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Monday, March 21

Woman and Her Fiancée Sentenced to 22 Years-to-Life for Torturing and Murdering Her 3-Year-Old Son

 


                      Connie Marie Escamilla and Kylie Mykaela Ann Beasley.

A woman and her fiancée received sentences of 22 years-to-life for killing her 3-year-old son. Prosecutors say Connie Marie Escamilla, 29, and  Kylie Mykaela Ann Beasley, 25, previously blamed each other for Connie’s son Gilbert dying from serious injuries, but they pleaded guilty in December to a count each of second-degree murder, and torture.

The Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office announced the March 9 sentencing on Thursday.

Prosecutors say authorities were called to the couple’s Modesto home in 2017 about a child not breathing. Gilbert was unresponsive. First responders took him to a hospital, and personnel there found him to be terribly injured.

“Hospital personnel documented extensive physical injuries to the toddler including severe burn marks on his legs, bruising and abrasions over his entire body and various fractures,” the D.A.’s office said. “They also diagnosed internal damage consisting of bleeding on the brain, a bruised lung and bruised liver. Gilbert was flown to Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera for further treatment but died the next day.”

The couple claimed Gilbert got some of his injuries in a car accident, but they gave different accounts on when this happened, prosecutors said. There were also no records on such an accident, the D.A.’s office said. Defendant Escamilla and Beasley also fabricated other stories on what happened to the young boy, authorities said.

“The pair further blamed his severe leg burns on hot water spilling him on, but doctors determined that could not have caused the injuries they saw,” prosecutors said. “Additional excuses included falling off his bed, blaming an unknown male whom law enforcement was never able to locate and negligence by the medical professionals who administered CPR to the unresponsive child. When told that Gilbert had died, both Escamilla and Beasley admitted to being untruthful and blamed the other for the child’s injuries and death. They were both arrested and charged with Gilbert’s murder.”

Escamilla and Beasley waived two years of earned custody credits as part of their plea hearing on Dec. 16.

“How can you let someone hurt your child?” Escamilla’s sister April Marie Garza told KOVR in a March 6, 2017 report. “She could’ve done anything to stop it. I don’t know what she was thinking or what this girl did.”

She said she believed her sister began to change after moving to California and meeting Beasley. Connie, who also had a 7-year-old daughter who was half-siblings with Gilbert, refused to send pictures of the children, Garza said

Black store owner reports robbery, gets punched by officer

D

ECATUR, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama liquor store owner has sued after a police officer responding to a robbery call at his store punched him in the face and broke his jaw in March 2020.

The Decatur Daily reports that Kevin Penn sued the city of Decatur and police officer Justin Rippen on March 11 in federal court. Penn is Black and Rippen is white.

The suit alleges the incident is an example of systematic use of “excessive force” by the Decatur Police Department that the city often ignores.

The lawsuit alleges Penn’s constitutional rights were violated by illegal seizure, false arrest and excessive force, seeking money damages.

City Attorney Herman Marks said Thursday his department hasn’t yet received the lawsuit and declined comment. Decatur Mayor Tab Bowling said he regrets a lawsuit has been filed but referred questions to Marks.

The lawsuit alleges the city regularly receives complaints that officers “react with unjustifiable violence and false charges when a citizen speaks up or otherwise asserts his rights as an American citizen.”

The suit also accuses officers of “using common charges like obstructing governmental operation, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest” against local citizens.

“It is well known in the Decatur legal community that Decatur officers frequently use these charges, commonly referred to as POP (p--- off police) charges, without a legal basis,” the lawsuit states.

Penn had trapped a shoplifter with an electronic lock and the suspect was lying on the ground, with Penn holding him at gunpoint. Surveillance video shows Penn unloading his gun as police arrive. The video appears to show Penn setting the gun magazine down as the officers approach.

An officer walked past the suspect and told Penn to put down his weapon. Penn refused saying, “I have a right to have my gun," according to body camera video.

But police said in 2020 they believed Penn was reloading the gun. An officer, who has been identified as Rippen, then appears to punch Penn. Rippen and two other officers wrestled Penn to the ground and handcuffed him, the video shows. Penn was arrested and charged with obstructing a robbery investigation.

