Tag: police brutality

Innocent Family’s Home Burned, 15yo Boy Dead After SWAT Set Their Home on Fire with Flash Bangs

An innocent family is homeless and a 15-year-old boy is dead after a SWAT team engaged in a standoff to arrest a suspect for a parole violation. Police are now conducting damage control to avoid taking the blame.

SWAT team raids house for a robbery suspect. Flashbangs ignite the house, which is then engulfed in flames. After the fire, police find the body of a 14-year-old boy. He was not the suspect. Nor was the family who live in the house.

(via @DrRJKavanagh)https://t.co/Sog4jszHzR

— Radley Balko (@radleybalko) July 10, 2022

Last week, police said they were pursuing a suspect, Qiaunt Kelley, for a federal felony warrant for robbery. They later changed their story to say that Kelley was wanted for violation of parole. While on the run, Kelley ran into the home of an innocent family and barricaded himself inside the home, according to police.

A standoff ensued for hours as police demanded Kelley exit the home. As Kelley held up in the home, a 15-year-old boy, identified as Brett Rosenau, also entered the home and police knew he was inside. He was not a suspect and was not wanted but it is unclear as to why he did not exit the home.

The teenager somehow “followed Kelley into the home,” the Albuquerque department said.

At some point during the standoff, smoke began emerging from the windows as half the house became engulfed in flames. As fire-fighters arrived on the scene, Kelley escaped the fire and was taken into custody before being transported to a local hospital to be treated for burn injuries. He is currently in jail.

The boy who was holed up in the home with Kelley was not so lucky. After the fire-fighters extinguished the fire, they found the boy’s body. Officials have yet released the cause of the boy’s death.

After news of the boy’s death was reported, Albuquerque police quickly took to Twitter to dispel rumors that they shot him. However, they admitted that their actions could have ignited the fire.

“There is false information being spread on social media about the overnight SWAT incident. No officers fired their weapons. Arson investigators are trying to determine the cause of the fire. Both individuals were given opportunities to safely exit the house,” the department tweeted.

Adding that “We disclosed the devices used to get the occupants to exit the home. We have used them hundreds of times w/out incident. We acknowledge the possibility that one of these devices may have contributed to the fire. AFR’s arson investigation will determine the cause of the fire.”

We disclosed the devices used to get the occupants to exit the home. We have used them hundreds of times w/out incident. We acknowledge the possibility that one of these devices may have contributed to the fire. AFR’s arson investigation will determine the cause of the fire.

— APD Public Information Officer (@APD_PIO) July 10, 2022

Residents of the home told KOB4 that the flashbangs were the cause of the fire.

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Rogue Cops: The Supreme Court Is Turning America Into a Constitution-Free Zone

“No one should get used to their rights. Predicting with certainty which ones, if any, will go, or when, is impossible.”—Mary R. Ziegler, legal historian

The Supreme Court has spoken: there will be no consequences for cops who brutalize the citizenry and no justice for the victims of police brutality.

Although the Court’s 2021-22 rulings on qualified immunity for police who engage in official misconduct were largely overshadowed by its politically polarizing rulings on abortion, gun ownership and religion, they were no less devastating.

The doctrine of qualified immunity was intended to insulate government officials from frivolous lawsuits, but the real purpose of qualified immunity is to ensure that government officials are not held accountable for official misconduct.

In Egbert v. Boule, the Court gave total immunity to Border Patrol agents who beat up a bed-and-breakfast owner, in the process carving out a massive exception to the Fourth Amendment for border police (and by extension, other federal police) who unconstitutionally use excessive force. As journalist Ian Millhiser concludes, “Egbert v. Boule is a severe blow to the proposition that law enforcement must obey the Constitution.”

In Cope v. Cogdill, the Court let stand a Fifth Circuit ruling that granted qualified immunity to jail officials who watched a suicidal inmate strangle himself without intervening or calling for help. Likewise, in Ramirez v. Guadarrama, the Court let stand a lower court ruling granting qualified immunity to police officers who fired their tasers at a suicidal man who had doused himself in gasoline, causing the man to burst into flames.

