Gangsters in Blue

The absurd story that you are about to read was originally posted at Miami New Times on April 26, 2013. H/T Cecelia of Ladies in Keene.

By Kyle Munzenrieder

Kiera Wilmot got good grades and had a perfect behavior record. She wasn’t the kind of kid you’d expect to find hauled away in handcuffs and expelled from school, but that’s exactly what happened after an attempt at a science project went horribly wrong.

At 7:00 AM on Monday, the 16 year-old mixed some common household chemicals in a small 8 oz water bottle on the grounds of Bartow High School in Bartow, Florida. The reaction caused a small explosion that caused the top to pop up and produced some smoke. No one was hurt and no damage was caused.

According to WTSP, Wilmot told police that she was merely conducting a science experiment. Though her teachers knew nothing of the specific project, her principal seems to agree.

“She made a bad choice. Honestly, I don’t think she meant to ever hurt anyone,” principal Ron Pritchard told the station. “She wanted to see what would happen [when the chemicals mixed] and was shocked by what it did. Her mother is shocked, too.”

After the explosion, Wilmot was taken into custody by a school resources officer and charged with possession/discharge of a weapon on school grounds and discharging a destructive device. She will be tried as an adult.

She was then taken to a juvenile assessment center. She was also expelled from school and will be forced to complete her diploma through an expulsion program.

Polk County School released the following statement:

“Anytime a student makes a bad choice it is disappointing to us. Unfortunately, the incident that occurred at Bartow High School yesterday was a serious breach of conduct. In order to maintain a safe and orderly learning environment, we simply must uphold our code of conduct rules. We urge our parents to join us in conveying the message that there are consequences to actions. We will not compromise the safety and security of our students and staff.”

So, sorry kids. Don’t try any extracurricular science projects on school grounds, especially if they could result in anything resembling an explosion.

Update: Riptide spoke to the Polk County School District about why they felt expulsion was a fair punishment for Wilmot. Their response: kids should learn that “there are consequences to their actions.”

We’ve also obtained the police report from the incident. It shows that Wilmot was mixing toilet bowl cleaner and aluminum foil. Read the full update and the police report here.

Florida Teen Girl Charged With Felony After Science Experiment Goes Wrong is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

This composition is brought to you by November Yankee

The fact that Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was not armed when police opened fire on him is yet another disturbing revelation in how that case has been handled.

Boston Bombing Suspect Was Not Armed

For some perspective here, let’s think about a few other modern countries. In Britain, police don’t even carry guns. Or what about Germany? A country that has, historically, not been averse to violence or authoritarianism. Like just about any modern nation, Germany also has plenty of violent crime on their streets as well. But as you watch the following clip, keep an interesting little fact in mind. In 2011, across the entire country of Germany, police only fired a total of 85 bullets.

While some might argue that police don’t have to be as aggressive in places like England, because of severe restrictions on gun ownership, keep in mind, again, that the suspect here was not armed. Also keep in mind that in places like Switzerland, crime is extremely low even when compared to other European nations, yet they have the third highest per-capita gun ownership in the world.

While some have argued that what we saw happen out in Boston was not proof that we live in a police-state, because it “doesn’t happen every day” those people are making several critical flaws in their thinking.

First, when we see police going door to door storming houses without warrants and ripping people from their homes, it really doesn’t make any difference at all how often it happens. It never should have happened at all. That fact that it has happened once, means that it can happen again at any time. We have crossed that line now, into an era where the Constitution is no longer the law of the land, but rather an arbitrary guideline which can be violated for whatever reason the government chooses. This is the very thing our forefathers warned us about, and precisely what the Constitution was put in place to prevent.

“The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending against all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.” -Samuel Adams

Families Ripped From Homes By Police In Watertown

Over the course of this one terror event alone, we have seen police completely toss aside the 4th Amendment with a warrantless search and seizure of the homes of an entire community in the name of  “public safety.” Yet police had no regard for public safety, or justice and due process for that matter, when they tried to kill an unarmed teenager. If he is in fact guilty of any involvement at all, he may have had information critical to public safety, such as the locations of undetonated bombs, details of a larger plot, names of unidentified accomplices planning further attacks, and so forth.

