A Fall River man says he was recording a police officer who was out of control, but instead, he was arrested and his cell phone was seized.
Now the video he recorded is gone. Police say he erased it, even though they were the ones holding the phone.
George Thompson says last January he was just sitting on his front porch, watching a Fall River police officer working a paid detail. Thompson says the officer was on his phone and was swearing very loud.
That’s when Thompson pulled out his phone. Thompson says Officer Tom Barboza then rushed him and arrested him, charging him with unlawful wiretapping.
But in Massachusetts it’s perfectly legal to record video and audio of a public official, including police, as long as they are performing their duties and the recording isn’t hidden. Barboza’s own police report shows that Thompson acknowledged he was recording the officer.
“I think we all have our basic rights and I think people should not record others secretly or surreptitiously,” Fall River Police Chief Daniel Racine told WPRI.
Thompson was released from jail, but police kept his phone and that’s where the story takes an interesting turn.
Thompson claims that two days after his arrest, his phone, which was locked up at the police station, somehow had all of the video erased.
“If a Fall River police officer erased that video, he’s fired,” Chief Racine said. “And I would suspect the district attorney would take out charges.”
George Thompson is not buying it. “They’re investigating themselves and there’s a code of blue and everybody knows that,” Thompson says.
Showing posts with label bad cops. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bad cops. Show all posts
Saturday, March 08, 2014
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Bad Cops Get Desk Duty
Some monitor surveillance cameras in housing projects. Others escort prisoners to court or check in patrol cars. And some, true to the police lingo, really do sit behind a desk, shuffling papers and answering phones.
These jobs are known as desk duty, a generic phrase in the Police Department for a range of jobs to which hundreds of officers have been reassigned over the years.
Pulled off the streets, stripped of guns and badges, kept inside four walls and away — as much as possible — from the public, officers who are put on desk duty because their conduct is under investigation find themselves far from the enforcement activities they signed up to do.
“We like to call it the ‘cellblock’ because it is like you are in prison,” said an officer who spent more than 18 months watching surveillance video while authorities investigated an accusation that he had struck a suspect.
The officer, who was eventually cleared of the charge, insisted that his name not be published because he did not want his work history to be widely known.
“It is the worst place in the world if you enjoy being a police officer,” he said. “You sit at a desk and stare at 30 monitors.”
Among those on desk duty now are four officers involved in a run-in in October with a 24-year-old man, Michael Mineo, who says he was sodomized with a piece of police equipment in a Brooklyn subway station. A grand jury is investigating the case.
Those officers joined a netherworld of police work that has sometimes taken others years to emerge from as their cases went through the legal system and then Police Department review.
Levied against anyone from a rookie patrol cop to a 20-year decorated detective, the desk duty reassignment is a great equalizer. There are no assumptions of guilt or innocence or nods to rank.
And, although the colloquial term “desk duty” neatly captures the idea of an officer who is hidden from the public, it often does not involve sitting at a desk. The officers in the Mineo case are performing jobs like watching video cameras and overseeing police vehicles.
“Doing court paperwork, moving prisoners, driving delivery vehicles — it is a range of glamourless jobs,” said Eugene O’Donnell, a professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who is a former police officer and prosecutor in New York City.
“You are unarmed most of the time and everybody knows that you are sort of disabled by the fact that you are not on full duty,” he said. “There is almost a universal stigma to it.”
The Police Department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said that it was a necessary tool. “Prudence and good order in a police department dictate that at times certain personnel be relieved of their enforcement duties,” he said.
Not everyone on desk duty is under a cloud; most are officers with clean records who do those jobs full time. When officers are taken off enforcement duties and given desk jobs because of pending charges, it is called modified duty.
In some cases, officers are placed on limited duty when recovering from an injury or for emotional reasons, such as in a recent case of an officer whose child died. But for the most part, those on modified assignment are in limbo, waiting to be cleared and returned to regular duty or on their way to suspension, demotion, transfer or firing if they are convicted of a crime or found to have broken department rules.
