Even if you are anti-police, do you believe police officers to universally be bad or immoral people?
While there are obviously bad black cops, are there not black cops who have been better than some racist white cops and make the lives of black people in their community better than it would be if there were no black cops?
The phrase "All Coppers Are Bastards" first appeared in England in the 1920s, then was abbreviated to "ACAB" by workers on strike in the 1940s. The acronym is historically associated with criminals in the United Kingdom. First reported as a prison tattoo in the 1970s, it is commonly rendered as one letter per finger, or sometimes disguised as symbolic small dots across each knuckle. In 1970, the Daily Mirror ran the phrase as a headline, and wrote that it was borne by a Hells Angel on the street. British director Sidney Hayers also used a censored version as the title of his 1972 crime drama All Coppers Are.... In 1977, a Newcastle journalist saw it written on the walls of a prison cell.
During the 1980s, ACAB became a symbol of anti-Establishment, especially within the punk and skinhead subcultures. It was popularized in particular by the 1982 song "A.C.A.B." by Oi! band The 4-Skins. In later years, ACAB turned into a popular slogan among European football hooligans and ultras, and among anarchist and anti-authoritarian movements across the world. In certain contexts, the Anti-Defamation League categorizes the phrase as a hate symbol and describes it as "a slogan of long standing in the skinhead culture", while noting the phrase is used both by racist and anti-racist skinheads.
In the wake of the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin, the use of the term ACAB became more frequently used by those who oppose the police. As protests in response to Floyd's murder and discussions about racially-motivated police violence spread through the United States, ACAB was more frequently referenced on social media and products bearing the acronym became available. Proponents of the term contended that ACAB means every single police officer is complicit in an unjust system. They argued that police officers, even if they did not take part in police brutality or racism in policing themselves, were still responsible for what their colleagues did because they did not speak out against it or try to stop it.
While there are obviously bad black cops, are there not black cops who have been better than some racist white cops and make the lives of black people in their community better than it would be if there were no black cops?
'I Cannot Breathe': Video Shows White Cop 'Killing' Unarmed Black Man Pleading For His Life Before Dying
Police in Minneapolis were being accused of killing an unarmed Black man after a viral video showed an officer pinning down a suspect as he repeated that he couldn't breathe.newsone.com
We’re Publishing Thousands of Police Discipline Records That New York Kept Secret for Decades
ProPublica obtained these police records from New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board. NYPD unions are suing to halt the city from making the data public.
by Eric Umansky
July 26, 11:07 a.m. EDT
Stephen O’Byrne/Getty Images
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.
Until last month, New York state prohibited the release of police officers’ disciplinary records. Civilians’ complaints of abuse by officers were a secret. So were investigators’ conclusions. The public couldn’t even know if an officer was punished.
The New York City police officer whose use of a prohibited chokehold led to the death of Eric Garner in 2014 had a record of misconduct. Garner’s last words — “I can’t breathe” — became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement.
The city investigator who revealed the existence of the officer’s record was forced to resign in 2017; the officer himself wasn’t fired until 2019.
When the death of George Floyd and footage of his pleas for his life ignited worldwide protests, activists in New York renewed their push to repeal the statute that kept disciplinary records under wraps, known as 50-a. State lawmakers finally acted, voting to repeal the provision, which had been on the books for decades.
Soon after, ProPublica asked New York’s Civilian Complaint Review Board, or CCRB, for a list of officers, along with the complaints against them, and what discipline, if any, had been recommended.
Today, we are making this information public and, with it, providing an unprecedented picture of civilians’ complaints of abuse by NYPD officers as well as the limits of the current system that is supposed to hold officers accountable
. We’ve published a database that lets you search the police complaints so you can see the information for yourself. Data experts can also download the data.
Search Thousands of Civilian Complaints Against New York City Police Officers
The NYPD Files: Search Thousands of Civilian Complaints Against New York City Police Officers
After New York state repealed a law that kept NYPD disciplinary records secret, ProPublica obtained data from the civilian board that investigates complaints about police behavior. Use this database to search thousands of allegations.
The database lists active-duty officers who’ve had at least one allegation against them substantiated by the CCRB: That’s about 4,000 officers out of the NYPD’s 36,000-member force.
Unions for city police officers, firefighters and corrections officers have sued New York City to stop the disclosure of most of these and other disciplinary records. The unions objected to the release of any cases other than “proven and final disciplinary matters.” That would exclude the vast majority of complaints against officers.
“We are defending privacy, integrity and the unsullied reputations of thousands of hard-working public safety employees,” a union spokesman said on the filing of the lawsuit.
On Wednesday, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order, blocking the city, including the CCRB, from releasing disciplinary records. Judge Katherine Polk Failla also barred the New York Civil Liberties Union from disclosing data it had obtained. ProPublica has not been a party to the case and is not subject to the order by Failla, who has scheduled a hearing for next month.
Get Our Top Investigations
Subscribe to the Big Story newsletter.
Email address
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
In releasing the information included in our database, ProPublica is not publishing all complaints against officers. As we’ve noted, we’ve limited the data to only those officers who’ve had at least one substantiated allegation. And every complaint in the database was fully investigated by the CCRB, which means, among other steps, a civilian provided a sworn statement to investigators. We’ve also excluded any allegations that investigators concluded were unfounded, meaning investigators determined the incident did not happen as the complainant alleged. There were about 3,200 allegations listed as unfounded in the data we were provided, about 9% of the total.
We chose to include the basic information disclosed by the CCRB about allegations that investigators deemed unsubstantiated. Unsubstantiated means the CCRB — which has limited investigative powers — was not able to confirm that the alleged incident happened and that it violated the NYPD’s rules. Still, these records can help readers examine the records of officers who have been the subject of a pattern of complaints.
“We understand the arguments against releasing this data. But we believe the public good it could do outweighs the potential harm,” said Stephen Engelberg, ProPublica’s editor in chief. “The database gives the people of New York City a glimpse at how allegations involving police misconduct have been handled, and allows journalists and ordinary citizens alike to look more deeply at the records of particular officers.”
The CCRB receives thousands of complaints every year, but it is only able to substantiate a tiny fraction of them. In 2018, the agency examined about 3,000 allegations of misuse of force. It substantiated 73.
Investigators are often not able to reach conclusions on cases, in significant part because they must rely on the NYPD to hand over evidence, such as footage from body-worn cameras. Often, the department doesn’t do so, despite a legal duty to cooperate with CCRB investigations.
In other cases included in our database, investigators concluded that what a civilian alleged did happen, but the conduct was allowed by the NYPD’s rules. The Police Department’s guidelines often give officers substantial discretion, particularly around use of force. In the curious jargon of police oversight, those cases are classified as “exonerated.”
“I exonerated tons of cases that involved awful conduct that fell within the guidelines,” said former CCRB investigator Dan Bodah, who now researches police oversight at the Vera Institute of Justice. “It’s kind of haunting. The law and policy gives cops a lot of discretion.”
Despite all the limitations, some officers still have multiple allegations against them that have been substantiated. According to the records, 303 officers still working at the NYPD have had five or more substantiated allegations against them. The data we have only shows the briefest of descriptions of alleged abuse. Usually just a few words. But they add up: There are nearly 5,000 allegations of “physical force,” nearly 2,000 of “frisk” and more than 600 of “gun pointed.”
Readers can use the information in the database to request details on cases from the CCRB.
And, even without those further details — which the CCRB is currently barred from releasing because of the order by Failla — users can look at the records and see potential patterns of abuse. Thirty-four officers have had 40 or more allegations against them.
“When I got outside, he sat me down and basically wanted to run a criminal background, wanted to see if I had warrants,” Townsend said.
When the officer found out Townsend was clear, he still ordered him off the property, stating the manager didn’t want him there.
Channel 11 later found out the incident started as a 911 call for a “man smoking marijuana” outside the restaurant just before 8 a.m.
Townsend went back to the restaurant 40 minutes later and the manager welcomed him in, even snapping a picture with him.
The owners of G & G Restaurant said they had no idea what was going on or why police were called to their business. They reiterated that they never asked Townsend to leave.
Local officer under fire over video showing confrontation with Black man at restaurant
A Vandergrift police officer is under fire for a video that shows him confronting a black man and not telling him why.www.wpxi.com
Four officers on leave after video shows Calif. police kicking shoplifting suspect during struggle
Police in Southern California are investigating after a video captured four officers appearing to kick and punch a shoplifting suspect while they tried to detain him at a mall last week.www.yahoo.com
somebody assist with the embed. cops ain't shit.
$350,000 settlement offered in police takedown of wrong man
Officials of a Georgia city have offered a $350,000 legal settlement to a Black man injured last year when a police officer violently slammed him in the ground, later saying he mistakenly believed the man had an outstanding arrest warrant. The settlement proposal approved Thursday by the...
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/restaurant-staff-detained-7-hours-24331691
Nineteen people working at Johnny & Jugnu, including the manager and kitchen staff, were arrested and held overnight after refusing to give police officers free burgers.
All members of staff at a restaurant in Pakistan were allegedly detained for seven hours after they refused to serve police officers free burgers.
Nineteen people working at the fast-food eatery Johnny & Jugnu, in eastern Lahore, were detained at 1am on Saturday and held overnight.
In a statement posted on Facebook, Johnny & Jugnu said a group of police officers had gone to the restaurant two days before the incident and had asked for free burgers.
When their request was rejected, officers threatened the managers and left, before coming back the following day to "harass" the team.
The statement reads: "Upon rejecting their request for free burgers, which has become a common practice for them, the police officers threatened our managers and left, only to return the next day to further harass and pressurise our teams... with baseless arguments."
Johnny & Jugnu claimed that the police officers went to the restaurant and arrested all staff while customers were waiting for their orders on June 11.
The statement continues: "[Officers] took our manager into custody, without giving any reason whatsoever.
"Then they emptied out our entire branch, taking all of our kitchen crew, including the rest of the managers."
The restaurant also said the staff was not allowed to close down the kitchen, leaving "fryers still running, customers waiting for their orders".
According to the statement, the team remained "locked up" for almost seven hours, while police "harassed" and "pushed" them for not giving them the free food.
The restaurant claimed the officers said they should have been given the free burgers as it was a "request from a very high profile special guest".
Punjab Police said the nine officers involved in the incident have been suspended.
A spokesman for the Force said: "IG Punjab Inam Ghani have taken notice of the Johnny and Jugnu restaurant incident and have suspended the SHO Defence C and the staff of the police station involved.
"No one is allowed to take law into his own hands. Injustice will not be tolerated. All of them will be punished."
Saman Bashir, head of marketing for Johnny & Jugnu, said the incident had been upsetting for the team, but thanked authorities for suspending the officers involved.
She said: "We spoke out to the public about what happened, and within two hours maybe we had received a response from authorities.
"We're glad that people stood up to support us, that's the silver lining."
US officer pursuing white suspect held knee on Black man’s neck, lawsuit says
Donovan Johnson accuses Massachusetts police of wrongful arrest and search during incident in Arlington, Massachusetts last yearwww.theguardian.com
Boston police chasing white suspect wrongly arrested Black man, lawsuit says
Donovan Johnson at Boston Common in Boston on 17 November 2019. Photograph: Irina Danilova/AP
Officer was pursuing a suspected thief when Donovan Johnson walked by and was pinned down, according to lawsuit
Associated Press in Arlington, Massachusetts
Thu 4 Aug 2022 08.07 EDTLast modified on Thu 4 Aug 2022 11.15 ED
A police officer in suburban Boston who was pursuing a white suspect pinned a 20-year-old Black man to the ground and placed a knee on the man’s neck despite having no evidence he was involved in any crime, according to a federal civil rights lawsuit filed on Wednesday.
