The People's Record

TW: Police brutality - Judge tosses indictment in Ramarley Graham case, says grand jury was misled 
May 15, 2013

A judge has thrown out the indictment against an NYPD officer charged in the fatal shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old in his Bronx home last year, but said prosecutors can present the case again, NBC 4 New York has learned.     

Officer Richard Haste, 31, had been indicted on manslaughter charges in the February 2012 shooting death of Ramarley Graham and faced up to 25 years in prison. 

On Wednesday, a judge dismissed the indictment on a technicality, siding with defense lawyers who had argued prosecutors gave flawed instructions to the grand jury that indicted Haste.

The Bronx district attorney’s office couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. 

Graham’s family left the courtroom after the judge’s decision, cursing and calling the officer a “murderer.”

Graham was shot to death in the bathroom of his home on East 229th Street after police chased him inside.

Security video showed Graham entering his home, and police running after him. Police at the time said officers witnessed a drug deal and pursued Graham, believing he had a gun.

They went in and found him in the second-floor bathroom, and shot him in the chest. He died shortly afterward.

Police said later that Graham was not found with a gun.

Source

“This is an outrageous miscarriage of justice and an insult to the family and supporters of Ramarley Graham. We demand that a new Grand Jury is convened immediately and that the case is re-presented.” - Rev. Al Sharpton

Pictured: Ramarley’s parents, Franclot Graham & Constance Malcolm

Woops! Police drone crashes into police…
May 13, 2013

The Montgomery County (Texas) Sheriff’s Office had a big day planned. After becoming the first department in the country with its own aerial drone ($300,000!), they were ready for a nice photo op. And then the drone crashed into a SWAT team.

The Examiner reports a painfully contrived police action-athon:

As the sheriff’s SWAT team suited up with lots of firepower and their armored vehicle known as the “Bearcat,” a prototype drone from Vanguard Defense Industries took off for pictures of all the police action. It was basically a photo opportunity, according to those in attendance.

“Lots of firepower” and a “Bearcat” sure sounds like a good photo op. OK, time to launch the $300,000 drone. Here we go. Launch the drone:

“[The] prototype drone was flying about 18-feet off the ground when it lost contact with the controller’s console on the ground. It’s designed to go into an auto shutdown mode…but when it was coming down the drone crashed into the SWAT team’s armored vehicle.”

Not only did the drone fail, and not only did it crash, it literally crashed into the police. It’s no wonder we’re not able to find a video of this spectacular publicity failure. Luckily, the SWAT boys were safe in their Bearcat.

This would be a fine one-off blooper story if it weren’t for some upsetting implications. This is exactly why we have reason to raise multiple eyebrows at Congress, which wants to allow hundreds of similar drones to fly over US airspace. These drones are still a relatively young technology, relatively unproven, and relatively crash-prone. The odds of being hit by one are low, of course, but should a Texas-style UAV plummet ever happen in, say, a dense urban area, nobody would be laughing. Not all of us are driving around in Bearcats.

Source

There are now more Americans in jail than were in Stalin’s Gulag Archipelago
May 9, 2013

There are now more Americans in jail — 6 million — than there were in Stalin’s Gulag, reports Fareed Zakaria, in a column called “Incarceration Nation.”

And it’s not just a relative population thing.

The U.S. has 760 prisoners per 100,000 citizens. How does that compare to other countries?

It’s 7-10X as high:

• Japan has 63 per 100,000,
• Germany has 90 per 100,000
• France has 96 per 100,000
• South Korea has 97 per 100,000
• ­Britain has 153 per 100,000

And it’s a rapidly exaggerating trend: In 1980, the U.S. only had 150 prisoners per 100,000 citizens. More than half of America’s 6 million prisoners are in jail for drug convictions, with 80% of those in jail for “possession.”

Source

Infographic Source

This happens in the United States: modern day slaver/guilty judge sentenced to 28 years in prison for “selling” kids to private prisons in 2011

Accused of perpetrating a “profound evil,” former Pennsylvania judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. has been sentenced to 28 years in prison for illegally accepting money from a juvenile-prison developer while he spent years incarcerating thousands of young people.