Police Have No Duty to Protect You

To those of us with an understanding of the Constitution, of history, and a deep appreciation for liberty it is outright sickening that the public discourse is focused on when and where the abridgements of liberty should be allowed, rather than holding the police accountable for these depraved violations. Held accountable in the same manner perhaps, and to the same standard that our Founding Fathers held against British tyrants. All the King’s men, those agents of tyranny, were shot and driven into the sea. Every American soldier who has ever fought and shed blood in the name of the United States since then, has done so to ensure that we would never again see tyranny in these lands. They fought and died to protect, to guarantee that we, the people would never again be subject to the very crimes being perpetrated against the people today by our own government.

But what we saw in Boston is not isolated incident either. Which brings us to our second flaw in the reasoning of those who might say that this event was unprecedented, and therefore somehow excusable. Those who might say “it doesn’t happen every day” are either open apologists for tyranny, or plainly ignorant of the ongoing abuses of public trust by authorities in this country.

Folks in poor inner-city communities will tell you that this sort of thing can happen whenever a cop is killed. That police will swarm in, put a neighborhood on lock-down, and go door-to-door searching homes without a warrant. These sorts of details never make it to the mainstream media though, mostly because no one really cares what happens to poor people and no one really believes what they have to say. It’s only shocking today because such action happened in a quiet suburb. News of a cop being killed doesn’t garner the same intense national media coverage as a terrorist bombing either.

It doesn’t just take a cop getting killed though, for the police to practice 4th Amendment violations. This video shows that it is not only a daily occurrence on the streets of New York (and almost certainly most US cities) but that these violations are policy.

Also see: Police State of Mind 

America has even gone so far to establish an entire agency specifically dedicated to violating the 4th Amendment. The TSA are mostly known for their oppressive airport security measures, but have also been deployed at bus stations, on trains, and we should expect to see their influence grow in the coming years.

Strip-Searching and Terrorizing Children

Submit to Sexual Degradation at the Hands of Overlords

TSA Memo is Bombshell Invalidation of Airport Security

From this information we see that violating the Constitution is everyday business for authorities, but that still doesn’t quite evoke the same Orwellian imagery as we saw with armored vehicles, paramilitary troops swarming over Watertown, MA. But again, this too is actually an everyday occurence, even if it is not concentrated in a single neighborhood.

Disturbing Results of SWAT Transparency Bill

In that link you will see that the police have been drastically militarized in the past few decades. In Maryland alone, military-grade force was deployed 4.5 time per day in 2009. The majority of these instances where state-sanctioned paramilitary violence was brought to bear, non-violent citizens were the target, many of them simply accused of misdemeanor offenses.

Here are just a few more examples among the thousands of cases, where SWAT raids went disastrously wrong:

SWAT Get Medals After Shooting At Innocent Family in Botched Raid

Man Shot Dead By Home Invaders

SWAT Kill Marine Veteran In Front of His Family

The only way to prevent these tragedies, the only way to preserve liberty and justice, is to hold the police accountable when things go wrong, intentionally or not. The agents of law-enforcement must be held accountable when they stray from the law, to a higher standard even than a common citizen would be, not to  the lesser standard practiced today. Indeed as we have just seen, the police are even given medals for shooting at innocent families instead of being held accountable. Yet if you were to make  similar mistake, it is a near certainty that you would be shown no leniency by any court.

Take the case of Tracy Ingle for example. This man was shot five times by police, in the middle of the night, in his own bed, after they raided his home with a no-knock warrant. Not realizing that the intruders were police, he made the tragic mistake of pointing a non-functioning firearm at them in an attempt to scare off what he thought were robbers. He was lucky to survive, and yet he has been sent to prison for 18 years, for simply pointing a broken gun at police.

Tracy Ingle – 18 Years In Prison

In this case, police refused to identify themselves while pounding at the wrong door, but when an innocent man answered with a legally owned gun in his hand, he was shot dead in front of his girlfriend.

Cops Deny Negligence After Killing Innocent Man in His Home

The public is told time and time again that these terrible events are “isolated” incidents, even regrettable tragedies, but that overall the police are still there to protect and serve the community.

Police Misconduct Daily Report

We are also promised that if we happen to be intentionally victimized by one of these “bad apples” who “sometimes” make it into the police ranks, that the law will stand behind us, and that abuse of the public trust will not be tolerated. Yet the reality is quite the opposite of what the propaganda leads the majority of blissfully unaware Americans to believe.

