15th Anniversary Of L.A. Riots: Conditions that Caused Violence Still Exist

 

Hundreds of residents gathered at two South Los Angeles events to call attention to a community still racked by the poverty and violence that fueled the 1992 Los Angeles riots.The message from both gatherings on the eve of today's anniversary was stern and angry: The city's southern neighborhoods are still largely ignored.

A standing-room-only crowd at the Community Coalition lambasted city officials for failing to close nuisance liquor stores and motels that the nonprofit group has pinpointed as hot spots of illegal drinking, drug dealing, prostitution and violence.

Six months ago, coalition members gave city Planning Director Gail Goldberg a list of the 21 "most egregious" businesses and pleaded for their closure or improvements within six months. They learned Saturday that public hearings have been held or set for only eight stores, frustrating many who said they expected more from the city.

"We have heard this so many times," an angry Manya Anderson, 58, told Goldberg as nearly 200 people looked on at the coalition's offices on South Vermont Avenue.

"We are dying. This community is dying. The bottom line is, this never would have been allowed in any other community."

Click to read more ...

Ignoring an injustice - Chicago Doing Nothing about Systematic Torture of Blacks in Police Custody

Richard M. Daley has eclipsed his late father in many ways, and assuming he serves out his current term, also will surpass him as Chicago's longest-serving mayor.

His legacy, like his father's, will be impressive.

Yet, like his father's legacy, his will not be spotless.

It will be marred by what he himself has acknowledged as "a shameful episode in our history" -- two decades of systematic torture of African-American criminal suspects by white Chicago police officers.

What went on -- plastic bags over heads; shackling to hot radiators; gun barrels in mouths; electrical shocks to ears, nostrils and genitals; cigarette burns to arms, legs and chests -- is now well known and has been cited repeatedly in court opinions and, last year, in a special prosecutors' report.

Click to read more ...

Prosecutors Say Corruption in Atlanta Police Dept. Is Widespread

After the fatal police shooting of an elderly woman in a botched drug raid, the United States attorney here said Thursday that prosecutors were investigating a “culture of misconduct” in the Atlanta Police Department.

In court documents, prosecutors said Atlanta police officers regularly lied to obtain search warrants and fabricated documentation of drug purchases, as they had when they raided the home of the woman, Kathryn Johnston, in November, killing her in a hail of bullets.

Narcotics officers have admitted to planting marijuana in Ms. Johnston’s home after her death and submitting as evidence cocaine they falsely claimed had been bought at her house, according to the court filings.

Click to read more ...

Jury selection to begin for San Bernardino County deputy in videotaped shooting of Unarmed Latino Man

The grainy amateur video seems to show a deputy shooting a U.S. airman three times as he struggles to obey an order to get up from the ground. But it's what the video doesn't show that could take center stage at the upcoming trial of former San Bernardino County sheriff's Deputy Ivory J. Webb Jr. After the shooting, Webb told investigators he thought 21-year-old Elio Carrion was reaching for a weapon -- something that's not clear on the 40-second video clip. Authorities later determined Carrion was unarmed. Still, experts say the deputy's contention could prevail in the case, based on acquittals in previous high-profile police brutality trials. (White) Jurors tend to believe accused cops who say they opened fire because they felt threatened, said Eugene O'Donnell, a former prosecutor who is now a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.  In addition, law enforcement officials are finding that videos seldom capture enough details to disprove those claims -- at least in the (lying) eyes of (white) jurors. Webb, 46, has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of attempted voluntary manslaughter and assault with a firearm in the Jan. 29, 2006, shooting that was filmed by a bystander and aired by TV stations nationwide. Jury selection is set to begin April 30. If convicted, Webb could face more than 18 years in prison.  [MORE]

No Charges for Houston Officers who Shot Mentally Ill Latino Man

Relatives call for a meeting with HPD chief after an officer is no-billed in his Jan. 7 death

A day after a grand jury declined to indict the police officer who  fatally shot their mentally ill relative, a Houston family on Friday called for a meeting with  Police Chief Harold Hurtt. The parents and sisters of Omar Esparza want to ask about police procedures and training, their  attorney said. They want to know, specifically, why police did not negotiate longer with Esparza  before entering the house where he had barricaded himself. "They are still struggling with this," said the attorney, Carlos Leon. "This decision (to not indict  the officer) brings back everything, and they go through (the shooting) all over again like it  happened yesterday." A Harris County grand jury Thursday cleared Rodney D. Chaison Jr., a five-year police veteran,  of any wrongdoing in the Jan. 7 fatal shooting of Esparza, 21. Chaison shot the Lamar High  School graduate when he refused to comply with the officers' demands and charged at them  with a hammer, police said. The fatal confrontation occurred after police had been on the scene for two hours, attempting  to calm Esparza. The dead man's parents, sisters and other relatives clung to framed photos while Leon told  reporters outside their east Houston home that they are disappointed by the grand jury's  inaction. The Houston Police Department issued a statement Friday about the case. The statement states that, in the face-to-face meeting, Esparza "threatened to hit the officers  in the head with the hammer and door lock. ... In an attempt to get control of the situation, a  plan was devised to enter the residence with the intention of using the minimum force  necessary to gain control of the situation."But Esparza refused to comply with the officers' demands. Officers shot him with a bean bag,  then fired and missed with a Taser, before fatally shooting him after he moved in a  "threatening manner." The message in this case, Leon said, seems to be that Houston residents should "think long  and hard" before they call police about a mentally ill family member. The Esparza family will likely file a civil lawsuit against the city, Leon added. [MORE]