Darrius Stewart, 19, was killed by a Memphis police officer following a physical altercation after the teen was pulled over for a broken headlight.

Investigators said that the officer issued the teenager a ticket on Friday night and placed him in the backseat of his patrol car to verify outstanding warrants.

The officer claims he did not cuff the young man, and when he approached the backseat a scuffle ensued. The teen allegedly got hold of the officer's handcuffs and swung them in his direction. The unnamed cop then shot the teen to end the fight.

Meagan Taylor, 22, was arrested Monday by Des Moines police after staff at the hotel she was staying with another transgender friend called police. According to the police report, officers were called by the hotel about “two males dressed as females who checked into the Drury Inn,” and that “staff was worried about possible prostitution activity,” according to the Des Moines Register.

She is currently being held at Polk County Jail in isolation, because jail officials don’t know whether to place her with men or women.

According to the Register, Taylor could be there for months. Her next court date is not until August 25. Her bail is only set at $2,000, meaning she could post $200 and be released. But because she was a visitor from out of state, she would need someone local to co-sign, and she doesn’t know anyone that lives in Des Moines. She doesn’t even have a lawyer yet.

In a jailhouse interview, Taylor told the Register that after the Drury Inn staff called police, they arrived at her hotel room and proceeded to search her, even though they found no evidence of prostitution.

She gave a fake name and a Missouri ID. The officer found pills in an unmarked bottle in her purse and arrested her for possessing prescription drugs without a prescription and an outstanding probation violation. The Register could find no explanation for a third charge — “malicious prosecution,” a serious misdemeanor.

The pills, Taylor said, are for her hormone therapy.

“It seemed like they were trying to find something to charge me with,” she said in a Thursday interview with the Register. “I lied about my name [but] I was not doing any illegal activity. The lady called police because I was transgender and was with a transgender friend.”

While federal guidelines under the Prison Rape Elimination Act take don’t say which sex transgender inmates should be housed with, it opposes long-term isolation and recommends decisions be based on the individual.

“There is… no good reason for a 22-year-old nonviolent person like Taylor to be locked up indefinitely,” the Register’s Rekha Basu writes. “Maybe the real offense is a private business calling police on paying guests because they didn’t conform to gender stereotypes.”

The Register reports that a transgender Lutheran minister from San Francisco has launched a fundraising campaign to help Taylor.

A Chicago investigator who determined that several civilian shootings by police officers were unjustified was fired after resisting orders to reverse those findings, according to internal records of his agency obtained by WBEZ.

Scott M. Ando, chief administrator of the city’s Independent Police Review Authority, informed its staff in a July 9 email that the agency no longer employed supervising investigator Lorenzo Davis, 65, a former Chicago police commander. IPRA investigates police-brutality complaints and recommends any punishment.

Davis’s termination came less than two weeks after top IPRA officials, evaluating Davis’s job performance, accused him of “a clear bias against the police” and called him “the only supervisor at IPRA who resists making requested changes as directed by management in order to reflect the correct finding with respect to OIS,” as officer-involved shootings are known in the agency.

Since its 2007 creation, IPRA has investigated nearly 400 civilian shootings by police and found one to be unjustified.

WBEZ asked to interview Ando, promoted last year by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to head the agency. The station also sent Ando’s spokesman questions about sticking points between IPRA investigators and managers, about the agency’s process for overturning investigative findings, and about the reasons the agency had reversed many of Davis’s findings.

The spokesman said there would be no interview and sent this statement: “This is a personnel matter that would be inappropriate to address through the media, though the allegations are baseless and without merit. IPRA is committed to conducting fair, unbiased, objective, thorough and timely investigations of allegations of police misconduct and officer-involved shootings.”

The performance evaluation covered 19 months and concluded that Davis “displays a complete lack of objectivity combined with a clear bias against the police in spite of his own lengthy police career.”

Davis served in the police department for 23 years. As a commander, he headed detective units, the department’s Austin district and, finally, its public-housing unit. He retired from the department in 2004.

“I did not like the direction the police department had taken,” Davis said. “It appeared that officers were doing whatever they wanted to do. The discipline was no longer there.”

It's a deadly crash pitting police against the cycling community. An alleged drunk driver who collided with a cyclist in Ferrisburgh last month will not be charged with the biker's death.

Police and prosecutors readily admit, Holly Gonyeau had a blood alcohol content above the legal limit to drive. But they say evidence collected from the scene puts the cyclist at fault.

It's a conclusion that's outraging both the victim's loved ones and the cycling community.

"The family is distraught over what happened today," said Ben Luna, lawyer for cyclist's family.

Gonyeau, 36, entered a Middlebury courtroom charged with drunk driving. Last month she was involved in a crash in Ferrisburgh. She walked away. The 60-year-old cyclist, Ken Najarian, was pronounced dead at the scene.

"The family is extraordinarily discouraged over the lack of charges filed in this case," said Luna.

Gonyeau pleaded not guilty to DUI. According to court paperwork, two hours after the crash the Ferrisburgh woman had a blood alcohol content of .087 and admitted to taking prescription Xanax.

