WEST JORDAN, Utah — A man has filed a lawsuit against the West Jordan Police Department that alleges his rights were violated when a police K9 was dispatched and subsequently injured him, but police said they stand behind their actions.

“I didn’t dare to move. I put my hands up and froze. If I would have blinked, I thought I was going to get shot,” said Lee Hoogveldt, recalling an incident which played out in his home on March 24, 2013.

His attorney, Robert Sykes, filed a civil rights lawsuit in Federal Court on Thursday, and he provided the media with copies of body camera video showing Hoogveldt being attacked by a police dog.

“At the time and place this force was used, there was no justification at all to sic a police dog on somebody,” Sykes said.

The video shows Hoogveldt seated on a sofa after police enter his home. After numerous commands from officers, he raises his hands in the air seconds before a dog named “Pyro” lunges at his face, bites, and holds on for about 15 seconds.

Hoogveldt is then pulled into a nearby room by another officer. The video shows large amounts of blood covering his face. Seconds later, Hoogveldt is face down, and as officers work to get him handcuffed, the dog bites him in the buttocks.

http://fox13now.com/2015/04/30/man-sues-west-jordan-police-over-injuries-suffered-in-k9-encounter/

People watching developments in Baltimore -- where rioting and protests followed the April 19 death of Freddie Gray -- are now turning their attention toward Baltimore City's State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, the chief prosecutor for the city. On Friday, Baltimore police officials are expected to present Mosby with results of an internal investigation into the death.

After reviewing the report, Mosby -- who will soon mark four months on the job -- will ultimately decide whether any or all of the six police officers suspended in connection with Gray's death will face criminal charges.

Mosby -- who at age 34 became the nation's youngest chief prosecutor when she took office in January -- was raised in inner-city Boston and grew up in a police household, the Daily Beast reported. Both of her parents and one of her grandfathers were police officers.

Prior to her election as Baltimore's state's attorney, Mosby won the endorsement of a city police union. But she has not been coy about advocating on the behalf of families who have sought answers in previous police-involved deaths of Baltimore residents.

After her predecessor decided not to bring charges against officers whose tussled last year with a Baltimore man named Tyrone Wright -- a case that ended with Wright's death -- Mosby said she would be "more transparent" in how she arrived at decisions in police-involved cases. “This family waited nine months to know how their loved one was killed,” Mosby said during her campaign for the elected office.

But despite that statement, Mosby has been a vocal supporter of the police, a stand fraught with political risk in a city with Baltimore's history of police brutality allegations. “It is my genuine belief, despite what we might all want to think, what we might want to believe, the police officers in this city are doing their jobs,” she said. “I repeat, the police officers in Baltimore city are doing their jobs and taking bad guys off the street.”

http://www.ibtimes.com/who-marilyn-mosby-baltimore-city-states-attorney-decide-if-officers-are-charged-1903068

In an aggressive posture designed to tamp down on early signs of unrest, the police arrested more than one hundred people in Manhattan on Wednesday night as protesters marched in a show of solidarity with demonstrators in Baltimore protesting the death of Freddie Gray, an unarmed 25-year-old black man who died after being injured while in police custody this month.

One officer was injured when a bottle struck him on the chin, the police said.

Some protesters stopped traffic on Houston Street in Lower Manhattan while others blocked the entrance to the Holland Tunnel. Another group marched uptown to Times Square and Hell’s Kitchen, where, later in the night, a police van filled with marchers who had been arrested sat idling in traffic.

The rally began in Union Square at sunset to denounce the death of Mr. Gray and to criticize the tactics of the police in both Baltimore and New York City, where the use of force has been a charged issue since the death of Eric Garner, a black man, following a confrontation with officers on Staten Island last year.

“It’s all about solidarity,” Carmen Perez, a director of a group that advocates criminal justice reform, Justice League, said during the Union Square rally. “We’re here to spread the message of peace from Baltimore’s initial protests.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/nyregion/hundreds-march-in-manhattan-to-protest-the-death-of-freddie-gray.html?_r=0

As many as 60 teens were roaming Charleston streets attacking pedestrians and drivers early Sunday, witnesses told police dispatchers in 911 calls released Tuesday.

All the teens were black, according to witnesses, and all but one of the people attacked were white. Still, it’s unclear if the attacks were racially motivated or sparked by the unrest in Baltimore, which followed the recent shooting death of Walter Scott, a black man, by a white North Charleston police officer.

