COPS behaving badly

[derevan]

IANAL question: Should cops have an expectation of privacy when they enter another person's home?

Rap artist Afroman sued by officers who raided his home

NO! Police have no expectation of privacy while performing their duty. There is a SCOTUS decision that police can freely be filmed, videotaped etc while on their job. That includes of course the special case where the home owner records on their very own property. Apart that police body cams are public record and can be obtained by FOIA request and freely diseminated. Body cams would by chance show faces of other members of the police in action.

ps. my posting in the lawsuits thread at viewtopic.php?p=182173#p182173
has the video

They should have tried to sue for using their likeness. IANAL, but it seems like that might have more merit than emotional distress 'cause they got their feelings hurt. Which also makes them look like big babies.

Also, Streisand effect.

[RTH10260]

Officers in ‘Cop City’ raid shot pepperball gun into activist’s tent first
Manuel Paez Terán’s family say incident reports reveal that Georgia officials ‘planned and led the operation’ that resulted in the activist’s death

Hilary Beaumont
Sat 25 Mar 2023 09.00 GMT

A police officer fired rounds from a pepperball gun into Manuel Paez Terán’s closed tent before an exchange of gunfire that resulted in the death of the environmental activist and injury of an officer, according to police incident reports obtained by the Guardian.

Armed police in tactical gear killed the 26-year-old Paez Terán on the morning of 18 January as they swept through an Atlanta forest to clear activists who were camping there to prevent construction on a $90m police and fire department training facility known as “Cop City”.

The death of Paez Terán – the first time an environmental protester has been killed by police in US history – created headlines around the US and the world and further galvanised a protest movement against the huge project amid accusations of heavy-handed police action and some local Georgia politicians eager to depict activists as “terrorists”.

The incident reports reveal that officers were first to discharge a weapon – they fired a pepperball gun into Paez Terán’s tent, which was followed by gunshots they believed were coming from inside the tent, leading officers to fire a barrage of shots blindly into the tent, killing Paez Terán inside. It also reveals that, while they rendered medical assistance to an injured officer, they did not immediately do the same for Paez Terán.

Until now, the police agencies involved in the operation have released few records detailing what happened that day, but have claimed that officers shot Paez Terán in self-defense.

There are nine mentions of the phrase “domestic terrorist” or “domestic terrorists” used by officers in the 20-page police incident report, which Paez Terán’s family said showed the attitude they took towards anyone they encountered in the forest during an operation that resulted in the death of the activist, who went by “Tortuguita” and used they/them pronouns.

The new records sent to the Guardian through a public records request by the Georgia department of public safety reveal the previously unreleased written narratives of the officers involved, including the lead-up to the police clearing of the forest, what happened during the shooting and the immediate aftermath. The officers’ names are redacted.

In a statement to the Guardian responding to the release of the documents, Paez Terán’s family said the reports “reveal that officers were fed a steady supply of hearsay and vague generalities about ‘domestic terrorists’ before entering the forest. It is clear that all law enforcement regarded any person in the forest as guilty of being a domestic terrorist.”

Through their lawyers, the family said: “The officer narratives released today by the department of public safety were drafted weeks or, in some cases, months after the incident. When officers drafted these statements, each had the opportunity to review the publicly available video and the press releases issued by the GBI [Georgia bureau of investigation]. As the GBI has acknowledged, ‘memory and perception are fragile’, and outside factors can influence witness statements.” Brian Spears, a lawyer for the family, said the records show the officers prepared their narratives in February and March, long after the shooting.



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... paez-teran

[RTH10260]

no violence just traffic cops waiting for their turn in Federal Court

[raison de arizona]

Should be "Indiana." Good thing the officer had bad aim, shoot first, ask questions later. Also, "COME OUT!" "STAY INSIDE!"

[neonzx]

Should be "Indiana." Good thing the officer had bad aim, shoot first, ask questions later. Also, "COME OUT!" "STAY INSIDE!"
https://twitter.com/SouthlandPost/statu ... 41921?s=20

OMG, it's funny -- only because nobody hurt. The orange cones setup on the sidewalk up in front of this establishment should have alerted this officer that something else was going on.

[raison de arizona]

I suppose it is really the bystanders filming rather than helping who are behaving badly in this clip. Be forewarned- you're going to see cop tighty whities.

