Tag: police brutality

Parents Of Christian Glass Getting $19 Million Settlement

The family of a man from Colorado who was shot and killed by a deputy last year will be awarded a $19 million settlement, marking the largest payout of its kind in the state’s history.

The incident occurred in Silver Plume on June 11 when 22-year-old Christian Glass, a resident of Boulder, contacted 911 for assistance after his SUV became stuck in a rock pile.

Based on body camera footage and an autopsy report provided by the family’s legal representatives, it was observed that Glass appeared to be holding a knife at the time of the shooting. Despite nearly 70 minutes of negotiations and requests, Glass refused to exit his Honda Pilot, resulting in him being shot five times.

On Tuesday, his parents, Sally and Simon Glass, reached a multi-million dollar settlement with Clear Creek County, the state of Colorado, the city of Georgetown, and the town of Idaho Springs.

This settlement represents the largest amount awarded for a police-related killing in the history of Colorado. As part of the agreement, Clear Creek County has committed to establishing a public park in memory of Glass. Additionally, they will establish a dedicated crisis response team by January 1 of the following year. The state of Colorado will also implement changes in training for law enforcement agencies, which will include the development of a virtual reality scenario focused on de-escalation, designed to reflect the circumstances surrounding Christian Glass’s tragic death.

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Man dies after cops refuse to let him take heart transplant meds while jailed on misdemeanor

A heart transplant recipient died after Florida jailers refused to let him take medication that kept his body from rejecting the organ two days after he was arrested over a dispute with his neighbor over wireless internet, according to a report.

Dexter Barry had waited 12 years for a new heart before finally getting a transplant in 2020, but went without his life-sustaining medication after a misdemeanor arrest for assault due to an argument with his neighbor over payment for a shared wi-fi account, reported The Tributary.

The 54-year-old Barry, who had remained calm during the arrest, told the officer he took heart transplant medication and requested a wheelchair, but no other medical notes were made in police records. Duval County jails allow outside drugs to taken in the case of rare or expensive life-sustaining medications with a verified prescription.

“The police officer could’ve gone inside and got his medication,” said son Dexter Barry Jr. “This man is telling you, my heart needs those meds. A two-minute walk would’ve saved his life.”

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Former LAPD cop arrested for child sex crimes dies in custody

A former LAPD police officer who was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of committing lewd acts with a minor has died while in custody, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed.

Paul Razo died while in LASD custody on Saturday, May 20.

“The inmate was within our custody when they were transported to Los Angeles County Medical Center for a preexisting medical condition. While being medically treated the inmate passed. The cause of death will be determined by autopsy by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner,” the LASD said in a statement.

Razo had been charged with eight counts of committing lewd acts with a minor by the L.A. County District Attorney’s office.

He allegedly sexually assaulted at least four boys. Two of whom were his relatives.

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Taxpayers Shell Out $400K After School Cops Beat the Hell Out of a Child Then Framed Him

Another chilling incident showcasing the deeply entrenched culture of abuse and deceit within the American law enforcement mixture with public education has come to light. Riverside County taxpayers were forced to make amends in the amount of $400,000 to Daniel Silvas, the father of a 13-year-old boy who was allegedly assaulted and falsely accused of resisting arrest by sheriff’s deputies in 2018.

The boy, a freshman at San Jacinto High School at the time of the incident, faced a harrowing ordeal on only his second day at school. It began when he was singled out by security officer Jesus Peraza under the pretense of a suspicion of impending trouble, a suspicion that attorney Jerry Steering, representing the boy, ties back to fights at the school the previous day.

The boy, aware of his innocence, chose to protest and walk away from the confrontation, a decision that triggered a chain of events culminating in an alleged assault and subsequent framing. The school’s resource deputy Derrick Bunn and the security officer followed him in what the lawsuit describes as an “intimidating” manner. The situation escalated when the boy asked the two to stop tailing him, leading to Deputy Bunn reportedly shoving the boy to the ground.

What followed was a spectacle of police brutality, with Bunn repeatedly screaming expletives at the minor while beating him. Not wanting to miss out on the sadistic beating of a child, Deputy Timothy Dunlap joined the fray. Despite video evidence that contradicted their claims, the deputies and Peraza maintained that the boy had taken a fighting stance and cursed at them.

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Cops Raid LEGAL Cannabis Farm and Execute Man’s Leashed Dog

In an infuriating and utterly horrifying incident that lays bare the problematic reality of America’s drug war, law enforcement authorities with a search warrant on a state-licensed cannabis farm in rural Trinity County near Hayfork, fatally shot the cultivator’s dog on May 2. 

