Category: American Injustice System,

Family of opioid-addicted Vermont mother, 30, sues police over her death

On By peanutgallerynhIn Addiction,, American Injustice System,, Drugs & Drink,Leave a comment

Video of Linsenmeir after her arrest shows her asking for water and telling police that it felt like her chest was caving in and that she was in pain.

‘I might need to go the hospital,’ she said.

Instead of being taken to the hospital, Linsenmeir was taken to the Western Massachusetts Regional Women’s Correctional Center, the family says. 

The family says she repeatedly told staff there she was sick and needed medical help but was told ‘the situation was her own fault for using drugs’.

Family of opioid-addicted Vermont mother, 30, sues police over her death | Daily Mail Online

mmmhmmm, a culture that allows police to be self-righteous kills.

Alabama Execution of Death Row Inmate Nathaniel Woods For Cop Killings Will Be a ‘Modern Day Lynching,’ Family Say

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Gulf Coast Region,, Race,Leave a comment

Spencer confessed to gunning the three officers down in the deadliest day in the Birmingham Police Department’s history. But he maintained that it had been an act of self-defense—a ‘”knee-jerk reaction”—when he saw Chisholm pointing a gun at him.

…Woods’ defenders say he is innocent—he never fired a weapon and there was no plot to kill the officers that day.

His attorneys say the surviving officer had testified that Woods surrendered to police before Spencer started shooting —but also changed his testimony from earlier statements to [belatedly] include a claim that Woods had threatened the officers before they were killed [one would imagine after the charges were chosen.]

…”The way that they convicted him on the theory of complicity, saying there was a plan to kill that day, it is completely not supported by the evidence,” she told Newsweek.

…”The evidence shows that Kerry Spencer acted alone, acted impulsively and confessed the day that he was arrested. He has maintained that story, that narrative, for the entire time that he has been sitting on death row.”

…Faraino added that the execution shouldn’t only be stopped because Woods is innocent, but also because there is evidence of witness and evidence tampering and use of improper tactics in the case.

…She and other attorneys representing Woods’ have collected evidence that they claim shows key witnesses in the case either testified falsely or didn’t testify after making deals with the police.

“There were many issues with his trial and the way that the prosecutors conducted themselves, there is evidence of witness tampering, there is evidence of moving the physical forensic evidence that was collected at the scene and overall, there were just improper tactics used to confuse the jury and lead to a guilty verdict,” she said.

The Appeal reported that two of the officers, Owen and Chisholm, “had a reputation for corruption and violence” and collected money from drug dealers in the neighborhood in return for protecting their operations, according to documents.

…”The prosecution constructed and managed a narrative of guilt. There is no denying that Nate was not always a law-abiding citizen. He had a record, admitted to selling drugs, and disrespected the four white police officers. But he did not commit capital murder.”

…”We know and the world knows that he’s an innocent man. We all know that he’s innocent. So for [Governor Ivey], and her staff, or whoever, the Attorney General, to want to execute him knowing this information, it’s just plain murder.”

Alabama Execution of Death Row Inmate Nathaniel Woods For Cop Killings Will Be a ‘Modern Day Lynching,’ Family Say

Jeezus…

Texas police officer trying to recruit cops to alleged anti-government group preparing for ‘full blown civil war’, says report

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Texas police officer trying to recruit cops to alleged anti-government group preparing for ‘full blown civil war’, says report

Oath Keepers = Enemies of the State

Just another reason noone in this country will be safe until we achieve complete criminal justice system reform

Amy Klobuchar Fought to Give Immigrants Deportation-Eligible Sentences

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,, Race,Leave a comment

Salim didn’t realize, he later said, citing a language barrier, that income from a second side job also needed to be included.

The lapse resulted in a criminal overpayment of benefits of $12,549 — or $782 per month. The dollar amount made the crime a felony, which put Salim, a permanent American resident but not yet a citizen, at risk of deportation. In an agreement with the judge, Salim pleaded guilty, and the judge downgraded the sentence to a gross misdemeanor, handing down a suspended sentence of 364 days (just two days shorter than a felony sentence would have been), probation, and restitution.

…The office of Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar, with Klobuchar’s signoff, decided to appeal the guilty verdict, arguing that the stayed sentence should be increased by two days, pushing it back into felony territory, which would be grounds for the legacy Immigration and Naturalization Service to begin deportation proceedings. 

