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After Video Surfaces, Innocent Man is Exonerated for Assault on an Officer

Boston, MA — A violent cop, who beat an innocent man in front of fellow officers, and then charged him with assault, pleaded guilty to battery last week, but only after video of the incident surfaced.

 

Officer Felix Rivera, Jr. 34, of the Chelsea police department, responded, along with several officers, to a call about a man with a gun on September 26, 2014. The victim, who was 20-years-old at the time, was not the man with a gun.

 

When multiple officers showed up at the victim’s location, he is dragged from the doorway, and the supervisor on the scene told his fellow officers to place the man in protective custody as he appeared to be intoxicated. However, the ‘custody’ was anything but ‘protective.’

 

According to Rivera’s police report, the victim pushed another officer and was taken to the ground, where his multiple injuries would occur. The victim was then arrested and brought to jail.

 

After three days in jail, the victim was arraigned on Sept. 29, 2014, on charges of assault and battery on a police officer, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest. He was then released on his own recognizance to face the false charges later that year.

 

Had an anonymous witness not come forward, this innocent man would have likely been convicted on all charges.

 

Luckily for the victim, however, the anonymous witness was filming. What the video shows is the exact opposite of what Rivera claimed. The man was placed in handcuffs with no resistance. As he was being escorted from the scene, Rivera began to repeatedly bash in his face and then knocked him to the ground for no reason.

 

The victim suffered cuts to his face, malalignment of the jaw and still suffers from blurred vision because of this attack.

 

After the video was shown to prosecutors, all charges were dropped, and Rivera was placed on administrative leave.

 

An investigation found that none of the other officers hit the victim, and one, in fact, tried to stop Rivera. However, after watching their fellow cop assault an innocent young man and then lie about it, not one of the officers dared to cross the blue line and report their fellow brother.
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Sourced through Scoop.it from: thefreethoughtproject.com

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Why Do American Cops Kill More People Than in Other Countries?

Historic rates of fatal police shootings in Europe suggest that American police in 2014 were 18 times more lethal than Danish police and 100 times more lethal than Finnish police, plus they killed significantly more frequently than police in France, Sweden and other European countries.

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A U.S. cop spends almost 20 times as many hours’ training in using force than in conflict de-escalation.

 

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Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.newsweek.com

This article explains from many perspectives why the large disparity if civilians killed by police in the U.S. vs police in Europe.

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Robert Lewis Dear

Robert Lewis Dear (1958- ), a White American “lone gunman”, shot 12 people, killing three, at a Planned Parenthood health clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado on Friday November 27th 2015.
Among his victims, he shot six police officers, killing one. The police, instead of “fearing for their lives” and quickly gunning him down, as they do with Black males as young as 12, talked him into surrendering after a five hour stand-off.They took him alive. 

 

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Sourced through Scoop.it from: abagond.wordpress.com

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#AndyLopez shooting witness offers conflicting view

A witness to the deadly 2013 shooting of 13-year-old Andy Lopez by a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy contradicts a key element of what law enforcement says happened, the Lopez family says.

In legal papers supporting their lawsuit against the county and Deputy Erick Gelhaus, the family said a man walking in the area at the time of the shooting saw Gelhaus’ partner, Michael Schemmel, get out of their patrol car first and draw his weapon.

The account from Jordan Walker conflicts with depositions in which both deputies say Gelhaus exited before Schemmel. Gelhaus, who said he mistook an airsoft BB gun Lopez was carrying for an assault rifle, shot the youth after yelling at him to drop the gun, he said.

But Walker’s version, which has Schemmel pointing his gun at Lopez and not firing, casts doubt on whether it was reasonable for Gelhaus to suspect Lopez posed a danger, the family’s attorney says.

In court documents, attorney Arnoldo Casillas said it suggests Schemmel recognized Lopez “was a young boy” and the rifle he carried as he walked along Moorland Avenue was “a toy.” It also supports allegations that Gelhaus acted in haste.

“What is clear is that his partner, Michael Schemmel, who was out of the patrol car first and was pointing his gun at Andy Lopez during the entire encounter outside the vehicle, did not consider Andy Lopez to be a threat,” Casillas wrote. “He did not shoot.”

 

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Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.pressdemocrat.com

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#LaquanMcDonald Tweets 11.26
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#LaquanMcDonald Tweets 11.26