PINAC News Top 3

A photojournalist who photographed Chicago police abusing a protesters during the 2012 NATO Summit, only to be beaten up himself by police, received a $100,000 settlement last month.
Joshua Lott, who was on assignment for Getty Images, said police destroyed one of two of his cameras as they stomped on him and beat him with batons.
He was jailed for misdemeanor reckless conduct, a charge that was dismissed when the cops failed to show up to court.

In an obvious effort to detach himself from the growing scandal in the Windy City, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired the police department’s top cop today, saying it was the first step in restoring confidence in the Chicago Police Department.

Two more Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies were sentenced to prison today after a federal judge refused to give them leniency because of their law enforcement status.
Deputy Sussie Ayala received a six-year sentence while deputy Fernando Luviano received a seven-year sentence.

Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy Kevin Rawdon was recently arrested for stealing and embezzling more than $20,000 from the Fraternal Order of Police lodge.
The Florida deputy used the money for personal expenses, golf outings and bar drinks. Rawdon was the treasurer of the lodge and a 14-year veteran of the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office.

NFL critic Tamiko Grimes was exonerated of all charges stemming from a dubious arrest at SunLife Stadium by Miami-Dade County police caught on a video that went viral in September, seen below.
She’s the wife of Miami Dolphins Pro Bowl cornerback Brent Grimes.

A Florida Highway Patrol officer did not appreciate PINAC’s Jeff Gray from photographing and recording the scene of a single motorcycle accident Friday, ordering him away from what he called “my crime scene.”
But the cop did not say a thing to the woman who rode her bicycle right through the scene.
And Gray did not even cross the street as the woman did.
But he did not have a camera, so that made all the difference in the world.

The Orland Police Department in Illinois has settled a lawsuit, paying out $12,000 for violating and not responding to Freedom of Information Act requests by local watchdogs.
Also, the Orland Park Public Library settled a lawsuit for $55,000 for the same reason.

It took Chicago Police over a year to release the video of Laquan McDonald. If a video is recorded and nobody sees it, then does the recording matter?
What if there wasn’t a whistleblower, a reporter and a lawyer who combined to sue on behalf of the public interest and gain release of the video depicting an officer shooting the teenager McDonald as he walked away from cops.

The Massachusetts cop who fabricated a story about being ambushed by a man who opened fire on him as he was driving his patrol car, causing him to crash into a tree where the car engulfed in flames, was found dead in his home early Thanksgiving morning.
Bryan Johnson, 24, was found dead by a roommate. Police say it was not a homicide but provided no other details.

It took less than 24 hours for the wife of Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke to raise more than $10,000 on a Go Fund Me page she set up for her husband’s first degree murder trial.
It’s taken more than five months for the wife of Missouri Highway Patrol Sergeant Randy Henry to raise less than $3,000 on a Go Fund Me page she set up for her husband’s legal expenses.
The difference?