Gangsters in Blue

6/12/13, Carlos Miller’s Photographyisnotacrime.com featured this article.

An Orange County sheriff’s deputy detained a man for more than 12 minutes because he was video recording her and another deputy making an arrest at a gas station.

The deputy pretended she was only looking out for the best interest of the suspect, who was getting arrested for unknown reasons.

The citizen told her he was also looking out for the suspect’s best interest, ensuring he doesn’t wind up the victim of police abuse.

Michael Schmidt said in his Youtube description that the incident took place two days after Kern County sheriff’s deputies beat David Silva to death, only to confiscate cell phone cameras from witnesses who had recorded the beating. Read More…

I’m sure OCSO would love to hear from you. They can be reached at (407) 254-7000.

(Video) OC Deputy Detains Dr. For Filming Arrest is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

Submitted by Armando Gonzalez

I was stopped for open carrying in Walmart on Flatbush Ave in Hartford.The first stop occurred at about 5:00 pm on May 23, 2013. I was heading toward register when the main officer in the video approaches me from behind. He had just noticed me, as he was talking with someone and was walking toward my direction. His badge name was Daugherty. He tapped my shoulder, motioned to my gun, and asked, “what the hell is this?” I responded that I had a permit, if he wanted to see it.

The officer pulled me aside and ran my permit number. The permit was valid, and his search confirmed this. However, he then disarmed me without my consent. (As he ran my permit, he was on my left side, and when he was over he came behind me) At this time, I reached into my pocket and started to record. Unfortunately, the video cuts off shortly when the supervisor shows up. My phone’s memory was full at that point -

Once the supervisor showed up, he asked what was going on. The officer advised him that my permit was valid, but I had no guns registered to me. About a minute later, the supervisor stated that if my permit was valid, I should be let go. I was escorted to my car by the main LEO, Daugherty. The supervisor (if I remember correctly) was J. Wilson. Another officer involved was named Nelson, although I did not personally have any contact or communication with him. I was nervous as I have never been stopped before.

This is a copy of the Connecticut open carry memo I handed to the police during this incident.

During the second stop, which occurred the next day on May 24, 2013, I went to the same Walmart and was open carrying. I was with my brother because I had taken him to the range to shoot for first time earlier in the day. I asked him to be ready to record if something happened.

I was not looking for trouble – I didn’t get what I was shopping for the day before, and returned to make a purchase. As I approached the entrance, there was a different officer from last night, standing on the right side. I grabbed a shopping cart, walked in through the doors, and heard behind me “keep your hands where there are.” I didn’t move, left my hands on the cart, and the officer grabbed my right wrist. He applied pressure to force me to keep holding the cart and  disarmed me. I told my brother to record and when the video starts he see the cop taking the gun.

Stopped for Open Carrying at Walmart in Hartford, CT is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

Demands from the San Quentin State Prison Adjustment Center June 10, 2013

Open letter to the Director of CDCR, the Warden of San Quentin Prison and the Captain of the Adjustment Center San Quentin top officials have concocted and enacted an exclusive code of regulations called the IP 608 Condemned Manual, which mandates that Death Row prisoners are under the control of the warden of San Quentin Prison. Therefore, after years of the abuse of authority by Adjustment Center (A/C) committee members and unit staff and after years of filing 602s that fall on deaf ears here in the A/C, all the way up the chain of command to Sacramento, a collective group of Death Row prisoners in the A/C will be joining in the statewide non-violent, peaceful hunger strike in July 2013 to demand that the warden of San Quentin use his power of authority to bring about positive change to prisoners housed in the A/C SHU.

For years, Grade B A/C prisoners have been told Grade B is not a punishment; it’s just a “program” different from Grade A. So the warden should be able to use his power of authority to order the following immediate changes without delay:

1. The warden should immediately implement a “behavior based program” that amends the current criteria that permit a condemned prisoner to be eligible for Grade A privileges and be removed from the punitive punishment of Grade B status, basing this program on a condemned prisoner’s current good behavior and disciplinary free conduct regardless of a prisoner’s alleged gang status or validation and eliminating the under-the-table and vague indeterminate status in the A/C. The warden must order the immediate release of A/C prisoners who are not validated as alleged gang members and associates and have remained disciplinary free for years.

