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The Hagerstown Police Department is under heavy fire after a video went viral of officers spraying pepper spray into the back of a police cruiser where a biracial teenage girl was handcuffed, according to Herald-Mail Media.
The 15-year-old girl was struck by a car on Sunday while riding her bike, after which she hit her head and passed out for half a minute. Ambulances were called, but the girl said she didn’t want to go to a hospital.
Police officers grabbed her off her bike as she tried to ride away and slammed her face into a nearby windowsill, eventually cuffing her hands.
Panicked, the girl resisted officers as they attempted to push her into the back of the cruiser. She can be heard in the video repeatedly requesting for the presence of a black officer named “Zach.”
“All we want to do is make sure she’s OK,” one officer tells a bystander, explaining that the girl might have lingering brain damage from the collision. Not even a minute later, an officer can be heard telling the girl to “put your feet in the car, OK, or you’re going to get sprayed.”
When the frightened girl does not immediately comply, the officers close the door and then spray out their canisters into a crack in the window. The girl can then be heard shrieking in pain, saying “I can’t breathe” multiple times.
Hagerstown Police Capt. Tom Langston only said on Wednesday that the department is still investigating. “We’re reviewing the body camera footage,” he said.
Police have since charged the girl with failure to obey a traffic device, possession of marijuana, two counts of second-degree assault, and disorderly conduct. The girl is reportedly on the honor roll at school and before this incident has never had a criminal record.
“The only treatment she got (from police) was slamming, abuse and Mace,” said the girl’s family attorney, Robin Ficker. According to Ficker, the pepper spray was not flushed out of her eyes for over three hours, and police requested that hospital staff refrain from taking pictures of her injuries during her stay.
First of all, I only watched up until she got sprayed. With that said, I have to say I'm sorry, but as tragic as it is that she had this done to her, from what I can see UP TO THAT POINT, she totally brought it on herself. Even if that that had been a video of my own daughter when she was a teen, I'd be hard pressed to say anything different.
Yeah but then she was denied medical services to wash the spray off her eyes for like 3 hours.
If that's true, that part does suck! Although, who knows whether or not she continued to be completely unmanageable, and thus AGAIN, acted in a manner which was completely to her own detriment. The whole thing is just sad because it looked totally avoidable.
St. Louis, MO — In December 2011, St. Louis Police Officer Jason Stockley violated department policy when he grabbed his personal AK-47, premeditated, and then murdered Anthony Lamar Smith. The planning of the murder and the actual murder were captured on the officer’s dashcam. However, no one has ever seen that footage — until this week.
Thanks to a St. Louis Police Department insider, the dashcam video of Stockley’s crimes were finally leaked to the public. This week, an anonymous person dropped off a USB drive to a local FOX affiliate of the entire incident. What it shows is nothing short of a conspiracy to commit and then allegedly cover up a murder.
As the dashcam video begins, officer Stockley is attempting to arrest Smith who’s been suspected of possessing a substance deemed illegal by the state — otherwise known as a drug bust. Not wanting to be kidnapped for doing something that harms no one and makes him happy, Smith fled. At this point, Stockley pulls out his personal AK-47 with a drum magazine and begins dangerously squeezing off rounds in the middle of town.
Unable to murder Smith for running away, Stockley and his partner began a highly dangerous pursuit, endangering everyone around him by driving upwards of 90 mph through busy city streets in the rain. At one point, Stockley’s partner Brian Bianchi, who is driving the car, loses control and crashes into a tree. This infuriated the trigger happy cop.
”Back up,” Stockley yells.
According to the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Probable Cause Statement, Stockley then says something that foreshadows what’s about to happen — he premeditates the murder of Smith. Prosecutors believe he said “…going to kill this mother-******, don’t you know it.”
After the officers ran through a number of red lights, Stockley tells Bianchi to ram Smith after he’d stopped, “hit him right now.”
The patrol car smashes into the surrendering Smith.
Both cops surround the car with Stockley immediately firing five shots into Smith — killing him.
