Tag: police brutality

If Derek Chauvin Can Be Found Guilty, These Cops Should Be Prosecuted as Well

On Tuesday former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin found guilty of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Chauvin was seen on video kneeling on the neck of George Floyd — who was handcuffed and not resisting — for over 8 minutes, until he died. Had video of the incident not existed, the chances of Chauvin even being charged would have been non-existent. Even with the video, Chauvin’s case is extremely rare as cops who kill are almost never held accountable.

Finding a police officer facing a murder charge for an on-duty shooting is like finding a unicorn in your front yard. As TFTP has reported, despite horrifying police killings, many of which were captured on video and rocked the nation, the arrest rate for cops who kill people on-duty remains as low as ever. According to reports, since 2005, just 126 police officers have been arrested for murder or manslaughter in relation to an on-duty killing.

Of those 126, just 44 have been convicted, with 31 of their cases still pending, and just eight cops total, including Chauvin, have been convicted of murder. The other 37 cops were convicted on charges ranging from manslaughter to official misconduct, with many of them receiving no jail time.

Chauvin’s case proves, however, that it is indeed possible to charge cops who unnecessarily kill people. If he can be convicted of murder, others should be as well. The Free Thought Project has composed a list of killer cops whose crimes were just as, or more horrific as Chauvin’s but who were never charged.

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As Chauvin Verdict Draws Near, Facebook Clamps Down With Heavy Moderation

As the National Guard takes up positions across Minneapolis ahead of the Derek Chauvin verdict, Facebook has announced that it will be heavily moderating its platform to remove posts promoting civil unrest or violence in Minneapolis, according to Bloomberg.

The social media giant will remove posts that celebrate or praise the death of George Floyd – however there’s no indication from the report that Facebook will be removing posts used to coordinate protests – some of which will undoubtedly become riots. The company considers Derek Chauvin a public figure, and George Floyd an ‘involuntary public figure.’

Facebook will allow users to discuss the trial and attorneys, but will remove content which violates their policies on ‘hate speech, bullying, graphic violence and incitement.’ No word on whether they’ll remove clips of Rep. Maxine Waters inciting a mob before members of the National Guard were injured in a weekend shooting.

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Most Police Killings in 2020 Involved Calls That Had No Crime or Over Non-Violent Offenses

Unless you never turn on the television or go on the internet, then you likely know American police kill hundreds of people every year with impunity. 1,127 — that is the number of lives brought to an end by “peace officers” in the land of the free in 2020. One-thousand, one-hundred, and twenty seven lives taken by the bullets, tasers, vehicles, fists, and knees of American cops.

If the governments of other countries were killing their citizens in such large numbers, the United Nations would have declared it a humanitarian crisis. But in the land of the free, it’s policy. Of the 1,127 deaths carried out at the hands of US cops, just 16 officers were charged in 2020.

According to a recent analysis of police killings in 2021, carried out by the folks at PoliceViolenceReport.org, the majority of police killings involve calls in which there was no crime or that the suspect is only suspected of a non-violent offense.

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‘He Couldn’t Even Bark Yet’: Cops Walk Into Fenced-In Yard, Kill 18-Week-old Puppy

Since Saturday night, Derek Brown and Julie-Barecki Brown have been morning the loss of their 18-week-old puppy named Apollo. Apollo didn’t die from being hit by a car or from medical complications, however, his life was taken from him by a member of New Orleans’ finest.

The couple told 4WWL they had gotten in a verbal argument the night a New Orleans police officer entered their yard and killed their puppy.

“Married couples do that,” Derek Brown said of the argument, adding that it shouldn’t have warranted a police response,” We weren’t drawing guns.”

Julie told the outlet she heard her gate open and just seconds later, she heard three gunshots. The couple’s puppy would be killed instantly.

“I ran out here, and the puppy was right there, writhing,” Brown said. “I feel responsible. It’s my job to protect that little guy.”

Two months before he was killed by police, the couple adopted their puppy from Marcus Gandy who fosters dogs who need a home.

“I have his brother here with me. They’re both small enough to carry under your arm,” Gandy said.

“Apollo and his mother arrived the day after the rest of the litter at the Trampled Rose Rescue & Rehab on the Northshore,” the program’s founder Holly Williams said.

“We actually took his mother and her 9 puppies into our rescue the day after they were born, Mama dog was so skinny you couldn’t tell she was pregnant,” Williams said. “Then popped out 9 incredibly tiny babies. Miraculously and thanks to the expert care of our vet, all of the puppies survived.”

“He was not at all a threat,” a friend of the couple, Jennifer Lee said. “He couldn’t even bark.”

“He’s the kind of dog that if he jumped on you, you wouldn’t even feel it,” Gandy said. “They killed a puppy.”

According to the couple, they had two dogs in the backyard and Apollo was the smallest as he was just a puppy. Their other dog weighs 65 pounds but apparently the officer felt more threatened by the harmless 18-week old puppy.

After police killed their puppy, they stayed at the couple’s home for four hours. Though police didn’t identify the officer who shot Apollo, Derek says it was easy to pick him out.

“It was obvious who the cop was that shot him because he was pretty distraught,” said Derek Brown, his voice breaking. “All he said was, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’”

Eventually, police left and took Apollo’s remains with them to conduct an investigation into the shooting. The couple has asked to get his ashes back when the investigation is complete.

