Media Lying, 5G is Harmful: A new case report on two previously healthy men who developed “microwave syndrome” symptoms after a 5G cell tower was installed on the roof of their office
/From [HERE] A new case report shows that two previously healthy men rapidly developed typical “microwave syndrome” symptoms shortly after a 5G cell tower was installed on the roof of their office.
According to the report, published Feb. 4 in the Annals of Clinical Case Reports, the men experienced headaches, joint pain, tinnitus, abnormal fatigue, sleep disturbances, burning skin, anxiety and trouble concentrating.
The findings match the results of a similar case report published last month in the same journal — that appeared earlier in the Swedish journal Medicinsk Access — showing a previously healthy man and woman developed similar microwave syndrome symptoms soon after a 5G tower was installed on top of their apartment.
Both reports show that non-ionizing radiation from 5G — well below levels allowed by authorities — can cause health problems in individuals who had no prior history of electromagnetic sensitivity (EMS).
The two reports appear to be the first studies in the world on the health effects in humans from exposure to 5G, according to the authors.
The case reports’ lead author, Dr. Lennart Hardell — a world-leading scientist on cancer risks from radiation — said the two reports are “groundbreaking” because they serve as the “first warning of a health hazard.”
“This may be the case for 5G and these results must be taken seriously,” he said.
“People shouldn’t have to leave their homes because of 5G,” said Hardell, an oncologist and epidemiologist with the Environment and Cancer Research Foundation who has authored more than 100 papers on non-ionizing radiation.
Just the ‘tip of the iceberg’
Hardell told The Defender the two case studies are likely just “the tip of the iceberg” when it comes to 5G’s impact on people’s health.
Because research on the health effects of exposure to 5G is lacking, Hardell said, we don’t know how many people get sick from 5G.
Mona Nilsson — managing director of the Swedish Radiation Protection Foundation and co-author of the case reports — said it was a “great scandal” that “5G has been rolled out for several years now in Sweden and in the U.S. without any study at all being performed about the health effects.”
“These two studies show that 5G is very dangerous to health and that the scientists and doctors who have been warning for years of serious consequences for human health due to a predicted massive increase in microwave radiation … have been right in their assessments,” Nilsson added.
5G impacts many organ systems
In the January case report, telecommunication companies replaced a 3G/4G cell tower with a 5G tower on the roof directly above the apartment of a healthy man and woman, ages 63 and 62.
Days after the 5G tower was installed, the two residents began developing acute physical symptoms, causing them to move out.
The residents’ physical symptoms quickly decreased or disappeared when they moved to a building with much lower radiation levels.
Measurements taken in their apartment showed extremely high levels of non-ionizing radiation throughout the apartment. The maximum value measured was more than 2,500,000 microwatts — the highest maximum value that the meter used can measure — so the actual radiation may have been even higher, Hardell and Nilsson said.
The report’s findings contradict assurances from the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority that the amount of radiation a cell tower emits is relatively below, behind or above the tower, she added.
The February report discussed the experiences of two men, ages 57 and 42, when a 3G/4G tower was replaced with 5G equipment on the roof of their office where they worked as information technology and management consultants and sometimes slept.
The men displayed symptoms shortly after the 5G tower was installed and chose to relocate — at which point their symptoms lessened or disappeared.
Hardell and Nilsson measured a maximum of 1,180,000 microwatts (μW/m2) in the men’s office. [MORE]
Big Pharma Exec says the DoD Conspired with China to Develop and Distribute “Biological Warfare Agents Marketed as ‘Covid-19 Vaccines'
/From [HERE] Former pharmaceutical industry executive Sasha Latypova has come forward with damning information linking the Department of Defense (DoD) and Pfizer’s Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) “vaccine” scheme to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Government documents obtained by Latypova show that the DoD partnered with a CCP-linked drug company to develop and distribute the “biological warfare agents marketed as ‘Covid-19 vaccines'” from Pfizer and BioNTech.
“It is curious that the U.S. DoD awarded $10 billion … to a venture whose substantial equity (and IP) holder is the Chinese Communist Party,” Latypova wrote in a December 28 Substack article.
Over the past year, Latypova has dropped numerous bombshell revelations on the world pertaining to Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) “vaccines,” all of which are a scam.
Government officials, Latypova claims, have been trying to conceal the relationship between Pfizer, the United States deep state, and communist China as it pertains to covid injections – but the cat is now out of the bag.
“I know what is in the redacted part,” Latypova wrote about images she shared of heavily redacted text naming the third party that partnered with Pfizer and BioNTech for the “co-development and distribution” of a “coronavirus vaccine.”
“Fosun Pharmaceuticals … it was not hard to figure out,” she revealed.
(Related: Three months before covid appeared, the DoD issued a “COVID-19 Research” contract to a Ukrainian company.)
It should really be called the Fosun-Pfizer-BioNTech covid “vaccine”
Another document dated March 16, 2020, substantiates Latypova’s claim that Fosun is the redacted third-party partner that worked with Pfizer, BioNTech, and the CCP to unleash covid shots under Operation Warp Speed.
This “strategic alliance,” that document states, was formed to ensure swift development and commercialization of the experimental gene-modification injections.
“Pfizer-BioNTech is really a 3-party R&D alliance: Fosun-Pfizer-BioNTech, and by ‘party’ I mean that one of the three is the Chinese Communist Party,” Latypova maintains.
“Fosun is a huge Chinese conglomerate that owns a large number of global companies, and its chairman, Guo Guangchang, is a very high ranking member of the CCP.”
According to Forbes, Guangchang is currently worth over $4 billion, and is a member of at least three different CCP-aligned organizations, including the 12th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
Under the supervision and direction of the CCP, the CPPCC provides consultation and advisory input to various CCP legislative bodies.
A native of the Soviet Union, Latypova has a unique and insightful perspective into the geopolitics of communist China, which is located right next to Russia.
“In China, every large employer, especially in something strategic like biopharma sector, is controlled by the CCP,” she says, adding that this was also the case in her homeland.
“… in the Soviet Union, where each workplace had a ‘partorg,’ a representative supervisor from the Communist party, or a whole department of them.”
There is also a fourth party involved in all this: Israel. The Israeli Ministry of Health was added to the “pharmacovigilance” agreement for data sharing on Jan. 6, 2021, the day of the so-called “insurrection” in the U.S. capital.
Latypova says this foursome agreed to “count the bodies and share the data with each other.”
Latypova also maintains that the DoD was directly in charge of the production and distribution of all covid injections unleashed by the Trump administration and its Operation Warp Speed scheme.
These so-called “vaccines” were never categorized by the DoD as medicines or pharmaceuticals, but rather as “COVID countermeasures” under the authority of the military. This is why Trump unleashed them as a military operation after declaring covid to be a health emergency of a pandemic nature.
[because Cops Who Murder People are Probably Also Liars who Lack Credibility] All Cases Involving the Black Borgs Who Murdered Tyre Nichols are Put On Hold by Memphis Prosectors
/
From [HERE] The arrest of five Memphis police officers charged with second-degree murder in the death of Tyre Nichols could lead to a cascade of criminal cases being dismissed and convictions appealed, as defense attorneys in the city weigh challenging reports and testimony brought by the now-defunct police unit of which the officers were a part.
