Tag Archives: police

Questions Mount About a Mentally Ill Black Woman’s Death in Police Custody

by LesliGrenier Posted on February 22, 2016

Mother Jones

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Since Tanisha Anderson’s death in November 2014, few details have been made public about how the 37-year-old black woman died while in the custody of two Cleveland police officers. Anderson, whose family reported she was mentally ill, died after falling unconscious while lying handcuffed on a sidewalk outside her home. The 15-month long investigation is now in the hands of Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine: In a statement last Tuesday, Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty requested DeWine take over the case following a Cuyahoga County sheriff’s investigation, which McGinty said revealed “facts that created a conflict of interest” for his office. McGinty—who led the controversial investigation into the police killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice and is running for reelection next month—did not specify what that conflict of interest was.

The recently completed sheriff’s investigation, which has not been disclosed publicly, raises questions about the Cleveland Police Department’s official account presented in November 2014. According to a law enforcement official familiar with the sheriff’s investigation who spoke to Mother Jones, the investigation reveals significant details that the Cleveland PD’s account did not include. One is that the officers had put Anderson in the back of their squad car before she became agitated and a physical struggle ensued. Another is that Anderson remained handcuffed after an EMS team arrived and began administering aid, despite that she was unconscious.

The investigation also shows that Anderson was on the ground in handcuffs for approximately 20 minutes before the EMS team arrived, the law enforcement official told Mother Jones. The Cleveland PD’s initial account did not specify how long Anderson was on the ground prior to EMS arriving; the officers later told sheriff’s investigators in a written statement that Anderson was on the ground for approximately 5 to 10 minutes.

According to the Cleveland PD’s account, officers Scott Aldridge and Bryan Myers arrived at Anderson’s home around 10:51 p.m. on November 12, 2014, in response to a call about a mentally ill family member causing a disturbance. After speaking with the officers, the Cleveland PD account stated, Anderson agreed to be escorted to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, but as the three approached the squad car, she “began actively resisting the officers.” After they handcuffed her, Anderson began to kick at the officers, and “a short time later the woman stopped struggling and appeared to go limp.” The officers said they “found a faint pulse” on Anderson “and immediately called EMS and a supervisor to respond to the scene at 11:34 p.m..” Within the hour, Anderson was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The initial police account included no details about how or why Anderson fell limp on the sidewalk.

According to the sheriff’s investigation, Aldridge and Myers had placed Anderson in the back seat of their squad car with her feet still hanging out, where she began yelling and struggled to get out of the car. As the officers tried to put her back in the car “a physical altercation ensued,” the law enforcement official told Mother Jones, and they soon had Anderson in handcuffs and on the ground.

In their written statement to sheriff’s investigators, the officers said Anderson was laying on the ground and handcuffed by 11:20 p.m., when they radioed for a police supervisor to come to the scene. The officers subsequently requested an EMS response, the official said. The officers estimated that Anderson was in that position for a total of 5 to 10 minutes. According to call logs and witness interviews reviewed by sheriff’s investigators, the EMS team arrived at 11:41 p.m.—indicating that Anderson had been on the ground for at least 20 minutes. When the EMS team checked Anderson’s condition, one member found a faint pulse while a second was unable to find one, the official said. The handcuffs remained on Anderson as they began rendering aid; they asked the officers to remove them because they were interfering with their work. The officers complied with that request, the official said.

A spokesperson for the Cleveland PD declined to comment on the case, citing the ongoing investigation. Attorneys representing the two officers did not respond to a request for comment.

Anderson’s family members, who filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Cleveland on January 7, said she suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Family members who lived with Anderson dialed 911 to request medical assistance after Anderson became disoriented and walked out of her house into the cold, wearing only a nightgown, according to the court filing. The family had already called for police assistance earlier in the night after Anderson walked outside; another pair of officers had come to the scene, but left after Anderson went back into her house, the family said.

