Police dog mauls Phillip White, Black N.J. man, to death after cops beat him March 31
“Anonymous” forces Vineland police to release names
April 11, 2015
Police in Vineland, New Jersey confirmed the identities of two officers involved in the March 31 death of 32-year-old Phillip White. They also confirmed a third policeman who was involved after they were outed by the hacker collective Anonymous.
Phillip White, 43, of Vineland, N.J. beaten and mauled to death March 31, 2015 by police and dog.
White died after being punched and kicked by the officers, and bitten multiple times by a police dog, during his arrest on March 31.
Calling the actions of the officers “absolutely grotesque,” Anonymous threatened to release the names and personal information of the officers, as well as other local officials, unless the Vineland Police Department suspended the officers involved and released their names and the dash-cam footage to the public.
By Tuesday afternoon, the hacker group posted the names, addresses and phone numbers of two officers, Louis Platania and Jeffrey Travaline. Later in the day, the Vineland PD Chief Timothy Codispoti confirmed the names and added that of a third officer, Rich Janasiak.
Chief Codispoti denied the threats by Anonymous prompted the disclosure, however, he did say the names were initially withheld following a request by the prosecutor’s office. He added that the Vineland Police Department was planning to release the names at the same time as the recording of the 911 call and police dispatches of the incident that resulted in White’s death, which they did Tuesday afternoon.
“What we’re interested in is the truth,” Codispoti said. “That’s what we want, it’s what the family wants. We want the truth of what occurred here. That includes the actions of everyone involved.”
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Stuart Alterman, the attorney hired by the police union to represent the officers, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he believed the toxicology report would show that White had been on PCP and other drugs. He said the drugs, rather than police violence, were to blame for White’s death.
Witnesses have claimed that the cops were punching White and that a K-9 dog was biting him in the face while he was laying on the ground. White’s family is demanding an independent investigation, and the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office is looking into White’s death.
White was the 290th person to be killed by police in America in the first 90 days of 2015, according to the website, www.killedbypolice.net.
“FUCK YOUR BREATH”
Eric Harris, Black, of Tulsa OK killed on ground by white wannabe cop, 73
Robert Bates charged only with 2nd degree manslaughter
“Oh, I shot him, I’m sorry”–Bates; “Fuck your breath”–other cop as Harris says he cannot breathe, takes dying breath
Bates claims he accidentally used gun instead of taser
Unpaid Oklahoma deputy who killed suspect is big donor to police
Brothers Andre and Eric Harris
The family of an unarmed Oklahoma man fatally shot by an elderly reserve deputy claims officials tried to conceal the circumstances surrounding the death.
Andre Harris, brother of 44-year-old Eric Harris, claimed in an [April 13] Monday press conference that a deputy from the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office told him to not get a lawyer and also lied about his brother being under the influence of drugs when Robert Bates, 73, fired the fatal gunshot.
Flanked by lawyers, Andre Harris told reporters gathered in Tulsa that a sheriff’s office representative, identified by attorney Dan Smollen as Officer Bill McKelby, admitted to him that a mistake was made.
“We know what happened to your brother, we apologize,” Andre Harris recalled the officer saying. “You don’t have a lawyer, do you?”
Killer wannabe cop Robert Bates turns himself in on charge of 2nd degree manslaughter
When the grief-stricken man replied no, he was advised against finding representation.
“Doesn’t everybody get a lawyer when they’re in this situation?” Andre Harris recalled asking.
“We want to make this right because when we make mistakes, we man up, we do the right thing,” the officer told Andre Harris. “You sit by the phone and wait for that call, we’re gonna make it right.”
The cop further warned Andre Harris: “If you hire a lawyer, it will gum things up. It will slow things down. We want to make this right.”
Smollen then explained that Bates, who was charged Monday with second-degree manslaughter, did not give a statement about the incident until at least four days later and while in the presence of an attorney who is also a former cop.
The lawyer also held up both a .357 magnum – the handgun from which the fatal shot was discharged – and a yellow stun gun.
Atty. Andre Smollen shows handgun (l) and taser (r).