2. The warden must order the A/C committee to stop the controversial and unfair classification practices of using illegal inmate informants and anonymous informants and the so-called roster list of names to label prisoners gang members and associates and to stop the illegal and vague “mandatory debriefing” and vague validation process. San Quentin officials must put in place a set of standards and safeguards to protect a prisoner’s right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment

• Any information used in A/C committee decisions must be first-hand information and must be corroborated by three different independent sources;
• A/C committee must state on the record why such information is indicative of gang activity and state on the record what California laws are being broken;
• Any information used against a prisoner must be provided to the prisoner and all copies of documents, such as 1030s and 128s, and debriefing reports placed in a prisoner’s C-file must be immediately disclosed to the prisoner so he will have ample time and opportunity to contest and challenge any allegations in writing through administrative 602s and legal redress to confront his accuser or confidential source.

3. The warden must (a) order the end of the administrative segregation of condemned prisoners to segregated yards that have been designed to label a condemned prisoner unjustly, (b) order an end to the constant use of bogus confidential inmate informants and bogus 1030 disclosure forms to deny A/C prisoners access to Grade A status and access to the A/C group yards, and (c) order that all four group yards in the A/C be labeled “re-integrated yard 1, 2, 3 and 4” and remove the racist yard labels of “Southern/White and Northern/Black” that A/C staff and committee have used for decades to instigate racial division and segregation among prisoners of different races who would like to program and co-exist on a group yard together. Every A/C prisoner should be given group yard unless the prisoner chooses to stay in a walk-alone cage. The warden must order that all walk-alone cages have roof coverings like the cages in East Block and Carson Sections, and add a dip bar in each cage for exercise.

4. The warden should cease all group punishment tactics. Group punishments and lockdowns were designed for large-scale riots, not for alleged isolated incidents. The warden should cease the unlawful use of the interview/interrogation process and never allow the vicious attack and assault on prisoners by A/C staff just because a prisoner invokes his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent and refuses to answer questions during an interview/interrogation. This illegal policy of forced interrogations makes no sense because if staff utilize chemical agents on a prisoner, which have proven to be lethal, and attack him and then drag the prisoner into an interview/interrogation room, he will say, “I have nothing to say,” and take the Fifth. Or the prisoner might give a statement based on his fear and the fact he was brutally attacked, in which case the information would be deemed “given under duress and torture, therefore unreliable.” So the use of violence on prisoners, particularly on prisoners of color, is just an excuse and a blatant act of the worst kind of torture and racially motivated retaliation. Also, the administration should cease passing out “interview questionnaires” to prisoners after an alleged isolated incident because the informants read these questionnaires and re-word them and use them as first-hand information when the informants did not get the information from a prisoner but directly from a prison official. Simply put, these forms describing the incident are only done so rat inmates can exploit these incidents for gain by giving staff bogus and false statements to be used on 1030 disclosure forms and be rewarded by obtaining Grade A and other privileges and favors.

5. The warden should order the end to the degrading policy of stripping out A/C prisoners outside during yard recall, violating Title 15, Section 3287(4)(8), which partly states that “all such inspections shall be conducted in a professional manner which avoids embarrassment or indignity to the inmate. Whenever possible, unclothed body inspections of inmates shall be conducted outside the view of others.” Stripping out in the cold and rain is inhumane, and it’s time for this policy to stop. The warden should allow A/C prisoners to wear tennis shoes or state shoes on all escorts, especially in the rain, to visits and medical escorts, and put an end to the “shower shoes only” policy and allow A/C prisoners to be fully dressed in state blues when going to the law library.

