Tag: police brutality

Police Raid Man’s Home For Heating It With S9, Charged With Intentional Climate Change

The Bitcoin mining industry is being thrown into chaos as a Canadian man has been arrested for heating his home with an Antminer S9. The man posted a video of his setup on Twitter which lead to law enforcement visiting his home and arresting him. He faces up to 3 months in jail and $600 in fines for “Causing distress to the community” and “intentionally warming the climate.”

The officers raiding the home arrived heavily armed, and even shot the man’s dog who was barking in the hallway after they kicked the door down. Body cam footage shows police laughing after shooting the dog, and one officer exclaimed, “Wow I finally got my first one.” Unfortunately, in Canada, shooting peoples pets is a protected action under qualified immunity.

Canada has been a hotbed for Bitcoin mining, but now many miners are fearful they too will be charged with similar charges. The Canadian government has been unclear about what their intentions are and whether this applies to all Bitcoin miners or just people who post their miners on Twitter. There are also rumors that the Canadian government is going to be rolling out an emissions system to test miners for carbon production, and will be requiring registration.

Many have pointed out how similar Bitcoin miners are to other applications such as space heaters, large data center servers, and just about any application that consumes electricity. Bitcoin miners produce just as much carbon as electric vehicles, yet they are being treated very differently, suggesting the move is targeted. Despite that, the issue of climate change is of upmost concern. If sea levels rise, it will destroy all the billionaires beach front property and secret Caribbean islands.

Elizabeth Warren applauded the move and stated, “1 s9 running emits 4 units of climate change an hour. 1 Bitcoin transaction emits 16 units of climate change. We must be like Canada and stop the madness.” Senate Republicans are currently organizing to censor Warren’s comments on the subject until she passes a basic literacy test.

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Tribal officer who shot, killed a deer is no longer deputized

The Pokagon Band Tribal Police officer who shot and killed a deer in Van Buren County is no longer deputized. 

Officials confirmed that the officer will no longer have any authority working with the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office, and will now only have the authority to enforce laws on tribal land.

The incident on Friday sparked outrage in the town of Lawrence, as the officer was filmed forcing a deer to the ground and then shooting it in the neck. It happened after tribal police were assisting county law enforcement in serving an unrelated arrest warrant.

Neighbors say they knew the deer as “Annie,” and while they say she was a wild deer, they say she was remarkably friendly to people, and was loved throughout the area.

“It was amazing. It was one of the most coolest things we’d ever seen. She let us pet her. She let my three-year-old pet her, and, you know, she kind of wandered around our yard, but she always came back to see us. She did no harm,” said Amanda Beck, a resident. 

Community members have formed the online group “Justice for Annie,” and have been sharing memories along with voicing concern over how law enforcement handled the incident. A neighbor who witnessed the incident says the officer shot the deer in front of the family who originally found her when she was injured, and provided her aid. 

“You’ve not only traumatized everybody in the family who watched it happen 10 feet from them, but what could have happened with you firing that firearm 10 feet from a house, 10-foot from a busy highway?” questioned neighbor Theresa Braswell.

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‘We feel nothing for you but hate’: Victims of ‘sadistic’ paedophile police officer who blackmailed 200 girls into sharing explicit images on Snapchat say they have self-harmed, contemplated suicide and are too afraid to go out – as he’s jailed for life

The victims of a police officer who blackmailed more than 200 teenage girls into sending him explicit images have spoken of the trauma they experienced after being subjected to his crimes. 

Lewis Edwards, 24, who groomed 210 girls aged between 10 and 16 on Snapchat between November 2020 and February 2023, was today jailed for life with a minimum term of 12 years.

The South Wales Police officer, who joined the force in January 2021, posed as a 14-year-old boy and forced his victims to make indecent videos and images of themselves, which he covertly recorded.

He then used the recordings to blackmail his victims into sending increasingly graphic and explicit images. He also sent videos of himself performing a sex act.

Some of the girls that were subject to his campaign of abuse told the court of how his crimes had affected them – with many self-harming, contemplating suicide, losing friends and left fearful of going out.

The court heard all but one of the victims were abused while he was a serving police officer, and he targeted one teenager just 17 days after meeting her as part of his duties.

