Cops behaving badly ...

[sear]

"Hundreds will receive $21,500 each." Cramer

Not easy to set a reasonable settlement on such thing.
One practical standard, what would an average man on the street require in compensation to endure the adversity.
I may not be on the street right now. But I'd want more than $21k for that.

To your sensible point on qualified immunity I'd add: eliminating it may not solve the problem. Even if not, it's probably the sensible thing to do. BUT !!
Such implementation may not work, as tenured policemen might deem the loss of it an intolerable liability, and switch careers.

 

[Shiftless2]

DOJ Report Says Louisville Police Needlessly Uses Tasers, & Dogs on Civilian​

Daniel Villarreal

A Department of Justice (DOJ) report, released Wednesday, details troubling abuses at Kentucky’s Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD), including unlawful searches and no-knock raids; unjustified use of dogs, tasers, and neck holds; as well as violating the rights of police critics — all of which are defended or ignored by police leadership.

These abuses are particularly concerning considering that, in 2020, the LMPD received national attention after its officers shot and killed Black medical worker Breonna Taylor in her own apartment after executing a no-knock warrant to search for her ex-boyfriend who didn’t even live there. City taxpayers have paid over $40 million over the last six years to resolve claims of LMPD’s misconduct.

The DOJ conducted its report after looking at thousands of LMPD documents, thousands of hours of body camera footage, and conversations with hundreds of LMPD officers, city employees, and community members.

“Some officers demonstrate disrespect for the people they are sworn to protect. Some officers have ....

DOJ Report Says Louisville Police Needlessly Uses Tasers, & Dogs on Civilians

A Department of Justice (DOJ) report, released Wednesday, details troubling abuses at Kentucky’s Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD), including unlawful searches and no-knock raids; unjustified use of dogs, tasers, and neck holds; as well as violating the rights of police critics — all of...

www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com

 

[sear]

There's probably a sensible term for it, when a person's perception of the world is distorted by their news feed.
You haven't twirled me completely around here S2. But I sense you're beginning to tilt me from conservative to anarchist. You know this. Some others may not. An anarchist doesn't necessarily advocate for, favor, demand riot and mayhem.
Anarchy just means without political authority.

Your consistent theme has nurtured my doubts about law enforcement. Bitter parallel personal experience over many years corroborates, validates the skepticism.

an·ar·chy (ănər-kē) n. pl. an·ar·chies 1. Absence of any form of political authority. 2. Political disorder and confusion. 3. Absence of any cohesive principle, such as a common standard or purpose. [New Latin anarchia, from Greek anarkhiā, from anarkhos, without a ruler : an-, without; see A-1 + arkhos, ruler; see -ARCH.] The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.

 

[Shiftless2]

Again - and it's not just this one case. From the article

But the district attorney’s office said Thursday that detectives, prosecutors and the original trial’s judge knew from the outset that the photo in the array wasn’t actually the Sheldon Thomas they wanted to arrest, but a man who shared his name and had an address in the same precinct. They proceeded anyway.

The case was the 34th conviction vacated after re-investigations by the district attorney’s conviction review unit, which was expanded in 2014, and it showed what can happen when checks in the criminal justice system break down.

The unit, which is examining about 50 other convictions, is part of a growing movement among prosecutors throughout the city and country who are re-examining cases where people may have been wrongly convicted, including prosecutions that relied on officers accused of official misconduct.

In September, the Brooklyn prosecutor’s office announced that it was seeking to dismiss 378 low-level convictions that relied on 13 former officers who committed crimes themselves. In November, the Manhattan district attorney’s office sought to dismiss 188 misdemeanors, dating as far back as 2001. In 2021, the Queens district attorney sought to dismiss 60 cases following the misconduct of three detectives, and Bronx prosecutors sought to throw out 250 convictions that relied on a single officer who had been accused of lying.

Man Freed After 18 Years in Prison Caused By Deceptive Photo ID

The Brooklyn district attorney said the flawed photo lineup helped imprison Sheldon Thomas for a killing he did not commit. A judge ordered him released Thursday.

www.nytimes.com

Last year, payouts for police wrongdoing in New York City reached $121 million, the highest since 2018.

 

[sear]

Not to excuse but to clarify, to explain, to inform.
Districts Attorney acquire a win : loss record. Rightly or wrongly it's not uncommon for a DA to prioritizing obtaining a conviction rather than allowing another loss on the DA's record. But there's no denying the tragedy, the treachery, the inhumanity of a DA that would prioritize his own professional reputation as quantified by his conviction rate, ahead of the life of an innocent person.

