Free Republic

CHICAGO — How do you make sure police officers are held accountable if most of their full disciplinary records are no longer available? That question is at the center of what might be the next big battle brewing over police accountability across the country, and specifically in Chicago. The recent release of videos showing deadly shootings of black citizens by white police officers in Chicago has many demanding police accountability and has led to a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the patterns and practices of the Chicago Police Department. And now, there is a legal fight over the destruction...

A California police officer will not face criminal charges after he shot a DUI suspect.

The women were teenagers and grandmothers. Most were living on the margins. All of them were black. And during a month-long trial that became a symbol of police predation, they formed a bleak parade of 13 witnesses who accused a former Oklahoma City officer of using his badge to coerce sex acts and rape. On Thursday, after 45 hours of deliberation, a jury convicted Daniel Holtzclaw, 28, on five counts of rape and 13 other counts of sexual assault, including six of sexual battery. The convictions included four for first-degree rape, which carries a possible sentence of life in prison....

Gray protests Statement from officers in Freddie Gray case ruled admissible Trial dates for officers charged in Freddie Gray death set Baltimore, Freddie Gray family reach $6.4M settlement By Jason Hanna, Mark Morgenstein and Ray Sanchez CNN Baltimore police Officer William Porter, one of six officers charged in the April death of Freddie Gray, took the stand at his own trial Wednesday, and said there were no signs that Gray — eventually found to have broken his neck in a police van — needed immediate medical attention. "I didn't call for a medic because after talking to Mr. Gray he...

As a parade of San Francisco cops questioned the police commission last night about why the city might not trust them to view footage from the body cameras they’d soon be required to wear on duty, five of their colleagues were across town, shooting an allegedly knife-wielding man. It was a hell of a night all around. The shooting happened roughly an hour before the commission meeting, calling Police Chief Greg Suhr away from City Hall. There was plenty of blue on display without him, though: Cops were lined up around the bend trying to convince the commissioners to see...

McDonald runs towards one police cruiser while brandishing a knife, a 2nd cruiser rolls up, cop steps out walks towards McDonald and proceeds to shoot him 16 times.

The single image of LaQuan McDonald for the past six months has been that of a 17-year-old African-American teenager dressed in a red graduation cap and gown. Beyond the fact that he was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer the night of October 20, 2014, only a few facts about the remainder of his life have been reported. /See video at link)

Police say footage of an officer-involved shooting contributed to prosecutors’ decision to press charges. All of it was filmed. The police chase of an SUV after dark on a weeknight. The shots fired. The driver, struck in the head. His son, 6 years old, shot dead in the front seat. The fatal shooting of Jeremy Mardis in Marksville, Louisiana, on Tuesday was captured on a body camera worn by one of the four police officers present at the scene. And it was that video footage that led in part to the decision to charge two of them with second-degree murder...

NEW ORLEANS - Louisiana investigators are combing through evidence in the shooting death earlier this week of a 6-year-old autistic boy after authorities charged two law enforcement officers in the shooting. Modal Trigger Col. Mike Edmonson, in a late night press conference Friday, said the two officers were being booked on charges of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder in the Tuesday shooting death of Jeremy Mardis and the wounding of his father, Chris Few, in the central Louisiana town of Marksville. -snip- Speaking of the body camera footage that was recovered from the officers, he said: "It is the...

The school resource officer who was caught on camera violently flipping a South Carolina high school student at her desk has been fired, Richland County authorities announced Wednesday. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said an internal investigation over the Monday incident at Spring Valley High School in Columbia focused on whether Senior Deputy Ben Fields had violated the department’s policies. He said at a news conference that the department looked at cellphone videos taken from the classroom and interviews with witnesses, and concluded that the maneuvers he used in the confrontation were “not acceptable.”

Chiefs of some of the nation’s biggest police departments say officers in American cities have pulled back and have stopped policing as aggressively as they used to, fearing that they could be the next person in a uniform featured on a career-ending viral video. That was the unifying — and controversial — theory reached Wednesday at a private meeting of more than 100 of the nation’s top law enforcement officers and politicians. With homicide rates soaring inexplicably this year in dozens of U.S. cities, the group convened by new U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch concluded with a brief news conference...

