Afternoon Links

• A 350 pound asthmatic man died at the hands of Forth Worth “zero tolerance officers” who were conducting a drug search of his home on May 16th.  The man resisted being forced to lie on his stomach because it restricted his breathing.  He was tasered at least twice before he stopped breathing and died.  As usual, the cops aren’t talking about it because, you know, they are “investigating”.

• A 72-year-old man was shot six times and killed by Fort Worth cops when he went down to his garage, armed with a .38 caliber handgun, to investigate noises he thought might be a burglar.  The noise was apparently caused by cops who were on his property while responding to a burglar alarm across the street.

• Miami-Dade cops put a choke hold on a 14-year-old boy carrying a puppy after he gave them “dehumanizing stares”. DEHUMANIZING STARES!  No one should have to suffer that.  What does that even look like, anyway?  Maybe I should start rehearsing in the mirror to make sure I know how to look next time I encounter a cop.

• NYPD housing cop is convicted of 10 felony counts related to falsifying paperwork to conceal his involvement with an illegal search and arrest of a Manhattan man during a 2012 drug bust.  If not for the irrefutable surveillance video, the innocent man would still be in prison and the cop would still be on the job.

• South Lake Tahoe cop pleaded guilty to witness tampering.  “A three-year, multi-agency investigation  involving the FBI led to 44-year-old John Gerald Poland’s arrest in January…”

• The FBI is investigating the LAPD SWAT team for buying “large numbers” of custom-made handguns and reselling them for a huge profit.  An initial internal “investigation” found no wrong-doing on the part of cops.  I’m guessing that would have been the end of it if someone on the inside hadn’t leaked to the media about it.