This time a FED
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2018/03/18/Federal-corrections-officer-arrested-for-sexually-assaulting-2-inmates/6121521411035/

March 18 (UPI) -- A federal corrections officer in California was arrested on charges of sexually abusing two female inmates, prosecutors said Friday.

Apolonio Gamez, 40, worked as a guard at the Federal Correctional Institution in Victorville, Calif. when the assaults occurred, according a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Central District of California.

Finally charged.

The Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an Australian woman last summer has been charged with murder and manslaughter in the shooting, which caused international outrage and forced out the city's veteran police chief.

Mohamed Noor is charged with third-degree murder for "perpetrating an eminently dangerous act and evincing depraved mind" and second-degree manslaughter for "culpable negligence creating unreasonable risk," according to charging documents unsealed Tuesday afternoon.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/midwest/ct-minneapolis-police-shooting-mohamed-noor-charges-20180320-story.html

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Cops will be Cops
http://abc7.com/2-gardena-officers-facing-gun-charges/3265644/

Two Gardena police officers have been indicted on allegations that they bought and sold about 100 guns without a license, including some normally available only to law enforcement.

The federal grand jury indictment alleges that officers Carlos Miguel Fernandez and Edward Yasushiro Arao purchased "off-roster" firearms not available to the general public and illegally ran businesses that resold the guns.

In some cases, the indictment alleges they knowingly sold weapons to individuals who were purchasing them on behalf of others who were not legally allowed to buy firearms.

In one such instance, the indictment says Oscar Morales Camacho Sr., 63, of Salinas, bought a gun for his son, who has a prior criminal conviction that bans him from owning a firearm.

Officials say Fernandez knew Camacho was not buying the gun for himself.

We have them over here too. :-(

Teenager held down by police, hit with baton in Byron Bay yelled 'I'm not resisting', inquiry hears.

The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) in Sydney is investigating whether the officers used excessive force and therefore engaged in serious misconduct while arresting the intoxicated 16-year-old in Byron Bay in January 2018.

The video, which runs for two minutes and 49 seconds, was filmed by a member of the public.

It shows four officers holding the teenager down, and one of the officers hitting him just under 20 times, with most of the blows coming from a baton.

"Attempts to communicate with AO or to have him obey commands were unsuccessful, the police officers then used OC spray, a taser and finally physical force, including the use of batons, to restrain him."

Murder by Cellphone
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/22/596051907/video-shows-sacramento-police-shoot-unarmed-black-man-in-grandparents-backyard

Murder by pants around the ankles
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/2018/03/27/275422/watch-dash-cam-footage-of-fatal-harris-county-deputy-shooting/

he was trained to always be in mortal fear of his life ...

Murder by Cellphone
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/22/596051907/video-shows-sacramento-police-shoot-unarmed-black-man-in-grandparents-backyard

An update on this:

Stephon Clark Was Shot 8 Times From Behind or the Side, Family-Ordered Autopsy Finds

“You could reasonably conclude that he received seven gunshot wounds from his back,” Dr. Omalu said at a news conference on Friday. He added that each of those seven shots could have had a “fatal capacity” and described severe damage to Mr. Clark’s body, including a shattered vertebrae [sic] and a collapsed lung.

“These findings from the independent autopsy contradict the police narrative that we’ve been told,” Benjamin Crump, the family’s lawyer, said in a statement. “This independent autopsy affirms that Stephon was not a threat to police and was slain in another senseless police killing under increasingly questionable circumstances.”

Mr. Crump said the results proved that Mr. Clark could not have been moving in a threatening fashion toward the officers when they opened fire.

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Alton Sterling shooting: Police officer fired over killing.

The disciplinary measure came after Louisiana's attorney general ruled out criminal charges against the two police officers involved in the 2016 shooting death of Alton Sterling.

Paul told reporters he fired Salamoni for violating department policies on the use of force and "command of temper". He also suspended officer Howie Lake II, the other officer involved in the deadly encounter, for three days.....

...In the body camera footage, Salamoni can be heard using expletives as he shouts at Sterling to put his hands on a car. At one point, Salamoni points a gun at Sterling's head and threatens to shoot him in the head as Sterling asks what he did....

If you or I had done this, where would we be?

Sacramento sheriff’s vehicle hits woman during Stephon Clark protest and drives away, video shows

Ah you gotta feel sorry for the guy, after all, he was in fear of his life.

And heads will roll south of the border.

Shocking vision of 'police brutality on a disability pensioner'.

Not to toot our own horn unnecessarily, but some of the few positive notes from the terrible events yesterday in north Toronto were the actions of the first responders, especially this police officer. I post it here to contrast it with some of the stories of police overuse of force and to emphasize how effective proper training can be.

He arrested a driver who had just plowed through crowds of people and for all appearances was a terrorist, all by himself, without violence, shots fired, or even harsh language... even though the suspect was pointing an object at the officer claiming it was a handgun and threatening to shoot him (and also asking to be shot himself.) Instead of giving into this, the officer recognized it was attempted "suicide by cop" and pulled out his baton... the suspect wanted a shooting, not a beating, so dropped the object (which was not a handgun) and was arrested.

Some may say it would have been less expense and better for society if this person had been shot, but if the police can restrain themselves from unnecessarily shooting someone who might deserve it. they are much more likely to also do so for someone who doesn't deserve it.

Video from the scene shows suspect Alek Minassian pointing an object at the officer and shouting: "Kill me!"

The officer tells the man to "get down" and when the suspect says he has a gun, the officer repeats: "I don't care. Get down."

Many in North America are asking how the suspect did not end up dead in a hail of police gunfire. It contrasts with incidents in the US where police have shot and killed unarmed people.