The Shelby County District Attorney’s Office said on Thursday that it would review any cases and convictions involving the five officers, though the office did not offer specifics because of the continuing investigation. The five officers were also added to an internal list of police officials across the county accused of being dishonest or facing criminal charges, a classification that could lead prosecutors to drop any cases involving their testimony.
But some defense attorneys are also working to compile a roster of the aggressive Scorpion unit that the five officers belonged to, which could imperil hundreds of cases across the city. From its inception in late 2021 to January 2022, when Mayor Jim Strickland hailed the unit’s work in his annual State of the City speech, the unit made 566 arrests.
That unit was disbanded after the death of Mr. Nichols last month, as city and police officials grappled with the behavior of the five officers who violently kicked and beat the 29-year-old FedEx worker and photographer and with the unit’s overall record of aggression, intimidation and brutality. The Scorpion unit had roughly 40 members, who handled an estimated thousands of cases.
The Memphis Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday. [MORE]
Court Asked to Apply the Law of The Jungle Standard ("qualified immunity") in Patrick Lyoya Case. White Cop Too Weak to Subdue Fleeing Black Man Shot Him in the Back of the Head Rather than Let Him Go
/
From [HERE] Attorneys for the former Grand Rapids police officer who shot and killed Patrick Lyoya last year have filed a request in federal court, seeking to get the wrongful death lawsuit against him thrown out, WOOD TV-8 reports.
In a motion to dismiss filed Monday, Feb. 6, Schurr’s attorneys argued he's protected by qualified immunity, which, generally speaking, prevents officers from being sued for actions they took in the line of duty.
Lyoya’s family sued Schurr and Grand Rapids in December, alleging excessive force and a violation of Lyoya’s Fourth Amendment rights when he was shot April 4, 2022, after Schurr pulled him over. The lawsuit argued it was “objectively unreasonable” for Schurr to have shot Lyoya.
Schurr’s attorneys say his actions were reasonable. They argue he didn’t violate Lyoya’s Fourth Amendment protections and that, because it hasn't been demonstrated to the court that Schurr’s actions were unconstitutional, the lawsuit should be tossed.
“Schurr is entitled to qualified immunity because the videos demonstrate that Plaintiff cannot plead a constitutional violation nor a violation of clearly established law,” the motion reads in part, referencing body camera, dashboard camera, home surveillance and cellphone video that show the shooting.
That video shows that Lyoya ran away from Schurr during the traffic stop and the two then grappled over Schurr’s Taser, with Schurr repeatedly ordering Lyoya to let go. Schurr was on top of Lyoya, trying to hold him down, when he pulled his gun and shot him once in the back of the head, killing him.
“…Lyoya posed an immediate threat to the safety of Ofc. Schurr once he armed himself with the Taser,” Schurr’s lawyers wrote.
Other cameras — from the officer’s vehicle, a nearby doorbell security system and a bystander’s cellphone — capture different portions of the encounter. Shortly before the fatal shot is fired, Officer Schurr yells, “Let go of the Taser!” Mr. Lyoya is facing the ground and pushing up, with the officer on top of him, in the moments just before the shooting. Again, said statement from a cop-actor performing for the camera is self-serving - the video speaks for itself.
At any rate, Lyoya was under arrest for a traffic violation, which is a minor misdemeanor. As such, he was not a fleeing felon. The Supreme Court has explained the use of deadly force to prevent escape is unconstitutional, at least in regard to white citizens that is. The Court has explained,
The use of deadly force to prevent the escape of all felony suspects, whatever the circumstances, is constitutionally unreasonable. It is not better that all felony suspects die than that they escape. Where the suspect poses no immediate threat to the officer and no threat to others, the harm resulting from failing to apprehend him does not justify the use of deadly force to do so. It is no doubt unfortunate when a suspect who is in sight escapes, but the fact that the police arrive a little late or are a little slower afoot does not always justify killing the suspect.
A police officer may not seize an unarmed, nondangerous suspect by shooting him dead… Where the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm, either to the officer or to others, it is not constitutionally unreasonable to prevent escape by using deadly force. Thus, if the suspect threatens the officer with a weapon or there is probable cause to believe that he has committed a crime involving the infliction or threatened infliction of serious physical harm, deadly force may be used if necessary to prevent escape, and if, where feasible, some warning has been given.
Tennessee v. Garner - 471 U.S. 1 at page 11 (1985).
Lyoya’s family’s attorneys have until March 6 to respond to the motion to dismiss.
Schurr has been charged with second-degree murder in Lyoya’s death. A Kent County judge last week said she wouldn't dismiss the charge and ordered the case sent to a jury. An appeal on the criminal front is expected and attorneys on both sides are skeptical the case will go to trial in March, as had initially been scheduled.
5 Years Later Minnesota AG’s Office to Review Death of Hardel Sherrell at Beltrami County Jail
/From [HERE] Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said his office will review the death of a man who collapsed after complaining of health problems at the Beltrami County jail in 2018.
Hardel Sherrell, 27, of Apple Valley, was transferred to the northern Minnesota jail in August 2018 in good health to face weapons possession charges, but his condition deteriorated over several days until he collapsed after complaining of several health issues, including chest pains and paralysis, KARE-TV previously reported.
Sherrell died at the Bemidji jail in September 2018.
His mother, Del Shea Perry, asked the state to investigate and filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2019. She alleged in the lawsuit that jail and medical staff did not take Sherrell seriously when he asked them for help. Sherrell suffered from a neurological disorder that, left untreated, can result in respiratory arrest, and he died of suffocation on the jail floor, the lawsuit alleged.
Beltrami County Sheriff Jason Riggs did not immediately respond to a request Monday for comment on Ellison’s announcement.
In a filing in response to the lawsuit, the county denied the allegations, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension completed its investigation of Sherrell’s death in August 2022 and referred the case to Beltrami County Attorney David Hanson to consider possible criminal charges.
Hanson has asked Ellison’s office to review the case, the attorney general said in a news release Friday.
“Hardel Sherrell’s life was important and had value. We’re committed to assisting the Beltrami County Attorney and will follow justice wherever it leads,” Ellison said in a statement. “To Hardel’s mother and loved ones: you have my deepest condolences, and you can count on our very best effort.”
Ellison said it would take some time to review the “voluminous file” in the case.
After an initial inquiry found no wrongdoing by the jail staff, the Department of Corrections opened a new investigation in 2020 in response to protests led by Perry. That investigation found “regular and gross violation of Minnesota jail standards.”
In 2021, the Minnesota Legislature passed the “Hardel Sherrell Act,” which gave the DOC more authority to sanction jails for poor inmate care.
Last January, the state medical board stripped the license of the jail’s medical director at the time, Todd Leonard, saying Sherrell’s death was a tragedy that “should never have occurred. And it must never be allowed to happen again.”
Two weeks ago, the DOC ordered the Beltrami County jail to reduce its headcount to address a staffing shortage that the department said was compromising inmate safety. A similar directive was issued to the Ramsey County Jail in St. Paul.
