Protestors in Brooklyn Demand Police Accountability

On Saturday August 19th, there was activity on the streets of East Flatbush. Cars were stopping to see what was going on. People were coming out of their homes out if curiosity. Those who couldn't make it downstairs fast enough were leaning out of their windows. Both shop owners and customers stood together to observe and some even joined in. Fists Raised, Head Nods of Approval, Excitement of Participation and Hope.

Brooklyn Showed Unity!!

It all began in front of 1370 New York Avenue, in Flatbush Gardens which to many is still Vanderveer Housing.  A diverse crowd gathered and in the air, you could see the RBG flag flapping as if the wind was ready to march and chant itself.  The temperature was right but the mood was somber.  This was not a parade gathering.  This was the preparation for a rally and march against the NYPD murdering Black and Brown Mentally Ill people.  This was about the abuses that our communities suffer due to the Brutality by the NYPD and lack of Accountability.

This march was sponsored by Black Lives Matter Greater New York president and Activist Hawk Newsome. Alongside Newsome was the lawyer Sanford Rubenstein, who is representing the family.  In the crowd that gathered in front of 1370 New York Avenue, were the family members of Dwayne Juene, who was a 32 year old Black Man who was gunned down by Officer Gonzalez of the 67th precinct. The same precinct responsible for the murders of Shantel Davis, Kimani Gray and many other Black and Brown Men, Women and Children. The family of James Owens and others whose family members were mentally ill and killed by the police were there to demand justice and provide support as well.  One of the speakers at the rally, was Community Advocate and City Council Candidate Anthony Beckford, who is also the leader of the Brooklyn Sector of CopWatch Patrol Unit. (He is featured in a documentary about them in London via BBC called "NYPD: The Biggest Gang in New York but also on Netflix by the name of "Copwatchers").  Mr. Beckford is also a member of that immediate community.  He had some strong opinions regarding the NYPD which rang true to the crowd. "I refuse to Stand Here and Do Nothing. I refuse to allow them to continue to murder us with there being no accountability. This is a time when we show them just how powerful we are as a people when we are truly united. Egos must be set aside and Unity must be had against the tyranny called the NYPD", as stated by City Council Candidate Anthony Beckford.

They're here to protect us and to have someone reach out to you because their son is having an issue or their mentally ill child isn't taking their medication,You're not expecting them to come in and gun your child down " says Jeune's cousin, Carolyn Thomas. 

Hawk Newsome who is the President of Black Lives Matter Greater New York stated "They need to stop killing our mentally ill. They need to stop getting away with it.  The NYPD needs to stop killing our mentally ill".

As they marched down Nostrand Avenue, the community applauded them and many joined in on the chants and the march.  You could sense the feeling of hope rise and the call for Liberation and Justice Ring Out.  The march reached the 67th precinct on Snyder Avenue and another rally was held. One of the speakers was Marc Fliedner who is a Brooklyn District Attorney Candidate. He spoke out against the injustices the community and warned the families to be aware of those who give empty promises in the DAs office. Marc Fliedner helped prosecute Peter Liang, the NYPD Officer who murdered Akai Gurley in the staircase of the Pink Houses for no reason at all.  Mr. Fliedner has been an ally to the movement and is supported by many people in the community for his run for Brooklyn District Attorney, that we he can continue to hold police officers accountable for their injustices against the Black and Brown communities.

City Council Candidate Anthony Beckford holding a sign with the photo of Deborah Dinner, who was killed by the NYPD in the Bronx.

(photo credit: Benjamin Shepard)

 Hawk Newsome of Black Lives Matter Greater New and City Council Candidate Anthony Beckford of CopWatch Patrol Unit.

(photo credit: Benjamin Shepard)

Brooklyn District Attorney Candidate Marc Fliedner and City Council Candidate Anthony Beckford at the 67th precinct.

(photo credit: Dylan Hansen)

- Devine Magazine 

Rally for #TrayvonMartin #BlackLivesMatter #NYCShutItDown

Black Lives Matter/Black Liberation Group NYC SHUT IT DOWN - Grand Central Crew will be holding a mass rally on Monday February 22, 2016 at Grand Central Station at 7pm for #TrayvonMartin. Trayvon Martin was an unarmed teenager who was stalked, ambushed and murdered by racist neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida on February 26, 2012.  Zimmerman was never convicted due to the racist legal system in Florida.

NYC SHUT IT DOWN Organizers are urging all people of all Races to Come out in Solidarity to show continued support to the family of Trayvon.  There is also a National Call to Action for Every Person and Organization Nationwide to Rally and Protest in Solidarity against the corrupt law enforcement and legal system in this country.

