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june 21, 2018
MICHAEL WOOD: We have a culture that from the beginning has been disproportionate and been oppressive to persons of color, and women, and other minorities. We have a system in which criminal justice is an oxymoron. We have a society that trumps up the second amendment as this big right that we have and that right is to have this weaponry so cops can be killed. That’s literally the purpose of the second amendment. And we have state sanctioned murder all over the country with a blue wall of silence and justice not being done. So I’m completely baffled by why anyone is surprised by all of this.
Why Cops Kill Black People: Research Suggests a Troubling Pattern of 'Retaliatory Violence'
Chauncey DeVega / Salon
The story of race in America is a story of change, and a story of things remaining the same. To measure our progress, or lack thereof, all we need to do is to look at how America's police treat the public, and look in turn at who fills the prison cells -- and all too often the cemeteries.
headlines
*WATCH: UNARMED BLACK TEEN SHOT BY POLICE THREE TIMES IN THE BACK WITHOUT WARNING
(ARTICLE BELOW)
*EXCLUSIVE: US OFFICIALS LIKELY LOST TRACK OF NEARLY 6,000 UNACCOMPANIED MIGRANT KIDS
(ARTICLE BELOW)
*Texas deputy accused of raping 4-year-old — and threatening to deport her immigrant mom(ARTICLE BELOW)
*Minneapolis police regularly used ‘date rape drug’ on people in custody, report finds(ARTICLE BELOW)
*Police worked with violent pro-Trump activist to prosecute leftwing group
(ARTICLE BELOW)
*Black man records Florida cop calling him a ‘piece of shit nigger’ in pizza dispute
(ARTICLE BELOW)
*MISSOURI REPORT: BLACKS STOPPED AT RECORD-BREAKING NUMBERS, BUT WHITES MORE LIKELY TO BE CAUGHT WITH CONTRABAND(ARTICLE BELOW)
*Florida judge orders trial in police killing of stranded driver
(ARTICLE BELOW)
*New Jersey cop arrested by the FBI for beating a suicidal man in a wheelchair
(ARTICLE BELOW)
*ICE detains immigrant mom with no criminal record during routine check-in
(ARTICLE BELOW)
*Milwaukee Sets Aside $1.2M to Cover Suits Against the Police Department, It’s Paid Out $17.2M In the Last Two Years Alone(ARTICLE BELOW)
*Prosecutors hid evidence that favors anti-Trump protesters, judge rules
(ARTICLE BELOW)
*Pizza deliveryman's killing: Man ordered free decades later
(ARTICLE BELOW)
*Texas trooper allegedly raped handcuffed black woman and threatened murder if she told her fiancé(ARTICLE BELOW)
*WHY WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS ARE SO COMMON—AND WHY PROSECUTORS AND POLICE RARELY APOLOGIZE(ARTICLE BELOW)
*Plainclothes Police Officers are Terrorizing, Robbing and Killing Black People
(ARTICLE BELOW)
*Bad Liars
ICE claimed a Dreamer was “gang-affiliated” and tried to deport him. A federal judge ruled that ICE was lying.(ARTICLE BELOW)
*NYPD consistently arrests blacks and Latinos more for marijuana use. Yet, they claim it isn't true(ARTICLE BELOW)
*Federal Judge Finally Releases Man the FBI Targeted As a ‘Black Identity Extremist’ — Now He’s Out of a Job and Home(ARTICLE BELOW)
*People of color lose far more years of life to US police violence than whites
(ARTICLE BELOW)
*GESTAPO usa FUNNIES(below)
WATCH: Unarmed black teen shot by police three times in the back without warning
Dominique Jackson - raw story
20 JUN 2018 AT 18:42 ET
Antwon Rose [Photo: Facebook]
Antwon Rose Jr. was unarmed when he was shot and killed by police in East Pittsburgh on Tuesday. He was just 17-years-old.
A video shows police shooting Rose three times in the back as he fled a crime scene. His aunt, Mica Tinsley, said the police gave no warning.
“They’re not even saying stop. They just started shooting, and he fell. He didn’t make it far,” she told the Post-Gazette.
“Why did they have to shoot him when he is running away?” Selena Brooklin, a witness said. “What is the justification for that? There is no justification. There is no answer. You shot a man in the back while he was running away.”
According to CBS 8, Jon Delano was accused of shooting Rose. The officer was sworn into the department just hours before the incident. (video)
A video shows police shooting Rose three times in the back as he fled a crime scene. His aunt, Mica Tinsley, said the police gave no warning.
“They’re not even saying stop. They just started shooting, and he fell. He didn’t make it far,” she told the Post-Gazette.
“Why did they have to shoot him when he is running away?” Selena Brooklin, a witness said. “What is the justification for that? There is no justification. There is no answer. You shot a man in the back while he was running away.”
According to CBS 8, Jon Delano was accused of shooting Rose. The officer was sworn into the department just hours before the incident. (video)
Exclusive: US officials likely lost track of nearly 6,000 unaccompanied migrant kids
BY FRANCO ORDOÑEZ AND ANITA KUMAR
mcclatchy
June 19, 2018 01:52 PM
WASHINGTON : The Trump administration has likely lost track of nearly 6,000 unaccompanied migrant children, thousands more than lawmakers were alerted to last month, according to a McClatchy review of federal data.
Federal officials acknowledged last month that nearly 1,500 unaccompanied minors arrived on the southern border alone without their parents and were placed with sponsors who did not keep in touch with federal officials, but those numbers were only a snapshot of a three- month period during the last fiscal year.
“There is a lot more,” said a field specialist who worked in the Office of Refugee Resettlement until earlier this year and was tasked with reaching out to sponsors and children to check on their well-being. “You can bet that the numbers are higher. It doesn’t really give you a real picture.”
The new estimate comes as backlash widens over President Donald Trump's' decision to separate parents and children. Advocates argue the growing numbers of unaccounted children should be expected as families and sponsors become more fearful of federal officials that is now using information from government social workers to run immigration checks and, in some cases, target sponsors, including parents and family members, for removal.
“To the extent that there are problems for protection of unaccompanied children, this will only become worse as they put more kids in the unaccompanied category by ripping them away from their families,” said Clara Long, U.S. researcher at Human Rights Watch.
The revelation that federal officials couldn’t locate more than 1,000 children set off an outcry of concern and promises from the Trump administration to implement stronger vetting procedures of sponsors, including fingerprinting parents and handing their immigration status to Department of Homeland Security officials.
Federal officials said the children were not actually lost, but their sponsors didn’t respond to phone calls checking on them. They emphasized that Office of Refugee Resettlement is no longer legally responsible for the children once they were placed in a sponsor’s custody.
Since 2014, tens of thousands of unaccompanied children have been apprehended during a surge of Salvadoran, Honduran and Guatemalan mothers and children who have flooded the U.S. border fleeing violence and poverty.
Unaccompanied children are generally turned over to the custody of ORR, which will either care for them in a shelter or release them to a family member.
Last month, the Department of Health and Human Services acknowledged that the location of 1,475 unaccompanied children placed were sponsors couldn’t be determined.
Steven Wagner, acting assistant secretary of the Administration for Children and Families at HHS, told reporters that 14 percent of HHS calls to sponsors were not returned.
But to come up with the 1,475 cases, the administration reached out to only 7,635 children and their sponsors. It placed more than 42,497 unaccompanied children with sponsors in fiscal year 2017.
HHS told McClatchy it didn’t have the data of unaccounted children in a reportable format. But based on its own estimates that 14 percent didn't return calls, some 5,945 unaccompanied children are likely unaccounted for. The numbers would be even higher in fiscal year 2016, which included the end of President Barack Obama’s final term when the administration placed more than 52,000 children with sponsors.
In 2017, ORR released 93 percent of children to a sponsor. Of those, 49 percent were released to parents, 41 percent to close relatives, and 10 percent to other-than-close relatives or non-relatives. So far in fiscal year 2018, the administration released 90 percent of children to individual sponsors and of those sponsors, 41 percent were parents, 47 percent were close relatives, and 11 percent were other-than-close relatives or non-relatives.
HHS officials say it’s not the administration’s legal responsibility to locate those children after they’re turned over to the custody of a family member or approved sponsor. And they add that it’s difficult to keep tabs on sponsors who often also are living in the country illegally, move often, and may not want to be located.
“You can imagine that many of those would not choose to speak to a federal official calling them on the phone,” Wagner told reporters. “But there’s no reason to believe that anything has happened to the kids. If you call a friend and they don’t answer the phone, you don’t assume that they’ve been kidnapped. So that characterization that the kids are missing is incorrect. And I just want to emphasize that they are not in our custody at the point at which that voluntary phone call is made.”
The reality is the Trump administration — and the Obama administration beforehand — has lost track and continues to lose track of thousands of unaccompanied minors while ORR does not appear to be trying to keep track of the children once they’re placed with sponsors.
Among the 7,635 children and sponsors the administration tried to reach, Wagner said that 6,075 remained with their sponsors. Twenty-eight children had run away, five had been deported, and 52 had been relocated to live with a non-sponsor. ORR was unable to determine with certainty the whereabouts of 1,475.
The field specialist told McClatchy the goal was not only to speak with the sponsor, but specifically with the children. “I’d ask are you sleeping? Have you been eating well? Have you been having nightmares? Do you have your own bed and your own room?” the specialist said.
But they wouldn’t make follow up calls if the sponsor or child didn’t answer. And more and more calls went unanswered, especially in communities where immigration enforcement had recently occurred.
Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican who serves as chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, noted in a recent that 1,475 is actually a higher percentage citing that some sponsors did answer phone calls and said they couldn’t locate the children.
“It's actually over 19 percent based on your own data because sometimes you placed a call, you got someone on the line and said I don't know where the kid is,” Portman told Wagner during a recent congressional hearing.
A 2008 law signed by President George W. Bush placed all children who arrive at U.S. borders and ports of entry without a parent or guardian under the care and custody of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Under President Barack Obama this issue grabbed national attention when, in 2015, it was discovered that HHS did not require any meaningful proof that the people who presented themselves as family friends really were who they said they were.
In one high-profile case, HHS allowed six migrant children from Guatemala to be turned over to traffickers who forced them to work in grueling conditions on an Ohio egg farm.
Those McClatchy has spoken with, including case managers, say even the reported numbers are low considering they were called after 30 days. Many more will leave after six months.
“Which means the number of lost kids are being dramatically underrepresented,” said Leon Fresco, a deputy assistant attorney general under Obama. “1,500 is only half the story. It’s one year and we’re not even talking about the entire Trump administration.”
Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, an immigration advocacy group, said the larger number of unaccounted for children is not surprising.
Sharry said many of the children are placed with family members who are in the United States illegally and may be afraid to speak to federal authorities, even if they are just trying to check on children because of "a climate of fear."
"What’s happened is that ICE has a new policy of going after sponsors," he said. "The bigger story if not that they are losing people - it's that ICE is terrorizing people."
Federal officials acknowledged last month that nearly 1,500 unaccompanied minors arrived on the southern border alone without their parents and were placed with sponsors who did not keep in touch with federal officials, but those numbers were only a snapshot of a three- month period during the last fiscal year.
“There is a lot more,” said a field specialist who worked in the Office of Refugee Resettlement until earlier this year and was tasked with reaching out to sponsors and children to check on their well-being. “You can bet that the numbers are higher. It doesn’t really give you a real picture.”
The new estimate comes as backlash widens over President Donald Trump's' decision to separate parents and children. Advocates argue the growing numbers of unaccounted children should be expected as families and sponsors become more fearful of federal officials that is now using information from government social workers to run immigration checks and, in some cases, target sponsors, including parents and family members, for removal.
“To the extent that there are problems for protection of unaccompanied children, this will only become worse as they put more kids in the unaccompanied category by ripping them away from their families,” said Clara Long, U.S. researcher at Human Rights Watch.
The revelation that federal officials couldn’t locate more than 1,000 children set off an outcry of concern and promises from the Trump administration to implement stronger vetting procedures of sponsors, including fingerprinting parents and handing their immigration status to Department of Homeland Security officials.
Federal officials said the children were not actually lost, but their sponsors didn’t respond to phone calls checking on them. They emphasized that Office of Refugee Resettlement is no longer legally responsible for the children once they were placed in a sponsor’s custody.
Since 2014, tens of thousands of unaccompanied children have been apprehended during a surge of Salvadoran, Honduran and Guatemalan mothers and children who have flooded the U.S. border fleeing violence and poverty.
Unaccompanied children are generally turned over to the custody of ORR, which will either care for them in a shelter or release them to a family member.
Last month, the Department of Health and Human Services acknowledged that the location of 1,475 unaccompanied children placed were sponsors couldn’t be determined.
Steven Wagner, acting assistant secretary of the Administration for Children and Families at HHS, told reporters that 14 percent of HHS calls to sponsors were not returned.
But to come up with the 1,475 cases, the administration reached out to only 7,635 children and their sponsors. It placed more than 42,497 unaccompanied children with sponsors in fiscal year 2017.
HHS told McClatchy it didn’t have the data of unaccounted children in a reportable format. But based on its own estimates that 14 percent didn't return calls, some 5,945 unaccompanied children are likely unaccounted for. The numbers would be even higher in fiscal year 2016, which included the end of President Barack Obama’s final term when the administration placed more than 52,000 children with sponsors.
In 2017, ORR released 93 percent of children to a sponsor. Of those, 49 percent were released to parents, 41 percent to close relatives, and 10 percent to other-than-close relatives or non-relatives. So far in fiscal year 2018, the administration released 90 percent of children to individual sponsors and of those sponsors, 41 percent were parents, 47 percent were close relatives, and 11 percent were other-than-close relatives or non-relatives.
HHS officials say it’s not the administration’s legal responsibility to locate those children after they’re turned over to the custody of a family member or approved sponsor. And they add that it’s difficult to keep tabs on sponsors who often also are living in the country illegally, move often, and may not want to be located.
