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Draconian enforcement of COVID-19 lockdown accelerates. Yet another shock video out of Australia shows police enforcing coronavirus rules by arresting an elderly woman sitting on a park bench for not wearing a mask. “This is unlawful, on what grounds am I under arrest?” asks the woman. An officer then walks around the back of the bench and snatches her friend’s phone away, preventing her from filming the encounter. The woman is told that she is being arrested for failing to provide her name and address. ... Once a person has been targeted for not wearing a mask or violating any...

Police said they were called to a home in Glendale Friday night with a report of a boy who had threatened people with a weapon. The young man reportedly ran and was shot by an officer after being pursued by police. The child’s mother, Golda Barton, told KUTV-TV that her son has autism and she had called police because he was having a breakdown and needed a crisis intervention team. Barton claimed she told police her son was unarmed and warned them that he did not know how to regulate his behavior. A few minutes after two officers who had...

Tempe police are investigating after an officer pointed a gun at a Black hotel employee, while searching for a white suspect. See video at link.

Three Tennessee police officers are facing repercussions after they entered the wrong home in a botched police raid. The dents made when police kicked in the front door of Azaria Hines’ home remain, along with the trauma of that morning. “I feel violated. I feel embarrassed. I’m humiliated,” Hines said. “Everybody is all in my business. And all of this for nothing, for something that I had nothing to even do with.” Police Chief John Drake decommissioned the officers after they raided the wrong address, using what he calls “excessive force.” They had reportedly been given outdated information given to...

Two police officers in New Jersey admitted they vandalized vehicles belonging to a man after he filed an internal affairs complaint against them. SNIP The officers said they slashed the tires of the vehicles and smashed a window on one of them, causing more than $500 in damage. “Spiteful retaliation from law enforcement officers towards a citizen for any reason is an unacceptable option. This is in no way condoned at any level, for any reason," said Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni.

Three Metro Nashville police officers have had their law enforcement powers restricted after they improperly forced open the door of a family's home Tuesday around dawn, Interim Police Chief John Drake said. The officers who've been decommissioned announced themselves, then began using a battering ram as they executed a warrant in search of evidence connected to a teenager wanted in a property crimes investigation, Drake said Wednesday at a news conference. They were not there for a violent criminal or drug raid, he added. Officials later learned the teenager had not lived at that address in several months, he said....

*Video of an Australian woman being choked by police and violently wrestled to the ground for not wearing a mask has reportedly sparked an internal investigation. According to local outlet 7News, her decision to walk the streets bare-faced was a breach of the Chief Health Officers orders under Stage 4, which mandates the wearing of masks. She also faces separate charges of resisting and assaulting police. The woman was subsequently found to have had an exemption for wearing a mask from a doctor, according to 7News. The incident took place Monday afternoon when the 21-year-old woman was approached by two...

Four more Baldwin Park police officers, former and active, have filed government claims against the city, following in the footsteps of former police Chief Steve McLean, who alleged city officials were corrupt in June, according to an attorney representing the claimants. In government claims filed against the city in July, Chris Kurberry, Mike Hemenway, Daniel Rodriguez and an unnamed claimant identified as “AA DOE” continue McLean’s original allegations, calling Mayor Manuel Lozano and other city leaders racist and corrupt. Lozano declined to comment on the claims, saying he would address them once they are presented to the City Council. City...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Despite mounting public pressure to file criminal charges nearly five months after Breonna Taylor’s death, prosecutors may face significant obstacles to bringing homicide-related charges against police officers who were shot at when sent to her house with a warrant, legal experts said. Tensions have swelled in her home town and spread far afield as activists, professional athletes and social media stars push for action while investigators plead for more patience. The warrant also has been called into question and, with federal officials looking into potential civil rights abuses, the case could reach beyond the officers on...

The charges, which grew out of a lethal 2019 raid based on a fraudulent search warrant affidavit, suggest that cops routinely built their cases on lies.A Harris County, Texas, grand jury has confirmed the criminal charges against six former Houston narcotics officers that District Attorney Kim Ogg announced on July 1, while adding two more counts against one of the defendants. The 17 felony charges include falsification of search warrants, fraudulent reports of drug purchases, and phony overtime claims. The indictments, which were issued on Friday, reflect the shady practices and lax supervision that enabled veteran Houston police officer Gerald...

