Contact The BrownWatch
Search BrownWatch


Powered by Squarespace
Amazon Honor System Click Here to Pay Learn More
Thursday
Apr262012

Donations Pour in to Trayvon Martin's Killer

  • Al Sharpton, Trayvon Martin family urge peace on 20th anniversary of Rodney King Verdict [MORE
  • Judge wants answers about $200,000 'Real George Zimmerman' defense fund [MORE] and [MORE]
  • Pictured - People attend a rally in support of slain teenager Trayvon Martin in Los Angeles, California, April 26, 2012.[HERE]
(CNN) -- The lawyer for the neighborhood watch leader who fatally shot unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, said Thursday that his client has received about $200,000 from supporters.

Orlando lawyer Mark O'Mara told CNN's "AC360" that George Zimmerman told him Wednesday of the donations as they were trying to shut down his Internet presence to avoid concerns about possible impersonators and problems with his Twitter and Facebook accounts.

"He asked me what to do with his PayPal accounts and I asked him what he was talking about," O'Mara told Anderson Cooper. "And he said those were the accounts that had the money from the website he had. And there was about 200, $204,000 that had come in to date."

O'Mara had said earlier this month that he believed Zimmerman had no money. "I think he's indigent for costs," he said, adding that Zimmerman's relatives had few assets. (The Rednecks at CNN know good & well that Zimmerman's jewish daddy is a retired magistrate judge).

Click to read more ...

Thursday
Apr262012

White Men accused of Murdering Black Baltimore teenager, seek to postpone trial

Beaten Black Teen Refuses to testify - Wants Charges Dropped [HERE]

(CBS/AP) and [HERE] BALTIMORE - Two brothers accused of beating a black teenager while on neighborhood watch for an Orthodox Jewish area are seeking to postpone their trial because of the publicity comparing their case to the case to Trayvon Martin. 

 Eliyahu and Avi Werdesheim were set to go on trial Monday in Baltimore. However, their attorney told a judge that due to recent press comparing their case to George Zimmerman's, he wanted to postpone the trial and seek a change of venue.

The Werdesheim brothers are accused of beating a 15-year-old boy in Baltimore in November 2010. Court documents say the brothers pulled up next to the teen in a vehicle, got out and surrounded him. He was allegedly thrown to the ground and hit in the head with a handheld radio.

The teen remembered the driver yelling, "You wanna (mess) with us, you don't belong around here, get outta here!" according to court documents, which do not identify which brother was driving.

Click to read more ...

Thursday
Apr262012

Beaumont Officer Blinds Latino Woman With Pepper Spray

From [HERE] A Beaumont police officer has been indicted by a criminal grand jury on three felony counts of assault and one felony count of use of force causing great bodily injury stemming from a DUI traffic stop in February, a District Attorney's spokesman said.

Beaumont police Officer Enoch Clark, 36, was arraigned Thursday morning in Riverside Superior Court, and he pleaded not guilty to all four charges, John Hall of the Riverside County D.A.'s office said.

"On Feb. 21, 2012, Clark was on duty, working patrol in the city of Beaumont," Hall said in a District Attorney's statement. "During his shift, Clark was involved in a possible driving under the influence investigation. While conducting that investigation, there was an altercation between the officer and a woman he was attempting to handcuff.

"Clark then pulled out a less-than-lethal device issued by his department called a JPX device," the District Attorney's statement said. "This device uses a 'wafer' of gun powder to propel a stream of pepper spray . . .  at a speed of more than 400 mph.

Click to read more ...

Thursday
Apr262012

Chicago police put on leave in fatal arrest of Darrin Hanna: Recording Reveals Black Man Plead for his Life

Police Recording Proves Hanna Begged For His Life During Arrest [HERE

Jesse Jackson Leads Protest [HERE

Beating Killed Man Who Died After North Chicago Police Incident, Autopsy Says [MORE

From [HERE] The seven North Chicago police officers involved in the violent arrest of a man who died a week later have been placed on paid leave temporarily, the mayor announced Tuesday.

The officers — Tristan Borzick, Jason Geryol, Gary Grayer, Marc Keske, Arthur Strong, Brandon Yost and Sgt. Salvatore Cecala — had been on desk duty since shortly after the Nov. 13 death of Darrin Hanna, 45. Police had been called to Hanna's apartment over complaints that he was fighting with his pregnant girlfriend, who told authorities that Hanna tried to drown her in the bathtub, reports show.

Click to read more ...

Thursday
Apr262012

Shooting of Elderly Black Man Draws Parallels to Trayvon Martin Case

Medical alert device records police shooting and Racial Slur prior to Police Murder of Ex-Marine 

When White Plains Police responded to Kenneth Chamberlain's apartment last November, the 68-year-old former marine's medical alert device recorded the entire hour-long fatal stand-off.

 Now, an attorney for the family says a transcript of that recording identifies White Plains Police Officer Steven Hart as the one who shouted out a racial slur before Chamberlain was shot and killed by another officer.

"He's tapping on the window, tap tap tap, 'Mr. Chamberlain we need to talk N-word'. The N-word flat out," said Randolph McLaughlin, of the Newman Ferrara Law Firm. [MORE

Click to read more ...

Thursday
Apr262012

Parents of Unarmed Black College Student killed by Pasadena police sue city 

[From LA Times] and [HERE] The parents of an unarmed college student fatally shot by two Pasadena police officers filed a wrongful-death and civil-rights lawsuit against the city Tuesday, alleging the officers never saw anything resembling a gun, never yelled any commands before opening fire and handcuffed the dying man.

