When our local officials here in Ludington and Mason County try to cover up the brutal actions that our citizens have suffered under our local police officers, they are not doing anyone a service.
When Aaron Sailor of the Ludington Police Department entered a residence allegedly without a warrant and pushed over an innocent visitor to that house with her back to him, he should have faced criminal consequences rather than have our City pay off his legal bills and civil settlement. Even with two separate attacks in his short police career on other innocent people in his prior Pontiac beat which both were settled in Federal court, he is still roaming our streets as a police officer.
When LPD's Matthew Warmuskerken, and Mason County deputies Oscar Davila and Derek Wilson detained another citizen guiltless of any wrongdoing by sweeping him down to the pavement and tasing him five times while he was offering, at best, passive resistance, you may give them a pass for making a mistake of the moment. But when Wilson and Warmuskerken continue to use their taser on the innocent man while at the hospital peacefully refusing treatment, erase the man's recording of the events, and then maliciously prosecute the man-- it should make you wary of dealing with the Mason County Sheriff's Office or the three officers who still serve as road patrol for our sheriff's office.
Both of these local events are harbingers for what a gang of police officers in Omaha did to a family of African-Americans whose only crime was to record the police brutalizing their brother without cause or reason. Fortunately, the police failed to notice another photographer in the neighborhood, and fortunately the local chief and prosecutor are more aggressively attacking the erosion of public confidence in their peace officers.
March of 2013 in Omaha, Nebraska saw an event that had many members of the police department attack four members of a family for no apparent reason, and taking their property, because that property showed exactly what the police did that day that was so wrong. The police would have probably got away with it too, if not for their neighbor across the street who did their neighborly duty in preserving the evidence of brutality and unreasonable searches and seizures that happened that day.
It rose to such a point that the county's attorney sought criminal charges after noting the worst of what happened that day was not caught in the neighbor's footage. The criminal case is ongoing against them, the civil case (linked to below) was just filed on January 6, 2014, just two days ago, and forms the narrative of the facts below. The neighbor's video is within the tale.
On March 21, 2013, officers of the OPD were present at 3321 Seward Street, Omaha, Nebraska because a tow truck driver was attempting to remove certain automobiles from the street allegedly because they were unregistered and had been left on the public street. Octavius Johnson, a black male, came to the scene to find out what was occurring with regard to the family vehicles and began a dialogue with the officers on scene.
While Octavius was talking to one officer, another officer named Canterbury, approached Octavius from behind, initiated a choke hold and threw Octavius to the ground. After being thrown to the ground Octavius was struck in the head and face several times.
Octavius' brother Jacquez, who was filming the incident with a small videocamera, began asking the police why they were hitting his brother and that what he was witnessing was police brutality.
As additional officers arrived on the scene, Officer Canterbury continued to hold Octavius to the ground in the street. After checking to see if anyone in the vicinity could observe what he was doing, Officer Canterbury struck Octavius in the head and face despite the fact that Octavius was not resisting or making any effort to free himself.
Even though Juaquez was on the sidewalk, as other officers arrived, one officer began approaching him. As Juaquez attempted to step away from the police officer, the officer began chasing after Juaquez into the family home. Other officers arriving on the scene also ran into the Johnson residence.
Demetrius Johnson an African-American male, was at all times inside or on the porch of the family home during the incident and was filming the incident involving Octavius with a cell phone. When the police entered the house, Demetrius, who was standing directly behind his aunt, dropped to the floor. Officers jumped on Demetrius and despite his lack of resistance, assaulted him. The officers also forcibly restrained him, placed him in handcuffs, and arrested him.
The officer chasing Juaquez into the house caught up with him, threw him to the floor, and began hitting him about the head and shoulders and hitting Juaquez’s head against the floor, causing pain, injury, and fear. He was subsequently handcuffed and arrested. A police officer, likely James T. Kinsella, confiscated both the memory card from the telephone Juaquez had been using to record the incident and the video camera used by Demetrius. The memory card, the video camera and the phone have not been returned to the Johnsons.
Sharon Johnson, an African-American female and the aunt of Octavius, Juaquez, and Demetrius, was inside the house during the incident; she has a physical disability and requires a wheelchair to move about. One of the Police officers who ran into the house placed his hand on the arm of her wheelchair and tipped it on its side, causing Sharon to be thrown forcibly to the floor.
While Sharon was on the floor she was assaulted by officers stepping on her and running into her. No officer stopped to assist her and she was forced to crawl along the floor and use furniture to pull herself up to right her wheelchair and return to it. Sharon was unable to return herself to her chair without assistance. Despite her physical disabilities, police officers inside the house handcuffed Sharon for a period of time.
The more than twenty police officers on the scene conducted a complete search of the Johnson residence and found no weapons or illegal drugs. The search was conducted without the consent of any of the Plaintiffs. Octavius, Juaquez, and Demetrius were arrested and transported to jail as a result of this incident for reasons unknown. All charges against Octavius, Juaquez, and Demetrius resulting from this incident were later dropped.