[bob]

[johnpcapitalist]

I read a couple of the articles about this because I used to live in San Jose. One of the articles reports that after her first interview with the Feds, she didn't lie low for a while, she merely changed suppliers and kept on importing more pills. She continued to use the same phone and email to conduct her business as before. I'm not sure if that's delusional or merely brazen.

[Ben-Prime]

"I never realized the very tools my leap of leopards and I abuse to eat the faces of others could be used by the other leopards to eat *my* face, too." or something like that.

[RTH10260]

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/med ... 876664.php

Medical examiners group steps away from 'excited delirium'

A leading group of medical experts says the term “excited delirium” should not be listed as a cause of death. Critics have said the term has been used to justify excessive force by police.

The National Association of Medical Examiners had been one of the last to take a stand against the commonly used but controversial term. In a statement posted on its site March 23, the association said “excited delirium” or “excited delirium syndrome” should not be used as a cause of death. The statement has no legal weight, but will be influential among medical examiners.

Critics have called the terms unscientific, rooted in racism — and a way to hide police officers' culpability in deaths. The American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association do not recognize excited delirium as a diagnosis. Yet some police training materials have described it as a potentially fatal collection of symptoms including elevated temperature, unexpected strength, hallucinations and extreme agitation.

“Excited delirium is often used when there’s a death associated with a physical altercation between a citizen and law enforcement," said Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr., who chairs the pathology department at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he served as chief medical examiner from 2014 to 2021. “It’s not a real explanation for the death."

Medical examiners have ruled that excited delirium caused or contributed to police-related deaths including the 2020 case of Daniel Prude in New York, the 2019 death of Julius Graves in Missouri, and the 2017 death of Adam Trammell in Wisconsin. The term came up during the 2021 trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, whom jurors convicted in the death of George Floyd.

Medical examiners investigate unexpected deaths, conduct autopsies and determine causes. Some already had been moving away from excited delirium in favor of listing the multiple causes that can contribute to such deaths, including police restraint, drug use and medical conditions.

Dr. Joyce deJong, president of the medical examiners' association, said the group’s statement stemmed from growing concerns that the phrase might be used to justify excessive force by police and might be used disproportionally when the deceased was Black.

“Anything we can do to avoid perpetuation of a phrase that might be causing harm,” said deJong, a medical examiner for 12 counties in Michigan.

For families mourning the loss of a loved one, an excited delirium ruling could cause confusion over a term they’d never heard, or anger about what they consider a way to cover up excessive force.

John "It's not the guns" Peters, president of the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths, which provides training and litigation support for officers, said the group's statement could lead to more investigations of police officers.

He said that the behaviors associated with excited delirium are often triggered by the use of illicit drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamines and that they ”will continue regardless of what we call it."

[p0rtia]

JHK

[Jim]

[RTH10260]

Actually a very old picture circulating from Redit. The Ector County sheriffs office bought that thing somewhere in 2014. In 2020 they used this beast to show up at a bar / restaurant that was protesting the covid lockdown to close the place.

[Chilidog]

I suppose it is really the bystanders filming rather than helping who are behaving badly in this clip. Be forewarned- you're going to see cop tighty whities.

Tighty skid markers.

[RTH10260]

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

https://www.nhregister.com/news/article ... 880522.php

Woman shot by Hamden cop gets $1.1 million settlement in civil case


HAMDEN — Stephanie Washington, who was shot and injured by a Hamden police officer in 2019, has won a million-dollar settlement in her civil lawsuit against the town, newly disclosed records show.

Under the agreement, Washington received approximately $1.1 million from the Connecticut Interlocal Risk Management Agency, Hamden’s insurance provider. The payment resolves Washington’s claims against the town and former officer Devin Eaton, who was convicted of assault in connection with the shooting.

“I’m glad that it’s been resolved,” Mayor Lauren Garrett said when asked for comment on the lawsuit.

The New Haven Register obtained a copy of the settlement agreement through a Freedom of Information request. It includes a confidentiality clause barring Washington from publicly discussing the case.

Despite the payment, Eaton and Hamden have denied all liability in relation to Washington’s claim, according to the settlement, which says “this settlement represents a compromise resolution of a disputed claim, made solely based on an economic settlement by CIRMA … and does not constitute an admission of liability, violation of any law, constitutional or statutory rights, or any negligence or other wrongdoing.”

