Only a few bad apples huh?...Bad Cops Thread

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https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2018/06/driving-while-black-ferguson-missouri-racism/

Driving While Black Has Gotten Even Worse

Four years after Ferguson, some stark data from Missouri.

There is a stark new statistic out from the office of Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley: In 2017, black drivers in the state were 85 percent more likely to be pulled over than white drivers. That’s an even greater disparity than the state AG’s office found when it gathered the same data last year—and the biggest disparity since it began analyzing traffic-stop data in 2000.

According to the report, there was also a major disparity with how black drivers are treated once they are pulled over: African Americans who were stopped were 51 percent more likely than white drivers to be searched. And Hispanic drivers were 45 percent more likely than whites to be searched.

Four years after Ferguson, these numbers suggest that the institutional discrimination that launched a national protest movement—sparked by the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown—has, if anything, deepened. And they reiterate that the phenomenon is hardly confined to just one troubled municipality; Ferguson’s racial disparity in traffic stops wasn’t even above average for Missouri last year. Of course, as my colleague Brand Patterson has recently shown, you don’t have to be in a car to come in for the driving-while-black treatment—in recent weeks, black people have had the cops called on them for everything from barbecuing at a public park to golfing too slowly.

 

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http://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/article212444439.html

New wrongful convictions could pressure Chicago's finances

For years, the Chicago Police Department has been trying to move past a shameful chapter characterized by coercion and brutality, shelling out multimillion-dollar settlements to men who were tortured into confessing to serious crimes they didn't commit.

But as the number of cases linked to disgraced former police commander Jon Burge dwindles, a flurry of drug and murder convictions linked to two other former officers have been overturned. And the vindicated inmates are walking out of prison ready to sue.

Chicago has already paid out well over $670 million in police misconduct cases in the past 15 years, but that expenditure could skyrocket due to current and future lawsuits from people who say they were framed by former Sgt. Ronald Watts or Detective Reynaldo Guevara.

"We've had all kinds of police corruption, we've had police torture cases, but we've never had so many cases where there is clear evidence that police actually set people up for crimes they didn't commit," said Marshall Hatch, a prominent minister and activist on the city's West Side.

"Watts and Guevara handled tons more cases than Burge," said David Erickson, a former state appellate judge, who teaches at Chicago Kent College of Law.

In just two years, at least 11 men who alleged Guevara framed them have had their murder convictions thrown out, bringing to 18 the number of men whose convictions were tossed amid allegations of brutality and coercion. At least a dozen more post-conviction petitions are pending.

At least 12 of the 18 have sued and more lawsuits are sure to follow.

The now-retired Guevara has not been charged with any crimes. He has helped inmates win freedom by repeatedly invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination or insisting he couldn't remember facts, thus forcing prosecutors to dismiss charges in several cases.

Jacques Rivera, whose lawsuit will be heard in court on Monday, alleges he was convicted of murder after Guevara and other officers "conspired to ... manipulate the identification of the sole eyewitness to the attack," a 12-year-old boy.

Since last fall, the drug convictions of nearly three dozen men — all arrested by Watts and his men — have been thrown out. More could follow.

The University of Chicago's Exoneration Project has asked for another 70 convictions tied to Watts to be overturned. Joshua Tepfer, an attorney for the group, said Watts made more than 500 arrests before he was sentenced to prison in 2013 for stealing money from an FBI informant.

"What you have is years and years of systematic corruption that was just ignored and swept under the rug by the CPD and the city that they are having to answer for now," Tepfer said.

Attorneys predict — and city officials fear — that Chicago's tab for police misconduct is about to climb just as the city seemed close to closing the books on cases tied to Burge and his so-called "Midnight Crew."

"I thought we had turned a corner," said Alderman Howard Brookins Jr. "It looks like we have not."

Some think the cost of settling new cases will top the $115 million paid out to Burge victims. In 2009, a jury awarded $21 million to a man who spent 11 years in prison before he was retried and acquitted after witnesses testified that Guevara intimidated them into falsely identifying the man as the killer. The city later agreed to pay $16.4 million.

The city must pay the first $15 million of any award or settlement before its insurance pays.

