List of cases of police brutality

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This list compiles incidents of police brutality that have garnered significant media and/or historical attention.

[edit] 2000–present

January 29, 2008: Screenshot from a Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office jail facility surveillance video showing Brian Sterner lying on the floor after being dumped from his wheelchair by Deputy Charlette Marshall-Jones.

• January 29, 2008. Quadraplegic Brian Sterner was dumped from his wheelchair as he was being booked for an alleged traffic violation at the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office jail facility. Surveillance video showed Sterner tumbling to the floor and officers searching his clothing as he lay prone.^[1][2] The video raised concerns about police treatment of the disabled after being widely circulated on news channels and youtube, and the incident was seized upon by activists within the disabled community to highlight systemic practices of abuse and exclusion levied against physically disadvantaged people.^[3]

October 14, 2007: Screenshot from video taken by Paul Pritchard showing Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski's body on the Vancouver airport floor shortly after he died during an altercation with RCMP officers.

• October 14, 2007. Robert Dziekański, a Polish immigrant arriving at the Vancouver International Airport, died after being tasered multiple times and four members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) crowded on top of Dziekański. "The 40-year-old Dziekanski had been at the airport for about 10 hours and, unable to speak English, became confused and agitated while waiting for his mother to meet him."^[4][5]
• November 21, 2006. Kathryn Johnston, an 88-year-old Atlanta woman, was shot 6 times and killed by police officers who had entered her home with a fraudulently-obtained no knock warrant for a supposed drug grow-op after she had fired back in self-defence. Two of the three officers involved would eventually plead guilty to a number of charges including manslaughter.^[6]
• September 7, 2006. Eugene Ejike Obiora, a nigerian-norwegian student was killed during an arrest where Obiora had acted aggressive against personnel at the social services office in Trondheim. Obiora died en-route to hospital after police officer Trond Volden strangulated him in the subsequent struggle. Volden and three other officers where processed for use of force but were clarified by the police investigators and the chief prosecuter. Volden har earlier been clarified for harrassing and strangulating a ghani-norwegian cleaner in 1999.[1][2]
• July 2006. Footage shown at her trial showed 19–year–old Toni Comer being repeatedly punched, kicked and dragged to a waiting police van in Sheffield in 2006.^[7]
• March 7, 2006. Joseph Erin Hamley, a mentally disabled man, was shot and killed after being mistaken for a fugitive by state trooper Larry Norman. Norman later pleaded guilty to negligent homicide and the Hamley estate accepted a $1 million legal settlement from the state.^[8]
• February 4, 2006. Jessie Lee Williams Jr. died of brain trauma after being beaten by jailer Ryan Teel during booking at Harrison County, Mississippi jail. Teel was later found "guilty of conspiring to deprive inmates' rights, using unnecessary, excessive force in Williams' fatal beating and obstructing justice by writing a false report."^[9] In the civil lawsuit which ensued, the Williams estate obtained a settlement of $3.5 million from Harrison County.^[10]
• October 2005. Robert Davis was filmed in an altercation with New Orleans police officers. Two officers were later fired and charged with battery as a result of the incident.^[11]
• January 30, 2005. Four Pasadena, California police officers removed 35 year old quadriplegic Cornell Greathouse from his wheelchair and hung him over a concrete wall to search him. Greathouse was hospitalized for six days for injuries sustained during the arrest. A jury awarded Greathouse $80,000 from the city for violating his civil rights, but the officers were cleared of charges.^[12][13]
• December 23, 2004. Juan Herrera was shot and killed by officer Ron Furtado after a car pursuit in Buena Park, California. Officer Furtado claimed that Herrera was reaching for a gun, but a forensic expert was prepared to testify otherwise. The city settled with the Herrera family for $5 million.^[14]
• October 24, 2004. Frank Jude Jr. was beaten at a house party while unarmed by three off-duty Milwaukee police officers, Andrew Spengler, Jon Bartlett and Daniel Masarik, who were charged but acquitted by the state court.^[15] However, the three officers were later convicted on civil rights violations and assault in federal court. ^[16]
• January 4, 2004. Timothy Stansbury, a 19-year old New York City teenager, was shot and killed by New York Police Department Officer Richard S. Neri Jr. Neri’s partner pulled open a rooftop door so that Neri, gun drawn, could scan for drug suspects. Stansbury was coming up the stairs with a pile of CDs in his arms, intending on using the roof as a shortcut to go to a party in the adjacent building. Neri responded with one shot which he claimed he fired by accident.^[17] Neri was later cleared of criminal responsibility, but given a 30 day suspension without pay.^[18] The family's lawsuit against the city was settled in 2007 for $2 million.^[19]
• November 5, 2003. With guns drawn, police executed a "commando-style raid" at Stratford High School, forcing students as young as 14 to the ground as SWAT team personnel in bulletproof vests led drug dogs to search their schoolbags. ^[20][21]. On July 10, 2006, a settlement of $1.6 million was reached in an ACLU-initiated lawsuit charging police and school officials with violating the students’ right to be free from unlawful search and seizure and use of excessive force.^[22]
• June 25, 2003. Albert Mosely was picked up on a probation violation and brought to the Baltimore's Western District police station where, after getting into a shouting match with police officers, he was picked up (while handcuffed) and thrown "headfirst into the concrete wall of a holding cell." Mosley was rendered quadriplegic, sued the city, and was awarded $44 million in damages.^[23]
• July 6, 2002. A videotape taken by a tourist showed 16 year old Donovan Jackson being beaten by Inglewood police officers.^[24] In the video, officer Jeremy Morse is seen "repeatedly punching the hand-cuffed special education student in the face, then picking him up and slamming him down on the back of [a] squad car."^[25] To date, legal settlements have cost the city of Inglewood over $3 million.^[26]
• June-July 2000. A string of incidents of police misconduct by a group of four Oakland officers known as "the Riders" came to light. ^[27] 119 people pressed civil rights lawsuits for unlawful beatings and detention, ultimately settling for $11 million with an agreement that the Oakland Police Department would implement significant reforms.^[28] Although all of the police officers involved were fired, three were later acquitted of criminal charges while one fled to Mexico to avoid prosecution.^[29]

