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https://www.wxyz.com/news/local-new...cost-detroit-taxpayers-191-million-since-2015

Police misconduct claims cost Detroit taxpayers $19.1 million since 2015


DETROIT (WXYZ) - The city of Detroit has paid out $19.1 million to settle claims of police misconduct since 2015, 7 Action News has learned.

The payouts stem from allegations of wrongful arrest, assault and battery, destruction of property and more.

“$19 million? That impacts every single citizen in the city of Detroit,” said Reginald Crawford, a retired Detroit police officer who recently completed a term on the city’s Board of Police Commissioners.

“The city knows they’re liable, they’re on the hook for something," he said.

The payouts include cases stalled by the city's 2013 bankruptcy, which effectively froze lawsuits filed against the department until the following year.

Still, the city’s numbers are high, eclipsing police misconduct payouts from Dallas, Denver and Indianapolis police during the same time period, combined.

Mayor Mike Duggan's office insists the department is making progress in reducing the number of claims paid out over misconduct, saying the city "is cutting crime with fewer instances of complaints about officer conduct."

Two of the larger settlements arose from claims that officers shot men posing no threat. In 2014, police chased a vehicle matching the description of an SUV involved in a carjacking. It turned out police were chasing the wrong vehicle, but when it stopped, one of its occupants, Otis Henderson, opened the door and fled.

Henderson would later say he ran fearing he might be arrested for a probation violation. A DPD officer chased him down an alley, ultimately opening fire and striking Henderson in the back. Henderson was unarmed.

The city settled the case for $400,000.

Last year, the city settled a similar case involving a 44-year-old Detroit man who caught the attention of police when they saw him carrying what appeared to be a firearm late at night near the corner of Warren and Warrick.

According to officer interviews, they asked the man to stop. Instead, they say he raised his weapon towards them. Officers fired seven shots, striking the man twice.

The man denied ever raising a weapon at police—which they later realized was a pellet gun—and medical records showed that officers shot him twice in the back.

“That tells me they didn’t really permit him to turn around and explain himself,” said his attorney, Cyril Hall. “I believe as soon as they saw him and exited the car, they discharged.”

The city settled the case for $925,000.

In 2016, officers raided a home on Detroit’s west side looking for marijuana plants. They found them in the backyard, according to owners Ashley Franklin and Kenneth Savage. Ashley and Kenneth maintained they were grown legally and showed officers their state license as caregivers and patients.

But also in the backyard were the couple’s three dogs, Spanish Presa Canarios, which the officers feared might attack them as they retrieved the marijuana plants. Rather than wait for animal control to arrive, the officers shot and killed the dogs in front of their owners.

“I just started screaming,” Franklin said through tears.

Neither Franklin nor Savage were ever charged. The city settled the case for $225,000.

Other high-price payouts since 2015 include:

-a $380,000 settlement with Gerald Wilcox, who was wrongly arrested for robbery. Police were told the assailant was in his 20s. Wilcox, a father of three, was in his 40s.

-A $100,000 payout to Lula Pearl Clark, a 70-year-old grandmother who was falsely arrested and jailed for a sex charge.

-A $2.35 million 2017 settlement to Tawanda Jones, who suffered catastrophic injuries after a Detroit Police vehicle ran a red light, striking her.

-Two claims totaling $4.5 million stemming from men who were sent to prison for crimes they did not commit.

Chief James Craig and the Detroit Police Department declined an interview for this story, but Mark Diaz, the President of the Detroit Police Officers Association, said that the large payouts don’t indicate any admission of wrongdoing.

He also said his officers have more contact with criminal elements on a daily basis than most similarly-sized departments and, until very recently, weren't equipped with tasers that most other departments use.

“I’m not going to say that my officers walk on water,” Diaz said, “but I will say that when we have a higher volume of calls being serviced, there are more instances where the officers conduct will be scrutinized.”

Diaz said the city’s law department often settles cases that he and his officers believe are frivolous.

“Is the city going to settle frivolous lawsuits for really large sums of money?” asked Channel 7’s Ross Jones.

“The city has settled lawsuits without actually hearing the officer’s side," Diaz said, but was not able to point out what he deemed a frivolous case since 2015.
 
https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law...ed-shooting-this-year/zc2jVdczGnSYYMQJxDFuEI/

Victim in year’s 48th police shooting ID’d as father of 2

The GBI is investigating the 48th officer-involved shooting in Georgia this year, one that resulted in a man being shot multiple times and killed by police.

The latest incident occurred overnight in Kingsland in Camden County, about 335 miles southeast of downtown Atlanta, GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles said Thursday.

An officer pursued Anthony Marcell Green and his unidentified passenger after they ran from a vehicle stopped at Lily and North East streets, the GBI said in a statement

“Upon making contact with Green, a brief altercation occurred,” according to the statement. “The officer fired multiple shots, which resulted in the death of Green.”

