This footage was submitted from Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, showing the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office knocking on a man’s door and then kicking his tiny dog shortly afterwards, after the dog apparently attempted to urinate on the cop’s leg. The officers knocked on the man’s door while investigating him for allegedly causing damage to a police cruiser. Without obtaining a warrant first, the officers ended up arresting the man.
As I’ve explained numerous times, according to the 1980 Supreme Court opinion in Payton v. New York, in order to legally arrest someone in a home, rather than in a public place, absent consent or exigent circumstances, police officers must have a warrant. But what about kicking the homeowner’s dog? Or shooting the dog?
As an initial matter, it is well-settled that privately owned dogs are “effects” under the Fourth Amendment, and that the shooting and killing of such a dog constitutes a “seizure.” So it’s a different legal standard that standard police shooting cases. It’s an overall reasonableness standard, recognizing that police can shoot dogs where officer safety justifies the decision.
The question is whether, at the time the officer shot the dog, he held a reasonable belief that the dog posed a threat to himself or others. If the facts are sufficient to show that such a belief was unreasonable, then the law is clearly established in most circuits that shooting a dog under those circumstances would constitute an unreasonable seizure of property under the Fourth Amendment. That’s not a great way of looking at the value of our dogs, but that’s the actual legal analysis.
This video was submitted by a guy who was pulled over in Pflugerville, Texas for an allegedly broken tail light. For 45 minutes, a police officer asked the man questions entirely unrelated to the reason for the stop. Apparently this officer received some sort of interdiction type “training,” and he concluded he was able to find drug smugglers otherwise disguised as law abiding citizens. Meanwhile, the drug sniffing dog was en route, and after it arrived, the dog smelt nothing.
Here’s the man’s explanation about his experience:
A passenger and I were driving within the speed limit on Pfleugerville parkway. At 14:24 officer Z. Tatum #436 did a u-turn and got behind my vehicle. He remained behind me through three stoplights and engaged his emergency lights at 14:32. He approached the passenger side of my vehicle and explained the reason for the stop was that my third, center, brake light wasn’t functioning and he intended to give me a written warning for that. He collected my drivers license, registration, and proof of insurance, then returned to his cruiser. At 14:35 he returned to the driver’s side and asked me to exit my vehicle. I asked why, and he said “I just want to talk to you”. At this point officer Adkins #391 and another unidentified officer were on the scene. Officer Tatum explained that he had called a neighboring jurisdiction and had requested a K9 officer to report to the scene. He repeatedly asked if there were drugs in the car, by name, and each time, I honestly answered that there were no drugs in the car. I also offered that there were no weapons in the car and voluntarily surrendered my pocket knife, placing it on the roof of the car.
I asked officer Tatum what reasonable suspicion he had that there were drugs in the vehicle but he only gave me vague responses. I asked about the legality of extending the stop beyond the scope of writing the warning for the infraction that was the purpose of the stop, and he insisted that it was within his authority to do so. I know it is not in his authority to do so, and extending the stop was a violation of my fourth amendment protections. I asked again about what reasonable suspicion he had and he responded with “I’m trained up and have been to a few classes” and that my behavior somehow indicated something to him. The K-9 unit, Round Rock officer Garmong #5160 didn’t arrive on scene until 15:11. They arrived at my vehicle at 15:13 after a brief conversation with the Pflugerville officers, did an open air sniff of the car, circling it four times as well as into the open passenger window, and returned to their vehicle at 15:18 without indication or further incident. After finally printing the written warning, officer Tatum handed it to me and I was released to return to my vehicle at 15:20. However, officer Tatum had not returned my driver’s license, and I had to go pick it up at The station later.
His timeline is as follows:
14:24 officer makes u-turn to get behind me. 14:25 stoplight 14:27 stoplight 14:31 stoplight, left turn 14:32 lights, contact 14:35 officer returns to unit 14:38:02 returns to my car 14:38:30 I exit car second unit on scene, 3rd officer on scene 15:11 K-9 unit arrives 15:13 K-9 at car 15:15 K-9 returns to unit 15:18 K-9 unit leaves 15:20:30 I return to my car.
A federal lawsuit was filed after a man was shot and killed by a Princeton (West Virginia) Police Officer inside his own house, following allegations from his neighbor that he had been riding his ATV through the neighbor’s yard. The officers were captured on bodycam footage engaging in an investigation within the curtilage of the man’s yard, and ultimately kicking in the door and shooting him. The officer who shot and killed the man claimed that the man had a baseball bat and refused to drop it. Conveniently however, he wasn’t wearing a bodycam, despite a department policy mandating that he do so. Some of the shooting was captured on another officer’s bodycam. It was recently released by the family’s lawyers.
About a year ago, a woman called 911 reporting that a man had exposed himself to her in Daniel Boone Park, located in Charleston, West Virginia. She told the responding officer that she recognized the man from TV. As it turns out, it was Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper. Within days of the incident, Mr. Carper’s family told the media that he had a heart attack and the allegations were just an “awful misunderstanding” related to a health emergency.
In the ensuing year, Mr. Carper remained on the county commission, while the public was kept far, far away from the bodycam footage documenting the incident. Now the footage has been released. It shows that the responding officer began the coverup from the very first minute.
Seven years ago, in Fort Collins, Colorado, the Fort Collins Police Department slammed this girl to the pavement. The obviously-unnecessary use of force was caught on video. A lawsuit was filed. The officer was denied qualified immunity. He appealed to the 10th Circuit. In a published opinion, the 10th Circuit found that the officer indeed used excessive force – a Fourth Amendment violation – but, since the plaintiff wasn’t able to point to a similar prior case finding a similar violation, that the officer gets qualified immunity. The remaining claims against the city were just settled for $300K.
In a quiet neighborhood, chaos erupted when police were called to the home of a 71 year old man. His wife, battling dementia, mistakenly called 911, alleging he shot her. But as officers arrived, they immediately escalated the situation, trying to kick in the door first, and ask questions later. When the homeowner answered the door, they forcibly pulled him out – in his bathrobe – and threw him down his own front steps, injuring him. Then they lied about it. What followed was a legal battle that just ended in a six figure settlement.
How did a routine morning having coffee in your robe spiral into a nightmare? It involves serious problems at this particular police department on a large scale, that recently were exposed in a federal investigation.
Here’s brand-new body cam footage, never before seen on the internet or media, of two police officers in Preston County, West Virginia absolutely tearing the Fourth Amendment to shreds, while apparently completely oblivious to what they were doing. It all started with a property dispute between neighbors. One of the neighbors called the police to try and persuade them to abuse their authority and arrest his neighbor due to a car allegedly being parked on his property. At first they correctly told the man that they couldn’t do that, but then for some reason they related, and did exactly that. I’m representing the man and will be filing a lawsuit shortly….
Uncut Raw Violence Clips:
I can’t wait to ask the officers under oath where in that footage he committed two counts of battery on an officer:
Perhaps it was here?
Or here, where his feet are both off the ground, his face hurling towards his porch deck, as his rotator cuff is tearing?
Here’s the survey screenshot:
Here’s the tax map boundaries, which appear to line up with the survey plat, both of which show the location where the car is parked to be either a public right of way, or perhaps an alleyway owned by neither party:
In Elyria, Ohio, cops encouraged a woman to kick in her ex-boyfriend’s front door, so that she could get her belongings inside. They did not have a warrant. But they followed her inside the man’s house anyways, and proceeded to walk upstairs and surprise him as he got out of the shower. Then they tased him multiple times, arrested him, and charged him with multiple felonies. But then he got a lawyer, and the lawyer reviewed the body cam footage.
By the way, this is the same police department that went viral for the huge SWAT raid where they used the flash bangs against the innocent mom and baby inside. Media report from that here.
In Bartlesville, Oklahoma, a 53-year-old grandmother was attempting to rush her 3-year-old granddaughter to the hospital emergency room, but on the way was pulled over by a Bartlesville Police Officer, who essentially yanked her out of the car, put her in handcuffs, put her in the rear of the police car, and arrested her. Later, the police chief apologized to the community for the way his officer treated the woman.
This footage was submitted by Meika Prince, who went into a two-story Walgreens in Seattle, Washington, only to be accosted by a huge private security guard, who was wearing – not-one – but two, in-operational bodycams, as well as two police badges, one of which appears to be an actual police detective badge from New York. The footage made the local news, after which the security guard was apparently fired. She’s already filed a lawsuit. But can she sue a fake cop for civil rights violations?
