 6. According to the letter, Kennedy accepted a full-time position with the Oliver Springs Police Department, beginning July 18. [MORE]
From [HERE] A Black man at the scene of a fatal shooting by a white police officer of a Black man in 2011 said he told inquiring FBI agents a few months later that his friend had recorded its immediate aftermath on a cellphone, and they could get a copy from him.
But the man with the cellphone told the Post-Dispatch last week that investigators never asked him for the video and he never volunteered it.
“I didn’t want to be in the spotlight,” he said.
The video, obtained by the Post-Dispatch and posted on STLtoday.com in June, shows about eight minutes immediately following the killing of Anthony Lamar Smith, 24, in December 2011.
Smith was shot by then-Officer Jason Stockley after a suspected drug deal turned into a police pursuit and crash. Stockley was charged in May — more than four years later — with murder.
The men with the video agreed to interviews if their names were not publicly revealed. They said they fear retribution from police.
The one with the cellphone said that shortly after the shooting, he gave a copy of the video to one of Smith’s relatives, whom he would not identify.
The video never surfaced until June, when the Post-Dispatch obtained it from activists, who would not reveal where they got it. Local and federal prosecutors said they had never seen it before.
Statements by the two men cast new doubt on how thorough the law enforcement inquiry was at the time, given that investigators knew of the video’s existence but did not find it.
U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan insisted in an interview Friday that the FBI agents pursued their search for the cellphone video as far as they could.
“I can assure you, there was nobody we failed to quiz about a possible video. We were trying to track down any video that existed.”
Callahan indicated the federal agents believed that the shooting witness was the man who shot the video and that their search ended when that witness said the phone was lost.
But in an interview last week, the shooting witness insisted that he had told the FBI 4½ years ago that his friend had made the video, and they could still track it down from him.
The friend, also interviewed last week, said federal agents never came looking for the cellphone video.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce charged Stockley in May with first-degree murder, citing the discovery of “new evidence,” which she has not revealed.
The man who said he recorded the aftermath said he recently testified before the St. Louis grand jury that indicted Jason Stockley on Aug. 11 on the murder charge.
But the man who said he witnessed the shooting said he was never asked to testify.
Callahan said that man had so many inconsistencies in his FBI interview four years ago that agents doubted he actually saw it.
Stockley, 35, has said he fired in self-defense after Smith pointed a gun at him. Police said a revolver was recovered in Smith’s car. Officials found Stockley’s DNA — but not Smith’s — on that gun.
The cellphone video — on which both men’s voices can be heard — shows key movements of police at the scene, including Stockley as he walks from Smith’s car and returns to the police SUV, where he leans into the back door. Then he goes back to Smith’s car and, immediately after the body is pulled out, climbs into the driver’s seat and stays there about 30 seconds. The view does not show the inside of the car.
Some believe that provided an opportunity for Stockley to retrieve and plant the weapon.
Stockley has said he started to get a “clot pack” from the police vehicle to treat Smith’s wounds but then realized it was futile. His attorneys have said the officer handled the gun while recovering and unloading it.
Taking a break
The shooting witness said he was doing work inside a second-floor business on West Florissant Avenue near Goodfellow Boulevard on Dec. 20, 2011, when he took a break and looked out a window.
He saw a car speeding down West Florissant with a police SUV close behind. He said the SUV hit the car with an impact that jolted the driver, Smith, to the point that he slumped over the steering wheel as if he were unconscious, or at least impaired.
“He just lost control of the vehicle at that point,” the witness recalled. The car rolled to the opposite side of the street for about 50 yards until it hit a curb near a utility pole. Then, the man said, the police SUV rammed the back of the car.
He said he saw the officer who was driving get out in a daze and approach the car with his handgun drawn. Police SUV dashboard video, viewed by the Post-Dispatch years ago but not publicly released, contradicts this memory, showing Stockley exit the passenger side of the SUV and approach Smith.
The police dashboard video was running during the shooting, but the view is badly obscured by Smith’s car and the airbags that deployed when the vehicles collided. That video has since been placed under a court protective order.
The witness said the officer tried to open Smith’s door at least twice, but couldn’t, and then backed up slightly and started firing into the vehicle.
“He didn’t even give that man a chance,” he said. “There were no words, he just shot into the car.”
The other man said the sound of the crash drew him to the same window. He would not say exactly what he saw, but the shooting was over before he started recording.
He said he testified about it to a grand jury.
