Police Interactions.

Last January, New York police officer Robert Smith was about two months away from retiring.

But before he left the department, federal prosecutors said, he was set on recruiting another colleague to take over a year-longs bribery scheme he ran with the help of Officer Robert Hassett.

Smith and Hassett took thousands in cash from a tow truck company, according to court records, in exchange for sending victims of car accidents to the firm. Around the time he retired, Smith enlisted Officer Heather Busch, another of his colleagues from the Queens precinct, to take part of the illegal operation, the government said.

On Tuesday, authorities arrested and charged Smith, 44, Hassett, 36, and Busch, 34 with multiple counts of bribery and conspiracy in connection with the tow-truck scheme, according to an indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Smith, whom prosecutors said repeatedly used the n-word, expressed his support for the Ku Klux Klan and threatened to “shoot” his contact at the tow company if he ended up being a “rat,” is also accused of transporting heroin for an unnamed criminal organization after he retired.

“As alleged, the defendants shamelessly violated their oaths of office and the public trust by trading their badges for cash payments,” United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Mark J. Lesko said in a statement.

Lawyers representing Smith, Hassett and Busch did not immediately respond to messages from The Washington Post early Wednesday.

In New York City, officers responding to a crash scene are required to use a database system to assign tow trucks at accident scenes and are forbidden from handpicking companies.

Instead, starting in September 2016, Smith and Hassett allegedly told the drivers to use just one tow truck company, which isn’t identified in court records. In exchange, an individual with the business bribed the officers with thousands of dollars in cash directly paid to them or deposited in a mailbox they had access to, prosecutors said.

In January of 2020, Smith and Hassett allegedly expanded their deal with the tow company. For the next three months, both officers used NYPD databases with names of recent drivers who’d suffered car accidents and sold their contact information to the tow company in exchange of more than $7,000 paid in cash, prosecutors said. Then, the tow truck company would sell that information to physical therapists and personal injury lawyers.

As Smith prepared to retire, he allegedly recruited Busch in March 2020 in exchange for more than $1,000 from the tow firm.

Around that time, Smith was also pressuring the tow company to help him set up a deal to transport drugs, prosecutors said. His contact eventually introduced him to an unnamed drug organization and in June 2020, Smith allegedly met with two of the organization’s drug traffickers about setting up a deal.

In July 2020, Smith drove from Uniondale, N.Y. to Queens to give someone a bag containing a kilogram of heroin while carrying his weapon, federal prosecutors said, in exchange for roughly $1,200 in cash.

On Tuesday, all three officers were arrested and charged in connection with the bribery scheme. The three appeared in court later that day.

Prosecutors argued that Smith, who pleaded not guilty, shouldn’t be released because he “poses a significant danger to the community and a flight risk.” Prosecutors also told U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl L. Pollack that there was additional evidence that Smith had participated in “shakes,” or robberies, as an NYPD officer.

At one time while still on the force, prosecutors said, Smith texted: “Bro I robbed everyone,” referencing individuals and businesses he tricked as part of the bribery scheme. In another message after he had retired, Smith allegedly texted a person and said he would brandish his gun in front of Black individuals just to see their reaction.

“Bro I point my gun out the window now at n------ and watch their reaction and drive away,” Smith wrote. “Hilarious.”

Other times, Smith, prosecutors said, called himself “the perp that got away” who would have been “locked up so many times” were he not a police officer. After he retired, Smith wrote he had shaved his head like the Ku Klux Klan.

“Now the real mith will shine. I even shaved my head. Klan,” he wrote.

Hassett and Busch were released on bail after pleading not guilty, WNBC reported. Smith is being held without bail. Both Hassett and Busch have been suspended without pay, an NYPD spokesperson told The Post in an email.

“There is zero tolerance in the NYPD for corruption of any kind,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot F. Shea said in a statement.

The three are scheduled to appear in court on May 19, court records show.

