Andrew Henderson of Minnesota interviewed by the media after acquittal.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: 212-549-2666, media@aclu.org
Free Speech Prevails, Peaceably Public Filming OK
St. Paul, MN (2-27-14) — Today, the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota’s client, Andrew Henderson, was found not guilty by a Ramsey County Jury in regards to charges of obstruction of justice and disorderly conduct. Henderson was cited in fall 2012 for passively filming paramedics and sheriff’s deputies in the parking lot of his apartment building.
“I feel incredibly relieved and excited that I was acquitted of all charges,” stated Andrew Henderson. He continued, “This is an important victory not only for me, but for other individuals like me who think recording interactions with the police are an important part of our First Amendment rights.”
Henderson was outside his building when he noticed an incident occurring involving a man from his building, law enforcement officials, and the paramedics. He began passively filming the incident. Shortly thereafter the paramedics complained to a deputy who then approached Henderson and asked him to stop filming. When he refused, his camera was confiscated, and he was cited for disorderly conduct and obstruction of justice.
“We are incredibly pleased with this result,” stated Charles Samuelson, Executive Director of the ACLU-MN. “The ACLU-MN has long maintained that the First Amendment protects an individual’s right to film police and other public officials engaged in official duties in public spaces.”
ACLU-MN cooperating attorneys: John Lundquist & Kevin Riach of Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.
UPDATED Video ( The ACLU announced a victory after a two-day trial and a 90-minute jury deliberation found him not guilty.):
Andrew Henderson thanks his supporters and says, “This is a message of appreciation to those who have been following my experience of videotaping peace officers performing official duties in a public place that resulted in my camera being confiscated and me being charged with Obstructing a Legal Process and Disorderly Conduct.
Thank you for your support. It was overwhelming to see so many supportive comments resulting from the Pioneer Press newspaper’s coverage, as well as the support words from many First Amendment bloggers and comments by many others, and thanks for taking your time to become involved and write or discuss this important First Amendment rights issue.
While criticisms are certainly hard to read or hear, they are still a part of civilized discussions. I’m thankful – as we all should be – that we live in a country where we have safe formats for expressing opposing viewpoints.
I want to thank the many members of the Twin Cities legal community who responded to the by volunteering to represent me in this matter. I appreciate your interest and willingness to help.
I’m grateful to be able to announce that the Minnesota American Civil Liberties Union has decided to take on my legal defense.
As of today, the charges against me have not been dropped. I have a pre-trial hearing date set for Jan. 30th at 8:30am At the Ramsey County Suburban Courthouse.
I want you to know that whether you agree or disagree with individuals observing and recording peace officers engaged in the public discharge of their duties, I have a clear conscious and am at peace with my actions. I acted lawfully – First Amendment principles and federal case law established that a constitutional right – and while doing so, I did not act disorderly nor did I obstruct a legal process.
Thanks again to all of you. I didn’t want to wait until this legal matter was all settled before I thanked you for your support and interest . Please know that it is appreciated.”
Griffin Woodards says: “I just went through a similar situation in Chesterfield Va and I was charged with obstruction. I am now spending weekends in jail. Please know that if you appeal the district court decision and take it to circuit court that you have a right to a jury trial. Judges always side with officers. This info was not shared with me by the judge or my court appointed lawyer. I was only informed about my rights after the court decision. I hope there is still something I can do. The officer in my case testified that I was in no way threatening or offensive. If I had known about my right to a jury trial before hand I have no doubt I would have had a different outcome. Good luck I am rooting for you.”
Carlos Miller of PINAC posted the following on his blog:
“Just over a year ago in January, Andrew Henderson of Minnesota was unable to get the attention of the ACLU to help him in his case after he was criminally charged for video recording a local deputy standing by as another man was being placed into an ambulance.
Two months earlier, Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy Jackie Muellner snatched his camera, telling him she did not want to be on Youtube. She also accused him of violating the federal HIPAA law, which really has to do with the privacy of medical records, not with the photography of medical patients.
He was not arrested on the spot, but was charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing justice more than a week later. And when they returned his camera two weeks after that, his footage had been deleted.
The welder made too much money to qualify for a public defender but not enough to hire an attorney. And more than a month went by after he had contacted the local ACLU with no response.
So on January 6, 2013, he published an 18-minute video to Youtube, explaining the entire situation, including audio he had recorded on his Android after she had snatched his camera.”
