Tag: police brutality

Police Apologize For Deploying Taser Shields To Use Against Protesters

The Shelby County Sheriff’s office in Tennesee has come under fire after deploying taser shields to protests that sprang up in response to the lack of charges against the officers who killed Breonna Taylor. After the strange shields were noticed by a group of protesters who gathered in front of the Criminal Justice Center, and images of the shields went viral online, Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner was forced to apologize for the deployment of the shields, calling it a “regrettable mistake.”

In a statement, the sheriff’s office said that Bonner has “directed policy modifications that will prohibit those shields from being displayed or used outside of the Jail again.”

According to WREG, the sheriff’s office recently upgraded to the newest e-shields in July 2020 but has had other “less lethal shock shields” since a jail riot in the 1990s. The shields reportedly cost $895 each.

Police often use shields as weapons during protests. Just this week, an LA County Sheriff’s deputy was seen on film repeatedly striking a protester with a riot shield. Luckily, in that case, it was just a normal riot shield and not a taser shield, but one could imagine how much more dangerous these encounters could be if these devices were commonly deployed by police departments across the country. Luckily, there were no reports of the taser shields being used on any of the protesters in Tennessee.

Hunter Demster, one of the activists that saw the officers wielding the shields suggested that they were being used to intimidate the protesters.

“They are scary looking and once again I think that’s the point, to chill our 1st Amendment-protected rights,” Demster told Fox13 Memphis.

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Woman Tries To Help Suicidal Person So a Cop Smashes Her Face, Knocks Her Teeth Out

A game developer thought she was doing the right thing when she witnessed an arrest at a local gas station and tried to tell police that the person they were arresting needed help, not handcuffs. However, when she attempted to film the arrest, according to the woman and a newly released video, she was attacked, slammed to the ground, her teeth broken, and her skull fractured.

The video was leaked to the Free Thought Project via a Twitter user who knows the victim. This video, according to that person, is just one of the many excessive force cases pending against the Rock Hill police department. After watching it, you’ll know why.

When this incident originally unfolded in August of 2018, police claim the video footage they had backed up their story. Conveniently, however, they refused to release it. Now that it is out, we can see why, it pokes holes in their official narrative.

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Innocent Mom, Baby Homeless After Cops Destroy Home in Raid for Man Who Was Already in Jail

After the raid was over, no arrests were made because the man police were looking for was already in custody — for allegedly participating in a protest that devolved into a riot. Colorado Springs Police had already arrested Lloyd Porche at his place of work on charges of menacing and engaging in a riot at a Black Lives Matter protest on August 3.

“There’s a lot of ways they could have went about it that could never have endangered my child,” she said. “My roommate Lloyd, I know he has been to protests, but I didn’t think that was illegal.”

Pruiett says the raid has left her life in shambles as she’s now being evicted for the damage cops did to her apartment. Multiple windows were blown out, glass covered the floor, the front door was smashed in and the house was ransacked — for an allegation of a misdemeanor crime.

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Police Claim Woman Handcuffed in Back of Police Cruiser Got a Gun and Shot Herself in the Head

 Unfortunately, over the years, TFTP has reported on several incidents in which people handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser have managed to somehow get their hands on a gun and then somehow shoot themselves in the head. In 2018, Sarah Wilson allegedly grabbed a gun and shot herself in the head while handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser. Her death was ruled a suicide. Victor White III, 22, was handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser in Louisiana and also allegedly grabbed a gun and shot himself in the back of a police cruiser. Like Wilson, his death was also ruled a suicide. Now, another investigation is underway as it’s happened yet again.

Authorities are now investigating the death of a 30-year-old woman in police custody who officers say managed to obtain a gun while handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser, and kill herself.

The unnamed woman was being transported by police between two hospitals for a mental health evaluation and would never make it to her destination.

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Court Refuses Qualified Immunity for Alabama Cop Who ‘Insulted’ and Killed Man Who Was Trying to Help Stray Dog

A federal appeals court on Thursday declined to grant qualified immunity to an Alabama police officer who shot and killed a man “without warning” for failing to show identification after he attempted to help a stray dog his family found in a parking lot.

Robert Earl Lawrence was shot in the stomach by Dothan Police Sergeant Adrianne Woodruff and he bled out on the pavement “on the next to last day of the year” in 2014. His three young children and his girlfriend were in the car–screaming while it happened.

Prior to his death and altercation with police, Lawrence, reportedly a sovereign citizen, was just trying to help the dog his family found near the local Walmart by taking it to the Dothan Animal Shelter.

But Lawrence’s attempt to help quickly went askew.

“The receptionist told Lawrence that they accepted dogs only from residents of Houston County,” the court notes. “He told her that he was from nearby Geneva County but had found the dog in Houston County. She agreed to take the dog but asked for his identification. He refused to provide it, claiming that being required to do so would violate his federal privacy rights.”

A brief argument ensued and Woodruff entered the room–reiterating the shelter’s policy about accepting strays and advising Lawrence to fill out an intake form. He declined and left the shelter, “carrying the dog with him,” saying he would just leave the animal on the road.

Woodruff followed Lawrence out and warned him that dumping the dog would be considered a crime. She also copied down his tag number–in line with a policy for people who threaten to dump animals the shelter refuses to take in. As Lawrence got into his car, Woodruff grabbed him from behind and said “You’re not leaving.”

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