New York Police Accused of Systematic Pattern of Racism: NYPD has Killed More than 100 Blacks & Latinos since 1999

 May 31, 2007

A lawyer representing the estate of Sean Bell, the Queens man who was fatally shot by the police after leaving his bachelor party in November, has called for a federal investigation of the New York Police Department for possible civil rights violations.

The lawyer, Michael A. Hardy, said in a letter Monday to Michael J. Garcia, the United States attorney in Manhattan, that the Police Department had a history of using excessive force in minority communities. Hardy claims that since 1999, NYPD officers have killed more than 100 people, most of them black or Hispanic. The NYPD says there's no discrimination, "considering the descriptions of suspects provided by victims of crime."

The recent shootings and the history of fatal shootings, Mr. Hardy wrote, “certainly suggest that the N.Y.P.D. is engaged in a pattern and practice of continuous and systemic violations that have, at minimum, a disparate impact in black and Hispanic communities.”

 He is also representing the family of Fermin Arzu (Pictured above), who was fatally shot by an off-duty officer in the Bronx on May 18.

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NYPD Execution Or Accident? $10 Million Lawsuit to Decide: Malcolm Ferguson Killed By Cop, But Story Differs

(CBS)  BRONX Opening statements expected Tuesday in a lawsuit filed by an angry mother whose son was shot and killed by police, seven years ago.

She claims it was an execution. The Bronx D.A ruled it an accident.

Opening arguments are expected to begin this morning in the $10 million wrongful-death suit brought by Malcolm Ferguson's mother.

It was more than seven years ago that the 23-year-old convicted drug dealer was shot to death by narcotics police officer Louis Rivera during a struggle for the police officer's gun in a dark building on Boynton Avenue.

Bronx District attorney Robert Johnson ruled the shooting accidental after a three-month investigation, so the case was never presented to a grand jury.

The 23-year-old Ferguson had been arrested five times before on the block where he was killed, just three blocks from where cops shot and killed Amadou Diallo.

Ferguson's mother has called her son's death a police-style execution.

"Just because a person has a record does not make them not human. That boy was human like you and me. Anyone can make a mistake. That don't [sic] give you the right to kill him," said Juanita Young, Ferguson's mother.

Officer Rivera is still on active duty with the NYPD.

The Police Department says he declined to comment on the wrongful death suit. [MORE]

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Both Statements Can't Be True: Prosecutor says Deputy Lied in Shooting of Unarmed Latino War Veteran

SAN BERNARDINO – An attorney representing a former sheriff's deputy accused of shooting an Iraq war veteran after a high-speed chase said the victim ignored repeated orders to stay on the ground and keep his hands down.

During his opening statement, defense attorney Michael Schwartz told jurors Tuesday that Senior Airman Elio Carrion didn't listen to 15 different orders from former sheriff's deputy Ivory Webb.

Carrion instead briefly sat up against the car's open door and reached toward Webb's weapon with his hands, the lawyer said.

Schwartz said that just before the shooting, Carrion's hand moved toward his jacket – something deputies are trained to believe means a suspect is going for a weapon.

“He felt this was it. He wasn't going to make it home tonight, and he had less than two or three seconds to make a decision, by himself,” Schwartz said. “The nightmare that has been this case for my client began this night, on January 29th, 2006.”

Webb, 46, has pleaded not guilty to attempted voluntary manslaughter and assault with a firearm, both felonies. He is free on bail.

Prosecutors have a different take on what happened during the shooting that was captured on amateur video and broadcast nationwide.

Deputy District Attorney Lewis Cope said during his opening statements that Webb told Chino police that Carrion “'started to come at me.'”

Later, however, Webb told authorities he believed Carrion was reaching for a gun in his jacket pocket. Carrion was later found to be unarmed.

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May rally 'got out of control'- LA Police Commission hears findings of LAPD probe

A breakdown in command structure and poor officer communication led to the violent confrontation between Los Angeles police and thousands of peaceful demonstrators at a May Day rally, officials said in a preliminary report released Tuesday.

