Lawsuit Claims Chicago Police Unlawfully Detained & Interrogated Elderly Black Woman for 6 Hours Causing Heart Attack

From [HERE] An elderly Black woman claims she suffered a heart attack while being interrogated by Chicago police for several hours, despite the fact that she was not suspected of any crime. 

Charlotte Brent-Bell, 68, sued the city of Chicago and two police officers, Joseph Struck and Pamela Childs Laughlin, in Chicago federal court on Friday, claiming an unlawful interrogation caused her to be hospitalized.

On Aug. 15, 2016, Brent-Bell says she was taken from her home on the South Side of Chicago without any explanation from police and was detained at the police station, where Struck and Laughlin interrogated her for more than six hours.

During the time that Mrs. Brent-Bell was at the police station, the Defendants knew she was in need of medication. They knew this because Mrs. Brent-Bell told them repeatedly. Nonetheless, Defendants denied Mrs. Brent-Bell timely access to her medication. [MORE]

Once she arrived at the police station, Brent-Bell alleges she was placed in an interrogation room and her cellphone and medications, which were inside her purse, were confiscated without her permission.

Struck and Laughlin illegally searched her cellphone and afterwards asked her to sign a form giving them permission to search it, which she refused to do, according to the complaint.

“At no time did defendants have any reason to suspect Mrs. Brent-Bell of any crime,” the lawsuit states. “Indeed, defendants all told Mrs. Brent-Bell that she was not suspected of any crime.”

Brent-Bell claims she was also denied access to a lawyer while she was detained.

“Defendants never ceased their questioning in response to Mrs. Brent-Bell’s requests for an attorney,” the complaint states. “Defendants never read Mrs. Brent-Bell her Miranda rights. At no point did Mrs. Brent-Bell agree to speak with defendants. On the contrary, she repeatedly invoked her right to remain silent. Defendants disregarded Mrs. Brent-Bell’s invocation of her right to remain silent, and they continued with their questioning.”

Throughout the day, Brent-Bell began to feel progressively ill, with symptoms of dizziness, nausea, and chest pain, she claims.

“As a result of defendants’ unlawful detention and interrogation, Mrs. Brent-Bell blacked out and became unresponsive,” the complaint states. “She had suffered a heart attack.”

According to the complaint, Brent-Bell was rushed to the hospital, where she stayed for four days after having surgery. She says her health problems continue to this day.

She also claims she was never charged or suspected of any crime.

“The City of Chicago had notice of a widespread practice and custom by Chicago Police Officers under which individuals not reasonably suspected of any criminal activity, such as Mrs. Brent-Bell, were routinely stopped, seized, arrested, detained, questioned, and/or interrogated against their will,” the lawsuit states.

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Baltimore Settles Anthony Anderson Case: White Cops Murdered Black Man by Slamming Him on His Neck b/c They Thought He Had Heroin

From [HERE] and [MORE] Baltimore City has agreed to pay $300,000 to the family of Anthony Anderson, the Black man whose 2012 death became a focal point of the issue of police brutality well before the Freddie Gray case exploded in demonstrations and a riot.

The Board of Estimates has placed the settlement on the agenda for approval at its Wednesday meeting.

The settlement will release the city from a $20 million wrongful death case filed by Anderson’s family in federal court against the Police Department and three detectives in the now-disbanded Violent Crime Impact Section.

The suit was filed after then-State’s Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein exonerated the three plainclothes detectives, who he said followed proper police procedure when they arrested Anderson in a vacant lot at Montford Avenue and Biddle Street on the night of September 21, 2012. Bernstein is a racist suspect. 

Bernstein’s ruling infuriated many in the black community and helped lead to the surprise challenge – and even more surprising election victory – of Marilyn J. Mosby, the current state’s attorney, in 2014.

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.

At issue in Anderson’s death was the use of a “bear hug” tackle by Officer Todd A. Strohman in the vacant lot after officers suspected Anderson of carrying drugs upon leaving a corner liquor store.

The bear hug broke eight of Anderson’s ribs and ruptured his spleen, causing internal bleeding that, combined with a pre-existing medical condition, led to the 46-year-old’s death.

Witnesses who saw the arrest have reported that he was slammed on his head by a white 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 arrest was also witnessed by Anderson’s mother, daughter and son, who charged in their federal lawsuit that Strohman and Officers Gregg B. Boyd and Michael J. Vodarick “repeatedly kick[ed] Anderson in the ribs, stomach, back and chest for several minutes maliciously and sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm.”

