Counties across Oregon are passing so-called Second Amendment Preservation ordinances in response to the proposed gun control measure known as Initiative Proposition 43 which they say is designed to take their guns.
The post Multiple Cities Come Together to Pass Ordinances Making it Illegal to Ban Guns appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
A mentally ill man in his 30’s was shot and killed by NYPD police officers after he refused to put down the pipe he was holding.
The post Police Release Video Leading Up to Killing of Mentally Ill Man for Pointing a Small Pipe appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
An Albuquerque police officer is suing the mother of the child he killed when he sped through town going twice the legal rate of speed because it is causing him emotional distress.
The post Cop Suing Mother of 6yo Boy HE KILLED, Because it Caused HIM “Emotional Distress” appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
A North Carolina Sheriff"s Deputy was arrested this week for bank robbery. He robbed a major bank just hours before he was scheduled to go to work as a cop.
The post Cops Chase Down, Arrest Bank Robber, Then They Find Out He’s a Fellow Cop appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
Despite the constant bombardment by the mainstream media that there is a war on cops, the data shows the only war is on American citizens—by police.
A Florida man was killed on video this week following a clash with police. He was unarmed when he was killed as witnessed begged cops to taser him.
Far be it from us here at TFTP to blame someone for having a panic attack. They come on without warning, last for minutes and sometimes hours on end, and are terrifying for those who are experiencing it. But when the person having a panic attack is a police officer, and he discharges his weapon in the middle of the attack, and then his department blames innocent citizens, we must address the story head-on.
Deputy Justin Johnson is a Sevier County Sheriff’s Office deputy. Johnson was called by paramedics to a Sevier mobile home park where Brian Keith Mullinax, 41, and his girlfriend, Tina Carrie Jo Cody, 37, live. Cody’s mother, Robin Sutton is their landlord. Sutton lives in one mobile home while the couple lives in another. Sutton claimed her daughter and her boyfriend stole her purse. Johnson was called to investigate.
Upon arrival, the officer approaches Cody and gives her two conflicting commands, “Walk over here!” and “Don’t move!” Apparently not knowing what to do, she took off running. Johnson chased her down, grabbed her by the shirt, and threw her to the ground. His breath can be heard on his body camera. He was breathing heavily and may have been struggling to catch his breath. Cody said her mom told her to run. She later told the officer she just got out of a mental health facility.
As officer Johnson was attempting to get Cody in handcuffs, he must have believed he saw Mullinax with a gun—he was unarmed. He wheeled around, with his Glock drawn, pointed it at the man and opened fire in a volley of seven shots.
That may have been the start of his panic attack. He ran downhill to the far end of the field away from the mobile home, abandoning his suspects, the paramedics, and the citizens he fired upon.
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READ MORE: Exclusive: Combat Vet Now Being Monitored by Police for Speaking the Truth in a Senate Meeting
His breathing became more rapid. He radioed dispatch:
Get me help, shots fired, get me help!
He radioed in again:
I’ve got a guy with a gun. I need some help. Shots fired!
Johnson’s voice seemed to be tightening and increasing in pitch and intensity. As he waited for back up, all the while he was yelling profanity-laced orders for everyone not to move and to “shut the fuck up.”
While paramedic Blake Gregg continued to attend to Cody, who may have been going through her own psychiatric episode, that’s when it happened. At around the 5:30 minute mark in the nearly 10:00 minute recording, Johnson lost it completely. He had a full-blown panic attack, sounding as if he was crying, he remained frozen in place, gun drawn, arms extended.
It’s almost certain the paramedics knew something was going wrong with the whole scene. Not only did they not run away when Johnson opened fire, one brave paramedic, Michael O’Connor, moved in to disarm the officer who was noticeably and audibly out of control.
Keep it together man! Pull it together man. Give me your gun sir give me your gun I’m with the ambulance service sir give me your gun….easy buddy I’ve got it. It’s under control. Easy buddy. Calm Down. You’ve got this…easy buddy it’s okay. it’s a stressful situation.
The calm, cool, and collected paramedics and their demeanor stood in stark contrast to the officer who could not keep it together. But what happened next some are calling a travesty of justice. Cody was charged with resisting arrest while Mullinax was charged with assault, even though no gun was found, the only shots fired were those from Johnson’s gun, and the man never laid a hand on the officer. In essence, the couple was charged for the officer’s own panic attack.
READ MORE: Big Pharma Bias: FDA Grants "Breakthrough" Status to Ecstasy for PTSD While Prohibiting Pot
Cody kept telling the officer they had no gun. She even asked the paramedics to get her away from Johnson as he was “crazy.” According to the Knoxville News Sentinel:
The video showed Mullinax obeyed Johnson when – after Johnson had fired seven shots and ran away – the deputy ordered him to the ground, and he never moved from that position during or after Johnson’s panic attack.
Even still, with eyewitnesses present, the couple went to jail for 42 days as they were too poor to be able to bond out of their incarceration. Worse still, the law required for them to get a hearing within 10 days of being jailed, but they did not get their hearing. Now, they’re arguably being charged for crimes they did not commit. The Knoxville News Sentinel stated Mullinax is set to appear in court on Tuesday on charges he assaulted the officer.
Mullinax is set to stand trial in Sevier County Criminal Court on Tuesday on a charge that he assaulted Johnson. A lower court judge already dropped felony charges against both Cody and Mullinax, and a grand jury refused to indict Cody for causing the panic attack. She remains charged with resisting arrest.
From Johnson’s police report, a clearer picture may be emerging describing what was going through the officer’s mind when he opened fire. Noticeably (and some might say predictably) absent from Jonhson’s police report was any mention of a panic or anxiety attack. He wrote:
I heard a male voice coming from a short distance behind me shout, ‘I’ve got a gun’, (expletive)…I turned to notice (a suspect) pacing wildly on the porch of a nearby mobile home and then squat while aiming an object at me that appeared to be a firearm in his hand. I immediately discharged my weapon.
SCSO Detective Johnny Bohanan added to the police report and described why he decided to charge Mullinax with aggravated assault. He wrote:
Because of the assault on Johnson and the fact that he was taken to the hospital with injuries and may have suffered some type of cardiac event as the result of this assault by both the male and female and all the statements and evidence, I charged [mullinax and Cody with aggravated assault].
Attorneys John S. “Stan” Young III and Cameron Bell are doing their own investigation to determine if there is enough evidence to warrant a civil suit against the officer, the department, and presumably the county.
READ MORE: Cop Arrested for Beating a Citizen in "One on One" Street Fight While on Duty, In Uniform
It remains unclear if prosecutors will continue to seek charges against the couple now that the truth of what happened on that December 2016 day has been revealed. Mullinax contends he was yelling that he had his cell phone camera and was recording Johnson’s treatment of his girlfriend. And for that, he nearly lost his life, spent 42 days in jail, and may end up going to prison if cooler heads like those of the paramedics don’t prevail.
Las Vegas, NV — The response time of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department during a recent mass shooting has been called into question by an Iraq War Veteran who claims he told police exactly where the suspect, Stephen Paddock, was firing on concertgoers, which was above his room in the Mandalay Bay casino.
