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F is for Fascism (Ferguson MO)

Police used a Taser on a grandfather, who's now in intensive care. They say it was for his safety.

His erratic behavior continued after he finally stopped at Main and Brooks streets. Officers ordered him to the ground, but he wouldn’t comply. Instead, he took what officers described as a fighting stance, according to a police report obtained by the Charleston Post & Courier. Then he started jogging backward.

One of the responding officers shocked him with a Taser, which uses a jolt of electricity to seize a person’s muscles.

Chatfield crashed to the ground, hitting his head and injuring his nose. Pictures sent to The Washington Post showed him with gashes on his face as well.
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New York Just Saved a Law Used to Jail Thousands of Minorities

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo late Monday night killed a bill to reform the state’s controversial “gravity knife” law, which has been used to jail thousands of working people of color.
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Take the case of Richard Gonzalez, a laborer Vance prosecuted in 2011 for the Husky utility knife he bought at Home Depot. The tool he had in his possession is exceedingly common, and generally used to cut drywall. Its exposed blade is about an inch long. When he was contacted by police in a subway station, Gonzalez wasn’t accused of using the knife to harm anyone, or even threatening to do so. But when an officer spotted it in his pocket, and found that it could be snapped open with a flick, he was arrested. Vance prosecuted Gonzalez’ case aggressively, and he ultimately served four years in state prison.
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About 84 percent of defendants were people of color, and a disproportionate number of them were prosecuted in Vance’s jurisdiction. One study found that Vance’s office had prosecuted about four times as many felony gravity knife cases as the rest of the city’s DAs combined.
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How a ’50s-Era New York Knife Law Has Landed Thousands in Jail

For years, New York’s gravity-knife law has been formally opposed by a broad swath of the legal community. Elected officials call the statute “flawed” and “unfair.” Defense attorneys call it “outrageous” and “ridiculous” — or worse. Labor unions, which have seen a parade of members arrested for tools they use on the job, say the law is woefully outdated. Even the Office of Court Administration — the official body of the New York State judiciary — says the law is unjustly enforced and needs to change. They’ve petitioned the legislature to do just that.
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Gravity-knife arrests may be popular for another reason. Most, like Neal’s, result from simple observation of a “pocket clip,” often readily visible. All officers need to do is keep their eyes peeled, and they can add another misdemeanor to their tally — or, if they’re lucky, a felony.
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[h=3]Family held at gunpoint until police realized the dad didn’t rob his own home, he says[/h]http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/crime/article181760136.html

Gulfport Two medical professionals said police swarmed their car Sunday night, handcuffed the newlyweds and pulled guns on their children before determining the family lived in the house a neighbor thought was being robbed.
“I totally think they racially profiled me,” said the father, Kelvin Fairley, a registered nurse who happens to be black. “They never would even tell me why they stopped me. From the moment they pulled us over, there were six to seven police cars. They immediately had their guns drawn.”
Fairley said the officers told him to get out of the car with his hands up. He kept asking why they had pulled him over, but he said he got no explanation.
He said he offered to show the police his identification, which would have immediately established his address was the same as that of the house reported as being robbed.

“They wouldn’t tell me what it was about and they held guns on us, even on the kids. And they told us to shut the f*** up. Why would you hold a gun on kids, drag them out of a car and talk to them like that?”

Their 16- and 12-year-old sons, 9-year-old daughter and 12-year-old nephew were with them. Fairley said he was handcuffed and put in the back of a patrol car. His wife, psychologist Natasha Krikorkian, also was handcuffed, he said.
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They also got hassled when the went to file a complaint.

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The shaken couple went to the police department Sunday night to report how they had been treated. They were told to fill out a form, but politely insisted on speaking to someone.
Fairley’s sister videotaped the exchange with a police department employee who identified himself as Officer Wilder. Fairley told the officer what had happened, making it clear the family had been terrified.
“Obviously, you don’t understand our business, OK?” Wilder said.
“Your business is to protect us, right?” Fairley asked.
Wilder continued, “Our business is, We don’t know who --”
“To protect us, right?” Fairley asked.
“Oh, Jesus, really?” Wilder said. Wilder explained that police must first determine whether an individual will do them harm before they get the rest of the facts, the video shows.
Wilder soon told Fairley, “Well, obviously, our conversation is not going anywhere. There’s the form. Fill it out.”
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NYPD detectives charged with raping handcuffed woman in police van

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/31/us/nypd-detectives-rape-charges/index.html