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PITTSBURGH JAIL LET AUTISTIC MAN DIE DUE TO CULTURE OF NEGLECT, LAWSUIT SAYS

The family of a 57-year-old, intellectually disabled, and autistic man who died at Pittsburgh’s Allegheny County Jail filed suit on Tuesday, alleging that atrocious medical care at the facility caused his death.

Anthony Talotta arrived at the Allegheny County Jail (ACJ) in September 2022 after being arrested at a group home he had been living in. About a week and a half later, he was dead. The lawsuit, filed by the Abolitionist Law Center and a local law firm on behalf of Talotta’s estate, claims that pervasive medical neglect at the jail contributed to his preventable death. The Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism has published multiple investigations into the jail—revealing systemic neglect of detainees’ health needs and a lack of transparency.

The complaint alleges the jail’s medical provider, the nonprofit Allegheny Health Network (AHN), routinely deprives detainees of basic medical care, leading to catastrophic consequences, particularly for those with disabilities. According to the complaint, of the 17 people who died between March 2020 and Talotta’s 2022 death, almost 90 percent were—or should have been—identified as needing chronic care.

“And for incarcerated persons who simultaneously had either mental illness or neurodevelopmental disorder with some other chronic care needs, the culture that AHN and Allegheny County created at the ACJ guaranteed that those individuals were discriminated against, and that their medical needs were not met,” the complaint states.

In response to emailed questions, spokespeople for Allegheny County and AHN told The Appeal they do not comment on litigation.

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‘You just broke my neck’ — Man accuses jailer of assault, FBI investigating

When Jeff Fry walked into the Lorain County jail on May 12, he was facing a misdemeanor bench warrant. He had no idea he’d leave the facility on a stretcher with permanent injuries.

“My head snapped back and that was it,” said Fry as he sat with his left arm in a sling, outside a friend’s home.

Fry said he spent two weeks in the hospital and another four months in a nursing facility recovering from what happened inside the jail that day.

His lawyer said Fry’s injuries included a broken neck and permanent spinal cord damage.

Now the FBI is investigating, and Fry’s lawyer is preparing a lawsuit, but as far as News 5 investigators could tell, no discipline was ever meted out, and the officer responsible is still on the job.

The 58-year-old Fry said he doesn’t remember much of the incident with a corrections officer that led to the injuries, but said he didn’t deserve what happened that day.

The emotions it brings up were evidenced by the tears that welled up in his eyes when asked about it.

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Horrifying moment cops HANDCUFF nine-year-old special needs child throwing a tantrum at Florida elementary school

The parents of a 9-year-old Florida boy are suing the city of Oviedo and local police after officers handcuffed their child in a school mailroom during a violent outburst and threatened to send him to jail.

The parents say excessive force was used when a cop handcuffed their son, in a shocking moment captured on body cam footage that was released to the public on Thursday.

The fourth grader is a special needs child who is prone to outbursts – to the point where the school, Stenstrom Elementary, had a specific procedure in place.

The student’s Individual Education Plan and Behavior Intervention Plan mentions ‘physical aggression’ as a behavior problem, according to a complaint filed September 27.

Staff were instructed not to ‘engage in any conversation other than having him complete the task’ and otherwise ‘limit the level of attention directed to him,’ the complaint says.

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County agrees to $12.2M settlement with man who was jailed for drunken driving, then lost his hands

 A Minnesota county agreed to pay a $12.2 million settlement to a man who was jailed on suspicion of drunken driving but ended up losing both his hands and suffering a heart attack, a stroke and skin lesions all over his body, allegedly due to the inaction of officials in the county jail, attorneys said Wednesday.

Terrance Dwayne Winborn spent about four months in hospitals, including two months on a ventilator, because Scott County jail officials failed during the 39 hours he was incarcerated to ensure he got the prompt treatment he needed, his lawyers said at a news conference.

It’s a case that highlights the vulnerability of prisoners who are dependent on authorities for medical care.

The attorneys said the settlement will cover the more than $2 million in medical bills Winborn has already incurred — a sum which they said the county didn’t cover — as well as the millions he’ll need for ongoing care. The county’s insurance plan will cover the settlement.

“That deliberate indifference allowed a bacterial infection to run rampant within his body, leading to a heart attack … and a host of other devastating and permanent injuries,” attorney Katie Bennett told reporters.

