Andrew Mossberg was walking back to his condo in South Beach when he saw a disturbing scene: A muscular man was grappling with a thin woman, punching her and grabbing items from her purse. Naturally, Mossberg assumed it was a mugging in progress and called 911. That's when the man charged at him, hitting him repeatedly in the head. When the dust cleared, though, Mossberg was stunned to find himself in handcuffs — and shocked to learn that the aggressor was no criminal, but rather a Miami Beach cop.

...

Archer responded to a call from the condo's lobby, where a 29-year-old model was allegedly drunk and passed out. The two scuffled, with the altercation spilling out onto the sidewalk. That's when Mossberg, an audio engineer, spotted the fight and called police, thinking Archer was robbing the young woman.

"I yelled at him that the police are on their way," Mossberg told New Times in 2013. "That's when he ran at me, kicked me once in the left side of the head, then kicked me again in the forehead, and punched me twice." A bystander caught the aftermath on tape, as Mossberg rolls on the ground in pain:

https://youtu.be/pOhM_zFpPyA

The model, Megan Adamescu, says she was also battered by the cop, suffering a black eye and a head contusion. She told New Times that Archer never ID'ed himself as a cop. "He definitely didn't show me a badge. All of sudden he's coming at me like a raging lunatic, grabbing my purse. I was freaking out," she said in 2013.

Archer was initially suspended without pay in September 2013 as investigators looked into Mossberg and Adamescu's complaints. Prosecutors and Internal Affairs investigators cleared Archer of wrongdoing during the encounter on the street.

But separate allegations about abuse back at the police station lead to Archer's suspension on Friday.

Archer — who was also one of 12 cops who shot and killed Raymond Herisse in an infamous 2011 Memorial Day shooting — will now be suspended 160 hours.

Rep. Ted Lieu argued:

It's a fundamental misunderstanding of the problem. Why do you think Apple and Google are doing this? It's because the public is demanding it. People like me: privacy advocates. A public does not want an out-of-control surveillance state. It is the public that is asking for this. Apple and Google didn't do this because they thought they would make less money. This is a private sector response to government overreach.

Then you make another statement that somehow these companies are not credible because they collect private data. Here's the difference: Apple and Google don't have coercive power. District attorneys do, the FBI does, the NSA does, and to me it's very simple to draw a privacy balance when it comes to law enforcement and privacy: just follow the damn Constitution.

And because the NSA didn't do that and other law enforcement agencies didn't do that, you're seeing a vast public reaction to this. Because the NSA, your colleagues, have essentially violated the Fourth Amendment rights of every American citizen for years by seizing all of our phone records, by collecting our Internet traffic, that is now spilling over to other aspects of law enforcement. And if you want to get this fixed, I suggest you write to NSA: the FBI should tell the NSA, stop violating our rights. And then maybe you might have much more of the public on the side of supporting what law enforcement is asking for.

Then let me just conclude by saying I do agree with law enforcement that we live in a dangerous world. And that's why our founders put in the Constitution of the United States—that's why they put in the Fourth Amendment. Because they understand that an Orwellian overreaching federal government is one of the most dangerous things that this world can have. I yield back.

On Friday, the Miami Beach Police Department announced that a detective had been suspended for 160 hours for violating department policies on use of force and handling prisoners in custody. The suspension stemmed from a case where Archer had punched a Good Samaritan in the head, but it turns out the IA's findings weren't related to that confrontation.

Instead, Det. Philippe Archer's punishment stemmed from his conduct in the parking garage back at MBPD headquarters. Surveillance video obtained by New Timesshows Archer punching a handcuffed woman in the face and then kicking her. Investigators say Archer broke department rules by attacking the woman and later failed to note the attack in his official report. Archer also forced a man he'd injured to take a photo with him.

Sheriff Victor Hill has been a lightning rod for controversy since he fired 27 deputies on his first day in office a decade ago and then used a military tank on drug raids in suburban Atlanta's Clayton County.

He was voted out of office in 2008, but won it back again in 2012 despite facing felony corruption charges.

Now, police in suburban Gwinnett County say he shot a woman Sunday in a reported accident, but refused to speak with investigators at the scene.

