Two weeks ago, a housing authority officer was called to the John DeShields Homes, where he encountered a 20-year-old man running within the vicinity of a robbery. Arthur Sargeant, 48 allegedly shot the man in the back, and although the suspect was taken to the hospital, he was never arrested or charged with a crime.

In this area of St. Louis, the neighborhoods are patrolled by agents who are still hired by the state, but are under an entirely different jurisdiction than the official police department. On paper, they are nothing more than security guards, but in these communities they act as police, indiscriminately invading people’s privacy and arresting people for nonviolent crimes with no victims.

However, St. Clair County State’s Attorney Brendan Kelly said that he will be charged to the same extent that an average citizen would.

This week, 49-year-old Arthur Sargeant of the St. Louis Police Department was charged with driving under the influence of cocaine, and one count of aggravated battery with a firearm. A state police investigation revealed that he may have been high when she shot a man in the back during a burglary investigation.

A video uploaded to LiveLeak on Friday captured disgusting behavior by the NYPD as a man attempted to file a complaint after his home was mistakenly raided when officers went to the wrong house.

In the video, a man enters the precinct to file the complaint with Civilian Complaint Review Board. He then explains that police ran into his house while his wife was in the shower and attempts to find out who will be held responsible for the dangerous mistake.
The officer then began yelling obscenities at the man and shoved him out of the building as he repeatedly requested to file a report.
The man was then told that the only way he could file a report was to go online or call.

This cycle of abusive behavior makes it impossible for police officers to be held accountable for their misconduct and leaves people feeling helpless, with no one to turn to when they need help.

First, officers arrive at the wrong location and terrorize people inside in their own home. Then, seeking protection and accountability, the victims are berated and physically attacked by those they are told to trust. We are taught to go to the police if someone invades our home. Well, this a prime example of what happens when you go to the cops for help.

Unfortunately, Brooklyn is notorious for its police misconduct. Less than a month ago, officers in Brooklyn showed up at the wrong house, let the family’s dog out and shot at it, firing recklessly into a crowd. The cops then arrested one of the people who lived there for “disturbing the peace.” Ironic, as the officers were actually the ones disturbing the peace.

Two police officers have been suspended without pay after the videotaped beating of a black man during a January traffic stop in suburban Detroit, it was announced Tuesday.

Inkster police Officer Chuck Randazzo was suspended for 15 days and Sgt. Shawn Kritzer was suspended for 30 days, WXYZ-TV reported. Union representative Al Lewis said that Randazzo was told his suspension was for excessive force and bringing the department disrepute. Kritzer was suspended for improperly administering medical attention to Floyd Dent.

Officer William Melendez was fired last month and charged with assault. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Footage from a police dashboard camera showed the 57-year-old Dent being pulled from his car and repeatedly punched in the head. The beating wasn't publicly known until WDIV-TV aired the video (Local 4 Defenders: Violent traffic stop in Inkster caught on camera | News - Home ) in March.

Also Tuesday, Inkster officials announced that the Detroit suburb had named Joe Thomas as interim police chief. Thomas replaces Vicki Yost, who resigned April 22, two days after Melendez was charged.

Thomas has spent three decades in law enforcement and is a former police chief of Southfield in suburban Detroit's Oakland County.

Suffolk Superior Court Justice Carol Ball has overturned the 1995 conviction of first degree murder of Sean K. Ellis. Boston Police Detective John J. Mulligan was sleeping on a paid security detail when someone shot and killed him in his patrol car in a Boston neighborhood shopping mall parking lot. Sean K. Ellis lived in the area and went to a store in the mall to buy diapers for a toddler at home after socializing with friends. The prosecution claimed that Ellis decided on the spur of the moment during a trip to buy things for the baby to kill a police officer asleep in a police car in front of a number of shops and customers.

The police claimed Sean K. Ellis' motive for the spur of the moment killing was the desire to take a police officer's side arm as a 'trophy.' At the first trial for the murder, the jury was not unanimous, so a second trial was held. Again the jury could not agree to convict. After two hung juries the prosecution won the third time in court. The third jury believed the prosecution and police, and Sean K. Ellis has been in prison for two decades based on that implausible story. Judge Ball's seventy page ruling on the case noted merit to the many questions raised by attorney Rosemary Scapichio in a filing for a new trial made in March 2013. Judge Ball heard seven days of testimony before making her decision.

