Police conducted a school outreach program during which they made up entirely false and dangerous statements about cannabis to scare kids after legalization.
The post Cops Forced to Apologize for School Program That Told Kids Weed Will Give You ‘Man Boobs’ appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
An innocent couple were beaten and arrested by cops and convicted of crimes they did not commit until body camera footage proved they were innocent.
Caldwell County, TX — An innocent man has received over $1.6 million from a civil lawsuit because he was beaten and framed by cops for being 100 percent compliant and never committing a crime.
“Our client feels vindicated,” said attorney Karl Seelbach, of Doyle & Seelbach PLLC. “If there’s one thing about Larry Faulkenberry, is his story is consistent from day one.”
As KXAN reports:
A federal jury awarded a Central Texas man more than $1.3 million in response to a civil lawsuit against Caldwell County deputies who arrested him on charges that were never prosecuted by the district attorney’s office.
Lawrence Faulkenberry was also awarded $350,000 in punitive damages related to a deputy who initiated a leg sweep, his attorney said.
This infuriating story began back in January of 2015 when Faulkenberry’s 16-year-old son decided that he would play a trick on his dad for grounding him. So, he called the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Department and claimed his dad was drunk and waving a gun.
This 16-year-old’s prank nearly got his father killed.
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Deputies responding to the call arrived to find Faulkenberry entirely compliant—not drunk— and unarmed. He does not even own a gun.
These facts, however, were of no concern to the cops who arrived only to assault, injure, arrest, and lie about Faulkenberry attacking them.
“They yelled ‘sheriff’s department.’ What do you need? I put my hands up. ‘Turn around and walk backwards.’ I’ll stand here, you come here and put handcuffs on me,” Faulkenberry said.
“Why the fuck y’all here?” Faulkenberry recounted himself saying. “Before I could finish the sentence, I got slammed to the ground.”
READ MORE: WATCH: Cop Pulls Gun on Innocent 14yo Girl - Not Even Suspended
While on the ground, deputies rubbed his head into the gravel and punched Faulkenberry in the face, leaving his face covered in abrasions.
“They left me laying on the ground for about 15 minutes, face down,” he said.
According to the police report, by Deputy Michael Taylor, Faulkenberry attacked the cops, and they were forced to beat him in an act of self-defense.
“I observed Lawrence Faulkenberry push Sergeant Yost with the left side of his body and elbow into a tree causing him to fall and injure his left shin and right knee cap. I observed Lawrence Faulkenberry to forcefully resist Deputies while attempting to lawfully detain him for officer safety. Deputies detained Lawrence Faulkenberry using the least amount of force necessary to gain compliance from Lawrence Faulkenberry.”
After spending ten days in jail on felony charges of assaulting an officer and resisting arrest, prosecutors finally got around to viewing the surveillance footage that proved their cops were lying thugs. After they had viewed the footage, all charges were dropped.
However, in spite of the video clearing Faulkenberry and proving the cops lied to set him up, not one of the three deputies involved has ever faced discipline. Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office deputies Dustin M. Yost, Michael Taylor, and Houseton (whose first name was not mentioned in the lawsuit), all named in the lawsuit, were never fired for nearly killing and innocent man and lying to frame him and put him in jail.
READ MORE: 20 Year Old Executed by Police, Allegedly for Wearing Headphones, Unable to Hear Orders
Faulkenberry, who owns a motorcycle parts shop, was facing several years in prison. This innocent man could have been locked in a cage and deprived of freedom because of these lying cops, and yet it was the taxpayer forced to pay for the police officers’ negligence—to the tune of $1.6 million.
“Without the video, I would be in prison. There is no doubt about that,” Faulkenberry said.
Despite dropping the charges, the sheriff’s department stuck by their story. In response to Faulkenberry’s lawsuit, the department issued the following statement last year.
Defendants specifically deny that they violated Plaintiff’s Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights or any other rights under the United States Constitution or the laws of the State of Texas. Specifically, Defendants deny that they used excessive force and unreasonable seizure, fabricated criminal charges, unreasonable search—warrantless search of property as alleged in paragraphs 29 through 32.
The video below illustrates two powerful points. The first point is that filming the cops saves lives. The second point is that cops will lie to protect themselves and couldn’t care less about ruining the lives of innocent people in the process.
Evansville, IN — In what many police accountability critics consider a measly slap on the wrist, Indiana’s Evansville Police Department (EPD) suspended one of their own for five days without pay. Sgt. Rob Hahn was caught on police body camera footage punching a handcuffed suspect in his testicles.
EPD spokesman Sgt. Jason Cullum said Sgt. Hahn was called to assist a felony warrant arrest on a suspect who was residing at a local Evansville motel. Cullum said Hahd “did a couple of things that violated our use of force policy.” For starters, after handcuffing the suspect, Hahn shoved the suspect’s head against the wall.
As the Courier & Press reports:
The encounter started when officers were serving an out-of-county warrant on a man in August at the Arrowhead Motel on North Fares Avenue. Hahn and three patrol officers arrived to arrest the suspect.