The passenger has not been located and officials have not released any other details about the deadly incident.

WJAX-TV in Jacksonville, Fla., a news station owned by the parent company of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, reported Green was the father of two.

At this rate, the GBI is on pace to match the 97 officer-involved shooting investigations from 2017.

During a six-hour period Tuesday, the GBI responded to three other officer-involved shootings in metro Atlanta. Two of them were deadly.

Police shootings have increased across the country so far this year, according to The Washington Post, which maintains a database of police shootings nationwide. So far this year, 491 people have been shot and killed by police, an increase of 24 over this time last year, according to the database.
Veteran law enforcement officers say it’s due to the amount of weapons available and changing attitudes toward police.
 
http://www.startribune.com/in-wake-of-minneapolis-police-shooting-investigation-underway/486385951/

Police killing met by anguish and anger in north Minneapolis

Hundreds attended emotional gatherings Sunday



Thurman Blevins Jr. was shot multiple times by police when he was killed Saturday night following a foot chase in a north Minneapolis alley, according to an autopsy report by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner.

Blevins died at 5:35 p.m. of “multiple gunshot wounds” in the alley behind 4746 Bryant Ave. N., the report said. Witnesses said they heard several shots fired before Blevins was killed. Police say a handgun was found at the scene.

Hundreds mourned and protested over the weekend as the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension dug in to its investigation of the 31-year-old black man’s death. Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, who appeared at a Sunday afternoon protest at the Fourth Precinct headquarters that drew about 300 people, and Mayor Jacob Frey, who attended an evening vigil near the shooting site that drew about 250, struggled to console and calm community members.

The two vowed that the investigation would be full, fair and transparent, stressing that the officers involved were wearing body cameras, and that the footage may hold some of the answers community members are demanding.

Their efforts to comfort did not always sit well. At the vigil, Frey walked away when a speaker took him to task for saying that Blevins had a gun. Several people then followed him, yelling, and a subsequent speaker referred to “fake politicians.”

At the earlier protest, Arradondo spent time talking to a small group until some complained that he was taking attention away from the event. He then stopped talking and just listened.

Police have said that 911 callers reported Blevins was firing a handgun into the air and ground, and the BCA said it recovered a handgun at the scene. But several witnesses said Blevins was carrying a bottle or cup and that they did not see a gun before he was fatally shot about 6 p.m. Saturday in the alley between Aldrich and Bryant avenues N. near 47th Avenue N.

Leslie Badue, president of the Minneapolis NAACP, and others, including 10 City Council members, called for swift release of the bodycam footage. In a news release Sunday night, the BCA offered no timeline for its release, saying it has yet to interview the two officers who fired shots.

At Sunday afternoon’s protest, Rashaun Brown, Blevins’ cousin, said his family had just experienced another tragedy — the death of Blevins’ half-sister, Tanisha Willis, 46, who died of liver problems. Just blocks away from the protest, family and friends were gathered at a repast for Willis.

“The biggest thing is justice. We want the truth. Nobody’s perfect, but he didn’t deserve to go out like that,” Brown said. “It really hurts. The biggest thing is, how do we explain this to his children?”

Blevins was the father of three daughters and two stepsons, he said. Junior, or Jun, as they called Blevins, was “funny, humble and motivational,” Brown said.

Among others at the protest was state Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minneapolis, endorsed last week by the DFL to run for U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison’s soon-to-be-vacated congressional seat. She sat quietly on a curb, listening to the speakers.

Ellison and his son Jeremiah, a Minneapolis City Council member, attended the evening vigil at the shooting site. Keith Ellison said he lives less than a mile away.

“We need a thorough investigation that is expeditious and reliable,” the congressman said. “The level of trust is so low that more transparency and exposure has got to be part of [it].”

An ongoing heartache

Blevins was the 30th person killed by officers since the year 2000 in Minneapolis, according to a Star Tribune database. More than half of those killed have been black.

Like other police shootings, Blevins’ death laid bare racial tensions in the city. Frey and Arradondo have both said that closing that gap and rebuilding community trust are cornerstones of their respective administrations. But both have conceded that doing so, while changing the department’s internal culture, is a complicated task. The adoption of body cameras and enhanced training aimed at helping officers to recognize their own inherent prejudices and to police in a “procedurally just way” are critical first steps, officials say.

Sam Sanchez of the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar said Arradondo’s promises of reform ring hollow.

“They want to make us think that something has changed, but it hasn’t,” he said, pointing to several recent controversies surrounding the department, including a draft report that surfaced earlier this month saying that city police were directing paramedics to sedate people using the powerful tranquilizer ketamine.

Jeremiah Ellison, who spent Saturday night at the scene, said that he has noticed some “fatigue” in the police reform movement. Where even a year ago, he said, police violence sparked protests in Minneapolis, recent shootings have been met with a certain resignation.

