Ⓐnarcho Queer • Posts Tagged ‘Chicago Police’
Chicago Police Raids Wrong House, Demands 11 Month Old Raise Hands At Gunpoint And Kills Dog Chicago police terrorized six children in the wrong apartment, demanding at gunpoint that an 11-month-old show his hands, and telling one child, “This is what happens when your grandma sells crack,” the family claims in court. Lead plaintiffs Charlene and Samuel Holly sued Chicago, police Officer Patrick Kinney and eight John Does in Federal Court, on their own behalves and for their children and children. The six children were 11 months to 13 years old at the time. Plaintiffs Connie and Michelle Robinson are Charlene Holly’s daughters. The complaint states: “On November 29, 2012 in the early evening hours Charlene Holly was in the first floor apartment at 10640 S. Prairie in the front room helping minor Child #1, Child #2, Child #4, and Child #5 rehearse songs for their church choir. Charlene was also caring for Child #3, who was 11 months old. Child #6 was in the upstairs apartment alone. “Charlene and the children heard a loud boom outside and a voice cry out ‘Across the street!’ “Defendant Officers John Doe 1-8 burst through the door to the first floor apartment dressed in army fatigues and pointing guns at Charlene and the children. The officers yelled at Charlene and the children to ‘Get on the ground!’ The officers referred to Charlene and the children as ‘m—-f—-ers’ numerous times … “Charlene continually asked what the purpose of the detention was,” the complaint states. “Finally, an officer produced a warrant and handed it to Charlene. The warrant was for an individual named ‘Sedgwick M. Reavers’ and the premises listed was ‘The second floor apartment located at 10640 S. Prairie Ave. A yellow brick two flat building with the numbers 10640 on the front of the building.’ In other words, the warrant clearly identified the proper location as the second floor apartment. Charlene, Samuel, and the children were in the first floor apartment … The family claims that “the following day Charlene discovered the family dog, Samson, not in the basement where the family kept him, but in an upstairs laundry room. Samson could not have reached the laundry room without human assistance. On information and belief, defendant Officers dragged and choked Samson from the basement with the dog pole and left him in the upstairs laundry room unattended, where he died.” Samuel Holly also went to the police station the day after the warrantless search to complain, but “despite his numerous calls the night before, was told that he could not make a complaint and he ‘should have made a complaint last night,” the family says.
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Chicago Police Raids Wrong House, Demands 11 Month Old Raise Hands At Gunpoint And Kills Dog

Chicago police terrorized six children in the wrong apartment, demanding at gunpoint that an 11-month-old show his hands, and telling one child, “This is what happens when your grandma sells crack,” the family claims in court.

Lead plaintiffs Charlene and Samuel Holly sued Chicago, police Officer Patrick Kinney and eight John Does in Federal Court, on their own behalves and for their children and children.

The six children were 11 months to 13 years old at the time. Plaintiffs Connie and Michelle Robinson are Charlene Holly’s daughters.

The complaint states: “On November 29, 2012 in the early evening hours Charlene Holly was in the first floor apartment at 10640 S. Prairie in the front room helping minor Child #1, Child #2, Child #4, and Child #5 rehearse songs for their church choir. Charlene was also caring for Child #3, who was 11 months old. Child #6 was in the upstairs apartment alone.

“Charlene and the children heard a loud boom outside and a voice cry out ‘Across the street!’

“Defendant Officers John Doe 1-8 burst through the door to the first floor apartment dressed in army fatigues and pointing guns at Charlene and the children. The officers yelled at Charlene and the children to ‘Get on the ground!’ The officers referred to Charlene and the children as ‘m—-f—-ers’ numerous times …

“Charlene continually asked what the purpose of the detention was,” the complaint states. “Finally, an officer produced a warrant and handed it to Charlene. The warrant was for an individual named ‘Sedgwick M. Reavers’ and the premises listed was ‘The second floor apartment located at 10640 S. Prairie Ave. A yellow brick two flat building with the numbers 10640 on the front of the building.’ In other words, the warrant clearly identified the proper location as the second floor apartment. Charlene, Samuel, and the children were in the first floor apartment …

The family claims that “the following day Charlene discovered the family dog, Samson, not in the basement where the family kept him, but in an upstairs laundry room. Samson could not have reached the laundry room without human assistance. On information and belief, defendant

Officers dragged and choked Samson from the basement with the dog pole and left him in the upstairs laundry room unattended, where he died.”

Samuel Holly also went to the police station the day after the warrantless search to complain, but “despite his numerous calls the night before, was told that he could not make a complaint and he ‘should have made a complaint last night,” the family says.

Source: anarcho-queer

(Video) An angry crowd confronts Chicago Police after officers ran over Jamaal Moore, 23, with a police vehicle and shot him after a confrontation.

