Bad Cop, No Donut

The long-awaited video has finally been released and it’s not pretty, showing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was nowhere near Chicago police when one cop opened fire and shot him 16 times.
Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke then walked up to him and continued to shoot after the teenager had collapsed on the street.
Initially, police claimed that McDonald had “lunged” at Van Dyke with a knife, but the knife is barely visible in the video.
But what is visible is that McDonald never lunged.

Responding to a fight that broke out in a Brooklyn Ecuadorian restaurant Saturday, New York City police officers proceeded to arrest an employee not involved in the fight after he told them not to kick a handcuffed patron.
That suggestion prompted NYPD officers to turn their aggression on him, slamming him to the ground and punching him several times before striking his head with a blackjack.
Then after they had taken him and two other men to jail, the cops returned to the restaurant and proceeded to delete surveillance video that captured the incident.

More than a year after a Chicago police officer shot and killed a teenager in an incident that has already resulted in a $5 million settlement, the cop is now expected to be charged with murder.
But only because a judge ordered the release of a dash cam video that police have tried their hardest to keep under wraps.

The city of Fullerton agreed to pay $4.9 million to the father of Kelly Thomas, the mentally ill homeless man who was viciously beaten to death by police in a shocking video made even more shocking that the officers were acquitted.
The incident took place in 2011 and Thomas’ father, Ron Thomas, filed the suit a year later.
But it was not until the day of the trial that the city council folded, agreeing to the settlement.

No pay for killer cops!
That is what the family members of Malissa Williams were chanting earlier this week in front of Cleveland’s city hall in response to news that Michael Brelo – one of the 13 cops who fatally shot both Williams and her friend Timothy Russell 137 times earlier this year – will be back policing the streets any day now.

A drunken Massachusetts police officer choked and put a gun to the head of a woman in his house. Earlier on the same day the officer was cited for drinking alcohol while driving.
Now, four months later, Dalton police officer James Scace has been charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, domestic assault and battery, strangulation and witness intimidation.

A man who was attacked by three San Antonio police officers last year while taking photos of his wife’s business is now paralyzed from the neck down.
But San Antonio police have already wiped their hands of the matter, saying they  had merely confused Roger Carlos with a violent felon whom they were chasing when they hopped out of a van and attacked him before realizing he was the wrong man.

After more than a decade of accusations of abusing citizens, falsifying reports and planting drugs and weapons, the Michigan police officer known as Robocop was convicted today, putting an end to his less than stellar law enforcement career.
And it was only because the incident was captured on dash cam video.
William Melendez, who was fired from the Inkster Police Department in April after a dash cam video surfaced showing him pull over and beat a man named Floyd Dent, was found guilty of assault with intent to do great bodily harm and of misconduct in office.

A Texas cop accused of raping a teenage girl as other officers watched was found guilty last week.
But not of first-degree sexual assault as he was initially charged, which could have landed him in prison for 99 years, but of second-degree sexual assault, which could have landed him in prison for 20 years.
Instead, Erasmo Mata ended up with a four-year sentence.
Mata, who was working for the Pharr Police Department when the assaults took place, must also register as a sex offender as well as pay a $5,000 fine.

North Carolina deputies shot and killed an unarmed man Sunday while trying to search a home for an assault suspect who no longer lived there.
Harnett County sheriff’s deputies arrived at the home of John Livingston at 3:30 a.m., demanding to be let inside.
But Livingston,  a 33-year-old father of three, insisted on seeing a search warrant.
When they were unable to produce one, Livingston shut the door.
But that prompted deputies to kick in the door, force their way inside and begin beating, tasing and pepper spraying Livingston