In their account, the officers said that Anderson had been carrying baggies of heroin and swallowed several gel caps after they ordered him to stop. They said they believed his noticeable physical distress – he slumped over while in handcuffs and struggled to breath – was due to a drug overdose.

By the time paramedics arrived, Anderson was unconscious. He was revived after paramedics gave him Narcan, a drug that counteracts a drug overdose, but he quickly slipped back to unconsciousness in the ambulance.

He died a few minutes later at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

While police initially attributed the death to drugs, the state medical examiner [actual doctors] ruled Anderson’s death a homicide caused by blunt force trauma.

The city has paid more than $13 million to settle lawsuits alleging police misconduct since 2011. In 2015, the city agreed to pay $6.4 million to the family of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old whose death a week after sustaining a severe spinal injury in the back of a police van prompted unrest in the city.

Last month, the city and the U.S. Department of Justice signed a consent decree, which if approved by a federal judge will mandate reforms aimed at restoring community trust in the police department and ensuring that officers work within the bounds of the Constitution. [consent decrees and lawsuits have no effect on the system of white supremacy/racism]. 

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To Get Another All White Jury, White Federal Judge Hooks Up Michael Slager w/a Statewide Jury Pool: White Cop Shot Black Man Over & Over on Video in Broad Daylight

What is White Collective Power? From [HERE] A white federal judge on Monday granted a request from the attorneys of a white North Charleston police officer Michael Slager for a statewide jury pool for his federal civil rights trial in the shooting death of a black motorist.

The order signed by U.S. District Judge David Norton is a blow to prosecutors who had asked that the jury be selected only from the Charleston and Beaufort areas.

Slager, whose trial on state murder charges in the death Walter Scott during a traffic stop in April 2015 ended in a mistrial, faces federal charges of deprivation of rights under the color of law, use of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, and misleading investigators following the shooting.

Slager’s attorney, Andy Savage, has argued repeatedly as he prepares for the upcoming civil rights trial that extensive pretrial publicity about the case warranted reliance on a statewide jury pool to ensure the former police officer gets a fair trial.

Federal prosecutors pushed back at this assertion, arguing that there are sufficient safeguards in place in federal court to ensure Slager an impartial jury, and that reliance on a statewide pool of jurors would be overly burdensome and would unnecessarily increase the cost of the trial.

Further, wrote attorney Eric Klumb in a motion filed in January, “There is no evidence to suggest that the extent of publicity in the Charleston and Beaufort area exceeds that in the remaining areas of the state.”

Judge Norton’s order says jury selection for Slager’s federal trial will begin on May 9 in Columbia, South Carolina, and the trial will begin in Charleston the following week.

The shooting of Walter Scott, occurred on April 4, 2015, in North Charleston, South Carolina, following a daytime traffic stop for a non-functioning brake light. Scott was fatally shot by Michael Slager, a white North Charleston police officer in the back from a distance multiple times as he was running away from him. Slager was charged with murder after a video surfaced contradicting his police report and showing that he planted a gun by Scott's dead body. 

A state judge had declared a mistrial on December 5 after jurors failed to reach a verdict following 22 hours of deliberation. The jury was made up of 11 white jurors and one black juror. [why would the prosecutor, who was white, allow a nearly all white jury to be emapaneled? Think Michael Brown/Eric Garner/Rodney King/etc. prosecutions of white cops.] [MORE]

Slager is also scheduled to be retried on state murder charges beginning on August 28.

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[If They Lie Once Can You Believe Anything Else they say?] Video Shows White Nashville Cop Lied About Killing Jacques Clemmons

From [HERE] The Nashville NAACP is demanding answers from the Metro Nashville Police Department following Friday's deadly police shooting. They argue that the police department unfairly targets black people and called Friday's deadly shooting "questionable circumstances."

Jocques Clemmons, 31yr old black man, was shot and killed by Officer Joshua Lippert, a racist suspect cop, last Friday at the Cayce Homes public housing development. 

At 12:55 p.m., on Friday, Feb. 10, Officer Lippert, a white cop, approached Clemmons after a failure to observe a stop sign. Clemmons, driving a gray SUV,  pulled into a parking lot on South Sixth Street in front of the James A. Cayce Homes parking lot. Lippert, driving in an unmarked police car, pulled into the parking lot driveway behind the SUV. Lippert had observed the infraction from a different direction than Clemons was driving. Clemons was unaware that the cop was pulling him over. 

