Police misconduct 2

[Vashta Nerada]

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=443&articleid=20120501_11_A11_CUTLIN382922

[Vashta Nerada]

The statement released by Chief Jordan explains the TPD basis for deciding not to investigate. It reports that the sexually explicit photographs in question "were stored on a privately owned computer and were password protected." It also explains that when that laptop was presented the City Legal Department advised that TPD was "unable to legally access that information."

The legal theory is not spelled out but it appears that ownership and the password were the key barriers. We assume there is more to the decision than the statement tells us, but it is all we know at this point.

This all seems very weak: It's 2012. We can't imagine that TPD simply walks away from otherwise legally-obtainable, potential evidence just because a password is in the way, especially when it is brought to investigators. According to Ms. Roberts, when she handed the evidence to Internal Affairs, she wrote the password on a Post-It note and stuck it to the laptop. The password was still there when the laptop was returned.

[Conan71]

Wow!

Anyone else wonder how many other people with personally-owned computers with password protection are now sitting in prison for having alleged child porn on the hard drive?

I really hate to sound like a cop-basher, but if they've got a POS in their midst, they need to root him out.

[Vashta Nerada]

The lawyer for one of the policemen charged in the beating of a mentally ill homeless man suggested Tuesday that it was medical professionals –- not police officers -– who are to blame for the death of Kelly Thomas.

[AquaMan]

I made it to about 15 minutes where they started beating him for not putting his hands on his knees and his feet out in front of him. Disgusting. Where did this happen? Did I hear Fullerton? Please tell me these guys were charged with something.

[DolfanBob]

There are not enough words to sum up the disdain for what those officers did to that man. The POS Fat Mexican Cop needs to be sentenced to Prison and put in a general population yard and have six inmates beat his unarmed a$$ to death just as him and his boys did.

He got exactly what he was working on. Trying to make the man do one thing wrong and then he could start beating him with his baton. Fifteen minutes of finding nothing in his backpack pi$$ed him off so he had to give him more stupid commands to make him say he was tired of playing games and stand up.
The other officer was half way decent. Not so much on a power trip like his buddy. I like how their anger turns to concern after they put the flashlight on his face and realize how bad they had beaten him.
If you havent seen the photos of him in the Hospital. You should look them up. It is absolutly horrible.

[patric]

There are not enough words to sum up the disdain for what those officers did to that man. The POS Fat Mexican Cop needs to be sentenced to Prison and put in a general population yard and have six inmates beat his unarmed a$$ to death just as him and his boys did.

He got exactly what he was working on. Trying to make the man do one thing wrong and then he could start beating him with his baton. Fifteen minutes of finding nothing in his backpack pi$$ed him off so he had to give him more stupid commands to make him say he was tired of playing games and stand up.
The other officer was half way decent. Not so much on a power trip like his buddy. I like how their anger turns to concern after they put the flashlight on his face and realize how bad they had beaten him.
If you havent seen the photos of him in the Hospital. You should look them up. It is absolutly horrible.

Im glad this didnt turn out to be in Tulsa.  It's a California murder just now going to trial:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Kelly_Thomas



"We ran out of options so I got the end of my Taser and I probably ... I just start smashing his face to hell," says Cpl. Jay Cicinelli.
Officer Ramos and Cpl. Cicinelli are the only two policemen charged in the beating death of Kelly Thomas.  Ramos is charged with one count each of second degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. Cicinelli is charged with one count each of involuntary manslaughter and excessive force.

The 33-minute video starts with Thomas being approached by Fullerton Police Department Officer Manuel Ramos, who engages him in conversation. By minute 15, Ramos has already donned latex gloves.
"You see my fists?" Ramos asks Thomas. "They're getting ready to fu@k you up." Cicinelli can be seen striking Thomas — and heard telling a colleague: "I just smashed his face to hell."

At 17:29, officers pile on top of Thomas, who screams: "I can't breathe!" At 21:25, blood gurgles in Thomas' throat. At 21:49, he shrieks: "Daddy! Daddy!" At 22:36 come his last words: "Help me! Help me!"

The 37-year-old homeless man died from facial injuries, including blood in his nose, crushed trachea and mechanical compression to his chest that made it difficult for him to breathe and deprived his brain of vital oxygen, said Dr. Aruna Singhania, a forensic pathologist for Orange County.
"The ongoing compression of his chest ultimately led him to have a respiratory arrest"  Also contributing to his death were brain injuries, facial and rib fractures, and the extensive bruising and abrasions he suffered during the beating, which left him lying in a "growing pool of blood," The toxicology report shows that Thomas had no illicit drugs or alcohol in his system.

Defense attorneys for the Fullerton officers are challenging whether it was the officers or the medics who later treated Thomas who caused his  death last July after the violent encounter outside a bus depot.












