Suing Cops for Acts of Violence Leads to Better Policing But Doesn't Stop the System of White Supremacy, the cause of police brutality

The Center for Justice and Democracy has just released an interesting and timely fact sheet – “Fact Sheet: Civil Lawsuits Lead to Better Safer Law Enforcement,” that shows that suing the police for acts of violence leads to better policing. The fact sheet contains a number of cases where “[lawsuits have] had a direct and positive impact on law enforcement, with settlements in individual cases leading to better training, safer policies and overall better practices.”

It is a good example of the ways that the tort system, and trial by jury benefits, not merely for the injured victim, but all of us. Unfortunately, as the fact sheet points out, “each case would be essentially barred by current legislation in Congress that would make it nearly impossible to sue the police, no matter how severe the constitutional violation.” [MORE] Nevertheless, the genocidal murder or justifiable homicide of non-whites, particularly Black males is major tool of the system of white supremacy/racism. [MORE]

From [CJ&D] As many recent examples show, the filing of criminal charges against police officers for excessive use of force is exceedingly rare, and even if charges are brought, juries are loath to convict them.[1] It is clear that if systemic problems have afflicted a police department’s use of force policies, criminal prosecutions may not be the best way to correct them.

On the other hand, successful civil lawsuits filed by victims have been a critical tool for police departments to identify and remedy potentially widespread abuses. As UCLA law professor Joanna C. Schwartz, a leading expert in police misconduct litigation, wrote in 2011,[2]

[A] small but growing group of police departments around the country have found innovative ways to analyze information gathered from lawsuits. They investigate lawsuit claims as they would civilian complaints, and they discipline, retrain or fire officers when the claims are substantiated. They look for trends in lawsuits suggesting problem officers, units and practices, and they review the evidence developed in the cases for personnel and policy lessons.

Indeed, lawsuits can have a direct and positive impact on law enforcement, with settlements in individual cases leading to better training, safer policies and overall better practices. The following are examples of recent cases that have had such a constructive result. Notably, each case would be essentially barred by current legislation in Congress that would make it nearly impossible to sue the police, no matter how severe the constitutional violation.[Each case would be essentially blocked by the “Back the Blue Act of 2017,” which provides, “if the police can show that the violation and resulting injuries were ‘incurred in the course of, or as a result of, or…related to, conduct by the injured party that, more likely than not, constituted a felony or a crime of violence…(including any deprivation in the course of arrest or apprehension for, or the investigation, prosecution, or adjudication of, such an offense),’ then the officers are liable only for out-of-pocket expenses. What’s more, the bill would bar plaintiffs from recovering attorneys fees in such cases.” Radley Balko, “A new GOP bill would make it virtually impossible to sue the police,” Washington Post, May 24, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2017/05/24/a-new-gop-bill-would-make-it-virtually-impossible-to-sue-the-police/]

Excessive force ended in death

Jeremy McDole, 28 and paralyzed from the waist down, was shot to death by four police officers on September 23, 2015 while sitting in his wheelchair. The officers had confronted McDole after receiving a 911 call about a man with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Bystander video showed an officer pointing a gun at McDole, screaming at him to drop his gun and put his hands up and then firing a shot at McDole when he started fidgeting in his chair and moving his hands toward his waist. According to a Delaware Department of Justice Report, the footage also clearly showed that “(1) Mr. McDole’s hands were on the arms of his wheelchair when he was shot, and (2) [the officer] gave Mr. McDole two commands to ‘show me your hands’ in the space of approximately two seconds before he discharged his shotgun,” an act that “fundamentally changed the dynamic of the incident involving Mr. McDole.” Less than one minute after the initial shot was fired, three other officers shot McDole 15 times, killing him.

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White Judge Re-Assures White Jury About Their Belief in Lies Told by Cop who Murdered Philando Castile

The Mystery Surrounded [their belief that] Castile Pulled A Gun Out. Why would a cop make it up? Because a white jury or white judge will believe it. What is White Collective Power? [MORE] 

From [HERE] The white judge who presided over the manslaughter trial of a Minnesota race soldier cop acquitted in the fatal shooting of black motorist Philando Castile took the unusual step of writing to the jurors to tell them that he supports them despite widespread public criticism of their verdict.

"I write to re-assure you that you faithfully fulfilled the difficult task you were asked to undertake," Ramsey County District Judge William Leary III said in his letter to the jury, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported Tuesday.