The woman, 43-year-old real estate agent Gwenevere McCord of Jonesboro, was listed in critical condition Monday, police said.

Hill and McCord were alone in the model home that's listed at $329,990, and he's the one who called 911 around 5:39 p.m., police said. However, police said he kept mum after that.

"He refuses to give any statements," Gwinnett County police Sgt. Brian Doan told reporters late Sunday.

Hill was released with no charges.

The caller reported a man armed with what described as an AK-47 and a handgun with a woman. The caller thought it was a “domestic” situation and said the man walked inside the business.

The caller also told authorities the gunman was threatening other people before leaving in a white Chevrolet Impala and gave police the license plate.

The man, Walter Fisher, was ultimately stopped on Bell Road underneath I-24.

Officer Birch, at gunpoint, yelled for Fisher to exit his vehicle.

Video captured Birch doing so with “inappropriate” language. He is heard saying things like, “I’m gonna shoot you in the f***ing face!”

Fisher complied, exited the car, and was detained without incident. He was later released after police learned Fisher was eating at the restaurant when he saw two people burglarizing his car.

Fisher, who was wearing a pistol in his waistband, went to confront the burglars. One of them fled and he captured the other.

He then removed his shotgun from his car and was preparing to escort the man to a nearby motel in an attempt to get the items that were stolen from his car when the burglar broke free and ran away.

Police said Fisher did not pursue the man, nor did he notify police of the burglary. That’s when he left the restaurant and was stopped by officers.

Fisher, a former football star at Hillsboro High School and defensive tackle for the Tennessee Vols has a valid handgun carry permit. No charges were filed against him.

Officer Birch has been assigned to desk duty pending the outcome of an investigation into his actions.

The SWAT team snakes behind a one-story pink and yellow house an hour before dawn breaks over a silent working-class block in Hallandale Beach. As the heavily armed cops in black military gear pour into the small backyard, Tank, a 15-year-old pit bull, rises from the concrete ground, straining at his metal chain. One cop aims and shoots the dog, killing it. Another officer smashes open the back door, then hurls in a flash grenade. Officer Michael McKenzie, a burly cop covered in bulletproof gear and armed with an automatic shotgun, bursts into a narrow kitchen.

McKenzie is suddenly face to face with the man he'd come looking for: Howard Bowe Jr., a bearded 34-year-old with a chubby face and long dreads, wearing only a T-shirt and boxers. McKenzie screams at Bowe to get down.

Seconds later, he shoots him twice in the stomach.

In the next apartment, Corneesa Bowe, Howard's sister, hears her brother scream. "Why did y'all shoot me?" he yells.

Howard's 16-year-old son freezes in bed on the other side of the house. Suddenly the door is kicked open, and three SWAT-gear-clad officers storm into his room. "Don't move!" one cop shouts, grabbing hold of the teenager and pulling him out of the bed. "What's going on?" Howard III asks.

Twenty minutes later, from the back of a police van, Howard III watches his father, still conscious and with a dazed look in his eyes, rolled out of the house on a stretcher. "Why did y'all shoot me?" his father says again, this time weakly.

Within hours, Bowe would fall into a coma. Ten days later, he'd be dead.

...

Although Bowe was the first suspect killed in a Hallandale Beach SWAT operation, New Times found that since 2006, the department's narcotics unit has conducted at least 38 SWAT raids, including 33 in the same square mile area where Bowe lived. That area is a mostly black enclave within a sleepy, affluent town of 38,000 that's 80 percent white. The other five raids were carried out within a quarter-mile of that area.

New Times also found that not a single Hallandale Beach raid has ever turned up a substantial drug bust. In the majority of cases, police found small amounts of cocaine or marijuana, including in one raid that yielded nothing but one joint. At least four of those SWAT efforts turned up no drugs at all.


...


Police Chief Dwayne Flournoy says Hallandale Beach PD followed the procedures laid out by Florida's State Statute 933.09, which he quoted word for word to New Times.

"An officer may break open any outer door, inner door, or window of a house or any part of a house or anything therein to execute the warrant, if after due notice of the officer's authority and purpose, he or she is refused admittance to said house or access to anything therein," he says.