This glaring display of militarized policing in response to what is essentially a civil code violation is a chilling reminder of the inhumane costs of enforcing an immoral law about a plant that is legal in most parts of the country. Despite the victim having a valid state license, the county permit was a bone of contention that led to this brutal incident. The video of this appalling act has gone viral, leading to widespread outrage and backlash — especially since the dog was chained up.

The raid was part of several (between six to nine, depending on who you ask) conducted over the first two days of May in remote areas of western Trinity County, notorious for cannabis cultivation. According to the Trinity County Sheriff’s Department, these raids resulted in the seizure of over 16,000 marijuana plants, 7,500 pounds of processed marijuana, 25 firearms, and $64,566 in cash. The horror.

Police argue that their actions were justified when they executed the dog because it was allegedly trained to attack and lunged at an officer. They failed to mention the part where the dog was on a chain.

What’s more, this account ignores the fact that five of the raided farms were state-licensed — including this one. The grower, Nhia Yang, a 64-year-old Hmong man, had taken necessary steps to legitimize his operations and was waiting on the county license due to administrative lag. Furthermore, Yang had received a CDFW Qualified Cultivator grant and passed an inspection just a week prior to the raid, which affirmed his compliance with state regulations.

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Salt Lake City Suspended Use of Police K9s and Nothing Bad Happened, Study Shows

Cops have long partnered with dogs, claiming they help keep officers safe. But a study published in January suggests that police do just as well without canine colleagues.

In 2020, Salt Lake City suspended the use of police K9 units after The Salt Lake Tribune published body camera footage of an officer ordering his dog to bite a 36-year-old black man who was on his knees with his hands in the air. That abrupt policy shift gave researchers at the University of South Carolina, the University of Utah, and Clemson University a chance to test claims about the benefits of police dogs.

Police say dogs help find hidden suspects, deter resistance, protect officers, intimidate potentially violent crowds, and improve public relations. But the researchers, who reported their findings in the Journal of Experimental Criminology, found that the “sudden suspension of K9 apprehension was not associated with a statistical increase in officer or suspect injury, or suspect resistance, during felony arrests.” The authors concluded that restricting or eliminating police K9s ​is “unlikely to impact aggregate officer or suspect safety negatively.”

Those results contradict widely accepted assumptions. “There is a great conviction within the law enforcement K9 community that these programs provide more effective policing by increasing officer safety, reducing suspect injury, and deterring suspect resistance,” the researchers wrote. “We were not able to detect any such effect on any measure.”

There is ample evidence, however, of what happens when police dogs are misused. In a March report on constitutional violations by police in Louisville, Kentucky, the U.S. Justice Department described several incidents in which officers sicced dogs on compliant or nonthreatening suspects. In one case, an officer searching for a home invasion suspect discovered a 14-year-old boy lying face down on the ground and immediately “deployed his dog off-leash” without “giving any warning.” The officer “ordered the dog to bite the teen at least seven times,” inflicting “serious injuries on his arm and back.”

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DHS Official Gets Life for Using His Federal Authority to Rape, Abuse, and Then Silence Women Victims

In a chilling example of a trusted government official abusing his power to carry out his depravity, a disgraced special agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) was sentenced to life in federal prison for sexually assaulting two women and leveraging his official position to prevent them from reporting his violent conduct. John Jacob Olivas, 48, of Riverside, California, was found guilty of three counts of deprivation of rights under color of law and sentenced to life in prison this week.

It is worth noting that while HSI had individuals like Olivas in their ranks raping women and silencing them, Homeland Security was busy referring to people who questioned the COVID lockdowns as “domestic terrorists.” This disturbing irony highlights the immense power and authority that comes with law enforcement positions and their ability to demonize the innocent while hell unfolds within their ranks.

Olivas sought out a position of authority and used it to prey on women, violating their constitutional rights while abusing them sexually. According to victim testimony, he made it clear to his victims that the police would not be responsive to any report they made about him due to his status as a federal agent. He even threatened them with retaliation, such as making them “disappear,” having their children taken away, and getting them arrested on fake criminal charges.

One victim testified that Olivas tried to rape her “after making it clear to her that the police would not be responsive to any report she would make about Olivas because he was ‘above a cop,’ and ‘untouchable’ and ‘invisible’ to police” because of his federal position, the U.S. attorney’s office statement said.

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Video showed cop trying to stop his partner from killing a man. Police investigators never even asked about the footage.

In the spring of 2019, two New York City Police Department officers entered the Bronx apartment of Kawaski Trawick. The 32-year-old personal trainer and dancer had called 911 after locking himself out.

But 112 seconds after their arrival, footage showed, one of the officers shot and killed Trawick, despite the officer’s more-experienced partner repeatedly telling him not to use force.

