Final Rodney King radio interview: 'Police Have No Respect for Blacks'

From [HERE] In one of the last interviews with Rodney King prior to his death, he talked to KPFK about topics ranging from his tumultuous childhood to the infamous beating to the recent Trayvon Martin shooting. King, 47, was found dead at the bottom of his pool at his home in Rialto on June 17. Coroner’s officials are still investigating his cause of death.  

In the hour-long talk, King said, "the American Negro gets no respect when it come to law enforcement and brutality and his life means nothing," King said in the interview. "Despite all the hard work, despite all the killing that has gone on over the years … we are not where we used to be but we are definitely not where we're supposed to be.”

In vivid detail, King recalled “hearing my bones being broken” during the beating and said it brought back memories of his father whipping him with an extension cord. “After a while, I didn’t even have the strength to protect myself,” King said. “I was beaten within inches of my life.”  

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Lawsuit Accuses Chicago Police Officer of Attacking Non-Threatening Latino Couple

From [HERE] A Chicago Police officer is being sued for alleged brutality and is under investigation by the Independent Police Review Authority, two years after an incident on the Northwest Side. It has taken two years for Luis Cordero Jr. and his girlfriend, Heather Rzany, to put a name with the face of the off-duty officer whom they claim terrorized them. The incident happened in 2010 outside the Pavilion Apartments, in the 5400 block of North East River Road, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The officer allegedly stormed out of a car with a beer bottle in his hand and pistol-whipped Cordero repeatedly, and then stuck a gun in Rzany’s mouth and ordered her to “shut the f**k up, bitch, or I’ll blow your brains out,” the Sun-Times reported.

Cordero and Rzany said they were asked to leave the apartment complex by a private security guard who was responding to a noise complaint, and were leaving as asked, the Sun-Times reported. But the off-duty officer, now identified by attorneys for the couple as Englewood District Officer Chris Gofron, stumbled out of the security guard’s car, tossed the beer bottle, and flashed a Chicago Police badge in one hand as he assaulted them, the Sun-Times reported.

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Black Teen Files Suit Against Harvey Police: Excessive Force Caused her Miscarriage

From [HERE] Kwamesha Sharp, 17, said she lost her unborn baby after she was beaten by a police officer in south suburban Harvey, Ill.  Sharp is suing Harvey and the officer. She said the officer used "excessive force" when he arrested her, and that caused her to miscarry. Sharp was at a family friend's house when police were called there for a disturbance. Sharp saidan officer grabbed her and threw her on the ground for no reason. She believes that led to her miscarriage.

In a complaint, Sharp alleges that after a doctor's appointment on December 30, 2011, She walked to the home of a family friend as police were responding to an assault call there. Sharp says as she tried to figure out what was going on the Harvey police officer, referred to as Officer Jones, attacked her. Sharp said even though he was told she was pregnant, the officer grabbed her and put her hand behind her back. "I flip over to my side, instead of being on my stomach, he flipped me around because he felt me moving, and had his knee in my stomach," Sharp said. Handcuffed and thrown in a squad car, Sharp says she asked for medical assistance but was denied.

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Family of Indian Woman who Died in Chicago Jail Files Lawsuit: Denied Medical Care, Locked-up for Missing Jury Duty

From [HERE] The family of Lyvita Gomes, who died while in custody in a Lake County, Ill., jail, filed a wrongful death suit June 7 seeking an unstipulated amount of monetary damages, alleging that the sheriff’s department and jail personnel denied the former flight attendant appropriate medical care. Gomes, 52 at the time of her death on Jan. 3, was jailed for failing to show up for jury duty. She died after going on a hunger strike that lasted more than 15 days. Her family claims that administrative and medical personnel at Lake County Jail ignored obvious signs of Gomes’ mental and physical illness, which led to her death.

The suit names Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran; Wayne Hunter, chief of operations at the jail; and three others, including Dr. Hargurmukh Singh, who provided medical care for inmates through a contract with Correct Care Solutions. It was filed by the Chicago-based People’s Law Office on behalf of the estate of Lyvita Gomes.

