Archive for January, 2009

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Too Bad

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

I can’t say that I blame him, but this is disappointing:

Former Ohio State football player Derrick Foster is expected to plead guilty to felony charges in connection with shooting two Columbus police officers, 10TV reported Wednesday.

Foster is scheduled to plead guilty to the felony charges on Friday, 10TV’s Maureen Kocot reported.

The former defensive end, who played at Ohio State from 1998 to 1992, is expected to serve time in prison as part of the plea.

The shootings occurred last April during a raid at a suspected East Rich Street crack house.

Officer Tony Garrison was shot in the arm and undercover narcotics Officer John Gillis was wounded in the leg, 10TV News reported.

Foster admitted going to the house to gamble and told investigators he never heard officers identify themselves before initiating the raid.

The house appears to have been a dice/gambling house, not a “crack house.”  Last I read, no one in the house had been charged with a drug crime, including Foster. If anyone has, I haven’t seen it reported in the local media. The raid was the third raid of the night for that particular Columbus SWAT team.

Foster had no prior criminal record, and in fact had an exemplary employment record as a code inspector for the city of Columbus. He also had a legal permit for the gun he used, and has said he thought the place was being robbed.  When several of Foster’s friends and acquaintances wrote letters to the judge vouching for his character, arguing that he wasn’t the kind of person who would knowingly shoot at a police officer, the police union initiated an intimidation campaign against them.

I’m actually surprised the prosecutors offered him a plea. It may be an indication that they weren’t confident trying him on the attempted murder charges.  Shooting at cops generally isn’t the type of charge for which a DA will cut you a break.

Still, if Foster was offered a decent deal, you can’t blame him for taking it.  An attempted murder conviction against two cops would put him away for a long time.

MORE: The Columbus Dispatch reports that one person in the house was charged with possession of cocaine.

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Video of Police Shooting Black Youth In Back

Monday, January 5th, 2009
H/T One Black Man from the blog, Black TalkRadio, who reports:
Whether or not the police officer meant to shoot this young man in the back as some are claiming is irrelevant, there was no reason to pull a gun out on a person lying face down on the ground being pinned by other officers.

Mecury News writes:

OAKLAND — A BART police officer struggling to handcuff a 22-year-old man, stood up over the facedown Hayward resident and fired a single shot into his back while a handful of officers watched, a video taken by a train passenger apparently shows.

The attorney for the family of Oscar Grant III, fatally shot by an unidentified BART officer early New Year's Day, said Sunday he plans to file a $25 million lawsuit against the department and asked prosecutors to consider filing murder charges against the officer.

The shooting occurred shortly before 2 a.m. Thursday after five officers responded to the Fruitvale station to reports of a fight on a train, officials said, though they have not confirmed whether Grant was involved in the fight. Read More




Read More HERE


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BART Shooting

Monday, January 5th, 2009

There’s been quite a bit of discussion in the comments about this video.

I know only what everyone else does, which is what’s in the news report.

My take: The way the officer who fired his gun throws his hands in the air after firing the shot, it looks like an accident—that he didn’t intend for the gun to go off.  If that’s the case, I suspect the investigation will center around whether it was proper for him to have drawn the gun in the first place.

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Police Officers of the Year, 2008

Monday, January 5th, 2009

Last year, we honored New Mexico police officer Sam Costales, for having the courage to testify in court to abuses by other officers, and was promptly punished for it.

This year’s award goes to former Vancouver, Washington police officers Navin Sharma and Chris Kershaw.

The Injustice in Seattle blog has their stories.

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Morning Links

Monday, January 5th, 2009
  • Obama promises 600,000 new federal employees.
  • Amtrak police arrest man who says he was taking pictures for an Amtrak photo contest.
  • Indiana Court of Appeals strikes down Internet sex sting convictions, finds that in order to be guilty of attempted sex with a minor, the victim must be an actual minor, not an undercover police officer. A solicitation charge against the man will stand.
  • Connecticut judge drives drunk, drifts out of lane while in a construction zone, hits a parked police car, and unleashes barrage of racial insults shortly after the accident. Her sentence? An alcohol education program. The charge will be erased if she stays clean for a year.
  • Not particularly interesting: Former Ft. Lauderdale city commissioner has his bike stolen. Interesting-er: While in office, commissioner created mandatory bike registration system, on the theory that forcing city residents to register bikes would deter theft. Interesting-est: When reporting the theft, the former commissioner had to admit to police that he hadn’t registered his own bike.
  • Burglars dressed as cops invade home in DeKalb County, Georgia.

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    New Professionalism Roundup

    Sunday, January 4th, 2009

    So Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia again trotted out the “new professionalism” canard during oral arguments for a Fourth Amendment case last term. I guess you could say the rebuttals I’ve been posting on this site since the Hudson decision are just anecdotes. But they’re sure are a lot of them.

  • Macon, Georgia man says police assaulted and choked his son after getting the wrong house on a “knock and talk” raid.
  • The Belleville, Illinois police officer accused of beating a man for wearing a t-shirt printed with the word “police” I posted about last week has been sued for civil rights violations four times since 1999. Two were while he was with the Belleville police department, and both resulted in settlements.
  • Police in D.C. caught on tape stealing from the city’s Toys for Tots program.
  • A police officer in Missouri is under arrest for stealing the laptop of a woman he pulled over. Problem is, the woman saw him steal it, and filed a complaint back in 2007. They ignored her. It wasn’t until the apparently not-so-bright officer brought the laptop back to the sheriff’s department to have software installed that the laptop was confirmed stolen, and the cop was arrested.
  • Puppycide in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Again, this comes down to training. These particular officers should have been taught (a) the difference between a charging dog and one bounding out to meet another dog, (b) how to deal with even a charging dog in a way that falls short of killing it, and (c) that it was a Great Dane, which generally a very gentle breed. What’s troubling in these cases is that the first reaction is always to shoot.
  • Cop drives 100 in a 45 in response to a shoplifting call. Ends up hitting and killing another cop. Now, other officers are coming to his defense, asking the DA not to press charges. Think they’d have the same reaction if a non-cop had caused the accident?
  • Police in New Orleans shoot man 12 times in the back. The shooting could well have been justified, but there are already some troubling discrepancies in the officers’ account of the incident.
  • Police in Bellaire, Texas shoot a 23-year-old man after mistaking him for a car thief.
  • Las Vegas cop arrested for offering to drop speeding tickets in exchange for sexual favors.
  • Teen (also the son of a cop) pulled over for expired inspection sticker. Cop asks to search the car. Teen says no. Drug dog then mysteriously “alerts.” Cop allows dog to search the car. No drugs. Teen drives away, and is now suing. The really sad part, though, are the comments to the story. Comments here are pretty sad, too.
  • Oregon officer caught buying steroids while on the job. His police department takes no action.

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    New Year’s Links

    Thursday, January 1st, 2009
  • Photoshopped diversity.
  • Probably needs less fiber in his diet.
  • Fark’s political headlines of the year.
  • Missouri lawmakers wants to ban “novelty lighters.”
  • Lawsuit alleges man was arrested, beaten for wearing t-shirt with the word “police” written across it.
  • Dan Savage: “This is where abstinence education and homophobia have gotten us: Gay kids are having vaginal intercourse and straight kids are having anal intercourse. Good work, sexphobes!”
  • Must-have cake.

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