"Research has shown that Canadian police are reluctant users of deadly force," says Rick Parent, a criminologist at Simon Fraser University in Canada's British Columbia.

"An analysis of police shooting data over many years revealed, that in comparison to their American counterparts, Canadian police officers discharge their firearms far less, per capita that US police. However, like American police officers they take many risks in protecting the public."

One US-based academic told the BBC that the officer would have had a "duty" to kill the suspect, if the object he was pointing was a gun.

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Says it all really.

"I'm surprised at how many journos are surprised that Toronto police didn't shoot the van murder suspect. You know that police are specifically not supposed to act as judge, jury and executioner, right? We need to normalize non-violent police intervention."

A comment from the BBC report as to why he isn't dead.

As usual wants to claim both sides.

Says it all really.

"I'm surprised at how many journos are surprised that Toronto police didn't shoot the van murder suspect. You know that police are specifically not supposed to act as judge, jury and executioner, right? We need to normalize non-violent police intervention."

A comment from the BBC report as to why he isn't dead.

Only the American journos are surprised. In America cops are trained to shoot first then fake the evidence.

As usual wants to claim both sides.

A true fence sitter. :-D

That we are when we're not yawning. :-D

Cheers.

It was obvious that he didn't have a gun as the Officer's actions showed and therefore wasn't a threat anymore.

The unexpected part (well, these days) is that the officer actually waited behind his car to assess that what the object the suspect was holding wasn't a handgun, rather than immediately shouting "gun" when he saw any object ie a cell phone, tiny pocketknife, piece of pipe, or his pants (four things that I recall others getting shot dead over) and unloading as many rounds as possible. Some more details on the training I mentioned:

Constable Lam pulled out his gun and commanded the man, 25-year-old Alek Minassian, identified by the police as the driver who had plowed down dozens of pedestrians on a busy Toronto street on Monday, to get down.
But before rushing toward him, or firing his gun, Constable Lam did something else: He paused, walked briskly back to his car and turned off its blaring siren.
Policing experts cited that as the first sign not only of Constable Lam’s calm-under-fire composure, but also, and more important, of the training he had in de-escalation tactics. There were many more.
“This is going to be a great training video in the future,” said Ronal Serpas, who led police departments in New Orleans and Nashville and is now a professor at Loyola University in New Orleans. “It almost gives you chills how well he handled himself.”
The man who helped devise the police training in Toronto agreed.
“These are all the lessons we teach in our training,” said Mike Federico, a deputy chief of the Toronto police who retired last September after 45 years with the force. “This is a great visual.”
Constable Lam is a traffic officer in the north end of Toronto and a seven-year veteran of the force, the local police union said. Each year, he would have received one day of de-escalation and mental health training, drafted under Deputy Chief Federico’s supervision and put in place by the Toronto police in 2016.
The training was created partly in response to several high-profile confrontations between the Toronto police and civilians in crisis that ended in death.
...
First, Constable Lam turned off the siren blaring from his car. This immediately lowered the temperature, experts said, making it easier for him to communicate with the suspect. Also, by leaning into the car, the officer is indicating that he is not in a rush.
“It is about slowing things down, using time and distance to de-escalate the situation,” said Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Washington-based Police Executive Research Forum, which develops best policing practices. “The most important thing at a time like this is time and communications.”
Constable Lam continues to shout, loudly but calmly, “Get down.” The suspect replies, “Kill me.”
“No, get down,” Constable Lam repeats.
When the suspect yells that he has a gun in his pocket, Constable Lam replies: “I don’t care. Get down.”
Learning how to handle situations like this — known as suicide-by-cop — is part of the training, former Deputy Chief Federico said.
“It’s clear the officer is listening and is not worried,” he said. “He’s not going to act out of fear. We train police officers to not in any way be provoked.”
Next, the video shows, Constable Lam steps out and away from the cover of his car, indicating perhaps that he has assessed that the object in Mr. Minassian’s hand was not a gun.
Constable Lam then issues his first warning: “Get down or you’ll get shot.”
Throughout the encounter, the officer repeats the same simple command to get down. Yasmeen Krameddine, director of research and development at ProTraining, an Alberta organization that trains police forces in how to de-escalate confrontations involving people with mental health illness, said that it might have been better if he had varied his language.
“We train officers to offer step-by-step instructions, and when they see a person is not responding to their commands, to use different words,” she said.
But, she added, “In this situation, there was no time for that.”
Constable Lam then backs away from Mr. Minassian, who walks toward him, threatening object in hand. In response, the officer appears to replace his gun with a baton, visibly de-escalating the threat to Mr. Minassian.
...
Then, Constable Lam confidently and slowly approaches the suspect with his baton in hand. By the time the officer reaches him, Mr. Minassian has dropped the object in his hand, raised his hands in surrender, turned and laid down on his stomach with his hands behind his back.
Constable Lam doesn’t even use his baton. He merely handcuffs him."

All Toronto police officers were trained in de-escalation tactics and dealing with suspects with possible mental health issues by 2016, after the 2013 Sammy Yatim incident in which a police officer shot a young man nine times on a Toronto streetcar who was armed only with a tiny pocketknife. It seems to have been very effective in this case and I hope that this motivates many other police forces to offer the same training.

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The unexpected part (well, these days) is that the officer actually waited behind his car to assess that what the object the suspect was holding wasn't a handgun.

Which, because of their training and common sense, is the usual reaction of Officer's regarding the vast majority of confrontations.

Which might have been attempted in their training, but that was washed away when they took their tour over in Iraq and had to shoot shadows to stay alive.

yawn