After the shooting death of Sean Bell in November 2006, six police officers were put on desk duty doing paperwork for detectives on Staten Island, making phone calls to investigators when there was a homicide in the Bronx, or performing administrative tasks at desks in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Three of the officers were criminally charged, and they were acquitted. An internal investigation and the possibility of going to trial on departmental charges is on hold until the Justice Department decides whether it will bring a civil rights case against the officers.
Police unions have accused the department of using desk duty for political reasons, such as in high-profile cases, which the department denies. Unions have also complained that it is too open-ended, with an officer sometimes desk-bound even after being cleared. Some officers say the department sometimes intentionally assigns officers to desk-duty jobs requiring a long commute, an unofficial form of punishment known as toll therapy.
John D. Patten, a lawyer, defended a sergeant, Thomas Kennedy, who was investigated after a handcuffed suspect fell and hit his head. He was acquitted in court and cleared in an internal investigation but spent a year and a half on modified duty in the Fleet Services Division. “It takes time to resolve these,” Mr. Patten said. “But sometimes it can go fast, too. There are no fixed rules.”
Mr. Browne said officers can be kept on modified duty “indefinitely. But it really depends on individual cases.”
Officers who have been on desk duty say the stigma is hard to erase in a paramilitary organization that values the solidarity that comes with wearing the same uniform and facing the same dangers.
“Modified duty is purgatory,” said Rae Koshetz, a lawyer who once worked in the Police Department handling internal trials and who represents Officer Kenneth Boss, one of four officers who fired at and killed Amadou Diallo, a Bronx man who was unarmed, in 1999.
Officer Boss was acquitted and cleared in an internal inquiry and in court but is still answering phones for the Emergency Services Unit at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. “You are benched,” Ms. Koshetz said. “Your career is derailed.”
“It is a dumping ground,” said the officer from the surveillance unit. “The connotation is that you are a screw-up.”
Lt. Michael W. Pigott, a veteran emergency services officer, gave an order on Sept. 24 to an officer in Brooklyn to fire a Taser at an emotionally disturbed man, who then fell 10 feet and suffered a fatal head injury. The Police Department said the order appeared to have violated guidelines that said Tasers should not be used when a person could fall from an elevated surface.
Soon after Lieutenant Pigott was ordered to work the desk at Fleet Services Division in Queens, which handles police vehicles, he committed suicide.
While Lieutenant Pigott wrote in a suicide note that he feared criminal prosecution, a detective who worked with him, Stephen Dillon, said he seemed hurt by the decision to put him on desk duty and take his gun. Since he was cleared in the Diallo shooting, Officer Boss has been unsuccessfully fighting in court to be restored to full duty with his weapon, saying that his colleagues have ridiculed him with the name “Kenny No-Gun.” The Police Department has refused, saying that the public would be upset if he were rearmed, and that the department would be prejudged if he were ever involved in another shooting.
“I was a very proactive patrol cop and anticrime officer,” he said. “It is demoralizing. It breaks my heart.”
These jobs are known as desk duty, a generic phrase in the Police Department for a range of jobs to which hundreds of officers have been reassigned over the years.
Pulled off the streets, stripped of guns and badges, kept inside four walls and away — as much as possible — from the public, officers who are put on desk duty because their conduct is under investigation find themselves far from the enforcement activities they signed up to do.
“We like to call it the ‘cellblock’ because it is like you are in prison,” said an officer who spent more than 18 months watching surveillance video while authorities investigated an accusation that he had struck a suspect.
The officer, who was eventually cleared of the charge, insisted that his name not be published because he did not want his work history to be widely known.
“It is the worst place in the world if you enjoy being a police officer,” he said. “You sit at a desk and stare at 30 monitors.”
Among those on desk duty now are four officers involved in a run-in in October with a 24-year-old man, Michael Mineo, who says he was sodomized with a piece of police equipment in a Brooklyn subway station. A grand jury is investigating the case.
