Mayor Defends Houston Police Officer who Shot Latino Man in the Back

 
Houston Mayor Bill White on Friday defended a Houston police officer who fatally shot a fleeing armed robbery suspect in the back a week ago. "Based on what I've seen so far on the evidence," White told reporters during an impromptu news conference Friday in front of City Hall, "I understand the officer's actions and I think he complied with our policies." But the attorney for the suspect's family and a Hispanic community leader said the incident must be investigated before the officer is cleared and questioned why police initially said the man was shot in the chest. "I think it's important for the mayor to support the police," said Robert Luke, attorney for the family of Hegnor Irias. "But I hope he would reserve judgment until after the investigation is complete." Officer K.R. Barnes shot Irias, 22, in a courtyard of the Bel Lindo Apartments at 6200 West Bellfort about 2:30 p.m May 12, after responding to a call from two people who reported Irias had robbed them at gunpoint. Cameras captured shooting White said Irias refused to stop and follow the officer's commands and was fleeing into an apartment complex, where he could have been a danger to residents and the officer. "There is no excuse for citizens who are failing to respond to police directives," White added. Barnes is a nine-year veteran who police say had never fired his weapon at a suspect before. State law allows police to use deadly force if officers believe suspects pose a danger to others.Police said officers responding to a robbery call in the 6400 block of West Bellfort chased Irias after a resident identified him as the man who robbed him. Police followed him to the Bel Lindo Apartments. "I don't know what else they've been wrong about," Luke said. He said several witnesses told him Irias had no gun and he had seen none in the surveillance video.  Investigators said they found a .38-caliber snub-nose revolver by Irias' body. They also said they found items on him that belonged to the two robbery victims.  Irias was the fifth suspect fatally shot by Houston police this year, according to the Harris County District Attorney's Office. A grand jury cleared an officer of wrongdoing in one case and the rest are still being investigated. [MORE] 

ACLU Asks Court to Extend Consent Decree Monitoring the LAPD

As Los Angeles officials sought to mend fractured community relations Thursday by joining a march denouncing the police confrontation at a May Day rally, the ACLU filed a scathing petition asking a federal judge to consider extending a consent decree.

The strongly worded petition - which calls for a special hearing with the judge - argues the violent police action earlier this month exposes an entrenched, aggressive culture despite years of hard work to turn the department around.

"The LAPD's apparently deliberate and widespread use of excessive force on May 1 suggests an institution permissive of excessive force - a suggestion that is all too familiar regarding the LAPD," says the petition filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and constitutional lawyer Erwin Chemerinsky.

The federal consent decree was imposed on the LAPD in 2001 after the Rampart scandal revealed widespread police abuse and corruption. The decree required the department to rid itself of the abuse, but it was extended in 2006 due to a lack of compliance.

The decree is now set to expire in 2009.

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Inquiry called active in Vicious Televised Beating of Black Man by St. Louis Police

Local prosecutors have not finished investigating last year's televised police chase that ended with the beating of driver Edmon Burns by three Maplewood police officers and one St. Louis officer, a spokeswoman said. Jeannette Graviss, chief warrant officer for the St. Louis circuit attorney's office, said the office's investigation has been on hold while the FBI investigated the case. On Wednesday, a U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman said federal charges would not be coming. Graviss said no decision would be made in the case before early next month. The 20-minute chase on Jan. 30, 2006, was sparked when Burns drove away from an officer at a Maplewood gas station, then led police into St. Louis. On Thursday, leaders of the NAACP of St. Louis County criticized the Justice Department's decision not to prosecute, and asked U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway to explain. Hanaway released a statement Friday saying she had already offered to meet with the NAACP. [MORE]

Immigrant's Death Sparks Tensions in NY: 3 County Police Officers Investigated After April Homicide of Latino Man

MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. -- It was the kind of life and death that might have slipped by without much notice. Rene Perez was homeless, a drinking man from Guatemala, an occasional laborer in this affluent community, and he was found unconscious on a desolate road in a nearby town only to die soon afterward.

But the county medical examiner ruled his death in the early hours of April 29 a homicide, probably from blows to the abdomen, and soon police from Bedford, where Perez was found, said that three Mount Kisco officers were being investigated in connection with his death. The officers -- who had responded to a 911 call from Perez and left him just 44 minutes before he was found unconscious -- were put on desk duty, their patrol cars temporarily impounded.

Perez's killing has exposed tensions between well-off white employers and poor immigrant workers in this northern Westchester County town of 12,000 about 40 miles north of New York, where 75 percent of residents are non-Hispanic whites and about 25 percent are Hispanic.

"People here are afraid to talk to the police," said Fernando Mateo, president of Hispanics Across America, an advocacy group, at a vigil here he organized Wednesday night. About 100 people, mostly Latinos, stood in the rain outside the red brick Village Hall carrying signs with slogans such as "We Have the Right to Live," and "No One is Outside the Law."

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Officer in Diallo Killing Wants His Name Restored: White Cop Fired 5 of the 41 Shots that Killed Unarmed Black Man

 
Kennneth Boss cannot remember a time when he did not want to be a police officer.

Not when he took the police academy test early, at age 16, and had to wait four years to be hired.

Not when his first assignment was in the transit bureau, far from his dream job.

Not when he pulled out his gun on a dark Bronx street one frigid night in 1999 and fired 5 of the 41 police bullets aimed at an unarmed West African immigrant named Amadou Diallo, whose killing unleashed a torrent of rage against the Police Department.

And not now, more than seven years after a jury acquitted him and three other officers of murder charges in the Diallo case, leaving Officer Boss in a shadowy limbo that he has spent years fighting to escape, an effort he has redoubled of late.