Penn's lawyer, Hank Sherrod III, said using the obstructing governmental operations charge “is standard procedure for most police jurisdictions and 100% used in north Alabama.”

The lawsuit says city officials failed to ensure officers were properly trained and supervised.

City leaders were aware of numerous situations “in which citizens were subjected to unconstitutional stops, searches, arrests and uses of force but took no action to investigate and discipline officers,” the lawsuit says.

Penn spent six weeks with his jaws wired shut as he recovered.

Sherrod said the misdemeanor charges against Penn are still pending.

“I don’t know why they’re still active or they haven’t set a court date,” Sherrod said.

Sherrod said Penn “promptly” filed regarding the assault and false arrest complaint after he was punched “and the city did nothing. Mr. Penn hasn’t heard from the city to this day.”

Rippen wasn’t disciplined, the Penn lawsuit says. No investigation began until the video became public in June 2020, three months after it happened.

Friday, March 18

White teen in Louisiana charged with hate crime after whipping Black student Olafimihan Oshin

Louisiana authorities said a white teenager has been arrested and charged with a hate crime after being caught on video whipping a Black student with a belt, USA Today reported.

Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Tim Soignet said that the Vanderbilt Catholic High student was charged with simple battery and a hate crime and was booked into the parish's juvenile detention center.

"I'm very pleased that the school took a front stand on this," Soignet said in a statement Wednesday. "When we received the complaint, we immediately put our detectives on it. They worked through the weekend so we could get to this point and effect an arrest on that juvenile."

A video of the incident surfaced online earlier this month, showing the white teen throwing cotton at his Black classmate, who was seated in the school cafeteria, according to USA Today.

The white student could then be seen in the video whipping the Black student with what looked like a belt, the outlet said.

In a statement, Terrebonne Parish's NAACP President Jerome Boykin praised school officials and authorities for their quick response to the incident, USA Today reported.

"Vanderbilt Catholic High School's administration and the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's Office sent a strong message to the community that this type of crime will not be tolerated," Boykin said. "The young man is only 15 years of age, and I hope that he can learn from his mistake."

The parents of the victim in the incident issued a statement last week thanking the community for their support.

Soignet said authorities took their time to work through this case as it involved juveniles, according to USA Today.

"It's not as simple as watching the video and making an arrest," Soignet said. "We wanted to do a very thorough investigation, and that's what they were able to do. When you're dealing with juveniles, it's a different challenge all on its own. It's not like dealing with adults."

In a statement, Vanderbilt schools officials said they were investigating the case as well, USA Today reported.

"School officials are working in cooperation with diocesan officials, students and parents to investigate this matter and are committed to ensuring that all individuals involved are held accountable in accordance with school policies," the school said. 

Florida High School Senior Forced To Cut His Locs To Walk At Graduation

  

Parents of Jacob Rush, a straight “A” senior at Abeka Academy, said he was denied being able to walk at his high school graduation because of his locs, Black With No Chaser reports.

Rush’s mother said Abeka Academy, located in Pensacola, Florida, sent a letter explaining that graduates must “have their hair tapered and may not come over the ears, eyebrows, or collar (no braids, dreadlocks, buns, or ponytails).”

The letter further asserts that Rush would not be permitted to walk at graduation if the senior does not comply with the guidelines.

“This is our culture…. this is who we are! This is the sad world we live in. JACOB @bluwjayarts is a straight A student, very talented young man. And for him to have to cut his locs for a standard graduation is horrible,” his mom shared on Instagram.

“Abeka Academy is not a diverse establishment. God created many nations. Racism shines very brightly at Abeka! My son has worked very diligently this year and to get the news that his senior picture shows that he has ‘Locs,’ disqualifies him from marching unless he cuts them. This is very inhumane! This is his culture, this how God made him. Braids, afros, Loc are the ways Africa Americans wear their hair,” she added.

She also said that societal hair standards have dated back to slavery.

“Hair has been the history of how Anglo Saxons ‘Coloized Slaves,’ by shaving, or cutting their Locs before taking them to the ‘Plantation.’ Or making the women tie up their hair to hide their Afro,” she said.

“There has always been rejection due to not only the color of our skin but our hair as well. I truly regret having to face something like this in 2022 but it shows that Racism is still alive! Everyone won’t fit the straight hair blue eye experiment,” she continued. “If the other race can’t see where this is a form of Racism then they are part of the problem!”

