Jay Jones was on the phone with his girlfriend when her voice was suddenly drowned out by a mechanical roar. The 29-year-old glanced up to find a trio of angry-looking Miami Beach cops atop sputtering ATVs. “I gotta go,” Jones told his girlfriend. “I’ll call you right back.”

Not on that phone, he wouldn’t. Jones, a Brickell businessman who had never been in trouble in his life, was arrested for refusing to submit to what he says was an illegal police search. He spent a day in jail, only to be handed back his iPhone 5 — smashed to bits.

“It was brand-new,” he says. “They totally destroyed it because they didn’t like what I was saying.”

Jones isn’t the first person to make such a claim. Two years earlier, on Memorial Day weekend 2011, Narces Benoit accused MBPD officers of confiscating and smashing his cell phone after he filmed cops killing Raymond Herisse in a hail of gunfire on Collins Avenue. Several other onlookers’ phones were confiscated, and a local TV station’s camera was impounded.

Jones’ case provides perhaps the clearest evidence of cop retaliation. On April 19, 2013, Jones and two buddies had just left a bar on Ocean Drive and were hanging out at their car when cops arrived en masse. “Hands on the car!” the officers demanded. Believing that cops didn’t have probable cause and that the stop was racially motivated — Jones is white but his two friends were black — Jones refused.

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Police accused Jones of resisting arrest without violence and drinking alcohol in public. Jones admits that there was a bottle of José Cuervo in the car but that it wasn’t his and he wasn’t drinking out of it. He says he was stripped of his property, including his phone (standard operating police procedure), and taken to an MBPD holding cell.

But when he continued complaining that he had done nothing wrong, Jones says, he was placed in a prisoner transport vehicle as punishment. “If you’re claustrophobic, it’s torture,” he says. “It’s like being buried alive.”

After nearly an hour in the sweltering hole, Jones was yanked out — he sent New Times photos of the cuts and bruises he says he suffered — and taken to Miami-Dade County Jail, a place he calls “Third World-like.”


When he was released the next day, Jones says, he was handed back his wallet but not his phone. He called his own number, and cops answered; they claimed they had found the phone the night before on the street just two blocks from the spot where he was arrested. But when Jones picked up his phone at the station, it looked as if it had been used for target practice.

Jones doesn’t buy the official explanation that cops found his phone that way after his arrest. He says it was new when the three ATV cops confiscated it. Plus it was locked, so how could cops have known it was his if they had found it in the street?

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“They must have stomped it 100 times and then left it there for me,” he says. “There is no doubt about it: They purposefully destroyed my property.”

A judge withheld adjudication on the two charges. Over the past two years, Jones has managed to get the case — and even his arrest — officially expunged. But he contacted New Times in the hope that others with similar stories will come forward. “It’s basically my word against theirs,” he says. “That’s how they get away with it. But if everybody reports it, then that sticks to the wall.”

A police spokesperson said that MBPD hadn’t received a complaint regarding the arrest but that the department takes “all allegations of officer misconduct seriously and will thoroughly investigate it.”

Jones says he plans to file a complaint against the three officers now that his case has been expunged. “People should know about the stuff they are doing,” he says, “because it’s not right.”

It all started last year when Kam Brock tried to get her car out of a New York Police Department impound site. When she walked in to the Public Service Area 6 NYPD station, she was upset, but by no means, her lawyer explains, “emotionally disturbed,” as the police claim.

The NYPD had her forcibly committed for a 72-hour psychiatric evaluation that soon turned into an 8-day ordeal.

Now, Brock is fighting back and suing the NYPD and the hospital for falsely imprisoning her.

She recounts, that “next thing you know, the police held onto me, the doctor stuck me with a needle and I was knocked out. I woke up to them taking off my underwear and then went out again. I woke up the next day in a hospital robe.”

She explains that the whole “Obama” comment was only brought up to try to explain “the type of person I am. I’m a good person, a positive person. Obama follows positive people.”

But the hospital actually made her discharge contingent upon her stating that this was a lie and denying that Obama follows her on Twitter.

The “master treatment plan” says that she must “state that Obama is not following her on Twitter” in order to be released. Strangely, no one at the hospital even bothered to check the Twitter account in question, which would have easily confirmed her claim.

To make matters worse, she was later billed $13,637.10 for her involuntary incarceration. She is demanding reimbursement for this, as well as an additional, unspecified amount in damages.