Three Phoenix police officers have resigned and a fourth has been demoted in connection with a complaint filed by a man accusing them of inappropriate conduct during a traffic stop.
The incident happened Tuesday night in Maryvale when the man was pulled over for speeding.
Sources say there was a gun and a small amount of marijuana in the car when the man was stopped. He claims to have a medical marijuana card, but sources within the department say there is no documentation of that. The man was cited and released.
A spokesman with the department tells us after the traffic stop was concluded, three of the officers did not know what to do with the small amount of marijuana, so they forced the man to eat the drugs. He got sick and filed a complaint with the department.
Thursday afternoon, Phoenix Police Chief Joe Yahner said the three officers involved had chosen to resign, rather than be fired. The person who was demoted was a recently-promoted patrol lieutenant who did not immediately take action after the complaint was filed.
The three officers were identified as Richard G. Pina, Jason E. McFadden and Michael J. Carnicle. All were still in their probationary period with the department, which lasts through their first year. The officer demoted from lieutenant to sergeant was identified as Jeff Farrior. Police released photos of Pina, McFadden and Carnicle, but said Farrior's was protected by a court order and unable to be released.
McFadden came to the department as a transfer from the Chicago Police Department and worked narcotics cases for several years. Sources tell us he was one of the major offenders. When reached Thursday, Chicago police said McFadden resigned in 2016 but could not provide any other information without ABC15 filing a formal request under the Freedom of Information Act.
Yahner said the three who resigned would have been fired had they not voluntarily left the department.
Internal affairs and criminal investigations are currently underway, officials said.
All officers involved were wearing body cameras at the time of the incident, but they were turned off, Chief Yahner said.
DA just held a press conference, the Tulsa officer involved in the shooting is being charged with 1st Degree Manslaughter.
Arrest warrant has been issued, Tulsa County Sheriff Dept is working with her lawyer to negotiate her turning herself in.
I just hope things remain calm here unlike Charlotte. Especially given Tulsa's history with the 1921 Race Riot.
To be fair she was really scared and lied on her police report.
Your affiant feels that Officer Shelby reacted unreasonably by escalating the situation from a confrontation with Mr. Crutcher, who was not responding to verbal commands and was walking away from her with his hands held up, becoming emotionally involved to the point that she over reacted.
First of all, I only watched up until she got sprayed. With that said, I have to say I'm sorry, but as tragic as it is that she had this done to her, from what I can see UP TO THAT POINT, she totally brought it on herself. Even if that that had been a video of my own daughter when she was a teen, I'd be hard pressed to say anything different.
She was the one that got hit and she said she was fine. What right do the cops have to basically kidnap her "for her own good"??????? I would act the exact same to cops trying to force me to participate in "an investigation. She committed no crime, so what justifies them detaining her?
It has been announced that St. Genevieve County Sheriff’s Major Joson Schott has been found dead in his jail cell, after a history of attacking women and even children.
The sheriff’s office has not released many details at this point, saying only that it “appears” to “be a suicide” and assuring the media that an “investigation is ongoing.”
If you are not familiar with what this (now deceased) officer did, the details may disturb you.
For years, he inflicted his sick and twisted desires on multiple victims.
In 2014, a co-worker found a thumbdrive that belonged to this cop.
On that thumbdrive were photos and videos of his victims.
This prompted a seizure of all of his computers and storage devices. What officials found was shocking.
According to the records, Rainey had been violently molesting children. He was committing crimes involving “acts of aggravated sexual abuse” against four women, and he even enticed a minor to participate in sexual prostitution, reports say.
He was charged with multiple accounts of sexual assault, corruption by a public servant, and use of a child in a sexual performance.
The Free Thought Project reports as follows:
As if the horrific abuse of authority on women and children wasn’t bad enough, Rainey also went after the mentally ill. In promising to help a mentally ill woman who’d been the victim of a crime, Rainey began to stalk her and send her sexual pictures. He then told the mother if she wanted help solving her crime, she’d have to force her young daughter to strip for nude photos.