Abeka Academy said they follow the dress standard of Pensacola Christian College. However, the school later posted that they have removed the “no dreadlocks” guideline.

Abeka Academy said they follow the dress standard of Pensacola Christian College. However, the school later posted that they have removed the “no dreadlocks” guideline.

Monday, June 3


‘I Can’t Breathe’: 

5 Years After Eric Garner Dies,

An Officer Faces Trial 



From The New York Times

© Mark Kauzlarich/The New York Times Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, at a protest in 2015 outside the Manhattan office of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

The last words Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, uttered on a New York City sidewalk in 2014 instantly became a national rallying cry against police brutality. “I can’t breathe,’’ Mr. Garner pleaded 11 times after a police officer in plain clothes placed his arm across his neck and pulled him to the ground while other officers handcuffed him.
The encounter was captured on a video that ricocheted around the world, set off protests and prompted calls for the officers to be fired and criminally charged.
Mr. Garner’s death was part of a succession of police killings across the country that became part of a wrenching conversation about how officers treat people in predominantly poor and minority communities.
Now, the officer who wrapped his arm around Mr. Garner’s neck, Daniel Pantaleo, 33, faces a public trial that could lead to his firing. Officer Pantaleo has denied wrongdoing and his lawyer argues that he did not apply a chokehold.
The trial, scheduled to start Monday at Police Department headquarters, has been long-awaited by the Garner family, whose campaign to hold the police accountable for what they say is an unjustified use of force took on greater significance after Mr. Garner’s daughter, Erica Garner, died in 2017.
The city paid $5.9 million to settle a lawsuit with the family after a grand jury declined to bring criminal charges.
But Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration has fought and delayed the family’s efforts to have all the police officers involved in the encounter punished.
“It was at least a dozen more who just did nothing, or either they pounced on him, they choked him, they filed false reports,” Mr. Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, said in an interview. “It’s about all of those officers who committed an injustice that day and they all need to stand accountable.”
Officer Pantaleo faces charges of reckless use of a chokehold and intentional restriction of breathing. His lawyer says that Officer Pantaleo did not use a chokehold, but a different technique that is taught to officers in training and is known as a seatbelt.
So the trial will have to settle two questions at the heart of the case: Was the maneuver Officer Pantaleo used a chokehold? And, if so, was the officer justified in using it to subdue an unarmed man during a low-level arrest?
On Thursday, the Police Department judge overseeing the trial said that prosecutors must prove that Officer Pantaleo’s actions went beyond a violation of departmental rules and constituted a crime — an unusually high bar.
Video of the fatal encounter was recorded by Ramsey Orta, a friend of Mr. Garner’s who is expected to testify at Officer Pantaleo’s trial. It captured Mr. Garner telling officers in street clothes to leave him alone after they approached him outside a beauty supply store on July 17, 2014, not far from the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.
Mr. Garner had repeated encounters with the police and believed that he was being harassed.
“This stops today,” he told the officers before they moved to arrest him over accusations that he was selling untaxed cigarettes. As one officer tried to grab Mr. Garner’s hand, he slipped free. Then Officer Pantaleo slid one arm around Mr. Garner’s neck and another under his left arm and dragged him to the ground. On the pavement, he begged for air.
The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide and said he died from a chokehold and the compression of his chest from lying prone. The findings are a crucial issue in the trial and Officer Pantaleo’s defense lawyer plans to dispute them.
Stuart London, the police union lawyer representing Officer Pantaleo, said the technique his client used was the seatbelt maneuver taught in the Police Academy, not a chokehold. He plans to argue that Mr. Garner, who was overweight and severely asthmatic, died because of poor health.
“Those who have been able to not come to a rushed judgment, but have looked at the video in explicit detail, see Pantaleo’s intent and objective was to take him down pursuant to how he was taught by NYPD, control him when they got on the ground, and then have him cuffed,” Mr. London said in an interview. “There was never any intent for him to exert pressure on his neck and choke him out the way the case has been portrayed.”
The Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent city agency that investigates allegations of police misconduct, is prosecuting the case against Officer Pantaleo and is seeking his termination.