According to the lawsuit, Anderson’s family members said that after Anderson started to panic in the squad car, Aldridge grabbed her, “slammed her to the sidewalk, and pushed her face into the pavement.” Aldridge then pressed his knee on Anderson’s back and handcuffed her while Myers assisted in restraining her, the family said, and within moments Anderson lost consciousness. The lawsuit also alleged that when family members asked the officers to check on her condition, the officers “falsely claimed she was sleeping” and delayed calling for medical assistance. “During the lengthy time that Tanisha lay on the ground,” the family said, Aldridge and Myers “failed to provide any medical attention to Tanisha.”

Anderson’s family told sheriff’s investigators that a few weeks prior to the incident, she had been released from a psychiatric hospital. In January 2015, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s office announced that Anderson’s death was ruled a homicide and classified as a sudden death in association with “physical restraint in a prone position,” “ischemic heart disease,” and “bipolar disorder with agitation.”

“You wouldn’t have known that Tanisha was bipolar unless she told you,” Anderson’s mother, Cassandra Johnson, told Fox 8 Cleveland in December 2015. “That day was just a bad day.”

According to personnel records obtained by Cleveland.com, Aldridge was hired in April 2008, and in 2013 he was suspended for three days without pay over a taser incident that involved a female suspect. (He was also one of the officers involved in the car chase that led to the deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams in 2012.) Myers was a rookie cop who joined CPD in 2014, after graduating from the police academy that August. Cleveland.com reported that Aldridge and Myers received 16 hours of crisis intervention training while at the academy, but it is not clear whether they received any further such training once on the job at Cleveland PD. The two remain on desk duty pending the outcome of the investigation.

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Questions Mount About a Mentally Ill Black Woman’s Death in Police Custody

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Welcome to the Future of Gun Control

by HollyBlomfield4 Posted on February 17, 2016

Mother Jones

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Jonathan Mossberg wanted to be the Steve Jobs of firearms.

In 1999, a few years before the invention of the iPod, Mossberg began to build the iGun, a computer-chip-equipped “smart gun” that could only be fired by its owner. (The “i” stands for intelligence.) He saw the technology as a commonsense way to prevent gun violence—a no-brainer safety device like seatbelts or air bags. The iGun is a shotgun equipped with a radio frequency identification (RFID) sensor that only allows it to be fired by someone wearing a special ring. By 2000, a fully functional version had endured a grueling round of military-grade testing and was ready to hit the market. “When I filed my patents, my patent attorney said, ‘You’ve got the next dot-com,'” Mossberg recalls. “He was blown away.”

Mossberg wasn’t the first person to envision a smart gun, but he was well positioned to make it a reality. He was a scion of O.F. Mossberg & Sons, the nation’s oldest family-owned gun company, which makes one of the world’s best-selling lines of pump-action shotguns. He’d overseen manufacturing for the company and had also served as president of Uzi America, an importer of Israeli weapons.

Also read: How smart guns once misfired big time in New Jersey

But the iGun hit a wall. Consumers were skeptical, in part because gun rights groups had been painting smart guns as a Trojan horse for gun grabbers. A few years earlier, gun manufacturer Colt had unveiled a smart-watch-activated pistol, and Smith & Wesson had pledged to explore “authorized user technology” for its weapons. Both projects were abandoned in the face of withering criticism from the National Rifle Association, which led a boycott of Smith & Wesson. In 2005, under pressure from the NRA, Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, making gun manufacturers immune from lawsuits related to gun accidents or misuse—and removing another incentive to develop smart guns. (Today, the NRA says it doesn’t oppose smart guns but claims they are an attempt to make firearms more expensive and “would allow guns to be disabled remotely.”)

Ever since, no major firearms maker has touched the smart-gun concept—including O.F. Mossberg & Sons. “They are doing so well that they have little to gain,” Mossberg says of his family’s company (which he left in 2000). Though they see the benefits of smart guns, “should this turn into a Smith & Wesson boycott-type thing, they don’t want to be associated with that. And I don’t blame them.”

After shelving the iGun for more than a decade, Mossberg has reloaded. Americans’ trust in consumer electronics has grown, along with their concern about gun violence and safety. “The whole thing has gained a lot of momentum again,” says Mossberg, who today owns the exclusive rights to produce and market the iGun. He says he receives emails nearly every day asking about its price and availability.

