The Blue Line

Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Donna Watts was just doing her job on October 11, 2011 when she tried to pull over an off-duty Miami police officer in a patrol car, who was driving 120 mph down I-95.
But Fausto Lopez continued speeding down the highway, refusing to pull over for several miles.
Not knowing why Lopez would not pull over after being “lit up,” Watts had him exit the vehicle at gun point.
It just got crazier and weirder from there.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

In April 2015, San Diego police Neal “Nick” Browder shot and killed a homeless man in an alleyway after claiming the man came charging at him with a knife.
Surveillance video eventually proved that Fridoon Rawshan Nehad not only did not charge at Browder, he was only carrying a pen.
But Browder was cleared anyway because he uttered the magic words that he was in fear for his life.
More recently on February 20, 2016, Browder was searching the home of a probationer when he “accidentally” fired his gun, sending a bullet through a baby crib.

A New Jersey cop was captured on video slamming on his brakes and almost causing the car behind him to strike him from behind.
“I braked because I thought you were going to run into me,” Clifton police officer Juan Velez explained after stepping out of the car to confront the driver behind him.
What he meant to say was that he braked in the hopes the driver would run into him, which would then allow him to kill him.
That’s just how the mind of a cop works. Making any lame excuse of how they were in fear for their life to get green light to kill you.

A Michigan deputy who resigned to avoid termination after he was caught on video pulling a man out of a car for asking a simple question is now working for another law enforcement agency, despite the fact he has an established reputation for aggressive and unprofessional behavior towards citizens.
But considering his new employer, the Lenawee County Sheriff’s Office, is looking into introducing body and dash cams for its deputies, we will likely see more videos of his aggressive behavior in the future.

A New York City Copwatch activist is suing the NYPD for $1 Million in two separate lawsuits stemming from two arrests for recording them in public where they ended up deleting his footage.
Jose LaSalle, 46, filed the second lawsuit Friday for his arrest in September 2015. The first lawsuit was filed in 2014 for an arrest in September 2013. He is asking for $500,000 from each lawsuit.

It took less than three hours Wednesday for an Oklahoma jury to find a volunteer sheriff’s deputy guilty of manslaughter for shooting a man who was restrained and laying facedown beneath a pile of deputies.
Robert Bates, a wealthy 74-year-old insurance agent who would donate cash, trips and toys to the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office in exchange for dressing up as a deputy and joining them on drug raids, claimed he had shot the suspect by accident.