While the other three have walked away from the department, Officer Boss, 35, is still a New York City police officer, though you might not know it by his duties.

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Autopsy: Houston Officer Shot Latino Man In Back

Family members of a man shot by Houston police said the autopsy report proves what they have said all along -- that he did not deserve to be killed, KPRC Local 2 reported Tuesday.

Hegnor Irias, 22, died from a gunshot wound at about 2:30 p.m. Saturday in the 6200 block of West Bellfort in southwest Houston.

Investigators said two police officers responded to a robbery call in the parking lot where a woman said her purse was stolen at gunpoint. She described her attacker and said he left the location on a bicycle.

As officers searched the area, they spotted Irias go into the Bel Lindo Apartments, officials said, before he ran off.

Another officer confronted Irias, who was armed, police said. When Irias refused to drop his gun in his right hand, the officer fired twice, striking Irias as he ran by him, according to the police report. Irias' .38-caliber revolver was recovered at the scene, officials said.

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Tampa police face lawsuit over shooting Black Man to Death after Chase

Police say they fired in self-defense, but Moses Yazid's family says officers were wrong to shoot.  Today they filed what could be a multi-million-dollar wrongful death suit against the City of Tampa and the officers.

Police say Yazid ran a stop sign on Riverhills Drive in May of 2005.  They say he refused to give them a license, or his real name.  When Yazid would not get out of the car, two officers tried to pull him out.  He resisted, was tasered, and then shot to death -- after police say he turned his wheels in their direction and tried to run an officer down.

Said police spokeswoman Laura McElroy that night, "the vehicle came rushing towards him, he pulled out his gun and was stepping aside at the same time, firing shots, fearing for his life."

Attorney Barry Cohen, suing for wrongful death, says there was no threat to police.

"If he turned to the left all the way and took off," Cohen says, "there was no way in the world he was going to hit this guy."

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San Jose Police Accused Of Racially Profiling, Beating Filipino Family

About 80 people gathered Tuesday in front of the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice in an emotional show of support for three members of a San Jose Filipino family that claim to have been beaten and racially profiled by San Jose police.

The Justice for the Custodio Family Campaign representing Marlo, 19, Romel, 25, and their mother Marilou Custodio, a 50-year-old single mother and Santa Clara County employee, went public Tuesday with the accusations.

Members of the campaign claim that on Feb 5, three members of the Custodio family were racially profiled then beaten in the Evergreen Valley area of San Jose.

"I just don't know why those cops had to take it that far," Marlo said, fighting back tears.

The group claims that officers slammed Marilou's head into a police car three times and brutalized her sons, Romel and Marlo.

The group also claims that Romel was already pacified when officers used a stun gun on him with three separate weapons causing excessive burns. Marlo was allegedly choked and kneed in the face by officers, according to the campaign.

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50 SHOTS: Cops Indicted in Sean Bell Shooting Go to Court - Unarmed Black Man Gunned Down by NYC Police

The three police officers indicted in the shooting death of unarmed Queens resident Sean Bell will be headed to the Queen County courthouse today, and police presence will be increased. The lawyers for the three detectives, Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora, and Marc Cooper, will be discussing issues such as change of venue, but a number of threats against the trio, including what WABC 7 describes as a "high ranking gang member" threatening to "have an associate shoot Oliver here at the courthouse during one of the hearings in retaliation for Sean Bell's death," has prompted further security.

The shooting and its aftermath has created community tensions as well as the possibility of heated protests (before the officers were indicted, the city was on alert for protests). And when the indicted officers were allowed to enter the courthouse by a side entrance, some people complained the cops were getting special treatment. The police detectives' union Michael Palladino told WABC, "You know what's also unfair treatment is that detectives and police officers in this city putting their lives on the line every single day acting in good faith and within the law can be charged. I've never seen that done before. That's unfair."

Bell was killed day before his wedding last November, while he and his friends were leaving a strip club in Queens. Police and witness accounts differ about the events (whether undercover police identified themselves, whether Bell drove into them), but what is known is that 50 shots were fired at Bell and two friends. And on Saturday, Bell's friends and family marched in Queens. Bell's mother Valerie told Newsday, ""He knew I took care of him. He knows I'm taking care of his children." Regarding the case, she said, "You do the crime, you do the time. No matter who you are." [MORE] and [MORE]

Critics bash 'warrior culture' of LAPD

Associated PressThe Los Angeles Police Department's violent response at the end of an immigrant demonstration is the latest incident highlighting what critics describe as the force's "warrior culture."

It's an ethos that's been on display before - the use of clubs and tear gas to disperse 15,000 peaceful antiwar protesters in Century City in 1967; the Watts riots; the Rodney King beating in 1991; the harsh crackdown on demonstrators at the 2000 Democratic National Convention.

Public outcry and inquiries that followed each event have not deterred some officers from cracking a few kneecaps to assert order, even in front of cameras.

Chief William Bratton's criticism of his department and decision to quickly reassign two high-ranking officers after the immigration rally two weeks ago were roundly applauded, though skeptics say it is not nearly enough to address deep-seated issues that produce violent responses by some officers.

Bratton was appointed in 2002 to steer the LAPD after a rogue antigang unit scandalized the department by assaulting and framing people in the tough Rampart district. Dozens of criminal convictions were tossed out as a result of the scandal.

Bratton has since had some success in improving community relations, including his swift action following the May 1 immigration rally violence.

However, skeptics say none of these efforts are enough to address the deep-seated culture that has caused repeated bouts of excessive force.

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