Good God, More Ferguson Police Horror Stories

"The lawsuit alleges that Justin Cosma and Richard Carter, two deputies with the Jefferson County, Missouri sheriff's department in 2010, assaulted my client during an encounter on my client's driveway while his mother was inside their house. My client was 12 years old at the time, shirtless and was not suspected of any criminal behavior. He was checking the mail. The deputies approached my client and the encounter quickly escalated. My client was restrained, choked, thrown to the ground and hogtied by the two deputies. He suffered scrapes and choke marks to his neck. No charges were ever brought against my client. It is my understanding that Justin Cosma is currently an officer with the City of Ferguson," Lozano wrote.

Cosma was also one of the officers who detained journalists from HuffPost and The Washington Post earlier this month in a local McDonald's. He declined to give his name or badge number at the time, and has subsequently refused to identify himself to the press. A reader tip allowed HuffPost to match his name and face after the altercation.

[...]

Cosma isn't the only officer whose past has received new attention in the wake of the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown and the subsequent protests in Ferguson. Eddie Boyd III, an officer who faced allegations of hitting children while serving under the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, quietly resigned and sought employment with the Ferguson Police Department. Boyd faced three complaints of physical abuse against children between 2004 and 2006, two of which were dropped. Internal affairs sustained the third complaint against Boyd, saying there was sufficient evidence to support the allegation that he struck a 12-year-old girl in the head with a pistol, and recommended Boyd be fired. The St. Louis police chose to demote him.

Less than a year later, a teenage boy alleged that Boyd hit him in the nose with a gun, and the officer quietly resigned from his role at the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. His license was not revoked in the ensuing lawsuit. Boyd was hired by the Ferguson Police Department sometime between July 2009 and December 2010.

  HuffPo

I think it's going to take a lot more of this in Ferguson:

A Third St. Louis Cop Sidelined

Ray Albers, Dan Page, and now Matthew Pappert.  No problem here.

The police department in Glendale, another St Louis suburb, said Friday it had suspended one of its officers who expressed contempt for the Ferguson protesters on his Facebook account. Matthew Pappert was the latest police officer from the St Louis area in three days to be suspended for questionable conduct amid the Ferguson protests.

[...]

"I'm sick of these protesters. You are a burden on society and a blight on the community," wrote Pappert in one of at least five posts that went up since Sunday.

"These protesters should have been put down like a rabid dog the first night," he added.

In a reference to the Boston Marathon bombing, he also wrote: "Where is a Muslim with a backpack when you need them."

[...]

Press photographers recognized Pappert as one of hundreds of St Louis area police officers called into Ferguson as crowd-control reinforcements.

One photographer clearly recalled him threatening journalists with a night stick, saying: "He was ready to swing at us."

  Telegraph

UPDATE 8/24 PM: Yet more Ferguson police horror stories

Ferguson- Another Racist Police Officer Sidelined*

If nothing else, maybe some of the St. Louis area police force will get cleaned up.

A police officer involved in the protests over Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri, has been relieved of his duty after video surfaced of him describing black people as “little perverts” and Barack Obama as an illegal immigrant.

Dan Page – who was seen live on CNN earlier this week threatening to arrest the network’s anchor Don Lemon – was recorded in April giving a speech in which he railed against Muslims and gay people, saying: “I’m into diversity – I kill everybody.”

Page is the second St Louis county officer to have been stood down in controversial circumstances surrounding the Ferguson protests.

[...]

In his speech, Page, who claims to have been a sergeant major in the US army and a Vietnam war veteran, sharply criticised laws intended to protect minorities from racially-motivated hatred and to help increase ethnic diversity.

[...]

“This here”, he added, brandishing a copy of the Bible, “is the foundation for this”, meaning the declaration of independence. “You can’t separate them. I don’t know what them black little perverts don’t understand down there.”

Page made his remarks during an address earlier this year to a St Louis branch of the Oathkeepers, an association of former and serving military personnel, police officers and first responders. The group says that its members “pledge to fulfill the oath all military and police take to ‘defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic’.”

[...]

Page told a questioner in the audience: “Policemen are very cynical. I know I am. I don’t trust anybody. I hate everybody. I hate y’all, too. I hate everybody. I’m into diversity – I kill everybody. I don’t care.”

[...]

CNN first reported that Page was being relieved of his duties on Friday afternoon. The St Louis spokesman then confirmed to the Guardian that he was a county officer and added that Page had been “relieved of duty from here and placed in an administrative capacity pending an internal investigation”.

  Guardian

Administrative capacity? Why not administrative leave?

“He’s been up to his eyeballs in a riot for about two weeks, dealing with rioters in 100 degree humidity. It’s rough. It’s a warzone,” said [John Moore, a radio presenter and fellow Vietnam veteran, who said he had been friends with Page for 26 years]. “He’s been working 12-hour shifts with no access to proper rest, proper food.”

Dude, the video was from a speech long before the Ferguson events.

In the video Sargent Major Dan Page speaks on a number of topics. He comments on a plan to end American sovereignty, establishing martial law and merging the U.S. with the New World Order.

This is a quote from the video, “I personally believe in Jesus Christ as my lord savior, but I’m also a killer. I’ve killed a lot. And if I need to, I’ll kill a whole bunch more. If you don’t want to get killed, don’t show up in front of me, it’s that simple.”

  Fox2

*(Refer:  Ray Albers)
UPDATE 8/24 PM: Yet more Ferguson police horror stories

Officer "I'll Kill You" Gofuckyourself Reportedly Relieved of Duty

Reportedly, the officer is Ray Albers of the St. Ann police department. St. Louis Today has a report on him from October 6, 2010, in which it is reported he "helped pull a suspect from a burning sport utility vehicle."

And, if true, he may simply have been removed from duty in Ferguson and still a cop in St. Ann.

If this turns out to be bad information, I'll post a correction here.

Additional: From Twitter account of Laura Hettiger, KMOV, purportedly a statement from the St. Ann PD:



UPDATE:

UPDATE:  8/22 - another racist St. Louis officer gets sidelined.

UPDATE:  8/23 Cop #3