6. The warden should order that the third watch sergeant return the scheduling of A/C prisoners for SHU law library to the SHU law librarian clerk and start utilizing all available SHU law holding cells so Death Row prisoners can do important research at least three to four times a month. A lot of prisoners are being denied access to SHU law library on a regular basis. The third watch sergeant should be ordered by the warden to end the practice of putting dinner food on paper trays to sit on the bed in the cell while prisoners are at law library as this practice is unsanitary and eating cold food is unhealthy.

7. The warden should order the end of excessive use of property restrictions. No other CDCR prison in the state of California uses property restriction as a punishment and it’s only done in extreme cases. Title 15 mandates no longer than 90 days. The excessive use of property restriction punishment in the A/C is based on nothing more than A/C committee members’ abuse of power and authority and is never based on a prisoner’s behavior.

8. The warden of San Quentin should use the power of his authority to expand A/C Grade B privileges for prisoners housed in the A/C through no fault of their own and who have remained disciplinary free for years.

• Allow contact visits with family, friends and attorneys, or allow 2½-hour non-contact visits in Booths A-l, A-2 and A-3 in the visiting room.
• Allow two phone calls per month. * Allow hobby and educational programs for the A/C.
• Allow more educational channels like the Discovery Channel, the History Channel and National Geographic.
• Allow $110.00 canteen draw a month.
• Allow four food packages a year or two food packages and two nutritional packages of vitamin supplements and protein meal supplements from approved vendors.
• Allow A/C prisoners to participate in the food charity drives.
• Allow 10-book limit in cell, not to include any legal or religious books.
• Allow A/C prisoners to purchase white boxer underwear, T-shirts, socks and thermals from approved vendors at least four times a year (each quarter).
• Allow clear headphones, non-clear earbuds and headphone extension for TVs and radios or leave speakers connected in TVs and radios.
• Order the return of exercise equipment on the group yards, return the basketball court and the pull up bars, and add dip bars and a table and provide group yard activity items such as basketballs, handballs, board games and cards.

9. The warden should order that all medical chronos issued and approved by the chief medical doctor be honored and order all A/C staff not to interfere with the medical needs of prisoners. Custody staff should have no say-so in medical needs of prisoners. If the medical needs of a prisoner cannot be met in the A/C, then the prisoner should be housed in a unit where his medical needs can be accommodated. The A/C unit staff must not be permitted to impose unjust punishments upon prisoners who have a proven need for medical appliances. When it is deemed medically imperative for modified cuffs, staff puts the prisoner on leg restraints claiming “safety and security,” when in fact it is an attempt to discourage prisoners from seeking medical appliances by punishing them with unnecessary, painful, degrading and excessive mechanical restraints.

10. Order the Institutional Gang Investigation (IGI) unit to stop the harassment of interfering with A/C prisoners’ mail. Incoming mail has been denied and held by IGI under the excuse of “promoting gang activity” with no further explanation of exactly what constitutes “promoting gang activity”! Many times incoming mail takes anywhere from 20 to 40 days from the postmarked date on the letter to reach prisoners in the A/C. Legal mail has been taking far too long to reach A/C prisoners, and it should be passed out with regular mail call at 3 p.m. so that prisoners can have plenty of time to respond to their attorneys by the 9 p.m. mail pick-up.

All of these issues are fair and reasonable and create no serious threats to the safety and security of the A/C but can only create a more positive and productive environment in the A/C for prisoners who have been put in a punishment situation with no disciplinary write-ups for years. We ask that the warden of San Quentin and the captain of the A/C look into these issues as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Main A/C Representatives: Smokey Fuiava, E-35592, 2AC56; Richard Penunuri, T-06637, 3AC55; Billy Johnson, F-35047, 2AC51; Todd Givens, V-42482, 3AC52; Marco Antonio Topete, AK-7990, 1AC12; Cuitlatuac Rivera, T-35975, 2AC67 Body of Representatives: Bobby Lopez, K-76100,1AC16; Reynaldo Ayala, E-10000, 2AC59; James Trujeque, K-76701, 3AC13; Mike Lamb, G-30969, 2AC1; Hector Ayala, E-38703, 3AC4; Marty Drews, C-88058, 3AC2

Patreese Johnson will be coming home in August after 7 years of incarceration by the State of New York. She will be released on parole with a felony charge on her record.