But the ruling on Thursday by the judge, Rosemarie Maldonado, the deputy police commissioner in charge of trials, denied Mr. London's motion to dismiss the case. But her ruling means that prosecutors need to prove that Officer Pantaleo’s actions rose to the crimes of assault and strangulation in order to avoid the state's prohibition on bringing misconduct charges more than 18 months after occurrence.
Colleen Roache, a spokeswoman for the review board, said prosecutors understood their obligation when they served Officer Pantaleo with the charges last July.
But critics have said the review board's failure to file charges sooner had made the prosecutors' case significantly harder to prove.
The Police Department banned chokeholds in 1993 amid concern about a rising number of civilian deaths in police custody. In 2016, the department added an exception to its chokehold ban under certain circumstances, which critics said made it easier for officers to justify its use.
After Mr. Garner’s death, the Police Department spent $35 million to retrain officers not to use chokeholds, but they continue to use the maneuver and rarely face punishment.
The trial is expected to last two weeks, with testimony from about two dozen witnesses. Officer Pantaleo has not decided whether he will testify, Mr. London said.
When the trial ends, Deputy Commissioner Maldonado, will decide if Officer Pantaleo is guilty. If guilt is determined, she will recommend a penalty to Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill, who will make the final decision.
Short of firing, any discipline of Officer Pantaleo, a 13-year veteran, may never become public because of a state law that shields police disciplinary records from public disclosure.
The delays and secrecy surrounding officer discipline are part of the reason that police reform advocates say the public has lost trust in the city’s process for assessing complaints against officers.
The de Blasio administration fought to keep prior abuse complaints against Officer Pantaleo secret, including one stemming from a car stop in which the occupants said he strip-searched them on the street.
The records were eventually leaked, but the administration won several court rulings broadening the scope of the secrecy law.
“It’s been de Blasio and his administration who’ve been blocking the whole time that I’ve been trying to get the officers fired,” Ms. Carr said.
The trial will revisit a painful chapter marked by months of protests with marchers chanting Mr. Garner’s final words.
Not long after a Staten Island grand jury in December 2014 decided not to charge Officer Pantaleo with a crime, two officers were ambushed and killed by a gunman while sitting in their patrol car.
To Mr. Garner’s family and their supporters, his death discredited a crime-fighting strategy that the police and mayors have cited repeatedly as helping to drive crime rates to their lowest level in recent history. The strategy relies on targeting lower-level offenses that the police believe create the environment for more violent crime.
But critics say it has resulted in racial profiling, targeting mostly black and Latino men in poorer neighborhoods.
The Police Department delayed disciplinary proceedings against Officer Pantaleo for years because of an ongoing federal investigation. But with prosecutors in the Department of Justice divided over whether to bring charges, police officials decided to allow the disciplinary process to move forward.
Officer Pantaleo and Sergeant Kizzy Adonis, who was the first supervisor to arrive on the scene where the police were confronting Mr. Garner, were stripped of their guns and placed on desk jobs. Sergeant Adonis, who has since been restored to full duty, has been administratively charged with failing to properly oversee officers, but a date for her disciplinary trial has not been set.
A state judge recently denied Officer Pantaleo’s motion to have the civilian review board removed from the case. He argued that the agency lacked jurisdiction because the person who filed the complaint was not involved or an eyewitness.
“It’s time for Eric Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, the rest of the Garner family, and the people of the City of New York to have closure,” Fred Davie, the chairman of the civilian review board, said in a statement.
On the stretch of Bay Street where Mr. Garner died, the type of behavior that drew police attention five years ago persists. People peddle loose cigarettes and a sign affixed to a door outside an apartment building warns against selling heroin on a stoop.
“It’s a hustle block,” Christopher Sweat, a retired chef, said. “It’s a regular mood until the cops get called.”
Nearby, a plaque memorializes Mr. Garner’s death as a murder, adding, “May his soul rest in peace.” Passers-by on a recent afternoon were unanimous in their belief that Officer Pantaleo deserved to be fired.
“It was a blatant chokehold,” said Keenen Hill, 46, a maintenance man who lives in the neighborhood. “Stevie Wonder saw that.”
Laura Dimon and Ali Winston contributed reporting.