“On January 9, I published his story on PINAC, encouraging readers to call the ACLU to urge them to take his case:
The 28-year-old welder said he makes too much money for a public defender but not enough to hire an attorney.
He said he reached out to the ACLU more than a month ago, but was ignored.
Meanwhile, he is facing disorderly conduct and obstructing charges, which were filed more than a week after a Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy illegally confiscated his camera. Read the report here.
***
Henderson has a pretrial hearing scheduled for January 30. Call (651) 645-4097 to encourage the ACLU of Minnesota to assist him in this matter. Or email them at ACLU of Minnesota.
After three days of phone calls and emails from PINAC readers, he was contacted by the ACLU, inviting him to meet with them in person to discuss his case, as I reported on my Facebook page at the time:
This is not only a huge victory for Henderson, 29, who is now running for city council. But a huge victory for the PINAC community because it shows the power we have by backing each other up when needed.
But, it shows the importance of resorting to back-up recorders if they confiscate the first recorder and using social media, especially Youtube, to get your story out there.”
“He’s got a gun!”– Trooper describes shooting, arresting trooper-murder suspect Eric Knysz
Eric John Knysz’s driver’s license suspension – his alleged murder motive – had less than six hours left to run when he fatally shot Michigan State Police Trooper Paul K. Butterfield II at a traffic stop.
It’s never been established why Butterfield pulled the truck over, but Sarah Knysz mentioned one possibility in her testimony Monday, Feb. 24: The truck had a muffler “loud enough to upset people.”
Murder Defendant John Knysz, 20, on trial for killing Michigan cop during traffic stop.
John S. Hausman
by John S. Hausman
Ludington, MI — “He’s got a gun! He’s got a gun!”
Michigan State Police Trooper Jeffrey Crofoot testified on Thursday, Feb. 20 that he yelled that to a fellow officer after seeing Eric John Knysz, a suspect in the shooting of Trooper Paul K. Butterfield II, running around the outside of a gas station, looking back and holding a gun out behind him. The gun was pointed at Crofoot, he testified.
Knysz came around the station into the view of Trooper Steven Arendt, Knysz holding a gun in his right hand and running toward his car, Arendt testified. Arendt yelled at him to stop. Knysz didn’t.
Arendt fired twice, striking Knysz in the knee.
Knysz dropped his gun and went down, Arendt helping with a foot on his back and Crofoot quickly jumping on top of the struggling Knysz, the troopers testified.
Michigan State Police Trooper Paul K. Butterfield II
Around two hours after Butterfield was shot in the head at a Mason County traffic stop, his suspected shooter was taken into custody outside a Marathon gas station in Wellston in Manistee County.
So, moments later, was his pregnant wife, Sarah Renee Knysz. She appeared behind the troopers and, unresisting, let them handcuff her after her husband was subdued and cuffed.
The troopers who caught the couple told their story at Mason County’s 51st Circuit Court on Thursday, Feb. 20.
They and throngs of other northwestern Michigan police officers had been hunting for a white 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix that Eric Knysz had reportedly stolen a short time before. They had a description of the couple – an early-20s white male and pregnant young white woman.
Crofoot thought he spotted the car at the gas station and pulled in.
He saw a white male matching Eric’s description pumping gas and pulled up behind him. He said the man looked at him, turned away and walked toward the gas station. Crofoot tapped his horn, and the man kept walking. He laid on his horn, and still no reaction.
That told the trooper something wasn’t right. “A normal person would have turned around to see who was blowing the horn,” Crofoot said.
Meanwhile, Arendt ran the white car’s plate and confirmed: It was the suspect vehicle.
Knysz went into the gas station, at some point apparently tried to make a run for it out the back door, and the dash and shooting ensued, Crofoot and Arendt testified.
Knysz, 20, of the Irons area is accused of shooting Butterfield after the trooper pulled over the couple in a traffic stop around 6:20 p.m. Sept. 9 on Custer Road north of Townline Road in rural Mason County’s Freesoil Township. They were in a red pickup truck owned by Knysz’s father, John “Jack” Knysz of Irons, at that time.
Eric Knysz is on trial in Mason County Circuit Court facing charges of murder of a peace officer, felony firearm, carrying a concealed weapon and motor vehicle theft. He is charged as a second-time habitual offender based on a 2008 Lake County conviction of first-degree home invasion.
