Lakewood, CA — On July 6, Susan Barry was worried about her son’s behavior, so she called authorities to receive a medical evaluation. Instead of medical evaluation, however, her son John Barry, 33, received a pack of assassins.
John suffers from schizophrenia, and when police arrived, he attempted to get into his car and drive away. Instead of de-escalate the situation by allowing the man to drive away, officers began escalating violence.
(CN) - A police officer who put a detainee in a chokehold until he died does not qualify for immunity and neither do two others accused of conspiring to cover up the killing, the Sixth Circuit ruled.
In 2004, 25-year-old Carlton Benton was a pretrial detainee at Lucas County jail in Toledo, Ohio. He was taken to the hospital that May because he was suffering from seizures, but resisted officers when they disconnected him from medical equipment to take him back to jail. Office... (more)
Providence RI — In what can only be considered an absolutely mockery of “justice,” a young man was recently pulled over by an overzealous law enforcement officer for the horrific crime of having an air freshener in his car. Yes, you read that correctly and this is not the onion.
In a video uploaded to YouTube yesterday, a young... (more)
To keep a convicted drunk driver from going free, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday decided to emphasize the private citizen's right to pull over other motorists, even for minor traffic infractions. A three-judge panel reviewed the September 2, 2012 incident in which Pigeon Forge Police Officer Jeremy Croce stopped Steven Roy Wilburn outside of his jurisdiction. Though he did not realize it, the officer was not in Pigeon Forge -- best known as the home of Dollywood -- when he saw... (more)
The Austin, Texas, Police Department has announced the implementation of a “no refusal” policy until the “end of summer,” by which officers can forcibly extract blood samples and breath tests from drivers without consent.
“The no refusal initiative is an effort to enforce DWI laws, keep the public safe, and to conduct blood search warrants on suspects who refuse to give a breath or blood specimen as required by law,” the department cl... (more)
Over the last few years, we've published a ton of stories about the growing police reliance on Stingray cell site simulator devices (also known as IMSI catchers), that mimic a real cell phone tower and help provide the location of a certain mobile phone. As we've written, these devices have been super popular with police departments, who often receive them from the federal government with strict non-disclosure agreements, which me... (more)
Remember the 4th Amendment? We hear it's making a comeback. Back in May, we had a story about another court explaining to the government that, contrary to popular belief within Homeland Security, the 4th Amendment does still apply at the border, and thus Border Patrol can't just take someone's laptop without a warrant.
Gold Coast police officer Sergeant Rick Flori may spend up to seven years behind bars for leaking CCTV footage showing his fellow officers brutalizing a young chef, Noa Begic, while he was handcuffed in the Surfers Paradise Police Station basement.
Flori, who leaked the footage of the dramatic incident to the Brisbane Courier-Mail, was formally charged with misconduct in public office after being summoned to... (more)
Boston, MA – A video uploaded to Facebook this week shows Boston police officers throwing an apparent temper tantrum after a loud-mouthed young man voiced his opinion about the police.
While it is unclear why the video began in the first place, the reason for a man being arrested and subsequently strangled is clear as day.
When the video begins, a man filming is being counter-filmed by an undercover cop. Out of the blue, a young man, with vulgar mouth began sc... (more)
"I'll put a hole right through your f--ing head" -- those are the words shouted by a mentally unstable police officer at a citizen, not because the citizen was accused of something violent or life-threatening, but merely because he accidentally cut the officer off in traffic. Those threats, along with a barrage of others, were record by that citizen... (more)
Worcester, MA — Marianne Diaz and her children were asleep during the pre-dawn hours of August 18 when a gang of heavily armed militarized men kicked in the door to their apartment and began terrorizing this family.
Diaz was woken up by the sound of multiple doors being kicked in. The next thing she knew, she was naked and on her knees, looking down the barrels of several AR-15 rifles.
"Stop f**king crying and take care of your f**king kids," she quoted o... (more)
Plano, TX — Police officer Jeff Willis is facing disciplinary action after a video surfaced of him violently threatening teenagers because they were smiling at him and not taking him seriously enough. Luckily, one of the passengers in the car was able to get some video footage of the encounter to expose how completel... (more)
A Georgia woman is alleging in a lawsuit that Gwinnett County police officers framed her by faking a drug arrest on the national syndicated TV show COPS in 2013.
Elizabeth Butler is accusing Officer Paul Tremblay of planting cocaine on her in an effort to show off for the cameras – which resulted in the destruction of her reputation and lead to her having to move away from the area.
Phoenix, AZ – After being fired for brutally stomping a teenage suspect on the neck as he was fully complying with orders, Phoenix Police Officer Kevin McGowan is back on the job.
Just this May, The Free Thought Project reported on this excessive use of force and McGowan's subsequent termination. Surveillance video shows suspect Patrick D'L... (more)
An audit of the money spent by Sheriff Scott Walls has exposed, among other issues, his illegal use of taxpayer money essentially as a personal expense account.
Asset forfeiture finally found its way into the mainstream after years of coverage by media outsiders. The sudden increase in negative attention brought about some needed reform efforts. The DOJ issued new guidelines on civil asset forfeiture, as did the IRS, which announced it would no longer pursue seizure of funds under "structuring" statutes unless there was evidence the money came from criminal sources.... (more)
Rancho Cordova, CA — Early Tuesday morning, a paranoid Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy irresponsibly fired his weapon at a fellow officer after he was spooked.
The deputy was responding to a call from a man who said he was hearing voices taunting him from across the street. After checking out the situation, he determined that the subject was drunk and determined that he posed no threat. As he was leaving the apartment, he entered a dimly lit stairwell.
Salem, NH — It’s entirely bad enough that pointing a finger like a gun will get children suspended from school. However, in police state USA, this hand gesture now appears to be punishable by death.
In a true show of paranoid trigger happiness, a Salem police officer fired on an unarmed man because he allegedly turned quickly toward t... (more)
Two former Georgia police officers are facing murder charges for tasing an unarmed man at least 13 times while he was handcuffed. The man died following the confrontation.
The indictment, filed Monday, charges former East Point Police Sgt. Marcus Eberhart, 41, and former Cpl. Howard Weems, 49, over the April 2014 death of 24-year-old Gregory Tow... (more)
A DARE cop gets popped for ripping off the program, another jail guard goes down, a federal cop gets busted after his meth lab explodes, and more. Let's get to it:
Police in San Francisco were recently caught swarming a homeless African American man, who only had one leg. The man’s only “weapon”? His set of crutches.
Author Chaédria LaBouvier says that she witnessed 14 San Francisco police officers attacking the homeless man, right outside Twitter headquarters (video below).
LaBouvier explains in a column for Medium, that the incident was filmed on August 4th when she was at the Twitter h... (more)
Anyone who has taken a road trip knows that speed traps are out there. Slowing down through a township is a good thing, but when authorities deceptively change speed limits and write 1,000 tickets a month on a tiny stretch of interstate, it's just plain extortion.
The American Automobile Association (AAA) put out a study on municipalities swelling their revenues through speed traps. This policing for profit has reached egregious proportions in several US towns. Seven states ha... (more)
Albuquerque, NM – On Tuesday, New Mexico Judge Neil Candelaria ruled that probable cause existed to force two Albuquerque police officers to stand trial for the March 2014 killing of James Boyd, who was homeless and suffered from schizophrenia.
The stunning killing was caught on a helmet cam and showed officers gun Boyd down. The Albuquerque police ruled the killing as justified after claiming that his movements, from 30 feet away, were threatening.
Flori, who leaked the footage of the dramatic incident to the Brisbane Courier-Mail, was formally charged with misconduct in public office after being summoned to... 
