A vehicle speeding away from US Marshals violently collided with a paratransit bus in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood earlier today, sending the car’s occupants to Highland Hospital. Initial reports from officials stated that a “suspect” of an investigation emerged from a nearby location that was under surveillance, and got into the car, prompting federal agents to attempt to pull the vehicle over. The vehicle fled and crashed moments later at the intersection of Foothill Boulevard and 23rd Avenue.

But an updated report in the San Francisco Chronicle quotes Deputy US Marshal Joseph Palmer saying that the man who got into the car, triggering the chase, was in fact not the person the Marshals thought they were following and attempting to detain.

The man in question, Jabari Shaw, is a well known resident of Oakland, an activist, and father. From his hospital bed in Highland Shaw is telling a different story. (See the video embedded below, posted originally to Facebook by Tur-Ha Ak.)

According to Shaw he was leaving a friend’s house with his daughter, and a woman named Mary Valencourt who was driving, when an unmarked black car cut them off in the road. A black unmarked truck also pulled up, and several men in plain clothing jumped out running at their car. Fearing for their safety, and not seeing signs that these were federal agents, Shaw said Valencourt sped away, but several blocks later violently collided with a paratransit bus.

Shaw said in a video posted to Facebook that he didn’t realize they were being chased by US marshals until they reached the intersection of East 19th Street and 23rd Avenue.

There may be "thousands" of black and Latino officers facing retaliation from the New York City Police Department for opposing its illegal quota system, a new federal class action claims.

"Promotion or job security in the New York City Police Department depends on the number of arrests made or tickets issued," according to the 37-page complaint filed Monday in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. "Although the NYPD has continuously denied the existence of quotas and asserts that it relies only on a set of 'productivity goals,' or 'performance goals,' those phrases are mere euphemisms for a quota system."

A so-called "performance evaluation system" keeps officers in line with the quota system under threat of discipline, the lawsuit says.

"The performance evaluation system to which the plaintiffs are subjected by the defendants although neutral on its face, is un-evenly applied in that minority officers are more likely to be charged, investigated and receive more punishment, than their white counterparts for the same alleged offenses," the complaint states.

Bronx police officer Andy Gonzalez is the lead plaintiff among the four black and Latino men seeking punitive damages for discrimination.

Two of his co-plaintiffs, Adhyl Polanco and Pedro Serrano, testified two years ago in Floyd v. City of New York, the landmark case that led to court-mandated reform of how the NYPD conducts its stop-and-frisk police tactics.

Polanco, who was an 8-year police veteran suspended at the time of his trial, told a federal jury that Bronx police brass threatened that he would have to "drive the sergeant" or deliver pizzas if he refused to participate in quotas.

His secret recordings of roll call meetings played in court captured an officer allegedly warning the rank-and-file not to oppose the quota policy.
"Forget about the drama and all the political bullshit and everything that goes on in the ******* command 'cause you're not going to win," an officer said in one recording. "You're fighting against the current."

His colleague, Pedro Serrano, choked back tears on the witness stand when speaking about reconciling his misgivings about the orders from police brass with the example he tried to set as a father, during his March 2013 testimony in that case.

Largo Police Department is launching Phase 2 of their plan to increase pedestrian safety after a dangerous trend developed in 2014.

Multiple serious accidents in Largo in 2014, including one that hospitalized Sarah Arlia and her two children Ben and Serena back in November, prompted the city to begin an educational campaign to try to teach people about the dangers on the road.

Beginning Monday, March 9, Largo Police officers will transition from education to enforcement, saying they'll be working in teams of 3's and 4's to ticket drivers and pedestrians, especially drivers who don't allow room on the road for bicyclists, and pedestrians who jaywalk.

Prosecutors are dropping charges against 17-year-old Enrique Del Rosario related to assaulting a police officer after video contradicted their claims.

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Once the attack started, Flores said, police began pushing people back and macing them to keep onlookers and cameras from seeing what was going on. Flores said that the injury police blamed Rosario for was caused by another cop. “This officer swung his nightstick and missed, hit another police officer across the head,” Flores said.

A grand jury decided not to prosecute Rosario for assaulting a cop in September, but he continued to face charges for resisting arrest and larceny until the District Attorney’s office offered to drop all charges as long as he stays clear of the law for six months.