RELATED: Read detailed, as-it-happened live coverage of Thursday’s trial events
Also Thursday, other law-enforcement officers and technicians testified about other aspects of the manhunt for Knysz and its aftermath.
Slightly earlier in the evening, Lake County Sheriff’s Deputy John Bennett testified, Bennett saw the red pickup truck coming toward him on a two-track – the pickup he was looking for, the one he’d been told was involved in Butterfield’s shooting.
Bennett, with another officer, took cover, then did a “felony traffic stop” of the truck.
At the wheel wasn’t the shooting suspect but his 50-year-old mother, Tammi Lynne Spofford. She got out as ordered and answered questions, saying she had just driven her son and his wife to buy a white car in Walhalla and that she didn’t know where they went from there.
“She said she didn’t know anything that was going on, that she wouldn’t cover for him,” Bennett said.
Bennett then inspected the outside of the truck. “I observed blood splatter on the driver’s-side door and running board,” the deputy testified, his voice catching for a moment. He also saw a smear where grime had been wiped off, he said.
The stop was made on the wooded, roughly 100-acre property of Eric’s father and grandmother. Spofford lived in a different home on the same property, with a two-track trail linking the residences, officers testified.
The officers were inspecting the property, looking for the truck. Just before he was shot, Butterfield had radioed in his location and the license plate number of the vehicle he was stopping — the red pickup truck.
Spofford faces charges of accessory after the fact to a felony – Butterfield’s murder – and motor vehicle theft. She’s accused of knowingly helping the Knyszes escape after the trooper was shot by driving them to where they allegedly stole a car that Eric Knysz had test-driven earlier in the day with plans to buy it.
Sarah Knysz, 21, has been sentenced to prison for two to five years after pleading guilty as charged to the same counts Spofford faces. Sarah Knysz has agreed to testify against her husband. Spofford has stated she will assert her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination if called to testify at the trial, and she will not be required to do so.
Other witnesses Thursday included a state police crime-scene investigator and fingerprint expert, Thomas Holcomb, who testified that he found a latent print of Eric Knysz on the barrel of the .357 Colt Python handgun Knysz allegedly dropped outside the gas station.
At one point Holcomb held up the gun – the one allegedly used to end Butterfield’s life – to show jurors.
Sarah Renee Knysz cries as she testifies against her husband, murder suspect Eric Knysz
According to his own statements, Eric John Knysz didn’t spare Michigan State Police Trooper Paul K. Butterfield II last Sept. 9 – but he spared his own family Monday.
After both his wife and his father testified against him at his murder trial Feb. 24, Knysz refused to let his lawyer cross-examine them.
Words of love
And for his wife, Sarah Renee Knysz, Eric had some public words: “I just want to say I love you,” he said across the courtroom from where he stood at the defense table. “I’m sorry I put you through this.”
Sarah Knysz, sitting on the witness stand, wept in response.
That exchange happened out of the presence of the jury early Monday afternoon, after Eric Knysz’s public defender, David Glancy, asked him questions establishing that Eric didn’t want his wife cross-examined.
Later in the afternoon, the same procedure – minus the words of love – happened after Eric’s father, John Peter Knysz of Irons, testified for the prosecution.
Eric Knysz is on trial on charges of murder of a peace officer, felony firearm, carrying a concealed weapon and car theft. He’s charged with fatally shooting Michigan State Police Trooper Paul K. Butterfield II in the head around 6:20 p.m. Sept. 9, 2013.
Mason County Prosecutor Paul Spaniola expects to finish with his witnesses Tuesday morning, Feb. 25. If Glancy calls no one – and he’s only listed Eric Knysz as a potential defense witness – the case will go to jurors Tuesday afternoon after closing arguments and Mason County Circuit Judge Richard I. Cooper’s instructions to the jury.
Sarah speaks
Also publicly revealed Monday: Sarah, six months pregnant at the time of the shooting and a week away from delivery when she was sentenced to prison, said her baby boy was born Christmas Day. His name is Jayden, she said.
Just before Eric Knysz rejected a cross-examination of his wife, Spaniola had read aloud to the jury the contents of a letter that appeared to be from Eric Knysz, mailed from the Mason County Jail to Sarah Knysz’s attorney, John Spillan, after she pleaded guilty but before her sentencing for accessory after the fact to a felony and car theft.
In the letter, Eric claims that everything Sarah did to help him after the shooting, he forced her to do at gunpoint, including a claim that she tried to get out of the truck to help the trooper after Eric shot him.
