The investigation was launched in April 2021 after a white former police officer, Derek Chauvin, was convicted of murdering George Floyd, a Black man, by kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes after he had been handcuffed.

The city has agreed to negotiate an agreement with the Justice Department on reforming the police department known as a consent decree, which will be overseen by a federal judge, the DOJ said.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the findings at a press conference outside the federal courthouse in Minneapolis alongside Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara.

The killing of Floyd in May 2020, captured in a bystander’s cellphone video, sparked protests across the US decrying police brutality and racism in the criminal justice system. In Minneapolis, protesters damaged property, including a police precinct house that was set ablaze.

Many people in Minneapolis complained that Chauvin’s excessive use of force against Floyd was not exceptional, and that the city’s police officers had long abused the rights of Black residents.

The Justice Department’s investigation was launched to see if the city government or the police department had a “pattern or practice” of using excessive force or discriminatory policing. – Rappler.com

“They tortured him,” said lawyer Armando Kho who prosecuted five members of the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (Cocpo) and two of their alleged civilian accomplices for the 2016 abduction of Enrique “Eking” Fernandez III.

Fernandez remains missing to this day, but his family has already accepted the likelihood of them not seeing the 33-year-old victim again.

The brazen, broad-daylight abduction outside an online gaming establishment in a busy district in uptown Cagayan de Oro on October 23, 2016, was caught on CCTV footage.

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It wasn’t the last time Fernandez was seen alive by someone who had nothing to do with the abduction. Kho said a boy testified seeing the heavily armed policemen bring Fernandez to the house of one of the convicts, Police Corporal Alejandro Ubanan, in the village of Canitoan, on the same day of the abduction.

He said the boy was watching a video game in Ubanan’s home-based “Pisonet” establishment – a small іntеrnеt саfé-like business model that offers online gaming in exchange for coins dropped in vending machine-like computers – when the group arrived with the handcuffed Fernandez.

The young witness testified about seeing Fernandez’s feet being tied before the policemen took turns in beating him up inside Ubanan’s house when he peeped through a hole.

The policemen, according to the witness, repeatedly struck Fernandez’s head and back with a car jack.

The boy said Fernandez begged the policemen to stop, and subsequently passed out.

Later, the witness said, he saw two of Ubanan’s companions carrying the bloodied and unconscious Fernandez to the same car used in the abduction and then left.

In a March 20 decision, Judge Ana Candida Casiño of the 17th branch of the Regional Trial Court of Misamis Oriental sentenced the policemen to at least 40 years imprisonment and ordered them to jointly pay the victim’s family P350,000 in damages, excluding litigation costs.

But Casiño acquitted two civilians – Federico Guevarra and Rolando Udasco – who had been accused of being accomplices, due to “reasonable doubt.”

Aside from Ubanan, the court convicted and sentenced the following policemen:

• Police Captain Ereneo Ramirez
• Police Senior Master Sergeant Jojo Lim
• Police Senior Master Sergeant Alaindelon Tacubao
• Police Corporal Sangkulan Hussien II

Kho said all the policemen denied abducting Fernandez, but told the court that the victim was arrested in line with the drug war launched by the Duterte administration.

The abduction took place more than three months after former president Rodrigo Duterte’s rise to the presidency. It was a time when many suspects on the police’s drug watchlists – mostly impoverished and suspected street-level peddlers – were turning up dead across the country.

Despite the CCTV footage showing Fernandez struggling against his abductors, Kho said the policemen maintained their narrative that the victim “voluntarily” went with them and that it was an arrest.

“The court did not believe them because the video clearly showed that there was vehement resistance coming from the victim,” Kho told Rappler.

He said the policemen had claimed that it was a legitimate law enforcement operation as part of the government’s drug war.

“But the records would show that there was no legitimate drug operation involving Enrique Fernandez III at that time,” Kho said.

He told Rappler in another interview that the policemen operated like a crime syndicate, and he was glad to see them behind bars.