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By Davy V.

Rick Palermo and his friends had gone to Rochester NY’s East End night district to celebrate his friend’s birthday.

Palermo would have never imagined that a night that began on such a happy note, would end with him being thrown on a city sidewalk, by at least 5 Rochester, NY Police officers, where he was assaulted, including being kneed, and punched, as his own mother pleaded with the officers to stop beating her son.

“That night replays in my mind, and up until recently I was scared to come forth with any information because I couldn’t find a lawyer who would take my civil rights case against the RPD”, explains Palermo.

“Luckily there was someone who was there that night who videotaped the whole incident which now serves to be just a painful reminder to me of how they treated me and what they did to me.”

“Myself and four of my close friends all went out for one of my friend’s twenty first birthday”, said Palermo.

“It was the same week as the Rochester International Jazz Festival, so there was extra security on hand that night. My mother and her husband were downtown at the Jazz Festival when her, and her husband met us out. We were at Coyote Joes on the corner of east and Alexander and stayed until closing time which was 2 am.”

“As we were making our way out and started to walk on the sidewalk towards our car, I had seen an ex-girlfriend of mine who had never met my mother, so we stopped and I introduced her to my mom. The guy she was with did not like that she was talking to me, so he grabbed her arm and said ‘Come on let’s go’. She refused to do what he said at that exact moment so I said ‘She will be with you in a moment buddy”, said Palermo.

“As soon as I said that the other guy walked up to me and pushed me saying ‘Fuck you!”, so I said ‘Fuck you’ back to him, and we were in the middle of a crowd of people.”

“The situation never got physical and actually my mom grabbed my arm and sad ‘Honey let’s go!’, so I screamed out one last time towards the the other guy as I was walking away, and that’s when all hell broke lose. The next thing I knew I was being ran up on by five Rochester Police officers. They pinned me up against the fence of Coyote Joes, and continued to punch, kick, and knee me on all areas of my body.”

“Once they threw me to the pavement I was lying there face first on the concrete, while two officers were pinning their knees onto the back of both my legs, and one officer kneed me in my face three times until I became nearly unconscious. All I can remember from that night was my poor mother begging and pleading for the officers to stop doing this to her son because I didn’t deserve it, and all they could say to my mom was ‘Get back before we arrest you!

“They threw me in the back of the squad car and left me there with my hands cuffed behind my back and no window open in the middle of the summer night heat, for over an hour. I was bleeding pretty bad from my right eyebrow area due to the repetition of knees to the face and I also had gash marks to the middle of my back from being punched by an officer who wrapped his handcuffs around his hand and used them in a brass knuckle, type manner on me.”

Rochester, NY Police also illegally searched Palermo’s friend’s car, as can be see in the video above.

That officer, looks a lot like RPD officer Aaron Brown

Palermo was treated at the hospital for injuries sustained in the assault by Rochester Police.

In addition to multiple contusions and abrasions, Palermo also reinjured his shoulder, which he had undergone surgery for prior to the assault by RPD.

“I got a full scholarship straight out of high school to play football at Connecticut State and had some issues with my shoulder about two months prior to being assaulted by RPD officers, I had arthroscopic surgery on my left shoulder, and earlier, the same day of the incident, I was cleared to take my sling off.”

“No one deserves to be treated that way”, said Palermo, who says his mother, seen in the video holding a rose he bought her, and his father, who works for the Rochester, NY Fire department, were furious over how Rochester Police officers abused their son.

Some may ask why am I even writing about an incident which happened several years ago.

The answer is simple.

For many being abused and assaulted by a law enforcement officer, the emotional pain lasts longer than any physical pain sustained as a result of being beaten.

In fact, the emotional scars that come with being violated by those whose job is to uphold the law, serve and protect, can be overwhelming.

Much like the trauma a rape victim has to live with, including the feeling that comes knowing their body has been violated, as well as the fear of having to confront their abuser in court, or run into them in public, police abuse victims endure similar effects, from the fear of retaliation by police if they take action, to knowing that in many cases, the officers will get away with it, simply because they are police officers.