Silicon chips have shrunk to the point that Mossberg can produce a 9 mm handgun version of the iGun, tapping a much larger market. While O.F. Mossberg & Sons’ research once suggested that gun owners were skeptical of weapons containing circuit boards, a 2013 survey by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun manufacturers’ trade association, found that 14 percent of all gun owners were somewhat or very likely to buy smart guns. Though the NSSF spun those results as bad for smart guns, Mossberg sees an opportunity potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars. “I know lots of people who would love to get 14 percent of the firearms market,” he says. And new research shows the market could be much bigger. A nationally representative survey published by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in December found that nearly 60 percent of Americans, if they were to buy a new handgun, would be willing to purchase a smart gun.

Police departments have also come around to the concept of issuing firearms that can’t be used by bad guys. More than 5 percent of officers killed in the line of duty are shot with their own weapons, often 9 mm handguns. In November, San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr told 60 Minutes that he wanted his officers to have the option to carry smart guns if they were available. More than a dozen law enforcement agencies in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Florida have tested the iGun in recent months, according to Mossberg.

Smart guns have also gained a powerful ally in Washington. In January, President Obama directed the Justice Department, Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense to develop a strategy to promote smart gun research and expedite government procurement of the weapons.

To bring a smart pistol to market, Mossberg says he needs to raise about $1 million for research and development—money that almost certainly won’t come from O.F. Mossberg & Sons or any other major firearms company. Following the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, Silicon Valley angel investor Ron Conway announced an effort to fund start-up companies dedicated to promoting gun safety. Conway’s Smart Tech Challenges Foundation gave Mossberg a grant of $100,000, which helped generate buzz for smart guns in the Valley. Yet nearly two years later, not a single venture capital firm has backed a smart-gun company. Margot Hirsch, the president of Smart Tech Challenges, says tech investors didn’t have smart guns on their radar in the past, but she hopes that now “the VC community and impact investors will be interested in investing, not only to make money, but to save lives.”

Mossberg sees no reason why his product should be controversial. “In the 1700s and 1800s, there was still no manual safety device on a gun,” he observes, referring to the safety catches that are now ubiquitous on American handguns and rifles. “And then somebody put one on there and nobody cared. This is nothing more than that.”

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Welcome to the Future of Gun Control

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Cleveland Wants Tamir Rice’s Family to Pay $500 for Their Child’s Last Ambulance Ride

by EKUCortezu Posted on February 11, 2016

Mother Jones

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Less than two months after a grand jury decided not to indict the Cleveland police officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice, the city has filed a claim saying the boy owed $500 “for emergency medical services rendered as the decedent’s last dying expense.” In response to the claim, a Rice family attorney told the Cleveland Scene that the move “displays a new pinnacle of callousness and insensitivity.”

The mayor’s office could not be reached immediately for comment.

Here is the full text of the claim:

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City of Cleveland Creditor s Claim Against the Estate of Tamir Rice (PDF)

City of Cleveland Creditor s Claim Against the Estate of Tamir Rice (Text)

Source – 

Cleveland Wants Tamir Rice’s Family to Pay $500 for Their Child’s Last Ambulance Ride

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The Justice Department Just Sued Ferguson for "Routine Violation" of Residents’ Civil Rights

by Nannett6946 Posted on February 10, 2016

Mother Jones

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The US Justice Department has sued the city of Ferguson, Missouri, following months of “painstaking negotiations” with local officials and more than a year of investigating their alleged discriminatory and unconstitutional practices.

The Justice Department launched its investigation into the Ferguson Police Department after 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer in August 2014, sparking months of protest across the country and public outcry over the use of deadly and excessive force by the police.

On Wednesday, Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced that the Justice Department was filing a lawsuit against Ferguson one day after the city council rejected a proposed settlement that sought to “remedy literally years of systematic deficiencies.” The Justice Department spent more than six months negotiating a settlement with local officials after it identified widespread civil rights violations and racial discrimination in the Ferguson Police Department’s stops, searches, and arrests. It also alleges that local court proceedings violated the due process of residents. The city council’s rejection of the agreement, Lynch said, “leaves us no further choice.”