Both Cope and Ramirez move the goal posts for the kind of misconduct that merits qualified immunity, suggesting that even sheer incompetence is excusable when it involves a cop.

It’s a chilling reminder that in the American police state, ‘we the people’ are at the mercy of law enforcement officers who have almost absolute discretion to decide who is a threat, what constitutes resistance, and how harshly they can deal with the citizens they were appointed to ‘serve and protect.”

This is how unarmed Americans keep dying at the hands of militarized police.

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Cops Dump Over 90 Rounds Into Fleeing Man Over Stop for ‘Traffic Equipment Violation’

Before he was filled with taxpayer funded bullets on Monday, Jayland Walker, 25, was a standout wrestler at Buchtel High School, where he graduated in 2015. According to his family he worked for Amazon then took a job driving for DoorDash and was set to get married. All of this is over now, however, after multiple officers decided to dump more than a dozen rounds each into Walkers body after he fled a traffic stop for a simple violation.

Walker’s family says their son was engaged to his fiancé, Jaymeisha Beasley, who was tragically struck by a hit and run driver last month who has yet to be found. The families of the couple are now jointly grieving their tragic losses, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.

According to Bobby DiCello, the lead attorney for the Walker family, prior to fleeing the traffic stop on Monday night, Walker had no criminal record.

“Jayland, not one time in his life, and you can search this city, this state and this country— never offended or bothered a soul. And how these events took place leaves us with many, many questions,” said DiCello at a press conference on Thursday. “Our job, by doing this press conference, is to remind the police department for the city of Akron that we are here for accountability.”

According to police, an officer attempted to pull over Walker around 12:30 a.m. on Monday for a “traffic equipment violation” but for some reason he refused to stop. A chase ensued and would last four and a half minutes. Video from traffic cameras show that in this short time, the single cruiser following Walker multiplied into a whopping 10 cruisers.

Police would claim that Walker fired a gun from his vehicle during the pursuit. Captain Dave Laughlin, of the Akron Police Department, told the press that officers didn’t see a weapon but heard a gunshot or multiple gunshots from the car on the entrance ramp of Route 8.

Police claim Walker then came to a stop before exiting the vehicle and fleeing on foot. That’s when he was surrounded by cops and executed.

“Actions by the suspect caused the officers to perceive he posed a deadly threat to them. In response to this threat, officers discharged their firearms, striking the suspect,” the police statement said.

Police claim to have found a gun in Walker’s vehicle but have made no mention as to whether or not he was armed when 8 officers all began shooting him like a firing squad. According to photos obtained by the attorneys, after Walker was filled with holes, police then handcuffed his dead body and waited for the medical examiner to arrive to pronounce him deceased.

“We know that no police officer ever wants to discharge their service weapon in the line of duty,” the mayor and chief said in a joint statement. “And anytime they must, it’s a dark day for our city, for the families of those involved, as well as for the officers.”

Clearly, however, this was not the case. Officer who don’t want to fire their weapons won’t dump 90 rounds into a person who was likely unarmed.

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Cop Beaten to Death by Fellow Cops During Exercise on How to Respond to Civilian Unrest

The mother of a Los Angeles police officer is coming forward this week alleging that her son 32-year-old officer Houston Tipping, was beaten to death by fellow cops during department training last month. Tipping was playing the role of a civilian and was beaten by fellow officers and suffered fatal head and neck injuries.

Shirley Huffman, Tipping’s mother filed a notice of claim against the city this month as part of a wrongful death lawsuit. Her son suffered a massive spinal cord injury during the event on May 26 and died three days later. He was buried last week.

Huffman stated in her lawsuit that the training exercise “had already been questioned” before her son was killed as other officers had previously suffered injuries during the training.

In a statement after Tipping’s death, police claimed that Tipping was injured while “grappling” with another officer in a tragic “accident.”

