LAPD Beat Down Two More Men Over the Weekend

• In 2 Seperate Instances Police Beat Down Suspects with Flashlights. (Damn Flashlights did it again! Message to Bratton: Remove terrorist racist folks off your police force).

Police will investigate two weekend incidents in which suspects were hit in the head with flashlights while being arrested by Los Angeles police officers, police Chief William Bratton said Tuesday. Bratton said the two instances involved "individuals being placed under arrest (who) were struck in the head with flashlights," but were "not identical" to the June 23 arrest of Stanley Miller, who was hit repeatedly by a flashlight-wielding LAPD officer.  One incident occurred when  Ricky Palmer, 26, struck an officer in the face, LAPD Sgt. Catherine Plows said, noting that it was a "full-blown altercation" and "a fight for their lives." The other run-in involved Christopher Salcido Carrillo, 20, hitting an officer's flashlight during a struggle, the sergeant said. [more ]

• Stanley Miller Investigation in beating case nearly complete [more 

Young African Man Shot Dead by Police. Family Suspect Foul Play

Peter Ayompe Njang, our beloved brother, came to the U.S. on May 14, 2004 after winning the diversity visa lottery. While waiting for his sister one night in front of her house, a police officer stopped and asked Peter to leave the area. Peter explained to the police that his sister lives there and he was just trying to see why she was not answering the door. She then shot him. The Montgomery County Police investigator told the family that Peter was armed with a box cutter. Peter who was just 87 days old in the U.S. does not carry a weapon around with him. As a matter of fact` it is not our custom as Cameroonians to move around with weapons or armed. The investigator told the family that the police officer did her best to stop Peter from attacking her. Peter was shot on the lower breast. He was airlifted to Children`s Hospital in DC and was pronounced dead hours later. [more ]

Ga. -Activists complain about alleged police brutality

Activists have called for more accountability and equal treatment of minorities after recent allegations of brutality involving members of the Sylvester Police Department and the Worth-County Drug Unit. Thomas Evans was allegedly beaten July 19 by members of the Worth-Sylvester Drug Unit when he asked police officers to obtain a search warrant before entering his mother's home, Vodicka said. Two days later, Artavious Covin was allegedly dragged from his car, choked and beaten by Sylvester police officers, Vodicka said. Vodicka has requested an investigation of the two incidents as he did in February when Herman Jackson died in police custody. A county grand jury cleared the three officers in that incident. [more ]

All White Jury: St. Joe police didn't target teens

It took an all-white jury of six women and two men about seven hours to decide that four St. Joseph police officers and the city of St. Joseph did not racially profile three black teens when they were detained and arrested in the summer of 2000. Thursday's verdict in a federal civil suit, filed in 2002 on behalf of Devin Mitchell, Cody Mitchell and Preston Culpepper, came after an eight-day trial in District Court for the Western District of Michigan in Kalamazoo. The teens had claimed that St. Joseph police officers violated their 14th Amendment right of equal protection by engaging in selective prosecution. The suit also claimed that police violated the teens' Fourth Amendment protection against false arrest and imprisonment by arresting them without probable cause. The suit also claimed that the city of St. Joseph failed to properly train officers and that the city had a policy or custom of racial profiling. During the trial, the plaintiffs' attorney Roosevelt Thomas said the police were following the teens so closely that the mother of one of youths could follow their actions on a police scanner. [more ]

Jacksonville NAACP Leader Claims Police Brutality

Local NAACP President Isaiah Rumlin has his arm in a sling and a sore shoulder, and he says the excessive force of a Jacksonville sheriff's officer is to blame. The civil rights leader says he was a victim of an abusive officer who wouldn't let him check on his insurance business after Thursday's tornado tore through Northwest Jacksonville. His business was located just inside the police perimeter. "He turned me around, slammed me. My face would've went right through this side window," explained Rumlin, pointing out where the alleged incident took place. "All I was doing was trying to get to my office." Rumlin's claims are now being investigated. [more ]

Salinas settles Police Brutality suit for $315,000

The city of Salinas has agreed to pay $315,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who said he was beaten by a police officer during a traffic stop. A settlement agreement was signed Aug. 2 in the case of Eric Arro of Salinas, who said that on Jan. 30, 2003, former Salinas police officer Robert Reichert used excessive force with him during a traffic stop, leaving him with black eyes, scrapes on the nose and chin, and a knot on his head. "We disputed all allegations but given the highly charged nature of the case, that it was a complex case, and the fact that Mr. Arro would be entitled an award for his attorney's fees in the event he was awarded just a single dollar from the city, we thought it was the most cost effective way to go," Salinas City Attorney Richard Nosky said Monday. "There was no admission of wrongdoing (by the city)," Nosky said. [more ]

Hobbs police officer testifies in civil rights lawsuit

Rodney Porter, a Hobbs police officer accused of violating a man's rights testified he lied repeatedly to his supervisors in the mid-1990s about failing to file evidence in criminal cases as an officer in Midland, Texas. Porter was the first witness Monday in the federal court trial of a civil rights lawsuit filed by Jimmie Marshall, 58, an electrician now living in Ruidoso, against Porter, Hobbs police Sgt. Walter Royce and former Chief Tony Knott. The lawsuit alleges Porter violated Marshall's rights to equal protection and to be free from unreasonable search and seizure in a December 1996 arrest. Marshall, who is black, contends the traffic stop was racially based. Marshall contends Porter stopped him without just cause, accused him of being on crack cocaine and obtained a blood sample without his consent after Marshall passed a breath test. [more ]

El Paso Settles Police Shooting - Latino Man with Mental Problems Gunned Down

The city of El Paso settles a lawsuit with the family of a man killed by a police Officer. Juan "Johnny" Gomez's suffered from schizophrenia and on May 1, 2003 a confrontation with a police officer turned deadly. A year after his death his family is receiving $250,000.00 from the City of El Paso, the official employer of Police Sgt. Bolick. Juan "Johnny" Gomez was shot seven times after he apparently threatening the officer's life. On Monday, Mayor Joe Wardy explained the recent actions have prompted the city to "aggessively" train the police department in handling situations with people mental disorders. [more ]

Beating incident solidifies Chinese view of ugly America

Last month Zhao Yan, a 37-year-old Chinese businesswoman, was beaten and doused with pepper spray by a homeland security inspector while on a tourist visit to Niagara Falls. The inspector later said he thought she was part of a drug deal and that she resisted arrest. What has followed in the wake of the assault is significant for further revealing the troubling disconnect between Chinese and American societies. In China, the state-controlled media bombarded the public for days with indignant reports decrying U.S. hypocrisy on human rights and the prevalence of racism in American society. Rounding out this coverage were sensational depictions of America as a police state in the aftermath of Sept. 11. Here in the United States, coverage of the incident has been practically non-existent. Most media outlets have ignored the event. [more]

Elder refuses to let son's death go: Killed by prison guard in 1988

For over a decade-and-a-half an Indian elder has been fighting to get justice for his dead son, killed in a California prison under circumstances that remain cloudy to this day. The crusade has attracted the attention of a documentary filmmaker who hopes to produce a feature on the controversial case. " I have been living with this for sixteen years," Tony Nieto, 72, repeatedly states in an interview with the Native American Times. What he has been living with is the shooting death of his son, Anthony "Angry Bear" Nieto, on June 2, 1988, in Folsom State Prison. Initially, the California Department of Corrections said a prison guard, Moises Guerrero, gunned Angry Bear down to stop him from stabbing another inmate to death. They also claimed that Guerrero issued a warning before opening fire. Tony Nieto never believed it. He maintains the shooting was racially motivated. [more ]