(CNN)Two New York Police Department detectives took turns raping a handcuffed 18-year-old woman in the back seat of their police van in Coney Island last month, according to the Kings County District Attorney's office.Eddie Martins, 37, and Richard Hall, 33, of the Brooklyn South Narcotics unit, were arraigned Monday on a total of 50 charges, including first-degree rape, first-degree criminal sexual act and second-degree kidnapping, the district attorney's office said.
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Michael David, the victim's attorney, said the fact that it took six weeks to charge these officers was "outrageous," and he criticized the relatively low bail for what he said was a brutal rape and kidnapping case.
Since the incident, the victim has been depressed and an "emotional wreck," David said. She graduated high school and had planned to attend college -- but those plans are now on hold, he said.
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September 15 incident


Prosecutors with the district attorney's office described a gross misuse of police power and sexual misconduct in the case. The incident allegedly occurred on the evening of September 15 when Martins and Hall, plainclothes detectives, left their post without authorization and drove to Calvert Vaux Park in Brooklyn, the district attorney's office said.
There, the officers stopped a car driven by an 18-year-old woman with two male passengers. The detectives made her remove her bra and expose herself to prove she wasn't hiding anything, David said.
They arrested and handcuffed the woman on drug charges, and told the male passengers to leave and pick up the young woman later, the district attorney's office said.
Detective Martins allegedly told her that he and Hall are "freaks" and asked her what she wanted to do to get out of the arrest, the district attorney's office said. Martins allegedly then raped the handcuffed woman in the backseat as Hall drove and watched in the rear-view mirror.
The detectives then allegedly stopped the van in Bay Ridge, about four miles from the park. After they switched places in the van, Hall forced the woman to perform a sex act on him, according to prosecutors. Later the officers drove back to the 60th precinct and dropped off the woman, telling her to keep her mouth shut, the district attorney's office said.
The young woman went to Maimonides Medical Center and underwent a sexual assault exam, prosecutors said. DNA found on the woman matched both of the detectives, while video surveillance showed her leaving the police van at about 8:42 p.m. that evening, according to prosecutors.
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I know punctuation is important, but jeez

When a friend says, “I’ll hit you up later dog,” he is stating that he will call again sometime. He is not calling the person a “later dog.”

But that’s not how the courts in Louisiana see it. And when a suspect in an interrogation told detectives to “just give me a lawyer dog,” the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that the suspect was, in fact, asking for a “lawyer dog,” and not invoking his constitutional right to counsel.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...t-asking-for-a-lawyer/?utm_term=.3805d066a5b4
 
tiltdeac said:
I know punctuation is important, but jeez



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...t-asking-for-a-lawyer/?utm_term=.3805d066a5b4
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Ugh. This was in the piece.

“This is how I feel, if y’all think I did it, I know that I didn’t do it so why don’t you just give me a lawyer dog ’cause this is not what’s up.” The punctuation, arguably critical to Demesme’s use of the sobriquet “dog,” was provided by the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office in a brief, and then adopted by Louisiana Associate Supreme Court Justice Scott J. Crichton.

The punctuation should be this instead:

“This is how I feel. If y’all think I did it, I know that I didn’t do it. So why don’t you just give me a lawyer, dog? ’Cause this is not what’s up.”
 
Junebug said:
Unbelievable
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That's not even the most deplorable thing to come out about a southern judge this week.

[h=1]Mississippi judge resigns after barring mother from seeing newborn because of unpaid court fees[/h]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-of-unpaid-court-fees/?utm_term=.496020a8489b


Even in the annals of “oppressive things done to poor people due to unpaid court fees,” this story seems particularly monstrous. It comes via a press release from the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi.
In August 2016, “Mother A,” an African-American resident of Jackson, was traveling through Pearl while looking for employment. She was a passenger in a friend’s car, and her child rode with them in a car seat. When the car was stopped for a minor traffic violation, it was discovered that both adults had outstanding warrants for routine misdemeanor offenses. Upon arresting the women, the officer contacted DHS claiming that the child was “abandoned” as a result of the women being detained. The baby’s grandmother arrived on the scene within minutes, yet the officer still insisted that the child be taken before Judge [John] Shirley at the Pearl Youth Court. Less than half an hour later, Judge Shirley awarded custody to the baby’s grandmother. An order was later entered prohibiting “Mother A” from having any contact with her baby until court fees were paid in full.
​
The mother has been forbidden from any contact with her newborn for 14 of the 18 months the child has been alive. After reaching out to the MacArthur Center, an attorney there looked into the matter and found other cases in which the judge had barred poor people from seeing their children until they paid off court fines.
 
PhDeac said:
That's not even the most deplorable thing to come out about a southern judge this week.

