DROP CHARGES AGAINST TEENS WHO PAINTED ANGEL, COP; CHARGE KILLER COPS WITH MURDER

Two Black teens face up to ten years in prison for painting mural likely depicting a child angel arresting the cop who killed her.

 19-year-old Black youths face up to 10 years in prison; preliminary exams Tues. Feb. 17, 9 AM 36th District Court, Judge Michael Wagner

Killer cop Joseph Weekley got off scott-free for killing Aiyana Jones, 7;  so have killers of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and dozens of others

Killings by police grow across country by leaps and bounds this winter, some cited in stories below:

• James Howard Allen, 74, Gastonia, N.C
• Kevin Davis, 44, Decatur, GA
• Antonio Zambano-Montes, Pasco, WS
• Izzy Colon, Orlando, FL
• Brian Fritze, Grand Junction, CO

By Diane Bukowski

February 10, 2015

Editorial

DETROIT – The local mainstream media and Detroit police have perpetrated an outrage against two Black teens who allegedly painted an apropos depiction of a Black child angel arresting a white police officer on the side of the Youthville  building at Woodward and Grand Boulevard, across from a police headquarters.

“It was a shocking image that has a community stunned, disgusted, and sickened,” Detroit’s Channel 7 News reported. It mistakenly said the building was a “school.” In fact it houses various “non-profit” youth-directed organizations. It was constructed after the closings of literally hundreds of public recreation centers and schools across Detroit.

Since the Black child was an angel, the child was obviously dead. This author interpreted the mural to mean that the child was exacting justice against her killer.

Shortly before the discovery of the mural, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway dismissed all charges against Detroit killer cop Joseph Weekley Jan. 30. Weekley shot Aiyana Stanley-Jones, 7, in the head with an MP5 submachine gun May 16, 2010, killing her, during a horrific SWAT-style raid on her home.

The teens who allegedly painted the mural, Taylor Daramy, 19, of Southfield, and Marcelus Gray, 19, of Lathrup Village, were arrested Feb. 3. They face felony charges that carry up to 10 years in prison, “Malicious Destruction of a Building, $1,000 to $20,000,” and “Malicious Destruction of a Building, $200.00 – less than $1,000.”

Maria Miller, Communications Chief for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, said the preliminary exam for Taylor Daramy is scheduled for February 17, 2015 at 9:15 a.m. before Judge Michael E. Wagner.  The exam for Marcelus Gray is scheduled for February 17, 2015 at 9:00 a.m. She said no judge is yet indicated for Gray, but it is likely also Judge Wagner. Wagner was recently appointed to the 36th District Court by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder.

 

 

Three white Grosse Pointe Woods teens, Mackenzie Lynn Snitgen, 17, Estebella Mary Meteer, 18, and Mary Elizabeth Harder, 17 defaced a building owned by Dan Gilbert last year with obscene graffiti, but were charged with misdemeanors and got probation, with community service. Meanwhile, other grossly ugly graffiti consumes the city like wildfire without investigation or retaliation.

“We’ve had enough murders this year and we don’t need to be extolling that,” Ron Scott, of the Detroit  Coalition Against Police Brutality, Inc./Peace Zones for Life, told Channel 7 about the angel and the cop.

He went on, “The fact that somebody has the audacity to actually deface a building, trying to raise the consciousness of youths by putting something out there like that. That just reflects the kind of mentality that we don’t need. We don’t need it in law enforcement and we certainly don’t need it with people in the street.”

Apparently Scott has divorced himself from support for the heroic youth of Ferguson and other cities across the U.S. who rose up VIOLENTLY against rampant murders of Black youth, largely by white cops. Those murders have continued unabated, while grand juries exonerate the killer cops responsible.

This is open warfare—this is NOT time for “Peace Zones for Life” and egregious criticism of two youths who committed no violence, but only depicted angelic justice against a killer cop, criticism that likely abetted the charges against the teens.

Ever since the killings of the two New York police officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, last year, the mainstream media by and large has done an about face on its coverage of continuing murders by police. The fact that Jerame Reid, 30, of New Jersey was shot to death with his hands up Dec. 30 was not reported until weeks later. Just yesterday, police in Gastonia, South Carolina, shot and killed a 74-year-old man recovering from surgery in his home.

Extended video of Tamir Rice killing and police assault on his sister above

Meanwhile, the wait stretches on and on to see what a grand jury will decide in the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio, and the abuse and arrest of his 14-year-old sister as she ran to aid her brother. A coalition has formed here in Detroit to protest a possible “no-bill” verdict.