Police said the uniformed patrol officer walked up to Clemmons, who was stepping out of his SUV, to talk to him about the traffic violation. Police initially said Clemmons then body-checked officer Lippert. Specifically, the cops stated, "Clemmons suddenly rushed Lippert and collided into his body." In another released statement police said Clemmons "abruptly charged at Officer Lippert making full body contact." [MORE]

But footage released by police on Tuesday shows Clemmons run toward the officer, before stopping short and running in the opposite direction away from the cop with Lippert in pursuit. In other words, the cops lied about Clemmons being the initial aggressor by claiming he assaulted the cop. [MORE]

The new video was not available to police until Monday due to a broken Metro Development and Housing Agency computer server, police claimed.

Police said Clemmons appeared to be holding something in his waistband during the chase. When the officer caught up with his suspect, they claim the two struggled again, and a fully loaded .357 Magnum dropped onto the concrete.

In contrast, the police also claim that Clemmons had a gun in his hand and refused to drop it when Lippert told him to, police said. Lippert believed he was in danger and opened fire, police said. Clemmons was struck twice in the lower back and once in his left hip, police said.

The video shows Lippert fired on Clemmons when Clemmons had his back turned to the officer and went to run in between two parked cars.

He later died in surgery. The entire incident lasted just over one minute.

Police also said they recovered a gun from Clemmons after he was shot. [MORE] However, Clemmons' family questions whether he even had a gun. Police posted a picture of the gun they say Clemmons was holding on Twitter.

In a statement, police speculated that, since it's illegal to carry a weapon after being convicted of a felony, Clemmons may have tried to run because he was on probation. [MORE]

Monday afternoon, Metro Police Chief Steve Anderson held a press conference to announce new surveillance video from Cayce Homes that shows an unidentified person getting out of the front passenger side door of Clemmons car before the confrontation. Police are looking for that person to ask questions about the incident.

Monday afternoon, the FBI was asked to monitor the investigation into the shooting death of Jocques Clemmons. 

"It's difficult to say to our officers, 'Don't stop someone, don't make a traffic stop for people who violate the law including running stop signs,'" said Metro Police Chief Steve Anderson. [just don't murder them after the traffic stop - write them a fucking ticket like a good public servant should & move on].

Lippert, who has been with the police department five years, is on routine administrative duties while that investigation is pending. Lippert has spent 20 days suspended for various police code violations, including two instances involving physical use of force, according to Metro police records.

In October 2015, Lippert used physical force to pull a black motorist from the vehicle during a traffic stop, even though the driver said he'd be willing to get out in the presence of a supervisor. Lippert was also reprimanded for having the man's car towed without giving him a chance to park the car or turn it over to someone else.

In another case, the officer was reprimanded when he "created the necessity to use force against an intoxicated subject" who was being arrested, according to the disciplinary record. That subject was white. [MORE]

Clemmons' family and the local NAACP are demanding a thorough and transparent investigation from a citizen review board. They are also asking that all police officers get body cameras that will remain on at all times. His family questions why police had to use deadly force instead of tasering Clemmons. They say if he were a white man, he may still be here today.

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[Cops Sensitive Like Condom] Trump's executive order is based on a myth. Police are the safest they've been in decades

From [HERE] Dummy Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday vowing to aggressively enforce existing laws and develop even harsher penalties for "crimes of violence" committed against law enforcement officers. 

The attorney general will "review existing federal laws to determine whether those laws are adequate to address [officers'] protection and safety," the order reads. "[Following] that review, [the attorney general will] make recommendations to the president ... including, if warranted, legislation defining new crimes of violence and establishing new mandatory minimum sentences for existing crimes."

The executive order gives new credence to the false narrative of police officers under siege, and calls for action to fight this fake scourge in partnership with the newly confirmed Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The order comes during the safest period for U.S. law enforcement in decades. Although officer fatalities in the line of duty rose to 135 in 2016 — compared with 123 in 2015 — those numbers don't even come close to what they've been for most of the last 60 years.