"Now that people understand with all these videotapes that the situation out there is real and believe cops would do this, you can put a multiplier in there," Brookins said.

Every time charges are dropped against somebody who alleges Guevara framed them, attorneys say appeals in other Guevara cases become stronger.

"With Guevara, we put together this pattern that we can use to buttress individual cases," said Karen Daniel, director of Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions. The organization represented Gabriel Solache, who spent nearly two decades in prison for a double murder before a judge threw out his confession to Guevara. Prosecutors dropped charges against Solache in December.

Jose Maysonet spent nearly 27 years in prison for a double-murder in a Guevara case before prosecutors dropped the charges against him. Maysonet's attorney, Steve Greenberg, said he expects Guevara cases will be more expensive for the city than those associated with Burge, because the public knows more than ever before.

"The more times the city gets caught, the price goes up," he said.

 

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http://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/ar...-video-showing-use-of-physical-force-surfaced

Mesa Police Chief: Officers on leave after video showing use of physical force surfaced

Mesa Police Chief Ramon Batista said three officers and sergeant are on administrative leave, after a video showing the use of physical force by officers surfaced.

The video reportedly involved an incident that happened as officers made contact with a man at an apartment complex.

In the roughly one-minute video, the man was standing on a ledge, and towards the end of the video, multiple punches were thrown before the man was wrestled to the floor.

In an interview with FOX 10's Matt Rodewald, Chief Batista said he didn't know anything about this for a week.

"I didn't know anything about this, and the way I learned about this is because a member of the community sent me the video and said, 'hey, this looks very alarming, and I need you to look at it,'" said Chief Batista. "I examined it, and I immediately opened up an investigation."

Meanwhile, Pastor Andre Miller, along with Attorneys Benjamin Taylor and Joel Robbins, issued a joint statement on the incident. According to that statement, the incident happened on May 23, and the man, identified in the statement as Robert Johnson, was described as "cooperative" and "following police instructions".

"The misconduct of these officers would have gone unnoticed if it had not been captured by surveillance videos at the apartment complex where the assault occurred," read a portion of the statement. "The Mesa Police Department must develop a law enforcement culture that meets community and constitutional norms and ensures that police and citizens go home safely after police interactions."

 

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...op-retires-facebook-posts-20180604-story.html

Chicago cop facing possible firing over offensive Facebook posts abruptly retires

A longtime Chicago police officer facing possible firing over allegations he repeatedly posted offensive comments on Facebook has abruptly retired from the department.

Brian J. Hansen, 51, stepped down on May 23, a couple of weeks after city attorneys prepared an array of disciplinary charges against him. Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson had earlier moved to fire him.

As first reported by the Chicago Tribune in a front-page article in November, Chicago’s police oversight agency sustained 62 allegations against Hansen for violating myriad department rules and regulations. In its 95-page report, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability used unusually strong language to condemn Hansen for regularly posting insensitive racial and religious comments on Facebook.

The postings included a cartoon of a boy urinating on the word "Allah," a reference to black children as "wild African kids" and a warning to activists from the Black Lives Matter movement that they're "f------ dead" if they come near Hansen’s family, according to the COPA report.

“Alarmingly, PO Hansen also openly advocated for ‘civil war,’ encouraged people to settle their differences through violence, and even publicly supported the ‘code of silence,’” the COPA report said.

COPA also found that Hansen parked his Chevrolet Equinox outside the Central District police station in the South Loop with a bumper sticker on the back windshield showing a truck running over fleeing protesters beside the words: "All lives splatter. Nobody cares about your protest."

Hansen, who had been relieved of police powers and assigned to paid desk duty while under investigation since last August, declined to answer a reporter’s questions on the record Tuesday. But he later issued a brief statement defending his Facebook posts as protected First Amendment speech.

“Every American has a right to freedom of speech no matter what occupation you have,” he said. “I did my job well for 26 years and served the city and its people protecting their rights.”

In interviews with investigators from Chicago’s police watchdog agency, Hansen maintained that the Facebook posts were “merely a reflection of his sense of humor,” according to the COPA report.

COPA, citing legal precedent, said police officers are subject to greater First Amendment restraints than most citizens.

A spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois previously told the Tribune that police officers and other government employees critical to instilling public trust can be disciplined for making statements — even while off the job — if their language undermines that trust. Spokesman Edwin Yohnka, however, cautioned that agencies should be cautious in disciplining anyone under those circumstances and that “it ought to be really extraordinary and demonstrable.”

Hansen retired before formal charges could be brought before the mayoral-appointed Chicago Police Board, which would have ultimately decided his fate.

“The department takes these charges very seriously as we have zero tolerance for racially and religiously insensitive behavior,” Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.

Following Johnson’s decision to fire Hansen, the city’s Law Department brought charges alleging he violated six department rules, including for engaging in public statements that “reasonably can be foreseen to impair the discipline, efficiency, public service or public confidence in the Department or its personnel.”

The charges alleged that for more than two years — from June 2015 through August 2017 — Hansen made “offensive, racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic and or discriminatory” posts on his Facebook account.

An ABC-Ch. 7 news editor tipped Chicago police to Hansen's Facebook posts in mid-2015, prompting an investigation by COPA's predecessor, the Independent Police Review Authority, much-maligned for delays in its investigation. Hansen, in fact, wasn’t interviewed by IPRA investigators until April 2016.

Despite knowing of the nature of the investigation at that time, Hansen continued to post what COPA called "distasteful” posts, according to its report.

In one post, Hansen commented on a video on Facebook of men of apparent Middle Eastern descent falling off a truck.

"Ha ha I hope those that fell off a (sic) paralyzed," COPA quoted him as responding.

It turns out that Hansen had come to the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice while preparing the scathing report it issued last year on the Police Department.

Without naming Hansen, the Justice Department report noted how an officer called for "a race war" on social media. COPA’s report said the Justice Department was referring to Hansen.

"CPD will not be able to convince residents in these (marginalized) neighborhoods that it cares, no matter how earnestly it launches community policing initiatives, if it does not take a stronger, more effective stance against unnecessarily demeaning and divisive officer conduct," the Justice Department report said.

COPA reached a similar conclusion in its report — and even raised concerns about the impact of Hansen's remarks within the department itself.

"PO Hansen's speech has the potential to create problems in maintaining the discipline and harmony in the department," COPA wrote. "Department members are as diverse as Chicago itself and include many of the same groups PO Hansen openly disparages including black people and Muslims."

COPA made clear in its report that it had no faith in Hansen carrying out "fair and impartial" law enforcement to everyone in Chicago, regardless of their ethnic and sociological backgrounds.

"There can be no doubt, based on PO Hansen's Facebook activity and vehicle decals, that PO Hansen cannot live out this mission," COPA wrote.

Hansen would not be able to work for the city again, the police spokesman said, but officers who retire before their disciplinary cases have been completed typically still qualify for their pensions. Hansen, a 25-year department veteran who records show was making about $96,000 a year, applied for retirement benefits on the same day he retired, city officials said. He could be paid more than half his salary each year of retirement.

 

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https://www.clickorlando.com/news/review-board-recommends-firing-orlando-officer-for-facebook-posts

Review board recommends firing Orlando officer for racially insensitive Facebook posts

Community activist says officer made racially fueled comments online

ORLANDO, Fla. - It's a series of Facebook comments from August that are still haunting Orlando police Officer Robert Schellhorn after Orlando's Citizens Police Review Board voted on Wednesday to recommend a zero-tolerance social media policy which includes Schellhorn being fired.

"Who wants police officers with that point of view patrolling the streets," said Henry Lim, who sits on the Citizens Police Review Board.

Those views were posted in August, on a Facebook post from Schellhorn's personal account 'R D Schell'. A friend sent the comments to community activist T.J. Legacy-Cole who said the comments were racially fueled and even spread white supremacist rhetoric. He immediately filed an internal affairs complaint at the Orlando Police Department after he saw the posts.

"There were comments within the post where Schellhorn called black people 'useless savages," Legacy-Cole said. "He said that athletes who protest police brutality and racism called them 'overpaid thugs' and thugs is a code word for n*****."

Legacy-Cole said comments like that causes a divide in the community and for some, fear.