[h=1]Mississippi judge resigns after barring mother from seeing newborn because of unpaid court fees[/h]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-of-unpaid-court-fees/?utm_term=.496020a8489b


Even in the annals of “oppressive things done to poor people due to unpaid court fees,” this story seems particularly monstrous. It comes via a press release from the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi.
In August 2016, “Mother A,” an African-American resident of Jackson, was traveling through Pearl while looking for employment. She was a passenger in a friend’s car, and her child rode with them in a car seat. When the car was stopped for a minor traffic violation, it was discovered that both adults had outstanding warrants for routine misdemeanor offenses. Upon arresting the women, the officer contacted DHS claiming that the child was “abandoned” as a result of the women being detained. The baby’s grandmother arrived on the scene within minutes, yet the officer still insisted that the child be taken before Judge [John] Shirley at the Pearl Youth Court. Less than half an hour later, Judge Shirley awarded custody to the baby’s grandmother. An order was later entered prohibiting “Mother A” from having any contact with her baby until court fees were paid in full.
​
The mother has been forbidden from any contact with her newborn for 14 of the 18 months the child has been alive. After reaching out to the MacArthur Center, an attorney there looked into the matter and found other cases in which the judge had barred poor people from seeing their children until they paid off court fines.
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That sounds suspiciously like Sharia law to me. Muslim judge, I assume?


Deep red states are basically mini third world countries.
 
Shooshmoo said:
That sounds suspiciously like Sharia law to me. Muslim judge, I assume?


Deep red states are basically mini third world countries.
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#noparenthouseholds
 
It’s really crazy that people would ever assert that LEOs would do shitty things without any evidence of them doing shitty things. Really wish there was some accountability.
 
Check out these blazing idiots on the Lousiana Supreme Court:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/
2017/11/02/the-suspect-told-police-give-me-a-lawyer-dog-the-court-says-he-wasnt-asking-for-a-lawyer/?tid=sm_fb&utm_term=.092bdf07bf09

Crichton noted that Louisiana case law has ruled that “if a suspect makes a reference to an attorney that is ambiguous or equivocal . . . the cessation of questioning is not required.” Crichton then concluded: “In my view, the defendant’s ambiguous and equivocal reference to a ‘lawyer dog’ does not constitute an invocation of counsel that warrants termination of the interview.”

These assholes, on the Supreme Court, think it is plausible that the suspect was asking for a dog that is also a lawyer. A lawyer dog.
 
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It's a thing.

enhanced-buzz-13166-1334608980-27.jpg
 
[h=1]Toddler hospitalized after his father’s arrest postponed kidney donation[/h]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ted-a-kidney-donation/?utm_term=.4cc81f450529

Two-year-old A.J. Burgess was set to receive the transplant earlier this month when his father, who is a match, said he was told he had to wait to donate a kidney following a probation violation and stint in county jail. The incident has prompted questions and concerns in a case that one expert has called befuddling.
...
But the family's attorney said that after Dickerson's release, the transplant center at Emory University Hospital said the surgery had been put on hold, pending compliance with his parole.
“That's all I ever wanted was a son,” the 26-year-old father told NBC affiliate WXIA following the hospital's decision earlier this month. “And I finally got him, and he's in this situation.”
...

But after authorities secured his release, the family said, the hospital backpedaled.
In a second letter, hospital officials said the transplant team at Emory would now require Dickerson to provide evidence that he had complied with his parole officer over the next three months.
“We will reevaluate Mr. Dickerson in January 2018 after receipt of his completed documentation,” it read, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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I can understand ethical concerns about a donor who is in jail. Clearly, it's important to know a donor in state custody isn't being unjustly coerced. But this is a dad who wants to donate a kidney to his 2 year old son.
 
Good point. Clearly he requested a lawyer with a degree from UGA. The question is if a UGA bachelors is fine or if he specifically wants a UGA law school grad.
 
They would have contacted Bill Lawyerman down the road. Nice guy.
 
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/social-worker-accused-using-mental-patient-sex-slave/

CHICAGO -- A 24-year-old Illinois man is suing the state Department of Human Services and the social worker he said seduced and sexually abused him while he was at a state mental institution in suburban Chicago, CBS station WBBM-TV reports.
"She engaged in all kinds of various sexual misconduct. The graphic details are every sex act that you can imagine," attorney Joe Cecala said.
Cecala is the attorney for 24-year-old Ben Hurt, who said one of his social workers, 53-year-old Christy Lenhardt, sexually abused him at the Elgin Mental Health Center and basically kept him as a sex slave for much of the last three years.
"She's accused of manipulating and seducing our client, repeatedly, and it took her about four months until she actually had sex for the first time with him," Cecala said. "We have evidence of her perversion, both in her emails to the client, nude photos."

The abuse, according to a lawsuit, took place at the center, where Hurt was a patient and Lenhardt was his trusted social worker.
"I didn't fully understand what I was getting into until I got into it," Hurt said.
Hurt had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in 2014 for battery against a police officer, and that's how he ended up at Elgin Mental Health Center. His mother said he should have been out in six to 12 months, but she accuses Lenhardt of making excuses to keep him at the facility.
 
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