Responding to a fight that broke out in a Brooklyn Ecuadorian restaurant Saturday, New York City police officers proceeded to arrest an employee not involved in the fight after he told them not to kick a handcuffed patron.

That suggestion prompted NYPD officers to turn their aggression on him, slamming him to the ground and punching him several times before striking his head with a blackjack.

Then after they had taken him and two other men to jail, the cops returned to the restaurant and proceeded to delete surveillance video that captured the incident.

But the footage was recovered with the help of a local activist group called El Grito Del Sunset Park. The recovered video includes the fight as well as the returning cops.

The employee who was arrested is Kevin Cuzco, 18, who is the owner’s son; the woman who called police in the first place.

Now Olga Cuzco regrets ever calling them, a lesson learned daily by people throughout the United States.

SECURITY camera footage of a brutal police arrest which ended in a Perth engineer being charged for assault has helped clear the man’s name.

The footage shows the moment engineer Brandt Croswell was grabbed by a police officer and pushed to the ground, his head picked up and slammed on the pavement.

Mr Croswell had made a rude hand gesture at the officer prior to the October 2012 arrest outside The Moon and Sixpence venue in Perth.

On Tuesday, Mr Croswell was cleared of the assault charge after three years in a retrial.

The CCTV footage was key evidence.

It also shows Mr Croswell’s girlfriend filming the incident on her mobile phone.

Nine News reported the magistrate ruled Mr Croswell did headbutt the officer but he had been provoked and he was scared and defenceless.

The woman said her phone was then confiscated and the footage deleted.

“It’s just great the truth has finally come out,” Mr Croswell said.

Police responded to the shooting Monday at 10:45 p.m. on the 1400 block of Morgan Avenue North, which is located one block north of the 4th Precinct.

Police say the investigation revealed the second man who was arrested, a 32-year-old Hispanic male, was not at the scene of the shooting at the time.

Witnesses said the gunmen were white supremacists who were hanging around the rally before others asked them to leave. The witnesses said the men came back a short time later and fired six shots at protesters. Five victims suffered non-life threatening injuries.

Shortly before noon Tuesday, police said a 23-year-old man, who is white, was arrested in Bloomington. Two more suspects were arrested around 2:30 p.m: a 26-year-old white male and a 21-year-old white male who voluntarily turned themselves in.

Their identities will be released upon charging.

All major routes coming in and out of Bel Air, Maryland were blocked by police this Tuesday, who set up checkpoints and searched cars with drug dogs. Thousands of cars were searched in the operation, which was not reported by any local news media and was not announced by the police department.

Many people had suspected that police were out in strong force ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, searching for drunk drivers. However, witnesses reported that the police were actually in search of drugs, specifically heroin, and they even had massive construction signs posted that said “Heroin checkpoint ahead, Drug K9 In Use.”

Readers of The Free Thought Project reported close to a dozen different checkpoints in Harford County, each of them at major intersections during heavy traffic hours. Sadly, there was very little public outcry about the checkpoints, and many people were actually praising the police because of the fact that heroin is legitimately a problem in the area.

However, checkpoints like this are a blatant violation of everyone’s rights, even people who think that they have “nothing to hide,” and it won’t even achieve its stated goal of keeping drugs out of town. Our readers told us that they witnessed several arrests, although it is unclear whether or not these arrests were related to heroin. It is likely that police were making any arrests and writing any tickets that they could while they had the checkpoint set up, even if it was for something like marijuana possession or driving with expired tags.

Heroin addiction is a serious problem, but as counter-intuitive as it sounds, the best way to prevent heroin overdoses is to actually legalize it. Certain areas of the world, like Portugal, where all drugs have been made legal there are far fewer overdoses than there are in prohibition countries. The Washington Post reported earlier this year that drug overdoses are extremely rare in Portugal, and they have some of the lowest rates of addiction in the world.

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...The U.S. Supreme Court today struck down the police practice of executing random drug searches at highway checkpoints, calling the practice a violation of Americans’ right to privacy.

With the court’s most conservative members dissenting, the justices ruled against the city of Indianapolis, voting 6-3 that the police use of roadblocks and random stops to cut the flow of illegal drugs through the city was unconstitutional...

The video obtained by the KOMO Investigators shows officers, including David Bauer, punching a suspect under arrest 17 times in the head and face after an officer appears to kick the man in the stomach.

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The Seattle city attorney's office said that charges against two of the family members were dismissed, while another charge was dropped after a "dispositional continuance" was completed.

The family settled the case, but Bauer faced no discipline under previous SPD leadership and the use of force was never referred to the Office of Professional Accountability.

Yesterday, the Harford County Drug Taskforce, along with multiple law enforcement partners, conducted a multi-jurisdictional saturation effort throughout communities in Harford County. This special detail is part of law enforcement’s ongoing heroin reduction efforts and focused on conducting vehicle and pedestrian interdiction on major roadways throughout Harford County, as well as in designated Safe Street neighborhoods.

