Tag: police brutality

ATF Honors Agents Who Kicked Off the Waco Slaughter of Women, Children

The ATF is honoring its agents who were killed as they kicked off the slaughter of American women and children at the Waco, Texas Branch Davidians compound in 1993, in an event widely known as the “Waco Massacre.”

The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives Houston, Texas office posted to Twitter this week to mark the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the Waco Siege, that led to the Waco Massacre. Included in the ATF’s tweet was a photograph of four agents “standing post” at the “Waco Peace Officer Memorial in Waco, TX in honor of Special Agents Conway LeBleu, Todd McKeehan, Robert Williams, and Steve Willis.”

The ATF was blasted in the responses to its tweet by a chorus of Twitter users, including prominent accounts like those of Jake Shields and Mindy Robinson.

“We mourn for the innocent women and children you burned alive,” Shields commented on the ATF’s tweet.

“Oh, you mean the baby killers?” Mindy Robinson wrote. “Are they standing guard so real patriots don’t dance on their graves? Yea, it takes a real man to shoot, kill, poison, and set innocent women and children on fire for their own “safety.”

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Ohio Woman Says Cops Broke Her Wrist for Recording During Traffic Stop

A new lawsuit alleges that an Ohio woman suffered a broken wrist and other injuries after being violently arrested during a traffic stop, in part due to filming the police who pulled her over.

In February 2020, Amanda Mills was pulled over for speeding in Walton Hills, a small town outside Cleveland, Ohio. According to the suit, a police officer, identified in the lawsuit only as “Officer Schmidt” exited his cruiser “irate” and “screaming.” Nervous, Mills began recording the encounter. Schmidt ordered Mills to get out of her vehicle. According to the suit, “Amanda asked ‘why?’ without making any other statement or any sudden movement. At this point, Officer Schmidt realized Amanda was filming him with her cellphone, and he became even more agitated.”

According to the complaint, Schmidt “opened Amanda’s driver-side door, grabbed her by the wrist and arm, and ripped her out of her vehicle.” Another officer helped Schmidt pin Mills to the side of her vehicle. The suit alleges that “Amanda screamed that she was not resisting arrest and continued to cry out in pain.” However, rather than releasing her, officers handcuffed Mills and put her in the back of their cruiser while they searched her vehicle. Eventually, Mills was released from custody after officers could not find illegal substances or outstanding warrants for her arrest. While Mills was initially charged with a first-degree misdemeanor for “failing to comply” with police orders, that charge was eventually dropped.

According to the suit, Mills was left with a broken wrist and other injuries to her arm and breasts. The complaint alleges that the officers’ excessive force violated Mills’ Fourth and 14th Amendment rights. The complaint also says that the Walton Hills Police Department’s practices are the “moving force behind the injuries suffered by Amanda,” and the department is guilty of “failing to adequately train, adequately supervise, as well as failing to investigate and discipline, its police officers when it comes to the excessive use of force.”

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Anthony ‘Tony’ Mitchell froze to death after guards put him in walk-in freezer at Alabama jail

An Alabama man froze to death inside a county jail after he was placed inside a walk-in freezer or another cold area by guards, a recently filed lawsuit alleges.

The family of Anthony “Tony” Mitchell says that more than a dozen jail officials in Walker County abused him and then schemed to cover up the alleged mistreatment.

Mitchell dealt with “hellish” conditions inside the jail for roughly two weeks before his death following his arrest in mid-January, his grieving mother, Margaret Mitchell, argues in the suit.

“While Tony languished naked and dying of hypothermia in the early morning hours of Jan. 26 and his chances for survival trickled away, numerous corrections officers and medical staff wandered over to his open cell door to spectate and be entertained by his condition,” the bombshell complaint claims.

A Walker County sheriff’s official told a relative that Mitchell, 33, would receive help while inside the jail after his arrest, but instead he was tased by guards and housed in the jail naked, due to the facility’s suicide watch policy, the lawsuit speculates.

Mitchell suffered from drug addiction and faced both mental and physical health woes, according to his family.

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Cop Arrested After He Was Caught Dumping Naked Body of 16yo Girl in the Woods

The residents of Norcross have been searching for 16-year-old Susana Morales since she went missing on July 26, 2022. She was last seen walking home on surveillance footage but tragically would never arrive. Her disappearance had been a mystery until last week when her body was discovered 20 miles away. According to an arrest warrant, she was dumped there by disgraced Doraville police officer Miles Bryant.