Here are some figures: The average number of officer deaths since 2012 is 124 per year. From 1961 through 2011, it was 182, peaking at 280 in 1974. Even during the most fatal year of the past decade and a half — 2011, when 177 officers were killed in the line of duty — only 73 were killed by firearms. Traffic-related incidents have been the leading cause of on-duty officer fatalities during this period, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

But Trump's decision isn't based on data or necessity. Trump won the White House on a wave of anti-protester sentiment and antipathy toward the Black Lives Matter movement. He's stood by police even as demonstrators nationwide have rallied against law enforcement racism and violence. In September, Trump secured an endorsement from the Fraternal Order of Police, the largest police union in the United States. The president's "law and order" platform hinges largely on the false claim that crime is skyrocketing nationwide.

Police unions across the country, meanwhile, have peddled the myth that U.S. law enforcement officers are in unique danger today. They cite two high-profile fatal shootings — that of five police officers in Dallas in July and of three in Baton Rouge the same month — as evidence, but mostly, they've levied their complaints against protesters and former President Barack Obama, who they claimed, without any evidence, was anti-police.

The difference is that the protesters' grievances are supported by actual statistics: According to the Guardian's police killing database, law enforcement officers killed 2,238 people between Jan. 1, 2015 and Dec. 31, 2016. In each of those years, black victims were killed at more than twice the rate of whites. Protesters who've tried drawing attention to this disparity have been routinely dismissed by police, right-wing pundits and politicians alike.

On the other hand, the fears expressed by police officers and their unions are rooted primarily in myth. Many states already have increased penalties for crimes against officers, for one thing. And unlike the epidemic of police shootings of civilians, police deaths have yielded proactive legislation. In Louisiana, a "Blue Lives Matter" bill was adopted in May that made police officers a protected class under the state's hate crime statute. Other states have considered similar bills. And in early 2017, at least five other states introduced or passed laws that criminalize nonviolent protest.

Of course, Trump's executive order should come as no surprise, considering the fabricated notion of America as a crime-ridden hellscape has been central to his rise. But as police are given increased protections, civilians' rights are being slowly eaten away. For a president who claims to be an advocate for "the people," Trump has certainly proven himself a much fiercer fighter for the state. [MORE]

White Supremacy System is the Opposite of Justice: White Marion County Cop Who Struck Surrendering Black Man Over 20 Times Not Guilty

Stop Resisting! Liar White Cops Add Audio on Bodycam. From [HERE] A surveillance video on Aug. 7, 2014, showed a Black man running into a business parking lot with his hands in the air and a pickup truck with four white deputies following behind. The man, Derrick Price, can be seen kneeing down, Then he lies down, with his arms outstretched, showing he was surrendering. The four Marion County Sheriff's Office deputies in the truck got out. One sat on the man's legs and the other three kneed, kicked and punched him. A fifth deputy, the last to arrive, stood by and did nothing. There is no doubt deputy Jesse Terrell helped beat Price and there is no doubt Terrell's blows -- more than 20 by prosecutors' count -- to Price's head were injurious.There is no doubt Price had surrendered and was compliant when Terrell and his four Sheriff's Office colleagues unleashed their fury on him. There is no doubt about any of this because it was all caught on security camera video. But not in a system of racism/white supremacy. A system of injustice. To end white supremacy we must end white power.    

Despite shocking surveillance video showing Jesse Terrell and four other white Marion County deputies kicking and beating a Black man in 2014, it took a jury an hour to find Terrell not guilty.

“I just thank the jury for everything they did,” said Terrell afterwards. After the reading of the verdict, and with red eyes, Terrell said he was very happy that the trial was over.

"One time should have been enough," he said, referencing his federal trial. He said he now plans to go to Disney World. [MORE]

Terrell and his girlfriend were both visibly emotional after the verdict was read. The surveillance video shows the now ex-deputies beating Derrick Price after he surrendered. The video shows him lying on the ground, his arms out, appearing not to resist.

“The question is: is what Jesse Terrell did to Derrick Price reasonably necessary to protect himself or to protect someone else as he claims?” asked Chief Assistant State Attorney Richard Ridgway.

The defense countered Terrell never saw Price surrender. They argued he only saw Price struggling with deputies and he jumped in to help protect them.

“This is a case about what Jesse Terrell perceived,” said his attorney, Bill Rampiti. “And what he did to protect his fellow deputies and the community in arresting a fleeing felon.”