Using radio transmissions, video footage and dozens of interviews from command staff, Los Angeles Police Department investigators painted a picture of a chaotic scene.

Among the findings were that there was no person clearly in charge, command staff at a remote location ordered the use of rubber bullets in another location, and orders to the crowd to disperse were never clearly announced before force was used.

"Clearly, leadership was lacking. It was sorely missing," Police Commission President John Mack said in a press conference after a commission meeting in which top brass presented a nearly two-hour overview of the preliminary investigation.

"Things just got out of control."

At least 23 protesters and nine members of the media were injured May 1 after riot-clad LAPD officers used rubber bullets and battons to clear MacArthur Park during a mostly peaceful immigration rally.

Broadcast images of officers hitting reporters and shooting non-lethal bullets into a crowd that included women and children led Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to cut short a trade mission to Mexico and Central America and scarred relations between the LAPD and immigrant communities.

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Black Teen found Hanging in Mississippi Jail cell- NAACP and ACLU Want Investigation

The family of an inmate found dead in the Pascagoula City Jail said they have too many unanswered questions and conflicting stories about the teenager's death to simply accept it as a suicide, especially when they know in their hearts that he would not kill himself.
 
 The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is joining the family of Robert James Smith to investigate what happened in the moments preceding his death while he was an inmate at the jail. Smith was found dead in his cell on May 18.

 The Pascagoula Police De-partment reported that a jailer found Smith about 11:47 a.m. sitting on the floor of his cell, with a blanket tied around his neck like a noose. The other end of the blanket was tied to a bar on the top bunk of the cell bed. Police said an officer last spoke to Smith at 11:25 a.m.

 Police said Smith was unresponsive and was transported to Singing River Hospital, where he later died.

 Smith, 18, of Moss Point, was arrested May 16 and charged with two counts of burglary.

 "There are just some unanswered questions we'd like to get to," Nsombi Lambright, an attorney with the ACLU of Mississippi, said at a press conference Tuesday at the Pass Point Social Club in Pascagoula.

 Curley Clark, president of the Moss Point-Jackson County NAACP, said that the agencies will be requesting the death certificate, autopsy report and "anything that can provide factual information about the death."

 In 2006, the agency also aided the families of two men, Jessie Lee Hubbard and Billy Ray Evans, who were found dead in Moss Point City Jail. Both of those deaths were ruled suicide, but the NAACP presented reports that showed wounds consistent with choke holds.

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Family Files Wrongful Death Suit for Clifton Lee Jr. - Black Man Suffocated & Crushed by Washtenaw County Deputies

A year after an Ypsilanti Township man's death, new information has surfaced from a change in the family's pending lawsuit.Clifton Lee Jr., 45, died after a confrontation with Washtenaw County Sheriff's deputies on June 1, 2006 in the West Willow neighborhood of Ypsilanti Township. The cause of death, reported by Bader Cassin, Washtenaw County's medical examiner, was asphyxia due to the weight of several people pressing his chest against the ground.

 The lawsuit, filed by two of Lee's daughters, alleges wrongful death and police brutality. Washtenaw County had been the sole defendant. However, the complaint now lists Aaron Hendricks, Christopher Campbell, Thomas Guynes, Michael Mahalik, Jeffery Hankamp and Joseph Eberle as additional defendants. Washtenaw County Sheriff's Cmdr. Dave Egeler confirmed the individuals listed as deputies.

 He said three of the deputies are on paid administrative leave. Two of those were put on leave as of the date of Lee's death. The third, he said, was placed on leave earlier this year.

 Those and other changes come after the family's attorney, Paul Broschay, filed a subpoena with the Michigan State Police, who had been conducting an investigation into the event.

 After the case had been handed over to the Washtenaw County Prosecutor in Sept. 2006, the FBI took over the investigation.

