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Georgia County Won’t Pay Medical Bills for Toddler Burned By Grenade in Botched Drug Raid. August 19, 2014 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Officials in a Georgia county are refusing to pay medical expenses for a toddler badly injured during a police raid on the home where the boy was staying. Bounkham Phonesavanh was hospitalized for weeks in a burn unit after a SWAT officer tossed a flash grenade into his crib during a no-knock raid May 28 in Habersham County.

The 19-month-old suffered serious wounds, including a hole in his chest that exposed his ribs, and burns to his face and chest when the grenade detonated just inches away from him as he slept. The grenades were developed for combat use and are intended to temporarily blind and deafen anyone nearby. “I heard my baby wailing and asked one of the officers to let me hold him,” the boy’s mother, Alecia Phonesavanh, told Salon. “The officers yelled at me to calm down and told me my son was fine, that he’d just lost a tooth,” his mother added. Ferguson or Iraq? Photos Unmask the Militarization of America's Police. Serendipitous: An Illuminating Conversation with a Key Witness to the Fatal Shooting in Ferguson. Dumbest Police Chief in America.

A SWAT team blew a hole in my 2-year-old son (UPDATE) How Lending A Friend Your Car, Then Going to Bed Can Land You a Life Prison Sentence. Photo Credit: Florida Department of Corrections; Screenshot / Wikimedia Commons April 9, 2014 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. This article originally appeared in The Nation, and is reprinted here with their permission.

Several years ago I read a piece in The New York Times by Adam Liptak about Ryan Holle. Exactly what did Ryan Holle do? A few years ago I was on a television show with the father of the girl who was murdered in the robbery attempt. Project ROSE Is Arresting Sex Workers in Arizona to Save Their Souls. Illustration by Molly Crabapple In May 2013, Monica Jones, a student and sex-work activist, was arrested for “manifesting prostitution” by the Phoenix police. Hers was one of more than 350 arrests carried out by Project ROSE in conjunction with Phoenix police since the program's inception in 2011. Project ROSE is a Phoenix city program that arrests sex workers in the name of saving them. In five two-day stings, more than 100 police officers targeted alleged sex workers on the street and online. They brought them in handcuffs to the Bethany Bible Church. There, the sex workers were forced to meet with prosecutors, detectives, and representatives of Project ROSE, who offered a diversion program to those who qualified.

In the Bethany Bible Church, those arrested were not allowed to speak to lawyers. In law enforcement, language goes through the looking glass. Project ROSE is the creation of Dr. “As a social worker, you’re supposed to see your clients as human beings,” Monica told me. Theater of Justice. Illustration by Molly Crabapple Last week, I sketched an evidentiary hearing for a woman named Cecily McMillan. Two years ago, I'd seen Cecily convulse in handcuffs as the police shut down an Occupy Wall Street protest. Cecily was an organizer. A plain-clothes cop had grabbed her breast from behind, hard enough to leave a bruise shaped like his handprint.

Instinctively, she elbowed him. The cops beat Cecily till they broke her ribs. Two years later, Cecily is charged with assaulting an officer. In that fake-wood courtroom in lower Manhattan, the judge told Cecily's lawyer the fact that her arresting officer had beaten up other people was not relevant to her case.

Courtrooms are a violent theater. In the past three years, I've sketched many courtrooms. The trials I've drawn have mostly been politically motivated. At Chelsea Manning's trial, her supporters wore shirts reading “Truth.” But the average defendant isn't a famous whistleblower. Yet America loves her trials. Was Tamerlan Tsarnaev a Double Agent Recruited by the FBI? By Peter Dale Scott on Jun 23, 2013 Amid the swirl of mysteries surrounding the alleged Boston bombers, one fact, barely touched upon in the mainstream U.S. media, stands out: There is a strong possibility that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older of the two brothers, was a double agent, perhaps recruited by the FBI.

If Tsarnaev was a double agent, he would be just one of thousands of young people coerced by the FBI, as the price for settling a minor legal problem, into a dangerous career as an informant. That he was so coerced is the easiest explanation for two seemingly incompatible incidents in his life: The first is that he returned to Russia in 2012, ostensibly to renew his Russian passport so he could file an application for US citizenship. The second is that Tsarnaev then jeopardized his citizenship application with conspicuous, provocative — almost theatrical — behavior that seemed more caricature than characteristic of a Muslim extremist.

False Notes Eric Schmitt and Michael S. Reddit. Oscar Grant Killer Found Semi-Guilty. Here's the latest news on the police shooting front: A jury found former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle guilty today of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the New Year's Day 2009 shooting of an unarmed train rider, finding that he had acted with criminal negligence when he fired a single shot into Oscar Grant's back at the Fruitvale Station in Oakland. Of course, this understates the case a wee bit. Mehserle, along with several others BART cops, had Grant pinned face first on the ground when he very deliberately pulled out his gun and shot Grant in the back. Mehserle's defense is that he meant to pull out his taser but mistakenly pulled out his gun instead. I hardly even know what to say about this. The jury can say what it wants, but it still looks to me like Mehserle decided on the spur of the moment to shoot Grant.