It is the second time Terrell has been acquitted in a case connected to the 2-year old attack on the Black man. Last year, he was acquitted by an all white jury on federal civil rights charges. The other four deputies pleaded guilty and were sentenced to around a year in jail. In the previous case, of the 75 potential jurors, only two were black, both were male. The two lawyers said one of the men, they later learned, was excused because he had received information that his brother had a serious health crisis and the court decided to exclude him due to extreme hardship. They said they felt the court was proper in leaving him out. The second man was excluded by the two of them because his wife is an attorney who litigated cases against the government, and also because he was friendly with corrections officers. Holloman said leaving that juror out had nothing to do with race and that he and McCallum were extremely disappointed they did not have any African-American juror who would hear the case. [lol] 

The racial make up of the jury in the present case has been kept a secret by the mainstream media. 

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Suit Says Race Soldier Chicago Cops Attempted to Murder Black Man After Unlawful Traffic Stop – IPRA Ruled Shooting Unjustified

From [HERE] A Black man has filed a federal lawsuit against the city, and five Chicago police officers, accusing the officers of using excessive force when they shot him during an unlawful traffic stop two years ago. During the traffic stop he called 911.

The Independent Police Review Authority ruled the shooting of Antwon Golatte on Feb. 7, 2015, was unjustified, but his lawsuit accuses the city of dragging its feet on disciplining the officers until December 2016, nearly two years later.

The officers claimed Golatte tried to run them down after he was pulled over in the 300 block of West 115th Street, but the bullet holes in his car were all in the rear, and Golatte was acquitted of aggravated assault charges. The officers allegations were found to be baseless

On February 7, 2015, Golatte said he was out running errands traveling in his vehicle near 310 West 115th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60628 when Police Officers Jaime Gaeta and Harry Matheos notified Defendant Police Officers Matt Dercola and James Whigham by mobile phone, to conduct a traffic stop on Plaintiff.

Police Officers Jaime Gaeta and Harry Matheos arrived at the scene minutes later and the Officers without probable cause, or any other lawful basis seized Plaintiff for an excessive period. Golatte recognized Defendants Gaeta, Matheos, Dercola, from February 5, 2015, when they unconstitutionally searched and seized him by dumping his pizza onto the ground, made him stand barefoot in the snow, placed him in handcuffs, and searched his vehicle without his consent or a lawful basis.

“Then when I see their faces, I knew who they was. Fear came automatically,” he said.

On February 7, 2015, Golatte, fearful for his safety, called 911. As a result, Officers began yelling, using profanity, threatening violence, and pointed their firearms at him. Golatte lowered his driver’s side window in an attempt to communicate with Officers, to no avail.

Officer Gaeta then stood on the running board his car, grabbed the inside of his driver side window, pulled, and shattered the glass. was completely unarmed, had not committed any crime, and posed absolutely no threat to the Officers, or anyone else.

Nevertheless, Officers Gaeta and Matheos shot at Golatte at least five (5) times, injuring him. Three of the bullets entered Plaintiff’s side and pierced his stomach and rib cage, barely missing his lungs. To this day, bullet fragments remain trapped in Plaintiff’s body near his vital organs.

Golatte was transported to Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois after being shot, where he underwent lifesaving surgery.

Golatte, who had done absolutely nothing wrong, was neither arrested nor charged with a crime between February 7-10, 2015.

While in Christ Hospital, Plaintiff filed a complaint with the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) against Defendants and on July 14, 2016, IPRA found that “Officer Gaeta’s and Matheos’ use of deadly force was therefore objectively unreasonable and a violation of policy.” 

After realizing the severity of Plaintiff’s injuries, the cops each conspired to cover up the unconstitutional use of excessive force by Defendants Gaeta and Matheos. In this manner, Defendants, acting in concert with each other, conspired and acted together to cover up and prevent disclosure of the misconduct alleged above by engaging in the following non-exhaustive conduct: completing false, misleading and incomplete official reports; giving of false statements regarding the circumstances of their detention of Plaintiff; providing false testimony at trial; and inventing false claims to justify the use of excessive force.

To protect their fellow officer, and pursuant to a code of silence, each officer initiated and/or continued the false and malicious prosecution of Plaintiff although they knew they lacked probable cause.

According to the lawsuit the cops sole purpose in causing and continuing the false charges against Golatte was malicious in that it was done to cover up their wrongdoing. He was arrested and later incarcerated at the Cook County Jail, from February 14, 2015 until April 1, 2015.