“I hope people aren’t losing their resolve, but I think there is fatigue,” he said.

He added that while data may show that police use of force is declining, in many cases citizen reaction to such shootings stems from lingering trauma. “Look, whenever guns are involved and whenever people feel like violence is a factor in their lives, there’s going to be a strong reaction, even if it happens less,” he said.

Accounts at odds

In the hours after the shooting, competing narratives emerged.

According to police, just before 5:30 p.m. Saturday, at least two people called 911 to report that a man walking in the 4700 block of Bryant Avenue N. was firing a 9mm handgun into the air and ground.

But several witnesses said that they did not see a weapon and that Blevins ran away after police tried to use a Taser on him. He was running from police when he was shot, witnesses said.

Ivan Deloya, 16, said he watched the scene unfold from his front yard. He said he had been chatting with Blevins, whom he’s known for “a couple years.” Minutes later, he said he saw Blevins running west on 48th, a bottle in one hand, with two officers in pursuit. The three disappeared into the alley between Aldrich and Bryant. “I could see him running as fast as he could, screaming, ‘I don’t have a gun,’ ” Deloya said. “He only had a bottle in his hands.”

He recalled hearing close to a dozen shots fired.

Ebony Walker, who lives across the street from the shooting scene, said she heard Blevins yelling, “I didn’t do anything! I don’t have anything!” in the alley.

Police union head Lt. Bob Kroll said he hasn’t seen the body camera footage but has spoken with the officers’ attorney, Kevin Short. “This is nothing short of heroic activity,” he said, adding that the officers gave Blevins “numerous commands” to drop his weapon before they fired. Neither officer used a Taser, he said, referring to several “false narratives.”

The officers are “traumatized,” he said. “Obviously no one in this line of work ever wants to be involved in something like this.”

On Saturday night, Deputy Police Chief Art Knight waded through the crowd. Several people pressed him on how the department intends to restore public trust. “Is every cop perfect? No,” Knight said, pointing out that three officers have been fired this year for misconduct.

Knight said he hopes Minneapolis will follow the lead of other departments around the country by swiftly releasing bodycam footage. “I would love for that information to get out,” he said. “We have a lot of the narrative out there that we’d like to clarify.”
 
https://www.abc10.com/article/news/...ter-fatal-shooting-of-black-man/103-568326726

Oakland civil rights attorney files lawsuit against police after fatal shooting of black man

Civil rights attorney John Burris and his law firm have returned to the public eye for the lawsuit regarding the shooting of Mikel McIntyre.


Civil rights attorney John Burris and his law firm have returned to the public eye for the lawsuit regarding the shooting of Mikel McIntyre. Burris will be representing the plaintiff, McIntyre’s mother, and infant son.

The situation surrounding the shooting of McIntyre involves differing narratives, the lack of the officer or officers’ identities involved, and an autopsy report that has not been released for over 13 months.

"It is an especially egregious display of excessive force when a young unarmed black man in obvious mental and emotional distress is shot multiple times in the back while attempting to flee in fear of his life," Burris in a statement.

According to Burris, the McIntyre family begged for help but the Rancho Cordova Police Department and Sacramento Sheriff’s Department failed them.

The narrative from the Sherriff’s Department was covered by ABC10 when authorities had responded to a call of an assault on the 10800 block of Olson Drive on May 8. The suspect, eventually identified as McIntyre, was said to have been hitting and choking a female inside of her vehicle and attempting to pull her out of the car.

After the suspect allegedly began fighting with an officer, McIntyre was said to have picked up a river rock and struck the officer over the head. The officer fired his gun at the suspect, and according to the sheriff’s department, McIntyre fled and eventually tried to strike deputies. The two deputies fired their weapons and struck the suspect. Despite life-saving measures being done on the suspect, he succumbed to injuries at a local hospital.

The family and Burris’s law firm present a different narrative of what happened that day. Their account of the situation details an attempt by the family to seek assistance for mental health services two times and alleges that they were denied that assistance from the City of Rancho Cordova.

In a statement, Burris and his law firm claim McIntyre had displayed “an undiagnosed mental health problem,” and authorities refused to take in McIntyre for mental health evaluation “despite his dissociative behavior and inability recognize family members.”

Authorities responded for a third time after receiving a call regarding McIntyre behaving “bizarrely” in a shopping center. After the police were called and McIntyre’s mother relayed her concerns, McIntyre fled from an officer and the officer pursued. The firm addresses eyewitness reports claiming the officer fell onto the ground and hit his head on a rock. Following that, the officer(s) opened fire on a fleeing McIntyre.

In this narrative, McIntyre was pursued by Sacramento Sheriff Deputies and, one or more deputies shot McIntyre in the back multiple times despite being unarmed and running away.

The City of Rancho Cordova and the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department were asked for comment, but, no response has been immediately received.