The charges proved to be an economic burden to Rosario’s family, even though they were dropped. Rosario and his mother Wendy Tabarez had to attend eight court dates since he was beaten and arrested, costing wages and time off lost. For working people, an arrest can come at a high price, even if they are eventually found innocent.

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But that’s what happened in this small, backward city in central Florida. According to the authorities, there were no other options.

“The student became violent,” said Frank Mercurio, the no-nonsense chief of the Avon Park police. “She was yelling, screaming — just being uncontrollable. Defiant.”

“But she was 6,” I said.

The chief’s reply came faster than a speeding bullet: “Do you think this is the first 6-year-old we’ve arrested?”

The child’s tantrum occurred on the morning of March 28 at the Avon Elementary School. According to the police report, “Watson was upset and crying and wailing and would not leave the classroom to let them study, causing a disruption of the normal class activities.”

After a few minutes, Desre’e was, in fact, taken to another room. She was “isolated,” the chief said. But she would not calm down. She flailed away at the teachers who tried to control her. She pulled one woman’s hair. She was kicking.

I asked the chief if anyone had been hurt. “Yes,” he said. At least one woman reported “some redness.”

After 20 minutes of this “uncontrollable” behavior, the police were called in. At the sight of the two officers, Chief Mercurio said, Desre’e “tried to take flight.”

She went under a table. One of the police officers went after her. Each time the officer tried to grab her to drag her out, Desre’e would pull her legs away, the chief said.

Ultimately the child was no match for Avon Park’s finest. The cops pulled her from under the table and handcuffed her. The officers were not fooling around. In the eyes of the cops the 6-year-old was a criminal, and in Avon Park she would be treated like any other felon.

There was a problem, though. The handcuffs were not manufactured with kindergarten kids in mind. The chief explained: “You can’t handcuff them on their wrists because their wrists are too small, so you have to handcuff them up by their biceps.”

As I sat listening to Chief Mercurio in a spotless, air-conditioned conference room at the Avon Park police headquarters, I had the feeling that I had somehow stumbled into the middle of a skit on “Saturday Night Live.” The chief seemed like the most reasonable of men, but what was coming out of his mouth was madness.

He handed me a copy of the police report: black female. Six years old. Thin build. Dark complexion.

Desre’e was put in the back of a patrol car and driven to the police station. “Then,” said Chief Mercurio, “she was transported to central booking, which is the county jail.”

The child was fingerprinted and a mug shot was taken. “Those are the normal procedures for anyone who is arrested,” the chief said.

Desre’e was charged with battery on a school official, which is a felony, and two misdemeanors: disruption of a school function and resisting a law enforcement officer. After a brief stay at the county jail, she was released to the custody of her mother.

The arrest of this child, who should have been placed in the care of competent, comforting professionals rather than being hauled off to jail, is part of an outlandish trend of criminalizing very young children that has spread to many school districts and law enforcement agencies across the country.

The two NYPD cops who went drinking with a 24-year-old rape victim in Seattle — before one of them tried to rip off her clothes — admitted to breaking the rules but are keeping their jobs, the Daily News has learned.

Officer Lukasz Skorzewski, 31, and Lt. Adam Lamboy, 44, pleaded guilty to departmental charges of prohibited conduct, a police source said Monday.

Skorzewski, who was accused of trying to tear off the New York college student’s clothes, was demoted from detective after he and Lamboy took the trip.


The woman, shown here in silhouette, said that Skorzewski tried to have sex with her the night after they, along with another NYPD officer, went out drinking in Seattle.

Skorzewski was docked 30 vacation days and suspended for 10 days without pay as a result of pleading guilty.

He was transferred to the Medical Division in Queens on a year’s probation.

“What the detective did was immoral, certainly,” a police source said. “It was wrong. But it wasn’t criminal.”

At the time of the July 2013 incident, Lamboy was under investigation for getting paid for overtime he hadn’t worked.

He pleaded guilty to that charge and was ordered to pay back more than $5,000 for 76 hours. Lamboy was docked 45 vacation days and suspended for 15 without pay — for both charges. He was transferred to Police Service Area 9 Viper in Flushing, Queens, a public housing unit.