Kendrec McDade, 19, was shot March 24 shortly after 11 p.m. when police Officers Mathew Griffin and Jeff Newlen pursued him on a dark street after a 911 caller alleged the young man and a 17-year-old stole a backpack from his car at gunpoint. The caller later admitted lying to police about the pair having guns.

"Neither officers nor witnesses saw anything in Kendrec McDade's hands, no bulges in his closely fitted sweater, no bulges at his waistband and no shiny objects," Harper wrote. "Neither officer yelled any commands to identify themselves that evening and they did not have lights and sirens."

The lawsuit alleges McDade was still alive after being shot multiple times and, according to witnesses, tried to speak with an officer and then was left on the street for a prolonged time period without treatment.

Click to read more ...

Thursday
Apr262012

$120 million claim filed against LAPD for killing unarmed 19-year-old Latino Man

From [HERE] As friends and relatives arrived for the 1 p.m. funeral service, journalists gathered in front of Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood. Jeffrey Galen spoke on the family’s behalf.

The attorney has filed a $120 million claim against the city of Los Angeles — a million, he says, for every bullet he alleges the LAPD fired at 19-year-old Abdul Arian on April 11.

"Once they started shooting at this man, it was like the wild, wild West," said Galen. "It was something that was undignified and something that we as a society cannot tolerate."

Tyler Izen, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, offered condolences to the Arian family in a statement. But he added that when someone ignores lawful commands from an officer, it often sets regrettable events into motion.

Six days ago, Arian led LAPD officers on a high-speed chase through the San Fernando Valley. Arian reportedly called 911 during the chase and told the dispatcher he had a gun.

The pursuit ended on the 101 Freeway in Woodland Hills when Arian ran from the police — and, they say, took an aggressive shooting stance. Officers at the scene opened fire and killed him.

The LAPD confirmed later that Arian was unarmed.

Click to read more ...

Thursday
Apr262012

Jury Awards Black Man $6 Million For 2007 LA Sheriff’s Beating

LOS ANGELES (CBS—  A Los Angeles federal jury awarded $6 million in damages to a Compton school bus driver who claimed he was racially profiled and severely beaten by sheriff deputies after a traffic stop, attorneys said Friday.

Following a three-day civil rights trial, the jury Thursday found Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Sgt. Pablo Partida and Deputy Robert Martinez liable for excessive force and malicious prosecution against 33-year-old Deon Dirks.

Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said the award is “excessive” and the department will likely appeal. The case stems from a traffic stop on Wilmington Avenue in Compton the morning of Nov. 4, 2007.

Dirks contends he was ordered out of his car, pepper-sprayed, punched in the face, arrested and finally charged with assault on a police officer and resisting arrest, according to plaintiff’s attorney Glen Jonas. Dirks also spent five days in jail - as a result he lost his job.  “We believe our deputies’ use of force was appropriate,” Whitmore said.

Click to read more ...

Thursday
Apr262012

After Man’s Death, Scrutiny for a Police Chase - Witnesses say NYPD ran Black Man Over

Two women who said they saw the accident recounted that the car was moving when it turned directly into Mr. Robinson and hit him.

Deputy Inspector George Fitzgibbon, the commander of the 69th Precinct, which covers Canarsie, said the officers had brought the car to a stop to block Mr. Robinson’s path to the door.

“Whether he tried to hurdle it, or just slammed into the car, and fell back, that’s what he did,” Inspector Fitzgibbon said at a community meeting on Tuesday night.

One of the women who challenged that account, Zina Callahan, 38, said she watched the chase from her second-floor apartment above the walkway to the building after hearing the screech of a car and a police loudspeaker blaring: “Stop running! Stop running!”

“He made a turn to come into the walkway, and the cop sped up and he hit him,” Ms. Callahan said. “He went up a little in the air. He came down. He rolled over twice.”

Franchette Mowbray, 26, said she watched the episode from her eighth-floor apartment. “They hit him,” she said. “He flew up and he came down. They backed the car up, and they told him to get up. People were yelling out their windows screaming at the cops, ‘We saw what you did.’ ”

Click to read more ...

Thursday
Apr262012

Death on the Border: Shocking Video Shows Mexican Immigrant Beaten and Tased by Border Patrol Agents

From [Democracy Now] A new PBS documentary exposes the tasing and beating death of a Mexican immigrant by U.S. border agents in California and has renewed scrutiny of what critics call a culture of impunity. In May 2010, 32-year-old Anastasio Hernández-Rojas was caught trying to enter the United States from Mexico near San Diego. He had previously lived in the United States for 25 years and was the father of five U.S.-born children. But instead of deportation, Hernández-Rojas’s detention ended in his death. A number of border officers were seen beating him, before one tasered him at least five times. He died shortly afterward. The agents say they confronted Hernández-Rojas because he became hostile and resisted arrest. But previously undisclosed videos recorded by eyewitnesses on their cell phones show a different story. "All eyewitnesses that we spoke to basically tell the same story of a man hogtied and handcuffed behind his back, not resisting, being beaten repeatedly by batons, by kicks, by punches, by the use of a taser, for almost 30 minutes until he died," says reporter John Carlos Frey, whose exposé aired in a national television special last Friday night as part of a joint investigation by the PBS broadcast, "Need to Know," and the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute.

Click to read more ...