Florida Man Literally Arrested for Walking While Black. 3-Day Suspension for a Cop's Sexual Assault? Terrifying Impunity in TX Police. Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com/Yanik Chauvin February 7, 2014 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. AUSTIN (CN) - An Austin police officer sexually assaulted a woman in the back seat of his cruiser, and she's not the first one he molested, she claims in court. Jane Doe sued Austin, its police chief, and her alleged assailant, Officer Jackie Len Neal, in Federal Court. Doe claims Neal followed her for blocks on Nov. 22, 2013, then pulled her over and told her the car had been stolen.

Neal handcuffed her and searched the car for drugs - then he searched her, groping and fondling her, Doe says in the complaint. The lawsuit continues: "She yelled for him to stop, and demanded that a female officer be brought to the scene. Doe says the assault left her "troubled and discombobulated," and afraid for her life. The complaint adds: "It should be noted that, for reasons unknown, the dash camera in defendant Neal's vehicle was not functioning. Police Assault Teen So Violently During Search That His Testicles Burst. January 22, 2014 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email.

On January 7 in Philadelphia, 16-year-old Darrin Manning was on his way to play in a basketball game when police approached him and his teammates. What happened next is not exactly clear, but the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that "video shows Manning walking around the side of the wagon, where an officer appears to push him up against the vehicle. " "Later," the Inquirer wrote, Manning—a straight-A student with no criminal record—"can be seen on the ground in what [Police Commissioner Charles H.]

Manning's attorney Lewis Small told the Inquirer that after Manning's arrest, "a female officer grabbed the teen's genitals during a pat-down search and pulled, causing a testicle to rupture. " That a "pat-down search" could be so violent as to cause a boy's testicles to burst may seem like an anomaly. Darrin Manning has undergone surgery, but may no longer be able to father children. Why American Courtrooms Are Dangerous Places for Young Blacks. January 20, 2014 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Before leaving office last week, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell commuted Travion Blount's sentence of six life terms plus 118 years, to 40 years.

Blount had been convicted of taking part in an armed robbery that resulted in no serious injuries and netted him $60 and a few joints. Blount was 15 years old when the original sentence was handed down to him after a two-day trial in 2007. “On any measure, it's a positive step. How did a Virginia courtroom place a young teenager in a maximum-security prison with no chance of making it out alive? Virginia's incarceration rate is one of the highest in the country.

In 2006, 15-year-old Travion Blount decided to join two 18-year-old friends who were planning to rob a local drug dealer's home in Norfolk, Virginia. Coggeshall says Blount believed that because he was a juvenile, he could not be locked away past the age of 21. 10 Myths About the NSA Debunked. 16-Year-Old Jailed at Rikers for 3 Years Without Trial. November 25, 2013 | Like this article?

Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. A teen who spent three years in a notorious New York jail without ever having been convicted or put on trial is coming forward after filing a lawsuit against New York City. In June, charges against Kalief Browder were mysteriously dropped and he was released, as first reported by WABC-TV. Browder was a 16-year-old sophomore in high school walking home from a party in the Bronx when he was arrested on a tip that he robbed someone three weeks earlier.

“They just dismissed the case and they think it’s all right. Browder says he spent more than 400 days in solitary confinement, was deprived of meals, and was assaulted and beaten both by officers and fellow inmates. Browder’s story lays out a laundry list of some of the most prevalent problems with the criminal justice system. Nicole Flatow is the Deputy Editor of ThinkProgress Justice. 17-Year-Old Boy in Coma, Fighting for Life After Texas Cop Tasered Him For Breaking Up a School Fight. November 29, 2013 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. An Austin family is suing the Texas sheriff’s deputy and school district in federal court after their 17-year-old son was tasered last week by a police officer in the school hallway, leaving him in a coma and fighting for his life, Courthouse News reported.

Noe Nino de Rivera, had successfully stepped in to break up a fight between two girls at Cedar Creek High School when school officials called in Randy McMillan, a Bastrop County sheriff department deputy. McMillan told the boy to step back and the teen obliged, with his hands in the air. Yet, in a vicious act of police brutality, McMillan tasered the boy anyway, who fell onto his face and was knocked unconscious. Students who saw the incident say McMillan’s response was a gross overreaction, according to KXAN.

"There was a crowd watching and the kid was just trying to get the officers to listen to him. Mark Duggan inquest: Gun 'may have been flicked over fence' 18 November 2013Last updated at 09:36 ET Mark Duggan was shot dead in Tottenham in August 2011, sparking riots that spread across England Mark Duggan might have "flicked" a gun it is claimed he was holding over a fence in the seconds after he was shot, an inquest has been told. Professor Jonathan Clasper said Mr Duggan could have carried on moving for up to 10 seconds after being hit. He said a "reasonable" degree of force would have been needed to get the gun over the fence where it was found, about 22ft (7m) away from his body.

