Puerto Rico: march against FBI terror

Several thousand Puerto Ricans marched down Roosevelt Avenue in San Juan on Feb. 26 to protest raids on the homes of independence activists by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Feb. 10 and the shooting death of fugitive Popular Boricua Army (EPB)-Macheteros leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios during an FBI raid on Sept. 23. The theme of the march, organized by the Hostos National Independence Movement (MINH) and supported by a wide range of political tendencies, was: "Puerto Rico respects itself! FBI out!" Organizers estimated that 8,000 people participated; police Col. Leovigildo Vazquez declined to give a number. Participants included New York State Assembly member Jose Rivera; Ojeda Rios' widow, Elma Beatriz Rosado Barbosa; and three of the targets of the raids, Vilma Velez, Liliana Laboy and Norberto Cintron Fiallo. Speakers stressed the success of activists in getting the US Navy to close its testing site on the small Puerto Rican island of Vieques in May 2003. "If we threw the Navy out of Vieques," Rosado said, "we can throw out the FBI." A man was said to have been attacked by some marchers who considered him an agent; no other disturbances were reported. [more]

Jury rules against Orlando Police Officer in Taser case - Black Man Slammed Down & Shocked

Panel says 'unreasonable force' was used during driver's arrest
A federal civil jury decided Friday that an Orlando police officer used "unreasonable force" when he arrested and fired a Taser on a young man following a June 2003 traffic stop on Mercy Drive. The eight jurors awarded the man $100,000 in punitive damages and $972.15 in medical and court costs stemming from his arrest. The case is thought to be the first Taser-related civil suit to go to trial against an Orlando police officer and the city. The verdict, which followed 15 hours of deliberations Thursday and Friday, found that Officer Jonathan Cute violated Dontray Chaney's civil rights by subjecting him to "excessive or unreasonable force" during his arrest. "It's good. I'm pleased that they saw it my way," Chaney said after learning of the verdict. "They [the police] can't just go and abuse their power and authority any way that they please." Chaney, 22, was stopped June 5, 2003, because Cute said the license tag on the red 1996 Pontiac Grand Am he was driving was "obscured" by a plastic cover. When Chaney questioned why he was being stopped and did not turn over his drivers license and other information, Cute decided to arrest him. Witnesses said Cute pulled Chaney out of the car, struggled with him and took him to the ground before firing his Taser stun gun at the man twice. Cute, his sergeant and other witnesses said the arrest drew an angry crowd. Cute, 34, and a five-year veteran, is known as an aggressive officer with many arrests and strong evaluations from his supervisors. Chaney's aunt, who pushed for the case to go to federal court, said the verdict should be sending a strong message to the Police Department to be more responsible with Tasers. [more]
 

Black Man beaten by Ohio State Troopers gets $10,000

An Athens man beaten by Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers during a traffic stop has gotten a $10,000 settlement in a defamation suit against an OSHP official. As part of the settlement, the agency will send a letter to the editor to The Athens Messenger, apologizing for statements made about plaintiff Billy J. Dunfee by a Patrol officer in an earlier letter published by the newspaper. Dunfee, 47, sued three Patrol officers in April 2002, starting the case in Athens County Common Pleas Court before it was transferred to U.S. District Court. His suit was based on a January 2002 incident, in which troopers stopped the car in which he was riding as a passenger on U.S. Rt. 33, for making an illegal U-turn across the highway divider, then beat, kicked, clubbed and maced Dunfee after he allegedly refused to keep his hands in sight and step out of the car. Though in March 2004 a jury in Athens County Municipal Court found Dunfee innocent of resisting arrest, he lost his federal lawsuit nine months later, when a jury ruled that the troopers had sufficient justification for pulling him out of the car, and did not use excessive force to subdue him. [more]

Activists Ask Kentucky Governor to Intervene in Police Shooting of Black Man Suspected of Shoplifting