 At the time of the accident Officer Tipping was a bike instructor engaged in a training scenario involving grappling with another officer. During the scenario Officer Tipping fell to the floor and suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury. Officers immediately began CPR and summoned a LA Fire rescue who transported Officer Tipping to USCMC.

This is a point with which Huffman disagrees. Huffman alleged her son was “repeatedly struck in the head severely enough that he bled,” and that the beating resulted in injuries requiring stitches. He also suffered multiple breaks in his neck, which caused his death, the claim said, according to the LA Times. 

Bradley Gage, an attorney for Huffman, said Tipping suffered injuries to two parts of his head and to four vertebrae.

“Chief Moore stated that Officer Tipping impressed his peers with a ‘willingness to go the extra mile to make the world a better place,’” her claim stated. “Yet, that wasn’t enough to avoid other officers paralyzing him and eventually killing him in violation of law, and his civil rights.”

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Is THIS where NYPD’s subway resources are going, Mayor Eric? Outrage as beloved busker with his dancing toy cats is taken down by six cops while serious crime soars and terrified commuters REFUSE to take train

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he was stunned by how bad Big Apple subway riders had it until he rode the subway himself last week and realized how poorly cops were being used to crack down on crime underground.

As subway crime continues to spike – rising nearly 40 percent from the first half of last year – Adams, in an exclusive interview with the New York Post, said he patrolled the transit system himself late at night for three hours and didn’t care for what he saw. 

‘Let me tell you something: When I started looking into this, I was shocked at how bad this place is,’ Adams told the Post.

Days before the mayor touted his awakening on the hazards of subway travel, a video emerged of at least six NYPD officers arresting busker John Ajilo, a saxophone player with the catch phrase ‘Dancing is Happiness.’

‘I was shut down, handcuffed and taken to the police station for performing in the same spot 34th Herald Square I have been performing [in] on and off for about five years,’ he said on his GoFundMe page, which has already collected over $30,000. 

Mayor Adams said he first knew he had to do something about subway crime about three weeks in office.

‘It was probably, the third — third or fourth week in January. I spent a lot of time in the office,’ he said.  ‘And I started peeling back layers and what it started to unveil to me is how we just had this good shell, but underneath — it’s bad.’

The New York City subway is run by the New York City Transit Authority, which falls under the state Metropolitan Transportation Authority, controlled by the chairman, Janno Lieber, who was appointed by Gov. Kathy Hochul and confirmed by the state Senate in January.

The mayor appoints several members of the MTA board, but has little control over the operation and maintenance of the system.

Ridership on the subway is just under 60 percent of what it was pre-pandemic, with roughly 3.4 million daily commuters using the system.

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Officer Arrested for Raping His Daughter to Prove She Was Not Gay, Before Murdering Her And Her Mom

As TFTP reported in 2019, in one town in Alaska, the “bad apple” excuse goes completely out the window as every single cop on the force at one time, had been convicted of domestic violence. One of the cops was even a registered sex offender.

According to the report, Nimeron Mike was a registered sex offender and had served six years behind bars in Alaska jails and prisons. He’d been convicted of assault, domestic violence, vehicle theft, groping a woman, hindering prosecution, reckless driving, drunken driving and choking a woman unconscious in an attempted sexual assault. Among other crimes.

Nevertheless, when Mike put in his application, he was hired immediately. But Mike is only one of seven cops in the town who has a history of beating and raping women. Every other cop on the force, including the current police chief has a criminal record involving abuse of women, yet all of them remain cops.

This week, we have learned the inevitable and horrifying results of looking the other way as cops dole out violence on their families. Jalonni Blackshear, 39, has been transported back to Alaska after he was found hiding out in New York. He is currently in a cage — where he belongs — and is being held on a $15 million bond for horrifically unspeakable criminal acts against his own family.

According to police, Jalonni Blackshear had an argument with his 14-year-old daughter in March when she came out as gay.