Why the attorney matters

According to Golden Gate University, Burris “casts a long shadow both in person and in civil rights law.”

John Burris is a civil rights attorney who has defended high profile clients and has taken on high profile cases since starting in 1985.

He was named one of California’s leading 100 attorneys by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal, has achieved an award for legal excellence from the National Bar Association, and the American Trial Lawyers Association named him as one of California’s top 100 lawyers.

His law firm is in Oakland, and, although he was initially focused on criminal defense when his office was formed, it shifted to civil rights litigation, according to the law firm’s website. He and his counsel have represented public officials and other clients ranging from former San Francisco Police Chief Earl Sanders, Rodney King, Tupac Shakur, NFL player Keyshawn Johnson, and others.

Among many cases that he has represented in the City of Oakland and other cities, one of his most notable cases was the Oakland Riders case.

Higgs, et al. v. City of Oakland was a class action police brutality suit against Oakland Police, known as the “Riders.” He represented 119 victims who were arrested after having drugs planted on them by officers. The suit included individuals who experienced excessive force, individuals who went to jail for a year, and others who went to state prison for five years.

The case was settled for $10.9 million and saw a number of reforms implemented.
 
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-news-georgia-officer-arrested-20180627-story.html

Georgia cop charged in death of black man running away from traffic stop

A Georgia cop who shot and killed a black man running away from him has been arrested in his death, according to state authorities.

Kingsland Police Officer Zachariah Presley, who is white, turned himself in Wednesday to the Camden County sheriff’s office after the state Bureau of Investigation issued an warrant for his arrest for the June 20 slaying.


The 25-year-old officer was chasing a vehicle with victim Tony Green behind the wheel. After he stopped it, both Green and a passenger bolted.


The cop and 33-year-old Green scuffled, but he managed to escape again. That’s when authorities say Presley opened fire, striking Green repeatedly and killing him.


Presley was placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of the independent probe. He faces one count of voluntary manslaughter and another for violation of oath of office, officials said.


Presley has a troubled past as a law enforcement officer, according to local reports.

Presley racked up at least nine internal complaints ranging from reckless driving and racial profiling in the year since he joined the Kingsland force.

WJXT-TV reports a man, who is black, complained to the police department that Presley and another officer would often park in front of his home and that he was fearful of them. In another case, a woman who felt Presley racially profiled her during a traffic stop missed an appointment to speak to the officer’s supervisor about the incident.


Presley also Tased a black man who drunkenly said he would “throw bullets” at officers, WJXT-TV reported, citing documents obtained through a records request.


The police-involved death bears a resemblance to the East Pittsburgh shooting of 17-year-old Antwon Rose.

Officer Michael Rosfeld shot the teen as he fled a stopped car initially believed to have been involved with an earlier shooting.

Rosfeld on Wednesday was charged in Rose’s death.
 


Oakland Church Steps Out On Faith And Pledges To Stop Calling Police

Nichola Torbett has been thinking a lot recently about what it means to be safe and who gets to feel safe.

"I feel, as a white woman, a right to feel comfortable, because the world is kind of made and designed for white people," Torbett said. "So when I don't feel comfortable, I think oh my gosh, I'm not safe."

Torbett is a lay leader at First Congregational Church of Oakland, a progressive church in California, that has made a decision to try to stop calling police, especially on people of color.

The church — which calls itself First Congo, for short — announced its decision around the same time as a wave of news stories broke about white people calling police on people of color. That included a now infamous incident at Oakland's Lake Merritt, where a white woman called the cops on two black men who were barbecuing.

One of the men who was cooking out that day, Kenzie Smith, describes the moment when he realized police had been called on him as terrifying.

"In my mind I thought I was going to die," he said.

"This is how it ends," he said to himself, while he watched the woman on the phone with 911 dispatch for hours. Smith said as a large black man, having police called on him felt no different than putting a target on his back.

A sign, a shrine, and a conversation

First Congo has no formal pastor, instead they invite congregants to take turns at the pulpit. Their dialogue about turning away from dependence on law enforcement began several years ago, long before there were national headlines about police being called on a grad student for napping, or on Native American teens for attending a college tour, when white people got nervous, or felt they didn't belong.

Church members were talking about putting up Black Lives Matter signs following the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and other similar cases.

The church wanted to show solidarity with the movement. But Vanessa Riles spoke up, asking fellow congregants to consider what displaying that sign actually signified.

"As an intentionally intercultural congregation, and an intentionally interracial congregation," she said, "we can't just put up a sign like that, and not have it mean something."

Church members began to talk about what it really meant for black lives to matter. For Torbett that meant also trying to understand how white people, like herself, can confuse safety with comfort.

"There are times we are called on to be uncomfortable, in the service of being in conversation with our neighbors, and that doesn't mean we're not safe," she said.

