Accused by police, he credits police tape

[firedupdem]

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20090330_Accused_by_police__he_credits_police_tape.html?viewAll=y


Terence Jones is still distraught three months after his acquittal in a case that is now under scrutiny by the New Jersey State Conference of the NAACP and its Gloucester County chapter.

In his first interview since he was vindicated, Jones says he remains "bothered and upset" that he was prosecuted for filing a false police report when he complained he was racially profiled in a 2007 traffic stop in Woolwich Township.

Jones, who is African American, had faced up to 18 months in prison; his restless nights dragged on longer than a year until his trial in December.

Visibly angered, Superior Court Judge M. Christine Allen-Jackson had called the case "chilling" when she found him not guilty. It was over, and Jones sobbed in relief.

snip

A videotape of the stop, recorded by a camera in the police car, was never played for the grand jurors. It shows Patrolman Michael Schaeffer, who is white, pulling Jones over on a blustery night and asking why Jones was exiting an industrial park. Jones noted this in his letter of complaint to the chief.

Schaeffer is then heard repeatedly asking Jones if he has been drinking and if Jones will allow a vehicle search. When Jones says he never drinks and won't permit a search, Schaeffer orders Jones out of his Lincoln Navigator, frisks him, and then leans into the vehicle through the open windows and looks around.

Schaeffer also does a sobriety test, after confiding to his backup that he did not smell alcohol on Jones' breath. He is heard on the tape blaming the lack of a scent on the strong winds and he tells the officer that he feels Jones is "just shady."

"I didn't do anything wrong," Jones said, "and what bothered me was he didn't believe anything I said. He asked if I had anything illegal in my vehicle, insinuating I was a drug dealer or was involved in some type of illegal activity because I'm black and was driving an expensive vehicle."


**This stuff is not new but still pisses me off. I have never been pulled over and I've been driving 25yrs. My husband and son have dealt with this more times then I can count. Will it ever end?

[Brewman_Jax]

1. Have times really changed?

the night riders have badges and guns instead of white hoods and torches. The post-article comments are just as bad. I keep my hair buzzed-cut so not to appear too--non-white, so my silhouette doesn't get the wrong attention. That, and my hair is thin on top.

This is supposed to be the 21st Century? :(

[noiretextatique]

2. just read some of the comments

do you black people know that other people are treated badly by the police too? :eyes:
um yeah...we know all about that. we also know about the history of police brutality that specifically targets black people.
i remember these three incidents when i live in southern california. of course there are many, many others, but these three i will never forget.

1979 Eula Mae Love
Eula Mae Love, a thirty-nine-year-old woman who stood about five feet four inches tall, was shot a dozen times by two LAPD officers who were called to the scene after she tried to stop a gas maintenance man from turning off her gas. When they arrived, she was armed with a kitchen knife, but the only thing she stabbed was a tree in her yard
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6812819

1981 Ronnie Settles
(We went to high school together)
was a California State University, Long Beach & Banning High School football player who was arrested by the Signal Hill Police Department in 1981. The morning after his arrest, he was found severely beaten and hanging in his jail cell. A huge furor erupted afterwards over the suspicious nature of his death. The police said he committed suicide, but this story was very weak. The Los Angeles District Attorney filed charges against them, with the Signal Hill Police officers eventually taking the fifth amendment to avoid incriminating themselves. No one was convicted of Settles' homicide, but the city of Signal Hill did pay a large settlement to the family
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Settles

1998 Tyisha Miller
(My parents and sister lived in Riverside at the time)
...About an hour later, one of Miller's cousins and a friend arrived at the gas station and found Miller locked in her car, with her seat back, music playing on the radio and a .380 semiautomatic pistol in her lap. She didn't respond to knocks on her window. The cousin and friend thought Miller was foaming at the mouth. They called 911 and reported Tyisha was in distress, and that she had a gun. They then called her aunt's house to get keys to the car.

Because the 911 call reported that Miller had a gun, a police car as well as an ambulance was dispatched. The police arrived approximately two minutes later. They tried to rouse Miller by banging on the windows and eventually breaking them. At this point, police accounts diverge. Two of the officers say Miller reached for her pistol; two said they weren't sure whether she reached for it or not. The four officers -- all white -- fired about 27 shots, hitting Miller at least a dozen times. The Riverside police have not released tapes or transcripts of the 911 call or of the radio communication among the officers -- a fact that has been singled out by critics, who point out that they had no problem releasing the autopsy report showing that Miller was legally drunk.
http://archive.salon.com/news/1999/02/cov_08news2.html

[Number23]

3. This kind of stuff breaks my heart

Just thoroughly breaks my heart...

And you haven't even gotten to the 21st century yet.

[noiretextatique]

4. they say overkill is personal

like when someone stabs a person 2000 times.
police overkills must be personal too. why shoot someone 27 times, when the first bullet likely disabled her? :wtf: is that about?
remember abner louima?

21st century...shit, let's make to the 19th :cry:

[Number23]

5. Oh, child, Abner Louima will haunt me forever

As will the case of the Bell guy. I can't remember his first name. But the one who was killed the day before his wedding about a year or so ago.

There are far too many to even try to remember... and these are just the one that we KNOW about.

[Raineyb]

9. Sean Bell

Yet another victim of the crew who can't shoot straight aka the NYPD.

Regards

[Number23]

10. That's the one

Abner Louima was victimized by the police but at least he was able to get some type compensation.

Sean Bell got a grave. I don't even know if his fiancee was ever even given an apology.