That claim contradicts Sarah’s own testimony, as well as Eric’s earlier recorded statements to police confessing to the shooting.
Before that, under questioning by Spaniola, Sarah Knysz retold essentially the same story she told at her guilty plea.
She was composed for much of the tale, but cried when describing the trooper’s shooting.
After Butterfield turned his car around and pulled over behind the Chevy pickup truck Eric was driving, she testified, Eric told her he was sorry but he “had to shoot him” because he “didn’t want to go to prison.”
Eric Knysz, 20, of Irons was driving with a suspended license, she testified. In a recording of Eric’s confession to a police detective Sept. 12, he said the same thing. He also had allegedly stolen guns in the truck.
Sarah testified about the trooper, “he turned around and hit his lights… He came up to the window. He asked us how it’s going,” and Eric shot him, she said.
She also testified about a possible reason for Butterfield pulling over the truck, which has never been explained: It had a muffler “loud enough to upset people,” she said.
Before he got out, Butterfield had radioed to Central Dispatch his location and the license plate of the vehicle he was pulling over. That information ultimately led to the couple’s apprehension.
‘I shot him’
Earlier Feb. 24, Spaniola played a detailed, recorded confession in which Eric Knysz admitted shooting Butterfield for fear of being arrested.
Audio of a second hospital-room interview Sept. 12 between Knysz and state police Detective Gary Green was clearer and more audible in court than the first interview recorded Sept. 10, though parts were still difficult to understand.
“I seen the officer pull off to the side of the road … He turned around, and he walked up to the truck … and I shot him,” Knysz said on the recording.
After the trooper was shot, Knysz said, “He just fell.”
The second interview was played in court Monday morning, Feb 24, while jurors followed on written transcripts supplied by Spaniola.
Knysz said he was driving on a suspended license when a state trooper pulled over the pickup truck. Knysz said he was carrying a handgun in his pants and pulled it out and put it in his lap when the trooper pulled up.
Knysz also said he had been illegally buying and using morphine for pain since injuring his back at work in 2009.
“I just didn’t feel right,” he said, about Sept. 9. “I don’t know if it was pain or if it was depression or what it was.” He said he took extra pain pills that day.
Asked by Green if there was anything he wanted to say to the family of the trooper, it sounded as if Knysz began crying.
“Please hand them my sincere apologies,” he said. “I could do anything to change that, I would. If I could have him shoot me instead, I would.”
In court while this was played, Knysz looked down, but he didn’t appear visibly emotional.
In the recorded interview, Knysz also described other details of the events of that day. He admitted stealing guns from his father and selling some of them to a man in Ludington, and stealing a car in the Walhalla area after shooting the trooper.
He said his wife and his mother, Tammi Lynne Spofford, didn’t help him steal the car. Both knew he had shot a trooper, he said.
After the shooting, he said, his wife was “bawling her eyes out. Couldn’t help me much.” Asked if she or his mother were scared of him, he said, “No.”
Knysz also told the detective he removed a spent bullet casing from the gun he used to shoot the trooper and threw it out the window of the truck he was driving near the former Camp Sauble prison on Freesoil Road. Based on that, detectives the next day found the casing, which was later matched with Knysz’s gun.
He also told of throwing his cell phone out the window at a different point. That was not found.
In a brief cross-examination of Green after the audio was played, defense attorney David Glancy focused on Knysz’s use of pain pills and on his cooperation with the detective, including revealing where the cartridge casing could be found.
John Knysz looks at his gun (photo by Ken Stevens)
Father and son
Late in the afternoon, Eric’s father testified against his son.
John Knysz testified that Eric did not have permission to take some eight guns from the father’s collection of approximately 30 guns in John Knysz’s large rural home in Irons. He said some of the guns he hadn’t seen in more than 30 years, since shortly after moving to Michigan.
Most of the guns John Knysz has owned since he was a police officer in Illinois, he testified, including a handgun and a long gun he used on the job. The handgun allegedly used to kill Butterfield, he said he bought for about $600 in the 1970s.
The elder Knysz said his son did have standing permission to use the father’s Chevy pickup truck that Eric Knysz was driving when Butterfield pulled him over. Eric also had permission to come and go as he pleased to his father’s house, John Knysz testified.
John Knysz works the night shift at Little River Casino in Manistee, and he acknowledged that Eric could have come into his house and stolen his guns while he was working.
