It couldn't have been more timely and relevant.
Now some background on the first item:
"Police fanned out across Boston's streets to disperse raucous crowds that night and early yesterday morning, but some fans still damaged buildings, angering business owners. Struggles with police left a 22-year-old Massachusetts man in critical condition after he went into cardiac arrest while being detained....
See the fate of this young man in the article below.
Cuts on Andre W. Reed's left cheek and forehead still bled as he awaited arraignment yesterday. Reed said he was leaving a bar on Charles Street when police told him and his cousin, Thomas Bridwell, to turn around. When they did not, he said, the officers tackled and punched them."
Aren't bars and clubbing what we are all about -- "freedom?"
"Arrest, death bring inquiry; Man, 22, was held in Celtics celebration; Parents contend medical aid delayed" by Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff | June 30, 2008
A 22-year-old man who stopped breathing while in police custody after his arrest during the June 18 Boston Celtics NBA championship celebration died yesterday, prompting an investigation by Boston police and the Suffolk County District Attorney's office into his death.
The parents of David Woodman, a former Emmanuel College student who was living in Brookline, said their son did not receive prompt medical attention while lying unconscious, face down on Brookline Avenue with his hands cuffed behind his back. They also accused police of failing to give them a full account of what happened.
Boston police say they immediately administered cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, flagged an ambulance after noticing Woodman was in distress, and did everything they could to help him before he was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. But Jeffrey and Cathy Woodman of Southwick say their son must have been deprived of oxygen for at least four minutes because he suffered significant brain damage.
"We don't know what happened," said Jeffrey Woodman, contending that police have left them with more questions than answers. "We are left to surmise that something occurred while he was in police custody that stopped his heart."
Woodman said his son had a preexisting heart condition, but he led an active life and had been playing basketball earlier that day. He said doctors told him his son's heart was functioning normally.
Thomas J. Nee, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, said he understands the family's anguish, "but nothing those officers did that night caused his death."
He said that the officers, who have not been identified publicly, have cooperated with the investigation, and that the family's questions will be answered.
David Woodman, who was charged with drinking in public and resisting arrest, remained hospitalized after the incident and awoke June 23 from a medically induced coma. His parents said he recognized them but had difficulty communicating and whispered, "What happened?"
He smiled at a Globe reporter during a brief visit Thursday, spoke softly to his parents, and appeared confused. A large scrape was visible near his right eye. On Saturday, he was asking to go home, according to his parents, who believed he would survive and face lengthy rehabilitation.
At 2:30 a.m. yesterday he died at the hospital. The family is awaiting autopsy results.
Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, said Conley "pledged a thorough and impartial review of the facts."
The Boston Police Department launched an internal investigation shortly after the incident into how the officers handled Woodman and will join the district attorney's office in investigating his death, Elaine Driscoll, a spokeswoman for the Boston police, said yesterday. Several officers were treated for stress and have returned to work, she said.
"Based upon what we know thus far we do not believe that any excessive force was used and we do believe officers responded reasonably," Driscoll said in an interview Friday.
Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis declined to be interviewed, according to Driscoll, who said the commissioner tried to meet with Woodman's family June 18 but was turned away at the hospital by staff who said the family didn't wish to see him.
Cathy Woodman said she was alone with her son, who was on life support with scrapes that looked like road burns all over his face, and felt too overwhelmed to meet with Davis.
David Woodman, who had been a history major at Emmanuel College and planned to return in the fall after taking a semester off, was walking from a bar with friends after the game when they passed about 10 or 12 uniformed officers at the corner of the Fenway and Brookline Avenue, according to two friends who spoke on the condition they not be named.
According to one of the friends, as Woodman passed the officers, he said, "Wow, it seems like there's a lot of crime on this corner."
Officers grabbed Woodman, who was carrying a plastic cup of beer, and as they struggled to handcuff him pushed him face down onto the ground, according to Woodman's friend.
"He wasn't being a punk or anything like that," said the friend. "I don't understand why the officers used such brute force to arrest him."
Woodman's friends said an officer yelled at them to leave, saying they would be arrested if they didn't.
One of the friends said he returned a few minutes later but was ordered to leave or face arrest. "They were all just around him and he was on the ground and not moving," the friend said. "I didn't see them giving him CPR."