“She was told that she could not be gay,” Jeri White, who is Raechyl Blackshear’s mother and Jayla’s grandmother told Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby during an arraignment hearing Tuesday. “And then several hours later, he attempted to prove to her that she was not gay by doing these unmentionable, unspeakable things that good fathers would never do — that good fathers would actually lay down their lives to protect their children from.”

As Anchorage Daily News reports:

On March 30, the morning after the argument, Jayla told her mother she had been sexually abused in their home while Raechyl Blackshear was working an overnight shift as a nurse at a local hospital, according to a bail memorandum written by prosecutors last month and filed this week. The 34-year-old mother took her daughter to the hospital, and they were then directed to Alaska CARES, where a sexual abuse evidence kit was collected. Alaska CARES is a child advocacy center that focuses on helping children who have experienced trauma from abuse.

After the sexual assault allegations, Raechyl Blackshear and her children stopped staying at the home. She and Jayla were sleeping at a hotel, according to the bail memo. Jalonni Blackshear was at a hotel room with his brother and one of his children, the document said. Three of his sons were staying with a family friend.

Four days after officer Blackshear raped his own daughter, he threatened her mother and forced her to recant her statement to the police. On April 3, Jayla Blackshear went to the police department with her mother and retracted her statement, claiming the sexual abuse allegations were false.

Hours later, Blackshear would find his daughter and his wife at their home where he murdered them both with a shotgun.

He then stole his daughter’s phone and began texting family — pretending to be his daughter — to throw police off his trail before fleeing to New York state. Because of this, their bodies would not be discovered for ten more days when a nationwide manhunt was launched for Jalonni Blackshear.

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Woman Tells Cops She Can’t Get on the Ground Because She’s Pregnant, Cops Put 5 Rounds In Her

When a mother of three was travelling through Kansas City, Missouri last week, pulling off the highway to get her children some ice cream, she never imagined that she and her children would witness police shoot an unarmed pregnant woman. Unfortunately, however, that’s exactly what happened according to Shé Danja.

Shé Danja, who declined to give her last name out of fear of police retaliation, pulled out her phone and recorded the incident as it unfolded and the video appears to show that 26-year-old Leonna Hale was unarmed when she was shot 5 times by Kansas City police officers.

Immediately after they shot her, police claimed that a “gun was recovered at the scene.” However, Hale did not appear to be holding it and according to the eye witness, Hale told police there was a gun in the vehicle which was far away from Hale when she was shot.

The incident unfolded on Friday May 27 when police say they were looking for a carjacking suspect. According to police, they found a vehicle matching the description of the stolen vehicle located at the Family Dollar on 6th street.

When police approached the vehicle, the male driver exited the car and took off running while Hale stayed back. Hale then complied with police and got out of the car like she was asked to do.

According to the Kansas City Star, who interviewed Shé Danja, “The cops told the woman to get on the ground, but the woman informed them that she was pregnant, and so she couldn’t get down on the ground.” Then police asked her to get down multiple times, which she still couldn’t. The woman then informed police that there was a gun in the vehicle.

The woman began moving back toward a fence of the parking lot. Numerous officers approached and drew their weapons. “She did not pull out a weapon on them,” Shé Danja said. “She did not even have a stick in her hand.” The woman ran three steps away from officers, Shé Danja said, and police shot five times.

“One, two, three, four, five. I remember it because it didn’t stop. They shot five times,” Shé Danja told the Star. “I remember seeing her hit the ground and I froze,” she said. She also asked police numerous times why they shot the woman, but officers refused to answer.

Shé Danja was then forced away from the scene by one of the responding officers, despite telling him that her son was still in the store.

As the video shows, Hale is seen lying on the ground as the blood starts to leak through her shirt. Instead of medical aid, police move in to handcuff her. According to police, she was eventually taken to the hospital with life threatening injuries and remains in critical but stable condition. The condition of her unborn child is unknown.

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