The motive for Fernandez’s abduction has never been established in court, but Kho and the victim’s family had suspected it was a failed case of kidnapping for ransom.

Kho said Fernandez’s girlfriend at that time had just closed a multimillion-peso real estate deal, and they suspected that the victim died while he was being tortured, even before a ransom demand could be made.

He said Fernandez’s family was “happy with the court decision, but sad at the same time because [the victim’s] body was never found.” – Rappler.com

Under Marcos, can Duterte be held accountable for drug war killings?

In a statement, the police department said it was permanently deactivating the SCORPION unit after the police chief spoke with members of Nichols’ family, community leaders and other officers.

Video recordings from police body-worn cameras and a camera mounted on a utility pole showed Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, repeatedly screaming “Mom!” as officers kicked, punched and struck him with a baton in his mother’s neighborhood after a January 7 traffic stop. He was hospitalized and died of his injuries three days later.

Five officers involved in the beating, all Black, were charged on Thursday with murder, assault, kidnapping and other charges. All have been dismissed from the department.

Nichols’ family and officials expressed outrage and sorrow but urged protesters to remain peaceful. That request was largely heeded on Friday when scattered protests broke out in Memphis – where marchers briefly blocked an interstate highway – and elsewhere.

Several cities saw renewed demonstrations on Saturday. In Memphis, protesters chanting, “Whose streets? Our streets!” angrily catcalled a police car that was monitoring the march, with several making obscene gestures. Some cheered loudly when they learned of the disbandment of SCORPION.

Hundreds of protesters gathered in New York’s Washington Square Park before marching through downtown Manhattan, as columns of police officers walked alongside them.

Taken together, the four video clips released Friday showed police pummeling Nichols even though he appeared to pose no threat. The initial traffic stop was for reckless driving, though the police chief has said the cause for the stop has not been substantiated.

The SCORPION unit, short for the Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in our Neighborhoods, had been formed in October 2021 to concentrate on crime hot spots. Critics say such specialized teams can be prone to abusive tactics.

Friends and family say Nichols was an affable, talented skateboarder who grew up in Sacramento, California, and moved to Memphis before the coronavirus pandemic. The father of a 4-year-old child, Nichols worked at FedEx and had recently enrolled in a photography class.

Nate Spates Jr., 42, was part of a circle of friends, including Nichols, who met up at a local Starbucks.

“He liked what he liked, and he marched to the beat of his own drum,” Spates said, remembering that Nichols would go to a park called Shelby Farms to watch the sunset when he wasn’t working a late shift.

Nichols’ death is the latest high-profile example of police using excessive force against Black people and other minorities. The 2020 murder of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes, galvanized worldwide protests over racial injustice. – Rappler.com

Tyre Nichols, a Black motorist stopped by Memphis police earlier this month, is seen pummeled into submission while crying “Mom, mom,” as five police officers later charged with his murder deliver kicks, punches and baton blows in graphic video the city released on Friday.

The footage from police body-worn cameras and another mounted on a utility pole were posted online a day after the five were charged with second-degree murder, assault, kidnapping, official misconduct, and oppression in the January 10 death of Nichols, age 29.

Taken together, the four video clips chronicle a highly aggressive escalation of violence directed at a motorist who police had initially said they pulled over for reckless driving, though the police chief has since said that has not been substantiated.

The beatings appear to continue far beyond a point where Nichols could pose any threat to police, and at one point two officers hold him upright as another punches him repeatedly in the face, as other officers on the scene stand idly by without intervening.

The first video shows officers dragging Nichols from the driver’s seat of his car as he yells, “Damn, I didn’t do anything…. I am just trying to go home,” then forcing him to the ground as they order him to lie on his stomach and squirt him in the face with pepper spray.

Nichols then breaks free, scrambles to his feet and sprints away down a road with officers chasing him on foot; at least one fires a stun gun at him.

A separate video shows a subsequent struggle after officers catch up with Nichols again, and are beating him. Two officers are seen holding him down as a third one kicks him and a fourth delivers blows with what appears to be a rod before another punches Nichols.

