Cops Accuse Innocent Man Of Swallowing Drugs, Force Him Into Hospital, Perform X-rays & CAT Scans, Finding Nothing, Leaving The Man To Pay A $9,530 Hospital Bill
A Brooklyn man claims in a lawsuit he was accosted by cops who accused him of swallowing “contraband” and hauled him to a hospital in a failed bid to prove it — only to be later billed for the medical procedures done against his will.
Schedrick Campbell, 54, said he had gone out to buy dog food in March and was walking back to his Crown Heights home when three plainclothes officers accosted him.
They grabbed his throat and yelled at him to “spit it out,” Campbell said in a Brooklyn federal court lawsuit, but police didn’t find anything.
Cops then hauled him to Interfaith Medical Center, where, he claims, he was handcuffed to a bed for two days while hospital staff, at the direction of police, conducted X-rays and CAT scans in a futile bid to find the alleged contraband.
“It should be noted that no foreign body was ever found,” the court papers state.
One officer threw out Campbell’s prostate medication and warned him that using the bathroom before some of the hospital’s procedures could lead to him being prosecuted “for tampering with evidence,” Campbell alleges.
The charges were dropped — but Interfaith added insult to injury by slapping him with a $9,530 bill.
The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment.
There are so many things wrong with this incident, I just don’t know where to begin.
There are so many things wrong with police these days, especially NYPD.
(Source: beatyourselfup, via reagan-was-a-horrible-president)
Let your life be a counter-force to the Stop the Machine
I believe that we are coming to a crossroads as a nation.
Since 9/11, we’ve been traveling down a road bristling with guns, military technology, paranoia and fear. Though most of our aggressive energy has been aimed outside our borders, there has also been a steady preparation for mass violence within the U.S. as well. In the decade since 9/11, our national police forces have been armed with military hardware, and have trained extensively in riot control, with the results that we saw for the first time during the recent Occupy protests.
In the peaceful town of Fargo, North Dakota, report Andrew Becker and G.W. Schulz of the Center for Investigative Reporting, “Every city squad car is equipped today with a military-style assault rifle, and officers can don Kevlar helmets able to withstand incoming fire from battlefield-grade ammunition. And for that epic confrontation—if it ever occurs—officers can now summon a new $256,643 armored truck, complete with a rotating turret.”
Billions of federal tax dollars have been spent nationwide on this kind of military hardware for police, in the name of Homeland Security.
Security from what? Security for whom?
Short of an all-out military invasion by a foreign force, which seems hugely unlikely, these weapons can only be meant to confront an insurgency within our own borders.
Are we thinking about a civil war, then?
Are these police being armed and trained to protect the interests of the 1% against the raging anger of the 99%?
A year ago it would not have occurred to me to ask these questions. But obviously the Homeland Security crowd was already thinking ahead and planning for a time when such armor and weapons would be necessary to “maintain security” and “uphold law and order” on the home front.
Yes, they must have been aware, even as they were cashing in on our ignorance, that there would come a time when no more could be squeezed from the bottom two-thirds of American society. When there would be so many homeless, so many poor, so many disenfranchised, that these people would feel they had no other recourse than violence, and nothing left to lose.
A new report by the National Center on Family Homelessness found that “more than 1.6 million children – or one in 45 children – are homeless annually in America. This represents an increase of 38% during the years impacted by the economic recession.”
I’m sorry, but that is just unacceptable in this country, which likes to think of itself as the wealthiest and most enlightened society on earth.
When you add up all the trials and tribulations being visited on the poor in this country–and “the poor” is a vast category that gets bigger day by day–and you weigh billions in Homeland Security anti-terrorism outfits for police against dwindling food and shelter for children–well, something just isn’t right here. There’s something rotten in the state of America.
And yes, we are at a crossroads.
(Source: socialuprooting, via reagan-was-a-horrible-president)
[TRIGGER WARNING: POLICE BEING FUCK SCARY] Police use injections to subdue "unruly" people
I looked this up because a friend witnessed a cop administer something by epi-pen type injection to a person after they had been handcuffed and I’m betting this was it. I thought I was aware of most all less-lethal weapons but I didn’t know police were doing this. The links I’ve found mention vague somethings about calling an EMT to administer the dose but cops are DEFINITELY injecting something themselves with no medical people on site. Also: a common side effect of Versed is amnesia.