When an internal investigation later cleared the officers — saying “no wrongdoing was found” — the NYPD offered no explanation for its reasoning. But records obtained by ProPublica can now reveal how the department came to that conclusion.

Investigators never explored key exchanges between the two officers in the run-up to the shooting. They also never followed up with the officers when their accounts contradicted the video evidence.

“Any conversation between you and your partner?” the head of the investigative unit asked Officer Herbert Davis hours after the shooting.

“No,” Davis answered.

That wasn’t true.

After arriving at Trawick’s apartment and finding him holding a stick and a bread knife, body-worn camera footage shows that Davis, who is Black, told his less-experienced white partner, Officer Brendan Thompson, not to use his Taser. “Don’t, don’t, don’t,” he said, motioning for Thompson to step back.

Thompson fired his Taser anyway, causing Trawick to become enraged, and Davis then tried to stop Thompson from shooting Trawick. “No, no, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t,” Davis said, before briefly pushing Thompson’s gun down.

The investigators had access to all that footage. They never asked either officer about it.

ProPublica obtained the NYPD’s full internal investigation, including audio of interviews with both officers, via a Freedom of Information Law request.

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Cops Handcuff 9yo Boy With Special Needs to a Pole, Forcibly Hospitalize Him for Episode in Class

The Walpole Public School System and the Walpole Police Department in Massachusetts are facing public outrage after handcuffing a 9-year-old student to a pole during a mental health crisis, further exemplifying the systemic issues in our schools and the increasing tendency to rely on the American police state. Lawyers for Civil Rights and Anderson Krieger LLC law firm have written a letter to the involved parties demanding wide-ranging reform in response to this disturbing incident.

On January 12, the third-grade student, diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and delayed intelligence, faced a dysregulated episode in class. The student’s individualized education plan contained specific procedures for positive reinforcement to regulate his behavior. Instead of following those guidelines, school staff called the school resource officer, who then summoned officers from the Walpole Police Department.

Remember, this is a 9-year-old boy… not a hardened armed criminal on the run.

Nevertheless, two officers arrived and forcibly handcuffed the child to a pole, restraining his arms and legs before taking him to a local hospital. He was held in adult custody, unable to reach his mother until his discharge. Erika Richmond, an attorney with Lawyers for Civil Rights, stated, “The actions taken by Walpole Public Schools and the Walpole Police Department against this 9-year-old boy were egregious, age-inappropriate, and directly contradicted the school’s own guidance for regulating his behavior.”

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Police Get a Green Light to Use Force Against Unarmed Individuals Who Have Already Surrendered or Complied

The U.S. Supreme Court has once again refused to hold police accountable for using force on unarmed individuals who have already surrendered or complied with police orders. Despite a series of high-profile incidents involving the use of unnecessary and excessive force by police against unarmed individuals, the Court declined to narrow the scope of qualified immunity granted to officers who assault non-violent suspects who have ceased to resist arrest.

Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute and Cato Institute had filed a joint amicus brief before the Supreme Court in Salazar v. Molina, challenging a lower court ruling that essentially gives police a green light to punish and harm suspects solely based upon their initial nonviolent resistance or flight. The legal coalition warned that the ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which granted qualified immunity to a police officer who tased a non-violent suspect in the back after he lay down to surrender, undermines public safety by discouraging suspects from surrendering or complying with police commands.

“The old police motto to ‘protect and serve’ has become ‘comply or die,’” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “This is how we have gone from a nation of laws—where the least among us had just as much right to be treated with dignity and respect as the next person (in principle, at least)—to a nation of law enforcers (revenue collectors with weapons) who treat ‘we the people’ like suspects and criminals.”

In March 2014, around 2:00 a.m., a sheriff’s deputy in Zapata County, Texas, tried to pull over Juan Carlos Salazar for speeding. However, Salazar accelerated and led police on a high-speed chase for approximately five minutes. After two vehicles pulled out in front of Salazar and blocked his way forward, Salazar stopped his car, got out, raised his hands, and then lay face-down on the ground with his arms above his head to surrender. There was no indication that Salazar had any weapon or was violent. But within seconds, a sheriff’s deputy ran up and fired his taser at Salazar’s back while he was still lying prone on the ground.

Salazar subsequently filed a lawsuit claiming that the deputy used excessive force in violation of his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable seizure. The deputy moved to dismiss the lawsuit by claiming that he was entitled to qualified immunity. Although the trial court disagreed with the deputy, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that when a suspect has tried to evade capture, officers can question whether the suspect’s purported surrender is a ploy. Despite there being no reasonable indication of any such ploy by Salazar, the Fifth Circuit found that the deputy was entitled to qualified immunity and therefore dismissed the lawsuit against him.

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