Nichols is heard repeatedly screaming, “Mom! Mom!” as he struggles with officers. His mother has said her son was only about 80 yards (meters) from home when he was beaten. A stretcher is seen arriving 19 minutes after the first emergency medical personnel get to the scene.

The four segments of highly anticipated footage from police body-worn cameras and a camera mounted on a utility pole were posted online a day after the officers were charged with second-degree murder, assault, kidnapping, official misconduct, and oppression.

The officers, all Black, had already been dismissed from the police department last Saturday following their January 7 confrontation with Nichols after pulling him over.

He succumbed to his injuries and died three days later while hospitalized.

Outrage

Memphis police chief Cerelyn Davis and lawyers for Nichols’ family who watched the video with his relatives before it was released, warned that the images were brutal and likely to cause outrage, while appealing to the public for calm.

“You are going to see acts that defy humanity,” Davis told CNN in describing the footage.

As the video first appeared and was being aired on CNN and other news outlets, television images showed a large group of protesters gathering in Memphis, shouting, “no justice, no peace” and carrying signs that said “The people demand: End Police Terror.” The demonstrators appeared to be blocking traffic at one point on Interstate 55.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, representing Nichols’ family, called earlier in the day for the city police department to disband its SCORPIONS unit, a squad that is supposed to focus on violent street crime and to which at least some of the officers involved were assigned.

“No mother should go through what I am going through right now, no mother, to lose their child to the violent way that I lost my child,” Tyre Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, said on Friday.

US President Joe Biden said he was “outraged” and “deeply pained” after watching the Memphis video.

The footage was likely to transform Nichols, the father of a 4-year-old described as an affable, accomplished skateboarder who recently enrolled in a photography class, into the next face of the US racial justice movement.

Raised in Sacramento, California, Nichols moved before the coronavirus pandemic to the Memphis area, where he lived with his mother and stepfather and worked at FedEx, taking a break each day to come home for a meal prepared by his mother.

Biden speaks to family

Nichols’ family and President Joe Biden have appealed for protests to stay peaceful in Memphis, a city of 628,000 where nearly 65% of residents are Black. Schools were scheduled to close early and Saturday morning events were canceled.

Biden spoke with RowVaughn Wells and Rodney Wells, Nichols’ stepfather, on Friday afternoon to express his condolences, the White House said, adding that it was coordinating with relevant government agencies in case protests turn violent.

Nichols’ death marked the latest high-profile instance of police officers accused of using excessive force in the deaths of Black people and other minorities in recent years. These have been publicly condemned as systemic racism in the US criminal justice system.

Protests under the banner of the “Black Lives Matter” movement against racial injustice erupted globally following the May 2020 murder of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes.

Antonio Romanucci, another lawyer for Nichols’ family, told National Public Radio in an interview on Friday that Nichols was a strong supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement and “basically died for his own cause.”

US Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday announced a federal civil rights investigation into Nichols’ death, while law enforcement agencies in some major cities, including New York, Atlanta, and Washington, said they were preparing for possible protests following the video’s release.

Traffic stop began chain of events

Police have described the circumstances of Nichols’ arrest in vague terms. Even Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy, who sought the officers’ indictment, was circumspect when announcing the charges.

After Nichols was pulled over for reckless driving, “an altercation” ensued in which officers doused him with pepper spray, and Nichols tried to flee on foot, Mulroy said. “There was another altercation at a nearby location at which the serious injuries were experienced by Mr. Nichols.”

Davis said her department has not yet been able determine whether there was probable cause for the officers to pull Nichols over for reckless driving, a traffic stop which set in motion the violent events that followed.

Crump said the speed at which the criminal charges were brought against the officers – fewer than three weeks after Nichols’ death – should be a standard for police-involved killings.

In some other high-profile cases, such as the police killing of Laquan McDonald in Chicago in 2014, more than a year elapsed before the release of police video and the filing of charges.