“It’s unbelievable honestly, there is no words that I can say to explain it,” said Jasmine Morales, Susana’s sister. “It sucks that it took so long but I guess with him being an officer has something to do with that.”

On Monday, Bryant was charged with concealing Susana’s death — her body was discovered five days earlier. Bryant has only been charged with one count of concealing the death of another and one count of falsely reporting a crime.

According to the arrest warrant, police say Bryant dumped Susana’s naked body in a patch of woods in Dacula. Medical examiners are still trying to determine the teen’s cause of death. The warrant states that police suspect Bryant of rape, murder, and other offenses, although he’s yet to be charged with those crimes.

According to court records, Bryant lived near Susana. Local news, 11 Alive interviewed neighbors who said Bryant was normal.

One of those neighbors shared cell phone videos, showing what they described as investigators collecting a bed sheet from Bryant’s personal car. In one of the videos, his police car was being towed away.

“It’s hard to put my mind around it right now, that’s this person who lived in this complex did that,” said another resident who asked not to disclose her identity out of fear of retaliation. That neighbor says while she didn’t know Bryant personally he has introduced himself several times as a police officer who also moonlights as security at the complex.

Neighbors said Byrant’s demeanor during the past six months wasn’t alarming.

“He was very normal, just smiling laughing, living his life,” the neighbor said. “Poor baby laid out in a field somewhere. Are you serious, how can you be that cold-hearted? How is somebody that cold-hearted?”

Though much of the media is referring to Bryant as a “former officer,” he was a cop until Monday. He was only fired after being charged with dumping the naked body of a teenager in the woods.

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Family Shocked as Cop Who Beat Elderly Grandma to Be Released Early, Serving Less than 1/5 of Sentence

On June 26, 2020, Karen Garner, 73, walked from her home to the local Walmart two blocks away to get some supplies. Everything that happened after this trip to Walmart became the subject of an excessive force lawsuit against the Loveland Police Department that cost taxpayers $3 million because they have no idea how to treat elderly women with dementia.

That $3 million now goes to the round-the-clock care required for Garner after the attack left her disabled.

For nearly a year, the cops who savagely attacked the elderly woman thought they got away with it. However, in April 2021, the Loveland city manager announced that Officer Austin Hopp, Officer Daria Jalali, Sgt. Phil Metzler, and Community service officer Tyler Blackett had all been suspended and placed on administrative leave. Then, the following May, Jalali and Hopp were both charged.

At the time, the chief of the Loveland police department, Robert Ticer referred to the incident, saying, “What you saw on the video is not the Loveland Police Department.”

In March, Hopp took a plea deal. Before that deal, Hopp had faced a mandatory sentence between 10 and 32 years for his brutal attack on the innocent woman as she picked flowers walking home from the store.

Last May, Hopp was sentenced to 5 years but thanks to his blue privilege, this cop could be out of jail next week — after serving only nine months. CBS reports Hopp is scheduled to appear in a northern Colorado court next week to possibly be transitioned out of prison and into a halfway house program.

“The Garner family is shocked and confused that former Officer Hopp is being offered a parole hearing to discuss the opportunity of moving to Community Corrections,” the family wrote in a statement. “His plea deal and sentence of 2-5 years did not even offer the opportunity of a parole hearing until April of 2024. He’s only served 9 months of his sentence. This is likely being offered due to prison overcrowding, according the CO DCC website, and we’d like to know what Governor Polis is doing to make sure violent offenders are not being let out years early, as is happening in this case.”

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Cops Kill Man for Running Away, Shoot Him At Least 5 Times After He Falls to Make Sure He’s Dead

If we were to declare a winner in the decades-long war on drugs today, hands down, drugs would be the victor. For over 50 years, the US has waged a cruel and horrific campaign of violence, injustice, brutality, and oppression to eradicate arbitrary substances they’ve deemed illegal. Not only was this campaign unsuccessful at eradicating substances, but it’s led to the most deadly drug overdose epidemic in history in which enough people die every year to pack an NFL stadium.

Instead of realizing the error of their ways, the callous, obstinate, and violent state has simply doubled down on enforcement — driving a black market consisting of increasingly dangerous synthetic substances. Fentanyl, in particular, has gripped the nation thanks to the prohibition of safer alternatives, driving crime, suffering, and death. As the following case illustrates, it also fuels an incentive for rampant police violence.

