A cop in (Ludington) Michigan sees a drunk driver at 2am and pulls him over. Then he realizes it’s his coworker – an off duty police officer at the same department. It’s his buddy, who just basically smiles at him and they both know he’s in trouble. Gee, that really sucks, right? But not to worry…. Everything will be okay because they’re the cops. And they can just turn their bodycams off, collect no evidence, and drive him home. Then the public will never find out, right?
You may have seen in the news, a federal jury in Michigan just awarded 4 million dollars to a man who got his eyeball squished like a grape, after being sucker-punched by a police officer for no reason. Daniel Reiff was on his way to a roofing job. He and his coworker, Ryan, stopped at Ryan’s house to get some tools. As they walked through the neighborhood, a neighbor got suspicious and called the police on a non-emergency number, reporting that she didn’t recognize two “younger looking kids.”
The Clinton Township police apparently didn’t have much going on that day, so they sent the cavalry – 8 police cruisers in total, who scrambled to the scene, even speeding and weaving through oncoming traffic, as if they were headed to a bank robbery. When Daniel saw this, having had prior bad experiences with the police, he left Ryan’s house and headed towards his bus stop. But Officer Broc Setty spotted him, got out of his car and chased him down, whooping a battle cry, as if he was a Viking about to murder some monks at a monastery. And actually Officer Setty wasn’t all that far off. When he caught up to Daniel, he sucker-punched him in the face, which ended up squishing Daniel’s eyeball like a grape, permanently blinding him.
Melvindale, Michigan police officer Matthew Furman was previously featured in two of my videos – both showing him escalating a minor traffic stop into violent uses of force. In both videos I asked, why is Furman still employed when he has been previously charged, suspended, fired, and then re-hired? He has now been criminally charged for both incidents I previously covered. But his lawyer quickly responded with a bold prediction…
In Marysville, Michigan, Jake Kidder was washing his truck at a self serve car wash. An off duty police officer claims to have seen a black man in a Cadillac hand a suspicious bag to Mr. Kidder. Assuming he handed him drugs, he called his on-duty buddies, who responded within minutes. They confronted Mr. Kidder, who responded that the black man was his coworker, who handed him a cigarette. This occurred in St. Clair County, Michigan.
In his 12 years on the job, this police officer with the Melvindale, Michigan Police Department has been suspended, criminally charged and fired. But he’s also still there right now. So why? Lt. Matthew Furman says that the only reason there have been so many allegations against him is because he’s “proactive” about stopping crime. Two months ago I posted a video about him, and now yet another one has surfaced. So again, why is he still there?
In his 12 years on the job, this police officer with the Melvindale, Michigan Police Department has been suspended, criminally charged and fired. But he’s also still there right now. So why? Lt. Matthew Furman says that the only reason there have been so many allegations against him is because he’s “proactive” about stopping crime. He’s currently under investigation by both the Michigan State Police and the Melvindale Police over a traffic stop that quickly escalated to tasing the driver. Officer Furman maintains that he did nothing wrong; that it’s just another false claim.
In April of this year, cops in Kent County, Michigan ran-over and killed two different people, in two different pursuits, within weeks of each other, one of which has resulted in murder charges being filed against a Michigan State Police officer. That was the incident resulting in the death of Samuel Sterling, age 25. The other incident resulted in the death of 17 year old Riley Doggett. The Prosecuting Attorney of Kent County just announced that he would not be filing any charges against the officer in that case. In both cases, the officers are apparently claiming that they didn’t intend to kill the individuals. So why the difference in criminal prosecution?
A civil jury in Wayne County, Michigan just awarded a $9.3 million dollar verdict against a Dearborn police officer after he performed an unconstitutional arrest of a kid on a bicycle. The false arrest and ensuing excessive force during the “rough arrest” was captured on officers’ bodycams.
A college student is walking down the sidewalk. Suddenly he is grabbed by multiple police officers wearing plain clothes. He has no idea they’re police officers. He thinks he’s getting mugged. Bystanders think he’s getting mugged. They call 911. It looks like a mugging. They take his wallet. They beat him. But they were cops. Not just any cops. They were federalized into a task force. You are an innocent victim. Can you sue them?
Qualified immunity is bad enough. But imagine an America where the federal government can deputize your local law enforcement and take them completely out of state and local control. Imagine they can violate your constitutional rights and there’s nothing you can do about it. Imagine they have more than just qualified immunity, but you basically can’t sue them at all. That’s what’s at issue in this important case, King v. Brownback, being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court by the Institute for Justice – for a second time.
I recently had the opportunity to talk to Patrick Jaicomo, who has already argued this case once before the Supreme Court. He explains the backstory about what happened to James King, as well as the extraordinary lengths the government has gone to keep an innocent victim from ever seeing a jury over the violation of his constitutional rights.
This is an extremely important issue because we are seeing these federal task forces pop up all over the country. If the courts take the position that state and local officers are effectively federal officers, they basically can’t be sued. Courts will say, yeah he violated your constitutional rights, but there’s nothing you can do about it. So far, that’s what has happened to James King. He was completely innocent and local police officers beat the hell out of him. But he couldn’t sue them.
The Institute for Justice is asking the Supreme Court to fix this problem. Here’s some insight from one of the country’s top civil rights lawyers about this case and about what you can do to help. The King case is important because it’s undisputed that James was innocent; that his civil rights were violated. The only real issue is whether, as a citizen, there’s anything he can do about it. If a private citizen beat him, he could sue him and seek money damages before a jury. But here he can’t because he was beaten by his government.
If they were just regular state and local cops, it wouldn’t be a problem. He would beat qualified immunity. But here they have been hiding behind the protection of the federal government. Even though they were in fact state and local cops enforcing state and local laws. If this is allowed, I think we’ll see much more of this federal deputization, just to allow local police to violate the constitution without consequences. That can’t happen.
The Michigan State Police has now criminally charged one of their own for physically detaining and abusing a man who was walking down the side of a road. According to the trooper’s own report, he accosted the man for not walking on the sidewalk, but instead walking along the edge of the public road. The man had committed no crime. When the trooper attempted to charge him with obstruction, the prosecutors refused to proceed.
On Sept. 4, 2022, Michigan State Trooper Paul Arrowood and his partner were on patrol when they encountered a male subject walking in the roadway on Webber Street near Julius Street in Saginaw, Michigan. Contact was made with the subject and the troopers attempted to physically detain him. Arrowood took the male subject to the ground, striking him with a closed fist multiple times, causing visible injuries.
Saginaw County District Judge Terry L. Clark on the afternoon of Friday, March 3, arraigned MSP Trooper Paul E. Arrowood, 43, on single counts of common law offense or misconduct in office and assault and battery. The former is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, while the latter is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 93 days in jail and a $500 fine.
According to an official press release by the state:
“The actions of Tpr. Paul Arrowood fall outside of MSP policy and procedure and they constitute an unwarranted use of force,” stated Col. Joe Gasper, director of the MSP. “The members of the Michigan State Police are committed to treating everyone with dignity and respect, and we will tolerate no less. When we fall short of this standard, we will hold our members accountable.”
He is apparently on unpaid leave pending the results of the criminal case.