Chris Bethel told reporters he was staying in a room just a few floors below Paddock and notified police to the mass murderer’s precise location. Now, Bethel is demanding an answer to the question as to why it took the LVMPD Swat team 1 hour and 12 minutes to penetrate Paddock’s room to neutralize the threat.
According to a timeline produced by the DailyMail, the first reports of gunfire at the Route 91 Harvest Festival came in at 10:08 p.m. Bethel claimed he called the police to let them know from which floor and room the shooter was firing from. He is now miffed with incredulity that it took police 72 minutes to enter the room, only to find that Paddock had reportedly taken his life.
Recognizing the types of weapons being used, and the presence of explosives, Bethel described what he heard:
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Bethel said he called the front desk to tell them where the shooter was firing from but no one answered the phone. All the while, he could hear the shooter changing calibers and weapons as well.
READ MORE: Cops Kill Deaf Electrical Engineer, Detain the Only Witness and Delete His Video
He told reporters as he watched the police attempt to locate the shooter’s room, he noticed they were going in the wrong direction. Eventually, he was able to get someone on the phone to tell them, “He’s not over there. He’s over here!”
The first look into the officers’ view during the shooting was revealed after Body Camera footage was released on Tuesday, showing the sheer chaos and terror at the scene as they searched for the shooter.
According to the DailyMail’s timeline, LVMPD admitted they knew of Paddock’s exact location at 10:24 p.m., but they delayed in storming the room and taking out the suspect. It was not until 11:21 p.m. that the SWAT team used explosives to blow their way into the room, only to find Paddock reportedly deceased from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Bethel said he is filled with regret about the fact that it took LVMPD over an hour to get inside the room.
“I feel like I didn’t do enough,” he told CBS DFW. “I feel like I couldn’t get a hold of somebody quick enough to let them know. And it felt like it took them too long to get over there, to take him out.”
In all, 59 people were killed and 527 injured in the attack now known as the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. But LVMPD has not always been so slow to respond to reports of armed and dangerous individuals.
READ MORE: Cops Shoot Man 7 times, Run Him Over and Kill Him Because He Had a Bright Green Water Gun
In 2010, LVMPD officers were called to the Costco in Sumerlin because concealed carry permit holder and West Point graduate Erik Scott had been seen carrying a concealed handgun in his waistband. It took LVMPD less than 15 minutes from when they received the call from Costco security until they arrived on scene.
After they confronted Scott at the entrance to the Costco, they shot and killed the man many said was attempting to comply with their commands. Not only was he not brandishing a weapon and not firing upon innocent shoppers, but he had his arms raised above his head when he was struck by officers’ bullets with one piercing his heart.
The fact that the LVMPD was so quick to respond to the call to a local warehouse club where a man was threatening no one and yet, were so slow to take action while an active shooter was mowing down hundreds of partygoers, has not gone unnoticed.
While the gun grabbers are quick to push their unconstitutional initiatives to take away the rights of citizens to keep and bear arms, some criticism should be reserved for a police department that arguably dragged its feet. According to Bethel, they could have truly saved lives by responding much sooner and taking action immediately after they were given the location where Paddock was firing from.
Malakoff, TX — As TFTP has frequently reported, if police officers are not held accountable for their actions in one department, they will simply change departments and continue abusing citizens. We call them gypsy cops. One such gypsy cop is Ernesto Fierro, whose time has finally come.
In 2005, Fierro was allowed to resign from the Dallas Police Department after he was involved in two hit-and-runs in which he fled the scene. That would be a felony conviction for the average citizen, but police officers are often given a pass for their crimes, allowed to resign and be employed elsewhere at another LEA (law enforcement agency).
Later, Fierro was employed in 2011 with the Ferris, Texas, Police Department when he was involved in the death of a motorcyclist during a high-speed chase. Had Fierro been held accountable for his actions in Dallas and later in Ferris, he might not have allegedly killed William Livezey Jr. (70), of New Sharon, Iowa. But, he was not held accountable and was therefore allowed to strike again.
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Fierro, the gypsy cop, left Ferris and was employed in Malakoff, Texas in April 2014 where he was a police officer. While riding his own personal motorcycle, Fierro was involved in a road-rage incident with Livezey, who was driving a tractor-trailer load of reclaimed barn lumber from his business in Taintor, Iowa, to a client in Houston.
The incident began when Fierro perceived Livezey to be trying to kill him with his truck. According to the DesMoines Register:
Fierro claimed in testimony that Livezey, who lived in New Sharon, Iowa, had “homicidal intent with his attacks of road rage” and came close to killing him while he was on his motorcycle.
But Fierro’s claims Livezey was trying to kill him were disputed by more than one witness who saw the gypsy cop driving erratically.
But witnesses said they saw the motorcycle weave from side-to-side and dart in front of Livezey’s truck at least 15 times, forcing it onto the shoulder. At one point, Fierro allegedly kicked the truck’s tire, witnesses told police.
Fierro then arrested Livezey for “aggravated assault” and placed the elderly man in handcuffs. That’s when the truck driver said he wasn’t feeling well. He told the other officers he was afraid Fierro was going to kill him. Fierro claimed he was faking his illness.
When backup officers arrived, Livezey said his chest was hurting “and he thought the other man was going to hurt him,” the lawsuit says. Fierro claimed Livezey was “faking” and just “putting on a show” to avoid going to jail.
The other officers who were on-duty, apparently realizing the man’s health condition was grave, took him out of handcuffs and placed him into his vehicle, where he turned purple and stopped breathing. Shortly after, he was declared dead of a cardiac arrest. The family sued the city of Malakoff, the police department, and officer Fierro.
READ MORE: Veteran Arrested For Freeing A Dog From A Hot Car, "I"ve seen enough death and destruction."
A judge removed the city and the police department from the lawsuit and allowed the suit to proceed against Fierro as the solely responsible individual for Livezey’s death. A jury found him guilty and awarded the family $6.3 million dollars as a civil penalty for causing the elderly Iowa man’s death. Fierro will be solely responsible for paying the judgment.
The Livezey family’s attorneys claimed Fierro “wrongfully and illegally handcuffed, arrested, assaulted, and detained which ultimately caused his death at the scene.” The jury agreed. Finally, after two hit-and-run incidents, and the deaths of two citizens, Fierro was forced to surrender his Texas peace officer’s license.
Finally, after two hit-and-run incidents, and the deaths of two citizens, Fierro was forced to surrender his Texas peace officer’s license. If Fierro had been held accountable for his actions when he was in Dallas, and been charged with felony hit-and-run, for example, maybe the two other individuals would still be alive today.
Fierro’s story is precisely why we at TFTP do what we do, to expose the double standard, and hold police officers to the same standard to which the rest of society is held.
Buckeye, AZ — Officer David Grossman and the Buckeye Police Department are under fire this week from an angry family who says the way the Phoenix area police officer treated their 14-year-old autistic son was completely inappropriate for an officer of the peace. The officer slammed their son to the ground, injuring him in the process, and now the family wants answers.