Police said the man was shot about 11:15 a.m. Saturday after attempting to flee the scene of a robbery when the silver SUV he was in lost control near the intersection of West Garfield Boulevard and South Ashland Avenue. 

The crowd of witnesses, which included Moore’s relatives, became angry at the police. 5 minutes into the video, police clashed with crowd for unknown reasons. 9 people were arrested according to police, 5 were held on bail and face misdemeanor charges of mob action.

According to the City of Chicago’s Independent Police Review Authority, where requests for investigations of police shootings and tasings are logged, at least 43 people were shot by police from January to September of this year.

Source: anarcho-queer

Supreme Court Says It’s Okay To Record Cops In Illinois The U.S. Supreme Court issued an order Monday that essentially allows people in Illinois to record police officers, the Chicago Tribune reports. The justices declined to review a lower court ruling that found the state’s “anti-eavesdropping law” to be in violation of a person’s free speech rights when used against anyone who records police officers. By refusing to review the case, the high court leaves the ban on the law in place. The law set out a maximum prison term of 15 years. In 2010 the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit to block prosecution of ACLU staff for recording police officers performing their duties in public places. Harvey Grossman, legal director of the ACLU of Illinois, said the organization “continues to believe that in order to make the rights of free expression and petition effective, individuals and organizations must be able to freely gather and record information about the conduct of government and their agents – especially the police.” Photo Caption: A Chicago police officer threatens to arrest a man for recording him at a checkpoint (video)
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Supreme Court Says It’s Okay To Record Cops In Illinois

The U.S. Supreme Court issued an order Monday that essentially allows people in Illinois to record police officers, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The justices declined to review a lower court ruling that found the state’s “anti-eavesdropping law” to be in violation of a person’s free speech rights when used against anyone who records police officers.

By refusing to review the case, the high court leaves the ban on the law in place.

The law set out a maximum prison term of 15 years.

In 2010 the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit to block prosecution of ACLU staff for recording police officers performing their duties in public places.

Harvey Grossman, legal director of the ACLU of Illinois, said the organization “continues to believe that in order to make the rights of free expression and petition effective, individuals and organizations must be able to freely gather and record information about the conduct of government and their agents – especially the police.”

Photo Caption: A Chicago police officer threatens to arrest a man for recording him at a checkpoint (video)

Source: anarcho-queer

10 Days In The Police Academy, 14 Years On Disability

Donald E. Barnes Jr

On his 10th day in the Chicago Police training academy, Donald E. Barnes Jr. went outside for his first physical training class — “a slow jogging exercise.”

It was a hot summer morning 15 years ago. The 30-year-old trainee made it just five blocks into the three-mile jog. He collapsed on Adams near Damen around 11 a.m. on July 16, 1997.

An ambulance rushed Barnes to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with heat stroke and placed in intensive care due to kidney and liver failure.

He never finished his police training, never worked a day as a Chicago Police officer — but, now 45, he has collected nearly $500,000 in tax-free disability payments.

After Barnes used up his allotted year of sick leave, the city’s police pension board placed him on duty disability, citing lingering effects from heat stroke.

He is also entitled to free health insurance for his wife and their two kids, who were born after he went on disability leave.

Barnes is one of two officers collecting disability because of injuries sustained while still in the police academy.

The other, Michael Terrano, injured a knee 17 years ago, underwent surgery, then refused to return to work and was fired.

Despite that, he is getting disability checks that so far have totaled more than $560,000.

Of all the Chicago cops on disability leave, Barnes spent the least amount of time on the job — those 10 days in the police academy, which he entered six months before his father retired from the police department.

Despite not making it through two weeks at the academy, Barnes stands to collect a total of at least $1.2 million from the city’s police pension fund.

He can keep collecting his annual disability payment — which now stands at $46,343 and which will increase as the salary for an entry-level patrolman goes up — until he reaches mandatory retirement at age 63.

Then, he can retire with a full police pension — based on all of his years as a disabled officer.

Source: anarcho-queer

Whistleblowing Wednesday: Chicago Public School Lied About Police Dept. Payments To Justify Voiding Teachers’ 4% Raises

A newly-acquired secret agreement obtained in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) confirms that Chicago Public Schools (CPS) diverted about $70 million, largely from teacher salaries and unemployment benefits, to avoid paying teachers a promised 4 percent contractual raise last school year. The money was instead given to the Chicago Police Department (CPD), mostly as payment for services previously rendered under prior agreements. CPS then falsely told the media that these payments were “owed” to CPD, and that CPS “had no choice” but to make these payments.