Investigators haven’t yet determined a motive, according to Charleston Police Department spokesman Charles Francis.

James Johnson, who was at the forefront of local protests after Scott’s shooting death, said he had not heard any explanation for the teens’ behavior.

“The Walter Scott incident is fresh in their minds, and then there’s Baltimore,” he said. “But there’s no telling. It could be just spur of the moment. I’m hoping we can find out. Whatever it is, we’ve got to go to the root of the problem so it doesn’t happen again.”

The teens came out of a party at the YWCA on Coming Street about 12:30 a.m. and hit the streets. Groups not associated with the YWCA rent the facility.

The motto of the YWCA is “Empowering Women and Eliminating Racism.” The organization sponsors the annual local celebration of Martin Luther King Jr., who preached nonviolence.

Garcia Williams, the YWCA’s director, did not return several messages asking if she had learned anything about why the teens broke out in violence after the party or who organized the event. Dot Scott, the leader of the Charleston chapter of the NAACP, said she had not heard anything to explain why the teens went on a rampage but was shocked by it.

“I have no idea whatsoever,” she said. “It just seems unusual that folks would attack people that way. It’s atypical.”

In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, earlier this week, lawmakers, police officers and other supporters gathered at the state capitol to celebrate Law Enforcement Appreciation Day. Amid praise for those who wear the badge, state Rep. Dom Costa (D), former chief of the Pittsburgh Police, suggested he would introduce legislation to protect police officers -- not from physical harm, but from getting their feelings hurt by citizens.

Following comments by state Sen. John Rafferty (R), who spoke about criminal targeting of police and encouraged attendees to support his resolution to recognize 2015 as the “Year of the Law Enforcement Officer,” Costa discussed another supposed threat to police.

"This nonsense that is going today on where police officers are being taunted by people and being provoked, let's face it we’re all human beings, and eventually that emotion will break. And that’s what they’re trying to do," he said, according to Raging Chicken Press, seemingly speaking about anyone who would verbally challenge police. "So, what I’ve talked to some of my colleagues and the senator [Senator Rafferty] is that we have a bill about taunting a police dog. It’s illegal. There should be out that you can’t taunt a police officer because you’re going to get those emotions up. [We] are looking at that bill to put it forward in the House, and I am sure the Senate will follow. Or at least support that bill."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/23/dom-costa-taunting-police_n_7127652.html

The final moments of Ervin Leon Edwards’ life were spent facedown on the floor of the West Baton Rouge Parish Jail.

Dragged into an isolation cell and surrounded by about half a dozen law enforcement officers, Edwards sometimes struggled with them. At other times, he appears to be lying still, according to recently obtained video footage of the incident.

At one point, while Edwards apparently resisted attempts by officers to restrain him, a Port Allen police officer shocked Edwards with a stun gun. Not long afterward, the inmate quit moving, the footage shows.

The officers then slowly backed away from him and exited the cell. Except for a few peeks through a window of the cell’s door, about 10 minutes go by on the video before deputies and officers returned to the cell to check on him. Edwards, lying still on his stomach, doesn’t appear to move at all during that time frame.

For corrections and use of force experts who reviewed the video footage, that 10-minute gap without checking on Edwards looks like a critical error.

“The fact that the subject appeared unresponsive, perhaps unconscious on the floor as the officers withdrew from the cell, should have resulted in an immediate request for medical intervention and a quick determination of whether there was a pulse or breathing,” said Greg Meyer, who retired several years ago as a captain with the Los Angeles Police Department and is recognized nationally as a use of force expert. “If not, CPR should have been started immediately.”

More: http://theadvocate.com/news/12134862-123/video-raises-questions-about-inmates

Discovered from: http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2015/04/man-arrested-for-sagging-pants-dies-in-jail-cell-after-several-guards-pile-on-top-of-him/

According to a wrongful death lawsuit filed in federal court in February 2014 on behalf of Edwards’ only son, Ervin Edwards was with his girlfriend at a gas station near Port Allen on Nov. 26, 2013, when the couple got into a “minor argument.”

By the time West Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputies responded, the argument was over, the lawsuit says.

Nevertheless, deputies began to question Edwards about his “sagging” pants, the suit says, and before long Edwards was being arrested.

SAN BERNARDINO (CBSLA.com) — A Southland man who was beaten by several sheriff’s deputies following a chase involving a stolen horse has reached a $650,000 settlement with San Bernardino County, officials announced Tuesday.