A coalition SHOULD be forming to protest the dismissal of charges against Detroit’s Joseph Weekley. Aiyana’s family is still suffering unbearable misery in the wake of the little girl’s death, and the sentencing of her father Charles Jones to prison for 40-60 years based largely on “jail-house snitch” testimony. Aiyana’s mother Dominika Jones just posted on Facebook today, “The sun’s not shining; I don’t even want to get up.”

Related:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/01/29/cops-kill-girls-charges-dismissed-in-death-of-aiyana-jones-7-two-teens-dead-in-colorado-texas/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/01/21/video-shows-nj-resident-jerame-reid-raised-hands-then-shot-by-bridgeton-cops-dec-30/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/11/25/cleveland-police-kill-12-year-old-tamir-rice-at-playground-protesters-block-freeways/

Family Asked Cops To Check On 74-Year-Old Vet After Surgery… They Broke In and Killed Him Instead 

Counter Currents

February 9, 2015

Gastonia, N.C. A family of a 74-year-old veteran was concerned about him after he got out of surgery. Due to work and other circumstances, they couldn’t check on him yet, so they called the police to ask them if they could do a “welfare check.” Now, officials in North Carolina are launching an investigation to figure out why police officers broke into the man’s house and killed him, instead of checking on him.

Officer Josh Lafevers of the Gastonia Police Department shot and killed the elderly James Howard Allen on Saturday afternoon, according to The Charlotte Observer.

An officer arrived to Allen’s home around 10:20 pm on Saturday, but when he didn’t receive an answer at the door, he decided to break in.

The Gastonia Fire Department and Gaston Emergency Medical Services were contacted by 11:30 p.m. and a “decision was made to enter the house, concerned that he may be inside in need of emergency assistance,” Helton explained.

Gastonia’s Police Chief Robert Helton told us that Officer Josh Lefevers had announced himself before breaking in through the back door of the house, but Allen was inside and had armed himself with a firearm.

He was challenged to lower the gun down,” Helton claims. But what he seems unaware of is the fact that the 74-year-old man was on lots of post-surgery medication. He likely could have slept through the officer knocking on the door, and thought that burglars had broken into his house.

“The gun was pointed in the direction of the officers, and a shot was fired that fatally wounded him.”

Now, Allen’s family is demanding answers.

“(He) probably woke up, someone’s breaking in on me, so when you’re by yourself you try to protect yourself,” Robert Battle, Allen’s brother-in-law, said in an interview with WSOC.

“You kicked the man’s door in,” Otis Thompson, a friend of Allen’s said. “He’s disoriented and he’s in his own house, privacy of his own home.”

FOR 2 DAYS, GEORGIA POLICE DENIED FAMILY VISITS TO DYING MAN THEY KILLED

By Jon Swaine

February 12, 2015

Girlfriend attacked by intruder, Davis called police

Police shoot pet dog on arrival; Davis thinks intruder had returned

Davis handcuffed to hospital bed despite paralysis from gunshots

Police to sister after death: “I guess you can go to Grady (hospital) now”

(VOD editor: Kevin Davis was shot by Decatur police Dec. 29, and died two days later. Why is this just now making mainstream national/world news?)

DECATUR, GA — Police in Georgia are to review why a man who was fatally shot by an officer at his home was handcuffed to his hospital bed for the last two days of his life and barred from visits by his family, who allege that he was isolated to stop him disclosing full details of the shooting.

Kevin Davis was detained at Grady hospital in Atlanta after being shot three times by a DeKalb County police officer on Dec. 29, who was responding to a 911 call made by Davis and his girlfriend when she was stabbed by another man at their apartment in the suburb of Decatur.

His sister, Delisa, spent his final hours begging police to allow her to see him, but they refused until he died. “They denied us access to him because they didn’t want him telling us what really happened that night,” she told the Guardian. In his last known remarks, Davis told a medic that an officer simply arrived at his home “and began shooting”.

Davis had been arrested and charged with aggravated assault against the police officer, Joseph Pitts, because he allegedly ignored an order to drop a revolver he was holding. Davis’s girlfriend, April Edwards, said he grabbed the unloaded gun and approached their front door after their dog was shot and they feared that her attacker may have returned with a gun.

Pitts shot Davis in disputed circumstances. Police have said that Davis approached Pitts, who was in the corridor outside the apartment, shouting: “You shot my dog.” Pitts had shot the three-legged pitbull dead [named Totter] later alleging it “charged” at him after he opened the door to Davis’s apartment. Police also said Pitts ordered Davis twice to “put down the gun”.