You can check out NYC SHUT IT DOWN at http://NYCShutItDown.net and http://twitter.com/NYC_ShutItDown

#SayHisName #BlackLivesMatter

#BettieJones #PeoplesMonday #NYCShutItDown #BlackLivesMatter

#PeoplesMonday #MarioWoods #BlackLivesMatter #ReclaimMLK

#ReclaimMLK

The Largest Planned March in New York City with Endorsements from various Organizations.

via NYC Shut It Down Facts Team:

On December 2, 2015, Mario Woods was walking down the sidewalk when five police officers from the San Francisco Police Department approachedhim with their weapons drawn. Officers claimed that Mario matched a suspect description for a crime that had been committed earlier in the day.

 (In which he was never confirmed of being the person of interest)

According to video footage, Mario is standing with his back against a concrete wall, completely surrounded by officers who mercilessly opened fire on him, shooting him at least 15 times. Officers say that Mario was holding a knife, but as the first shot is fired, Mario is limping away from the officers and his hands were at his sides.

Earlier this year, a federal probe uncovered that officers from the San Francisco Police Department had been sending racist text messages in which black people were called "monkeys" and "half-breeds." And, on the very day that San Francisco police executed Mario, defendants in a federal drug case accused the department of "engaging in systematic racial bias and sexual harassment toward black residents."

Join us on Monday, January 18th, as we remember #MarioWoods in points throughout #Brooklyn. We stand in solidarity with Mario's family and the #BlackLivesMatter community in #SanFrancisco.

#PeoplesMonday #IndiaKager #BlackVetsMatter #BlackLivesMatter 1/11/2016

Via NYC Shut It Down:

On the night of Sept. 5th, 2015, India Kager was murdered by officers from the Virginia Beach Police Department. She was a 27-year-old black woman and a mother to two young boys. India was a Navy veteran who was awarded medals for good conduct and service in the global war on terror.

India was driving her boyfriend, Angelo Perry, to his home in Virginia Beach. Their four-month-old son was in his car seat in the back. Unknown to her, the police were following them in an unmarked car as part of an investigation related to Angelo. When India stopped at a local 7-11, four white officers from the Special Operations Unit rushed her car with guns drawn. Within 15 seconds the officers fired 30 shots, killing both Angelo and India. Even though police had trailed India for over 30 minutes, they claimed they didn’t realize a child was in the back seat. 

India was not armed. She had not committed a crime. Her young sons are now orphans. And yet, no charges have been brought against any of the officers involved in her murder. 

#PeoplesMonday #YvetteSmith #NYCShutItDown #BlackLivesMatter

Monday December 28th WE MARCH!! 

(Share This and Spread The Word)

I need everyone to come out and March. The reason the Black Communities are dying is because many of us are too busy hiding. Many of us are too busy being comfortable with out limited rights. Many of us choose money over the lives of our brothers and sisters. Next time the hashtag and march could be for you or someone in your family. Do Not wait till then. Before the New Year Begins, show the world that we can be United and that we are a Proud People. Prove the Supremacists that We Are Not Afraid and that It Stops Today!! March to stop the systematic corruption and murder of our people NOW!!

BRING YOUR FAMILY and FRIENDS. Let Your Children See that We Shall and Can Overcome!! Let them see the Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., Vernon Jones, Assata Shakur, Malcolm X, Huey Newton, etc. #BlackLivesMatter #BlackWomenMatter

All Organizations, All Anons, All the People and Business Owners of All Communities, come out in Solidarity.

The Ugly Cover Up of Yvette Smith's murder by Bastrop Sheriff Dept as reported by Shaun King.

On February 16, 2014, Yvette Smith, a 47-year-old mother beloved by her family and community, was shot twice by an AR-15 assault rifle and killed on the spot by local police as she opened the front door of her home. A full 18 months later, as her case finally came before a jury, it's disturbingly clear that the police lied, repeatedly, in an attempt to cover up their murder of Smith.

First off, Smith called 911 for help because two men in her home were arguing over a financial dispute and she felt it was getting out of hand. She had nothing to do with the dispute and was an innocent bystander—a victim, even. When the police showed up, both men were already in the front yard and it appeared that the dispute was settled. This should've been case closed, but it wasn't.

When Smith opened the front door of her home, she was shot twice with a high-powered .223 caliber rifle in less than two seconds by Officer Daniel Willis of Bastrop County, Texas, outside of Austin.

The lies and the coverup began immediately. The entire department was involved.