Most Americans believe that it they could never be the victim of police violence. That so long as they don’t do anything wrong, they have nothing to worry about.

Police In Florida Torture Tourist To Death, No One Held Accountable

And again, they have misplaced faith that justice would be served if they did happen to be victimized by a bad cop. So let’s take a look at that notion now. What happens if you try to file a complaint against a police officer?

Also see: D.A.’s Office Complicit In Brutality Coverup

What happens if we try to take allegations of police corruption to our elected representatives?

Police-state dictatorship apparent as arrest is made in violation of Mayor’s orders and First Amendment

What happens when we try to use freedom of speech, freedom of the press to bring the news of police abuse directly to the people?

Freedom of Press Now a Felony In America

Finally, if by some long-shot chance a police officer is finally made to be held accountable in a court of law, can we expect real accountability for betrayal of public trust and openly criminal acts?

In this case, a police officer faced a 35-count indictment alleging that he used cocaine, protected drug dealers, revealed details of undercover operations, and even threatened to murder a suspect being held in the department’s jail in order to protect his cocaine suppliers. During the investigation the officer was suspended, but then reinstated to work another 4 months before he finally resigned, a move which guaranteed his full pension.

Cocaine Cop Gets 3 1/2 Years

In this case, a State Police Captain admitted in open court that he began sexually molesting his step-daughter. When she was just six years old. As part of a plea arrangement, he did not have to admit relations with two other daughters. Even with that agreement he faced 20 years in prison, but the judge suspended the sentence and ordered 2 years of supervised probation.

Child Molester Cop Gets No Prison Time

And finally, we can leave off here with an ironic, yet all too realistic example of the nature of police in America today.

Cop Made Chief After Negligent Homicide Conviction

“The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience” -Albert Camus

For more information on police abuse of authority, please visit the Police-State tab at Station.6.Underground, and CopBlock.org

This composition created in cooperation with November-Yankee and Station.6.Underground

Captain Six

Firing With Intent: Are American Cops Out of Control? is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

This article was originally posted by Adan Salazar at Infowars.com on May 2, 2013. Video credit goes to YouTube user Tony Light.

A recent YouTube video captured an overzealous security guard accusing a 24-year-old man of drinking alcohol in the parking lot of a liquor store, and then subsequently arresting him. The kicker, of course, was that the 24-year-old was only drinking Arizona brand Half and Half Iced Tea. 

Warning: Video contains strong language

As rapper Xstrav (Xstravagant), AKA Christopher Beatty, and his friend Tony Brown waited for their friend in the parking lot of the Cumberland County ABC Liquor Store in Fayetteville, North Carolina, an alleged plainclothes officer walked up to them demanding to know what Beatty was drinking.

Naturally, Beatty was taken aback by the seemingly normal man approaching him and asking to inspect his drink. He held the can at arm’s length, allowing the man, who merely identified himself as “police” verbally, to read the label, but refused to allow the strange man to hold (or sip) the drink.

The man, professing to be a police officer, next asks Beatty to leave the property for trespassing, even though Beatty explained he was there in the parking lot waiting to make a future purchase.

The video clearly shows the supposed undercover officer did not immediately identify himself as a policeman before he began questioning Beatty, and only quickly flashes what may be a badge three seconds before he demands the man put his hands on the trunk of his own car.

Without reading him his rights or divulging the charge for which he was making the arrest, the security guard begins handcuffing Beatty in the parking lot, while another seemingly drunk man wanders around the parking lot violating the well-known law of public intoxication [...which is also not a crime, as it does not have a victim...].

According to LatinRapper, YouTube and Reddit users began suspecting the encounter was staged, but a second YouTube upload leaves little doubt that the incident is authentic.

A quick check on the North Carolina Court System website also shows Beatty was charged with trespassing and resisting a public officer.

Hopefully, thanks to his friend filming the event, Beatty will have the evidence he needs to have his charges dismissed as the officer, if it turns out he actually is one, clearly had no initial probable cause to begin harassing him.

Arrested For Drinking Iced Tea in North Carolina is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

The fourth Occupy New England regional convergence was held this past weekend at the University of New Hampshire’s main campus in Durham. The gathering brought together dedicated activists from around the Northeast to spend time workshopping, networking, and strategizing. In a twist of fate, riot police would descend upon the surrounding area as outdoor presentations on street medic effectiveness and bullhorn mastery occurred on the campus green.