But according to hospital files obtained by the Guardian, after arriving by ambulance Davis told an emergency room medic in his last known remarks “that police came to his house after there was an altercation with his girlfriend and began shooting”.

His family’s attorneys said witnesses did not hear Davis say anything to the officer, and that the 44-year-old did not even make it past the threshold to his apartment. They said neighbours recalled hearing shots fired almost instantly after an order to drop the revolver.

Hospital officials confirmed that relatives were able to visit patients in custody if the law enforcement agency involved granted permission. The DeKalb County sheriff’s office, which was responsible for Davis during his stay in hospital, said it granted permission “in the most grave situations”, yet Davis’s family was refused access even as he deteriorated fatally.

Despite being instantly paralysed by one of Pitt’s bullets, Davis was handcuffed to his bed to prevent a possible escape. “From the time I found out he had been shot, I was calling Grady, I was calling De Kalb County, and I couldn’t get anybody to give me a straight answer or let me see him,” said his sister. “They just gave me the runaround.”

Police have not said how many times he was shot. His sister said she was told by doctors that they had found three bullets in his body – one lodged in his spine, one in his stomach and another in an arm. Medical reports from the hospital detail five separate wounds.

Delisa Davis said that when she was told that her brother had “expired” on 31 December, a detective told her: “I guess you can go to Grady now”. She said: “It was just so callous, like they weren’t dealing with humans.” Davis’s case has only come to light in recent days after his family belatedly recruited attorneys.

The DeKalb County sheriff, Jeffrey Mann, said in a statement that his department “routinely restrain arrestees, generally with handcuffs” in the interests of “the safety of the public and inmates” in their custody.

“It is also our practice not to allow inmate visitation except in the most grave situations, and then with the confirmation of that condition by the medical professionals at the facility,” said Mann. “Tragically, Mr Davis succumbed to his wounds while being treated at Grady Hospital. In the interest of transparency, however, we will review the circumstances regarding his condition and any visitation requests.”

Denise Simpson, a spokeswoman for Grady hospital, said she could not discuss specific detention methods used on patients in custody “as procedures may vary based on patient conditions, medical treatments required, etc.”

“Grady policy requires that anyone wishing to visit a custody patient contact the appropriate law enforcement agency and obtain approval from that agency,” said Simpson. “That agency then notifies our staff if visitation is approved.”

PASCO, WASH. POLICE KILL MEXICAN NATIVE ANTONIO ZAMBANO-MONTES FOR THROWING ROCKS

Niece shows photo of Antonio Zambrono Montes during protest.

 

February 11, 2014

PASCO, Wash. (AP) — Officers killed a man accused of hurling rocks in the fourth fatal police shooting since last summer, a death that is shaking this agricultural city of 68,000 in southeastern Washington and drawing criticism from as far away as Mexico.

The killing Tuesday of orchard worker Antonio Zambrano-Montes sparked protests after witnesses said he was running away when he was shot in a busy intersection in Pasco, a city about 215 miles southeast of Seattle.

Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department on Thursday condemned the shooting of the man raised in that country. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said he was monitoring the situation.

“We are going to need to get to the bottom of understanding the circumstances of this,” the governor said. “There will be, and needs to be, a very complete assessment of all of the circumstances of what happened here.”

Franklin County Coroner Dan Blasdel, whose office was conducting an autopsy on Zambrano-Montes, said he was considering convening an inquest jury to look into the death.

“We don’t want another Ferguson here in Pasco,” Blasdel told The Seattle Times, referring to the unrest that followed the Aug. 9 killing of an unarmed black man in Ferguson, Missouri, and a grand jury’s decision not to indict the white officer who shot him.

But the coroner says he won’t decide until the investigation wraps up.

“This was really not a racial issue,” Pasco Police Chief Bob Metzger told KING-TV of Seattle. The chief met for two hours with Zambrano-Montes’ relatives.

“Three police officers against one man throwing a rock?” an aunt, Angela Zambrano, said to The Times. “This was murder in cold blood.”

Police say Zambrano-Montes’ threatening behavior led officers to open fire. The 35-year-old threw multiple rocks, hitting two officers, and refused to put down other stones. They say a stun gun failed to subdue him.

Below is bystander video of killing

He had a run-in with Pasco police early last year, having been arrested for assault after throwing objects at officers and trying to grab an officer’s pistol, court records show.

The shooting launched protests, and demonstrators say they will gather again Saturday.

Meanwhile, a handful of people showed up at Pasco City Hall on Thursday to support police.