The jury was mostly white as 10 out of 12 were white. The group also skewed older. Profiles of the jurors are [HERE]

The white judge told the mostly white jurors he was not providing his own opinion of St. Anthony officer Jeronimo Yanez's actions during the fatal traffic stop last July in the St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights, but wanted to convey that their verdict "was fully supported by a fair interpretation of the evidence and the law you were obligated to apply." [It Would Be Better If They had no eyes or ears. At least there would have been no possibility of misunderstanding.]

The white judge also may be casting shade on the $3 million settlement reached last week between St. Anthony, Minn and Castille's family. No doubt the City did not feel the same as the judge.  

Leary sent his letter a few days after authorities released [above] dramatic dashboard camera video showing the Latino officer firing seven shots at the 32-year-old elementary school cafeteria worker in a matter of seconds, just after Castile informed Yanez he was armed. 

In his letter, Leary broke down the multiple elements of the law that prosecutors were required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, including whether Yanez acted with gross negligence and recklessness.

"The state's failure to prove any of the required elements of the charge required that you, the jury, return a verdict of not guilty," Leary wrote.

Leary wrote that the criticism has focused primarily on reaction to the squad car video and issues that the jury was never asked to address.

"You were never asked to decide whether racism continues to exist, whether certain members of our community are disproportionately affected by police tactics, or whether police training is ineffective," he said. "You were simply asked to determine, beyond a reasonable doubt, whether a crime had been committed."

On July 6, 2016, Philando Castile was fatally shot by Jeronimo Yanez, a race soldier cop, after being pulled over in Falcon Heights, a suburb of St. Paul. Castile was driving a car with his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and her four-year-old daughter as passengers when he was pulled over by Yanez and another officer. According to Reynolds, after being asked for his license and registration, Castile told the officer he was licensed to carry a weapon and had one in his pants pocket. Reynolds said Castile was shot while reaching for his ID after telling Yanez he had a gun permit and was armed. The officer shot Castile seven times.

Diamond Reynolds live-streamed a video on Facebook in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. It shows her interacting with the armed officer as a mortally injured Castile lies slumped over, moaning slightly and his left arm and side bloody.

On the video Reynolds narrated that the officer said, "Don't move" and as Castile was putting his hands back up, the officer shot him in the arm four or five times. Reynolds told the officer, "You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was just getting his license and registration, sir." Reynolds also said "Please don't tell me he's dead," while Yanez exclaims: "I told him not to reach for it! I told him to get his hand open!"

At trial Yanez, testified that he fired his weapon because Castile had his hand on a gun, not his wallet and identification papers. He said that he actually saw the gun. 

The Cop's Two Versions of What Happened Cannot Both Be True. 1) The day after the incident occurred Yanez explained to police officials that he was not sure whether Castile was reaching for a gun. He told the police investigators he never actually saw a gun [MORE] and [complaint PDF]. Just minutes after the shooting in the dashcam audio/video of the incident Yanez can be heard being questioned by St. Anthony Police Officer Tressa Sunde and telling her:

 [Castile] was sitting in the car, seat belted. I told him, 'Can I see your license?' And then, he told me he had a firearm. I told him not to reach for it and (sigh) when he went down to grab, I told him not to reach for it (clears throat) and then he kept it right there, and I told him to take his hands off of it, and then he (sigh) he had his, his grip a lot wider than a wallet .... And I don't know where the gun was, he didn't tell me where the fucking gun was, and then it was just getting hinky, he gave, he was just staring ahead, and then I was getting fucking nervous, and then I told him, I know I fucking told him to get his fucking hand off his gun [MORE] 

Previously Yanez also inconsistently stated to police investigators, "Castille put his hand around something."  He said Castile's hand took a C-shape, "like putting my hand up to the butt of the gun." Yanez said he then lost view of Castile's hand. "I know he had an object and it was dark," he said. "And he was pulling it out with his right hand. [MORE]

Yanez also said he thought or believed Castile had the gun in his right hand and he had "no option" but to shoot. [MORE] 

2) However, one year later, at the trial he said that he actually saw the gun and Castile had pulled it out. Something that Castile's girlfriend Diamond Reynolds denied. Castile also denied it; as his last dying words were,  'I'm not pulling it out,' on a video released by proscecutors during trial. On the video Reynolds also responded by saying, 'he's not pulling it out."  

Specifically, Yanez, testified he fired his weapon because Castile had his hand on a gun, not his wallet and identification papers.

"I had no other choice. I didn't want to shoot Mr. Castile. That wasn't my intention," CNN affiliate WCCO reported. "I thought I was going to die." 

