3 Disturbing Questions Concerning This Video of an Officer Drop-Kicking a Black Man In the Face
Everything about this video is wrong, awful, illegal, and disgusting.


Everything about this video is wrong, awful, illegal, and disgusting. That's Lateef Dickerson on his hands and knees in front of Dover, Delaware, police officers.

Suddenly, Officer Thomas Webster, like an NFL punter, unloads a kick on Lateef's face, knocks him out cold, and breaks his jaw. The video is disturbing. Below it, though, I'll raise three questions that show just how broken the system truly is that allowed this assault to happen.


1. This video was filmed almost two years ago. The police refused to release it. It was only released after the ACLU filed multiple lawsuits and a federal judge forced them to release it.


What sincere justification exists for concealing this video for two years?

2. In March of 2014 a grand jury declined to indict Officer Webster for any crime whatsoever.

Did this grand jury see the video that we see now? If not, why? If so, how in the world could they not have indicted Webster for assault?

3. Even with the video, Officer Webster almost escaped justice for this crime. Nonetheless, it's clear that the video is the only reason new charges were filed and Webster was arrested.



http://www.alternet.org/3-disturbing-questions-concerning-video-officer-punt-kicking-black-man-face

used to be that if you were incarcerated at, say, the state penitentiary or the local jail you could call your family collect for as little as $4 an hour.


But then, states began signing contracts with private phone companies like AT&T, who, in turn, began charging sky-high rates for phone calls between prisoners and their families.

A 15-minute phone call that used to cost just a few bucks soon started costing as much as $17, which is a lot to ask from people in jail and prison, who generally have little to no income or from their families, who often live in poverty.

Of course, while prisoners struggled to find a way to talk to their loved ones without breaking the bank, the phone companies got - and have stayed - very, very rich. The prison phone service industry now rakes in around $1.2 billion every year.

And it's not just the phone companies that are getting rich off prisoners' phone calls.

Thanks to so-called "commissions" that can account for as much as 94 percent of the cost of a call, prison phone contracts have become a major source of revenue for state and local governments all across the country.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/how-prisons-have-become-cash-cow-rich

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/princess-charlotte/11594190/Royal-baby-Prince-Charles-hopes-his-granddaughter-Princess-Charlotte-will-look-after-me-when-I-am-very-old.html

Mean comments are to be expected when someone dies while doing something stupid, but the death of an off-duty N.H. police officer raises the bar in online callousness.
Nashua Officer Keith Trombley was killed Wednesday while trying to ride a bicycle down a basement staircase during a house party in Pelham hosted by a fellow officer.
Trombley, 25, suffered a blunt-force trauma to the head when he crashed and landed on a concrete floor, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader.

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But in the comments section of the New York Daily News, which picked up the story, Trombley's death was chum for the sharks:
"Another happy Darwin award winner."
"Is stupidity now a requirement to become a cop in this country?"
"He volunteered for the Special Olympics or PARTICIPATED in them?"
"One less meathead the public will have to be abused by."
"Where's Mike Lupica? I'm waiting for him to whine about civilians taking this cop for granted."
http://www.sfgate.com/national/article/Cops-bike-stunt-death-a-feeding-fest-for-online-6251482.php

Spanish police discover boy crossing border inside suitcase

A Spanish court has ordered the detention of a man from the Ivory Coast who allegedly attempted to smuggle his 8-year-old son into Europe in a suitcase.

A police statement said guards stopped a 19-year-old Moroccan woman who looked nervous as she waited in line Thursday at the land border crossing in Ceuta, a Spanish city enclave in North Africa.

When the guards put her suitcase through a scanner, they detected the boy curled up inside.

Border officers detained the woman and, later, the child's father at the same border crossing. The woman is married to the father, and both had residence rights in Spain. The court said the boy did not.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/Spanish-police-discover-boy-crossing-border-6251149.php#photo-7946301

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3071670/Dogs-stung-bees.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3071957/It-s-not-illegal-black-Cops-complain-online-white-people-getting-freaked-black-neighbors-wasting-police-time-911-calls.html

It's not illegal to be black': Cops complain online about white people getting 'freaked out' by their black neighbors and wasting police time with 911 calls
One officer was called to investigate two black people jump-starting a car
Another cop was dispatched to confront a black man fishing in a pond
Woman dialed 911 after seeing 'mean-looking Middle Easterner' on street


