Black Man sues over drug raid shooting

The lawyer for an unarmed man who was shot last year during a drug raid says there are significant discrepancies about what happened. The lawyer, Michael Goldberg of Atlanta, represents Charles Alford, who was shot three times by Capt. LaRue Windham of the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office. Alford, who is 46, has recovered from his injuries. Windham was cleared of  wrongdoing and promoted to captain last summer. Alford filed a civil suit against Windham and  Sheriff Moose Butler and his department this year. He seeks $160,000 in medical bills,  $30,000 in lost wages and punitive damages in an amount to be determined by a jury. According to the lawsuit, the deputies used a battering ram to open the back door of a mobile home at 312 Ministry Lane. They wore black uniforms and masks and carried semi-automatic weapons and pistols. The suit claims no weapons were found at the residence. [more ]

Alleged robber dies in police shooting in Brooklyn

Police opened fire on two men who were allegedly robbing a car wash in Brooklyn early Monday, killing one of them. Officers saw the two men robbing the car wash, at the corner of Fountain Avenue and Linden Boulevard in the East New York section, at about 1:50 a.m., police said. They fired at the two suspects, and one _ an 18-year-old whose name was not released _ was struck in the torso. He was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:24 a.m., police said. The second suspect, a 20-year-old man, was arrested at the scene, and a gun was recovered, police said. It was unclear what led officers to open fire, said Detective Bernard Gifford, a police department spokesman. [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.

Few know him here, and that's how he likes it. But back in Chicago, Jon Burge is big news. He's known as the police commander who, for 20 years, tortured suspects to make them confess.The accusations are like something out of a wartime prison: electric shock and cattle prods; near suffocation with a typewriter bag; mock executions with a pistol.Four people who confessed to him were released from death row last year; they're suing him. A special prosecutor has been on his tail for two years.Fired from the Chicago Police Department, he settled into a waterfront community of brick and stucco houses on Tampa Bay 10 years ago, his police pension intact, a boat out back. He has never been charged with a crime. Now people in Chicago are trying to bring him back, back to where he made a name for himself, as hero, then villain. People back home say Jon Burge needs to be called to account. [more ]

Critics say Denver Police Oversight plan too weak

A week after the Denver City Council cleared the way for Mayor John Hickenlooper's proposal for civilian oversight of the police to go before the voters in November, the plan still is under heavy attack for what it lacks.Some community leaders have criticized Hickenlooper for shying away from a political fight and not fast-tracking a change to the City Charter that would end "comparative discipline," a policy which holds that a police officer should not be punished more severely than officers guilty of the same or similar offenses, sometimes years earlier. "He dodges the very thing that needs to be changed to bring meat and purpose to strengthening the entire process," said Leroy Lemos, a member of the police reform task force. "The only way meaningful change is going to happen is it's going to have to come from the citizens." Lemos said he and other Hispanic, black and American Indian community leaders are exploring a petition drive to place on the May ballot a combined measure to change the charter to end comparative discipline as well as give a civilian oversight board binding powers to recommend discipline and initiate investigations surrounding alleged police misconduct. [more ]

City Council Candidate Settles Police Brutality Suit

Richmond resident Andres Soto has settled his civil rights suit against the city stemming from alleged police brutality during the 2002 Cinco de Mayor festival for $150,000. "We're hoping it sends a message," said Soto, who has announced his candidacy for City Council. "We settled this to put it behind us and move forward, and part of the moving forward requires the City Council to sign off on it forthwith." The City Council has 60 days to sign the agreement. The matter is expected to be taken up in closed session Sept. 14. Neither the mayor nor city attorney could be reached for comment. Soto and his sons, Che and Alejandro Soto-Vigil, were returning to their Lowell Avenue home from a Cinco de Mayo festival in Berkeley shortly before 7 p.m. May 5, 2002, when they saw police clearing a stretch of 23rd Street after an illegal "sideshow." In the $1.7 million federal lawsuit, Soto would later claim the police unleashed an unprovoked melee, with officers arresting and pepper-spraying bystanders and threatening them with police dogs, trampling a Mexican flag, and striking innocent parties with flashlights and nightsticks.

Click to read more ...

Minneapolis cop is seen on tape striking handcuffed Latino suspect

A Minneapolis patrol officer is on administrative leave while the Police Department investigates a videotape that shows him striking a handcuffed man earlier this month, authorities said Saturday. Officer Victor Mills, who joined the force in March 1994, is seen striking the man in the face on the tape, which was taken by a passerby, sources said. It doesn't appear that the man was offering any resistance to the arrest, the sources said. Mills was placed on administrative leave Friday pending the outcome of an investigation. Community members, including members of the Police-Community Relations Council, were told of the incident. Mills has no record of prior disciplinary actions, department spokesman Ron Reier said. Located at his south Minneapolis apartment late Saturday, the man seen being arrested on the tape, Joel Matos Ramos, 27, declined to comment on the incident.