Commenters on social media have started to popularize the slogan “police are the new priests.”
A moment’s reflection on all the cops who have been molesting and raping might justify such a sentiment. The Free Thought Project has enumerated many cases. As follows:
A Colorado deputy, whose name is being withheld to protect the victim, is facing charges of aggravated incest. The reason the court will not release his name is because the victim is his young daughter.
Dallas police officer, Oscar Araiza, 41, pleaded guilty to raping a sleeping woman. But thanks to a plea deal, likely stemming from his cop status, Araiza never served one day in jail, nor will he be required to register as a sex offender.
In what could be considered the most telling insight into police culture yet, the officer charged with second-degree murder for killing a 6-year-old child with autism has requested charges be thrown out — because he shot the boy multiple times in the head in self-defense.
Lt. Derrick Stafford, a deputy city marshal in Marksville, Louisiana, has now asked a judge to dismiss charges because — despite he and fellow officer Norris Greenhouse, Jr.’s claims at the time they did not know Jeremy Mardis was present in the vehicle they fired upon — he actedin defense of his and other officers’ lives.
Let that sink in.
This officer’s hubris in asking a judge, as well as the American public, to believe a 6-year-old child in a truck — who had obviously done nothing wrong — posed an imminent deadly threat to his life and thusly deserved to be murdered.
Although body camera footage has yet to be released due to ongoing legal proceedings, State Police Col. Mike Edmonson was asked about what video showed during a press conference announcing the arrests of two officers for the second-degree murder of the child and second-degree attempted murder of his father.
“It’s the most disturbing thing I’ve seen and I will leave it at that,” Edmonson toldthe media.
“That little boy was buckled in the front seat of that vehicle. That is how he died.”
Attorneys for Stafford, according to the New York Daily News, claim the child’s father had refused to stop his vehicle, had rammed Greenhouse’s car, and would not cooperate with commands to raise his hands — thus, Stafford fired at the unarmed man and his 6-year-old son “out of fear for his life and that of his fellow officers.”
On the night of November 3, 2015, Stafford, Greenhouse, Lt. Jason Brouillette, and Sgt. Kenneth Parnell pursued 25-year-old Christopher Few, whose son, Jeremy, rode as a passenger.
Few eventually stopped and raised his arms to show he did not have a weapon — which was later proven to be true. Nonetheless, as traffic continued unimpeded in the intersection where Few stopped his truck, Stafford and Greenhouse fired no less than 18 rounds into the vehicle — both occupants were hit, and though Few survived, several bullets hit his son in the head, killing him.
Videos released by the Charlotte-MecklenburgPolice Department of the fatal encounter between officers and Keith Lamont Scott could be the last such footage that North Carolina authorities share with the public.
Scott died on September 20. In the five days since the shooting, protesters have demanded that Charlotte Police release video footage of the incident.Initially, Police Chief Kerr Putney chose not to immediately release the camera footage, only doing so amid pressure from the public. Release of another video from one of Scott's family membersalso added to the calls for police to release their footage.
Putney's decision may be one of the final times a police chief will relent to public pressure.
That's because a new law that goes into effect on October 1, exactly one week after the Scott footage was released, is set to block the public from obtaining similar kinds of recordings from body cameras or dashboard cameras
The sergeant then requests Sheppard exit the vehicle and Rodriguez immediately places cuffs on his wrists, barely giving enough time for him to comply with the order to turn around.
After placing Sheppard in the back of a waiting patrol car, officers proceed to search the SUV — without even the suspicion of the commission of a crime.
But the cops haven’t finished with the innocent man — and what happens next is truly astonishing given he’d done nothing wrong in the first place.
With the Tahoe’s recording devices rolling, these sheriff’s deputies — who apparently had nothing better to do than waste taxpayer money to intimidate and threaten an innocent individual — conspire to fabricate charges.