According to testimony and recordings of Eric’s statements to police, Eric was returning from Ludington, where he had sold five of the stolen guns — with three still in the truck — when Butterfield pulled Eric and Sarah Knysz over on Custer Road north of Townline Road in Freesoil Township.
Eric Knysz hoped to use the money from the gun sale to help buy a white Pontiac Grand Prix from a man in Walhalla, according to testimony.
Also testifying Feb. 24 were Travis Gajewski, who said he bought five guns from Eric Knysz on Sept. 9, and several police witnesses.
Pinal Co, AZ (2-2-14) — A Pinal County Sheriff Deputy kills Manuel Longoria while Longoria’s hands are raised in the air. Police in Pinal County, Arizona, claimed that the shooting death of the suspected car thief two weeks ago came after the man had turned to reach for a weapon. But, the Pinal County Sheriff Deputy killed Manuel Longoria while Longoria’s hands are raised in the air.
This video which surfaced last week is raising serious questions about the actions of an Arizona, Pinal County Sheriff Deputy. The video appears to show a Pinal County Sheriff’s Deputy killing Manuel Longoria while Longoria’s hands are raised in the air, shooting him multiple times in the back. Viewers can hear the shots as the dead man crumples to the ground.
Mason Co, WA (2-20-14 10:39 a.m.) — The suspect, Peter Jamie Ross, 50, of the 200 block of SE Channel Point Road. Mr. Ross was booked into the county jail for suspicion of harassment on Thursday evening after initially being taken to the Mason General Hospital, then to the Seattle Harborview trauma center. Officials said the gunshot wound was not life threatening.
A woman living in the 4600 block of SE Arcadia Road, called Mason County Sheriff’s deputies because she heard what sounded like two men in the woods behind her property, yelling at each other, and said she heard a man yell, “I’m gonna kill you”.
When deputies responded to the area, they found a 50 year old white male in the back yard area in the 200 block of SE Channel Point Road of rural Mason County, about 6 miles east of Shelton.
Unrelated Burglary Suspect 50-year-old Blaine William “Billy” Whitehead
Deputies say the suspect was moving back and forth between trees pointing an ‘object’ at them. They allege, after ordering the man several times to drop what was in his hands, one shot him, striking his hand and causing him to drop what he’d been holding and continuing to point at the officers. The ‘object’ has not been found/identified at this time.
A multi-jurisdictional team made up of Officers and Deputies from surrounding law enforcement agencies are conducting an investigation. None of the deputies involved were injured, according to a sheriff’s office spokesman.
A citizen photojournalist using the Youtube handle of Nycresistance says NYPD cops arrested a man in the Bronx simply because he was recording them arresting another black man. He goes on to suggest, if you are a black person, do not let members of the racist NYPD see you recording them or they will arrest you on false charges to delete your footage and ruin your life.
by Carlos Miller of PINAC
Moments after aggressively piling on top of a man over a paid bus fare, NYPD officers turned their attention to another man who was video recording the arrest, using that same aggression to pile on top of him and grind his face into the sidewalk.
Both arrests were captured by two other men with cameras, one man who recorded the first arrest, another man who recorded the second arrest.
The video of the first arrest has already gone viral, leading to an article in the New York Daily News as well as a petition on change.org, demanding newly inaugurated New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to investigate the arresting officers.
And the second video is now getting some attention after it was posted on Facebook Sunday where it has been shared more than 3,000 times (the first video was shared more than 90,000 times after it was posted on Facebook Sunday).
But the third video, the one recorded by the second man arrested, is still in the hands of police, according to the person that runs the Youtube channel, Nycresistance, who compiled the two videos into the video above that focuses on the second man arrested
The arrests took place Sunday in the Bronx, less than a week after an NYPD cop arrested PINAC reader Randall Thomas for recording him in a subway, another video that went viral after it was posted here.
So it’s a ripe opportunity for de Blasio to send a message to the community that he will not tolerate this type of behavior from the NYPD, which was heavily encouraged by previous mayor Michael Bloomberg.
But that is doubtful considering de Blasio inherited what Bloomberg described as his personal army, boasting it is the“seventh largest army in the world.”
Since taking office just over a month ago, de Blasio hasdemonstratedno shame in using it to his advantage.
Dariel Reyes posted the first video of the cops shaking down the man after he had stepped off a bus over a fare he had paid, even having the receipt to show for it.