As you may have seen, police not only claimed that Smith emerged from the home with a firearm, they stated that she ignored police commands. In essence, Smith came out of that house, according to police, ready to bring hellfire and damnation on police and they acted out in self-defense from an incredibly dangerous woman.

This is a lie. A complete fabrication. When Sheriff Terry Pickering issued the statement, he was fully and completely aware that Yvette Smith wasn't armed. No weapon was found on or near her. He knew this. The officers on the scene knew this, but Sheriff Pickering issued that statement anyway. It sounded better.

Knowing that the evidence and scores of eyewitnesses saw that she was unarmed,police later retracted the statement, but have given absolutely no answers or held anyone responsible for the earlier lie—which was the primary reason given for shooting Smith in the first place.

It may be hard to believe, but the lies get worse—much worse.

As you saw in the initial statement released by police, they claimed that Smith ignored their commands. On September 17, in open court, we learned that this was also an elaborate lie told to justify police misconduct.

>

> Deputy Scott Gaskamp, who arrived at the scene just moments before the shooting, had told investigators and written reports stating that they had ordered Smith to show them her hands, to open the door and come out of the house, Gaskamp testified Thursday.

>

> Recordings of the incident showed no commands were ever issued.

When pressed to explain this in court, Officer Gaskamp literally admitted that he made the whole damn thing up. He also stated that he couldn't remember telling this lie to the lead investigator, until they played him the recorded interview where he stated the lie over and over again.

>

> Gaskamp told the court he never amended any of his reports or came forward to investigators to correct his errors. After reviewing the dashboard camera footage caught from his patrol vehicle and Willis’ vehicle, he realized his written reports were wrong and that he had never told Smith to put her hands up or issued any other command.

>

> “I did not say those words. It must have been a figment of my imagination,” Gaskamp said.

Are you tracking this? Let me summarize it for you . . .

Yvette Smith called 911 for help.

She opened the front door of her home and was almost instantly shot twice by police with an AR-15 assault rifle.

The officers on the scene lied and said she was armed.

The supervising officer doubled down on the lie and spread it in a press release.

The officers then lied and said they made multiple commands that Smith ignored, but the dashcam footage shows that none of those commands were made. Not one of them.

The coverup continued . . .

> A few weeks after the shooting, an investigation by BCSO revealed that several supervisors had modified Willis’ field training records after the shooting in an effort to make sure the records were completed accurately. A lieutenant and a sergeant were demoted to patrol deputy and five additional supervisors also faced disciplinary action because of the record changes.

Lastly, and this may be the most disturbing fact of all, it was discovered that the officer who shot and killed Smith was found incompetent by another police department.

> Before working for Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office, Willis, 29, was employed by Travis County. A Travis County 2012 evaluation of Willis stated that Willis needed more development in handling explosive situations and in the utilization of common sense.

Yes, you read that correctly: The damn evaluation said the police officer who killed Yvette Smith struggled with "common sense," but was hired by a neighboring department anyway.

While Officer Willis has been charged in Smith's death, it is increasingly clear that the entire Bastrop County Sheriff's Office conspired to protect one another and cover up this crime. All of them should be immediately fired and a statewide investigation needs to be launched into the corrupt actions that we can clearly see in the murder of Yvette Smith.

(Full Story) violent south carolina classroom arrest: ‘I’ve never seen anything so nasty looking’

violent classroom arrest: 

‘I’ve never seen anything so nasty looking’

Tony Robinson Jr., the student who recorded the arrest in a South Carolina classroom in which a school officer flipped over a desk and dragged a teenage girl across the floor, said that he and the other students were terrified as they watched what happened.

Robinson said that an administrator had been called into the room after a girl was on her computer and took out her phone and refused to give her phone up to a teacher who asked for it.

“She really hadn’t done anything wrong,” Robinson said. “She said that she had took her phone out, but it was only for a quick second.” Although the girl did not comply with demands for the phone, she did apologize.

When the officer, Ben Fields, arrived in the class, Robinson knew something was wrong. Fields asked Robinson’s friend to move a desk, closed the girl’s computer, and then moved the computer to another desk.

“When I saw what was about to happen my immediate first thing to think is let me get this on camera. This is going to be something that not only I’m I going to be like ‘wow did this really happened at my class’ but just something that everybody else needs to see. This is something that we can’t let this just pass by,” Robinson said.

“He asked her again, ‘will you move, will you move.’  She said ‘no I have not done anything wrong.; Then he said I’m going to treat you fairly. And she said ‘I don’t even know who you are.. And that is where it started right there.”