Presidential candidate Vermin Supreme was about midway through a session on de-escalating tense situations when chants of ‘UNH, UNH’ were audible from down the street directly across from the audience. Moments later, riot police appeared to be blocking the road off as students poured out of the area, many bearing cell phones in a manner suggesting that they were video recording. I wandered down for a closer look, and was surprised to see multiple officers carrying paintball guns, and others holding large canisters of pepper spray, most wearing helmets with face shields, gloves, and other protective gear (short of physical riot shields). Students were compliant with requests to stay out of the area, but were clearly agitated by what had previously occurred, several students reporting to have been hit and bruised by rubber bullets (likely pepperballs). From across the road, Vermin’s voice amplified through his bullhorn, reminding everyone to stay calm, that this was only a test, and to ignore the man with the megaphone. The mood lightened lightly as the police froze momentarily and onlookers responded with laughter and applause.

Some students were disturbed by the actions of some police, who were holding pepper spray aerosols in one hand and snapping cell phone photos with the other. One officer, Thomas Kilroy of the Durham police, responded curt and defensively when asked about his documenting of a peaceful and physically cooperative crowd.

Student: Why are you taking video of us?
Kilroy: (Shrugs) Why are you, why is he taking a video of me?
Student: Because you guys are doing something wrong.
Others: For our rights…
Kilroy: (Shrugs) I can do whatever I want.

A number of students responded their distaste with that statement, to which the officer went on to specify that he is allowed to also take pictures.

Foot traffic piled up at the area police were holding. It appeared that people were allowed to pass into the ‘secured area’ from across the street, but when asked why the sidewalk was closed, the vague response was that there is statutory authorization to do so. “We can’t go that way, even if we live that way?,” one young woman asked. “No, they might shoot you,” one person responded. A young man whose questions were not being fully answered began to walk past the police. Thomas Kilroy grabbed a hold of his backpack, but fortunately did not arrest him. He was turned around pushed back the other way. Some friends posed for pictures with the unusual riot police backdrop. Within about five minutes, the street was opened again.

Wading into the cleared area, I discovered more police, more students filming police, and a collective sense of tranquilized excitement and curiosity. Some people seeing the camera yelled out in support. “Keep it rolling!” I kept the lens fixed on near a dozen state police occupying a corner near the epicenter of the incident. Waiting there, I was able to get bits of info from passing partygoers about what had happened. I met some young men who had seen the alleged riotous behavior and were willing to speak on camera. They informed me that a standard patrol of uniformed police had come to talk to a property owner about a growing party when somebody threw “a beer bottle or beer cans”, which apparently caused police to retreat. By the young men’s account, it was between an hour and ninety minutes later that a team of about thirty riot police descended on the property and began firing rubber balls at the large crowd, and deploying pepper spray, the clouds of mist from which can be seen floating in the air from cell phone videos capturing the scene. There were multiple periods of pepperball fire as the crowd was pushed away from the area.

Officer Don’t-Give-A-Fuck’s nameplate

One of the most revealing videos of the raid was captured by a young woman on her cell phone. She captured numerous instances of pepperball fire and also the arrest of Jordan Mahar, a Wolfeboro resident who was detained for allegedly inciting riot. After a male officer who appears to be in charge tells her to move following the sole reported arrest of the day, the videographer takes consistent steps backward. Then, an unidentified female officer forcefully shoves her, screaming in her face to move. Her shoe comes off in the action, and she gently pleads, “My shoe, my shoe!” The officer responds by raising her voice even higher to scream, “I don’t give a FUCK!” The officer who had been previously delivering orders threw the shoe in the direction that she had been shoved. The nameplate of the unprofessional officer is barely visible as she pushes the person holding the camera.

As shocked as many students were, it seems that there were no serious injuries despite all of the projectiles fired. There are at least two recorded fatalities in US history as a result of reckless use of these weapons by police. In 2004, Boston police killed 21 year old Victoria Snelgrove with a pepperball shot to the eye during celebrations after a Red Sox victory.

Coverage of the UNH ruckus was run in the Union Leader the following day. According to their report, police were delivering orders to flee certain areas of the campus and surrounding properties until 7:30pm. Numerous students’ video have since emerged online, some of the most revealing posted to the ShireLeaks youtube channel. The 14-minute Free Concord video embedded above features numerous angles of the action.