For a man, it can be even harder to come to terms with, especially in a society which subscribes to the “be tough” and “don’t show any emotion” attitude when it comes to men, and frowns on a man showing any emotion, or showing we are human.

Also, Richard Palermo represents one of countless victims of police brutality, whose stories never make headlines.

Richard Palermo also represents one of countless victims of police brutality who live with the emotional pain of not only having been a used and violated by those who are supposed to protect us all, but also knowing that the officers in his incident got away with it.

What also interested me in telling Palermo’s story, was something he told me which I found almost as equally disturbing as the incident in which RPD officers beat him.

When I asked Palermo if he brought a civil case against the City of Rochester and the Rochester, NY Police department, his reply was unfortunately something I have heard much too often.

Palermo said no lawyer wanted to take the case.

“One lawyer, Felix Lapine said no, and he said no one would want to go against the City of Rochester.”

Unfortunately, he was right.

Palermo tried other attorneys, and not one of them wanted to go against the City of Rochester, or the Rochester, NY Police department.

After all, like I always say, at the end of the day, the RPD is gang.

A gang with uniforms, badges, and guns.

Rochester’s biggest gang.

Follow me on twitter https://twitter.com/davyvara

More than 5 Years Later, Man Still Can’t Watch Video of him Being Assaulted by Rochester, NY Police officers, as his Mother Pleaded with Them to Stop Beating her Son is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

Not that this surprises me. I worked at Framingham Women's Prison in Massachusetts in the 1990's when male guards rounded up women in the middle of the night for an "alleged" strip-search. They were sued. The women won. But the extent of the case at the jail in Chicopee where Sheriff Michael J.

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Oakland— Less than a month before state-wide hunger strikes are set to resume, The California Department of Corrections has instituted a new policy at Pelican Bay State Prison which has resulted in chronic sleep deprivation for prisoners in solitary confinement.

Both guards and prisoners complained to lawyers conducting legal visits last week about a new policy requiring prison guards to conduct “welfare checks” every thirty minutes on prisoners isolated in the prison’s Security Housing Units (SHU). Normally, prisoners in the SHU are counted every three to four hours by guards who patrol each unit, ensuring prisoners are in their cells. Each prisoner must be observed physically moving or showing skin. The frequency and method of these counts have already been challenged in a Federal lawsuit, Ashker v. Brown.  Experts claim the sleep deprivation caused by the counts violate prisoners’ 8th Amendment rights.

“Sleep deprivation has many significant psychological consequences including irritability and impairment of the ability to make rational decisions,” says Dr. Terry Kupers, a clinical psychiatrist and an expert on forensic mental health. “Because of the harm it causes, sleep deprivation has been described as torture by organizations such as Amnesty International.”

The new policy has been ordered by Jeffrey Beard, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR) newly appointed secretary whose Senate Confirmation Hearing is scheduled for June 19, 2013. The directive applies to over 1,100 prisoners who are in solitary confinement in Pelican Bay.

“Tensions were very high at Pelican Bay last week,” says Anne Weills, an attorney who is representing SHU prisoners at Pelican Bay.  “The guards are on edge and upset about this new policy. Obviously the prisoners are on edge and suffering because of the sleep deprivation.  But they remain resilient and deeply committed to peaceful actions to make necessary changes.”

In January, prisoners at Pelican Bay announced in an open letter to Governor Brown that they would resume hunger strikes and include work actions to protest the conditions of their confinement. In 2011 over 12,000 prisoners in over a third of California’s 33 prisons participated in two waves of hunger strikes. The 2011 strike was called off when the CDCR promised new policies and other improvements that addressed five demands outlined by prisoners. Almost two years later, prisoners and advocates claim the CDCR’s promises have been empty, and prison conditions have worsened.

“This is torture,” says Azadeh Zohrabi of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition. “This intensified sleep deprivation adds to the long list of human rights violations endured by thousands of prisoners held in solitary for prolonged and indefinite terms, some for decades.”