Donovan Johnson was minutes from home after leaving work in February 2021 when the white officer ran up, drew his gun and threw Johnson to the snow-covered ground face first, the lawsuit filed against the town of Arlington, Massachusetts, and three officers alleges.
The suit says the officer pinned Johnson to the ground by placing a knee on his neck. The complaint says Johnson yelled “I can’t breathe!” but the officer “continued to pin Mr Johnson to the ground with his knee” while the white suspect “was left unattended”.
The lawsuit filed in Boston federal court alleges police violated Johnson’s constitutional rights when they stopped him, searched him, handcuffed him and placed him in the back of a cruiser before releasing him with no charges.
Johnson said the incident took such an emotional toll that he struggled to manage his life to the point he almost lost his job as a grants administrator for a hospital.
“I was wrongfully arrested and wrongfully searched just because of the fact that he thought I was the person that he was chasing down,” Johnson said.
The Arlington police chief, Julie Flaherty, said police could not comment as neither police nor the town had yet been served the lawsuit.
Johnson’s lawyers say an internal investigation found officers violated policies and procedures. One attorney, Mirian Albert of Lawyers for Civil Rights, said they hoped the case would eradicate racial profiling in the department.
“All people should feel safe in their own communities,” she said. “Mr Johnson’s rights were violated within view of his home and this is exactly the type of police misconduct that fuels mistrust between communities of color and law enforcement.”
Police were were called to an Arlington hotel about a man who staff believed was involved in the theft of televisions, the lawsuit says. The white man was “known to police” for “prior criminal acts” and officer Steven Conroy showed a photo of the man to the front desk clerk, who said it appeared to be the same person.
Police went to a room but the man escaped and they began to chase him, according to the lawsuit. Johnson saw the man jog past before Conroy approached and yelled at both men to “get the [expletive] on the floor”.
The white suspect got on his knees but Johnson stayed standing, the lawsuit says. Johnson says Conroy drew his gun, threw him to the ground and pinned him with a knee on his neck.
Another officer who arrived in a cruiser recognized the white man and put him in handcuffs and the suspect told the officer he didn’t know Johnson. A third officer “immediately jumped on” Johnson to help Conroy hold him down.
Lawyers say the officers had no reason to believe Johnson was involved in any crime: police had a photo of the white suspect they were looking for, Johnson and the other man told officers they didn’t know each other and “nothing in the investigation indicated that there was more than one male suspect involved”.
The complaint says Johnson was released after hotel staff told officers they had never seen him before. Police left him to find his own way home.
Woman's rape cries go unheard in unmonitored drug sting
Under threat of violence, the dealer forced the woman to perform oral sex on him — twice — in an attack so brazen he paused at one point to conduct a separate drug deal, according to interviews and confidential law enforcement records obtained by The Associated Press. Records show it wasn’t...
ALEXANDRIA, La. (AP) — A woman outfitted with a tiny microphone and hidden camera walked up to a dilapidated drug house on a chilly afternoon last year looking to buy meth from a dealer known on the streets as “Mississippi.”
But as the informant disappeared inside with a career criminal with a rap sheet spanning three decades, her law enforcement handlers left her undercover on her own — unprotected and unmonitored in real time. And the devices she carried passively recorded a crime far more horrific than any drug buy.
Under threat of violence, the dealer forced the woman to perform oral sex on him — twice — in an attack so brazen he paused at one point to conduct a separate drug deal, according to interviews and confidential law enforcement records obtained by The Associated Press.
“It was one of the worst depictions of sexual abuse I have ever seen,” said a local official who viewed the footage and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the ongoing case.
“Just the audio from it is enough to turn your stomach,” the official said. “It’s a female being sexually brutalized while she’s crying and whimpering.”