Here is the full text of the lawsuit:

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Ferguson-DOJ-Lawsuit (PDF)

Ferguson-DOJ-Lawsuit (Text)

Here’s the full text of Lynch’s remarks:

Good afternoon and thank you all for being here. I am joined by Vanita Gupta, head of the Civil Rights Division.

Nearly a year ago, the Department of Justice released our findings in an investigation of the Police Department of Ferguson, Missouri. Our investigation uncovered a community in distress, in which residents felt under assault by their own police force. The Ferguson Police Department’s violations were expansive and deliberate. They violated the Fourth Amendment by stopping people without reasonable suspicion, arresting them without cause and using unreasonable force. They made enforcement decisions based on the way individuals expressed themselves and unnecessarily escalated non-threatening situations. These violations were not only egregious – they were routine. They were encouraged by the city in the interest of raising revenue. They were driven, at least in part, by racial bias and occurred disproportionately against African-American residents. And they were profoundly and fundamentally unconstitutional. These findings were based upon information received from Ferguson’s own citizens, from Ferguson’s own records and from Ferguson’s own officials. And they demonstrated a clear pattern or practice of violations of the Constitution and federal law.

After announcing our findings one year ago, we began negotiations with the city of Ferguson on a court-enforceable consent decree that would bring about necessary police and court reform. From the outset, we made clear that our goal was to reach an agreement to avoid litigation. But we also made clear that if there was no agreement, we would be forced to go to court to protect the rights of Ferguson residents. Painstaking negotiations lasted more than 26 weeks as we sought to remedy literally years of systematic deficiencies. A few weeks ago, the Department of Justice and Ferguson’s own negotiators came to an agreement that was both fair and cost-effective – and that would provide all the residents of Ferguson the constitutional and effective policing and court practices guaranteed to all Americans. As agreed, it was presented to the Ferguson City Council for approval or rejection. And last night, the city council rejected the consent decree approved by their own negotiators. Their decision leaves us no further choice.

Today, the Department of Justice is filing a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the city of Ferguson, Missouri, alleging a pattern or practice of law enforcement conduct that violates the First, Fourth and 14th Amendments of the Constitution and federal civil rights laws. We intend to aggressively prosecute this case and I have no doubt that we will prevail.

The residents of Ferguson have waited nearly a year for their city to adopt an agreement that would protect their rights and keep them safe. They have waited nearly a year for their police department to accept rules that would ensure their constitutional rights and that thousands of other police departments follow every day. They have waited nearly a year for their municipal courts to commit to basic, reasonable rules and standards. But as our report made clear, the residents of Ferguson have suffered the deprivation of their constitutional rights – the rights guaranteed to all Americans – for decades. They have waited decades for justice. They should not be forced to wait any longer.

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The Justice Department Just Sued Ferguson for "Routine Violation" of Residents’ Civil Rights

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The Texas Trooper Who Pulled Over Sandra Bland Was Just Indicted

by ConstanBarreras Posted on January 6, 2016

Mother Jones

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On Wednesday, nearly five months after Sandra Bland was found dead in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas, a grand jury has charged the state trooper who initially arrested the 28-year-old black woman with perjury.

Trooper Brian Encinia pulled over Bland in Prairie View on July 20, citing an improper lane change. Dash cam footage later released by county officials showed that the encounter quickly escalated after Encinia ordered Bland out of her car. In the video, Encinia can be heard saying, “I’m going to drag you out of here,” as he reached into Bland’s vehicle. He then pulled out what appeared to be a Taser, yelling, “I will light you up!” Encinia eventually forced Bland to the ground as she protested the arrest. Encinia arrested Bland for “assault on a public servant” and booked her into the Waller County jail, where she was found dead three days later.

The video raised questions about how a woman who was on her way to start a new job wound up dying in custody. An autopsy determined that Bland died of “suicide by hanging,” but Bland’s family countered that suicide seemed “unfathomable” and asked the US Department of Justice to investigate the incident. County officials said Bland had asked to use the phone about an hour before she was found hanging in her cell. Bland’s family said they had been trying to help her post bail.