The geography of Harford County provides several alternative routes often utilized by drug traffickers and others involved in criminal activity to avoid police interdiction efforts on I-95. Using a strong law enforcement presence, saturation, and interdiction efforts can result in arrests for narcotics violations, in addition to, arrests for other crimes to include burglaries, thefts, and traffic related offenses. The initiative was designed to meet the following goals: make the streets of Harford County safer for pedestrians and drivers; detect and arrest illegal drug users and sellers, and those drivers who are under the influence; promote public awareness of the dangers of heroin and drugged driving; most importantly, demonstrate to the citizens of Harford County that its law enforcement agencies care about the heroin epidemic affecting them and are united in their commitment to eradicating it.

Law enforcement utilized a combination of variable messages promoting heroin “check points” set up on major roadways throughout the county, combined with proactive vehicle and pedestrian interdiction in designated locations and “Hot Spot” neighborhoods known for heroin use and sales. Variable message signs were used throughout the detail to raise awareness that law enforcement was saturating the area. Focusing on areas known for drug trafficking and drugged driving, these “check points” were conducted on Route 152, Route 1, Route 24, and Route 40. As opposed to the traditional DUI Checkpoints most are familiar with, in these “checkpoint” areas, vehicles continued on the roadway without being required to slow down or stop. Those vehicles that were pulled over were done so after they were observed committing some type of motor vehicle violation. As we had the opportunity to come in contact with motorists, two pamphlets were available; the first provided heroin awareness information, the second provided information for those struggling with drug addiction.

In total, there were approximately 73 law enforcement officers who participated, representing: The Harford County Sheriff’s Office, Maryland State Police, Maryland Transportation Authority Police, Havre De Grace Police Department, Aberdeen Police Department, Bel Air Police Department, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

This detail resulted in ten arrests and the seizure of $7,000 cash, one switchblade knife, illegal drugs to include more than 20 pounds of marijuana, opiates and prescription pills, and related drug paraphernalia. Additionally, 32 traffic citations, 148 warnings, and 18 repair orders were issued during the operation.

Sheriff Gahler remarked, “This morning the number of heroin-related overdoses Harford County law enforcement have responded to stands at 156 nonfatal overdoses and 24 overdoses which have proven to be fatal. We must work tirelessly to eradicate this dangerous drug from our community. High visibility law enforcement details, such as the one from yesterday, send a clear message to the drug dealers in our community – you are not welcome here. Still, much needs to be done, but we will not rest until the job is complete.”

A former Sacramento police officer convicted of raping a 75-year-old stroke victim in her senior living apartment has been sentenced to life in prison, court records show.

Prosecutors said Gary Dale Baker, 52, entered the woman's apartment at least three times from 2010 to 2012, raping her twice as she suffered from a stroke-related inability to speak.

He was convicted in July of nine charges relating to the case, including rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual battery and burglary. On Tuesday, Baker was sentenced to 62 years to life, meaning that he will spend the rest of his life behind bars, a spokeswoman for Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said.

The woman, now 77, was recovering from a stroke in a senior living complex in South Sacramento when the attacks began, prosecutors said.

She struggled to communicate to her family what had happened, and initially, even though DNA evidence confirmed the rape, investigators were not able to link it to any known suspects, prosecutors said.

But in late 2012, after Baker attempted a third assault, a Sacramento police detective suggested that the woman's family install a motion-activated camera.

When Baker came back again, police officers reviewing the footage immediately recognized him. Baker, who was then an active officer on the Sacramento police force, was arrested and fired from the department.

“You tarnished the badge for police officers everywhere," Sacramento Superior Court Judge Ernest Sawtelle said as he sentenced Baker, the Sacramento Bee newspaper reported on Wednesday. "For your crimes, you will be sentenced to life in prison.”

Sawtelle called Baker's crimes "unspeakable," the newspaper said.

Sacramento County jail records show that Baker remained in custody on Wednesday, with no listed release date. A request by his attorneys for a new trial was denied on Tuesday, records show.

A sick, stray dog picked up in Clayton County, Ga., was discovered to be a retired police dog.

According to a Fundrazr.com post by Partners for Pets, Master Blaster’s original handler became sick several years ago and the dog had to be re-homed.

Master Blaster, 6, was then found as a stray and picked up by Clayton County Animal Control. He was adopted and then returned because he was sick.

He has pneumonia and needed immediate hospitalization. His bill for the first 24 hours is estimated to be $1,000, and he will likely need additional care.

“He’s very weak, and heaving with his coughing fits with thick green mucus running out of his nose,” the fundraising post stated of the 6-year-old dog. “He didn’t deserve this type of maltreatment.”

The post did not disclose what police department the dog had previously served.