But some neighbors take issue with the police version of events, claiming cops actually went through the back door first and never announced themselves.

Arvis Samuel, a 41-year-old longtime friend of Bowe's, lives in the house across the street. He says police ran through the backyard. Then he heard the gunshots that killed Tank, the pit bull, and then Bowe.

"They didn't serve the warrant at the front door. They went straight through the back door," Samuel says. "I heard the first gunshots, and the first shot was to kill the dog at the back door. About 30 seconds after the first shot came the second and third shot."

Corneesa Bowe, Howard's sister who was next door during the raid, believes Howard was asleep when the first shot killed Tank. She believes he got up to see what was happening, walking into the kitchen that faces the back door. When police broke in, Howard was facing McKenzie, who then shot him.

"I heard some screaming and then the gunshots," she recalls. "And after that, my brother was crying out, 'Why did y'all shoot me?'"

Samuel could also hear Bowe shouting after he had been shot. "I heard him screaming for about three or four minutes," says Samuel. "He was telling them to stop, don't shoot."

Middletown, DE — The family of 20-year-old Ty Sawyer is now in mourning after the young man was brutally beaten to death. Local authorities know who the murderer is, but there will be no charges pressed. There won’t even be an investigation according to the police department.

Ty’s killer has been identified as University of Delaware hockey player Patrick Downey. He also happens to be the son of two former police officers. Sources report the beating occurred at a party.

Downey allegedly beat Sawyer, knocking him unconscious, then kicked him in the head, killing him. It has been reported that Downey’s mother took him into the police station after the murder in an apparent attempt at damage control. Together they filed a reportedly false claim that the two young men “agreed to fight.” As a facebook post by Danielle Balback points out,
The police ruled the death “not a homicide” before family and friends even knew what happened, while the community is taking it upon themselves to ask these questions. It is utterly disturbing that a brutal murder is not being investigated because the murderer claims the victim was fine with it. Patrick Downey is clearly a violent young man capable of killing another human being with his bare hands. He’s lucky he has two seasoned veterans to guide him through his first coverup.

In the morning, a judge heard motions from representatives of Matthew Kohr, a lieutenant with Raleigh police's special operations division, and Starbucks.

Kohr and his wife are suing the coffee giant, claiming that a lid popped off the cup of coffee he ordered at the Starbucks on Peace Street and the cup folded in on itself. They are seeking $50,000, including damages, attorney fees and medical costs.

In the lawsuit, Kohr said he poured cold water on the burn, but the pain intensified. He claimed the injuries aggravated his Crohn's disease and resulted in surgery to remove a portion of his intestine.

The incident, according to the lawsuit, also caused Kohr's wife, Melanie, a loss of a "source of emotional support, her social companion and her intimate partner."

The Starbucks barista who prepared the drink and the company that made the cup were initially named in the suit but have since been dropped.

Before the case could go forward, the cost of the cup of coffee came into question. Since Kohr didn't pay, Starbucks attorneys argued that it wasn't subject to the same warranty that a purchase would imply.

They also pointed out that Starbucks serves about four billion cups a year made by International Paper and that there have been only 59 similar incidents.

Jury selection began Monday afternoon, and testimony in the case is expected to begin later this week.


Read more at Raleigh officer, wife asking for $50K in hot coffee case :: WRAL.com

Federal agents responsible for leaving a 23-year-old UC San Diego engineering student in a holding cell for five days without food or water received only reprimands or short suspensions from the Drug Enforcement Administration, according to the Justice Department.

Daniel Chong was swept up in a 2012 DEA raid on his friends' house, where he had gone to smoke marijuana. After an interrogation, he was told he would be released.

But the agents responsible forgot about him, according to a Department of Justice Office of Inspector General report last summer, leaving him to drink his own urine to stave off dehydration.

...

When he was finally discovered he was delirious, with serious respiratory and breathing problems. He was hospitalized for four days, and he and his lawyers said at a news conference last summer that he underwent intensive therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder. The department paid Chong a $4.1-million settlement.

The Inspector General Report said that three DEA agents and a supervisor bore primary responsibility for Chong’s mistreatment and that the DEA San Diego Field Division lacked procedures to keep track of detainees. They were not named in the report.