UNH Riot Squad Tests Weaponized Toys on Students is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

Joe shared the following article, originally posted at MXGM.org, via CopBlock.org’s ‘submit‘ page.

View report here.

Operation Ghetto Storm: 2012 Annual Report on the Extrajudicial Killings of 313 Black People by Police, Security Guards, and Vigilantes.”
Every 28 hours in 2012 someone employed or protected by the US government killed a Black man, woman, or child! This startling fact is revealed in Operation Ghetto Storm: 2012 Annual Report on the Extrajudicial Killings of 313 Black People by Police, Security Guards, and Vigilantes.

“When we started this investigation in early 2012, we knew a serious human rights crisis was confronting the Black community”, says Kali Akuno, an organizer with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM). “However, we did not have a clear sense of its true depth until we compiled and examined the annual figures. We have uncovered outrageous rates of extrajudicial killings–rates, that when they are found in countries like Mexico or Brazil, are universally condemned. The same outrage inside the U.S. also demands immediate action.”

Given recent revelations in the case of Floyd et al v New York City that challenge “stop-and-frisk”, the study demonstrates that NYPD violations of human rights are endemic throughout the U.S. For example, racial profiling that singles out Black people for looking, driving or behaving “suspiciously” leads to at least 43% of Black peoples’ fatal encounters with police. Only 13% of those who were killed were involved in allegedly violent criminal activity that physically threatened others’ lives. These and many more of the Report’s findings reveal the deadly impact of systemic racism in the U.S.

Akuno further points out, “Operation Ghetto Storm follows the trail of extrajudicial killings to the rise of militarized police forces and their occupation of Black communities. And explores how systemic racism has led to increased militarization and repression, which in turn has exacerbated the human rights crises devastating Black communities.”

He added, “This Report breaks new ground by going beyond reliance on police department press releases and investigating as fully as possible the context and consequences of each killing. This investigative journalism serves as an example of respect for Black life so often neglected in public conversations.”

Arlene Eisen, member of the Malcolm X Solidarity Committee and the author of the Report, explained, “Any one of these people killed could have been my son or your husband or daughter. Regardless of education, class, behavior or dress, nowhere is a Black person safe from potentially-fatal racial profiling, invasive policing, constant surveillance and overriding suspicion.”

Based on a year of research, Eisen concluded, “police departments and government agencies throughout the United States go to great lengths to hide the data on extrajudicial killings, particularly the race of the murder victims. I am quite sure that there were more than 313 Black people killed by the police in 2012. Social movements in the United States must demand this information and must demand an end to these killings.”

- Submitted by Joe

Operation Ghetto Storm: 2012 Annual Report on the Extrajudicial Killings of 313 Black People by Police, Security Guards, and Vigilantes is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

This article was originally posted by Carlos Miller at PhotographyIsNotaCrime.com on April 25, 2013.

Alex Lege via Eunice Uncensored

Less than two weeks after he was arrested for video recording cops from a public street, Alex Lege was arrested again for the same thing.

This time it was the Eunice Police Department that arrested Lege, according to his girlfriend, Tessi Angelique Abshire, who posted the news on a Facebook page Lege created called Eunice Uncensored, where he attempts to shed a light on the police department.

Lege, who was arrested earlier this month by the Lafayette Parrish Sheriff’s Office, has previously posted videos where he was threatened by Eunice police while video recording them from a very respectable distance.

In the following video, Lege is threatened with physical harm by an old man who takes exception to being video recorded in public.

A Eunice cop then walks up and accuses Lege of “invading my crime scene” when Lege was nowhere near the scene.

Lege walks further back but the officer continues to order him away, so Lege ends up walking across the street to continue video recording.

The cop also tells him that the supreme court has ruled that citizens have the right to sue people who video record them in public, which is not true.

Continue reading…

Louisiana Man Arrested Twice in One Month for Video Recording Cops is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

An anonymous submitter shared the following via CopBlock.org’s ‘submit‘ tab, attributes to November Yankee.

This is an absolutely sickening display of police force, violation of the Constitution, and clearly shows that America is now dead. Welcome to the Fourth Reich.

Notice how the homeowner is pulled from the house and does not give permission for the police to enter. Notice too how the militant SWAT officer screams at the boy “hands up!” as if he is about to shoot the resident.