Those officers joined a netherworld of police work that has sometimes taken others years to emerge from as their cases went through the legal system and then Police Department review.
Levied against anyone from a rookie patrol cop to a 20-year decorated detective, the desk duty reassignment is a great equalizer. There are no assumptions of guilt or innocence or nods to rank.
And, although the colloquial term “desk duty” neatly captures the idea of an officer who is hidden from the public, it often does not involve sitting at a desk. The officers in the Mineo case are performing jobs like watching video cameras and overseeing police vehicles.
“Doing court paperwork, moving prisoners, driving delivery vehicles — it is a range of glamourless jobs,” said Eugene O’Donnell, a professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who is a former police officer and prosecutor in New York City.
“You are unarmed most of the time and everybody knows that you are sort of disabled by the fact that you are not on full duty,” he said. “There is almost a universal stigma to it.”
The Police Department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said that it was a necessary tool. “Prudence and good order in a police department dictate that at times certain personnel be relieved of their enforcement duties,” he said.
Not everyone on desk duty is under a cloud; most are officers with clean records who do those jobs full time. When officers are taken off enforcement duties and given desk jobs because of pending charges, it is called modified duty.
In some cases, officers are placed on limited duty when recovering from an injury or for emotional reasons, such as in a recent case of an officer whose child died. But for the most part, those on modified assignment are in limbo, waiting to be cleared and returned to regular duty or on their way to suspension, demotion, transfer or firing if they are convicted of a crime or found to have broken department rules.
After the shooting death of Sean Bell in November 2006, six police officers were put on desk duty doing paperwork for detectives on Staten Island, making phone calls to investigators when there was a homicide in the Bronx, or performing administrative tasks at desks in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Three of the officers were criminally charged, and they were acquitted. An internal investigation and the possibility of going to trial on departmental charges is on hold until the Justice Department decides whether it will bring a civil rights case against the officers.
Police unions have accused the department of using desk duty for political reasons, such as in high-profile cases, which the department denies. Unions have also complained that it is too open-ended, with an officer sometimes desk-bound even after being cleared. Some officers say the department sometimes intentionally assigns officers to desk-duty jobs requiring a long commute, an unofficial form of punishment known as toll therapy.
John D. Patten, a lawyer, defended a sergeant, Thomas Kennedy, who was investigated after a handcuffed suspect fell and hit his head. He was acquitted in court and cleared in an internal investigation but spent a year and a half on modified duty in the Fleet Services Division. “It takes time to resolve these,” Mr. Patten said. “But sometimes it can go fast, too. There are no fixed rules.”
Mr. Browne said officers can be kept on modified duty “indefinitely. But it really depends on individual cases.”
Officers who have been on desk duty say the stigma is hard to erase in a paramilitary organization that values the solidarity that comes with wearing the same uniform and facing the same dangers.
“Modified duty is purgatory,” said Rae Koshetz, a lawyer who once worked in the Police Department handling internal trials and who represents Officer Kenneth Boss, one of four officers who fired at and killed Amadou Diallo, a Bronx man who was unarmed, in 1999.
Officer Boss was acquitted and cleared in an internal inquiry and in court but is still answering phones for the Emergency Services Unit at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. “You are benched,” Ms. Koshetz said. “Your career is derailed.”
“It is a dumping ground,” said the officer from the surveillance unit. “The connotation is that you are a screw-up.”
Lt. Michael W. Pigott, a veteran emergency services officer, gave an order on Sept. 24 to an officer in Brooklyn to fire a Taser at an emotionally disturbed man, who then fell 10 feet and suffered a fatal head injury. The Police Department said the order appeared to have violated guidelines that said Tasers should not be used when a person could fall from an elevated surface.
Soon after Lieutenant Pigott was ordered to work the desk at Fleet Services Division in Queens, which handles police vehicles, he committed suicide.