A reserve officer who worked in St. Louis county quit his job today after he was arrested for drunk driving, blaming his drinking on the stresses of the events in Ferguson.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jacob Klaus, a part-time officer for the nearby town of St. Ann, was arrested last Saturday after he crashed his Dodge Dakota into a house in St. Louis. Days later, Klaus handed in his resignation to St. Ann Police Chief Aaron Jimenez, stating that he had a drinking problem:

But the whole thing was all a joke, the four officers say. Just some guys havin’ some fun and indulging in some light racism while on the taxpayer-funded job. Hey, Broward Palm Beach New Times, have a sense of humor, would ya? PC Police out here trying to make it illegal to laugh.

See? Not racist. They said so and everything. It was a joke, lighten up. There’s a little something called “context,” liberals, why don’t you try learning about it sometime?

Besides, Yr Wonket is willing to bet that at least one of these officers has a really close friend who is one of The Blacks.

So Officer Sousa is pretty obviously not racist, since a racist would never have any black friends. “Case closed, n*****,” as they say on the Fort Lauderdale P.D.

Yr Wonket figured that one out by using logic, which you have to use when you’re a real cop but apparently don’t have to use if you’re part of the PC Police. That is a double standard no matter how you look at it, and none of you liberals can argue otherwise.

So that’s one officer we’ve definitively proved isn’t racist. Who’s next?

All you PC Police cadets out there, answer us this one question: If someone asked you, “Hey, did you use the n-word because you have a problem with black people?” wouldn’t that be the perfect time to ‘fess up? They’re basically saying, “Look, it’s cool, we’re all cool here,” so if Officer Wells actually was racist, why would he lie when Internal Affairs asked him about it?

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Schenectady County, New York – Earlier this month, a family farm in rural New York was raided by police after the owners were cited on a number of trumped up regulatory violations. Joshua Rockwood, the owner of the farm, is being accused of mistreating his animals, and the local government has began confiscating some of them.

Police initially visited Rockwood’s property on February 25th to investigate reports of unlicensed working dogs, weeks before the raid. Unfortunately, Rockwood voluntarily showed local police around his property, which he had not yet tended to that day because of their unexpected interruption. After showing them around, they began to critically assess every aspect of the farm, writing a number of citations for arbitrary offenses.

The very next day, Rockwood had a veterinarian visit the farm to check on the animals to confirm that they were well taken care of and in good health. According to numerous reports, the vet said that the animals were just fine, and did not seem to share the concerns that the officers alleged during their walk-through.

A second veterinarian was also called in to verify the health of the animals and they also found them to be in perfect health.

A week later, police returned again to notify Rockwood that he was to appear in court the next Thursday on a number of charges relating to the animal’s food and shelter. In total, 12 different charges were brought against Rockwood, but he has posted a number of photos to a Facebook support page, which shows the animals with sufficient housing, and plenty of food.

Rockwood has been charged with 12 counts of animal neglect and abuse – some of the charges relating to frozen water bowls and tanks – despite the animals still having access to water. His dogs and horses have been seized and taken away.

Washington, D.C. – In a clear escalation in the ongoing war on U.S. citizens, the Justice Department has recommended that bank employees snitch on customers attempting to withdraw more than $5,000.

Federal regulations already require banks to submit a “Suspicious Activity Report” (SAR) when, “Transactions conducted or attempted by, at, or through the bank (or an affiliate) and aggregating $5,000 or more…” according to the handbook for the Federal Financial Institution Examination Council.

The banks are required to fill a certain number of SAR reports every month. This forces them to file SARs for perfectly legal actions (such as withdrawing cash).

If using the banks as snitches, by having them file SARs on bank customers withdrawing over $5,000 dollars cash wasn’t intrusive enough, now the feds are advocating that bankers actually call law enforcement themselves.

I missed most of the good stuff at the start, they were playing all kinds of things.
That interference you hear later in is someone with traffic trying to get through while the channel is busy.

Amid increasing concerns about policing in Maryland, a new report from the ACLU outlines the impact of the use of force by police on African Americans throughout the state. Since 2010, the ACLU found in this report that 109 people died during encounters with police. Of those, 69 percent were black, even though African Americans make up just 29 percent of the population in the state.

SONIA KUMAR, ATTORNEY, ACLU MD: It's shocking but not surprising that so many of the people who died in police encounters were African-American.

JANIS: It's an imbalance the ACLU says raises questions against how force is used by police in minority communities.

The study also reveals that of the people killed by police officers, roughly 41 percent were unarmed during the encounter, and of the 109 cases, only two resulted in indictments against the officers.

A police officer in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania faces homicide charges for shooting and killing an unarmed man lying facedown on the ground during a traffic stop, the Associated Press reported.

Investigators said Officer Lisa J. Mearkle shot 59-year-old David Kassick in the back twice during the incident last month. The encounter began when Mearkle tried to pull Kassick over for expired emissions and inspection stickers, only for him to speed off.