FBI Opens Investigation, Claims Rankin County Cops Broke Into a Home and Beat and Tortured 2 Black Men Using Torture Techniques. 1 Man Shot in the Mouth No Longer Can Talk: $90M Suit To be Filed
/From [HERE] The FBI has opened an investigation into the alleged beating and torture of two Black men by Rankin County deputies.
“The FBI Jackson Field Office, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi have opened a federal civil rights investigation into a color of law incident into the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office,” according to a statement from the FBI.
Weeks after Rankin County deputies raided a home and beat and threatened two Black men and shot one in the mouth, a civil rights attorney is calling for justice, answers and for the deputies to be charged.
On Wednesday, Michael Corey Jenkins, 32, was released from the intensive care unit at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He underwent two surgeries to treat injuries to his mouth and head, including surgical removal of his tongue. As a result, he is unable to talk and now communicates through writing or gestures. “Easily he could have been like Tyre Nichols or on the long (list of) names of victims here of police abuse and police brutality,” said Malik Shabazz of Black Lawyers for Justice in Washington, D.C., one of Jenkins’ attorneys.
RANKIN COUNTY DEPUTIES ACCUSED OF TORTURE, WATERBOARDING On Jan. 24, Jenkins and another victim, Eddie Terrell Parker, 35, were at a home in Braxton where Parker lives with the property owner when six white Rankin deputies conducting a drug investigation raided. Shabazz said they did not announce themselves or show a search warrant. They accused the men of selling drugs and later charged them with possession of a controlled substance and possession of paraphernalia, the attorney said.
For 90 minutes, deputies exercised what Shabazz called intimidation and unjustified torture of Jenkins and Parker. The men were punched, kicked, slapped and tasered while handcuffed. They had guns pointed at them and were threatened with death, Shabazz said. The attorney said during that time, the deputies waterboarded Jenkins and Parker. Waterboarding is an illegal torture technique that involves strapping someone down, putting a wet rag in their mouth and pouring water over them to simulate drowning. “It was senseless and uncalled for,” Parker said at the news conference. “It was traumatizing and something I never thought I’d go through.” It ended when a deputy placed a gun in Jenkins’ mouth and pulled the trigger, Shabazz said. Jenkins could have died, but the bullet exited his mouth.
‘THEY ACTED LIKE MY SON WASN’T EVEN HUMAN’
When Mary Jenkins found out her son had been shot by police, she called the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department. She asked what the charges were against Jenkins, but did not get an answer. She was only told he was under investigation. “They acted like my son wasn’t even human,” she said, adding that the sheriff’s office didn’t treat her family well, kept Jenkins under their watch at the hospital and prevented them from seeing him. On Tuesday, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation interviewed Jenkins in his hospital room for the first time since the shooting, and he confirmed what deputies did to him, Shabazz said. The recounting of Jenkins’ and Parker’s experience differs from information offered by investigators and law enforcement. A Jan.25 news release from the Department of Public Safety said Rankin County deputies encountered a person – now identified as Jenkins – during a narcotics investigation at a Braxton residence and shot when he displayed a gun. During the Wednesday news conference, Jenkins shook his head when Shabazz asked whether he had a gun or handled one at any point during the incident.
SHERIFF DOESN’T ADDRESS POLICE BRUTALITY ALLEGATIONS
Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey released a five-sentence statement Tuesday evening that did not address allegations of mistreatment by the deputies against Jenkins and Parker. Bailey is white.
He said the sheriff’s office contacted the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation to look into the deputies’ actions. “We are fully cooperating with that ongoing investigation and will continue to do so,” Bailey said in the statement. “Rest assured, if any deputy or suspect involved in this incident is found to have broken the law, he will be held accountable in accordance with the law.”
Shabazz said the sheriff’s office has not shared much information, including confirmation whether any officers have been placed on administrative leave. The attorney is asking for attempted murder, aggravated assault and conspiracy charges to be filed against all the deputies, all body camera footage be released and Rankin County to respond immediately reply to all records requests related to the incident.
He read the allegations of brutality from a notice to file a lawsuit against Sheriff Bryan Bailey and the government of Rankin County. After a 90-day period, Shabazz can file the lawsuit and is set to ask for $90 million in compensatory and punitive damages for the two men.
Shabazz also wants the “totally false” charges against the men to be dropped. In addition to drug charges, Parker was also charged with disorderly conduct and Jenkins was charged with aggravated assault, the attorney said. Another member of the men’s legal team, attorney Trent Walker, said they will take the lead to get the charges against Jenkins and Parker dismissed. “Something has to change because what is going on here should not go on in a civilized society,” he said.
Shelby County DA Now Reviewing Gershun Freeman's Murder: Cops Beat Naked Black Man to Death by Repeatedly Striking him with Batons, Fists and a Metal Pepper Spray Container as He Was Held Pre-Trial
/
From [HERE] and [HERE] The death of a Black man in a Memphis jail after a fight with corrections officers has been classified as a homicide, according to a just-released autopsy report.
Gershun Freeman, 33, died at the Shelby County Jail in Memphis on October 5, 2022. The autopsy report, conducted by the county medical examiner and released Thursday, says Freeman “had a cardiac arrest” after the altercation, which ended in officers restraining him. “CPR was initiated,” but unsuccessful. Freeman was pronounced dead at the scene. The Shelby County District Attorney’s office is now reviewing his death.
The case is attracting attention in a city still coming to terms with the violent police beating death of Tyre Nichols on January 7. VICE News has confirmed that the Nichols’ family attorney, Benjamin Crump, will also represent the family of Gershun Freeman.
Crump’s local co-counsel, Jake Brown, told VICE that he has watched surveillance video of the incident inside the jail.
“The video began with Mr. Freeman in an isolation cell, naked,” Brown said. “And he was shouting at the camera that was in the cell… there were no sounds and [we] couldn’t make out what he was saying, but he was very agitated about something, possibly having some sort of psychotic episode.”
The autopsy report, obtained by VICE News, noted a past history of psychosis.
“Not long after, the camera switched to one outside of the cell, and you could see several officers come to his door and open it. And it’s not clear why they opened it,” Brown told VICE. “Mr. Freeman ran out of his cell.”
At that point, Brown said a group of officers arrived and appeared to try to apprehend him, “but they were also striking him repeatedly with batons, fists… at least one officer struck him on the head with what appeared to be a pepper spray container.”
Brown said the corrections officers, who are deputies with the Shelby County Sheriff’s office which oversees the jail, also sprayed him with oil-based chemical irritants, and the spray made Freeman’s body slippery and hard to restrain.
“There was pronounced striking, [and] I’m not an expert on this but it seemed to be that there could have been more efficient ways to get ahold of this guy and subdue him rather than just striking him. But that’s what was happening,” Brown said.
According to Brown, the surveillance video then shows Freeman running out of the unit, called a “pod,” through multiple open doors, and up an escalator to an upper floor.
“When he got to the upper floor, he was sort of surrounded and then sort of set upon by at least three or four deputies, who had him face down on the ground, they were on top of him. And they stayed on top of him for several minutes at least.”