The Department of Justice letter said that DEA officials forwarded a report on the incident to a disciplinary board, the Board of Professional Conduct, without conducting its own investigation. The board issued four reprimands to DEA agents and a suspension without pay for five days to another. The supervisor in charge at the time was given a seven-day suspension.

When a white police officer in South Carolina chased a black man nine miles by car, then shot him to death in his driveway last year, the shooting apparently was captured on the officer’s dashboard camera – a video that state police have steadfastly refused to release.

North Augusta officer Justin Craven tried to pull 68-year-old Ernest Satterwhite over for drunken driving, then followed him with blue lights to his home after Satterwhite refused to stop in February 2014, authorities said.

When Satterwhite stopped in his driveway, Craven ran up to his car and fired several shots through the closed door, telling deputies later that Satterwhite tried to grab his gun, according to a report from Edgefield County deputies who joined the chase after it crossed the county line.

Craven faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of misconduct in office and discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle. A prosecutor sought to indict him for voluntary manslaughter, which carries guaranteed prison time and a maximum sentence of 30 years, but a grand jury refused.

Craven’s dashcam video has been shown to few people outside law enforcement. Several who have seen it say it is horrible and offensive, and Satterwhite had no time to respond to Craven. They will not speak on the record because they have been threatened with legal action since the video has not been publicly released.

Insulting a police officer or municipal official on the internet has been made illegal in the town of Granby, Que., after the council voted unanimously tonight in favour of beefing up an already controversial bylaw.

In Granby — a town situated about 80 kilometres east of Montreal — it was already illegal to insult a police officer and other municipal officials​. Offenders could face fines ranging from $100 to as high as $1,000.

Tonight, the town council strengthened that bylaw to include online insults.

"In my opinion, if I threaten you via my keyboard, it's as though I am making that threat right in front of you.… For me, it's the same thing," said Robert Riel, Granby's deputy mayor.

The move comes after town officials discovered a Facebook page called Les policiers zélé de Granby — The Zealous Police of Granby.

A Baltimore city judge says the state violated court procedures - but not the Constitution - after last week’s riots by holding some suspects more than 24 hours without taking them before a judicial officer to have bail set.

Circuit Judge Charles Peters ruled Monday in a case brought by Maryland Public Defender Paul DeWolfe. The judge refused to release two defendants who are still being held. That’s because they saw a district court commissioner within an expanded, 47-hour deadline set under Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s executive order.

Peters didn’t say Hogan’s order was illegal.

The ruling was confined to the defendants in the case.

Prosecutors say judicial and police resources were strained by the April 27 riots. They say police made 182 arrests, about four times the normal number.

Nearly a year after Charles Eimers died while being retrained by a group of Key West Police officers, his family's attorneys track down a bystander video that FDLE agents and the State Attorney had simply never bothered to obtain. For full story go to: EIMERS DEATH-IN-CUSTODY UPDATE: Missing Video Surfaces - Key West The Newspaper... Note: at the request of the videographer, some audio containing commentary by the videographer has been detached. Additonally, at the request of the videographer, approximately 13 seconds was deleted showing friends of the videographer standing on the pier.

Charles Eimers was suffocated in the sand after driving away from a traffic stop in 2013. It took 6 officers to hold him down and place him in cuffs. Once he was in cuffs, no one bothered to stand him up. Force was applied until his body lay lifeless.
This article does an okay job collecting the details

Link: http://www.goodmorningbirmingham.com/?p=5273

All officers involved gave conflicting testimony under oath that contradicts the video captured by a citizen on the pier that day. The police chief responsible for officer training was deposed to find out if these officers followed protocol in giving sworn testimony. This lawyer is a hero.

Link: http://youtu.be/T-6S2QbmEZk

In April, the DoJ decided to investigate Eimers death after 4 investigations by local law enforcement found no wrong doing by the officers.
The corruption and cover up runs deep, evidenced by the FDLE lead investigator not excusing herself from an investigation of which her ex husband and childs father was involved. This woman is the person tasked with keeping these officers in check and provides no results.