The 33-minute video starts with Thomas being approached by Fullerton Police Department Officer Manuel Ramos, who engages him in conversation. By minute 15, Ramos has already donned latex gloves… “You see my fists?” Ramos asks Thomas. “They’re getting ready to fuck you up.”
It appears to me that this thug could have easily handcuffed Thomas while he was sitting on the curb. He chose to brutally murder him instead.
Why is it that people always refer to the New York City Police Department as the best police department in the country?
The N.Y.P.D. is actually one of the most corrupt police forces in the U.S. The department has a long history of committing some of the most heinous crimes
against innocent citizens. Take, for instance, the 1999 execution of Amadou Diallo, a 23 year old Guinean immigrant who was shot at 41 times by N.Y.P.D. cops Sean Carroll, Richard Murphy, Edward McMellon, and Kenneth Boss. Diallo, who was unarmed and simply had his wallet in his hand, was hit 19 times. Just over one year later, a jury acquitted all of the cops.
Also, Abner Louima, a 30 year old Haitian immigrant, who suffered severe internal damage when N.Y.P.D. officer Justin Volpe sodomized him with a broomstick in Brooklyn’s 70th precint. Afterwards, Volpe proudly displayed the excrement and blood stained broomstick to his fellow officers as he bragged that he had just “broke a man”. Volpe then threatened to kill Louima and his family members if Louima told anyone. Justin Volpe was later convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Sean Bell, executed by N.Y.P.D. undercover cops on the morning of his wedding day, in Queens. Bell had just left a club with friends when he was confronted by a plain clothes N.Y.P.D. cop who didn’t identify himself. When Bell sped off, the cop fired 50 rounds at Bell’s vehicle, killing Bell and severely injuring his friends. And, even though neither Bell or any of his friends had a gun, the N.Y.P.D. smeared Bell’s character after the incident, and his friends were under investigation instead of the cops!
During last year’s annual West Indian American Day Parade, N.Y.P.D. officers used facebook to post extremely disturbing comments, violating the department’s policy barring officers from making “discourteous or disrespectful remarks” about race or ethnicity. The facebook group, which totalled 1,200 members, posted comments from N.Y.P.D. officers such as Dan Rodney who stated “I say have the parade one more year, and when they all gather, drop a bomb and wipe them all out.”
Other comments from N.Y.P.D. officers included calling people “animals’ and “savages”. The comments on facebook, included references to West Indian and
African-American neighborhoods, and were so offensive that some N.Y.P.D. officers themselves posted warnings to other officers advising them to be careful that Internal Affairs “rats” don’t take notice of the comments. However, many didn’t seem to care, and went on posting comments such as “Let them kill each other”.
In a recent New York Times editorial piece, a strong point is made of the need for a “strong, independent agency to investigate serious complaints about New York City’s police force.” After several corruption cases involving the N.Y.P.D., including seven narcotics officers convicted of planting drugs on people, three officers convicted of robbing a perfume warehouse, eight current N.Y.P.D. officers charged with smuggling guns into the state, and a federal lawsuit accusing the N.Y.P.D. of engaging in racially biased “stop and frisk” incidents, there is serious doubt that the department can do an effective job addressing misconduct and corruption without outside help.
The N.Y.P.D.’s Internal Affairs Bureau, which is responsible for investigating complaints of police misconduct, failed to uncover any of these problems. In fact, they were brought to light by a local district attorney, the F.B.I. and, in one case, a New Jersey police department.
Recently, N.Y.P.D. officers, gathered outside State Supreme Court in the Bronx, for the unsealing of indictments against 16 of their fellow officers, who were arraigned on charges of corruption, after a three-year investigation into the N.Y.P.D.’s fixing of traffic and parking tickets, which in all cost the City of New York, close to $ 2 Million dollars. Officer Jose Ramos, a member of the N.Y.P.D.’s 40th precint, and whose suspicious behavior led to the ticket fixing investigation in the first place, was accused of two dozen crimes, including attempted robbery, attempted grand larceny, transporting what he thought was heroin for drug dealers and revealing the identity of a confidential informant. Ramos is facing up to 50 years in prison.
The officers yelled “Down with the D.A.” and “N.Y.P.D. Commisioner Ray Kelly, is a hypocrite.” Inside, more than 100 off-duty N.Y.P.D. officers lined the courthouse hallways and stood outside the courtroom. The officers prevented members of the news media from filming their colleagues by blocking cameras, grabbing lenses and shoving television camera crews into walls.