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Cleveland Settles Suit for $2.25 Million: White Cops Crushed Mentally ill Black Woman to Death, Left Her in the Street & Refused Medical

From [HERE] The family of a mentally ill Black woman who died during an encounter with white Cleveland police officers in November 2014 has settled its lawsuit with the city for $2.25 million, according to a news release from the family's attorneys.

Tanisha Anderson, 37, died on the pavement outside of a police cruiser with her hands cuffed behind her back. The settlement ends more than two years of litigation.

Anderson family attorney David Malik said in an interview that while negotiations during mediation with a federal judge failed, the city and family negotiated separately and reached an agreement last week. 

The settlement is one of the largest the city has ever agreed to pay in a case involving allegations of police misconduct. Officers Scott Aldridge and Bryan Myers remain under criminal investigation for Anderson's death. A Cuyahoga County Probate Court judge must approve the settlement before it is final.

On 13 November, a cold night in Cleveland, her younger sister Jennifer said Tanisha was having one of her "bad days". Anderson suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and was suffering from a breakdown. Wearing only in a nightgown, with no shoes on, Tanisha was disoriented and kept trying to leave the house. Joell Anderson was the one who made the first 911 call. He wanted her taken to the hospital for a mental health evaluation. 

Two sets of police officers arrived instead of an ambulance. Anderson seemed calmer for a time, but then the family called again. The second set of cops, they claim, were ruder and more brusque. They were Detective Scott Aldridge, a seven-year veteran of the force, and his partner Brian Meyers. They told the family to stay in the house and walked Anderson to their patrol car.

She died after Aldridge and Myers cuffed her hands behind her back and placed her in the back of a police car following a struggle. On the night Anderson died, the Cleveland police department released a statement claiming the officers had handcuffed her because she was resisting them. They said that once in the car, she began kicking them.

"A short time later," the statement continued, "the woman stopped struggling and appeared to go limp."

That version of the story does not appear to account for the prone position, nor for the multiple abrasions and contusions the coroner found on Tanisha's body, nor for her fractured sternum.

The family says in its civil lawsuit against the city and the officers that they watched and listened from the house as Tanisha, who was afraid of confined spaces, cried out for her mother and brother. They heard her recite the Lord's Prayer.

Then after Anderson got out of the car, the family explained, the senior of the two officers, Detective Aldridge, "slammed her to the sidewalk and pushed her face into the pavement. He placed his knee onto her back, placed his weight on her and placed Tanisha in handcuffs."

The family says that Aldridge's partner, Brian Meyers, helped him hold her down.

After she stopped moving, the family claims, the police did not call an ambulance for some time and left Anderson’s half-naked body exposed to the public (with her nightgown hiked up around her hips), didn’t provide her with medical care and told her family that she was “sleeping.”

In its reply to the lawsuit, the city concedes only that emergency medical services were not called until 45 minutes after the officers arrived, and that Anderson was handcuffed when the paramedics got there.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office ruled Anderson's death a homicide-"sudden death in association with physical restraint in a prone position in association with ischemic heart disease and bipolar disorder with agitation". She asphyxiated while being restrained in a prone position. Obesity and other health factors also contributed to her death, the office said.

An expert hired by the Anderson family said in a report released in July that Aldridge and Myers acted "contrary to generally accepted police practices" and that their actions were "unreasonable and excessive for the circumstances."

The expert, former Deputy Los Angeles Police Chief Lou Reiter, said both officers also failed to provide adequate medical care to Anderson.

Aldridge and Myers have been the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation. One of the two officers was involved in a 2012 police chase of a Black couple through the streets of Cleveland that ended fatally in a hail of 137 bullets into the couple's car. The cops claim they couple fired a gun at police but no gun was ever found or seen. Must have been the muffler. 

The case is now in the hands of the Ohio Attorney General's Office. The family has expressed frustration that the criminal investigation has dragged on for more than two years.

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Suit Says White Cops in Lima, Ohio Tasered a Pregnant Black Woman in the stomach after Unlawful Seizure & False Arrest

From [HERE] White police officers in Lima, Ohio, shocked a black woman in the stomach with a stun gun after she repeatedly told them she was pregnant and then arrested her to cover up the incident, she claims in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Brittany Osberry was forcefully arrested by Lima police officers on Aug. 10, 2016, while trying to pick up her friend’s children from a house that was under police surveillance, according to her complaint filed in Toledo federal court.

