When Whitehill resident Andrea accidentally cut her arm on glass, her sister frantically called 911, "I need a paramedic." Columbus Police Officer Jon Thomas responded to the house where he pulled out his gun and shot toward the family's dog (which he claims ran toward him), missed, and hit Andrea's four-year-old daughter Ava in the leg, shattering her bone.

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As The Columbus Dispatch reports, Andrea also revealed that the cop never apologized or asked if Ava was okay and immediately left after shooting her.

A Columbus police officer accidentally wounded a 4-year-old girl in Whitehall on Friday when he fired at a charging dog, police said.

A neighbor and the girl’s uncle identified her as Ava Ellis, who was taken to Nationwide Children’s Hospital, where police said she was in stable condition.

The officer was at a house in the 4100 block of Chandler Drive investigating a hit-and-run case about 3:10 p.m., Columbus police spokeswoman Denise Alex-Bouzounis said.

As the officer was walking from the home to his patrol car, a woman a few houses away called out to him, saying her sister and the girl’s mother, Andrea Ellis, had cut herself.

The officer was at the doorway when a dog charged at him, Alex-Bouzounis said.

The officer fired once, missing the animal but striking the girl in the right leg. It was unclear whether the girl was hit directly or by a ricochet. The officer has not been identified.
Neighbors say the officer walked back to his patrol car after the shooting.

“He seemed a little disoriented, like he was really bothered,” said Norman Jones, who called the police after hearing the shot. Columbus and Whitehall police arrived at the scene shortly afterward.

“Mommy, am I gonna die?” four-year-old Ava Ellis asked her mother.

Queensland Police have been ordered to pay a man $2000 after he was tackled and arrested after riding his pushbike down the steps of a Gold Coast RSL on Anzac Day.

John Beard was arrested after police chased him and tackled him to the ground on April 25 outside of Southport RSL club for not wearing a helmet while riding his bike.

Police had claimed Mr Beard punched a police officer who approached him for not wearing a helmet, the Gold Coast Bulletin reports.

But CCTV footage showed officers chase Mr Beard and tackle him to the ground outside the RSL.

It was found officers had used excessive force when arrested him.

Charges including assaulting or obstructing a police officer, serious assault of a police officer causing bodily harm and failing to wear a bicycle helmet were dropped in Southport Magistrates Court.

It was also revealed that the officer that arrested him, Senior Constable Nathan Irwin, has been referred for further disciplinary action and is under investigation.

Mr Beard has made an official complaint to the Crime and Corruption Commission, and his lawyer Campbell MacCallum says his client should not have been charged.

"It seems Mr Beard was just having a bit of a joke – he'd had a few drinks on Anzac Day, he rode his bike down the footpath a distance and didn't have his helmet on," he told the Bulletin.

The CCC says it has refereed the matter back to the Queensland Police Service for handling, while Mr Beard was awarded $2000 in court costs.

Under an aggressive policy meant to combat unlicensed vehicles for-hire, the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) has seized over 21,000 cars since 2012. After a seizure, commission inspectors pressure owners to plead guilty and pay hundreds of dollars in fines to recover their property. The Commission’s citywide dragnet not only cracked down those who compete with established transportation companies, but also ensnared regular New Yorkers, who were simply driving their friends, family, neighbors—and even nuns—around the city.

After the TLC seized their cars without warrants, five owners sued in federal court last year. As they asserted in their complaint, the government cannot “seize property without judicial process and hold the property hostage.”

On September 30, Manhattan U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni agreed and held that the warrantless seizures violated the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. “‘Probable cause’ is not a talismanic phrase that can be waved like a wand to justify the seizure of any property without a warrant,” she wrote. The decision marks an important victory for due process and property rights.

TLC inspectors “fall somewhere between meter maids and cops,” as the New York Daily News once put it. While barred from carrying guns, the Commission’s 170 inspectors carry badges, are authorized to make arrests, and may carry pepper spray and batons, and wear bulletproof vests while performing their duties. City law allows TLC inspectors to seize cars suspected of being unlicensed vehicles for hire. The Commission does not release cars it seizes until a hearing that is supposed to occur no later than two weeks after the seizure.

However, owners can retrieve their cars beforehand if they either plead guilty and pay a fine (ranging from $600 to $1,150) or post a bond of $2,000, equal to the maximum penalty under the for-hire vehicle law. If an owner opts for the latter, the bond will only be released if he or she prevails at the hearing. One TLC inspector even blasted the Commission’s enforcement division as “more or less just a corrupt money-making scam for the city.” Clearly, there is a strong incentive for the owner to plead guilty, even if he or she has done nothing wrong.