“There is absolutely no way, if Mr. Bates had been trained at all … that an officer who is trained would never get these two weapons confused,” Smollen insisted.
Video made public over the weekend does not show the lethal shot, but the sound of a gun firing can be heard shortly before Eric Harris repeatedly screams about being shot.
Officers later claimed that Eric Harris was high on the drug PCP when apprehended shortly after he fled on foot during a gun-buying sting.
Both Smollen and Andre Harris claim the assertion of drug use was a lie and that medical records will prove them right.
Multiple phone messages left by Business Insider seeking comment from the Tulsa Sheriff’s Office have yet to be returned.
In this Thursday, April 9, 2015 photo, front row, from left, Don Smolen, Andre Harris, Aidan Fraley and Dan Smolen, and back row, from left, Fred Moon, Rakim Dean, Sheila Dak-Harris, Elijah Dean and pastor Bill Davis, appear during a news conference at the attorneys’ office of Smolen, Smolen and Roytman about their family member and friend, Eric Harris, who was killed April 2 by a reserve Tulsa County deputy in Tulsa, Okla. (Stephen Pingry/Tulsa World via AP)
(Excerpt) In a written statement, Tulsa County District Attorney Stephen A. Kunzweiler said Bates, is charged with second-degree manslaughter involving culpable negligence. It’s a felony charge that could land the volunteer deputy in prison for up to four years if he’s found guilty.
Eric Harris with son Aidan Finley
Scott Wood, an attorney who represents Bates, said the shooting [of Eric Harris] was an “excusable homicide.”
“We believe the video itself proves that it was an accident of misfortune that occurred while Deputy Bates was fulfilling his duties as a reserve deputy,” Wood said. “He is not guilty of second-degree manslaughter.”
Investigators’ efforts to defend Bates and the other deputies involved in the arrest have sparked a mounting chorus of criticism online. Harris’ family is demanding an independent investigation of what they call unjustified brutality.
They’re also questioning why the 73-year-old Bates — the CEO of an insurance company who volunteers as a certified reserve deputy — was on the scene in such a sensitive and high-risk sting operation.
Attorney: Deputy was donor who ‘paid big money to play a cop’
Killer cop Robert Bates
Daniel Smolen, an attorney representing the Harris family, said Bates paid big money to play a cop in his spare time.
“It’s absolutely mind boggling that you have a wealthy businessman who’s been essentially deputized to go play like he’s some outlaw, like he’s just cleaning up the streets,” he said.
Tulsa County Sheriff cars
Wood said his client — who had donated cars and video equipment to the Sheriff’s Office — had undergone all the required training and had participated in more than 100 operations with the task force he was working with the day he shot Harris. But he’d never been the main deputy in charge of arresting a suspect, Wood said, but was thrust into the situation because Harris ran from officers during the arrest. . . .He was also a frequent contributor to the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office, including $2,500 to the reelection of Sheriff Stanley Glanz. . . .
Brother of deceased: ‘He was nonviolent’
Andre Harris told reporters Monday that claims his brother was violent and on PCP are false.
New York City protest for Eric Garner
“He was nonviolent, he was peaceful, he was loving, he was caring, and he was my brother that I’ll never see again ’til I see him in heaven,” Harris told reporters, accusing the sheriff’s office of trying to persuade him not to hire an attorney and quickly make the case “go away.”
He added that the shooting of his brother, who was African-American, wasn’t a racial matter.
“I don’t think this is a racial thing. I don’t think this has anything to do with race. It might have a hint there somewhere. … This is simply evil,” Andre Harris told reporters Monday.
“This is a group of people that’s spent a lot of time together, spent money together. … They’ve gotten real comfortable with how they do things, which when you’re the law, I guess you feel like you can do things and get away with it and not get exposed.
“Well, we’ve come to expose it. We’ve come to pull a mask off the evil. We’ve come to shine a light on the darkness.”
CNN’s Ed Lavandera and Jason Morris reported from Tulsa. CNN’s Catherine E. Shoichet reported from Atlanta. CNN’s Atika Shubert, Chandler Friedman and Eliott C. McLaughlin contributed to this report.