When the officer caught up to Kassick near his sister’s house, he left his car and tried to escape on foot. Mearkle then used her Taser on Kassick. Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico said footage recorded by the officer’s weapon appears to show Kassick trying to take the weapon’s probes out of his back before she shot him.

The arrest affadavit states, “At the time Officer Mearkle fires both rounds from her pistol, the video clearly depicts Kassick lying on the snow covered lawn with his face toward the ground. Furthermore, at the time the rounds are fired nothing can be seen in either of Kassick’s hands, nor does he point or direct anything toward Officer Mearkle.”

Mearkle, a 15-year veteran of her department, has argued that she thought Kassick was reaching into his jacket for a gun.

Glendale, AZ– On December 16, 2013, Deputy Sean Pearce, son of recalled State Senator Russell Pearce, was recklessly driving an unmarked Chevrolet Tahoe. He was going 81 mph in a 40 mph zone, with no lights or sirens activated as he pursued a murder suspect. The suspect was over a mile away from the officer when Pearce rammed into the vehicle of 63-year-old John Edward Harding and took his life.

Last year, County Attorney Bill Montgomery announced that he would not be charging Harding with a felony. He cited that both drivers may have been obstructed due to a third vehicle, but the city of Glendale did want to pursue traffic violations from the fatal event.

Interestingly, nobody informed the judge that the deputy’s actions lead to a loss of life. Pearce was therefore sentenced only to attending a defensive driving class, against Arizona state law, after admitting responsibility for a criminal traffic speeding ticket only.

On March 11, Judge Delgado who presided over the case called a hearing to express his concern over not being informed about the death of Harding before handing down his ruling. He claims that he only found out about the death after a public records request was made regarding the case.

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Delgado told them that he had obtained audio of the proceedings and listened several times, hearing no mention of the death. Pearce’s lawyer maintained he mentioned it twice, and merely “speaks softly” so it may not have been captured on the recording. He also admitted to telling the judge that Pearce was eligible for defensive driving class. However, this is something which would imply nobody had been injured or killed claiming that it wasn’t necessarily the speed which caused the accident, but a possibly obstructed view.

The judge, however, was not buying this excuse and stated that he is inclined to believe Pearce was not eligible for the sentence that he had handed down.

Another hearing on the dubious matter has been scheduled for April 8 at 1:15 pm.

Police said they feared for their lives which led them to open fire on a suspect they were attempting to serve a warrant on.

“When you go to serve a suspect who knows that he is wanted, he is unpredictable and we have to react based on his actions. That's what we did today,” Sgt. Ed Cason with the Smyrna Police Department said.

Investigators said Cobb County and Smyrna police went to Goodyear Tire to serve an arrest warrant for a probation violation. It happened in a parking lot near Cumberland Parkway and Paces Ferry Road at about 1:30 p.m.

They said the man saw police when they approached his place of work and tried to flee.
Police said officers feared for their life when the suspect jumped in a car, tried to get away, and drove at them in the white Maserati.

They have not yet identified the man who died.

The parents of Nicholas Thomas, 25, said their son was the man killed.

Is the mysterious British graffiti artist known as Banksy a 33-year-old Brooklyn freelance engineer?

No, but cops arrested Richard Pfeiffer anyway, last summer, accusing him of drawing a smiley face on an East Village coffee shop wall, when he was merely admiring the work, which he claims was put there by the famous “street artist,” according to his new lawsuit.
Pfeiffer filed suit ion Manhattan Supreme Court against the city and six police officers citing false arrest after he was nabbed outside the Third Rail Coffee shop at 159 2nd Ave. near 10th Street on July 12.

Pfeiffer’s attorney, Ilissa Brownstein, said her client was merely admiring the artwork with his fiance when police pounced.

Cops thought they’d found their culprit because Pfeiffer was carrying a marker, but the engineer showed police that the image wasn’t fresh because it didn’t smudge, Brownstein said.

He also explained that the tip of his marker didn’t match the wall drawing.

But the officers weren’t buying Pfeiffer’s story and he was locked up for 24 hours before a judge released him, according to the suit.

The case against Pfeiffer, who had no criminal record, was tossed in October, the filing says.

Pfeiffer says he lost seven days of work at $45 an hour and has to take Ambien and Trazodone to sleep. He’s suing for unspecified damages.

A spokesman for the city said, “the lawsuit will be reviewed.”

The real Banksy, who’s never revealed his true name, peppered New York City with “exhibits” at unannounced locations every day throughout a 31-day self-styled “residency” in the fall of 2013.