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DIY-HP-LED said:

Nobody in the FBI knew this guy was working as a cop? What about the FBI colleague he raped at knife point? Apparently the FBI didn't vette this clown either, maybe if he was busted for pot they would have taken a closer look. These people carry and use guns folks and have a lot of power and responsibility, if this guy can get hired, how many serial killers are LEOs?
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AP: Trooper charged in child rape hid checkered FBI past (yahoo.com)
AP: Trooper charged in child rape hid checkered FBI past
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama state trooper arrested last week on charges he raped an 11-year-old girl had been kicked out of the FBI amid a string of sexual misconduct allegations but was hired by the state agency with the apparent help of a fake bureau letter that scrubbed his record clean.

An Associated Press investigation found Christopher Bauer was suspended without pay and stripped of his security clearance in the FBI’s New Orleans office in late 2018 — effectively fired — amid allegations that included a co-worker’s claim that he raped her at knifepoint.

But Alabama authorities either overlooked or were unaware of that history. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, the state police, told AP that it conducted a “full and thorough” investigation into Bauer’s background when he applied to be a trooper in 2019 and that “no derogatory comments were uncovered by former employers.”
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smokinrav said:

What's truly stupid about all this is store security stopped her at the door and she offered to pay for the items she was walking out with. Instead, they called the cops. The de-escalation should have started there.

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Two San Diego police officers are under investigation after cellphone video captured them repeatedly punching a Black man during an arrest in the La Jolla neighborhood this week.

The investigation was announced late Wednesday hours after Jesse Evans, 34, allegedly urinated in public, according to the San Diego Police Department. A woman who recorded the incident, Nicole Bansal, told the The Washington Post that the officers’ response to the situation, which saw police punching him in his face, head and legs, appeared to be “excessive and unnecessary” for a man she believes to be homeless.

“He’s a harmless, houseless man,” she told The Post.

Lt. Shawn Takeuchi, a spokesman for the police department, confirmed in a statement to the San Diego Union-Tribune that authorities were aware of Bansal’s cellphone footage. The officers have not been publicly identified.

The police spokesman noted to the Union-Tribune that internal affairs is investigating the incident and would be reviewing body-cam footage after city officials and critics called for a probe.

Takeuchi didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.

Video of the arrest comes as the issue of excessive force by police continues to be a pressing matter for law enforcement nationwide.

At around 9 a.m. Wednesday, police said that two officers attempted to talk to the man after they caught him urinating at the intersection of La Jolla Village Drive and Torrey Pines Road, about 13 miles outside downtown San Diego. Takeuchi said the man “would not stop to speak with officers.”

Evans said at a Friday news conference that he never got the chance to relieve himself because the officers came around the corner to interrupt him about indecent exposure.

Evans, who had a large Band-Aid under his left eye on Friday, said he started walking away from the officers, telling them to stay out of his life and lamenting that he hates the country and the culture because of their behavior.

The altercation between Evans and police broke out as he was trying to get away from them to urinate, he said.

Bansal said she sees Evans walking around all the time barefoot with a big orange life vest, often talking to himself. She said she started recording him because officers appeared to approach him aggressively.

In Bansal’s video, officers are seen trying to detain Evans before all three ended up on the pavement. One officer appeared to be on top of Evans and punched him about two times in the head.

“Stop!” Bansal yelled as she was recording. She said her window was down and that she was unsure if the officers heard her.

Evans throws what appears to be a police radio and tries to hit the officer who had struck him, according to video.

Seconds later, the officer in question is heard saying expletives and telling Evans to stop resisting arrest as his fellow officer tries to gain control of the man’s legs. When officers instructed Evans to put his hands behind his back, they again punched his head and legs and continued to tell him to stop resisting. Takeuchi said in a statement that Evans would not comply despite the repeated commands.

Evans was punched some more by the two officers before additional police showed up on the scene to help with the arrest, video shows.

Bansal can be heard in the video expressing her disbelief at the situation.

“Four cop cars to deal with a homeless man,” she said. “This is insanity. Eight cops. Four cop cars. And they decide to get an ambulance.”

Evans was initially taken to a hospital for medical care before he was released and booked into county jail, reported the Union-Tribune. The man was booked on charges of resisting arrest and battery of a police officer, NBC Newsreported. He was released early Friday, according to the La Jolla Light.

Bansal said that most of the public restrooms in the area are closed due to coronavirus restrictions, leaving homeless people to find solutions on their own.

Community leaders have agreed with Bansal’s assessment of the arrest. Francine Maxwell, president of the San Diego branch of the NAACP, wrote a letter to the police chief on Wednesday demanding an investigation and wanting the officers to be held accountable.

“To yell ‘stop resisting’ and to continually punch and slap this man was clearly not conducive to calming the situation,” she said. “The SDPD has a de-escalation policy that requires you to use time and space to defuse a situation, rather than immediately move to force.”

San Diego City Council member Joe LaCava, who serves the La Jolla area where the incident happened, called the video “a tragedy and a disgrace.” He said in a statement that the arrest highlights the need for officers to not be placed in situations better suited for behavioral specialists.

“You would not send a doctor to arrest a criminal, police should not respond to mental health situations,” he said. “This event obligated precious resources from the SDPD, the hospital, and the jails. This individual will likely be back on the street unconnected to resources.”

Area advocates have worked to get Evans out of jail and are working with him as he selects a lawyer in the process, said Shane Harris, founder of People’s Association of Justice Advocates, at a Friday news conference. Harris called on the mayor and the police department to release the body-cam footage of the encounter with Evans along with dispatch recordings “to get the whole story in context.”

Evans said that he’s forgiven the officers who hit him but hopes that better-trained people will be hired on the force in the future.

“I hope I’m the last victim of such nonsense to me,” he said. “I hope that we can hire reasonable individuals to look out for us and protect and serve our greater good in a better way and represent us in a better way.”

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ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina prosecutor said Tuesday that sheriff’s deputies were justified in fatally shooting Andrew Brown Jr. because he ignored their commands and endangered at least two of them when he drove his car toward them.

District Attorney Andrew Womble said at a news conference that Brown used his car as a “deadly weapon,” causing Pasquotank County deputies to believe it was necessary to use deadly force. Womble, who acknowledged Brown wasn’t armed with guns or other weapons, said the deputies will face no criminal charges.

Attorneys for Brown’s family who watched body camera footage have previously said that he was trying to drive away from deputies and posed no threat. Family attorney Harry Daniels said that the family was preparing a response to Womble’s announcement.

During his news conference, Womble said a deputy who tried to open Brown’s car door wound up partly on the hood as Brown backed up, and the deputy found himself directly in the car’s path moments later when Brown drove forward. Womble said the deputy had to push off the car with his hand to narrowly avoid being run over, and at least one of the other deputies was also endangered as the group tried to take Brown into custody on drug-related warrants.

“I find that the facts of this case clearly illustrate the officers who used deadly force on Andrew Brown Jr. did so reasonably and only when a violent felon used a deadly weapon to put their lives in danger,” Womble said, referring to Brown’s car. He added that he found that “Brown’s actions and conduct were indeed dangerous by the time of the shooting. ... Brown posed an immediate threat to the safety of the officers and others.”

The sheriff has said his deputies weren’t injured.

The prosecutor said he would not release bodycam video of the confrontation between Brown and the law enforcement officers, but he played portions of the video during the news conference that multiple news outlets broadcast live.

The shooting on April 21 sparked protests over multiple weeks by demonstrators calling for the public release of the body camera video. While authorities have shown footage to Brown’s family, a judge refused to release the video publicly pending a probe by the State Bureau of Investigation. Womble made his determination to not charge any of the officers after reviewing the bureau’s report.

The three deputies involved in the shooting — Investigator Daniel Meads, Deputy Robert Morgan and Cpl. Aaron Lewellyn — have been on leave since it happened. The sheriff’s office said Morgan is Black, while Meads and Lewellyn are white.