Prosecutors said Ciavarella sent juveniles to jail as part of a “kids for cash” scheme involving Robert Mericle, builder of the PA and Western PA Child Care juvenile detention centers. The ex-judge was convicted in February of 12 counts that included racketeering, money laundering, mail fraud and tax evasion.

In addition to his prison sentence, Ciavarella was ordered to pay nearly $1.2 million in restitution.

At his sentencing, Ciavarella acknowledged his illegal acceptance of money from Mericle. But he denied ever jailing a juvenile in exchange for money.

Once the case against Ciavarella surfaced, special investigative panels began reviewing cases he handled from 2003 to 2008. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court concluded that he denied about 5,000 juveniles, some as young as ten, their constitutional rights, leading to the vacating of their convictions.

Among the young people exploited by Ciavarella were 15-year-old Hillary Transue, who was sentenced to three months at a juvenile detention center for mocking an assistant principal on a MySpace page; and 13-year-old Shane Bly, who was sent to a boot camp for two weekends after being accused of trespassing in a vacant building.

Another judge, Michael T. Conahan, used his position to shut down the county-run juvenile detention center and redirect juvenile detainees to the private prisons. He pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy.

Source

Huff Post article from October 2011

Atlanta residents throw bricks, hammers at police cars over police brutality caught on video
April 10, 2013

Authorities say a group of residents threw bricks, rocks and hammers at Atlanta police cars amid anger over a recent arrest in their neighborhood east of downtown.

The disturbance happened around 6 p.m. Tuesday because residents were upset about what some consider excessive force used during an arrest by police the day before, which was captured by cellphone video, police said. Atlanta police spokesman Carlos Campus told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that officers used batons and pepper spray during Monday’s arrest.

Campos said about 50 people had gathered Tuesday to demonstrate, and officers were sent to monitor them before the items were thrown at their cars. The cars were damaged, but no injuries were reported.

“Some of the protesters set upon the officers, throwing items at them,” Campos told the newspaper. “We understand there were bricks thrown, hammers thrown, some rocks, different debris thrown at them, at their cars.”

Residents in the neighborhood feel like they are unnecessarily and excessively targeted by police patrols and frisking, said Marlon Kautz, a volunteer with a group called CopWatch of East Atlanta, which works with residents in the neighborhood in an effort to prevent police brutality.

Kautz said he arrived at the apartment complex Tuesday evening and saw police shoving and beating two people. He didn’t see anyone throwing bricks or hammers but said he doesn’t doubt it.

“It wouldn’t surprise me because I know the public here is completely outraged by what they see as a continuing pattern of police harassment and violence in this neighborhood. They don’t feel like they have any recourse,” he said.

The neighborhood has traditionally been a poor black neighborhood that has been gentrifying in recent years, which has caused housing prices to rise dramatically and has resulted in some residents being edged out, said Kautz, who has lived in the area for three or four years. The new residents who are moving in are concerned about crime in the area, and that has led to increased police patrols, he said.

Source

I can’t find a link to the video, but I’ll update this post if I see it. 

270+ arrested in Montreal over freedom of assembly rally
April 6, 2013

At least 279 protesters have been arrested in central Montreal during a rally against police tactics as police claimed the assembly was illegal, local media reported quoting law enforcers.

Protesters began gathering at Place Émilie-Gamelin on Friday evening, the Montreal Gazette website reports. Shortly afterwards police officer announced, via loudspeakers, that the demonstration was illegal.

Montreal police said three people were arrested for assault, while the rest were detained for illegal assembly, according to CBC News. No injuries were reported.

The protest was organized by the Anti-Capitalist Convergence (the CLAC) to contest a controversial bylaw.

The demonstration sought to “assert our opposition to bylaw P-6” in a year “marked by an escalation of police repression against political protesters in Montreal,” the CLAC said in a statement issued before the protest.

Bylaw P-6 requires groups to provide police with an itinerary of their demonstration beforehand. Otherwise police can declare the gathering illegal. The law also prohibits to wear masks at gatherings. The legislation carries a fine of CA$637 for the first offense.

In early March some 250 protesters were arrested in Montreal for violating P-6, as they gathered for an annual march against police brutality.

The P-6 bylaw was adopted following the surge in mass protests in Montreal in 2012. The city saw numerous massive student demonstrations last year as thousands protested tuition hikes. Some of the protests turned violent.