[noiretextatique]

11. I was thinking of Amadou Diallo, not Abner Louima

as Raineyb mentioned Louima survived. Amadou Diallo was shot 41 times for reaching for his wallet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadou_Diallo

[Raineyb]

12. The trigger was pulled 41 times they hit him 19 times

That's why I call the NYPD the gang that can't shoot straight. In the Sean Bell case some of the bullets went up to a train station that was in the area. Every time there's a case like this I'm always amazed that other people don't get hurt or killed the way bullets are thrown indiscriminately. They not only are trigger happy but they miss more than half the time. It's only a matter of time until there's a bystander, or someone in their apartment who gets hit by a stray bullet.

Regards

[noiretextatique]

13. what's up with the overkill?

thanks for the correction.
in the miller case, she was hit by 27 bullets. surely one or two or ten would have disabled and/or killed her. i guess it was personal.

[Raineyb]

16. Black people scare the police

At least that was the excuse given at trial. And they mistook a wallet for a gun.

I should add that Diallo was in the vestibule of his building. Most vestibules in NYC aren't very big places either.

I have no idea why they need to empty and in some cases reload their guns when going after black people but every time I hear the police brag about how they managed to get a situation under control without killing someone that person is usually white.

Actually, that's a lie, I know why the overkill, they don't give a damn about preserving the life of the black people they come across in their day to day life. There is no respect for the humanity because when push comes to shove they don't think we have any.

Regards

[noiretextatique]

19. miller was only hit a dozen times

but over 27 shots were fired...my bad. i guess a lot of these cops lose focus when confronted with the opportunity to kill a black person.

you're spot on: overkill is a product of a culture that has no respect for the humanity of black people, that includes american culture and police culture.

i had an encounter with the police once that could have easily ended in my death. i confronted two officers who pulled me over for driving without my lights on. in california, driving without lights is not illegal, but driving without properly functioning lighting equipment is illegal. after they verified that my lights worked, they should have left me alone. police routinely use their loudspeakers to remind drivers to turn their lights on...i've seen that many times.

but this night, two officers in two separate cars decided to pull me over for driving without lights in a busy well-lit downtown area. i was driving a older volvo and i was dressed in a business suit...i had just come from a class a church. at first i tried to be polite, but when they ordered me out of the car after they verified that my lights did work...well, then i got very, very angry.

i proceeded to berate the officers about racial profiling and they kept telling me what they were doing was "standard procedure." i told them they had racially profiled me and everything they were doing was illegitimate because of it. a friend of mine had left the class shortly after me and she parked across the street watching the entire time. she said i was pointing my finger in the cop's face while i was talking. i honestly don't remember the details because i was so livid...how fucking dare you pull this shit on me for something so minor.?!

the older cop actually seemed a little embarrassed, but the younger one tried to bully me...i wasn't having it. he wanted me to get out of the street and stand on the sidewalk, and i refused. i told him: "i want to be seen so you don't mistake my gum for a gun and shoot me 41 times." he got angry and ordered me on the sidewalk, and i told him unless he arrested me, i wasn't moving out of the light where people could see me. his partner told him to back off...probably after he'd run my license and saw i was clean. they wrote my an "attitude ticket" and when i appeared in court, the cowards didn't bother to show up. the judge was disgusted by the charges and of course, she dismissed the case.

i consider what happened to me a form of attempted robbery, among other things. i did absolutely nothing wrong (except forget to turn on my lights) but if i didn't have to money to post bail, i would not have had the chance to go to court. the day i posted bail, most of the black and brown people in court pled guilty so they could make payment arrangement because they could not afford the bail. their choice was: plead guilty.

[Number23]

20. Yeah, he survived but the depravity of those cops would have made Hannibal Lecter proud

Like I said, the Abner Louima case will haunt me forever... I would not wish what he had to endure at the hands of police officers sworn to protect us on my worst enemy (if I had one).

[Brewman_Jax]

7. To add to the list

2006 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston, Atlanta, GA
Kathryn Johnston was an elderly Atlanta, Georgia woman who was shot by three undercover police in her home on Neal Street in northwest Atlanta on November 21, 2006, where she had lived for 17 years. She fired a warning shot into the ceiling after officers pried off burglar bars and broke down her door using a no knock warrant. None of the officers were injured by her gunfire, but Johnston was killed by the officers. After the officers shot Johnston, they left her handcuffed on the floor while she bled to death, and then planted marijuana from their patrol car in her basement to try to help justify the shooting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Johnston

[noiretextatique]

14. shameful

but at least the murderous thugs got some jail time.

[Brewman_Jax]

15. True, but more often than not

they get no punishment at all. :(

[noiretextatique]

17. you are so right about that

no jail time for the shooters of love, settles, miller, or diallo.
the 4 shooters of tyisha miller were fired.

the police, after all, were just "doing their jobs."

[cyndensco]

18. I watched the Diallo case gavel to gavel.

It was obvious from the beginning that the prosecutors were not seeking a conviction. At times it was hard distinguishing the defense from the city.

The whole system was/is set up to support trigger-happy cops.

[Raineyb]

21. That's why it was moved to Albany in the first place.

I don't think a Bronx jury would have put up with that shit.

They didn't want to convict those cops.

Regards

[cyndensco]

6. My teachers and Mr. Rogers used to tell us "the policeman is your friend."

I raised my sons to believe their only goal when confronted by a cop was to survive the encounter. If they are mistreated, we will deal with it after they are safely away, lawyered-up if necessary, and in the presence of many witnesses. Far too many "accidents" happen.

[firedupdem]

8. God yes, I do the same with my sons. n/t