After the brothers were transported to jail, the family vehicles, including a truck used by one of the brothers to sell scrap metal were towed to police impound. When he was allowed to recover his vehicle, the scrap metal in the truck had been removed. The scrap metal has not been returned and no compensation has been paid for the loss.
Sharon was transported to the hospital after she complained of pain in her neck and shoulders caused by the officers knocking her out of her wheelchair onto the ground and by injuries she suffered from being stepped on or stumbled into by the officers. The police officers subsequently called animal control and had the Johnsons’ dogs taken into custody, apparently alleging that the dogs were dangerous and aggressive, even though the video shows otherwise. They had to pay approximately $300.00 to retrieve the family dogs from the Nebraska Humane Society where they were taken at the direction of the OPD.
After the brothers were transported away, the remaining OPD officers coordinated their stories in order to conceal the inappropriate actions of the officers and to destroy the evidence contained in the recording equipment, an internal OPD investigation revealed.
The lawsuit has five causes of action:
1) Assault and battery for the attacks on Octavius, Jacquez, and Sharon, by Officer Canterbury and other unidentified officers
2) False imprisonment against all officers for the incarceration of Octavius, Jacquez, and Demetrius.
3) Violation of 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 against all defendants for their discriminatory treatment in violating the rights under color of the law against all plaintiffs.
4) Violation of First Amendment rights against all defendants for criminalizing Jacquez and Demetrius' filming of the events and destroying the evidence.
5) Civil Conspiracy when the defendants conferenced to coordinate a story in order to validate their unlawful actions to destroy evidence and alter the facts of what happened.
But there is hope for the Omaha area. The aforementioned internal investigation actually had some conclusions that didn't exonerate all of the policeman. Concluded earlier this year, Officers Kinsella and Von Behren were fired in April after the above video went viral, and it was confirmed they had took the Johnsons' video recording equipment/media and allegedly got rid of them.
Two other officers were also let go, Officer Justin Reeve and Officer Brad Canterbury who started the melee when he took down Octavius from behind and proceeded to punch an unresisting handcuffed man for no good reason.
Even better the Prosecuting Attorney of the county actually took an interest into seeking criminal charges against the two pictured officers. Prosecutors are often and increasingly part of the blue shield, but Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine waded into the fray in May, and sought a felony charge of tampering with evidence, as well as obstructing governmental operations and theft by unlawful taking against Kinsella. Former Sgt. Aaron Von Behren faces charges of being an accessory to a felony and obstructing governmental operations.
His language at this press conference on May 6 showed that he understood the situation: "It’s of tremendous concern to the chief and it’s a concern to us. We can’t have this type of conduct. It’s a betrayal of public trust." The prosecuting attorney does represent the people, but all too often they lose that fact over the years as they look at the police as their allies. County Attorney Kleine deserves praise for his words that show he knows how justice should be applied; it is unfortunate that most in his position would try to find a way to keep the police protected by the law that they felt free to break.
The police were definitely in the wrong but the brother who kept yelling at the police should have kept his mouth shut. Even after he was chased up the stairs leading to the house, he came back down and continued to yell. I doubt this would have gotten as out of hand as it did if he would have stayed in the house or on the porch and recorded what was going on while remaining silent.
Permalink Reply by XLFD on January 8, 2014 at 1:43pm
When someone hauls down your brother without reason or warning from behind his back and starts hitting them repeatedly, I believe one shows remarkable restraint by not going over to help him even when the assaulters are numerous and badged.
I don't fault him for not remaining silent, or coming back down in order to record and try and get the police from doing criminal acts on his brother. He kept out of the street and kept his words moderated, that's more than a lot of us in similar circumstances would do.
I agree however there would be a different outcome to this story if the neighbor had not made a video of the incident. The brother would not leave the cops alone so they made a point of shutting him up. His actions did nothing to help his brother and family. His actions only aggravated the situation. One shouldn't throw a stick at a hornets nest.
Permalink Reply by XLFD on January 8, 2014 at 8:51pm
Well, I will say the brother wasn't the only one with de-escalation problems-- and besides he wasn't telling the police anything they didn't already know.
I wonder what finally made him scoot up into the 'safety' of his own house so quickly when the reinforcements arrived?
“We don’t have time for this”: Cop allegedly kills North Carolina teen who was already tased and restrained
posted at 3:21 pm on January 7, 2014 by Allahpundit
Via Ace and Bearing Arms, I missed this yesterday but it deserves some belated attention. The victim, Keith Vidal, was schizophrenic, weighed 90 pounds, had already been tased, and reportedly was being held down by two officers when the shooting happened. He was armed with a “tiny screwdriver,” according to his family.
His dad claims that one cop said “we don’t have time for this” right before the kid was shot dead on the floor.
According to the report, the first unit on scene was a Boiling Spring Lakes officer who arrived at 12:34 p.m. He was joined shortly after by two additional BSL officers and a Brunswick County Sheriff’s Deputy.
The first unit on scene reported a confrontation in the hallway, but told Brunswick County Dispatchers several times that everything was OK.
Unit 104 from Southport arrived on the scene at 12:48:41, fourteen minutes after the first officer had already been on scene.
Seventy seconds later, Unit 104 radioed out that he had to fire shots at the subject in order to defend himself.
The event report mirrors what family members told the media…
Wilsey said officers had his son down on the ground after the teen was tased a few times and an officer said, “we don’t have time for this.” That’s when Wilsey says the officer shot in between the officers holding the teen down, killing his son.
A detective’s been placed on paid leave while the investigation plays out. Obvious question: Even if the cop was such a monster that he’d murder a mentally ill kid simply because he was a drag on his day, how did he think he’d get away with it with both parents right there watching? Is a suspension and murder investigation less of an inconvenience than wrestling a small teenaged boy into a squad car? If he was counting on a mom and dad to be intimidated into silence over the cold-blooded murder of their son, he was counting on an awful lot. I notice too that the dad doesn’t explicitly say it was the cop who fired the gun who said “we don’t have time for this.” One of the officers there said it. Was killing Vidal what he had in mind or were the comment and shooting unconnected?
The official story, I assume, will be that Vidal was going for a gun in the holster of one of the cops who was restraining him. Exit question: If the parents’ version is true, it can’t be the first time this has happened, right? No one would attempt a murder this cavalierly unless he was very confident, based on prior experience, that he could get away with it.
Easy, the way this story has been described makes it even more confusing as you have stated. How / why would the officer shoot the victim when the parents were right there and were witnesses to it, if the officers were not in danger?
Permalink Reply by XLFD on January 10, 2014 at 12:37am
I have been monitoring that case over the last few days, there are parts of it that don't seem to make sense. The parents who appear to be eyewitnesses believe it was a cold blooded shooting, and only hold the shooting officer out to blame for the turn of events, not the other officers.
Permalink Reply by XLFD on January 10, 2014 at 5:46pm
I wasn't saying the original two had any apparent culpability, just that the parents did not hold their actions at fault. I didn't state it clearly, however.
Missouri woman hit with misdemeanor charge after rescuing stray dog from freezing cold
Published January 08, 2014
FoxNews.com
A Missouri woman says she is in “shock” after being hit with a misdemeanor charge related to rescuing a stray dog that was left tied to a pipe in a vacant lot during a freezing December night.
Jessica Dudding, 34, of Troy, was charged with filing a false police report as she sought to find some shelter for the yellow Labrador, named “Diesel.” Dudding admitted that she lied to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department about where the dog was found, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
On Dec. 27, Dudding, her husband and her two children were looking at Christmas lights in a community south of Troy when they saw Diesel all alone in the 19 degree wind chill.
“As we got closer, I saw it had a red collar, like a shock collar, and tied to that and a sewer pole was a green baseball belt,” Dudding said. “I wasn’t sure if someone had dumped it or if someone was just playing a prank, but I knew it was extremely cold already, and the temperature was supposed to drop even more.”
Dudding called the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department to report the stray, but they said they had no facilities to care for it. A deputy who helped cut the dog loose referred her to take it to a shelter in Wentzville in nearby St. Charles County.
When Dudding arrived at Wentzville’s Police Department, she told an officer there that the dog was found in that city, fearing that they would refuse to take care of it if they knew it was from another county, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
The Wentzville Police Department accepted the dog and, days later, Dudding was able to track down its owner, Bryan Campbell, after a missing dog poster was spotted along a highway.
Campbell told the newspaper that Diesel escaped his yard after the battery in his electronic collar died, but he wasn’t sure who tied the pooch to the pole.
Campbell was hit with a $50 fine for letting his dog run in Wentzville. Dudding was charged when she admitted to police that she lied, in an attempt to get Campbell’s fee waived.
“I just immediately was in shock; I was hysterical,” she said. “I was at work, and [the police] told me that I had to come down there and fill out an actual police report and get a fine.”
Dudding will face a judge in municipal court on Jan. 21 and Campbell is hoping the charge will be dropped.
“She did what she thought was right at the time, and that’s all you can ask of a person,” he told the St. Louis-Post Dispatch.
But Wentzville Police Maj. Paul West disagreed.
“She reported to us that this happened, and you don’t get to lie to the police,” he said.
Permalink Reply by XLFD on August 30, 2014 at 10:17pm
The criminal hearings of the two cops are over and the results: a year of probation for Officer Kinsella, and nothing for Sergeant Von Behran. The prosecutor talked a big game, but in the end, the Omaha people were let down by him not following his oath to fairly do his job. Police officers need to be held to a higher standard, not held to a lower standard, and definitely not held harmless when they violate the law.