…Laura Lynch, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the decision to appeal the Salim case was “deeply, deeply troubling,” saying that it fit a pattern of “overzealous prosecutors that choose to spend limited resources to turn misdemeanors into felonies that result in unjust deportation, which is a very severe penalty.” 

…The State of Minnesota has neither any standing nor any business being a “gopher” or a “water boy” for the INS. It is just none of their business. The defendant in this case is not “Lucky Luciano,” but rather an immigrant, a resident alien, who failed to report all household income for purposes of continuing to get more welfare and food stamps.  To be sure, it is against the law, but the legally prescribed penalty for this crime is the lowest possible felony sentence that can be given in the State of Minnesota.

… KLOBUCHAR’S OFFICE’S flip attitude toward the immigration consequences of their prosecutions extended to another case around the same time. In July 1999, James Stanford Byron, a legal permanent resident who hailed from Trinidad and Tobago, was charged with felony marijuana sale and possession. The judge in his case stayed imposition of his sentence, handing down three years probation. Thanks to good behavior, he was granted an early discharge from probation in December 2000, and the felony was reduced to a misdemeanor on his record.

Byron thought he was out of the woods and, in February 2003, visited Trinidad and Tobago. On his way back home, he was detained in Miami by immigration authorities, who flagged his felony conviction and put him in the process of deportation.

…Klobuchar’s office stepped in, appealing the ruling to a higher court, and arguing that Byron should suffer the consequences of his felony plea, even if it was later reduced to a misdemeanor.

……In her 2006 Senate campaign, Klobuchar ran as a tough crime fighter. “I’m someone who puts people in jail for a living,” she boasted.

Amy Klobuchar Fought to Give Immigrants Deportation-Eligible Sentences

Reinstating a felony that had been reduced to a misdemeanor to deport someone? Deport someone over foodstamps??? Jeezus, Amy….

‘Please let me go:’ Video shows 6-year-old girl crying, pleading during arrest at Orlando school

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Modern Parenting,, Race,, Schools,Leave a comment

Orlando Police Department officials previously declined a public records request to release the body camera video showing Kaia Rolle’s arrest at Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy on Sept. 19, 2019, citing student privacy issues, however, the family’s attorney was given a copy and shared it with local news outlets.

…Kaia’s grandmother, Meralyn Kirkland, previously told News 6 her granddaughter was acting out in class, a side effect of a lack of sleep from a medical condition, so she was sent to the office. While Kaia was there, a staff member grabbed her wrists in order to calm her down and that’s when she lashed out and kicked, according to Kirkland.

Turner wrote in Kaia’s arrest report that Beverly Stoute, whom he identified as an assistant principal, was the victim in the case and she wanted to press charges because Kaia kicked her on the legs and punched her arms several times.

‘Please let me go:’ Video shows 6-year-old girl crying, pleading during arrest at Orlando school

The arrest record is the legal record of the incident. You don’t call the police unless you want someone arrested. Period. The school denial of the goal being the child’s arrest is galling. Lying to save their own jobs should preclude them from working in education.

Similarly, the department’s apology is meaningless. It is 100% responsible for their officers’ behavior. There are no mistakes in law enforcement, only justice and injustice.

Finally, Beverly Stoute is the perpetrator in this injustice, not the victim. Any other telling of these events is an outright lie.

As long as we tolerate people like Stoute and Turner working in our country’s schools no child is safe.

Fired Orlando cop who arrested 6-year-olds said school faculty member wanted to press charges against girl, report shows

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Gulf Coast Region,, Race,, Schools,Leave a comment

In the student’s arrest report, obtained by the Orlando Sentinel late Tuesday, Turner said staff member Beverly Stoute — identified in the report as an assistant principal — “stated she wanted to press charges and would testify in court.”

…The report included only a brief, four-sentence narrative and didn’t indicate how the incident began.

…Though Stoute was identified in the arrest report as an assistant principal, she was listed as a teacher on the charter school’s website, one of five named on the site’s staff page. There were no assistant principals listed, only a principal and a dean of students.

There was no record of a Beverly Stoute in the state’s online teacher certification database. Two other staff members at the school — the dean and a teacher — also did not appear to be in the system. Florida law requires teachers “employed by or under contract to” a charter school to be certified by the state.