"It's your testimony today that you saw Mr. Castile pull out an object?" prosecutor Rick Dusterhoft said Friday.

"It was a gun," Yanez said.

"You said he pulled it out?"

"Correct," Yanez said.

"And he said he wasn't (pulling it out)?"

"Correct, but it doesn't always mean that's what he was doing," Yanez said.

Previously, Yanez said

"When Roseville police officers arrived you never warned them there was a gun did you?" Dusterhoft said.

"No," Yanez said.

On the video Yanez is yelling, “Don’t pull it out!” However, a year later on the witness stand he said he saw a gun. 

Prosecutors said Yanez is not credible.

“Based upon the evidence, we believe that Castile never removed, nor tried to remove, his handgun from his front right pocket, which was a foot deep,” said Ramsey County Attorney John Choi. Yanez’s partner also didn’t see a gun. [MORE]

On cross examination the race soldier cop was asked,

"When Roseville police officers arrived you never warned them there was a gun did you?" 

"No," Yanez said. [MORE]

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Lawsuit Says Gang of Off-Duty White Jersey City Cops Violently Assaulted Latino Man Causing Brain Damage

From [HERE] The Jersey City Police Department and a former mayor's son are at the center of a multi-million dollar police brutality lawsuit that alleges a man was beaten so viciously he suffered permanent brain damage.

The allegations stem from a 2012 assault outside Healy's Tavern on Newark Avenue involving off-duty police officers and the bar's owner Jeremiah S. Healy, a Jersey City firefighter and son of then-Mayor Jerramiah Healy.

Hector Mejias is seeking damages for pain, suffering and emotional distress for the Sept. 29 incident.

Motions to dismiss the lawsuit were denied by an Essex County Superior Court judge in June. The case was transferred out of Hudson County because at least one person listed in the complaint has a relative working in the Hudson courthouse. The next hearing in the case is Aug. 14. 

According to the lawsuit, Mejias was driving home when he saw a group near the bar beating another man in the middle of the street. Mejias told the attackers to stop beating up the victim and said he was going to call the police, the lawsuit says. When he took out his phone, the men doing the beating said they were cops.

Those officers, who were off-duty and are identified in the lawsuit as detectives Chris Heger and Mark D'Ambrosio, appeared "highly intoxicated" and approached Mejias, the suit says.  

In the lawsuit Mejias says he went back to his car, but Healy Jr. tried to stop him from driving away. Meijas later bit three of Healy's fingers in self-defense, the lawsuit said.

Heger and D'Ambrosio ripped Mejias from the vehicle and continued to "beat him and kick him violently," the lawsuit indicates.

Meijas was brought to the hospital for treatment and was then arrested on assault charges. Officials said a grand jury declined to indict Mejias in April 2013.

Authorities, however, painted a different picture of the incident in 2012. Police reports indicated Mejias hit the off-duty officers while he was trying to defend his friend, who was being subdued by the detectives. Healy tried to take Mejias' keys so he couldn't get away from the officers, police said.

Those reports were not accurate and were intentionally "misleading" to "cover up the actions" of Heger, D'Ambrosio and Healy, who lied to the on-duty cops who responded to the fight, the lawsuit claims.

The on-duty officers involved in the alleged cover-up are Stephen Wilson, Samantha Pescatore and Sgt. Timothy Ackerley, the lawsuit said.

Mejias, meanwhile, is permanently disabled because of his injuries. The lawsuit says he suffered a concussion and has developed a seizure disorder. His eye socket was severely damaged and he cannot return to his job as a truck driver, the filings state.

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Fake 4th Amendment Freedoms for Blacks: White Bartow Cops Tase & Turn Dog Loose on Wrong Black Man

From [HERE] The Black man at the center of a controversial video that’s sparking debate online is claiming police brutality and racism. 

Marquis Wright, 21, says Bartow police abused their power and treated him differently because of his race during an arrest Monday.

A neighbor captured a roughly 50 second video of the encounter at Wright’s home on Magnolia Street.

A K-9 officer can be seen biting Wright while he was on the ground with police.

Neighbors could be heard screaming in outrage.

Wright spoke with News Channel 8 for the first time Tuesday, shortly after getting out of jail.

His right thigh was bandaged due to bites from the dog, which caused him to walk with a limp, using a cane.

Wright said he was sitting on his porch when officers showed up. He asked police to stay on the other side of the fence and said the situation went downhill from there.

“They just asked for my information and that’s it,” Wright said.

