DURHAM, N.C. — A 20-year-old sophomore communications major at North Carolina Central University, Lewis James Little sat in the Durham County jail for a month last year after he did what he says he thought was the right thing.

He and some friends had been visiting the home of a childhood friend on Melbourne Street in east Durham on the night of June 21, 2013, when, he says, they discovered 25-year-old Michael Lee dead in the middle of the road.

"I called the police – when none of the other guys were even thinking about it – trying to do the right thing, and it pretty much started from there," Lewis said.

Twenty minutes after officers arrived, he was handcuffed and later jailed under a $1.425 million bond on burglary, kidnapping and several other criminal charges in connection with a break-in at a nearby home.

Christi Seale says her 17-year-old son Chaz accidentally confused a beer can for a soda can and packed it in his lunch.

"He was in a hurry, running late. We were talking about school and he put it all together and took off for school," she said.

When he realized his mistake at school, Chaz gave the unopened beer to his teacher. But that teacher then reported it to the principal at Livingston High School, who suspended the boy for three days and then sent him to an alternative school for two months.

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Fishing Kinfe Story

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He’s probably learned his lesson, not about the dangers of fishing knives, but about the dangers of consenting to a search. The beer can and the fishing knife cost the two students a combined 13 days of suspension and five months at “alternative” schools. Administrators at both schools insist procedures were followed, and what are they getting paid the big bucks for if not to defer to the rule book and deny access to their schools to students who’ve inadvertently run afoul of those rules, even when they haven't hurt anyone. Whether they like it or not, they’ve taught the students, and any classmates paying attention, a valuable lesson on authority and how stupid and dangerous it can be.

...A month after Lord was questioned, Thompson arrested her for murder.

Initially, the M.E. ruled the case a homicide, but later changed Burnside's cause of death to "undetermined."

A grand jury cleared Lord of any criminal charges. She later sued Thompson, saying he violated her civil rights and lied to the medical examiner about the case.

Lord also accused Thompson of using a witness that was unreliable.

A jury agreed, saying Thompson recklessly disregarded the truth and maliciously prosecuted her. They awarded Lord $1.2 million. Her attorney, Don Tittle, issued this statement:
Dallas police say they have made changes as a result of this case, including better review of interrogation tapes and additional supervisory oversight.
The department told News 8:
While Dallas police investigate, Dwayne Thompson is not investigating any homicide cases. He could face disciplinary action if internal affairs finds his actions violated the department's general orders.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A police officer in South Carolina shot a 70-year-old motorist who was reaching for a cane during a traffic stop because he thought the man was grabbing a rifle from the bed of his pickup truck, investigators said. The man was expected to survive.

The York County deputy, Terrence Knox, pulled over Bobby Canipe (kah-NYP’) of Lincolnton, N.C., for an expired license tag about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday north of Clover, S.C., York County sheriff’s spokesman Trent Faris said.

After stopping, Canipe got out of his pickup truck and reached into the bed, pulling out what Knox thought was a long-barreled rifle, Faris said. It was Canipe’s walking cane. The officer fired several times, hitting Canipe once, Faris said.

At first blush, a lawsuit filed last week by the ACLU on behalf of a sociology professor at Indiana University wrongly detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection seems to be about whether CBP is exceeding the limitations on its police powers, and detaining US citizens for purposes unrelated to customs and borders.

That’s bad, but unsurprising in light of the history of abuse of limited administrative search powers as a pretext for unrelated police purposes by CBP and other DHS components, notably the TSA.

What’s more unusual, however, is the complaint that the DHS is using email messages, presumably obtained from the NSA (unless the DHS has some email interception program of its own) as the basis for detention and interrogation of US citizens who aren’t trying to travel or ship any goods across US borders.

And what was the subject of this warrantless custodial interrogation of a non-traveling US citizen by armed “Customs and Border Protection” officers, based on email intercepts? Her sex life.

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An unarmed, 25-year-old man not wanted for any crime was exercising his constitutional rights to move away from Anaheim Police Department (APD) officers when 20 seconds later one of the cops, armed with a semi-automatic Glock, decided without warning to kill him with shots to the buttock and back of the head.
That's the story Dale K. Galipo, an attorney for the estate of Manuel Diaz, told a jury of six men and two women in his Feb. 25 opening statement at the excessive force and wrongful death trial inside U.S. District Court Judge James V. Selna's Santa Ana courtroom.

"Mr. Diaz had nothing in his hands," Galipo said. "He was no threat when he was shot [in the buttock]. As he was going down to his knees, there was a second shot to his head . . . Diaz landed face down. The officers handcuffed him, patted him down and didn't find a weapon. They never found a weapon."

