Officer who shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice displayed ‘dismal’ handgun performance in exercise

Two years ago, when he was working for a police department in a Cleveland suburb, Tim Loehmann participated in firearms qualification training.
Loehmann struggled with the exercise, according to a memo penned Nov. 29, 2012, by Jim Polak, deputy chief of the Independence Police Department and obtained Wednesday by Northeast Ohio Media Group. He was “distracted” and “weepy,” Polak wrote, and did not seem “mentally prepared” for the task.
“He could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal,” Polak wrote.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/12/03/officer-who-shot-12-year-old-tamir-rice-displayed-dismal-handgun-performance-in-exercise/

Knox County cop fired immediately after photos show brutal choking of student

Usually, after charges of police brutality, police officials take their time reacting while they follow procedure to determine who did what. But this episode in Knoxville, Tenn., was so extreme and well-documented that the local sheriff fired the officer immediately.
Frank Phillips, a Knox County Sheriff’s officer, was fired Sunday night after a series of pictures taken by photographer John Messner were published in the Daily Mail in Britain. They showed an officer identified by the Sheriff’s Office as Phillips grabbing 21-year-old college student Jarod Dotson around the neck and squeezing him until he fell to his knees.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/04/28/knoxville-cop-fired-immediately-after-photos-show-brutal-choking-of-student/

Grand Jury Fails to Indict Kentucky Cop Who Shot and Killed Unarmed Teen Girl

Kentucky deputy who witnesses say jumped onto the roof of a 19-year-old girl's car and opened fire on her will not be indicted in the girl's death.Samantha Ramsey was killed by Boone County deputy Tyler Brockman as she left a party in April. Now, a Boone County grand jury has decided not to indict Brockman, who has always maintained he acted in self-defense, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports.
In a statement to his supervisors, Brockman said he tried to stop Ramsey from driving away from the party so that he could see if she was intoxicated.
Brockman told his boss that Ramsey then took a "left turn" and ran into him, forcing him up onto the hood of her car.
Brockman said Ramsey sped up and, "At this point Deputy Brockman knew the operator, Samantha Ramsey was about to kill him," the statement said. "Deputy Brockman in reaction to the deadly force brought against him, drew his Glock 22 Service weapon and fired what he believed to be 3 shots (turned out to be 4) through the driver window."
In a statement sent to The Huffington Post, Ramsey's mom, Brandi Stewart, expressed her disappointment in the grand jury's decision.
"Now, over six months after my daughter was shot to death by Deputy Brockman, the only thing I know for sure is that he will not answer for his actions and that in Boone County, you cannot indict a Boone County Deputy for shooting an unarmed 19-year-old four times in front of numerous witnesses," Stewart said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/09/samantha-ramsey_n_6123820.html

2009 - Ferguson Police Arrest Wrong Black Man, Beat Him Bloody, Then Charged Him For Bleeding on Them

The officers got the wrong man, but charged him anyway—with getting his blood on their uniforms. How the Ferguson PD ran the town where Michael Brown was gunned down.

Police in Ferguson, Missouri, once charged a man with destruction of property for bleeding on their uniforms while four of them allegedly beat him.
“On and/or about the 20th day of Sept. 20, 2009 at or near 222 S. Florissant within the corporate limits of Ferguson, Missouri, the above named defendant did then and there unlawfully commit the offense of ‘property damage’ to wit did transfer blood to the uniform,” reads the charge sheet.
The address is the headquarters of the Ferguson Police Department, where a 52-year-old welder named Henry Davis was taken in the predawn hours on that date. He had been arrested for an outstanding warrant that proved to actually be for another man of the same surname, but a different middle name and Social Security number.
“I said, ‘I told you guys it wasn’t me,’” Davis later testified.
He recalled the booking officer saying, “We have a problem.”
The booking officer had no other reason to hold Davis, who ended up in Ferguson only because he missed the exit for St. Charles and then pulled off the highway because the rain was so heavy he could not see to drive. The cop who had pulled up behind him must have run his license plate and assumed he was that other Henry Davis. Davis said the cop approached his vehicle, grabbed his cellphone from his hand, cuffed him and placed him in the back seat of the patrol car, without a word of explanation.
But the booking officer was not ready just to let Davis go, and proceeded to escort him to a one-man cell that already had a man in it asleep on the lone bunk. Davis says that he asked the officer if he could at least have one of the sleeping mats that were stacked nearby.
”He said I wasn’t getting one,” Davis said.
Davis balked at being a second man in a one-man cell.
“Because it’s 3 in the morning,” he later testified. “Who going to sleep on a cement floor?”
The booking officer summoned a number of fellow cops. One opened the cell door while another suddenly charged, propelling Davis inside and slamming him against the back wall.
“I told the police officers there that I didn’t do nothing, ‘Why is you guys doing this to me?’” Davis testified. “They said, ‘OK, just lay on the ground and put your hands behind your back.’”

...
But however lax the department’s system and however contradictory the officers’ testimony, a federal magistrate ruled that the apparent perjury about the “property damage” charges was too minor to constitute a violation of due process and that Davis’ injuries were de minimis—too minor to warrant a finding of excessive force. Never mind that a CAT scan taken after the incident confirmed that he had suffered a concussion.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/08/st-louis-police_n_6289518.html?utm_hp_ref=ferguson

Former St. Louis Cop Exposes Culture of Hidden Racism Before the Ferguson Shooting

For Redditt Hudson, the reason behind the calamity in Ferguson, Missouri and the surrounding area is nothing new. Hudson — who served for five years as a cop in nearby St. Louis — said in a HuffPost Live interview Monday that his time on the force showed him how discriminatory the police can be.
Hudson, now a board chair for the Ethics Project, told host Marc Lamont Hill that the best chance the police in St. Louis, and around the country, have to undergo reform is now, with the criticisms and changes coming from the inside.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/08/st-louis-police_n_6289518.html?utm_hp_ref=ferguson

Jail Guard Misconduct Leads to Inmate Dying in 101 Degree Cell

NEW YORK (AP) -- A jail guard accused of skipping her rounds and falsifying the logbook to cover it up was charged Monday in connection with the death of a mentally ill inmate in his stifling 101-degree Rikers Island cell.
Carol Lackner faces multiple counts of falsifying business records, filing a false instrument and official misconduct charges for falsely indicating she checked on homeless ex-Marine Jerome Murdough and other inmates every half hour Feb. 14 even though video didn't show her doing so, according to prosecutors.
...
The Associated Press first reported the shocking death of the 56-year-old Murdough in the overheated cell, after a city official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Murdough "basically baked to death" when he was left unchecked for at least four hours overnight as malfunctioning equipment caused his cell to overheat.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/08/carol-lackner-rikers-arrested_n_6291160.html?utm_hp_ref=crime

South Carolina State Trooper Shoots Unarmed Man

9/25/14


A South Carolina state trooper was fired last week and arrested on Wednesday after a dashcam video showed him shooting an unarmed man during a routine traffic stop.
Former officer Sean Groubert, 31, is seen in the newly released video pulling over Levar Edward Jones. The clip, which was recorded on Groubert's dashcam on Sept. 4, shows Jones getting out of his vehicle at a gas station in Columbia.
Groubert asks Jones for his driver's license. As Jones reaches into his vehicle to retrieve it, Groubert shouts, "Get out of the car!"
When Jones complies and starts to back away from the vehicle, Groubert opens fire. Three shots can be heard; Jones was hit at least once, in the hip.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/25/sean-groubert-fired-arrested_n_5879694.html