Lawyers and advocates have also received demands from prisoners who plan to go on strike in San Quentin, High Desert, and Corcoran State Prisons. Prisoners have been clear that the strike could be called off if Governor Brown engaged in good-faith negotiations. Brown’s office has not responded to their request.

###

Chris Cantwell & Tim Morgan of Suffolk County Cop Block warned motorists about a 4th Amendment Violation Station at the heavily trafficked Rt 97 off ramp towards Rt 27 (at Nichols & Sunrise).

In about an hour, police gave up their efforts and left the scene. Well over 100 motorists were saved from tickets, or worse.

Chris Cantwell is an activist, public speaker, and comedian originally from New York. He can be reached via twitter @voteforcantwell

Cop Blockers Shut Down Checkpoint in Suffolk County NY is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

Their lives already are deemed, by law, to be more worthy than yours. In most, if not all states, there are special penal code sections for assault or battery on an officer, as opposed to assault or battery upon an ordinary person. Similarly, there are special penal code sections for killing police officers. You know, because writing traffic tickets and busting people for drugs is so noble a profession that all police officers are clearly a higher order of human being.

They have a right to kill people as long as they utter a few magic words – “I feared for my life.” Killings of innocent, harmless people almost always go unpunished as long as the offending officer claims that he was scared for his life – no matter how unreasonable, cowardly, or absurd the circumstances. Even if the victim was a half-deaf, hobbling, disabled old man.

Although many Americans are still deluded and patriotic enough to believe that Americans are free, and subject to a somewhat functional justice system in which people are “innocent until proven guilty,” this simply isn’t the case. The lives of the powerful and hallowed police, the foot soldiers of the state, are protected with harsher criminal laws, and their violent behavior is protected with qualified immunity. Because of course, while ordinary people should be personally accountable for negligence and personal injuries they cause, it would be simply absurd to hold the same standard to police.

Police, who are supposed to uphold the law and “protect” people, also have the right to arrest people for absolutely no reason. As it currently stands, in the vast majority of the states, police have the legal right to arrest people for no reason. Don’t even try to guess the reasons for that one – they are all bogus. “Oh, we have to be exempt from the law to properly execute the law. We have to arrest you to protect you. We have to break the law to uphold the law, etc.”

Despite all the very real ways in which police are subject to greater legal protections, and possess stronger, greater, legal rights, this is not enough.

There are now legislators who seek to make it illegal to annoy cops. I’ve often hyperbolically referred to police as “gods” in the past, since people illogically feel it is justified for police to be subject to different laws, and maintain greater power than the people they allegedly serve. Now it hardly seems like hyperbole or exaggeration in the least.

New York legislators are attempting to make it a felony for an individual to “annoy, harass, or threaten” a police officer. Offenders could be imprisoned for up to 4 years. Oh boy, that sounds like a great idea. I can’t possibly think of any First amendment or due process concerns there. That law definitely won’t be used by police to imprison, frame, harass, or silence random people they don’t like.

As justification, the legislators claim, “Police officers all across this state put their  lives on  the  line  every  day  to protect the people of New York. New York State must establish laws and toughen existing laws that  protect  the police   from   becoming  victims  of  criminals.  Far  too  many  law enforcement officers are being harassed, injured,  even  killed  while honoring  their  commitment  to  protect  and  serve  this  state…” More here.

As far as I can tell, injuring and killing police officers in unjustified situations are already illegal. Thus, the point of this law cannot possibly be to prevent that from happening, as there are already laws in place for that purpose. This would the same as saying that a law against annoying/pestering/harassing women should be passed, because too many women are being raped and killed. The former simply has nothing to do with the latter.

Secondly, police officers may put their lives on the line occasionally. Or everyday. I really don’t give a fuck. But for the most part, it has little to do with protecting people. They do what they do for a paycheck, like everyone else. Every day they show up at work, they tell themselves and each other, “officer safety first.” They do whatever they are told, whether it be shooting disabled old men, tasering children and half deaf women, beating teenagers for loitering, shooting Sunday school teachers in parking lots, shooting firemen in court, killing parents who smoke weed, stealing peoples’ property to pad their paychecks with civil asset forfeiture, or a slew of other less-than-noble pursuits.