Grossman explained to his supervisors why he felt the need to take the boy to the ground that day on July 19. He said he noticed Connor Leibel pacing from the park’s street bench to the corner of the street, fidgeting with something he was holding in his hand, and then smelling it. He said after smelling it the boy appeared to seize and would then do it all again.
In the untrained mind of the officer, the boy was obviously under the influence of some inhaled substance, a conclusion he apparently arrived at well before he made contact with Connor.
As the body camera footage shows, Grossman approached Connor and asked him what he was doing. The autistic boy responded with “good” and that he was “stimming” — short for self-stimulation — the often repetitive actions, movements, and sounds many if not most autistic individuals make to calm and stimulate themselves.
“I’m okay. I’m okay,” Connor screamed as the man he was likely always was told by his family was there as a protector, in that moment, became his tormentor.
Anyone who knows anything about working with autistic individuals knows how to spot someone who is likely autistic. There are the tell-tale signs of repetitive behaviors, rocking motions, awkward social interactions, and inappropriate speech responses in some. And one thing experts also know is autistic individuals get extremely agitated, anxious, and sometimes combative when they’re touched.
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READ MORE: Autistic 8-Year-Old Child Arrested, Brought to Jail & Put In Straight Jacket Over School Outburst
Grossman grabbed Connor as the young teenager attempted to walk away from the officer, an action which was well within his civil rights since he was not a suspect in any crime. But Grossman quickly told him not to walk away and attempted to place the boy in handcuffs after grabbing him by the arm.
Connor again attempted to pull away. But when he did, Grossman took him to the ground and held him there until backup arrived, all the while Connor was screaming in agony and trying to mentally make sense of everything happening to him.
“Don’t move…Stop moving…Don’t you move, you understand?” Grossman told the boy as a dangerous situation could have quickly gotten out of hand. If the boy had reached back and grabbed Grossman’s gun, what would have happened then?
“Why are you acting like this Connor,” he asked. “Cause I’m okay,” the boy replied.
The young boy’s aunt, Diane, heard all the child’s screams and approached the scene. She told Grossman she was sorry if her nephew had done anything wrong but stated he had autism. “He’s fighting with me,” the officer said being completely untruthful with the boy’s guardian.
At that moment, the officer should have removed his hands from the boy and allowed him to get to his feet. Instead, he held him down (a no, no with autistic individuals) for what must have been agonizing minutes until his backup arrived.
“He’s doing something with his hands…I don’t know what that is,” the officer stated. “You don’t have anything (drugs) on you do you,” he ignorantly asked again.
READ MORE: Because they Lack Crucial Training, These Cops Severely Beat a Blind Autistic Teen Unconscious
“So you drove by, you saw him stimming, and you thought he was on drugs? You don’t know anything about autism, huh”? Diane asked.
After making contact with the autistic boy and his mother, it appeared as though he used the aunt’s identification to run a background check on her to see if she had any warrants.
“I’m so wrong,” Grossman said but wasn’t speaking to the aunt or the boy which would have been the most appropriate person to admit his flaws. Instead, he told a colleague how wrong he was, who responded by saying, “What did you do now?” That one comment may lead many to concluded Grossman has a history of boneheaded missteps.
Now the family is demanding answers. After filing a complaint with the Buckeye police department, and going to the media with pictures of his injuries, the BPD said they have concluded their officer followed procedure. A police spokesperson said they will use the interaction as a learning opportunity to prevent further misunderstanding in the future.
In a statement sent to ABC15 in Phoenix, the family said;
The family is anguished about what happened to Connor. It’s astonishing that even after an internal investigation, the Buckeye Police Department claims it did absolutely nothing wrong.
Diane reportedly works at Desert Edge High School in Goodyear, Arizona. She was walking another sibling across the street to music lessons classes when Grossman, a so-called “drug recognition expert” made contact with Connor who was only alone for a few moments.
Buckeye PD conducted their own internal investigation and concluded Grossman did not apply any use of force in detaining Connor, according to spokesperson Detective Tamela Skaggs.
READ MORE: School Cop Honored for Bully Prevention, Caught Bullying & Terrorizing Autistic Child
According to ABCNews 15:
When asked why Grossman, a drug recognition expert, couldn’t tell the difference between a drug user and this boy’s behavior, Det. Skaggs said she couldn’t speak for Grossman because she wasn’t in his head and it happened so fast.
We were going to suggest that Diane round up all the Buckeye police officers and give them all training in how to distinguish a drug addict from an autistic person, but the family already knows what they want to see occur as a result of the gross misunderstanding. According to ABCNews 15, they have a very specific list of demands.
“The family is asking for three things to help seek justice for Connor: first, a personal apology from the officer; second, that the officer perform community service with the autistic community; and third, that Buckeye institute a mandatory training program to prevent an incident like this from ever happening again,” according to the family’s statement.
Raw body cam directly from Buckeye police.
The Buckeye, AZ incident is the second such police vs. special needs children incident we at TFTP have reported within the last two months. As we reported, an autistic boy in Utah was also manhandled when the officer who made contact with him did not like the responses he was given.
The officer laid hands on him and took him down to the ground with a wrist/elbow lock. The boy was then instructed to “listen” to the officer. But with individuals with special needs, even the act of listening can be a challenge. That’s why training is so important for officers to be able to distinguish a drug user from a person who has a health issue.
Philadelphia, PA — One man is dead following an officer-involved shooting which took place on June 8th in Philadelphia. Now the officer who killed 30-year-old David Jones as he ran away has been suspended and potentially fired following the release of a very disturbing video and a three-month long investigation. But that disciplinary action does not go far enough for critics who say Officer Ryan Pownall should be brought up on murder charges.
Pownall was transporting witnesses in a separate case when he said he approached Jones for allegedly driving his dirt bike erratically. After the officer made contact with the man riding a motorcycle, Jones produced a handgun and Pownall opened fire. After attempting to fire the first shot, the officer’s gun jammed, at which time Jones had dropped the gun and was running away. Pownall fired another two shots, with one hitting Jones in the back, killing him. Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross addressed reporters saying:
In both instances, Jones was running away from Pownall, with nothing (no weapon) in either hand. Officer Pownall violated departmental policy when he made the vehicle stop with witnesses in the back of the patrol car. He also failed to notify police radio of the traffic stop or call for backup. He fired two shots at Jones while he was running away and no longer posing what appeared to be a threat to himself (Pownall) or witnesses at that moment.
Ross continued saying:
Because Jones never looked back at Pownall in the video and his hands were empty, he posed no imminent or immediate threat to Pownall.
Issac Gardner and several members of the Black Lives Matter group protested outside of Pownall’s house as well as police headquarters. Gardner remarked:
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We will show back up at his house. We’re not done. It was good that he was fired, but we need him charged with the murder of David Jones.
Doretha Crosby is Jones’ mother. She told reporters:
I just don’t get why this cop just took his life. He was only going to sell his bike and lost his life. It just don’t make no sense.