In April, Curran hired a private attorney, Terry Ekl, to determine whether there was misconduct in Gomes’ death as well as the death of Eugene Gruber, who died in a hospital March 3 of pneumonia resulting from paralysis, four months after he was dragged through Lake County jail by guards who had earlier allegedly twisted his neck in a take-down move.

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Photo of Georgia Republican Sheriff Shows him Dressed as KKK

From [HERE] and [HERE] A Georgia sheriff running for re-election is in some hot water after a photo of him wearing a Ku Klux Klan outfit surfaced on Friday. Cherokee County Sheriff Roger Garrison admits he wore the outfit. He claims that he wore it to costume to a party while in his early 20s, long before he took office. Garrison said: "I don't deny it wasn't stupid, looking back now." The sheriff of the county north of Atlanta is up for re-election this year and faces opposition in Georgia's July 31 primary. He says the photos are being circulated for "purely political" purposes (like to reveal his true nature as a white supremacist? Must have been a helluva "party." Can you imagine the reaction if a Black elected official dressed up like Hitler back in the day? white folks would have a heart attack - bw). WSB-TV said they were able to contact one individual who was at that Halloween party and recalled people being surprised by the costumes. He is a Republican candidate. [MORE]  

Garrison has been an aggressive proponent of arresting undocumented Latinos. Recently he said, “we will continue to focus our efforts on identifying illegal aliens involved in organized crime including drug sales, prostitution and gang affiliations which threaten our community." After plans to identify illegal aliens, Garrison said he wanted to participate in a federal program that will reimburse the county for the money they spend toboard illegal immigrants. [MORE] 

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Black Man says Minneapolis Police Beat Me For Gun, Despite My Permit: No Reason for Arrest

From [HERE] A Minneapolis Black man says he was beaten by police as he left a downtown nightclub. Zachary King says he was walking to his car when police noticed his gun in his waist band. He claims he told police he had a permit to carry, but they still attacked him. King suffered a concussion after five officers beat him on Father’s Day night. King says video of the assault was taken by a bystander. He says it all started when police noticed a bulge near his waist band. “I have my conceal and carry, and it’s my gun. And soon as I said that he grabbed me by my neck, slammed me against the wall, snatched my gun out the holster, started waving it in the air saying ‘gun, gun, gun,’” said King. King says he made no sudden moves, nor said anything disrespectful.

“Then four other officers just came and slammed me on my face, one of the officers had me by my head just banging it on the sidewalk,” he said. King says officers eventually went for his back pocket and his wallet to get his weapons permit. “And he goes like this to show them that I have my card and they stopped beating me,” said King. King was then taken to the hospital before his last stop, jail. (Arrested for what? if he had a permit and there were no other infractions -  oh he's Black - bw)

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NYPD Officer Sentenced to 57 months in Prison for Using Racial Slurs During Unlawful Arrest and Beating Another Victim

Form [HERE] AN OUTRAGED judge slammed a racist NYPD cop with 57 months in prison for falsely arresting a black man and participating in an off-duty beating of another victim.

Michael Daragjati destroyed his police career by getting caught on an FBI wiretap spewing racial slurs and boasting how he had “fried another n-----.”

But when Daragjati called his fabrication of criminal charges against the victim a mere “bad judgment call,” Brooklyn Federal Judge William Kuntz decided he had heard enough. “Today is also your earthly judgment day,” Kuntz boomed Friday in a courtroom packed with Daragjati’s family and supporters.

Daragjati has a history of racism: Previously Daragjati had been the subject of three civil rights lawsuits and a CCRB complaint, in which a black man alleged the cop told him to “shut your n----- mouth.”

Daragjati will serve 48 months for the extortion and nine months after that for the civil rights violation. Kuntz declined to recommend to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons that Daragjati be sent to a facility within 100 miles of his home in Staten Island.