February 26, 2014 |
Police officers in Michigan involved in the fatal shooting of a homeless man during a confrontation over stolen coffee will not be facing federal charges, Raw Story reports. Authorities, including the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI, announced Tuesday, February 25 that there was not significant enough evidence to charge the six Saginaw police officers with manslaughter.

“After a thorough investigation, federal authorities have determined that this tragic event does not present sufficient evidence of willful misconduct to lead a federal criminal prosecution of the police officers involved,” the agencies said in a joint statement.

The incident took place on the afternoon of July 1, 2012, when the police were called to investigate a report that 49-year-old Milton Hall, a homeless Saginaw man with a known history of mental illness, had stolen a cup of coffee from a convenience store. After arriving to the scene, officers found Hall armed with a pocket knife. It was during the confrontation in a parking lot that police fired their weapons 47 times at Hall, hitting him 11 times and fatally wounding him.

Anthony Bruno, a six-year veteran firefighter hailed as “courageous and dedicated” by his Chief, has now died after being shot in the chest by a police officer.

Bruno was a six-year third-generation firefigther who had been with the fire department since 2008, praised by his chief and his peers.

Tragically, the killing happened just hours after Bruno was married, destroying the future he and his new wife had planned.

Bruno, who was in his 20′s, leaves behind his wife, his family, and his fellow firefighters.

Bruno had been out celebrating his marriage with friends and family, according to reports.

He and his wife Stephanie Steele were in a taxi on their way to a hotel and began disputing the fare with the taxi driver.

The driver threw money at Bruno’s wife, who was still in her wedding dress, and called her a name – and this caused the husband to punch the driver, according to local news.

“She said during the argument, she stated that the cab driver threw the money she had given him back toward her near her face and called her an unknown name,” the report says.

Shortly therafter Officer Donald Hubbard approached Bruno.

Bruno tried to avoid officer Hubbard and a chase began.

Two Midland police officers were disciplined with a three-day suspension recently for having a contest to see who could confiscate the most signs from homeless people, even though panhandling doesn't violate any city law.

A police chief was detained and harassed by federal agents while traveling to a constitutional convention before returning home to be told he was being placed on administrative leave and ordered to disband his police department after signing a pledge to uphold the bill of rights.

Police Chief Shane Harger of the Jemez Springs, NM Police Department was flying out of Albuquerque Airport last week on his way to a Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) convention taking place in Las Vegas. CSPOA is an organization headed up by Sheriff Richard Mack under which law enforcement officers gather to re-affirm their commitment to uphold and defend the Constitution.

Before passing security, Harger was approached by a TSA agent who asked the police chief to show his credentials. Moments later, a man claiming to be a “federal agent” also asked to see Harger’s credentials before telling him he was a “person of interest.” The federal agent then demanded to know where Harger was traveling to and why.

When Harger told the federal agent he was attending the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association Convention in Las Vegas, he was detained for 35 minutes before finally being allowed to board the airplane.

J. Miguel Carter says his 65-year-old mother purchased her property more than 15 years ago. She was semi-retired after raising three boys on her own and wanted to find a little peace out in the desert. However, the past eight years haven't been very idyllic. Carter says his mother has had to deal with steady harassment from neighbors along with vandalism of her wells and the theft of property and gasoline from her truck.

Carter and his brothers contend that the Pinal County Sheriff's Office had been aware of Williams' harassment complaints for a long time but chose to ignore her, going so far as to characterize her as "a crazy old lady who complained all the time."

As we pull up to his mother's driveway, Carter points out the spot where Williams was arrested by Pinal County sheriff's deputies the night of Jan. 4, 2013, and where he found her tooth, knocked out during her arrest.

[...]

With a full moon still weeks away, it was pitch dark that January night when Williams stepped outside about 6:30 p.m. to investigate the noises she had told her son about. According to Carter, a witness living nearby and court documents, Williams was armed with her .22 pistol, certain that her neighbor's son was on her property after an altercation earlier that evening, and dozens of other altercations over the years. She walked to a wall on her property and stood near her chicken coop. From there, she saw what she believed was a group of several men, although all she could see was a flashlight beam.

In response to what she thought were trespassers, Williams fired what she described as warning shots into the ground. But the person holding a flashlight was a sheriff's deputy and his report contradicts Williams' statements.

[...]

The deputy wrote that he continued to walk up the driveway and yelled "Sheriff's Office" twice more before he claimed he heard Williams say something that he didn't understand. As he stood behind some trees, he heard two shots and saw muzzle flashes from what he thought was a handgun. He reported the shots to Dispatch and ran to his patrol car to get his rifle. When he returned to the driveway he saw Williams, unarmed, walking toward him.

"I commanded her to get down to the ground facedown," the deputy reported. "She complied and stated, 'Why am I being arrested? I shot down.' I placed her in handcuffs behind her back. ... She again stated, 'I shot down.'"

[...]

