Police
Video of Durham police search goes viral where victims claim harassment
The Durham Police Department is investigating an incident that led to a viral video we posted on our Facebook claiming harassment and racial bias
The Durham Police Department is investigating an incident that led to a viral video we reposted on our Facebook.
Durham police viral incident
The individuals involved are claiming harassment and racial bias against the Durham police, according to the NewObserver.
Vera McGriff posted the 3 minute and 21 second video Saturday on her Facebook page, where she goes by the name Vee Dollaz.
On her page McGriff says the police entered her house illegally, falsely accused her son and used a Taser on everyone there. McGriff and her family are black.
“The Durham Police Department is investigating all matters concerning this incident including the use of force, which is standard protocol,” Wil Glenn, a spokesman for the Police Department, wrote in a statement.
Newsobserver.com reports:
Durham Police Officers were following up on a drug arrest at the home on the 3400 block of Misty Pine Avenue at 10:30 p.m. Friday, Glenn wrote. They reported smelling “a strong odor of marijuana” after the door of the home was opened. A warrant was obtained and the house searched at 12:50 a.m. Saturday, according to the warrant.
In the warrant, Officer J.M. Foster says he was given information by another officer that police had arrested Khadir Cherry, a resident of the home, on April 4 on a charge of selling marijuana.
Foster states that while conducting a follow-up at the address, he encountered Raynell Hall standing in the driveway and asked to speak with the homeowner. When Hall opened the door to walk inside the home, Foster said he smelled marijuana, according to Foster’s statement.
“Through my training and experience I know that the only thing that smells like marijuana is marijuana,” he said in the warrant.
Reports say Cherry, 25, was charged with two counts of possession with intent to manufacture, sell and/or distribute, and maintaining a dwelling. He was also charged with two counts of assault on a government official, resisting a public officer and possession of marijuana paraphernalia.
Hall, 42, was charged with assault on a government officer and resisting a public officer.
Jahmon Cedeno, 24, was charged with assault on a government official.
McGriff, 48, was charged with maintaining a dwelling and resisting a public officer.
But the family has a different account of what happened. McGriff describes a different account in the video and the Facebook post (WARNING: Explicit language).
In the video officers are in the home and people in the house are yelling comments that include “he just hit me in the head with a gun.”
In a Facebook post, McGriff wrote that police pushed into her home contending that they smelled weed.
“I told the officer, ‘No you cannot come in my house without a search warrant,’ ” McGriff wrote. “The officer put his foot at the bottom of the door and 4 of them bum rushed me …”
McGriff said the officers are targeting her son and making false accusations.
“Everybody was tased, one officer hit my son in the face with his Glock 9, we were choked, kicked thrown down on the floor this is harassment …,” she wrote.
Nia Wilson, executive director of SpiritHouse, said the community organizing nonprofit is assisting the family. Six people were in the home, including two children between the ages of 9 and 12, she said. One has a seizure disorder, and Emergency Medical Services had to be called during the incident, she said.
McGriff is “a very traumatized mother” who has no comment at this time, but plans to release a statement in coming days, Wilson said.
Source:: NewsObserver
Police
Family of Black girls handcuffed by Colorado police, held at gunpoint reach $1.9 million settlement
The family of four Black girls who were wrongfully detained and held at gunpoint by Aurora, CO police have reached a settlement with the city.
Family of Black girls held at gunpoint reach settlement
Finalized on Monday, the families will collectively receive $1.9 million.
The settlement marks the latest payout the City of Aurora has been forced to make over officers’ excessive use of force.
In 2021, the city paid a $15 million settlement to Elijah McClain’s family, a 23-year-old Black man who died in 2019 after officers put him in a chokehold and paramedics injected him with ketamine.
The incident
In August 2020, four Black girls, ages 6, 12, 14 and 17, were held face down on the ground and put in handcuffs in a nail salon parking lot, crying and screaming, as officers towered over them.
Brittney Gilliam, the mother of the 6-year-old, was driving that Sunday morning with her relatives, because they were going to get their nails done together.
Wrongfully detained
But before they made it in the salon, Gilliam was detained after officers mistakenly thought she was driving a stolen S.U.V.
Police had mistakenly believed Gilliam was driving a stolen car.
And a simple second step police failed to take, resulted in the family being wrongfully detained.
Officers didn’t type in the plate number in a second database to show them the make of the vehicle. If they had, authorities said, the officers would have realized that the plate number was registered to a motorcycle in Montana.
Black girls and mother held at gunpoint traumatized
Dozens of bystanders watched the ordeal unfold, and video footage of the incident went viral, sparking protests over racial injustice, citing excessive force on Black Americans.
