Looks likes it time for the public to take back control of law enforcement - the police are not listening to public concerns, and the list of outragous offenses just keeps climbing and getting more and more violent.

Wild Police Shooting Caught On Tape, But Suspect May Have Been Unarmed

May 9, 2005 6:41 p.m. EST


JASEN LEE, All Headline News Staff Reporter

Compton, CA (AHN) – Authorities in the Los Angeles suburb of Compton are investigating a shooting that leaves a suspect and a sheriff’s deputy with gunshot wounds, but the suspect appears to have been unarmed.

Officials say no weapon was found on the suspect after police opened fire in a residential neighborhood following an [alleged] "high speed" chase.

An investigation is underway to determine what prompted as many as ten officers to fire approximately 95 shots into an SUV wounding the suspect who is now in stable condition at a local hospital.

One resident says, "It was gunshots at the OK Corral."

The incident was videotaped by an amateur photographer. [See Video here from CTV in Vancouver]

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca says, "We are going to look at every aspect of this shooting, we are going to examine the intensity of what occurred, we are going to examine our policy obviously."

Car shown stationary and blocked by police car just moments before police fired OVER one hundred twenty (120) bullets at vehicle in residential neighbourhood. House in background of above pictures was one of many houses hit by numerous stray bullets, as was one of the officers at the scene. The suspect was only hit four times and is expected to survive. It is still unclear what lead all these officers to start shooting, but as experience would indicate, the police will have a handy excuse of some kind in the next few days, even though they now confirm that the suspect was indeed unarmed.

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/2231356928

HOUSTON— about 75 people gathered in front of Burnham Woods Apartment complex November 24 for a candlelight vigil and picket near the spot where Eli Escobar, 14, had been killed by a police bullet three days earlier.

Protesters noted that Escobar was the second Latino teenage boy to die at the hands of the Houston Police Department in the space of just three weeks. The other was Jose Vargas, 15, shot dead on October 31.

Escobar died instantly at 5:30 p.m. after having his head nearly shot off by Houston cop Arthur Carbonneau. Together with his fellow cop, Ronald Olivo, Carbonneau had chased the youth and pinned his legs to the ground.

Houston Police Officers’ Union lawyer Aaron Suder tried to defend Carbonneau by saying that the "gun fired accidentally". Carbonneau has been "relieved of duty" but is receiving full pay. [Perhaps to update his gun safety skill?]

“It was so unnecessary,” eyewitness Jesse Rodriguez told the November 25 Houston Chronicle. Rodriguez had accompanied the cops to the scene after reporting that another youth had punched his son. “They ignored me when I was telling them who had assaulted my son,” he said. “They were too busy simply roughing up Eli, who had nothing to do with the assault.”

Rodriguez said that as the cops seized Escobar, “he was saying, ‘Help me! Help me! I didn’t do anything. What did I do?’ They had no mercy on him, no compassion.”

Another witness, 14-year-old Jose Salmeron, told the Chronicle, “There was no need to pull out a gun. It was two full-grown men against a scrawny teenager.”

“They’re killing our children,” stated Diane Bossom of Copwatch, an anti-police brutality organization. “Everybody in Houston should be demanding justice for this.” 

A shrine with candles and pictures marked the spot where he died.

Ann Marie Tesche said that her daughter Cynthia, was a classmate of Escobar at Black Middle School. “They need to put these cops on trial like any other criminals, and convict them,” she said. Participants carried hand-lettered signs reading, “Stop Killing Our Kids”; “Jail the Killer Cops”; “Justice Now!” and “Cruising = HPD [Houston Police Department] Death Penalty.” The latter was a specific reference to the killing of Jose Vargas on October 31.

The youth had been driving his car lawfully through the parking lot of the local AMC cinema complex when he was ordered to stop by Richard Butler, an off-duty cop. Butler pulled out his revolver and stuck it through the SUV’s open window. He claims that the weapon discharged when the vehicle lurched forward. Vargas was pronounced dead at Ben Taub Hospital.

On November 19 Vargas’s family members and supporters rallied at the theatre parking lot to call for the investigation and prosecution of Butler, who continues to remain on duty.

_________________

Protester Shot [in face] with Rubber Bullets Shows Police Disconnect, Brutality

Officer allegedly draws weapon on 7-year-old girl

“I said, ‘What’s the problem, officer?’ and he said ‘Get your hands up,’” wrote Lawton in a prepared statement. “He repeated, pulled out his gun and pointed into the passenger side of the window where my youngest daughter was trying to get her seatbelt off. So, I put my hands up.”
 

 

People who assume action is being taken to properly investigate the apparent murder of two teenagers by Police "should not hold their breath". So stated an employee for the FBI who refused to be identified.

The FBI recently claimed it is looking into the recent shooting deaths of two teenage boys at the hands of Houston police officers.

Bob Doguim, Houston FBI spokesman, said the agency initiated separate so-called "fact-finding missions", into the deaths of Eli Escobar Jr., 14, on Friday, and Jose Vargas Jr., 15, on Halloween night.

"The pair of inquiries doesn't mean there has been any kind of "civil rights violations by police," Doguim said. "It just means we have determined circumstances are such that it deserves a review."

Witnesses, family members and the police officers involved in each incident "could be" interviewed. Doguim said the agency's review of the shootings "is not an official investigation."

The agency will forward its results of the inquiries to the Department of Justice, which ultimately will decide whether to conduct an investigation of civil rights violations, but not as to whether there was criminal police conduct.

When contacted, two Houston Police Department spokesmen said they were not even aware of the so-called inquiry.

"I haven't heard anything about it, but I know in the past the FBI did it as a matter of procedure," said department spokesman Alvin Wright.

The undisclosed FBI source stated "this is the standard procedure in trying to white wash these types of shootings". Many officers still carry "throw downs" which they plant on suspects after they are fatally shot without apparent just cause. However, when witness are involved and there is this kind of media attention, we have to make it look like we are really doing a thorough and impartial investigation. Our primary role, actually, is to maintain the appearance of trust between police and general public.

Chicago Police tried to block charges of below assault....

 

Off-Duty Cop Caught On Tape Beating Petite Female Bartender [Video at link]

Authorities: Anthony Abbate Punched And Kicked Female Bartender

 

(CBS) CHICAGO A woman was injured during a frightening attack and it was all caught

on tape. The attacker was an off-duty Chicago police officer who has now been charged.

CBS 2 Investigator Dave Savini reports.

Shocking surveillance video shows off-duty Chicago police officer Anthony Abbate, 38, a

12-year veteran of the force, brutally beating a female bartender.