Ferguson cop who arrested journalist being sued for tying up and choking 12-year-old boy

The HUFFINGTON POST broke that news..

This:

According to the Post‘s Ashley Alman and Ryan J. Reilly, the lawsuit, filed in September 2012 in a Missouri federal court, accuses Officer Justin Cosma of choking the boy around the neck and throwing him to the ground during a June 2010 encounter.

At the time, Cosma was working as a deputy for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. The lawsuit states that he and his partner, identified as Richard Carter, approached the boy while he was checking his mail outside his home and asked if the boy, identified as “DB” in the suit, was playing on a nearby highway.

No words..

Ferguson cop who arrested journalist being sued for tying up and choking 12-year-old boy

thepete:

10 blocks from my apt. yesterday afternoon, #NYPD beat an alleged drug dealer on camera. The guy didn’t seem to do anything to warrant it. via @dnainfonyc dnainfo.com

….presented without commentary..

Ferguson’s population is more than two-thirds black, but its police force only has three black officers. The town of 21,000 was not previously known for racial tension, but some say it has been bubbling beneath the surface. Young black men feel targeted by police and resent it. Gun sales have spiked locally.

This and more valuable information from THE ECONOMIST..

And more:

The number of people shot and killed by the police is hard to track. Nationwide, it has probably fallen since violent crime peaked in the 1990s. In New York, for example, police bullets killed 39 people in 1990 but eight in 2010. But since local police departments are not obliged to keep detailed statistics, it is hard to discern the national picture, says David Klinger of the University of Missouri, St Louis. A 2011 Department of Justice study found that the police kill roughly one person every day. The FBI deemed nearly all of these killings justifiable, but still too many were not. If the police wore body cameras, that might help. Complaints dropped nearly 90% and the use of force fell 60% when officers started wearing them in Rialto, California.

US pushing local cops to stay mum on surveillance

The Obama administration has been quietly advising local police not to disclose details about surveillance technology they are using to sweep up basic cellphone data from entire neighborhoods

And I bet they’ll listen..

 

US pushing local cops to stay mum on surveillance

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW!? California police use taser on deaf man trying to communicate with them via sign language

It seems like every day we hear about cops killing homeless people or mentally challenged people.

Today we hear about them tasering a deaf man trying to communicate via sign language…

From the report: 

The Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness is filing a lawsuit on behalf of Jonathan Meister, who was charged with assault as a result of the incident. According to the lawsuit, Meister was retrieving boxes he had left at a friend’s house when police, alerted by a neighbor to a possible burglary, arrived.

Officers Jeffrey Salmon, Jeffrey Tysl, Erica Bristow, and Mark Hultgren allegedly ordered Meister to stop loading the boxes into his car, but Meister could not hear the order. One of the officers then grabbed Meister by the hand, who

As Paul Simon wrote:

A man walks down the street
It’s a street in a strange world
Maybe it’s the Third World
Maybe it’s his first time around
He doesn’t speak the language
He holds no currency
He is a foreign man
He is surrounded by the sound
The sound
Cattle in the marketplace
Scatterlings and orphanages
He looks around, around
He sees angels in the architecture
Spinning in infinity
He says Amen and Hallelujah!

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW!? California police use taser on deaf man trying to communicate with them via sign language

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rz6AgvUrR8?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=374]

Why are the police now stopping people from exericising their rights to speak to the media?

This boy was a witness to the San Francisco plane disaster over the weekend. Clearly we see the police officer pull him away as the anchorman on the ABC affiliate says the police are keeping him from speaking to the media… 

But may I ask.. why?

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

SALON: 'Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book': The new warrior cop is out of control

SWAT teams raiding poker games and trying to stop underage drinking? Overwhelming paramilitary force is on the rise

This is a must read by Radley Balko at SALON.. I think we have all noticed a militarization of the police across the United States. You’d have to be under a rock not to.

It’s probably not a good thing, either..

Read this one if you think it is: Elizabeth Daly bought water, and went to jail for it. Seriously.

Not convinced yet?

Maybe the story of Jeff Olsen.. his offense: Writing anti-bank messages on sidewalks .. he is not permitted to use the first amendment as defense, either..

What about the story of AJ Marin, who did the crime of …. writing in protest with chalk on a sidewalk outside Pennsylvania Governor Corbett’s mansion.. His citation: He  was arrested for writing a “derogatory remark about the governor on the sidewalk.” The “derogatory” comment that AJ was arrested for stated: “Governor Corbett has health insurance, we should too.”

SALON: 'Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book': The new warrior cop is out of control

This isn't the type of thing to mean one feel pride on the Fourth of July..

This isn't the type of thing to mean one feel pride on the Fourth of July..

What if they ask for your liver?

If you were pulled over at roadblocks this past weekend in Alabama, chances are you were asked for a DNA sample.. AL.COM is reporting that St. Clair and Bibb County residents who were stopped at several roadblocks set up and were asked for a voluntary samples of blood and DNA (for a study, according to the report) .. a study.. hmm.. were they studying something for scientific research, or were they studying how far they could make innocents motorists go in giving their own blood and DNA?

Must read: Michigan Police Download Cell Phone Data During Routine Motorist Stops...

Must read: Michigan Police Download Cell Phone Data During Routine Motorist Stops...