A black person fishing in a community pond, two black people jump-starting a car and ‘someone from the Middle East looking mean’ – these are all ‘suspicious’ scenes that have prompted members of the public to dial 911.
These calls were revealed by serving and former police officers who took to the internet to air their astonishment at white people panicking sometimes simply at the mere sight of someone with different racial lineage being nearby.
Dozens have joined an online discussion thread to share their experiences.
Scroll down for video

He wrote: ‘So I'm working last week and get dispatched to a call of 'Suspicious Activity.' Ya'll wanna know what the suspicious activity was? Someone walking around in the dark with a flashlight and crow bar? Nope. Someone walking into a bank with a full face mask on? Nope.

‘It was two black males who were jump starting a car at 930 in the morning. That was it. Nothing else. Someone called it in. People. People. People. If you're going to be a racist, stereotypical jerk... keep it to yourself.’

Shortly after the post went up, police officer Amipow revealed that he got a call ‘about someone illegally fishing in a community pond’.
One policeman described how he was ordered to investigate two black men jump starting a car in broad daylight

He continued: ‘Once I arrive, I see a middle aged black man fishing in the pond. He looks over when I pull up and immediately approaches me. He said, "Let me guess, my racist neighbors called again saying that I didn't live here."'




Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3071957/It-s-not-illegal-black-Cops-complain-online-white-people-getting-freaked-black-neighbors-wasting-police-time-911-calls.html#ixzz3ZUDCpEJo

A western Michigan couple with 12 sons is waiting to find out whether baby No. 13 keeps the streak going.

Jay and Kateri Schwandt's baby is due Saturday, the day before Mother's Day. They're sticking to their tradition of not finding out in advance whether they're having a boy or girl.

They say they'd be shocked if the baby is a girl.

Kateri Schwandt told The Grand Rapids Press (http://bit.ly/1caghwk ) that the "odds are not in our favor," but that the family would be happy either way. She grew up in a family of 14 children.

The Schwandts live Rockford, which is north of Grand Rapids. Jay Schwandt says he is expecting another son, but "if I could put my order in, I would root for a girl."
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Boy-or-girl-Family-with-12-sons-finds-out-soon-6248384.php

NEWS & POLITICS
Fired Florida Police Officer With History of Violence Says Calling Black People 'Monkeys' Isn't Racist
This idiotic hater is a real a credit to his profession.


The Lee County Sheriff’s Office in Florida fired a member of the force for posting overtly racist comments on his Facebook page, on which he listed the police department as his employer, a local NBC affiliate reports. Now, he’s going to the media to make a case for his behavior.

“According to an internal affairs report,” the news outlet writes, “Deputy Jean Lopez was fired in April for posting racial comments on his Facebook page.”

In March, Lopez posted a video of a black man talking about the company he owns. The deputy’s accompanying commentary: “Can someone please tell me what the [expletive] this monkey is saying?”

Lopez went on: “Get a real life [expletive] monkey.”

Police investigators report that, while Lopez says he and his friends refer to black people as “monkeys” in social settings, “he would never use the term in uniform.”

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/fired-florida-police-officer-history-violence-says-calling-black-people-monkeys

During the urban crime epidemic of the 1970s and ’80s and the sharp decline in crime that began in the 1990s, the unions representing police officers in many cities enjoyed a nearly unassailable political position. Their opposition could cripple political candidates and kill police-reform proposals in gestation.

But amid a rash of high-profile encounters involving allegations of police overreach in New York, Baltimore, Cleveland, Ferguson, Mo., and North Charleston, S.C., the political context in which the police unions have enjoyed a privileged position is rapidly changing. And the unions are struggling to adapt.

“There was a time in this country when elected officials — legislators, chief executives — were willing to contextualize what police do,” said Eugene O’Donnell, a former New York City police officer and prosecutor who now teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “And that time is mostly gone.”

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If voters’ reactions to Mr. Lynch’s statements are any indication, the provocative language has largely served to alienate the public and isolate the police politically. According to a Quinnipiac University poll in January, 77 percent of New York City voters disapproved of Mr. Lynch’s comments. Sixty-nine percent disapproved of police officers turning their backs on Mr. de Blasio at funerals for the two slain officers, a protest seen as orchestrated by the union.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/05/06/us/police-struggle-with-loss-of-privileged-position.html?_r=0&referrer=