Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Police Draw Guns On Black Men Opening Bank Accounts
Skokie police drew their guns and surrounded a Bank of America Monday morning because two “suspicious” men wanted to open an account.
Oops.
The men who were targeted by police called it “racial profiling” and a police over-reaction.
The two were apparently trying to open an account, but employees thought they appeared suspicious and called police. A bank employee said there is no security at the branch, which is across from the Old Orchard Mall.
After police surrounded the bank, both men surrendered. One man left the bank with his arms up, while the other sat on the sidewalk with two officers pointing machine guns at him. The men had no weapons.
After checking out the men’s story, Skokie police shook hands with them and let them go on their way.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
State Trooper vs. Paramedic [Serve & Protect ???]
Cell Phone Vid
Full Dash Cam Vid
Fox 23 in Tulsa had had a Freedom of Information request in for the dash cam for more than two weeks. Late last night, the OHP finally stopped stonewalling and released the trooper's video dash cam.
It's not pretty. And, a warning--there is totally unacceptable language for a family setting.
Let me walk it down for you. An ambulance, with Maurice White acting as supervisor and paramedic, is taking an elderly woman, who had collapsed, to the hospital for treatment. Her worried family follows.
Trooper Daniel Martin, who was responding to a stolen car report, came up behind the ambulance on a two-lane country road. In Oklahoma, those shoulders are notoriously tricky for even a car to pull off onto. But there's another factor involved.
As the dash cam clearly shows, a car is on the right-hand shoulder, partially obstructing the highway. Just as the highway patrol pulls up behind the ambulance, the medical unit must swing out to avoid colliding with the parked car.
Let me repeat that, because it's important: if the ambulance's driver, Paul Franks, had immediately pulled over when the racing trooper came up behind him, he would have created an accident. It is impossible to safely pull over while slamming into another vehicle.
After the ambulance gets past the parked vehicle, Franks slows and safely pulls over for the trooper. As Martin zooms by--at a speed that I would call excessive for just a stolen car report--he uses the radio to reprimand the ambulance for not pulling over.
Later in the tape, it's shown that the sheriff's department is already on scene at the stolen car incident. Martin is released from any need to be at the scene.
Then he whips around, guns his car, and goes out hunting the ambulance. When he catches up with the ambulance, what happens next is a textbook case for bad judgment and abuse of power.
Before the encounter is over, Martin has assaulted the paramedic, frightened the patient, and created a neighborhood scene that is so unprofessional that it's just about unbelievable. Enraged, he calls for backup, repeatedly threatens the unit's operators, curses, chokes and slams White up against the ambulance several times--an action the patient later said rocked the unit, frightening her.
He also keeps screaming "you insulted me." The trooper later says that Franks made an obscene hand gesture as Martin passed the ambulance, a charge Franks denies.
Martin plans a press conference on Monday, according to Fox 23. Martin, who had his wife in the patrol car with him for an as-yet unknown reason, later declared that he'd recently come back from service in Iraq, a fact the OHP has not yet addressed.
Although Martin's on leave, it took awhile for the OHP to admit that, and then officials noted that the trooper had requested the paid administrative lead. It's a tangled mess that never had to happen.
As a graduate of the Bartlesville Police Department's Citizen Police Academy, I'm qualified to ride patrol with local officers, and have done so. I have seen three officers required to safely subdue and arrest a crazed, drunken multiple offender, with a track record for assaulting officers, who was in the middle of the road attacking cars while raging and cursing.
They accomplished the task without rage, profanity or violence. It's just one example of how tense and dangerous situations are handled every day, on all three shifts.
The stress on officers is immense--but I have never seen one of our officers responding to actual threats and verbal abuse like Martin responded to another emergency responder on duty. Not only that, but as a non-law enforcement professional, I've also been cursed, threatened, and insulted.
In fact, I've had drunken offenders not only call me names while enroute to jail, but also describe, clearly, the sexual services they expect from me and intend to get. I didn't lose my cool, nor did my patrol partner.
If a civilian can handle extreme duress and verbal abuse, why can't a supposedly well-trained professional officer handle an ambulance's driver choosing not to pull his unit into another vehicle while transporting a patient? What made it necessary for this trooper to hunt down the ambulance and escalate the situation into a public brawl rather than just going on?