The outpouring of angry officers and their behavior was in violation of N.Y.P.D. policy which states “Conduct which brings discredit to the department or conduct in violation of law is unacceptable and will result in disciplinary measures.” Perhaps the best of example of the N.Y.P.D.’s disgusting, unprofessional conduct, despite always being lauded as the best police department in the country, is how at one point, the crowd of at least 350 officers outside the courthouse began chanting “E.B.T.” at people lined up at a benefits center across the street, referring to electronic benefit transfer, the way welfare recipients receive their food stamps and/or cash benefits. A court official who came outside to attempt to calm down the crowd of officers, was insulted with profanities by the N.Y.P.D. cops. The indicted N.Y.P.D. officers came out of the courthouse pumping their fists, as the crowd of their fellow officers burst into cheers. Once the rowdy crowd of N.Y.P.D. cops had cleared, the street was littered with refuse.
Eugene J. O’Donnell, a professor of police studies at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice makes a very powerful and telling point, in referring to the N.Y.P.D. when he said “The Police Department is a very angry work force, and that is something that should concern people, because it translates into hostile interactions with people.”
I don’t know about you, but I find it disgusting and downright deplorable whenever I hear the N.Y.P.D. being referred to as “The best police force in the country”. Are you kidding me?
Davy V.
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Editors note – check out this video created after the actions of some NYPD employees at the 2011 West Indian Day Parade:
I must apologize… this story is a little old. But the victims are still suffering and it needs to be told.
Meet the Hendersons: Father, Jeffrey, is a big, intimidating individual but tenderly in love with his children. Mother, Erica, is a very nurturing mother. Together they have six children and lived together without incident in their Pasadena, California home.
Are they typical parents? No. They keep a kosher diet, they homeschool
and breastfeed and homebirth. They follow orthodox Jewish law. But is being “different” a reason to have your rights trampled?
In May 2010, the police were called by a disgruntled neighbor who reported having “heard” Jeffrey slap their oldest child. The police responded by demanding entry. Jeffrey and Erica
refused their requests and instead had the children come to the front window next to their door to show that they had not been harmed. Here you can see Jeffrey and Erica refusing entrance prior to deciding to parade their children’s well being in the window:
Apparently, visually seeing the children was not enough for the Pasadena police. Without a warrant they barged into their residence as the family sang Jewish songs of worship. They beat Jeffrey to the point he needed to be hospitalized, removed the children and gave them to DCFS and locked both Jeffrey and Erica in a cage.
Surprise, surprise! The courts eventually found that the accusation that prompted the violence was unfounded and dropped all charges including an obstruction charge for not opening the door to their home.
But the damage control was already insurmountable. Erica spent two months in county jail where she suffered the pains of breast infection and was denied treatment. She was restricted from breastfeeding her two youngest children who had been placed in foster care as a seven month old, and two year old. She was not given access to a breast pump. Jeffrey was held for three months. Both Jeffrey and Erica lost their home and Jeffrey lost his job for being a no show while in jail. When they got out they found themselves penniless and homeless. They shared their story shortly after their release in this interview.
As if that isn’t ugly enough, here’s where it gets really ugly. Because DCFS decided that even though the Henderson’s were not prosecuted and were NOT convicted of any wrong doing by the court, they were somehow entitled to keep their children anyway. According to DCFS, the Henderson’s were abusive because they refused to open the door for police and therefor put their children at risk of being injured by the battering ram the police department used to gain (unlawful) entry to their home. Consider the absurdity that is the state – police are not punished for their violent, unjustified actions; instead, their victims are.
DCFS required them to show up for several visits per week when ordered which were, of course, scheduled in the middle of the work day. These visits needed to be complied with or DCFS would note their disinterest and lack of involvement in resuming custody of their children. And then there were all of the department mandated classes they were ordered to attend. All of this kept them from employment and finding a home. And then the most logical step of all… DCFS also required them to provide “proper” shelter for their
six children, which in their eyes was a lot more lush than they had originally provided their children. Yet still they are attempting to meet every requirement. Even going above and beyond the department’s requests… bending over backwards and jumping through fiery hoops while the department sits and watched, entertained.
So, here we are. It’s now almost one year later. Where are the Hendersons? Well, the children still live in foster care and adoption is being fought for by the couple who have been caring for the youngest child. Most of their children are being held separately, not being fed the kosher diet their family raised them with, not attending the religious observances that are so close to their heart. Basically, the Hendersons are still desperately trying to reunite, despite a million miles of bureaucratic red tape.
