NEW YORK – New York City has reached a settlement with the family of Eric Garner for $5.9 million, almost a year after the 43-year-old died in police custody.

The family filed a notice of claim in October, the first step in filing a lawsuit against the city, asking for $75 million.

Garner was stopped on July 17 outside a convenience store for selling loose cigarettes. A video shows Garner telling the officers to leave him alone and refusing to be handcuffed. Garner is taken to the ground in what appears to be a chokehold, banned by police policy. The officer claimed it was a legal takedown maneuver known as a “seatbelt.”  (read more)

NEW YORK – A $5 million settlement won’t satisfy the heartbroken family of Eric Garner.

A source familiar with ongoing negotiations between Controller Scott Stringer and the family of the Staten Island man killed by an NYPD cop say that his widow, Esaw Garner, turned down the hefty offer last week.

The source said the Garner family’s attorney, Jonathan Moore, is urging the family to accept the $5 million and then seek more money through a separate lawsuit against EMTs from Richmond University Medical Center.

They were captured on video failing to give Garner, 43, medical treatment — neither oxygen nor CPR — as he died at their feet July 17, 2014.

Negotiations are expected to continue until Friday, when a statute of limitations requires the family file a wrongful death lawsuit. The family has said it intends to sue the city for $75 million. (more…)

Gee, who didn’t see this coming?

(Daily Mail) Police departments across the country that have spent years boasting about plummeting crime numbers are now scrambling to confront something many agencies have not seen in decades: more bloodshed.

Houston, St. Louis, New Orleans and Baltimore have all seen significant spikes in the number of homicides this year. The totals are up in other cities, too, including New York and Chicago.

“We’re in scary territory,” said Peter Scharf, a professor at Louisiana State University who tracks homicides in New Orleans.

In Los Angeles, the number of slayings dropped slightly, but the number of shooting victims jumped more than 18 percent. And in Milwaukee, a homicide on Wednesday put the total for the year at 84 – just two fewer than happened in all of 2014. (more…)

This story says a lot about the lack of prosecution for violent assault offenders. A suspect has been arrested for sexual assault of a Vanderbilt student on campus. The University tells students “heads up” even though he’s been caught, he might get out on bond again, and so be on the lookout.

”  […]  He is not affiliated with Vanderbilt and should he make bail, he will be warned not to return to campus. If you see this person on campus, please call VUPD immediately”…

On Saturday July 11, 2015 at 11:13 a.m. a female student reported that while walking on 24th Ave South near the Free Electron Laser building and McTeire Hall she was assaulted by a man who pushed her to the ground from behind, then grabbed her buttocks and groped her and said “do not make a sound”. The student then yelled and ran from the area towards Medical Center East and entered a crowd of people.

A photograph of the suspect was identified by the victim. (more…)

The specific message, and the specific manner of delivery, by Jamiel Shaw will resonate with infinite magnitudes within communities besieged with violence – beyond the message of illegal alien criminals. Because the heartfelt message of the Shaw family is purposeful, raw and easy to recognize as heartfelt.

“We love Mr. Trump. We’re happy, because we know he spoke up and he said something,”

(Via KTLA) The family of an L.A. high school football star who was killed by an undocumented immigrant expressed support for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s controversial views on Mexican immigrants, standing with Trump as he spoke about the issue in Beverly Hills Friday.

Relatives of Jamiel Shaw Jr. met with Trump at an undisclosed location Friday afternoon and later attended a news conference with him.

Shaw died at age 17 in a 2008 shooting near his Arlington Heights home when gang member Pedro Espinoza mistook him for a rival gang member because of the victim’s red Spider-Man backpack. (more…)

… now she faces a 2nd degree assault charge.

BALTIMORE – Baltimore woman was arrested after she dumped what appeared to be water on Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake as she greeted residents Saturday morning at the Mondawmin Festival..

The woman, identified by police as Lacheisa Pailin-Sheffer, ran up to Rawlings-Blake and poured a large cup of liquid over the mayor’s head. Aides rushed to the mayor to help her dry off while a member of her executive protection unit grabbed the woman and placed her in handcuffs.

Police said Pailin-Sheffer, 37, was charged with second-degree assault. (more…)

CHICAGO (WLS) —  Her car damaged, her nerves shaken, the victim of an alleged group attack near the University of Chicago campus with her children in the back seat of her car talked exclusively with ABC7 Eyewitness News about the incident Friday night.

Police say two people were arrested and charged after the incident, but that woman says several dozen people were involved. Her two kids left covered in broken glass. The encounter left several dents in the vehicle, the back window shattered and Susan Pedersen shaken. (more…)

Inside a Baltimore Sun article discussing reactions to the firing of Police Chief Anthony Batts, Councilman Nick Mosby, Baltimore State Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s husband, gives his opinion about the police union’s post-riot “After Action Report”.

Nick Mosby says he too wants to know why the police response to the rioting mob was so ineffectual and incompetent:

[…]  Mosby said he hadn’t yet reviewed the police union’s report. But he questioned why such a report hasn’t been issued by the police department itself or City Hall.

“Folks want answers,” he said.

That’s Rich.

Perhaps it was because Baltimore Mayor Rawlings-Blake wanted to give the rioting mob “space to destroy“.  Perhaps it was because the police department received instructions from Chief Batts not to stop the mob…..  (more…)

[However] Mayor John Cranley said “Saturday night was unacceptable”, but called it a one-time event. He blamed poor planning for the problems, including too few officers and allowing a concert aimed at teenagers to end after the city’s curfew. (link)

CINCINNATI Ohio – Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell has reconsidered and is asking Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters to pursue hate crime charges in the Government Square attack that left a white man beaten and bloody on the Fourth of July.

Police Officer Alicia Essert called the beating “anti-white” in the incident report, but at a news conference about the incident, Cincinnati Police Capt. Mike Neville backed off that claim, calling it a “mistake.”

“In many cases, a hate/bias relationship between the offender(s) and suspect(s) may not be easily apparent at the time of, or even shortly after the commission of the offense,” police spokeswoman Tiffaney Hardy said in a release. “Often, hate/bias elements become evident only after thorough investigation and review of the available evidence.” (more…)

Many people were shocked when Baltimore Mayor Rawlings-Blake fired the Baltimore City Police Commissioner (Chief) yesterday.   Almost everyone was left wondering exactly why did the firing take place with such fervor following the Fraternal Order of Police report.

Having followed the political fiasco since the crisis originally surfaced it is likely the answers lie in the following paragraph:

[…]  It should be noted that as part of this review, repeated requests, including a formal Maryland Public Information Act request, were made of the Baltimore Police Department to supply communications between commanders (both text and email), radio communications tapes and other documents to assist in the review. As of July 6, 2015, Baltimore City FOP Lodge #3 has only received one tape from April 27, 2015 and from only one channel — a small fraction of the information requested.

Full report pdf below:

(more…)