Posted on 11/04/2020 6:59:52 AM PST by Kaslin
On a sunny Friday afternoon in July 2014, James King, a 21-year-old college student, was walking to a summer job in Grand Rapids, Michigan, when he was accosted by two unshaven men wearing jeans and baseball caps who asked his name and grabbed his wallet. When King tried to flee, the men tackled him, choked him unconscious, and punched him in the face over and over again.
The men, it turned out, were cops, and for six years King has been trying to hold them accountable for their actions that day. Next Monday the U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether he should get that chance. If not, police officers will have another legal trick they can use to violate people's constitutional rights with impunity.
"Are you mugging me?" King asked before trying to get away. As he was being choked and beaten, he cried for help and asked bystanders to call the police, which several of them did.
The assailants, FBI agent Douglas Brownback and Grand Rapids detective Todd Allen, were looking for a 26-year-old man named Aaron Davison, who allegedly had stolen liquor and empty soda cans from his former employer's apartment. They had a driver's license photo of Davison, which looked nothing like King.
Brownback and Allen, who were members of a state-federal fugitive task force, nevertheless claimed they reasonably believed King was Davison, based on the suspect's general description and the fact that King was in the same neighborhood where Davison had a habit of buying soda. They also said they identified themselves as police officers, which seems highly doubtful given King's reaction.
"I thought they were trying to mug me," King told an officer who arrived in response to bystanders' 911 calls. Even at that point, he was asking whether the men were "real police."
Because a Grand Rapids officer ordered witnesses to delete their cellphone recordings of the beating (ostensibly "for the safety" of "undercover officers"), we have no video of the struggle. But witness accounts suggest that Allen -- who choked King and, after the panicked college student responded by biting his arm, hit him in the face and head "as hard as I could, as fast as I could, and as many times as I could" -- was out of control.
"They were pounding his head for no reason," a bystander says in a cellphone recording. "They're gonna kill this man," a 911 caller said.
King's first stop after this harrowing encounter was the hospital; his next stop was jail. He was charged with three felonies for assaulting Brownback and Allen, but a jury acquitted him.
After a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit that King filed in response to the incident, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit last year ruled that he could pursue his constitutional claims against Brownback and Allen. It said a jury could reasonably conclude that the cops violated the Fourth Amendment by detaining King without reasonable suspicion, taking his wallet, preventing him from leaving, and using excessive force against a man who thought he was being mugged.
In its appeal to the Supreme Court, the U.S. government argues that King should never get his day in court because part of his lawsuit -- claims against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act -- was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. King's lawyers, joined by members of Congress, civil liberties groups, and several FTCA experts, argue that the government's reading of that statute contradicts its plain language and intent.
According to the government, a law aimed at providing victims of official abuse with additional remedies leaves King worse off than he would have been if it had never been passed: He not only cannot use that statute; he has no recourse at all.
"These officers did something that was illegal and then charged me," King says. "The system closed around them and helped them get away with that. There is zero accountability."
Witness reports sound pretty bad and the photo they had did not look like King. Side note: Why is an FBI agent working on a case of some stolen liqueur and empty soda cans?
> FBI agent Douglas Brownback and Grand Rapids detective Todd Allen, were looking for a 26-year-old man named Aaron Davison, who allegedly had stolen liquor and empty soda cans from his former employer’s apartment. <
At least now we know why the FBI isn’t able to investigate any major crimes. They are too busy trying to track down people who steal empty soda cans.
officers of the law totally out of control. Both should be in jail. Hopefully both are no longer employed.
18 U.S. Code § 242.Deprivation of rights under color of law
Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or to different punishments, pains, or penalties, on account of such person being an alien, or by reason of his color, or race, than are prescribed for the punishment of citizens, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if bodily injury results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include the use, attempted use, or threatened use of a dangerous weapon, explosives, or fire, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death. (June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 696; Pub. L. 90–284, title I, § 103(b), Apr. 11, 1968, 82 Stat. 75; Pub. L. 100–690, title VII, § 7019, Nov. 18, 1988, 102 Stat. 4396; Pub. L. 103–322, title VI, § 60006(b), title XXXII, §§ 320103(b), 320201(b), title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(H), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 1970, 2109, 2113, 2147; Pub. L. 104–294, title VI, §§ 604(b)(14)(B), 607(a), Oct. 11, 1996, 110 Stat. 3507, 3511.)
The FBI is called out for a guy stealing empty soda cans? Is there something else we aren't being told?
Maybe not. This is right up there with the Bubba "noose" garage door pull and the FBI investigating the Trump cars tailing the Biden bus in Texas.
This was NOT a "mistake"!
This was professional misconduct.
The ability to charge an offense, and too big in the ego department just to go out and make a charge, “get a score”, can lead to situations where some cops demonstrate they should not have been admitted into their profession.
Cops have to make judgement calls, but that does not mean ignoring evidence contrary to the cop’s suspicions. It looks more like the cops just picked a target and ignored things that identified the man as the wrong target.
It appears from what evidence there is in the story that the cops (a) did not announce that they were cops, (b) ignored the man’s driver’s license in his wallet showing he was not the named suspect they were looking for, and with those two steps in the negative began to try to take hold of the suspect, which the man resisted as a normal person would do.
Short of legal intervention, the only recourse is “We the People” take direct action, whichever form that materializes.
Failure to recycle is a serious crime. Like garage pulls and traffic violations.
Investigating chinese election interference or human kiddie trafficking/hunter's laptop, not so much.
This is why you never have plane clothes cops make an arrest. Its a basic rule for LEOs to call in a marked unit when you are ready to make an arrest.
This was very dangerous to all involved. Just think of what could have happened if this guy had a CCW and believed he was being mugged.
This is what the FBI is investigating? “allegedly had stolen liquor and empty soda cans”
Get rid of this waste of space agency.
The Sixth District judges who handled the appeal are Reagan senior circuit judge Danny Boggs, Rapin Bill judge Eric Clay and Dubya senior circuit judge John Rogers.
Personally I would put the 2 thugs in Prison for 30 years and grant the victim all of their assets
I worked daily with the police for a lot of years. I respect and admire the vast majority, but I have known a few genuine jerks and just plain idiots. Our police chief for a long time set a very bad tone. He was a serious mental case and shot my wife’s close friend in the head and then killed himself in front of his children. This was many years ago... their kids were brought up by his wife’s sister, unfortunately the boy turned into a real psycho himself as he got older and terrorized his grandparents and the people who raised him. I am not sure if it is bad genes or the traumatic event. I suspect a bit of both.
The victim should properly claim not only the badges of all agents involved, but every last cent that they personally own. This was a disgusting abuse of power and deprivation of civil rights.
This officer should have been arrested for destroying evidence of a possible felony.
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