While Lieutenant Pigott wrote in a suicide note that he feared criminal prosecution, a detective who worked with him, Stephen Dillon, said he seemed hurt by the decision to put him on desk duty and take his gun. Since he was cleared in the Diallo shooting, Officer Boss has been unsuccessfully fighting in court to be restored to full duty with his weapon, saying that his colleagues have ridiculed him with the name “Kenny No-Gun.” The Police Department has refused, saying that the public would be upset if he were rearmed, and that the department would be prejudged if he were ever involved in another shooting.
“I was a very proactive patrol cop and anticrime officer,” he said. “It is demoralizing. It breaks my heart.”
Monday, October 06, 2008
Police Offiers Involved in Shocking Range of Crimes
POLICE officers across Wales have been involved in a shocking range of crimes in the past three years.
On Sunday investigation has found that officers have been caught red-handed committing the very crimes they are paid with taxpayers’ money to prevent.
Some officers were even accused of carrying out crimes while they were on the beat.
Using Freedom of Information legislation, we asked Wales’ four police forces to break down the number of times officers had been arrested, charged and convicted of criminal offences over the past three years.
Dyfed-Powys Police charged two of their officers for possessing child pornography – while others were quizzed for alleged sex assault, threats to kill and forgery. Seven in 10 of their police officer arrests ended in conviction.
A total of 22 officers were held by South Wales Police between 2005 and the end of last year, for alleged crimes including possession of class A drugs, stealing from their own police force, intimidating witnesses, arson and threatening behaviour.
Meanwhile North Wales Police convicted their officers of common assault, using a mobile phone while at the wheel and other driving offences. Others were held over corruption and for getting out of hand while they were meant to be on duty. The force said they were constantly checking to make sure their staff met strict criteria.
They said: “North Wales Police have rigorous vetting procedures which includes a convictions check. North Wales Police are continually reviewing and updating their vetting procedures in respect of newly recruited and existing staff.
“Recruitment and vetting is held securely in individual files.”
Gwent Police was the force with the best track record. None of their officers was arrested on suspicion of committing a criminal offences over the three year period.
Monmouthshire MP David Davies, who is also special constable for the British Transport Police, said it was important for officers to remember the importance of their role in society. He said: “If you are a police officer you are expected to adhere to a high standard at all times, but it is important not to generalise. There are no excuses for anyone who commits any type of crime, particularly possession of child pornography or drugs.
“There will be a small percentage of any organisation who will transgress, but the police forces have bluntly told me that they will do everything they can to find them and root them out.”
David Lindley, deputy chief constable of Leicestershire and Association of Chief Police Officers spokesman on performance and conduct regulations, said that vast majority of police officers could be trusted to abide by the law, and that the figures needed to be viewed in context.
He said: “The police service expects good conduct and probity from its officers and staff at all times, and when we fall below that high standard we will investigate.
“The figures should be seen in the context of the overall number of police officers, the overwhelming majority of whom serve the public with dedication.
“They also demonstrate that police officers are treated no differently to other people when wrongdoing is alleged.”
The charges they faced.
The alleged crimes that police were arrested, charged and convicted of during the past three years.
Arson
Threats to kill
Forgery
Possession of indecent images
Driving with excess alcohol
Sexual assault
Corruption
Breach of data protection
Use of a mobile phone while driving
Speeding
Careless driving
Common assault
Failure to comply with traffic light
Assault
Common assault
Intimidating a witness
Theft
Possession of a class A drug
Section 20 wounding
Misconduct in public office
Threatening behaviour
On Sunday investigation has found that officers have been caught red-handed committing the very crimes they are paid with taxpayers’ money to prevent.
Some officers were even accused of carrying out crimes while they were on the beat.
Using Freedom of Information legislation, we asked Wales’ four police forces to break down the number of times officers had been arrested, charged and convicted of criminal offences over the past three years.
Dyfed-Powys Police charged two of their officers for possessing child pornography – while others were quizzed for alleged sex assault, threats to kill and forgery. Seven in 10 of their police officer arrests ended in conviction.
