Paramedic Arrested After Asking Cop to Leave Ambulance

BOERUM HILL — A paramedic tending to a 59-year-old woman suffering a heart attack in a Brooklyn subway station was arrested after getting into a dispute with an on-duty police officer who followed the victim into an ambulance Monday morning, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

The paramedic, whose name was not immediately released, was called to help the woman at the Fourth Avenue and Pacific Street station about 8:34 a.m., officials said. The officer, who also responded to the scene, got into the back of the ambulance with the medic and the woman, prompting the paramedic to ask him to leave.

“The [paramedic] wanted the police officer to leave,” Kelly said. “The police officer didn’t want to leave.”

The medic was then arrested by the officer for “obstructing government administration.”

He was taken to a nearby precinct where the charges were later dropped, Kelly said.

The officer’s identity was also not immediately released.

The cardiac patient was rushed to Long Island College Hospital, where her condition was not immediately known.

An MTA employee working at the station said the woman was on the mezzanine level of the station when she complained of chest pains, summoning first responders.

[ Source: DNAinfo ]

Cop car burned during FTP march in Montreal

March 17th, 2013

In the spirit of March 15′s past, a cop car was set on fire on the evening of March 15th, at the Poste 33 police station in Parc-Ex, Montreal. This action was taken to complement the 17th annual demonstration against police (and their brutality) that took place earlier that day.

We also send a message of support to Marco Camenisch in his struggles from inside prison in Switzerland.

—

Note: Police units attacked the annual anti-police demo in Montreal this year and arrested over 200 people in a preemptive assault. The target of the demo was the downtown policestation.

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East Flatbush Rebellion, Not “Outside Agitators”

The “outside agitators” are back!

The legend of the outside agitator has returned. Clowns like city councilman Jumanee Williams and the leadership of Occupy the Hood are fueling the myth that last night’s rebellions was led / caused by white people or outside agitators. I was there at last night’s rebellion, and let me tell you: there were fewer then 10 white people involved in a rebellion of hundreds of young Black militants. Last night was led by young Black militants. Period.

For hours, Black politicians and activists–many of them veterans of, or influenced by, the 1968 generation–yelled and berated the young people to keep the “peace” and “respect.” The NYC Black establishment brought its best efforts to bear in hopes of keeping the affair civil. Crowds of Black men and women listened for almost two hours. They were told that the keepers of the peace felt their pain, that they understood. There was silence from the crowd of angry faces. The tension could be felt. The crowd had selected no spokesperson to respond, and none emerged organically in the moment. Will one emerge tonight?

At some point at night, the Black militants decided to march. No white people told them to march. As the march moved through the streets of Flatbush, it was Black militants who picked up bricks, cinder blocks, and beer bottles and threw them at the police. There were almost no white and Latino or African American faces involved in this. It was largely a Jamaican and Afro-Caribbean rebellion.

Outside agitators?

And perhaps that is the problem. We need to flip the script of the outside agigator. Are brothers and sisters from the Bronx outside agitators? The same people who are stopped and frisked in the Bronx become outside agitators to Jumanee Williams and his friends. It is time for the rest of the NYC working class to jump in and get involved. If the divisions of racialization are going to be broken down, white, Brown, and Black working class people must face the cops and go to jail together. New solidarities must be built. Now is the time for everyone who has felt the pain of the police to converge in Flatbush. Bring presents, bring your anger, and bring your running shoes.

The target has been the 67th Precinct all week, but we have not had enough forces to take it on. All the crews across New York should converge in Flatbush and then march towards the 67th precinct.

Outside agitators?

Clowns like Jumanee Williams and Charles Barron are part of the system. They are spreading lies about who led the rebellion. Soon Williams and Barron will say the Haitian Revolution was caused by outside agitators, that Watts in 1965 was cuz of outside agitators, and the Montgommery Bus Boycott was orchestrated by white outside agitators. These clowns are in the way of revolution.

During Occupy, hundreds of people joined up with Occupy the Hood in hopes of building movement in working class black and brown neighborhoods. Now the opportunity is here. Will those who identify with these goals come down on the side of the people in the streets, or toe the line of the politicians? Only they can decide.

Outside agitators?