Records obtained from the FOIA lawsuit show that CPS has been paying about $8 million per year to CPD since 2002 for two police officers to be stationed at approximately 100 high schools to process arrests of juvenile offenders. The officers are supervised exclusively by CPD personnel. CPS provides, at its own expense, computer terminals connected to CPD for the officers’ use. CPS approved this continuing arrangement on February 24, 2010 (10-0224-PR16), authorizing the $8 million annual payments from January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2012, for a total cost of $32.8 million.

In 2011, CPS claimed to be broke. On June 15, 2011, in their first meeting, the newly-installed Emanuel appointed School Board voted to cancel a promised 4 percent raise for teachers in the 2011-12 school year on the grounds that there wasn’t enough money in the budget and the district faced an alleged $712 million deficit (11-0615-RS2). This also negatively impacted the pensions of any teachers who retired at the end of the 2011/12 school year. In 2007, under Mayor Richard M. Daley and then-CPS chief officer Arne Duncan, teachers signed a five-year contract ending with the 2011/2012 school year that granted them the raises.

But a month after CPS cancelled last school years 4 percent raises to CPS teachers, which would have cost an estimated $80 million, CPS then authorized a renegotiation of its CPD deal to pay the Police about $25 million per year, more than three times the agreed amount, for the same time period 2009-2012, for a total increase of $70 million for these same services. It also approved a retroactive payment of $47 million for services already rendered. (11-0727-PR18)

Hidden among other records, the Board simultaneously directed that nearly all this money be diverted from teacher salaries and unemployment benefits for the 2011-12 school year. The CPS Transfer of Funds report (11-0727-EX1) explains the draining of teacher salary and unemployment benefits accounts “to pay for the Chicago Police Department.”

Meanwhile, CPS Chief Administrative Officer Tim Cawley, tried to sell this public schools rip-off to the media. He told the Chicago Sun-Times that CPS “had no choice” but to make these retroactive payments (Chicago Sun-Times, July 4, 2011.) He told the Chicago Tribune that the money was “owed from previous years.” (Chicago Tribune, July 1, 2011.)

Despite numerous FOIA requests, both CPS and CPD refused to release the Intergovernmental Agreement formalizing this arrangement, executed on December 23, 2011, until the Union sued. In response to a CTU inquiry,

CPS admits that there had never been any formal intergovernmental agreements in place for this arrangement before.

“This new information will only infuriate our members who feel extremely disrespected by this current administration,” said CTU President Karen GJ Lewis. “This shows us the Board lied about not being able to afford our raises—they just put the money elsewhere. Instead of giving our hard working educators the money they deserve, they diverted it to the police department and then lied to the public about it.

“It appears this new Board and the new administration already had a plan in place to do this,” Lewis continued. “Every act they’ve done has been hostile toward our educators and our students. This city did not get into this financial mess by paying teachers and paraprofessionals.”

CPS has offered no explanation why it “must” pay the Police Department three times the agreed amount, including “for services already rendered.”

“The officers assigned to the high schools are processing arrests, just as they do at any other public facility. The officers do not report to CPS officials, and CPS provided them computers at no charge to process arrests,” said CTU Attorney Robert Bloch. “The Chicago Police Department accepted $8 million a year for over a decade for these services. There is no valid basis to now pay $25 million a year, most of it for services already performed, except when politics interferes with education.”

It should be noted, CPS recently admitted to having over $400 million in reserves. This money could have been used to extend additional payments to the police and pay teacher raises for 2011/12 school year. A hearing before a neutral arbitrator concerning CPS cancelling the 4 percent raises is scheduled for July 26.

Source: occupyallstreets

Chicago Police to Use LRAD Sound Cannons at NATO Protests Police in Chicago are preparing to deploy controversial sound cannons against protesters at the G8/NATOSummit next month. The so-called Long Range Acoustic Devices, or LRADs, emit painful and potentially harmful tones over long distances. The device was created for military use, but it was deployed against protesters for the first time at the 2009 G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh. The American Civil Liberties Union later filed a lawsuit on behalf of a bystander, Karen Piper, who said she suffered permanent hearing loss, while the American Tinnitus Association said Pittsburgh protesters had been “acoustically assaulted.” They compared the sound pressure to what armed forces might face from an improvised explosive device. Massive numbers of protesters are expected in Chicago when the summit begins next month. Source
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Chicago Police to Use LRAD Sound Cannons at NATO Protests

Police in Chicago are preparing to deploy controversial sound cannons against protesters at the G8/NATOSummit next month. The so-called Long Range Acoustic Devices, or LRADs, emit painful and potentially harmful tones over long distances.

The device was created for military use, but it was deployed against protesters for the first time at the 2009 G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh. The American Civil Liberties Union later filed a lawsuit on behalf of a bystander, Karen Piper, who said she suffered permanent hearing loss, while the American Tinnitus Association said Pittsburgh protesters had been “acoustically assaulted.”