A giant Black Lives Matter sign now hangs on the front of the church. Inside, in the chapel, lit by stained glass, stands a shrine to victims of police killings.

Some you may have heard of, such as Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old shot by police in Cleveland, in 2014. Or Oscar Grant, shot in 2009 by a BART police officer while restrained and lying on his stomach. The officer later claimed to have mistaken his gun for his taser.

Other faces and stories are less familiar, such as Demouria Hogg. Hogg was asleep in his car, when Oakland police officers tried to wake him. He was shot after an officer said she saw him reach towards a gun in the front seat. The city of Oakland paid $1.2 million in compensation to his family, but admitted no wrongdoing in his death.

Riles said that Black Lives Matter is, in large part, about confronting the deaths of black and brown people like these at the hands of police. So if the church was going to hang the signs, Riles asked, what else were they going to do?

"Because as a black person, if I see a church with a sign that says Black Lives Matter, the first question in my mind and in my heart, is what does that really mean?" she asked. "Are they just putting up a sign because it looks good, and it makes them look good as a congregation?"

"How can we say black lives matter, and be a church that calls the police on people, especially black people, poor disenfranchised black men," she said. She told fellow church members that "if anything we need to be working towards not calling the police."

Riles was raised in a once almost entirely black Oakland neighborhood where police were not welcomed as beacons of safety.

"I haven't grown up feeling like the police are my heroes and they're going to rescue me," she said. "I've grown up feeling like the police don't come when you call them, or they don't really do anything, or someone calls them on you and your friends when you didn't do anything."

So First Congo congregants started to talk about when they had called police, and why. Although they didn't call police often, they realized when they did, it often was on homeless black men.

The church is an open space, the doors are unlocked, and there are community services located inside the building. Homeless people come in, and sometimes they are in the throes of a crisis created by mental illness, substance abuse, or some combination of the two.

The homeless population in Oakland is disproportionately black. According to a survey from last year, more than 80 percent of Alameda County's homeless — where Oakland is located — were living in homes here, before they were on the streets. Statistically speaking, that means many homeless are living on the streets because of gentrification and the housing crisis.

When someone comes into the church in a crisis, volunteers have felt threatened, and some have turned to police, "because they feel like their life is at stake, and they feel at risk, and they don't know what else to do," Riles said.

Riles and her fellow congregants also know that in similar situations across the country, police have shot and killed mentally ill and intoxicated people.

"Can we really feel like we are doing God's will," Riles asked, "or we are following in the footsteps of our movement founder, Jesus, who literally risked himself over and over and over again for people who were the most vulnerable if we're calling the police for our own safety and security and risking the lives of actually the most vulnerable?"

Barry Donelan, the head of the Oakland Police Officers Association, said he respects the church's decision. He admits that some people are too eager to call police as a first resort.

"Most police officers face that on a regular basis, where there's some address they find themselves having to go there on a regular basis, for issues that shouldn't be police matters," he says.

Donelan admits that can be frustrating. But, he said, his members are always willing to serve when called, and if the church ever needs them, "my members are going to be there to serve you."

Suicidal impulse or spiritual practice?

The news of the church's decision to divest from police quickly hit conservative media. Fox News' Tucker Carlson featured a segment on the church.

"The church in Oakland," Carlson said, "is encouraging its members not to call police, even when they feel they need the police, if that's not a suicidal impulse, I mean what is it?"

Church lay leader Torbett said the answer is simple. She called the decision a "spiritual practice," based in Christian theology.

"One of the things that gets lost in Christianity in this country often is how Jesus was positioned in the society that he lived in," Torbett said. "He was part of an occupied nation, a colonized people. A brown-skinned man, who was surveilled, targeted, harassed, finally arrested, beaten, and killed by state forces."

Torbett said after the Fox news segment aired, the church received a flood of messages on social media. Some called them anti-police — they are not, Torbett said — but she was most surprised by messages deeply concerned for church members' safety, fearful they were putting themselves in harm's way.

"This sense that people seem to have that outside our doors are hordes are people who mean to do us harm, and are just waiting for us to reduce our reliance on policing, so they can do that," Torbett said.

The assumption that only police can save you, and that the church was just going to stop calling law enforcement and leave their members to fend for themselves is false.

"Really what we are talking about is how do we build up a network of community support, of people who can show up for each other," she said. "Isn't that what churches should be doing?"
 
A path away from policing

The church knows that a path away from policing cannot happen overnight. For one thing, if something is stolen, they need to file a police report to get any insurance money. And they don't plan to leave church volunteers to fend for themselves in a potentially violent interaction.

Instead, what they are hoping to do is create a volunteer force of community and church members trained in conflict resolution who can be on-call, if anything happens. They are reaching out to other churches, places of worship, and community organizations to ask for volunteers.

Vanessa Riles said the notion of communities coming together to take care of their own, rather than relying on institutions like police that have a spotty record in their interactions with people of color, is nothing new.