She allegedly told police she finished one Mike's Tea 20 minutes before the collision. Police say they smelled booze on her breath and noticed her eyes were bloodshot and watery.

"We don't believe it had a role other than she was impaired but as far as the collision itself it didn't have a factor in this," said Lt. Garry Scott, Vermont State Police.

The state police crash reconstruction team concluded the cyclist was at fault. Troopers say on June 17, Gonyeau's car and Najarian's bike were both headed south on Greenbush Rd. Gonyeau allegedly crossed the center line into the northbound lane to give Najarian space as she tried to pass, but police say at the same time, the cyclist made an abrupt U-turn. The car and bike collided in the northbound lane, mid U-turn.

"We're deeply concerned that there are issues in the judgment of those who investigated this and misciting the law. This was not Dr. Najarian's fault," said Luna.

Gonyeau's husband, Sgt. Keith Gonyeau, is a Williston police officer. But prosecutors and state police deny that his position influenced their conclusions.

Reporter Jennifer Costa: Is the defendant getting an preferential treatment because her husband is a law enforcement officer?

Addison County State's Attorney David Fenster: No.

"We have to go with every case on the evidence and the merits of that case and we investigate it and there's no special treatment," said Scott.

Crash investigations can be complex. Former federal prosecutor Tris Coffin says the public may not be aware of all the details that led to the decision about not charging Gonyeau with the death.

"There may be issues with them being able to bring that charge and being able to prove it in court beyond a reasonable doubt," said Coffin.

But Luna vows the investigation is far from over. Even calling the affidavit "troubling" and "grossly inaccurate." He vows to re-examine every step law enforcement took investigating the case.

"Scrutinize it closely to ensure there was no taint in this case and if there was we'll find it," said Luna.

The cyclist's lawyer is pushing for upgraded charges like negligent operation or DUI with death resulting. He plans to hire an independent crash reconstruction expert to analyze the case.

The commander of the state police crash reconstruction team says he's confident in his conclusion. Gonyeau is due back in court August 24.

"On June 30, 2012, Valverde ruled in favor of Denton, saying that he "used unreasonable and unnecessary force against [Spradlin]. However, the discipline imposed is excessive under all circumstances."

A Buffalo police officer is suspended without pay following an incident that was caught on camera almost five years ago that shows him striking a handcuffed suspect.

In a YouTube video taken in December 2010, Buffalo Police Officer Anthony Porzio is seen driving up to a scene, walking over to a handcuffed suspect and striking him with a back arm.

The incident began after police were called to the scene for a noise violation. The victim, 18-year-old Chris Cuneo, was not responsible for the noise and was attempting to walk away from the scene. However, officers Creedon and Svenson, of the West Deptford police department, were having none of that.

New Jersey is not one of the 24 states that have a Stop and Identify law. The only reason these officers had a right to ask Cuneo for his name is if they had reasonable suspicion of him committing a crime. Even if police had reasonable suspicion, Cuneo is under no obligation to identify himself to officers.

In the video, police never verbalized their reasonable suspicion. They simply attacked a teenager who did not want to give his name and who had committed no crime. As Cuneo attempted to walk away, one officer held him while another punched him in the face multiple times, according to witnesses.

Since Cuneo was knocked unconscious during the attack, he was brought to the Cooper Trauma center. He had to be given stitches on the inside of his mouth and the outside of his face to repair the damage inflicted on him by public servants.

The officers’ subsequent reaction to Cuneo’s assertion of his rights is nothing short of criminal assault. However, as is the case most of the time, these officers arrested and charged Cuneo with a crime after they assaulted him.

After officer Creedon had bloodied this teen’s face, he and officer Svenson arrested Cuneo and charged him with Hindering, Resisting Arrest, and Obstruction.

According to the West Deptford police department, the incident is under investigation.

Cuneo, who tells the Free Thought Project that hopes this incident doesn’t ruin his chances of getting into the military, is not some criminal out robbing people late at night. He’s a good kid who just happened to cross paths with two of West Deptford’s worst.

Illegally stopped and illegally searched, the police lied about finding Cannabis in my car in a attempt to get me to admit to a crime. This happens allll the time in my county Hillsborough but esp in Polk county Fl where we were when this happened. The police never stated a reasonable suspicion for detaining us for the length that they did, and they never made any arrest because I did nothing illegal in the first place, except of course this weed I wasn't arrested for, so A he fucked up and didn't arrest me when I have illegal poss of a controlled substance or B he is full of **** and lying through his ******* teeth. You be the judge....

They knocked down a closet shelf. They ripped down a wall inside the laundry room. They even used a box cutter to shred a bedroom pillow. Finally, when the search didn't produce the evidence they expected, one of them demanded answers.

"Where is the cash?" he asked Bovery, who said he was handcuffed and seated in a recliner in his living room. "Where are the betting slips?"

Bovery tried, once again, to explain. He was not a bookmaker. He was not hiding anything. He was a football pool operator who was so open about his business, and so convinced he was doing it legally, that he listed his home address in Parlin on the pool's website.

