Police: More and More Juveniles Sexting

Police in Dallas are investigating a case in which a 12-year-old was caught with so-called sext messages on his cellphone.

THE HUTCHINSON REPORT: Do police rush to judgment when they investigate themselves?

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Inglewood, California Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks faces a dilemma that many big city police chiefs face when their officer’s gun down unarmed civilians under dubious circumstances, and those civilians in almost all cases are young African Americans or Latinos.

In this case the victim was 19 year-old Michael Byoune.


The deep suspicion is that police routinely bend, twist and massage testimony and evidence to whitewash and ultimately exonerate officers.


The way to counter that is to conduct a thorough and honest investigation and if the officer(s) are found guilty of wrongdoing impose swift punishment.


But that almost always draws loud protests from police unions and some city officials.

The Byoune killing by any standard was a bad shooting. In fact, it evoked instant comparisons to the killing of bride-groom-to-be Sean Bell by NYPD officers in 2007. Bell, like Byoune, was a young African-American male. Bell and Byoune were unarmed. There is no indication that he, like Bell, was involved in any gang or criminal involvement. From tapes and news clips, Inglewood police officers riddled the car that Byoune was in with bullet holes. The car Bell was in was also riddled with gunfire.

COMMENTARY....

Commentary: Surprise, Surprise -- Black and Brown Youths Unfairly Targeted by NYPD Stop-and-Frisk Policies

By: Tonyaa Weathersbee, BlackAmericaWeb.com

The more I read the news coming out of the Big Apple these days, the more I’m beginning to believe that young black people there aren’t as much of a threat to the police as they are a mark for them.

First there was Sean Bell. The unarmed, 23-year-old died after police unleashed a storm of 50 bullets at him and his friends outside of a Jamaica, Queens nightclub in November 2006.

The three detectives, who recently were found not guilty on manslaughter charges stemming from that shooting, apparently thought that the only way to stop any potential for gunplay among young black men was to simply beat them to the punch; to kill them all first. And count on an acquittal later.

COMMENTARY....

Four Cops to Be Fired Over Taped Beating

By: Maryclaire Dale, Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA - (AP) Philadelphia's police commissioner said Monday that four officers will be fired and four others disciplined for their roles in the beatings of three shooting suspects, an encounter that was captured on videotape and drew widespread outrage.

Another eight officers who had physical contact with the suspects will undergo additional training on the department's policies concerning the use of force, Commissioner Charles Ramsey said. He said the police department made the disciplinary decisions after reviewing frames from enhanced tape of a video shot by a television news helicopter on May 5.

ARTICLE....

50 Shots: The Sean Bell Demonstrations

Max Blumenthal takes us to the streets of Queens, where New Yorkers vent their rage against the Sean Bell verdict, a travesty of justice with implications in the presidential campaign.

AL SHARPTON VS. CHICAGO POLICE

Rev. Al Sharpton has turned his attention toward the Chicago police department and its longstanding allegations of brutality, just as the city prepares to mount a campaign to host the 2016 Olympics.


The activist has given Mayor Richard Daley until Dec. 29 to respond to a series of recommendations Sharpton announced Monday to reform the police department. If no contact is made by the deadline, Sharpton said he will make good on his threat to lobby against the city's Olympic bid by launching an international press tour featuring victims allegedly abused by Chicago cops.


"The Olympics can be a point of leverage for people in this city that have not been able to get direct action by the city fathers," said Sharpton, president of the National Action Network.


Sharpton recommended that the U.S. Justice Department take control of the city's police force; that the city reject Daley's choice for police superintendent, J.P. "Jody" Weiss, because of what Sharpton called a lack of community input into his selection; and that the head of the Independent Police Review Authority be prohibited from speaking publicly about misconduct cases until agency investigations are completed.

When asked about Sharpton's threats at an unrelated news conference, Daley said, "He can do that; that is part of America."

Chicago beat out several other U.S. cities to become the U.S. Olympic Committee's nominee for the 2016 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee will pick the host city in 2009.


• Chicago's police department has been beset by claims that officers abused their positions. Four inmates were recently awarded almost $20 million between them to settle lawsuits claiming they had been tortured by a former lieutenant into falsely confessing to crimes.

• In July, prosecutors accused officers of torturing suspects in the 1980s.

• In September, four special operations members were charged with robbery, kidnapping and making false arrests.

• The department has also has been embarrassed by other accusations of brutality — some caught on tape, including the alleged beating of a female bartender by an off-duty officer.

AL SHARPTON ISSUES ULTIMATUM TO CHICAGO OFFICIALS

On Monday, Rev. Al Sharpton issued a series of recommendations for reforming the Chicago police department as he repeated his threat to lobby against the city's Olympic bid.

If he doesn't hear from Mayor Richard Daley before Dec. 29, Sharpton said, he will announce a date when he and people alleging police abuse will leave for an international tour to tell their stories.

"The Olympics can be a point of leverage for people in this city that have not been able to get direct action by the city fathers," said Sharpton, president of the civil rights group National Action Network.

Sharpton recommended that the U.S. Justice Department take control of the city's police force; that the city reject Mayor Daley's choice for police superintendant, J.P. "Jody" Weiss, because of what Sharpton called a lack of community input into his selection; and that the head of the Independent Police Review Authority be prohibited from speaking publicly about misconduct cases until agency investigations are completed.

CHICAGO'S $20 MILLION SETTLEMENT TO BLACK MEN

Did the Chicago police department have a practice of torturing confessions out of Black men during the 1970s and 1980s?

In essence, that is the accusation currently facing the city and it appears that before this week is over city aldermen will approve a $20 million settlement with four Black men who spent years in prison after allegedly being forced to confess to crimes they did not commit.

The four are among scores of Black men who have reported being beaten, tortured and even suffocated by police officials during the 1970s and 1980s.

A special prosecutor has agreed with many of the allegations. The four men scheduled to receive the settlements had been sitting on death row until former Governor George Ryan pardoned them in 2003.

"We have to acknowledge first that terrible wrongs were committed, then begin to make amends to those who were wronged," Alderman Toni Preckwinkle said, referring to the settlement. "Those wronged could've included dozens of men - virtually all of them Black and some still lingering in prison."