Denton Record-Chronicle: Officer In McKinney Resigns

According to the Denton Record-Chronicle, the policeman on duty whose aggressive response at an unruly teenage pool party ignited a national controversy resigned on Tuesday, leaving critics relieved and supporters disappointed.

The Record-Chronicle states that McKinney police Corporal David Eric Casebolt is a 10-year veteran of the police department.

He voluntarily stepped down while an internal police investigation was going on and during heightened public pressure, including death threats.

The officer’s terse, “two-word” resignation did not include an apology or acknowledgment of wrongdoing, said McKinney Police Chief Greg Conley.  On Tuesday, Conley condemned Casebolt’s actions as “indefensible” and “out of control.”

The chief distanced himself from his former employee on the day his department dropped charges against the one person arrested at the scene, which signaled a swift shift in the police’s handling of the encounter recorded on video that went viral.

According to the Dallas Morning News, there were two competing narratives about the incident at the pool – either racist white residents of Craig Ranch and McKinney police harassed neighborhood black kids, or law officers safely dispersed a loud, out-of-control mob of interloping teenagers.

Those were the competing narratives circulating Monday about an incident that has become a national flashpoint about racism and police tactics.

In a strange turn of events, some white Craig Ranch residents said they were so frightened about the possible reaction that they were packing up and leaving their homes temporarily.

(Updated article)

http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20150609-mckinney-officer-in-video-resigns.ece?ssimg=2328358#ssStory2328360

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/mckinney/headlines/20150608-dueling-views-of-mckinney-melee-fault-intruding-teens-racist-adults-police-officer.ece

Police Video Shows Questionable Arrest Of Pregnant African American Woman Over Schoolyard Driving Dispute

CNN

Police body-cam video shows what the ACLU states was a wrongful arrest of a pregnant woman in a school parking lot. The arrest involved the wrestling to the ground of the eight months pregnant African American woman after she got into an argument with a white woman outside a school in Barstow, California. The women were upset with each over a driving dispute.  Some are calling the arrest “unlawful.”

Were the police too aggressive?

The President Moves To Demilitarize Police

Secular Talk

President Obama is expected to announce some major policy changes in the 1033 Program, the federal initiative that transfers surplus military equipment from the Defense Department to domestic police agencies across the country.

It’s the administration’s long-awaited response to the debate sparked by the police response to last summer’s protests in Ferguson, Missouri, according to The Washington Post on Monday.

AFP: “President Barack Obama barred police from using tracked armored vehicles, bayonets, grenade launchers and large-caliber firearms, in response to accusations that US law enforcement has become too militarized.”

Some sources, however, are claiming that local police forces will still be able to buy military-style gear, just not through the federal government.

Baltimore Officers Charged In Freddy Gray’s Death Want Case Dismissed

According to the Associated Press, attorneys for the six Baltimore police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, a man who died of a spinal injury while in custody, asked a judge Friday to dismiss the case or assign it to someone other than the city’s top prosecutor.  They claim she has too many conflicts of interest to remain objective.

The lawyers state that at a minimum, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby should be replaced with an independent prosecutor.

The motion was filed in Baltimore District Court.

In the latest legal move to challenge the charges, the motion says Mosby’s prosecution has been “overzealous” and “politically motivated.”

Ms. Mosby announced the charges a day after receiving an investigative report from the police. The motion argues that part of the reason she acted so swiftly was to quash protests that gave way to violence in West Baltimore, where Gray was arrested and “where Mosby’s husband, Nick Mosby, is a city councilman,” according to the Associated Press.   A separate motion argues that her rapid decision could be at odds with a law that requires a thorough investigation prior to filing charges.

(Updated article)

http://news.yahoo.com/officers-charged-arrested-mans-death-want-case-dismissed-022710467.html

U.S. Justice Department Will Investigate Baltimore Police Over Freddie Gray Treatment

The U.S. Justice Department will investigate whether the Baltimore Police Department engaged in a pattern of unconstitutional policing, said law enforcement officials on Thursday.

A request was made by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake for the Justice Department to investigate.

This came soon after the Baltimore state’s attorney filed criminal charges against six officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray.

Gray died April 19 after being injured while in police custody. Gray’s death set off large demonstrations, arson and looting.

At a policing conference earlier on Thursday, the Baltimore police commissioner, Anthony W. Batts, said he did not object to an outside investigation, and said that he was committed to reforming the Police Department.

He said he recognized that Baltimore residents did not trust the city to make changes voluntarily, states the New York Times.

“I am willing to do anything it takes to win that trust back,” he said. “If it’s D.O.J., whatever it takes.”

The situation has dominated Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch’s first days in office, as the riots broke out in Baltimore on her first day on the job.