WATERTOWN, MA — On Friday, April 19, 2013, during a manhunt for a bombing suspect, police and federal agents spent the day storming people’s homes and performing illegal searches. While it was unclear initially if the home searches were voluntary, it is now crystal clear that they were absolutely NOT voluntary. Police were filmed ripping people from their homes at gunpoint, marching the residents out with their hands raised in submission, and then storming the homes to perform their illegal searches.

https://www.facebook.com/PoliceStateUSA

This was part of a larger operation that involved total lockdown of the suburban neighbor to Boston. Roads were barricaded and vehicle traffic was prohibited. A No-Fly Zone was declared over the town. People were “ordered” to stay indoors. Businesses were told not to open. National Guard soldiers helped with the lockdown, and were photographed checking IDs of pedestrians on the streets. All the while, police were performing these disgusting house-to-house searches.

It was just a few years ago when I presented the following video on another website. People rolled their eyes and the majority of the comments were along the lines of “that will never happen here.” The frog is boiled now my friends.

Source

Families Ripped From Homes By Police In Watertown is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

On April 2, 2013, OpposingViews.com reported on an incident where individuals working as part of the NYPD showed a truly sickening display of disregard for other human beings. “Thugs” is the most accurate description for NYPD Officers Maripily Clase, Suranjit Dey and Jermaine Hodge. -Kate

By Sarah Rae Fruchtnicht

The New York Police Department (NYPD) is being sued by a woman who claims officers pepper-sprayed her entire family, including a 5-month-old baby and a 2-year-old child.

Marilyn Taylor said officers stopped her and her husband in the subway on Aug. 9, accusing them of not paying the fare. According to the lawsuit obtained by Courthouse News Service, Taylor claims NYPD Officers Maripily Clase, Suranjit Dey and Jermaine Hodge then overreacted to her pushing her 2-year-old through a service door, rather than using the turnstile, on her way to a Manhattan-bound L train.

At the time, Taylor was pushing her 2-year-old in a stroller and holding her 4-year-old’s hand. Her husband carried their 5-month-old close to his chest. When questioned by police, the suit claims, “the aggressiveness of the officers’ demeanors had upset the four-year-old daughter, and her mother bent down to console her and tell her, ‘everything will be OK.’”

That’s when Officer Dey allegedly pepper-sprayed Taylor, who nearly fell from the platform. The spray affected the entire family.

“The pepper-spray caused the children to scream out and choked the two-year old, who went into fits of vomiting,” reads the lawsuit. “Ms. Taylor was then placed in handcuffs as the minor children cried in fear and pain.”

The complaint also states that the officers handcuffed Taylor and pushed her so hard down the stairs that it bruised her wrists and back.

After Taylor’s arrest, her husband, Dehaven McClain, took all three children home himself. The family sought medical attention because of the incident.

“After the attack, mother and father suffered ongoing eye injuries and all three children suffer emotional harms, and are now afraid to ride the subways and become afraid when they see police officers,” the lawsuit states.

“The four year-old cried herself to sleep for weeks, and after the incident the two-year-old began waking up in the night crying for her mother.”

In court the following day, Taylor was given an adjournment in contemplation of a dismissal, which would remove all charges if she stayed out of trouble for a certain amount time.

The suit seeks punitive damages for civil rights violations, negligence, assault, battery, and violations of state and federal constitutions.

NYPD Sued For Pepper-Spraying 5-Month-Old Baby and Siblings is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

After video was released of Captain Shawn Welch of the Maine Correctional Center using excessive force against an inmate, the Maine Department of Corrections has assigned an investigator, on the tax-payer’s dime, to determine how the information was released to the public. It should be of utmost concern to all who learn of this incident that public officials are more concerned about preventing transparency from occurring again rather than preventing excessive force from occurring again. Public officials want to prevent you from learning what kinds of activities your tax dollars truly fund. Does that indicate to you that something might be horribly, horribly wrong? -Kate

By David Hench | PressHerald.com

The Maine Department of Corrections is investigating to determine how the press obtained video and documents about a captain’s treatment of an inmate last year.

The video and related documents recount how Captain Shawn Welch, an official at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, used pepper spray on an inmate who was bound in a restraint chair, then left him in distress for more than 20 minutes. A story about the incident appeared in this week’s Maine Sunday Telegram.