And Christopher Ferrer posted the second video, showing the man who can be seen in the first video recording the police pile-on, now being manhandled by several cops while yelling that he didn’t do anything illegal.
One cop can be heard accusing him of spitting in his face, even though the man’s face was being pushed into the sidewalk in typical police gang fashion.
So we can bet that is a lie. Just as we can bet they had no legitimate reason to stop the first man after stepping off the bus. In fact, they offered no comment to the Daily News when pressed.
Both videos are extremely disturbing. The first video shows the man sitting on a short wall as the cops grab on to him while he tries to fish around his jacket for his bus receipt.
“Why are you holding me, Rivera, Delgado,” the man demands, apparently naming the two cops.
After more than two minutes, he attempts to stand up and the two cops attempt to wrestle him to the ground. More cops run up and he is brought down to the sidewalk in the typical police pile-on that has led to several deaths in recent years.
“Please don’t do this to me,” he pleads. “My face is on the ground. I can’t do nothing.”
“Please don’t fuck me up. Don’t fuck me up,” he begs before unleashing a blood-curdling yell.
“My face! my face!” the man yells as the video goes dark.
The second video picks up after they evidently have the first man in custody and is almost a repeat of the first arrest.
Having lost the war in court to prohibit citizens from recording them, police are now upping the ante by reaching for their guns to intimidate photographers.
by OccupySFTV
San Francisco, CA (2-14-14) — A Veteran In Distress (VID) almost got shot by SFPD
On the day of the Anti-TPP rally in front of the Federal bldg. I was on my way to Swords To Plowshares (a veterans resource center) to check my mail a few blocks from the protest/demonstration site.
After crossing the road in what has been called Jay-walking, all the while watching the traffic at the STOP light less than half a block away, I see a motorcycle cop, flying my inverted flag high in the middle of the street. I hurry across so as not to block traffic since the light turned green. Two seconds later, as I step onto the curb, the officer on the bike barks at me to stop as he climbs off his bike.
With my back to the officer, I reach for my camera as I always do when confronted by the police. I turned to face him, but he shouts not to reach in the bag after my hand is clearly already in the bag as I pull the camera neck strap out and tell the officer I am pulling out my camera.
I look at his hand, on his pistol ready to draw, as I state that I AM going to pull out my camera. The camera is slowly withdrawn by the neck strap and placed over my head. The officer is clearly frustrated. Still holding his hand on his gun, he asks for my ID. I reply, “its in my pocket, but I’m not going to get it out with your hand on your gun!” I then shout “cameras up” several times as the zombies walk on by. The officer calls for backup as I realize my memory card is NOT in the camera (DOH)! Thank god I have a backup.
Squirming, I think why me?…then it hits me. I have my DROID! I reach for it in my front pocket just as 7 more cops come screaming up in 2 squad cars and 2 more bikes. I start to punch in the code to unlock it. The officer says don’t reach into your pockets again!
Just as I think I’m going to get some good video of police harassment of a homeless veteran, they demand I turn off the camera–in fact, as you can see, forcing me to. They then put me in handcuffs for detainment, sat me on the curb, and ran my info from my veterans ID.
During all this, I’m surrounded by the cops. I lecture them on their wrong doings, even saying, “Whose streets?…OUR STREETS!” Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to record it, but that’s what happened…this time. I have many more stories (videos) I am saving for the documentary…. Thanks for watching.
Washington State once routinely directly and vicariously tortured inmates held in its prisons & jails. The abuse stopped only after a class action lawsuit by the State’s inmates seeking injunctive relief against the practice. The practice?
Well, yeah. Guards recognized the now prohibited practice of casually accusing an inmate of hiding contraband/drugs–thus requiring him to submit to an anal cavity search. A squad of uniformed brutes would force the inmate into an exam room where the tender mercies of a rubber gloved attendant waited.
The inmate was deliberately and cynically forced into a situation he realized was being scrutinized by the rest of the prison population. If the inmate emerged without any bruises or signs of physical abuse, the talk would be of how he must have ‘liked’ it, subjecting him to being jacketed as a ‘punk’ or homosexual, thus vulnerable to rape by the most viciously violent incarcerated there. The guards, knowing this, arranged these pretexts to beat the crap out of an inmate they disliked without any consequences. It was all perfectly legal and most inmates elected to take the beating rather than submit and be jacketed as a prison ‘punk’…at least until the courts acknowledged the substance of the complaint as a violation of the 8th Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment).