Eric Nathaniel Thornton, 38, was suspected of buying this substance in Jacksonville, Florida last month which landed him six feet under. According to police, officers were watching Thorton and Brian Brightman — who they referred to as a “known drug dealer” — conducting an “illegal drug transaction.”

Because cops claim the right to kidnap, cage, and even kill you over these arbitrary substances they deem “illegal,” they moved in to make an arrest. Not wanting to be kidnapped and caged, Thornton ran from officers.

Thornton never once attempted to harm the officers and was merely attempting to avoid being thrown in a cage for his addiction. He needed medical help for a medical problem; instead, he received bullets… at least ten of them.

As Thornton ran from officers, they claimed he was holding a knife and used this as a reason to fill the fleeing man with holes.

“He’s got a knife,” an officer can be heard saying before executing a fleeing man.

As the body camera footage shows, Thornton dropped to the ground, let out a groan, and died on the scene. Police would go on to justify his execution by releasing photos of knives, which they claim were a threat to their lives as Thornton ran away.

We’re told that the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is now looking into the matter and the result of the investigation they are conducting on themselves will be released when it’s complete.

Thornton was the third person killed by this same department in the first few weeks of 2023. As long as this country continues to treat addiction and substance abuse with violence and coercion, Thornton will be but a single line on an ever-increasing list of names whose lives were taken by the losers of the war on drugs.

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California cops shoot dead double amputee, 36, as he tries to run away from them on his stumps: Police department says officers feared he was going to ‘throw his knife at them’

A group of California police officers shot and killed a double amputee on Thursday as he tried to run away from them on his stumps after jumping out of his wheelchair. 

The three cops from Huntington Park Police Department were filmed firing at least eight shots at Anthony Lowe Jr., a 36-year-old father-of-two. 

His family say he lost the lower halves of his legs recently after an altercation with police in Texas.  

Lowe Jr. had just stabbed someone unprovoked, according to the police department, and was trying to run away from two officers on Thursday. 

First, they tried to Tase him, chasing him as he ran down the sidewalk, away from the wheelchair he had leaped from.

He turned and tried to hurry away from them, clutching a large butcher’s knife in one hand.

A second police car arrived, from which a third cop emerged. Within 15 seconds of the third officer arriving, they fired multiple shots, shooting Lowe in the upper torso. 

Once he was on the ground lying on his stomach, they placed him in handcuffs. 

‘The suspect was tased at least twice by Huntington Park Officers but the deployment of the taser was ineffective. 

‘The suspect attempted to throw the butcher knife at the officers again, at which time an officer involved shooting occurred,’ the LA County Sheriff’s Office release said.

Lowe Jr. later died at the scene. His family is now demanding answers from the police department. 

The officers involved have not yet been named.

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Cop Executes Unarmed Man on His Knees with His Hands Up, Complying with Orders

The Free Thought Project has reported on countless killer cops before, many of them with several notches in their belts for killing the citizens they are sworn to protect. However, Modesto police officer Joseph Lamantia, a 12-year veteran of the force, has shot five people, killing four of them. His most recent victim was Trevor Seever, 29, who finally got this killer cop arrested. Lamantia shot Seever in the back on December 29, 2020.

Lamantia was fired and charged with voluntary manslaughter three months after he killed Seever. Seever was unarmed and posed no threat when Lamantia killed him. He was on his knees, had his hands in the air, and was complying with the officer’s orders.

Now, two years later and the state is attempting to whitewash what was nothing short of an execution. As Lamantia’s case moves through the court, officials have brought in a “use-of-force expert” to justify the killer cop’s actions.

Jeffrey Martin was hired by the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office to give his “expert” testimony and did so by claiming that Seever — who was on his knees, unarmed, and more than 50 feet away — was a threat. On Friday, Martin concluded that Lamantia’s use of force was reasonable.

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SWAT Team Wakes Up Couple, Shoots Unarmed Disabled Husband, Attempts to Cover It Up

If you read the original headlines in December 2022 after police filled Jason Harley Kloepfer, 41, with bullet holes, you would have thought that police acted heroically and saved the day. Headlines, however, especially when they involve “official” statements from police, are often very wrong.