When the man did not open his door, the officers went inside the motel room and found him standing in the bathroom on the phone.
Body camera video shows the man was promptly handcuffed. He was not resisting arrest when Hahn shoved and later hit him.
After manhandling the suspect, Cullum said Hahn threw the man on the motel room’s bed. As Hahn walked by the man laying on the bed, he punched the man in his genitals.
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“As he walked by he punched the individual in the groin area,” Cullum said.
EPD Sgt. Jason Cullum (spox) description of why Hahn was suspended. pic.twitter.com/MTUqeE0c0l
— Tori Fater (@vrfater) September 11, 2017
As TFTP reviewed the body camera footage, it was noted the suspect repeatedly objected to being punched in the privates. He demanded to speak with Hahn’s supervisor about the incident.
READ MORE: Cops Kill Deaf Electrical Engineer, Detain the Only Witness and Delete His Video
Adding insult to injury, when the suspect confronted Hahn, asking him why he did what he did, the officer of the law, who is supposed to operate with a high level of integrity, lied about having hit the man in the testicles.
In the video, one can clearly see Hahn walk by and punch the man in the genitals, and then someone can be heard laughing about it. We playback the video a few times in order to confirm our suspicions, but it appears as though someone is laughing during the time the suspect is writhing in pain from being punched.
After several apparently painful minutes, the man was able to regain his composure long enough to be able to get to his feet and make his way to the squad car. Then he confronted Hahn.
“That was wrong! Ya’ll were wrong for that!” “Why did you punch me in the nuts, man?” the man asked, to which Hahn responded, “I didn’t do shit to you! You’ve got the wrong motherfucker!” Hahn insisted, “I didn’t lay a hand on you buddy.”
Hahn insisted he should have simply turned himself in for the outstanding warrant, implying nothing bad would have happened to him if he had. The man responded, “That doesn’t mean you have to punch me in the nuts!” he said. Again Hahn lied, “I didn’t touch ya!”
The entire incident serves to illustrate what many people already know. Police will routinely victimize a suspect’s civil rights, treat them with indignity, and then lie about it when confronted. Fortunately, Hahn did the right thing and turned himself in. But we wonder if he would have done so if the victim, in this case, had just remained silent. We don’t think so.
READ MORE: BREAKING: Church of England Admits it "Colluded" to Cover-Up Decades of Child Rape
It’s important that each citizen flex their rights and use all available measures to hold police accountable for their actions. As a result of Hahn’s misconduct, and his five-day unpaid suspension, the man will likely be able to file a civil lawsuit and collect a settlement for damages sustained in the contact with Evansville Police Department. Unfortunately, the Evansville taxpayer will likely foot the bill.
A storm of controversy is brewing in Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, after a police officer killed a deaf electrical engineer this past week in broad daylight outside Simsboro High School.
The man, Joshua Cloud, was a graduate of the University of Alabama’s School of Engineering. By all accounts, he was a happy, healthy, respectful, generous and kind human being. But by the official police statements, he shot at a police officer and was gunned down as a result. The only problem with the official story is that it does not match up with an eye witness accounts of the shooting.
One witness is calling Cloud’s death an act of “murder.” Quintin Crowe is a school security guard at Simsboro High. He said he was taking a smoke break when he heard a police taser being deployed. Crowe said he grabbed his camera and began recording. He observed a white male wrestling and fighting with an officer.
The man began asking the officer, shouting in fear, “What did I do?” Crowe said the officer deployed a K9 police dog on the man and said the man “busted a move” and he believed began to run in the opposite direction. It was at that instant that the shots rang out and Crowe said he saw the man fall, laying lifeless on the ground. Here’s Crowe’s first-hand account of what he saw:
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Even though Crowe never once mentioned seeing the man with a gun, the Lincoln Parish Sheriff’s Department issued the following statement, saying not only did Cloud have a gun, but he shot the deputy first!
“Today, August 29th, one of our Lincoln Parish Sheriff’s Deputies conducted a traffic stop in Simsboro, LA. During
the course of the stop the suspect, a white male believed to be from the State of Tennessee, became non-compliant and
combative. The suspect, produced a weapon and fired striking out Deputy in his duty vest. Our Deputy returned fire on the suspect. The suspect was subsequently pronounced dead at the scene. This incident occurred in very close proximity to the Simsboro School. Out of caution, the school
was placed on temporary lock down until the scene was secured. As is standard operating procedure for this department
the Louisiana State Police will be the agency investigating this incident. Any inquiries into this incident should be directed to the
PIO for the Louisiana State Police, or the Louisiana State Police, Bureau of Investigations, Monroe, LA, field office.
Names have been withheld, pending the notification of next of kin. I would like to offer thanks to the outpouring of
appreciation and concern that this office has received from the public and surrounding jurisdictions.”
— Sheriff Mike Stone
Sheriff Stone’s statements stand in stark contrast to the eyewitness account, as well as the character witness testimony of dozens of Cloud’s friends—many of whom now believe the police are covering up a murder.