Brown said the video shows medical personnel in scrubs eventually arriving, and attempting to render treatment, but when they picked up Freeman’s body, it was limp and there was a puddle of blood under where he had been lying, especially around his head.
The autopsy found Freeman’s cause of death to be exacerbation of “cardiovascular disease due to physical altercation and subdual.” The autopsy classifies the death as a homicide, but notes that it is “not meant to definitively indicate criminal intent."
The autopsy also noted multiple contusions on Freeman’s body, scalp lacerations and multiple hemorrhages in his head and neck. Brown says one of those hemorrhages, a 7 by 3 centimeters on the large muscle in Freeman’s neck that runs parallel to the carotid artery, suggests consistent pressure applied on Freeman’s neck.
“What we're looking at now is trying to determine the likelihood that that was the result of a knee on the neck or some kind of choke hold used,” Brown says. His team has commissioned an independent autopsy by a forensic pathologist based in Little Rock, Arkansas, which has not yet been completed.
Freeman had only been booked into the Shelby County jail four days earlier, on charges of aggravated kidnapping and domestic violence. His bond was set at $75,000.
In a statement, the Shelby County District Attorney General Steve Mulroy says upon learning of the death in October, he “immediately called in the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to investigate.” But after receiving the autopsy report on Wednesday evening, his office announced that its own Justice Review Unit will “review” the TBI’s investigation and make a recommendation to DA Mulroy once complete.
In a phone call with VICE News, the Shelby County Sheriff’s office declined to comment on the case, noting that it was an active investigation.
Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner, Jr. is currently a candidate for mayor of Memphis. The election is scheduled for the one-year anniversary of Freeman’s death, October 5, 2023.
Brown said Freeman’s family wants answers and accountability from the Sheriff’s department.
“They are trying to come to terms with the fact that their son went into the Shelby County Jail on his own two feet and, the way his mother puts it, he came out with a toe tag.”
$5M Lawsuit Claims Mobile SWAT Cops Broke Into Treyh Webster's Home, Murdered Him While He Was in Bed, Confiscated All Home Video Surveillance and Equipment and Lied About It
/
From [HERE] A wrongful-death suit alleging police malfeasance during a SWAT Team operation two years ago lays out a sequence of events that explicitly contradicts the official narrative.
The key to proving it could rest with home surveillance footage that police seized that day, according to plaintiffs’ lawyer Christine Hernandez.
“It was all caught on video,” she told FOX10 News. “And they have refused to turn any of that back over to the family. And I think that would dispute, factually, what has been said by the officers at that time.”
The federal lawsuit, filed last week, names the city and Lawrence Battiste, who was police chief at the time, and seeks “in excess” of $5 million. It alleges that police arrived at a house on Lakeview Drive East before sunrise on Feb. 4, 2021, and entered the residence without knocking and identifying themselves. Police were at the home to arrest brothers Treyh and Tyhrie Webster on witness intimidation charges.
What ensued, according to police, was a shootout that resulted in 18-year-old Treyh Webster’s death.
Battiste, who now is public safety director, said at the time that police announced their presence before entering.
“The subject continued to fire shots at law enforcement officers and subsequently the SWAT team engaged the subject that was firing at them.,” he said then. “And as a result of them engaging him, he was, he was killed on scene.”
Hernandez disputed that: “That’s not accurate. No one came out firing at the police.”
The family was on edge, according to the civil complaint, because the home had been riddled with gunfire on at least two separate occasions. The complaint states that a family member was sleeping on the couch with an AR-15 rifle and pointed it at the incoming officers but did not fire.
When he realized they were officers, he shouted, “12, 12, 12,” to signal others in the house that it was police. That matches what Battiste said at the time.
But the official account and the narrative in the civil suit diverge from there. The suit alleges that police assaulted Tyhrie Webster while he was in his bed, half asleep. His mother, Georgette Sons, took a gunshot to the foot. The civil complaint alleges the bullet came from police, but police said at the time that Treyh Webster accidentally shot his mother.
Hernandez said police took not only the footage from the home surveillance system, but all of the equipment. She said it has video and, presumably, audio that could explain what happened. She said the city has refused requests to return the system and the footage and has not offered an explanation for why it has refused.
“The fact that they took that hard drive with the surveillance video and refused to turn it over – draw whatever conclusion you want to draw from that,” she said.
The purpose of the raid was to arrest the Webster brothers on charges that they tried to pressure the victim of a robbery by Treyh Webster to “drop the charges.” Prosecutors, ultimately, asked a judge to dismiss the witness intimidation charge against Tyhre Webster, although he did plead guilty to an unrelated charge of shooting into an occupied vehicle.
The Police Dog is a Weapon Used by Terrorcrats and Race Soldiers to Niggerize and Compel Obedience to Authority
/
From [HERE] Some of the most horrifically indelible images of the Civil Rights struggle show police dogs attacking young demonstrators in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963. Birmingham became emblematic of animalistic police brutality against non-violent protestors—but it wasn’t unique at the time. And the racial weaponization of dogs isn’t just something of that time, as examples from Abu Ghriab (2004) to Ferguson (2014) show.
Scholar Tyler Wall doesn’t think it’s coincidental that K-9 units were introduced in police departments across the country during the Civil Rights era of the 1950s and 1960s, however. Quoting advocates of the day, Wall writes that dogs were deployed as tools to “civilize the savagery of urban (dis)order by pacifying urban space.” In practice, this meant dogs were deployed in the “criminalization of the so-called Negro problem,” to “police the material and symbolic boundaries of the color line,” and to enforce the dehumanization of people of color.
“The mystical power of the police dog […] was its apparent ability to recognize the boundaries dividing those bodies in need of protection—white propertied bodies—from those darker bodies prowling on the boundaries of white bourgeois order.” [MORE]
Black Woman is Suing Detroit Police After a Cop Shot Her Dog and Dumped It Into a Trash Can without Telling Her
/
From [HERE] and [HERE] A Detroit woman is suing the city’s police department after one of its officers shot her dog and dumped it into a trash can without telling her.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court on Feb. 8, alleges a Detroit cop violated the Fourth Amendment rights of Tiffany Lindsay in September 2021 when he jumped over her backyard fence without a warrant or probable cause in search of a carjacking suspect.
Lindsay’s dog, Jack, lunged at the officer, Steven Brandon, biting his forearm and tearing his pants, according to a police report. Brandon responded by striking the dog several times before drawing a gun and killing the animal.
“Brandon apparently attempted to hide the seizure of Jack from Plaintiff by stuffing Jack’s body into Plaintiff’s neighbor’s trash bin,” the lawsuit states.
If Brandon bothered to knock on Lindsay’s door and ask for permission to search her yard, the incident would never have happened, the lawsuit states.
Brandon’s acts “were intentional, grossly negligent and amounted to reckless or callous indifference to Plaintiff’s constitutional rights,” according to the lawsuit, filed by attorney Christopher S. Olson.
Olson further alleges that DPD kills more dogs than any police department in the country because it doesn’t take the shootings seriously.
When officers kill a dog, they’re only required to file a “Destruction of Animal” report that is signed by the police chief or his delegate.
“The Destruction of Animal report approval process is a sham rubber stamp,” Olson wrote in the lawsuit.