Jeffrey has filed a habeas corpus and has made it public for anyone to see and use in their own defenses. He is resisting the assertion that the United States government has rights over his family. Interestingly, the Henderson’s youngest – a seven month old boy — had not yet had his birth registered when he was kidnapped by federal agents. He has no birth certificate and no social security
card. How can the United States government have any kind of say so in his welfare? How do they even know whose baby they took?
Those who believe badges grant extra rights apparently don’t just work in the police force.
So often we hear stories about officers stepping out of line and aggressively asserting themselves without reason. But this story is different. This story is about a cop who tried to stop the violence.
Officer Regina Tasca has worked for the Bogota, New Jersey police departmentfor 11 years. She had an exemplary record. One day in April, 2011, she received a call to assist with the transport of a 22 year old male to the hospital because he was psychologically distraught. The call came in from his mother who was beside herself with worry for her adult son.
Officer Tasca arrived on scene and immediately began to put the man at ease. ”When the call came, I heard that a couple of officers from Ridgefield Park were coming to provide backup, which I thought was OK,” Tasca said. But when they arrived the young man grew nervous. “He noticed them and asked me, ‘Why are there other police offices here from another town?’ Then he said that he was leaving, and he moved maybe two or three steps when one of the Ridgefield officers jumped him.”
Sgt. Chris Thibault pounced on the non-aggressive man and tried to handcuff him. The second officer, Sgt. Joe Rella, “assisted” him by jumping on top and punching the unarmed man in the head. The man’s mother looked on and screamed helplessly for the cops to stop pummeling her son.
In the midst of the chaos, Officer Tasca, intervened. She did not assist her brothers in blue, but chose instead to pry the officers off of him and pull him to his feet.
Was she commended? Were the officers who tackled the passive male investigated? No, on both accounts.
Instead, Officer Tasca was asked to turn in her weapon and was suspended. This week, she faces a hearing where she will possibly be fired.
And the two officers who did the tackling? They were never even investigated.
Unfit for duty? Perhaps they are right. She’s unfit for duty as the only ethical officer amongst the gangsters of her police department. But she IS FIT for service to citizens as a police officer, protecting and serving the public.
Thank you Officer Tasca. You remind us of what public service can be.
This is a video of the most reasonable man I know being booked in for “disorderly conduct”. This man has applied for a press pass which was later revoked by the corporate media representatives in charge of distributing all press passes. He has attempted to use footage from Wisconsin Eye, a government-funded media service. They made him take down the footage because it is the property of said 501c(3) corporation.
He has filmed legislators committing voter fraud through the windows of the gallery. They took that as a sign that they needed to post black plastic over the windows. These are the lengths he has gone to in order to report on the blatant corruption of our State Government during the last session. In direct contradiction of State Statute 19.90, which states that we have the right to film our public officials, our legislature has deemed filming a violation of their own rules of conduct and are prosecuting, “Offenders” under disorderly conduct statutes. This day he wasn’t filming.
Being known for excising one’s rights is now enough to warrant detainment in Wisconsin.
This is not my video and I cannot claim credit for it. I got it off my buddy’s youtube channel(arthurkr222).
Miami’s Homeland Security is keeping tabs on Carlos Miller, why? Not because he is any terrorist threat or some subversive radical. Rather because he runs the website, “Photography Is Not A Crime!” which documents police attacks on copwatchers, journalists, and ordinary citizens who catch heat for filming police interactions. He’s been supportive of my police accountability work with copwatch and I’ve appreciated his coverage of police issues over the last few years.
I was recording police from across the street on a public sidewalk. Keep in mind I do nothing that is against the law. I have every right to film them in their duties. I in no way addressed the officer OR the guy the officer was talking too. The passenger, who is not engaged by the cop starts the conversation with me. It turns out that I knew the passenger. After the traffic stop was over I get stopped, detained, then threatened. The cops realize they have nothing to hold me on and let me go but not before threatening me that he will arrest me if I do this behavior again.
Afterwards I went looking to record them again but came up empty handed.
Police are so loved and respected in this country, that even when they are rapists and murderers, they are treated better than the average human being, and certainly better than the average criminal. Recently examples are illustrative.
Jose Guerena, a former Marine who was the victim of a mistaken drug raid, was the target of 120+ rounds shot by Pima County Sherriff’s SWAT team. He was left to bleed to death, while his wife begged for medical attention, and eventually died because police refused to let paramedics through. Such is how police treated a suspected drug violator. (More here).
