Police abuse

Federal Judge Tackles Police Immunity Law

September 2, 2020 Marjorie Cohn, Black Agenda Report. Resist! Accountability, Legal System, Police abuse, Qualified immunity

As the Massachusetts legislature debates whether to water down its qualified immunity defense, a federal judge in Mississippi filed a stunning 72-page opinion blasting the doctrine. Qualified immunity has entered the national discourse with the massive uprisings in the wake of the public lynching of George Floyd. It allows police and other government officials to escape liability for their law breaking. In Jamison v. McClendon, U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves recently concluded that Officer Nick McClendon violated Clarence Jamison’s Fourth Amendment rights when he subjected Jamison to a nearly two-hour ordeal that included badgering, pressuring, lying and intrusively searching his car.

How Pennsylvania State Troopers Conduct Illegal Traffic Searches

September 1, 2020 By Joseph Darius Jaafari and Joshua Vaughn, Spotlight PA. Educate! Black America, Pennsylvania, Police abuse, Rights

To justify their searches, state police often claimed that a driver was nervous, sweating, or eating. One officer went so far as to say a dollar-sign tattoo on a man’s neck was an indicator of criminal activity that justified detaining him for a K-9 search. Officers also used the same language to justify their stops, no matter the context or circumstances of the arrest, a violation of their training. Police also held people during traffic stops longer than legally allowed. In one case, a man was held for nearly two hours before he was arrested. Drivers also had little choice in whether to allow police to conduct a search of their vehicles. In the review of cases, even when drivers had the legal right to deny a search, police still called in K-9 units, which courts have said is not an invasion of privacy. More than half of the cases reviewed by the news organizations involved charges against a Black person, despite Black people accounting for only about 10% of the three counties’ population. For years, Pennsylvania State Police had stopped gathering race data during traffic stops, making it difficult to know how often people of color were pulled over and searched.

Calls To Drop ‘Absurd’ Charges Against Journalists Covering Protests

August 27, 2020 By Lisa Newcomb, Commondreams. Resist! First Amendment, Freedom of the Press, Media, Police abuse

The Committee to Protect Journalists on Monday called for authorities to drop charges against members of the news media who were arrested while covering Black Lives Matter protests across the United States. More than 600 attacks against the press during the protests, ongoing since the end of May, have been reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, and many detained journalists were released without charges, according to CPJ.

Police Continue To Repress Protesters In Portland

August 24, 2020 Telesur English. Resist! Black Lives Matter (BLM), Mass Arrests, Police abuse, Portland

For 90 days now, protesters have taken to the streets of the U.S. city of Portland following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. As per social media videos, protesters were met with heavy police repression including the use of tear gas canisters. The protest left several police officers injured, at least 9 people arrested while one person received medical attention after receiving a gun wound. Of those people that were arrested, three were charged with assault on a police officer. Portland Police confirmed that since May, over 500 protesters have been arrested. U.S. Police repression continues in Portland, Oregon against demonstrators who continue to take to the streets to demand an end to police brutality and racism in the United States.

Police Shoot Man; Video Shows Officer Firing Several Shots Into His Back At Close Range

August 24, 2020 Meg Jones, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Educate! Police abuse, Police violence, Racism, Wisconsin

Kenosha police shot a man Sunday evening, setting off unrest in the city after a video appeared to show the officer firing several shots at close range into the man's back. The shooting victim has been identified as Jacob Blake, a Black man, by Wisconsin officials. He was in serious condition at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee as of early Monday morning. The Wisconsin Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation said early Monday that the involved officers have been placed on administrative leave. The Kenosha News reported that neighbors said Blake was trying to break up a fight between two women. Bystanders said he was Tased and then shot several times.

Antifascists Are Facing Off Against The Far-Right, Backed By Local Cops

August 22, 2020 It's Going Down. Resist! Antifascist, Fascists, Los Angeles, Police abuse

Every Friday in Sunland-Tujunga, a small neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, just 15 minutes from Downtown LA, a group of violent far-Right Trump supporters meets under the guise of rallying in support of the police. Here’s how local antifascists have responded. They assemble out front of a Big 5 on Foothill Blvd from around 11 am to sundown every Friday and have since the start of the George Floyd uprising. Their hate has been countered by members of the local community since day one. Early demos would have 2-3 Black Lives Matter protesters standing across from a group of 10 violent fascists. A large counter-demo was called for on June 19th, with the far-Right stepping up to mobilize their forces on that day as well.

Defund The Police Movement Can Learn From Corrupt Gun Trace Task Force

August 20, 2020 Jaisal Noor, Waging Nonviolence. Strategize! Baltimore, Corruption, Defund the police, Police abuse

“I Got A Monster” is a page turner that’s as hard to put down as it is disturbing. What’s more, it could not be more relevant to our times. Through extensive reporting, authors Baynard Woods and Brandon Soderberg show that repressive police tactics — like throwing civilians into unmarked cars and fabricating and planting evidence — are more than recent national news topics. They have been used for years against Black communities. Immaculately researched, the authors use court documents, wiretaps, interviews, and body camera footage to recreate the unraveling of one of the greatest police scandals of our lifetime: the corrupt Gun Trace Task Force, or GTTF.

The Supreme Court Dropped The Ball On The Right To Protest

August 19, 2020 By Kia Rahnam, Politico. Educate! First Amendment, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Police abuse, Supreme Court

In recent months, US cities have seen widespread protests denouncing police brutality against unarmed Black people. Local and national law enforcement agencies, responding to crowds of unprecedented size and scale, relied on methods that were equally unprecedented. For more than 30 years, the Supreme Court has failed to take up a freedom-of-assembly case. As a result, this fundamental constitutional right is in sore need of an update, such as a ruling that would protect protesters from the unduly harsh police response that has become all too common as a response to demonstrations in recent years. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution explicitly describes the right of the people to peaceably assemble. This right is recognized separately from the right to freedom of speech because the founders believed that the act of organizing a large crowd for a demonstration, parade or protest could be more powerful than individual speech, and was therefore even more susceptible to government encroachment. Like the right to religious expression, the founders gave the right to protest its own listing intending for the courts to give it special treatment and fashion unique legal standards that would ensure its protection.

$16.5M Settlement Reached In Class-Action Lawsuit Over Mass Arrests

August 19, 2020 CBC. Resist! Canada, Class Action Lawsuit, Police abuse, Right to Protest

A $16.5-million settlement has been reached in a class-action lawsuit over mass arrests at the 2010 G20 summit. The agreement comes after 10 years of court proceedings and negotiations between the Toronto Police Services Board and representatives for about 1,100 people who were arrested during the summit. Under the settlement, those arrested will each be entitled to compensation between $5,000 and $24,700, depending on their experiences. The deal also includes a public acknowledgment by police regarding the mass arrests and the conditions in which protestors where detained, as well as a commitment to changing how protests are policed in the future.

Cops Repeatedly Attacked And Obstructed Street Medics

August 19, 2020 Ella Fassler, Truthout. Resist! Healthcare, Police abuse, Right to Protest, Street Medics

Dozens of reports of police arresting medics and destroying their property have arisen since the revolt began in late May. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, police assaulted medics at their tent in a Kmart parking lot on May 31. “We announced ourselves as medics,” one medic told Unicorn Riot. “They began to launch rubber bullets and tear gas into our facility where there were no other protesters in that area, exclusively medics and those who had been wounded…” Police forced them out, occupied the space and slashed all tires in the parking lot. In Asheville, North Carolina, police destroyed a medic station by stabbing and stomping on water bottles and dismantling a table with snacks and supplies. In Denver, Colorado, demonstrators filed a class-action lawsuit against police, presenting videos of police firing projectiles at a medic who was helping an unconscious person. In Columbus, Ohio, videos show police choking a medic, ostensibly because they were filming an arrest. Still, Portland-based Rosehip Medic Collective told Truthout, “Police attack white medics a lot less than they attack other prote