They compared the sound pressure to what armed forces might face from an improvised explosive device. Massive numbers of protesters are expected in Chicago when the summit begins next month.

Source

Source: occupyallstreets

Howard Morgan, A Black Cop Who Was Shot 28 Times By Several White Cops, Faces Attempted Murder Charges As much of the country follows the Trayvon Martin case, activists in Chicago are hoping to bring some of that attention to Howard Morgan, a former Chicago police officer who was shot 28 times by white officers — and lived to tell his side of the story. Morgan was off-duty as a detective for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad when he was pulled over for driving the wrong way on a one-way street on Feb 21, 2005, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. While both police and Morgan agree on that much, what happened next is a mystery. According to police, Morgan opened fire with his service weapon when officers tried to arrest him, which caused them to shoot him 28 times. His family, however, very much doubts those claims. “Four white officers and one black Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad police man with his weapon on him — around the corner from our home — and he just decided to go crazy? No. That’s ludicrous,” Morgan’s wife, Rosalind Morgan, told the Sun-Times. She was not the only person to doubt CPD’s side of the story. A Change.org petition signed by more than 2,600 people called for all charges against Morgan to be dropped, and now Occupy Chicago is getting involved. “After being left for dead, he survived and was then charged with attempted murder of the four white officers who brutalized him,” Occupy wrote on their website, adding that Morgan was found not guilty on three counts, including discharging his weapon. The same jury that cleared him of opening fire on the officers, however, deadlocked on a charge of attempted murder — and another jury found him guilty in January. That jury was not allowed to hear that Morgan had been acquitted of the other charges. Protesters and Morgan’s family say the second trial amounted to double jeopardy, and claim officers have gone to great lengths to obstruct justice in the case: “Howard Morgan’s van was crushed and destroyed without notice or cause before any forensic investigation could be done. Howard Morgan was never tested for gun residue to confirm if he even fired a weapon on the morning in question. The State never produced the actual bullet proof vest worn by one of the officers who claimed to have allegedly taken a shot directly into the vest on the morning in question. The State only produced a replica.” “If they can do this and eliminate double jeopardy and your constitutional rights, then my God, I fear for every Afro-American — whether they be male or female — in this corrupt unjust system,” Morgan’s wife told the Sun-Times. Howard Morgan will be sentenced Thursday. He faces 80 years in prison. Source
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Howard Morgan, A Black Cop Who Was Shot 28 Times By Several White Cops, Faces Attempted Murder Charges

As much of the country follows the Trayvon Martin case, activists in Chicago are hoping to bring some of that attention to Howard Morgan, a former Chicago police officer who was shot 28 times by white officers — and lived to tell his side of the story.

Morgan was off-duty as a detective for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad when he was pulled over for driving the wrong way on a one-way street on Feb 21, 2005, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. While both police and Morgan agree on that much, what happened next is a mystery.

According to police, Morgan opened fire with his service weapon when officers tried to arrest him, which caused them to shoot him 28 times. His family, however, very much doubts those claims.

“Four white officers and one black Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad police man with his weapon on him — around the corner from our home — and he just decided to go crazy? No. That’s ludicrous,” Morgan’s wife, Rosalind Morgan, told the Sun-Times.

She was not the only person to doubt CPD’s side of the story. A Change.org petition signed by more than 2,600 people called for all charges against Morgan to be dropped, and now Occupy Chicago is getting involved.

“After being left for dead, he survived and was then charged with attempted murder of the four white officers who brutalized him,” Occupy wrote on their website, adding that Morgan was found not guilty on three counts, including discharging his weapon. The same jury that cleared him of opening fire on the officers, however, deadlocked on a charge of attempted murder — and another jury found him guilty in January.

That jury was not allowed to hear that Morgan had been acquitted of the other charges.

Protesters and Morgan’s family say the second trial amounted to double jeopardy, and claim officers have gone to great lengths to obstruct justice in the case:

“Howard Morgan’s van was crushed and destroyed without notice or cause before any forensic investigation could be done.

Howard Morgan was never tested for gun residue to confirm if he even fired a weapon on the morning in question.

The State never produced the actual bullet proof vest worn by one of the officers who claimed to have allegedly taken a shot directly into the vest on the morning in question. The State only produced a replica.”

“If they can do this and eliminate double jeopardy and your constitutional rights, then my God, I fear for every Afro-American — whether they be male or female — in this corrupt unjust system,” Morgan’s wife told the Sun-Times.

Howard Morgan will be sentenced Thursday. He faces 80 years in prison.

Source

Source: occupyallstreets

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