"You have to be fearful that this guy is going to harm you," he said. "These are things that are concerning and if we are living in a community that is Orlando United and no place for hate, then we can't have an officer who is armed, patrolling our streets that has spewed racial hatred."

He was one of several people listed in the 14-page Internal Affairs investigation summary who complained about the posts. In the summary, Schellhorn told internal affairs his words were misconstrued.

"That was never my intent. There was never any racial anything behind anything I said," an internal affairs investigator documented in the report.

Schellhorn also said those posts were out of anger, written right after two Kissimme police officers were shot and killed in the line of duty in August.

"Absolutely poor decision...that was a very angry post based on uh, six officers had gotten shot that weekend...two of which I knew, one of whom I knew very well, Officer Baxter from KPD," Schellhorn told IA. "That was a very emotional response and...if I had the opportunity to do it again I would not respond to it as harshly."

In the end, Internal Affairs ruled Schellhorn violated OPD's social media policy and Chief John Mina suspended him 80 hours without pay.

News 6 learned Wednesday, it's not the first time he's been disciplined since he's been on the force at OPD since 2004.

A News 6 investigation from 2012, showed Schellhorn was one of nine officers caught speeding in patrol cars.

Also, in 2014, Schellhorn was investigated after he shot a suspect in an officer-involved shooting. The shooting was found justified and he was cleared.

Now, however, the Citizens Police Review Board is calling for his termination as part of a recommendation for OPD to have a zero-tolerance social media policy change.

The board is also recommending that all citizen internal affairs come before the board, after they learned Legacy-Cole also filed a complaint against Officer Shawn Dunlap, however the board never reviewed Dunlap's complaint.

"Office Dunlap was treated as a witness and could not therefore be considered as a principal," Lim said. "It's a bogus explanation in my opinion."

An OPD spokesperson said Mina was not available to comment on the Board's recommendation on Wednesday and won't comment until he receives the official letter from the Citizens Police Review board, which is being drafted now and voted for approval in August.

 

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...olice-community-oversight-20180606-story.html

Strong support voiced for community oversight of Chicago police at final public hearing

A Chicago cop wearing a Trump jersey was jeered as he tried to explain an incendiary remark about why he opposes oversight of Chicago police, while a woman with her grandson on her hip surrounded by young men claiming to be victims of police abuse raised her voice as she vowed anything short of comprehensive civilian control over the maligned department won’t be tolerated.

Such was the range of emotions at the final of five community forums held Tuesday night on whether Chicago needs civilian oversight of its Police Department.

The more consistent message of the two-hour hearing at Amundsen High School on the North Side was that the city has squandered the right to run the Police Department without some level of community oversight.

With most of the 60-plus speakers limited to two minutes each, the meeting felt at times like a convention hall debate, as people made impassioned arguments and cheered loudly for their preferred plan of the four under consideration.

The few who spoke against community oversight appeared to have connections to the Police Department — including a current officer and the head of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police union.

But most of the speakers talked of lives ruined by police abuse and money wasted paying multimillion-dollar settlements on behalf of corrupt officers. Teachers spoke of students who fear police. White residents said they don’t feel the sting of police abuse directly but were sickened by its effects on their neighbors and the city. One individual with the LGBT community pleaded for oversight so that police might stop their harassment. Another woman called police violence a "public health issue" because of the decades of mistrust and trauma it has caused.

Ald. Ariel Reboyras, 30th, a mayoral ally and chairman of the City Council's Public Safety Committee who has submitted two of the proposed plans, did not talk up his ideas, leading one speaker to ask why. Reboyras, who sat on a dais with a handful of other aldermen, did not answer.

Reboyras’ plans have received no support throughout the five public hearings, according to participants.

“This may be the most important issue facing the city, but our elected officials still haven’t begun to engage seriously,” said Mecole Jordan, coordinator of the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability, a coalition of neighborhood groups that offered one proposal.

For the past two years, the city has stumbled through a police reform process that was touched off by the court-ordered release in late 2015 of troubling video showing a white officer shoot black teen Laquan McDonald 16 times, killing him. The officer was charged with first-degree murder, and the city was slammed by the U.S. Department of Justice for widespread civil rights abuses going back decades.