Kelly Thomas died five days after the beating without regaining consciousness; his chest was so compressed it deprived his brain of oxygen as blood from his facial wounds poured into his lungs.

Since that day, his father, Ron Thomas, a former Orange County sheriff's deputy, has crusaded to hold accountable the officers, the department and city.

http://documents.latimes.com/kelly-thomas-father-sues-fullerton-police-beating/

The case is the subject of a rare trial for officers. An Orange County judge has ordered Officer Manuel Ramos to stand trial for second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter and Cpl. Jay Cicinelli, 40, for involuntary manslaughter and excessive use of force. Ramos, according to prosecutors, is the first officer in Orange County to be charged with murder on duty.

[DolfanBob]

Thanks for those pics Pat. They sum it all up. Cop tries to claim a little boo boo on his elbow was justification to kill a unarmed man. And I retrack my comments about his officer friend. Since he is the one that beat his face in while his fat partner sat on his chest.
They are just flat out murderers. Second degree manslaughter carries a nothing sentence. So way to go Cali Justice.

[Vashta Nerada]

They are just flat out murderers. Second degree manslaughter carries a nothing sentence. So way to go Cali Justice.

San Diego, California (CNN) -- As evidenced by media stories and public awareness campaigns, Americans have resolved to get tough on bullying. In that spirit, it's time to send a message to bullies with badges.

We need to tell police who prey on the vulnerable: "No more! When you pile on a suspect and beat him to death, we will treat you just like any other alleged criminal. We will arrest you and prosecute you. And if convicted, you will go to prison for a very long time. We will make an example out of you so that other police officers will think twice before abusing their power."

The messenger could be the jury that will hear the case against two police officers in Fullerton, California, a city about 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles. A judge ruled Wednesday that the officers will stand trial in the beating death last July of Kelly Thomas, a 37-year-old homeless man afflicted with schizophrenia.
This week, at the preliminary hearing to determine whether enough evidence supports proceeding with a trial, prosecutors aired a graphic video of the savage beating. The footage shows about a half dozen officers punching and kicking and putting pressure on Thomas' chest, firing electric shocks from a Taser stun gun, all to supposedly subdue a suspect well beyond the point where he is resisting or capable of resisting arrest.

What we see in that 33 minutes of footage, including a defenseless Thomas screaming in pain, saying he's sorry and pleading for help, should never happen in the United States of America. When it does happen, it can't be tolerated, justified, or excused.

That's coming from the son of a retired cop. My father wore a badge for 36 years, and he has no stomach for police brutality. In fact, about 20 years ago, when another piece of videotape surfaced -- that of the Rodney King beating by police officers in 1991 -- I remember my father telling me that, as far as he was concerned, those out-of-control law enforcement officers wailing on King had ceased being cops and become little more than thugs and criminals.

As it turns out, Thomas' father is also a retired law enforcement officer.  This is a good dad. But he was also, apparently, a good cop who trained fellow deputies on the right way to take down suspects. This is the wrong way. Thomas described the officers' actions as nothing less than a "hate crime against the homeless and mentally ill."

Last year, Fullerton city officials offered Thomas nearly a million dollars to settle the case. He turned it down, and instead pushed for a criminal trial.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/09/opinion/navarrette-police-brutality/index.html

[Teatownclown]

Thanks for those pics Pat. They sum it all up. Cop tries to claim a little boo boo on his elbow was justification to kill a unarmed man. And I retrack my comments about his officer friend. Since he is the one that beat his face in while his fat partner sat on his chest.
They are just flat out murderers. Second degree manslaughter carries a nothing sentence. So way to go Cali Justice.

It's too bad the job often attracts a personality type not suited for the position.

[Vashta Nerada]

So way to go Cali Justice.

They could have just checked the officer's tattoos to see which gang they were in.
Each time they kill someone, they get to add a wisp of smoke coming from the gun:



Other gangs let you earn your colors just by breaking prisoners bones.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sheriff-clique-20120510,0,728956.story
http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2012/04/la_sheriffs_gang_jump_out_boys.php

What happens when the very badges chosen to dismantle and disempower gangs form a gang of their own?

It's no secret that the L.A. County Sheriff's Department -- whose reputation with the public has completely disintegrated under Sheriff Lee Baca, in a swirl of scandals including rogue/racist deputies beating inmates to a pulp, prisoners in wheelchairs dragging themselves across the jailhouse floor, and worse -- is a breeding ground for deputy cliques.