ASTOUNDINGLY, what should happen is, any DA caught doing that should be required by law to trade places with the exonerated wrongly convicted, so the DA completes the sentence, whatever it may be. Failure to establish that as standard practice in our culture undermines the ethical legitimacy of that culture. These crooked DA's shame us all.

Last year, payouts for police wrongdoing in New York City reached $121 million, the highest since 2018.

NYC Mayor Eric Adams is a retired COP. I don't vividly recall the content of his political election campaign, but imagine it may have involved either law-&-order content, or something akin to it.
My mental reservation here: does the $121 million represent a decline in the quality of NYC life? Or instead does it result from an improvement in policing NYPD?
I do not have the answer. But I surely have the question.

 

[Shiftless2]

My mental reservation here: does the $121 million represent a decline in the quality of NYC life? Or instead does it result from an improvement in policing NYPD?

No - it simply represents the amount that the taxpayer forked out to settle lawsuits against the police. Whether overall policing is getting better (or worse) is a different question - this just represents (some part of) the times that the police have screwed up so badly that the city has had to pay up to settle claims.

 

[sear]

it simply represents the amount that the taxpayer forked out

"Simply" being the operative word.
But it's incorrect to artificially exclude the context of the variations in this yearly NYC operational expense. It varies year to year for a reason. Can you explain why it increased to $121 $M under Mayor Adams? My intended point in #65 is, it's naïve, ignorant to assume that if this expense increases over the previous year that the only explanation is because things are getting worse. CERTAINLY that could explain it. BUT !! It is neither the only possible explanation, nor necessarily the correct explanation.

 

[Shiftless2]

There is a problem with trying to use annual payouts to measure how well (or poorly) the police force is behaving. The reason's simple - those payments do not necessarily relate to current year's "misdeeds" but could be the result of something that had happened years earlier. And since there's no "fixed lag" between occurrence and settlement date that $121 million could be the result of claims from a number of years all being settled at once. So it could overstate the bad behavior of the cops in that year. Or it could understate them.

 

[Shiftless2]

Didn't want to start another thread

10 Unbelievably Incompetent Ways Police Failed To Catch Killers - Listverse

Sometimes, it takes a master criminal to get away with murder. But sometimes, it just takes one incompetent cop. As it turns out, the men who managed to

listverse.com

 

[Shiftless2]

Seven Virginia sheriff’s deputies being charged with murder for incident that took place at hospital
The officers had been physically restraining Irvo Otieno while he was admitted.

Virginia deputies charged with murder after ‘smothering’ combative man at hospital

Seven total Henrico County deputies are being charged with murder for an incident that took place at a Virginia hospital on March 6. The sheriff’s deputies had been physically restraining Irvo Otieno while he was admitted to the hospital.

www.nydailynews.com

 

[Shiftless2]

Amazing that there wasn't a single bodycam ....

Police Shot ‘Stop Cop City’ Activist 14 Times With Their Hands Up, Independent Autopsy Shows

Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, known as Tortuguita, was shot and killed by Georgia State Patrol on Jan. 18, at the “Stop Cop City” encampment.

Police Shot ‘Stop Cop City’ Activist 14 Times With Their Hands Up, Autopsy Shows

Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, known as Tortuguita, was shot and killed by Georgia State Patrol on Jan. 18, at the “Stop Cop City” encampment.

www.vice.com

 

[Shiftless2]

Video shows Irvo Otieno pinned to floor before his death​

A large group of sheriff's deputies and employees of a Virginia mental hospital pinned patient Irvo Otieno to the ground until he was motionless and limp, then began unsuccessful resuscitation efforts, newly obtained surveillance video shows.

The footage, which has no audio, shows various members of the group struggling with a handcuffed and shackled Otieno over the course of about 20 minutes after he's led into a room at Central State Hospital, where he was going to be admitted March 6. For most of that duration, Otieno is on the floor being restrained by a fluctuating group that at one point appeared to reach 10 people pressing down on various parts of his body.

The death of the 28-year-old Black man has led to second-degree murder charges against seven deputies and three hospital workers and an outcry from ...