A community oversight body was among the recommendations of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s hand-picked Police Accountability Task Force in the shooting scandal’s aftermath. The mayor vowed to create the board but deferred to community groups to decide how.

GAPA, which includes some dozen community organizations, took about two years to hammer out a plan that would give the board the far-reaching authority to fire the police superintendent. The ordinance was introduced at City Council in March. Rebroyas issued his two plans that same day.

Mike Siviwe Elliot, a labor committee chairperson with the Chicago Alliance Against Racial and Political Oppression, made an impassioned plea for its long-shot plan that seeks the power to fire officers.

“To some of you it might not be a life-and-death issue,” Elliot said. “But if you are a black or Latino resident, it is.”

Kevin Graham, the FOP president, paced in front of the packed school auditorium as he warned that civilian oversight would only bring one more layer of bureaucracy over the police.

“I am opposed to any of these,” Graham said to boos and hisses.

Officer John Catanzara, who wore a baseball jersey emblazoned with “TRUMP” on the back and “USA” on the front, said he wanted to clarify remarks he made at a previous hearing. If community oversight passed, he reportedly said at that meeting, “We’re coming for you.”

Catanzara tried to explain the remark to the jeering crowd Tuesday night, saying it was “ridiculous” to think he was trying to incite a riot. Later in a telephone call, Catanzara said that his original remark was a warning of plans to unseat any aldermen who vote for community oversight.

Nataki Rhodes, who spoke with her grandson on her hip, was equally adamant in her remarks that failure to pass strong community oversight would result in targeting aldermen and the mayor at their next elections.

“I am saying if you don’t pass police accountability, you’re going to see an uprising in the community,” Rhodes, co-chair of the Chicago Alliance Against Racial and Political Oppression, said later in a telephone interview.

 

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http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article212642139.html

Driving while black in Missouri is becoming more perilous, traffic stop report shows

Discriminatory policing in Missouri is already outlawed. But the latest vehicle stops report issued by Attorney General Josh Hawley’s office offers compelling evidence that it’s time to add some teeth to a law that bans racial profiling.

In 2017, African-American drivers in Missouri were 85 percent more likely to be pulled over than whites, according to the report. That’s a 10 percent jump from the year before and the most significant disparity to surface in the 18 years the state has tracked the race of the people stopped by the police.

The number was 69 percent in 2015.

“If America is to mean what we want and expect it to mean, if our Constitution is to be protected, a number like that needs to be a red-light, flashing siren-sounding wake-up call,” said Jeffrey A. Mittman, executive director of American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri.

Black drivers were 51 percent more likely than whites to be searched after they were stopped, according to the report. But white drivers were more likely to be found with contraband during a search than African Americans or Hispanics.

The contraband hit rate for whites was 35.5 percent, compared with 32.9 percent for blacks and 27.9 percent for Hispanics.

About 7.1 percent of Hispanics and 6.6 percent of African Americans were arrested after stops, compared with 4.2 percent of whites.

No wonder the NAACP issued a travel advisory last year warning people of color about the dangers of driving through Missouri. The numbers are egregious, as one police official said, and deplorable, as an NAACP official said.

Racial profiling is a nationwide issue. And there are no quick fixes to be found. But Missouri could get this right. The law here hasn’t changed in nearly 20 years. Legislators need to act next session, and passing the Fourth Amendment Affirmation Act, a bipartisan, multi-year effort, could be a start.

The measure advanced through the House committee this spring. But it never made it to the Senate floor.

The bill would require officers to obtain written consent for voluntary searches. Officers also would be required to gather 11 pieces of information from every stop, including pedestrian stops.

The legislation is in line with the NAACP’s call for states to adopt stringent anti-profiling laws and programs, including provisions for data collection and monitoring of police activities, more funding for police training on profiling, and more sanctions and remedies for violations.

Police officials argue that the racial disparity index fails to take into account certain factors such as location of the stops, non-residential drivers, and the racial makeup of areas affected by crime.

To address the concern, Hawley introduced a regulation this year that requires the collection of the residency of stopped drivers, which could provide additional insight.

That requirement is hardly enough. Neither is implicit bias and racial profiling training for officers who must be held accountable for any discriminatory conduct.