Cannick cites court documents in the matter, which state:
“During the course of the next several minutes, the deputies on scene conspired to concoct a citable offense against Mr. Sheppard. These law enforcement officials attempted to justify Deputy Plunkett’s actions, ex post facto. Most critically, Deputy Hanson and Deputy Ramirez drafted a citation that was ultimately signed by Deputy Plunkett. Neither Deputy Hanson nor Deputy Ramirez was willing to personally sign the citation, after engaging in a lengthy discussion concerning the contents of said citation. As she was attempting to creatively fashion charges to be brought against Mr. Sheppard within the aforementioned citation, Deputy Hanson stated, ‘please, just let me taser him.’”
Ultimately, Sheppard received citations for tinted windows and missing plates — even though temporary, paper plates were properly posted on the rear of the Tahoe with registration in the windshield as required by law.
Sheppard filed a civil lawsuit in federal court in 2015 over the absurdly unjust incident for, Cannick writes, “violation of his constitutional rights, assault, battery, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and various other charges.”
She was the one that got hit and she said she was fine. What right do the cops have to basically kidnap her "for her own good"??????? I would act the exact same to cops trying to force me to participate in "an investigation. She committed no crime, so what justifies them detaining her?
Uhm . . . didn't the cop hear a statement from the driver of the car that she had run the stop light and basically collided with the side of his car, and that it (damage?)could be seen where she hit him? Also, there is the fact the she is a minor, so YES, it isn't altogether unreasonable for them to want to thoroughly assess her condition or contact a parent and inform them of the situation before allowing her to leave the scene.
If you flip this all around, and she did end up having some brain injury from the collision, you can just imagine the lawsuit that would have ensued (when she later collapsed at school) because none of the emergency response people made the effort to take their own assessment of her condition, but instead just took the word of a minor that she was fine. Once they arrived on scene, those emergency personnel were potentially on the hook for ensuring the safety of a minor.
Additionally, if the cops just let her go, where would the poor driver of the car be as far as getting the damage she had caused to the side of his car fixed? Pretty cool if all it takes to leave the scene of an accident which you have caused is to simply have a little hissy-fit tantrum.
Besides all this, she instantly became hostile when the cops were just trying to talk to her. She obviously wanted to get away from the scene of an accident ASAP, which is often a dead give-away that something isn't right (maybe she's high, maybe she carrying, maybe she's taken a hit on the head, etc.). If you listen to what the cops are saying, they aren't being unreasonable. They don't even lay hands on her until she gets on her bike and starts to ride away. Even the bystander tells her to chill out because she's just making it worse.
Given the circumstances, the girl was being completely unreasonable and acting like a spoiled brat. An over-tired and desperately-in-need-of-a-nap two-year old's tantrums have nothing on her behavior. If she had just spoken to them calmly and rationally, so that they could reasonably assess she was not high or otherwise brain-damaged and/or being overtly evasive by wanting to prematurely leave the scene of an accident she had caused, OR simply allowed them to contact a parent, so that they could be informed and give parental consent for her to leave, then the whole thing could likely have been resolved with zero drama.
I'm sorry, just not seeing any personal accountability on this one.
Watch Greensboro leaders release ‘disturbing’ body camera video of former police officer Body camera video released Monday by city leaders shows a former Greensboro police officer using "disturbing" excessive force. City council members also on Monday voted 8-0 in favor of a resolution calling for the permanent suspension of former Greensboro officer Travis Cole's law enforcement certification.
The video shows Cole displaying "wrongful conduct" during an incident on June 17.
When city leaders released the video during a press conference Monday, several people applauded.
The incident began with Cole and another officer responding to a possible breaking and entering call. When they arrived at the house, Dejuan Yourse was sitting on the porch.
Body cameras on both Cole and his partner captured what happened next, now described by police as Cole using excessive force on Yourse, who wasn't injured.
An investigation was conducted on Cole and Greensboro City Manager Jim Westmoreland says there could be criminal charges.
Last Tuesday night, Greensboro City Council got the opportunity to view the body camera video and voted to release it to the public.
“Well, it's horrible! And I say this as a white male representative,” said Greensboro City Councilman Mike Barber last week.
“I was very concerned and disturbed about what I saw,” Westmoreland said.
