Anaheim police fire on media as unrest continues

By Arturo Garcia
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 8:50 EDT

Anaheim Police officers reportedly fired pepper balls and bean bags at demonstrators and journalists Tuesday night during the latest round of protests against last weekend’s police shootings.

Freelance journalist Tim Pool posted a video of himself and another journalist, Amber Lyon, being fired upon, an incident he first mentioned while live-streaming the protests Tuesday night. Pool also said during his live-stream that he was fired at after identifying himself as a media member. Staff members at KFI-AM also reported via Twitter that they were fired upon.

A video posted by KPFK-FM reporter Amber Stephens shows protesters gathered outside Anaheim City Hall Tuesday afternoon, chanting “no justice, no peace” at the officers guarding the door. Riot police eventually emerged from the building. According to KNBC-TV, the crowd measured in the hundreds, with at least five people being arrested.

Tuesday’s protests were the latest response to the fatal shooting of Manuel Diaz on Saturday. Diaz was killed while running away from police, which triggered a confrontation between residents that culminated in police firing similar riot-control weaponry into a crowd of women and children and a police dog, which Police Chief John Welter later said escaped from its vehicle, attacking a woman and her baby. Residents’ outrage intensified after police shot and killed another man, identified by The Los Angeles Times as Joel Mathew Acevedo, after Acevedo allegedly fired at officers during a chase.

You can watch video from last night’s protest, posted by the Associated Press on July 25, below:

Anaheim police 'kill another man', cops filmed firing on women & children

Police kill man in Frankford

Philadelphia--Officials were investigating the shooting of an 18-year-old man by a Philadelphia police officer early Saturday in the city's Frankford section.

The victim was identified as Jose Torres of the 2200 block of Cambria Street, said Lt. Ray Evers, a police spokesman.

Evers said police arrived in the 4600 block of Worth Street to disperse a large crowd that had gathered outside Timmy's Bar. Torres bolted from the crowd, and in the process dropped a 9mm semiautomatic pistol, Evers said.

Police gave chase, and when they saw the man reach into his waistband, they believed he was preparing to pull out another weapon.

An officer fired, killing Torres.

No second weapon was recovered, Evers said.

The officer, who was not identified, has been assigned to administrative duties pending investigations by the District Attorney's Office and police Internal Affairs units.

Police Kill Suspect; Occupy SF Activists Falsely Linked

From Truth-Out:

Once again, the media have stumbled upon a case of law enforcement malfeasance, printed the police's official line and falsely insinuated that Occupy was somehow involved in a killing.

The case, in which a San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) officer shot a 32-year-old Oakland man, Pralith Pralourng, to death, garnered articles from Bay Area media sources consisting of little more than the account offered by SFPD Chief Greg Suhr. Huffington Post's dispatch included this scintillating clue to the thrilling whodunit: "Occupy SF pointed out that the shooting occurred blocks from their encampment, but it's unclear if the movement is related to the incident."

Hmmm ... suspicious. In fact, the only way Occupy SF was involved in the shooting was by beating Huffington Post and the rest of the press to the scene. Huff and every other news outlet was stuck reporting its stenography of Chief Suhr's tortured claim that a cop shot the suspect as he lunged at her with a box cutter, whereupon, the cop shot him twice in the chest, then handcuffed him "for safety reasons" and then uncuffed him and performed CPR. Meanwhile, Occupy SF activist Robert Benson had already gotten people on film testifying that they had seen the man shot while handcuffed.

This is not only the Ockham's razor explanation for a man with cuff marks shot to death with two bullets to the chest, but also something of a sore spot for Bay Area law enforcement. In 2009, footage of Bay Area Rapid Transit police officers shooting one of Pralourng's fellow Oaklanders, 22-year-old Oscar Grant III, while in police custody spread on the Internet and sparked huge community backlash. Despite this history, The Huffington Post raises its eyebrow not at the chief's official account, but at the activists with the superior journalism.

This is just the latest in a mounting series of insinuations by the liberal press that Occupy activists around the country are lethal. A week earlier in New York, a brief sensationalist headline orgy ensued when cops fed the press an "OWS Murder Link!" The story, sourced to police, held that a chain used in the Fare Strike (on which Truthout has previously reported) contained traces of DNA found at the scene of an eight-year-old unsolved murder. Turned out it was a lab error. Whoops.

In February, The Huffington Post's headline "Horrifying Murder in Berkeley - Is Occupy to Blame?" also turned out to be complete bunk. The story faithfully reprinted the Berkeley, California, Police Department's (BPD) excuse for turning up late in response to a 911 call: they were "being reconfigured in order to monitor a protest," according to a BPD spokesman. Andy Stepanian of The Sparrow Project tweeted photos backing up his contention that "there was no police presence" on the march. After much hounding, The Huffington Post eventually corrected the record that it was not the "community," as the report had previously read, but "police" who blamed Occupy for the murder.
In case after case in which the police blow it - failing to respond promptly to an emergency call, tainting lab results and now killing a guy - the media write the reports police tell them to and hints wind up in the copy that Occupy protesters are involved.

Police in Cleveland and Chicago have already drawn gullible protesters into bogus plots in order to charge them with terrorism. The criminalization of dissent will require considerable media cooperation and it continues to seem as though the media are willing to do their part.