Encinia’s class A misdemeanor perjury charge, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine, relates to a statement he made in the incident report following Bland’s arrest. It comes a few weeks after the Waller County grand jury concluded that no felony had been committed in Bland’s death by the county sheriff or jail staff.

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The Texas Trooper Who Pulled Over Sandra Bland Was Just Indicted

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A Grand Jury Just Decided Not to Indict the Cop Who Killed 12-Year-Old Tamir Rice

by JulieFalconer4 Posted on December 28, 2015

Mother Jones

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Update (3:08 p.m. ET, 12/28/2015): The family of Tamir Rice has issued the following statement:

On Monday, more than a year since 12-year-old Tamir Rice was killed by a Cleveland police officer, a grand jury decided not to indict the cops involved, Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said that despite “the perfect storm” of errors that day, those errors “did not constitute criminal conduct.”

On the afternoon of November 22, 2014, less than 10 minutes after a man called 911 to report a person in a park waving around what appeared to be a gun, Loehmann and his partner Garmback drove up directly in front of Rice, with Loehmann emerging from the patrol car and shooting the boy almost instantaneously. Surveillance footage showed the officers standing around for several minutes after the shooting without giving Rice, any kind of first aid or tending to his wounds. The boy died at a hospital the next day. The gun in Rice’s possession turned out to be a toy replica.

Monday’s decision emerges after more than a year of public controversy and investigations into the incident, first by the Cleveland police department and then by the Cuyahoga County sheriff’s office, which in July handed over its findings to McGinty. Beginning in October, McGinty released three independent reports assessing the legality of Loehmann’s and Garmback’s actions. The reports, written by experts tapped by the prosecutor, all appeared to absolve the officers of misconduct. Their release to the public long before the grand jury decision was unusual—grand jury proceedings are typically closed off to the public—and the move prompted Rice’s family and supporters to call for a special prosecutor to take over the case. Neither Loehmann nor Garmback ever spoke to investigators, as Mother Jones first reported in May, but in December the two officers released public statements for the first time since Rice’s death.

Here are the key events that led up to the grand jury decision:

November 22, 2014: A 911 caller tells a police dispatcher that a man who is “probably a juvenile” is waving around a gun that is “probably fake.” The call taker fails to relay those details in the dispatch computer system and codes the call a “priority 1.” A radio dispatcher requests officers to the scene. Tamir Rice is shot and killed within 10 minutes of the 911 call.

December 3, 2014: A report from the Cleveland Plain Dealer reveals that Loehmann’s personnel record showed the officer had a troubling history with handling guns in the past. According to reports by supervisors at the Independence Police Department—where Loehmann served a six-month stint in 2012 before joining the Cleveland police—he was “distracted” and “weepy” during firearms qualifications training. An Independence deputy police chief wrote that Loehmann “could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal,” and recommended that the department part ways with him.

December 5, 2014: Rice’s family files a federal wrongful death suit against Loehmann, Garmback, and the city of Cleveland.

January 2015: The Cuyahoga County sheriff’s office takes over the city’s investigation into the shooting.

June 11, 2015: A Cleveland judge finds there is sufficient evidence to charge both Loehmann and Garmback, but leaves that decision up to the county prosecutor.

June 13, 2015: After five months, the county sheriff’s office releases the results of its probe. Loehmann and Garmback, as Mother Jones was the first to report, refused to speak with investigators despite multiple requests by investigators to interview them.

October 11, 2015: Cuyahoga County Prosecutor McGinty releases two reports that conclude Loehmann’s actions were “objectively reasonable” and constitutional, suggesting the investigation may not lead to charges. The two reports note that possible tactical errors made by the officers—such as whether Loehmann issued a warning before firing shots—are not relevant to the findings. The release of the reports stirs a public outcry and prompts Rice’s family and supporters to call for McGinty’s recusal from the grand jury process and for a special prosecutor to take over the case.