Neli Latson was wrongfully suspected of being a suspicious character with a gun. When he refused to submit to wrongful arrest, he was beaten by police. While being beaten, he yelled that he had done nothing wrong, to which the police replied, “You don’t have to – Welcome to Stafford County.” Neli reported a gun was held to his head, and the officer stated, “I will blow your head off, nigger.” (More here and here). Such is how police treated a person suspected of exercising their 2nd Amendment (alleged) rights.
Fred Skinner, aged 76 was eating when police mistakenly burst through his door with guns drawn, put him in handcuffs, and ransacked his house in search of drugs. Police did not even stop to apologize when they realized they had entered and extensively damaged the wrong house, although when the matter attracted substantial media attention, they finally agreed to pay to repair Mr. Skinner’s porch. (More here). Such is how police treat an innocent old man minding his own business.
John Williams was walking down the street in the opposite direction with a small, folded whittling knife when Officer Ian Birk of Seattle Police Department called out for him to stop. Being deaf in one ear, Mr. Williams did not hear, and did not stop. He was executed on the spot. (More here). Such is how police treat a person who dares disobey orders, even unreasonable ones.
18-year-old Ramarley Graham, was shot to death in front of his grandmother and younger brother after he attempted to flush a bag of marijuana down the toilet. Police did not have a warrant to enter the home, and Mr. Graham was unarmed. (More here and here). Such is how police treat drug offenders – and in a city where pot is allegedly “decriminalized.”
Alan Kephart disobeyed officers’ orders in connection with a traffic matter, and instead gave officers the middle finger. He was tasered to death. (More here). Such is how police treat traffic violators who are rude to them.
Kelly Thomas, a schizophrenic homeless man, attracted the attention of Fullerton police, who were allegedly looking for a suspected car thief matching his description. One glance at his face after police were done with him tells pretty much the whole story. He eventually died from his injuries. Such is how police treat people potentially suspected of car theft.
On the other hand, police themselves seem to rarely face such harsh consequences for minor transgressions. Indeed, they often face no consequences at all, and when they are charged and imprisoned, they are treated with a great deal of dignity and respect.
Officer Art Perea faced no consequences in relation to his employment when the accusations of rape surfaced. He was permitted to resign on his own accord, and ultimately faced no charges after investigations, which took several months, cleared him of wrongdoing. (More here). Such is how police treat a potential rapist among their ranks – they have such faith in him, that they don’t even bother to take him off duty, or quarantine him from the public.
Officer Anthony Arevalos similarly was accused of sexual assault. Although he was finally duly punished, he was not fired and faced no repercussions after he was accused of sexual assault for the first time. (More here). Again, such is how police treat rapists among their ranks.
In another particularly heinous tale, Officer Stephanie Lazarus of the LAPD was found to have been a major suspect in the brutal murder of Sherri Rasmussen, which occurred in 1986. Saliva and broken fingernails collected at the scene of the crime had been preserved. A detective secretly followed Lazarus and was able to retrieve a sample of her saliva from a straw she threw away. When the time came to arrest Lazarus in 2009, she was at her desk at the LAPD headquarters. She was told to go attend to an issue about an inmate in the jail downstairs. When she removed her gun and passed through the security gate, she was uneventfully intercepted by detectives and taken into interrogation. (More here).
When innocent people are suspected of crimes, they are regularly beaten, tasered, have their doors kicked in, their homes ransacked, or have their pets shot. When ordinary people have committed minor crimes, they are often tasered or shot and killed. However, when police rape and murder, they are treated with surprisingly reasonable measures (or maybe not so surprising – after all, the police essentially police themselves).
Perea was not beaten or tasered when accused of rape; he wasn’t even fired. Arevalos didn’t have his door kicked in and his house ransacked. Lazarus who was a violent, psychopathic murderer was disarmed non-violently, and faced neither a hail of 120+ rounds of bullets, tasers, fists, nor boots. This is not to say that murder suspects should be beaten, or that potential rapists should be tasered – but perhaps the rest of us are human beings as well, and should be treated in a similarly reasonable manner.
A video allegedly depicting a very kind and wonderful cop has been circulating around the internet for a while now. I ignored it at first, but it keeps popping up – along with peoples’ maudlin and obsequious commentary about how touching and heart-warming this officer’s last act of kindness is, and how this surely is a stellar example of how police officers ought to be.
You may ask, what was this last act of kindness? Did the officer lay down his life for another? Did he save a child from drowning? Or perhaps he protected an individual from some kind of vile crime against the person, such as murder or rape?