Crump compared the encounter to the 1991 videotaped beating of Black motorist Rodney King by four police officers whose subsequent acquittal of criminal charges sparked days of riots in Los Angeles.

Records show Justin Smith, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III, Demetrius Haley, and Tadarrius Bean, who were fired along with one other officer after Nichols’ death, were released on bond after they were booked into the Shelby County Jail on Thursday morning. – Rappler.com

On October 13, Police Lieutenant Felixberto Tiquil shot dead Edgar Follero after he allegedly mistook Follero for a motorcycle thief. Follero was said to be assisting a friend whose motorcycle broke down.

Paul Timothy delos Reyes, the person Follero assisted, and Follero’s partner Charilyn Pagsibigan filed a complaint against Tiquil. By October 14, Police Brigadier General Nicolas Torre III said the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) had charged Tiquil with murder.

In a six-page decision, the PLEB removed Tiquil from service due to grave misconduct unbecoming of a policeman.

According to the Quezon City LGU, Follero was only assisting Delos Reyes, his friend and a delivery rider, as Delos Reyes’ motorcycle broke down in Pandacan, Manila.

Follero, while onboard his own motorcycle, “pushed” Delos Reyes’ motorcycle so the latter could get home. The two reached Roosevelt Avenue in Quezon City, and stopped to pick up Delos Reyes’ motorcycle fairings that had fallen to the ground.

According to the QCPD, at around 3:40 am, Follero and Delos Reyes were in front of Muñoz Market when Tiquil “suddenly appeared” and shot Follero. The Quezon City LGU said the cop shot the traffic enforcer twice “without any warning.”

The QCPD said that, despite Follero’s gunshot wound, he was able to drive his motorcycle to seek help from cops near Muñoz Market at the corner of Roosevelt and EDSA. The police then arrested Tiquil, and Follero was rushed to the Quezon City General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Tiquil claimed that he thought Follero and Delos Reyes were car thieves, but the PLEB did not buy this defense.

“We do not buy the alibi of Tiquil that he shot Follero because of self-defense. He claims to be a seasoned police officer, and yet at the slightest instance, his first instinct is to inflict a mortal wound against an innocent person,” said Rafael Calinisan, the PLEB’s executive officer.

Calinisan, a lawyer, said that this was a clear violation of the Philippine National Police’s Rules of Procedure.

“Further, Tiquil also claims to have chased the victims from Nagtahan, Manila, up to Roosevelt, Quezon City. How can people pushing a defective motorcycle outrun a seasoned cop on a motorbike? We are more than convinced that Tiquil was not being truthful in his narrative of what happened,” Calinisan said.

Follero’s partner Pagsibigan thanked the PLEB for its swift decision. “Wala siyang karapatang maging alagad ng batas dahil sa ginawa niya sa asawa ko ([Tiquil] has no right to be a law enforcer because of what he did to my husband),” she said.

Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte said the PLEB’s decision should serve as a warning that rogue cops will be held accountable in the city.

“The wheels of justice run fast here in Quezon City, without fear or favor. I again commend the PLEB QC for their prompt action in helping out the ‘little one’ in need,” said Belmonte.

Belmonte earlier condemned the incident and offered sympathies to Follero’s family.

“Before he was killed, Edgar was known to be a helpful, friendly, and dutiful member of the Task Force for Transport and Traffic Management. Indeed, his last minutes were spent assisting someone in need, specifically a delivery rider whose motorcycle had broken down,” Belmonte said in an October 14 statement. – Rappler.com

The UN-appointed working group noted positive measures taken by Switzerland but still voiced concerns about the prevalence of racial discrimination and highlighted several incidents following a visit to the country this year.

“The ubiquity and impunity of this misconduct indicates a serious systemic problem exists,” it said.

Switzerland’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva broadly accepted the findings in comments to the council, although questioned the experts’ use of a limited number of examples to draw wider conclusions.