Even as the woman cried and her assailant threatened to put her “in the hospital,” narcotics deputies remained down the block in the blighted neighborhood, unaware of what was going on. That’s because, as authorities told the AP, they never considered such an attack might happen and the devices the woman carried didn’t have the ability to transmit the operation to law enforcement in real time.
Cop Smiles after Violently Beating Homeless Army Vet
Attorneys for Dalvin Gadson, a 29-year-old veteran, are calling for an investigation following the release of a photo of Gadson’s bloodied face after he was beaten by police officers. According to a Newsone report, the cops were also photographed smiling with bloody knuckles as Gadson laid on...
Attorneys for Dalvin Gadson, a 29-year-old veteran, are calling for an investigation following the release of a photo of Gadson’s bloodied face after he was beaten by police officers. According to a Newsone report, the cops were also photographed smiling with bloody knuckles as Gadson laid on the ground.
Gadson served in the Army National Guard as a helicopter mechanic and was homeless at the time of the October incident during which he was pulled over for a traffic stop. The report noted both an improperly displayed license tag and car failure as reasons for the stop. One officer claimed Gadson smelled of marijuana and tried to issue a DUI test. Gadson was told when he got out of his vehicle he would be handcuffed, so he refused to exit until he was told why he was being arrested.
After asking an honest question, Gadson said he was grabbed out of his car.
“The same police officer immediately started punching me in the face while pulling me out of my car. After the first punch, I tried to say okay, I tried to say sorry, I tried to lay on the ground, but multiple officers were grabbing me, kicking me in the head, kneeing and elbowing me in the face, and punching me everywhere possible. After I was punched several times in the face, I lost consciousness,” Gadson said via his GoFundMe fundraiser.
Gadson’s attorneys are calling for a criminal investigation and for action to be taken against the officers.
.....i get so sick and tired of these fuckin police...........absolutely no accountability.............
Dozens of police officers in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Antioch are under fire after excerpts from their personal group chat filled with racist and homophobic text messages have been made public. Citizens and the city’s mayor are outraged and question if the bigoted sentiments in the exchanges color how officers police the community.
The texts came to light on April 11 after The Bay Area News Group obtained a copy of an investigative report written by Contra Costa District Attorney Senior Inspector Larry Wallace about the group’s messages to each other.
The texting scandal is at the center of an FBI investigation and Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office investigation into Bay Area police departments that dates back to 2019, according to ABC 7 News.
The investigations identified 17 officers as participants in the chat, making up approximately a quarter of the Antioch Police Department, but the East Bay Times reports that 44 Antioch officers have gotten as least one message included in the investigation of the group.
By Wednesday, April 12, 17 of those officers had been placed on leave. Some have resigned, and others are working on the force but not in roles that are public-facing.
The texts excerpted in the reports from a second, 14-page report emerged Friday, April 14, reveal a pattern of officers using racial epithets to refer to African-Americans and expressing both a desire to use violence against them and satisfaction at doing so.
“I’ll bury that n—-r in my fields,” Antioch Sgt. Joshua Evans texted Officer Morteza Amiri in December 2020.
In February 2020 Amiri texted Officer Eric Rombough, “No they didn’t push it that far. Bunch of gorillas surrounding us and taunting a fight since we were hooking [epithet].”
The messges, which weren’t always limited to Antioch officers, sometimes show officers openly admitting to violating citizens’ constitutional rights.
“Since we don’t have video I sometimes just say people gave me a full confession when they didn’t. Gets filed easier,” Amiri texted an officer in Brentwood, another Contra Costa County city, in April 2020. The Antioch City Council voted the following year to equip its officers with body cameras.
Other messages showed officers carrying out their expressed wishes for violence.
In March 2021 Antioch officers were planning a raid to arrest 22-year-old Terryonn Pugh and Trent Allen. One report document shows Officer Rombough texting Detective Robert Gerber, “Bro I can’t wait to forty all of them,” referring to using the nonlethal sponge rounds officers use during a raid.
Days later, after the raid, Rombough messaged another officer, “Bro, my foot hurts.” Asked if he’d kicked one of the men, Rombough replied, “Yup, like a f—— field goal,” before adding, “Gotta stop kicking n—–s in their head.”
Pugh’s lawyer Carmela Caramagno told ABC7, “It is clear that the Antioch Police Department has treated that community like a war zone, and the community members as if they were hostiles.” Antioch’s population is around 24% Black, according to 2020 census data.
Mayor Lamar Thorpe called for a special meeting to discuss the text messages, a town hall discussion that ended with heated emotions and many up in arms.
The mayor, an African-American man, said he was “disgusted” by what he learned about the text messages. The report showed that during a chat about a Black Lives Matter demonstration in June 2020 Officer John Ramirez sent a text saying he’d buy a prime rib dinner at a steakhouse to officer who used .40mm sponge bullets against Thorpe.
“I’m blown away that there were threats to my personal life in those text messages,” Thorpe said this week about the threat, CBS News reported.
The mayor is calling for all of the officers featured in the investigation to be fired.
During the meeting, Thorpe snapped at one of his constituents. The person asked for the mayor also to be investigated.
“I am sick and tired of being attacked by these people in this community apologizing for the racism going on in this community,” Thorpe said, adding, “You’re the problem! You’re the problem!”
At one point, the mayor seemed to invite the man outside to a fistfight, saying, “You want to go outside? Let’s go!”
“It’s not just the police department who provides cover for people like this who are on these text messages,” Thorpe later told local station KTVU. “There are residents in this community who will put up a fight to protect the culture that exists in that department.”
The FBI began looking into the APD and the Pittsburg Police Department after reports suggested officers were engaged in illegal activity. The officers were not only accused of violating citizens’ civil rights but also alleged to be dealing cocaine and steroids, intentionally using excessive force, and accepting bribes.
‘I’ll Bury That N----r In My Fields’: Police Probe Exposes 'Very Disturbing' Texts Sent In Personal Chat Among Dozens of Officers In Bay Area; City's Black Mayor Not Exempt from Threats
Dozens of police officers in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Antioch are under fire after excerpts from their personal group chat filled with racistatlantablackstar.com
The phrase "All Coppers Are Bastards" first appeared in England in the 1920s, then was abbreviated to "ACAB" by workers on strike in the 1940s. The acronym is historically associated with criminals in the United Kingdom. First reported as a prison tattoo in the 1970s, it is commonly rendered as one letter per finger, or sometimes disguised as symbolic small dots across each knuckle. In 1970, the Daily Mirror ran the phrase as a headline, and wrote that it was borne by a Hells Angel on the street. British director Sidney Hayers also used a censored version as the title of his 1972 crime drama All Coppers Are.... In 1977, a Newcastle journalist saw it written on the walls of a prison cell.
During the 1980s, ACAB became a symbol of anti-Establishment, especially within the punk and skinhead subcultures. It was popularized in particular by the 1982 song "A.C.A.B." by Oi! band The 4-Skins. In later years, ACAB turned into a popular slogan among European football hooligans and ultras, and among anarchist and anti-authoritarian movements across the world. In certain contexts, the Anti-Defamation League categorizes the phrase as a hate symbol and describes it as "a slogan of long standing in the skinhead culture", while noting the phrase is used both by racist and anti-racist skinheads.
In the wake of the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin, the use of the term ACAB became more frequently used by those who oppose the police. As protests in response to Floyd's murder and discussions about racially-motivated police violence spread through the United States, ACAB was more frequently referenced on social media and products bearing the acronym became available. Proponents of the term contended that ACAB means every single police officer is complicit in an unjust system. They argued that police officers, even if they did not take part in police brutality or racism in policing themselves, were still responsible for what their colleagues did because they did not speak out against it or try to stop it.