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Unarmed Asian Man Beaten to Death by El Monte Police, Family Files Suit after Attack in his own home

From [HERE] The family of a 37-year-old man who died after being taken into police custody is accusing the El Monte Police Department of using excessive force.

The sister of the Khoa Anh Le called police at 11 pm on the night of June 14 because Le had gotten into a pushing match with his father, according to the Pasadena Star-News. She told a 9-1-1 operator about Le's mental health issues. By the time that police arrived, his family says that Le had calmed down and was sitting on his bed and using a computer. But later that evening after getting into a fight with police, Le was transported to a hospital where he died around 12:21 am. His family plans to file a claim against the El Monte Police Department. They're comparing his death to the fatal beating of Kelly Thomas.

The family's attorney told Star-News that police confronted Le on his bed and asked to see his hands. The family said they watched officers drag Le from his bedroom, strike him about 20 times with a flashlight, use a Taser on him four times and place him in a chokehold. 

Many of those blows and shocks were delivered after Le had been incapacitated, his family says. His brother said that when he told the officer to stop hitting his motionless brother, the officer cursed at him before kicking Le and tasing him some more. (It wouldn't be the first time in recent memory that an El Monte Police officerkicked a man who had stopped resisting.) "The police kicked him several times while he was down on his knees," his sister Diane Le told the Star-News. The family told the Los Angeles Times that they believe it was the chokehold that police administered that ultimately killed him.

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Civil Rights Lawsuit Against Seattle Police Going Forward: Unarmed Latino Man Stomped by Officers who Used Racial Slurs

In the video, Cobane can clearly be heard saying to Monetti, "You got me? I am going to kick the (expletive) Mexican piss out of you homey. You feel me?"

From [HERE] A lawsuit against the city of Seattle and a police officer who threatened to beat the "Mexican piss" out of a detained Latino man can proceed to trial, a federal judge ruled Thursday. The lawsuit was filed by Martin Monetti Jr., who claims that Seattle police used excessive, racially motivated force against him when he was detained during a robbery investigation. Monetti is seeking unspecified damages in the case.

The April 2010 incident, which was caught on videotape, touched off an intense racial controversy and was one of several incidents that prompted the U.S. Justice Department to launch an investigation of the Seattle Police Department. In his lawsuit, Monetti says Seattle police officer Shandy Cobane hurled racial slurs at him and kicked him in the head. The lawsuit also says Cobane and another officer, Mary Woollum, stomped on him as he lay prone in a parking lot. The officers' actions were discriminatory and an unreasonable use of force, in violation of the U.S. Constitution, Monetti argues in his suit. He also argues that he was a victim of assault and battery and negligence on the part of Seattle police.

Monetti's case itself was cited in the DOJ's findings: "It is troubling that the use of this racial epithet failed to provoke any of the surrounding officers to react, suggesting a department culture that tolerates this kind of abuse," the department said. [MORE] 

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Grand Jury to Decide Whether to Prosecute Lafayette (LA) Police Officer: Witness says Police Shot Black Man who had Hands Up

In photo Brenda Mason, mother of the Quamaine Mason, and her nephew Bryant Riggs [MORE]  From [HERE] A grand jury will be asked to decide whether there's sufficient evidence to prosecute a Lafayette police officer in the Dec. 9 shooting death of Quamaine Dwayne Mason. A grand jury is scheduled to consider the case July 18, according to Mike Harson, district attorney of the 15th Judicial District Court. If the grand jury finds sufficient evidence, it may issue a true bill. Charges then could be filed against the police officer. Harson then may prosecute him.

Mason, 21, of Carencro was shot to death by a Lafayette police canine officer the evening of Dec. 9 as Mason left his girlfriend's apartment in the Campus Crossings apartment complex on Theater Drive. The Louisiana State Police initial report states, "When the officers arrived on the scene, they encountered an armed suspect at the doorway to an apartment. An officer fired shots at the suspect, fatally wounding him."

Mason's girlfriend told news reporters the next day that Mason's hands were up and his gun was not drawn when the police officer shot him multiple times.

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