…Over the course of Turner’s 23-year tenure at OPD prior to retiring last year, he was disciplined seven times for violations of department policy that ranged from unsafe driving to a child-abuse arrest in which he was accused of injuring his 7-year-old son. He was also accused of sending threatening text messages to his ex-wife in 2009 and racial profiling

…The Nixon academy, which had 116 elementary students enrolled at the end of last school year, earned a D on Florida’s annual school report card issued this summer.

Fired Orlando cop who arrested 6-year-olds said school faculty member wanted to press charges against girl, report shows

The officer should have been in jail for tasing a victim repeatedly after they were on the ground and posed no threat to the officer, not to mention his own domestic violence. The thin blue line protects criminal and thugs and sanctions lawlessness on the part of the people charged with upholding the law.

A school administrator who cannot handle a child’s temper tantrum should not be that job. Wanting to press charges on a six year old child should disqualify them from ever working around children again. This individual poses a clear risk to children. They should be forbidden to be alone with children, let alone employed in a school.

The administrator in question doesn’t have the proper qualifications and certifications to work in the school in the first place, a glaring act of malfeasance by the school system she is employed by.

Finally the school is not functional and needs to be closed.

Video: 6-year-old cries for help as Orlando police arrest her

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Modern Parenting,, Race,, Schools,Leave a comment

The body camera footage still upsets her, Kirkland said, especially when Turner “callously” talks about arresting children.

“You’re discussing traumatizing a 6- and 7-year-old — and that’s a boasting right for you?” she said. “These are babies.”

Kirkland said her granddaughter had sleep apnea, which could cause her to act out in school — a condition that Kirkland had repeatedly worked with the school to manage, she said.

Kaia was completely processed at the county Juvenile Assessment Center, where the girl’s mugshot and fingerprints were taken, Kirkland said, adding that employees at the center had to use a step stool so Kaia could reach the camera for the mugshot.

Kaia has since re-enrolled in a private school, after refusing to attend a school with an officer on campus, Kirkland said. She said she worries about how the trauma from the arrest will affect her granddaughter in years to come.

Video: 6-year-old cries for help as Orlando police arrest her – Orlando Sentinel

The family needs to sue the school system and the city of Orlando into the ground. Consequences are the only thing that would induce people without souls to change their approach to issues like this.

Doctors Have a Name for Separating Kids from Their Parents at the Border: It’s Torture. – VICE

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Modern Parenting,, Race,, Science and Stuff,1 Comment

A 39-year-old Honduran mother had her 9-year-old child taken from her when she fled to the U.S. to seek asylum. It was three weeks before she was even able to speak to him, and though they were reunited two months later, she experienced depression and post-traumatic stress. She sometimes wondered whether she’d be better off dead.

Physicians for Human Rights has a name for what she endured. They say it’s torture.

…It was common for separated children to show regressive behaviors like bed-wetting or loss of language, according to the report.

…Some said their children disappeared when the parents were in court or at a doctor’s appointment or had their kids ripped from their arms. Others said they weren’t given clear answers when asked where their kids had gone, and that they were mocked by immigration authorities. They reported poor conditions at the detention centers where they were held, without any idea of how their kids were doing.

“What was a gut-punch for me — as I was reading one report, and another, and another — was the depth of the trauma, the depth of the cruelty of the agents; how they talked to some of the clients, how they misled them, how they lied to them and told them they would never see their children again,” said Dr. Ranit Mishori, co-author of the report and senior medical advisor for Physicians for Human Rights.

…All of the parents interviewed by the medical-advocacy group reported that they came to the U.S. from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras shouldering a good deal of trauma already, only to see that agony and guilt compounded by separation from their children. Fifteen of the 17 adults interviewed had received death threats, for example; 14 reported that they were targeted by gang or cartels. Many had already taken other measures to protect their families before coming to the U.S., like going to local authorities or moving internally within their own country.

Doctors Have a Name for Separating Kids from Their Parents at the Border: It’s Torture. – VICE

Aggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Florida Officer Who Detained a 6-Year-Old for Throwing a Tantrum Caught on BodyCam Bragging About Arrest

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Modern Parenting,, Race,, Schools,Leave a comment

Florida Officer Who Detained a 6-Year-Old for Throwing a Tantrum Caught on BodyCam Bragging About Arrest

So much for the officers had no choice and went along with this unwillingly….

The school official who sanctioned the call to the police (and any policy makers who created protocols to do so) need to be fired and banned from working with children.

The officers involved? Cuff, court, conviction, and then into general population imprisonment they go.

Anything less is lawlessness and child abuse.