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In December 2013, Michael Harrell, another plaintiff, lent his car to a friend, but inspectors seized it. Since Harrell was unable to attend a hearing (scheduled two days before Christmas), a default judgement was entered in favor of the Commission. But Harrell successfully moved to vacate that decision and received a new hearing in June 2014. At that hearing, an administrative law judge ruled that the TLC “did not have any evidence” for its accusations and dismissed the case. Unfortunately, by that time, the Commission had already sold Harrell’s car and “did not offer any restitution or other financial compensation.”

It is now abundantly clear that Matthew Ajibade was murdered by police in Savannah, Georgia. For over 10 months, police and prosecutors have concealed the video evidence of his murder not only from the public, but from Ajibade's closest friends and family members. His death in police custody was ruled a homicide by coroners, but the whole of Savannah's government has colluded in covering up the sadistic and brutal murder of a beloved artist and photographer who was a student at Savannah College of Art and Design.
The video below is awful and is confirmation that the United States tortures and kills its prisoners on American soil. Torture is not something that happens far away in Abu Ghraib: It's happening here.

In case you can't stomach the video, here's an explanation of what happens, so that you can understand it and prepare to speak out against it.

On New Year's Day 2015, Matthew Ajibade was arrested after a mental health crisis. Instead of being taken to a hospital, Ajibade, who was otherwise in perfect physical condition, was taken to jail—against his family's wishes. In a video we received last week, police are seen punching and kicking Matthew Ajibade in the face and head before restraining him.

Now, after Ajibade was stripped of his clothes and handcuffed to a restraining chair, we see the worst. The police Taser has a camera attached to it that is automatically triggered when the device is turned on.

Strapped to the chair after already being beaten and stunned with a Taser multiple times, we see a red light, the target of the Taser, continually pointed at Matthew's groin. The audio from the Taser camera is distorted, but we see little to no movement from Ajibade.

It gets much worse.

Soon, we see that the Taser is moving closer to his genitals. As the camera gets closer to his genitals, it is deployed. You hear the awful shock of the Taser, followed by the unforgettable screams of Matthew Ajibade. The video then ends—perhaps as the Taser is turned off, but we don't know.

What we do know is that Matthew Ajibade died in his cell, strapped to this restraining chair, soon after being Tasered here. The timestamp on the video states that it is 4:45 AM on the morning of January 2.

Police claimed they found Ajibade "unresponsive" in his jail cell at 1:38 AM.

Either way, the video below shows a restrained man being tortured to death in our jails.

Nobody was charged with Matthew Ajibade's murder—and we now see that officials concealed this video because they knew we'd call for such charges if we ever saw it.

Father of three, Corey Dickerson was out for a jog Saturday night when Talladega’s finest decided they needed to harass him. Dickerson is not your average pushover, however, and he knew exactly how to handle himself.

As the video begins, Dickerson was resting from a hard sprint when officer Price of the Talladega police department decided to detain him.

Officer Price begins his ‘fishing’ expedition by firing off random questions at Dickerson, in a likely attempt to get him to self-incriminate. But Dickerson is no fool.

When Dickerson legally refuses to answer questions, officer Price starts in with the usually, “Well, we’ve had a lot of burglaries and thefts, and we don’t know who you are.” In other words, “a black man jogging at night is suspicious, so give me your id.”

The police “not knowing” who Dickerson is, does not create the reasonable articulable suspicion necessary for a lawful detainment. At this point, officer Price’s detainment of Dickerson becomes unlawful.

Despite the fact that Alabama is a “Stop and Identify” state, police cannot detain Dickerson and demand his name, according to Ala. Code §15-5-30, unless the officer:

reasonably suspects (he) is committing, has committed or is about to commit a felony or other public offense and may demand of him his name, address and an explanation of his actions.

Simply claiming that there have been burglaries in the area does not constitute reasonable suspicion — and Dickerson knew this.

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Danan Gabaldon did not like the thought of jail, so he became particularly well-skilled at evading the police. On Memorial Day of this year, police attempted to apprehend Gabaldon, but he was able to flee, in what police say was a stolen SUV.

For ten days, Gabaldon successfully evaded the authorities until they tracked him to an intersection in southwest Albuquerque. Upon, immobilizing Gabaldon’s vehicle, police immediately tried to kill him as they fired multiple shots at the unarmed suspect.

However, being the escape artist that he is, Gabaldon managed to run from the scene without being hurt — but not for long. Two disturbing videos were released this week showing what happened next.

As Gabaldon ran, an APD detective hopped into his unmarked pickup truck, closed the distance to Gabaldon in six seconds, cranked the wheel to the right, drove up onto the curb – and plowed into Gabaldon.