[edit] 1990–1999

• October 2, 1999. Darren Varley, a 26-year old truck driver, was shot to death in a cell at a local Royal Canadian Mounted Police holding cell. The Officer, Constable Michael Ferguson, a 19-year veteran was convicted in a 3rd trial of manslaughter and ordered to a 4-year prison term. [3]
• February 4, 1999. Amadou Diallo was shot and killed by New York City police officers while unarmed after the officers claimed they believed he was reaching for a gun. Four officers were indicted for second-degree murder but later acquitted.^[30]

January 3, 1998: Policemen from the North East Rand Dog Unit set their dogs on three Mozambican immigrants

• January 3, 1998. Six policemen from the North East Rand Dog Unit set their dogs on three suspected illegal immigrants, allowing the animals to attack the three men as the officers shouted racial insults. The incident was caught on video and televised nationally by the South African Broadcasting Corporation on Nov. 7, 2000, causing widespread outrage. All six policemen were ultimately sentenced to jail terms of between four and five years each.^[31][32]
• August 1997. Abner Louima was sexually abused by New York City police officers. A number of officers were convicted in the case.^[33]
• October 12, 1996. Javier Ovando was shot and paralyzed by LAPD Officer Rafael Pérez and his partner Nino Durden. The two officers planted a gun on the unarmed gang member and testified that Ovando shot first. The truth was revealed in 1999 as part of the Rampart investigation, and in the largest police misconduct settlement in city history, Javier Ovando was awarded $15 million in November 2000.^[34]
• April 1, 1996. Riverside sheriff's deputies stopped two suspected illegal immigrants, a male and female, driving a pick-up truck carrying at least 20 people after a nearly 70 mile hour chase through Riverside, San Bernardino, and Los Angeles counties. Two of the sheriff's deputies began beating the driver and passenger repeatedly with their clubs, even pulling on the woman's hair. The beating was videotaped by a news helicopter crew. Both deputies were suspended. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department launched a criminal investigation into the incident.^[35]
• October 12, 1995. Johnny Gammage was a black motorist who died in a scuffle with white police officers. Three officers were charged with involuntary manslaughter, although at least one was acquitted.^[36]
• September 7, 1995. Dudley George, an Ojibwa protestor, was shot and killed by Ontario Provincial Police Sergeant Kenneth Deane near Ipperwash Provincial Park in Ontario in 1995 during the Ipperwash Crisis. Sergeant Deane was later convicted of criminal negligence causing death^[37]
• August 25, 1995. Wayne Calvin Byrd II along with four other associates were beaten and arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department's CRASH unit in the Marina Del Rey community of West Los Angeles.^[38] Although attempts were made by the City of Los Angeles to settle the case, several Pacific Division Los Angeles Police Department officers, including Officer Ramirez, Officer Villalpando, Officer Damiano and Officer Williams were found guilty of various civil rights violations, including false imprisonment.^[39] All charges against the four victims were eventually dropped.
• December, 1994. Anthony Baez died after being arrested by NYPD Officer Francis X. Livoti.^[40] A lawsuit filed by the Baez family was later settled for $3 million.^[41]

March 3, 1991: Rodney King being beaten by LAPD officers is caught on home video.