“The situation in Baltimore involves a core responsibility of the Department of Justice — not only to combat illegal conduct when it occurs, but to help prevent the circumstances that give rise to it in the first place,” said Ms. Lynch on Capitol Hill on Thursday.

If the Justice Department finds that there was a “pattern or practice” of discriminatory policing, it will ask that the police department make sweeping changes.

If the police department declines to do so, the matter could land in front of a federal judge, who could force changes within the department, writes ABC News.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/freddy-gray-doj-announces-federal-probe-entire-baltimore/story?id=30899279

Million Moms March Today In Washington, D.C.

Mothers from around the country are in Washington, D.C. for a march against police brutality.

The first Million Moms March is today, Saturday, and supports women who’ve lost children at the hands of police officers, according to NBC4 Washington.

They are meeting at John Marshall Park in Judiciary Square and will walk from there along Constitution Avenue to the Department of Justice to present their demands before returning to the park for a program that will conclude at 2:30 p.m.

“Enough is enough,” said Marion Gray-Hopkins, whose 19-year-old son Gary was killed by a police officer in Prince George’s County in 1999.

Supporters of the march lobbied on Capitol Hill Friday morning before gathering in John Marshall Park Friday afternoon, writes NBC4 Washington.

What Is Currently Going On In Baltimore?

It has been about a week since the worst of the riots in Baltimore.  What has been recently going on?

Protests have been largely celebratory since State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced charges against the six police officers involved in Freddie Gray’s arrest, states The Baltimore Sun.

The announcement by the city’s top prosecutor came as a shock to many in the Baltimore Police Department.

The police department officially handed over the case to Mosby’s office last week but will continue to investigate Gray’s death, Commissioner Anthony Batts said.

Gray died April 19, a week after his arrest.

Hundreds rejoiced and sang outside City Hall on Sunday, and many residents attended special worship services across the city, writes The Baltimore Sun.

Crime unrelated to the protests spiked last week, despite the additional police on duty and heavy National Guard presence.

Eight homicides and 12 shootings have been reported across the city since Tuesday.

Outside of the city, observers are looking at how the events in Baltimore will play into presidential campaigns. Former Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor Martin O’Malley said the tensions that erupted into riots last week would be central to his presidential campaign, should he decide to run for office.

The New Republice writes that members of the city’s rival gangs—the Bloods, Crips, Black Guerrilla Family (BGF)—say they’ve declared a truce and vowed to bring peace to their communities.

Many people in the city wonder what might be the long term economic impact to Baltimore after the riots destroyed some businesses, and left many outside the city with a negative image.

MSNBC Interviews Baltimore Resident: ‘Enough Is Enough’

MSNBC

MSNBC speaks with Danielle, a Baltimore local who believes “this is a time that we really need to come together,” and expresses frustration at the media’s lack of attention to peaceful protests in Baltimore in the days before the violence.

Freddie Gray died on April 19th of this year.

Baltimore Police Officers Charged In Freddie Gray’s Murder

Six Baltimore Police officers who were charged Friday in the death of Freddie Gray: Officer Caesar Goodson; Lt. Brian Rice; Sgt. Alicia White; Officer Garrett Miller; Officer William Porter; and Officer Edward Nero.

According to The New York Times, the officers who were arrested, three white and three black, include a lieutenant with 17 years on the force, several near-rookies and a woman who had just been promoted to sergeant.

The most serious charges were brought against Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr., who was driving the van that carried Mr. Gray to a police station after his April 12 arrest. Along with involuntary manslaughter, Officer Goodson, 45, was charged with “second-degree depraved heart murder,” which means indifference to human life.

According to The Baltimore Sun, the other officers were charged with offenses that included involuntary manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, second-degree assault, false imprisonment and misconduct in office. The officers were taken into custody Friday and released on bail.

More Protests Planned

Demonstrators are taking to the streets of other cities to support Baltimore protesters and to complain about police brutality in their own towns.

In addition to Baltimore, there were recently protests in New York and Boston.  Protests are taking place Thursday in Philadelphia and Cincinnati.

Demonstrations in Seattle; Portland, Oregon; and Oakland, California, are scheduled for Friday, which is also May Day, or International Workers Day — often used to call attention to issues affecting the working class and minorities.

The protest in Philadelphia started Thursday afternoon in Philadelphia in front of city hall. Aerial video showed several hundred people gathered.

Police and protesters clashed about 7:45 p.m., apparently when the group tried to block the entrance to I-95.

CNN reported police had said they would move against anybody who tried to do that.

Aerial video showed uniformed officers grouping to push back demonstrators, many who held their hands in the air and chanted, “Hands up.”