A community advocacy group has asked the governor to intervene in the investigation of the shooting by police officers of a shoplifting suspect in the median of Interstate 64 two months ago. The Justice Resource Center of Louisville, Ky., sent a letter Monday asking Gov. Mitch Daniels to pressure Harrison County Prosecutor Dennis Byrd to release his report on the shooting.The unarmed shoplifting suspect, 36-year-old Trent Marion of Louisville, was wounded in both wrists and the right eye at the end of a late-afternoon Jan. 20 chase that had begun at a Kroger store in Louisville and ended about 25 miles away in southern Indiana. State police have completed an investigation and forwarded a report to Byrd, who on Monday declined to comment further on the case. The Rev. Louis Coleman, the Justice Resource Center's director, said the investigation has taken too long. "There is a hidden agenda that needs to be uncovered," Coleman said. "We feel very strongly that he knows there was some bad policing and he does not want to reveal the situation." Coleman's group also has asked the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission to investigate Byrd's handling of the case and has filed a complaint with the Indiana attorney general's office. [more]

Black Man Claims he was Beaten by Detroit Police while Handcuffed - Called him "Monkey"

 
Bastida Ballard filed a complaint against two Detroit police officers saying they crossed the line and assaulted her son in the basement where her younger children were watching TV. "They supposed to protect us, not hurt us. How can we trust them?" she said. It started almost two weeks ago when police were trying to pull over her 23-year-old son. Gary said the vehicle tag on his mother’s SUV had just expired, so he drove around the corner and pulled into their drive way. He then ran inside to get his mom because he didn’t want police to tow her SUV. The family said the officer kicked in the door, told Gary to freeze and hit him in the head, before and after he was handcuffed. Gary said he did not resist but was beaten anyway. "He was hitting me, but he was telling me to put my hands behind my head, but my hands were behind my head. He hit me across my head with the light, whatever he had. I couldn’t see because my head was down," said Gary. The family said the officer's blows were so out of control, Ballard’s 13-year-old daughter was hit on her arm. He also yanked Ballard’s 12-year-old son by the arm, which opened wounds from a dog bite he suffered earlier that day. "I asked them what was my son being arrested for and he tells me he didn’t know," said Ballard. She said when her son was taken to the police car the hitting didn’t stop. "I don’t want anybody else to go through that. Those officers, they need to be investigated. They need to be followed. They need someone to see what they’re doing," said Ballard. [more] and [moreand [more]

Woman says NYC Police Stomped Lil Kim's Driver to Death after Traffic Stop

A New York nurse claims police beat Lil' Kim's limousine driver 11 days before he died, it was reported Tuesday. O'Neil Solomon, a former convict who drove rapper Lil' Kim as well as singer Ashanti, died March 4. The medical examiner cited the cause of death as heart disease, the New York Daily News reported. However, Janice Pinheiro, 37, a nurse at St. Vincent's Hospital, filed a citizen's complaint that has sparked an investigation into her allegation that as many as 16 officers stomped Solomon in the head and chest repeatedly after he sped away from a traffic stop in Brooklyn. "I said, 'That's enough," Pinheiro told the News. "Stop the beating, stop the beating. I see everything and I'm gonna report it. You're gonna kill him.'" The nurse said when she complained to officers at the scene, she was handcuffed and taken into the station and later released without being charged. Solomon checked himself into Brookdale University Hospital twice during the next few days, complaining that he felt sick, attorney Lawrence Krause said. He began vomiting violently before dying March 4. [more]

Latino men Bring Lawsuit Against Monticello Police for Racial Profiling, Excessive Force