A total of 22 officers were held by South Wales Police between 2005 and the end of last year, for alleged crimes including possession of class A drugs, stealing from their own police force, intimidating witnesses, arson and threatening behaviour.
Meanwhile North Wales Police convicted their officers of common assault, using a mobile phone while at the wheel and other driving offences. Others were held over corruption and for getting out of hand while they were meant to be on duty. The force said they were constantly checking to make sure their staff met strict criteria.
They said: “North Wales Police have rigorous vetting procedures which includes a convictions check. North Wales Police are continually reviewing and updating their vetting procedures in respect of newly recruited and existing staff.
“Recruitment and vetting is held securely in individual files.”
Gwent Police was the force with the best track record. None of their officers was arrested on suspicion of committing a criminal offences over the three year period.
Monmouthshire MP David Davies, who is also special constable for the British Transport Police, said it was important for officers to remember the importance of their role in society. He said: “If you are a police officer you are expected to adhere to a high standard at all times, but it is important not to generalise. There are no excuses for anyone who commits any type of crime, particularly possession of child pornography or drugs.
“There will be a small percentage of any organisation who will transgress, but the police forces have bluntly told me that they will do everything they can to find them and root them out.”
David Lindley, deputy chief constable of Leicestershire and Association of Chief Police Officers spokesman on performance and conduct regulations, said that vast majority of police officers could be trusted to abide by the law, and that the figures needed to be viewed in context.
He said: “The police service expects good conduct and probity from its officers and staff at all times, and when we fall below that high standard we will investigate.
“The figures should be seen in the context of the overall number of police officers, the overwhelming majority of whom serve the public with dedication.
“They also demonstrate that police officers are treated no differently to other people when wrongdoing is alleged.”
The charges they faced.
The alleged crimes that police were arrested, charged and convicted of during the past three years.
Arson
Threats to kill
Forgery
Possession of indecent images
Driving with excess alcohol
Sexual assault
Corruption
Breach of data protection
Use of a mobile phone while driving
Speeding
Careless driving
Common assault
Failure to comply with traffic light
Assault
Common assault
Intimidating a witness
Theft
Possession of a class A drug
Section 20 wounding
Misconduct in public office
Threatening behaviour
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Protect and Serve, and Freebies for doing Job?
It's maybe the last great perk a beat cop can get.
A free cup of coffee, a discount on a greasy burger.
Though many police departments officially frown on freebies, coffee houses and restaurants around the city and suburbs give the gratis, and the officers' bosses seem to look the other way.
But there's another unwritten rule: Cops can't demand the free stuff. And that's just what officials say Chicago Police Officer Barbara Nevers did, demanding free coffee and pastries from a half-dozen Starbucks stores over the years, until she was banned from one of the java joints and a memo was sent to other stores.
The 55-year-old veteran of more than a decade was suspended for 18 months and recommended for counseling after showing her gun and badge to intimidate employees into giving her free coffee, according to documents released Thursday.
Nevers' actions may have cemented one of the oldest stereotypes about cops—you know, the one about the certain circular pastry they're supposed to love. But she also took advantage of a time-honored tradition: giving hard-working public servants a little gastro-love.
A few Dunkin' Donuts employees around Chicago said they often give 10 percent discounts to cops and the elderly. A 7-Eleven employee at 180 N. Franklin St. said she gives officers who visit a free cup of coffee.
At the Golden Angel in the Lincoln Square neighborhood Thursday, a waitress said, yes, they give 50 percent discounts to the cops who frequent.
"There's a few sitting right here," Julie Paterno said as she watched them munch on chicken-fried steak.
Paterno said customers like the feeling of safety when a police officer is around, and the restaurant feels like it's helping out some public servants.
"I'm thinking most restaurants do it for protection, so they'll keep an eye on the place," she said.
In Lincolnwood, at the all-night Whistler's Restaurant, owner Chris Dimas says it's a give and take. He likes officers to be around his restaurant late at night, and they like his food.
