Tag: police brutality

Investigation Finds NYPD Disciplinary Records Often Go Missing

In the summer of 2021, New York Police Department officer Willie Thompson had sex at least twice with a witness to a Harlem carjacking that he was investigating. When a prosecutor questioned Thompson about his relationship with the witness, Thompson first lied, denying the relationship, before recanting and confessing the next day, according to an internal discipline report. About a week later, the woman, sounding upset, called the prosecutor and said Thompson had cornered her at a bodega, blaming her for getting him in trouble and threatening that officers from the precinct would be coming to her home, the document shows.

Thompson, who declined to comment, was found guilty by the NYPD on two misconduct charges and was placed on probation.

But if you looked up his disciplinary history on the department’s public database of uniformed officers, you would be unlikely to learn that.

ProPublica has found the NYPD site for allowing the public to track officers’ misconduct is shockingly unreliable. Cases against officers frequently vanish from the site for days — sometimes weeks — at a time. The issue affects nearly all of the officers in the database, with discipline disappearing from the profiles of patrol officers all the way up to its most senior uniformed officer.

ProPublica examined more than 1,000 daily snapshots of the database’s contents and found that, since the fall of 2022, the number of discipline cases that appear in the database has fluctuated often and wildly. Try to pull up the record for a disciplined officer and the site sometimes spits back, “This officer does not have any applicable entries.”

Since May 2021, at least 88% of the disciplinary cases that once appeared in the data have gone missing at some point, though some were later restored. As of this week, 54% of cases that had at one point been in the system were missing.

“It is really disconcerting to see that there are records that are there one day that are not the next,” said Jennvine Wong, a supervising attorney with the Legal Aid Society’s Cop Accountability Project.

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36 Years Ago Today, Police Fire Bombed a Neighborhood in Philly, Killing Women & Children

Since the beginning of time, there has been a constant struggle between people who want to be free and those who seek to control them. It is an unending war that that rages just beneath the surface of “civilized” society, waiting to reach a boiling point where violence can erupt on the streets between police and citizens—or the oppressor and the oppressed.

Since our history is passed down by those who seek to control us, this struggle is framed in a way where the oppressors are always the innocent victims, and the oppressed the senseless terrorists when in reality, the opposite is usually true.

Nowhere is this situation more obvious than in the media coverage and cultural myths surrounding the American Civil Rights movement. Police would regularly raid the offices and homes of civil rights leaders, shooting first and asking questions later. In fact, many civil rights leaders did not make it through the 60s and 70s alive, and most of the original Black Panthers were either killed by police or imprisoned for life. Yet this aspect of the situation was entirely absent from the media reports of the day and is even rarely discussed in modern times.

One of the worst acts of police terrorism against the Civil Rights movement occurred on May 13, 1985, when the Philadelphia Police Department bombed the homes of a black liberation group called MOVE, killing 11 people, five of whom were children.

MOVE was a Philadelphia-based organization formed by Civil Rights leader John Africa in 1972, with the goal of creating a radical change in society by creating communities that lived according to their own rules and values, instead of under the authority of the federal government. MOVE crowdfunded the purchase of multiple adjacent homes in the city to build their headquarters, where members of the group lived communally and planned protests. Unfortunately, it was not long before they caught the attention of local police, who were threatened by their philosophy and their presence in the community.

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An Atlanta Cop Killed This Man For Refusing To Sign a Ticket

Johnny Hollman called 911 after he was in a minor traffic accident. But instead of helping, the responding officer beat and tased Hollman after he was hesitant to sign a ticket, resulting in the 62-year-old’s death. 

Hollman’s family sued, and they’ve now been awarded a $3.8 million settlement.

“While nothing can undo what has been done,” Atlanta mayor Andre Dickens said in a statement this week, “my priority was to get this family as close to full closure from this unfortunate tragedy as soon as possible.”

During the evening of August 10th, 2023, Hollman was driving home when he was involved in a low-speed collision with another vehicle. According to Hollman’s family’s lawsuit, both Hollman and the other driver called 911 to report the accident. While no one was injured, both drivers disputed who was at fault for the accident. 