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol has a serious problem--both with this trooper and within the agency. Their actions in stonewalling media and the public has set a bad example. Had a family member not been on hand with a cellphone camera during the episode, Martin's actions in choking White would have been undocumented as they were out of range of the camera. Not only that, but the backup trooper turned off his dash cam, accrding to earlier reports.
Full Dash Cam Vid
Fox 23 in Tulsa had had a Freedom of Information request in for the dash cam for more than two weeks. Late last night, the OHP finally stopped stonewalling and released the trooper's video dash cam.
It's not pretty. And, a warning--there is totally unacceptable language for a family setting.
Let me walk it down for you. An ambulance, with Maurice White acting as supervisor and paramedic, is taking an elderly woman, who had collapsed, to the hospital for treatment. Her worried family follows.
Trooper Daniel Martin, who was responding to a stolen car report, came up behind the ambulance on a two-lane country road. In Oklahoma, those shoulders are notoriously tricky for even a car to pull off onto. But there's another factor involved.
As the dash cam clearly shows, a car is on the right-hand shoulder, partially obstructing the highway. Just as the highway patrol pulls up behind the ambulance, the medical unit must swing out to avoid colliding with the parked car.
Let me repeat that, because it's important: if the ambulance's driver, Paul Franks, had immediately pulled over when the racing trooper came up behind him, he would have created an accident. It is impossible to safely pull over while slamming into another vehicle.
After the ambulance gets past the parked vehicle, Franks slows and safely pulls over for the trooper. As Martin zooms by--at a speed that I would call excessive for just a stolen car report--he uses the radio to reprimand the ambulance for not pulling over.
Later in the tape, it's shown that the sheriff's department is already on scene at the stolen car incident. Martin is released from any need to be at the scene.
Then he whips around, guns his car, and goes out hunting the ambulance. When he catches up with the ambulance, what happens next is a textbook case for bad judgment and abuse of power.
Before the encounter is over, Martin has assaulted the paramedic, frightened the patient, and created a neighborhood scene that is so unprofessional that it's just about unbelievable. Enraged, he calls for backup, repeatedly threatens the unit's operators, curses, chokes and slams White up against the ambulance several times--an action the patient later said rocked the unit, frightening her.
He also keeps screaming "you insulted me." The trooper later says that Franks made an obscene hand gesture as Martin passed the ambulance, a charge Franks denies.
Martin plans a press conference on Monday, according to Fox 23. Martin, who had his wife in the patrol car with him for an as-yet unknown reason, later declared that he'd recently come back from service in Iraq, a fact the OHP has not yet addressed.
Although Martin's on leave, it took awhile for the OHP to admit that, and then officials noted that the trooper had requested the paid administrative lead. It's a tangled mess that never had to happen.
As a graduate of the Bartlesville Police Department's Citizen Police Academy, I'm qualified to ride patrol with local officers, and have done so. I have seen three officers required to safely subdue and arrest a crazed, drunken multiple offender, with a track record for assaulting officers, who was in the middle of the road attacking cars while raging and cursing.
They accomplished the task without rage, profanity or violence. It's just one example of how tense and dangerous situations are handled every day, on all three shifts.
The stress on officers is immense--but I have never seen one of our officers responding to actual threats and verbal abuse like Martin responded to another emergency responder on duty. Not only that, but as a non-law enforcement professional, I've also been cursed, threatened, and insulted.
In fact, I've had drunken offenders not only call me names while enroute to jail, but also describe, clearly, the sexual services they expect from me and intend to get. I didn't lose my cool, nor did my patrol partner.
If a civilian can handle extreme duress and verbal abuse, why can't a supposedly well-trained professional officer handle an ambulance's driver choosing not to pull his unit into another vehicle while transporting a patient? What made it necessary for this trooper to hunt down the ambulance and escalate the situation into a public brawl rather than just going on?
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol has a serious problem--both with this trooper and within the agency. Their actions in stonewalling media and the public has set a bad example. Had a family member not been on hand with a cellphone camera during the episode, Martin's actions in choking White would have been undocumented as they were out of range of the camera. Not only that, but the backup trooper turned off his dash cam, accrding to earlier reports.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
White Cop Shoots Black Cop In Harlem
Details of the shooting death of an off-duty cop last night in Harlem slowly started to emerge today as family members mourned the loss of the rookie officer.