Landlocked Switzerland was never a colonial power but its banks, traders and municipalities invested heavily and benefited from the transatlantic triangular trade, the report said.

It noted efforts to raise public awareness about aspects of Swiss history, such as a petition and debate around the removal of the statue of a banker whose fortune relied on exploitation of enslaved Africans, in the canton of Neuchatel.

However, others remained valorized such as Louis Agassiz, an advocate of scientific racism, who has an Alpine peak named after him.

Swiss playground games persist such as “Who is afraid of the Black man?”, which have a racially discriminatory effect, the experts said.

The report also noted “shocking” police brutality, noting the deaths of several Black men in the Vaud canton.

“Switzerland agrees with your observation that racism and racial discrimination – including against people of African descent – are problems that must be tackled as a matter of urgency,” Jurg Lauber told the Geneva-based Human Rights Council on Monday.

He stressed that new measures had been implemented to address the issues, including cantonal consultation centers for victims of racial discrimination and pointing to improvements in police training programs. – Rappler.com

Like in the case of the family of Kian delos Santos, the 17-year-old boy, who was killed by the police in Caloocan in 2017. He became one of the faces of Duterte’s bloody drug war.

Five years later, his family is still calling out for justice to be served despite the court convictions of the cops who killed the teenager. For them, true justice will only be attained if all drug war victims would be given justice.

In this new edition of Kriminal, Rappler’s Jairo Bolledo sits down with Randy delos Santos, Kian’s uncle, to talk about their family’s plights years after they lost Kian.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts. – Rappler.com

“Walang awang hinampas ng batuta at pinagpupukpok ng riot shield ang mga ordinaryong mamamayan na lumahok sa protesta para tuligsain ang nakaambang proklamasyon ng tambalang Marcos-Duterte sa kabila ng laganap na dayaan sa halalan,” ayon sa isang publication material ng KPL (Kabataan Party List). Dahil dito, lima na mula sa sector ng kabataan ang sugatan at ang isa sa kanila ay hindi makalakad dahil pinukpok ang paa. Sa karahasan ng mga pulis masasabi na hindi maximum tolerance ang kanilang  pinaigting. Hangga’t maaari, hindi dapat sila gumagamit ng dahas para manatiling mapayapa ang isang pagpo-protesta. 

Kung mangyayari man at hindi maiiwasan ang paggamit nito, tungkulin nila ang magbigay ng pruweba para masabi na may dahilan sila na dapat mahantong ang pagpoprotesta sa karahasan. Ayon sa NCRPO (National Capital Region Police Office),  nagbalak ang mga rallyista na pumunta sa Batasang Pambansa para doon ipagpatuloy ang kanilang protesta. Ito ay ikinabahala ng mga pulis dahil ang mga mambabatas ay nanungkulan bilang NBC (National Board of Canvassers) pagdating sa pagbilang ng mga boto. Ikinabahala din nila ang pagsipa at pagkalampag ng mga nagpo-protesta sa mga riot shield. Dahil dito, napilitan ang mga bumbero na magpakawala ng rumaragasang tubig mula sa kanilang fire truck. Sa konteksto ng maximum tolerance, hindi gumawa ng  paraan ang mga pulis para harangan ang mga nagpo-protesta sa mapayapang paraan. 

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Dahil sa kanilang karahasan, kinailangan ng mga rallyistang nasugatan ng kaagarang tulong medikal. Ayon naman sa kapulisan, sila daw ay hindi gumanti sa mga rallyista. Kaya daw nasugatan ang mga rallyista kasi dahil sa tulis ng gilid ng mga sirang riot shield na ipinangharang sa kanila. Sa ganitong naratibo, mahirap paniwalaan ang depensa ng mga pulis. Kung may tulis sa gilid ng mga riot shield nila dahil may sira ang mga ito, dapat hindi na nila ginamit ang mga ito pangharang, nang sa gayon ay hindi sila makasakit ng mga nagpo-protesta kahit hindi nila sinasadya. 