Scott Burnheimer, superintendent of the medium- and minimum-security prison, fired Welch over the incident, but that decision was overruled by Corrections Commissioner Joseph Ponte, who gave Welch a 30-day suspension, according to the documents and interviews.

The newspaper story and video posted on the paper’s website led the chairmen of the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee to seek a review of the incident.

The committee plans to review the incident in the context of the department’s experience with use of force and its policies for investigations, said Rep. Mark Dion, D-Portland.

It asked the Corrections Department Wednesday to provide data on the prisons’ use of force and investigations, and plans to have the department’s leadership discuss that data and the incident with legislators on March 27.

The Department of Corrections has assigned an investigator to determine how the information got out.

“Your possession of that indicates a breach of security on our part and we absolutely do need to look into that,” said Associate Commissioner Jody Breton. “We certainly will be tightening up security — where (information) is stored, who has access.”

Breton said the probe is not being conducted because the story and video cast the department in a poor light, but because it revealed private information about an inmate.

Advocates for prisoners and for corrections officers criticized the investigation.

“The use of the department’s resources should be going into training of their staff and officers and management so this kind of incident doesn’t happen again,” said Judy Garvey of the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition. “Trying to find out how the information got into the hands of a reporter shows a reluctance to have transparency. It reeks of government heavy-handedness in oversight.

“Certainly, the inmate’s right to privacy should be respected. There’s always a fine line between (that and) what the public needs to know to keep abuse and tragedy from happening,” Garvey said. “We feel the department itself is probably not the best arbiter of that kind of decision,”

Garvey said the coalition favors having a citizens group of prisoner advocates working with the department.

James Mackie, spokesman for the union that represents corrections officers, said he is not surprised that the department is investigating.

“The number of investigations since (Ponte) has taken over have just increased exponentially,” he said.

Mackie said he was surprised that the incident, which happened on June 10, took so long to come to light. Welch was disciplined in August and September.

“We were all aware of the issue at MCC. There was no way it was going to be kept secret,” Mackie said.

Breton said she does not know whether investigations have increased under Ponte.

The newspaper’s story and the accompanying video offered a rare glimpse inside the prison and into a confrontation between officers and a medicated, mentally ill inmate.

Paul Schlosser had received hospital treatment for a gouge he inflicted on his left arm, but had repeatedly removed the dressing in an effort to get medication and a book to distract him.

Inmates who hurt themselves to manipulate staff are among the most difficult to deal with, Ponte said last week.

Officers restrained Schlosser in a restraint chair so the medical staff could treat his arm, because he refused to go to the medical unit voluntarily.

When one officer pinned his head to the chair, Schlosser struggled and spit at an officer. Welch sprayed him at close range with pepper spray, called OC spray, from a canister intended to be used on multiple people at a distance of 18 to 20 feet, according to an investigator’s report.

Welch then refused to let Schlosser, who said he couldn’t breathe, wash his face for 24 minutes. A spit mask was placed over Schlosser’s mouth and nose, trapping the pepper spray against his face.

An investigation concluded that Welch’s use of force was excessive and motivated in part by personal animosity.

Burnheimer fired Welch and denied his appeal, saying he had discussed it with Ponte, according to department documents.

But Ponte said last week that Welch was never actually fired.

NOTE TO READERS

The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram is publishing the entire video of the June 10, 2012, incident involving inmate Paul Schlosser so readers can get a complete picture of what happened. The video, which was shot by a prison employee, runs 2 hours and 10 minutes. Viewers should be aware that both the full video and the 17-minute excerpt (which depicts the most crucial moments) contain explicit language, violence and disturbing images. View the videos.

Maine Public Officials Seeking to Prevent Transparency in Future is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

The below was originally posted to FreeKeene.com by Ian Freeman on March 17, 2013.

Ian is a good friend that has himself lived his ideas. Not just through media creation like Free Talk Live, ShireSociety.com, LRN.FM, and FreeKeene.com – which was was the featured sponsor of 24-stop, month-long Cop Block Tour, but his own actions.

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by Ian Freeman

Pete Eyre of CopBlock.org and I had the honor of being the Non-Political Activism Panel at Liberty Forum 2013. Hope you find our discussion useful. We cover a lot of activism types and ideas in an hour’s time:

VIDEO Non-Political Activism Panel, Liberty Forum 2013 is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights