Burge Pleads The Fifth in Chicago Police Torture Lawsuits

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

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


Torture allegations Dog ex-police officer

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

Former Death Row inmates sue Burge

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

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

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

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

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

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

Protestors Decry Police Beating of Black Teen Don Pennington

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

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

Austin Medical Examiner Inquiry of Minority Deaths by Police Ends

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

Coroner No Longer Recommends Charges In Police Shooting

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

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

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

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

Officer Wants his Trial Moved From Pr. George's

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

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

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

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

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