The following post was shared with the CopBlock Network by a reader who goes by the pseudonym “The Poor & Unknown,” via the CopBlock.org Submissions Page. It details the case of a Texas District Court judge who basically put his services within the courtroom up for sale, accepting bribes from lawyers in civil rights lawsuits. […]
Woman Dies Serving 30 Day Jail Sentence After Medical Requests Ignored Lawsuit Says
A young Michigan woman serving a 30 day sentence at the Macomb County jail died after guards and medical staff ignored her repeated requests for help, a federal lawsuit says. Thirty-seven-year-old Jennifer Meyers was sent to jail because she was behind on child support and died 12 days latter of sepsis from a virus that left her immobilized […]
The Many Ways That Police Brutality Payouts Cost Taxpayers
The following post was shared with the CopBlock Network by Martha K. Huggins, via the CopBlock.org Submissions Page. The post was originally published at the dailygazette.com under the title, “Police Brutality Raises Costs to Taxpayers.” Martha K. Huggins is a Tulane Professor Emerita and scholar of Brazil, who has researched police violations of human rights […]
DOJ Probe Reveals Unconstitutional Strip, Cavity Searches By Baltimore Cops
The findings of a Department of Justice probe into the Baltimore police department has reveled “many instances in which BPD officers strip-searched individuals without justification – often in public areas – subjecting them to humiliation and violating the constitution.” Released last week, the report details one incident involving officers in BPD’s Eastern District who publicly […]
Must We Choose Between Mob Justice And The Police State?
By Bretigne Shaffer On May 25, 1911, Laura Nelson, her baby daughter and her teenaged son were kidnapped from a jail in Oklahoma by an angry mob. The two had been jailed for what, by all accounts, seemed to be the accidental death of a deputy sheriff during a scuffle at the Nelsons’ home where police […]
No Duty to Protect in Fairfax; the Hatchet Man and the Helicopter Pilot
This is the second of two Sunshine Week articles highlighting some of the things Northern Virginia Cop Block uncovered using the state’s Freedom of Information Act (read the first one here). The documents discussed below are actually from court documents that were obtained after we noticed one lawsuit that stood out from the others filed […]
Fun with FOIA — John Geer, Natasha McKenna, and Why Can’t FCPD Cops Drive?
This is the first of two articles for Sunshine Week, an annual event which promotes open government and freedom of information (read the second one here). FOIA is a valuable tool that anyone who opposes government corruption and abuse should be using to help uncover the misdeeds of public officials. Be warned though, it’s not […]
Why People are Still Protesting in Chicago
Last week the video of the Laquan McDonald shooting was finally released to the public, following 13 months of pressure from independent journalists and the community, and as the result of a judge’s order. The officer who shot McDonald 16 times, Jason Van Dyke, was indicted for first degree murder the same day that the […]
Chicago City Council OKs 700,000 Dollar Settlement for 2 Police Abuses
Yesterday a Chicago city council put the green light on a $700,000 payout in two cases of police brutality. Regardless of the fact that one case was described as “weak” and the police review authority ruled it was justified because the officer “reasonably feared for her life” when Ontario Billups turned toward her with a […]
Pasco Police Who Shot Antonio Zambrano-Montes While His Hands Were Up Won’t Be Charged
The prosecutor for Franklin County, Washington announced on September 9th that none of the three Pasco Police officers, who shot Antonio Zambrano-Montes as he was surrendering in February of this year, would be charged with a crime. Zambrano-Montes, a Mexican immigrant and farm worker, had initially been throwing rocks at cars and other people, reportedly […]
