THE POLICE PROBLEM

A federal jury has awarded an Iowa man more than $100,000 after police detained him for driving under the influence when he was completely sober.

The ruling is part of a pattern of police in Iowa stopping and even arresting drivers for OWI when they were completely sober. The ruling shows it is the taxpayers who may ultimately pay the price.

Sgt. Darryl Brown is accused of stealing a bag with $10,000 worth of equipment that Angelina Katsanis, a photographer on assignment for the Associated Press, dropped at the scene near the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark on Saturday night. Brown was charged with third-degree theft on Wednesday, the state attorney general’s office said.

The vulgar messages — sent by fired State Police Trooper Michael Proctor and former Canton Police Sgt. Sean Goode — show the two men praising Hitler and using slurs to describe women, Black people and Jews

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/47434364

A few dozen people were stuck inside their formation, known as a kettle. Some were protesters defying a curfew order, which was intended to quell demonstrations at a nearby ICE detention facility. But most appeared to be journalists who were just there to do their job.

A helmet peeked over the shields, which parted to let him through.

“Listen up,” he barked. “If you are press, you got the opportunity right now – and that’s it – to leave. If you don’t leave out here in an orderly fashion, you are coming with us.”

He pointed to someone in the group and snapped: “You are not press.”

Under the city of Newark’s curfew, journalists were exempt if they displayed “verified credentials”. But what counted as verified? And who got to decide?

Media workers had descended on Delaney Hall to document an ongoing hunger strike by ICE detainees over dangerous conditions inside. As protests swelled in surrounding streets, law enforcement’s response contributed to dangerous conditions outside.

In one week, the US Press Freedom Tracker documented 30 assaults by officers on journalists near the facility. ICE doused several photographers with pepper spray and beat them with batons.

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An officer grabbed his radio to report that press wouldn’t go any further.

A voice crackled back over his speaker: “If they refuse to move, push them back yourselves.”

Back in the kettle, at least three journalists were stranded. Each would spend a full day in custody while lawyers were denied access to see them.

One of the arrested journalists was injured and taken to a hospital. There, he saw two arrested protesters being treated. Without press cameras rolling, it wasn’t immediately clear how or if they were hurt while being detained.

Before being handcuffed, the other remaining journalist had worn a blue vest emblazoned with the word “press”. An ID from his company dangled around his neck. Like the injured journalist, he was a member of the National Press Photographers Association. Officers on the scene told him that his credentials were not verified.

Hours earlier, I’d asked the New Jersey governor’s office what “verified” meant. A day later, I asked the Newark mayor’s office. Neither answered.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/69839381

Texas’s response to school shootings was as predictable as it was doomed to produce only more violence in schools — violence by cops.

Archived at https://ghostarchive.org/archive/fU77s

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/47304277

(Illinois) HB1312 prohibits ICE from operating within 1,000 feet of a courthouse. Here’s a Kane County sheriff ignoring the situation and refusing to give his badge number.

Video Source

alternative video upload: https://streamable.com/e/phqqjs

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/65067336

Share this everywhere, please help the Mansell family in any way you can. This should be a slam dunk case. I'll try and keep this updated as videos drop.

Bricks and Minifigs (BAM) Corporate PR statement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWg2bnAqW6k

Leaked BAM corporate email to franchise owners

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMUHGBaF04E

Former BAM franchise owners Benjamin and Chrystal Gorman, speak out with evidence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zedmOopRTm0

Part 2 has been released on YouTube. Police targeting Ben, redacting audio illegally, etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxZPfj8AlmY

BAM CEO goes on livestream and promises to answer Ben's questions. He, predictably, dodges, lies, and presents no evidence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAh9eh3KjrU

American Fork Police Chief, imo, outright lying based on the video evidence we've seen so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcVmSQpIPRY

Support the creators, Reckless Ben, for the amazing and exhausting work going into all of this, funds go to legal fees and helping the Mansell family who were victims of theft by BAM corporate, and the American Fork, UT police coverup.

https://westealfromoldpeople.com/

Key people:

Those who need your support:

• Bryan Mansell: The collector whose family allegedly consigned the Star Wars LEGO collection to the Salem-Keizer Bricks & Minifigs store. His family is the one allegedly left without the full collection or proper payment.

• Reckless Ben / Ben Schneider: The YouTube creator who entered the story after the Mansell family reached out. His tactics were provocative and legally risky in places, but they turned the dispute into a national controversy. His exposé so far should be treated as a template, in my opinion, for exposing these greedy, inhuman corporations. Thanks Reagan.

• Mansell’s Father: The 83-year-old collector who helped build the collection over many years. Due to recent developments in his health, he cannot be unduly stressed as it could be dangerous. His son, with his blessing, was attempting to sell his collection to aid in medical costs (fuck the American healthcare scam, Universal Healthcare let's go). However, because of these developments, Bryan can't even inform his father for worry of aggravating his condition.

• Chrystal Law-Gorman And Benjamin Gorman: The original Salem-Keizer Bricks & Minifigs franchise operators. They reportedly signed the consignment agreement, handled the collection for months and paid Mansell his share before the store takeover dispute. They have recently put forth evidence that the consignment was allowed according to the franchise agreement they signed as well as they have security camera recordings of BAM corporate agreeing to take on the consignment which is in clear contradictiom to BAM's claims.

Name and Shame

• BAM Franchising: The corporate parent/franchisor behind Bricks & Minifigs. BAM’s role matters because the company allegedly stepped into the store transition and later argued that the consignment was unauthorized. The company has claimed that everything Ben has shown are lies without putting forth any evidence of their own.

• Ammon McNeff: CEO of BAM Franchising and the main corporate face of the controversy. His response is central to the leadership criticism because he appears to have focused on distancing corporate from responsibility instead of making Mansell whole. He has outright lied on camera in several instances according to the information presented by Ben.

• Matt McNeff: COO of BAM Franchising and Ammon McNeff’s brother. He is part of the corporate leadership structure behind the Bricks & Minifigs franchise system.

• Ki McAllister: Executive Project Manager at BAM Franchising. Security camera footage and recorded phonecalls show that, on behalf of BAM, he accepted the consignment and threatened to use legal pressure to silence the previous owners.

• Brandon Best: One of the post-transition operators tied to Baker Bricks. He is important because the dispute centers on what happened to the store inventory after the takeover and who controlled the remaining consigned sets. He was present in the security camera footage when the former owners mentioned the consignment as he hurried them out of the location. He held the phone in the security footage while Ki McAllister agreed to take on the consignment as part of the ownership transfer.

• Joshua Johnson: The other post-transition operator tied to Baker Bricks and American Fork, Utah. He became a major focus after Reckless Ben’s attempts to contact and serve him led to repeated American Fork police involvement. Allegedly, given the evidence Ben presents, convinced the police to arrest Ben for stealing the legos, in which the police execute a search and raid on the residence and arrest all of Ben's friends and himself while present despite finding no evidence of theft.

• Baker Bricks LLC: The entity tied to Brandon Best and Joshua Johnson after the store transition. Its role matters because it appears connected to the new operation that took over the store after BAM’s intervention.

• American Fork Police: The Utah police department that became part of the story after repeated interventions involving Ben’s attempts to contact, serve and publicly pressure Joshua Johnson. Their conduct is now one of the most troubling parts of the controversy because it appears biased and retaliatory.

Alternative video upload: https://streamable.com/e/gf7pn0

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/47095776

Around 300 immigrants detained at the Delaney Hall ICE jail in Newark, New Jersey, have been on a hunger and work strike since Friday to protest inhumane conditions and due process violations. Delaney Hall is operated by the private prison company GEO Group. Since the hunger strike was launched, immigration advocates have been staging a solidarity protest outside Delaney Hall to promote the detainees' demands for freedom. Protesters and ICE agents have clashed outside the jail, and three people have been arrested. Tensions escalated on Sunday when ICE removed a hunger strike organizer, Martín Soto, prompting protesters outside the ICE jail to block a van being used to transport him. Masked ICE agents responded by firing tear gas and pushing people to the ground. Soto was ultimately transferred to an ICE jail in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and is now facing criminal charges for allegedly assaulting an ICE officer.

We speak to Gabriela Soto, Martín Soto's wife, and Li Adorno, an organizer with the group Movimiento Cosecha. Both have helped lead the protest outside Delaney Hall.

Gabriela Soto says that she started the protest in conjunction with the detainees' strike so that the media could see how ICE is "destroying families and separating them." Soto says that when she was blocked from seeing her husband during visiting hours on Saturday, a guard asked her why she was "spreading lies" and talking to the press. "He said, 'Why are you telling people that we're feeding them worms? Why are you telling people that we don't give them medical care?' I said, 'Because it's true.'"

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/47044420

Video Source

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/47037400

On Wednesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained a U.S.-born woman at a checkpoint in a residential area of Lafayette. 

The young mother of four, who is Spanish-speaking, was already anxious as she approached the checkpoint that morning, because her baby daughter was spiking a high fever. At the agents’ request, she showed her ID and social security card. But they called it fake, and she was detained, handcuffed, shackled at the ankles, interrogated, and ultimately transported to South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile. ICE held here there for about five hours, away from her sick child, and released the woman around 2 a.m. after a lawyer intervened on her behalf.

The woman asked that her name not be published for fear of retaliation against herself and her family.

alternative video upload: https://streamable.com/e/eunwkj

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/49581750

After getting arrested while doing traffic safety I got some very good news about my reckless driving charge, and getting cameras back so I can confidently prove my claims that a bunch of Seattle Police Department bike cops attacked me as retribution for exposing their bad behavior.

This video is really just the starting point for accountability.

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/46682073

“Mr. Castro fired his service weapon at the front door of the home, knowing there were people inside who presented absolutely no threat to him or anyone else,” Moriarty said. “That bullet punched through the front door and struck Mr. Sosa-Celis’ leg before traveling through a closet and lodging in the wall of a child’s bedroom.”

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/46633927

The owner of a company that trained paramilitary Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents testified that he was involved in at least four lethal shootings, according to a 2021 deposition related to a lawsuit reviewed by WIRED.

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Customs and Border Protection did not respond to WIRED’s questions about how many SRT teams and operators went through the Gilbert, Arizona, company’s training course.

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Once reserved for armed or high-risk suspects, manhunts, and potentially dangerous building entries, the SRTs are now being used for civil immigration enforcement, crowd control, and basic warrant service, operations that the unit was once restricted from performing. Both Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed while protesting the militarized federal immigration surges in Minnesota, with SRT members implicated in both of their deaths. While recent debate over Homeland Security’s violent immigration sweeps have focused on whether agents receive adequate training, the background of SRT’s training contractor raises questions about who is training ICE’s and CBP’s paramilitary units, and what they are being trained to do.

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The Phoenix PD’s overall high rate of police shootings, along with the brutality of city cops towards the homeless population, prompted the US Department of Justice to open a civil rights probe into the agency in August 2021. In June 2024, federal investigators probing the practices of Phoenix PD as a whole issued a findings report establishing a “pattern or practice” of violent, unconstitutional policing in Arizona’s largest city, including unjustified uses of lethal force.

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Special Response Teams, along with the Border Patrol’s BORTAC and BORSTAR paramilitary units, have been at the heart of clashes with protesters during DHS’s militarized sweeps in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Minneapolis. In the fatal shootings of both Good and Pretti, the tactics of the SRT officers raised questions: SRT agent Jonathan Ross walked in front of Good’s SUV while recording with a cell phone before drawing his pistol and firing four rounds into her SUV. In the Pretti shooting, a Sig Sauer pistol the ICU nurse legally possessed was taken from his belt holster by a federal agent as several others dogpiled on top of him. Even after viewing multiple videos of the incident and speaking with other law enforcement officials, it is unclear whether Pretti’s gun misfired or if something else caused CBP SRT operator Raymundo Gutierrez and Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa to shoot him several times.

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According to ICE’s website, as of fall 2024, there are at least 22 Special Response Teams for Homeland Security Investigations around the US (up from 18 in 2021 and five in 2005). Each SRT has 16 to 18 “operators” who all went through a three-week training course at Fort Benning in Georgia similar to the one that TruKinetics ran. After completing an intensive three-day selection course involving “pushups, sprints, burpees, pullups, obstacles, weighted sprints and dummy drags followed by intense marksmanship training,” SRT operator candidates are required to pass a 40-hour training course at Fort Benning, which is home to the Army’s training centers for Infantry, Armor, Airborne, and Ranger units.

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/46633561

The incident unfolded when several agents followed a woman into a public elevator at 26 Federal Plaza. Eyewitnesses confirmed they did not announce an arrest was about to be made.

Moses stepped into the elevator, and the two agents instantly grabbed him and shoved him without giving him a chance to leave on his own accord. Another agent then pushed another photographer, Olga Fedorova, backwards, slamming her and a third photojournalist, Vural Elibol, to the floor. Elibol took the worst of the fall and wound up being hospitalized.

Despite the whole thing being caught on camera, Harrington appeared to alter the sequence of events in the court filing.

“The officers identified themselves as ICE and advised the alien they were taking her to the 10th floor for further screening and processing. The officers took the alien into the elevator. A reporter followed the officers into the elevator, which interfered with effectuating the arrest. The officers asked the reporter to leave the elevator, but he resisted and the officers grabbed his shoulders and arms to escort him out of the elevator,” Harrington wrote.

The ICE supervisor went on to contradict the events filmed and posted to social media that day, claiming that the photographers tripped.

“Multiple people began to congregate around the elevator. As the reporter was being escorted out of the elevator, an unknown journalist tripped on another individual and fell. This incident was the result of the journalists’ interference with ICE officers performing their duties. I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief,” Harrington added.

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Lander, who was arrested by the federal agency himself last year and is fighting his case in court to demand accountability from the agency, told amNewYork that he believes the supervisor committed perjury by lying on the document.

“To lie so blatantly, to the court to put your name on a legal document and lie when there’s video and witnesses who all saw the truth. I mean, that is gaslighting, and it’s perjury, and I really believe it should be prosecuted. We cannot allow officers of the government to perjure themselves in federal court as though the truth is irrelevant,” Lander said. “They wanted to say to journalists, if you do your job, you’re at risk of assault. And that’s the same thing they did to me.”

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/46633105

Philadelphia police have broad authority to revoke gun licenses, including for failing to properly secure their weapons, associating with people convicted of felonies, or — in the group's case — for "good cause," per city correspondence obtained by Axios.

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/46490695

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