Police Brutality 2013

Archive for 2013

Stationary Police Car Attacks and Kills Young New Yorker!

Posted on: April 28th, 2013 1 Comment

A year ago, on April 12th in Brooklyn, 27 year old Tamon Robinson was killed by NYPD officers after they chased him from Bayview Houses, Canarsie for allegedly stealing paving stones.

According to witnesses the police chased Robinson in their police cruisers and eventually ran him over with one of the vehicles. DNAinfo claims that witnesses saw officers pull Robinson from under the car, yelling “Wake up, wake up” at the young man before throwing him onto the hood of the car.

The twist in this whole tragedy is that the NYPD now claim that Robinson actually ran into a stationary police cruiser, causing him to fall back and fatally hit his head on the pavement. To make matters even worse, the NYPD sent Robinson’s family a bill for damages caused to the cruiser in the incident (which was quickly withdrawn after the media picked up on it)!

District Attorney Charles Hynes is considering whether to bring the case forward to the grand jury. The Daily News reports that Hynes will bring in an “independent expert” to reconstruct the crash, before he can make any further decisions on the matter.

In a similar incident in August of last year, officers rammed a fleeing dirt bike with their police cruiser in the Bronx, killing the rider and injuring a passenger. The Daily News reports that the NYPD’s “Patrol Guide” states that the use of police cruisers to ram and stop fleeing vehicles is strictly prohibited! This then begs the question “Are police cruisers allowed to be used to ram and stop fleeing citizens?”

Canadian Cop Punches a Cyclist in The Face

Posted on: April 24th, 2013 16 Comments

Vancouver police department is investigating the story behind a video of one of their officers hitting a man in the face during the arrest.

Andishae Akhavan was riding his bicycle without a helmet through downtown Yaletown when he got stopped by two plainclothes police officers. One of the bystanders started filming the arrest as the cops were trying to handcuff Akhavan. He asked “What is this for?” but didn’t get an answer, not knowing why he was getting arrested. As Akhavan moved his hand in a non threatening way without raising his voice or resisting, he got punched in the face. An officer with a British accent told him that he was punched for resisting arrest.

Vancouver’s police union president Tom Stamatakis stated that Akhavan drove his bike in a way that “put a lot of people in some risk, whether it’s accident or injury” and “allegedly confrontational with police”. Further investigation is to show whether the use of force was necessary.

Instagraming Her Way To The Police

Posted on: April 16th, 2013 8 Comments

After tweeting an anti-police picture depicting a police spokesperson being shot in the head, artist Jennifer Pawluck (20) was detained and brought into questioning in Montreal.

Even though she wasn’t aware of the implications that the sharing of the picture would bring, Pawluck told the Huffington Post Quebec that many of her friends dislike the police, and that the only reason she shared it was because she thought it was funny. “I don’t even know who Ian Lafrenière is”.

Pawluck took the photo in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood of Montreal, and it depicts the named police official getting shot in the head with his name and the imprint ACAB next to it.

A day after uploading the pic to instagram, she was detained and held for 4 hours, where she told that she didn’t mean to harass Lafrenière and make him fear for his safety. Her trial has been set for April 17th, and until then she’s been given a restraining order, one kilometer from the location of Lafrenière.

Oakland Cops Shoot Innocent Teen In The Face

Posted on: April 14th, 2013 1 Comment

In another case of a trigger-happy police officer an innocent 16-year-old black teen got shot in the face after being mistaken for a robber.

Oakland police received a call about an armed robbery on 10th and Clay Street around 9.50 p.m. The suspects were described as three black men in their twenties, armed with knives and riding bicycles. When the police arrived, one of the witnesses told them the suspects were about to commit another robbery down the block and directed them towards a group of teenagers hanging out in the street.

Even though none of the teens had a bike and they didn’t match the age description, the cops detained them as suspects.