Source

Grand jury rejects criminal charges in police murder of Robert Saylor, man with Down syndrome killed at movie theater in January
March 26, 2013

Less than five miles from the theater where a man with Down syndrome died at the hands of the law enforcement officials he idolized, a grand jury on Friday heard the details of the case and decided that no crime had been committed.

“They felt no further investigation was necessary,” Frederick County State’s Attorney J. Charles Smith said at a news conference outside the county’s courthouse.

Grand jury proceedings are secretive in Maryland, but Smith said that his office presented the jury with 17 witness statements and that three deputies involved in the death — Lt. Scott Jewell, Sgt. Rich Rochford and Deputy First Class James Harris — all testified.

An attorney for the parents of Robert Ethan Saylor, who died at the age of 26, described their reaction as “extremely disappointed and saddened and concerned.”

“This is a really hard day for them,” attorney Sharon Krevor-Weisbaum said. “They’re going to have to digest this unsettling news and determine their next step.”

Nationally, the case has drawn wide attention from parents of children with Down syndrome and advocacy groups. More than 1,000 angry messages also fill the Facebook page of the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office.

Saylor was known for his hugs and was so fascinated with the police that he would sometimes call 911 just to ask a question.

In January, he and an aide watched “Zero Dark Thirty” at a Frederick movie theater. As soon as it ended, Saylor wanted to watch it again and would not leave the theater.

Officials say this is what happened next: The aide, an 18-year-old woman, was getting the car when a theater employee called the three off-duty officers, who were working security at the Westview Promenade shopping center, and told them that Saylor needed to buy another ticket or leave.

Smith, who would not go into great detail about the investigation, said that when the deputies confronted Saylor, he verbally and physically resisted their attempts to remove him. He said they restrained him using three sets of handcuffs because of his large size. Smith said that when the deputies placed Smith on his stomach, it was for “one to two minutes” and that once Saylor began showing signs of distress, the deputies removed the handcuffs, called for help and administered CPR.

Krevor-Weisbaum said that a witness heard Saylor cry out for his mother, who even though he didn’t know it, wasn’t far away. Alerted by someone to what was happening, Patti Saylor was on her way to the theater and was almost there, Krevor-Weisbaum said.

In February, the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Baltimore ruled Saylor’s death a homicide as a result of asphyxia. On Friday, Smith said that the report indicated that Down syndrome and obesity made Saylor more susceptible to breathing problems.

Krevor-Weisbaum said that Saylor had no ongoing health problems. She added that his parents had not seen the autopsy report, although they have requested it, along with all the files from the investigation. She said the family has been concerned that the investigation was handled by the same sheriff’s office that employs the deputies.

Since February, the deputies have been on paid administrative leave. An attorney for them said Friday that they welcomed the chance to testify and did so voluntarily.

“They’ve stood by patiently waiting for this day to come,” attorney Patrick J. McAndrew said. “This was an unfortunate set of circumstances. Each of these professionals, devoted law enforcement officers, did what was necessary under the circumstances, and they did what their training dictated that they do.”

Source
Photo courtesy of Emma Saylor

In other news about cops getting away with murder, no charges were brought against Officer Nick Bennallack who killed Manuel Diaz in Anaheim last summer because shooting an unarmed man was found to have been “reasonable & justified”.

No charges in police murder case that ignited Anaheim unrest
March 20, 2013

Officer Nick Bennallack was on a gang-enforcement patrol in the Anna Drive neighborhood on the afternoon of July 21 when he pulled up to a small group of men. Manuel Diaz, 25, a convicted gang member, bolted, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office concluded.

The officers gave chase, down an alley and into the front yard of an apartment house. There, Bennallack fired two shots, one hitting Diaz in the back-right side of his head, the other hitting him in his right buttock, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said.

The police association said shortly after the shooting that officers saw Diaz pull something from his waistband and turn. Diaz was found to be unarmed; investigators found a cell phone registered to Diaz, as well as the two ammunition cartridges from Bennallack’s gun and a drug pipe, the District Attorney’s Office said.

Diaz’s mother, Genevieve Huizar, said she plans to stage a demonstration Thursday morning in front of the courthouse in Santa Ana.