"At night, you don't know the people around, so it is good for them to be here, eating my food," said Dimas, who has owned the place for more than 30 years. There are some officers who don't accept his freebies because their bosses don't like it, and some officers he doesn't know and thus doesn't offer the discount, he said.
"If they feel comfortable with us, we feel comfortable with them and appreciate what they do," he said.
Starbucks has no official policy regarding free coffee for police, leaving that decision up to each franchise, company officials said Thursday. According to testimony before the Chicago Police Board, which decides cases of misconduct, employees in several North Side Starbucks said they often give free 12-ounce coffee or tea to officers on duty. But Nevers would often ask for a larger size or multiple drinks, employees said.
Some employees testified that between 1999 and 2004 Nevers frequented their stores weekly, often in street clothes, and flashed a badge or flipped her jacket to reveal her gun if they asked for payment. In 2004, she was accused of stealing a juice drink from one Starbucks, but eventually was acquitted.
One manager at a Starbucks in the 1700 block of West Diversey Parkway testified that Nevers started asking for free pastries too, and got angry when the store employees refused. The manager told Nevers she wasn't welcome in the store anymore, and testified that Nevers walked behind the store counter, asking angrily if she wasn't welcome, before leaving.
"She was vehement about getting the free pastries," the manager testified.
Several employees said most officers who come in are friendly and always offer to pay before being told that it is on the house. But Nevers was unprofessional, they said, and rarely talked with employees before demanding free coffee. Her actions made even other officers who went to the Starbucks suspicious, believing she could be a police impersonator, one employee testified.
A district manager eventually sent out a memo to stores Nevers frequented, saying free coffee wasn't allowed for her anymore, according to the testimony.
Nevers joined the force when she was 41 but after an injury in training spent most of her time off the street at "call-back," where officers write reports and handle calls. She denied that she demanded coffee or flashed her gun to intimidate the employees, and said she only took free coffee when offered.
"I don't demand anything," Nevers told the Police Board, adding that she always put $2 in a tip jar when she was offered free coffee. Her attorney said Nevers was only accepting what had been a custom in Chicago.
It's a custom that's not likely to change any time soon, rules or no rules. At the Golden Angel on Thursday, Paterno tallied up the bill she'd given the two police officers who stopped by—$6, after the 50 percent discount. The cops didn't forget their waitress, though.
"They both left $2 apiece," she said.
A free cup of coffee, a discount on a greasy burger.
Though many police departments officially frown on freebies, coffee houses and restaurants around the city and suburbs give the gratis, and the officers' bosses seem to look the other way.
But there's another unwritten rule: Cops can't demand the free stuff. And that's just what officials say Chicago Police Officer Barbara Nevers did, demanding free coffee and pastries from a half-dozen Starbucks stores over the years, until she was banned from one of the java joints and a memo was sent to other stores.
The 55-year-old veteran of more than a decade was suspended for 18 months and recommended for counseling after showing her gun and badge to intimidate employees into giving her free coffee, according to documents released Thursday.
Nevers' actions may have cemented one of the oldest stereotypes about cops—you know, the one about the certain circular pastry they're supposed to love. But she also took advantage of a time-honored tradition: giving hard-working public servants a little gastro-love.
A few Dunkin' Donuts employees around Chicago said they often give 10 percent discounts to cops and the elderly. A 7-Eleven employee at 180 N. Franklin St. said she gives officers who visit a free cup of coffee.
At the Golden Angel in the Lincoln Square neighborhood Thursday, a waitress said, yes, they give 50 percent discounts to the cops who frequent.
"There's a few sitting right here," Julie Paterno said as she watched them munch on chicken-fried steak.
Paterno said customers like the feeling of safety when a police officer is around, and the restaurant feels like it's helping out some public servants.
"I'm thinking most restaurants do it for protection, so they'll keep an eye on the place," she said.