The detective’s body camera and a citizen’s cellphone captured the attempted murder from two different angles. As if running a man down with a truck wasn’t enough, the detective gets out of the vehicle, gets on top of Gabaldon and begins to taser the back of his head. As he tasers the bloody and incapacitated Gabaldon, the detective begins pummelling his face and head with the butt of the weapon.

The officer is so deep into his feeding frenzy that he had no idea he was also tasering a fellow cop.

It took four months for the APD to release the videos below, and when you hear their justification for the detectives actions, you’ll know why.

According to KMOV:

APD’s spokeswoman said it was an accident, that detective was not trying to run Gabaldon down, but to cut him off. Gabaldon was resisting and that the department’s use-of-force policy speaks for itself.

That policy says, “Officers shall use only that force which is reasonably necessary,” and says officers shouldn’t expect suspects to comply without being tased.

Gabaldon is now in jail, charged with crimes from the Memorial Day incident, but not the day he was hit.

Whether or not Gabaldon is an upstanding citizen of the town or not, is irrelevant in this situation. He was unarmed and fleeing, not posing a threat to officers when he was run over by a raging cop. Regardless of what some people may say to justify this officer’s actions, the facts remain.

Cops are not the judge, jury, and executioner. Acting as if they are is a telling sign that America has slipped into a police state in which cops can dole out “street justice” with impunity. This precedent must be resisted and exposed.

The Justice Department and U.S. Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced today that the former Mamou Police Chief Gregory W. Dupuis was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, and former Mamou Police Officer and Chief Robert McGee pleaded guilty to one count of the deprivation of rights under color of law, both for their roles in a series of incidents in which they deployed TASERs on non-resistant inmates at the Mamou Jail.

Dupuis’ sentencing and McGee’s plea are the result of a federal investigation into the illegal use of excessive force upon inmates at the jail.

Dupuis, 57, of Mamou, pleaded guilty to one count of violation of an individual’s civil rights on April 13 and was sentenced today by U.S. District Court.

According to evidence presented at Dupuis’s plea hearing, Dupuis served as police chief from 1994 to 1997 and from 2004 to 2014. During his tenure as chief, officers, including McGee, repeatedly administered taser shocks as a form of punishment on inmates who were being disruptive, even if the inmates’ disruption was purely verbal, and on inmates who were calm and compliant when the officer deployed the taser. On Apr. 25, 2010, Dupuis went to the department’s jail to deal with a verbally disruptive detainee.

Dupuis ordered the detainee to get down from his bunk and put his hands on the far wall. The detainee complied.

Dupuis then entered the cell and deployed the taser on the detainee’s back, causing the detainee to fall to the ground, suffer pain and injure his knee. At his plea hearing, Dupuis admitted that he knew at the time that his actions were unlawful.

McGee, 44, of Mamou, pleaded guilty today to one count of violation of an individual’s civil rights committed as an officer in 2010, prior to his 2014 election as chief of the Mamou Police Department. According to McGee’s guilty plea, McGee was called to the Mamou Police Department on multiple occasions in 2010 and 2011 to deal with disruptive inmates.

On Aug. 6, 2010, McGee and an inmate were engaged in a conversation. Although the inmate posed no threat to himself or the officers, McGee fired the taser at the inmate, causing the inmate to fall and experience pain.

McGee, who was elected Mamou police chief after this incident, resigned his position as chief on Oct. 8, as a result of the federal investigation.

McGee faces up to 10 years in prison, three years supervised release and a $250,000 fine. A sentencing date was not set.

“The defendants abused the trust given to them as law enforcement officers when they engaged in a pattern of repeatedly tasing compliant detainees,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta of the Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department will vigorously prosecute those who violate the civil rights laws to ensure that the rights of all individuals, including those in custody, are protected.”

“Law enforcement officers have a duty to ensure that detainees are treated fairly and humanely when taken into custody,” Finley said in a press release Tuesday. “Mr. Dupuis and Mr. McGee breached that trust and violated their oaths by using excessive force on incarcerated

The FBI and the Louisiana State Police conducted the investigation. Trial Attorneys Stephen Curran and Sanjay Patel of the Civil Rights Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Myers P. Namie and Robert Abendroth of the Western District of Louisiana are prosecuting the case.

A Baltimore police sergeant has been suspended after a video surfaced on social media that appeared to show him spitting on a handcuffed subject.

Sgt. Robert Mesner, who has been with the department for 34 years, is the subject of a criminal investigation and an internal investigation, police said Tuesday.