“This is completely unjustified,” Huizar said. “The D.A. appointed himself the judge and jury for this officer. I’m never going to stop fighting until Nick Bennallack is in prison.”

Huizar has sued Anaheim for $50 million. Her attorney, Dana Douglas, said several witnesses reported seeing Diaz hit first in the buttocks. He fell to his knees, she said, and then was hit in the back of the head.

The D.A.’s account of events and his decision not to file charges does not change anything about the family’s civil lawsuit, Douglas said.

“This is exactly the result we unfortunately expected,” she said.

Bennallack said in a statement to investigators that he fired because he thought Diaz had a gun and was about to shoot at him and the officer with him. The other officer, Brett Heitmann, told investigators that he heard Bennallack shout something like “Guhhh!” immediately before the shooting, which he took to be the start of a warning: “Gun!”

The District Attorney’s Office concluded that Bennallack believed he was in imminent danger of being killed by Diaz, Rackauckas said.

“It is our legal opinion that the evidence does not support a finding of criminal culpability on the part of Officer Bennallack,” Assistant District Attorney Dan Wagner said. “There is significant evidence that the officer’s actions were reasonable and justified under the circumstances.”

At the time of the shooting, Bennallack was under investigation in an earlier fatal shooting at an Anaheim apartment building. The District Attorney’s Office cleared him in that unrelated January 2012 shooting a few months ago.

Bennallack is a five-year veteran and a department rookie of the year. He returned to duty two weeks after the shooting of Diaz, after officials reviewed preliminary results of their investigation.

On Anna Drive on Wednesday, few residents wanted to speak about the District Attorney’s Office’s findings, saying they were afraid to give their names after a gang sweep targeted the neighborhood last year.

But Margarita Flores, 42, who runs a produce truck on Anna Drive, said the officer should have faced charges.

“What he did was not right,” she said. “Those who were fond of (Diaz) are going to be mad – against the police, against everybody.”

The Diaz shooting touched off more than a week of unrest in Anaheim and helped expose deep and long-standing divisions in the city.

It started in the hours after the shooting, when residents who knew Diaz from the neighborhood gathered at the site, yelling at officers and demanding answers. Officers fired bean-bag rounds and pepper balls into the crowd at close range; a police dog charged into the crowd, toppling a baby stroller and biting at least one person.

Anaheim police Chief John Welter later apologized, saying the police dog broke loose from its handler.

A few nights later, after another fatal police shooting about which D.A.’s Office has not issued a report, a crowd estimated at 1,000 gathered in front of Anaheim’s City Hall, where a City Council meeting was under way. Some had come to demand greater accountability for police and a greater voice for neighborhoods such as Anna Drive. Others had come from outside of Anaheim to protest police brutality.

Scores of officers in riot gear confronted them and, when they would not disperse, fired pepper balls and bean-bag rounds at them. As the crowd scattered, a few people smashed windows and vandalized storefronts.

Source

Justice for Manuel Diaz, Kimani Gray & all other victims of police murder now!

Police violence meets anti-police brutality protesters in Montreal
March 15, 2013

A few hundred protesters gathered at the corner of Ontario St. and St. Urbain St., just north of the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal headquarters to protest against police brutality. The annual demonstration, now in it’s 17th consecutive year, started somewhat unusually, with the SPVM blocking every road leading out of the corner in an attempt to halt the march from beginning.

The demonstration was declared illegal almost immediately after its start around 5 p.m., due to organizers failing to provide an itinerary for the demonstration.

Arrests began when the crowd had yet to leave the square, resulting in a brief brawl and at least one injured protester.

As the police unblocked St. Urbain St., the crowd marched south but were forced to disperse into various groups—before making it one block down the road.

A few firecrackers were lit by protesters but the crowd was less violent than in previous years, when marches had quickly devolved into riots.

Different crowds throughout downtown were kettled, stopping the hundreds of protesters from ever regrouping. Police were reluctant to let any one out of the blockades.

For the next three hours the fractured demonstrations were broken up by SPVM officers blocking multiple street corners, forcing protesters into smaller groups, where they were then kettled and arrested.

Some protesters were released, though those who were not were identified and brought into busses to be taken to an undisclosed location.