A University of Cincinnati police officer was indicted Wednesday on a murder charge in the shooting of 43-year-old Samuel Dubose, an unarmed black man, during a routine traffic stop. In conjunction with the indictment, Hamilton County prosecutor Joseph T. Deters released a video of the shooting from the body camera of the shooting officer, Ray Tensing. “This is the most asinine act I’ve ever seen a police officer make,” said Deters during a news conference. “It’s an absolute tragedy in 2015 that anyone would behave in this manner. It was senseless. He lost his temper because Mr. Dubose wouldn’t get...

An Arizona cop barged into a woman’s home while she was in the shower and handcuffed her as she stood naked and sopping wet, according to a lawsuit. Officer Doug Rose lectured an unclothed, sobbing Esmeralda Rossi in front of her daughter and told her he was in charge, even though she was in her own home. Even as an investigation determined that Rose illegally entered the home, the policeman managed to retire and start collecting his pension. -snip- “Don’t take the attitude with cops, because we don’t play,” Rose said. “When a cop shows up, you’re not the one...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The family of an unarmed man fatally shot by police in suburban Los Angeles called for a federal civil rights investigation into the police department involved Wednesday, saying newly released video of the shooting raises significant questions. Newly released videos of the shooting show Diaz-Zeferino with his palms open at waist level when officers shoot him eight times. A second man who had his hands up, Eutiquio Acevedo-Mendez, survived a gunshot wound to the back.

BALTIMORE —The Baltimore City Police Department has launched an internal investigation after a WBAL-TV 11 News viewer shared four photographs of a sign inside a city police wagon. The photos show the doors of the parked police van left open. On the inside of the back door is a sign, attached or possibly stenciled on, that reads: "Enjoy your ride, cuz we sure will!" The pictures were taken Tuesday near the Central District Police Station on Baltimore Street.

A veteran New York state corrections officer rolled out the red carpet for two convicted murderers who have made a spectacular prison break -- giving them art supplies, tools and access to the catwalks behind the walls of their cell to do electrical work, stunning court documents say. Gene Palmer, 57, of Dannemora, was arrested Wednesday and hit with promoting prison contraband and tampering with physical evidence, both felonies, and official misconduct, a misdemeanor in connection with the "Shawshank Redemption"-style June 6 escape of Richard Matt and David Sweat from Clinton Correctional Facility

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies were convicted Wednesday in federal court in the beating of a bloody, handcuffed jail visitor and an attempt to cover it up. Sgt. Eric Gonzalez and deputies Sussie Ayala and Fernando Luviano were found guilty of deprivation of civil rights and falsification of records in the 2011 beating of Gabriel Carrillo. Gonzalez and Ayala were also convicted of conspiracy to violate constitutional rights. The three face at least six years in prison when sentenced Nov. 2. "An individual who carries a badge and a gun and who uses their authority...

A blind man in Arkansas sustained a back injury after being assaulted by Little Rock police who failed to identify themselves before lying about the incident. After missing the bus from his job at Lighthouse for the Blind on June 1, Eric Wilson was walking home when he was approached by police and ordered to walk over to them. Wilson is legally blind and says that he can only see shadows. He complied, despite not knowing if he was about to be robbed or about to be confronted with actual police officers as they did not identify themselves.

A Florida high school principal has been removed from his job after commenting online in support of the Texas police officer who resigned after a video surfaced showing him manhandling a black bikini-clad teenager and pulling his gun on other black teens, according to officials and local media. Miami-Dade County Public Schools said in a brief statement on Wednesday that North Miami Senior High School principal Alberto Iber had been removed. It added a replacement would be announced shortly. The statement did not specify what prompted the move, but stated that district employees “are required to conduct themselves, both personally...

On May 25, officers with the Crowley Police Department busted through the front door as a family was sitting down for Sunday dinner. Footage from an officer’s body cam was eventually leaked to the press, showing the home’s owners, well-known attorneys J. Clay LeJeune and his wife Mitzi Mayeaux, engaged in a dispute with the officers. It quickly turned ugly, with LeJeune receiving the business end of one officer’s Tazer. Both were arrested and later indicted by an Acadia Parish grand jury on charges of public intimidation, retaliation and resisting an officer with force of violence.