Maliban dito, ang isa pa sa kanilang kakulangan ay tungkol sa kanilang tungkulin na iwasan ang biglaang pagbuwag ng protesta. Nakasaad sa Section 11(a) at (b) ng B.P.  Blg. 880 (Batas Pambansa Bilang 880) na tungkulin muna nilang magbigay ng babala sa mga nagpo-protesta na bubuwagin nila ang protesta kung may karahasan mang nangyari. 

Naging partikular ang batas sa kung anong klaseng karahasan ang dapat mangyari para magkaroon ng dahilan para buwagin ng mga pulis ang protesta. Ang karahasan lang na kinikilala nito ay ang pangyayari na kung saan nambabato na ang mga rallyista ng kung anu-anong mga matitigas na bagay para manakit. Hindi binanggit dito ang paglipat ng protesta palabas ng Freedom Park o sa lugar kung saan hindi ito sakop ng permit. Tahimik din ang batas pagdating sa kung dapat bang magbigay ng babala ang mga pulis sa ganitong pangyayari, pero hindi ito ang tamang dahilan upang daanin ng mga pulis sa dahas ang pagpigil nilang abantehin ang protesta papunta sa Batasang Pambansa. Kailangan pa rin nilang obserbahan ang maximum tolerance. 

Kung titignan ang isa pang legal na konteksto ng masalimuot na pangyayari, na puwede ring gamitin sa mga nakaraan protesta na kung saan gumamit ng dahas ang mga pulis, makakatakas pa rin sila sa kanilang pananagutan – mapa-administratibo man, mapa-kriminal, o mapa-sibil. Bagamat malabong mapatunayan ng mga pulis na obserbado nila ang maximum tolerance noong Mayo, maaari din nilang gamitin ang immunity from suit. Ito ay isang pribilheyo ng gobyerno at ng mga ahensiya nito na kung  saan hindi ito maaaring kasuhan kapag ito ay hindi nagbigay ng pahintulot. Nakasaan ito mismo sa Artikulo XVI, Section 3 ng Saligang Batas. Hindi tatakbo ang kasong ipinataw sa kanila kung mapapatunayan nilang hindi sila lumagpas o nagkulang sa kanilang tungkulin. 

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Pagdating sa Saligang Batas, kinikilala nito ang ilan sa mga karapatang pantao katulad ng kalayaang magpahayag at mapayapang magtipon-tipon. Kasama na rito ang karapatang magreklamo laban sa gobyerno, ngunit may paniniwala ang mga panlipunang  sibil – na pinaniniwalaan din ng gobyerno – na hindi dapat maging ganap (o absolute) ang mga ito. Kailangan pa rin itong regulahin nang sa gayon ay ang paggamit nito ay hindi nakakasagabal sa iba. (Ito ay binanggit sa mga kaso ng Ignacio and Dela Cruz vs.  Ela at Primicias vs. Fugoso). 

Hindi maikakaila na kahit papaano ay istorbo pa rin para sa iba ang pampublikong protesta. Para maging epektibo ang kanilang pagprotesta, kakailanganin nilang isagawa ang kanilang panawagan sa gitna ng daan. Ganito naman talaga isagawa ang  pampublikong protesta. Kung kakailanganin nilang pumuwesto sa gitna ng daanan para maipakita nila kung gaano sila ka-seryoso sa kanilang protesta, gagawin nila iyon. Dahil dito, maaaring bumigat ang daloy ng trapiko. Maaapektuhan ang pang-araw-araw na buhay ng iilan, lalung-lalo na ang mga dumadaan sa kung saan ginaganap ang protesta. 