“Kloepfer confronted officers, forcing them to shoot the suspect,” the police initially told reporters, who unquestioningly printed it. The official statement from the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office read as follows:

On Monday December 12th, 2022 at approximately 11pm Cherokee County E911 Communications received a 911 call indicating a disturbance with several gun shots fired at 1790 Upper Bear Paw Road. Cherokee County Deputies were immediately dispatched and arrived on the scene at approximately 11:17pm. Deputies attempted to make contact with the alleged shooter but was unsuccessful. Recognizing there was an armed suspect present and the potential for a hostage situation, Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office obtained a search warrant and requested assistance from the Cherokee Indian Police Department SWAT Team. The suspected shooter engaged in a verbal altercation with officers and emerged from a camper trailer and confronted officers. Members of the Cherokee Indian Police SWAT Team fired upon the suspect and wounded him. The suspect was transported to Erlanger in Chattanooga Tennessee where he was last reported in stable condition.

However, video footage was released over the weekend, showing this description was a lie. Kloepfer never “confronted” anyone, complied with officers’ orders, was unarmed and had his hands up when officers filled him with bullet holes, sending him to the hospital fighting for his life.

According to police, they arrived at the scene that night over reports of shots fired. They wrongly accused Kloepfer of holding a hostage inside his home and deployed a robot camera inside his home.

As the video below shows, the robot camera wakes the sleeping couple who then get up to see what was going on. As Kloepfer and his wife walk out the front door, both unarmed, they put their hands in the air before officers open fire.

Kloepfer collapses. “What the hell!” his wife screamed at the officers while helping Kloepfer. “He’s shot – what the hell did you do!”

Despite shooting an unarmed man and knowing that he is bleeding out inside, officers yell for Kloepfer to come outside. He could not.

As cops finally enter the trailer, Kloepfer is faintly heard telling them, “I don’t have a gun. I didn’t have a gun.”

After the SWAT officer drags Koepfer’s body from the trailer, they realize they are on camera and quickly acknowledge it.

“F**k, cameras,” an officer says after seeing the video recording device. Police then turn the lights back on as they appear to put on night vision in a futile attempt to cover their actions — apparently unaware that the camera had night vision as well.

Kloepfer, who was disabled before the shooting, has been in recovery ever since, having undergone multiple surgeries. He has been sharing his recovery on Facebook and says he and his wife are staying out of state, claiming they fear for their lives with the Cherokee county SWAT team giving them ample reason to do so.

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Cop Shoots Homeless Man Until He Collapses, Shoots Him Again on the Ground to Finish Him Off

Chilling video was released this week showing several officers surrounding a homeless man before one officer dumps seven rounds into him, continuing to shoot him even after he fell to the ground — ensuring his execution.

The incident unfolded on Jan. 3 as police responded to a 911 call from a resident claiming the man was on top of his fence. When officers arrived, they found the unnamed homeless man sitting on the ground, leaning back against the fence. Moments later, the man would be filled with bullet holes.

According to a press release from the Phoenix police department, the man was simply accused of looking over a resident’s fence.

This incident occurred in the area of 35th Avenue and Broadway Road when Phoenix Police received a call about a man trying to enter a residential back yard. The caller described a man on top of his backyard fence who became angry when the caller confronted him.

Multiple officers were dispatched to the area. After talking with the caller, the officers were directed to the alleyway behind the house. Three officers found a man in the alley matching the description given. The man had a pair of scissors in his right hand.

As the video shows, the officers interviewed the caller who informed them that the man merely looked over his fence and never entered his yard. No crime had been committed as ‘becoming angry’ is not illegal. Nevertheless, officers surrounded the man like he was wanted for murder.

When the first officer saw the scissors, he immediately brandished his pistol and began ordering the man to drop the scissors. The man, who was clearly in need of mental health care, did not respond to the commands.

The man then stood up as two officers deployed their tasers. Unfortunately, the tasers had little to no effect on the man who then took a step toward the officers only to be filled with bullet holes. The police statement described the incident as follows:

The officers order the man, in both English and Spanish, to drop the scissors. When the man did not respond to their commands, two officers deployed their tasers. The taser deployments had little effect. The man then advanced towards the officers with the scissors still in his hand. That is when the officer-involved shooting occurred.

It is important to note the difference in the level of the description given to the entire scenario versus the part where the officer killed the man. Nowhere in their statement did they mention that the officer shot the man six times as he collapsed to the ground. Nowhere in the police statement does it mention that another shot was fired into the man’s body a full 3 seconds after he had been lying on the ground.

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