DPD “has a custom of tolerance or acquiescence in shooting dogs in violation of the Fourth Amendment,” the lawsuit alleges.
Lindsay is just the latest Detroit resident to file a lawsuit against the police department for killing a dog, according to a 2016 Reason investigation that found one officer had shot more than 80 dogs during his career.
Since 2016, the cash-strapped city doled out more than $460,000 to settle five dog-killing lawsuits. In one of the latest cases, the city agreed to pay $75,000 to settle a lawsuit in 2020 after body camera footage showed officers lied about the circumstances that led to an officer shooting two dogs during a drug raid.
DPD determined the shooting was unjustified.
Detroit police declined to comment on the latest case, citing pending litigation, but said the officers involved are under investigation.
Unlike False Flags, 3 Yrs Later and No Justice for Manuel Ellis' Murder. Video Shows Cops Repeatedly Punch, Choke, Taze and Kneel on Black Man. Hogtied Him w/Spit Hood for 6 Min. Trial Continued Again
/
From [HERE] Once again, the trial for the three Tacoma police officers charged in the killing of Manny Ellis has been delayed.
On March 3, 2020, lifelong Tacoma resident Manny Ellis died while being arrested by Christopher Burbank, Matthew Collins and Timothy Rankine, three on-duty Tacoma police officers.
Ellis was a 33-year-old African American man who died on March 3, 2020, during an arrest by police officers in Tacoma, Washington, a city run by white liberals.
The Pierce County Sheriff's Department initially claimed that Ellis had attacked a police car and then attacked officers, leading to the arrest. State prosecutors quoted civilian witnesses as saying that Ellis did not attack the police car or officers; they also said it was the officers who initiated the use of physical force on Ellis after a conversation.[4][5]
Video of the incident showed officers repeatedly punching Ellis, choking him, using a Taser, and kneeling on him.[6][7] State prosecutors stated that "Ellis was not fighting back", citing witness statements and video evidence.[8] A police radio recording showed that Ellis said he "can’t breathe".[9] Ellis told officers "can't breathe, sir" multiple times, according to prosecutors.[10] Ellis was hogtied, face-down into the street asphalt, with an officer on him, for at least six minutes, and a spit hood was placed on his head in this position, stated prosecutors.[10] Ellis died at the scene while receiving medical aid from paramedics.[3]
Ellis’ final statements are a grim echo of George Floyd’s last words: a police radio recorded Ellis repeatedly pleading “can’t breathe, sir.”
Rankine is charged with first-degree manslaughter. Manslaughter typically indicates a reckless disregard for life but does not involve malice or an intent to kill. Collins and Burbank are charged with second-degree murder.
The trial was originally scheduled for Jan. 30, 2023 but has now been delayed yet again until September 2023, pending the outcome of a Washington Supreme court case set to determine whether internal affairs statements from an officer who was not charged should be released to prosecutors.
There have been no functional repercussions for Burbank, Collins or Rankine. During the internal investigation, they were placed on administrative leave and continued to receive their salary from the city of Tacoma. Although they were detained in jail pending the trial, they were bailed out that very same day by a local Tacoma businessman. For three years, they have gone about their lives in our community awaiting trial. They have been able to go grocery shopping, relax at home with loved ones and celebrate the holidays.
Meanwhile, Ellis’ family and friends are still living a nightmare. Three years later, Manny is still dead, legal fees are piling up and the court date is continually pushed back. For victims of police brutality and their families, justice is shallow, if it ever comes at all.
Unfortunately, this is not uncommon in the United States. Trials involving unjust killings and police misconduct against citizens can drag on for years. Those who are convicted of a crime are often handed sentences involving house arrest, probation, or a few paltry years in prison.
In a finance-based legal system such as the one we have in America, you have to be able to pay to retain a lawyer to even file charges. If you are poor, you cannot afford justice. The US census reports that Black people experience poverty at a significantly higher rate than white people (21% versus 9%). In a country with heavily entrenched systemic racism, people of color are far more likely to experience police violence. Mapping Police Violence, a nonprofit that keeps track of police shootings, reports that although Black people are 13% of the US population, they make up a disproportionate 27% of those who are killed by police. Combining these two factors, people of color are far more likely to be killed by police as well as be unable to access legal justice.
An on-duty police officer can be reasonably assured that they will not be found culpable for any acts of racial violence committed against the public. The police in the United States possess functional legal immunity, performing in the field as judge, jury, and executioner. Operating like any other gang in their territory, police possess a monopoly on the use of force, and any resistance against that force is a potential justification for your execution in the street. That should scare you. It scares me.
So-Called "Racist Buffalo Supermarket Shooter" Sentenced to Life After Taking Guilty Plea. Like Most Flags; All Emotion, Few Facts, Limited Video and No Actual Contested Trial on the Merits Occurred
/
Don’t human beings bleed when they get shot by a high powered rifle at close range? See video below. IT CONTAINS NO BLOOD, LOOKS FAKE AS FUCK.
From [HERE] The man who killed 10 people in a racist massacre at a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., last year was sentenced to life in prison without parole Wednesday.
The 19-year-old white gunman, Payton Gendron, pleaded guilty to 15 counts brought by Buffalo prosecutors stemming from the May 14 attack at Tops Friendly Markets in a predominantly Black neighborhood. Gendron’s charges included first-degree murder and domestic terrorism, with the latter carrying a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.
Erie County Court Judge Susan Eagan sentenced him Wednesday to life in prison without parole for the domestic terrorism charge and for each of the 10 counts of first-degree murder, which will run concurrently.
“There is no place for you or your ignorant, hateful and evil ideologies in a civilized society. There can be no mercy for you, no understanding, no second chances,” Judge Eagan said before the sentencing. “The damage you have caused is too great, and the people you have hurt are too valuable to this community. You will never see the light of day as a free man ever again.”
Fingerprints of NYC Teachers Who Refused to Get COVID Injections Sent to FBI, Affidavit Says
/From [HERE] Unvaccinated New York City teachers were reportedly “flagged” and their fingerprints sent to the FBI, according to an affidavit filed in federal court last week.
In the New Yorkers for Religious Liberty Inc. v. The City of New York appeals hearing, challenging the now-rescinded vaccine mandate for city employees, plaintiff’s attorney John Burch said that “flagged” teachers were labeled with “problem codes” that impact their ability to get another job.
The allegations were based on a June 2022 affidavit written by Betsy Combier, president of the due process advocacy group Advocatz, detailing how the New York City Department of Education (DOE) flagged unvaccinated teachers without evidence of misconduct and sent their information, including fingerprints “to the national databases at both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and [New York’s] State Division of Criminal Justice Services.”
Sujata Gibson, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, commented on these revelations to The Defender:
“These are hardworking teachers and educators with excellent employment records who dedicated their lives to teaching in the New York City public schools. It is unacceptable that the DOE would place problem codes on their employment files and flag their fingerprints with the FBI simply because they were not able or willing to get vaccinated.
“This was never about public health. This was about punishing those whose religious and other beliefs don’t line up with corporate interests in an effort to make it impossible to dissent.”