Video of the deadly shooting shows Jones running away from the officer, around a vehicle, before being killed by the officer’s bullet. But police do not dispute eye witness testimony that Jones pulled a gun on the officer first.
READ MORE: Cop Charged After Body Cam Shows Him Shoot Unarmed Family & Lie About It
In June, when the incident happened, Ross addressed reporters saying that eyewitnesses saw the officer approach Jones, and reach around his waist, where he felt the firearm. He ordered Jones not to “reach” for the weapon. Jones ignored that command and pulled the gun on the officer, who quickly drew his own weapon and attempted to fire. Ross said the first shot by the officer was entirely justified, but the subsequent two were not, and he was apparently fired for shooting an unarmed man in the back.
The incident in Philadelphia is the latest in what seems to be a string of cop vs. biker incidents which have left several citizens dead. Just last week we brought you the story of Demond Grimes—a 15-year-old child—who was killed by a Michigan State Police Officer Mark Bessner after the officer tased Grimes from his vehicle as the teenager was riding his ATV.
Grimes then crashed into the back of a pickup truck, killing him instantly. The cowboy drive-by style shooting left his family grieving and lawyers lining up to sue the officer, the department, and the city, for his alleged reckless behavior.
We will continue to bring you updates in the David Jones case from Philadelphia as they become available.
Residents of Euclid, Ohio express outrage at the beating of a motorist and the recent killing of a man in an officer-involved shooting.
Allentown, PA — Pennsylvania cop watchers decided to turn the tables on police and do to police what officers of the law do daily to citizens. “Scott” as he is known, got just the reaction he was searching for when he and his friend were practicing their free speech and recording on the public sidewalk outside the Allentown Police Department on the corner of Hamilton and 10th.
Scott approached an officer and politely asked him if he would ticket another fellow officer if he was breaking the law. The contention the cop watchers made was that several of the police officers’ personal vehicles were displaying Fraternal Order of Police stickers on their own personal license plates, a clear violation of PA law according to Scott. The officer even noted that stickers placed directly on the license plate of a vehicle are illegal.
After a few questions, and catching an officer drive down the street without his headlights on, Lieutenant Hill approached the duo, and demanded they leave immediately. Rather irate, Hill said he would in no way stand idly by as the two First Amendment activists recorded officers coming and going in their own personal vehicles.
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I’m telling you. I’m telling you. I’m Telling You. Leave now. Leave. Leave. No. You’re gonna go up there and wait for your ride. You’re not standing here Outside this garage…If you’re caught down here again, you’re going to be arrested…If he stands outside that garage filming our officers coming and leaving, he Will be arrested. I’m not going to have our officers’ personal safety with you filming out here!
While it’s understandable that officers would not want criminals to use their license plate information to ascertain the location of their home address, filming on public sidewalks is constitutionally protected free speech and Lt. Hill had no legal basis for his threats.
READ MORE: VIDEO: Cop Humiliates Innocent High School Kid, Tears Car Apart In Search of Non-Existent Plant
After Lt. Hill separated the two cop watchers, Scott was confronted by two more officers who refused to identify themselves. The two attempted to intimidate Scott, apparently, but his calm demeanor was enough to disarm the two and engage them in casual conversation, all the while Lt. Hill can be heard berating the other cop watcher.
Scott took control of the situation and quickly told the officers he’s aware that it is common practice for Allentown police officers to use license plate scanners to instantly gain all the personal data of anyone whose license plate is recorded by one of the scanners. Scott fired back:
I understand what you guys want but you guys ride around all day with your license plate readers on top of your cars taking pictures of everybody’s personal cars, so I don’t see the difference.
Scott tried to get an apology for being accosted by Lt. Hill for “charging” the cop watchers while they were exercising their rights to film in public. He did, in fact, get an apology from one of the officers who simply asked in return for the cop watchers not to film them coming and going in their personal vehicles.
The stickers on the license plate is definitely illegal…it’s a special privilege thing. I don’t agree with it.
Scott said the practice of allowing officers to place stickers on their license plates is a “clear sign” that officers grant each other special privileges that the general public cannot enjoy, violations for which they would be pulled over, detained, and ticketed.
READ MORE: VIDEO: Cop Humiliates Innocent High School Kid, Tears Car Apart In Search of Non-Existent Plant
Below is an example of how not to engage citizens if you are a police officer who swore an oath to the Constitution. Instead of coming out and blowing his fuse off the bat, Lt. Hill could’ve found common ground with the cop watchers and asked them to perhaps blur the plates, or, out of courtesy, not show the officers’ faces.
However, as the video below shows, Lt. Hill was the opposite of cordial, thus deserving his new title of YouTube Famous.
St. Louis, MO — St. Louis County Police have made headlines for highly questionable conduct on the job, as newly obtained public records reveal officers slacking en masse for cell phone time, sleeping on the clock, failing to perform required duties — including basic patrolling — and even taping over a security camera, in regular apparent attempts to conceal all of the aforementioned … if not more.
Documents, video, and other materials obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch catalogue a number of similar incidents in which police tasked with patrolling Metro stations and protecting commuters instead slacked off en masse behind closed doors — and, at least once, away from the camera’s watchful eye — even refusing to cooperate with transit officers.
“For the past several months,” the Post-Dispatch reports, “Metro officers have been unable to enforce laws, even for skipping fares, on the transit lines in the county, under legal threat from both county Police Chief Jon Belmar and St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch. Those county officials allege that the Metro officers — all of whom have Class A peace officer licenses through the state of Missouri — lack the proper legal authority to enforce the law.
“But the county police officers who are supposed to keep transit lines safe have been found hiding away in security offices rather than patrolling trains and platforms, according to the records kept by Metro. Maintaining those records has become more difficult in the past few months as the dispute between the county and Metro has intensified. Last year, the county officers patrolling Metro stopped using a radio channel that the Metro officers could also monitor. And for the past few months, county police have stopped sharing duty logs with Metro.”
As the Post-Dispatch points out, St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger had only recently doubled the number of officers assigned to patrol Metro transit stations to quash an upswell in violence; but publicly available records show socializing and sleeping — rather than public safety — tops police officers’ priorities lists.
“I don’t see how any of this is serving the public interest or public safety,” Metro Department of Public Safety Chief Richard Zott told the news outlet after learning it had obtained the damning records.
While this appears superficially an issue correctable through disciplinary actions against the culpable officers, the broader topic of enforcing the law in St. Louis’ busy transit stations — a bureaucratic, jurisdictional conundrum held stagnant with red tape — has pitted St. Louis County Police against Metro officers, as officials parse out which police can legally police.
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St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar and St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch contend the State of Missouri Class A peace officer licenses possessed by every Metro officer do not grant proper authority to enforce the law.
Indeed, Metro officers haven’t enforced any laws for months now — having been rendered impotent of that power for the duration of the bureaucratic fracas — which led to the doubling of county police in transit hubs. And now, as the Post-Dispatch evidences plainly, too many cops policing even less enthusiastically than before the issue became one in the first place.