Minsan pa nga ay nawawalan ng klase ang mga mag-aaral kung lumalala at nagiging malawakan ito. Dahil dito, maaaring makialam ang mga pulis – at may tungkulin silang gawin ito – upang hindi makasagabal ang mga nagpo-protesta sa mga pang-araw-araw na gawain ng mga hindi kasali. Sa ganitong tungkulin, hindi maaaring kasuhan ang mga pulis; dahil bilang ahensiya ng gobyerno, bagamat ang karapatang pantao ay nanggagaling mismo (o inherent) sa bawat indibidwal – at ipinahiwatig ito sa pambungad ng Universal Declaration of Human Rights – lilitaw lamang ito kung kikilalanin ito at  poprotektahan ng kapulisan. Gayunpaman, hindi ibig sabihin na nasa mga palad nila ang karapatan ng mga rallyista na puwede nilang paglaruan. 

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Puwedeng makialam ang korte kung mapapatunayan na ang pulis ay malalang inabuso ang kanilang kapangyarihan, o tinatawag na grave abuse of discretion, at ito ay binanggit sa Artikulo VIII, Section 1 ng Saligang Batas. Ang gobyerno ay isang entidad na may mala-diyos na kapangyarihan. Kaya hindi naiiwasan ang anumang abusong puwedeng gawin ng mga tauhan nito. Sapat na pruweba ang kasaysayan ng katiwalian at abuso nito. Maliban dito, kaya nitong pumatay ng sinuman; at may kakayanan din itong  makatakas sa anumang pananagutan. Ito ang dahilan kung bakit inilikha ang karapatang pantao, na nagbibigay ng kapangyarihan sa bawat indibidwal para mabigyan ng hangganan ang kapangyarihan ng gobyerno. Sa nangyaring protesta noong Mayo, nais lang ng mga rallyista na maging transparent pagdating sa bilangan ng boto. Ang  pagmartsa nila sa Batasang Pambansa ay isang pahiwatig na seryoso sila sa kanilang panawagan, at malaking bagay sa kanila ang resulta ng botohan. 

Hindi maikakaila na ito ay sakop ng kanilang karapatan. Bilang pagkilala nito, sana ay pinaigting ng kapulisan ang maximum tolerance. Tungkulin nila, bilang isa sa mga ahente ng entidad na may mala-diyos na kapangyarihan, na saluhin ang galit ng mga rallyista. Kung tutuusin, nag-ensayo sila sa matagal na panahon at sinanay nila ang  kanilang sarili kung paano nila gagawin ito sa mapayapang paraan – nang walang masasaktan. Sa ganito, kahit papaano ay hindi nasasayang ang buwis ng karamihan sa  mga mamamayan. Binanggit ng Korte Suprema sa kaso ng Sanders and Moreau Jr. vs. Veridiano II na hindi puwedeng kasuhan ang gobyerno bilang entidad na gumagawa ng batas dahil dito nanggagaling at nakadepende ang karapatan ng bawat mamamayan; pero hindi sakop dito ang karapatang pantao, at hindi dapat, dahil hindi ito isang biyaya na binibigay mula sa mala-diyos na kapangyarihan nito. 

Katulad ng nabanggit, ito ay isang kapangyarihan na nanggagaling sa bawat indibidwal upang maging panangga sa anumang abuso na puwedeng gawin ng gobyerno. – Rappler.com

Si Carl Gabriel C. Culvera ay kasalukuyang nag-aaral sa UE-COL (University of the East-College of Law) habang nagtatrabaho sa isang law firm. Maliban dito, siya’y kasalukuyang volunteer-member ng KPL (Kabataan Party List) National at kasalukuyan ding nagsusulat para sa UE-LJ (University of the East-Law Journal).

A Bangkok court initially sentenced the six officers to death for coercion, malfeasance, abuse of authority and death by torture, but commuted that to life imprisonment for their cooperation and attempts to revive the suspect, court documents showed.

Superintendent Thitisan “Joe” Uttanapol, 40, a police chief in Nakhon Sawan province, was arrested with six other officers in August, when an interrogation video went viral showing the victim with plastic bags over his head, suffocating while pinned down on the floor.

One of the officers was jailed on Wednesday for eight years for malfeasance, commuted to just over five years.