No. no no no no nonononono. No. No. This is fucking terrifying. Stay away from me. I fucking HATE COPS no nono no.
That is so fucking illegal I can’t even express it
(via mysunwolf)
![blacksheepboy-:
leftish:
~ Mayor Bloomberg
[Feel Safer Now?]
Um wow.
I can sleep safe now. Of course, I’m halfway across the country from NYC. Thankfully.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvnaoktqGH1qeawdho1_r1_500.jpg)
I can sleep safe now. Of course, I’m halfway across the country from NYC. Thankfully.
Court OKs Barring High IQs for Cops
Empirical evidence nationally would suggest it’s not just this New London precinct.
Clearly, cops these days are not too bright if they don’t find spraying pepper spray at people defending their (the cop’s) jobs a contradiction.
The argument that they will get bored and moved on is a joke. A smart person will find a a way to make the job stimulating. However, the point is taken that their bosses might not like the result. An incurious, unquestioning population is a manipulatable population. It applies to cops with an average IQ of 104 and the American population, in general.
This is not The Onion. In New London, Conn., you apparently can be too smart to be a cop:
A man whose bid to become a police officer was rejected after he scored too high on an intelligence test has lost an appeal in his federal lawsuit against the city.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld a lower court’s decision that the city did not discriminate against Robert Jordan because the same standards were applied to everyone who took the test.
Jordan, a 49-year-old college graduate, took the exam in 1996 and scored 33 points, the equivalent of an IQ of 125. But New London police interviewed only candidates who scored 20 to 27, on the theory that those who scored too high could get bored with police work and leave soon after undergoing costly training.
The average score nationally for police officers is 21 to 22, the equivalent of an IQ of 104, or just a little above average.
I believe this is fairly revealing. I would also argue it may not be a matter of being bored with police work. More intelligent officers might question superiors, and orders they believe in violation of the US Constitution and their training. It appears the ideal cop for New London, Conn. is a person who is intelligent enough to absorb training, but not too smart. It’s Goldilocks - this one was too dumb, this one was too smart, but this one is just right.
… so can we at least say that all cops in that particular precinct are dumb and awful?
-Joe
(via stfuconservatives)
(Source: bolinel, via thephrygiancap)
Police joking about beating #occupywallstreet protesters in law enforcement forum.
“Those are great, the creaming kids are a hoot. I’m going to watch some more during football breaks. I’d love to see fire hoses employed, it would clean them up and clear the streets and sidewalks for traffic. We’d miss out on the entertainment though.”
“Yeah…I love how the chick just falls to her knees and starts screaming! I saw a guy do that when I went through the OC instructors course…it wasnt pretty”
(via mysunwolf)
And so it begins.
A young man of color arrested in Union Square earlier today doing literally nothing but crossing the street.
I am fucking shaking with anger. This video shows Union Square earlier today. Clearly there is a protest but the area immediately surrounding the guy with the camera is just observers and people milling around. Watch the guy in the red shirt. From the vimeo link:
As you can see at around 0:30, a young man in a red shirt, Glenn Daniels Jr, is walking near the sidewalk with hundreds of other protestors. The crowd was attempting to cross the street to continue the march south down Broadway from Union Square. Daniels is peacefully walking with a water bottle, not committing any crime. At 0:35 he is approached by an NYPD officer and pushed towards the sidewalk. At 0:38 a senior police officer in a white shirt quickly approaches and grabs Daniels and another young man with a beard and backpack. The lighter skinned man is let go, but Daniels is arrested. The remainder of the video shows NYPD officers cuffing and detaining Daniels.
Unbefuckinglievable. He’s doing fucking nothing.
(Source: athenasaurus, via tinfoilandtea)
Police take down protestors with excessive violence at roughly 12th street and University Place. The first man who goes down is also shown in this video where you can clearly see the extent of his facial injuries.
(Source: athenasaurus, via tinfoilandtea)