This is all SOP, however, for New Mexico cops who aren’t even dealing with convicted inmates, but suspects convicted of nothing and endowed, in law, with the presumption of innocence.
Laura Schaur
by Robby Soave
A third New Mexico resident is claiming that she was physically abused by police and medical staff who exceeded their authority to search for drugs she never had.
The woman’s attorney came forward with her story just a few days after a local news channel reported similar stories involving New Mexico police forcing two suspects to undergo invasive surgery to prove they weren’t carrying drugs. Police used expired and nonexistent warrants to justify the improper and unethical searches, according to KOB-TV 4.
The unnamed woman is being represented by Laura Schaur Ives of the New Mexico chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Schaur told KOB-TV 4 that her client was stopped by police in El Paso, Texas. After a drug-sniffing dog indicated that she might have drugs, police strip-searched her and then allegedly assault her by sticking their fingers into her vagina.
When the on-site search failed to turn up any drugs, police took the woman to University Medical Center of El Paso. There, she was given an X-ray, cat scan and full body search. Medical personnel probed her anus and vagina, according to Schaur.
“They then did a cavity search and they probed her vagina and her anus, they described in the medical records as bi-manual — two-handed,” she said in a statement. “Again, they found nothing.”
Schaur claims that police did not have a warrant to conduct the search.
If this horror story sounds familiar, it’s because two other New Mexico residents were violate by drug-seeking police officers. Timothy Young and David Eckert were pulled over for traffic violations in separate incidents, and were searched on the authority of the same unlicensed drug-sniffing dog. They were then taken to Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City, New Mexico, where doctors performed a full battery of invasive medical procedures. (RELATED: Horror: Police force man to undergo invasive anal operation)
While these incidents involved New Mexico police, the woman who Schaur represents was allegedly handled by Customs and Border Control–suggesting that abusive practices are not limited to a single malicious police department.
With the dulcet lyrics about Texas drifting in the background from a nearby Big Bite store, Austin police grab a young woman for jogging in her toes shoes on the sidewalk, then proceed to manhandle and arrest the hysterical victim.
photo by Chris Quintero with The Daily Texan
by Dave Urbanski
Austin, TX — It allegedly started with her jogging in her toe shoes and sporting headphones. It ended in video of her screaming and being led away in handcuffs. What happened in between is a matter of debate, but video showing parts of the incident is certainly gaining traction online.
Whatever the woman did to get the attention of Austin, Texas police, a witness’ video of cops detaining her on a city sidewalk Thursday morning then escorting her to a nearby squad car indicates she was not happy with their actions.
“I was doing nothing wrong,” she said at first to a nearby witness while sitting on the sidewalk with her hands behind her and one officer standing over her. “I was just crossing the street.”
But as police escorted her away while pedestrians passed by, things got ugly.
photo by Chris Quintero w/The Daily Texan
“I didn’t f**king do anything wrong! I didn’t do anything wrong!” she yelled before being placed in a nearby squad car. She then began crying as she pleaded, “I f**king crossed the street.”
photo by Chris Quintero w/The Daily Texan
photo by Chris Quintero w/The Daily Texan
The Daily Texan, the student newspaper for the University of Texas at Austin, reported that police arrested the woman for failing to provide identification.
Student Chris Quintero, who the Daily Texan reported witnessed the arrest, said he saw the woman jogging with headphones on when police ran after her. When the woman failed to stop, the officer grabbed her by the arm and handcuffed her, Quintero said.
“She repeatedly pleaded with them, saying that she was just exercising and to let her go,” said Quintero, who also shot the video and took photographs of the incident.
The woman can be seen in the full video attempting to get up from the sidewalk and being kept down by police officers.
Austin police did not return phone calls from The Blaze about why the woman was detained.
According to a statement to The Daily Texan from police spokeswoman Lisa Cortinas: “[In this case], the call is titled failure to identify.”
photo by Chris Quintero w/The Daily Texan
Here’s Quintero’s edited video with embedded close-up photographs:
Austin City police officers arrested a woman around 10:45 a.m. Thursday for failing to provide identification after she was stopped near the intersection of 24th and San Antonio.
For our full article on the arrest along with the response from APD police chief Art Acevedo read the article on The Daily Texan Web site – http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news/…
Sitting at Starbucks, on the corner of 24th and San Antonio, I noticed a particularly odd situation.Two Austin Police Officers standing outside the Castilian just lingering. Every time I looked back there was a different student holding a carbon copy of what looked to be a jay walking citation. Suddenly one of the cops shouts at an innocent girl jogging with her headphones on through West Campus. He wobbled after her and grabbed her by the arm. Startled and not knowing it was a cop, she jerked her arm away. The cop viewed this as resisting arrest and proceeded to grab both arms tightly, placing her in handcuffs. She repeatedly pleaded with them saying that she was just exercising and to let her go. She repeatedly cried out, “I did not do anything wrong…just give me the ticket.” The other officer strolled over and not they where making a scene. She tried to get up. I doubt she was running away, as she was in handcuffs, but the second cop pushed her back down to the ground. Because of the commotion, they walked her to the cop car in the alleyway next to the Big Bite, where she, overcome with frustration, yelled loudly to gain attention. Because of that, the cops tightened their grip causing her to squirm and kick. Then came two bike cops from down the alley. Now we have four cops and one small, helpless girl in the back of a cop car, because she was just going for a run.
UPDATE: As The Blaze pointed out earlier this year, citizens have a variety of rights when it comes to interacting with police, including whether or not you have to show ID, and laws vary from state to state.
According to the infographic in The Blaze story from January and other sources, in Texas you only have to show ID once you’ve been arrested, not before. If you’re lawfully detained in Texas, you do not have to provide ID. However, you cannot give false information about who you are.
It’s still unclear if the woman in the video was arrested or detained or if she had ID to show or provided information of any sort to police. The Blaze will update this story when police provide the information.
[editor’s note: In a follow up piece the chief defended the action of the LEO’s by saying at least they didn’t sexually assault her. The coed wearing the earphones while jogging could not hear their ‘instructions’.]
Yet another innocent man dies from Police Brutality
by Carlos Miller of PINAC
Oklahoma City, OK — The chilling video that had been confiscated by police showing five Oklahoma cops piling on top of a man in a movie theater parking lot earlier this month, leading to his death, was released today, showing the cops were struggling with what appeared to have been a dead man for five minutes.
After all, Luis Rodriguez, 44, was not only not resisting, he was not even moving during the duration of the video.
But still, you can hear one of the cops say, “Calm down, sir,” as he pushes his face into the pavement.
Rodriguez’s wife, who was video recording, kept pleading for her husband to respond, but he said nothing. It wasn’t until several minutes into the video that she realizes he is dead.
One of the cops walks up to her to try and reassure her everything is under control as she is panicking. He ends up grabbing her phone, not in a coercion manner, but she is under no condition to even question this move, having just seen her husband killed.
The incident began when Rodriguez’s wife slapped their 19-year-old daughter over an argument, then stormed off, which prompted her husband to run after her.
But the cops intervened, demanded his identification. Family members say he tried to step around them to get to his wife. Police say he became combative.
A surveillance video from the movie theater might have captured the entire incident, but that has not been released.
Police say the 44-year-old Rodriguez became uncooperative when officers questioned him about a possible domestic disturbance. Police handcuffed the man.
Rodriguez’s wife and daughter say police then started beating him. Autopsy results are pending.
The Rodriguez family’s lawyer released a cellphone video of the incident and a statement at a Tuesday news conference in Oklahoma City.
The video shows 44-year-old Luis Rodriguez on his stomach on the ground outside the theater with five police officers restraining him. One officer holds Rodriguez’s head down and the others are on top of him as they handcuff his hands behind his back.
Rodriguez’s wife, who shot the video, is later heard screaming and asking if Rodriguez is dead as he is placed on a stretcher.
“He was not involved in the disturbance. However, when police came, they focused their attention on Luis. Taking him face down onto the pavement, pepper-spraying his mouth, nose and eyes and putting the weight of five grown men on top of him, and then handcuffing him as he was unconscious or already dead,” said Michael Brooks-Jimenez, attorney for the Rodriguez family.
Jeremy Lewis, the public disinformation officer for the Moore OK PD at (405)641-3473
Jeremy Lewis, Public Information Officer – Moore Police (405) 793-4448
Confiscated Video of OK Cops Killing Man Released by his family’s Attorney:
What with all the PC when it comes to gender benders, body builders, trans-whatever, threatening to run out of letters in the alphabet for their all encompassing acronyms, just what if guys and gals swapped roles at the gym? What would it look like? Well, take a peek:
by Robby Soave