“I understand that tensions were running high but that officer reacted the wrong way,” he said. “What he did was wrong. We couldn’t believe what we seen with our own eyes.”
The maker of the video became emotional when explaining that his mistrust of the police was the reason he did not share the video with them. Both men, who are black, said they believe police treat minorities unfairly. The investigation into the death of Smith, who was black, by Stockley, who is white, is just another example, he said.
From [HERE] and [HERE] After an hours-long standoff with police, an armed white suspect who fired at officers was arrested Monday evening, KABC reported. Authorities said they responded to a call of a despondent man at the Hyland Motel in the 700 block of South Brea Boulevard at about 3 p.m. When officers arrived at the scene, they said the man fired at them through the door.
Lt. Darrin Devereux of the Brea Police Department told the Orange County Register the suspect was taken into custody based on the attempted murder of a police officer.
The man barricaded himself while the SWAT team remained outside of the motel. No police officers were injured during the incident. After being barricaded for several hours with SWAT outside the motel, the man was eventually shot with bean bags and tackled by SWAT.
According tothe Brea Police Department, the white man was taken to the hospital but sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
The use of "less lethal" bean bags begs the question from Mic.com: Why aren't these rounds used for people like Alton Sterling and Philando Castile or Milton Hall, (shot 46 times by white cops in Saginaw after a "standoff" - see video)— black men who were killed by police in Louisiana and Minnesota?
The Psychopathic Racial Personality. Dr. Bobby Wright explains that by and large, white people treat each other humanely. But in their relations with non-white people, racists function as psychopaths. 'Psychopaths simply ignore the concept of right and wrong. The racist has no morality where race is the variable.' [MORE] When white cops brutalize other whites, white prosecutors, white judges, white jurors and the white media usually ensure that the cop is held accountable.
Dr. Welsing explained, "always, in the presence of color, whites will feel genetically inferior." [MORE]
Neely Fullerexplains "Most white people hate Black people. The reason that most white people hate Black people is because whites are not Black people. If you know this about white people, you need know little else. If you do not know this about white people, virtually all else that you know about them will only confuse you."
Undeceiver Osho Rajineesh states,
'It Would Be Better If They Had No Eyes' (then there would be no possibility of misunderstanding.) When racist white cops are in the presence of color, especially Black men, they can no longer see things as they really are. Their eyes are filled with thoughts, mind is filled with smoke and all sorts of programming all sorts of idiocy about non-whites [dangerous, inferior beasts doing this and that] take over. "A mind that is filled with belief is a mind which can project anything according to the belief. When you see things always remember this." If he is an unaware person, in the presence of non-whites his mind is blown, full of smoke, shit and in attachment to his weakness. Anything he does in this sleeping state will be stupid and dangerous b/c he is unconscious has a belt full of weapons, the power of the state and he is licensed to kill.
False Flag Operation in Dallas? From [HERE] Dallas Police Department officials want to block the release of "highly intimate or embarrassing" information regarding the use of a bomb disposal robot to kill a sniper who murdered five officers last month, saying it is of no legitimate concern to the public.
City officials asked Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for an advisory opinion on July 19, in response to at least 17 public information requests by journalists. The requests want access to robot and body camera footage, among other things.
Armed with a brick of C-4 explosive, the robot detonated and killed Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, of Mesquite, in the early hours of July 8 on the campus of El Centro College in downtown Dallas.
Dallas Police Chief David Brown told reporters at the time that hours-long negotiations in a garage with Johnson had failed. "Our bomb robot detonated a bomb where the suspect was," Brown said. "Other options would have subjected officers to great danger."
During the standoff at a garage, Mr. Johnson told police negotiators that “he was upset about Black Lives Matter,” Chief Brown said. “he said he was upset about the recent police shootings. The suspect said he was upset at white people. He stated he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers.” He aslo said that Johnson was singing, laughing and taunting officers during prolonged negotiations. [MORE] Thus far, no police or city camera video footage has been released to corroborate the DPD's story. Although multiple officers were present during the stand off, apparently, Brown is the only officer who has publicly spoken about what exact statements were allegedly made by Johnson. It is also unclear how police communicated to Johnson. It is unknown whether police reports or notes made in connection with the incident contained Johnson's statement.