A couple of minutes later, a cop pulled out his gun and shot one of the teenagers in the face. The bullet scraped the 16-year-old’s jaw and cheek, but luckily didn’t cause any serious injuries. It turned out later that the boy and his friends didn’t have any involvement in the robbery.

Oakland police has admitted their mistake but further action against the cop responsible for the shooting is still unknown.

Police Tasering a Pregnant Woman

Posted on: April 11th, 2013 24 Comments

After a fender bender accident that occurred on a parking lot, Patricia White (29) called the police. Although she was arguing with her boyfriend about the accident itself, the one she didn’t expect was to get an electric shock through her entire body, just for not complying with direct orders of an officer.

As the video shows us, after her boyfriend Frederic Thomas (31) has continued “actively arguing” with a police officer that arrived to the scene, he got tasered after which White was immediately ordered to lay down on the ground face down. After this, she yells out that she is unable to do so, being eight months pregnant. The officer continues to instruct her to the ground, and at one point drive stuns (hits her directly) in the thigh.

The pair is charged with aggravated battery and resisting arrest, and after their release on Sunday night, they are scheduled to appear in court in May.

GRAPHIC: Officer Shot a Unarmed Man 11 Times

Posted on: April 8th, 2013 40 Comments

The attorney representing the family of Ernesto Duenez has presented a graphic video of the police officer shooting him 11 times, just one day after the said officer was cleared of wrongdoing.

Duenez was wanted for a domestic violence incident and several police officers in patrol cars were waiting for him to come home so they could arrest him. The video from one of the patrol car cameras shows Duenez parking his pickup truck and officer James Moody approaching him with a drawn gun. He suspected that Duenez had a knife and shouted at him to drop it and put his hands up.

As Duenez was exiting the vehicle over the passenger seat, he tripped and turned around which provoked the officer to fire 13 shots in just 4.2 seconds. Duenez was shot once in the head, eight times in the body and two times in the extremities and died from wounds to his chest and abdomen.

After hearing the gunshots, his wife Whitney Duenez ran out of the house screaming and ignored officer’s warning to stand back, rushing to hug her dying husband.

It was later discovered that Duenez had his foot stuck in the seat belt which is probably why he had turned around, trying to set his foot loose.

Attorney John Burris wants officer Moody prosecuted for murder, saying that he should be “held accountable just like anyone else would be held accountable when they engage in this kind of barbaric conduct.”

NYPD Cops Sued For Pepper-Spraying a 5-Month-Old

Posted on: April 7th, 2013 8 Comments

Marilyn Taylor and her husband Dehaven McClain are suing NYPD for civil rights violations, assault, battery, negligence and violations to the state and federal constitutions after an incident at a Manhattan train station when they and their three children got pepper sprayed.

Taylor and McClain were with their 5-month-old baby and 2 and 4 years old children. As they were on their way to board the L-train, McClain opened the service door so he could push the baby stroller through. Police officers, identified as Maripily Clase, Suranjit Dey and Jermaine Hodge accused the family of trying to skip a fare and one of the cops pepper sprayed Taylor, but some of the spray hit the children too. The lawsuit states that “the pepper-spray caused the children to scream out and choked the two-year old, who went into fits of vomiting”.

Taylor was arrested and the cops pushed her down the stairs so hard she got bruises on her wrists and back from handcuffs. She was released with an adjournment in contemplation of a dismissal, meaning all charges against her will get dropped if she doesn’t get arrested again within a certain period of time.

Weeks after the incident, the children are still suffering from the emotional trauma caused by it.

They are now too scared to ride the subway and get very frightened every time they see a police officer and also have nightmares and trouble sleeping at night. NYPD didn’t release any statements regarding this lawsuit.

How to File a Complaint Against an Officer

Posted on: April 6th, 2013 12 Comments

If you ever found yourself in a situation where you experienced any form of police misconduct and wanted to file a complaint, it’s possible that you learned the hard way that you can’t simply walk into the station and do it. When investigating the way police misconduct complaints were handled, several civilian testers were sent to different stations to try to file a complaint. The results were devastating – in most cases, the testers were harassed and sometimes even arrested on false accusations. To avoid any kind of problems, follow these useful tips when dealing with a complaint:

When filing a “one of a less serious nature” report, the best way is to mail it to Internal Affairs as certified mail with return receipt. This way you’ll have proof of actually sending a report and make it harder for the police to “misplace” it.