It is as old as Oakland's very own Black Panther Party.

"Their full name was the Black Panther Party for Self Defense," Riles said. "It was about, how do we defend ourselves, who really is the violent offender, and even if it does come to something within the community, then how do we deal with that, without putting more lives at risk."

Torbett said that when people — especially white people — default to calling police when something goes wrong, or when they just feel uncomfortable, it is basically outsourcing crisis management, safety and potential violence to the state.

"Which is exactly what the religious leaders said when Jesus was arrested," she explained. "They said, 'We can't kill him, but you can. Our law forbids it — but you can do it.' "

To learn from the lesson of Jesus, Torbett said, the church must strive to take care of their own community, even those just outside their doors. Keeping the church and church members safe, she said, does not have to mean placing others, especially people of color, at risk.
 
https://wgntv.com/2018/06/28/chicag...ut-for-3-year-old-girl-traumatized-by-police/

Chicago City Council approves $2.5M payout for 3-year-old girl traumatized by police

CHICAGO — Chicago’s City Council on Wednesday approved a $2.5 million settlement in an excessive-force lawsuit that accused police of traumatizing a 3-year-old girl by pointing a gun at her chest and striking her handcuffed mother.

A lawyer for Aretha Simmons, the girl’s mother, says upcoming Chicago Police Department reforms don’t address how officers treat children during arrests. Attorney Al Hofeld Jr. says “it is not even on CPD’s radar.”

A 2017 Justice Department report sharply criticized Chicago police for too often using excessive force, including against children. The city has since pledged to overhaul police procedures and training.

When the council’s finance committee approved the settlement earlier, a city lawyer agreed with many of the core claims in the lawsuit, telling the committee that the girl remains traumatized and will likely require psychiatric treatment into adulthood.

According to Hofeld, some police departments in other U.S. cities have embraced far-reaching reforms on how officers should interact with children. A key element, he says, is for officers to recognize that the brains of small children and teenagers process information differently than those of adults.
 
https://www.indystar.com/story/news...etropolitan-police-department-impd/732049002/

Aaron Bailey estate settles court case with city after fatal police shooting

Hear reactions after the Civilian Police Merit Board made its decision that the two IMPD officers who fatally shot Aaron Bailey will keep their jobs. Jenna Watson and Michelle Pemberton, IndyStar

The family of a man fatally shot by two police officers after a traffic stop last year settled its civil court case against the city of Indianapolis on Monday.

Two Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers fatally shot 45-year-old Aaron Bailey after a traffic stop June 29. A court filing confirmed the development after a settlement conference began at 9 a.m. before magistrate judge Tim A. Baker in U.S. District Court. Terms of the settlement were not made public Monday.

Messages to the lawyer for Bailey's estate, the city's attorney and the mayor's office were not returned Monday. An IMPD spokesman said the department is "deferring" to the city's attorney for comment.

Rick Snyder, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said he expects the police officers union will have a statement after the city and Bailey's family address the settlement.

A member of the African-American Coalition of Indianapolis, which urged reforms in officer accountability following the shooting, said the group hasn't discussed the settlement yet. But speaking for himself, Marshawn Wolley said he is aware of concerns in the community that the two officers will return to the streets.

"Right now, it looks like there’s been no consequences for the officers," Wolley said. "But it seems like the city is taking responsibility. This is the only way the officers come close to being held accountable, and it’s really through the city."

IMPD officers Carlton J. Howard and Michal P. Dinnsen said Bailey fled a traffic stop before speeding down streets and crashing his car. The officers said that as they approached, they believed Bailey reached for a gun. Then he turned toward Howard.

The officers fired. Four bullets struck Bailey in the back. No weapon was found.

Last October a special prosecutor cleared Howard and Dinnsen of criminal charges. St. Joseph County Prosecutor Kenneth P. Cotter said there was insufficient evidence to refute the officers' statements that they feared for their lives when they shot Bailey.

Cotter had been assigned to the case after Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry requested a special prosecutor. Family members and advocates had been calling for an outside prosecutor.

Erica Bailey, Aaron's daughter, said at the time that the "system has failed" her family.

"I just really can't believe it," she said of the special prosecutor's decision. "I'm just so torn up. We're supposed to be able to trust the law. Right now, that's really hard to do."

Last month, the Civilian Police Merit Board voted 5-2 that the officers had not violated department policy or training and would keep their jobs.

African-American groups were outraged at the decision, which exacerbated years-long divides between police officers and an increasingly distrustful portion of the city.

IMPD Chief Bryan Roach had called for the officers to be fired.

Greater Indianapolis NAACP President Chrystal Ratcliffe decried the Merit Board's decision. "Decisions like these erode the trust of the community and call into question whether the accountability to the community is merely superficial when an officer violates established police procedures," Ratcliffe said.

