Police Brutality Cases, Stats, Videos and More

I think we can all agree that police brutality is at an all-time high. It’s already part of the American way of life. But this isn’t how the American way of life is supposed to be, is it?

There was once a revolution and I feel another one is coming… soon… and the police are going to play a big part in it.

police checking a warehouse

Let’s talk about police brutality for a moment. The definition is something like this:

Police brutality is the excessive or unnecessary use of power in accomplishing a lawful police purpose.

Now, I have a problem with this definition. In some of the violent footage I’m about to show you, the police didn’t even want or have to accomplish a lawful purpose. They were doing it… apparently to feel good about themselves.

Don’t believe me? I’ll get to my hand-picked police brutality videos in a minute but first, there’s a very interesting info-graphic based on some surveys of cops themselves. These facts… are just shocking:

police brutality statistics

Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Graphs.net.

That was a real eye-opener, wasn’t it? And I would add just one more statistic that was calculated by some independent sources and quoted by the Washington Post:

Several independent trackers, primarily journalists and academics who study criminal justice, insist the accurate number of people shot and killed by police officers each year is consistently upwards of 1,000 each year.

Now let’s take a look at some real videos that showcase police brutality in America.

Let’s start off with this shocking video of a homeless guy getting shot by the police for doing absolutely NOTHING. In fact, the guy already had his hands in the air and was getting ready to come down. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first saw this. Take a look:

Video: APD releases HelmetCam footage of shooting

A video (from CNN) shows the police abusing a colored person in a wheelchair. Makes me think the bullies in my school back when I was young were angles compared to him, because they never touched the girl in my class who was in a wheelchair.

This poor guy was tasered a dozen times even though he was down the whole time:

Police Brutality Caught On Camera!!! Man Tased 12 Times And Kicked In The Head!!

And let’s not forget officer Davis who thought this little squirrel was so dangerous that he just had to use pepper spray on it:

baby squirrel abuse

Ok, let’s finish off with a clip containing a collection of other police brutality acts:

I made sure I didn’t show you anything that’s too bloody but, as you can imagine, there’ve been cases a lot worse than these.

Famous Police Brutality Cases

Leaving those disturbing videos aside, I want to give you a small list of some of the most barbaric cases that made the news. You probably know some of them…

The case of Aiyana Jones (2010)

A 7 year old girl was awakened by a police raid of her house. She was shot and killed even though she posed absolutely no threat. Five years after, on July 28th 2015, the county prosecutor dismissed the last standing charge,a misdemeanor, so the suspect will NOT go to another trial.

The case of Jonathan Ferrell (2013)

Jonathan Ferrell crashed a car and then rang someone’s doorbell asking for help. The owner panicked and called the police. When the police arrived, the man started to advance toward them. One of the cops fired the first shot and the other officer fired about 10 more.

The cop was indicted by the second grand jury in January 2014.

The case of Eric Garner

After Eric Garner was harassed by the police for allegedly selling cigarettes without stamps, he was choked to death by means of a chokehold. At least that’s exactly what the medical examiners concluded:

compression of neck (choke hold), compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police

The case of Andy Lopez in 2013

Andy Lopez was only 13 when he was shot. He was carrying an airsoft gun that resembled an AK-47. Airsoft guns, by the way, are one of the alternative survival weapons that I recommend because they’re not really considered firearms. Too bad deputy Erick Gelhaus didn’t think about this.

Unfortunately, he got away with it and on July 7th 2014, all charges were dropped.

The Case of Michael Brown

This is probably the most famous police brutality case as the jury’s decision sparked riots in 160 American cities. Although he tried to run away, even after he was slightly injured, it’s worth mentioning he was unarmed.

The Case of Robert Saylor

Robert Saylor who had Down’s Syndrome, refused to leave the movie theater he was in. He died of asphyxiation after he was handcuffed.

The case of Alonzo Ashley

Alonzo Ashley refused to stop splasing water over his face from a public fountain (after he got sick and vomited, according to his girlfriend). He was tasered to death (tasers are another great alternate self-defense weapon, by the way).

The case of Jeff Pataky

Jeff wrote a blog post about against the Phoenix Police who, in turn, came to his home and took his laptop and backups and even took his sons out of elementary school.

The case of Christopher Harris

Christopher Harris was not only beaten but left disabled after he was mistaken for a suspect.

Kathryn Johnston’s Case

92-year old Kathryn Johnston was shot dead after the police raided her house looking for drugs during a no-knock warrant. It was later proven that they tried to plant drugs in her house.

Her family received almost 5 million dollars in compensation.

The case of Sean Bell

Bell died after 50 bullets were fired at him by the police and – surprise, surprise – the 3 cops that did it got away

Dan F. Sullivan’s Case

Yes, I was involved in a mini-police brutality episode a while ago. I didn’t get beaten or anything but still.

When I was still in college, I was coming home from the gym one night, when an officer stopped me and asked me:

Why were you running away from me a couple of hours ago?

I tried to explain to him that I wasn’t the guy he was looking for. I was at the gym when the other guy was being chased by this guy. He didn’t believe me and he started pulling me by my upper arm to go to the police station with him.

The moment I asked what was I officially charged with, he stopped and realized his mistake, then let me go.

Causes of Police Brutality

A book on police brutality from 1991 published by the National Criminal Justice Reference Service identified some of the main causes of police brutality, to which I added a few more:

  • racism
  • job-related stress
  • organizational issues
  • financial gains
  • corruption
  • …and so on

Of course, I would add to these the fact that at least some of the police are preparing for the transformation of the United States into a veritable police state.

Yes, there are those cops who are just abusing their power because they don’t know any better. But make no mistake about it, there’s plenty of proof that the police and FEMA are preparing for a nation-wide implementation of martial law. I’m going to leave that for my future articles, though, as it’s a very complex issue.

What Ca We Do?

Seeing the growing evidence… that was the easy part. That was just passive learning. Now comes the hard part, the part where we find ways to better protect ourselves and our families.

The first thing we need to realize is that both blacks and whites are victims of police brutality. The stories presented above are just a few of the myriad of the incidents happening at a national level on a daily basis. Huffington Post reported back in 2014 that 99% of police misconduct complaints are NOT investigated in New Jersey.

The second thing we need to do is to wake up. If the police are supposed to protect us yet they don’t, we have no choice but to take matters into our own hands. We have to defend ourselves at all costs and teach our loved ones how to do the same thing.

Here are just a few ideas to get you started:

  • to legally own at least one firearm (and also know how to use it)
  • to read survival courses and prepare for riots and Martial Law
  • to learn self-defense moves and how to use everyday items as alternative weapons
  • to not be afraid to take police officers to the court room and appeal until we win
  • and to tell everyone your story just like I did with mine

In fact, if you’ve had a similar conflict with the police, I encourage you to share your story below.

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