After more than an hour, Atlanta Police Department Officer Kiran Kimbrough arrived on the scene. Soon after, he decided that Hollman was at fault and wrote him a citation. 

However, Hollman was hesitant to sign the citation. “Deacon Hollman did not explicitly refuse to sign the citation,” the suit states. (Hollman was a Deacon at his local church). “But in each instance when directed to do so, responded that the collision was not his fault.”

Eventually, Kimbrough threatened to send Hollman to jail unless he signed the ticket, and Hollman called one of his daughters.

According to the suit, Kimbrough then began walking towards Hollman. Almost simultaneously, Kimbrough reached to grab one of Hollman’s arms, and Hollman said “I’ll sign the ticket.”

Hollman said several more times that he would sign the ticket. However, “ignoring Deacon Hollman’s concession to his request that he sign the ticket, Defendant Kimbrough performed a leg sweep maneuver on Deacon Hollman, taking Deacon Hollman to the ground,” the suit states. “While doing so, Defendant Kimbrough commented to Deacon Hollman: ‘You acting crazy!'”

Over the next several minutes, Kimbrough struck the back of Hollman’s head at least twice with his fist, tased him twice, and allowed another citizen to “assist” him by sitting on Hollman’s head and neck, while ignoring Hollman’s frequent statements that he couldn’t breathe.

Eventually, Hollman was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy later concluded that the cause of Hollman’s death was homicide.

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Former Ligonier Valley police chief facing multiple felonies for alleged sexual assault

Officials with DreamLife Recovery reached out to Channel 11 on Saturday and confirmed that Berger had been fired.

A former Westmoreland County police chief is now on the other side of the law.

Former Ligonier Valley Chief John Berger is behind bars at the Westmoreland County Jail after being arrested Friday on sexual assault charges.

This comes after he was fired from Ligonier Valley Police last May following a raid by federal agents.

“It’s unbelievable. I can’t believe it,” said Daniel Beranek. He was one of several people Channel 11 spoke to in Donegal, shocked to learn of Berger’s arrest Friday for allegedly sexually assaulting a patient at a Donegal rehab center.

“Very, very horrible,” said Beranek.

According to State Police, the sexual assault happened at DreamLife Recovery in Donegal.

Berger began working there in January as a Behavioral Health Technician following a stint at the drug and alcohol rehab center as a patient and his firing as the Ligonier Valley Police Chief last May.

He was fired after federal agents raided the department and seized his phone and police cruiser.

“There’s no excuse for it honestly but definitely being held accountable and being a police officer to held to a higher standard and falling like that is pretty atrocious,” said Zachary Buchholz, who also spoke to Channel 11 in Donegal.

Investigators say Berger first met the victim last year when they were both patients at DreamLife.

She told police, “Berger would make unwanted sexual advances towards her almost weekly if not daily.”

The police report states those advances resumed starting in March when the victim returned to DreamLife.

“Unbelievable honestly. I wouldn’t say that he should be working there anymore or around in that environment and definitely should probably seek a little bit of help for that as well,” said Buchholz.

On Monday around 11:00 pm, police paperwork states Berger went into the victim’s room while she was sleeping, woke her up by whispering her name and “forcefully started to kiss her.”

State Police say he then groped her and forced her to give him oral sex.

“I would never think a law enforcement officer would be doing that,” Beranek said.

In an interview with State Police Friday, investigators say Berger owned up to the charges.

Berger is now being held at the Westmoreland County Jail unable to post $100,000 bail.

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Arizona Police officer shoots, kills man in his home

A body cam footage has revealed an Arizona Police officer shooting and killing a man in his own home. The police officer claimed he saw the man holding a shotgun. 44-year-old Trinidad Ledesma was killed after police responded to a domestic dispute …

When the police turned the corner, Ledesma could be heard saying: “Don’t come in. Don’t come near, boss.” The officer said he saw a “black shotgun” in his right hand and immediately shot and killed him. During the incident, the officer called it an AR-15.