Michael Kane, national grassroots organizer for Children’s Health Defense and founder of Teachers For Choice, reported the “problem codes” on Feb. 9, one day after the hearing in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
He explained the relevance of this information for the case to The Defender:
“The point our attorneys were making is that not only were our constitutional rights violated when the mandates first occurred, but that these violations continue to occur, because this problem code is put on for us practicing our sincerely held religious beliefs. And when we go to apply for jobs, it’s still blocking us.
“So that is the main thrust of the argument. That’s one of the pieces of evidence that there is ongoing harm happening to us [because] they never stopped. To this day we are experiencing harm because of what New York City did to us. That was the real rationale that our attorneys were trying to get across.”
Unvaccinated teachers denied jobs due to the ‘problem code’
According to Combier’s affidavit, the DOE assigns “problem codes” to the personnel files of employees that “should not be hired due to unexplained misconduct of some kind.”
The affidavit stated:
“When the DOE puts a problem code in the employee’s personnel file, it also places a flag on the employee’s fingerprints, which is then sent to the national databases at both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Division of Criminal Justice Services.
“I have represented more than 15 DOE employees before the DOE’s Office of Personnel Investigation in proceedings in which they requested the removal of their problem codes. The flag has several names such as ‘problem code,’ ‘pr’ code, ‘pc’ code, ‘ineligible,’ and ‘no hire/inquiry’ code; however, all refer to a salary block, whatever title it is given.”
Combier stated she had seen such “problem codes” in the personnel files of former DOE employees who did not receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
“The DOE places a problem code on the employee’s personnel file immediately upon getting information that the employee did not submit proof of vaccination.
“As soon as the employee gets the vaccination and submits proof, the code is removed from his or her file.”
Combier also provided an email from a DOE official confirming that a “problem code” was added to the personnel files of “DOE employees who were placed on leave without pay for failing to be vaccinated in violation of the DOE’s mandate.”
The “flag” then adversely impacted the employment prospects of teachers when they sought jobs outside of New York City. Combier wrote:
“I am aware that non-DOE schools located in counties outside New York City receive funds from the NYC DOE for certain teaching positions. These may include, for example, special education or STEM [science, technology, mathematics] teachers.
“The DOE pays the salaries for these positions using the same system it uses to pay traditional DOE employees, which is called Galaxy. Galaxy indicates whether the employee has a problem code in his or her file and blocks payment to the employee with this flag/code if viewed in the personnel file.”
As a result:
“At least 15 of my clients with problem codes were not hired by prospective schools outside the DOE because such schools saw the problem codes in Galaxy, even though those schools were located outside New York City.
“Such schools were able to see the codes because the position applied for was financed by the DOE and so the school used the Galaxy system and could check the prospective employee’s file.”
Attorneys for the city did not deny the veracity of this information in court.
Kane wrote, “Attorney Susan Paulson who was defending NYC stated that educators fired for declining COVID vaccination were not removed for misconduct, but rather for not meeting a requirement for employment.”
“If there was no misconduct, why are unvaccinated educators’ fingerprints sent to the FBI?” asked Kane.
Kane: Refusing vaccination isn’t ‘extremist’
Kane told The Defender that Teachers For Choice will attempt to work with city officials to discover the facts surrounding the assignment of the codes and the sharing of this information with the FBI, including determining who authorized these actions.
He told The Defender:
“The first thing we’re doing is we’re working with the Common-Sense Caucus in City Hall to get them to investigate. We need an investigation. I have my speculation of what’s going on, but the truth is we don’t know what’s going on. Who gave the order for these problem codes to be given simply for the fact that we’re declining COVID vaccination? Why did they do that? And have our civil rights been hurt because of it? I think they have.
“So right now, I think we need an investigation, because there’s lots of speculation happening and we need to get to the bottom of what really happened.”
The Common-Sense Caucus is an officially recognized caucus within the New York City Council.
Kane said it is composed primarily of Republicans and has “been the only voice against mandates in New York City governance.”
“We’ve been working closely with them, and they’ve been really pushing Mayor Eric Adams to be reasonable and to hear our concerns,” Kane said.
He said legal action is a strong possibility, but they will give Adams and the city an opportunity to respond first. He said:
“Right now we need to see if there will be any investigation into this, and we need to give New York City and Mayor Adams a chance to reply correctly. There’s a chance he didn’t do this. There’s a chance this happened from the previous administration, from Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“Letters need to be written, requests need to be made, and that may or may not lead to litigation. We have to see, because if the city complies and, and tries to work to fix this problem, I think that would be great. But we don’t know yet. It’s too early in the process.”
Kane also wrote that by sending biometric data about unvaccinated teachers to the FBI, “NYC educators were being set up to be viewed as ‘right-wing extremists’ or even ‘terrorists.’”
“Educators who declined COVID vaccination — including myself — had every right to do so,” Kane wrote. “No one is a ‘terrorist’ or ‘extremist’ for holding the line on what does and does not go inside of their bodies — especially injected directly into their muscle tissue,” he added.
Teachers fired by the DOE because they declined the COVID-19 vaccine may face a difficult time being rehired by the city, despite the city’s claims that such workers can reapply for employment now that the vaccine mandate for city employees has been rescinded.
Kane said “reapplication definitely could be problematic” for these individuals. But he also noted, “The city is bleeding for employees. They’re desperately dying for people to take jobs. So yes, I think it will hurt many, but I think the city is hurting way more right now.”
As previously reported by The Defender, the U.S. House of Representatives has convened a Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, investigating claims that agencies such as the FBI collected information on and in some cases harassed ordinary Americans for their beliefs on topics such as COVID-19.
Kane wrote that such practices in New York City are not new. DNA specimens of city employees collected from COVID-19 tests were cataloged in proprietary libraries owned by Fulgent Genetics, the company contracted by de Blasio to administer the tests. [MORE]
A Top Chinese Authority Calls the US Balloon Response ‘Hysterical’ and an Effort “to Divert Attention From Its Domestic Problems”
/From [HERE] China’s top foreign policy official on Saturday mocked America’s response to a recent Chinese spy balloon overflight, calling the U.S. actions “absurd and hysterical” and an effort “to divert attention from its domestic problems.”
The official, Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party’s senior member for foreign affairs, repeated his government’s claim that the balloon, which flew over several U.S. states this month before President Biden ordered it shot down, was a “civilian” craft blown off course by high winds.
He made the remarks in a speech to the Munich Security Conference, which has been largely focused on Ukraine, as suspense mounted over whether he might meet on the sidelines with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken. It would be the first high-level diplomatic exchange between Washington and Beijing since Mr. Blinken canceled a planned trip to China over the balloon episode.
The balloon episode has heightened U.S.-China tensions at a time when the relationship was already at one of its lowest points in decades. American officials say the balloon carried visible equipment that “was clearly for intelligence surveillance,” part of a global surveillance fleet directed by China’s military. [MORE]
Banks Borrow Unsecured Cash at Record Clip While Deposits Flee Deposits at US lenders fell in 2 consecutive quarters last year for the 1st Time in Over a Decade
/From [HERE] Banks were chasing away deposits during the depths of the pandemic. Now, some are paying higher rates to shore up cash.