Missouri has 677 law enforcement agencies. Only 606 submitted a vehicle stops report to the state by March 1 as required. Current law stipulates that non-compliant agencies can lose state funding. That provision needs to be enforced.

“The beauty of America and the strength of the Constitution is that it recognizes that there will always be minority groups,” Mittman said. “We must protect those factions from ongoing mistreatment.”

For too many years, Missouri has reacted with a collective shrug to data showing that driving while black in the state is an increasingly perilous proposition. The latest vehicle stop report should be met with deep concern — and at last, action.

 

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http://www.wkrg.com/news/national/v...-fired-after-video-rant-goes-viral/1220747496

Texas deputy fired after video rant goes viral

A Henderson County deputy has been fired after a video rant he recorded went viral.

Blue Lives Matter is reporting that former Henderson County Senior Sheriff’s Deputy Keon Mack was relieved of duty for a video rant he recorded while in uniform and in his patrol car and posted to Instagram.

He had worked for the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office for almost six years.

Mack, 30, told Blue Lives Matter that he made the video because he wanted to make the point to people that he’s the same person whether he’s working or not.

“I just wanted to let people know - you know, everybody that hates the police – especially the black community who looks at us like we’re siding with the oppressors. My whole point of the video was ‘look I’m a normal guy. Even though you guys swear you hate us, you still call us – even in the craziest situations. Don’t hate us – we’re here for you. I’m a normal guy and I’m here for you on a daily basis,” Mack explained to Blue Lives Matter in a telephone interview."

The video includes considerable profanity.

"I'm fixin' to go hit this 12-hour shift," he begins. "But uh, real tough man - everybody wanna say ‘f--k the police,’ man. Say – f--k you!"

Sh--t, every time Pookie Earl hit the g-----n wet stick and he come in the house trippin on a [unintelligible] you wanna call me… say f--k me, no f--k you man, sh-t. I ain’t got time to be fighting his naked a--

- Keon Mack

The video has been viewed more than 118,000 times on Instagram. It has also been posted on Facebook, where it has more than 14,000 likes and has been shared more than 28,000 times.

Yet while much of the reaction to the video was sympathetic, with several commenters applauding Mack for sharing "how cops really feel," Henderson County Sheriff Botie Hillhouse was not among the video's admirers.

Mack was called in the day after posting the video and fired.

Sheriff Hillhouse told Blue Lives Matter than Mack's video had violated department policies. He said it was disrespectful to him as sheriff and to the community at large.

"In this county, we work well together with our citizens. They take care of us. Just because you have one call with a bad response to a situation, that’s not the time to go off. We need to remember the folks we’re out here doing the job for every day. That’s who we’re working for," Sheriff Hillhouse said.

 

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...nviction-reynaldo-guevara-20180615-story.html

Ex-Chicago police detective apologizes at wrongful conviction trial — then blames 12-year-old boy

Retired Chicago police Detective Steve Gawrys said he feels bad that Jacques Rivera spent 21 years in prison for a wrongful murder conviction.

But Gawrys said it wasn’t the fault of the police. Instead, he testified in federal court Friday that the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of a then-12-year-old boy who fingered Rivera as the gunman.

“It’s too bad that you had to put up with this, and I hope that someday you find some peace in your life,” Gawrys said, looking directly at Rivera seated at the plaintiff’s table. “But Orlando Lopez is the one who lied … We are here today for this wrong that he committed.”

Gawrys’ testimony came on the eighth day of trial in Rivera’s lawsuit accusing notorious gang crimes Detective Reynaldo Guevara and others of framing him for the 1988 slaying of 16-year-old Felix Valentin in West Humboldt Park.

The suit alleges that Guevara coerced Lopez — the only witness to Valentin's shooting — into identifying Rivera in a lineup as the killer. Lopez recanted his testimony years later, saying police and prosecutors ignored him when he told them he had identified the wrong man.

Rivera, now 52, spent more than 20 years in prison before he was exonerated in 2011.

Guevara has been accused of running a widespread corruption racket for years in predominantly Hispanic West Side neighborhoods, pinning false murder cases on suspects, shaking down drug dealers for protection money and taking payments from gang members to change the outcomes of police lineups.