The Fraternal Order of Police supported the officers.

"They will live with this for the rest of their lives," Snyder said after the decision. "Something that no officer wants to do. It's every officer's worst nightmare."

He added, "The Bailey family continues on with their loss and their grief. But these officers and their families will have this for the rest of their lives, as well."
 
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_r...cle_f6a76a5e-7ce6-11e8-b7dd-9b76b8e6cc67.html

Pedestrian hit, killed by Baton Rouge police car; man ID'd; officer put on leave

Baton Rouge Police are expected on Monday morning to release the name of the police officer who struck and killed a pedestrian Saturday night on Florida Boulevard at North Eugene Street.

Baton Rouge police spokesman Sgt. L'Jean McKneely Jr. said an on-duty female officer was driving with the flow of traffic in the 2600 block of Florida Boulevard around 10 p.m. when she struck 51-year-old John Payne, of 1124 Monterrey Blvd.

McKneely said Payne was trying to cross the road when he was hit. McKneely said investigators do not believe speed was a factor, adding that the officer was not specifically responding for a call for service at the time of the incident..

The officer, who was not injured in the crash, has been placed on paid administrative leave. McKneely said the officer's name will be released Monday morning, citing the department's policy to wait 24 hours before releasing an the name of an officer involved in an incident.

McKneely said the officer did take a sobriety test, which she passed.

An Emergency Medical Services crew transported Payne to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, EMS spokesman Brad Harris said.

Crews responded to the intersection shortly after 10 p.m., with investigators focusing on a marked unit with signs of damage on the front bumper and hood.
 
https://www.firstcoastnews.com/arti...ved-deadly-shootings-on-the-rise/77-569377632

Georgia's officer-involved deadly shootings on the rise

According to information released by the GBI, the shooting death of Anthony Green marked the 26th fatal shooting by police in Georgia since the beginning of 2018.


The death of a Kingsland man on June 21 made June the most deadly month in Georgia for officer-involved shootings this year.

According to information released by the GBI, the shooting death of Anthony Green marked the 26th fatal shooting by police in Georgia since the beginning of 2018.

In 2017, the GBI reported 30 fatal shootings by police for the entire year.

If the pace continues, officer-involved shootings could exceed 2017 numbers significantly.

Green's death is the 7th in June, making it the most deadly month of 2018 to date.

In almost all of the 2018 shooting incidents, suspects were armed with weapons like guns or knives. In four instances, the suspect used a car to ram an officer's patrol car. Three of the 2018 suspects killed were found to be holding gun replicas or airsoft pistols. One left a suicide note, according to GBI.

Out of 26 shootings, Green's case is the only one the GBI deemed the target as unarmed.

Former officer Zechariah Presley was arrested Wednesday and charged Friday with voluntary manslaughter and violation of the police oath. A Camden County judge denied bond in Presley's case.

On Friday, Green's family attorneys Reginald Green and Malik Shabazzannounced plans to file civil action against the Kingsland Police Department, Camden County and the State of Georgia in connection with Green's death.

On Friday, Green's family attorneys Reginald Greene and MalikShabazzannounced plans to file civil action against the Kingsland Police Department, Camden County and the State of Georgia in connection with Green's death.

"We don't want a situation where Presley is charged and a conviction slips away" Greene said. "I don't think the judge wants that and I don't think the district attorney wants that."
 
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk...-2-fatal-police-shootings-are-arrests-n887466

After 2 officers charged in 2 fatal police shootings, are arrests happening faster?

When Antwon Rose, a black teenager from East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was fatally shot by police this month, it took prosecutors one week to charge the officer with homicide.

In southern Georgia, it also took a week for the officer who killed black driver Anthony Marcel Green to be charged with voluntary manslaughter.

Experts say these cases represent a shift in how police-involved shootings in minority communities are being handled by authorities.

Prosecutors are bringing charges that take witnesses and videos into account, while at the same time acknowledging that they are going to have a difficult time going to trial and obtaining a conviction, said Philip Stinson, an associate professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

"They generally don't bring charges in any case if they don't think they can win," Stinson said this week. But moving ahead with charges "is a good thing from my perspective because prosecutors are supposed to seek justice, not count 'wins.'"

Charges against an officer remain rare, and convictions even rarer.

So far in 2018, there have been three cases of officers being charged with murder or manslaughter, according to Stinson's data reviewing on-duty shootings.

In the past decade, 69 nonfederal officers have been charged, while 21 have been convicted of some crime, according to the data.

But the convictions are often for a lesser offense, and just one has been for murder.

Last year, the police officer who shot South Carolina driver Walter Scott in the back as he ran away pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for second-degree murder and obstruction of justice. In other high-profile shootings in recent years, including the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Eric Garner in New York and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, no criminal charges were filed.