No, no – none of that. Something far more glorious and admirable – he bought a kid $1 worth of cookies at McDonald’s. Daveon Tinsley purportedly asked Officer Jeremy Henwood for 10 cents to buy a cookie, and Officer Henwood in response bought the him 3 cookies. Subsequently, Henwood was gunned down and killed, allegedly in an unprovoked attack (more here).
The media frequently demonstrates their extreme bias when it comes to police; this is nothing new. When innocent people are murdered or beaten by police for no reason, the media is quick to point out the victim was a criminal, was drinking, or was engaged in some other mild offense, as if to justify police actions. Funny how it works though – when police die in unfortunate circumstances, the media has no interest in digging up dirt on the dead officer, but instead rushes to point out any inane, worthless factoid that will “humanize” the officer. Yet, one cannot blame the media, when people demonstrate that this kind of nonsense is exactly what they prefer.
While it is lamentable when anyone dies in an unprovoked attack, a logical assessment of this situation leads one to the inevitable conclusion that many people in America are idiots. The first clause of the previous sentence is bolded because no matter how clear I make it, any time I show anything less than uncontrollable anguish at the news of an officer’s death, I am accused of the utmost depravity, and of cheering on their deaths. Nevertheless – buying someone a cookie would not be news in any other context for other people who die in tragic circumstances, but somehow, when a police officer dies, a non-negligible number of Americans start incoherently babbling about how fucking great it was that some man bought a kid some cookies. Americans get so excited about this that it actually is reported as news.
This is to say nothing of the fact that people like Henwood are basically gang members in nice uniforms. They spend their lives prowling the streets, extorting people of their hard-earned money based on stupid crimes like jaywalking, speeding, rolling stop signs, drinking on the beach, or smoking marijuana. This is a fact, because most people in jail/prison are not there for violent crimes or property crimes. They are there for drugs or other offenses which involved no victim. Thus, it is reasonable to conclude police spend most of their time on drug and victimless offenses, rather than on offenses involving personal or property crime.
Accordingly, police officers dedicate their lives to essentially terrorizing people. At the worst, they kill children in drug raids, chase down and beat innocent people, kill harmless pets or abuse wildlife. At the very least, they drive around and make everyone they pass feel anxious. They have a dress code, and adhere to the Blue Code of Silence, which is a loyalty oath they make to each other. Really, the gang member analogy could not be more apt.
No one posts videos such as, “Crip member’s last act of kindness,” or “M13 leader shows last act of kindness by buying boy a sammich,” but for some reason, people wet themselves over Henwood’s last act of kindness – completely ignoring the fact he spent most of his days being an asshole to people.
This is surely reminiscent of the hysterical behavior exhibited by the mourning citizens of North Korea when Kim Jong Il passed, although on a milder level. Here, we have the same kind of bizarre hero-worship of a man who in all likelihood had the moral integrity of a local thug. Inexplicably, people’s reactions are of greatly exaggerated sorrow, followed by diarrhea-like outpours of lament. Are you one of the Americans who thought North Koreans were insane for putting on such histrionic displays of sadness when Kim Jong Il died? Better check the mirror; you might be an only-slightly-less-insane, only-slightly-less-ignorant version of them.
On Friday I am commissioning my first ever official “overview” of government misconduct. The presentation will detail my case as to precisely how Keene Circuit Court-District Division Presiding Judge Edward Burke violated state law, the state Constitution, and judicial canons by telling a lie to have someone arrested. A lie that constituted False Reports to Law Enforcement, a crime under state law. A crime that if the exact facts and circumstances were brought before him in a criminal case where you did the same thing, he would find you guilty.
I am quite familiar with the crime asI have arrested people and prepared prosecution cases for it before. Judge Burke should have been arrested by now for what he did… but lucky for him, it appears that his friends in government are protecting him.
The presentation I will be burning to DVD and distributing to Governor John Lynch, the Executive Council, and every member of the New Hampshire General Court. Every mainstream media outlet in New Hampshire will also be receiving a copy.
A JUDGE SHOULD AVOID IMPROPRIETY AND THE APPEARANCE OF IMPROPRIETY IN ALL OF THE JUDGE’S ACTIVITIES
I presume that includes impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all of the judge’s interactions with members of the free press who are asking constitutionally protected questions. Especially when our own Constitution says:
FREE SPEECH AND LIBERTY OF THE PRESS ARE ESSENTIAL TO THE SECURITY OF FREEDOM IN A STATE: THEY OUGHT, THEREFORE, TO BE INVIOLABLY PRESERVED.
(not taken away in a creative attempt to cover up a criminal offense against CopBlock.org founder Ademo Freeman which clearly resulted in his constitutional rights being violated)
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