Under a memorandum of understanding signed by political officials in response to shootings and other violent criminal activity rampant on the area’s light rail platforms, St. Louis County oversees all officers working the transit system — sort of.
“We have no idea what they do or where they go,” Zott, Metro public safety chief, of the county police who ostensibly should be supervising the Metro peace officers under his control.
To wit, and displaying pettiness usually reserved for grade schoolers, county and Metro officers not only aren’t patrolling, they’re no longer communicating — an obvious obstacle for carrying out duties, as well as for recordkeeping. Continues the Post-Dispatch,
“Maintaining those records has become more difficult in the past few months as the dispute between the county and Metro has intensified. Last year, the county officers patrolling Metro stopped using a radio channel that the Metro officers could also monitor. And for the past few months, county police have stopped sharing duty logs with Metro […]
“Metro operates 46 miles of light rail and 79 bus routes in its territory, which spans St. Louis County, the city of St. Louis, and St. Clair County in Illinois. The records obtained by the Post-Dispatch raised the most serious questions about St. Louis County police officers assigned to Metro.”
In the incident from July 4, logs indicate between five and 12 officers sporadically mulling about in the North Hanley security office between 5:52 p.m. and 9:48 p.m., followed by an officer taping the envelope over the camera at 11:11 p.m. — with the covering remaining in place slightly longer than one hour.
Similar activities — including the approximate hour around midnight where an officer taped paper over the security camera — repeated the following night, according to records reviewed by the Post-Dispatch.
That camera came to be installed at the Hanley station for the safety of all patrolling officers after a Metro customer accused an officer of accosting him on the platform and roughly pushing him into the security office in 2014, the Post-Dispatch notes, adding,
“Metro Public Safety Detective Daniel Donahue, who reviewed the footage requested by the Post-Dispatch, said that unlike the cameras on platforms, the camera in the North Hanley security office isn’t regularly monitored. But if complaints are made, officers pull the footage. It is in those circumstances that Metro officials discovered at least eight instances of the camera being covered.”
Zott first viewed officer misbehavior on video in December 2015, when an information technology employee of Metro reported to supervisors a county police officer napping on the job in the Hanley office — and further investigation revealed the pesky camera had been purposefully covered at the time.
Appalled, the safety chief captured a screenshot of a county cop covering the camera and sent the image to Melies with the caption, “Really? I’m at a loss.”
READ MORE: Police Union Chief "Reprimanded" for Doxxing Innocent Woman Who Made Video of Him Speeding
He never received a response.
But that isn’t even the worst of the embarrassingly errant conduct — particularly given this interdepartmental grudge match takes place as a backdrop to the spike in violent crime around the St. Louis Metro transit system.
In fact, the same evening last month two armed assailants robbed and beat a 14-year-old boy, one keen public safety officer noticed all county officers absent from the platform they should have been patrolling.
Upon cursory investigation, the Metro officer found his county counterparts — not patrolling the platform or responding to an incident — but lounging inside Hanley’s notorious security office, up to five St. Louis County officers at one time, “feet kicked up on a desk,” “texting or using their phone apps,” and not at all “engaged in any police duties,” a second Metro officer wrote to Zott the following day.
Further, he continued writing,
“At 9:58:35 p.m., an unidentified County officer stands up and places a white envelope, with the seal facing the camera, covering the lens of the camera, and remained there as it is now. Because the camera was disabled, it is unknown how long the officers remained in the office.”
If length of time during which the camera remained covered by the maladroit cops can be considered indicative, county officers could have been absent their Hanley post for up to 18 hours
“There is only one purpose to cover the lens of a camera,” the conscientious Metro peace officer declared in the report, “to hide whatever activities someone is engaged in that they want concealed or undiscovered.”
READ MORE: SHOCK VIDEO: Hidden Cameras Catch Cops in Illegal Smash and Grab Raid on Legal Pot Shop
While politicians continue bulldozing legislation through Congress to allow pernicious surveillance of daily life to burgeon in volume and insidious in capability, and even police officers are attempting to pull figurative wool over Big Brother’s eyes, it would be pertinent to reiterate — no matter the State’s internal squabbles — those eyes will unblinkingly always be trained on us.
Three years after a Knoxville police officer shot an unarmed man in the back six times and killed him, an appellate court has determined that the officer is not eligible for qualified immunity in the $3 million civil rights lawsuit he is facing.
The incident occurred during a stop on the side of the road when Officer David Gerlach encountered Ronald E. Carden, a 45-year-old man who was recently released on parole. It ended with Gerlach shooting Carden multiple times in the back, and then proceeding to shoot him as he was falling to the ground. The horrific incident now serves to illustrate that not only did police lie about what happened, they covered it up, and refused to bring charges against an officer who should have likely been charged with homicide.
Carden’s son, Brandon, is suing Gerlach and the Knoxville Police Department for $3 million in a federal civil rights lawsuit. He recently won a small victory in court when an appellate judge refused to grant qualified immunity to Gerlach. The court ruled that not only did case law not sustain that the shooting was justified, but they denied Gerlach’s claim of immunity from prosecution. The court wrote:
“Because it was clearly established at the time of the shooting that the police may not fire on a fleeing suspect who does not pose a threat of serious physical harm, the denial of qualified immunity was proper.”
In other words, while police officers are normally protected from prosecution because of qualified immunity statutes, when a suspect is running away, a police officer may not shoot and kill such a person. One might be tempted to believe such a conclusion would fall in the realm of common sense, but not when it comes to police, as The Free Thought Project has reported.
READ MORE: Deputy Has Mental Breakdown While Celebrating His Birthday, Cops Show Up and Kill Him
The incident occurred along the side of Knoxville’s Interstate 40 at about 3 a.m. on July 27, 2014, when the car Carden was driving got a flat tire. From Gerlach’s dashcam footage, two men (Carden and a friend) can be seen attempting to change the flat tire on the car. Some police officers may have attempted to help the two men, but Gerlach ran Carden’s plates which reportedly came back registered to a different vehicle.
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Thinking the car might be stolen, Gerlach began questioning Carden. As soon as Gerlach reached for Carden’s arm, Carden punched him and began running away, out of camera view. A taser can be heard as having been deployed, and then six shots were fired.
Gerlach radioed “shots fired” and backup officers arrived, and Carden’s friend—who had stayed out of the encounter, even as he watched the shooting—was placed in handcuffs. The story that followed was anything but the truth.
KPD spokesman Darrell DeBusk reportedly described such a violent struggle for Gerlach’s gun that the holster broke under the force. “Officer Gerlach was able to retain enough control of the gun to fire more than one shot,” DeBusk said.
What DeBusk failed to mention, which the autopsy confirmed, was that Gerlach shot Carden in the back six times, with five bullets being fired from a distance of more than three feet. Not only was Carden fleeing, but Gerlach shot him after he had fallen to the ground, according to the autopsy report.
Carden’s son filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Gerlach, and the KPD for its officer’s use of deadly force against his father. Gerlach’s attorneys contended he should be given immunity from prosecution on the basis that he was acting within his official duties as a police officer at the time of the shooting. The judge overseeing the case completely disagreed.