When he heads to airports now, Samuel Haile thinks of that day at Buffalo's airport a few years ago. The government took $12,000 from his carry-on and wouldn't give it back. Haile was not charged with a crime ... Dozens of passengers have suffered such a loss in recent years in Buffalo. With an X-ray machine, a screener spots a dense mass in a piece of luggage. If it's an unusually large sum of cash, the government takes it on the suspicion that it's drug money. At Buffalo and every other airport in the country, the TSA screens bags and...

A Virginia state trooper is under investigation for a traffic stop in 2019 during which he can be heard on video telling a [b]lack driver, "You're going to get your a-- whooped," before forcefully removing the man from his car, authorities said Wednesday. An attorney for the motorist, Derrick Thompson, tweeted video Monday from the encounter that Thompson recorded with his cellphone.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- With weapons drawn, Louisville Metro Police SWAT officers raided a home last July to serve a warrant on an alleged drug suspect, but instead, they handcuffed a man hired to paint the vacant house, his girlfriend and her 10-year-old daughter, a lawsuit claims. In fact, the suit alleges, LMPD officers had already searched the home in the 100 block of Amherst Avenue near Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport 10 days earlier and arrested the person they were looking for -- and who was still in custody at the time of the July 15, 2019, raid. Roy...

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin faces murder and manslaughter charges for kneeling on George Floyd's neck until he stopped breathing. But even if Chauvin is convicted, Floyd's family may not be able to pursue claims under a federal statute that authorizes lawsuits against government officials who violate people's constitutional rights. The uncertain prospects for the lawsuit Floyd's relatives plan to file underlines the unjust and irrational consequences of qualified immunity, a doctrine that shields police from liability for outrageous conduct when the rights they violated were not "clearly established" at the time. Congress should seize the opportunity created by...

HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. (CBS4) — A former Englewood police officer has been sentenced to 30 days in jail after pleading guilty to sexual contact without consent. Anna McCain, 24, pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor in January. Other counts against her were dismissed as part of the plea agreement. The victim said that after a night out, a group of people, including McCain, went to the victim’s home in Highlands Ranch. She said McCain was the last to leave. After the others left, the victim said McCain tried numerous times to initiate sexual contact. The victim said she told McCain no...

Breonna Taylor was an award-winning EMT and model citizen. She loved her family and community, working at two hospitals as an essential worker during the pandemic. Nearly four months ago, a division of the Louisville Police Department performed an illegal, unannounced drug raid on her home. Not a single officer announced themselves before ramming down her door and firing 22 shots, shooting Breonna 8 times, killing her. Not only were the police at the WRONG HOUSE, but the man they were looking for had already been arrested earlier that day. 1. Charges must be filed immediately. The officers involved, specifically...

Is there anything more pathetic than a leader whose charges have all simply walked away? Hard to look big and powerful when that happens. But that's the pretty picture in Hallandale Beach, where the entire SWAT team has resigned after the police chief and members of his command staff took a knee in religious obeisance to the Black Lives Matter anti-police activist group. Here's the Miami Herald's account of the embarrassment: The 10 members of the Hallandale Beach Police Department’s SWAT team have stepped down from their roles, citing among other grievances anger over the city’s police chief kneeling with...

In a powerful, nearly 1500-word long column published last week at LawOfficer.com, Yates poured his heart out over the growing disrespect for law enforcement that he’s seen as the decades have progressed.--- “The mentally ill used to get treatment and now they just send cops.” “Kids used to be taught respect and now it’s cool to be disrespectful.” “Supervisors used to back you when you were right but now they accuse you of being wrong in order to appease crazy people.” “Parents used to get mad at their kids for getting arrested and now they get mad at us.” “The...

Image is a screenshot taken from video at WAV3.com. Cropped and scaled by Dean Weingarten On March 13, 2020, at about 1 a.m., in Louisville, Kentucky, five police officers, at least three who were in plain clothes, without body cameras, executed a no-knock raid, with a warrant naming Breonna Taylor. The warrant had the right address and person.  The officers were not wearing body cameras, because they were narcotics officers, and were exempt by policy.From usa.today: No body-camera footage is available because officers in the Criminal Interdiction Division who conducted the search warrant do not wear cameras, police chief Steve...

According to a trusted source, Gugino told the officers, "you're going to arrest me, and I'm going to take you to the Supreme Court" before the push and fall incident with the two Buffalo officers. Then, as the 57 officers started moving the line forwards to secure the plaza, on orders from above, Martin Gugino began deliberately walking towards the officer line, directly into it, presumably to effectuate his plan of being arrested. Instead, the officers yelled at him to move out of the way and pushed him back when he did not listen. The push caused Gugino to trip...