Police also claimed that the concept of the killing episode was planned in a “fairly voluminous” journal found in the home of Micah Johnson. While the journal did not specifically lay out plans for that assault, officials said, it "showed how the gunman planned to adapt the combat tactic." [MORE]. As far as BW knows, only the police have been able to view this secret journal of admissions. Apparently its entries contained details about so-called "shoot and move tactics" and plans about a non-specific assault at an unknown time and location? How many pages could this be? [MORE] If there were an actual trial Johnson's alleged facebook page and his murder plans journal would have to be authenticated - a witness familiar with his handwriting would have to confirm that his writing in fact was in the journal and that he in fact created the Facebook page and made entries on it (anyone can create a facebook page, anywhere).
As with other "terror" incidents in a matter of hours the case is closed - dead man's confession to cops of multiple crimes and murders, revelations about the exact location of key evidence and crime plans, loads of anecdotal information that would never be admissible in court but sounds credible on TV, unverifiable statements from anonymous neighbors, co-workers & "friends"- - and missing video, audio, notes, witnesses and forensic evidence. Here, there is also a missing dead body - since he was allegedly blown to bits by the robot bomb.
The detonation was the first known use of a bomb disposal robot to kill a suspect by a U.S. police department.
Authored by Assistant City Attorney P. Armstrong, the letter to Paxton argues that some of the requested information "is protected by common-law privacy," which protects information that is "highly intimate or embarrassing, such that its release would be highly objectionable to a reasonable person, and it is of not legitimate concern to the public."
The letter states that some of the requested information is considered confidential under the law. It also invokes "special circumstances," and the release of the information would endanger officers working undercover, Armstrong writes.
"The disclosure of the requested information that includes such information could jeopardize the safety and well-being of these officers and the confidential informants used by DPD," the letter states. "As well, it may subject them to retaliation for offenses attained from the location if this information is disclosed."
The letter says some of the requested information is protected by the Texas Homeland Security Act, since it involves operating procedures of the department's Homeland Security and Special Operations Division.
"This information is vital in coordinating and dispatching police and fire personnel to emergencies," the letter states. "As such, it is critical that DPD be able to protect information directly related to the operating procedures of this division."
From [HERE] A disturbing video making the rounds on Instagram Friday, but recorded back in early May, shows a plainclothes New York City Police Department (NYPD) detective brutally beating a black man being pinned to the floor of a McDonald's in the Bronx by two other men, one of whom is also an NYPD detective.
What the video doesn't show — according to a spokesman for the NYPD — is that the suspect, identified as 27-year-old Darnell Simmons, was fighting with detectives for 7 minutes prior. Simmons broke one detective's nose so severely, the NYPD spokesman said, that it required plastic surgery. In other words, the Black man defended himself while he was jumped by three thugs.
The detainee does not appear to be resisting arrest when his head is mushed against the floor, kneed and punched in the face. As such, even if what these racist suspects say is true, the white cops were no longer defending themselves at the point of bashing him over and over again.
"It's not an assault," the police spokesman said Friday afternoon, as the video racked up thousands more views. "We did not assault him."
With so many screens over their eyes, White prosecutors and jurors probably will agree. ['Mind is a very subtle game. A mind that is filled with belief is a mind which can project anything according to that belief.' pdf. Mind is a motherfucker.]
The auxiliary police force. From the video it appears that the third white man is just a random white guy at McDonald's who jumps in to help brutalize the Black man. In the video he is helping to hold the Black man while the maniac cop goes off. Check out how he talks he sounds like he is mentally impaired (or McCrazy).
Blacks & Latinos should recognize that many white folks act as an auxiliary police force and they are watching you whenever you are in their presence. They are ready to report anything you do that they believe is unusual (think of the white guy who called 911 on Tamir Rice, he described the 13 year old as a "a guy" with a gun (toy) pointing it at everybody (no one there)... like Desert Storm" or the provocative white man who called 911 on Alton Sterling) - which could be damn near anything you do (think of the the white person who called the cops on the Black man reading CS Lewis in his car.)
Similarly, during Nazi Germany, Germans who classified themselves as white or pure white functioned as an auxiliary police force; monitoring, arresting and watching Jews (German Jews were classified as 'not pure white' - the Jews were not considered to be white people or Aryans [MORE], This "watch" of the Jews enabled Nazi control because Jews vastly outnumbered them.
Hmmm. At any rate, it looks like these 2 white cops were definitely not impressed by that Akai Gurley settlement and super stiff punishment NYPD officer Peter Liang received for the senseless manslaughter of an unarmed Black man- no jail time, community service and a fine of $25,000. [story below]
From [HERE] A Westchester jury rejected a lawsuit brought by the family of a 68 year old, former black marine who was assauled by white cops and fatally shot by a white officer five years ago.