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NYC Officer Cleared (again) in Shooting of Black Teen Dantae Johnson

An appeals court has again cleared an ex-cop of criminal charges for shooting an unarmed teenager during a wild chase in the Bronx. But a dissenting judge fumed that the decision by the Appellate Division this week to overturn the 2001 conviction of Officer Mark Conway on criminally negligent assault charges "condoned" police misconduct.
"This case presents a perfect example of why police misconduct is such a persistent, endemic problem in this city," Justice Milton Williams wrote. "It is condoned in high places."

Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson also objected to the 3-1 ruling, saying there are no grounds for appeal.
"I find it extremely disheartening that three appellate judges cannot perceive the risk in this situation," Johnson said in a statement. Conway shot Dantae Johnson seven years ago today. He retired from the NYPD in 2005, paid a $1,000 fine and performed 150 hours of community service after his 2001 sentencing.

But he also appealed his conviction, and the Appellate Division sided with him in 2005. The panel ruled that Conway was not criminally negligent when his weapon discharged as he tried to grab Johnson while driving after him in an unmarked police car. The state's highest court disagreed but kicked the matter back to the Appellate Division for a factual review of the case.

In its latest ruling, the panel found there wasn't enough evidence to support the conviction beyond a reasonable doubt.

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ACLU files court action following alleged beating of Mentally Ill Black inmate

A mentally ill inmate's claim that he was severely beaten by a guard at Unit 32 of the Mississippi State Penitentiary has led to legal action accusing the Department of Corrections of violating a consent decree signed in 2006.

The American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project filed a motion this week in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi against the MDOC on behalf of the roughly 1,000 prisoners in super-maximum security Unit 32.

"We are so concerned about the problem of violence in Unit 32," ACLU attorney Margaret Winter said of the reason for filing the court motion. "It is so far-reaching."

The motion, which seeks compliance of the consent decree, asks the court to order all alleged incidents of major force by correctional staff against prisoners be thoroughly investigated and documented, and that use of excessive force not be tolerated.

The motion comes after Kevin King, a mentally ill inmate in Unit 32, claimed he was severely beaten in April by an officer the day after he was discharged from the psychiatric ward.

According to court papers filed by the ACLU, King was in a shower stall in Unit 32-A when an officer signaled for the shower door to be opened then rushed into the shower and beat King on top of the head with a pair of handcuffs until King's head and upper body were drenched in blood.

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Some Fulton County Prisoners may be Freed Over Atlanta Police Officers' Lies: Fulton DA says drug cases tainted by dirty cops

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said Friday that four men should be released from prison because their drug convictions were based on the work of Atlanta cops who have admitted lying to make cases, including one that left a 92-year-old woman dead in a botched raid.

It will be up to the judges in each case to decide if the prisoners go free.

"It's important to us that no one is incarcerated unnecessarily," Howard said in an interview.

Howard said he was only asking, for now, that the sentences be commuted to time served in the four cases. Ultimately, Howard may move to have the convictions erased against Mingus Williams, Kerry Adams, Oliver Lester and Travis Brice, depending on what investigators learn as they examine the cases.

"If it's determined that those folks were arrested illegally, we will ask that their cases be expunged," Howard said.

At the same time, prosecutors dropped 41 pending cases, at least temporarily.

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Manager for Rapper Mike Jones Claims Jersey Village Police Attacked him

The manager of one of Houston's most famous rap artists made assault allegations against a local police department, KPRC Local 2 reported Friday.

Terrance "T" Flowers, the manager for Mike Jones, said Jersey Village police officers injured him.

Flowers said he does not believe he was treated unfairly because he is a black man, but because he works for a popular rapper.

It started when someone called 911 after Flowers had an argument with his ex-girlfriend in an apartment parking lot.

"They jumped out their car, pulled their pistols out, told me to get down, yelling and screaming, so I automatically did what they told me to do," Flowers said.

Flowers said police became more violent even though he was unarmed and cooperating.

"I get down to my knees. They shove me down. A black cop put a foot on my head. They still had their pistols on me, telling me to get down, get down, but I’m already down, though," he said.

He said police handcuffed him with his hands behind his back and lifted his hands so high that one of his arms was nearly broken.

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