In Lincolnwood, at the all-night Whistler's Restaurant, owner Chris Dimas says it's a give and take. He likes officers to be around his restaurant late at night, and they like his food.
"At night, you don't know the people around, so it is good for them to be here, eating my food," said Dimas, who has owned the place for more than 30 years. There are some officers who don't accept his freebies because their bosses don't like it, and some officers he doesn't know and thus doesn't offer the discount, he said.
"If they feel comfortable with us, we feel comfortable with them and appreciate what they do," he said.
Starbucks has no official policy regarding free coffee for police, leaving that decision up to each franchise, company officials said Thursday. According to testimony before the Chicago Police Board, which decides cases of misconduct, employees in several North Side Starbucks said they often give free 12-ounce coffee or tea to officers on duty. But Nevers would often ask for a larger size or multiple drinks, employees said.
Some employees testified that between 1999 and 2004 Nevers frequented their stores weekly, often in street clothes, and flashed a badge or flipped her jacket to reveal her gun if they asked for payment. In 2004, she was accused of stealing a juice drink from one Starbucks, but eventually was acquitted.
One manager at a Starbucks in the 1700 block of West Diversey Parkway testified that Nevers started asking for free pastries too, and got angry when the store employees refused. The manager told Nevers she wasn't welcome in the store anymore, and testified that Nevers walked behind the store counter, asking angrily if she wasn't welcome, before leaving.
"She was vehement about getting the free pastries," the manager testified.
Several employees said most officers who come in are friendly and always offer to pay before being told that it is on the house. But Nevers was unprofessional, they said, and rarely talked with employees before demanding free coffee. Her actions made even other officers who went to the Starbucks suspicious, believing she could be a police impersonator, one employee testified.
A district manager eventually sent out a memo to stores Nevers frequented, saying free coffee wasn't allowed for her anymore, according to the testimony.
Nevers joined the force when she was 41 but after an injury in training spent most of her time off the street at "call-back," where officers write reports and handle calls. She denied that she demanded coffee or flashed her gun to intimidate the employees, and said she only took free coffee when offered.
"I don't demand anything," Nevers told the Police Board, adding that she always put $2 in a tip jar when she was offered free coffee. Her attorney said Nevers was only accepting what had been a custom in Chicago.
It's a custom that's not likely to change any time soon, rules or no rules. At the Golden Angel on Thursday, Paterno tallied up the bill she'd given the two police officers who stopped by—$6, after the 50 percent discount. The cops didn't forget their waitress, though.
"They both left $2 apiece," she said.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Woman Beat By Cop In Shreveport While In Custody
A Shreveport police officer has been fired after an incident in which a female prisoner taken into custody on suspicion of DWI wound up lying on a floor at the police station in a pool of blood.
Much of what happened was recorded on a videotape -- but there is a gap of undetermined length. During that time, the woman wound up injured. She said she was beaten up; the officer said she fell.
This typical jackass cop knew what he was doing when he turned off the camera.He had full intentions of hurting that woman. I hope he receives double the time for this crime. When cops get busted for doing things like this, I believe they should recieve more time. Maybe that would stop some of the asshats from doing this kind of things.
If you'd like to voice your opinion to the police dept or internal affairs
Chief of Police Henry Whitehorn Office: (318)673 - 6900
Assistant to the Chief Duane Huddleston Office: (318) 673 - 6908
Internal Affairs Captain Ray Goeckel Office: (318) 673 - 6906
Much of what happened was recorded on a videotape -- but there is a gap of undetermined length. During that time, the woman wound up injured. She said she was beaten up; the officer said she fell.
This typical jackass cop knew what he was doing when he turned off the camera.He had full intentions of hurting that woman. I hope he receives double the time for this crime. When cops get busted for doing things like this, I believe they should recieve more time. Maybe that would stop some of the asshats from doing this kind of things.