Read More: TheGrio.com

South Carolina Officer that beat up Student: FIRED #BlackLivesMatter

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Authorities in South Carolina will announce on Wednesday that Richland County Senior Deputy Ben Fields, the officer shown on video throwing a student to the ground inside a classroom, will be fired, according to NBC News.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott will speak at a news conference at 12 p.m. ET on Wednesday where he will announce Fields has been relieved of his duties.

Fields is the Spring Valley High School resource officer whose actions Monday were recorded by students and ignited a firestorm on social media. Among the criticisms: his admitted use of “muscling techniques” to get the student out of her chair.

But that’s only one part of the story. Federal investigators have gotten involved. Another student arrested from the classroom has spoken out. And the sheriff is criticizing a South Carolina law that he says muddles the role of school resource officers.

Sheriff: The student hit the officer

At least three videos have surfaced of the violent arrest at Spring Valley High School. The sheriff said one of the videos shows the girl attacking the officer before the arrest.

“When the officer puts his hands on her initially, she reaches up and she pops the officer with her fist,” he said.

Still, after watching all the footage, Lott told reporters that he “wanted to throw up.”

“There’s no justification for some of his actions,” the sheriff told CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360°” on Tuesday night.

The videos show the officer standing over the student, seated at her desk. He puts his arm near her neck, then yanks her backward. The desk, which is attached to her chair, tips over; the student crashes backward onto the floor.

But Fields didn’t let go, lifting her slightly off the ground. She flies out of her desk and slides several feet across the floor.

Conflicting reports on injuries

Sheriff’s department spokesman Lt. Curtis Wilson said there were no reports of any injuries. And the sheriff said he did not believe the girl was seriously hurt.

“To my knowledge, she wasn’t injured whatsoever,” Lott said. “She might have had a rug burn or something like that, but she was not injured.”

But Todd Rutherford, the student’s attorney, said his client now has to wear a cast on her arm.

The girl also suffered a bruise on her head, her attorney said.

Student: It started with a cell phone

The 16-year-old girl who was taken to the ground was arrested on a charge called “disturbing schools.” A classmate, Niya Kenny, 18, was also arrested on the same charge.

Kenny told CNN’s Don Lemon on Tuesday night the incident started when her math teacher told the other girl to give up her cell phone. The girl refused and defied orders from the teacher and an administrator to leave the classroom.

That’s when Fields was called in, Kenny said. The school resource officer asked the girl to leave the classroom with him.

Kenny said the offer moved the girl’s laptop off her desk.

“He grabbed her arm, and he put his arm around her neck at first. So that’s why you actually see her — if you get the right video — then you’ll see her trying to swing at him,” Kenny said.

“And at that point, he just flipped the desk back and grabbed her out of it and threw her. And that’s when you see her rolling across the floor.”

Kenny said she and other classmates had their cell phones recording because of the officer’s reputation.

“When he came in the classroom, I immediately told my classmates, ‘Get your phones out, get your phones out. I think this is going to go downhill.’ And it did.”

Her attorney, Simone Martin, said she’s been told “by a number of the students that he is referred to as Officer Slam as opposed to Officer Fields. And that’s telling.”

Kenny was arrested and accused of disturbing school after yelling and cursing at the officer, according to an incident report.

Civil rights investigation

The FBI and U.S. attorney’s office have opened a civil rights investigation to determine whether federal laws were violated during the student’s arrest, a Justice Department representative said.

The sheriff said the FBI is also to be the lead agency in a criminal investigation.

“We do not want any issues with the community or those involved having questions concerning conflicts of interest in this investigation,” he said.

Analyst: Officer within his rights

CNN law enforcement analyst Harry Houck cautioned against jumping to conclusions about Fields, even if the footage “looks really bad.”

If an officer decides to make an arrest, he or she “can use whatever force is necessary,” said Houck, a retired New York police detective.

“So if you don’t comply with my wishes,” he said, “then I can do whatever it takes to get you out of that seat and put handcuffs on you.”

Sheriff criticizes law on disrupting school

Houck said the officer shouldn’t have been called in to deal with the student in the first place.

“Too often, these teachers in these schools are calling on the cops because they have a disruptive student in the classroom,” he said. “This is not a cop’s job.”

But South Carolina has a law that muddles the role of school resource officers, the sheriff said.

“Unfortunately, our Legislature passed a law that’s called ‘disturbing schools,’ ” he said.

“If a student disturbs school — and that’s a wide range of activities, ‘disturbing schools’ — they can be arrested. Our goal has always been to see what we can do without arresting the kids. We don’t need to arrest these students. We need to keep them in schools.”

http://pix11.com/2015/10/28/report-deputy-shown-on-video-throwing-student-to-ground-will-be-fired/