“You can imagine that many of those would not choose to speak to a federal official calling them on the phone,” Wagner told reporters. “But there’s no reason to believe that anything has happened to the kids. If you call a friend and they don’t answer the phone, you don’t assume that they’ve been kidnapped. So that characterization that the kids are missing is incorrect. And I just want to emphasize that they are not in our custody at the point at which that voluntary phone call is made.”
The reality is the Trump administration — and the Obama administration beforehand — has lost track and continues to lose track of thousands of unaccompanied minors while ORR does not appear to be trying to keep track of the children once they’re placed with sponsors.
Among the 7,635 children and sponsors the administration tried to reach, Wagner said that 6,075 remained with their sponsors. Twenty-eight children had run away, five had been deported, and 52 had been relocated to live with a non-sponsor. ORR was unable to determine with certainty the whereabouts of 1,475.
The field specialist told McClatchy the goal was not only to speak with the sponsor, but specifically with the children. “I’d ask are you sleeping? Have you been eating well? Have you been having nightmares? Do you have your own bed and your own room?” the specialist said.
But they wouldn’t make follow up calls if the sponsor or child didn’t answer. And more and more calls went unanswered, especially in communities where immigration enforcement had recently occurred.
Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican who serves as chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, noted in a recent that 1,475 is actually a higher percentage citing that some sponsors did answer phone calls and said they couldn’t locate the children.
“It's actually over 19 percent based on your own data because sometimes you placed a call, you got someone on the line and said I don't know where the kid is,” Portman told Wagner during a recent congressional hearing.
A 2008 law signed by President George W. Bush placed all children who arrive at U.S. borders and ports of entry without a parent or guardian under the care and custody of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Under President Barack Obama this issue grabbed national attention when, in 2015, it was discovered that HHS did not require any meaningful proof that the people who presented themselves as family friends really were who they said they were.
In one high-profile case, HHS allowed six migrant children from Guatemala to be turned over to traffickers who forced them to work in grueling conditions on an Ohio egg farm.
Those McClatchy has spoken with, including case managers, say even the reported numbers are low considering they were called after 30 days. Many more will leave after six months.
“Which means the number of lost kids are being dramatically underrepresented,” said Leon Fresco, a deputy assistant attorney general under Obama. “1,500 is only half the story. It’s one year and we’re not even talking about the entire Trump administration.”
Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, an immigration advocacy group, said the larger number of unaccounted for children is not surprising.
Sharry said many of the children are placed with family members who are in the United States illegally and may be afraid to speak to federal authorities, even if they are just trying to check on children because of "a climate of fear."
"What’s happened is that ICE has a new policy of going after sponsors," he said. "The bigger story if not that they are losing people - it's that ICE is terrorizing people."
Texas deputy accused of raping 4-year-old — and threatening to deport her immigrant mom
Travis Gettys - raw story
18 JUN 2018 AT 06:22 ET
A Texas sheriff’s deputy allegedly threatened to deport the mother of a young child he’s accused of sexually assaulting.
Jose Nunez, a 10-year veteran of the Bexar County Sheriff’s Department, was arrested Sunday on a felony charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child, reported the Dallas Morning News.
Sheriff Javier Salazar said the 4-year-old girl had been assaulted multiple times over a period of months, and Nunez told her mother, an undocumented immigrant, she would be deported if she told authorities about the abuse.
“The details of the case are quite frankly heartbreaking, disturbing, disgusting and infuriating all at the same time,” the sheriff said.
The girl “made an outcry” overnight Sunday, the sheriff said, and her mother took the child to a fire department to report the abuse.
Investigators believe the 47-year-old Nunez may have abused other children, as well.
The sheriff’s department is conducting an internal investigation on the deputy.
Jose Nunez, a 10-year veteran of the Bexar County Sheriff’s Department, was arrested Sunday on a felony charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child, reported the Dallas Morning News.
Sheriff Javier Salazar said the 4-year-old girl had been assaulted multiple times over a period of months, and Nunez told her mother, an undocumented immigrant, she would be deported if she told authorities about the abuse.
“The details of the case are quite frankly heartbreaking, disturbing, disgusting and infuriating all at the same time,” the sheriff said.
The girl “made an outcry” overnight Sunday, the sheriff said, and her mother took the child to a fire department to report the abuse.
Investigators believe the 47-year-old Nunez may have abused other children, as well.
The sheriff’s department is conducting an internal investigation on the deputy.
Minneapolis police regularly used ‘date rape drug’ on people in custody, report finds
Dozens of people were forcibly injected with ketamine, even if police had them handcuffed or strapped down.
EMILY Q. HAZZARD - thinkprogress
JUN 17, 2018, 9:20 AM
Police in Minneapolis asked medical responders to inject people with ketamine, a powerful sedative, even if they were already restrained in handcuffs or strapped to a gurney, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
The newspaper, which obtained a copy of the city’s civil rights review on the practice, wrote on Friday that police pressured EMS to inject victims as they begged them not to. In some cases, the drug caused the victim’s hearts or breathing to stop, requiring intubation or other medical treatment to revive them.
The department’s own conduct manual categorizes ketamine as a powerful “date rape drug” — not just because it immobilizes victims, but can tamper with memory, even erasing victims’ recollections of their time on the drug. Ketamine is a sedative used medically in humans and animals, and has a long history of recreational use.
The practice had been increasing, up from three injections in 2012 to more than 60 last year, even as there had been no policy regarding such injections. Earlier this year, before the report was made public, the department’s commander issued an order that officers “shall never suggest or demand EMS Personnel ‘sedated’ a subject. This is a decision that needs to be clearly made by EMS Personnel, not MPD Officers.”
Police also said the report was only a draft and should not have been released, as it lacked input from medical experts.
The Minnesota ACLU said such a drugging practice would amount to a “horrible abuse of power” if the report is accurate.
Hennepin Healthcare, the company that administers the EMS program, has initiated its own review but stands by the practice. “Last year, ketamine sedations were used on 0.095 percent of our 81,500 EMS calls for service,” the company said in a statement Friday.
The newspaper, which obtained a copy of the city’s civil rights review on the practice, wrote on Friday that police pressured EMS to inject victims as they begged them not to. In some cases, the drug caused the victim’s hearts or breathing to stop, requiring intubation or other medical treatment to revive them.
The department’s own conduct manual categorizes ketamine as a powerful “date rape drug” — not just because it immobilizes victims, but can tamper with memory, even erasing victims’ recollections of their time on the drug. Ketamine is a sedative used medically in humans and animals, and has a long history of recreational use.
The practice had been increasing, up from three injections in 2012 to more than 60 last year, even as there had been no policy regarding such injections. Earlier this year, before the report was made public, the department’s commander issued an order that officers “shall never suggest or demand EMS Personnel ‘sedated’ a subject. This is a decision that needs to be clearly made by EMS Personnel, not MPD Officers.”
Police also said the report was only a draft and should not have been released, as it lacked input from medical experts.
The Minnesota ACLU said such a drugging practice would amount to a “horrible abuse of power” if the report is accurate.
Hennepin Healthcare, the company that administers the EMS program, has initiated its own review but stands by the practice. “Last year, ketamine sedations were used on 0.095 percent of our 81,500 EMS calls for service,” the company said in a statement Friday.
Police worked with violent pro-Trump activist to prosecute leftwing group
Anti-fascist defendants in Berkeley case say police behavior shows ‘a pretty clear statement of choosing sides’
Sam Levin in Oakland
the guardian
Fri 15 Jun 2018 06.00 EDT
A pro-Trump demonstrator who admitted hitting protesters at a far-right rally received help and support from California police, who worked with him to prosecute leftwing activists, records show.
Documents and testimony in a trial surrounding a rightwing demonstration in Berkeley reveal that police and prosecutors pursued charges on behalf of Daniel Quillinan, a conservative activist who has posted fascist memes and came to the event with Kyle Chapman, now a celebrated figure amongst the “alt-right”. The authorities consistently treated Quillinan as a victim even though he was visibly armed with a knife, a wooden “shield” and a “flagpole” – and had told law enforcement that he “hit someone in the head”, according to court files.
The resulting criminal trial against five anti-fascist protesters – who are accused of assaulting Quillinan during a roughly 15-second altercation – is, according to activists, the latest example of US law enforcement aggressively targeting leftwing demonstrators and favoring members of the far-right after violent clashes. In another California case, police have worked directly with neo-Nazis to go after counter-protesters, including a black activist stabbed at a white supremacist rally.
“This makes a pretty clear statement of choosing sides,” Dustin Sawtelle, one of the anti-fascist defendants, said in an interview this week before the trial began. “We figured maybe they were trying to use charges as a scare tactic ... It feels like they have to prosecute somebody.”
At the trial in a crowded Oakland courtroom, defense attorneys argued that local police were tolerant of the pro-Trump violence on 4 March last year, that Quillinan was an armed aggressor and fascist provocateur, and that prosecutors lacked basic evidence about the alleged assault. The prosecutor, along with several police witnesses, argued that the men were observed attacking Quillinan with punches and kicks during a short confrontation outside of the rally.
The event, billed as a “March for Trump” and “free speech” event, attracted interest from members of the alt-right and was linked to the Proud Boys, a far-right pro-Trump group of self-proclaimed “western chauvinists” that has been classified by watchdogs as a hate organization. Quillinan arrived at the rally wearing a red Trump hat, and a shirt referencing the Chilean dictator General Pinochet and a far-right meme with the words “physical removal”, which he said in court referred to the removal of “communists and Democrats”.
Quillinan testified that he was “conservative” and pro-Trump, but said he was not “alt-right” nor a white nationalist and alleged that his shirt and online posts referencing fascism were “jokes”. The audience of anti-fascists supporting the defendants, who some have called the “Berkeley 5”, groaned loudly when the prosecutor described the rally as a “free speech” event.
Police video showed that when Quillinan arrived, an officer noted he had a knife, but said he could “keep it”, despite a local ordinance restricting the carrying of “dangerous weapons”, said the defense attorney, Shanta Driver.
Quillinan said in court that he brought the knife as a “deterrent” and the wooden board he carried like a shield was a “poster”. On cross examination, he admitted he might have hit someone with the board “by accident” and also said he had used his pole to try to break up fights and struck two people.
Law enforcement is aware of Quillinan’s use of the pole as a weapon. Prosecutor James Logan wrote that Quillinan admitted “he swung his flagpole” and at one point struck a man in the head. Quillinan said he offered to give the man money after he realized he was conservative.
When the alleged attack by the five defendants occurred, Quillinan was receiving medical aid for a head injury. Quillinan and Jesse Grant, a police officer who was nearby, testified that the anti-fascists were walking by when one kicked Quillinan and then others started punching and kicking. The defense, however, said Quillinan tripped one of the men and then hit him with his shield. Both sides said the interaction was brief.
Sergeant Grant testified that he couldn’t specify the exact actions of several of the defendants, saying it was a “scrum” and “arms and legs were flying”. A fire captain present during the incident testified that he couldn’t recognize or identify the defendants seated in the courtroom.
Quillinan had also originally said one of his attackers had “red hair”, which does not match any of the defendants. Asked about this discrepancy in court, he said: “I may have misremembered.”
In an interview with Quillinan the day of the incident, Grant raised the idea of charges, according to a recording, saying: “The people who attacked you – do you want them to go to jail?”
“Very much so,” Quillinan replied.
Jeff Armstrong, another defendant, told the Guardian that he showed up to the march to help protect people from rightwing violence: “We went to do medical aid for people and also to defend people who can’t defend themselves.”
Police and prosecutors declined to comment. Quillinan, who was ordered not to speak about the case while the trial is ongoing, could not be reached.
It’s unclear if any rightwing demonstrators faced assault charges for the 4 March fight. Chapman, the rightwing activist, was charged with possession of a leaded stick in a case that is still pending.
Even if the five anti-fascist protesters are acquitted, the case that has dragged on for more than a year has already impacted their lives, said Sawtelle, a 41-year-old tattoo artist and martial arts teacher. He said his personal information was posted online, leading to threats, and that he lost a job as a result of the charges. He said he has also been forced to be more cautious about his activism and participation in protests.
“I think that’s part of the tactic – to get people away from these things,” he said, adding: “I don’t plan on quieting down.”
Documents and testimony in a trial surrounding a rightwing demonstration in Berkeley reveal that police and prosecutors pursued charges on behalf of Daniel Quillinan, a conservative activist who has posted fascist memes and came to the event with Kyle Chapman, now a celebrated figure amongst the “alt-right”. The authorities consistently treated Quillinan as a victim even though he was visibly armed with a knife, a wooden “shield” and a “flagpole” – and had told law enforcement that he “hit someone in the head”, according to court files.
The resulting criminal trial against five anti-fascist protesters – who are accused of assaulting Quillinan during a roughly 15-second altercation – is, according to activists, the latest example of US law enforcement aggressively targeting leftwing demonstrators and favoring members of the far-right after violent clashes. In another California case, police have worked directly with neo-Nazis to go after counter-protesters, including a black activist stabbed at a white supremacist rally.
“This makes a pretty clear statement of choosing sides,” Dustin Sawtelle, one of the anti-fascist defendants, said in an interview this week before the trial began. “We figured maybe they were trying to use charges as a scare tactic ... It feels like they have to prosecute somebody.”
At the trial in a crowded Oakland courtroom, defense attorneys argued that local police were tolerant of the pro-Trump violence on 4 March last year, that Quillinan was an armed aggressor and fascist provocateur, and that prosecutors lacked basic evidence about the alleged assault. The prosecutor, along with several police witnesses, argued that the men were observed attacking Quillinan with punches and kicks during a short confrontation outside of the rally.
The event, billed as a “March for Trump” and “free speech” event, attracted interest from members of the alt-right and was linked to the Proud Boys, a far-right pro-Trump group of self-proclaimed “western chauvinists” that has been classified by watchdogs as a hate organization. Quillinan arrived at the rally wearing a red Trump hat, and a shirt referencing the Chilean dictator General Pinochet and a far-right meme with the words “physical removal”, which he said in court referred to the removal of “communists and Democrats”.