Kimani Gray protest: police cars smashed, reports of pepper spray and [46] arrests

A chaotic scene unfolded in East Flatbush, Brooklyn as people gathered tonight to protest the police shooting of 16-year-old Kimani Gray. After Monday night’s vigil had one group splinter off and trash the street and stores, police were on the scene in riot gear as are mounted cops and helicopters overhead. Reporters on the scene witnessed arrests, incidents of protesters being pepper-sprayed and protesters throwing objects at police cars:

Dozens riot over NYPD’s fatal shooting of Brooklyn teen

Yesterday, the police explained that officers shot and killed a 16-year-old Kimani Gray in Brooklyn because he allegedly pointed a gun at the cops. However, his relatives are skeptical of the police account—his sister Mahnefah Gray said, “He has common sense… They killed my little brother for no reason.” Tonight, a crowd gathered to mourn his death—and protest police treatment.

2013_02_kimangray.jpg Police said two Brooklyn South Anti Crime plainclothes officers had been on patrol when they noticed young males near 473 East 52nd Street. According to the NYPD’s statement, the cops noticed one “break away from the group upon noticing the police. The male… adjusted his waistband and continued to act in a suspicious manner. The officers exited their unmarked auto and attempted to engage the suspect, who turned on them, and pointed a .38 caliber revolver at the officers. Both officers fired at the suspect, striking him about the body.”

A witness told the Daily News “The cops, they just jumped out of the car so fast,. They started shooting him and he went down, he was bleeding, holding his side, screaming, ‘stop, stop.’” Another witness described the scene to PIX11, “He was running for his life, telling the cops, 'Stop.’ They really are, seriously, walking around, shooting little kids.”

Tonight, a large crowd gathered to remember Gray, and it apparently became unruly as the crowd walked between the shooting location and the 67th Precinct at Snyder Avenue near Nostrand—there were reports that bottles were thrown at police officers. NBC New York estimated the crowd at 70, and the Post says a crowd looted a Rite Aid. The manager said, "They poured in here like 40 or 50 of them. They pulled the registers off the counters, they flipped over everything. They punched me in the face. Several of them did, not just one [person.] It was insane.”

Kimani Gray shot seven times, thrice in his back, by NYPD in Flatbush, BK

The city’s medical examiner’s officer has announced that the 16-year-old fatally shot by cops in Brooklyn over the weekend was hit with seven bullets, including three that struck him in the back. Various protests erupted in Brooklyn this week following the fatal shooting of Kimani Gray on Saturday in East Flatbush. The NY Times has all the details on the bullets:

One bullet entered his left shoulder in the rear, exiting in the front; two other bullets struck the back of his thighs, one in the left thigh and one in the right. Two bullets struck from the front, hitting his right thigh; one bullet entered his left side, striking his lower rib cage; and the last bullet hit his left lower forearm.

It’s not clear which bullet was the fatal shot, nor whether Gray was hit in the back initially by officers or if he was hit in the back after turning away from them. Police said that Gray had pointed a gun at them that night: “[He] adjusted his waistband and continued to act in a suspicious manner. The officers exited their unmarked auto and attempted to engage the suspect, who turned on them, and pointed a .38 caliber revolver at the officers. Both officers fired at the suspect, striking him about the body.”

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has previously emphasized, “We have three [civilian] witnesses, two of which said that one of the officers shouted ‘Don’t move’ and 'Freeze.’ Two witnesses also said they heard officers say, 'What do you have in your hands?’” But at least one witness has come forward now to say that cops did not seem justified in the shooting. Tishana King said that she witnessed the confrontation from her third-story window in a neighboring building, and she tells the tabloid, “I’m certain he didn’t have anything in his hands.”

source: http://gothamist.com/2013/03/13/kimani_gray_shot_7_times_by_nypd_3.php

Long Island cop killed on Queens border, shooter still at large

A Nassau County police officer was killed earlier today during a shootout on the Cross Island Parkway in Queens that also left one suspect dead. The unidentified officer, who worked with the Emergency Services Unit, was shot once shortly after 11 a.m. and pronounced dead at North Shore Long Island Jewish Hospital. One source tells the Wall Street Journal that the officer had “pulled a car over at about 11:10 am at the entrance ramp to the parkway at 241st Street and Jamaica Avenue.”