“It’s important for these officers to know the entire community is not out to get them,” Chris Black, an Army veteran, told the Tri-City Herald.

The police chief has appealed for patience during an investigation and an internal review.

“The officers are … on administrative leave — until they are reviewed and everything is done, they will not be back to work,” he said. “It’s important we get the right information.”

Some people who saw the shooting videotaped the confrontation.

In one recording, five “pops” are audible shortly after the video begins, and the man can be seen running away, across a street and down a sidewalk, pursued by three officers. As the officers draw closer to the running man, he stops, turns around and faces them. Multiple “pops” are heard and the man falls to the ground.

In three previous fatal police shootings in Pasco, prosecutors cleared officers with the Pasco Police Department and a sheriff’s deputy who was working on a regional SWAT team.

Zambrano-Montes was raised in Michoacan, Mexico, and has lived for about a decade in Pasco, where more than half the residents are Hispanic.

In its statement, Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department called the shooting one of the “events in which unwarranted use has been made of lethal force.”

The department said it was helping Zambrano-Montes’ family “with the aim of ensuring that all available legal avenues are explored and taken to their fullest extent.”

Family members told the Tri-City Herald that Zambrano-Montes battled depression after being separated from his two teen daughters.

“He was a kind person, family-oriented,” his cousin, Blanca Zambrano, told the newspaper. “He was hard-working.”

DOCUMENTS: ORLANDO POLICE INVOLVED IN SHOOTING DISCIPLINED BEFORE

By John W. Davis, Reporter News 13

February 12, 2015

ORLANDO, FLA — Internal affairs documents show two undercover Orlando Police drug detectives, who shot and killed one man and shot at another, have been disciplined before by the agency.

The shooting took place last week at the Palmas Altas apartments off Pershing Avenue in Orlando, after detectives say the two suspects were firing guns.

Officers confronted 37-year-old Izzy Colon and Ricardo Caban. Colon was killed. Caban remains at the Orange County Jail on charges of reckless display of a firearm and possession of a firearm.

According to the in the internal affairs documents News 13 uncovered, Detective Yong Hall has been with Orlando Police for 8 years and with the drug unit since last July.

He was part of another officer-involved shooting in Parramore in 2012. 

His use of force against a car theft suspect was justified by investigators. They said who said the suspect pointed a gun at officers and, fearing for his life, Hall fired three shots.

We’ve learned Detective Hall has been disciplined twice, including for being short $20 out of $112that was being placed into evidence.

He was also called out last year by then-Deputy Chief John Mina, who is now the chief of police, for what Mina considered excessive force for using a takedown technique Mina didn’t think was necessary.

However, Detective Hall’s takedown was ultimately approved by department standards and that case was closed and Hall was exonerated.

Meanwhile, Detective Amanda White has been with Orlando Police for six years and with the drug unit since last November.

Several complaints have been filed against White.  

In most cases, she has been exonerated, except one in February 2013, when her supervisor counseled her for not writing an incident report when she learned of an allegation of domestic violence during an unrelated traffic stop.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is still investigating last week’s officer-involved shooting. 

Detective White and Detective Hall are on paid administrative leave.  

Izzy Colon GoFundme page at http://www.gofundme.com/m190i4

DAD SAYS I 70 SHOOTING MAY BE SUICIDE BY COP

Feb. 13, 2015 

 The Daily Sentinel

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — A man shot and killed by authorities along Interstate 70 in western Colorado struggled with drugs and alcohol and may have wanted to be killed by law enforcement, his father told a newspaper.

Brian Fritze, 45, of Parachute died Tuesday following a chase after he was accused of beating an unidentified woman.

After being stopped west of Glenwood Springs, he first pointed a handgun at his head and then was shot by one or both Garfield County sheriff’s deputies at the scene as he walked toward I-70 with a gun, authorities said.

His father, Melvin “Skip” Fritze of Norman, Oklahoma, told The Daily Sentinel (http://bit.ly/1zROWb7) in a story Thursday that his son had struggled with alcohol and drugs during periods of his life and recently returned to using amid marital problems.

Brian Fritze served time in prison in Oklahoma for assault and battery and, after moving to Garfield County, he was arrested multiple times on offenses including driving under the influence. In December, he was arrested on misdemeanor offenses related to domestic violence.

Melvin Fritze said his son had said he didn’t want to go back to prison.

“Personally, I feel that he let the law enforcement people do the job he couldn’t do,” Melvin Fritze said.

He said his son worked concrete and drilling jobs in Colorado and had good drug-free periods in his life.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is probing the shooting. The two unidentified deputies are on paid administration leave.