Bogus 911 Call About Black Teens Leads To Minneapolis Park Police Pointing Guns In Their Face — Chicago Sun-Times

MINNEAPOLIS — Three black teenagers say they feared for their lives when a Minneapolis Park Police officer pulled a gun on them while responding to a bogus 911 report that they were armed.

The July 10 incident at Minnehaha Park drew widespread attention after a bystander recorded part of it and posted a video to Facebook that’s been viewed over 2.8 million times.

The officers were responding to a female 911 caller who falsely reported that four teens were following her boyfriend and wielding knives and sticks. Park police released the four after finding they were unarmed and hearing witness accounts that contradicted the caller’s story. The department has since said the call was “misleading” and apologized to the boys.

At a news conference Monday called by the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, 14-year-old Aden Aden said he and his friends were just trying to have fun when a white kid confronted them. Witnesses have corroborated that account.

“When I was at the park, I was just trying to have a good day with my friends,” Aden said. “And this white kid came up to us saying racial slurs towards us, and when the cops came, they just pulled guns to our faces. And I felt like I was discriminated (against) and I felt like it was not supposed to happen, and I hope it never happens to anyone again.”

Fourteen-year-old Suhaib Ahmed said the officers frightened them. “I was scared he was going to shoot me.”

Police said in a news release last week that one of the officers “unholstered his firearm and pointed it in the general direction of the four suspects.”

via Black teens terrified by Minneapolis Park Police with guns — Chicago Sun-Times

 

 

Former Minneapolis Police Officer Christopher Reiter Found Guilty Of Third-Degree Assault

October 10, 2017

The Star Tribune calls it a “rare conviction for on-duty use of force”.

Christopher Michael Reiter. Photo Courtesy: Hennepin County

On May 30, 2016, Minneapolis police officer Christopher Michael Reiter, 36-years old, responded to a domestic abuse call. When he arrived, he found a woman badly beaten.  Other officers arrived and found the suspect, Mohamed Osman, sitting in his SUV.  Officers surrounded him and ordered him out of his car.

Surveillance video shows that as Osman was getting on the ground, one officer, Josh Domek, kicked him twice. Reiter then delivered a blow to Mohamed’s head that knocked him unconscious, broke his nose, started bleeding on the brain and caused a traumatic brain injury.

At trial in Hennepin County, state prosecutor Daniel Allard told the jury there was a conspiracy to protect Reiter.  Reiter, another officer, and the victim testified that they believed Mohamed had a knife.   However, other witnesses, including a security guard and several officers who were at the scene, said they did not see a knife.

Another officer, Luke Eckert, testified that he searched Mohamed and found a knife in his front pocket.  However, there was no mention of a knife in the official reports, nor was it taken into police inventory for evidence.  MPR News reports that when questioned at trial, Eckert said one could go through any squad car and find a number of items like keys, cellphones or pocket knives that hadn’t been inventoried.

Did a cop give instructions on how to run over Black Lives Matter protestors and get away with it?

Heard about this, and happy that you blogged it. Thanks.

The Fifth Column

attribution: Screenshot of MPR News Video

DAILY KOS

A St. Paul, Minnesota, police officer has been placed on leave after allegedly writing a Facebook post encouraging people to run over Black Lives Matter protestors. A “JM Roth” posted on the Facebook page of the Pioneer Press over the weekend with instructions on how to run over protesters planning a demonstration at the Lake Street-Marshall Avenue Bridge on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and get away with it. Minneapolis cop watcher Andrew Henderson brought the post to the attention of the St. Paul Police Department’s internal affairs division. A screenshot of the offensive post, along with what purports to be Henderson’s phone conversation with internal affairs, can be seen in the video below the fold.

City Pages, a local paper, first brought the story of the incident. According to the report, Henderson identified the Facebook user “JM Roth” as Jeff Rothecker based on previous…

View original post 61 more words