Quillinan testified that he was “conservative” and pro-Trump, but said he was not “alt-right” nor a white nationalist and alleged that his shirt and online posts referencing fascism were “jokes”. The audience of anti-fascists supporting the defendants, who some have called the “Berkeley 5”, groaned loudly when the prosecutor described the rally as a “free speech” event.
Police video showed that when Quillinan arrived, an officer noted he had a knife, but said he could “keep it”, despite a local ordinance restricting the carrying of “dangerous weapons”, said the defense attorney, Shanta Driver.
Quillinan said in court that he brought the knife as a “deterrent” and the wooden board he carried like a shield was a “poster”. On cross examination, he admitted he might have hit someone with the board “by accident” and also said he had used his pole to try to break up fights and struck two people.
Law enforcement is aware of Quillinan’s use of the pole as a weapon. Prosecutor James Logan wrote that Quillinan admitted “he swung his flagpole” and at one point struck a man in the head. Quillinan said he offered to give the man money after he realized he was conservative.
When the alleged attack by the five defendants occurred, Quillinan was receiving medical aid for a head injury. Quillinan and Jesse Grant, a police officer who was nearby, testified that the anti-fascists were walking by when one kicked Quillinan and then others started punching and kicking. The defense, however, said Quillinan tripped one of the men and then hit him with his shield. Both sides said the interaction was brief.
Sergeant Grant testified that he couldn’t specify the exact actions of several of the defendants, saying it was a “scrum” and “arms and legs were flying”. A fire captain present during the incident testified that he couldn’t recognize or identify the defendants seated in the courtroom.
Quillinan had also originally said one of his attackers had “red hair”, which does not match any of the defendants. Asked about this discrepancy in court, he said: “I may have misremembered.”
In an interview with Quillinan the day of the incident, Grant raised the idea of charges, according to a recording, saying: “The people who attacked you – do you want them to go to jail?”
“Very much so,” Quillinan replied.
Jeff Armstrong, another defendant, told the Guardian that he showed up to the march to help protect people from rightwing violence: “We went to do medical aid for people and also to defend people who can’t defend themselves.”
Police and prosecutors declined to comment. Quillinan, who was ordered not to speak about the case while the trial is ongoing, could not be reached.
It’s unclear if any rightwing demonstrators faced assault charges for the 4 March fight. Chapman, the rightwing activist, was charged with possession of a leaded stick in a case that is still pending.
Even if the five anti-fascist protesters are acquitted, the case that has dragged on for more than a year has already impacted their lives, said Sawtelle, a 41-year-old tattoo artist and martial arts teacher. He said his personal information was posted online, leading to threats, and that he lost a job as a result of the charges. He said he has also been forced to be more cautious about his activism and participation in protests.
“I think that’s part of the tactic – to get people away from these things,” he said, adding: “I don’t plan on quieting down.”
racist cop could not last a year!!!
Black man records Florida cop calling him a ‘piece of shit nigger’ in pizza dispute
Travis Gettys - raw story
13 JUN 2018 AT 06:46 ET
A Florida police officer resigned hours after the revelation of video showing him use a racial slur against a black man.
Officer Michael Naples, a rookie St. Petersburg police officer, stepped down after the video was released showing him insult a man after issuing him a court summons, reported WFTS-TV.
The officer responded to a dispute between a pizza delivery driver and a customer who was accused of striking the driver’s vehicle with a fire extinguisher.
Naples issued a notice of referral to the man for criminal mischief, but the officer got into an argument with the man as he was leaving.
The black man, Levonte Daniels, recorded video of the encounter on his cell phone, and Naples can be heard calling him a “piece of sh*t n*gger.”
Daniels said the insult “really hurt.”
“It’s not the first time I’ve been called that word,” Daniels told Bay News 9. “So it didn’t hurt because I was called that word, it hurt because that was a police officer.”
Department supervisors met with Naples, who was a probationary officer sworn in last July, to watch the video and discuss his remarks to the man.
Naples resigned from the department, but he would have been fired if he had not.
“We hold our officers to the highest professional standard,” said Chief of Police Anthony Holloway. “The use of profanity and racial slurs is not tolerated under any circumstances.”
Officer Michael Naples, a rookie St. Petersburg police officer, stepped down after the video was released showing him insult a man after issuing him a court summons, reported WFTS-TV.
The officer responded to a dispute between a pizza delivery driver and a customer who was accused of striking the driver’s vehicle with a fire extinguisher.
Naples issued a notice of referral to the man for criminal mischief, but the officer got into an argument with the man as he was leaving.
The black man, Levonte Daniels, recorded video of the encounter on his cell phone, and Naples can be heard calling him a “piece of sh*t n*gger.”
Daniels said the insult “really hurt.”
“It’s not the first time I’ve been called that word,” Daniels told Bay News 9. “So it didn’t hurt because I was called that word, it hurt because that was a police officer.”
Department supervisors met with Naples, who was a probationary officer sworn in last July, to watch the video and discuss his remarks to the man.
Naples resigned from the department, but he would have been fired if he had not.
“We hold our officers to the highest professional standard,” said Chief of Police Anthony Holloway. “The use of profanity and racial slurs is not tolerated under any circumstances.”
Missouri Report: Blacks Stopped at Record-Breaking Numbers, but Whites More Likely to Be Caught With Contraband
By Associated Press - atlanta black star
June 2, 2018
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Nearly four years after protests in Ferguson raised concerns about racial profiling of blacks in Missouri, a report from the state attorney general shows that African-American drivers are 85 percent more likely to be pulled over than whites — the highest percentage in the 18 years the state has compiled data.
Attorney General Josh Hawley on Friday released his office’s annual Vehicle Stops Report. The “disparity index” comparing traffic stops among races showed a jump from last year, when blacks were 75 percent more likely than whites to be stopped. Until now, last year’s percentage had been the highest since the reports began in 2000.
John Gaskin, spokesman for the St. Louis County chapter of the NAACP, said the numbers are shocking.
“Quite frankly, it’s really deplorable,” Gaskin said. “It’s why we’ve ended up in a situation where people are talking about travel advisories and African-American groups are less likely to come and do business in our state.”
Last July, the national NAACP issued a travel advisory for Missouri, citing last year’s vehicle stop data and other racial concerns in the state.
Police treatment of blacks in Missouri was scrutinized after Michael Brown, a black, unarmed 18-year-old in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, was fatally shot by a white officer on Aug. 9, 2014. The shooting and decisions not to charge the officer who shot Brown, Darren Wilson, resulted in months of often violent protests and was a catalyst for the national Black Lives Matter movement.
The shooting also prompted a U.S. Department of Justice investigation. A Justice Department report released in March 2015 cited racial bias and profiling in Ferguson’s policing, and a profit-driven municipal court system that frequently targeted black residents.
The attorney general’s report found that Ferguson’s disparity index was lower than the statewide average even though 88 percent of drivers stopped in Ferguson, and 85 percent of those arrested, were black. That’s because two-thirds of Ferguson’s 21,000 residents are African-American.
The statewide report, based on data self-reported by police agencies, found that Hispanics, Asians, American Indians and people of mixed or unknown races were stopped statewide at rates below their proportion of the driving-age population.
Richard Rosenfeld, a University of Missouri-St. Louis criminologist who analyzed the data for the attorney general’s office, said the report does offer evidence that police are becoming more selective in their traffic stops. The total number of stops has declined in recent years, and a higher percentage of stops are resulting in confiscation of weapons, drugs and other contraband.
“That’s all to the good,” Rosenfeld said. “We want the police to make quote, unquote, ‘good searches,’ that is, searches that produce contraband.”
White motorists were less likely to be searched than blacks, Hispanics and American Indians, but more likely to be caught with contraband. The report also found that 7.1 percent of Hispanics and 6.6 percent of blacks were arrested after stops, compared to 4.2 percent of whites.
Attorney General Josh Hawley on Friday released his office’s annual Vehicle Stops Report. The “disparity index” comparing traffic stops among races showed a jump from last year, when blacks were 75 percent more likely than whites to be stopped. Until now, last year’s percentage had been the highest since the reports began in 2000.
John Gaskin, spokesman for the St. Louis County chapter of the NAACP, said the numbers are shocking.
“Quite frankly, it’s really deplorable,” Gaskin said. “It’s why we’ve ended up in a situation where people are talking about travel advisories and African-American groups are less likely to come and do business in our state.”
Last July, the national NAACP issued a travel advisory for Missouri, citing last year’s vehicle stop data and other racial concerns in the state.
Police treatment of blacks in Missouri was scrutinized after Michael Brown, a black, unarmed 18-year-old in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, was fatally shot by a white officer on Aug. 9, 2014. The shooting and decisions not to charge the officer who shot Brown, Darren Wilson, resulted in months of often violent protests and was a catalyst for the national Black Lives Matter movement.
The shooting also prompted a U.S. Department of Justice investigation. A Justice Department report released in March 2015 cited racial bias and profiling in Ferguson’s policing, and a profit-driven municipal court system that frequently targeted black residents.
The attorney general’s report found that Ferguson’s disparity index was lower than the statewide average even though 88 percent of drivers stopped in Ferguson, and 85 percent of those arrested, were black. That’s because two-thirds of Ferguson’s 21,000 residents are African-American.
The statewide report, based on data self-reported by police agencies, found that Hispanics, Asians, American Indians and people of mixed or unknown races were stopped statewide at rates below their proportion of the driving-age population.
Richard Rosenfeld, a University of Missouri-St. Louis criminologist who analyzed the data for the attorney general’s office, said the report does offer evidence that police are becoming more selective in their traffic stops. The total number of stops has declined in recent years, and a higher percentage of stops are resulting in confiscation of weapons, drugs and other contraband.
“That’s all to the good,” Rosenfeld said. “We want the police to make quote, unquote, ‘good searches,’ that is, searches that produce contraband.”
White motorists were less likely to be searched than blacks, Hispanics and American Indians, but more likely to be caught with contraband. The report also found that 7.1 percent of Hispanics and 6.6 percent of blacks were arrested after stops, compared to 4.2 percent of whites.
Florida judge orders trial in police killing of stranded driver
Terry Spencer - philly tribune
6/2/18
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A judge ruled Friday that a Florida police officer must stand trial for the fatal shooting of a stranded black motorist, saying his retelling of what happened on the darkened highway off-ramp was “unreliable and not credible.”
Circuit Judge Samantha Schosberg Feuer rejected fired Palm Beach Gardens officer Nouman Raja’s attempt to use Florida’s “stand your ground” law, saying his statements to investigators after the 2015 shooting of Corey Jones are not supported by an audiotape of the shooting and other physical evidence, such as the location of the bullet casings.
She said the evidence shows Raja, who was working in plain clothes and driving an unmarked van, was not truthful when he told investigators about five hours after the shooting that he identified himself as a police officer when he approached Jones’ broken-down SUV or when he said he pulled his gun only after Jones, who had a concealed weapons permit, pulled his own handgun.
Instead, Feuer agreed with prosecutors that Raja never identified himself and approached Jones aggressively with his gun drawn, making Jones believe he was about to be attacked by a stranger.
“It was then, and only then, that Jones pulled out his gun in response,” Feuer wrote. She also believes Raja opened fire as Jones ran away, with the two of the three bullets that struck Jones hitting him in the back. She found Raja’s use of force “was not reasonable.”
The Palm Beach County State Attorney’s office declined comment Friday on Feuer’s ruling.
Raja’s lead attorney, Richard Lubin, said he plans to file an appeal next week, which will likely delay the trial’s scheduled July start. Without going into specifics, he said he disagreed with Feuer’s conclusions and how she applied the law.
At a two-day hearing last month, Lubin argued that Raja should be protected under “stand your ground” because he feared for his life when Jones pulled his gun. The law says anyone, not just police officers, can use deadly force if they believe it necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm. However, the law does not cover an altercation’s instigator.
Jones, a housing inspector and part-time drummer, was returning from a late-night performance by his reggae band when his SUV stalled and he pulled over on an Interstate 95 off-ramp.
Raja, who was part of a team trying to catch car burglars, spotted the vehicle and drove the wrong way up the off-ramp just before 3:15 a.m.
Raja exited his van and approached Jones, who was on the phone with a tow truck dispatch center, which recorded the call — something Raja didn’t know when he made his statement to investigators. At the time, he had been a police officer for seven years, transferring to Palm Beach Gardens six months earlier.
Raja was not wearing his tactical vest with police markings as ordered and he is never heard on the dispatch recording identifying himself as a police officer. Raja, who says he identified himself, was wearing jeans, a T-shirt, sneakers and a baseball cap.
In the tow dispatch recording, Jones is heard saying “Huh?” just before Raja yells “You good?” Jones says he is. Raja twice replies, “Really?” with Jones replying “yeah” each time.
Suddenly, Raja shouts for Jones to put his hands up, using an expletive. Jones replies “Hold on!” and Raja repeats his demand. Feuer believes it was about this time that Jones pulled his gun, which his family says he had bought just days before to protect his musical equipment valued at $10,000.
Raja then fires three shots in less than two seconds. Ten seconds pass before three more shots are heard a second apart, apparently Raja firing at Jones as he ran down an embankment. Raja told investigators Jones kept pointing his gun at him with his right hand. Feuer pointed out in her ruling that Jones was left handed.
Prosecutors say Raja saw Jones throw down his gun but kept firing, which is why he is charged with attempted murder. Investigators have been unable to determine when the fatal shot was fired, but it was one of the shots that struck Jones in the back.
Raja then used his personal cellphone to call 911 with the operator picking up 33 seconds after the last shot was fired. Raja is recorded yelling orders to drop the gun; prosecutors say he was trying to mislead investigators into believing he hadn’t seen the gun thrown. Jones’ body was found 200 feet (60 meters) from the SUV and 125 feet (38 meters) from his gun, which was unfired.
