Miami gardens store video catches cops in the wrong.

[littlewolf]

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/21/3769823/in-miami-gardens-store-video-catches.html

Earl Sampson has been stopped and questioned by Miami Gardens police 258 times in four years.
He’s been searched more than 100 times. And arrested and jailed 56 times.
Despite his long rap sheet, Sampson, 28, has never been convicted of anything more serious than possession of marijuana.
Miami Gardens police have arrested Sampson 62 times for one offense: trespassing.
Almost every citation was issued at the same place: the 207 Quickstop, a convenience store on 207th Street in Miami Gardens.
But Sampson isn’t loitering. He works as a clerk at the Quickstop.
So how can he be trespassing when he works there?

snip

It’s a question the store’s owner, Alex Saleh, 36, has been asking for more than a year as he watched Sampson, his other employees and his customers, day after day, being stopped and frisked by Miami Gardens police. Most of them, like Sampson, are poor and black.
And, like Sampson, many of them have been cited for minor infractions, sometimes as often as three times in the same day.

snip

Saleh was so troubled by what he saw that he decided to install video cameras in his store. Not to protect himself from criminals, because he says he has never been robbed. He installed the cameras — 15 of them — he said, to protect him and his customers from police.
Since he installed the cameras in June 2012 he has collected more than two dozen videos, some of which have been obtained by the Miami Herald. Those tapes, and Sampson’s 38-page criminal history — including charges never even pursued by prosecutors — raise some troubling questions about the conduct of the city’s police officers.

The videos show, among other things, cops stopping citizens, questioning them, aggressively searching them and arresting them for trespassing when they have permission to be on the premises; officers conducting searches of Saleh’s business without search warrants or permission; using what appears to be excessive force on subjects who are clearly not resisting arrest and filing inaccurate police reports in connection with the arrests.
“There is just no justifying this kind of behavior,’’ said Chuck Drago, a former police officer and consultant on police policy and the use of force. “Nobody can justify overstepping the constitution to fight crime.”
Repeated phone messages and emails to Miami Gardens Police Chief Matthew Boyd and City Manager Cameron Benson asking for comment on this story were not returned.
Boyd did release a statement, saying that the department is committed to serving and protecting the citizens and businesses in the city.
But Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union Florida, said that’s exactly what Boyd is NOT doing.
“Where is the police chief in all this? In a police department in a city this size, this kind of behavior could not escape his attention. Doesn’t the City Commission know that they are exposing the city to either massive liability for civil rights violations? Either that, or they are going to wake up one day and find the U.S. Department of Justice has taken over its police department.’’


much more at the link.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Guessing that Earl Sampson is a black man. nt

[geek tragedy]

3. I hear Ray Kelly is looking for a job nt

[NYC_SKP]

4. Oh! NYC_SKP, you're a genius! And the cops (OMG) are white!!!

Here's a slideshow:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/21/3769823/in-miami-gardens-store-video-catches.html

Fucking fuckers!

[geek tragedy]

2. Anyone wanna bet these cops are involved in shakedowns, payoffs, and other

directly criminal activities?

This is an organized crime ring wearing a badge.

[RebelOne]

5. They probably are involved.

I lived in Miami most of my life until I moved up here to North Georgia. I dated a cop in the Miami area and he told me that it takes a thief to catch a thief. And I knew a few undercover cops who were totally crooked.

[Enrique]

6. second story in two days

of a boss with an Arabic name sticking up for his employees.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014652772

[Lindsay]

7. Good on the store owner

for installing cameras not just to protect his property but to protect his rights and the rights of others.

[littlewolf]

8. sad that he has to do that. nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. kick

[Logical]

10. Let me predict, no punishment for the cops. Except paid time off. n-t

[msanthrope]

11. I hope the taxpayers in that locale realize they are going to pay some serious

cash because of these cops.

[Logical]

12. The cops don't care. And apparently neither do the citizens. They never demand justice. n-t

[msanthrope]

21. That is why economic lessons called 'tort recovery' must be taught.

If they cannot be just then at least they can be wary.

[valerief]

13. Stand Your Ground If You're White Florida. Rick Scott territory. Blech! nt

[awoke_in_2003]

14. Serving and protecting the shit out of you...

fucking pigs.

[Maynar]

15. Yep

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[MrScorpio]

16. The only criminals in that store were the cops themselves.

Yay, cops. They're the best.

[beevul]

17. Support your local police...

Support your local police, beat yourself up.

[7962]

18. I used to support the cops years ago by default. Not anymore. Too many bad seeds now.nt

[NealK]

19. "He installed the cameras — 15 of them — he said, to protect him and his customers from police."

Cameras: to serve and protect you from police.

[rrneck]

20. And they wonder why poor people perodically go out in the streets and raise hell. nt