In Rose's case, the unarmed 17-year-old was shot in the arm, face and middle of his back as he ran away from police on June 19 after the car he was riding in was pulled over as part of a drive-by shooting investigation. Rose's shooting was caught on cellphone camera and led to several days of protests.

Fred Rabner, an attorney for Rose's family, said seeking justice in police-involved shootings is typically riddled with delays because of the nature of who’s involved. In this case, video evidence helped to move the process along, he added.

“For some reason in our country, prosecuting an officer is different than prosecuting a lay person,” Rabner said.

Stinson said the relatively fast homicide charge against East Pittsburgh officer Michael Rosfeld wasn't surprising given that Pennsylvania, unlike other states, does not require an indictment from a grand jury before charging someone.

Information from corroborating witnesses and the availability of video likely helped as well, he added.

"I don't think we have seen any seismic shift in the speed in which charges are brought," Stinson said. However, "in the past, the police have owned the narratives in these incidents, and bystanders' accounts have not been given much weight. Now we see that police investigators and prosecutors are giving more weight to witness statements especially in cases where there is video evidence."

Prosecutors aren't examining cases in a silo either — oftentimes they're enduring public outcry, large protests for answers, calls for resignation or the release of videos, and intense media scrutiny.

In Georgia, the fatal June 21 shooting of Green has not garnered the same kind of attention as Rose's case. Kingsland officer Zechariah Presley shot the unarmed 33-year-old as he bolted from his car during a traffic stop. The men got into a physical altercation before Green fled, and Presley shot at his direction multiple times, authorities said.

Kingsland's police chief on Wednesday made the unusual move to fire Presley as he turned himself in on charges of voluntary manslaughter and violation of oath of office. Presley joined the force in June 2017 and had a number of red flags in his personnel file and application, including domestic violence, marijuana use and intimidation, reported NBC affiliate WTLV.

"Police chiefs do have an interest in being perceived as being transparent," Stinson said. "It is a long hot summer ahead, and police chiefs don't want civil unrest."

Prosecutors, many who are elected to their posts, must also tread carefully in deciding whether to charge officers since courts have routinely ruled in the officers' favor when it comes to their use of force on the job.

In Sacramento, California, District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert has yet to announce whether she will charge officers in the death of Stephon Clark, the 22-year-old black man who was shot March 18 after police responded to a call of someone breaking car windows. Police said they believed Clark pointed a gun at them, and shot him eight times. He was found with only an iPhone.

Schubert, who won reelection earlier this month with strong support from law enforcement agencies, said it could take more than a year before charges are decided in the case.

Prosecutors such as Schubert shouldn't have to feel rushed as they wade through evidence, said Eugene O'Donnell, a retired NYPD officer and professor of law and police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

The swift prosecution of police "is akin to the subprime mortgage problem a few years ago," he said. "There's a search for villains and a lack of acknowledgement that there are larger issues that need to be confronted within the policing system."

He added that while there may be instances of police bungling or worse in a shooting case, those don't always equate to criminality.

"The idea of due process rights should not be some kind of quaint notion," O'Donnell said. "Officers are being fired within 24 hours now, and the facts are casualties and the nuances are casualties."
 
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_r...cle_2646451c-7e0b-11e8-8a6e-9f14de2400d0.html

Baton Rouge police identify officer who struck, killed pedestrian Saturday on Florida Boulevard

Baton Rouge police on Monday released the name of the officer who struck and killed a pedestrian Saturday night on Florida Boulevard at North Eugene Street.

Cpl. Jenny Bourgeois, 39, was placed on paid administrative leave after the crash, Baton Rouge police spokesman Sgt. L'Jean McKneely said. She was not injured. Bourgeois currently works in the Uniform Patrol Division and has been with the department for 10 years.

Bourgeois was driving with the flow of traffic in the 2600 block of Florida Boulevard around 10 p.m. Saturday when she struck 51-year-old John Payne, 1124 Monterrey Blvd., police said.

Police investigators do not believe speed was a factor in the crash. Bourgeois, who was not specifically responding to a service call at the time of the incident, did take a sobriety test, which she passed, police said over the weekend.

Police detectives have not interviewed Bourgeois, McKneely said Monday evening.

Payne was trying to cross the road when he was struck. He was transported to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead.

A widely shared video on social media purports to show Payne’s body lying motionless near the centerline of a road as sirens blared and police lights flashed in the background.

A female officer with Baton Rouge police department and corporal patches on her shoulder leans over to check the man’s pulse.

“I didn’t see anybody,” the officer said. “I don’t know where he – I never even saw him.”

East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner Beau Clark said Payne died of multiple blunt force injuries. Toxicology results for Payne are pending, Clark said.

No charges have been filed in the case.

Bourgeois was the queen of the Spanish Town Mardi Gras parade in 2017, according to clips from The Advocate. She told the newspaper at the time that she worked in the First District.

McKneely said police continue to investigate.
 
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