AM 1310: The Light » police

College Student Asks, “Why Is The NYPD After Me?”

praiseindy Staff — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 23:21:28 +0000

New York college student Nicholas K. Peart writes a disturbing yet familiar article in the New York Times about his experience with the police, entitled “Why Is the NYPD After Me?”

Peart initially explains that even though his mother gave him an ominous warning about the police at the precocious age of 9 — “She cautioned me to carry ID and never run away from the police or I could be shot” — he still thought police officers were “cool.” Nearly 10 years later, Peart’s perception of New York’s finest was irrevocably changed after his 18th birthday celebration, when he was brutally harassed:

… Out of nowhere, squad cars surrounded us. A policeman yelled from the window, ‘Get on the ground!’ I was stunned. And I was scared. Then I was on the ground — with a gun pointed at me. I couldn’t see what was happening, but I could feel a policeman’s hand reach in to my pocket and remove my wallet. Apparently he looked through and found the ID I kept there. ‘Happy Birthday,’ he said sarcastically.

Unfortunately for Peart — and many other blacks and Latinos — this would be the beginning of an increasingly abusive affair with the police. Peart, for his part, would be harassed at least three more times between his birthday-turned-target practice in 2006 and his most recent run-in in 2010. An officer took Peart’s keys and attempted to enter his apartment without his permission, while yet another officer forced him into a squad car, handcuffed. Naturally, Peart has become increasingly paranoid about the police:

These experiences changed the way I felt about the police. After the third incident I worried when police cars drove by; I was afraid I would be stopped and searched or that something worse would happen. I dress better if I go downtown. I don’t hang out with friends outside my neighborhood in Harlem as much as I used to. Essentially, I incorporated into my daily life the sense that I might find myself up against a wall or on the ground with an officer’s gun at my head. For a black man in his 20s like me, it’s just a fact of life in New York.

Thankfully, Peart isn’t taking this blatant discrimination and abuse lying down. He is a member of Harlem’s Brotherhood/Sister Sol, which works to empower youths about their rights while teaching them mechanisms to stay alive, and is a witness in the Center for Constitutional Rights lawsuit, which seeks to bring racist cops to task for racial profiling.

While it is criminal that a young black college student is STILL having to ask this question in 2011, it is yet another testament that the black and brown people of this nation are still regarded as second-class citizens.

Read the rest of Peart’s article here.

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Colorado Sheriff Arrested For Trading Meth For Sex

praiseindy Staff — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 23:00:23 +0000

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) — A well-respected former Colorado sheriff is being held on a half-million-dollar bond in the jail named for him, suspected of offering methamphetamine in exchange for sex from a male acquaintance.

Arapahoe County chief judge William Sylvester on Wednesday doubled the bond for the county’s former sheriff, Patrick Sullivan. The judge also ordered Sullivan not to try to contact anyone who may be involved in the case.

Sullivan’s attorney protested the increase because no charges have been filed.

Sullivan appeared at the court hearing dressed in an orange jail uniform. The 68-year-old walked with a cane and still had handcuffs around his wrists that were attached to a chain around his waist.

Sullivan came to the attention of law enforcement after an Oct. 4 call to authorities from a home in Centennial, according to an arrest affidavit. The deputy who responded had worked for Sullivan and knew who he was.

After investigating further, the deputy learned from two confidential informants that Sullivan was dealing meth but would sell it only if they had sex with him, the document stated. He was arrested after police set up a sting at a home.

Deputies found that Sullivan had handed someone a bag of methamphetamine and had another bag on him when he was searched, according to the affidavit. Both bags together weighed less than a gram.

Sullivan was sheriff of the suburban Denver county from 1984 until he retired in 2002.

Arapahoe County’s jail is named for the former lawman, the Patrick J. Sullivan Jr. Detention Facility.

In 2002, Sullivan was praised by U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo in the congressional record on his retirement. Tancredo cited Sullivan’s work in promoting homeland security, for being named Sheriff of the Year by the National Sheriff’s Association in 2001, and for his work as law enforcement chairman of the Colorado George W. Bush for President committee.

In 1989, he was hailed as a hero after he rescued two deputies after crashing his truck through a fence and protecting them while they were loaded into the vehicle. Arapahoe County Deputy Daniel Thomas and Deputy Arthur Hilton were treated at a hospital for gunshot wounds and shrapnel wounds from flying glass.

During the rampage, Eugene Thompson Jr., described by authorities as a 20-year-old man with an insatiable appetite for cocaine, killed two women with a semiautomatic machine pistol, raped another woman, and wounded two deputies

After his retirement, Sullivan became head of security for the Cherry Creek School District.

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Photo Catches Cop Having Sex On Top Of Car In Uniform

praiseindy Staff — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:20:34 +0000

SANTA FE, N.M. — Surveillance footage caught an officer having sex on top of a car while in uniform in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Santa Fe Police have not released the name of the officer but claim they are investigating the matter.

KOB.com reports:

KOB has blurred out the woman’s image, but you can see it’s during daylight hours and the officer is still wearing his utility belt.

The Santa Fe Sheriff’s office released the pictures to KOB after we filed a public records request. They say they also gave them to State Police over a week ago.