Palm Beach Gardens quickly fired Raja, who was still in his employee probation period. He was charged eight months later. — (AP)
Circuit Judge Samantha Schosberg Feuer rejected fired Palm Beach Gardens officer Nouman Raja’s attempt to use Florida’s “stand your ground” law, saying his statements to investigators after the 2015 shooting of Corey Jones are not supported by an audiotape of the shooting and other physical evidence, such as the location of the bullet casings.
She said the evidence shows Raja, who was working in plain clothes and driving an unmarked van, was not truthful when he told investigators about five hours after the shooting that he identified himself as a police officer when he approached Jones’ broken-down SUV or when he said he pulled his gun only after Jones, who had a concealed weapons permit, pulled his own handgun.
Instead, Feuer agreed with prosecutors that Raja never identified himself and approached Jones aggressively with his gun drawn, making Jones believe he was about to be attacked by a stranger.
“It was then, and only then, that Jones pulled out his gun in response,” Feuer wrote. She also believes Raja opened fire as Jones ran away, with the two of the three bullets that struck Jones hitting him in the back. She found Raja’s use of force “was not reasonable.”
The Palm Beach County State Attorney’s office declined comment Friday on Feuer’s ruling.
Raja’s lead attorney, Richard Lubin, said he plans to file an appeal next week, which will likely delay the trial’s scheduled July start. Without going into specifics, he said he disagreed with Feuer’s conclusions and how she applied the law.
At a two-day hearing last month, Lubin argued that Raja should be protected under “stand your ground” because he feared for his life when Jones pulled his gun. The law says anyone, not just police officers, can use deadly force if they believe it necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm. However, the law does not cover an altercation’s instigator.
Jones, a housing inspector and part-time drummer, was returning from a late-night performance by his reggae band when his SUV stalled and he pulled over on an Interstate 95 off-ramp.
Raja, who was part of a team trying to catch car burglars, spotted the vehicle and drove the wrong way up the off-ramp just before 3:15 a.m.
Raja exited his van and approached Jones, who was on the phone with a tow truck dispatch center, which recorded the call — something Raja didn’t know when he made his statement to investigators. At the time, he had been a police officer for seven years, transferring to Palm Beach Gardens six months earlier.
Raja was not wearing his tactical vest with police markings as ordered and he is never heard on the dispatch recording identifying himself as a police officer. Raja, who says he identified himself, was wearing jeans, a T-shirt, sneakers and a baseball cap.
In the tow dispatch recording, Jones is heard saying “Huh?” just before Raja yells “You good?” Jones says he is. Raja twice replies, “Really?” with Jones replying “yeah” each time.
Suddenly, Raja shouts for Jones to put his hands up, using an expletive. Jones replies “Hold on!” and Raja repeats his demand. Feuer believes it was about this time that Jones pulled his gun, which his family says he had bought just days before to protect his musical equipment valued at $10,000.
Raja then fires three shots in less than two seconds. Ten seconds pass before three more shots are heard a second apart, apparently Raja firing at Jones as he ran down an embankment. Raja told investigators Jones kept pointing his gun at him with his right hand. Feuer pointed out in her ruling that Jones was left handed.
Prosecutors say Raja saw Jones throw down his gun but kept firing, which is why he is charged with attempted murder. Investigators have been unable to determine when the fatal shot was fired, but it was one of the shots that struck Jones in the back.
Raja then used his personal cellphone to call 911 with the operator picking up 33 seconds after the last shot was fired. Raja is recorded yelling orders to drop the gun; prosecutors say he was trying to mislead investigators into believing he hadn’t seen the gun thrown. Jones’ body was found 200 feet (60 meters) from the SUV and 125 feet (38 meters) from his gun, which was unfired.
Palm Beach Gardens quickly fired Raja, who was still in his employee probation period. He was charged eight months later. — (AP)
New Jersey cop arrested by the FBI for beating a suicidal man in a wheelchair
Noor Al-Sibai - raw story
31 MAY 2018 AT 12:57 ET
A police officer in New Jersey was arrested by the FBI for his involvement in the beating of a suicidal man in a wheelchair at a hospital — and is the fourth officer from the precinct arrested by the bureau in two months.
NorthJersey.com reported that Officer Roger Then of the Paterson Police Department allegedly filmed and helped a fellow, unnamed officer beat the suicidal hospital patient. The patient reportedly needed surgery on his eye after the attack.
The report noted that hospital security camera footage of the incident shows the other, unnamed officer putting gloves on before striking the suicidal patient who appeared to taunt him into doing so. It also allegedly shows Then recording the beating on his cell phone and grabbing the patient by the neck and throwing him down.
Then is the fourth Paterson officer arrested by the FBI as part of an ongoing investigation into the department that found two members of the force guilty of conspiring to violate civil rights and another selling drugs on the job. Two others have been suspended along with Then, who will go without pay for 30 days as per his contract with Paterson’s police union.
Arraigned on a $150,000 bail, Then agreed to give up his weapons, remain within New Jersey state lines and have no contact with the victim, his family or his alleged accomplice. He is charged with felony conspiracy to commit civil rights violations and a charge related to misrepresenting the incident in the report, and if convicted with both could face up to 13 years in prison.
NorthJersey.com reported that Officer Roger Then of the Paterson Police Department allegedly filmed and helped a fellow, unnamed officer beat the suicidal hospital patient. The patient reportedly needed surgery on his eye after the attack.
The report noted that hospital security camera footage of the incident shows the other, unnamed officer putting gloves on before striking the suicidal patient who appeared to taunt him into doing so. It also allegedly shows Then recording the beating on his cell phone and grabbing the patient by the neck and throwing him down.
Then is the fourth Paterson officer arrested by the FBI as part of an ongoing investigation into the department that found two members of the force guilty of conspiring to violate civil rights and another selling drugs on the job. Two others have been suspended along with Then, who will go without pay for 30 days as per his contract with Paterson’s police union.
Arraigned on a $150,000 bail, Then agreed to give up his weapons, remain within New Jersey state lines and have no contact with the victim, his family or his alleged accomplice. He is charged with felony conspiracy to commit civil rights violations and a charge related to misrepresenting the incident in the report, and if convicted with both could face up to 13 years in prison.
ICE detains immigrant mom with no criminal record during routine check-in
"There are some people who are actual criminals and commit crimes intentionally, and then there are people like my mother. "
REBEKAH ENTRALGO - thinkprogress
MAY 30, 2018, 2:30 PM
On May 21, Mary Caceres (whose name has been changed to protect her privacy) appeared at a routine check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Jacksonville, Florida. By the end of the day, the 56-year-old mother with no criminal record was wearing an orange jumpsuit and sitting in a detention facility.
The day of her check-in, Caceres received a letter stating that she had been granted a year-long temporary work visa from May 15, 2018 to May 15, 2019. So when she arrived at her meeting, she already had a valid work visa. ICE agents, however, claimed she had missed a check-in meeting. She did, but only because the immigration lawyer in charge of her case committed suicide and she never received the notifications ICE sent directly to the lawyer.
ICE maintained that she was intentionally hiding from authorities and commuted her work visa to just 3 months and placed a tracking device on her ankle — a common practice among ICE agents. While testing the device outside, ICE agents informed her that they had changed their minds and that she would be detained the same day.
In an emailed statement to ThinkProgress, ICE spokesperson Nestor Ygelsias doubled down on the Trump administration’s policy to “no longer exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement.”
“Mary [Caceres] entered the country on a nonimmigrant visa in September 2005, but failed to depart in accordance with the terms of her admission. On Feb. 15, 2011 an immigration judge issued her a final order of removal, and ICE arrested her May 21 pursuant to the judge’s order.
As Director Homan has stated, ICE will no longer exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement. All of those in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States.”
“It was devastating,” Daniela Gaona, Caceres’ daughter, told ThinkProgress. “The first time she goes to an immigration meeting without me and she gets detained.”
In 2005, Gaona and her mother came to the United States from Onzaga, a small, dangerous town in Colombia run by Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrilla forces (known as FARC). In Colombia, Caceres was a victim of repeated domestic violence and lived through the death of her brother, who was killed by militant forces. Seeking a better life for her and her daughter, Caceres came to the United States under a temporary visa and applied for asylum, but was denied. For the next 13 years, Caceres paid her taxes, maintained a clean criminal record, and worked tirelessly to provide her daughter with the best life imaginable.
“There were times where she had to work three jobs, even four jobs at one point, to make ends meet for our family. I cannot think of anyone more selfless and dedicated,” her daughter wrote on a GoFundMe page dedicated to raising money for her mother’s legal defense fun. “She helped me go from community college to graduate school at Johns Hopkins University. I could not have done this without her.”
Gaona, a DACA recipient, was in Baltimore when her mother was detained and flew down to Florida the minute she heard the news. However, she was not told which detention facility her mother was held at. After placing calls to different centers in the area, Gaona was informed her mother had been transported to four different detention facilities throughout the state before finally being placed at the Broward County Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, Florida — over 300 miles away from home.
“She wasn’t given the ability to shower or brush her teeth during those days. She was treated like an animal,” Gaona said.
When Gaona was finally able to talk to her mother, it was through a television screen outside the detention center. When she wanted to bring her mother a picture to help give her strength during this difficult time, her request was denied.
She also offered to pay for her mother’s ticket back to Colombia, but that request was also denied.
“I just want the dignity of at least taking her to the airport and giving her a proper goodbye. She has a life here. A job, a house in her name,” Gaona said. “There are some people who are actual criminals and commit crimes intentionally, and then there are people like my mother. It was not our fault we missed that meeting.”
Gaona maintains that ICE tricked her mother into that May 21st meeting.
“They wouldn’t let me pay for her flight home because they want her detained. They want to make money off of her,” she said.
Detaining undocumented immigrants at routine check-ins wouldn’t be completely unheard of for ICE.
In 2017, Jose Hernandez, a U.S. resident for nearly two decades, regularly attended check-in meetings, and paid his taxes on time, was detained when he showed up for a scheduled appointment.
Non-criminal, undocumented immigrants across the country are continuing to be detained by federal law enforcement agencies through questionable operations.
A 30-year-old undocumented immigrant with Down syndrome named Juan Gaspar-Garcia, who came to the United States from Guatemala after his mother’s death when he was 14, was detained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) while at work on March 28, 2018 this year, where DHS asked employees “for their documents.” He was held at the Broward Transitional Center, where Caceres is currently detained, for three weeks. He was released on April 18. If deported, Gaspar-Garcia would have had no one in Guatemala to take care of him, as his three siblings and father live in Florida.
After his release, Nestor Yglesias, a spokesperson for ICE in Miami, issued the following statement, also citing the Trump administration’s stringent detention policy:
“ICE conducts targeted immigration enforcement in compliance with federal law and agency policy. However, as ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan has made clear, ICE does not exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement. All of those in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States.”
In Florida alone, ICE arrests jumped more than 75 percent from 2016 to 2017, coinciding with Trump’s presidency and the implementation of his policy giving ICE agents carte blanche to arrest or deport whomever they want. The data also includes those detained in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. According to the Pew Research Center, that 75 percent spike was the single-largest spike in ICE seizures in any area across the country last year.
The day of her check-in, Caceres received a letter stating that she had been granted a year-long temporary work visa from May 15, 2018 to May 15, 2019. So when she arrived at her meeting, she already had a valid work visa. ICE agents, however, claimed she had missed a check-in meeting. She did, but only because the immigration lawyer in charge of her case committed suicide and she never received the notifications ICE sent directly to the lawyer.
ICE maintained that she was intentionally hiding from authorities and commuted her work visa to just 3 months and placed a tracking device on her ankle — a common practice among ICE agents. While testing the device outside, ICE agents informed her that they had changed their minds and that she would be detained the same day.
In an emailed statement to ThinkProgress, ICE spokesperson Nestor Ygelsias doubled down on the Trump administration’s policy to “no longer exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement.”
“Mary [Caceres] entered the country on a nonimmigrant visa in September 2005, but failed to depart in accordance with the terms of her admission. On Feb. 15, 2011 an immigration judge issued her a final order of removal, and ICE arrested her May 21 pursuant to the judge’s order.
As Director Homan has stated, ICE will no longer exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement. All of those in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States.”
“It was devastating,” Daniela Gaona, Caceres’ daughter, told ThinkProgress. “The first time she goes to an immigration meeting without me and she gets detained.”
In 2005, Gaona and her mother came to the United States from Onzaga, a small, dangerous town in Colombia run by Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrilla forces (known as FARC). In Colombia, Caceres was a victim of repeated domestic violence and lived through the death of her brother, who was killed by militant forces. Seeking a better life for her and her daughter, Caceres came to the United States under a temporary visa and applied for asylum, but was denied. For the next 13 years, Caceres paid her taxes, maintained a clean criminal record, and worked tirelessly to provide her daughter with the best life imaginable.
“There were times where she had to work three jobs, even four jobs at one point, to make ends meet for our family. I cannot think of anyone more selfless and dedicated,” her daughter wrote on a GoFundMe page dedicated to raising money for her mother’s legal defense fun. “She helped me go from community college to graduate school at Johns Hopkins University. I could not have done this without her.”
Gaona, a DACA recipient, was in Baltimore when her mother was detained and flew down to Florida the minute she heard the news. However, she was not told which detention facility her mother was held at. After placing calls to different centers in the area, Gaona was informed her mother had been transported to four different detention facilities throughout the state before finally being placed at the Broward County Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, Florida — over 300 miles away from home.
“She wasn’t given the ability to shower or brush her teeth during those days. She was treated like an animal,” Gaona said.
When Gaona was finally able to talk to her mother, it was through a television screen outside the detention center. When she wanted to bring her mother a picture to help give her strength during this difficult time, her request was denied.
She also offered to pay for her mother’s ticket back to Colombia, but that request was also denied.
“I just want the dignity of at least taking her to the airport and giving her a proper goodbye. She has a life here. A job, a house in her name,” Gaona said. “There are some people who are actual criminals and commit crimes intentionally, and then there are people like my mother. It was not our fault we missed that meeting.”
Gaona maintains that ICE tricked her mother into that May 21st meeting.
“They wouldn’t let me pay for her flight home because they want her detained. They want to make money off of her,” she said.