Maui Telescope Protestor Battles Over Hawaiian Language Use in Court

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Hawaii,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

There’s a court case that’s drawing a lot of attention and not just for the reason the defendant is on trial but because he is insisting on defending himself in his native Hawaiian language.

…There is only one Hawaiian interpreter registered with the state, and demand for that interpreter is relatively low – accounting for less than one percent of the interpreter program’s caseload. But Kaho’okahi Kanuha says it’s not the Hawaiian language speakers who need interpreters.

…“The issue is when I speak to her she wasn’t able to comprehend that,” says Kanuha, “And so my demand to her was it’s on you, it’s your kuleana, it’s your responsibility to find an interpreter for yourself so that you as a judge can competently make a ruling in this case, in this trial.”

Maui Telescope Protestor Battles Over Hawaiian Language Use in Court | Hawaii Public Radio

(Not noted above) Legally speaking the state of Hawaii has two official languages: English & Hawaiian.

Barr Says Trump’s Tweets on Department Make His Job ‘Impossible’

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

The move to reduce the recommended prison time for Stone prompted four career prosecutors to quit the case but earned Barr praise from Trump. It fueled criticism that the Justice Department has become politicized and is more focused on protecting the president’s political allies than maintaining independence.

…It was the first time Barr spoke publicly since his department was thrust into a crisis when it reversed course this week on a recommendation about how long Roger Stone, one of Trump’s longtime associates, should go to prison for witness tampering and lying to Congress.

…The prosecutors had asked the judge overseeing the case to sentence Stone to seven to nine years in prison. The next day, after [Trump] had tweeted his opposition to the recommendation, the department switched gears and said that Stone should serve three to four years. The department also called on the judge in the case to account for the 67-year-old Stone’s “advanced age, health, personal circumstances and lack of criminal history.”

…The change to the sentencing recommendation was the second politically charged move revealed by Barr’s department this week.

On Monday, Barr said he had created a special channel for Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to share his “findings” on former Vice President Joe Biden’s connections to Ukraine — an issue that played a central role in Trump’s impeachment and trial.

Barr Says Trump’s Tweets on Department Make His Job ‘Impossible’ – Bloomberg

hmmm

The Bail Reform Backlash That Has Democrats at War

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,Leave a comment

Earlier this week, Democratic leaders in the State Senate circulated several proposed changes to the law, offering to give judges more discretion in deciding whether to keep accused criminals in jail.

Those proposals surprised and incensed members of the Democrat-dominated Assembly, exposing a schism in the party ranks, which just a year ago was reveling in big wins in the 2018 elections and a succession of long-sought progressive policies.

…For reformers, the changes to the bail law were long overdue and deeply important: The new law would mean that thousands of people in jail awaiting trial would be released, allowing them to return home, safeguard jobs and families and maintain stability in communities decimated by decades of incarceration.

With bail eliminated for most misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, an estimated 90 percent of new defendants each year in New York would remain free as their cases move through the courts.

But opponents — including many police chiefs and county district attorneys — argued that the law was overly permissive and potentially dangerous, allowing the quick release of defendants on a variety of serious charges, including types of stalking, assault, burglary, drug offenses, arson and robbery.

…Democratic leaders have pushed back, but fear of potential political damage to moderate lawmakers on Long Island seemed to undergird the new Senate proposal, which was reported in Newsday.

Under it, the state would completely eradicate cash bail and set a roster of serious crimes and circumstances under which judges could still jail defendants; those accused of almost all misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies would continue to be exempt. But judges would be given the discretion to jail persistent offenders and those deemed likely to harm someone.

…Other supporters have suggested that the opponents of the new law are racially motivated, noting that a Facebook page devoted to repealing the law has been peppered with anti-immigrant sentiment and offensive comments about lawmakers from minority groups.

Some also accuse prosecutors of missing the leverage they held in the old bail system.

…”All of the sudden, district attorneys can’t just force somebody to sit in a cell because they can’t afford their bail and then push them to plead out on some garbage.”

The Bail Reform Backlash That Has Democrats at War – The New York Times

hmmmm

Black college swimmer on team trip had gun pointed at his head by police

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Race,Leave a comment

Even after officers realized that he was not the person they were looking for, they refused to let him go and put him in the back of a squad car, the suit says.

Black college swimmer on team trip had gun pointed at his head by police

Officers who continue harassment of a citizen after they discover the citizen is not the individual they are looking for deserve to be thrown in jail.