Tag: police accountability

Internal police docs: ‘No good reason for shooting’ Ashli Babbitt

After obtaining over 500 pages of internal documents from the DC Metropolitan Police, Judicial Watch has found that they believe the shooting of Ashli Babbitt, who inside the Capitol during the riot on January 6, was unjustified.

In May, Judicial Watch filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain more than 500 pages of internal documents from the DC Metropolitan Police regarding the killing of Ashli Babbitt.

In the report, eyewitness testimony from a Capitol Police sergeant, whose name was redacted, suggests that while Babbitt did in fact climb through a broken window to enter the Capitol building, she was not carrying a weapon when she was shot by Capitol Police officer Lt. Michael Byrd.

“Sergeant [redacted] observed a white, female protester was climbing through an opened area where the glass pane had been knocked out,” a document from the Internal Affairs Division states.  

“He heard a gunshot and this female fell backwards through the opening. The crowd on the other side of the barricaded east doors, began to step back and some put their hands in the air. Sergeant [redacted] observed Lieutenant Byrd step back just after hearing the gunshot. He did not see anything in the female protester’s hands prior to the gunshot.”

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Woman Missing for 2 Weeks, Found Dead in Police Van, In Dept’s Parking Lot—Family Demanding Video

If you are looking for a parking lot or building with the most surveillance cameras in place, a police station would likely be a good start. There are likely many cameras around every police station, filming the building and the parking lot alike. It is this video footage that the family of Christina Nance is demanding from police after she was found dead in the back of a Huntsville police van — parked in the middle of their parking lot.

Police have not yet released video showing when the van was parked there or how Nance, 29, ended up in the back of it.

“She was just very positive, fun-loving and caring person, very sweet, very sweet,” Christina’s sister, Whitney Nance told WAFF.

”She was fun to be around, real sweet, innocent,” said Christina’s cousin Amanda Mastin.

“I just looked back at her and she was just smiling,” Latausha Nance, Christina’s other sister said. “And I said, ‘Christina, why are you smiling like that?’ and she just said, ‘Oh nothing, it’s nothing.’ That’s the last memory I have of my sister.”

Nearly two weeks ago, the Nance family was shocked to learn that Christina was missing and they’ve been frantically searching for her ever since. Then, on Oct. 7, they found out where she had been — dead, in the back of a police van, in the police department’s parking lot.

”We have no idea how she ended up there out of all places, why there out of all places, why there,” Whitney said. ”She was in the van the entire time and nobody knew. Not even the police department knew.”

According to police, an officer walking through the parking lot discovered Nance’s body in the back of the van. Police claim they leave the doors to the van unlocked all the time so anyone could climb in there.

The idea of police leaving their vehicles unlocked is ludicrous given the gear that is inside them, not to mention, vandals and others who may seek to get inside them.

According to the Madison County Coroner, Nance’s body didn’t show any signs of trauma but the family is still suspicious and want to know some answers.

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Shocking Study Finds Over Half of Those Killed by Police Have Never Been Counted

Tragically, in America, the domestic security force we are forced to pay for, also known as police, kill more people than any other police force on the planet. The numbers that are released publicly are staggering, however, according to a new study, they are actually far worse.

The study, conducted by the University of Washington and published in the British medical journal, The Lancet, found that police killings in America have been undercounted by more than half over the past four decades.

Researchers at UW compared the government’s numbers from the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) with the open source work at nonprofit groups like Fatal Encounters, Mapping Police Violence, and The Counted. What they found was shocking — the government is not counting police killings nearly as close as private citizens are.

The study found that the NVSS data undercounted police killings by 55.5 percent between 1980 and 2018. Overall, according to the researchers, “the misclassification of police violence in NVSS data is extensive.”

According to an analysis of the study by the NY Times, the “findings reflect both the contentious role of medical examiners and coroners in obscuring the real extent of police violence, and the lack of centralized national data on an issue that has caused enormous upheaval. Private nonprofits and journalists have filled the gap by mining news reports and social media.”

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Cop Arrested After Shooting at a ‘Puppy’, Killing Innocent Sleeping Woman Instead

As readers of the Free Thought Project know, police killing or attempting to kill dogs is an all too common occurrence — happening so often that it is caught on video much of the time. Also, as the following tragic case our of Arlington, TX illustrates, all too often, police will attempt to kill a dog — miss the dog — and shoot and kill an innocent person instead.

A Texas grand jury indicted a police officer this week after he was seen on video trying to kill a dog and killing an innocent woman instead.

Arlington police officer Ravi Singh was charged on Wednesday with criminally negligent homicide for killing Maggie Brooks, 30, the daughter of an Arlington fire captain.

“It’s a puppy. This is a grown man afraid of a puppy. Who is the paid professional in this encounter? Every child, every mailman, every runner, jogger, bicyclist has dealt with a dog running at them and no one ends up dead. Why do you go to deadly force immediately?” Brooks’ father, Troy Brooks, said.

Brooks explained to FOX4 that he thought the charges should have been more severe given the ridiculous nature of his daughter’s death.