They do good things sometimes too – fine. There are even cops that do good things all the time. I get it. But they are not gods. They are not infallible. They are human like everyone else. They want that paycheck, like everyone else. They do what their boss tells them, like everyone else – except when they do taser children and shoot old people, they don’t get fired, because they have a myriad of laws protecting them, and your endless taxpayer dollars to fund their endeavors.

So for christ’s sake, stop treating them like gods. If it isn’t illegal to annoy, pester, or irritate the guy who builds peoples’ homes, the farmer who feeds people and prevents starvation, and the millions of other fine folks without whose expertise people literally would not be alive – then it sure as fuck should not be illegal to annoy the police.

New York Legislators Seek to Make it Illegal to Annoy Cops is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

This week, a couple stories that should cause anyone critically thinking to see that those wearing badges aren’t always operating with the best intentions.

Story #1
Texas Father Tasered by Police While Trying to Save Son in Fire
http://digitaljournal.com/article/351647

A father was tazed by San Antonio police while trying to save his infant son from a house fire.
The incident occurred at around 2:30 AM Sunday June 2nd, during a house fire in the one hundred block of Morningview Drive.
Investigators said the parents of the eight-month-old boy had dropped off their children at their grandparents’ house. Somehow, a fire got started inside the home shortly thereafter.
The grandparents managed to grab one boy and rush to safety. That’s when they realized one boy was still trapped inside.
The grandmother tried to save the boy, but couldn’t.
“I busted this door in, and couldn’t get through to save my grand baby, but if I would have got him, I would have gave my life for him,” grandmother Barbara Miller said.
Emergency crews and the children’s parents arrived on the scene at around that time.
The boy’s father tried several times to enter the burning home, but police held him back and ended up tazing him. SAPD said it was for his own safety.
The police officers should have kept their hands off of the father, who has every right to endanger his own life in an attempt to save the life of his son.
If the man went in the house, it is possible that he could have died. It is also possible that the man could have saved his son if he were not prevented from entering the burning home.
Individuals ought to be free to make their own choices without forceful interference.
San Antonio Police claim that Odell Wallace was tazed for his own safety, but what isn’t mentioned is that there are things worth risking one’s safety or one’s life over – and a child is probably the best example of one of those things.
Either way, it was Wallace’s choice to make, not a San Antonio Police Officer’s.
The infant died from injuries sustained during the blaze.
Arson is under investigation. Police said the stories just don’t add up.
No criminal charges have been filed.

Story #2
DeLand Police Officer Fired After Running Over, Killing Man
http://www.news4jax.com/news/deland-police-officer-fired-after-running-over-killing-man/-/475880/20385694/-/wiyeug/-/index.html

In other news, DeLand police officer J.P. Harris, who investigators say ran over and killed a 38-year-old man in May, has been fired.
On May 8th, law enforcement officers tried to pull over Marlon Brown for not wearing a seatbelt. Investigators say a chase ensued, and Brown jumped out of his car and ran away.
As Harris arrived on scene, he drove more than 100 feet off the road through a backyard fence and ran over and killed Brown, troopers said.
It’s not known why Brown fled police, but he was allegedly driving with a suspended license.
Florida Highway Patrol is still investigating the accident.
Krystal Brown, Marlon’s ex-wife and the mother of his two children, has been demanding that Harris be held accountable.
“It’s the first step of course. We’re looking for a lot more to be done,” Brown said. “We actually want charges. Just a termination is not good enough … but it’s a start.”

That’s this week’s Police Accountability Report brought to you by CopBlock.org.
I hope you’ll take a moment to consider just what it is that you are paying for via taxation – and speak out against the violence.
Until next week, stay safe and remember that badges don’t grant extra rights.

Police Accountability Report: Episode 95 – LRN.fm is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights