by Brandon Weber

During the filming of a story about chronic homelessness, Anderson Cooper met a lot of people who live on the street. He got to know many of them on a personal level, which made him aware that he didn’t even acknowledge a homeless person in his own neighborhood.

I certainly am more aware now when I see people down on their luck. It’s easy to do the big city thang and just walk on by, no eye contact, nothing to see here. But as Cooper says: “This is my issue. Me pretending not to see this person is insane. It’s offensive.”

Consumers Warned To Keep Their Purchases Close–Very Close

Shelton’s Walmart Wants Your Stuff

Shelton, WA — This town’s Walmart appears to practice selling its merchandise TWICE (once isn’t enough) if you’re inattentive enough to leave it behind after paying for it at the checkout stand. This reporter had the misfortune to find out about this deceptive business practice after inadvertently leaving a couple of clothing article purchases behind, the last ones on the shelf in the right size.

Adam, the late shift store manager on 2-17-14 got everything right…well, almost…when he received a call inquiring if the missing purchases had been left behind. He asked for information on the sales receipt including the time of the purchase, the checkout register number, and the item stocking number. Within a couple of minutes he had ascertained from the store’s video camera that the purchased merchandise had indeed been left behind after the sale. “Can you come back tonight to pick them up?” he asked. “No, we’re tired. We’ll try to make it in tomorrow instead,” was the reply.

‘Tomorrow’ was replete with inclement weather and flooding which preventing transiting the Skokomish Valley road. Wednesday would have to do. Adam had stated, after all, “This isn’t our first rodeo.” What he meant was it was common for customers to forget an item or bag of stuff they’d purchased at the checkout stand. So, from a titanic sized operation like Walmart, this was reassuring. WRONG! Very wrong. Things were rapidly deteriorating from bad to worse as a shopping experience.

Although Adam promised to hold the purchased merchandise, he did not take sufficient steps to accomplish this. The items  had a presumed date affixed when the customer would return to retrieve them along with the purchaser’s name. Most retailers would have the common sense to figure out a rainy day doesn’t translate to a quit claim deed. Walmart employees appear to need the obvious pointed out to them: You cannot sell (even once, let alone twice) what you do not own!…not legally, anyway. But, Walmart tried. Adam hadn’t yet arrived for his shift on Wednesday and none of the staff seemed able to find the purchased items. The customer service desk advised the items had probably been placed on the sales floor once again. WHAT?? A purchased item that had been paid for and belonging to the customer was going to be sold twice by the vendor, Walmart? “Uh, you didn’t pick it up by yesterday,” the clerk drawled. “Let me speak with the manager,” demanded the customer.

The day shift manager couldn’t find the item where it should have been–somewhere other than back on the shelf of the sales floor. So, she went there to look for it. Not finding it there, she heard a lecture from the purchaser of how Walmart was not entitled to arrogantly take other people’s property, date ‘expiration’ or not, and sell it TWICE! The manager was reminded a fundamental element of business law and private property is you cannot sell, lawfully, what you do not own. It was suggested Walmart may be routinely engaging in a deceptive business practice. “You didn’t pick it up by the date attached to the items,” she muttered. She seemed to have NO explanation for why Walmart would do such a thing. However, to her credit, she finally did locate the misappropriated items in Walmart’s RESTOCKING BIN/CART!

Ah, but wait–it gets better. Adam received a call later after arriving for his shift from the frustrated customer. “I’m busy. I’m in a meeting,” he advised. A 2nd call was later placed that eventually got through to Adam. The particulars and distinctly unfunny comedy of errors was discussed, how Walmart had mishandled the purchase and appeared to routinely place purchased items left behind back onto the store’s retail shelves rather than in a secured place until the owner could retrieve them. “After all, you did say this wasn’t your 1st rodeo,” reminded the irritated customer. “I’m going to publish a story about the incident,” the customer continued, “I’m an independent local reporter.”

“What?” exclaimed Adam. “I can’t discuss any of  this with you further since you’ve told me you’re with the media,” he protested. Adam wasn’t pressed to do so. He was informed of what the facts were and how they would be presented in the story. He was invited to comment before the story was published if he wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. He declined. But, he went on to say, “You can’t quote me. You didn’t tell me you were a reporter!”

“Sure I can,” he was advised. “No, you can’t. I’m going to contact my corporate office and legal department about this,” he bristled. “That’s fine. Would you like my contact info for them?” said the reporter, “I’ve already contacted the corporate office to report the pattern of errors in handling merchandise that no longer is the property of the store. I’m quite familiar with what I can print and who I can quote in a news article.”

“Have a nice day,” suggested Adam.

So, you have a nice day too–just remember, Walmart is a crap shoot should you forget to take your purchases with you. Selling an item twice is much more profitable than selling it only once. Any used car dealer will tell you that much. Usually, you get what you pay for in business, but that assumption may be premature in the case of Shelton’s Walmart.

A Florida woman spent the night in jail after a Broward County sheriff’s deputy accused her of committing a “felony” by audio recording their conversation during a simple traffic stop. Upon review, all charges against her were dropped — but now the Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO) is facing a lawsuit. Brandy Burning, a single mom, was pulled over by BSO Lt. William O’Brien for driving in an HOV lane. After some back-and-forth about her traffic violation, Burning informed the officer that she was recording their conversation.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you I was recording our conversation,” Burning is heard saying in the audio.

“I’m sorry?” O’Brien responds.

“I have to tell you, I forgot to tell you I was recording,” she repeats.

It was at this point that O’Brien accused her of committing a “felony” and demanded the cellphone. He also told her he knows the law better than she does.

“You are committing a felony. Hand me the phone,” O’Brien orders.

“No, I am not,” the defiant woman says in the audio. “I am not giving up my phone.”

As Washington Post opinion blogger Radley Balko correctly notes, “[In] every state in America, you are well within your rights to record an on-duty police officer.”

“There are a few limited exceptions, such as if while recording you physically interfere with an officer trying to perform his duties. But as long as you aren’t in the way, you’re protected by the First Amendment,” he writes.

After allegedly climbing into the car and attempting to take the phone forcefully, O’Brien removed Burning and arrested her. The mom can be heard screaming on the tape, demanding the officer take his hands off of her.

“Get off of me! You are breaking the law!” she yelled. “I am not getting out of my car. Get off of me!”

by Carlos Miller of PINAC

Broward County, FL — Less than a month after Broward Sheriff’s attorney and political spin doctor Ron Gunzburger sat on a panel with me claiming his department is fully trained to respect the rights of citizens to record in public – berating me for having even suspected otherwise – more evidence has emerged confirming he is pretty much full of it.

The latest incident emerged Tuesday involving a commanding officer with more than three decades of experience as well as a history of larceny, arresting a woman for audio recording a traffic stop, forcing his way into her car to grab her phone, then pulling her out and dragging her on the gravel, injuring her in several places as another deputy stood by with his gun drawn.

All while yelling at her that she was committing a felony, telling her, “I know the law better than you.”

But it was Lt. William “Bill” O’Brien that was committing a felony by unlawfully entering her car and detaining her against her will, not that he will ever face those charges.

In fact, if it wasn’t for his undeserved badge, she would have had every right under Florida’s Justifiable Use of Force to kill him considering he had forced his way into her car and violently dragged her out, so we once again come to the realization that cops are above the law. [Washington State law provides for citizens to defend themselves against unlawful force, even by cops.]

How else can you explain that after all the hoopla O’Brien made about Brandy Berning committing a felony, he ended up charging her only with misdemeanor resisting arrest aka contempt of cop, which was enough for her to spend the night in jail, a charge that was quickly dropped?

“I know the law better than you.”

Those words are especially infuriating to me because those are the same words a clueless Metrorail security guard used before he attacked me for taking photos on a train platform! Those are the same words I’ve heard cops say in several Youtube videos where they are trying to intimidate the person from recording, so it’s probably something they are training them to do.

The truth is, O’Brien just wanted to teach Berning a lesson. No different than officer Rojas of the NYPD who is making national headlines this week for unlawfully arresting a man video recording him in a subway station.

The O’Brien incident took place in March of last year, four months before the Broward Sheriff’s Office  introduced its over-hyped and under-read training bulletin, which Gunzburger has been touting as proof his agency is leading the way in respecting the rights of citizens to record.

Carlos Miller and Broward Sheriff’s Attorney Ron Gunzburger

But PINAC correspondent Jeff Gray proved that wrong less than 24 hours after the panel when he tried to record a jail from a public sidewalk and was informed that he was ‘breaking the law’.

While the Broward Sheriff’s Office is not publicly speaking about the Berning incident, we can imagine that Gunzburger’s spin on this would be that it took place before the training bulletin was issued, therefore giving O’Brien the excuse that he had no clue citizens had the right to record him in public.

But, contrary to the headline in the training bulletin that describes this right as “evolving law,” giving the impression that the right for citizens to records cops was recently granted to us, numerous court cases have long established it is protected by the First Amendment, including in the year 2000 by Smith vs Cumming from the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which includes Florida, that states the following:

As to the First Amendment claim under Section 1983, we agree with the Smiths that they had a First Amendment right, subject to reasonable time, manner and place restrictions, to photograph or videotape police conduct. The First Amendment protects the right to gather information about what public officials do on public property, and specifically, a right to record matters of public interest.

So there is no excuse for O’Brien, who has been a cop since 1975, to not know this. After all, as they always tell us, ignorance of the law is no excuse.

But try telling that to Broward Sheriff Scott Israel who was accused of violating state ethics laws when he underpaid a five-day luxury yacht cruise to the Bahamas for his family courtesy of a donor.

The state ethics committee found probable cause that he violated the law but they let him slide anyway, citing his “lack of experience” in office and “reliance of advice from counsel” as a legitimate reason not to criminally charge him.

In other words, the sheriff, who never shuts up about this 30 years experience as a law enforcement officer, was relying on advice from Gunzburger, who never shuts up about that damn training bulletin.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel

According to the South Florida Sun Sentinel:

Israel told state officials that he relied on the advice of Gunzburger, the longtime general counsel for the property appraiser’s office at the time, who is the son of County Commissioner Sue Gunzburger.

Gunzburger advised the sheriff that the cruise could be valued at $1,500 based on Carnival’s rates. Gunzburger said state law directs officials to value transportation at the rate of a “comparable commercial conveyance.”

He also advised the sheriff that the party aboard the yacht wasn’t worth more than $100 and didn’t have to be reported.

But Guillemette said Israel accepted the advice even though it didn’t “smack of rationality,” and he is “still responsible for his actions.”

She told the board that she believed “Mr. Israel attempted to turn a blind eye to the actual cost in order to evade reporting it … that he had taken these rather large gifts on two separate occasions from one particular donor.”

The seven commission members — an eighth recused herself because of a conflict of interest —struggled to come to a decision in a private session Friday, the recording of which is now public record. Some members agonized over marring the sheriff’s record, but others were disturbed by the low amount he paid for the yacht trip.

So with leadership like that, it’s no wonder O’Brien believed he was above the law when he arrested Berning last year for recording him after he pulled her over for driving in the car pool lane during rush hour by herself.

This is a cop who, according to records, left his job as a Pompano Beach police officer in 1996 for “misconduct” after he came under investigation for larceny, only to rejoin the police department less than three months later in what the department described as a “transfer within agency (no break in service).”

Meanwhile, countless citizens have lost their jobs after being unlawfully arrested, never getting a chance to redeem themselves to their employers after they are cleared of the charges.

This could have easily happened to Berning who was jailed overnight, unexpectedly disrupting her life because she wanted to document her exchange with O’Brien.

She is in the process of filing a lawsuit, so we should have more details about how it affected her in the coming weeks. But even if she does win her case, O’Brien will not be affected in the least bit because cops are rarely held personally liable for actions they commit while on duty.

In 2011, Broward Sheriff’s deputy Paul Pletcher was off-duty when he confronted a woman in a road rage incident, ordering her passenger to hand over his phone because he was recording the altercation. Pletcher then allegedly drove off with the phone before tossing it in a nearby parking lot.

After a seven month investigation, he was criminally charged with several felonies, but even then, it took another several months to actually fire him. And when he finally went to trial last month, a mistrial was declared because the judge had a personal emergency.

So the wheels of justice turn excruciatingly slow when it comes to disciplining one of their own, which is why we must record all interactions with police because the camera is the only protection we have against these so-called protectors.

It’s especially important when dealing with Broward sheriff’s deputies who are in dire need of a four-week training course on the right to record, not just a four-page training bulletin that doesn’t even inform deputies they do not have the right to confiscate cameras as evidence without a court order.

The truth is, they don’t know the law better than us. Not when it comes to this issue. So it’s up to us to teach them the law because they are under the impression they can make it up as they go along.

UPDATE: The entire conversation between O’Neil and Berning was posted in the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Below is the full video from last months’ Right to Record panel that was sponsored by the National Press Photographers Association. The audio is horrible but that is a result of Taylor Hardy, who was manning the cameras, focusing his efforts on live streaming the event to more than 300 viewers through his iPad, which was a job onto itself.

Next time, we’ll be better prepared.

District Attorney Kenneth Thompson can prosecute Officer Rojas under NYS Penal Law section 210.10, just based on the report filed and the video. Section 210.10 is a class E Felony. Rojas must be terminated if found guilty.

Contact:
Kings County District Attorney’s Office
350 Jay St. Brooklyn, New York 11201-2908
Ask for: ADA Charles Guria
718.250.2600 / 718-250-2000

ADA Charles Guria runs the Rackets Division.

The Rackets Division consists of multiple bureaus that share resources and information in order to successfully investigate and prosecute serious and complex crimes in the areas of organized crime, criminal misconduct by public officials and police officers, gang-related activity, major frauds, arson, narcotics and tax revenue crimes.

The bureaus in the Rackets Division are: Civil Rights and Police Integrity Bureau, Major Frauds and Arson Bureau, Money Laundering and Revenue Crimes Bureau, Organized Crime Bureau and Political Corruption Investigation Bureau.

—————————————-­—————————————-­———
If you like to read “Legal Fictions” you should read the criminal complaint filed against me in this matter by NYPD Officer Rojas and the Kings County District Attorney, Kenneth Thompson. It’s not very creative, but it is very interesting.

Recording While Black and Contempt of Cop are not crimes just yet, but I think NYC Politicians are working on it, because Photography Is Not A Crime unless you are photography the Cops of course.

Yet the Department of Justice sees no reason to intervene.

Visit http://themarginalzone.wordpress.com for updates on this case and others.

Here is what Police Officer Efrain Rojas Shield No. 23404, says happened:

Deponent states that, at the above time and place, inside of a Transit Station on the 3 and 4 platform train, which was public, deponent was issuing a lawful summons to an individual and that deponent observed defendant in very close proximity to the deponent and deponent’s partner while issuing the summons and that deponent continued to repeatedly ask defendant to step back and that defendant repeatedly refused to do so.

Deponent further requested the defendant to leave said train station and defendant refused to do so, deponent escorted defendant out the above mentioned location and informed defendant that defendant can not come back into said station, defendant continued to film deponent and closely follow deponent back into said train station.

Deponent further states that, at the above time and place, defendant did resist a lawful arrest by crossing defendants’ arm across defendant’s chest while deponent attempted to place defendant in handcuffs.

by Carlos Miller (2-15-14)

NY, NY — A New York City cop beat up and arrested a man for video recording him inside a subway station from 30 feet away Saturday night, walking up to him and getting in his face all while claiming the man was invading his personal space.

Officer Rojas, shield number 23404, then deleted the video, never mentioning the camera once in his arrest report, claiming the man had physically interfered with another arrest he was making.

But after spending 24 hours in jail, Shawn Randall Thomas managed to recover the deleted footage, proving that Rojas is not only a liar, but a bullying thug as well.

Thomas also obtained footage from another man who had recorded Rojas with his knees on Thomas’ back as he lay face down on the sidewalk just outside the sub station, seconds after Rojas had bashed his face into the pavement, busting his lip.

The injury was so bad that they had to transport him to the hospital twice during his 24-hour incarceration where doctors described him as a victim of assault.

“I was bleeding profusely,” Thomas said during an interview with Photography is Not a Crime Monday night.

“I was having really bad head pains while in jail, so they took me back to the hospital the following morning.”

The incident began when Thomas was video recording another NYPD cop named Dai, who didn’t mind being recorded, detaining a man for jumping the turnstile. The video runs for more than four minutes before Rojas arrives on the scene. Four long minutes of uneventful footage but proving that everything was under control until Rojas arrived.

At 5:00 into the video, Rojas pulls out his iPhone and begins recording Thomas, walking up to him and sticking the phone directly in front of Thomas’ lens, doing this wordlessly for more than 30 seconds.

“You’re violating my personal space,” Thomas tells him.

“You’re violating my personal space too,” Rojas responds.

“What’s your name and shield number?” Thomas asks.

“What’s your name?”

The situation remains tense for several minutes with Rojas not backing down, threatening to arrest him while Thomas stands up for his rights, telling him to “back the fuck off.”

Rojas tells him, “this is my station” before ordering him out of the train station. He then grabs his arm, twisting it behind him and opening the camera’s battery compartment, removing the batteries and pocketing them.

After walking up two flights of stairs and emerging onto the street above, Rojas told him to leave, knowing that Thomas would no longer be able to record without batteries.

But Thomas pulled out his Blackberry and attempted to turn it on to document how he had just been kicked out for video recording.

“He then knocked the phone out of my hand and slams me to the ground,” Thomas said. “Then he grabbed the back of my head and slammed it into the pavement.”

Thomas began yelling for bystanders to record, which prompted at least one man to record Rojas with his knees on Thomas’ back.

By the time Thomas had been released from jail, the man had tracked him down through Facebook and had sent him the video.

Thomas also downloaded a free program called Recuva, which allowed him to recover the deleted footage in minutes.

But he is still facing charges of resisting arrest, trespassing, disorderly conduct and obstructing government, which should be enough to criminally charge Rojas considering another NYPD cop was charged with falsifying records last year in the arrest of a New York Times photographer.

Thomas was arrested last year for video recording in front of an NYPD station, but those charges were dismissed.

Rojas works out of Transit Bureau District 32, which can be reached at (718) 221-6600. Ask for  Deputy Inspector Michael A. Davidson, who heads that bureau.

Or better yet, contact newly inaugurated New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to see where he stands on the issue as he provides numerous ways to reach out to him.

By phone, call 311 if you’re in New York City or 212-NEW-YORK from outside the five boroughs.

UPDATE: Thomas has since obtained the arrest report where Rojas accused him of being in “close proximity” to them as they tried to issue another man a summons. He also claimed that they ordered him numerous times to leave the station but he refused. And he topped it all off by claiming that he had to physically escort Thomas out of the station, only for him to follow him back inside with a camera.

At first, Thomas was under the impression that Rojas had not mentioned the camera but he did slip in the word “film” when accusing Thomas of returning to the scene after being escorted out.

The arrest report should be enough to terminate Rojas if not criminally charge him. Either way, he’ll have enough time on his hands to pursue a career in fiction writing considering he seems to have a talent for it.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — A man was forced to the concrete at gunpoint, handcuffed, and held with a pistol aimed at his back by an officer who didn’t approve of him exercising his right to bear arms.

Johann Deffert, 28, was simply walking down the street — breaking no laws — while wearing a holstered pistol on his waistband.

Such an act is perfectly legal in the state of Michigan. Yet when the streets are patrolled by overzealous, uninformed law enforcers, exercising rights can be a serious hazard to one’s health.

Grand Rapids police officer William Moe saw Deffert walking down the sidewalk. “It does look like he’s got a handgun on,” Moe told a dispatcher. Moe reacted to him like as if he had just robbed a bank. Moe exited his vehicle with his pistol trained on Deffert, barking orders and putting lives at risk.

“On the ground!! On the ground!! Put your hands on top of your head!”

“He just unloaded his gun in rapid fire. One right after the other, in succession. There wasn’t any hesitation.”

Jerry Waller & Grandson

Fort Worth, TX — An elderly man was slain in his own garage because police “inadvertently began searching” the wrong address while investigating a burglary call.  Spotting a man who appeared “standoffish” in his own garage, police opened fire, killing a 72-year-old grandfather.  After months of investigation, the officer has been cleared and is back on the streets.

In the earliest hour of May 28th, 2013, Jerry Waller was awoken after midnight to the sound of his neighbor’s home burglar alarm. Doing the neighborly thing, Mr. Waller got out of bed to check on the family next door. He took a pistol with him as his wife stayed behind.

Fort Worth Police were dispatched and arrived at the scene at 12:58 a.m.  Only the officers didn’t go to the address of the alarm.   They “inadvertently began searching” the property of Jerry and Kathy Waller at 404 Havenwood — across the road from the automated burglary alert.

Jerry & Kathy Waller had been married 46 years.

Officers B.B. Hanlon and R.A. “Alex” Hoeppner walked onto the Wallers’ property and approached the darkened house with their flashlights lit.  As Officer Hoeppner neared the residence, he spotted Mr. Waller, who was cautiously surveying the scene from inside his garage.

A confrontation ensued between the homeowner and the intruders carrying guns and flashlights.  Unfortunately only one side survived to tell their version of the events.

The undisputed fact is that Waller was shot 7 times in his own garage.

Officer Hoepnner claims that when he spotted Mr. Waller, he identified himself and commanded the homeowner to drop his gun.  According to the police narrative, Waller was hesitant to comply with commands of the strangers.  After momentarily setting his gun down, Waller allegedly “freaked out” and “lost it” and picked the gun back up and assumed a “ready” stance, aiming his pistol at police officers.  Hoepnner opened fire.

The senior citizen was struck multiple times and was pronounced dead at the scene.  His slanted driveway was stained with a trail of his blood and his distraught wife had to be taken to the hospital for emotional distress.

The loss was devastating to the community.  “They are just a nice retired couple, that loved working in their yard, having family over, and grandkids,” said Becky Haskin, a neighbor who knew the Wallers.

“I think he panicked,” Haskin said to the Star-Telegram. “He just unloaded his gun in rapid fire. That’s what I heard. It woke me up. I thought it was in my back yard — just rapid fire, one right after the other, in succession. There wasn’t any hesitation.”

The burglary alert across the street was a false alarm.

“Trigger Happy”

The department did not offer many details of the incident for some time, but insisted that “officers felt threatened.”

As the department investigated itself for wrongdoing, the Waller family expressed displeasure with what they considered deliberate “misrepresenting” of details of the killing by the department.  They felt so uneasy with the media coverage that they felt compelled to issue a public statement demanding a full investigation.   The statement read, in part:

We were deeply troubled by the police department misrepresenting details of the incident in their interviews with the media.  We would ask that the police refrain from providing details to the media until a thorough investigation has been completed, preferably by an independent body.

Kathy Waller, widow

His widow, Kathy Waller, said she was “disgusted” by the police.  “Married 46 years, and then somebody gets a little trigger-happy and away they go,” she told WFAA.  ”I miss him dearly.”

“My father never stepped outside of his garage,” said son Chris Waller. “He was shot multiple times in the chest only a few steps away from the doorway to his kitchen.”

According to the autopsy report, Waller suffered three bullets to the chest, a shot to the abdomen, a shot to the hand, and two grazing wounds to his wrist and forearm.

Details were slow to emerge, but a report finally admitted that the police went to the wrong address because of “poor lighting.”

The two officers were patrolling the streets again in under two months, without discipline.

Hoeppner gave the following statements:

“…the whole entire time I’m giving commands, “Drop the gun, drop the gun, drop the gun.” “And he’s not dropping it and he had this attitude towards us that…it was almost an attitude of, you can’t tell me to drop my gun.” “You know what I mean?” “Like who are you to telling me to, you know what I mean.” “He kind of had an attitude kind of very hostile towards us…”

“I’m pretty sure I told you this; but I wanna reiterate that he…umm, his…his attitude towards us was very malicious.” “It…it was not, pro-police at all.” “ He did not seem happy that, that we were there.”

…if someone who…who…who…is….you get someone out there who would follow the gun laws; and…and that understands that a police officer is telling you this, that you’re not gonna sit there and hold the gun  still; cause….I mean like…it’s almost as if he was challenging me.” “And the fact…the reason I say that is I mean, his….the way he stood; I mean…I mean his comments as in, ‘why’…” “ You know like, what…what person in their right man…mind would ask a peace officer…a, a law enforcement officer…’why’ …when he tells you and give you verbal commands that we’re being serious…, drop the gun, you know. Your law abiding citizen is not going to tell… going to ask you, why.”

The way he talks to me is a very stand-off attitude.” “ You know…you know when he say, get…get the light outta my eyes, it wasn’t please sir; get the light outta my eyes.” “Hey, can you please get the light outta my eyes.” “It was, get the light outta my eyes!” “You know, it was real standoff, like…you know…”

Now that I think back on it and you know, had all this time to think on it. I think his intentions as soon as he walked out that door and saw me and he didn’t want to put the gun down, I firmly believe that he was trying to find a point and time where…when…when he could shoot me at when…when…when it was the most beneficial time for him to shoot me.”

After hearing Officer Hoeppner’s partner swear under oath that Mr. Waller pointed his gun, a Tarrant County grand jury declined to indict the rookie cop.  Both officers had been with the department for under one year.

The most recent report states that that Waller told Hoeppner to “get that light out of my eyes,” drawing questions about whether the victim could see who the intruders were through the blinding beam of light.

The police narrative claims that Waller did eventually put his gun on top of a car, but he then “scrambled” to pick it back up.  Next, allegedly, Waller “swung the handgun in the direction of Officer Hoeppner,” prompting the rapid fire response.

Diagram of Jerry Waller’s garage. (Source: Fort Worth Police)

The report admits that the police did not activate their vehicle emergency lights, nor did they use their sirens.  They also did not activate their lapel microphones.  Why?

Jerry Waller’s death may never be fully understood, but the tragedy of the situation remains.

Was the situation preventable?  Could officers have avoided this situation by utilizing their lights and sirens?  Did the officers shoot irresponsibly after getting spooked by a strange man?  Did Mr. Waller think he was confronting burglars?

Fort Worth Police Department
Phone:  (817) 335-4222
Email:  Contact Us
Facebook:  FWPD

Unprovoked: Courtroom video shows Denver sheriff’s deputy attacking shackled inmate

Of course, the judge just sits there and says nary a word to her goons.

DENVER, CO — Denver’s safety department waited a year to discipline a sheriff’s deputy for grabbing a man who was appearing before a judge in a Denver County courtroom and slamming him into a wall.

by Susan Greene (2-13-14)

Susan Greene

Denver, CO — The deputy, Brady Lovingier, is the son of Bill Lovingier, who headed the sheriff’s department from 2006 to 2010. The safety department disciplinary report on the incident found “no legitimate reason” for Lovingier to attack inmate Anthony Waller in Judge Doris Burd’s courtroom.

The judge had a full view of the September 11, 2012, assault and filed an excessive force grievance against Lovingier. But that didn’t speed up the investigation by a department that long has been criticized for downplaying – and, in some cases, ignoring – abuse by its officers.

A formal response didn’t come until late September 2013, when the city suspended Lovingier for 30 days for the kind of assault that would have seen a civilian arrested, convicted and incarcerated in Denver.

“If he had killed me, would he have gotten 30 days?” Waller said in a statement to The Independent. “I was defenseless. I was addressing the judge, exercising my constitutional rights, and this is what I get? A savage beating?”

Waller was taken into custody on suspicion of assaulting a woman in an east Colfax motel.

Video and audiotapes obtained by The Independent show that deputies had shackled Waller in handcuffs, leg irons, a belly chain and black box — the highest level of restraint short of locking someone into a wheelchair — before escorting him into the courtroom.

During the court proceeding, known as a “first advisement,” Judge Burd explained why Waller was being held, advised him of his rights and outlined a schedule for legal procedures. Waller stood quiet at the podium while the judge spoke for about five minutes. There were no raised voices in the nearly empty courtroom. The four deputies in the room seemed relaxed as Waller stood listening to the judge. One even checked his cell phone.

After Judge Burd finished her advisement, Waller spoke. “Ah, yes, ma’am, I’d like to object first,” he told her. “If I’m under investigation, I thought the investigation came first and then the arrest came.”

Just as the judge started answering Waller’s objection — explaining that the city had the authority to hold Waller for three days before arresting him — Lovingier suddenly took hold of Waller from behind by the belly chain. Waller turned his head to look at Lovingier, who then yanked Waller violently by the chain, spun him around and slammed him into a large glass window. Waller collapsed onto the ground.

“Get on your feet,” Lovingier yelled. “Don’t turn on me. Get on your feet. Get on your feet.”

Waller, his head injured, groaned, “Oh, man, oh.”

“Get on your feet,” Lovingier repeated.

Deputies dragged Waller from the courtroom.

After some silence, Judge Burd finally spoke. “Oh, lah, lah,” she said.

Then, at least for the time captured on tape, she and her clerk went on with their work as if nothing had happened. Burd later filed the grievance against Lovingier in a move that’s rare for a judge.

Burd used the term “heavy duty” when later asked by internal affairs investigators to describe the attack. Her clerk described it as “a bit excessive.”

Judge Burd did not return a phone call asking for reaction to the fact that it took more than a year for safety officials to respond to her grievance. The probe resulted in a finding of “misconduct” — specifically “neglect of duty,” “carelessness in performance of duties and responsibilities” and “failure to observe the written departmental or agency regulations.” Lovingier plans on February 20 to appeal his 30-day suspension to the city’s Career Service Authority.

Waller sees the month-long suspension as a mere slap on the wrist. He calls Lovingier’s appeal of the disciplinary action a ”degradation to the sheriff’s department.”

“Every deputy should be offended due to the lack of professionalism exhibited by Deputy Lovingier. Anyone who looks at that tape can see what happened.”

Prior to his attack, Waller had served 19 years in prison for a sexual assault conviction about which he maintains his innocence. Seventeen months after Lovingier assaulted him, he is still in Denver jail awaiting trial on felony charges of kidnapping and assault related to the motel beating. Despite Waller’s rap sheet, safety department brass concluded in the Lovingier discipline report that “the record indicates… inmate Waller posed no threat to [Lovingier] or anyone else,”

City officials refused comment on the case, citing a concern for “potentially influenc(ing) the outcome” of Lovingier’s disciplinary appeal.

The deputy had worked for more than 11 years in the department his father used to run.

Documents obtained by The Independent detail Lovingier twisting the facts of the incident.

In a statement to police the day of the attack, this was his version of events:

“As we hit the glass Waller dropped his weight and he went to the floor. Since I already had his belly chain I eased him to the floor.”

His long series of statements to internal affairs investigators were dismissed as “unreasonable” and not factual. (Find examples in the excerpts posted here.)

In another interview, after watching a video of the assault, Lovingier asserted that “it appeared Mr. Waller tripped up on his leg irons when I turned him to regain control and leave the courtroom… It is also apparent to me that the trip accelerated our momentum toward the glass, which is why we got there so fast and appeared harder than I would have anticipated.”

Denver’s safety department has had seven managers in four years. It has faced heavy criticism after a spate of jail incidents, including the 2010 death of Marvin Booker after several sheriff’s deputies forcefully restrained him. The city has incarcerated deaf inmates without offering sign language interpreters. And it has a record of jailing innocent people in cases of mistaken identity.

In December, the official tasked with watchdogging Denver’s safety agencies released a 78-page study showing the sheriff’s department ignores incidents of staff misconduct. The report by Independent Safety Monitor Nicholas Mitchell found that the city:

– Failed to investigate serious misconduct, including “inappropriate force, non-consensual sexual touching and biased behavior by deputies.”

– Ignored a series of grievances against a small group of rogue deputies at the county jail. Four deputies in a force of more than 700 officers were the subjects of 16 percent of all inmate complaints.

– And hindered inmates’ ability to lodge grievances. This was especially a problem for Latino inmates for whom there were no grievance forms in Spanish.

Mitchell wouldn’t comment on the Lovingier case, nor on the year it took safety officials to investigate it.

Safety department spokeswoman Daelene Mix wrote The Independent that, “since the Lovingier case, the Denver Sheriff’s Department has reformed its disciplinary process to reduce major delays.

“Specifically, the Internal Affairs Bureau added two investigators to its staff to ensure investigations are conducted in a timely and efficient manner.”

Mix also noted that the department has adopted some of Mitchell’s recommendations regarding its grievance procedures.

Ken Padilla, Waller’s civil attorney, said the year-long lag time to investigate the attack and Lovingier’s suspension of only 30 days show “gross deep-seated endemic issues in the Denver Sheriff’s Department and the Denver Manager of Safety Office that the City and County of Denver has failed to address or correct.” Padilla is particularly concerned about a part of the audiotape when he said Lovingier, who is white, refers to Waller as “boy.”

“If a deputy sheriff thinks he can get away with viciously attacking a middle-aged Black man and calling him ‘a boy’ appearing in court, you can only imagine what happens to men and women in custody in the confines of the Denver city and county jails,” Padilla said.

Former Denver Safety Manger Fidel Butch Montoya said the video “is a shocking demonstration of a sheriff’s deputy taking advantage of his authority.” As someone who has meted out discipline in several misconduct cases, Montoya said a year is “an excessive time to make a determination of the video and audio elements of the case.”

Carole Oyler, a longtime activist who watchdogs police issues in Denver, points out that most civilians who attack someone in the way Lovingier hauled off on Waller “would not just have been suspended from their jobs, but also fired and (had) criminal charges filed.”

“There’s something way, way wrong with Denver’s disciplinary system,” she said. “Apparently members of the safety department are exempt from the laws that apply to the rest of us.”

Lovingier Report3

5 Oklahoma police officers beat unarmed man to death outside movie theater in front of his wife & daughter

The Rodriguez family

MOORE, Oklahoma – Three Moore Police officers were put on administrative leave while detectives investigate an in-custody death from overnight. The family of the man who died said police beat him badly and they recorded it with a cell phone camera.

Nair Rodriguez and her daughter Lunahi told News 9 they got into an argument at the Warren Theater around midnight. Nair said she slapped her daughter then stormed away. Her husband, Luis, chased after her. That was when the family said officers confronted Luis Rodriguez and asked to see his identification.

According to Lunahi and Nair, he tried to bypass the officers to stop his wife from driving off because she was so angry. They said officers took him down and it escalated.

Lunahi Rodriguez said that five officers beat her father to death right in front of her, in the parking lot of the movie theater.

“When they flipped him over you could see all the blood on his face, it was, he was disfigured, you couldn’t recognize him.”

By the time it was all over, Nair Rodriguez said that she knew her husband was dead.

“I saw him. His [motionless] body when people carry it to the stretcher,” she explained. “I knew that he was dead.”

Nair says her husband was only trying to defuse the fight she was having with her daughter. She said when police asked her about it she told them what happened.

“I told them I hit her and he was just trying to reach me. Why didn’t they arrest me?”

Lunahi added, “My mom was taking a video and asking, ‘What are they doing this for? Why?’ And they didn’t give really an explanation.”

Rodriguez told News 9 that police took her phone with the recording on it. Another family member provided News 9 with an audio recording she said was taken when that happened. The family hoped Luis would pull through, so they waited for news at the hospital.

“Two hours passed. They finally called her up to say, ‘Oh you could see him,’ but it turned out it was a lie. They moved his body elsewhere,” said Lunahi.

The family told News 9 they would hire an attorney.

by Carlos Miller of PINAC

Oklahoma law enforcement officers beat a man to death before confiscating his wife’s cell phone after she video recorded the incident, leaving the key piece of evidence in the hands of the killers.

Police said they needed the phone as “evidence” but the United States Department of Justice has made it very clear that police can only seize a camera without a warrant if they believe the camera contains evidence of a crime and if they believe this evidence would be destroyed if they don’t act fast to obtain it.

In this case, the phone likely contains evidence of a crime committed by police which would increase the chances of it getting destroyed now that it is in their hands.

The incident took place Saturday night outside a movie theater in Moore when a woman got into an argument with her daughter and slapped her before storming off.

The woman’s husband and father of the girl, Luis Rodriguez, ran after his wife in an attempt to restore harmony to the family, but a group of cops intervened and demanded his identification.

Police, of course, claim he started fighting with them, which is why they had to kill him.

But family members say he was only trying to sidestep them to prevent his wife from driving off.

According to News9:

Lunahi Rodriguez said that five officers beat her father to death right in front of her, in the parking lot of the movie theater.

“When they flipped him over you could see all the blood on his face, it was, he was disfigured, you couldn’t recognize him.”

By the time it was all over, Nair Rodriguez said that she knew her husband was dead.

“I saw him. His [motionless] body when people carry it to the stretcher,” she explained. “I knew that he was dead.”

Nair says her husband was only trying to defuse the fight she was having with her daughter. She said when police asked her about it she told them what happened.

“I told them I hit her and he was just trying to reach me. Why didn’t they arrest me?”

Lunahi added, “My mom was taking a video and asking, ‘What are they doing this for? Why?’ And they didn’t give really an explanation.”

News9 said that another family member provided them with an audio clip of the incident but it doesn’t appear that they have posted it.

The incident involved three Moore police officers, including one who was off-duty, as well as two off-duty game wardens.

Last year, Kern County sheriff’s deputies confiscated phones after killing a man as well, which led to an FBI investigation.

In 2012, Miami-Dade cops entered a home without a warrant and confiscated a phone from a girl after killing her father in the driveway.

1n 2011, Miami Beach police began confiscating phones after killing an unarmed man inside a car, shooting hundreds of bullets and striking four innocent bystanders, which lead to a policy change regarding the right for citizens to record (which they seem to be respecting for the most part).

The Free Thought Project has provided a list of apps that allow you to live stream video, ensuring your video survives even if they do confiscate your phone.

Call Moore Police Chief Jerry Stillings at (405) 793-5138.

Chief Jerry Stillings

Andrew Henderson

by Andrew Meyer of PINAC

After being charged with two misdemeanors for recording police and being a “buttinsky,” as one police supervisor put it, Andrew Henderson has decided to run for city council in his Minnesota town of Little Canada in an election this November. He runs against two others, including an incumbent.

With Henderson’s trial set for Feb. 17, I had a chance to get the full details on Thursday, and find out exactly what happened, and why he’s decided to run for office.

Henderson was recording the police outside his apartment building in late 2012 when an officer took his camera as “evidence.” After asking for his camera back, he was charged with two misdemeanors. When he finally did receive the camera back, his footage had been deleted.

Meyer: Why did you decide to start recording the police?

Henderson: I grew up in the north end area of St. Paul. A few months before my camera was taken from me, there was in incident in my old neighborhood where a man was arrested. He was kicked in the chest and pepper spayed in his ear. That was my turning point.

Meyer: And what specifically gave you the desire to record the night your camera was confiscated?

Henderson: I saw 2 squad cars outside my apartment, one of which was a K9. When I asked the deputy what was going on all she said was “No crime”. I found it odd that 2 squads were there for “no crime”, so I decided to pull out my camera and film.

Meyer: Why do you feel it’s important to record the police?

Henderson: Well, we see police misconduct all the time in the newspaper, TV, and internet. We see the same police who get caught abusing their authority get away with little or no consequences. Sometimes even promotions. Last year the Minneapolis Police Department had 439 complaints, none of which resulted in any discipline. Something is terribly wrong with a system that allows this kind of behavior to continue. I feel that it is important for the people to expose the misconduct committed by the police, since the police rarely discipline themselves in any way. I strongly believe that the best way to do this is by filming them, and publicly sharing the footage for all to see. If the police know the people are watching them, they will be less inclined to abuse their power.

Meyer: What exactly are they charging you with?

Henderson: I am being charged with Disorderly Conduct and Obstructing Legal Process.

Meyer: Have you considered suing the officer who stole your camera?

Henderson: I’m just focused on the criminal charges right now.

Meyer: Why exactly are you running for city council, and how are you campaigning?

Henderson: I am running because I want to create a more open, transparent, and accountable government in Little Canada. I want to reduce the burden city legislation has on the lives of its residents. I want to create a stronger, more stable community through these practices.

I plan on a grassroots campaign which includes flyering, door-knocking, and meeting with the people to listen to which issues concern them. (I plan to start when it gets warmer, as it is -2 degrees right now).

Meyer: Do you have any support lined up yet?

Henderson: I have had my people ask to volunteer on my campaign, and plan on taking them up on their offers this summer and fall. I do have a few elected officials that have verbally endorsed me, but until I get it in writing, I will not name them.

Meyer: What action would you take as a city council member?

Henderson: I would eliminate laws that restrict the people’s freedom and liberty. There are many outdated laws in the Code of Ordinances that should be amended or repealed. This past summer, with the help of the City Administrator, I was able to get a law repealed that made it a misdemeanor to wear clothing belonging to the opposite sex. There are many more laws such as this that should be amended or repealed. There are laws that I feel limit business owners or entrepreneurs, such as the City has a limit on how many Tobacco licenses they will issue, and what can and can not be sold if a person holds this license. All of which have been issued. This, to me limits the liberty to open a business, or expand one.

Meyer: In your city, does the mayor or the city council hire the chief of police? Would you take any action to review the records of the officers on the force?

Henderson: In Little Canada, we contract the Ramsey County Sheriff as law enforcement. Since it is a contract position, I doubt there would be anything that I could personally do on that issue besides take complaints or compliments about Deputies from the citizens. If enough complaints were brought to my attention, I would ask the sheriff to assign a different officer to the community.

Meyer:  If your goal is to change policing in your area, why not run for a seat on the Ramsey County Commission?

Henderson:  I feel that I do not have enough experience for that elected office yet, but there may be a time in the future that I do. I am very supportive of the commissioner for my district at this time.

Meyer: Is there anything else you want PINAC readers to know?

Henderson:  I would like them to know that I am very grateful of their support. It is the words of encouragement from readers of blogs such as PINAC that have gotten me through this 15+ month ordeal.