Stabbing Suspect Fatally Shot By San Francisco Police Identified

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — A stabbing suspect who was fatally shot by a San Francisco police officer in the city’s Financial District on Wednesday has been identified by the medical examiner’s office as 32-year-old Oakland resident Pralith Pralourng.

Pralourng allegedly slashed a coworker with a box cutter around 10:15 a.m. Wednesday at the TCHO New American Chocolate factory at Pier 17, police said.

The coworker suffered defensive wounds as he raised his arm to block the apparently unprovoked attack, police Chief Greg Suhr said Wednesday.

After the attack, Pralourng ran south on The Embarcadero and the victim chased him, leaving a trail of blood as he ran, Suhr said.

Police responded and tried to stop Pralourng but he would not comply with their demands. At Washington and Davis streets, he lunged at a female officer with the box cutter and she fired two shots at him, according to Suhr.

Pralourng went down on his stomach and officers handcuffed him, but immediately removed the cuffs after seeing that he had been shot in the torso, Suhr said.

He was taken to San Francisco General Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries later Wednesday.

The female officer who fired the shots has been placed on paid administrative leave, as is protocol with officer-involved shootings. Suhr said Wednesday that a preliminary investigation determined that the officer’s actions were within department policy.

The Police Department is holding a town hall meeting on Friday morning to discuss the case.

The meeting is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. in the Bay Side One Room at Pier 1, located near the intersection of The Embarcadero and Washington Street.

Lake County Police Fatally Shoot Wrong Man While Hunting Murder Suspect

Lake County, Florida--Police in Florida fatally shot an innocent man over the weekend after they mistook him for an attempted murder suspect.

Lake County sheriff's deputies were searching for a man named Jonathan Brown when they arrived at the Blueberry Hills Apartment complex in Leesburg early Sunday morning.

When the police banged on the wrong door, Andrew Lee Scott -- who did not expect visitors -- answered armed and ready, only to be fired at by the surprised officers.

"When we knocked on the door, the door opened and the occupant of that apartment was pointing a gun at deputies and that's when we opened fire and killed him," said Lt. John Herrell, according to WESH.

Officers admit they never identified themselves to Scott, a 26-year-old pizza deliveryman. Still, Herrell holds the victim at least partially responsible.

"It's just a bizarre set of circumstances," he said. "The bottom line is, you point a gun at a deputy sheriff or police office, you're going to get shot," Herrell said.

Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, responded to the incident in his blog.

"This is technically not a 'no knock' search," Turley wrote. "In such searches, there is no knock but the officers are supposed to announce their identities in going into the property... Indeed, I have criticized the increasing use of 'no knock' warrants."

Police later arrested Brown and another suspect at a second apartment building. The two are currently at the Lake County Jail, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the incident and police authorities placed the officer who shot Scott on administrative leave.

Cop sucker punches citizen for 'talking too loud' and cracks skull, brain bleeds

ANDOVER, MINNESOTA -- It turned out to be a Father's Day unlike any other for Brian Vander Lee, who was placed into critical condition and sent to the hospital for internal cranial bleeding by a single punch to the face. Eye witnesses claim Vander Lee was punched while he was sitting in a chair, looking away from his attacker.

Sgt. David Clifford has been a member of law enforcement for over 19 years. He is an executive member of his department's S.W.A.T. team - and he is accused of assaulting Brian Vander Lee in a local bar. Over ten witnesses claim to have seen the altercation, and several are on the record identifying Sgt. Clifford as the person who threw the first and only punch.

As it happens Sgt. Clifford was at one time a part of an excessive force lawsuit stemming from an arrest in April 1995. The city later settled the lawsuit for $55,000 cash.

On the night in question, June 16th, at around 7pm at "Tanners Station" in Andover, Minnesota it is said that Brian Vander Lee was sitting outside on the patio talking loudly on his cell phone. This is when Sgt. Clifford approached the man and asked him to be quiet.

When Vander Lee did not, it is alleged that Sgt. Clifford as one witness described it threw a,"Superman punch." He went on to say that, "Brian went back, feet up in the air, and the guy landed on top of him and his head bounced off the concrete."

It was then that Sgt. Clifford, who is a nearly two decade police and military veteran fled the scene on foot!

Sgt. Clifford's lawyer has a different take. He claims that Clifford is being unfairly persecuted in the media, and that his client was only trying to "break up a fight." Yet the patrons of the bar are not buying it. Many claim that Vander Lee was a fun loving peaceful man who sold newspaper advertisements for a living. They say that Vander Lee was the one to break up a fight, never to start one.

It makes one wonder, however, if Sgt. Clifford was merely attempting to break up a fight and had to, in the process defend himself, why would he flee the scene in such a dramatic and desperate fashion?

Clifford then turned himself in the following day, at 1:30 to his fellow police officers nearly 18 hours after the incident. He was booked and charged with third degree assault. His first court appearance was Tuesday, where he posted bond and was released. His next court date in July 19th.

Brian Vander Lee remains hospitalized in stable but still possibly life threatening condition. When he arrived at the hospital his brain was bleeding, and the damage of that will not be fully known possibly for months. The Brian Vander Lee Foundation has been set up in his name to help subsidize the eventual cost of his injuries.