If you'd like to voice your opinion to the police dept or internal affairs
Chief of Police Henry Whitehorn Office: (318)673 - 6900
Assistant to the Chief Duane Huddleston Office: (318) 673 - 6908
Internal Affairs Captain Ray Goeckel Office: (318) 673 - 6906
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Florida Police Dump Quadriplegic Man From His Wheelchair
In Hillsborough County, Florida, police were caught, by their own surveillance cameras, dumping a quadriplegic man from his wheelchair and onto the ground. Apparently they were trying to determine whether or not he actually needed the chair.
Orient Road Jail surveillance footage from Jan. 29 shows veteran deputy Charlette Marshall-Jones, 44, dumping Brian Sterner out of his wheelchair and searching him on the floor after he was brought in on a warrant after a traffic violation.
Sterner, 32, said when he was taken into a booking room and told to stand up, Jones grew agitated when he told her that he could not.
"She was irked that I wasn't complying to what she was telling me to do," he told The Tampa Tribune. "It didn't register with her that she was asking me to do something I can't do."
....As for Sterner, he was arrested at his Riverview home and taken to the jail Jan. 29 on a charge of fleeing and attempting to elude a police officer, according to records. He posted $2,000 bond and was released Feb 3.
A warrant for Sterner's arrest was issued after an Oct. 25 incident, in which Tampa police stopped him in Ybor City. He was stopped while driving a Mini Cooper that had been fitted with hand pedals and was cited for blocking an intersection.
"My client was stopped that night and was given a traffic citation, so how could he be fleeing and eluding?" Sterner's lawyer John Trevena said. "We're very skeptical about the basis for the charge itself."
***********************************
The police fuck with people all the time everywhere. This is not unusual. They especially tend to fuck with people they know can't hire a lawyer. This just happened to backfire.I hope this guy sues the hell of out them and wins...But the said part is they will all gang up in their own little gang and say it wasn't their fault, it was the guy who was handicapped.
I hope these ass hats all get fired...especially the guy who laughed about it.
This is sad, and cops wonder why people are afraid of the them. I've heard of children being tasered so many time that I'm sick of it. They said that tasering would only be used in the most dangerous situation. It is used when ever they want to.
Orient Road Jail surveillance footage from Jan. 29 shows veteran deputy Charlette Marshall-Jones, 44, dumping Brian Sterner out of his wheelchair and searching him on the floor after he was brought in on a warrant after a traffic violation.
Sterner, 32, said when he was taken into a booking room and told to stand up, Jones grew agitated when he told her that he could not.
"She was irked that I wasn't complying to what she was telling me to do," he told The Tampa Tribune. "It didn't register with her that she was asking me to do something I can't do."
....As for Sterner, he was arrested at his Riverview home and taken to the jail Jan. 29 on a charge of fleeing and attempting to elude a police officer, according to records. He posted $2,000 bond and was released Feb 3.
A warrant for Sterner's arrest was issued after an Oct. 25 incident, in which Tampa police stopped him in Ybor City. He was stopped while driving a Mini Cooper that had been fitted with hand pedals and was cited for blocking an intersection.
"My client was stopped that night and was given a traffic citation, so how could he be fleeing and eluding?" Sterner's lawyer John Trevena said. "We're very skeptical about the basis for the charge itself."
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The police fuck with people all the time everywhere. This is not unusual. They especially tend to fuck with people they know can't hire a lawyer. This just happened to backfire.I hope this guy sues the hell of out them and wins...But the said part is they will all gang up in their own little gang and say it wasn't their fault, it was the guy who was handicapped.
I hope these ass hats all get fired...especially the guy who laughed about it.
This is sad, and cops wonder why people are afraid of the them. I've heard of children being tasered so many time that I'm sick of it. They said that tasering would only be used in the most dangerous situation. It is used when ever they want to.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Bad Cops
Another Video of cops being wrong. Poor woman. But what people don't know is that this kind of thing happens all the time. Some police think they are above the law, and can do anything they want. It happened to me once. I hope like hell this woman is able to sue the shit of them...and wins!!
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