In addition to the fatally shot suspect, police are searching for a second suspect, who remains at large, and the Cross Island was closed in both directions because of the investigation. The shooting took place right on the border between Nassau County and Queens, near the Belmont Race Track. It’s still unclear what prompted the shooting or the traffic stop.

Source: gothamist.com/2012/10/23/long_island_cop_killed_during_shoot.php

Texan police being sued for tasing mentally-ill man having a seizure

Two Texan police officers are being sued for using a Taser to shock a man who was having a seizure, causing the 50-year-old to suffer a heart attack and permanent brain damage.

Scott Sheeley filed a federal complaint last week in Austin, TX, requesting a jury trial against two police officer who shocked him with a Taser. In May, Sheeley unsuccessfully asked for a settlement of at least $1.5 million to cover the costs of medical fees, attorneys and emotional damages.

The case involves a police response to a 911 phone call last November. Police responded to a request for medical assistance for Sheeley, who was suffering a seizure at his home in Austin. When officers Chard Norman and Kevin Sederquest arrived at the man’s house, they allegedly used violence to restrict him from movement, constrained his ability to breathe and repeatedly shocked him with a Taser gun.

The officers controlled the man by “pushing a knee on his back while he was in handcuffs, causing his head to be pressed against the back cushion of the chair, all while he was still convulsing,” the brother of the victim, Dustin Sheeley wrote in a complaint against the state.

Police continued to Taser the man, even after the brother told them not to, and even after the convulsing man was handcuffed. The 50-year-old was left with wounds on his shoulder, back and under his left armpit.

When paramedics arrived, Sheeley was injected with Haldol and Ativan – drugs which are used to control psychotic disorders and anxiety and which can also cause seizures and sudden death, the plaintiff said. The victim then had a heart attack.

Source: https://rt.com/usa/news/man-seizure-police-sheeley-049/

Woman gives birth to baby in Ottawa jail cell after guards ignore pleas for help

OTTAWA — Gionni Lee Garlow came into the world five pounds, nine ounces — on the floor of an Ottawa jail cell.

The baby’s mother, Julie Bilotta, a 26-year-old woman from Cornwall, was in custody at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre on Sept. 29 when she tried in vain to convince staff that she was in labour and needed help.

Bryonie Baxter, executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society, which advocates on behalf of woman who come into conflict with the law, told the Citizen that Bilotta screamed for hours but the nursing staff at the jail did not take her seriously.

“They took her vitals. They told her it was indigestion,” Baxter said, adding that Bilotta, who was eight months pregnant, was later told she was in phantom labour.

According to Baxter and Bilotta’s mother, Kim Hurtubise, who have both spoken several times with the still-incarcerated woman, the jail guards responded to Bilotta’s pleas by telling her she was making too much noise and moving her to a segregated cell.

While she was being moved, they say, a guard told Bilotta she shouldn’t have become pregnant if she couldn’t deal with pain and it would only get worse when the “real” labour began.

Source: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/Woman+gives+birth+baby+Ottawa+jail+cell+after+guards/7371145/story.html

Mother of man struck fatally by NYPD car given bill for damage

Last spring, a 27-year-old Bronx man was fatally struck by a police car after being chased for allegedly stealing bricks. There is still an open investigation into whether Tamon Robinson was stealing bricks, or whether he actually had permission to take paving stones on the grounds of the Bayview Houses in Canarsie where he lived. But his mother has been sent a $710 bill to repair the police car that killed him: “We’re still grieving, and this is like a slap in the face,” Laverne Dobbinson told The News. “They want my son to pay for damage to the vehicle that killed him. It’s crazy.”

The letter with the bill, which is owed for “property damage to a vehicle owned by the New York Police Department,” also threatened legal action against the family if they didn’t pay. “Isn’t there respect for the dead?” asked John Torrence, the victim’s uncle. Dobbinson’s lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, has filed a notice of intent to sue the city, calling the bill a “disgrace.” “In my 40 years of practicing law in this city I have never seen anything as heartless as this,” he said.

Robinson was loading the stones into his truck around 5:30 a.m. on April 12 when police responded to a call that he was stealing them—Robinson began running to his nearby apartment when the car struck him. Dobbinson said her son ran a side business collecting stones, bricks and other building materials from construction sites and selling them to scrap dealers for small sums—and he had permission from his building management to take those stones that morning.