READ MORE: HUNDREDS of Police Depts Caught Breaking the Law by Covering Up Number of Officer-Involved Deaths
Proof Gerlach shot both a fleeing man, and killed a wounded man comes from the pen of the judge overseeing the appeal. The Knoxville News Sentinel reported that Sixth District U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Tom Varlan cited the autopsy report as well as evidence presented by Carden’s attorneys. Varlan wrote:
“(Carden) started to flee, and made it about one step, when (Gerlach) began shooting at (Carden)…(Gerlach) fired approximately two to three shots at (Carden) while (Gerlach) was still lying on the ground. He then stood up and fired three more shots down at (Carden). Approximately thirty-five seconds elapsed from the moment (Carden) struck (Gerlach) to the moment (Gerlach) fired his final round.”
The Sentinel also noted that while the dash cam footage showed Carden wearing jeans and a buttoned-up shirt when he ran from Gerlach, his body arrived at the morgue shirtless and in handcuffs. The shirt was not turned over until three weeks after the shooting, and it was “still buttoned but turned inside out,” with “no evidence Carden was wearing the shirt when he was struck by bullets.“
For those who might assume that Gerlach had probable cause to shoot Carden, the court opined:
“[Even if Gerlach] had probable cause to fear for his safety during his struggle with Carden [a jury could find] he lacked the same cause after the struggle had ended and Carden, still unarmed, had turned and begun to flee.”
Police officers and departments everywhere should take notice that it is still unlawful to shoot at fleeing suspects who pose no serious threat to police.
READ MORE: BREAKING: Raw Video Shows Cops Shoot, Kill Subdued Man, Mock Him While He Lay Dying
According to a report from the Knoxville Mercury, which conducted an extensive review of the disciplinary procedures inside the KPD, the problem is systemic.
“Although more than 100 officers have been flagged in the 14 years since an early intervention system was instituted to nip problem behaviors in the bud, only one of those officers has actually been enrolled in the correctional part of the program. In all other cases, supervisors decided the officers’ activities weren’t a problem.”
Equally disturbing is the fact that the police department investigates itself when officers are accused of serious infractions.
“The Mercury examined the personnel files of more than 20 officers who have either recently been the subject of lawsuits related to use of force, had repeated misbehavior problems or high-profile errors, or who have been flagged for recurring problems by the department itself. In these officers’ cases, reprimands, “counseling forms,” and even suspensions often appear to have had little to no effect on officers’ annual reviews, pay raises, or promotions. The department itself investigates potential criminal allegations against its officers, even in cases that involve deadly use of force or shooting deaths.”
Had there been an independent review board, operating outside of the influence of the police department, and an effective discipline program at work within the KPD, then maybe this shooting could have been prevented.
As Carden’s son moves forward in his civil rights lawsuit, it is important to remember that even if he does win the $3 million he is pursuing, Tennessee taxpayers will be the ones footing the bill, not the killer cop.
Beavercreek, OH – Two people died the night Beavercreek police officer Sean Williams decided to shoot his AR-15 inside a local Walmart August 5, 2014. John Crawford III was killed while holding an unloaded air rifle he’d found unboxed inside the store, and Angela Williams suffered a fatal heart attack as she ran from the store amid the chaos. But neither death was enough to keep Williams from getting his job back who’s now returned to full duty.
A grand jury cleared Williams of all wrong doing and the U.S. Department of Justice announced last week it would not seek federal charges against the officer for taking Crawford’s life. Once again, playing with a toy gun cost a man his life after someone called 911 to report suspicious activity.
A police officer who is adept at using an AR15 arguably should be able to discern the visible differences between an actual rifle and an air rifle, but Williams may not have even considered those details before shooting and killing the Walmart patron.
And while there are some high powered air rifles capable of potentially killing a bullet-proof vested police officer, one cannot purchase one at Walmart. All of which leaves us scratching our heads and asking questions.
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All Crawford had done was pick up a toy gun that was on a shelf in Walmart and walk around while he talked on the phone. Ohio is an open-carry state and the killing of Crawford for casually holding a bb gun in a non-threatening manner should raise serious red flags amongst supporters of open-carry.
READ MORE: Retired Cop Shoots Man in Subway, Video Shows NYPD Arrest the Man Trying to Save Him
Original autopsy findings showed that Crawford was shot in the back of his left arm and in his left side, which supports the claim that he was never even facing the officer that shot him, as shown in the video. These facts support a narrative that officers never made verbal contact with Crawford, but instead simply gunned him down on sight.
When reviewing the video below, we can see that Crawford never points the weapon at anyone, nor does he have any type of body language suggesting that he ever heard any commands given to him to drop the BB gun if they were actually given. It’s much more likely, judging from the surveillance video, that officer simply shot Crawford on sight without giving him the opportunity to drop the toy gun.
Sadly, the corporate media and Americans, in general, appear not to care much less even know about why John Crawford was killed that day. Why is that?
It may be that Americans have become desensitized with the frequency of so-called “officer-involved shootings” given that nearly 1,200 citizens die every year at the hands of police officers. It seems to have become so routine that citizens hardly even bat an eye when a cop like Williams can simply wait long enough for an investigation to conclude and simply get his job back.
Over the years, TFTP has consistently reported on the dangers of handling an air gun in the presence of law enforcement officers. Tamir Rice was shot and killed by Cleveland OH police when they mistook his toy for a real weapon.
READ MORE: Residents Riot After Watching Salt Lake City Cops Shoot 16-year-old Holding Broomstick
In May, a 15-year-old San Diego student was killed in school’s parking lot by police after the youth brandished a BB gun. The body camera footage of the shooting was not immediately released and the case was dismissed as a death wish on the part of the teen who they said actually called police himself.
At any rate, officer-involved shootings of people with toy guns pose serious threats to the safety of citizens, so much so that some states have taken drastic measures. The State of New York, in place of retraining officers to be able to properly identify an air rifle over a real weapon, decided to ban air guns altogether. That kind of knee-jerk response only further deprives citizens of their civil liberties.
We at TFTP believe the best way to keep the public safe is to fire or assign to permanent desk duty, any officer who shoots at someone with an air pistol, retrain officers in de-escalation techniques, and equip all officers with body cameras that run 24-hours per day. That footage should not be held as evidence until the outrage subsides either. It should immediately be available for public view regardless of how incriminating it may be. No officer should get his job back after killing someone he was sworn to protect and serve.
While the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) is still conducting its investigation into Saturday’s fatal shooting of a beloved mother and life coach Justine Damond, sources close to the investigation are now saying Officer Mohamed Noor and Matthew Harrity believed they were being ambushed. But the attorney for Damond’s family isn’t buying that explanation.
Officer Noor shot and killed Damond from the passenger seat of his cruiser, firing over his partner, and through the driver’s side window striking Damond in the abdomen, killing her. To date, neither officer has spoken with the press, and Noor has reportedly refused to speak with BCA investigators. Neither officer’s body camera was recording at the time and the shooting was said not to have been captured by the cruiser’s dashcam — because it was off too.