Jason Hiveley, an outside lawyer who handled the case for Scott County, said in a brief statement that the county and its insurer, the Minnesota Counties Intergovernmental Trust, agreed to the settlement in exchange for dismissal of Winborn’s lawsuit and a release from his claims. The statement did not say whether the county still denies any wrongdoing.

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Family of girl, 8, who died in her mother’s arms after being shot in the back by cops at Philadelphia high school game awarded $11M settlement

The family of an eight-year-old girl who was killed in a shooting incident involving police outside a Pennsylvania high school football game in August 2021 has reached an $11 million settlement. 

The resolution was agreed upon in federal court more than two years after the incident that lead to the death of Fanta Bility outside Academy Park High School in Sharon Hill, north of Philadelphia. Three others were also injured during the incident. 

The Delaware County District Attorney’s Office previously reported that the shooting incident resulted from teenagers engaging in gunfire during an argument.

The teens fired 25 shots toward a car and crowd of people leaving the football game in the small borough near Philadelphia International Airport. 

It prompted three police officers stationed nearby to discharge their firearms.

Tragically, Fanta lost her life because of a single gunshot wound to her torso.

Authorities later determined that it was police gunfire that led to her death.

Ballistics testing could not determine which officer fired the shot that killed her, but a grand jury recommended that all three face charges after they fired a total of 25 rounds.

‘There is no amount of money that will ever bring Fanta back or erase the horrible tragedy of what occurred on August 27, 2021, from our minds,’ Fanta’s mother Tenneh Kromah said in a statement on NBC News. 

‘We hope to move on and focus specifically on the Fanta Bility Foundation and keeping Fanta’s name and legacy alive.’

The law firm representing the family said they hoped the settlement would provide some ‘measure of justice and accountability to those whose lives were forever changed’ by the incident.

The three officers involved, Sean Dolan, 27, Devon Smith, 36, and Brian Devaney, 43, were fired from the police department and faced charges of voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, and reckless endangerment in connection with the incident that occurred on August 27, 2021. 

The officers told investigators they thought a car driving toward them was the likely source of the gunfire, prompting them to return fire.

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Tony Timpa Wrongful Death Trial Ends With 2 Out of 3 Cops Getting Qualified Immunity

At the heart of the civil trial concerning Tony Timpa—who died during a mental health crisis after calling 911 in August 2016—was an appeal made to the jury by the lead defense counsel, Senior Assistant City Attorney Lindsay Wilson Gowin. “Justice here is truth,” she said. Then, invoking allegations that the Timpa family had not been transparent about various dark corners of Timpa’s life, she added: “That’s not how you find the truth.”

She had a point. But that statement, made during closing arguments Tuesday, was a bit ironic, particularly when considering the lengths the government went to in order to obscure basic transparency and keep the events of that summer night a secret. Indeed, the trial, which almost didn’t come to fruition, has come to symbolize how difficult it is for alleged victims of government abuse from stating their case, and the importance of allowing those claims a fair and public hearing, no matter the outcome.

Today, a federal jury rendered their verdict. The panel of eight found that Officer Dustin Dillard, Senior Cpl. Raymond Dominguez, and Officer Danny Vasquez did in fact violate Timpa’s constitutional rights during a roughly 15-minute interaction on Dallas’ Mockingbird Lane. But they gave Dillard and Vasquez qualified immunity, concluding that, while their actions were unlawful, a reasonable officer couldn’t have been expected to know as much. A fourth defendant, Sgt. Kevin Mansell, the highest-ranking officer supervising the scene that evening, was vindicated entirely.

The city will have to pay Timpa’s son $1 million in damages.

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Delaware state trooper tried to turn off body camera before ‘brutal’ assault on teen: prosecutors

A Delaware state trooper who allegedly “brutally beat” a 15-year-old boy who played a “ding-dong ditch” prank has been charged with multiple felonies, NBC 10 reported.

Dempsey R. Walters, 29, was charged with second-degree assault, a felony; deprivation of civil rights, a felony; two counts of third-degree assault, misdemeanors; and two counts of official misconduct, as well as other misdemeanors.

Officials say Walters was on duty when the incident occurred but turned off his body camera during the assault, but the device still captured video with no audio.

The video shows Walters walk up to the boy, who was handcuffed and sitting in a police car, and strike him in the face.

“Please tell me what I did? Please tell me what I did?” the boy asks.

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