Video shows Irvo Otieno pinned to floor before his death

A large group of sheriff's deputies and employees of a Virginia mental hospital pinned patient Irvo Otieno to the ground until he was motionless and limp, then began unsuccessful resuscitation efforts, newly obtained surveillance video shows.

www.ctvnews.ca

 

[sear]

"Amazing that there wasn't a single bodycam ...." S2 #71

Police command across the nation are culpable, responsible for this.
Any police chief that wants to prevent this can simply require that any policeperson in his command must not return to active duty without first signing an official acknowledgement that in any such incident where:
- a responding policeman has been issued a bodycam, but doesn't use it
- harm comes to anyone where the responding policeman might be suspected of misconduct,
the policeman will automatically be presumed to be guilty.

Problem is, a significant number of policepersons would refuse to sign, and threaten to resign, thereby risking driving staffing below adequate minimums.
That seems to be why / how the inmates have overtaken the asylum.

Video shows Irvo Otieno pinned to floor before his death​

Many government agents were on the scene. Each of them should be placed on criminal trial.
Failure to do so is tantamount to government approval of this homicide / murder.

 

[Shiftless2]

It's not just in the US -

Maybe that last guy had a long unblemished career because his higher ups kept sweeping things under the rug:

And those are just just the tip of the iceberg

‘I’m scared of the police’: Met report unearths misogyny, homophobia and racism

Female, black and gay police officers told Casey review alarming stories of incidents inside the force

www.theguardian.com

 

[Shiftless2]

Austin Jailer Breaks Elderly Deaf Woman’s Arm After Misunderstanding at Airport

After three days in jail with only Aleve as treatment, she has received surgery

www.austinchronicle.com

 

[sear]

I don't mind according first responders a little leeway in benefit of doubt. Not clear how to do that here, with clear conscience.

 

[Shiftless2]

I don't mind according first responders a little leeway in benefit of doubt. Not clear how to do that here, with clear conscience.

A 71 year old deaf woman???

There's no leeway here. And if it had been my mother not only would I be filing a lawsuit but I'd be having lengthy discussions with my lawyers about how to ensure that the jailer was personally responsible and not just his employer. [If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm not exactly a forgiving type.]

 

[sear]

[If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm not exactly a forgiving type.]

Is one who hates hate a hater?
Forgiving the unforgivable is hardly magnanimity. It's more akin to collusion.

That was my back-handed meaning intended in #76.

PS
As an afterthought: why were these LEOs interfering with her at all? SOMEthing else is going on here, the story is incomplete. That does NOT mean LEO's excessive force is justified. Only that by journalistic standards the portion of the report provided here is incomplete. The story at the link fills in some of the gaps.

"officers handcuffed her and took her to the Travis County Jail on suspicion of trespassing." ht tps://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2023-03-24/austin-jailer-breaks-elderly-deaf-womans-arm-after-misunderstanding-at-airport/

Not clear to me why she didn't display / reveal her travel docs. A simple airline ticket, or boarding pass should have sufficed.

It is at very least a sober warning for the hearing impaired.

 

[Shiftless2]

They sure dropped the "actions have consequences " rhetoric real quick when it got inconvenient for them. And just maybe they shouldn’t have disabled his security cameras after they stole $5,000 from him?

Seven law enforcement officers in Ohio are suing the rapper Afroman for using footage of their raid on his house last year in videos and merchandise, according to a complaint.

The filing said that Afroman's actions had caused the officers to suffer "humiliation, ridicule, mental distress, embarrassment and loss of reputation."

Afroman Is Sued by Police Officers After Using Their Faces in Music Videos​

The rapper, whose name is Joseph E. Foreman, used the images to promote his brand, causing “humiliation” to seven law enforcement officers who raided his Ohio home, a lawsuit says.

Afroman Is Sued by Police Officers After Using Their Faces in Music Videos

The rapper, whose name is Joseph E. Foreman, used the images to promote his brand, causing “humiliation” to seven law enforcement officers who raided his Ohio home, a lawsuit says.

www.nytimes.com

BTW, this is guaranteed to make more people aware of their actions.

 

[Shiftless2]

A college student has filed a lawsuit against three Iowa police officers and the city of Newton after a DUI arrest in August 2022. Bodycam footage shows Tayvin Galanakis, a freshman football player at Willian Penn University, being arrested after performing sobriety tests and blowing zero on a breathalyzer test. “Dude, I blew zero!” The 19-year-old shouts as he’s placed into handcuffs. Galanakis was released later that night after police performed further tests to confirm his sobriety. After posting the bodycam on his own social media accounts, Galanakis was convinced by supporters to pursue legal action against the officers. The Law&Crime Network’s Sierra Gillespie discusses the arrest and lawsuit with Galanakis.