Detaining undocumented immigrants at routine check-ins wouldn’t be completely unheard of for ICE.
In 2017, Jose Hernandez, a U.S. resident for nearly two decades, regularly attended check-in meetings, and paid his taxes on time, was detained when he showed up for a scheduled appointment.
Non-criminal, undocumented immigrants across the country are continuing to be detained by federal law enforcement agencies through questionable operations.
A 30-year-old undocumented immigrant with Down syndrome named Juan Gaspar-Garcia, who came to the United States from Guatemala after his mother’s death when he was 14, was detained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) while at work on March 28, 2018 this year, where DHS asked employees “for their documents.” He was held at the Broward Transitional Center, where Caceres is currently detained, for three weeks. He was released on April 18. If deported, Gaspar-Garcia would have had no one in Guatemala to take care of him, as his three siblings and father live in Florida.
After his release, Nestor Yglesias, a spokesperson for ICE in Miami, issued the following statement, also citing the Trump administration’s stringent detention policy:
“ICE conducts targeted immigration enforcement in compliance with federal law and agency policy. However, as ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan has made clear, ICE does not exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement. All of those in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States.”
In Florida alone, ICE arrests jumped more than 75 percent from 2016 to 2017, coinciding with Trump’s presidency and the implementation of his policy giving ICE agents carte blanche to arrest or deport whomever they want. The data also includes those detained in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. According to the Pew Research Center, that 75 percent spike was the single-largest spike in ICE seizures in any area across the country last year.
Milwaukee Sets Aside $1.2M to Cover Suits Against the Police Department, It’s Paid Out $17.2M In the Last Two Years Alone
By Associated Press - atlanta black star
May 25, 2018
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Body camera video showing police using a stun gun on an NBA player over a parking violation is just the latest setback for efforts to improve relations between Milwaukee officers and the city’s black population.
The confrontation involving Sterling Brown of the Milwaukee Bucks also represents the first major challenge for new Police Chief Alfonso Morales, who took the job in February promising to restore public trust in a department besieged in recent years by excessive-force lawsuits.
“Milwaukee has all the ingredients to be a great city, but each time an incident like this occurs, we are reminded of how much work we still have to do,” the city’s Common Council said in a statement Thursday.
Morales, a lifelong Milwaukee resident born to Mexican immigrants, pledged to be more transparent with cases of police misconduct, and he’s already faced TV cameras twice this month to apologize for his officers’ actions. The other case involved four officers caught on video kicking and punching an African-American man while he was restrained on the ground.
The Jan. 26 video of Brown showed how a simple interaction quickly escalated after an officer approached him about parking in a handicap spot around 2 a.m. at a Walgreens drug store. When their conversation became tenser, the officer called more squad cars for help. As Brown is surrounded by four officers, he’s asked to take his hands out of his pockets and a scuffle ensues. Within seconds, one officer yelled “Taser! Taser! Taser!”
The video became public after the department finished its internal investigation.
The officers were disciplined because they “acted inappropriately,” Morales said. Brown was not charged with anything.
The chief did not name the officers or say how they were disciplined. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, citing unidentified sources, said three officers received suspensions ranging from two to 15 days.
“I am sorry this incident escalated to this level,” said Morales, who left a news conference Wednesday without taking questions.
The police department did not identify the races of the officers, but most of them in the video appeared to be white. Brown is black.
A 2017 analysis by the Journal Sentinel found that black officers made up about 18 percent of the department, in a city that is roughly 39 percent black.
According to the Journal Sentinel, “Police misconduct has cost Milwaukee taxpayers at least $17.5 million in legal settlements since 2015.” Which is bleeding their budget and goes well beyond their “the $1.2 million the city sets aside each year for settling all of the claims it faces.”
Morales’ predecessor, Edward Flynn, had a combative relationship with some city officials during his decade on the job. The Common Council became so frustrated with him that members passed a resolution asking the state to empower the council to fire him. On Thursday, a council member repeated that request, saying change in the department can only happen if the chief is accountable to city leaders instead of a civilian commission appointed by the mayor.
“We can have all sorts of community meetings and groups and say all these wonderful things. But “at the end of the day, the police chief can do whatever he wants without any consequences,” Alderman Tony Zielinski said.
Morales’ spokeswoman said he was not available for an interview.
Brown has indicated he will file a lawsuit against the police. If he does, the complaint will add to a long list of litigation the city has faced over officer misconduct.
Last year, Milwaukee paid $2.3 million to settle a lawsuit over the death of Dontre Hamilton, a mentally ill black man fatally shot by a police officer after the officer roused him from a park bench downtown.
In 2016, the city paid $5 million to settle a lawsuit by 74 black residents who said police illegally strip-searched them between 2008 and 2012. The American Civil Liberties Union in Wisconsin also has a pending lawsuit alleging the department has for years targeted black and Latino residents by stopping and questioning them without cause.
“It’s just another black eye for the city of Milwaukee on a national level,” Alderman Khalif Rainey said.
A day before the Brown video was released, Morales posted a short video on YouTube that showed him walking through neighborhoods, talking to residents and emphasizing his desire to restore trust in the department.
Rainey bashed the video, saying it’s not enough.
“First and foremost, it’s going to require something more than a video, a nice fluffy PR effort,” he said. “So it’s really going to require the police to get out here in the community and really get integrated in neighborhoods and build a rapport with actual people on a first-name basis.”
Jonathan Safran, a Milwaukee attorney who worked on the Dontre Hamilton case and lawsuit over illegal strip searches, said he’s optimistic that settlement discussions in the ACLU lawsuit could lead to changes in how officers behave during traffic and pedestrian stops.
“The issue in my mind going forward, and this is a good example,” he said, referring to Brown’s case, “is should officers act as warriors or should they should they act as guardians?”
The confrontation involving Sterling Brown of the Milwaukee Bucks also represents the first major challenge for new Police Chief Alfonso Morales, who took the job in February promising to restore public trust in a department besieged in recent years by excessive-force lawsuits.
“Milwaukee has all the ingredients to be a great city, but each time an incident like this occurs, we are reminded of how much work we still have to do,” the city’s Common Council said in a statement Thursday.
Morales, a lifelong Milwaukee resident born to Mexican immigrants, pledged to be more transparent with cases of police misconduct, and he’s already faced TV cameras twice this month to apologize for his officers’ actions. The other case involved four officers caught on video kicking and punching an African-American man while he was restrained on the ground.
The Jan. 26 video of Brown showed how a simple interaction quickly escalated after an officer approached him about parking in a handicap spot around 2 a.m. at a Walgreens drug store. When their conversation became tenser, the officer called more squad cars for help. As Brown is surrounded by four officers, he’s asked to take his hands out of his pockets and a scuffle ensues. Within seconds, one officer yelled “Taser! Taser! Taser!”
The video became public after the department finished its internal investigation.
The officers were disciplined because they “acted inappropriately,” Morales said. Brown was not charged with anything.
The chief did not name the officers or say how they were disciplined. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, citing unidentified sources, said three officers received suspensions ranging from two to 15 days.
“I am sorry this incident escalated to this level,” said Morales, who left a news conference Wednesday without taking questions.
The police department did not identify the races of the officers, but most of them in the video appeared to be white. Brown is black.
A 2017 analysis by the Journal Sentinel found that black officers made up about 18 percent of the department, in a city that is roughly 39 percent black.
According to the Journal Sentinel, “Police misconduct has cost Milwaukee taxpayers at least $17.5 million in legal settlements since 2015.” Which is bleeding their budget and goes well beyond their “the $1.2 million the city sets aside each year for settling all of the claims it faces.”
Morales’ predecessor, Edward Flynn, had a combative relationship with some city officials during his decade on the job. The Common Council became so frustrated with him that members passed a resolution asking the state to empower the council to fire him. On Thursday, a council member repeated that request, saying change in the department can only happen if the chief is accountable to city leaders instead of a civilian commission appointed by the mayor.
“We can have all sorts of community meetings and groups and say all these wonderful things. But “at the end of the day, the police chief can do whatever he wants without any consequences,” Alderman Tony Zielinski said.
Morales’ spokeswoman said he was not available for an interview.
Brown has indicated he will file a lawsuit against the police. If he does, the complaint will add to a long list of litigation the city has faced over officer misconduct.
Last year, Milwaukee paid $2.3 million to settle a lawsuit over the death of Dontre Hamilton, a mentally ill black man fatally shot by a police officer after the officer roused him from a park bench downtown.
In 2016, the city paid $5 million to settle a lawsuit by 74 black residents who said police illegally strip-searched them between 2008 and 2012. The American Civil Liberties Union in Wisconsin also has a pending lawsuit alleging the department has for years targeted black and Latino residents by stopping and questioning them without cause.
“It’s just another black eye for the city of Milwaukee on a national level,” Alderman Khalif Rainey said.
A day before the Brown video was released, Morales posted a short video on YouTube that showed him walking through neighborhoods, talking to residents and emphasizing his desire to restore trust in the department.
Rainey bashed the video, saying it’s not enough.
“First and foremost, it’s going to require something more than a video, a nice fluffy PR effort,” he said. “So it’s really going to require the police to get out here in the community and really get integrated in neighborhoods and build a rapport with actual people on a first-name basis.”
Jonathan Safran, a Milwaukee attorney who worked on the Dontre Hamilton case and lawsuit over illegal strip searches, said he’s optimistic that settlement discussions in the ACLU lawsuit could lead to changes in how officers behave during traffic and pedestrian stops.
“The issue in my mind going forward, and this is a good example,” he said, referring to Brown’s case, “is should officers act as warriors or should they should they act as guardians?”
Prosecutors hid evidence that favors anti-Trump protesters, judge rules
The latest big setback for the crusade against Inauguration Day protesters could be its death knell.
ALAN PYKE - thinkprogress
MAY 23, 2018, 5:39 PM
The federal prosecutor who has pursued hundreds of Trump inauguration protesters on unprecedented felony riot charges for over a year lied to the court about edits her team made to a key video filmed by right-wing operative James O’Keefe’s organization, a judge found Wednesday.
The ruling does not guarantee that the remaining defendants in the case will go free. Judge Robert Morin agreed with defense lawyers that Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Kerkhoff had illegally suppressed evidence, but declined to make a final ruling on their motion to dismiss all charges in light of the government’s cheating. That motion governs only one of several clusters of defendants who may yet land in prison for marching alongside people who broke windows and threw rocks.
The full video captures an undercover police officer saying of organizers from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), “I don’t think they know anything about any of the upper echelon stuff.” But that moment was edited out of the video before prosecutors turned it over to defense counsel in an earlier case, and was only discovered after the court ordered the government to hand over the full, unedited files.
Withholding a police witness’s in-the-moment statement that organizers had no knowledge of the thing they’re being accused of planning is a clear violation of the laws governing evidence-sharing. Kerkhoff had previously told the court that no potentially exculpatory evidence had been withheld because the videos were only altered to conceal the identities of the police officer and the O’Keefe operative. Defense counsel has asked Morin to censure Kerkhoff for that false claim.
The lawyers are also asking Morin to toss out all the charges, arguing that the withholding of helpful evidence over such a long period of time fundamentally undermines their fair trial rights. If Morin does decide the felony cases can proceed despite Kerkhoff’s violation of evidence rules codified in the 1963 Supreme Court decision Brady v Maryland, the lawyers say he should at the very least bar prosecutors from using any of the O’Keefe videos at trial.
The edited video is the central piece of evidence in an unusual, chilling legal argument that already failed spectacularly once. An undercover operative from O’Keefe’s Project Veritas had infiltrated a planning meeting ahead of the inauguration protests and secretly filmed parts of a raucous discussion of tactics and plans for various anti-Trump marches. The video, corroborated by Metropolitan Police Department officer Brian Adelmeyer based on his attendance at the meeting on an undercover assignment, showed various people discussing various activities loosely coordinated under the banner #DisruptJ20.
After a handful of marchers smashed shop windows and scrapped with riot police, MPD opted to “kettle” hundreds of people and conduct a mass arrest. More than 200 people were subsequently charged with a long list of felonies as the government sought to hold every attendee collectively guilty for the property-smashers’ actions.
The O’Keefe video was the key piece of evidence that everyone who participated in the march was party to a willful conspiracy to destroy property and stage a riot. It failed to persuade jurors in December, when Kerkhoff got skunked in the first group trial stemming from the mass arrests. Those acquittals prompted her office to drop all but 59 of the cases, supposedly narrowing the pool to people with a stronger connection to actual violent acts or planning that anticipated such violence.
The first trial was a wacky affair, laden with awkward tech glitches and haunted by ghosts both partisan and ideological. The key investigator working to analyze hundreds of hours of video from the protest and arrests is a Trump fan with a history of bashing Black Lives Matter and other street protest movements. Police witnesses struggled to justify some uses of force and the decision to shoot pepper spray into crowds of detained people awaiting arrest. Lawyers and judges have argued about what “antifa” and “black bloc” mean almost as much as they’ve argued about the First Amendment implications of the collective-guilt prosecution of protesters.
For all that to end with a whimper, after millions of dollars in prosecutor spending and nearly 18 months of endless disruption to the allegedly-criminal marchers’ lives, would be shocking.
There’s grim irony in Kerkhoff getting tripped up by her own team’s editing of a video provided by James O’Keefe, whose career is built on deceptively editing video clips to smear progressive political organizations and other perceived enemies of the political right.
But while O’Keefe has become a laughingstock after attempted stings involving a house boat full of sex toys and an attempt at bugging a government office, the J20 trials offer a reminder of how dangerous his operation can be. Democrats joined Republicans in destroying the longstanding community organizing stalwart ACORN in 2009 based on an O’Keefe scam, ripping up one of the most effective grassroots organizations focused on the legal and economic interests of low-income families and people of color. Even when everybody knows he’s lying, as in the case of the “sting” that put him on the map a decade ago, his work can still prompt devastating outcomes if people in power don’t stand up for the truth of the matter.
