support your local police

We now have revealing releases about police misconduct.

First, The Investigative Network managed to uncover additional video of Sandra Bland's encounter with a Texas state trooper, showing the Officer to be little more than a jack-booted thug:

New cellphone footage from the now infamous traffic stop of Sandra Bland shows her perspective when a Texas state trooper points a Taser and yells, “I will light you up!”

Bland, 28, was found dead three days later in her Waller County jail cell near Houston. Her death was ruled a suicide.

The new video -- released as part of a WFAA exclusive in partnership with the Investigative Network -- fuels the Bland family’s suspicions that Texas officials withheld evidence in her controversial arrest and, later, her death.

Until now, the trooper’s dashcam footage was believed to be the only full recording of the July 2015 traffic stop, which ended in Bland’s arrest. The trooper claimed he feared for his safety during the stop.

The 39-second cellphone video shot by Bland remained in the hands of investigators until the Investigative Network obtained the video once the criminal investigation closed.

………

Needham and other Bland family members believe the video was intentionally withheld.

“We also know they have an extremely, extremely good cover-up system,” Needham said.

Texas Department of Public Safety officials declined an on-camera interview but said the video was not withheld.

Well, they would say that, wouldn't they, and that cop never spent a day in jail for his abuse..

In another notorious case, where Oscar Grant was murdered by Officer Johannes Mehserle, we have another cop, Anthony Pirone, making a complete lie of the phrase protect and serve:

A police officer involved in the 2009 killing of Oscar Grant on an Oakland train platform repeatedly lied to investigators and had punched the unarmed 22-year-old without justification, according to newly released records.

The report on the New Year’s Eve killing, which sparked national police accountability protests, was disclosed this week following journalists’ requests under a new California police transparency law. The previously sealed internal file, written 10 years ago, documented how the Bay Area Rapid Transit (Bart) officer Anthony Pirone “started a cascade of events that ultimately led to the shooting”. Pirone called Grant the N-word while detaining him, hit him in the face in an “unprovoked” attack, and later gave a series of false statements contradicted by videos, investigators said.

The death of the young father was one of the first major US police brutality cases in which cellphone footage went viral, prompting widespread outrage years before the Black Lives Matter movement. The killing was later made famous by Ryan Coogler’s 2014 film Fruitvale Station, named after the site of the death.

The officer who shot Grant in the back, Johannes Mehserle, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in a rare criminal trial over a killing by law enforcement.

……… 

Pirone was fired after the investigation was finalized, a Bart spokesman noted on Thursday. Pirone’s attorneys could not be reached for comment.

This guy engaged in assault under the color of authority, and recklessly and deliberately escalated the situation, and obstructed the investigation, and he was never in the dock for his crimes.

In this world of ubiquitous cell phone cameras, I would hope that successful prosecutions of bad cops, along with jail sentences for their misdeeds will become the rule, rather than the exception.