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Florida officer arrested for child pornography after first day on job

A newly sworn-in police officer in Florida was arrested for child pornography after his first day on the job.

The Indian River County Sheriff’s Office said 19-year-old Kai Cromer was sworn in as a deputy on Monday, and by that night, a search warrant had been issued for his phone.

In a media briefing shared with Scripps News, Sheriff Eric Flowers said Cromer had been on call at a high school when “a brave young female came forward” and alerted police that the officer had been contacting her via Snapchat, asking for naked and topless photos.

She told police “she felt very uncomfortable just even seeing him on campus,” Flowers said.

The sheriff said an investigation began immediately.

The police department reviewed over 100 GB of data and arrested him on one count of possession of child pornography.

“Kai Cromer is no longer an employee of the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office,” Flowers said Tuesday. “Our captain terminated him while he was in our cell.”

Flowers said a total of four victims have come forward, who are “very concerned for their safety.” They said Cromer had requested explicit photos and videos via Snapchat. 

“He was telling people, ‘I’m going to be law enforcement, I’m very powerful.’ He was forcing these girls, they said they were very uncomfortable with the entire circumstance, and they felt they had no choice but to do these things, and that’s just completely unacceptable,” Flowers said.

Flowers issued a plea for anyone who has spoken with Cromer via his Snapchat account, @KaiCromer, to come forward: “We need to talk to you.” 

He said there are also other victims they are aware of.

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78-Year-Old Grandmother Awarded $3.8 Million After Illegal SWAT Raid

A 78-year-old woman whose home was mistakenly raided by a Denver SWAT team will now receive a nearly $3.8 million payout. The large sum comes as a result of a 2020 Colorado law that banned qualified immunity protections for police officers in the state, making civil rights lawsuits against police significantly more likely to succeed. 

On January 4th, 2022, Ruby Johnson, a retired postal worker, was sitting in her Denver home when she heard a police airhorn loudly commanding that she leave her home with her hands up. Johnson, who had recently showered and was only wearing a bathrobe, left her house to find a Denver SWAT team gathered outside her door.

The SWAT team had been sent to Johnson’s home as part of an effort to recover a vehicle that had been stolen the previous day. According to Johnson’s lawsuit, the stolen car had an iPhone inside, and the Find My app feature indicated that the phone was near Johnson’s house. 

While the police officers had obtained a warrant to search Johnson’s home, they did so using an affidavit that allegedly provided “false characterization” of how reliable the Find My app is, overstating how sure the police could be that the iPhone—and the truck—would be at Johnson’s house.

According to Johnson’s lawsuit, after receiving this warrant, the SWAT team aggressively searched her home, causing considerable damage to her belongings. Making matters worse, even though Johnson gave police her garage door opener and told them how to enter the garage’s front door, police used a battering ram to enter the garage, destroying the door and door frame. Ultimately, the SWAT team found no sign of the truck or any other criminal activity. The officers left and later told Johnson’s children that the department wouldn’t pay Johnson for the considerable damage caused to her home.

Johnson filed a lawsuit with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Colorado in December 2022, alleging that the search was unlawful under the Colorado Constitution.

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Pennsylvania Police Settle Lawsuit With Woman Forced to Undergo ‘Humiliating’ Strip-Search

Pennsylvania police officers have reached a settlement with a woman who says she underwent an unnecessary and humiliating strip-search after she was pulled over for a minor traffic violation. 

According to a lawsuit filed in 2021, Holly Elish was traveling through Bentlyville, Pennsylvania, on her way home from work when she was pulled over by local police officer Brian Rousseau.

When Rousseau pulled Elish over, he quickly asked for consent to search her vehicle, which Elish denied. According to the lawsuit, Rousseau responded that “he had the right to search her vehicle.” Soon after, a second police officer arrived on the scene. The two men again asked to search Elish’s vehicle, telling her that even more officers would soon arrive.