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Disturbing Video Shows Cop Walk Up to Family, Shoot Their Happy Puppy as it Wagged His Tail

An utterly disturbing and outright infuriating video was released this week as part of a family’s lawsuit against the now-infamous Loveland police department. In the video, we see the cowardice of officer Matthew Grashorn on display as he shoots a 14-month old puppy in the face and body as it happily walked up to greet him.

The family is now suing after their complaints to the department fell on deaf ears and they were essentially ignored for over two years. The shooting took place on June 29, 2019 and the family has been seeking justice for their mixed boxer puppy “Herkimer” ever since.

On that fateful day, Wendy Love and Jay Hamm were running their firewood delivery company when they pulled over in a vacant parking lot to repair a box they use for the firewood. The owner of the building saw them on security cameras and thought they may be trying to use his dumpster, so he called 911 to have cops investigate.

When police asked the building owner if the family was near or had been near the dumpster, the business owner said, “no,” according to the lawsuit. No crimes had been committed yet the officer responded as if he had arrived to a hostage situation.

“It was an ambush, and Grashorn knew it. He didn’t care,” the suit says. “He suspected that they were poor and wanted to surprise them, to see if they were up to anything he might be able to get an arrest for.”

As Grashorn walked up to the family, he never announced himself but Herkimer, who, according to the suit is a happy dog who had never bitten anyone, trotted up to greet the officer. Unfortunately, however, Grashorn is a coward and instead of petting the dog, Grashorn shot it.

As Wendy approaches the officer crying in horror, Grashorn refuses to let her near her dog to help him.

During this, Hamm yelled at Grashorn, asking him why he had shot a “clearly friendly dog,” according to the suit. Grashorn responded that he had “no way of knowing” whether Herkimer was friendly, that he “wasn’t in the business to get bit” and he had no interest in “waiting to find out” if the dog was friendly.

In other words, he’s a coward who shoots first and asks questions later.

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Despite Majority of US Calling for End to Qualified Immunity, Feds Tell Americans It’s Here to Stay

Last year marked a turning point in American policing after the death of George Floyd. Though Floyd’s death at the hands of police was hardly unique, it was not in vain, as it proved to be the iconic moment Americans were waiting for to push back against the massive police state that has been constructed around them. Multiple states and counties across the country took action to curb the problem of excessive force in the ranks of their police departments by ending qualified immunity for cops. But short of sweeping change inside the federal government, meaningful national reform remains stagnant.

After massive proposals from Congressman Justin Amash and Senator Rand Paul who wanted to end qualified immunity and no knock warrants respectively, were largely ignored by the masses — mostly due to the fact that Amash and Paul lean Right — the left came in and promised to fix things. But, once again, actual change is off the table.

It was reported this week by Politico that lawmakers behind police reform negotiations — Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) — are no longer considering changes to the problem with qualified immunity. Although disappointing, this should come as no surprise given the fact that the DNC nominated the “Queen of the police state” Kamala Harris for Vice President. But it certainly flies in the face of what We the People are demanding.

Last year, a poll from the Pew Research Center found that the majority of Americans support removing qualified immunity for cops. And it is obvious as to why they do.

Under the doctrine of qualified immunity any government official who violates your constitutional rights is shielded from civil action. This heavily flawed legal loophole has emboldened bad cops to unleash horrific violence and corruption on the American public without fear of being sued.

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Cop Opens Door to Porta-Potty Immediately Kills Unarmed Man with His Hands Up

Harrowing video has been released this week showing the execution of an unarmed man, sitting down inside of a portable toilet. Daverion Deauntre Kinard was gunned down by Fontana officer Johnny Tutiavake on Feb 13 — the day before his 29th birthday.

Illustrating the serious nature of the shooting is the fact that before the family even filed a lawsuit, the city offered up a million dollar payment for Kinard’s death. But after seeing the body camera footage and knowing that Kinard spent his last moments alive putting his hands up and surrendering to the police before he was executed, $1 million doesn’t even come close to the damages his family should seek.

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Cop Ruled Justified Despite Video of Him Shooting Innocent Child While Killing Suspect

Rylan Wilder was a 15-year-old boy who made history in 2019 by becoming the youngest person to have ever played at the music festival Riot Fest in Chicago’s Douglas Park. He is the lead guitarist and vocalist for his band, Monarchy Over Monday. Unfortunately, however, Wilder may never be able to play music again after he was shot twice by police as they pursued and killed a robbery suspect, Christopher Willis.

Now, nearly two years after the shooting, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office has announced that the officer who started wildly firing into the occupied music school, Des Plaines Police Officer James Armstrong, will not face charges, and Wilder’s bullet holes were ruled “justified.”

“I don’t want to say they ruined my life, but they took away a huge part of it that I loved and they just don’t say anything,” Wilder told WGN. His family pointed out that police never even offered so much as an apology for shooting him.

“Will I ever be able to play guitar again?” was Wilder’s first question after coming out of surgery. According to his doctors, the answer to that question is unknown as he has undergone 14 surgeries since that day on his arm and abdomen. He has yet to regain control of his arm. Wilder told reporters that police are acting as if they never shot him.