After the video went viral, Aurora police had apologized for their grave mistake, but the emotional trauma had already happened.
The Aurora Police Department said its officers are trained to draw their weapons before telling passengers to exit the vehicle and ordering them to lie on the ground, The Post reported.
Officers who held Black girls at gunpoint
One of the two officers who drew their guns and handcuffed members of the family was initially suspended.
However, he and the other officer that pulled his firearm remain on the police force, the New York Times reports.
To date, no officers were fired or charged in connection with the incident.
Police
2023 saw a record year of killings by police in U.S.
The number of people killed by police in the United States reached a new high in 2023, according to new research.
The number of people killed by police in the United States reached a new high in 2023, according to new research.
2023 police killings increased dramatically
Mapping Police Violence, a non-profit research group, dockets deaths at the hands of police officers. Last year, it recorded the highest number of killings since its national tracking began in 2013.
Statistics explained
The data reported that police officers killed 1,329 people in 2023, representing nearly a 19-percent increase over the 11-year span.
Nearly 90% of those killed were fatally shot, according to Abdul Nasser Rad, managing director of research and data at Campaign Zero, who runs Mapping Police Violence.
There were only 14 days without a police killing last year and on average, law enforcement officers killed someone every 6.6 hours, according to the report.
Meanwhile last year, the number of people killed by gunfire and officers killed in the line of duty declined, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. There was an increase in the number of police officers shot.
The newly released data suggests a grim reality and a systemic crisis, with an average of about three people killed by officers each day, with slight increases in recent years. In 2022, 1,250 were killed by police.
The data also reported that Black people were about 2.8 times more likely to be killed by officers than their white counterparts between 2013 and 2023.
Recording police misconduct
For decades, many Americans have suffered various forms of brutality and injustice at the hands of “bad” law enforcement officers.
When a civilian puts in a complaint against the officer only a small percent of complaints result in the officer being disciplined —partly because the accusations are hidden.
Half of the battle is knowing who the “bad” law enforcement are and proper action being taken.
Missin Peace, a national police misconduct database that collects formal civilian complaints against law enforcement, helps fill that void.
In 2022, we had a conversation with the creators, who urged those who filed a complaint against an officer, to upload it on their website as well.
While there is still much work to do, it’s a start.
Police
14-year-old boy with autism tased by police in what family says was case of mistaken identity
An Illinois family is demanding answers after their 14-year-old autistic son was tased by police in what they maintain was a case of mistaken identity.
An Illinois family is demanding answers after their 14-year-old autistic son was tased by police in what they maintain was a case of mistaken identity.
14-year-old autistic boy tased by police
In an interview with WLS Chicago, the family says that the teen, Avarius Thompson, suffered injuries, including a fractured hip, during an encounter with Dolton police on the morning of Nov.
Police’s incident report
According to the Dolton Police Department’s incident report, Dolton police were assisting police in the nearby neighborhood of Riverdale in the search for four Black males who had fled from a crashed, stolen vehicle, two of whom were allegedly carrying rifles and a handgun.
Dolton officers spotted two subjects, one of whom matched the description of a suspect sought in the incident, in a nearby backyard and pursued them, according to the incident report.
An officer pursuing Avarius ordered the teen to stop before tasing him, according to the incident report.
The incident was captured on the officer’s body-camera footage.
“Hands up! Hands up!” a Dolton police officer can be heard yelling in the body-camera footage as he runs toward Avarius with his Taser extended. After the teen jumps over a fence, the officer deploys the taser, the footage shows.
Avarius attempts to get up when the officer deploys his Taser again a few seconds later, the footage shows.
“Don’t move. Don’t move,” the officer says. “You move, you’re going to get some more.”
Avarius’ father, Eric Thompson, told WLS that the footage was “frightening.”
-
Entertainment8 years ago
Bad Boy Reunion Concert :: Major Let Down! (Opinion)
-
News3 years ago
Uncle of Darnella Frazier, Teen Who Filmed George Floyd’s murder, Killed in Minneapolis Police Car Crash
-
Social Justice10 years ago
11 Facts About The Michael Brown Case
-
Black Excellence7 months ago
Unheard Voices Editor-in-Chief receives prestigious Women of Color STEM Award
-
Health & Wellness4 years ago
Meet 105-year-old runner Ida Keeling
-
Interviews5 years ago
All eyes on Rick Fouche
-
New Jersey14 years ago
Bad Police Behavior: Who is looking through your garbage?
-
Entrepreneur Spotlight14 years ago
Author Larry Wilson Jr : The voice of a new African American writer