Borrowing in the federal-funds market hit $120 billion on Jan. 27, the highest one-day total in Federal Reserve data going back to 2016. Activity in fed funds—used by banks and government-backed lenders to exchange cash reserves parked at the Fed—surged throughout the past year when the central bank raised interest rates at the fastest pace in decades.
Some banks are scrambling to borrow, looking to improve their liquidity and satisfy regulatory requirements while customers pull cash from savings accounts in search of higher-yielding products.
The typical fed-funds trade involves a Federal Home Loan Bank, or FHLB, lending cash overnight to a commercial bank. The government-sponsored entities, designed to support mortgage lending during the Great Depression, can’t earn interest by leaving funds at the Fed as banks can, so they lend their excess cash to banks without requiring securities to back the loan.
The identities of the banks involved aren’t public. Traditionally, most borrowers have been foreign banks looking to make a few extra bucks by borrowing cheaply in fed funds, then leaving that cash at the Fed to earn more interest. Now, more U.S. banks are dipping in, according to Bank of America, likely because such borrowing is looked upon favorably by regulators.
Aggressive bidding by a subset of commercial banks has jacked up the cost of the priciest fed-funds transactions, New York Fed data show. The highest borrowing rates are 0.15 percentage point above the Fed’s target range—now between 4.5% and 4.75%—and more than 0.3 point from the median, or the effective fed-funds rate. Essentially all trades were priced below the target range until October, before which no measurable portion had breached it since March 2020. [MORE]
Seymour Hersh on the Nord Stream Pipeline Attack
/From [HERE] The New York Times called it a “mystery,” but the United States executed a covert sea operation that was kept secret—until now
The U.S. Navy’s Diving and Salvage Center can be found in a location as obscure as its name—down what was once a country lane in rural Panama City, a now-booming resort city in the southwestern panhandle of Florida, 70 miles south of the Alabama border. The center’s complex is as nondescript as its location—a drab concrete post-World War II structure that has the look of a vocational high school on the west side of Chicago. A coin-operated laundromat and a dance school are across what is now a four-lane road.
The center has been training highly skilled deep-water divers for decades who, once assigned to American military units worldwide, are capable of technical diving to do the good—using C4 explosives to clear harbors and beaches of debris and unexploded ordnance—as well as the bad, like blowing up foreign oil rigs, fouling intake valves for undersea power plants, destroying locks on crucial shipping canals. The Panama City center, which boasts the second largest indoor pool in America, was the perfect place to recruit the best, and most taciturn, graduates of the diving school who successfully did last summer what they had been authorized to do 260 feet under the surface of the Baltic Sea.
Last June, the Navy divers, operating under the cover of a widely publicized mid-summer NATO exercise known as BALTOPS 22, planted the remotely triggered explosives that, three months later, destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines, according to a source with direct knowledge of the operational planning.
Two of the pipelines, which were known collectively as Nord Stream 1, had been providing Germany and much of Western Europe with cheap Russian natural gas for more than a decade. A second pair of pipelines, called Nord Stream 2, had been built but were not yet operational. Now, with Russian troops massing on the Ukrainian border and the bloodiest war in Europe since 1945 looming, President Joseph Biden saw the pipelines as a vehicle for Vladimir Putin to weaponize natural gas for his political and territorial ambitions.
Asked for comment, Adrienne Watson, a White House spokesperson, said in an email, “This is false and complete fiction.” Tammy Thorp, a spokesperson for the Central Intelligence Agency, similarly wrote: “This claim is completely and utterly false.”
Biden’s decision to sabotage the pipelines came after more than nine months of highly secret back and forth debate inside Washington’s national security community about how to best achieve that goal. For much of that time, the issue was not whether to do the mission, but how to get it done with no overt clue as to who was responsible.
There was a vital bureaucratic reason for relying on the graduates of the center’s hardcore diving school in Panama City. The divers were Navy only, and not members of America’s Special Operations Command, whose covert operations must be reported to Congress and briefed in advance to the Senate and House leadership—the so-called Gang of Eight. The Biden Administration was doing everything possible to avoid leaks as the planning took place late in 2021 and into the first months of 2022.
President Biden and his foreign policy team—National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Tony Blinken, and Victoria Nuland, the Undersecretary of State for Policy—had been vocal and consistent in their hostility to the two pipelines, which ran side by side for 750 miles under the Baltic Sea from two different ports in northeastern Russia near the Estonian border, passing close to the Danish island of Bornholm before ending in northern Germany.
The direct route, which bypassed any need to transit Ukraine, had been a boon for the German economy, which enjoyed an abundance of cheap Russian natural gas—enough to run its factories and heat its homes while enabling German distributors to sell excess gas, at a profit, throughout Western Europe. Action that could be traced to the administration would violate US promises to minimize direct conflict with Russia. Secrecy was essential.
From its earliest days, Nord Stream 1 was seen by Washington and its anti-Russian NATO partners as a threat to western dominance. The holding company behind it, Nord Stream AG, was incorporated in Switzerland in 2005 in partnership with Gazprom, a publicly traded Russian company producing enormous profits for shareholders which is dominated by oligarchs known to be in the thrall of Putin. Gazprom controlled 51 percent of the company, with four European energy firms—one in France, one in the Netherlands and two in Germany—sharing the remaining 49 percent of stock, and having the right to control downstream sales of the inexpensive natural gas to local distributors in Germany and Western Europe. Gazprom’s profits were shared with the Russian government, and state gas and oil revenues were estimated in some years to amount to as much as 45 percent of Russia’s annual budget.
America’s political fears were real: Putin would now have an additional and much-needed major source of income, and Germany and the rest of Western Europe would become addicted to low-cost natural gas supplied by Russia—while diminishing European reliance on America. In fact, that’s exactly what happened. Many Germans saw Nord Stream 1 as part of the deliverance of former Chancellor Willy Brandt’s famed Ostpolitik theory, which would enable postwar Germany to rehabilitate itself and other European nations destroyed in World War II by, among other initiatives, utilizing cheap Russian gas to fuel a prosperous Western European market and trading economy. [MORE]
ACLU Lawsuit Claims Kansas Highway Patrol Unlawfully Stop, Detain and Search Drivers with Out-of-State License Plates or Persons Traveling to or from Colorado
/From [HERE] Curtis Martinez stood on the side of Interstate 70 with his brother, shaking his head as a police canine sniffed out his car.
The Denver, Colorado, resident said he was commuting to Kansas City, Missouri, for work when he was stopped by a Kansas Highway Patrol (KHP) trooper for an expired license plate.
He was given a ticket and assumed that would be the end of it.
Instead, as Martinez started to pull away, he says the officer pivoted back to Martinez and asked if he could question him further.
“He said, ‘Do you have any drugs or guns in your car?’” Martinez said.
Martinez said he told the trooper he did not have any drugs in the car.
“‘Well, you don’t mind if I take a look in your car then,’” Martinez recalled the trooper saying. “I said, ‘Yes, I do mind if you take a look in my car. I don’t have time for that,’ and he said, ‘Well, go ahead and pull over. You’re being detained.’”
Martinez and his brother would be detained for more than an hour after that original stop without yielding any additional charges or tickets. That’s why he called FOX4 Problem Solvers in September.
