2 Police Fatally Shot In Mississippi, Suspects Arrested

Two police officers were fatally shot and a police cruiser stolen during a traffic stop in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, on Saturday night.

Authorities said they had arrested three suspects and charged two of them with capital murder, according to the New York Times.

NBC states that three suspects, including two brothers, were arrested in different locations after a manhunt that lasted into the early hours of Sunday morning, said spokesman Strain.

The Mississippi Department of Public Safety announced that Marvin Banks, 29, and Joanie Calloway, 22, have each been charged with two counts of capital murder, and Mr. Banks’ brother, Curtis Banks, 26, has been charged with two counts of accessory after the fact of capital murder.

The suspects fled after the incident, according to The New York Times.  Marvin Banks reportedly drove off in a police car that was later found abandoned about a quarter mile from the shooting incident, according to the Wall Street Journal.

A spokesman for the Hattiesburg Police Department, Lt. Jon Traxler, said that both brothers are residents of Hattiesburg. The suspects are being held in a county jail until a court appearance scheduled for Monday.

The officers were taken to Forrest General Hospital, according to The Clarion-Ledger, a newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi.

The county coroner identified the slain men as Benjamin Deen, 34, a canine officer; and Liquori Tate, 25, a recent graduate of the police academy.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/two-mississippi-officers-fatally-shot-at-traffic-stop-in-hattiesburg-1431241151

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/11/us/two-police-officers-are-shot-and-killed-in-mississippi.html

http://www.dps.state.ms.us/three-charged-in-the-murders-of-two-hattiesburg-police-officers/

Corrupt Oklahoma ‘Good Old Boy’ System: Wealthy White Businessman Threatens To Get Cops Fired After DUI

Secular Talk

When interacting with police, does it matter if you have wealth, power, or influence?

According to Raw Story, police in an Oklahoma town said city officials tried to block the drunken driving arrest of a well-connected businessman and have threatened officers after they refused.

A wealthy businessman named Brian Haggard was stopped two months ago by Chelsea, Oklahoma, Police Officer Nicholas Pappe and charged with driving under the influence, according to KTUL-TV.

Police said they received telephone calls from influential officials in the city, including the police commissioner and city manager, asking officers to go easy on Haggard, according to Raw Story.

“If you would give me a free pass tonight, I would sure appreciate it,” Haggard told the officer on police dash cam video.

The officer continued the arrest, and Assistant Police Chief Travis Hogan said city officials have made clear since then they are unhappy with him and the police chief.

“We live in a good ol’ boy system here in this town,” Hogan said. “My officers have received threats. I personally and the chief has received threats to our jobs,” he said, according to Raw Story.

(Updated article)

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/we-live-in-a-good-ol-boy-system-ok-cops-say-officials-tried-to-block-businessmans-dui-arrest/

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/05/08/oklahoma-boys-threaten-cops-dui/

NYPD caught editing Wikipedia pages on alleged police brutality

Several incidents of alleged police brutality have made headlines in recent months, it seems police in New York have come up with a new way to bolster their public image.

By editing Wikipedia pages on alleged police brutality incidents, they have made them look more favorable to the officers involved.

CapitalNewYork has checked recent edits to the Wikipedia pages for Eric Garner, Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo — all of whom died at the hands of NYPD officers under controversial circumstances.

They found discrepancies and tracked them to computers at the NYPD’s headquarters at 1 Police Plaza.

The edits were made to make the circumstances surrounding the shootings more favorable to the police officers.

In the case of Eric Garner, who died last year after an officer placed him in a chokehold that was prohibited by NYPD’s own rules, CaptialNewYork found that the following changes were made:

• “Garner raised both his arms in the air” was changed to “Garner flailed his arms about as he spoke.”

•  “[P]ush Garner’s face into the sidewalk” was changed to “push Garner’s head down into the sidewalk.”

•  “Use of the chokehold has been prohibited” was changed to “Use of the chokehold is legal, but has been prohibited.”

•  The sentence, “Garner, who was considerably larger than any of the officers, continued to struggle with them,” was added to the description of the incident.

• Instances of the word “chokehold” were replaced twice, once to “chokehold or headlock,” and once to “respiratory distress.