"The video appears to depict the police sergeant spitting on the arrestee," interim police Commissioner Kevin Davis said in a statement. "That is outrageously unacceptable and it directly contradicts the necessary community relationships we are striving to rehabilitate."

The video, shot at night, shows a man who appears to be under arrest, handcuffed and prone on the ground. A man in a police uniform standing over him leans down and appears to spit on the man.

Bystanders in the video are heard shouting that the officer spit on the man.

The incident occurred on Old York Road on Monday night, police said.

The man in handcuffs was identified by police as Alfred Evan.

Evan, a 31-year-old Parkville man, was charged with second-degree assault of a law enforcement officer, second-degree assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, according to online court records. He was held in lieu of $25,000 bail. He could not be reached for comment, and no lawyer was listed for him in court records.

Activist Kwame Rose received videos of the incident and posted them on Twitter to his more than 7,000 followers.

Rose, whose legal name is Darius Kwame Rosebrough, said the video showed the officer "doing everything Kevin Davis said police shouldn't do."

Rose said the incident is another example of why there is a need for stronger police accountability.

"The officer needs to be fired," he said.

Davis said the department is asking for witnesses to come forward. He said police are searching for additional videos of the incident.

Last week, Davis answered questions about a video that showed a man punch a police trainee on Broadway.

"More and more police encounters are going to be captured on videotape," he said. "The Police Department welcomes that."

The department is scheduled to launch a body camera pilot program this month in the Central, Western and Eastern districts, with the technology expected to be in use citywide by early next year.

After years of watching a Fairfax County parking enforcement officer slap tickets on his customers’ cars for expired tags or inspection stickers, usually as the cars were awaiting state inspection or repair at his Chantilly shop, he snatched the latest ticket out of Officer Jacquelyn D. Hogue’s hand and added some profane commentary on top.

Hogue responded by having Redwine arrested for felony assault on a police officer, though she is not a police officer. And when the case first went to court, a Fairfax judge sentenced Redwine to four days in jail.

Redwine appealed, got a jury trial last month and was acquitted within minutes. But the bitterness he feels at having to spend thousands of dollars in legal fees, plus being booked, fingerprinted and photographed at the county jail, with no prior record, is shared by numerous fellow auto repair operators at the Mariah Business Center on Sullyfield Circle off Route 28.

They don’t understand why Fairfax police have zealously sought to enforce laws on expired tags or inspections, mainly on drivers who are making the effort to get their cars into compliance, while on private property. Hogue’s appearance in the industrial park often set off a scramble to hide customers’ cars inside the shops, the shop owners said.

“They’re harassing the small businesses trying to make it in this tough economy,” said Ray Barrera of A&H Equipment Repair. He estimated that his customers’ vehicles had been hit with $60,000 worth of fines and fees over the past six years.

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A Round Rock police officer's actions are igniting a firestorm on social media after he was caught on camera putting his hands around a student's throat.

Gyasi Hughes is suspended from Round Rock High School today due to a fight between him and another student over a pair of prescription sports goggles. But it's what happened afterwards that has him speaking out.

Two Round Rock School Resource Officers were called by an administrator to help break up the fight between the two students. In cell phone video, shot by another student, the officers are seen trying to calm Hughes down. But when the 14 year old puts his hand on the officer, the cop grabs him by the throat and takes him to the ground.

"I was mad because he kept pushing me and touching me and I wasn't physically doing anything to him either. That's when I said 'can you leave me alone' and that's when he took me down," said Gyasi Hughes.

Hughes' friend, Sebastian Vazquez was eating lunch when he heard the commotion.

"In the beginning, I heard people be like ooh and stuff, and it was Gyasi and this other kid, they were pushing each other around," he said. But Vazquez says it was never a full-blown fight, and things got more tense when two school resource officers showed up. "Both cops got him in the corner, so I pulled my phone out to start recording because that seemed odd," said Vazquez.

Yet another friend shared Vazquez's video with KEYE TV. "The officer that handled this problem exaggerated way too much," said Ryan Tomlinson. "Somebody needs to know about this. We have to let the news know about this so I uploaded the video to news with their permission," said Tomlinson.

In a statement from the Round Rock Police Department a spokesperson said, "After repeated attempts to calm the non-compliant student, and stop him from going after the other student, officers were forced to detain him for his safety and the safety of others." Adding, "This incident is currently under review by the police department staff."

A Round Rock ISD spokesperson said the school is working with the police department to make sure proper procedures were followed.

Hughes' dad wants the officer reprimanded. "In terms of the officer it was definitely excessive force that was being used. There's many ways to handle situations and the way he handled the situation was unacceptable," said Kashka Hughes.