In 2009, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) decided to stand with O’Keefe instead of with the truth. Where Judge Morin chooses to stand in 2018 remains to be seen. The judge has promised a final ruling on the motion to dismiss the J20 charges in the week after Memorial Day.
The ruling does not guarantee that the remaining defendants in the case will go free. Judge Robert Morin agreed with defense lawyers that Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Kerkhoff had illegally suppressed evidence, but declined to make a final ruling on their motion to dismiss all charges in light of the government’s cheating. That motion governs only one of several clusters of defendants who may yet land in prison for marching alongside people who broke windows and threw rocks.
The full video captures an undercover police officer saying of organizers from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), “I don’t think they know anything about any of the upper echelon stuff.” But that moment was edited out of the video before prosecutors turned it over to defense counsel in an earlier case, and was only discovered after the court ordered the government to hand over the full, unedited files.
Withholding a police witness’s in-the-moment statement that organizers had no knowledge of the thing they’re being accused of planning is a clear violation of the laws governing evidence-sharing. Kerkhoff had previously told the court that no potentially exculpatory evidence had been withheld because the videos were only altered to conceal the identities of the police officer and the O’Keefe operative. Defense counsel has asked Morin to censure Kerkhoff for that false claim.
The lawyers are also asking Morin to toss out all the charges, arguing that the withholding of helpful evidence over such a long period of time fundamentally undermines their fair trial rights. If Morin does decide the felony cases can proceed despite Kerkhoff’s violation of evidence rules codified in the 1963 Supreme Court decision Brady v Maryland, the lawyers say he should at the very least bar prosecutors from using any of the O’Keefe videos at trial.
The edited video is the central piece of evidence in an unusual, chilling legal argument that already failed spectacularly once. An undercover operative from O’Keefe’s Project Veritas had infiltrated a planning meeting ahead of the inauguration protests and secretly filmed parts of a raucous discussion of tactics and plans for various anti-Trump marches. The video, corroborated by Metropolitan Police Department officer Brian Adelmeyer based on his attendance at the meeting on an undercover assignment, showed various people discussing various activities loosely coordinated under the banner #DisruptJ20.
After a handful of marchers smashed shop windows and scrapped with riot police, MPD opted to “kettle” hundreds of people and conduct a mass arrest. More than 200 people were subsequently charged with a long list of felonies as the government sought to hold every attendee collectively guilty for the property-smashers’ actions.
The O’Keefe video was the key piece of evidence that everyone who participated in the march was party to a willful conspiracy to destroy property and stage a riot. It failed to persuade jurors in December, when Kerkhoff got skunked in the first group trial stemming from the mass arrests. Those acquittals prompted her office to drop all but 59 of the cases, supposedly narrowing the pool to people with a stronger connection to actual violent acts or planning that anticipated such violence.
The first trial was a wacky affair, laden with awkward tech glitches and haunted by ghosts both partisan and ideological. The key investigator working to analyze hundreds of hours of video from the protest and arrests is a Trump fan with a history of bashing Black Lives Matter and other street protest movements. Police witnesses struggled to justify some uses of force and the decision to shoot pepper spray into crowds of detained people awaiting arrest. Lawyers and judges have argued about what “antifa” and “black bloc” mean almost as much as they’ve argued about the First Amendment implications of the collective-guilt prosecution of protesters.
For all that to end with a whimper, after millions of dollars in prosecutor spending and nearly 18 months of endless disruption to the allegedly-criminal marchers’ lives, would be shocking.
There’s grim irony in Kerkhoff getting tripped up by her own team’s editing of a video provided by James O’Keefe, whose career is built on deceptively editing video clips to smear progressive political organizations and other perceived enemies of the political right.
But while O’Keefe has become a laughingstock after attempted stings involving a house boat full of sex toys and an attempt at bugging a government office, the J20 trials offer a reminder of how dangerous his operation can be. Democrats joined Republicans in destroying the longstanding community organizing stalwart ACORN in 2009 based on an O’Keefe scam, ripping up one of the most effective grassroots organizations focused on the legal and economic interests of low-income families and people of color. Even when everybody knows he’s lying, as in the case of the “sting” that put him on the map a decade ago, his work can still prompt devastating outcomes if people in power don’t stand up for the truth of the matter.
In 2009, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) decided to stand with O’Keefe instead of with the truth. Where Judge Morin chooses to stand in 2018 remains to be seen. The judge has promised a final ruling on the motion to dismiss the J20 charges in the week after Memorial Day.
Pizza deliveryman's killing: Man ordered free decades later
Michael Kunzelman, Associated Press Updated 10:55 pm
Monday, May 21, 2018
FILE - These undated file booking photos made available by the Shreveport Police Department show Corey Williams. A Louisiana judge has ordered the release of Williams, an inmate whose attorneys have accused prosecutors of withholding "staggering" evidence of his innocence in a pizza deliveryman's killing two decades earlier. One of Williams' attorneys says a plea deal with Caddo Parish prosecutors will allow Williams to be freed as soon as Tuesday, May 22, 2018, from Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. (Shreveport Police Department via AP, File)
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana judge has ordered the release of an inmate whose attorneys have accused prosecutors of withholding "staggering" evidence of the man's innocence in a pizza deliveryman's killing two decades ago.
A plea deal with Caddo Parish prosecutors would allow Corey Williams to be freed possibly later Tuesday from Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, according to defense attorney Amir Ali.
Williams pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter and obstruction of justice after prosecutors and defense lawyers asked state District Court Judge Katherine Dorroh to vacate his murder conviction, Ali said.
The deal comes several weeks after Williams' attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case and reverse his 2000 murder conviction. A group of 44 former prosecutors and Justice Department officials, including former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, signed a brief in support of a petition by Williams' lawyers.
Ali praised Caddo Parish District Attorney James Stewart Sr. "for taking a hard look at what happened in Corey's case and agreeing to his release."
Williams, now 36, was an intellectually disabled 16-year-old when police arrested him in the January 1998 shooting death of Jarvis Griffin, who was killed and robbed while delivering a pizza to a Shreveport home.
"Twenty years ago, Corey went outside to hang out with friends. It has taken him 20 years to make it back home," Ali said in a statement. "No one can give Corey that time back. But with Corey's immediate release, we end this horrible tragedy."
Suzanne Williams, a prosecutor assigned to Williams' case, didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment Monday.
Before the shooting, Williams was hospitalized for extreme lead poisoning, still sucked his thumb and frequently urinated on himself, according to his lawyers. A district court judge overturned Williams' death sentence in 2004 on the basis of his disabilities.
Williams' lawyers said there wasn't any physical evidence linking him to the killing.
Witnesses saw several older men steal money and pizza from Griffin and saw Williams running from the house alone with nothing in his hands after the shooting, according to his lawyers. One of the older men, Chris Moore, was the only witness who identified Williams as the shooter.
Fingerprints found on the murder weapon belonged to one of the other older men, and the victim's blood was found on clothing worn by a third older man, according to Williams' lawyers.
Police officers found Williams hiding under a sheet on a couch at his grandmother's house. He initially denied killing Griffin but changed his story after police questioned him through the night.
"His confession was brief, devoid of corroborating details," his lawyers wrote in their March 2 petition to the Supreme Court. "Having just assumed responsibility for a homicide, Corey told the officers, 'I'm tired. I'm ready to go home and lay down.'"
Williams' lawyers say his conviction was based primarily on that confession and the testimony of Moore. Only after Williams' trial did his attorneys obtain recordings of witness interviews pointing to his innocence. The withheld recordings showed police had suspected the older men were plotting to frame Williams for the killing, according to Williams' lawyers.
Prosecutors denied violating their duty to disclose evidence favorable to Williams. Dale Cox, Caddo Parish's former acting district attorney, said in a 2015 court filing that Williams hasn't proved the recorded witness statements contained "exculpatory" evidence or that withholding them deprived him of a fair trial.
"The State presented to the jury a confession that was wholly corroborated by eyewitness testimony," he wrote.
Cox, who once told a reporter he believes the state needs to "kill more people," personally prosecuted one-third of the Louisiana cases that resulted in death sentences between 2010 and 2015, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
In a 4-2 vote last October, the Louisiana Supreme Court refused to hold a hearing on Williams' claims. His attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review that decision, but the court hadn't acted on the request prior to Monday's plea deal.
A court filing accompanying Williams' guilty plea on Monday says prosecutors could have presented evidence that Williams was present for Griffin's shooting and "aided and abetted" the killing.
A plea deal with Caddo Parish prosecutors would allow Corey Williams to be freed possibly later Tuesday from Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, according to defense attorney Amir Ali.
Williams pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter and obstruction of justice after prosecutors and defense lawyers asked state District Court Judge Katherine Dorroh to vacate his murder conviction, Ali said.
The deal comes several weeks after Williams' attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case and reverse his 2000 murder conviction. A group of 44 former prosecutors and Justice Department officials, including former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, signed a brief in support of a petition by Williams' lawyers.
Ali praised Caddo Parish District Attorney James Stewart Sr. "for taking a hard look at what happened in Corey's case and agreeing to his release."
Williams, now 36, was an intellectually disabled 16-year-old when police arrested him in the January 1998 shooting death of Jarvis Griffin, who was killed and robbed while delivering a pizza to a Shreveport home.
"Twenty years ago, Corey went outside to hang out with friends. It has taken him 20 years to make it back home," Ali said in a statement. "No one can give Corey that time back. But with Corey's immediate release, we end this horrible tragedy."
Suzanne Williams, a prosecutor assigned to Williams' case, didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment Monday.
Before the shooting, Williams was hospitalized for extreme lead poisoning, still sucked his thumb and frequently urinated on himself, according to his lawyers. A district court judge overturned Williams' death sentence in 2004 on the basis of his disabilities.
Williams' lawyers said there wasn't any physical evidence linking him to the killing.
Witnesses saw several older men steal money and pizza from Griffin and saw Williams running from the house alone with nothing in his hands after the shooting, according to his lawyers. One of the older men, Chris Moore, was the only witness who identified Williams as the shooter.
Fingerprints found on the murder weapon belonged to one of the other older men, and the victim's blood was found on clothing worn by a third older man, according to Williams' lawyers.
Police officers found Williams hiding under a sheet on a couch at his grandmother's house. He initially denied killing Griffin but changed his story after police questioned him through the night.
"His confession was brief, devoid of corroborating details," his lawyers wrote in their March 2 petition to the Supreme Court. "Having just assumed responsibility for a homicide, Corey told the officers, 'I'm tired. I'm ready to go home and lay down.'"
Williams' lawyers say his conviction was based primarily on that confession and the testimony of Moore. Only after Williams' trial did his attorneys obtain recordings of witness interviews pointing to his innocence. The withheld recordings showed police had suspected the older men were plotting to frame Williams for the killing, according to Williams' lawyers.
Prosecutors denied violating their duty to disclose evidence favorable to Williams. Dale Cox, Caddo Parish's former acting district attorney, said in a 2015 court filing that Williams hasn't proved the recorded witness statements contained "exculpatory" evidence or that withholding them deprived him of a fair trial.
"The State presented to the jury a confession that was wholly corroborated by eyewitness testimony," he wrote.
Cox, who once told a reporter he believes the state needs to "kill more people," personally prosecuted one-third of the Louisiana cases that resulted in death sentences between 2010 and 2015, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
In a 4-2 vote last October, the Louisiana Supreme Court refused to hold a hearing on Williams' claims. His attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review that decision, but the court hadn't acted on the request prior to Monday's plea deal.
A court filing accompanying Williams' guilty plea on Monday says prosecutors could have presented evidence that Williams was present for Griffin's shooting and "aided and abetted" the killing.
Texas trooper allegedly raped handcuffed black woman and threatened murder if she told her fiancé
BOB BRIGHAM - raw story
21 MAY 2018 AT 12:35 ET
Sherita Dixon-Cole was taken to the hospital after being released from the Ellis County Jail on Sunday.
Prominent civil rights activists voiced outrage at shocking allegations of police brutality by a Texas State Trooper. But the Texas Department of Public Safety says dashcam video refutes the claims.
Sherita Dixon-Cole was pulled over by ‘Officer Hubbard’ in Waxahachie, Texas on Sunday. He was later identified as Officer Daniel Hubbard of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
She happens to be close personal friends with civil rights attorney S. Lee Merritt, who runs a practice “limited to federal civil rights litigation.”
Merritt is friends with prominent civil rights activist and columnist for The Intercept, Shaun King.
These facts combined on Sunday evening, creating a viral storm of outrage, with King’s tweet on the allegations being retweeted more than 13,000 times as of publication.
King’s Facebook post on the allegations has been shared more than 50,000 times
Dixon-Cole was reportedly told by Officer Hubbard that “she could earn her way home, if she really wanted to go” as he hiked up her skirt, while she sat handcuffed in the front seat of his cruiser.
This was after she had been pulled over for suspected drunk driving and had passed a breathalyzer test. She was reportedly still detained “because of [her] attitude.”
When Dixon-Cole’s fiancé arrived on the scene, Officer Hubbard allegedly warned him not to follow the cruiser to the Ellis County Jail and threatened him with arrest.
“If you tell him what happened he will be armed and his fire arm will be visible when I have to shoot him,” Officer Hubbard allegedly threatened.
Her fiancé drove a short distance away. And Officer Hubbard drove behind an abandoned car dealership.
At that point, the trooper allegedly told her, “why don’t you just give me some of that sweet p*ssy you have been given your fiancé and then you can go home.”
The victim allegedly begged the trooper to just take her to jail, even though she had passed the breathalyzer test.
Officer Hubbard then allegedly penetrated her vagina with his hand while warning her “not to be stupid!”
The officer then drove off as he saw her fiancé’s car approach — he had started to look for her when he did not see the cruiser take her towards the jail.
“He continued to pull at her clothes and place his hand down her shirt and up her skirt,” as he was successfully able to lose the fiancé’s car through back streets.
Dixon-Cole was finally taken to the Ellis County jail and booked for DUI/DWI.
“Just confirmed that Sherita Dixon Cole PASSED her breathalyzer test and was arrested without cause,” King tweeted in the evening.