Eaton had been responding to a report of an armed robbery at the Go on Gas Station on Arch Street in Hamden April 16, 2019, when he stopped the car Washington was in in New Haven. Washington, 25, was in the passenger seat of the vehicle when Eaton opened fired on the car; he later said he believed he saw Paul Witherspoon III, the driver, holding a gun as he began to exit the vehicle, but investigators never found any evidence of one, according to a state’s attorney’s report on the shooting.

Washington sustained injuries to her spine, sacrum and pelvis, according to her lawsuit; it also set off a string of local police accountability protests.

Washington and Witherspoon had stopped at the gas station earlier in the night, the report says. While there, an attendant called 911 to report that he saw Witherspoon attempt to rob a newspaper deliveryman at gunpoint, it says. Witherspoon later confirmed he had had a confrontation with the deliveryman but never showed a gun or implied he had one, and the attendant later told investigators he never actually saw a firearm, a search warrant affidavit for the vehicle revealed in the wake of the shooting.

[RTH10260]

FBI agents handcuff, interrogate Delta pilot after entering wrong hotel room in training mishap

By Allie Griffin
April 6, 2023 12:07am Updated

A Boston hotel guest was awakened in the middle of the night by federal agents who barged into his room, handcuffed him, threw him into the shower and interrogated him for an hour — before they realized they had entered the wrong room.

FBI and Department of Defense agents stormed the innocent man’s room at the Revere Hotel instead of the correct room where a person role-playing as a suspect as part of a training exercise was staying, local CBS affiliate station WBZ reported.

The agents banged on the door of Room 1505, where the confused hotel guest, a Delta Air Lines pilot, was sleeping around 10 p.m. Tuesday night, and demanded to be let in.

They pushed into the room, handcuffed the pilot and reportedly put him in the shower, according to the station.

Then the agents interrogated the man, said to be in his 30s, for nearly an hour until they realized they had the wrong guy.

The federal agents uncuffed the man and apologized after about 45 minutes of intense interrogation, WBZ reported.

The agents with the FBI Boston division were assisting the Department of Defense in conducting a training exercise at the hotel “to simulate a situation their personnel might encounter in a deployed environment,” the FBI said in a statement to the local station.

“Based on inaccurate information, they were mistakenly sent to the wrong room and detained an individual, not the intended role player,” the statement continued. “Thankfully nobody was injured.”

Hotel security was notified and police and EMS were called to the scene. The pilot refused medical attention, according to a police report obtained by WBZ.




https://nypost.com/2023/04/06/fbi-agent ... otel-room/

[sugar magnolia]

It never ceases to amaze me how the "elite" corps of Feebs could fuck up a brick.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

And why are you training to "interrogate" someone in a shower? Constitutional rights, anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

[Volkonski]

New Mexico police fatally shoot resident after responding to wrong house: "A very dark day"

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-mexico ... ong-house/

Police in New Mexico fatally shot a man Wednesday night after responding to the wrong house during a domestic violence call, authorities said, in what the police chief described as a "chaotic scene."

The shooting took place shortly before midnight on Wednesday as officers from the local Farmington Police department responded to the call, according to a statement released by the state's Department of Public Safety. The statement said the New Mexico State Police Investigations Bureau had been asked to investigate the incident.

"Once on scene, officers mistakenly approached" the wrong address and knocked on the door. The statement from the state public safety authority said the officers identified themselves as police, but no one answered.

The statement said officer body camera video shows that as the officers backed away from house, the homeowner opened the screen door armed with a handgun. One or multiple officers fired at least one round, striking the homeowner, who police identified as 52-year-old Robert Dotson.

After Dotson was shot, his wife emerged in the doorway and opened fire with a handgun, the public safety agency said, prompting return fire from the officers.

"Once she realized that the individuals outside the residence were officers, she put the gun down and complied with the officer's commands," according to the statement.

Dotson was pronounced dead at the scene by the Office of the Medical Investigator. His wife, who was uninjured, has not been charged with a crime.

[raison de arizona]

The statement from the state public safety authority said the officers identified themselves as police,

Bullshit.

[Dave from down under]

Private gun ownership = greater safety

[raison de arizona]

Private gun ownership = greater safety

It’s funny how all the police unions are against permitless concealed carry, yet the law and order folks completely blow that off and do it anyway.

[RTH10260]

Recent history retold.

The starting point was that black guy who was thrown into a police van unsecured and the driver drove wildly, getting the arrested guy badly hurt. I remembered that part fron TFB 1.0, but did not recall he doed from the injuries.