A cycle of trouble follows some officers who land new jobs after leaving old ones over misconduct ctpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ctpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Ryan Raiche and Joe Augustine Updated: May 06, 2021 11:11 PM Created: May 06, 2021 07:32 PM
When Shequita Heard visited a friend in Red Wing a few years ago, she never even made it inside the house. She was stopped by city police officers who were responding to a complaint about drug use in the neighborhood.
Heard said she felt targeted and harassed, and the next thing she knew, she was on the ground bleeding.
“They just threw me to the ground. My face hit the ground. I was bleeding everywhere. They tore my shoulder,” she told 5 INVESTIGATES in a recent interview.
Records show the officers thought Heard said, “I will shoot you.”
The plaintiffs in these cases are often the media, including the Better Government Association. They also include relatives of citizens injured and killed in confrontations with police officers, activists and attorneys preparing civil lawsuits on behalf of criminal defendants.
The police department accounted for more than two-thirds of the overall payouts although sometimes it was a co-defendant with other oversight agencies, including the mayor’s office.
To determine whether similar patterns existed in other government departments, the BGA also examined public records lawsuits filed against nine other agencies from the Chicago Housing Authority to the governor’s office.
None demonstrated the Chicago Police Department’s pattern of repeated denials for similar records.
WILLIAM H. FREIVOGEL and PAUL WAGMAN
Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
ST. LOUIS Timothy Loehmann wanted to be a police officer like his father. He got a job in Independence, Ohio, but it didn t go well. His supervisors allowed him to quit after he suffered a dangerous lack of composure during firearms training. The department concluded he would not be able to cope or make good decisions under stress. The deputy chief wrote Loehmann could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal.
Cleveland Police did not check on Loehmann s history in Independence before hiring him. Also, Ohio law required a felony before an officer would lose his badge. So it was Loehmann who responded in the fall of 2014 to the Cleveland park where 12-year-old Tamir Rice was playing with what turned out to be a toy gun. Loehmann shot him dead.
Wandering cops shuffle departments, abusing citizens
WILLIAM H. FREIVOGEL and PAUL WAGMAN/Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
April 28, 2021
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