King also tweeted a demand.
“We demand that the arresting officer in this case have all of his clothes from this shift fully tested for bodily fluids,” King wrote. “It is our belief that they held Sherita for nearly 24 hours without cause to attempt to cover up this assault & give them time to get a story together.”
Cole was finally released, hours after her bail had been paid.
“Sherita is now in the hospital,” King updated. “She reported being sexually assaulted to the county jail and they refused to take her in for medical treatment very early this morning.”
The Texas Department of Safety responded to the allegations on their Facebook page.
In a Monday statement, Lee Merritt directly addressed the defense raised by the department.
“The Department of Public Safety’s statement that they have reviewed dash cam video and hope to release the same is significantly lacking concerning the necessary steps in a proper investigation,” Merritt argued. “Ms. Dixon-Cole has alleged that certain steps were taken to obscure video evidence and to avoid dash cam recordings.”
“There exists significant evidence to substantiate this assault included the consistent and detailed testimony of a credible victim; the corroborating testimony of an additional witness; and other evidence in the form of timelines and routes taken by the police vehicle,” he continued.
“A more thorough investigation would likely yield additional physical evidence within the cruiser and on the uniform of Officer Hubbard,” Merritt added.
The civil rights attorney worried that, “it is this culture of hostility and skepticism that discourages victims to come forward.”
Sherita Dixon-Cole was pulled over by ‘Officer Hubbard’ in Waxahachie, Texas on Sunday. He was later identified as Officer Daniel Hubbard of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
She happens to be close personal friends with civil rights attorney S. Lee Merritt, who runs a practice “limited to federal civil rights litigation.”
Merritt is friends with prominent civil rights activist and columnist for The Intercept, Shaun King.
These facts combined on Sunday evening, creating a viral storm of outrage, with King’s tweet on the allegations being retweeted more than 13,000 times as of publication.
King’s Facebook post on the allegations has been shared more than 50,000 times
Dixon-Cole was reportedly told by Officer Hubbard that “she could earn her way home, if she really wanted to go” as he hiked up her skirt, while she sat handcuffed in the front seat of his cruiser.
This was after she had been pulled over for suspected drunk driving and had passed a breathalyzer test. She was reportedly still detained “because of [her] attitude.”
When Dixon-Cole’s fiancé arrived on the scene, Officer Hubbard allegedly warned him not to follow the cruiser to the Ellis County Jail and threatened him with arrest.
“If you tell him what happened he will be armed and his fire arm will be visible when I have to shoot him,” Officer Hubbard allegedly threatened.
Her fiancé drove a short distance away. And Officer Hubbard drove behind an abandoned car dealership.
At that point, the trooper allegedly told her, “why don’t you just give me some of that sweet p*ssy you have been given your fiancé and then you can go home.”
The victim allegedly begged the trooper to just take her to jail, even though she had passed the breathalyzer test.
Officer Hubbard then allegedly penetrated her vagina with his hand while warning her “not to be stupid!”
The officer then drove off as he saw her fiancé’s car approach — he had started to look for her when he did not see the cruiser take her towards the jail.
“He continued to pull at her clothes and place his hand down her shirt and up her skirt,” as he was successfully able to lose the fiancé’s car through back streets.
Dixon-Cole was finally taken to the Ellis County jail and booked for DUI/DWI.
“Just confirmed that Sherita Dixon Cole PASSED her breathalyzer test and was arrested without cause,” King tweeted in the evening.
King also tweeted a demand.
“We demand that the arresting officer in this case have all of his clothes from this shift fully tested for bodily fluids,” King wrote. “It is our belief that they held Sherita for nearly 24 hours without cause to attempt to cover up this assault & give them time to get a story together.”
Cole was finally released, hours after her bail had been paid.
“Sherita is now in the hospital,” King updated. “She reported being sexually assaulted to the county jail and they refused to take her in for medical treatment very early this morning.”
The Texas Department of Safety responded to the allegations on their Facebook page.
In a Monday statement, Lee Merritt directly addressed the defense raised by the department.
“The Department of Public Safety’s statement that they have reviewed dash cam video and hope to release the same is significantly lacking concerning the necessary steps in a proper investigation,” Merritt argued. “Ms. Dixon-Cole has alleged that certain steps were taken to obscure video evidence and to avoid dash cam recordings.”
“There exists significant evidence to substantiate this assault included the consistent and detailed testimony of a credible victim; the corroborating testimony of an additional witness; and other evidence in the form of timelines and routes taken by the police vehicle,” he continued.
“A more thorough investigation would likely yield additional physical evidence within the cruiser and on the uniform of Officer Hubbard,” Merritt added.
The civil rights attorney worried that, “it is this culture of hostility and skepticism that discourages victims to come forward.”
Why wrongful convictions are so common—and why prosecutors and police rarely apologize
Rebecca Pilar Buckwalter Poza
Daily Kos Staff
Sunday May 20, 2018 · 11:35 AM PDT
In 1991, former New York Police Department detective Louis Scarcella set up a Brooklyn teenager, John Bunn, for the murder of off-duty corrections officer Rolando Neischer. The fingerprints from two bicyclesfound abandoned at the scene amidst blood didn’t match Bunn or his co-defendant. Just a single witness identified Bunn in a photo lineup; that witness was the only person to testify at the trial, which lasted just one day. Yet, at just 14 years old, Bunn was convicted of murder.
Bunn served 17 years before winning parole in 2009. He didn’t get the right to a new trial until 2016. And it wasn’t until May 2018 that he was formally fully exonerated in an emotional court proceeding before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Shawn'Dya Simpson.
Prosecutors refused to do more than announce they wouldn’t retry Bunn for the crime it’s now abundantly clear he didn’t commit. That refusal to acknowledge, much less apologize, inflicted a new hurt on Bunn: "They won't admit I'm an innocent man.”
Prosecutors’ recalcitrance is particularly mystifying given ample proof of Scarcella’s illegal tactics for securing convictions. Derrick Hamilton served 21 years in prison for a friend’s Brooklyn murder despite the fact that Hamilton was in New Haven, Connecticut, that night, with witnesses to prove it. Why? The judge wouldn’t give the defense time to produce their witnesses, and Scarcella fabricated a witness for the prosecution. He threatened the victim’s girlfriend: he’d take her children and jail her for a parole violation if she didn’t say she’d seen Hamilton shoot her boyfriend in the chest. She’d later recant.
It wasn’t until 2011 that Hamilton secured his release from the parole board with the assistance of a ‘post-conviction lawyer,’ Jonathan Edelstein, and a reporter willing to write about his case. Hamilton then fought for exoneration, arguing to a state appellate court that “actual innocence,” meaning the absence of evidence of a crime, should be grounds for vacating a sentence. He won, paving the way for other wrongfully convicted people in New York to pursue justice.
It only takes one bad actor.
Scarcella alone could have corrupted as many as 50 convictions in New York. He’s just one example of how one bad actor in the criminal justice process—or one faulty institution—can thwart justice for myriads.
Remember Joyce Gilchrist? Colleagues referred to the Oklahoma police department forensic scientist as “Black Magic” for her knack for securing convictions with her findings and testimony. She’d touched thousands of cases before several exonerations exposed a pattern of errors and lies. Twelve defendants were on death row when she was found out; 11 had already been executed. Gilchrist was fired for fraud and found liable for millions in civil cases, but she never faced criminal charges.
Then there’s the Houston crime lab—more on that later—that the American Bar Association called “the paradigmatic example of a failed forensic agency.” The DNA unit was shut down after a 2002 audit found they’d operated without a supervisor for year under a technical leader with neither training nor experience in DNA testing who fell well short of FBI standards. Staff were untrained, science was neglected, and the roof leaked. A University of California criminology professor, William Thompson, described the lab’s reports as “the worst he’d ever seen” and less sound than a middle school science project.
The Houston crime lab sent Josiah Sutton to prison for 25 years for a rape he didn’t commit. The lab had claimed a DNA match on the order of 1 in 694,000 when, in fact, the profile they’d analyzed would have matched one in every eight African-American people. They also claimed the semen sample came from two men; it came from one, not Sutton. He served four-and-a-half years of the sentence before investigations into the laboratory’s claims exposed the false claims.
These are just a few illustrative examples.
The scope of the problem.
About 4 percent of people sentenced to death would eventually be exonerated if all were left on death row according to a 2014 study. That’s nearly 1 in 25. It’s harder to predict rates of wrongful conviction, or exoneration, for crime more broadly. One study using post-conviction DNA testing for sexual assault convictions in Virginia suggested about 12 percent of convictions could be wrongful on that basis alone.
Racial bias is rampant: African Americans are 3.5 times more likely to be convicted of sexual assault, 7 times more likely to be convicted of murder, and 12 times more likely to be convicted of drug crimes. While African Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, they account for 47 percent of the exonerations catalogued by the National Registry of Exonerations. That’s despite the fact that it takes on average three to four years longer to secure exoneration for black defendants.
It’s even easier to wrongfully convict folks for lesser crimes, even without intent. In 2014, 45 defendants who’d pleaded guilty to drug crimes in Harris County, Texas, were belatedly exonerated after lab tests proved their belongings didn’t actually include illegal substances. The real culprit was a faulty field test. Some had been carrying the burden of a conviction for years.
Why do innocent people plead guilty?
Imagine the choice between waiting in jail for months or even years for a trial because you can’t pay bail—separated from your family and community, unable to earn income and under threat of losing work, housing, and stability—and pleading guilty in exchange for a short sentence or probation. Or just being forced to choose between a “few weeks” in jail and the threat of two years in prison, as Amy Albritton was.
In 2010, Albritton’s boyfriend was pulled over by police while driving her car; she was in the passenger seat. Shortly thereafter, she found herself under arrest for possession of crack cocaine. A police officer had conducted a field test on a pinch of B.C. Powder and a crumb he found on her floor mat; he got a false positive from the test, which reacted not just to illegal substances but any number of other materials.
Before Albritton even got to speak to anyone beyond the jail’s walls, her court-appointed defense attorney—uninterested in her protestations and convinced by the field test—persuaded her to take a plea deal. Five months after Albritton, now a felon, had completed her sentence, the Houston crime lab tested the substances from her car. The tests proved her right.
Convictions springing from forced pleas are no less wrongful. It’d take another essay to address the systemic failures behind this phenomenon: how and why guilty pleas are pushed by overeager prosecutors, reluctantly used by overburdened defense attorneys, and accepted by desperate defendants.
There are better ways.
Two policy reforms that can be enacted on any level, local to state, could go a long way toward preventing forced pleas, decreasing wrongful convictions, and increasing the rate of exoneration for the wrongfully convicted.
Governments must stop imprisoning people because they can’t pay bail. Doing so inflicts major harms on individuals and communities, distorts the criminal justice system, and entrenches disparities. It also senselessly inflates incarcerated populations. That’s why cities like New York are moving to end cash bail.
There’s no magic bullet to cure law enforcement, prosecutors, and courts of active pursuing of wrongful conviction—it’s already illegal—or to eradicate racial bias, but there is an obvious mechanism for accountability and deterrence: review units. As Time reported in 2017, 29 counties--from Dallas County to Chicago’s Cook County and Brooklyn’s Kings County—now use “second-look” procedures or review units to re-examine fishy convictions.
These units extend the opportunity for exoneration beyond defendants with the resources to pursue it independently and those who can attract outside assistance from an organization like the Innocence Project, usually reserved for high-profile injustices and high-stakes sentences. So far, the county-based review teams have exonerated 225 people.
To be clear, wrongful incarceration’s also not just about folks who are innocent. We’ve not even reached the vast sentencing disparities experienced by people of color. There are wrongful years of incarceration to account for there, too, extra years assigned based on the color of a defendant’s skin, their nation of origin, or the language they speak. Their lives, and those of their families and communities, are unjustly disrupted for longer than they should be by extra years and added fines.
We need to pursue reforms that will end both wrongful conviction and unjustly harsh sentencing. The status quo is unacceptable.
Bunn served 17 years before winning parole in 2009. He didn’t get the right to a new trial until 2016. And it wasn’t until May 2018 that he was formally fully exonerated in an emotional court proceeding before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Shawn'Dya Simpson.
Prosecutors refused to do more than announce they wouldn’t retry Bunn for the crime it’s now abundantly clear he didn’t commit. That refusal to acknowledge, much less apologize, inflicted a new hurt on Bunn: "They won't admit I'm an innocent man.”
Prosecutors’ recalcitrance is particularly mystifying given ample proof of Scarcella’s illegal tactics for securing convictions. Derrick Hamilton served 21 years in prison for a friend’s Brooklyn murder despite the fact that Hamilton was in New Haven, Connecticut, that night, with witnesses to prove it. Why? The judge wouldn’t give the defense time to produce their witnesses, and Scarcella fabricated a witness for the prosecution. He threatened the victim’s girlfriend: he’d take her children and jail her for a parole violation if she didn’t say she’d seen Hamilton shoot her boyfriend in the chest. She’d later recant.
It wasn’t until 2011 that Hamilton secured his release from the parole board with the assistance of a ‘post-conviction lawyer,’ Jonathan Edelstein, and a reporter willing to write about his case. Hamilton then fought for exoneration, arguing to a state appellate court that “actual innocence,” meaning the absence of evidence of a crime, should be grounds for vacating a sentence. He won, paving the way for other wrongfully convicted people in New York to pursue justice.
It only takes one bad actor.
Scarcella alone could have corrupted as many as 50 convictions in New York. He’s just one example of how one bad actor in the criminal justice process—or one faulty institution—can thwart justice for myriads.
Remember Joyce Gilchrist? Colleagues referred to the Oklahoma police department forensic scientist as “Black Magic” for her knack for securing convictions with her findings and testimony. She’d touched thousands of cases before several exonerations exposed a pattern of errors and lies. Twelve defendants were on death row when she was found out; 11 had already been executed. Gilchrist was fired for fraud and found liable for millions in civil cases, but she never faced criminal charges.
