
Advertisement
Advertisement
- On August 23, police in Ottawa, Kansas, fatally shot a suicidal 18-year-old who may or may not have had a gun. Joseph Jennings, suicidal because of anxiety, depression, and a seizure disorder, was with his aunt and foster father while walking outside a hardware store. Something about Jennings’s behavior seemed off enough for someone to call 911 and apparently report that he had a gun, which his family denies. When police arrived, Jennings made enough of a furtive moment to alarm them, so they shot him dead.
- Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Tuesday blasted the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for being “a waste of public money.” Grassley was referencing an ongoing federal investigation into $850,000 the DEA paid an Amtrak secretary for information about a suspicious passenger, even though the DEA is supposed to be able to get such information from Amtrak for free.
- Three members of the Omaha Police Department fatally shot a robber (armed with a pellet gun) and managed to accidentally kill a Cops crew member while filming an episode of that creepy, exploitive television show.
- This week, the attorney for the late Gregory Towns announced that a suit would be filed against East Point, Georgia, police officers over Towns’ death last April. According to the lawsuit, after Towns was chased on foot, he was cuffed and then Tasered a total of 13 times by Officers Howard Weems and Marcus Eberhart. Towns’ death is officially considered a homicide and police don’t dispute that they tried to shock him 13 times, though they say he wasn’t actually hit each time. Police are saying they did nothing wrong since “use of drive stun [Taser] to gain compliance is permitted under federal and Georgia law.”
- On Tuesday, a Texas Grand Jury declined to indict a police officer for the fatal shooting of an unarmed teenager last November. Navasota, Texas, police officer Rey Garza was working as a security guard while off-duty and saw two teens in an apartment parking lot possibly doing drugs. Garza ordered them out of the car, but 17-year-old Jonathan Santellana apparently refused. A girl who was with him says Garza, who was not in a uniform, did not identify himself as a police officer, frightening the teens and making them think he was a robber. Santellana then apparently tried to drive away, pinning Garza against a park car before driving through the parking lot as Garza fired. The girl ended up with minor injuries and Santellena ended up dead. A neighbor confirmed that Garza wasn’t in uniform, adding that the cop is “a bully” who tried to browbeat him into deleting phone footage of the incident.
- In news of Missouri cops behaving badly, Glendale police officer Matthew Papert has been fired for his series of alarmingly aggressive and racist posts about people in Ferguson angry about the August 9 shooting of Michael Brown. That’s good.
- On the other hand, St. Ann, Missouri, police officer Ray Albers resigned after he became a social media sensation for pointing his gun and yelling “I’ll fucking kill you” to protesters and press in Ferguson—and then adding “Go fuck yourself” in response to queries about his identity. Albers was reportedly given the option of being fired or resigning. The latter presumably makes the 19-year law enforcement veteran more eligible for future law enforcement jobs and might preserve his pension.
- In "lowest possible expectations counting as progress" news: The Ferguson Police Department is now in possession of 50 body cameras, which are being deployed during ongoing protests. Two companies donated the cameras and cops used them for the first time on Sunday. Officers are “really enjoying them,” said Ferguson Chief Tom Jackson. Still, the Ferguson PD still has dashboard cameras that they claim to be unable to use due to the cost of installation.
- On August 29, Esquire’s blog published a short but worthwhile piece on the profiling of black Americans by police. After several disturbing Tasering and pepper spraying incidents that were caught on video, the stomach-clenching question at the end: How many more dehumanizing, harassing incidents are not captured on video, and are therefore entirely impossible to prove?
- A Chicago cop facing aggravated battery and official misconduct charges is free to work desk duty while waiting to go to trial over a January 2013 incident. Officer Glenn Evans is accused of sticking his service weapon down the throat of a man suspected of stashing a gun somewhere, placing a Taser to his genitals, and then threatening to kill the suspect if he did not tell Evans where he had stashed the illicit gun. Evans could get anything from probation to five years in prison if convicted.
- Our Good Cops of the Weeks are five Waldo, Florida, police officers who on Tuesday reported an alleged traffic ticket quota demanded by their boss, Chief Mike Szabo. According to the officers, Szabo demanded that his cops write 12 tickets during every 12 hour shift. Szabo was suspended soon after the allegations came to light. The five officers who ratted on their boss should be praised for putting a few chips in the blue wall of silence. More cops should be like them.