“Fearing for her safety and knowing that the police did not have justification to search her vehicle yet were insistent and intimidating in attempting to do so, Ms. Elish allowed the vehicle search to occur under duress and coercion,” the complaint states.

The officers searched Elish’s car but found no sign of drugs, illegal weapons, or other contraband. However, that wasn’t enough for the officers to let Elish go. A female police officer—unnamed in the suit—had arrived on the scene, and after having a brief conversation with the other officers began to strip-search Elish.

The officer “began the strip search by physically and visually inspecting Ms. Elish’s breasts,” according to the complaint. Elish then had “to remove her pants and underwear to her ankles and ‘squat’ to the ground, during which she bent down to the ground with one knee and performed a visual cavity inspection.”

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Revealed: at least 22 Californians have died while being held face down by police since 2016

Police have long known the dangers of holding people in prone restraint. So why do so many keep dying?

On a Thursday morning in October 2020, less than five months after George Floyd was held on his stomach by Minneapolis police officers until he died, Shayne Sutherland called 911 from a convenience store in Stockton, California, and asked for a taxi.

When the operator told Sutherland he’d dialed 911, he said someone was trying to rob him.

Stockton police officers Ronald Zalunardo and John Afanasiev arrived at the store about 15 minutes later. In the meantime, a store employee had called 911, saying Sutherland was threatening him with a wine bottle.

In body camera footage that captured the officers’ response, Sutherland seems fidgety and his speech is difficult to understand at times, but he doesn’t appear violent and he isn’t armed. He cooperates with police, addressing Zalunardo as “sir” and sitting against a wall outside the store as instructed.

The officers question Sutherland. When he tells them he can’t remember why he’s under court supervision, Afanasiev says, “the drugs probably have something to do with it”.

“How long you been using meth,” Zalunardo asks. Sutherland stutters and says he’s been using cocaine.

Sutherland briefly stands, then sits when ordered to do so. A minute later he stands up again. This time, the officers tackle him to the ground and hold him belly down – a position known as prone restraint. Thirty seconds later, his hands are cuffed behind his back.

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Chris Wray’s FBI Forced a Young Mother to Stand Outside Barefoot with Her 4-Yr-Old Boy in His Pajamas in 12° Weather While They Ransacked Her Home – She Lost Her Baby the Next Day

Chris Kuehne was sentenced on Friday for his actions on January 6, 2021 at the US Capitol.

Chris is a 22-year veteran who received numerous medals and awards, including the Purple Heart, a Navy Commendation Medal with Valor, and a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Valor for actions in combat.

Chris has personally sacrificed his blood, sweat, and tears serving our country and has paid the price for his duty and continues to live with debilitating and invisible injuries. Even before this Chris has protected people and helped people in need. As a 9-year-old Cub Scout he was awarded the Boy Scouts of America’s highest honor, the Medal of Merit, for saving his young sister from a burning car.

On January 6, 2021, Chris went inside the Capitol but did not cause any harm or damage – in fact, he cleaned trash off the floor, helped to stop theft of government property, asked people to leave the building, and went up to Capitol Police Officers to ask how he could help. Chris was also set up by an FBI operative that day. Chris committed no violence and did nothing wrong.

One month later, in the early morning of February 11, 2021 Chris, his four-year-old child, and his wife Annette, who was pregnant at the time were awakened to sirens, cell phone rings, and bursts of colorful lights reflecting through our windows.

Annette later went public about the raid, “The FBI instructed Chris to come outside immediately. Our 4-year-old was awakened from the chaos, and I picked him up and ran downstairs to open the front door. Our house, street and neighboring streets were completely surrounded by armed FBI and law enforcement. It was a scene that we see so many times in the movies, but now it was here at my house! There were three large armored tactical vehicles parked on my front, side and back yard, and police vehicles that extended throughout the entire community. I open the door, and for a second, I didn’t realize that there were about twenty FBI SWAT Team members with semi-automatic rifles pointed at my son and I. We were covered by the bright red lasers pointed at our faces, chests, and various points on our bodies.”

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