Showing posts with label death. Show all posts
Showing posts with label death. Show all posts

Abigail Hall: Comply Or Die - Trends In Modern Policing

A fundamental problem we can't ignore.     Every time a police officer is killed in the line of duty, it makes local, if not national headlines. Though always shocking, the number of law enforcement fatalities has remained fairly steady over the years. According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 165 police   ... MORE

Police State Update: Did SWAT Burn A Man Alive?

from the Antelope Valley Times.  A convicted felon, whose body was found after a SWAT team fired in tear gas into a Lancaster home, and a fire broke out, was publicly identified Saturday by the Coroner’s Office. The man was identified as Michael Leroy Soares, 35, of Lancaster, said Coroner’s Lt. David Smith. It was still not clear how he died,    ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: Busted Over $80 Worth of Pot, College Student Turns Police Informant, Then Turns Up Dead

This is the way everybody does it, says police chief. Last week North Dakota's Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) released a report that finds no wrongdoing in the way an anti-drug task force handled a young confidential informant who turned up dead last June. Andrew Sadek, a 20-year-old student at North Dakota State College of Science in   ... MORE
 

NJ Cops Murder Man With Hands Up At Traffic Stop

by Nina Golgowski.  A newly released video capturing the police shooting death of a New Jersey man shows an officer warning the suspect not to move or he'll be "f---ing dead" before the man steps out of his car. Jerame C. Reid, 36, is seen exiting the vehicle with his hands raised at shoulder height when a Bridgeton police officer, who recognizes  ... MORE

Katie Kieffer: We Could Be Heroes, You And Me

"What is the point of my life if I’m a coward?”    Twelve Charlie Hebdo staffers who died for free speech and 25 Republicans who voted against U.S. Speaker John Boehner are heroes. We too could be heroes, me and you. “We could be heroes, me and you,” are lyrics from Heroes (We Could Be)—a 2014 number one hit single by Swedish DJ   ... MORE

Radley Balko: A Drug Informant Lies, An Innocent Man Dies

When home invaders are from the government.   Back in July, we looked at the case of Jason Wescott, a Florida man shot and killed by a police SWAT team during a drug raid over an alleged sale of $200 worth of pot to a police informant. The tragedy was exacerbated by the fact that according to friends and relatives, Wescott had been       ... MORE

We Should Know How Many People Die In Police Custody

by the Washington Post editorial board. The leaders of a protest movement against excessive police force are weighing their next steps, The Post’s Wesley Lowery reported this week. The assessment follows both greater success than anticipated in triggering rallies across the nation and some backlash that blamed the protests       ... MORE

Chris Cassidy: The High Cost Of Drug War Mistakes

Wrongful death suit results from botched SWAT raid.      A federal wrongful death suit against a Framingham police officer who accidentally shot to death an unarmed elderly man during a SWAT raid in 2011 was allowed to continue by a judge yesterday. U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV ruled that the constitutional rights of Eurie     ... MORE

Hundreds Of Police Killings Are Uncounted In Federal Stats

by Rob Barry and Coulter Jones. When 24-year-old Albert Jermaine Payton wielded a knife in front of the police in this city’s southeast corner, officers opened fire and killed him. Yet according to national statistics intended to track police killings, Mr. Payton’s death in August 2012 never happened. It is one of hundreds of homicides      ... MORE

More Utah Killings By Cops Than By Criminals

Erin Alberty.    In the past five years, more Utahns have been killed by police than by gang members. Or drug dealers. Or from child abuse. And so far this year, deadly force by police has claimed more lives — 13, including a Saturday shooting in South Jordan — than has violence between spouses and dating partners.As the tally of fatal police shootings rises,   ... MORE

Ohio Cops Kill Mentally Disabled Woman in Front of Family

by Marie Dennis.    A Cleveland Ohio woman was pronounced dead 2 hours after being assaulted by Cleveland cops outside her family’s home. Counter Current News reported that during an argument, Tenesha Anderson’s family contacted police after being unable to calm the bi-polar and schizophrenic woman down. After initially agreeing   ... MORE
  

Over A Thousand People Are Killed By Police Every Year

by Joshua Krause. It seems like I can’t go a single day without hearing about someone being shot and killed by a police officer. It’s become so commonplace in America, that the news rarely makes national headlines unless police abuse is suspected; and sometimes not even then. Unless you follow organizations like Copblock, you’ll only hear about a  ... MORE

Rob Hustle: Man Calls Suicide Hotline, Then Cops Kill Him

There must be strict laws against suicide.    On October 21st, 2014, Jose Calzada, a 35 year old resident of Roy, Utah, was shot to death by a SWAT team after calling a suicide hotline for help: Jose Calzada called the hotline around 4 a.m. on Tuesday threatening to kill himself inside the home he shared with his girlfriend and her children  ... MORE