READ MORE: St. Louis Officer Charged for Being High on Cocaine While He Shot a Man in the Back
As a result, Cloud’s friends are now accusing the sheriff’s deputy, Officer Kyle Luker, of killing Cloud and creating the narrative he shot the engineer in self-defense. They are saying Cloud was likely shot for not complying with Luker’s commands, something he could not possibly have heard as he is legally deaf.
Fueling their suspicions is Crowe’s own admission that police took his phone and deleted the video of the incident. Even though Lincoln Parish Sheriff’s Department detectives told him they are in possession of his cell phone recording and will use it as evidence, none of Cloud’s friends are accepting that conclusion. They are saying the police department and Sheriff Stone are engaged in an active cover-up of an officer-involved shooting that looks more like a murder.
Zach Cooley, formerly with the US Navy, commented on the Sheriff’s department page, “You obviously have no clue who he murdered.” Another friend, Chris Schneider, responded with what one could describe as seething anger. He wrote:
“Where’s the video evidence! The victim was a solid human being with respect, dignity, and poise. A total law abiding American citizen!”
He described the incident as possibly a mistake:
“Cops mess up, they’re people too, and like people they cover up things when they mess up unfortunately.”
Schneider pointed out how not all police can be trusted as TFTP has reported. In Baltimore, MD, several officers were implicated in planting evidence on a suspect. He drew the appropriate analogy:
“I guess everyone supporting this cop on here doesn’t see the hard evidence on the news around the US of cops planting drugs and weapons on innocent people and taking them to jail for a crime they never committed. OR a cop shooting an innocent man to death in front of his own daughter two feet away from him in a car?”
Cloud’s friend then openly accused the police department of lying and covering up the truth:
“There is a real story that isn’t being shared with the public, shame on you. I hope true honest and fair justice will be served here. You have hundreds of people around the country weighing [sic] in on this case that are close with this victim.”
Schneider then called on the police department and Sheriff Stone to reveal the truth and stop trying to protect their officer:
“hope you do the right thing for the right reason. Would be a shame to see a wonderful human being’s life get swept under the floor because a cop had no integrity and neither did a whole police force in a Louisiana community. YOU ARE BEING WATCHED AND ACCOUNTED FOR!!! And if you feel threatened by that then you’re in the wrong! Because at the end of the day when you take off that uniform you are just like me and everyone else in your communities! You are nothing special!”
Drew Glines, another of Cloud’s friends, is questioning the official police narrative as well. He wrote:
“Joshua Cloud was legally deaf….. and was one of the kindest, most sincere, genuine, selfless individuals I have had the opportunity to encounter. I am privileged to call him my friend. He would never have endangered someone’s life, police or otherwise, if he did not feel his life was in imminent danger. I eagerly await video and audio evidence of this encounter… bc this is not as cut and dry as, ‘bad guy shot cop, cop fired back’ …
When should we expect that more details will be released?”
The details the police should release immediately are the gun with its serial number, make and model, and more importantly, the video that Crowe took and police have deleted.
READ MORE: Man Arrested for Filming Cops, Apparently They "Felt Threatened" by the Presence of a Cell Phone
Any dash cam or body camera footage should also be released as well as security camera footage of the incident recorded from Simsboro High School where police reportedly took Crowe to confiscate his cell phone footage. Such confusion and unanswered questions exist surrounding the officer-involved shooting that releasing those details in a timely manner may dispel all doubt about whether or not Cloud was murdered, as Crowe alleges, or was killed in self-defense as Sheriff Stone contends.
Schneider is demanding “hard evidence” be presented and promises he is not going to sit idly by as police try to push their own narrative of last week’s deadly encounter with police. “I already messaged them, emailed them, and writing the state later today. There needs to be noise made over this. I’ll be damned if I let a guilty man still continue to serve that community while my friend is dead,” he emphatically wrote.
Cassidy McCool is Cloud’s girlfriend. She, too, vouched for his character as a reply to Sheriff Stone’s contention that her boyfriend was shot and killed because he opened fire on deputies. She called it murder what happened to her boyfriend. She wrote:
“My boyfriend, Joshua Cloud, was the single most level-headed and calm-mannered man I have ever known. I have NEVER even seen him get upset or angry. Never has he ever been violent, he has always been a lover not a fighter. He was just on the way home from a long summer away from home. He was LEGALLY DEAF & does not wear hearing aids! He probably did not understand what the officer was saying and HE MURDERED MY SOULMATE. I need to know what this officer did to my boyfriend! I need video evidence! I need to know what you did to Josh! Josh was the most rational and ingenious man I have ever known, and he just attained his degree in electrical engineering! WHAT DID THAT COP DO TO MY BOYFRIEND?!?!? WHY DID YOU MURDER MY BOYFRIEND?!?”
Joshua Cloud was from Knoxville, TN. He was buried on Sunday. His death marks the 806th death by cop in 2017.