Click to read more ...

Mentally ill man shot at Birmingham police

A man killed by police earlier this month was shot about 24 times, Jefferson County Chief Deputy Coroner Jay Glass said this morning. On Aug. 6, officers firing automatic weapons killed Benjamin Griggs, a mentally ill Vietnam War veteran, on his front porch in West End after a standoff that lasted about two hours. Glass said investigators can't be sure of the exact number of bullets that hit Griggs because some of the wounds intersected. A friend of the Griggs family, Rev. Abraham Woods Jr., said today the number of times he was shot was "complete overkill." "They just blasted him away. One or two well-placed shots would have immobilized him or killed him and they know that," Woods said. Even though one shot could have killed Griggs, Woods said the number of shots is still outrageous. "The difference ought to be obvious to everybody. If you shot a dog that many times people would be up in arms about that," he said.

Click to read more ...

Court to Unseal Documents in Racist Omaha DNA Dragnet Sweep of Black Men

From May to June Omaha Police went to the homes of at least 36 to 40 Black men, between the ages of 20 and 40, and asked for DNA samples via mouth swabs. Police said the DNA tests were needed to aid in the investigation of four rapes over the last two years. The perpetrator was described in over broad terms as "black, 25 to 40 years old, 5-foot-3 to 5-foot-9 inches tall, stocky with a large stomach and weighing 175 to 250 pounds. This "dragnet sweep" of Black men enraged the African American community. Some of the men, such as defense attorney Bill Gallup's client, who asked to remain anonymous, involuntarily provided DNA. Gallup's client said he gave a DNA sample even after he'd been exonerated of the rapes because police handcuffed him and forced him to. Apparently most of the men targeted for the DNA worked at the Omaha Public Power Company.

Click to read more ...

Denver DA Fails to Charge Police Officer who Shot Unarmed Latino Man.

Denver DA Fails to Charge Police Officer who Shot Unarmed Latino Man. Grand Jury will Decide

• Frank Lobato had a Soda Can in his hand, NOT A GUN. Police shoot and kill

Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter tossed a police shooting investigation to a grand jury Thursday for the first time in his 12-year tenure. Ritter will present the case against officer Ranjan Ford Jr., 34, in the July 12 shooting death of 63-year-old Frank Lobato to the grand jury on Wednesday. Lobato's death was the latest in a series of controversial police shootings that triggered sweeping reforms in the police use-of-force policy and the department's civilian oversight. Ritter has never charged an officer involved in a shooting with a crime. Only two other such cases have been forwarded to the grand jury in the past 27 years. Both cases resulted in criminal charges against the officers. Both officers were later found not guilty. Ritter wouldn't discuss the details of the shooting nor would he say what led him to seek another opinion. The decision came as no comfort to Lobato's family members in California, who heard the news after one of them was contacted by Denver attorney Kenneth Padilla moments after Ritter's announcement. "This is a clear case where criminal charges should be brought," Padilla said. "I did not hear any good reason to use a grand jury. . . . There is no reason why the district attorney should not step to the plate." Leroy Lemos, a Lobato family spokesman and community activist, said "We're in the same place as we were yesterday," Lemos said. "The family wants to know what it takes to get justice in Denver." [more ]

• Latino Man had a Soda Can in his hand, NOT A GUN. Police shoot and kill. [more]
• Shootings by Denver Police Prompt Outcry: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH [more]

Lawyer for family of African man killed by Police says Witnesses Dispute Office

A lawyer representing the family of a Cameroonian immigrant shot in Silver Spring by a police officer on Aug. 12 said Thursday that witnesses have come forward to dispute the version of events provided by the police. The lawyer, Gregory Lattimer of Washington, D.C., refused to detail what the witnesses have described. Police spokesmen have said their witnesses corroborate the officer's story: that Peter Ayompeuh Njang threatened Officer Candice Marchone, a six-year veteran, with a boxcutter, that she fired on him point blank only after he refused her orders to drop the knife. Latimer spoke with reporters after high-ranking officials from the county and the police department met with at least six family members and a representative from the Cameroon embassy in Rockville. David Weaver, a spokesman for County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D), said it was unusual for the county to hold such a meeting before the conclusion of an official investigation. The shooting, outside the Villa Nova apartments in Silver Spring, has sparked three protests. [more ] and [more ]