The notion the officers believed they were being ambushed by Damond was quickly rejected by the Damond family’s lawyer, Robert Bennet. “She obviously wasn’t armed, was not a threat to anyone, and nor could she have reasonably perceived to be,” he said.
“I think that’s ludicrous,” Bennett said adding, “It’s disinformation … it doesn’t have any basis in fact.”
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On Wednesday, KTSP reporters would not reveal who it was making the ambush defense claims, but on Thursday, the Associated Press confirmed the person asserting the ambush claim to be Harrity’s lawyer, Fred Bruno.
Bruno said for his client to have perceived himself to be caught in an ambush was “certainly reasonable.”
READ MORE: Wife Calls 911 for Medical Help, Cops Come Instead, Beat Unarmed Husband to Death
“It was only a few weeks ago when a female NYPD cop and mother of twins was executed in her car in a very similar scenario,” Bruno said.
The ambush defense appears to be the one lawyers will contend as the justification for shooting an unarmed pajama wearing mother who, herself, called 911. Such a defense would allow both officers to claim they were in “fear for their lives,” but such a claim may not hold up in court if cell phone footage of the incident is presented.
On Thursday, the Associated Press reported a bicyclist was passing by at the time of the shooting and captured the entire aftermath, where officers reportedly administered CPR for four minutes. That footage has not yet been made public but it may reveal interesting details about the fateful night in question; the position of the police cruiser, the response by the officers, and any fireworks reported to have been exploding.
Also acknowledged, was the fact Officer Noor had his handgun in his lap, out of his holster, and in the cocked and loaded position when Damond knocked on the driver’s side window.
While die-hard defenders of police tactics may believe it is perfectly reasonable for an officer to be prepared to shoot at all times, we at The Free Thought Project have expressed the inherent dangers of keeping one’s finger on the trigger.
In a recent publication, we detailed one citizen’s concern the public might be at risk if cops keep their guns in their hands while they’re in their vehicle conducting police investigations. Now, it seems, those fears have been realized with the taking of Damond’s life.
READ MORE: Audio Released of Cops Who Turned Off Body Cams And Killed Justine Damond
In a statement to the media this week, the family said they are asking for people to respect their privacy.
“Our family thank you for your interest in the story of our beloved Justine, whom we lost so tragically last weekend,” their statement read.
“We are still trying to come to terms with this tragedy and we are struggling to understand how and why this could happen. These are very early days and the family, in Australia and in the USA are devastated by our loss.
“We are in constant contact with the Australian Government, and representatives of the US Government and Minnesota State authorities. We want to see the investigation come to a conclusion, as soon as possible, so we have some resolution to the tragedy.
“All we want to do is bring Justine home to Australia to farewell her in her hometown among family and friends. In the meantime, we ask that you give us time to grieve in private and to support each other at this very difficult time.
“We will be in touch with you as soon as we feel, as a family, that the time is right to have further discussions with you. Again, we thank you for respecting our privacy.”
The police officer who became known on social media after he posted a video on the Dallas police shootings last year, is back with another passionate video in support of local law enforcement. However, some are saying his latest production both ignores statistics and defies common sense.
Lieutenant Charles “Chuck” Wells, who serves in Benton County, Arkansas, begins the video dressed in uniform, with blood smeared across his face. From the scene, it looks like Wells just completed a traffic stop, and suffered some sort of assault. But both the scene and the blood are fake.
Lieutenant Wells, The thin blue line is a little stronger because of you sir, thank you.
Det
SHARE!Posted by Police Officers on Friday, June 23, 2017
The officer addressed all Americans who may encounter his video and asks, “Is what you’re seeing tonight violent enough to make you stop scrolling through Facebook in your attempt to find something funny?” From there, he goes on to broadcast what some have called “Copaganda,” which is propaganda created “Just to get your attention” as Wells described it.
Wells claims that every day in America a cop is “stabbed, gunned down, dragged by a car,” those murders and assaults are “not important enough to barely make the news.”
“To this point today, we’ve lost 27 police officers to gun violence,” Wells stated. That number—however somber it may be and with no disrespect to the grieving families—is inaccurate. In fact, there have been only 23 officers who have lost their lives to firearm-related violence directed towards them.
Wells’s attempt to portray police officers as warriors in a fight for their very existence does not add up. The fact that less than two dozen officers to date have died in the line of duty due to gun violence—when there are over 1 million sworn officers of the peace in America—indicates that being a police officer is one of the safest occupations one could choose.
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In fact, law enforcement does not even make the top 10 most dangerous professions in the U.S. According to a CNBC list, loggers have the most dangerous job in America, per 100,000 people in the industry. They’re followed in order by fisherman, pilots, roofers, trash collectors, steel workers, truck drivers, farmers, power-line technicians and landscapers.
READ MORE: Deputies Caught on Video Brutally Beating Surrendering Man, Charged With Assault
The so-called “War on Cops” Wells addresses raised the question—how much of it is warranted by the actions of the officers who abuse their titles, and treat others unjustly?
Take for instance the comment North Miami Beach Police Officer Ericson Harrell wrote as a response to Wells’s diatribe: “Lt. Wells, can you do a video showing how your deputies are trained in the principles of LIFE, LIBERTY and Property Rights!!”
Harrell goes on to echo what The Free Thought Project has routinely exposed, police violate citizens’ constitutional rights on a daily basis. “So sick of police who think they are the #ThinBlueLine arresting moms and dads because they don’t have a license, no insurance, expired registration and many other VICTIMLESS crimes,” he wrote.
The Miami officer, who says he has learned to treat others like human beings, gave Wells some career advice. He said, “HONOR YOUR OATH to support and defend the CONSTITUTION and less people will be looking to do you harm!!”
Wells could only add anecdotal information to support the idea that there is an active war on police officers. In an apparent cry for sympathy, Wells claimed—again without any evidence—that there have been “police officers dragged for blocks who were fighting for their lives. Untold numbers of men and women who’ve been shot…not killed, but shot and fighting for their existence.”
“There is a war in America,” Well claimed. “You may not want to talk about it or let your children see it but there is a war in America.”
We agree with you, Lt. Wells. There is a war in America. There is an information war by police officers who treat people inhumanely; who sexually abuse men, women and children; and who violently assault people for non-violent crimes, even during traffic stops.
READ MORE: After Spending More than Half His Life in Prison, this Innocent 70-year-old Man is Now Free
In fact, as The Free Thought Project has detailed on countless occasions, being compliant is no guarantee someone will walk away from an encounter with such police officers. Philando Castile is one such victim. He was compliant, and yet still lost his life to a trigger-happy cop who murdered him after Castile revealed that he had a gun in the car and began looking for his license.
The Free Thought Project will continue to expose those police officers, the leadership who stand with them, and the legislation that makes it easier for law enforcement to infringe on civil liberties.
Nevertheless, Wells contends the war on cops is legitimate, despite any real statistics or sources to support his claims. All he can say is, “It’s real to me.”