Some of the ones who have been outed, over the years:
The 3000 Boys. The 2000 Boys. The Grim Reapers. The Little Devils. The Regulators. The Vikings. (Yes, it appears the Sheriff's Department is living out a 1980s biker bromance flick.)
But what about when the department's own Gang Enforcement Team morphs into a fiercely loyal group of gangsters in uniform who function outside department policy and fight street-gang violence with their own special brand of trigger-happy, Wild West policing?
The Los Angeles Times alleges in an anonymously sourced article posted yesterday evening that a group called the Jump Out Boys has formed within the elite gang unit. And sheriff's officials seem to be acknowledging the discovery of "a document suggesting the group embraces shootings as a badge of honor."

From the Times:
   The document described a code of conduct for the Jump Out Boys, a clique of hard-charging, aggressive deputies who gain more respect after being involved in a shooting, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation. The pamphlet is relatively short, sources said, and explains that deputies earn admission into the group through the endorsement of members.
The moniker is telling of the gang cops' alleged obsession with taking criminals by surprise and, uh, blasting their brains out. To quote Urban Dictionary, because that seems pretty appropriate right now:

   "The 'Jump Out Boys' are usually either the swat team, or the cops on stake outs inside the sound van, listening in on wiretaps or wired informants. When tipped off, or alerted, these officers are known to jump out of the vehicle and subdue suspects by force... . Some gangs and/or squads are known to call themselves 'Jump Out Boys' due to their similar, jump out style."

"The last thing anybody wants to do in law enforcement is shoot a weapon," sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore tells the Times.
But cop-to-criminal gunfire has been on the uptick. If officer-involved shootings are indeed being worn as a badge of honor, that might explain the recent surge in hazy incidents where L.A. Sheriff's deputies claim they had to shoot because a suspect reached for his waistband. (A go-to when the target turns out not to have been armed, or was shot in the back, etc.)

Then again, how can we really expect these little boys to behave any better, when a former (?) member of The Lynwood Vikings -- a "neo-Nazi, white supremacist gang" within the Sheriff's Department -- has been promoted to Baca's executive staff?
We're talking about Undersheriff Paul Tanaka, the notorious puppeteer behind Baca's "Teflon" regime who still wears a Vikings tattoo on his ankle. And he may not be the only supervisor in deep, as dogged sheriff watchdog Witness LA reveals in its post on the Jump Out Boys:
   WitnessLA has acquired a partial list of Vikings working inside the department culled from sworn depositions for various court cases. The list indicates there are Vikings members scattered at supervisory levels throughout the LASD including inside the departments' internal investigatory units like IAB and ICIB.

Based on this information, it would appear the Vikings are investigating the Jump Out Boys.

[shadows]

Wow!

Anyone else wonder how many other people with personally-owned computers with password protection are now sitting in prison for having alleged child porn on the hard drive?

I really hate to sound like a cop-basher, but if they’ve got a POS in their midst, they need to root him out.

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Let’s think this out before we repeal the 4th and 5th amendments.  The password is an electronic lock on the computer just the same as the physical lock on your doors and requires a search warrant issued by a Judge showing a reasonable cause that it would not support self-incrimination.  Much case law is available to sustain the Chief’s and Legal’s opinion.   

[patric]

Wow!

Anyone else wonder how many other people with personally-owned computers with password protection are now sitting in prison for having alleged child porn on the hard drive?

I really hate to sound like a cop-basher, but if they've got a POS in their midst, they need to root him out.

It's going to be a slow process:

An Osage County judge granted a search warrant for a laptop used by a Tulsa police captain accused of rape, This Land Press learned yesterday.
As first reported by This Land, Shawn King, a first-shift captain in north Tulsa's Gilcrease Division, has been accused of raping a minor child of his ex-fiancee Keena Roberts and possessing child pornography, as well as engaging in sexual activity while in uniform and on duty.
http://thislandpress.com/roundups/conduct-unbecoming-search-warrant-issued-for-laptop/

[Vashta Nerada]

After he is told it is being recorded he threatens to impound the car and tear the tapes apart.  When he is told that the tape is not in the car by transmitted he suddenly has an awakening and calms down and acts more like you would expect him to.
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/19/1961.asp  (video and transcript)

Amazing story...that the cop just waltzed from department to department.

Kuehnlein himself pleaded guilty of assault and stealing in two different cases, in 1988 and 1990. He successfully petitioned a judge in St. Louis County in 1998 to expunge his criminal record, which was making it hard for him to get work as a cop. The judge ordered those records sealed, as well as records of an acquittal for drunken driving and an assault arrest that did not result in charges.   
http://www.wikilou.com/wiki1.18.2/index.php?title=St._Louis_Area_Police_Abuse#2007_Harassment_of_Brett_Darrow

Arrested for kidnapping and assault
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/officer-in-videotaped-tirade-in-st-george-now-arrested-in/article_4fa372cc-0a81-11e1-b0a6-001a4bcf6878.html

[DolfanBob]

Can someone please embed the news video of the Owasso officer who was reinstated after his three UFC elbows to a hancuffed man. I still have no idea how to do it.