In the sheriff's press release, the person who called 911 that evening was identified as 53-year-old Bruce Fay, a neighbor of Williams who happened to have an "assault/domestic violence warrant" still outstanding for his arrest.

"As deputies attempted to take him into custody for the warrant, he attempted to run away and then when caught he resisted arrest. Eventually, he was taken into custody ... and booked into the Pinal County Adult Detention Center." [...] He notes that Fay was released shortly after being taken into custody while his mother, a 65-year-old woman without a criminal record who had dedicated her life to helping others, was still sitting in jail, considered a high-risk and dangerous inmate.

[...]

Patrick Cote, an investigator from Casa Grande hired to work with Williams' defense attorney, told the Tucson Weekly that he went to Williams' house to have a look around and to try to reconstruct exactly what happened the night Williams was arrested.

Witnesses told Cote that they did not hear sirens that night. Cote also said that the wall around her property makes it difficult to see who is walking up the driveway.

[...]

Cote says that although the deputy who stepped onto Williams' driveway claims he announced himself three times, a witness says he never heard the announcements. Cote said a re-enactment of the deputies' version of events showed that there was little to no visible muzzle flash and that when he dug in the area where Williams stood near the wall, he found projectiles in the ground.

[...]

"First, gun flash on a .22 is not very discernable," Cote says. "Then, we found red projectiles in the ground where she was standing and we found a shell casing nearby. Deputies never found those, but we dug until we found them exactly where she said she was standing."

A sheriff's press release claimed Williams kept changing her story, but Cote insists Williams was always consistent about what happened that night.

"In this case, though, the prosecutor decided that when you shoot in the ground or up in the air—as long as a deputy feels in fear of his life—it is aggravated assault," Cote says.

Listen, lady, the burden of proof is on the state. On the State! You have got to prove - *to me* - beyond a reasonable doubt whether or not this man is a pisser.

Aren't your doubts unreasonable?

No, it's not unreasonable. We're talking about a justice system that had 500 people whose cases were overturned by DNA evidence. I seen a tape where five cops beat up a ***** and they said that they had a reasonable doubt. I got my doubts too! All right? How come they never found Biggie and Tupac's murderers, but they could arrest O.J. the next day. Nicole Simpson can't rap!

I want justice! You're out of order, Miss!

This whole goddamn court is out of order. Everybody!

Police in Indianapolis will now be required to allow members of the public to film them while they are performing their duties, as part of a settlement in a federal civil rights lawsuit against them, the Indiana Lawyer reported on Thursday.

The settlement also awards $200,000 to Willie King, who accused police of false arrest and malicious prosecution after forcefully arresting him during a February 2011 encounter. At the time, King was filming police with his phone from a neighbor’s front porch after spotting them handcuffing another man.

BAKERSFIELD, CA -- Kern County deputies beat an intoxicated man to death in the street Tuesday night, then detained and intimidated witnesses, confiscated video evidence, and arrested another man who spoke out. David Silva was beaten with batons, left in a pool of blood until an ambulance finally arrived after he was already dead.

A female 9-1-1 caller named Selena told the dispatcher, "There's a man laying on the floor, and your police officers beat the (expletive) out of him and killed him." She said that she witnessed the victim do nothing wrong to cause 8 officers to bludgeon him to death. "These cops had no reason to do this to this man."


A 19-year-old male witness, Ruben Ceballos, was awakened around midnight by screams and loud banging noises outside his home. He said he ran to the left side of his house to find out who was causing the ruckus."When I got outside I saw two officers beating a man with batons and they were hitting his head so every time they would swing, I could hear the blows to his head." He said that Silva was on the ground screaming for help, but officers continued to beat him After several minutes, Silva stopped screaming and was no longer responsive, according to Ceballos.

Another witness, Jason Land, said that he witnessed the beating of David Silva. "They jumped out, reached for their bats, and beat that man until they killed him," he said, "right in front of my face." Land spoke up about what he saw and was arrested as retaliation. The witness was on probation and says police responded to his eyewitness report by claiming he was high on PCP and arrested him without any proof.

Witnesses also say that the victim's body was left to bleed out in the street for a prolonged period without any medical attention, wasting crucial minutes before the ambulance arrived. By that point, it was too late and CPR attempts were futile.

Other witnesses, including Melissa Quair, were harassed and told that they must surrender their cell phones as "evidence." Their houses were even searched as a crime scene in order to confiscate the video evidence.

The victim's brother, Christopher Silva, says his brother was murdered and wants justice. He is demanding that his brother's body be released so that he can see the result of the beating. He wants the confiscated videos to be released. "My brother spent the last eight minutes of his life pleading, begging for his life. The true evidence is in those phone witnesses that apparently the sheriff deputies already took. But I know the truth will come out and my brother's voice will be heard."