Then there’s the Houston crime lab—more on that later—that the American Bar Association called “the paradigmatic example of a failed forensic agency.” The DNA unit was shut down after a 2002 audit found they’d operated without a supervisor for year under a technical leader with neither training nor experience in DNA testing who fell well short of FBI standards. Staff were untrained, science was neglected, and the roof leaked. A University of California criminology professor, William Thompson, described the lab’s reports as “the worst he’d ever seen” and less sound than a middle school science project.
The Houston crime lab sent Josiah Sutton to prison for 25 years for a rape he didn’t commit. The lab had claimed a DNA match on the order of 1 in 694,000 when, in fact, the profile they’d analyzed would have matched one in every eight African-American people. They also claimed the semen sample came from two men; it came from one, not Sutton. He served four-and-a-half years of the sentence before investigations into the laboratory’s claims exposed the false claims.
These are just a few illustrative examples.
The scope of the problem.
About 4 percent of people sentenced to death would eventually be exonerated if all were left on death row according to a 2014 study. That’s nearly 1 in 25. It’s harder to predict rates of wrongful conviction, or exoneration, for crime more broadly. One study using post-conviction DNA testing for sexual assault convictions in Virginia suggested about 12 percent of convictions could be wrongful on that basis alone.
Racial bias is rampant: African Americans are 3.5 times more likely to be convicted of sexual assault, 7 times more likely to be convicted of murder, and 12 times more likely to be convicted of drug crimes. While African Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, they account for 47 percent of the exonerations catalogued by the National Registry of Exonerations. That’s despite the fact that it takes on average three to four years longer to secure exoneration for black defendants.
It’s even easier to wrongfully convict folks for lesser crimes, even without intent. In 2014, 45 defendants who’d pleaded guilty to drug crimes in Harris County, Texas, were belatedly exonerated after lab tests proved their belongings didn’t actually include illegal substances. The real culprit was a faulty field test. Some had been carrying the burden of a conviction for years.
Why do innocent people plead guilty?
Imagine the choice between waiting in jail for months or even years for a trial because you can’t pay bail—separated from your family and community, unable to earn income and under threat of losing work, housing, and stability—and pleading guilty in exchange for a short sentence or probation. Or just being forced to choose between a “few weeks” in jail and the threat of two years in prison, as Amy Albritton was.
In 2010, Albritton’s boyfriend was pulled over by police while driving her car; she was in the passenger seat. Shortly thereafter, she found herself under arrest for possession of crack cocaine. A police officer had conducted a field test on a pinch of B.C. Powder and a crumb he found on her floor mat; he got a false positive from the test, which reacted not just to illegal substances but any number of other materials.
Before Albritton even got to speak to anyone beyond the jail’s walls, her court-appointed defense attorney—uninterested in her protestations and convinced by the field test—persuaded her to take a plea deal. Five months after Albritton, now a felon, had completed her sentence, the Houston crime lab tested the substances from her car. The tests proved her right.
Convictions springing from forced pleas are no less wrongful. It’d take another essay to address the systemic failures behind this phenomenon: how and why guilty pleas are pushed by overeager prosecutors, reluctantly used by overburdened defense attorneys, and accepted by desperate defendants.
There are better ways.
Two policy reforms that can be enacted on any level, local to state, could go a long way toward preventing forced pleas, decreasing wrongful convictions, and increasing the rate of exoneration for the wrongfully convicted.
Governments must stop imprisoning people because they can’t pay bail. Doing so inflicts major harms on individuals and communities, distorts the criminal justice system, and entrenches disparities. It also senselessly inflates incarcerated populations. That’s why cities like New York are moving to end cash bail.
There’s no magic bullet to cure law enforcement, prosecutors, and courts of active pursuing of wrongful conviction—it’s already illegal—or to eradicate racial bias, but there is an obvious mechanism for accountability and deterrence: review units. As Time reported in 2017, 29 counties--from Dallas County to Chicago’s Cook County and Brooklyn’s Kings County—now use “second-look” procedures or review units to re-examine fishy convictions.
These units extend the opportunity for exoneration beyond defendants with the resources to pursue it independently and those who can attract outside assistance from an organization like the Innocence Project, usually reserved for high-profile injustices and high-stakes sentences. So far, the county-based review teams have exonerated 225 people.
To be clear, wrongful incarceration’s also not just about folks who are innocent. We’ve not even reached the vast sentencing disparities experienced by people of color. There are wrongful years of incarceration to account for there, too, extra years assigned based on the color of a defendant’s skin, their nation of origin, or the language they speak. Their lives, and those of their families and communities, are unjustly disrupted for longer than they should be by extra years and added fines.
We need to pursue reforms that will end both wrongful conviction and unjustly harsh sentencing. The status quo is unacceptable.
Plainclothes Police Officers are Terrorizing, Robbing and Killing Black People
By David Love - atlanta black star
May 19, 2018
Plainclothes or undercover police officers are engaged in an inordinate amount of killings, suggesting there is a fundamental problem with the practice of placing law enforcement out of uniform.
In the New York Police Department, plainclothes officers are involved in fatal shootings far in excess of their numbers on the force, as The Intercept reported. An analysis of 174 fatal shootings by NYPD on-duty officers since 2000 found that plainclothes or undercover officers, who are approximately 6 percent of the force, were involved in nearly one third — 31 percent — or 54 of those killings.
According to a 2016 report from the NYPD, plainclothes cops accounted for nearly half of officers involved in “adversarial conflicts” in which police are in confrontation with a suspect and intentionally discharge a weapon. Specialty units such as anti-crime units, which proactively pursue people on the street, claim one-third of these gun discharges. These elite units of plainclothes officers, unlike their uniformed counterparts, do not respond to 911 calls but instead pursue violent criminal activity while or before it takes place. Typically, undercover officers patrol without body cameras, use unmarked vehicles, and operate without accountability. Further, unlike beat NYPD cops who may form relations with the community, plainclothes police are known to instigate, harass and engage in aggressive and dangerous behavior.
Plainclothes officers have long been associated with death in the Black community, failing to protect and placing Black lives in harm’s way. In the 1960s, the NYPD used Black undercover officers to infiltrate Black radical organizations through the department’s clandestine operations, the Bureau of Special Services, or BOSS. The NYPD was monitoring Malcolm X up until his assassination. Undercover agent Gene Roberts was a member of Malcolm X’s OAAU and the minister’s chief of security. Known as “Brother Gene,” he unsuccessfully administered CPR to the fallen leader at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. This man who betrayed Malcolm went on to infiltrate the Black Panthers. FBI agents worked undercover in the Nation of Islam, including John Ali, the NOI national secretary. Another undercover NYPD agent, Ray Wood, who infiltrated the Bronx chapter of CORE, was reportedly seen running out of the Audubon at the time of the assassination.
Over the past few decades, plainclothes officers have been involved in the slayings of a number of Black men. For example, in 1999, members of the infamous NYPD street crimes unit killed Amadou Diallo in a hail of 41 bullets because they reportedly thought he was a suspect and mistook his wallet for a gun. Although the NYPD disbanded the unit, the brutality against Black people continued unabated.
Another casualty of undercover police was Sean Bell, who was shot to death in 2006 at his bachelor party, hours before his wedding. Undercover officers opened fire on Bell’s car with 50 shots, killing Bell, 23 and injuring two others. In 2013, Kimani Gray, 16, was fatally shot by members of an anti-crime unit in Crown Heights. The officer who choked Eric Garner to death in 2014 on Staten Island on suspicion of selling untaxed “loosie” cigarettes was working in plainclothes as well.
The Baltimore Police Department abolished plainclothes policing because of a “cutting corners mindset” among crime fighting units, as the Baltimore Sun reported, and as a result of federal indictments against seven officers who were engaging in robbery and extortion of Baltimore residents, filing false police reports and fraudulently collecting overtime pay. Members of the Gun Trace Task Force acted as both cops and robbers, stealing large amounts of money from Black men with no recourse. Such units charged with fighting and reducing crime have violated the rights of the public.
Undercover police are also a common fixture of antifascist protests, infiltrating crowds and student activist groups that oppose the presence of white supremacist hate groups on college campuses. As white extremist groups continue their demonstrations, police arrest anti-racist protesters, sometimes at home or their place of work, in an effort to intimidate left-wing and racial justice activists. This as campus, state and local police face accusations they protect and collaborate with white supremacists. For example, when white supremacist Richard Spencer was scheduled for a speaking engagement at Michigan State University in March, 200 officers from eight different departments were present that day, including nine undercover officers, of whom two were campus police.
As plainclothes officers violate the civil rights of Black people, sometimes they are taken to court and made to answer for their crimes. In 2014, a federal jury awarded art student Jordan Miles, 22, $119,000 for a 2010 false arrest and beating from three white Pittsburgh police officers. Because of his race and dreadlocks, the police, who reportedly assumed Miles was a drug dealer, rolled up in an unmarked car, without identifying themselves, asking for drugs, money and a gun. Jacqueline Little, a Philadelphia resident and IRS employee, sued the city and three plainclothes officers who pulled her over, claimed she had drugs in her possession, and falsely arrested her. She admitted herself to a hospital after sustaining injuries from the tight handcuffs while in police custody. Meanwhile, Glen Grays, a New York postal worker, was nearly struck while making a delivery by an unmarked NYPD police vehicle, then arrested in his uniform. The officers involved had a history of various civil rights complaints filed against them.
It is clear that plainclothes police are a problem, particularly where Black people are concerned.
In the New York Police Department, plainclothes officers are involved in fatal shootings far in excess of their numbers on the force, as The Intercept reported. An analysis of 174 fatal shootings by NYPD on-duty officers since 2000 found that plainclothes or undercover officers, who are approximately 6 percent of the force, were involved in nearly one third — 31 percent — or 54 of those killings.
According to a 2016 report from the NYPD, plainclothes cops accounted for nearly half of officers involved in “adversarial conflicts” in which police are in confrontation with a suspect and intentionally discharge a weapon. Specialty units such as anti-crime units, which proactively pursue people on the street, claim one-third of these gun discharges. These elite units of plainclothes officers, unlike their uniformed counterparts, do not respond to 911 calls but instead pursue violent criminal activity while or before it takes place. Typically, undercover officers patrol without body cameras, use unmarked vehicles, and operate without accountability. Further, unlike beat NYPD cops who may form relations with the community, plainclothes police are known to instigate, harass and engage in aggressive and dangerous behavior.
Plainclothes officers have long been associated with death in the Black community, failing to protect and placing Black lives in harm’s way. In the 1960s, the NYPD used Black undercover officers to infiltrate Black radical organizations through the department’s clandestine operations, the Bureau of Special Services, or BOSS. The NYPD was monitoring Malcolm X up until his assassination. Undercover agent Gene Roberts was a member of Malcolm X’s OAAU and the minister’s chief of security. Known as “Brother Gene,” he unsuccessfully administered CPR to the fallen leader at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. This man who betrayed Malcolm went on to infiltrate the Black Panthers. FBI agents worked undercover in the Nation of Islam, including John Ali, the NOI national secretary. Another undercover NYPD agent, Ray Wood, who infiltrated the Bronx chapter of CORE, was reportedly seen running out of the Audubon at the time of the assassination.
Over the past few decades, plainclothes officers have been involved in the slayings of a number of Black men. For example, in 1999, members of the infamous NYPD street crimes unit killed Amadou Diallo in a hail of 41 bullets because they reportedly thought he was a suspect and mistook his wallet for a gun. Although the NYPD disbanded the unit, the brutality against Black people continued unabated.
Another casualty of undercover police was Sean Bell, who was shot to death in 2006 at his bachelor party, hours before his wedding. Undercover officers opened fire on Bell’s car with 50 shots, killing Bell, 23 and injuring two others. In 2013, Kimani Gray, 16, was fatally shot by members of an anti-crime unit in Crown Heights. The officer who choked Eric Garner to death in 2014 on Staten Island on suspicion of selling untaxed “loosie” cigarettes was working in plainclothes as well.
The Baltimore Police Department abolished plainclothes policing because of a “cutting corners mindset” among crime fighting units, as the Baltimore Sun reported, and as a result of federal indictments against seven officers who were engaging in robbery and extortion of Baltimore residents, filing false police reports and fraudulently collecting overtime pay. Members of the Gun Trace Task Force acted as both cops and robbers, stealing large amounts of money from Black men with no recourse. Such units charged with fighting and reducing crime have violated the rights of the public.
Undercover police are also a common fixture of antifascist protests, infiltrating crowds and student activist groups that oppose the presence of white supremacist hate groups on college campuses. As white extremist groups continue their demonstrations, police arrest anti-racist protesters, sometimes at home or their place of work, in an effort to intimidate left-wing and racial justice activists. This as campus, state and local police face accusations they protect and collaborate with white supremacists. For example, when white supremacist Richard Spencer was scheduled for a speaking engagement at Michigan State University in March, 200 officers from eight different departments were present that day, including nine undercover officers, of whom two were campus police.
As plainclothes officers violate the civil rights of Black people, sometimes they are taken to court and made to answer for their crimes. In 2014, a federal jury awarded art student Jordan Miles, 22, $119,000 for a 2010 false arrest and beating from three white Pittsburgh police officers. Because of his race and dreadlocks, the police, who reportedly assumed Miles was a drug dealer, rolled up in an unmarked car, without identifying themselves, asking for drugs, money and a gun. Jacqueline Little, a Philadelphia resident and IRS employee, sued the city and three plainclothes officers who pulled her over, claimed she had drugs in her possession, and falsely arrested her. She admitted herself to a hospital after sustaining injuries from the tight handcuffs while in police custody. Meanwhile, Glen Grays, a New York postal worker, was nearly struck while making a delivery by an unmarked NYPD police vehicle, then arrested in his uniform. The officers involved had a history of various civil rights complaints filed against them.
It is clear that plainclothes police are a problem, particularly where Black people are concerned.
gestapo usa funnies
Reasonable Force
The everyday assault on Blue Lives.
By Khalil Bendib ~ Other Words.com