Attorny Scapicchio said that many facts that pointed to Sean K. Ellis's innocence were held back by the police and prosecution who wanted a narrative that pointed circumstanstially to Sean K. Ellis. There was a detailed tip from another Boston police officer about two 'rogue' Boston police officers who were robbing people, breaking into apartments, and threatening people with their power as police officers. The Boston Police Hotline telephone reporting system had dozens of people call in with information that was not investigated.

Attorney Scapicchio also argued that evidence links two Boston Police Officers who are convicted criminals - Officer Kenneth Acerra and Officer Walter Robinson - with Officer John Mulligan. In 1998 the crime spree of Officer Acerra and Officer Robinson ended as they were convicted in court of robbery and violence that amounted to racketering. Yet, Officer Acerra and Officer Robinson were key investigators into Officer John Mulligan's murder, and also presented key evidence against Sean K. Ellis in court in 1995.

All of these facts would indicate that Sean K. Ellis should be released and his conviction overturned, or that he be given a new trial that fairly evaluates all the evidence. Police and prosecutors have a long history of claiming 'infallibility' in all past cases, and take umbrage at the very idea that their work might be re-examined.

The trial of Sean K. Ellis might have been different in 1995, Judge Ball agreed, if they had been presented with some of the evidence that the police and prosecutors deliberately withheld.

Now, the government has a month to decide if it will retry Sean K. Ellis

Surveillance video shows Kalihi Crime Reduction Unit police officer Vincent Morre punching, kicking and throwing a chair at a man at a game room in the Ala Moana area.

Nine Georgia deputies have been fired in connection with the death of a 21-year-old student in Savannah, Georgia, authorities announced Friday.

The firings are related to the case of Matthew Ajibade, who died in an isolation cell on New Year's Day, said Gena Bilbo, the Chatham County Sheriff's spokeswoman.

Two of the nine deputies who were fired had been on paid leave.

I made that t-shirt and wore it for the first time on Friday. I was fully prepared for people to engage me with negative comments.

I was completely unprepared for what actually happened.

Most of this happened on the subway. I took a ride (about 20 miles round trip) into Brooklyn to meet up with a friend to play snooker. When I ride the subway, I have my headphones on and I wear a baseball hat. I don’t make eye contact with strangers. I rarely get approached for conversation on the subway, except sometimes by tourists who are lost and need directions.

I was approached about 15 times on the subway, plus another three or four times on the street. I regret not keeping a log so that I would have an exact number.

Keep in mind that every time someone wanted to talk to me about the shirt they would actually have to tap me on the shoulder or gesture at me because I had my headphones on. That's a higher bar than the typical “excuse me” or “hey man” to begin a conversation.

Every single interaction was a positive one.

People stopped me and asked various questions and made comments. One question that came up several times was, “Hey, where did you get that shirt? I want to buy one.” I wish I could have told them where to buy one, but like I said I made the shirt myself.

One type of comment took the form of “hey man, that’s a great shirt” followed by them telling me a story about how they were harassed/arrested/roughed up by the NYPD.

I had to take two trains to get to the snooker club, so I was standing on two separate subway platforms waiting for the J and the N. On two occasions, I saw someone from across the platform waving at me. I took my headphones out to hear them say “great shirt!” and “awesome shirt man!” These were the only times that anyone has made contact with me from across a subway platform (about 30 feet away).

One guy was banging on the window on the M when it stopped at Essex St.. He gave me a big thumbs up.

One person told me that he loves the shirt, but that I’ve got ***** for wearing it. I asked him what he meant by that. He explained that I may be putting myself in danger because the NYPD may harass or harm me if they see it. I think he may be right, and I think that says it all, really. 1st Amendment protected speech being responded to with violence by law enforcement shouldn’t be a concern. That did not happen (I didn't see any cops on my trip), and I hope it won't. That said, I think he may be right that it may be a legitimate concern. It should be unthinkable.

The people who talked to me were from all races and colors. (All were men except for one woman.) I was first approached by a white man, mid 40’s, who had three young children with him. My first thought when I saw him approaching me was, “here we go...just be polite to him and don’t argue.” He was the first of many who asked me where he could buy the shirt for himself.