Embracing the high and mighty drill instructor’s tone of voice, Wells said, “And for every useless scumbag that thinks it’s okay to pull the trigger on one of my teammates, there’s hundreds more, thousands more, who have the same character who are willing to stand in the gap and take that person’s place.”
While Wells appears to have no problem acting as if police have the most dangerous job in America, he ignores to the fact that the prison industrial complex is largely responsible for the animosity directed towards police.
When 10 percent of the U.S. population is behind bars—many of whom were put there because of a plant—there’s bound to be repercussions. When children are growing up fatherless and motherless because their parents are in prison, largely targeted because of their race, as the federal government concluded was occurring in Ferguson, it can create tension and mistrust.
When men like Philando Castile are pulled over nearly 50 times in traffic stops, there’s sure to be some resentment. When men like Eric Garner are attacked by a pack of cops like pit bulls on a wild boar, and die as a result, it is no surprise that people will begin to hate police.
READ MORE: What to Do if You"re Stopped by a Cop
When police officers are having sex with children and teenagers, why should anyone trust them? If officers like Wells truly want to rebuild trust between law enforcement and the citizens they claim to serve, he should start by insisting that his fellow “boys in blue” double the prison time for sex crimes against children, murder, rape, and theft.
What we see now, unfortunately, is a trend of police officers committing serious felonies, getting a paid vacation while an investigation takes place, and then getting off scot-free or with just a slap on the wrist. All the while, police are responsible for killing nearly 1,200 people every year.
Officer Wells continued with a promise saying, “The thin blue line is not going anywhere.” He called on all Americans to stand with police officers and promised his fellow officers, “I’ve got your six and I will be there should you call.”
But what Americans really want to know is, “Does law enforcement have their backs?” Sadly, for the millions who have been arrested for “resisting arrest” or “disobeying a lawful order by a police officer,” they already know the answer to that question.
The mandatory 30-day impoundment of vehicles, civil asset forfeiture schemes, cash confiscation, red-light cameras, safety zones, and DUI checkpoints all prove it is less about fighting crime and more about raising money for police departments. And that’s not to mention the fact that Wells’s home state of Arkansas has 1,500 untested rape kits.
Harrell posted Wells’s video to his own Facebook page with the prefaced statement reading:
“Look at this ‘Thin Blue Line’ propaganda nonsense. Cops create their own hazardous environment when they treat their fellow man like SUBJECTS instead of like FAMILY!! You don’t get rewarded for “JUST DOING YOUR JOB.” #ThePenitentCop”
Following the release of his latest video, Officer Wells has removed his Facebook page. An archive can be found here.
Las Vegas, NV — Just this week, KTNV’s 13 Action News televised the GoPro footage from Solomon Silk Galloway’s violent arrest by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police. Galloway was recording when officers pulled over his car for allegedly speeding. Even though he wasn’t driving the car, he quickly became targeted by Vegas police.
Galloway told officers he did not consent to a search of his vehicle and, as a passenger in the car, he was not legally bound to identify himself when cops demanded his ID. However, Vegas cops did not care about his rights, so they jerked him out of his car, kidnapped him and caged him.
“Do what you got to do, because we gotta find something,” the officers can be overheard saying to each other while unlawfully searching the innocent man’s car. And, do something they did.
When he was taken back to the police department for legally refusing to ID as a passenger of a vehicle, he was strip-searched and forced to undergo an anal cavity search. Still, they found nothing.
Rape in the United States is defined by the Department of Justice as “Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”
Galloway, according to the legal definition, was raped by police. He had harmed no one, had committed no crime, yet his rights were stripped from him and he was violated in the most profane way — all because cops had to ‘find something.’
READ MORE: Police Close Investigation on Top MD Found Dead, Even as Investigator Shows Signs of Murder
Did police admit they were wrong and let the innocent man go? No, they doubled down.
After police raped him, Galloway was charged with “Obstruction of Justice” even though the law states as a passenger he is not compelled to identify himself. His attorney, Stephen Stubbs, is now asking for those charges be dismissed.
If the judge has any semblance of humanity, the charges will be dropped and an investigation into the LVMPD will be demanded. However, given the lackluster history of police accountability in the United States, that is not very likely.
So what do victims of police brutality, retaliation, and families of those murdered by cops do to seek justice? They make a documentary!
For weeks now, we’ve known about “What Happened in Vegas: The Movie Police Couldn’t Erase.” We’ve conducted interviews with families, and victims alike. And while the movie might not make it to a theater in your city, you’ll certainly be able to view it in the coming months on streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon, or Hulu.
The movie, directed by Ramsey Denison, is aimed squarely at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, a department which has been rife with so-called “justifiable homicides” and, as Galloway’s case illustrates, rape. As The Free Thought Project has faithfully reported, getting arrested in Vegas might be a life-ending event.
In May, Las Vegas police chased a man through the Vegas strip, tackled him, tased him, and then choked him to death. Forty-year-old Tashi Farmer died when Officer Kenneth Lopera applied a rear naked choke.
But it’s also how the Las Vegas Police Department responds when they’ve killed or attacked someone that’s also in Denison’s sights with the release of the new film. According to Denison, LVMPD officials have a habit of “victimizing the victim” by running a smear campaign of the deceased after the fact.
READ MORE: Horrifying Video Shows Troops from NATO Country Gun Down Civilians Carrying a White Flag
Denison is calling them out. He has his own personal history with LVMPD. He once called 911 to report an out-of-control Vegas cop, only to find himself in trouble with the law. After his phone call, Denison says he was beaten and charged with “Resisting Arrest.”
Also featured in the film is the case of Erik Scott. Scott was killed in 2010 by Vegas police after an employee in a Summerlin Costco called 911 to report an unruly patron who was carrying a gun. Scott was reportedly unaware that he was the person Costco called police about.
But things took a turn toward tragedy as he was leaving the retail establishment. The West Point and Duke graduate was gunned down at the wholesale club’s entrance as nervous, trigger happy police opened fire, killing the young man. Police gave Scott three conflicting commands, with no time to respond, before opening fire, according to his father William Scott.
The elder Scott is also featured in the film. We had a chance to speak with Scott at length. He says the LVMPD following the shooting, vilified his son. Seven years later he still considers it murder, a killing which no one has answered for.
Scott told TFTP the police have successfully covered up his son’s killing. Not only did LVMPD officers destroy the Costco’s video recording of the shooting, but they then began a smear campaign of his highly decorated son.
LVMPD should be bracing for the explosive true-to-life documentary because they’re in the crosshairs. Their killings, their abuses, and their violations of civil rights will be subjected to scrutiny and will be shown on the silver screen in Vegas theaters.
READ MORE: Lawsuit Exposes Fmr Speaker of the House for the Rape of a 10yo Boy in a Bathroom
Make no mistake, Denison’s new documentary will bring some much-needed attention to the alleged human rights violations the LVMPD stands accused of committing. For Scott, Galloway, the Farmer family, and others, it’s long overdue. The secrets and lies coming out of Vegas are getting ready to be exposed.
