Category: Police Accoutability

Demented Policing: Tasering the Elderly – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Demented Policing: Tasering the Elderly - The AIM Network

A local community advocate, Andrew Thaler, holds little hope for her recovery. “I don’t think there’s going to be a recovery. Tasers take out bulls and fully grown men. She’s a slip of a woman.”

A number of conversations have been generated by the incident, mostly avoiding the reality of Tasers. There is much chat about dementia and the need for better understanding. “It is not just about memory,” says one touted expert on the ABC news network. “We need people to understand that our brains are slowing down.” And not just dementia sufferers.

It would be useful if such an understanding would extend to the police. But these recruits are not exactly renowned for their intelligence, emotional or otherwise. Cotter is adamant that the video and audio coverage of the incident, captured by the body cameras of the two police, would not be released. It was “confronting” and “not in the public interest” which, in Australian institutional terms, tends to mean that disclosure should take place.

Australia is a country addictively hostile to the elderly. Despite being a continent that speaks to immemorial origins, respect for those who age is uncommon. In The Lucky Country, that seminal, repeatedly misunderstood text, written in frustrated, sour prose, Donald Horne observes that Australia is not a place where one should grow old. And so,…

Source: Demented Policing: Tasering the Elderly – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Cop drives motorcycle into Portland BLM protester after being surrounded by crowd at traffic stop (VIDEO) — RT USA News

Cop drives motorcycle into Portland BLM protester after being surrounded by crowd at traffic stop (VIDEO)

A Portland police officer has been filmed dragging a Black Lives Matter protester several feet as demonstrators blocked his motorcycle after a vehicle fled a traffic stop.

Cop drives motorcycle into Portland BLM protester after being surrounded by crowd at traffic stop (VIDEO) — RT USA News

Killed in a “Wellness Check”: Why Cops Shouldn’t Police Mental Health

Andrew Ocasio, left, Sandy Guardiola, center, and Alysa Ocasio, right.

Her death, and the lack of any accountability for it, make clear the response to the slogan chanted again and again by protesters at police: “Who do you protect? Who do you serve?” The answer is very few people indeed.

Killed in a “Wellness Check”: Why Cops Shouldn’t Police Mental Health

The Other Looters: We’ve Just witnessed a Nationwide Police Riot, Fueled by Trump’s talk of “Terrorists”

Why doesn’t this distress us? Why do we see this as “normal? (ODT)

via The Other Looters: We’ve Just witnessed a Nationwide Police Riot, Fueled by Trump’s talk of “Terrorists”

Inflation nightclub shooting investigation stagnates one year on

A 12-month investigation by Victoria Police and the state’s corruption watchdog has been unable to explain why a young couple attending a swingers party in Melbourne’s CBD were repeatedly shot by heavily armed officers as they engaged in a sex act.

Fairfax Media can reveal that the couple have not been spoken to by anyone from the Armed Crime Squad or the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission since they provided statements immediately after the shooting at Inflation nightclub on July 8 last year.

The delay has allegedly exacerbated the trauma of Zita Sukys, 38, and Dale Ewins, 36, who was accused by senior police of pointing a fake gun at members of the critical incident response team but has still not been charged with any offence.
Dale Ewins and Zita Sukys.

Dale Ewins and Zita Sukys.
Photo: Supplied

Concerns have also emerged about Victoria Police’s ability to independently investigate the conduct of its own officers when the force has already claimed in legal documents that the shooting was “lawful self-defence.”

via Inflation nightclub shooting investigation stagnates one year on

Beaten, abused, humiliated and filmed by Victoria Police

The disability pensioner is pinned down. He is in his own front yard and he is helpless.

Minutes earlier, the police have arrived at John’s home in Preston in Melbourne after his psychologist called triple zero to say she was worried about his deteriorating mental health.

via Beaten, abused, humiliated and filmed by Victoria Police

Police brutality against Blacks: ‘Changes in the air thanks to videotape & social media’ — RT Op-Edge

Black Americans have had problems with police brutality in each generation. The difference now is the introduction of technologies that allow victims to pursue justice in a court of law, said Roland Martin, host and Managing Editor of TV One’s ‘News One Now’.

Source: Police brutality against Blacks: ‘Changes in the air thanks to videotape & social media’ — RT Op-Edge

Chicago police vs. the truth: Inside the city’s long history of unpunished& systematic police lying – Salon.com

When Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by an officer, fellow cops tried to cover it up. This isn’t an aberration VIDEO

Source: Chicago police vs. the truth: Inside the city’s long history of unpunished & systematic police lying – Salon.com

Cops To Give Up Dash Cams For Lent: Because the are a “pain in the arse”

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NEW YORK (CT&P) – At a press conference early this morning Joey “The Plumber” Giuliani, president of the New York City Chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, told reporters that the NYPD will be giving up dash cams for Lent. Joey is the cousin of former mayor and current bigot Rudolph Giuliani.

Dash cams are used by many jurisdictions across the United States and have been installed on tens of thousands of police cruisers. The cams record stops made by patrolmen and the videos are used in court, for training, to guard against insurance fraud in the case of accidents, and to record criminal acts committed by suspects that have been pulled over.

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The system has been so useful that President Obama and others have suggested that cops all over the United States be fitted with mandatory body cams to record every minute of their shift.

Lately however, there has been a succession of incidents in which the cams have recorded cops beating the shit out of or even shooting unarmed civilians during traffic stops and altercations. Many of the videos have been offered as proof of police brutality.

Giuliani lamented the “misuse” of the videos and told reporters that by giving up the cams for Lent the department would be doing the taxpayers of New York a big favor.

“Let’s face it,” said Giuliani, “these cams are a very large pain in our ass. Do you know how much it costs to prosecute a cop these days? It’s a long and expensive process, and we view it as unjust. Cops are just out there trying to enforce the law, and naturally we sometimes have to get a little rough with a suspect, but let me tell you, they all deserve to get what’s coming to them.”

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Giuliani got his start in the NYPD in the mid nineties after his cousin Rudy won the mayoral election and gave him a job. He became famous for his “enhanced interrogation techniques” which included the use of a plunger on the nether regions of suspects. Joey called it “my little helper.” He had a confession success rate of over 90% during his time as an active officer.

“We just want to give back to the community that we were hired to protect by preventing frivolous lawsuits and losing valuable officers to extended prison terms,” said Giuliani. “It costs the public a lot of money to train these brave, idealistic men and women.”

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Giuliani ended the press conference by telling the assembled reporters that he hoped that the sacrifice made by the NYPD would catch on and departments all over the country would either disconnect or turn off their dash cams during the period leading up to Easter.

Giuliani has enlisted the support of the Benevolent Brotherhood of Bent Cops, the International Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts, the Prejudiced Prosecutors League, and the Bribable Judges Union in the effort.

“Lent has traditionally been a sacred period of prayer and self-denial,” said Giuliani, “and we advise minorities, homosexuals, and casual drug users all across this great country of ours to pray while we exercise our right of self-denial.”

Police departments across the country have applauded Giuliani’s actions and most intend on following New York’s example, except in some jurisdictions such as Ferguson, Missouri where cops would not be caught dead with a dash cam in their cruiser in the first place.