In November, Monticello police swooped down on an apartment complex on Wood Avenue, pointed shotguns at two Hispanic men eating lunch in an apartment and cuffed them, pinning one against a fence and forcing the other to the ground. They had the wrong suspects. Now Guillermo Ortiz, 21, and Christopher Abreu, 20, are suing the village in federal court, claiming police used excessive force, had no probable cause to arrest them and targeted them only because they are Hispanic. The lawsuit, which was filed on Monday in the United States District Court, alleges police acted "maliciously, in bad faith, and with racial animus and a deliberate indifference to plaintiffs' constitutional rights." The two are seeking compensatory damages for "psychological injuries" as a result of being "demeaned and humiliated," as well as punitive damages. On Nov. 29, cops were looking for a 21-year-old Hispanic suspect who allegedly assaulted his girlfriend that morning at Hillside Apartments. She told cops Renando Torres, 21, choked her, pinned her down and stuck a gun in her mouth. The woman gave police a sketchy description of Torres and his address. Torres' apartment was next door to Abreu's apartment on Wood Avenue. Abreu spotted the police cars and opened the door. Police pointed guns at him and ordered him out. He was restrained on the ground and then pushed up against a fence, Ortiz said in a previous interview. Police then ordered Ortiz, who was on his lunch break and wearing a shirt and tie, out of the apartment and handcuffed him, ordering him to the ground. [more]

Macomb County Police 'hooding' of suspects probed: FBI investigates 3 complaints over tactic tied to Abu Ghraib scandal

As Joe Hurst tells it, once the pillowcase had been pulled over his head, questions started flashing through his mind quickly and crazily.

"Am I going to get shot? Who are these people? What's happening? What are they going to do?" he remembers thinking, now more than two years after his gambling arrest by Fraser police.

Hurst claims he was the victim of a tactic that police in Metro Detroit adamantly deny using -- the practice of placing bags, pillowcases or jackets over the heads of people being detained. Otherwise known as "hooding," it's an image more associated with the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, not southeast Michigan.

Late last month, the FBI's Detroit office confirmed it was investigating three allegations of Macomb County law enforcement officers using hoods on people in custody.

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Latino Brother & Sister Attacked by Corpus Chrsiti Cops: Attorney plans to show pattern of abuse

 
There's new information on a lawsuit filed by a Corpus Christi woman and her brother, who claim that they were brutally beaten by police officers outside a nightclub. When the case goes to trial, their attorney plans to show a pattern of abuse by police. On the day when attorneys file another motion in the alleged police brutality case of Tiffany and Blake Avalos, attorney Christopher Gale hopes to prove these injuries were caused by aggressive police officers, who were trying to arrest them outside a downtown night club on charges that were later dropped. Federal court documents indicate one of their strategies will be to call up to 23 witnesses to the stand, who will testify they too have been badly beaten by police. Attorneys for the Avalos' will also present a list of over 500 names of citizens who've filed official complaints of abuse by CCPD. While complaint after complaint, not to mention images of broken teeth, lacerations to the mouth and a broken jaw may look bad, city leaders believe this lawsuit is baseless and are confident the city attorneys will successfully fight on behalf of the three police officers named in the suit.  "We don't believe that the city is involved in any wrongdoing with the case, and we want to fight it," said Council member Melody Cooper. The federal lawsuit is set to go to trial on March 20th. [more]

Suspected 'thugs' were really Kings County Police

Sherry Reynolds' good Samaritan effort resulted in her being charged by police

Sherry Reynolds was trying to do the right thing. She saw what appeared to be two thugs beating a homeless man near a Ballard grocery store parking lot. "Stop, I called the police!" she yelled. Their response: "We are the police." That night, she complained about the beating of a handcuffed suspect to the King County Sheriff's Office Internal Investigations Unit. "Stop, I called the police!" she yelled. The cops were never disciplined, but Reynolds was charged with obstructing justice. Several months and several thousand dollars in legal fees later, she was acquitted by a judge who questioned whether the officers were telling the truth. She believes the charge against her was retaliation, an attempt by the officers to cover up their own misconduct. So did the FBI, whose agents investigated the officers' actions and submitted the case for criminal prosecution under federal civil rights law. The Justice Department declined to prosecute. [more]