So far, 18 men have had their convictions thrown out over allegations of misconduct by Guevara, including Rivera. There are eight other federal lawsuits pending against the ex-detective, and other people still in prison are pushing prosecutors to have their cases reheard, records show.

Earlier this week, Guevara refused to answer any questions about the Rivera investigation, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 200 times in a little more than an hour on the stand.

But Gawrys took a different tack. Testifying for nearly eight hours over two days, he acknowledged there were flaws in the police investigation but denied any deliberate attempt to frame Rivera for the murder.

Central to the case is a September 1988 report that Gawrys and Guevara wrote alleging Valentin had picked Rivera’s photo out of a gang book while he lay near death in a hospital bed. The report was dated Sept. 10, a time when hospital records showed Valentin was actually unresponsive in a coma, according to testimony. He died days later without regaining consciousness.

During a testy cross-examination by Rivera’s attorney, Jon Loevy, Gawrys said he and Guevara wrote the report “from memory” after Valentin’s death and most likely got the date wrong.

Asked why he didn’t make a report the same day — as required by Police Department regulations — Gawrys said he could “only assume it was because the identification was unreliable” due to Valentin’s condition at the time. He said he ultimately decided to put it in the report and let the state’s attorney’s office decide whether it was usable in court.

Asked by his attorney whether he had any regrets about the investigation, Gawrys said, “I’d probably write a better report.”

“I could’ve done a better job writing that,” he said. “Maybe put a little more detail in it.”

Gawrys also said he felt he was a victim of Lopez’s lies.

“I feel that we are all being wronged now by … what Orlando Lopez did,” he said.

 

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https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/gr...r-hitting-a-suspect-with-patrol-car/770018970

Group protests hiring of officer after he was fired for hitting suspect with patrol car

CLARKE COUNTY, Ga. - People are protesting an officer's new position with a nearby police department. He was fired from a different agency after body camera video showed him hitting a suspect.

Sheriff David Gabriel told Channel 2 Action News he stands behind his decision to hire the new deputy and accuses the organizer of trying to make it impossible for his new deputy to provide for his family.

In the police body camera video that cost Athens police officer Taylor Saulters his job, Saulters is seen striking fleeing fugitive Timmy Patmon.

Police Chief Scott Freeman told his officers on secretly recorded audio that Saulters didn’t intentionally hit Patmon, but nevertheless, he was fired for excessive use of force before the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has even finished its investigation.

Channel 2’s Wendy Halloran asked protest organizer Antwon Stephens what he thought about the secret recordings she obtained. He said, “That’s part of the problem that the police chief actually said that he was going around acting like he was this savior that he fired him because he believed he did it and all of a sudden the recording comes out and it’s a different story so many people in Athens Clarke County are mad right now.”

Two days after he was fired, Oglethorpe County Sheriff David Gabriel hired Saulters.

“I have no doubt whatsoever that this was a good decision. He will serve this county very well," he said.

Gabriel said Saulters already made an impression the second day he was on the job. They received a call about an 11-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who was in cardiac arrest. Gabriel said Saulters jumped in and tried to perform CPR on the child and said when the ambulance got there Saulters actually drove the girl to the hospital.

“Everybody commented on how professional, how great a job he did and that’s what we want people who are going to jump in and serve this community equally,” Gabriel said.

Gabriel defended the maneuver Saulters used to try to stop Patmon from running away from Officer Hunter Blackmon. It’s important to note, Gabriel worked at ACCPD for more than two decades.

“I know the technique he was trying to use. It’s very common. It’s been used for decades nobody is saying that which I think is somewhat of an issue. I don’t want to judge Chief Freeman and his decision, that is his decision that he made and he stands behind it. What I will say, is that I don’t think it was intentional. I think Chief Freeman has said as much to his people. My concern with that, if it’s not intentional, it’s not a use of force. You can’t unintentionally use force. Use of force is a decision you make to use a certain amount of force to create a certain result,” Gabriel said.

The Sheriff went on to say other law enforcement officers he’s spoken with agree with his assessment. He furthered by saying, “I think it was incidental contact.”

Gabriel showed Halloran hate mail he received from a woman in Southern California. We redacted her

name and address. He also showed Halloran correspondence from people who agree with his decision.