Osberry sued Lima Police Chief Kevin Martin and three Lima police officers – Zane Slusher, Aaron Montgomery and Mark Frysinger – for claims of civil rights violations, excessive force, assault and failure to train.

According to incident reports from the Lima Police Department, several Lima police officers had set up a perimeter around the house prior to Osberry’s arrival because they believed a suspect in a drive-by shooting was barricaded inside.

When Osberry pulled her vehicle into the property’s driveway, Frysinger allegedly approached her with his gun drawn and ordered her to leave.

She says she asked why she had to leave and told the officers that she was there to pick up the children, at which point Frysinger forcefully removed her from her vehicle, slammed her against the side of the car and placed her under arrest.

Osberry repeatedly told the officers she was pregnant as Frysinger and Montgomery physically restrained her, the complaint states.

Slusher then approached the vehicle and shocked Osberry in the stomach with his stun gun despite her warnings about the pregnancy, according to the lawsuit, causing her severe physical and emotional injuries.

The officers then allegedly denied Osberry medical treatment and charged her with resisting arrest, obstructing official business and disorderly conduct.

“Plaintiff was wrongfully detained, at the direction and training of defendant Martin, to cover up the abuse and intentional and/or reckless assault and harm caused by the other defendants,” the complaint states. “Plaintiff was further denied medical treatment for her tasing, in the stomach, and medical treatment for her in utero child, by defendant Martin.”

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Fed Court May Grant Immunity to Plainclothes [White] Border Patrol Cops Who Burned Latino Man To Death After Chase in Unmarked Car

From [HERE] The Ninth Circuit indicated Wednesday that though it may grant qualified immunity to four white San Diego Border Patrol agents who Tasered and "accidentally" killed a Latino motorist when his car caught fire, it could hold the federal government accountable for his death.

Two of the three judges on the panel asked whether tort claims against the United States brought by the parents of Alex Martin, the 24-year-old man who was killed, would remain intact if qualified immunity were granted to the agents.

“It appears to me that there is at least a triable question of fact as to whether the amount of force used was excessive,” Ninth Circuit Judge Susan Graber said. “If qualified immunity is nonetheless available because of a lack of clearly established law, what survives of the tort claims? Would that leave the assault and battery claim in place?”

The family’s attorney Gene Iredale said Martin had been driving for 22 hours on his way back from Texas when he got lost in Pine Valley, California, in March 2012. Border Patrol agents tried to pull him over for driving the wrong way on Interstate 8. However, the pursuing agents were all in plain clothes and unmarked cars, so Martin did not stop. For about three minutes, Martin led the agents on a high-speed pursuit that ended when he drove over spike strips that deflated his tires.

Martin, who had pulled over on the side of the road, had no way of knowing the men approaching him were law enforcement, Iredale claims.

“These agents approached in unmarked cars, in plain clothes and never identified themselves by the display of badges or even the simple statement ‘Border Patrol,’” the attorney said.

Martin’s family claims the agents pointed guns at him and failed to identify themselves as officers.

Martin, believing they were thieves, sped away, eventually blasting through the Highway 80 Border Patrol checkpoint, where he swerved off the road to evade spike strips another agent had placed on the road to stop him, and drove off a second time.

The chase is described in the family’s brief to the Ninth Circuit, and in the government’s answering brief.

When the agents finally forced him to stop, the cops claimed Martin reached for something near the center console of his car. Believing Martin was reaching for a weapon, one of the agents broke a window and Tasered him. No gun was found. 

The Taser touched off gasoline that had spilled from a canister inside the car and the car exploded, burning Martin to death.

In the video, a plainclothes agent is seen using a flashlight to break the passenger side window. He then raises up his Taser and shoots inside. Immediately, an explosion rocks the car, throwing the agent against the hillside behind him.

Martin burned to death. The video shows that instead of trying to save him, all of the agents pulled their vehicles away from the scene.

“All three of those cars had large fire extinguishers in them and standard equipment,” Iredale said. “Not one of these agents ever even tried to spray any of the fire extinguisher solution on that car.” [MORE]

Martin’s parents said their son was so badly burned his skin was charred black and the underlying tissue and bone exposed.

The Martins sued in June 2013, alleging excessive force, assault and battery, wrongful death and Bivens civil rights claims against the agents, and negligence, wrongful death, assault and battery and excessive force against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act.

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