A Boston police report given to Howard Friedman, a Boston lawyer who represents the Woodmans, says that Woodman "began struggling with the officers as they attempted to handcuff him. Officers immediately realized that David Woodman was not breathing and they began to give CPR and summoned EMS to that location."
Initially, Driscoll said Boston police called for an ambulance at 12:47 a.m., reporting an extremely drunken man on the ground, and immediately began CPR. Later she corrected that information, saying that officers didn't begin CPR at that time and initially just put out a low-priority call for an ambulance to tend to a drunken man. Then sometime in the next six minutes, she said, officers discovered Woodman wasn't breathing, began CPR, and at 12:53 a.m. put out a second call for an ambulance, warning "please push."
The police report says one of the officers flagged down a private Cataldo Ambulance, before a Boston Emergency Medical Services ambulance arrived.
Cataldo Ambulance workers arrived at 12:58 a.m., treated Woodman at the scene, and delivered him to the hospital at 1:11 a.m, said Ron Quaranto, chief operating officer of Cataldo Ambulance.
Thomas Drechsler, a Boston lawyer who represents the officers, said, "They responded as quickly as they could; there was no time that he was neglected. . . . Nobody is trying to hide anything."
Then what is with the changing stories and rationales, Sig Heil?
During an emotional interview at the hospital last week, Woodman's mother said her son was being unfairly portrayed as a troublemaker, but he wasn't one of the people breaking windows or causing damage after the Celtics game.
She said she was haunted by the notion that her son was struggling to breathe while he was with police. "There are people who are covering themselves," she said."Yeah, the cops just KILLED HIM for no reason.
Of course, that is an ISOLATED INCIDENT, right?
Actually, no, no it isn't:
"RI man dies after being placed in police cruiser"
WEST WARWICK, R.I. (AP) -- State police, the attorney general's office, and West Warwick police are investigating the death of a a 47-year-old man who died after a scuffle with police. Police responded to a report of suspects damaging a sign outside Joyal's Liquor Store Friday night and found Mark Jackson standing behind the store. Police say Jackson became combative and they used pepper spray to try to subdue him. The Providence Jounrnal reports that when that didn't work, police struck his legs with batons and eventually were able to handcuff him. Several officers were knocked to the ground. During the two minute trip to the police station, Jackson stopped breathing. Emergency workers were unable to revive him and he was later pronounced dead."
Let's get more details, shall we?
"Witnesses offer details of arrest in W. Warwick" WEST WARWICK — A couple who witnessed the struggle between police and a mentally ill man who died in police custody Friday night says they saw five officers on top of the man as he lay face down on the ground, his legs kicking, while the officers tried to handcuff him. Nicole Frink yesterday recalled standing at her bedroom window with her boyfriend, Mark Fiore, at about 11 p.m. and watching the man getting “elbow jabs to the ribs” as the officers pinned him down on the parking lot pavement behind Joyal’s Liquor Store, at 90 West Warwick Ave. At one point, the man on the pavement turned his head to the right, said Fiore, and an officer “smashed him in the face with his knee.” The officers were responding to a call from a motorist who reported seeing people damaging the liquor store’s sign. The first officer on the scene found 47-year-old Mark Jackson, who had been staying at his mother’s apartment next door, walking behind the liquor store. The West Warwick police said in a statement issued Saturday that Jackson “did not comply with officers’ requests” and that as they approached him he became “combative.” The officers struck Jackson with their batons on his “lower extremities,” according to the police statement. Jackson was “speaking with officers as he was being placed in the police vehicle.” Upon arriving at the station within two minutes, the statement says, the officers “discovered Mr. Jackson was no longer breathing.” The police yesterday declined to make any statements about the cause of death pending a scheduled autopsy today by the state medical examiner’s office. Yesterday, local officers and state police detectives canvassed the neighborhood, questioning witnesses. The five officers involved in the arrest have been assigned to “administrative duty,” said West Warwick Capt. Mark Knott. The police declined to identify them. Inside the West Warwick apartment where Jackson had been staying with his mother, family and friends gathered yesterday in grief and shock. “It’s all wrong,” Jackson’s mother, Juanita “Anita” Jackson, said. “He was headed home — walking home.” His sister, Karen Petro, of Warwick, said her brother had never been in any trouble before. The man described in the statement by West Warwick police, she said, was not the brother she knew. “They killed him. They killed him,” Petro