During Monday's press conference, Mayor Nancy Vaughan apologized to Yourse, who was in attendance, calling the incident "ugly." She read a resolution calling for the permanent suspension of Cole's law enforcement certification. The resolution passed 8-0.
This is not the first time Cole has been in trouble with the department. In August 2014, Devin and Rufus Scales were arrested by Cole for blocking traffic on an empty street, public intoxication and resisting arrest.
Devin recorded his brother being handcuffed without incident, sparking questions about why he was charged. Those charges were eventually dropped and Cole was suspended.
Cole resigned from the Greensboro Police Department in August in light of this most recent investigation.
Police originally charged Yourse with assault on a government official, a woman referred to on the police report as C.N. Jackson, and resisting arrest.
City Attorney Tom Carruthers said Wednesday that the Guilford County District Attorney has since dropped those charges
At first, Shakeva Frazier didn’t see anything unusual about the Danville police patrol cars with raised hoods.
“When I (saw) it, I was thinking, ‘They must be trying to shield themselves’ … not knowing that they had the excuse of (patrol cars) overheating,” she said.
A picture taken by a Danville Register & Bee reporter of Danville police investigating a crime scene last month showed the hoods of two patrol cars raised, prompting questions about whether those hoods obscured the view of the cars’ dashboard cameras.
The fatal shootings by police of African-Americans around the country have reignited discussions about transparency and accountability from law enforcement.
In response to the controversy, the Danville Police Department will no longer raise the hoods on their patrol cars, Police Chief Philip Broadfoot told the Register & Bee on Monday afternoon.
“We’re going to close them. … It’s not worth the damage to the trust that we have with the community,” the chief said.
Danville police patrol cars have had a “continual heating issue” for some time, Broadfoot said.
As of publication, more than $16,000 has been spent on repairs of Danville police vehicles because of heat, according to Danville police Lt. Mike Wallace.
Certain “electrical parts in the engine” will melt when the heat rises in the summer, Wallace said, even though vents were installed on the hood of the cars to reduce the heat.
“If the car is going to be stopped for a long time, such as (at) a crime scene or working traffic … that heat would really accumulate under the hood,” Wallace said. “So we had the officers pop the hood.”
“If they’re going to stay there for a long time, they actually raise the hood up.”
Police raised their vehicles’ hoods on Aug. 24 at the scene of a shooting at Colquhoun and Jefferson streets. Police were investigating a vehicle that was shot at near the Green Street precinct. No one was injured from the shooting.
“It was a crime scene, so those vehicles were going to be there for quite a while,” Wallace said. “So they put the hoods up on those vehicles to keep the parts” from melting.
Broadfoot answered a question at a church forum on Sept. 9 about the raised hoods on city police cars.
“When (Broadfoot) addressed the question, a lot of people in the audience were concerned with his response,” said Ebony Guy, a community organizer and member of the Danville chapter of Virginia Organizing.
Guy said Virginia Organizing had already begun planning an initiative asking the City Council for more “transparency” on the issue of the raised hoods.
They had no knowledge about Frazier’s post showing two pictures of Danville police cars with raised hoods prior to their planning. That post was shared by hundreds of thousands of people on social media. More residents sent Frazier photos of Danville police patrol cars with hoods up.
“Dashboard cameras are a vital tool to policing,” Guy said. “We want to make sure that not only the citizens are safe, we want to make sure our police officers are safe as well.”
“When you see the hoods raised up, my first impression was they’re trying to hide something,” said Marty Jackson, a member of Virginia Organizing.
“With everything going on in society, all around the country … we want to make sure that both parties are safe: the community as well as the police officers,” Jackson added.
Danville police have been wearing body cameras in 2013. Yet “it’s still a concern because the officer controls the body cameras,” Jackson said. “They can cut them on or cut them off. We just want to make sure that everything is on the up and up.”
“I pray to God nothing happens in Danville,” said Frazier, who added: “That camera is the backup that’s been letting us know nationwide what’s going on. ... We need ours on.”
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