Tuesday, January 22

An opinion I can agree with from a columnist at the Washington Post:


Above all else, Trump is a bully

Columnist

Tuesday, January 15


Judge strikes down Trump administration's plan to add a citizenship question to 2020 Census

by Richard Wolf USA Today
Commerce Department Secretary Wilbur Ross was shielded by the Supreme Court from having to tell
 lawyers why he wants to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. (Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP)

WASHINGTON – A federal district judge Tuesday struck down the Trump administration’s plan to add a question on citizenship to the 2020 Census, ruling that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross lacked the authority to do so.
The much-awaited decision by federal district Judge Jesse Furman is likely to wind up at the Supreme Court, which next month is scheduled to consider a portion of the case – whether Ross can be required to give a deposition about the reasons for his decision. But Furman’s ruling temporarily makes that question moot.
Ross announced the addition of the citizenship question last March, but it has been tied up in court. The government has not asked about individuals' citizenship on the Census since 1950.
Opponents, including California, New York, the American Civil Liberties Union and immigration rights groups, contend fears of deportation among undocumented immigrants will cause them to be undercounted. 

Sunday, October 21

I Could Have Told Them This 5 Years Ago!!!

Report says the UN's global 'war on drugs' has been a failure!!!

Updated 6:01 PM ET, Sun October 21, 2018




































































I'm sure that a very many people can say they knew it just like I did. The "war on drugs" has done nothing but make those who manufacture and sell drugs be more ingenious in what they do. It didn't  make those reports on huge drug busts any more frequent; it made them come less frequently because the traffickers were getting better at what they did!

A Colombian police officer lays out packages of cocaine seized in the city of Cali


(CNN)The United Nations' drug strategy of the past 10 years has been a failure, according to a major report by the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), which has called for a major rethinking of global policy on illegal narcotics.
The report claims that UN efforts to eliminate the illegal drug market by 2019 through a "war on drugs" approach has had scant effect on global supply while having negative effects on health, human rights, security and development.
According to the report, drug-related deaths have increased by 145% over the last decade, with more than 71,000 overdose deaths in the United States in 2017 alone. At least 3,940 people were executed for drug offenses around the world over the last 10 years, while drug crackdowns in the Philippines resulted in around 27,000 extrajudicial killings.
Packets of cocaine seized in the German port of Hamburg.

The IDPC, a network of 177 national and international NGOs concerned with drug policy and drug abuse, is urging the UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs to consider a different approach to narcotics strategy for the next 10 years in the run-up to a March 2019 summit in Vienna, Austria.
"This report is another nail in the coffin for the war on drugs," said Ann Fordham, the Executive Director of IDPC, in a prepared statement. "The fact that governments and the UN do not see fit to properly evaluate the disastrous impact of the last ten years of drug policy is depressingly unsurprising."
The UN was not immediately available for comment on the report, which was made public Sunday.
"Governments will meet next March at the UN and will likely rubber-stamp more of the same for the next decade in drug policy. This would be a gross dereliction of duty and a recipe for more blood spilled in the name of drug control."
In 2017, Mexico, for example, recorded its most murderous year on record due to soaring levels of drug-related violence. As previously reported by CNN, the Mexican National Institute of Statistics and Geography revealed that there were 31,174 homicides over the course of the year -- an increase of 27% over 2016.
Mexico had more homicides in 2017 than previously reported, statistics institute says
In addition to fueling violence, the existing policy of criminalizing drug use has also resulted in mass incarceration, the report said. One in five prisoners are currently imprisoned for drug offenses, many on charges related to possession for personal use.
The report also said that 33 jurisdictions retain the death penalty for drug offenses in violation of international standards. However in March, US President Donald Trump proposed making drug trafficking a capital offense in response to the country's ongoing opioid crisis. 
Trump's death penalty plan for drug dealers a 'step backwards,' experts say
"What we learn from the IDPC shadow report is compelling. Since governments started collecting data on drugs in the 1990s, the cultivation, consumption and illegal trafficking of drugs have reached record levels," wrote Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, in the report's foreword.
    "Moreover, current drug policies are a serious obstacle to other social and economic objectives and the 'war on drugs' has resulted in millions of people murdered, disappeared, or internally displaced."
    Last week Canada became the first country in the G7 group of industrialized nations to legalize the recreational use of marijuana.