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NO JAIL for Cop Who Admitted He Raped Woman in Patrol Car to Avoid Arrest

In October of 2018, Tyneka Cephas had driven down to Wilmington to visit the grave of her daughter Tynesia who had tragically been killed at age 16 in a random shooting in 2017. Her pilgrimage of grief morphed into a nightmare of sexual abuse, however, when Wilmington Police Cpl. Thomas R. Oliver Jr. pulled her into his car and proceeded to sexually violate her.

Now, after fighting for her abuser to be held accountable for the last 2 years, Cephas found out that Oliver will not be going to jail. Instead, he was given a year of probation, despite admitting to the entire situation.

“It was a horrid thing,“ Cephas said of the incident. “He treated me as if I was a prostitute.”

“I had just come up here from Georgetown, Delaware, because it was my daughter’s 18th birthday. She was a victim of gun violence and we were celebrating her birthday at the gravesite,” she explained to reporters in a press conference.

That day, Oliver, an 11-year veteran of the force, decided to drive up to Cephas as she walked down the 700 block of East Ninth Street on the way to her daughter’s gravesite. When Oliver pulled up, he told Cephas to sit in the front seat of his car. He then told Cephas she had a warrant for her arrest, while simultaneously exposing himself to her.

He then issued the ultimatum; perform oral sex, or face arrest. He then grabbed her by the head and forced her onto his exposed penis. These facts are undisputed by both parties.

Cephas would then file a complaint and an investigation was launched into the allegations.

Months after the incident, Oliver would be arrested and charged with second-degree rape, sexual extortion, and having sex with a person in police custody. He was ordered held on $66,000 cash bail following the nearly five-month investigation.

At the time, Police Chief Robert J. Tracy called the charges “deeply troubling and disheartening. The charge that one of our officers abused his authority to victimize a member of the public in this manner is sickening.”

Fast-forward to this month, however, and the deeply troubling and disheartening act by one of their officers, has been swept under the rug. Oliver beat all charges except official misconduct and was sentenced to just one year of probation — this, in spite of the fact that he admitted to the entire ordeal.

“It’s all undisputed,” Cephas’ lawyer Emeka Igwe said. “The officer does not dispute that this horrible incident took place while he was in uniform in his patrol car and he’s even admitted that it was wrong and he’s apologized to Ms. Cephas in court, but yet, the mayor of Wilmington and the police chief have yet to reach out to Ms. Cephas.”

The defense likely claimed that Cephas somehow consented to the act, which is as asinine as it is insidious.

Oliver had a gun, handcuffs, and threatened to throw her in jail when he demanded oral sex.

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Biden’s ATF Pick Is Conspiracy Nut ‘Unhinged From Reality’

Fox News host Tucker Carlson dismantled President Joe Biden over his serial false statements regarding gun crime in America during a Rose Garden speech Thursday in which he announced several new executive actions against firearms.

But Carlson saved some of his most venomous criticism for the man Biden has picked to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, David Chipman, whom the host described as “a conspiracy nut” and exactly the wrong person to run that particular agency.

Chipman, Carlson noted, made the comments last year regarding the federal government’s 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, which was eventually burned to the ground due to actions taken by the FBI and ATF. Chipman claimed that Davidians used .50 caliber rifles to shoot down two FBI helicopters, which is absolutely untrue.

“At Waco, cult members used 2 .50 caliber Barretts to shoot down two Texas Air National Guard helicopters. Point, it is true we are fortunate they are not used in crime more often,” Chipman stated in response to a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” event.

Davidians did reportedly shot at and damage three government helicopters, but none of them were shot down and no federal agents were hurt.

Turning to the president’s newest anti-gun executive actions, “to enforce them, Joe Biden has nominated a man who is unhinged from reality: David Chipman,” Carlson said on his show on Thursday.

“Who is David Chipman? Well, he is a conspiracy nut for one thing.”

“In 1993, the ATF killed dozens of innocent children and at least one pregnant woman for no obvious reason. It’s one of the worst things that federal agents have ever done in this country,” the Fox News host said, noting that four ATF agents were killed along with 82 Branch Davidians.

“If you’re taking over the ATF, maybe you could apologize for that. But no, David Chipman lied about it and then attacked the dead.”

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A Single Buffalo Cop Has Shot 26 Dogs in Only 3 Years — A Dog Every 6 Weeks

Frequent readers of TFTP know too well how many beloved family pets are gunned down every year by public servants in the U.S. It happens so much that there is a term for it called “puppycide.” We have an endless archive of stories in which dogs meet their untimely ends at the end of a cop’s gun.

According to an unofficial count done by an independent research group, Ozymandias Media, a dog is shot by law enforcement every 98 minutes. That number could be higher too as many of the cases never make the media reports.

One cop in Buffalo has apparently made it his mission to make sure that rate stays as high as possible — that cop is Detective Joseph M. Cook.

Cook was the subject of a recently settled lawsuit against the Buffalo police department after they raided the home of Adam Arroyo back in 2013. According to the lawsuit, police were looking for alleged drug activity that day. When they raided the home, however, they found no such drugs but they did find Arroyo’s dog, Cindy.

The lawsuit states that Cindy was leashed up in the kitchen while Arroyo was at work when the raid took place. Arroyo explained that she had been getting bored when he was out and tore up some furniture, so he put her on a leash that day.

During the entirely fruitless and pointless raid, detective Cook found Cindy in the kitchen and shot her three times at point blank range, killing her. Cook maintains that the dog was off the leash when he confronted her but the settlement and Cook’s history tell a completely different story.

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