Little Canada man must stand trial in videotaping of ambulance crew

Andrew Henderson w/camera in his apartment complex’s parking lot

by Emily Gurnon

Ramsey County, MN — A judge has refused to throw out the case against a Little Canada man who was criminally charged after he videotaped the activities of a sheriff’s deputy and ambulance crew outside his apartment.

Ramsey County District Judge Edward Wilson denied Andrew Joseph Henderson’s request to dismiss the misdemeanor charges against him. Henderson, 29, argued that he was exercising his First Amendment rights to record activities of public officials in a public place and that he didn’t break the law.

He was charged with disorderly conduct and interfering with an ambulance crew.

The judge ruled Monday that Henderson’s conduct “cannot be shielded under the cloak of the First Amendment.”

Henderson’s attorneys, Teresa Nelson of the American Civil Liberties Union and Kevin Riach of Minneapolis, said Tuesday that they were disappointed in the judge’s ruling.

“We strongly believe Andrew didn’t do anything wrong, and we will take this to trial,” Riach said.

A new court date has not been set.

Henderson was sitting on a bench outside his apartment building in the 200 block of East County Road B2 shortly before midnight on Oct. 30 when he saw sheriff’s deputies frisk a fellow resident. Paramedics then began to load the man, whose face was injured, into an ambulance.

The man was intoxicated, with a blood-alcohol level of 0.32, Riach said. The man’s sister had called police to ask them to check on him. He said the bruises on his face were from a traffic accident.

Deputy Jacqueline Muellner approached Henderson, telling him to put the camera down. “If I end up on YouTube, I’m gonna be upset,” she said. Her words were recorded on Henderson’s cellphone.

When Henderson refused, saying he wasn’t doing anything illegal, Muellner seized the camera.

Muellner retired from the sheriff’s office in July after 33 years with the office.

The state alleged that Henderson was within 3 to 5 feet of the ambulance. The bench Henderson said he was sitting on was about 30 feet from the driveway where the ambulance would have been parked. He said he should not be charged with interfering with the crew when he did not physically obstruct them.

Wilson, the judge, wrote in his order that “it is not necessary that one engage in a physical act to interfere or obstruct.”

“It is sufficient if the defendant’s actions or conduct had the effect of physically obstructing or interfering with a member of an ambulance crew,” he wrote.

The other charge Henderson faces, disorderly conduct, is defined in the law as “offensive, obscene, abusive, boisterous, or noisy conduct” that the actor knows or has reason to know would “tend to alarm, anger or disturb others or provoke an assault or breach of the peace.”

A jury will decide whether Henderson’s conduct “was so offensive as to alarm, anger, or disturb others,” the judge wrote.

Wilson also ruled that the recording of a medical assessment by paramedics in Henderson’s case is not constitutionally protected speech. That is different, Wilson said, from other cases in which a defendant videotapes police carrying out their duties.

Order Denying Motion to Dismiss

Little Canada man was ‘intrusive’ in videotaping medical call, city argues

by Emily Gurnon

Ramsey County, MN — A 29-year-old man was “extremely intrusive” when he videotaped a medical call outside his apartment, an attorney for the city of Little Canada argued in court Wednesday.

Andrew Joseph Henderson recorded the actions of a sheriff’s deputy and an ambulance crew as they prepared to take a highly intoxicated man to the hospital the night of Oct. 30.

“This was a medical assessment for a mental health evaluation,” leading to a possible civil commitment, attorney Kevin Beck said in Ramsey County District Court. The man assessed, who was referred to in court as “M.V.,” became alarmed when he noticed Henderson was recording the scene and asked a paramedic to put a stop to it, Beck said.

Henderson was charged with interfering with an ambulance crew and disorderly conduct. A sheriff’s deputy confiscated his camera after he refused to shut it off.

Henderson argued that he was exercising his First Amendment rights to record the activities of public officials in a public place. He was sitting “peaceably” on a bench outside his apartment building in the 200 block of East County Road B2, his attorney said.

He had just as much right to record the activity as TV crews do during a news event, said defense attorney Kevin Riach, a Minneapolis lawyer volunteering his services to the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Henderson.

“It’s clear that people have a right to do that under the First Amendment,” Riach said.

During Wednesday’s court hearing, Judge Edward Wilson heard from the attorneys on Henderson’s motion to dismiss the charges against him.

Wilson said he would take the matter under advisement.

Beck said that if Henderson had been merely present while the deputies and ambulance crew were working, there would have been no problem. If he had been filming but put away the camera when asked to, there would not have been a problem, he said.

But he interfered with emergency personnel, and that’s against the law, Beck said.

Henderson did “physically” obstruct the personnel, contrary to defense claims, because case law has defined physical obstruction as “substantially frustrating or hindering the officer in the performance of his duties,” Beck wrote in a court memorandum.

The deputies were called to the apartment building on a “welfare check,” a request by a relative of the man to make sure he was OK, the criminal complaint said. When they arrived at his apartment, the man had a blood-alcohol level of 0.32, Riach said, and told them he was into his second liter of vodka. He had a bruised face, which he said was from a traffic accident.

Henderson was sitting three to five feet from the ambulance when the man was being loaded into it, the state alleged.

The paramedics “had to stop the medical assessment to ask Henderson to stop videotaping,” the complaint alleged. “When Henderson refused to stop, (paramedics) had to leave the area of the ambulance to notify the deputies,” the complaint said.

What with all the police brutality making the rounds on Youtube these daze, isn’t it about time for a bit of levity from Officer Friendly?  Rémi Gaillard thought so too.

The best clips of the POLICE VS Rémi GAILLARD are dangerously funny. In fact, the man could stand a sense of humor–at least we hope so.

Rémi Gaillard is world famous for his dangerously funny videos.

Unafraid of controversy, he has challenged the norms and expectations of online video with his creativity!

From bringing Pacman and Mario Kart to life and playing pranks in animal costumes, to taking on the likes of Ronaldo in a battle of football skills, Rémi has done it all and shows no signs of stopping any time soon – his motto is, after all, “C’est en faisant n’importe quoi qu’on devient n’importe qui”!