Because of the immediate kettling, there was significantly less damage sustained than last year, when multiple store and car windows were smashed throughout the downtown core.

During one larger kettle, one injured SPVM officer was put into an ambulance on a stretcher, which elicited some cheers from the crowd. Many protesters were injured before, or during arrest, but as of now it is unknown as to how many injuries were sustained.

Last year’s demonstration saw 226 arrests. At press time, the Montreal police have announced more than 250 arrests took place Friday—most falling under article P-6, which bans the wearing of masks and requires protest organizers to provide the route of the demonstration.

Source

anarcho-queer:

This video was taken an hour ago (10:45) at the Brooklyn protests against the police killing of Kimani Gray. Police are seen arrested a young black woman, bending her arms behind her back and pressing her head against the concrete with their knees as she screams. I saw police do much worse earlier today. Please spread this video so the world can know how the NYPD is treating the people who are protesting the police murder of a black 16 year old boy.

Watch & reblog.

Protests erupt over NYPD murder of Kimani Gray in Flatbush
March 12, 2013

A candlelight vigil to mourn a 16-year-old boy who was fatally shot by police turned violent Monday evening, as frustrated attendees threw bottles at cops, broke shop windows and looted a Rite Aid, officials and sources said.

The 7 p.m. vigil started with heartfelt remembrances of Kimani Gray — who was shot and killed by two police officers in East Flatbush Saturday night after he allegedly pointed a .38 caliber pistol at them — but soon some of the teens at the vigil grew violent and began throwing trash cans, people who attended the event said.

By 8:30 p.m., “a large, disorderly group [began] throwing bottles at police” at Church Avenue and East 48th Street, a few blocks from the vigil, an NYPD source said.

As riot police filled the streets, the crowd also surged into the Rite Aid on Church Avenue near Albany Street and trashed it about 9:15 p.m., pulling items off the shelves and attacking the store manager, clerks and security guard, the FDNY said. The group stole some items from the store and cash from the register, sources said.

One man who had been assaulted and was bleeding from the head was rushed to Kings County Hospital in unknown condition, the FDNY said.

Some surrounding shop windows were smashed, sources said, as were the windows of a B35 bus, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said, adding that no one connected with the bus was hurt.

“The kids, they retaliate because they want their voice to be heard,” Mitchelin said. “They’re frustrated. Not even the police commissioner or the mayor. Nobody came out… And he was a baby!”

After the violence broke out Monday night, City Councilman Jumaane Williams raced to the scene to try to calm the crowd.

“I’m in the middle of the riot action at Church and Snyder in my district,” Williams tweeted. “Right now, things are tense. Young people have expressed anger.”

Williams estimated the crowd at 60 to 100 people and said he was “trying to defuse the tension.”

“Tonight was a peaceful vigil [for Gray] that devolved into a riot,” Williams added. “The youth in this community have no outlets for their anger, no community center.”

One person was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, an NYPD spokeswoman said. No police officers were injured, the spokeswoman added.

Gray, of Crown Heights, was with a group of teens on East 52nd Street near Snyder Avenue about 11:25 p.m. Saturday when two anti-crime patrol officers approached in an unmarked car, the NYPD said.

The officers noticed that Gray was acting strangely and fidgeting with his waistband, police said. (Note: Witnesses say he was buckling his belt) When they got out of their car and tried to speak to Gray, he turned on them and pointed a pistol at them, police said. Both officers fired, striking Gray in the legs and torso, the NYPD said.

Gray was rushed to Kings County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

“The whole community is fed up,” said Mitchelin, who has a 14-year-old daughter who went to school with Gray. “They come out and attack these kids like they’re gang bangers…. These were 13, 14, 15-year-olds at a party. It never deserved to go down how it went down.”

“We need to have an investigation,” Mitchelin added. “We need somebody to say something.”

On Monday night, the violence just a few blocks away from where Gray was shot had ended by about 10:15 p.m., but the crowd remained for at least another hour, until organizers announced that the protest was over for the evening and would resume the following day.

The next demonstration is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Tuesday at East 55th Street and Church Avenue.

(“Riot” seems to be media hype. This community is outraged that this is a reoccurring incident.)

Source

Be there. Demand justice for victims of police murder & brutality.