Criminal charges against seven New Orleans police officers accused of shooting unarmed civilians on the Danziger Bridge after Hurricane Katrina have been dismissed due to the prosecution's misconduct.

According to the Times-Picayune, District Judge Raymond Bigelow agreed with defense arguments that prosecutors violated state law by divulging secret grand jury testimony to a police officer who was a witness in the case.

The shootings were gruesome. A developmentally disabled man was shot in the back. Part of a woman's arm was "blown off." Two men died. Yet the officers were cleared by the New Orleans Police Department's internal investigation. And thanks to the inability of the district attorney's office to play by the rules, they've escaped criminal prosecution.

A manslaughter charge filed against a former Louisiana police officer follows a coroner's ruling that Baron Pikes' death was a homicide.

Pikes was shocked nine times with a 50,000-volt Taser as he was arrested on a drug possession warrant in January, authorities said. Winn Parish District Attorney Chris Nevils said [Scott] Nugent broke the law when he "unnecessarily" used the Taser on Pikes multiple times and failed to get him medical attention "when it was apparent he needed it."

Nevils' attitude is refreshing:

"In a civilized society, abuse by those who are given great authority cannot be tolerated," Nevils said in a statement.

Pablo Valenzuela deserves to be charged with battery for pepper spraying a West Palm Beach police officer on May 26. But the officers who punched and kicked him after his hands were cuffed behind his back are equally deserving of criminal charges. One officer has resigned and two have been placed on administrative leave, but none of them are immune from prosecution. With clear video evidence of their misconduct, why haven't they been arrested?

This comment is even more puzzling:

West Palm Beach Police Chief Delsa Bush says "there was a thin line basically between giving officers a commendation and then ending up having to discipline them."

Bush said "having the video I chose to substantiate the charge of the use of excessive force." So without the video she would have given commendations to officers who beat up a handcuffed suspect?

A travesty in Baltimore last month is finally getting the attention it deserves.

Mayor Cheye Calvo got home from work, saw a package addressed to his wife on the front porch and brought it inside, putting it on a table.
Suddenly, police with guns drawn kicked in the door and stormed in, shooting to death the couple's two dogs and seizing the unopened package.

In it were 32 pounds of marijuana. But the drugs evidently didn't belong to the couple. Police say the couple appeared to be innocent victims of a scheme by two men to smuggle millions of dollars worth of marijuana by having it delivered to about a half-dozen unsuspecting recipients.

Whoops, never mind.

The Tallahassee Democrat, mentioned in this post, has two interesting stories about the Tallahassee Police Department. Five TPD officers were placed on leave yesterday after a "botched drug sting" ended in the death of Rachel Hoffman.

Hoffman, 23, was working for police as a confidential informant when she was killed May 7, after the plan for her to buy drugs and a gun went awry. Police lost track of her, and her body was found 36 hours later in Taylor County. ...

In its presentment last week that cited police negligence in Hoffman's death, a Leon County grand jury reported the vice lieutenant — [Lt. Taltha] White — signed off on the flawed buy-bust plan but didn't actually read it. Grand jurors also said she was in charge of monitoring radio transmissions during the deal but was conducting a computer audit at the same and was distracted.

Drug police are famous for coercing those they arrest into working to set up busts of dealers. They too rarely mention the dangers involved in that effort. It's better to take the jail time than to end up dead. [more ...]

In the wake of recent videos showing New York City police using unnecessary or excessive force against the people they're supposed to be protecting and serving, the advocacy group One Hundred Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care is calling for federal intervention.

"These cases have run unstopped since Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has been the police commissioner," said Noel Leader of 100 Blacks. "There has never been a lull in these outrageous examples of police abuse and misconduct."

Other complaints include "too many incidents of officers performing illegal stops and arrests."

It used to be that ordinary people were extremely reluctant to believe that police officers ever abuse their power. The prevalence of video cameras is changing that.

Within the past week, two videos have surfaced showing what appears to be police misconduct in New York. In one video, viewed more than 1 million times on YouTube, a police officer is seen charging a bicyclist and knocking him to the ground during a July 25 group bicycle ride through Times Square -- despite the officer's sworn complaint that the cyclist tried to run him down.

So let's hear it for "Jimmy Justice," a "cop-arazzi" who "prowls the streets of New York looking for law enforcement officers who are breaking the law." While the abuses he documents are minor -- police cars parked illegally while drivers engage in personal errands -- he's performing a public service by exposing the "laws don't apply to us" mentality that drives too many officers.

Update: For those who don't read the comments, you should check this out.

Remember the two border agents who shot an unarmed drug dealer at the Mexican border? After their conviction, right wing politicans like Tom Tancredo were outraged at their 11-12 year sentences and introduced a bill (pdf) in Congress to prevent federal funds from being used to incarcerate them. They also clamored for a pardon from President Bush.

Today, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld their senttences and the most serious of counts against them.

The Court said this was a classic he said- he said situation. The Government's facts differed from the border agents' facts, the jury was provided both and chose to believe the Government. As to the sentence, maybe if President Bush doesn't pardon them, those right wing politicians will take a second look at the harshness of mandatory minimum sentences: [More...]

The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility and Office of the Inspector General released this report (pdf) today concerning the hiring process at DOJ. Unsurprisingly, the report concludes that Monica "I didn't mean to" Goodling, Kyle Sampson, and others violated federal law by taking the personal political viewpoints of job applicants into account when filling DOJ career positions.

The report marks the culmination of a yearlong investigation by Justice's Office of Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility into whether Republican politics were driving hiring polices at the nation's premier law enforcement agency that is expected to be above partisan politics.

The report points to White House involvement in the hiring process:

TalkLeft has been following (here and here and here) the murder of Ronnie White in the Prince George's County jail after he ran over and killed a police officer. The Washington Post today takes a long look at the troubled jail and its troubled staff of jailers.

In the past seven months, jail officials have suspended at least six officers, some of whom were charged criminally. Two were suspended for allegedly smuggling cellphones into the jail for inmates; two more were accused of having sex with prisoners. One was suspended after he was charged with robbing two teenagers at gunpoint in Charles County, another after he allegedly assaulted his wife.

Another officer "was convicted of second-degree assault after he beat a woman, breaking her rib." Still another was ordered out of his house after he threatened to kill his wife. Then there's the officer who "was jailed this week after being convicted in Charles County of armed robbery." He's been suspended without pay.

Eliot Spitzer's downfall was his involvement in a prostitution ring, but this allegation is much more troubling:

Four Spitzer administration officials violated the state’s ethics law when they used the State Police last summer to gather travel documents they hoped would tarnish Joseph L. Bruno, then the State Senate majority leader, according to a report released on Thursday by the State Commission on Public Integrity.

The report drew on 3,000 pages of testimony and thousands of internal documents, and depicts an administration on a war footing, with Gov. Eliot Spitzer seething over attacks from Mr. Bruno and eager to strike back.

Spitzer always postured himself as being all about law and order. His administration's misuse of the state police "to gather and publicize sensitive information about Senator Bruno’s travel" further tarnishes that image.

Long Beach police are investigating a claim that officers pulled Shalonica Michelle Patton off of a bus after she gave them the finger, "slammed" her down on the sidewalk (breaking four bones in her face), and knelt on her back while handcuffing her. Portions of the arrest were captured on what appears to be a cell phone video shown about three minutes into this YouTube post.

[Patton was] booked on a charge of criminal threats, battery on a police officer, using offensive words/gestures in public and causing a disturbance on public transit.

Security cameras on the bus apparently captured the initial interaction between Patton and the officers. The department has promised to make that tape available whenever it concludes its own internal investigation. Why not do it now?