I didn’t make this shirt for the sake of being controversial. Clearly, the reactions were just the opposite. This is not a controversial opinion. This is the mainstream opinion.
I don’t think the statement on this shirt is provocative or offensive. I think that the statement on this shirt is true. (While it should be obvious, the statement is not about all cops or all police departments. The statement is about the NYPD.)

Many people have an idea of a terrorist as being someone who uses violence towards the goal of hurting or killing people.

That’s not all that terrorists do. They seek to cause damage in many forms. Many times their goal is to cause economic destruction. Sometimes they imprison people who have harmed no one because of political views or other reasons. The constant threat of living amongst terrorists causes fear and emotional distress. Terrorists are not afraid of breaking the law to accomplish their goals, and they do so regularly. Terrorists don’t have a problem lying in court while under oath. How do you feel when you are driving at or below the speed limit and you see a NYPD car in your rear view window? Exactly.

The NYPD has committed all of these offenses and many more. They have killed nonviolent citizens. They have thrown innocent people (many of them photographers) in jail on trumped up charges. They extract revenue from people who have committed no act of force against any other person - in fact, the NYPD has done that over 100 times since you began reading this.

So when I say that the NYPD is the largest terrorist organization in NYC, I am making a true statement based on facts.

Does the NYPD help people? Yes, every day.

Does the NYPD hurt innocent people? Yes, every day.

Not all cops are bad. I think most cops are good people - NYPD officers included.

That doesn’t change the fact that the NYPD has more employees who are engaging in activity that would be accurately described as terrorism than any other organization in the City of New York.

The fact that my simple statement printed on a t-shirt provoked such an overwhelmingly positive reaction is actually very sad.

My experience is not a scientifically controlled poll. But I think it is very telling. The citizens of New York City are fed up with the NYPD.

We are tired of the harassment, the petty tickets with exorbitant fines, the oppressive broken window policing.

We are tired of reckless behavior and blatant disregard for the law by those who we pay to enforce it.

We are tired of the corruption and the quotas.

We are tired of being disrespected.

We are tired of the NYPD union protecting violent felons.

We are tired of civilians being murdered by the NYPD.

WE WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE.

I wish I had printed more than one shirt. I’d like to wear it every day.

Dispatchers told the Wyckoff police officer who shot a dog April 29 that the burglary he was investigating had taken place "quite a while in the past."

Bergen County on Monday released recordings of dispatches made before and after Officer Kyle Ferreira shot Otto, a German shepherd belonging to the Vukobratovic family.

Dispatchers told Ferreira the burglary took place at 621 Lawlins Road. An officer can be heard at about 0:20 responding quietly, "Received, 622 Lawlins Road."

The dispatcher is then asked how long ago the burglary took place.

"According to the desk, quite a while in the past. Like, days."

Another officer tells dispatch he's also going to Lawlins Road. At about 1:02 in the recording, Ferreira tells dispatch he's at Lawlins Road. The shooting follows.

"I have shots fired. I had a dog come after me."

At about 3:39 in the recording, a Wyckoff police officer reports in from the correct house, 621 Lawlins Road, confirming that a window screen at the house had pry marks on it and an outside light bulb had been smashed.

Chief Benjamin Fox did not immediately return a request for comment. He previously said Ferreira, who drew his weapon when he saw an open window in the back of the Vukobratovic home, had a right to defend himself against a possible burglar.

A jury has decided that Starbucks is not liable for burns that a Raleigh police officer received when a cup of hot coffee spilled on his lap.

Lt. Matthew Kohr claimed the coffee chain was negligent because the lid of a free cup of coffee he got in 2012 popped off and the cup collapsed. He also claimed the incident caused such severe stress it activated his Crohn's disease, which required surgery to remove part of his intestine.

"We're disappointed," said Daniel Johnson, Kohr's attorney. "We appreciate the jury's time and attention."

Last month the Texas House of Representatives unanimously approved a bill that requires police officers to obtain a warrant before probing the anuses and vaginas of motorists during traffic stops. The fact that the bill was deemed necessary speaks volumes about the way the war on drugs has eroded our Fourth Amendment rights and encouraged cops to inflict outrageous indignities on people they suspect of violating pharmacological taboos.