"This is no longer a black and white thing, it’s a black and police thing," he said.

Halloran spoke with Stephens during the demonstration.

“I don’t believe race has much to do with it, honestly. If you were to go out and hit somebody deliberately, you don’t get a job you go to jail. Why are officers above the law?“ he asked.

He and the protestors are calling for Gabriel to fire his new deputy.

"Sheriff Gabriel has created an atmosphere to where officers feel condoned that they can do police brutality with the hiring of Taylor Saulters," he said.

Gabriel adamantly defended his decision to hire Saulters while questioning protesters and Stephens' motivation for holding this protest. Among those listed to speak included former Athens mayoral candidate and attorney Sam Thomas as well as Democratic congressional candidate Tabitha Johnson-Green who is running for the District 10 U.S. House of Representative seat.

He said, “I feel like they’re trying to make this a race issue for their own political gain.” He characterized them by saying: "Headliner chasers, people trying to make a name for themselves they come down here it’s where the next big topic is so they can get exposure," Gabriel said.

Saulters' attorney, Phillip Holloway, sent Halloran this statement in response to the protest:

Deputy Saulters agrees that there is there is no place in law enforcement for racism nor excessive force.

Unfortunately Chief Scott Freeman caused the false public perception, by his rush to judgment, innuendo, and releasing erroneous reports to the media, that elements of both exist in this case.

Chief Freeman has yet to publicly state what he told his officers he believes: that there’s not a fiber of his being that believes this was an intentional act.

If it wasn’t intentional then it cannot possibly be excessive force. Further there’s never been any allegation that race played any role in the incident with Mr. Patmon.

If Chief Freeman can’t step up and do the right thing now and tell these protesters that they are operating under false information then he needs to resign immediately.

The men and women of ACCPD deserve a competent leader who supports his officers and doesn’t allow false narratives that lead to situations like this one.

The GBI is still investigating to determine if Saulters actions were criminal.

 

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https://www.mediaite.com/tv/maher-c...re-good-why-so-many-videos-of-them-being-bad/

Maher Calls For #MeToo Movement of Police: If Most Cops Are Good, Why So Many Videos Of Them Being Bad?

Bill Maher closed his show Friday night by addressing police brutality in America.

“We need to stop saying that ‘most cops are good’ like we know that to be true,” Maher said. “I hope it’s true, but I need some evidence… unlike cops. The bad ones, not the good ones. The problem is, again, we don’t really know what that percentage is. That’s what I’m asking tonight. If most cops are good, why are there so many videos of them being bad?”

Maher then referred to a few recent instances of videos that went viral of cops using physical violence on unarmed individuals including a woman on the beach and a homeless man.

“That’s a lot of videos of guys that barely exist doing sh*t that hardly ever happens,” Maher reacted. “This is why NFL players want to take a knee, not because they hate the anthem.”

“It seems to me we need a Me Too Movement for the police,” Maher continued. “If Garrison Keillor had to go away for putting his hand on a woman’s back, perhaps we should decide what should happen when two men pin a woman down in the sand and punch her in the face because I’m sensing a power in-balance here.”

Maher suggested that there’s “a lot of rage” that police work brings out and that we need to help officers “find better ways to channel it” but called on people to call out the men who target the defenseless as “cowards.” He also demanded police to “review their hiring practices.”

“We need better psychological screening to weed out the people who become cops as payback for high school,” Maher said. “We need to ask the question: Are the wrong type of people becoming cops? It’s a fair question. The police attracts bullies like the priesthood attracts pedophiles.”

Maher later clarified that he personally knows good cops who “do their jobs like total pros” and that there aren’t any viral videos of them putting their lives on the line.

 

[Farris2k1]

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/maher-c...re-good-why-so-many-videos-of-them-being-bad/

Agree 100% with everything he said

 

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The poster, Dmani Brown, wrote this along with the video:

"My truck broke down and my friends came to help me push it to the gas station. While at the gas station waiting for the tow truck we were stopped and frisked because the undercover police officer said we 'looked suspicious.' My brother was placed in handcuffs because he verbalized his disapproval of the illegal search. Things have to change is Dyer, IN please make this go viral."

 

[Infamous114]

 

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