White Male Cops Sue San Francisco For Racial Bias

praiseindy Staff — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:38:57 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO — Two white San Francisco male police officers are suing the city for what they claim to be racial bias in the promotion practices of the police department.

Heinz Hoffman and Thomas Buckley filed a lawsuit complaint Aug. 16, stating “The city has a longstanding custom and practice in discriminating against white males.”

According to the complaint in Hoffman v. SF, San Francisco, the SFPD changed its promotion exam policies in response to a 1978 court order, thanks to a 1973 anti-discrimination lawsuit filed by African American SFPD employees calling themselves Officers for Justice.

The court order expired in 1998. But, the complaint says, the Police Department continued to employ a promotions system Hoffman and Buckley says unfairly discriminates against white males.

Ghost Town! Detroit Offers Free Homes To Police Officers

praiseindy Staff — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 01:02:32 +0000

The city of Detroit is offering about 200 free and reduced price homes to police officers living outside the city limits in attempt to revitalize the city.

Detroit is seeing a housing crisis that was sparked by a huge decline in the population. The city’s population decreased 25% in the past decade, according to Census Bureau.

Nation columnist and MSNBC contributor Melissa Harris-Perry, said because Detroit is a city that’s struggling in a lot of ways, this brilliant program. “Police officers are valuable in our communities. We want to get them into our communities,” she said.

Stop And Frisk?! Officers Slammed For Being In Porn Video

praiseindy Staff — Tue, 03 May 2011 20:28:26 +0000

LOS ANGELES – Two officers from the The Los Angeles Department of Transportation are being investigated for appearing in a sexually explicit video.

NBC Los Angeles reports:

The video, which is available on a popular adult subscription website, tracks the interactions of a porn actress as she approaches men in a range of work environments.

Various men in the film appear to grope her and perform a range of sex acts with her. In one scene, the actress jumps into the arms of an LA traffic officer, who spanks her and then fondles her bare breasts.

A second traffic officer takes a few spankings from the woman, then allows her to get into his official city car, where she performs lewd acts on herself.

View more videos at: http://www.nbclosangeles.com.

Read The Whole Story

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LA Officer Accused Of Shooting Himself, Filing False Report

praiseindy Staff — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:02:33 +0000

LOS ANGELES — A school police officer who reported getting shot in the chest — prompting the lock-down of 9,000 students during a dragnet — shot himself and has been arrested for filing a false report, authorities said. Officer Jeffrey Stenroos was arrested Thursday night over the hoax, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck announced at a news conference Thursday.

During a hastily called news conference, LA Police Chief Charlie Beck said investigators processed more than 350 clues and talked to hundreds of people before concluding that the purported gunman who shot officer Jeffrey Stenroos was fictitious.

“The current state of the investigation refutes Stenroos’ initial account of the incident, and we are now certain that there is no outstanding suspect in this shooting,” Beck said. “We go where our investigations take us — if it is to a suspect that is named in a crime or is to a law enforcement officer of another agency.”

Stenroos claimed that he was on patrol Jan. 19 outside El Camino Real High School in the wealthy Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills when he confronted a man who had been breaking into cars. He said the suspect tried to kill him.

The shooting prompted the largest area lock-down in history. Hundreds of officers from local, state and federal agencies vainly combed a seven-mile area looking for an armed gunman in his 40s with a long, gray pony tail.

Read more at AOLnew.com

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Mass. Police Kill Unarmed Grandfather In Police Raid

praiseindy Staff — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 13:00:54 +0000

FRAMINGHAM, MA

A Framingham police Swat Team killed an unarmed grandfather of 12 in Framingham Massachusetts, 68-year-old Eurie Stamps. The Boston Herald Reports:

A Framingham SWAT team member yesterday was placed on administrative leave for fatally shooting a 68-year-old grandfather of 12, police said, as relatives struggled to cope with the sudden and violent death.

Early Tuesday morning, police raided the home at 26 Fountain St. as part of a multiweek drug investigation and shot Stamps, who was not the target of the investigation, according to police reports. Two 20-year-old men were arrested on drug charges. No weapons were recovered at the scene.

Read The Whole Story

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New Jersey Lawmakers Take On Police “Roid Rage”

praiseindy Staff — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 17:47:23 +0000

New Jersey — Reuters is reporting on a new law proposed by New Jersey lawmakers that intends to curb steroid use by police officers and firefighters:

Law enforcement steroid use is a problem around the country and, given that steroid use can cause aggression, can invite problems for police, said Larry Gaines, chairman of the Department of Criminal Justice at California State University in San Bernadino, California.

“Aggression is not very common but nonetheless it’s a possible problem,” Gaines said. “If it does occur, you could see lawsuits against police departments regarding citizens injured from steroid rage.”

The New Jersey measures come in response to reports last month of a local doctor who illegally supplied hundreds of police and firefighters with anabolic steroids, human growth hormones and other muscle-building drugs.

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Camden, NJ America’s 2nd Most Violent City Lays Off Half Of Police Force

praiseindy Staff — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 21:27:30 +0000

New Jersey — Camden, New Jersey, America’s 2nd most violent city, has layed off half of its police force according to the Huffington Post:

New Jersey’s most violent city approved layoffs for half its police force on Thursday.

The Camden City Council unanimously voted to layoff a quarter of the city’s government workers, including half of its police officers.

Read The Whole Story

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