Attorneys for Francis Jared Pusok finalized the settlement with the county in connection with Pusok’s April 9 arrest in Apple Valley, according to San Bernardino County spokesman David Wert.

Pusok, 30, fled by car and then on horse in the desert while deputies chased him on foot after trying to serve a search warrant in an identity-theft investigation.

The county Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the settlement in closed session Tuesday, Wert said.

According to the terms of the agreement, the county acknowledges no wrongdoing and settles all potential claims from Pusok that could stem from the incident.

“The sole purpose of this agreement for both parties is to avoid the costs involved in litigation,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman James Ramos. “This agreement is a fair outcome for everyone involved, including the taxpayers.”

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/04/21/horse-pursuit-suspect-beaten-by-deputies-agrees-to-650000-settlement/

EFF is fighting for vehicle owners’ rights to inspect the code that runs their vehicles and to repair and modify their vehicles, or have a mechanic of their choice do the work. At the moment, the anti-circumvention prohibition in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act arguably restricts vehicle inspection, repair, and modification. If EFF is successful then vehicle owners will be free to inspect and tinker, as long as they don’t run afoul of other regulations, such as those governing vehicle emissions, safety, or copyright law.

Most of the automakers operating in the US filed opposition comments through trade associations, along with a couple of other vehicle manufacturers. They warn that owners with the freedom to inspect and modify code will be capable of violating a wide range of laws and harming themselves and others. They say you shouldn’t be allowed to repair your own car because you might not do it right. They say you shouldn’t be allowed to modify the code in your car because you might defraud a used car purchaser by changing the mileage. They say no one should be allowed to even look at the code without the manufacturer’s permission because letting the public learn how cars work could help malicious hackers, “third-party software developers” (the horror!), and competitors.

John Deere even argued that letting people modify car computer systems will result in them pirating music through the on-board entertainment system, which would be one of the more convoluted ways to copy media (and the exemption process doesn’t authorize copyright infringement, anyway).

The parade of horribles makes it clear that it is an extraordinary stretch to apply the DMCA to the code that runs vehicles. The vast majority of manufacturers' concerns have absolutely nothing to do with copyright law. And, as the automakers repeatedly point out, vehicles are subject to regulation by other government agencies with subject matter expertise, which issue rules about what vehicles are and are not lawful to operate on public roadways.

The DMCA essentially blundered into this space and called all tinkering and code inspection into question, even acts that are otherwise lawful like repairing your car, making it work better at high altitude, inspecting the code to find security and safety issues, or even souping it up for use in races on a private course. We’re presenting the Copyright Office with the opportunity to undo this collateral damage and leave regulating auto safety to specialized agencies, who understandably have not seen fit to issue a blanket prohibition against vehicle owners’ doing their own repairs and safety research.

More: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/automakers-say-you-dont-really-own-your-car

Automakers are supporting provisions in copyright law that could prohibit home mechanics and car enthusiasts from repairing and modifying their own vehicles.

In comments filed with a federal agency that will determine whether tinkering with a car constitutes a copyright violation, OEMs and their main lobbying organization say cars have become too complex and dangerous for consumers and third parties to handle.

Allowing them to continue to fix their cars has become "legally problematic," according to a written statement from the Auto Alliance, the main lobbying arm of automakers.

The dispute arises from a section of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that no one thought could apply to vehicles when it was signed into law in 1998. But now, in an era where cars are rolling computing platforms, the U.S. Copyright Office is examining whether provisions of the law that protect intellectual property should prohibit people from modifying and tuning their cars.

Every three years, the office holds hearings on whether certain activities should be exempt from the DMCA's section 1201, which governs technological measures that protect copyrighted work. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization that advocates for individual rights in the digital world, has asked the office to ensure that enthusiasts can continue working on cars by providing exemptions that would give them the right to access necessary car components.

Interested parties have until the end of the month to file comments on the proposed rule making, and a final decision is expected by mid-year.

In comments submitted so far, automakers have expressed concern that allowing outsiders to access electronic control units that run critical vehicle functions like steering, throttle inputs and braking "leads to an imbalance by which the negative consequences far outweigh any suggested benefits," according to the Alliance of Global Automakers. In the worst cases, the organizations said an exemption for enthusiasts "leads to disastrous consequences."

More: http://www.autoblog.com/2015/04/20/automakers-gearheads-car-repairs/