said, her voice cracking. “And, as his sister, I’m not gonna let this go away. I know my brother and he’s never done anything …” MARK DAVID JACKSON, of 777 Cowesett Rd. in Warwick, grew up in Pittsburgh, the youngest of five children. He attended high school and later worked as an auto mechanic. It wasn’t until the mid-1980s, after his parents separated and his father died, that he became “very withdrawn,” his sister said. It was after he came to live in Rhode Island in the mid-1980s that Jackson was diagnosed with schizophrenia. For a time, he was on medication, his mother said, but in recent years he had stopped taking it. He received federal Supplemental Security Income payments, his mother said, and managed his own money. But he spent most of his time at his mother’s apartment, sleeping in the bedroom that she’d given up, she says, because she preferred the living room couch. “He was very quiet; he never said anything,” his mother said. “I’ve never known him to put a hand on anybody.” She said her son spent his days lazing in the bedroom, watching TV or lost in his own thoughts. Occasionally, he played an electronic keyboard she had bought him. She didn’t drive, so she’d given him her 1993 Mercury Sable and he drove her to doctor’s appointments and to the grocery store — usually preferring to wait in the car until she returned. Jackson was a familiar figure to people who worked in the nearby stores. He’d stop in each morning at the Dunkin’ Donuts to buy a large iced coffee—with cream and sugar—and a “supreme pizza,” said Julie Monteira, 21, who works behind the counter. He’d often stroll over to Joyal’s Liquor Store to buy Phillies miniature cigars, said Patricia Rajotte, a store employee. He’d sometime sit quietly by the liquor store loading dock, smoking. On Friday night, it was warm in his mother’s apartment and Jackson went out for a walk, his mother said. He wore black trousers and a navy dress shirt. His mother waited up for him. AT ABOUT 11 p.m., from the window of her second-floor bedroom overlooking the parking lot of Joyal’s Liquor Store, Frink, who works the night shift at the store, said she and Fiore were in bed watching TV when they heard a commotion outside. The couple said they went to the window, shut off their air conditioner so they could hear better, and watched as five officers pinned down a man they later learned was Mark Jackson. The first officer to arrive called immediately for backup, said state attorney general spokesman Michael Healey, yesterday recounting information from a state police detective investigating the incident. After the second officer arrived, the two requested additional backup, he said. Three additional West Warwick officers responded. Jackson “had his hands in his pockets,” Healey said, “and the police commanded him to take his hands out of his pockets several times and he wouldn’t.” Officers were knocked to the ground while scuffling with him. If he had his HANDS in his POCKETS, that must have been quite a LAME SCUFFLE, huh? Methinks the COPS are ONCE AGAIN LYING!!!!! They then used pepper spray but it “seemed to have no effect,” according to the statement released by the West Warwick police. So why didn't you guys taser him? You seem to love that tool. “Officers then used their expandable batons to deliver strikes to Mr. Jackson’s lower extremities. It was not until additional officers arrived that they were able to handcuff Mr. Jackson and place him in the rear of a police vehicle and transport him to the police station.” Frink said she recalled hearing officers shout “Get your hands down! Put your hands down on the ground now!” During the struggle, she said, Jackson kept screaming, “I love you. I love you.” She said the episode she witnessed lasted about 10 minutes. After the officers handcuffed Jackson, she said she saw a cruiser pull up to where he was lying, face down and motionless. One officer went around to the door on the opposite side to open it, she said, while three other officers lifted Jackson—two holding his legs and a third his upper body — and shoved him into the cruiser. “He was not moving when they put him in the car,” she said. “He literally looked lifeless.” Oh, so THEY DID KILL HIM! Then STUFFED HIM in the car and SAID HE DIED ON THE WAY!! The RHODE ISLAND COPS KILLED THIS MAN!!!! Frink said she went to the state police barracks on Saturday and gave a statement about what she saw that night. At the time she made the statement, she said, she did not know who Jackson was or that he had died. The state police and the West Warwick police are conducting a joint investigation into the death with the assistance of the Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch’s office. If the state medical examiner cannot conclude from the autopsy that Jackson died of natural causes, Healey said, then a grand jury probably will be convened." And here is a good question: Why did the Boston Globe REMOVE ALL TRACES of this story from their WEBSITE when it is IN MY PAPER?! Instead, they put this up on the web (talk about CENSORSHIP)!!! "Police arrest man, 22, in fatal stabbing
Gee, that sure is A LOT CLOSER to HOME!
