Police Coverups, Conspiracies, and Cost to Taxpayers

If you recall, after the police raided Afroman's home, he made a music video out of his surveillance footage. This hurt the cops in the feels and they filed a lawsuit.




Police officers who conducted a botched armed raid of rapper Afroman’s home last year have filed a lawsuit against him for invasion of privacy and emotional distress after he used footage of it in his music videos.

Police sue rapper Afroman for using footage of home raid in his music videos


Now, a teenager that was falsely arrested for DUI is getting sued by 2 cops after posting video of the encounter.

This story was popular, and I may have already posted it, but here it is. Basically, a kid was lawfully pulled over but was wrongfully arrested for DUI. He blew all zeros and did the field tests. The kid is sober and he makes these cops look dumb, so off he goes to jail for contempt of cop. Now these cops are suing, claiming emotional distress, after the kid got the body cam and posted it on the internet.



Two Iowa police officers are suing a teenager they arrested last year after the body-cam footage of the allegedly unwarranted arrest he posted on YouTube went viral. The officers initially alleged they experienced “emotional distress” and are now suing for defamation and invasion of privacy. The lawsuit, first reported by the Iowa Capital Dispatch last week, comes as a counterclaim to a federal lawsuit filed by the teenager earlier this year, alleging he was falsely arrested and that his civil rights had been violated.

Around two weeks after the arrest, Galanakis posted the footage to YouTube with his own commentary added as captions. The two arresting officers claimed those captions, as well as clips and statements Galanakis posted to TikTok and Facebook, constituted defamation and “intentional infliction of emotional distress.” The officers’ lawsuit claims that Galanakis had “publicly posted knowingly false and shocking statements” about both officers’ “training, experience, and qualifications to be a certified law enforcement officer,” as well as “mocked the mental fitness and capacity” and “questioned the competence, fitness, and moral character” of both officers.

The lawsuit claims that such statements caused the officers “to suffer: pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of community reputation, loss of employability, [and] loss of time and inconvenience bringing this action.”

In two decisions in May and September, U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher dismissed almost all of the officers’ claims. Locher deemed most of Galanakis’s captions as “non-actionable statement of opinion” or “rhetorical hyperbole,” which are both considered non-defamatory. This included the caption where Galanakis said he was “raped” by the police department, which Locher said was “distasteful,” but non-actionable.


Cops Are Suing a Teen for Invasion of Privacy After Allegedly False Arrest Goes Viral

 

Don't know where the strikethrough text came from..

 

Which part(s)?

In my layman mind, if more cops file these lawsuits, and some win, this would have quite the chilling effect on victims of police misconduct bringing it public. Somehow, these guys are super tough and emotionally fragile at the same time.

 

Thanks! I mean, Thanks!

And to think that for years if I needed strikethrough, I'd do it elsewhere and then paste it into the comment.

 

That's exactly what happened.

 

Speaking of Qualified Immunity... A cop is trying to sue another cop for shooting him in the back, leaving him partially paralyzed.

https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article281301778.html

Defenders of qualified immunity — the legal doctrine that shields government officials from civil liability when they violate constitutional rights — often argue it’s needed to protect law enforcement officers. But what about when a police officer is the victim of another government agent’s misdeeds?

That’s the exact issue at stake in a case that the Kentucky Supreme Court recently agreed to hear. In 2018, then-Scott County Police Deputy Jaime Morales was partially paralyzed after he was shot in the back by then-Georgetown Police Officer Joseph Enricco during a standoff with a fugitive at a rest stop off I-75. After sustaining the life-changing injuries, Morales sued Enricco, Georgetown Police Lieutenant James Wagoner, the Georgetown Police Department, and the city of Georgetown, arguing that officers did not have adequate training. In his suit, Morales alleges Enricco had only completed Basic Response Team training, had been on no serious calls prior to the shootout, and had no vehicle assault training.

Unfortunately, Morales has run into the same legal hurdles that everyday Americans run into when their rights are violated by government officials. The circuit court ruled that the officer defendants in the case were entitled to qualified immunity because, “as a society, we have decided that law enforcement officers deserve special protection.” When Morales appealed that decision to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, it partly upheld the lower court’s decision. Now, Morales’ hopes for getting justice rest in the hands of Kentucky’s highest court.

Qualified immunity shields government officials from civil liability so long as the right they violated is not “clearly established.” While that might not sound like a crazy standard, what it means in practice is that if a court has not ruled that the exact same facts constitute a rights violation, then the officer is entitled to immunity. This has led to some absurd conclusions. For example, one court held that police in Louisiana were entitled to qualified immunity after arresting a man at gunpoint for posting a joke about COVID-19 on Facebook. In New Mexico, a court ruled that a road-raging off-duty police officer was entitled to qualified immunity after the officer followed a man home, boxed him into his driveway, and held him at gunpoint with his daughter in the car.

 

I have a somewhat related story for this one. Homerville, Ga, a small town down HWY 84 from Valdosta had it's police chief arrested earlier this year...

GBI: Homerville police chief arrested

HOMERVILLE, Ga. (WALB) - The police chief of Homerville has been arrested on multiple charges including violation of oath of office, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).

Dearin “Mack” Drury, 40, has turned himself in and now faces charges of violation of oath of office, with theft by taking, possession of marijuana and false statements and writings.

GBI gave few details on the violation of oath of office other than there was “improper evidence handling” that happened at the Homerville Police Department on Monday, Feb. 19.

After an interim chief was named, all the officers quit. And they didn't just peacefully resign, they allegedly...

Homerville Police Dept. walks out after interim chief is named: Where the town stands now

This happened just days after its former Police Chief Dearin “Mack” Drury was fired for improper handling of evidence. Now, what started as a team of 10, quickly dwindled to zero after all of the police officers quit.

“They locked the keys in the car. They turned the keys halfway on, the radios on and made the batteries go dead in all the cars. They broke into my office and stole the evidence room keys I have left to locate. They took the drug dog, unfortunately, from where I sit. That’s theft by conversion and that’s a felony. I would make a recommendation if it’s worth salvaging money-wise and what’s best for the community and hire new officers, or we just shut it down, but either way that’s a decision for the council,” Herndon said.

Herndon is making serious allegations against former Homerville police officers. WALB News 10 tried to set up a meeting with the former officers on Monday, but only one officer showed up and wouldn’t speak without the other nine officers there.

Clinch County Sheriff Stephen Tinsley said he supports the police officers who quit. He said the 10 deputies they have on staff will cover the county seat of Homerville.

Maybe they have their reasons for resigning, but leaving in the manner that they did, after their boss got arrested by the GBI is not a good look.