As soon as possible, write down all details about the incident. You need to answer the five questions – who, what, when, where and how.

Provide the name and/or badge number of the officer, explain the nature of misconduct (drinking on duty, harassment, racial discrimination, accepting bribe etc.) and the exact time and place the incident had occurred.

Finally, explain in detail how everything happened. Never lie in a complaint. If the police proves you were lying, they will dismiss this and all your future complaints and possibly even charge you with providing a false report. Wait for a couple of days to see if you remember any more details about the incident, then mail the report. The time limit for minor misconduct is 60 days and up to 6 months for serious ones, so a few days won’t make a big difference.

After they’ve received your complaint, the police might contact you via phone or e-mail and ask you to come to the station for further clarification. Never go down to the police station for an interview and don’t answer any questions. Tell them everything there is to know is in the report and stick to it.

If you have a more serious complaint, make sure you hire an attorney instead of addressing to a police agency. Pick an attorney who is not from your hometown or county because locals work with police officers an judges and might not get the best deal for you. You can also contact the Department of Justice or your State Attorney General.

Milwaukee Woman Sues Cop For Sexual Assault

Posted on: April 3rd, 2013 No Comments

Milwaukee police officer who raped a woman when responding to her 911 call is getting sued three years after the incident. Ladmarald Cates, who was fired from the force in 2010, is now facing jail time.

The terrible incident took place in July 2010 when a woman, who was 19 at the time, called the police complaining about neighbors throwing rocks at her window. Cates arrived at the scene, dragged her into the bathroom and raped her, then arrested her.

Other police officers didn’t believe Cates when she told them what happened. Eleven hours later, they finally agreed to take her to a hospital where doctors confirmed physical evidence of strangling and sexual assault. Even after backing up her story with evidence, Cates was taken back to jail where she was held for several days. She was never charged with any crime.

The woman, who chose to remain anonymous, “has suffered and continues to suffer great pain of mind and body, shock, emotional distress, physical manifestations of emotional distress, embarrassment, loss of self-esteem, disgrace, humiliation and loss of enjoyment of life”, which is why she decided to file a lawsuit. She is also suing police Chief Edward Flynn, the city and the police department because of the way she was treated before and after the incident.

It’s not the first time for Cates to be involved in such a scandal. He was accused for sexual misconduct three times in 2000, twice with female prisoners and once with a 16-year-old girl. He was fired in 2010 after the July incident because claimed that the sex was consensual, which was contrary to the department rules about having sex on duty.

Ogden Cops Kill Two Dogs In Separate Incidents

Posted on: March 29th, 2013 4 Comments

After the second killing of a homeowner’s dog by the police officers, the Ogden community is enraged. Both incidents took place this March and the police claims it was self-defense.

Michelle Merila called the police to report a burglary, and when the officers arrived she was at her front porch with her two bulldogs and a German shepherd. Jesse, the German shepherd, came towards the officers who ordered Merila to make the dog get back on the porch. Before she had time to react, one of them shot the dog dead.

“The cop was standing there and he says ‘get your dog or I’m gonna shoot her’ and as I’m walking up ‘boom, boom’ he shot the dog, didn’t have any reason, the dog wasn’t going after him anymore, she had stopped,” Merila said.

This happened just one week after the police shot and killed Dan Marocchi’s German shepherd named Max. Max had slipped out the front door and ran to a neighbor’s driveway where he started chasing two officers. One of them knocked the dog down and shot him twice with a handgun.

“Instead of having guns ready, they should have had tasers ready, pepper spray, not bullets,” said one of the owners, Roxanne Marocchi.

The officer who shot Max was cleared and the second case is still under investigation.