But this wasn't any ordinary office pool. This one, he told investigators and NJ Advance Media, was worth $837,000 in 2009. This one had 8,000 entries from around the globe -- men and women sending in $100 for a chance to win that huge pot. The players included prominent sports broadcasters, New Jersey state troopers, dozens of lawyers and -- according to Bovery -- the agents for Tiger Woods and other PGA Tour golfers.

...

He was working as a currency broker for a Wall Street firm in 1990, and says his organizational skills made him a natural to run a fantasy football and baseball pool each year. That's when a co-worker told him about a different kind of game. It was called a "survivor pool," and the premise was simple. Each participant picks an NFL team, without the Vegas point spread, to win its game that week. If that team loses, the player is out. If that team wins, he or she advances to the next week.

...

It had 362 players in 1992, cracked 1,000 four years later, then topped 2,000 six years after that. The pool had become a second full-time job, with hundreds of envelopes and checks spread across the beige carpet in his condo.

...

It was a knock on that condo door, in May 2010, that changed everything. Bovery was surprised to find two investigators from Monmouth County standing in the doorway, asking questions about a name Bovery knew, but a man he said he had never met. He didn't know it at the time, but they were investigating the man in connection with an organized crime case involving Joseph LaScala, who was described in wire taps as "the godfather of New Jersey."

The man had won Bovery's pool, and so Bovery had sent him a series of checks totaling about $90,000. The investigators were skeptical.

"You sent checks to a guy you never met?" they asked.

"Yeah, it happens every year," he replied.

And so Bovery laid it all out. The pools. The website. The checks. The questions became less about the man the prosecutors were investigating and more about him. How many people are in this pool? How much money?

Bovery met with them again, and on the way out of the office, he said he asked if he was doing anything wrong. "Because if I am," he said, "I'll change or just stop entirely." They said nothing, so Bovery went back to running his other pools.

...

Bovery wishes he could reset the calendar to Sept. 9, 2010, but he knows that's impossible. He said he has gained 30 pounds from the stress of the case and has trouble sleeping. He spent 25 days in jail in the winter of 2011 after he was indicted, and was so severely depressed, he said he asked other prisoners for ways to end his life.

Use the sheets from your bed to make a noose, they told him. Steal a bottle of the chemicals when they make us scrub the floor.

Mary Bovery would have to leave her teaching job early on Wednesdays to see him at the jail, and what she saw frightened her. "It's not easy to see somebody you've loved for 30 years in an orange jumpsuit, broken," she said. "He was not in a very good state of mind."

Things didn't improve much once he was released on bail. It's not only that he can't teach any more because of the pending felony conviction, he can't even get a job at one of the big golf stores on Route 1 near his house. He tutors, and Mary is working two jobs, but they have to borrow money from friends just to pay his expenses. He figures they are more than $150,000 in debt.

...

Bland was a 28-year-old Black Lives Matter civil rights activist and vocal critic of police brutality who died in police custody after a Texas officer pulled her over for a traffic violation, ordered her out of her car when she refused to put out her cigarette, and aggressively arrested her. Police say Bland committed suicide, yet the Waller County prosecutor says Bland’s case is “being treated just as it would be a murder investigation.”

A few points about this video:

Her entire arrest was based on her refusing to put out her cigarette (while sitting in her car) which angered the cop 9:17 Just 9 seconds later, he's demanding that she exit the vehicle.

11:54 Off-camera, as he's dragging her down to the ground, she can be heard loudly saying 'I can't wait to go to court!'

I don't want to claim that I know what happened to her in that jail cell, but those words sound like someone who can't wait to get out of this predicament and head straight to a legal battle NOT a person that is about to hang herself in her cell using a plastic bag.

Later on in the video as the cop is telling 'his story' to dispatch, he never mentions the cigarette request that he made that initiated the whole physical encounter... It's as if he thought that the dascam video would just eliminate that part of the conversation.

He got suspended w/out pay cause he had no legal reason to ask her to put out her cigarette or to get out of the car... this is classic case of escalation, IMO

Two US police officers have been caught on security camera beating a man with fists and a baton after he raised his hands, appearing to surrender.

The New York Daily News reports officers Lenny Lutchman and Pearce Martinez are under investigation for using excessive force in arresting Thomas Jennings, who was charged with robbery and resisting arrest.

In the video Jennings appears to raise his hands in surrender when approached by Lutchman before Martinez enters the shot, landing three punches to Jennings’ head.

...

The incident in Bedford-Stuyvesant occurred on July 7 and was allegedly sparked by Jennings’ refusal to pay for a $3 slice of pizza in a different establishment.

Jennings disputes that he stole the pizza, telling the news site he was $1 short and had gone outside to borrow the money from another man.

But, police have alleged another unidentified man then entered the store with a switchblade knife before both he and Jennings fled without paying, leading to a call to police reporting a robbery.

Officers then tracked Jennings to a second store where the arrest was caught on camera.

Jennings was held without bail for a week before being released when police failed to present their case to a grand jury.