Two years later and the government has still refused to take responsibility for the incident.

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Pasco County Cops Harassed Them and Searched Their Homes Without Warrants. A Judge Says They Can Sue.

It’s not every day you receive a letter from the local police department congratulating you on your acceptance into an exclusive program. Such is the story shared by several residents in Pasco County, Florida, a community in the Tampa area. One problem: None of the recipients applied.

“We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected to participate in a Prolific Offender Program,” reads a letter from the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO). “Research indicates that barriers to successful living may involve struggles with mental health, substance abuse, domestic violence, homelessness, finding a job, or several other challenges many people face on a daily basis. It is possible you have struggled with some of these issues. If so, please know the Pasco Sheriff’s Office is committed to support you in overcoming these challenges through this program.”

The “support” it offers, originally detailed in an investigation by the Tampa Bay Times, includes sending cadres of cops to people’s homes, where officers show up unannounced, harassing them and their family members, performing warrantless searches on their homes, and trying to nab them on petty offenses, like having grass that is too tall. The lucky winners were “selected as a result of an evaluation of your recent criminal behavior,” according to the PCSO, “using an unbiased, evidence-based risk assessment designed to identify prolific offenders in our community.”

In other words, the program is ostensibly trying to keep people out of trouble and deter future criminal behavior before anything goes dramatically awry. That sounds well-intentioned on the surface. But its “relentless pursuit” of community members has ruthlessly entangled people with the state—including targets’ family and friends—trampling over their Fourth Amendment rights in the process, says a recent lawsuit filed by the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm.

Their clients received good news this week: Though the PCSO sought to have the suit dismissed on a litany of different grounds, a federal judge struck each down in a ruling issued on Wednesday, allowing the claim to proceed.

“The Fourth Amendment protects the right to be safe and secure in your person and property,” says Ari Bargil, an attorney on the suit. “This program violates that right,” he notes, “because it allows and requires Pasco County Sheriff’s Office deputies to approach people at their home, harass them, refuse to leave, and in some instances demand entry without a warrant. These are obvious and clear Fourth Amendment violations.”

Sheriff Chris Nocco, the brains behind the program, openly admitted that it’s intended to do more than what the congratulatory letter implies: He hopes it will “take them out” of the community, he said, with one of his former employees conceding that their job was to “make their lives miserable until they move or sue.”

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Cop Charged After Mistaking Innocent Dad for Criminal, Entering His Backyard and Executing Him

As frequent readers of the Free Thought Project understand, police officers mistake innocent individuals for criminals all the time. Often times, their fear gets the best of them and these folks who have committed no crime and harmed no one, are beaten or arrested only to be exonerated down the road. One man in Idaho Falls, however, will not have a chance to be exonerated because the police who mistook him for a suspect — executed him.

On February 8, 2021, Elias Aurelio Cerdas, a 26-year-old officer who graduated from training less than a year before the shooting, entered the backyard of Joseph “Joe” Johnson, a father of four, mistook him for a criminal, and executed him.

For nearly six month, Cerdas remained on paid vacation without charges but all that changed this week and he has been indicted for manslaughter.

According to East Idaho News, Cerdas was not arrested after being charged but issued a summons for his arraignment at the Bonneville County Courthouse on Aug. 23.

According to police, shortly after midnight early that morning, a Bonneville County Sheriff’s Deputy attempted to make a traffic stop at which point the vehicle came to a stop and the driver of the vehicle fled into a residential neighborhood. The deputy involved in the pursuit told fellow officers they were looking for a man in a black shirt.

During the search, police identified the man and found that he had multiple warrants for his arrest including Felony Battery on an Officer, and two Failure to Appear Warrants with original charges of Resisting/Obstructing Arrest, and Providing False Information to Law Enforcement.

Police claim the suspect, Tanner Shoesmith, 22, had a history of violent altercations with law enforcement which appears to be a cover for the way they acted when they found and then killed Johnson.

According to police, the passenger in the vehicle that was originally pulled over never fled and stayed behind to talk to police. Police claim this passenger had received a message from the suspect, who — while on the run from the cops — took the time to message the passenger and send him his GPS coordinates.

According to police, these GPS coordinates — sent by the suspect who was running from cops, to the passenger he knew was still with the cops — showed him in the backyard of a residence on the corner of Tendoy Drive and Syringa Drive — Johnson’s backyard.

Police then surrounded this house and killed the father of four in his backyard after claiming he had on a black t-shirt and was holding a gun.

“Sometimes everyone does what they think is right and tragedies happen,” the chief said at the time.

After killing the innocent man, a brief investigation revealed that he was not the suspect and, in fact, lived in the home and had committed no crime. Moments later, down the road, a deputy reported seeing a man running and the suspect was located in the back yard of a house, hiding in a shed. The suspect, who police claim has a history of violent interactions with police, was taken into custody without incident.

Since that day, police have failed to release any more information in regard to the shooting.

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