Firearms officers have said Mr Duggan was shot as they believed he was armed. None of the police officers who have already given evidence at the inquest have said they saw the gun going over the fence. Lost consciousness Mr Duggan was shot when the taxi in which he was travelling was stopped by armed police in Tottenham, north London, in August 2011, sparking riots across the city. "If he was shot whilst throwing he could have carried on," said Prof Clasper. New Mexico Police Spray Woman’s Vagina With Mace After Drug Arrest. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons November 26, 2013 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. A New Mexico woman was allegedly strip searched--and then had mace sprayed on her vagina, according to a federal lawsuit filed earlier this week. The alleged incident occurred two years ago.

Tapia was arrested for a probation violation linked to a separate drug case. The American Civil Liberties Union’s New Mexico chapter has taken up the case. Simonson says the spraying violated his client’s Constitutional rights and jail policy. The detention center refused to comment on the case, but confirmed that Blanca Zapater was a staff member and said she was disciplined over the mace spraying incident. 16-Year-Old Jailed at Rikers for 3 Years Without Trial. Cops Taser 14-Year-Old in the Face, They Say 'For His Safety' November 20, 2013 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. A Pennsylvania mother is planning to sue the Tullytown Police Department for allegedly torturing her 14-year-old son with a Taser while he was handcuffed, Raw Story reported.

Marissa Sargeant revealed graphic images of her son bruised, cut and swollen after he was arrested by police for shoplifting at Walmart, along with another relative. While she acknowledges that what her son did was wrong, she does not think he should have been brutalized by police. Yet, the police give a different account of how events transpired.

According to Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler, the Tullytown officers fired a Taser and hit the boy in the face after he escaped from their police car following his arrest. Heckler said that police yelled warnings at the teen and fired a stun gun to subdue him because they were “fearing for his safety,” NBC10 reported. Still, Sargeant isn’t buying it. Father arrested for odious crime of picking up his kids from school. A Tennessee father was hauled off to jail after he insisted on taking his son home from school on time, rather than waiting for another half an hour under a recently implemented school rule. Jim Howe, father of two children enrolled in South Cumberland Elementary in Crossville, Tennessee, arrived at the school on foot at dismissal time: 2:00 PM.

But a new school policy states that students may only leave at 2:00 PM if their parents are picking them up in cars. Walkers must wait until 2:35 PM. Howe maintained that the policy was meant to apply to students walking home by themselves, not students walking home with their parents. “You don’t need a reason as a parent to go get your children,” he told school officials. Avery Aytes, a sheriff deputy and school resource officer, was on hand to prevent Howes from leaving with his kids. “I’m going to call some help down here and we’re going to take you up to the jail right now,” said Aytes to Howes. “You’re trying to be difficult,” insisted Aytes. I Spent 5 Years in Solitary For Non-Violent, Absurd Infractions Like Having Too Many Postage Stamps.

I Was Raped, Left to Die, Harassed by My Classmates -- the Boy Who Did it Never Faced Justice. Fox News Under Fire for Guests' Victim Blaming: "I'm Not Saying She Deserved to Be Raped, But ..." The NSA Isn't Foiling Terrorist Plots. How the FBI Manipulates Grand Juries to Intimidate Political Dissidents and Radicals. Killed by Cops Over a Movie Ticket: How Police Hurt the Disabled. America's Police Are Looking More and More Like the Military.

Dash Cam Video Shows Florida Police Busting Up Woman's Face. How Massive Profits Are Being Made Out of Mexico's Bloody Drug War. Caught on Camera: Texas Cop Beats Up Whole Family Because the Son Was Speeding. Hospital Security Guard Beats the Hell Out of Kidney Patient, Who Just Tried to Leave After 9-Hour Wait, Victim and Daughter Claim.

Cops Are Beating Up an Unarmed Suspect Almost Every Day in Houston. The Wealthy 'Make Mistakes', the Poor Go to Jail. It's OK to tell police officers to 'f*ck off' “Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book”: The new warrior cop is out of control. “Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book”: The new warrior cop is out of control. Former Police Chief: Riot Cops Make Things Worse. A brief history of narcoanalysis. Black Woman Gets 20 Years for Firing Shot at Wall; White Man Gets 0 Years for Shooting Man in the Back 3 Times, Killing Him. The Other Face of Gov't Surveillance: Informers, Saboteurs and Entrapment Artists (Gitlin. The Metropolitan Police Are Out of Control. Woman Savagely Beaten By Police After They Spot Her Filming Them Beating A Suspect.

European Commission Final Report on Echelon. How Obama has made Whistleblowers the Flying Dutchmen of the 21st Century (van Buren. The No-Help Cycle: Jail Fails Addicts | The White Noise.