A lawyer who represented the three deputies during a court hearing on petitions to release the video didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday.

Four other deputies who were at the scene were reinstated after the sheriff said they didn’t fire their weapons.

An independent autopsy released by the family found that Brown was hit by bullets five times, including once in the back of the head. Lawyers for Brown’s family who watched body camera footage say that it shows Brown was not armed and that he didn’t drive toward deputies or pose a threat to them.

Separately, the FBI has launched a civil rights probe of the shooting.

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https://www.rawstory.com/im-not-releasing-the-video-this-is-done-nc-da-gets-defensive-after-announcing-no-charges-in-police-shooting/

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Rob Roy said:

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hanimmal said:

Something I strongly feel is that the police should not be allowed to train their dogs to attack people. I don't care how well someone thinks they have trained their dog, in a real world situation those dogs are just random weapons to unleash on our society and they do not have any control over them once that dog picks up on all the random nervousness of the people around them.

I don't care how much these handlers love their dogs, they are ultimately abusing them by turning them into weapons.

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A federal court judge on Friday sentenced a former St. Paul, Minn., police officer to six years in prison after a jury found him guilty of a civil rights violation for beating an unarmed Black man who was mistaken for a suspect nearly five years ago.

A federal jury in 2019 convicted former St. Paul officer Brett Palkowitsch of using excessive force against an unarmed civilian after he brutally kicked and severely injured Frank Amal Baker and let a police dog maul him.

In June 2016, Palkowitsch and other police officers responded to a call about a large street fight in St. Paul, where dispatchers said an “unidentified black male with dreadlocks and a white t-shirt” was seen carrying a gun.

After arriving at the scene, Palkowitsch and another officer found no evidence of a street fight but noticed a man who they said matched the suspect’s description, sitting in his car talking on a cellphone. One of the officers told Baker to get out of the car, as the police dog barked loudly at him, according to a criminal complaint.

Seconds later, the officer released the dog, which knocked Baker to the ground and started mauling his leg. While Baker was on the ground screaming in pain, Palkowitsch kicked Baker in the torso continuously, breaking seven ribs and causing his lungs to collapse, according to a Department of Justice statement.

According to court records, Palkowitsch testified he “firmly believed” the person on the ground matching the description was in fact the person who was seen with a weapon and that he had “acted under the assumption” that the person being bitten by the dog had a weapon on him.

The police found no gun at the scene and no evidence that Baker, a 52-year-old grandfather who lived in the neighborhood, had been involved in any fight, the statement said.

In a court hearing Friday, the former officer waived the right to appeal his conviction and offered a tearful apology for his actions to Baker and to other members of the St. Paul Police Department, several of whom testified against Palkowitsch during the 2019 trial.

“I hope that today gives you a little bit of closure, but I know for the rest of your life it’s something you’re going to have to deal with. For the rest of my life, it’s something that I’m going to have to live with as well. But from the bottom of my heart, I’m sorry,” Palkowitsch said, according to Minnesota Public Radio News.

Information about Palkowitsch’s attorney’s was not available Saturday.
District Judge Wilhelmina Wright said at the hearing Friday that Palkowitsch had “flagrantly abused” his authority, the statement added.

“Law enforcement officers take an oath to serve and protect the public,” an FBI agent from the Minneapolis Field Office said in the statement. “When an officer betrays that oath and violates a person’s civil rights, that officer must be held accountable. Our community, and our profession, deserve no less.”

According to authorities, two veteran officers who were at the scene and witnessed Palkowitsch’s actions reported him to their supervisor and later testified against him at trial.

Baker, a concert promoter, told Minnesota Public Radio that he accepted the former officer’s apology but said he didn’t feel it was sincere. He added that since the incident, he has struggled with long-lasting health problems, including difficulty breathing.

“He made my life a living hell,” Baker said.

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hanimmal said:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/12/07/rebekah-jones-covid-19-dashboard-florida-desantis/
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