How often do Texas cops decide to perform body cavity searches on people they pull over for routine traffic offenses? More often than you might think. Looking for the case that gave rise to this bill, I immediately found three cases, all involving young women suspected of marijuana possession.

...

Randle and Hamilton sued the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) over the incident. Initially both troopers were dismissed, but Bui was reinstated. "It was determined that the relatively inexperienced trooper was directed by a more senior trooper to conduct the inappropriate search," DPS Director Steve McCraw explained.

...

According to DPS, searches like these are contrary to department policy, but apparently not all troopers got the memo. So you can begin to understand the motivation behind the bill that the Texas House passed last week, which was sponsored by Rep. Harold Dutton Jr. (D-Houston) and still needs approval from the state Senate. Dutton's bill says "a peace officer may not conduct a body cavity search of a person during a traffic stop unless the officer first obtains a search warrant pursuant to this chapter authorizing the body cavity search."

You might think Dutton's bill is redundant, since we already have a Fourth Amendment, which prohibits "unreasonable searches." If these highly invasive, weakly justified searches do not qualify as unreasonable, what would? But while the courts probably would conclude that the searches described by these five women were unconstitutional, it is not hard to see how an overzealous drug warrior might think otherwise.

...

Still, in at least two of the cases, there was evidence of an arrestable offense: marijuana possession. Perhaps the troopers thought a search in that situation was reasonable even without an actual arrest. Or perhaps they did not see an important difference between searching someone's car, which police are allowed to do without a warrant if they have probable cause to believe they will find evidence of a crime, and searching someone's anus or vagina.

That may be hard to believe, but it is also hard to believe that six troopers in three separate traffic stops thought it was reasonable to explore those private areas on the off chance that there might be some pot there. Such judgments can be understood only in the context of a prohibitionist mentality that sees bits of dried vegetable matter as a grave threat to public order.

"I was shocked to learn that these very intrusive searches were performed without a warrant and without regard to basic sanitary practices," says state Rep. Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock), who is sponsoring another bill aimed at preventing such incidents. "While I have a tremendous amount of respect for our local police and sheriff's departments, I am concerned about the fact that this could happen to any of us, here or in other parts of the state, as we travel. The Fourth Amendment guarantees the right of the people to be secure in their persons, and I believe this bill is a natural reflection of that right."

Burrows' bill goes further than Dutton's by requiring a warrant for a body cavity search of anyone detained (but not arrested) by police, whether during a traffic stop or in another context. It also requires that body cavity searches be conducted "in a private, sanitary place…in accordance with medically recognized, hygienic practices"; forces law enforcement agencies to pay medical costs associated with searches regardless of the results; and makes evidence obtained in violation of the new rules inadmissible in court. Sadly, the concern that people forced to undergo such searches will be stuck with the resulting medical bill, even when no contraband turns up, is no more fanciful than the concern that traffic cops will commit sexual assault in the name of enforcing our drug laws.

A Santa Monica, CA man arrested by city police while attempting to charge his electric car has filed an excessive force lawsuit alleging he was tackled and pepper-sprayed after refusing to show his ID.

Video recorded by a concerned bystander shows the tail end of the April 21 interaction in which 36-year-old father of four, Justin Palmer, can be heard yelling at Santa Monica police who have him handcuffed on the ground at a Virginia Avenue Park charging station.

Palmer says he’d gone to the park just before 11 p.m. to charge his electric vehicle because he’s not allowed to charge at his apartment complex a few blocks away.

He says police approached him and told him to leave, claiming the park was closed, but the police report shows his arrest was made at 10:56 p.m. The park closes at 11:00 p.m.

Palmer does admit to refusing to show is ID but asserts the officers had no right to interrogate him.

“I couldn’t believe that this happened over me just trying to plug in my car,” Palmer said. “I didn’t know what was going on, I just felt he was singling me out and asked for my ID.”

Palmer says after officers asked for his ID he demanded to know why they were approaching him, since other people were also in the park. He said one officer then threw him to the ground causing him to hit his head on the concrete which resulted in a concussion.

“He swept my legs and held my arm and threw me to the ground,” Palmer said. “I hit my head on the ground and blacked out.”

Palmer says police then pepper-sprayed and arrested him. He spent the night in jail but was released the next morning without charges.