Class action lawsuit against ‘Kansas Two Step’
According to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the trooper used a tactic referred to as the “Kansas Two Step,” in which troopers target motorists with out-of-state license plates or those traveling to or from Colorado, where recreational marijuana is legal.
The “Kansas Two Step” involves unlawfully detaining drivers with questions about travel plans without consent or reasonable suspicion of criminal activity after the initial purpose of the stop was resolved, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit says the technique is designed to break off the initial traffic detention and re-engage the driver in what could be interpreted as a separate consensual encounter.
“They use traffic stops in order to get to bigger issues,” said Jay Norton, a criminal defense attorney in Johnson County, Kansas. “That’s kind of the game that they’re playing.”
Ultimately, Martinez was given a ticket and released, but he said officers never explained their reasonable suspicion for searching his vehicle in the first place, something he said made him feel targeted and discriminated against.
Martinez said he started recording the encounter on his own phone once the canine unit arrived. However, the footage doesn’t show the highway patrol trooper that pulled him over performing the alleged two-step tactic.
“He (one of the officers) wanted to put us in handcuffs and take our phones away so we couldn’t record,” Martinez said. “Luckily, that didn’t happen.”
FOX4 Problem Solvers requested body camera and dashboard camera footage of the traffic stop after Martinez attempted to request it, but was denied.
Both KHP and the Riley County Police Department refused to release the video, claiming the footage is considered a criminal investigative record under the Kansas Open Records Act.
“Specifically, if the footage were released, it would reveal confidential investigative techniques or procedures that are not known to the general public,” Riley County stated in an email.
But what police tactics are Kansas officers using that they don’t want the public to know about? And what is it about these procedures that makes them so secretive?
“It just makes no sense to me,” Martinez said. “What are they trying to hide?”
Problem Solvers contacted KHP twice via email for a statement but they said they cannot comment on ongoing litigation or the processes and procedures that relate to pending litigation.
The unlevel playing field
Martinez said the trooper who stopped him claimed he was apprehensive because Martinez took an exit onto a desolate country road. Martinez said he was unfamiliar with the area and simply looking for a place to get gas.
“I felt harassed,” Martinez said. “I felt, you know, demoralized. I felt like he just invaded all of my rights, all of my personal rights at that point.”
He said he was then told to wait 30 more minutes as KHP called the Riley County Police Department for backup, who eventually arrived with canines to perform a vehicle search.
Attorney Norton said traffic law is rigged in favor of law enforcement.
“Freedom is an illusion. It’s a story that we tell ourselves about our society, but the bottom line is, it is a game and the game is completely rigged,” Norton said.
“It’s completely rigged against the little person, the citizen, and the only way that an average citizen can hope to possibly, maybe get a level playing field is to hire an attorney and have next to unlimited resources to go fight the government, who does have unlimited resources, tooth and nail over these minor issues.”
Norton said he believes troopers are anticipating interactions with citizens who don’t fully understand their own rights.
“They want to protect the game that they’re playing,” he said. “They want to make sure that your average citizen is in the dark as much as possible as to what their rights are, and in the dark as to what techniques and tactics law enforcement is gonna use to try to get them to give up those rights.”
Josh Pierson, senior staff attorney with the ACLU, said the bar for reasonable suspicion is incredibly low.
“It’s a very low bar, and the courts actually generally defer to the officers,” Pierson said. “But it’s not just whatever they say it is, and the Fourth Amendment does impose a limitation, as it was designed to do, on officers’ ability to just keep people detained without probable cause or without a warrant.”
Norton said confusion surrounding reasonable suspicion leads to confusion among both parties, the officer and the citizen, during a traffic stop. It’s something he considers dangerous.
“Nobody knows really what the contours of the Fourth Amendment are going to be in any given situation, including the police. They don’t always know what they can and can’t do, and I think that that is bad for the Fourth Amendment,” he said.
“There are other constitutional amendments that people adamantly and fiercely protect, like the Second Amendment. Nobody’s sitting around saying, ‘Well, this should be nuanced, whether you have the right to possess and bear arms.’ Everybody’s saying that’s a firm, clear, bright line, constitutional rule. Why is the Fourth Amendment different?”
Kansas civil forfeitures
The ACLU lawsuit suggests that the two-step technique serves as a fishing expedition for money.
The lawsuit alleges 96% of KHP’s civil asset forfeitures in 2019 involved out-of-state motorists driving on Interstate 70. In 2017, drivers with out-of-state plates comprised 93% of KHP traffic stops.
“The state troopers in western Kansas know that there are people going to Colorado, buying marijuana and taking it through Kansas to other states or to somewhere in Kansas,” Norton said. “When it becomes legal in Missouri, it’ll be the same situation.”
Norton said traffic stops are a profitable business for troopers because when officers confiscate property from a driver’s vehicle, they sell the items, and use the money to fund law enforcement.
“They’re fishing, and the idea is to catch fish and, you know, now they’ve got good bait,” he said.
Pierson said what happened to Martinez is happening to others as well, something that can breach the relationship between law enforcement and the people.
“I would like to think that we could have a transparent relationship — we, the public, with law enforcement — and that there wouldn’t be need for tricks and devices and strategies like this for them to do their job,” he said.
What are my rights during a Kansas traffic stop?
Norton said every citizen has the right to remain silent and not answer questions during an encounter with law enforcement. But he acknowledged there’s often a power dynamic that makes people feel like they can’t.
“Nobody feels like they can ignore a police officer and just drive away or walk away from a police officer that’s asking, ‘Can I talk to you?’” he said.
Pierson said officers have to have an articulable reasonable suspicion to detain you, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they have to communicate their suspicion to the driver.
“There’s nothing (in the law) that requires the officer to tell you what the reasonable suspicion is either and who are you to ask? If an officer were to volunteer it, that would be fine, and in fact, it’s not even a subjective standard,” he said.
“What I mean by that is the officer can be wrong or mistaken or be using factors that they’re not supposed to be using even, but so long as a lawyer can come in after the fact and say objectively ‘any reasonable officer would have found reasonable suspicion here,’ then the courts will generally say that that’s OK.”
Norton said the majority of drivers will never have a chance to seek justice for an illegal detention, as there are too many barriers associated with litigation.
This makes the potential for illegal detainment during a traffic stop all the more daunting.
“You can file a lawsuit, but who has time for that?” he said. “Usually people just go home and are glad they didn’t get thrown into jail, that there wasn’t something found or planted or whatever.”
In the meantime, people like Martinez, and the other two individuals represented in the ACLU’s lawsuit, are doing just that — spending a lot of time and a lot of money trying to navigate a way to vindicate their rights.
“You feel like you’re an ant standing next to a human, you know, because you try to be as calm as you can and you try to say what you think is right and it’s never right, you know?” Martinez said.
“The justice system is, unfortunately, backwards, you know, and you think you can count on these cops and troopers to do right and they still want to hit that quota or whatever the case may be, you know, to make themselves look better and to catch something that’s not really there.
“It’s like, it’s just demoralizing. It makes you feel like less of a human being just because they have a badge and a gun.”
