Clipmarks | dulios's 'police' clips

Suspect in Police Killing Strangled in Solitary Confinement

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:12:52 GMT

clipped by: dulios
clipper's remarks: Another young black man dead at the hands of the police. He may have been guilty of the crime he was suspected of, but was denied his day in court. The FBI has just opened an investigation into his murder.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Suspect in Md. Officer's Death Was Strangled

A 19-year-old man suspected of killing a Prince George's County police officer was strangled in the county jail two days after his arrest, the state medical examiner's office concluded yesterday.

Ronnie L. White, who was found unresponsive Sunday morning, died of asphyxiation, and two small bones in his neck were broken, according to preliminary autopsy findings. County officials said he was separated from other inmates; only seven guards and an undisclosed number of supervisors had access to the area where White was held.

Yesterday, some civil rights advocates said the incident, involving a slain white police officer and a slain black suspect, could exacerbate historic tensions between residents of the majority-black county and white police officers.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

In the mid-1990s, relations grew particularly strained when a black burglary suspect was allegedly severely beaten while handcuffed during his arrest.

Tags: race, police, justice, enough, already

Waterboarding? Racist Cops Have Been Torturing Black Suspects for Years

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 02:23:09 GMT

clipped by: dulios
clipper's remarks: In Chicago in the 1970s and 1980s the head torturer was a police commander named Jon Burge.
http://www.truthinjustice.org/jon-burge.htm

.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Waterboarding? Racist Cops Have Been Torturing Black Suspects for Years

Torture is not a new phenomenon. Just ask the Memphis police officers who beat me forty years ago.

When I read about the increasing acceptance of waterboarding as a form of torture, I vividly recall how in 1968 members of the Memphis Police Department believed I could tell them information about civil rights insurgents arriving to create havoc. Forty years later I still hide my serrated scars.

I was 14 years old and forgot I was a black boy living in racist America and heading for the devil's den of discrimination.

"Boy, where you from?" asked the toothpick-sucking officer in the passenger seat as his partner walked around the car to me. At the station, Tennessee police officers beat me because I was a threat to the status quo of time-honored Uncle Tom behavior.

The physical and verbal abuse heaped upon me caused several broken bones in my body and several dozen stitches on my 14-year-old skull.

Tags: police, torture, blacks, memphis

Secret Service Breaches Obama's Safety

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:32:37 GMT

clipped by: dulios

Clip Source: blogs.bet.com

Secret Service Breaches Obama’s Safety

Even Dallas Police officers expressed concern that protocols were abandoned

In a recent interview, Michelle Obama told BET.com that she and husband Barack would not let fears about his safety undermine his push to become the first Black president. But a recent action – or rather “inaction” – by the U.S. Secret Service is only fanning the fears that many Americans – particularly Black Americans – have about the vulnerability of an African-American president. A report by the Dallas Police revealed that the Secret Service, the federal law enforcement agency whose chief responsibility is to protect the president – as well as presidential candidates – told officers to stop screening people for weapons who were arriving at one of Obama’s jam-packed campaign events.

The order, police officials said, amounted to a serious security lapse at an Obama rally attended by roughly 17,000 people.

Tags: obama, secret service, security lapse

Italian Police Question Woman after Abortion

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:26:00 GMT

clipped by: dulios

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Abortion Law Is Suddenly a Pivotal Issue in Italy’s Elections

ROME — With voting less than two months away, a bitter debate over abortion has unexpectedly flared up, putting the issue at the center of the Italian electoral campaign.

The demonstrations were touched off by an incident in a Naples hospital on Monday.

Acting on an anonymous tip that an abortion had been performed later in a pregnancy than the law allows, police officers entered the hospital and interrogated a Neapolitan woman, identified in the news media only by her first name, Silvana, immediately after the abortion and reportedly while she was still under the effects of anesthesia. They seized the aborted fetus.

An internal investigation at the hospital determined that the woman, 39, had terminated her pregnancy during the 21st week, within the 24-week limit set by the law, after tests disclosed that the fetus could have significant abnormalities.

Tags: abortion, abortion politics, italy, police

January Body Count: Five Men Die After Being Tasered

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 04:27:22 GMT

clipped by: dulios

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

January Body Count: Five Men Die After Being Tasered

* Jan 4th: Brandon Smiley, 27, Mobile County, Alabama, after becoming violent with the crew of an ambulance taking him to the hospital for treatment for a suspected drug overdose.

* Jan 4th: Ryan Rich, 33, Las Vegas, Nevada (unidentified in original article), after driving erratically, crashing into a wall, and trying to resist police removing him from his vehicle.

* Jan 9th: Otis C. Anderson, 36, Fayetteville, North Carolina, asked police for help, then ran, encountered police again, become combatitive, was shocked, then stopped breathing during his arrest.

* Jan 11th: Xavier Jones, 29, Coral Gables, Florida, "became unresponsive" after police responding to calls about a man at a party being disruptive shocked him for resisting arrest.

* Jan 15th: Mark C. Backlund, 29, Fridley, Minnesota, unidentified in the original article, shocked after he "became uncooperative" with police after a car accident.

Tags: police, taser, death, brutality

Chicago Police Torture Victims Awarded Millions by the City

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 20:14:06 GMT

clipped by: dulios
clipper's remarks: As a newish Chicagoan, I have paid alot of attention to this case. The whole picture is horrifying: Chicago Police Commander John Burge and his racist merry men tortured perhaps thousands of black men into confessions for crimes they didn't commit. And notice that all of these men were released from DEATH ROW. How many innocent men were executed? Governor Ryan pardoned THIRTEEN men on Death Row in all, and he utimately put a moritorium on the death penalty that exists to this day 5 years later.
Aaron Patterson is back in jail (in a trial that captured Chicago media for quite a long time). His story is so sad.
And Burge lives in comfortable retirement in Florida on his city pension. City attorneys have decided that Burge cannot be charged with torture, because the statute of limitations has expired. I say hit him with federal civil rights laws. Burge and most of his merry men were white. ALL of the alleged victims were black.

Clip Source: www.chicagodefender.com

Torture victims say money is no salve for the past

Four alleged torture victims received their multi-million dollar settlements from City of Chicago yesterday.

The men, all Chicagoans, are being paid because of torture claims against former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and some of his underlings.

The men, who were pardoned and released from death row by Ryan in 2003, allege they had been tortured into confessions by way of beatings and electric shocks and sued the city.

Burge was terminated by the city nearly 15 years ago and has denied any wrongdoing. He currently lives in Florida, on the city's dime, Ald. Smith said.

Tags: .chicago, patterson, burge