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SWAT Expert testifies: No reason [except racism] for Sniper to Shoot Unarmed Black Man Holding His Son in Fife

No Emergency. No Hostage: 30 White Cops Respond to Domestic Call w/ Tank & Snipers. Murder Black Man Holding His Son. From [HERE] A decorated former Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) SWAT trainer and supervisor testified Monday there was no evidence Leonard Thomas posed a threat to anyone — not the police, not himself, and not his 4-year-old son — when he was shot and killed by a Pierce Metro SWAT team sniper following a standoff in Fife in May 2013.

Scott DeFoe, hired as an expert witness by attorneys representing Thomas’ family in a wrongful-death and civil-rights lawsuit in U.S. District Court, reviewed the actions of the multiagency team that surrounded Thomas’ home the night of May 23, 2013. The witness concluded that, while negotiators and individual team members did an exemplary job, they were failed by their leader, Lakewood Police Chief Mike Zaro, who was in charge that night.

Indeed, the often-tense situation had all but resolved — the 30-year-old Thomas had agreed to let his son, Elijah, go home with Thomas’ mother, Annalesa Thomas — and had taken the child, a car seat and a backpack to the front porch.

After a couple of false starts when Thomas balked at releasing the boy, Annalesa Thomas was brought up from the command post to call for the child from behind an armored vehicle.

Zaro, in the meantime, radioed that the SWAT team was not to let Thomas take the child back into the house and ordered an assault team at the rear of the home to set off explosives and blow down the door, flooding the house with armed men who shot and killed the family dog.

Thomas, according to witnesses, grabbed for the child at the sound of the blast, and a Lakewood Police Department sniper, Brian Markert, shot him in the pelvis with a large-caliber rifle from 90 feet away.

SWAT officers said they had to slug Thomas to get him to let go of the child, who was yelling “Daddy! Daddy.” Thomas’ last words were “Don’t hurt my boy” before he bled to death, according to testimony.

Zaro, who spent most of Monday on the witness stand, had said he gave the order because Thomas was increasingly agitated. He believed the assault team’s violent entrance would cause Thomas to freeze and give officers a chance to rescue the boy.

Thomas, Zaro said, was controlling and using the child as a bargaining chip.

But when the explosives detonated, Thomas reached for the boy, and Markert, believing Thomas was going to hurt the child, fired his rifle.

“Nobody thought he would grab his son and flee back toward the sound of an explosion,” Zaro said. [He means Thomas would not do this b/c he his Black. Protecting your son under these circumstances would be something only a white guy would do.]

The chief said Thomas had been controlling, belligerent and hostile toward police, although he acknowledged that at no time during the evening did Thomas threaten officers, himself or the child. No firearms were found in the house, and Thomas was not armed.

Police had been called to his home that night because he was drunk, had argued with his mother and had grabbed a cellphone out of her hand while she was calling 911. The decision was to arrest him was allegedly for misdemeanor domestic-violence assault - for taking the phone out of her hand. 

Zaro said Thomas’ erratic actions that night “left him no choice” but to authorize deadly force.

Attorney Tiffany Cartwright, one of the lawyers representing Thomas’ parents and his now 9-year-old son, told an eight-member jury in opening statements that nothing that the drunken, despondent, bipolar man did warranted the massive police response the night of May 23, 2013 — two armored vehicles and at least 27 officers, including the Pierce Metro SWAT team — for a misdemeanor, domestic-violence offense.

Based on photographs introduced in trial, most, if not all, of the officers were white, and attorneys for Thomas’ family hav

Thomas, 30, drunk and despondent over the sudden death of a childhood friend, had been holed up for hours with his 4-year-old son after his mother called Fife police following an argument. A police negotiator had finally convinced Thomas to let the child go home with his grandmother for the night - which is what Thomas and his mother had fought about in the first place. 

Once the child was safe, the negotiator and a SWAT commander figured officers would just let Thomas sleep off a bad night and come back later to deal with a misdemeanor domestic-violence allegation stemming from a tussle over his mother's cellphone while she was talking to 911, according to police reports.

That isn't what happened. 

As a skittish Thomas led the boy onto the front porch to send him down the sidewalk to the child's waiting grandmother, members of a SWAT assault team used explosives to blow open a back door, forcing their way in and killing the family dog with a burst of gunfire. Thomas - who was unarmed - reportedly lunged for his son, and he was fatally shot by a police sniper as he held the boy.

The assault-team leader, Lakewood police Officer Mike Wiley, announced the shooting over a SWAT frequency: "We have jackpot." [MORE]

In his testimony, Zaro acknowledged the Thomas’ SWAT call-out was his first experience as tactical commander during an incident with a hostage or barricaded subject. He also said he rarely trained with the SWAT team snipers because he had other duties.

