United Against Police Terror – San Diego

http://www.salon.com/2015/07/16/video_shows_that_african_american_woman_who_died_in_custody_did_not_assault_an_officer_as_police_claimed/
“Authorities in Waller County, Texas are being questioned after video of the arrest of a 28-year-old African-American woman who died in police custody three days later surfaced.

Sandy Bland had just moved to Texas to take a job at her alma mater, Prairie View A&M University, when she was pulled over by police for not properly using her turn signal. She was asked to exit her vehicle, and when she did, officers threw her to the ground.

In the video, Bland can be heard screaming that officers “just slammed my head into the ground. Do you not even care about that? I can’t even hear!”

As she is being taken into custody, she repeated her complaint. “You just slammed my head into the ground and everything!”

She was arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer. Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith told ABC7 that Bland “had been combative on the side of the road,” although there was no evidence of combativeness in the video.

Three days later, she was found dead from what sheriff’s deputies are calling “self-inflicted asphyxiation.” Sheriff Smith said that he had spoken to Bland over the jail intercom only an hour before her body was found, but he did not specify what the two had discussed.”

http://m.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/01/1389493/-Should-CA-Coroners-report-to-the-Sheriff-in-each-county-Even-in-Officer-involved-deaths
An important read from Daily Kos

“Ever wonder so few officer involved deaths are ruled a Homicide in CA? Here might be the reason why: In 48 Counties in CA Coroners are staff in the Sheriffs Department. They are Law enforcement.  Even worse one private for profit company does nearly 25% of CA Counties autopsy’s.  Seriously, Do you think any of the Coroners (public Sheriffs Dept Employees or private for profit company’s) would ever determine a law enforcement caused death as a Homicide?

First there are no National Standards for this type of work:

With no national oversight of forensic pathologists or standards that dictate who can do autopsy work  http://californiawatch.org/…
Most Sheriffs in CA Determine the manner of Death for all deaths in their county.
Manner of death, which is printed on death certificates, is a far more subjective conclusion. All deaths fall into one of five categories: natural, accident, homicide, suicide and undetermined.
In 48 of California’s 58 counties, the sheriff decides the manner of death. The state has only two medical examiner offices (in San Diego and San Francisco counties), though the Los Angeles County coroner’s office operates under a forensic pathologist’s direction.

The combined “sheriff-coroner” setup is different from much of the country, where coroners officially are independent from law enforcement.

Whether affiliated with police or not, most elected officials who oversee death investigations have little to no medical training  http://californiawatch.org/…”

http://countercurrentnews.com/2015/07/texas-border-patrol-buried-immigrants-in-mass-graves-state-says-no-laws-were-broken/

“Border Patrol agents are the ones who buried them there. Some who saw the bodies said it reminded them of “something out of Nazi[-era] Germany.”

But the State says there is “no evidence” of wrongdoing on the part of the Border Patrol agents who dumped body after body in the unmarked, mass graves.”

http://www.truth-out.org/op-ed/item/31762-mental-illness-and-jails-race-is-left-out-of-the-equation#

http://truthvoice.com/2015/07/san-diego-defense-attorney-explains-10-ways-cops-are-allowed-to-lie/
“An informative essay titled 10 Ways the Police Can Lie to You appeared on the website of San Diego criminal defense attorney Nicholas J. Moore. The essay details a number of deceits and tricks investigators may attempt to get a confession — true or otherwise — out of a suspect.

From the essay:

As a general proposition, police are allowed to lie. The lies told by the police to a suspect under questioning do not render the confession involuntary per se. Mere trickery alone does not invalidate a confession. The court must look to see whether the deception is reasonably likely to produce a false confession. People v. Farnam (2002) 28 Cal.4th 107;Hawkins v. Lynaugh (5th Cir. 1988) 844 F.2d 1132”

http://www.checkthepolice.org/
Purpose:
We are assembling the first open-source database of police union contracts and other documents related to police accountability for the 100 largest U.S. cities. In our review, we are examining the ways in which the methods that the police use to investigate themselves differ from those used to investigate members of the public. We are also examining the ways in which the police have changed the tools and techniques used to get to the truth when police officers violate rules, laws, or policies.

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/news/morning-report-more-evidence-of-das-ties-to-moneyman/?utm_source=Voice+of+San+Diego+Master+List&utm_campaign=62c7e0ec44-Morning_Report&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c2357fd0a3-62c7e0ec44-83525353&goal=0_c2357fd0a3-62c7e0ec44-83525353
“She gave the man a nickname, talked to him on a conference call and emailed her staff to tell them about his “request that Dumanis use his preferred political consultant during her ill-fated 2012 mayoral campaign,” VOSD’s Liam Dillon reports. Dumanis, who isn’t accused of any wrongdoing herself, didn’t have much to say in response to the details, which appears in documents filed  in federal court.

On top of the newly revealed dealings with Mexican businessman José Susumo Azano Matsura, Dumanis also met with Azano and Sheriff Bill Gore, received a gift basket from Azano and wrote a college letter of recommendation for Azano’s son.”