November 12, 2015: McGinty releases a third report that focuses on the potential mishandling of the 911 call and whether Garmback’s decision to drive the squad car to within feet of Rice contributed to the shooting. The report concludes that the 911 dispatcher and both officers’ actions were reasonable.

November 28, 2015: Two outside law enforcement experts, retained by the Rice family’s attorneys, conclude in their reports that Loehmann’s and Garmback’s actions were “reckless” and unjustifiable under the law. They challenge the three earlier reports released by the county prosecutor.

December 1, 2015: After a yearlong silence, Loehmann and Garmback release their written accounts of what happened on the day of the shooting. Their statements are made public through the county prosecutor. “I had very little time as I exited the vehicle,” Loehmann wrote of the moments before he fired two shots at Rice. “We are trained to get out of the cruiser because ‘the cruiser is a coffin.'” He added, “I saw the weapon in his hands coming out of his waistband and the threat to my partner and myself was real and active.”

December 15, 2015: Rice’s family formally requests a Department of Justice investigation into the boy’s death and the prosecutor’s handling of the grand jury proceedings.

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A Grand Jury Just Decided Not to Indict the Cop Who Killed 12-Year-Old Tamir Rice

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Oklahoma Cop Convicted of Raping Four Black Women and Assaulting Four Others

by NorineHumphery Posted on December 11, 2015

Mother Jones

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An Oklahoma police officer was found guilty of 18 counts of sexual assault against 8 women in a case that largely escaped national media attention. He could be sentenced to up to 263 years in prison. Here’s what you need to know about the case.

The allegations: Daniel Holtzclaw, a 29-year-old former college football player, was accused of raping and sexually assaulting 13 women—at least 12 of them black—over a 7-month period from December 2013 to June 2014. All the attacks occurred in a predominantly black, low income neighborhood in Oklahoma City that Holtzclaw regularly patrolled, police say. His victims ranged in age from 17 to 57—the youngest a high school student and the oldest a grandmother.

The women testified that Holtzclaw stopped them while they were walking or driving alone. He often forced his victims into his squad car and drove them to isolated areas such as empty lots, fields, or an abandoned school, according to court testimony. Some said that Holtzclaw assaulted them in their homes while wearing his police uniform and with his department-issued gun holstered at his side. One woman, who testified she was 17 at the time of the attack, told the jury that Holtzclaw used a drug search as a pretense to grope her. He later raped the teen on her mother’s front porch while she was home alone. Another—the grandmother—said Holtzclaw forced her to perform oral sex on him during a traffic stop. Holtzclaw was placed on administrative leave during the investigation and was eventually fired. He was arrested in August 2014 after investigators used GPS tracking devices to corroborate his accusers’ stories.

The charges: Holtzclaw was charged with 36 counts, including rape, forcible oral sodomy, burglary, stalking, and sexual battery. He pleaded not guilty to all of the allegations. He faces the possibility of spending multiple life sentences in prison.

The prosecution strategy: Prosecutors argued Holtzclaw deliberately selected his victims. They were almost all poor and black. (Holtzclaw’s father is white. His mother is Japanese.) Some were suspected or convicted of drug possession or prostitution, and others had active warrants. Holtzclaw thought they would be too afraid to report him or no one would believe them if they did, prosecutors argued in court. The officer often threatened victims with arrest and violence if they did not cooperate.

Some of his victims were hesitant to come forward. The youngest accuser asked while on the witness stand, “What’s the point of telling on the police?” Another testified that she never told anyone because she had “never been on the right side of the law.” Police began investigating the case only after the 57-year-old victim came forward. Prosecutors said that she had no criminal record and thus no reason to fear going to the police. A middle-class woman, she was passing through the neighborhood where Holtzclaw stopped her but did not live there.

The defense: The defense argued that all of the sexual acts were consensual. They argued that Holtzclaw is an upstanding, three-year veteran of the police force and an “all-American good guy.” According to media reports from the courtroom, the defense attempted to discredit Holtzclaw’s accusers by grilling them about their past drug use and criminal histories. Holtzclaw did not take the stand.

The jury: The jury included eight men and four women. All of the jurors were white.