‘BlueLeaks’ Publishers Pursued As ‘Criminal Hacker Group’ By DHS

August 16, 2020 Lilia Dergacheva, Sputnik News. Educate! BlueLeaks, Hacker, Homeland Security, Police abuse

The dump of the damning "Blue Leaks" files in late June provided the public with over 250 gigabytes of video, audio, and other data from a broad range of law enforcement agencies across the US. Yet, the organisation behind it insists it is not responsible for the hacking itself. The US Department of Homeland Security is persecuting Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets), the group that was the first to publish the "BlueLeaks" trove of hacked police files in June, as a "criminal hacker group", similar to WikiLeaks, as follows from a bulletin circulated to fusion centres around the country earlier this summer, The Verge reported.

Minneapolis Reneging On George Floyd Promises

August 14, 2020 Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report. Create! City Government, Defund the police, Minneapolis, Police abuse

At the height of the Minneapolis rebellion, a majority of the city council announced they would move towards “disbanding” their police force, in response to Black Lives Matter “abolition” demands. It turned out that what the councilpersons were actually proposing was a name change, retaining a force of armed cops in a new “Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention” with a “holistic, public health-oriented” mission. But even this palliative was too much for the Minneapolis Charter Commission, which voted to delay putting the police reorganization question on the November ballot, effectively killing the measure. The city is currently required to maintain a set ratio in the number of cops per resident.

Numerous Assaults Witnessed During Black Lives Matter Protests

August 12, 2020 By Kelsey Penrose, Carson Now. Resist! Black Lives Matter (BLM), Counter-protesters, Nevada, Police abuse

A group of about thirty Black Lives Matter protesters from Gardnerville, Carson City and Lake Tahoe took to the streets of Douglas County today, where they were met with hundreds of heavily armed counter-protesters, some of whom were physically and verbally assaulting the mostly-teenaged protesters. After Douglas County Sheriff Dan Coverley issued a public open letter to the Douglas County Library Board stating his opposition to their proposed support of Black Lives Matter, joining numerous library associations across the country, and threatening to not respond to the library’s call for assistance anymore, many across the country were outraged. One of the groups outraged were the local Black Lives Matter organization, which is made up of 20-30 people who have been peacefully protesting every Saturday in Carson City in front of the legislature, many of whom are juveniles.

New York City: Protest Leader Targeted In Police Raid

August 9, 2020 Jake Offenhartz, Gothamist. Educate! Black Activists, New York City (NYC), NYPD, Police abuse

The failed NYPD raid that brought riot cops, police dogs and helicopters to a prominent Black Lives Matter activist's home on Friday was sparked by his alleged crime of shouting into an officer's ear with a megaphone nearly two months ago. Derrick Ingram, the 28-year-old co-founder of the Warriors in the Garden collective, said he awoke to cops with the NYPD's warrant squad banging at his door at 7 a.m. on Friday. For the next five hours, dozens of officers — stationed outside Ingram's apartment in Hell's Kitchen, on his fire escape and in a neighboring unit — urged him to surrender, claiming they had a warrant, but declining to provide one.

Law Enforcement Exposed: Massive Blue Leaks, Police Pentagon Papers

August 1, 2020 Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance. Educate! AntiFa, Facial Recognition, Police abuse, Whistleblowers

In an email message, Betsy Reed, the editor-in-chief of the Intercept reports, "Hundreds of thousands of files from the FBI and local police departments have been leaked, exposing serious abuses of power by law enforcement." She writes, Blue Leaks "are like the Pentagon Papers for U.S. law enforcement." The leaks show how political activists are targeted and monitored on social media, that there is widespread racial bias by police and that police exaggerate threats by antifa to justify violence against protesters.

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