Multi-Million Dollar Lawsuit Alleges Baltimore Police Killed Unarmed Black Man: Slammed on Head, then Handcuffed & Beaten by Cops

From [HERE] The family of a Black man who died in the custody of a Baltimore police officers is suing the Ba;timore Police department for wrongful death. Their multi-million dollar lawsuit claims officers used excessive force on Anthony Anderson, 46, and died from police brutality.

In September 2012, police confronted Anderson in East Baltimore, suspecting a drug deal. Officers said Anderson refused to follow orders and put drugs in his mouth. They said an officer then bear hugged Anderson and tackled him to the ground. At first police attempted to say that he died from asphyxiation after choking on drugs. Police changed their story after an autopsy showed otherwise. 

An autopsy report provided by the family showed that he suffered fractures to eight ribs, contusions to his left lung and a ruptured spleen. The state medical examiner ruled his death a homicide.

Witnesses who saw the arrest have reported that he was slammed on his head by a plainclothes officer who approached him from behind.. “Picked him up and slammed him on his head,” one witness explained. “Guy never looked back or anything. He didn’t even see the police coming,” Keith Johnson, who witnessed the arrest, said. Witnesses say Anderson was leaving a bar on Biddle Street, walking across the lot when he was confronted by plainclothes police. [MORE] Witnesses also say the plainclothes police never announced themselves or ordered him to stop. 

"Tthey grabbed him they pinned his arms to the side, and they came straight up, and slammed him on his neck, collar-bone like,” said Dereck Jackson of East Baltimore. Other witnesses have given similar acounts of Anderson being slammed down on his head. [MORE]. They say he went limp, and believe he already was dead when an ambulance picked him up. [MORE] 

The 86-page complaint alleges officers handcuffed Anderson then kicked him “in the ribs, stomach, back and chest for several minutes maliciously and sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm.”

The family wants their loss to spur changes in the police department. “There’s no discipline. There’s no accountability. They fail to train. They fail to supervise. And as a result, the citizens are placed in peril,” said Gordon.

In January, Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein, racist suspect in photo, decided not to file charges, saying officers did not use excessive force. Anderson’s family was outraged. 

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Black Man Coming Home after 20 yrs: White NYPD Overseer (officer) may have Beat Confession Out of him & Framed him for Murder

From [HERE] A Black man convicted of shooting and killing a 4-year-old girl nearly 20 years ago in Brooklyn was granted parole this week after doubts were raised about the tactics used by the detective who interrogated him. That detective, Louis Scarcella, is the focus of a continuing investigation by the Brooklyn district attorney’s office, which reopened 50 of his trial convictions after it was revealed that he might have helped frame an innocent man and used the same witness over and over again.

The New York State Board of Parole decided to release Sundhe Moses, 37, after his lawyers documented flaws in his prosecution in the child’s killing — a sharp departure for the board, which historically required inmates to admit guilt and express remorse to be set free.

The decision was the first time since the district attorney’s review of the 50 cases commenced in May that a defendant investigated by Mr. Scarcella, who is retired, had been ordered released.

“I’m forgiving, but I’m also angry,” Mr. Moses said on Friday by phone from Bare Hill Correctional Facility in Malone, near the Canadian border. “I lost a lot of time in prison.”

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If They did a white man like this then how would they treat us? Video Shows Ca. Guards "Extracting" Mentally ill Inmate - Beating, Spraying him like an Animal

From [HERE] A US federal court has released new video footage showing California prison guards repeatedly spraying mentally ill inmates with pepper spray in an apparent attempt to convince the prisoners to take their medication.

California policy requires officers in the Department of Corrections to film all cell extractions. The footage in question was played in court in October as part of an inmate’s lawsuit seeking to halt the use of pepper spray against the growing mentally ill prison population. 

Perhaps the most disturbing of the six tapes shows a naked, screaming inmate at Corcoran State Prison, who is sprayed at least five times within 15 minutes. An officer can be heard saying “spray him again” more than once, with roughly six officers then overwhelming the prisoner and strapping him down to a gurney. 

“When we order involuntary medications, the inmate is told they will receive medications whether they like it or not,” prison psychiatrist Dr. Ernest Wagner told the Los Angeles Times.

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Little Rock police under renewed fire over accusations of excessive force

Guardian

An Arkansas police department is facing a series of federal lawsuits alleging excessive use of deadly force by its officers, in cases that raise serious questions about its public accountability.

Families of victims shot and killed by officers of the Little Rock police department (LRPD) have told the Guardian that there is no effective oversight, and that internal investigations of the killings either covered up or disregarded serious violations of the department's own rules on use of force.

In December, the Guardian revealed how fresh testimony in the fatal shooting of Eugene Ellison, an unarmed 67-year-old African American, by an off-duty Little Rock police officer, cast doubt on the official version of events and the country prosecutor's decision to rule the killing justified.

Ellison's death in December 2010 is now the subject of a federal criminal civil rights investigation, which will also look at accusations that LRPD has a "pattern of misconduct" in its use of force.

Now the Guardian can reveal that two more fatal shootings involving Little Rock officers are now the subject of federal lawsuits. One involves the death of a 28-year-old mentally ill man, Landris Hawkins, pictured, who was shot dead after he threatened to kill himself.

Speaking for the first time about the death, his grandmother Neomia Hawkins said that she called 911 expecting help. Instead, she said, police arrived and, after telling him to put down the knife he was holding, killed him.

Hawkins, 63, said: "They could have done something different. They could have tried to calm him. All they did was holler a couple of times and it was all over."

The Hawkins family lawsuit claims the officers failed to follow LRPD rules governing use of force and dealing with mentally ill men and women. It also alleges the force, under police chief Stuart Thomas, has a widespread practice of tolerating violations of rules, allowing acts of excessive force and covering up or disregarding allegations of excessive force.

A request to the LRPD from the Guardian for an interview with Thomas for comment was declined. "As we are in active litigation, we must respectfully decline the interview request," said a spokesman.

Neomia Hawkins, a retired clerical assistant with the Arkansas state police, said she filed the lawsuit because she felt that the department needed to be brought to account. "Something does need to be done. They keep doing it and they get away with it."

Sonoma County Officer who fatally shot 13-year-old Latino boy holding toy rifle had pulled gun during routine traffic stop

RT

The same police officer who shot and killed a young teen after mistaking a toy gun for a real one pulled his weapon on a motorist during a routine traffic stop on the highway two months ago, the California driver in question now says.

Sonoma County Sheriff’s Deputy Erick Gelhaus is currently on paid administrative leave after fatally shooting 13-year-old Andy Lopez, who was walking to a friend’s house with a replica AK-47. The tragedy has made international headlines and frustrated the local community, with vigils and protests against the police taking place over the past ten days. 

Jeff Westbrook, a program manager at an information technology company, now says that Gelhaus was the deputy who pulled him over on his August 21 commute for failing to signal a lane change. Westbrook told the San Francisco Chronicle that there was not much room to pull over on the side of the highway so he rolled down his window and asked Gelhaus if he should move his car to a safer spot. 

It was at that point, Westbook said, that Gelhaus pulled a gun on him and began screaming an order for him to turn the car off. Westbrook responded that the car was already off.

“I felt like I was watching somebody I needed to help,” Westbrook said this week. “This was not right. He did not manage this correctly.”

Gelhaus then ordered Westbrook out of his vehicle and pulled a gun on him a second time when asking the commuter whether he had any weapons in the car. Westbrook asked why he had been pulled over and then felt compelled to ask, “Sir, is there something wrong with you?” The police officer did not answer. 

Gelhaus’ attorney declined to comment on Westbrook’s accusations. The deputy is an Iraq War veteran who serves as a police field training officer and weapons instructor. A 24-year veteran of the force, he was training a new officer at the time of the shooting. 

The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said Gelahus had not fired his weapon at a suspect in over 20 years. He received the Medal of Valor in 2004 for rescuing passengers from a burning car and pulling them to safety. 

Westbrook contacted a superior officer within the Sonoma police force and said he was considering filing an official complaint with the department. He said he informed Gelhaus’ sergeant that he felt the deputy had “emotional stability” problems and hoped to meet with Gelhaus to discuss the traffic stop. 

Then, almost two months to the day after the roadside scare, Gelhaus shot Lopez seven times in under ten seconds. The deputy told investigators that he thought the gun the boy was carrying was real – but later found out it was an airsoft gun designed to shoot plastic pellets. 

Whether Lopez knew the officer considered him a risk remains unclear. It took 16 seconds for Gelhaus and his partner to call for medical assistance after the shooting in Santa Rosa. Lopez, a popular student preparing to enter high school, was pronounced dead at the scene. 

Westbrook received an email the next day indicating that Gelahus would be out of the office “due to unforeseen circumstances,” and thus unable to clear the air.  

“Now I find out that a child is involved. I am such an irrelevant part of this thing,” Westbrook said. “I am devastated. I’m terribly shocked. I’m appalled.”  

A police report filed after the shooting describes how Gelahus opened fire when Lopez had his back turned to the patrol car but appeared to be turning toward the two officers with his gun raised. Lopez’s friends and family, as well as countless demonstrators who have protested over the past week, believe Gelhaus overreacted and doubt that he gave Lopez time to put down the fake weapon.

Witnesses said they heard the deputy instruct Lopez to put the weapon down, but various media outlets quote an anonymous police source who said that Gelhaus’ partner was not even out of the patrol car when the shooting began. Santa Rosa police say Lopez was told twice to put the replica gun down. 

Lopez was wearing a sweatshirt with his hood down at the time and did not have any headphones that would have prevented him from hearing a police order. 

Meanwhile, Westbrook wonders if Lopez would still be alive if he had filed an official complaint sooner.

“I’m struggling with that now,” he told the Chronicle. “I’m wondering, if I had fought this a little more aggressively – actually waved around like a chimpanzee with my arms in the air to the district attorney’s office and come down there physically – that maybe something could have changed. I don’t know.” 

Hundreds of mourners filled the Resurrection Parish Church in Santa Rosa Wednesday to honor Lopez. Many of the parishioners wore white, Lopez’s favorite color, and the boy’s mother laid face down on his casket throughout the service, not moving until the pallbearers escorted Lopez’s body to the waiting hearse.