The verdict: The jury found Holtzclaw guilty on 18 counts involving 8 of his accusers. The convictions included five counts of rape and several counts of sexual assault, such as sexual battery and forcible oral sodomy. The jury recommended a sentence of 263 years in prison. Holtzclaw will go before the judge for sentencing Jan. 21. He faces multiple life sentences.

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Oklahoma Cop Convicted of Raping Four Black Women and Assaulting Four Others

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Chicago’s "Black Site" Police Scandal Is Primed to Explode Again

by PSZLinneap Posted on December 8, 2015

Mother Jones

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Over the past couple of weeks, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been busy doing damage control related to his administration’s botched handling of Laquan McDonald’s killing by police. Last week, the mayor fired his top cop and begrudgingly welcomed an investigation by the Department of Justice. On Monday, after a high-ranking detective stepped down (plenty of critics have been calling for Emanuel’s head, too), officials released video from last October’s fatal police shooting of Ronald Johnson (another black man), and US Attorney General Loretta Lynch accepted Emanuel’s invitation, announcing a DOJ probe into the Chicago Police Department’s use of force. The biggest remaining question is whether the DOJ—or the mayor, for that matter—will tackle the city’s other major police scandal.

It began in February, when UK newspaper the Guardian published the first in a series of articles questioning doings at a Chicago police detention facility known as Homan Square. Police hold and interrogate suspects at the facility, a former Sears warehouse in a predominantly black, low-income neighborhood on the city’s West Side. But it’s neither jail nor booking station. Attorney Flint Taylor described Homan to me as “an intelligence gathering place” akin to a CIA “black site.” In October, he filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of three clients who allege they suffered unconstitutional abuses while detained there.

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Chicago’s "Black Site" Police Scandal Is Primed to Explode Again

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Here’s the Awful Way the New York Post Changed Its San Bernardino Shooting Cover

by AlmedaQkv2385888 Posted on December 3, 2015

Mother Jones

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Early Thursday morning, police officials announced the identities of two suspects believed to be behind the deadly rampage in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people and injured 17 others. Authorities had been searching for Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, after the two alleged gunmen opened fire inside a center that helps individuals with developmental disabilities and then drove away in a black SUV. Farook and Malik were later killed in a gunfire exchange with the police.

With the official release of their names, the New York Post made the editorial decision to change its front-page headline with the following:

Blatant bigotry aside, it’s also important to call out the Post’s inconsistent focus on religion in the aftermath of mass shootings in America. After last Friday’s Planned Parenthood shooting in Colorado, the paper did not feature a story about the attack on its front page, nor did its editors label that shooter a “Christian Killer” in any accompanying stories. Instead, on Saturday, the New York tabloid demeaned the city’s homeless population with a cover story headlined “How The Bums Stole Christmas.”

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Here’s the Awful Way the New York Post Changed Its San Bernardino Shooting Cover

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Breaking: Shooting at Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood

by Palma1985tj Posted on November 27, 2015

Mother Jones

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Update, 11/27/15, 6:05pm: A Colorado Springs police officer confirmed that two civilians and one police officer were killed during the shooting on Friday. The officer was employed by the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. Nine others were injured during the shooting.

Update, 11/27/15, 5:05pm: Police arrested the alleged gunman Friday afternoon after an hours-long standoff with law enforcement. Eleven people were taken to the hospital with injuries, including five police officers.

An investigation is underway and authorities say the gunman left behind items, according to the Colorado Independent.

The Colorado Springs police department is reporting that three officers and an as-yet-undetermined number of other people were shot earlier today outside a Planned Parenthood clinic. The department says that the shooter is contained to a specific area but has not yet been apprehended. The department warned residents and reporters to stay away from the area of the shooting. Police have closed Centennial Boulevard in both directions and ordered nearby stores and restaurants to keep customers inside.

According to the New York Times, a local TV affiliate reported earlier today that the gunman was shooting at passing cars from the Planned Parenthood parking lot. Colorado Springs was recently the scene of a mass shooting on October 31 when three people were killed by a gunman before he died after a shootout with police.

This is a breaking story. Come back here for updates as news develops.

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Breaking: Shooting at Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood

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