Since when the hell have you cared so much about Western Mass., Globe?
Only when you gotta cover up some police-state brutality, 'eh?
Oh, and COP CRIMES aren't limited to MURDER!
"MCI-Concord officer charged with drug trafficking" by Christopher J. Baxter, Globe Correspondent | June 30, 2008
A Massachusetts correctional officer faces arraignment today on drug charges after the Middlesex district attorney's office said he attempted to sell eight pounds of marijuana to a State Police trooper working undercover in Lowell.
Police executed a search warrant at his address after the arrest and seized two pounds of marijuana, 100 bottles of steroids, and six tablets of ecstasy, Leone's office said.
Investigators do not believe Sweeney sold drugs while on the job or used his position for criminal activity, the office stated.
--MORE--"
A Middlesex Sheriff's Office employee was arrested yesterday at a Winthrop Dunkin' Donuts shop, accused of acting as a middleman in correctional-facility drug trade, said David Procopio, a spokesman for the Massachusetts State Police.
The arrest came at the end of an eight-month investigation into Scott Sears, 36, of Winthrop, a correctional officer of two years with the Middlesex Sheriff's Office, Procopio said. In October, State Police and Middlesex officials heard from several informants that Sears was acting as a go-between for drug dealers and inmates at the Billerica House of Correction, where he worked, Procopio said.
Sears would meet with drug dealers, collect marijuana and heroin on behalf of the inmates, and then smuggle it into Billerica for a fee, Procopio said.
State Police and the sheriff's office set up surveillance at a Dunkin' Donuts shop on Revere Street in Winthrop early yesterday. An undercover agent met with Sears and gave him drugs in a coffee cup, and as payment Sears received $150 cash and 3 grams of cocaine, Procopio said.
As Sears left the donut shop, "deputies converged on him and placed him under arrest," Procopio said.
He was being held in Suffolk County Jail on $15,000 bail on two counts of possession, one with intent to distribute; committing a drug violation near a school or park; and delivering drugs to a prisoner.
--MORE--"
Oh, and they are in to more than just drugs, too.
How about a little SHAKEDOWN!!!
A Lowell police officer was indicted yesterday on charges that he gambled illegally on sports and used his law enforcement powers to intimidate his Westford bookie to get out of paying his debts. David Annis, 33, faces charges of gambling, extortion, and illegally obtaining criminal record information. Authorities said Annis began an unsuccessful gambling spree last August, betting online through the bookmaker. During a meeting with the bookmaker, Annis allegedly showed him his badge and the criminal records and said he might be "investigating gambling cases." He said the bookmaker would not be arrested if "things could go smoothly (Boston Globe June 30 2008)."
Better be careful who you associate with, 'eh, bookies?
And then there is the LEGAL RIP-OFF!
"'OT king' of police force is set to retire
When Police Officer Greg Malisos retires today, he will be giving up more than the usual 40-hour workweek. The vanity plates on his recreational vehicle explain his approach toward his job: "OT KING." The 20-year police veteran averaged 11 hours of work a day last year, working as many as 30 consecutive days without a break. He earned $141,531, boosting his regular pay by working 2,423 extra hours through a combination of overtime and construction details. Since 2005, he has logged nearly 7,000 of overtime and detail work. He did it so he could retire early, with the maximum pay. Retirement pay is based on an officer's highest three years of earnings. Chief Gerald Lewis said he had some concerns about all the hours Malisos was working, but said the officer showed no signs of being tired from all the work (AP)."
Yup, to SERVE (himself) and to PROTECT (his bank account)!
Sig Heil, AmeriKa!!!!