DeFoe, a 25-year LAPD officer and Medal of Valor winner who spent more than a decade in SWAT as a supervisor, trainer and crisis negotiator, told the jury he has supervised hundreds of barricaded suspects and hostage situations, and questioned whether Elijah was a hostage at all, considering there had been no threats.

While he said it was “prudent” to have an assault team and snipers ready, DeFoe said his review of reports, transcripts, depositions and dispatch audio from that night led him to conclude there was no reason to kill Thomas, and every reason to continue negotiating with him.

There was no emergency, he said. The boy was fine and had apparently been in bed and was about to be let go. There were no weapons, no threats and there was no hurry. The two hostage negotiators, he said, had done an “excellent” job when Zaro ordered the assault.

“My criticism lies with command,” DeFoe said. “There was a departure from training and tactics in this case. I don’t think the shooting itself was reasonable.”

Can Cops Peek Inside Your Windows & Jiggle Your Door? Case Going Fwd Against Spokane Cops who Terrorized Latino Man

Cops Argued Argue They Have the Right to Peek Inside Your Windows and Jiggle Your Door. From [HERE] and [HERE] A Latino man pulled from his home and arrested at gunpoint after two Spokane County Sheriff’s deputies went to the wrong address achieved a partial victory this week when a federal judge ruled that the deputies violated his Fourth Amendment seizure rights and used excessive force.

Conner Griffith-Guerrero filed a federal civil lawsuit against Deputy Robert Brooke, Deputy Evan Logan and Spokane County in 2015, two years after the incident at his home on North Five Mile Road. Both sides filed summary judgment requests and this week U.S. District Court Judge Thomas O. Rice ruled that a portion of each request would be granted.

On Dec. 13, 2013, a resident on North Five Mile Road called 911 to report that there was a suspicious car parked at his neighbor’s house and his neighbor was in Arizona for the winter. He provided the address to the house, but deputies couldn’t find the house and instead went to another home. They drew their guns and walked around the house, testing doors and shining their flashlights in windows, according to court documents.

Griffith-Guerrero was in the basement watching television when he saw the flashlights shining in. He said he was afraid he was about to be burglarized so he went upstairs and hit the front door to let whoever was outside know that someone was home, the lawsuit said. He went outside to look and saw someone with a gun. He screamed and ran into the house.

Brooke then identified himself and Griffith-Guerrero opened the door and was ordered outside the home and orderered toget on his knees and then he was handcuffed. He said that one of the deputies was pointing a gun at him the whole time, but the deputy testified in a deposition that he was merely holding his gun in the “low ready” position.

The deputies put him in handcuffs at gunpoint, according to court documents.

Eventually they let him go when they see that the address on his ID matches the address of the house that they just pulled him out of.

After it was determined that Griffith-Guerrero lived there, Brooke reportedly told him “You’re lucky I didn’t (expletive) shoot you,” the lawsuit said.

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Secretive Indianapolis Cops Release Few Details After Killing Unarmed Black Man Reaching for Console during Traffic Stop

White Police Chief along with his Black probot sidekick. From [HERE] and [HERE] The NAACP is calling on the Justice Department to investigate Indianapolis' police department following the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man.

Two officers with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department fired on 45-year-old Aaron Bailey early Thursday, killing him, after he crashed his car while fleeing a traffic stop.

Police have released few details on what prompted the fatal shooting.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Chief Bryan Roach on Thursday afternoon addressed the shooting and its impact. Roach is white. 

“This is a problem and an issue that not only affects this police department, your chief of police, your mayor, but the community as a whole, blah blah” Roach said.

A north-side traffic stop shortly before 2 a.m. Thursday led to a brief chase, a minor crash, a driver who reached down in his car and two officers who fatally shot him. No weapon was later found. A female passenger was in the passenger seat. 

Officers Michal P. Dinnsen and Carlton J. Howard joined IMPD in June 2014. They have never received any disciplinary actions against them. They are now on administrative leave.

Dinnsen is white. Howard is bi-racial. [when white reporters begin using terms like bi-racial you probably are listening to a racist.] 

Indy Congregation Action Network on Thursday decried an "open season on black men" and called for the prosecution of the officers who shot Bailey.

“People of color are scared to walk and drive on their own streets," the Rev. Kenneth Sullivan of New Direction Church said in a statement released by IndyCAN. “We need the community to be able to participate in something that brings resolve to this open season on black men.”