If you see something, they’ll pay something.

Two city lawmakers want to recruit everyday New Yorkers to help battle the scourge of idling vehicles by paying them for video footage that results in fines.

City Council members Helen Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) and Donovan Richards (D-Queens) will introduce a bill Wednesday that would give citizens up to 50 percent of the summons revenue if they catch someone breaking the idling law, take a video and submit it to the Department of Environmental Protection.

The exact cut for videographers would be determined by the DEP, they said. But citizen enforcers could makes hundreds — even thousands — of dollars.

The bill would keep first-time idling violations punishable by just a warning, but would boost fines for second offenses to between $350 and $1,500.

Any subsequent violations within a two-year period would yield even heftier fines of between $440 and $2,000.

Citizens seeking to cash in on their videos would first have to undergo training by the DEP, which would be offered five days per year under current plans.

“On my block alone, I could produce 20 tickets a day, easily,” said banker George Pakenham, an anti-idling advocate who made a documentary on the issue called “Idle Threat” in 2012.

He says that he has documented his own encounters with roughly 2,900 idlers over a five-year period, and that he was successful in getting 80 percent of them to turn off their engines by pointing out the environmental impact and the city laws.

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I was just standing in a vacant dirt lot watching some people jump a car when the police pull up and ask for IDs. Nothing was stolen and everything was legal. They checked their IDs and when they were finished they focused on me. I refused to identify myself because according to the law I'm not required to. The police will lie, violate your rights and even break the law because they believe they're above the law

DENVER - Denver Police officers participating in a pilot program for body-worn cameras were required to start recording whenever they were responding to situations involving weapons or violence -- however a recent city report finds that the cameras were activated in less than half of the appropriate situations.

In an examination of 80 use of force incidents involving the Denver Police Department's District 6 officer, the Denver Independent Monitor's annual report says body cameras should have been activated for 45 of the situations. However, the Independent Monitor states that "full, useable footage was available for just 21 uses of force, or 47% of the total."

Former Saratoga County Sheriff Deputy Shawn Glans plead guilty to charges of official misconduct, a misdemeanor, and second-degree harassment , a violation, in Halfmoon Town Court Tuesday, following the release of a viral video of the officer cursing and allegedly slapping a suspect.

In November, a cellphone video surfaced of Glans and another, still unidentified, deputy questioning two men outside of the Wal-Mart store in Halfmoon. The man who filmed the video posted it online and it quickly gained national attention and prompted an internal investigation at the Sheriff’s Office.

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The Monday after the video surfaced, Saratoga County Sheriff Michael Zurlo and District Attorney Karen Heggen announced Glans had submitted resignation paperwork, just hours before a scheduled disciplinary hearing.

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He also later resigned from his part-time position with the South Glens Falls Police.

In most states, people are legally entitled to see basic criminal records, such as mug shots and police reports, just by asking for them.

But not in Massachusetts.

In a series of recent rulings, the secretary of state’s office decided that many records related to criminal charges are exempt from the Massachusetts public records law, giving individual police chiefs and other officials the power to decide what to release or keep secret — even when the information relates to wrongdoing in their own departments.

The rulings, issued after the Globe challenged several law enforcement departments’ refusal to release records, further dilute the state’s open records law, already considered one of the weakest in the nation.

Among the recent rulings: Boston police can withhold the names of five police officers caught drunken driving. State Police can withhold the report on an officer who was arrested. North Andover can refuse to release booking photos of a state trooper. And, the Department of Correction can withhold its entire log of people incarcerated in the state prison system.


The reason? The secretary of state’s office said state regulations that limit public access to the state database of criminal records, also known as “rap sheets” or Criminal Offender Record Information (known as CORI) reports, give law officials sweeping power to decide what other criminal records can be made public.

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The rulings have alarmed media organizations, government watchdogs, and civil rights lawyers, who fear it could give police the power to hide records of misconduct.

“It is a perversion of the public records law,” said Jeffrey J. Pyle, a public records lawyer with Boston law firm Prince Lobel Tye LLP, which represents many media organizations.

The rulings appear to make Massachusetts an outlier compared with most other states.