She added that police have mistreated her family from the moment her son was hit by the car: cops kept him shackled to his bed under police guard in the hospital, even though he was brain dead (and she was only allowed to see him for 20 minutes, even with permission from NYPD). Then, on the day of Robinson’s funeral, cops broke down the door of the family’s apartment…and later acknowledged they had executed a search warrant at the wrong location.

Source: http://gothamist.com/2012/10/05/mom_of_man_fatally_struck_by_cop_ca.php

NYPD officer shoots 23-y/o National Guardsman for cutting him off on parkway

A New York police detective shot and killed an unarmed man, whose hands, a witness said, were on the steering wheel of his Honda, after he had been pulled over early Thursday for cutting off two police trucks on the Grand Central Parkway in Queens, the authorities said.

The shooting, which occurred at 5:15 a.m., was the latest in a series of episodes in which police officers fatally shot or wounded civilians. While the Police Department had explanations in the other instances, it could not immediately provide one for the shooting on Thursday.

The detective, Hassan Hamdy, 39, a 14-year veteran assigned to the Emergency Service Unit, fired one bullet through an open window of the car, which his squad had just pulled over with the help of a second police vehicle. The bullet struck the driver, Noel Polanco, 22, in the abdomen. He was declared dead less than an hour later at New York Hospital Queens.

Paul J. Browne, the department’s chief spokesman, initially said there were reports of movement inside the car, although he did not elaborate. Mr. Browne said a small power drill was found on the floor on the driver’s side, but he later appeared to play down the importance of that information.

“We looked for a weapon, we didn’t find any; we found a drill,” he said in a news briefing at Police Headquarters. “I’m not saying it played a role. I’m just saying we looked for a weapon. We did not find a weapon. The only thing we found was that drill.”

A passenger in Mr. Polanco’s car, Diane Deferrari, said in a phone interview Thursday night that just before pulling the car over, officers appeared irate that Mr. Polanco had cut them off. She said that one of the officers — but not Detective Hamdy — stuck up his middle finger and was screaming obscenities from one of the moving police trucks.

“As soon as we stopped — they were rushing the car,” Ms. Deferrari said. “It was like an army.”

61-y/o Tennessee man murdered by police in a drug raid on the wrong house

L E B A N O N, Tenn.

A 61-year-old man was shot to death by police while his wife was handcuffed in another room during a drug raid on the wrong house.

Police admitted their mistake, saying faulty information from a drug informant contributed to the death of John Adams Wednesday night. They intended to raid the home next door.

The two officers, 25-year-old Kyle Shedran and 24-year-old Greg Day, were placed on administrative leave with pay.

John Adams was watching television when his wife heard pounding on the door. Police claim they identified themselves and wore police jackets. Loraine Adams said she had no indication the men were police.

“I thought it was a home invasion. I said ‘Baby, get your gun!,” she said, sitting amid friends and relatives gathered at her home to cook and prepare for Sunday’s funeral.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=95475&page=1#.UFyEea4c13W

HPD officer shoots schizophrenic double-amputee in the head

HOUSTON (KTRK) – An amputee in a wheelchair was shot and killed by a Houston police officer Saturday at a group home for the mentally ill, and we’ve learned this is not the first time officer has fatally shot a suspect.

The Houston Police Department said Brian Claunch – a one-armed, one-legged man in a wheelchair – threatened Ofc. M. Marin and waved an object that later turned out to be a ballpoint pen.

The shooting happened just southeast of downtown Houston at the Healing Hands group home on Polk at Sidney.

“Officer Marin, in fear of the safety of his partner and the safety of himself, discharges his duty weapon striking the suspect,” HPD spokesperson Jodi Silva said.

Silva told us police were called to Healing Hands around 2:30am. The overnight caretaker said Claunch was acting aggressively and repeatedly asking for soda and cigarettes.

Marin and his partner entered the home and Claunch kept swinging an object at them. After ignoring numerous requests to drop the object, police say Claunch cornered Marin’s partner in the room.

“The officers made verbal commands for the suspect to drop whatever he had in his hand, to stay still and to speak with the officers, but the suspect continued to make threats,” Silva said.

That’s when Marin shot Claunch once in the head. He died at the scene. The object he was holding turned out to be pen.

Source: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=8820624