• November 5, 1992. In Detroit, Michigan, Malice Green was beaten to death during a traffic stop by officers Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn. Both officers are ultimately convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
• August 21, 1992. The home of Randy Weaver, a white separatist and survivalist, was assaulted by federal agents during the Ruby Ridge incident. During the incident, Weaver's wife was killed along with his son, and Weaver's friend Kevin Harris was wounded.^[42]
• March 3, 1991. Rodney King's arrest and beating by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department was videotaped by a bystander. Four law enforcement officers, including one sergeant, were charged locally with assault and other charges, of which they were acquitted, leading to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. King accepted a $3.8 million settlement in his civil lawsuit against the city, while the officers were later charged in federal court of violating King's civil rights. Two of them were convicted.^[43]
• March 22, 1990. Adolph Archie, an African-American, was accused of killing a white officer, Earl Hauck, during a shootout in downtown New Orleans. Archie was beaten to death after being taken into custody, yet no officer was ever held accountable. A settlement of $333,000 was eventually reached between Archie's family and the city.^[44]

[edit] Before 1990

• 1977. Steve Biko is widely believed to have been killed by police as a result of anti-apartheid demonstrations in South Africa.^[45]
• May 14, 1970. Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, 21, and James Earl Green, 17, were shot and killed and twelve others injured as police attempted to disperse about 100 protesting black students near the campus of Jackson State University in Mississippi. Known as the Jackson State Killings, the incident was overshadowed in the media by the Kent State shootings in which four white students were killed by the National Guard about a week earlier. A memorial to the two dead students has since been erected on the Jackson State campus. ^[46]
• June 2, 1967. Benno Ohnesorg, a German university student, was shot dead by police officer Karl-Heinz Kurras during a demonstration in Berlin. Kurras was charged with manslaughter but acquitted.^[47][48]
• October 17, 1961. The French police attacked a large demonstration of unarmed and peaceful protesters of Algerian origin, killing between 70 and 200 (numbers are uncertain, partly because many were drowned after being thrown into the Seine with their hands tied), in the Paris massacre of 1961.
• March 21, 1960. South African police shot at a crowd of black anti-apartheid protesters, killing 69 and injuring over 180 in what became known as the Sharpeville Massacre. Evidence showed that the police continued firing even when the crowd had turned to run, and the majority of those killed and wounded were shot in the back. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission later concluded that the police actions constituted "gross human rights violations in that excessive force was unnecessarily used to stop a gathering of unarmed people." (see Sharpeville Massacre article for sourcing).
• Christmas 1951. Roughly fifty Los Angeles Police Department officers participated in the beating of seven Latino men at a police station. The event was fictionalized in James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Pending investigations

Bartender being punched and kicked by offduty Chicago Police officer Anthony Abbate.

The investigations into these cases have not been completed. Parties involved in each case may or may not be exonerated by the investigation.

• February 19, 2007. Video footage showed offduty officer Anthony Abbate beating and kicking bartender Karolina Obrycka at Jesse's Shortstop Inn in Chicago. Abbate was later arrested and charged with felony battery and stripped of his police powers. The Chicago Police have since moved to terminate Abbate from the force, and Obrycka has filed a civil lawsuit against Abbate and the city. ^[49]

^[50]

• Martin Anderson died in 2006 at a Florida juvenile detention facility after allegedly suffering a beating by as many as eight guards, recorded by videotape. An investigation is ongoing.^[51]
• Sean Bell died after police fired 50 shots at his car outside of a strip club in New York City, hours before his wedding. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that what the officers did was against NYPD policy. This case is under investigation. On April 25, 2008, Judge Arthur Cooperman delivered a verdict that acquitted the Police Officers of the charges.^[52]

November 3, 2006: Video showing LAPD officer striking William Cardenas 6 times in the face

• November 3 2006. A video posted on YouTube by the organization Copwatch shows two Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers holding down 24–year–old William Cardenas and punching him in the face while arresting him on charges of receiving stolen property. The LAPD and Federal Bureau of Investigation are currently investigating this case.^[53]
• 62 protesters were hospitalized (including three comatose) after a brutal night-time raid on the Diaz school in Genoa where protesters were bedding down during the 27th G8 summit. In an ongoing trial (expected to conclude in 2008), twenty-eight Italian police officers are indicted for grievous bodily harm, planting evidence and wrongful arrest. A further 45 state officials, including police officers, prison guards and doctors, are charged with physically and mentally abusing demonstrators and journalists held in a detention centre in the nearby town of Bolzaneto.^[54]

[edit] References