Officer Andrew Duton, a 4 ½ year NYPD veteran, unleashed a hail of bullets on plain-clothed officer Omar Edwards, 25, in a tragic case of mistaken identity.
Edwards, a rookie cop who lived with his wife and two small children in Brooklyn, confronted a suspect who was trying to break into his car at about 10:30 p.m. last night.
Edwards had gotten off duty from PSA 5 early, at 10 p.m. -- his scheduled quit time was 2:30 a.m. -- and called 911 when he saw Miguel Santiago, who has five prior arrests for drugs, assault and robbery, breaking into his car at 125th Street and Second Avenue, police sources said.
Edwards had pulled his gun on Santiago as they confronted one another on the misty, rain-drenched streets.
At that moment, Dunton and two other officers from the 25th Precinct anti-crime unit rolled up, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
It is unclear if Edwards identified himself as an officer. Santiago told police he heard someone yell to him and Edwards, "Stop! Police!"
Dunton jumped out of the car and fired off six shots -- two of which struck Edwards, who wasn't wearing a bulletproof vest because he was off duty, Kelly said.
Though the official cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest, the bullet that caused the fatal injury entered the left side of Edward's back before hitting his heart and left lung, said medical examiner spokeswoman Ellen Borakove. It lodged in the front of his chest, and was recovered.
An autopsy also found that another bullet tunneled through the victim's left arm. He also was hit in the left hip by a third bullet.
The officer who fired the gun is white; Edwards was black. Kelly said investigators would try to determine if that played a role in the friendly-fire tragedy.
While exactly what occurred is unclear, the police patrol guide says in officer-on-officer conflicts "the actions of the members in the first few seconds are of vital importance."
Officials said today it's up to the confronted officer to ID himself right away. And even if the confronted cop is chasing a suspect, he should "remain motionless even if it means a fleeing suspect may escape."
Still, the confronting cops are supposed to shout "Police! Don't move!"
The NYPD has already changed their training procedure by adding a class on the procedure for confronting a fellow officer.
Edwards, who lived in Bushwick, Brooklyn, with his wife, Danielle Edwards and their two sons, Xavier, 18 months, and Keanu, 7 months, died at 11:21 p.m. at Harlem Hospital.
"I can't believe another cop shot him. I cannot understand how a police officer can just fire on another police officer," Edwards father, Ricardo, 72, said. "This was my son - a good man. I am very upset and don't know what really happened."
His mother, Natalia Harding, lives in the apartment next to Edwards and his family.
"Before he left to work this afternoon he hugged me and kissed me and told me he would see me in the morning. He won't see me now," Harding said. "He was a good son and a great father.
"You should have seen him with his 2 boys - they were inseparable. I'm missing him badly already. His oldest son, Xavier, wants his father to come home. I miss him so much," she said.
Edwards was only just married. Sources said the civil ceremony took place at the city's Manhattan wedding chapel on April 17.
"This is a sad day for the city and for the New York Police Department," Mayor Bloomberg said at a news conference early this morning.
Kelly added, "I hope the prayers of all New Yorkers are with Police Officer Edwards and his family."
The violence jolted people who happened to be nearby.
"He wasn't moving," said Oni Rodriguez, 23. "He was wearing jeans and a gray sweatshirt with lots of blood. They put him on a stretcher."
Malik Lane, 20, who lives in a nearby shelter, heard the blast of gunfire as far away as 125th and Lexington Avenue.
His friend Christian Becances, 19, said he thought he heard multiple gun pops.
"I said to myself, 'Where's that coming from?' " Becances said.
"It was very chaotic. I heard a lot of police officers. They were hugging each other, and when I asked a cop what happened he said, 'Leave me alone.' "
The shooting eerily recalled an August 1994 confrontation in which an off-duty officer mistook a plainclothes cop for a gunman,
Officer Peter DelDebbio, who is white, was searching for two armed teens on a Midtown subway station when he opened fire, hitting another cop, Desmond Robinson, who is black, five times. Robinson survived and forgave the shooter.
Additional reporting by Murray Weiss and CJ Sullivan
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)