PINAC News Top 3

Despite a coroner’s report that determined a man died of heart disease at the exact moment he was being beaten by sheriff’s deputies in California, Kern County agreed to a $3.4 million settlement with the man’s family this week.
The autopsy, however, was always questionable considering the Kern County Coroner reports to the Kern County Sheriff, whose deputies attacked David Sal Silva in a horrific beating caught on video.
Deputies also confiscated cameras from witnesses after the beating.

New Jersey state police arrested a woman for exercising her Constitutional right to remain silent.
Or as they called it; “obstruction.”
But they were sure to inform Rebecca Musarra that she had the right to remain silent – once she was handcuffed and placed in the back of the patrol car.
She was then transported to a local police department, but released two hours later with no charges against her after a supervisor reviewed the footage and chalked it up to a rookie mistake.
The two arresting officer, Matthew Stazzone and Demetric Gosa, were hired in 2014.

A Florida cop who became internet famous in a viral video showing him slapping a camera out of the hands of a disabled veteran who had parked in a handicapped spot was acquitted of battery Wednesday.
But Riviera Beach Police Sergeant Garry Wilson was convicted of criminal mischief for the incident that left the veteran’s phone with a cracked screen. He was sentenced to six months probation.
The incident occurred on August 9 after Isiah James had parked his car in a handicap stop and went into Walgreens to make a purchase.

A Georgia cop admitted to being a hit man for a violent criminal gang called the Gangster Disciples, using his position as a law enforcement officer to tip off fellow ganger members about a planned police raid on a bar frequented by the gang.
Vancito Gumbs, who was forced to resign from the DeKalb County Police Department in October because he was involved in illegal drugs, was one of 32 people listed in an indictment unsealed in a federal court in Atlanta Wednesday.

A New Jersey cop was arrested for forcing a woman to perform oral sex on him inside the police station in return for favorable treatment.
The incident took place in November, but Newark Police Detective Kenneth Gaulette was not arrested until today.
Kenneth Gaulette taking an oath to defend the Constitution.
The 33-year-old cop was charged with sexual assault and criminal coercion.The victim was a 40-year-old woman.
Gaulette turned himself in today with his lawyer and was quickly released on a $75,000 bond.

As far as police videos go, it was pretty uneventful; a vertical video showing a Pennsylvania police officer trying to resolve a neighborhood parking dispute between a resident and a school teacher who worked nearby.
Nobody was arrested. Nobody was beaten. Nobody was tasered or pepper sprayed. And nobody was shot and killed, which meant that nobody really cared. 

As they’ve done in previous years, Seattle police lobbed blast ball grenades at protesters and journalists during this year’s May Day demonstrations, leaving one citizen journalist with a one-inch gash in his face.
Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole said police had no choice but to toss the explosives into the crowd because protesters were damaging property and attacking officers.
“The demonstrators put some innocent people in jeopardy. So we had to take action,” O’Toole said during a press conference.
Even if that meant injuring innocent people.

In disturbing video out of Virginia, Portsmouth police officers threatened to evict residents who had gathered around to watch and record them making an arrest of a man they had apparently beaten with batons.
But that’s only the video that survived.
The woman who recorded the video said that police deleted another video that had recorded the beating.

A Florida cop who was caught on video body slamming a woman because she was arguing with her boyfriend is now serving an 80-hour suspension.

Memphis police pounced on a man and arrested him for recording them in public despite a written departmental policy introduced in 2013 that made it clear they were not allowed to do that.
But the video shows they did not give that memo a second thought as they ordered him from the street to the sidewalk, then pounced on him when he stood on the sidewalk.
“As a matter of fact, the sidewalk is made to walk, not to stand,” the cop said as he ordered the man to keep walking away from the so-called “crime scene,” even though there was no crime tape establishing a perimeter.