The video captured huge attention in Thailand and sparked a debate about abuse and corruption by police and the extent to which powerful law enforcement figures are untouchable.

The trial was seen as a test of Thailand’s judicial system and its willingness to hold senior police accountable.

All of the officers plan to appeal their sentences, Chokchai Angkaew, the lawyer for Thitisan, told Reuters.

Thitisan, a career policeman, is also being investigated about the extent and sources of his wealth after the discovery of a dozen luxury vehicles, including a Lamborghini and Ferrari, during a raid on his plush Bangkok home.

Pornpen Khongkachonkiet, a Thai human rights activist who monitors and documents torture cases, said the verdict was an important precedent for legal cases concerning abuse by state officials.

“This is not the first case where state officials torture suspects in this manner. But it is the first time that the justice system managed to bring wrongdoers who are officials to justice,” said Pornpen, the director of Cross Cultural Foundation. – Rappler.com

The jury also found that the conduct of officers Tou Thao, 36; J. Alexander Kueng, 28; and Thomas Lane, 38, during the arrest on May 25, 2020, caused Floyd’s death, a finding that can affect the severity of their sentence.

It is a rare instance of police officers being held criminally responsible for a colleague’s excessive force. All three men were convicted of denying Floyd’s constitutional right to medical care while in police custody.

Thao and Kueng were also convicted on a charge of denying Floyd’s right to not face excessive force by failing to stop their colleague Derek Chauvin from kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes. Chauvin was convicted last year in a state court of Floyd’s murder.

Thao, Kueng and Lane will remain free on bail pending their sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled. Prosecutors have not yet said what sentence they will request, but the men may face years in prison.

“This is just accountability,” Philonise Floyd told reporters after the verdict was read. “It could never be justice because I can never get my brother back.”

The verdict marked a second victory this week for prosecutors in the US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, coming just two days after a jury in Georgia found three white men guilty of federal hate crimes in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a young Black man who was gunned down while running through a mostly white neighborhood.

“That’s historic for our country, because oftentimes officers kill Black and brown men and women, and we get little to no consequences,” said Brandon Williams, George Floyd’s nephew. “A lot of times we don’t even get charges, let alone convictions.”

Killing sparked protests

Federal prosecutors argued in the US District Court in St. Paul that the men knew from their training and from “basic human decency” that they had a duty to help Floyd as he begged for his life before falling limp beneath Chauvin’s knee.

Floyd’s killing sparked protests in cities around the world against police brutality and racism.

It also led lawmakers to propose such measures as restricting chokeholds, banning “no-knock warrants,” and legislating to curtail the US Supreme Court doctrine known “qualified immunity” that limits lawsuits over police use of excessive force.

Those proposals were included in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passed in the Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives last year. Philonise Floyd on Thursday again urged lawmakers to pass the measure that has stalled in the Senate, where Democrats are unlikely to get the necessary Republican votes.

Chauvin, who is white, was sentenced to 22-1/2 years in prison last year after a state murder trial. Although race was not part of the state or federal charges, Chauvin’s conviction was seen as a landmark rebuke of the disproportionate use of police force against Black Americans. In December, Chauvin pleaded guilty to the federal charge of violating Floyd’s rights.

Under Chauvin’s plea agreement, federal prosecutors will seek a 25-year sentence, concurrent with his state prison sentence. His three former colleagues are also due to stand trial in Minneapolis in June on state charges of aiding and abetting Floyd’s murder.

Bystander video

Widely seen cellphone video showed Thao stood steps away from Floyd, rebuffing the demands by horrified onlookers that Chauvin get off Floyd’s neck. Kueng and Lane were to Chauvin’s right, pinning down Floyd’s buttocks and legs.

All three testified in their own defense. Each acknowledged they knew they had a duty of care to people in their custody. But they and their lawyers told jurors they did not realize at the time that Floyd was in dire need of medical aid or that Chauvin’s use of force was excessive.

Prosecutors repeatedly played videos showing Floyd’s distress was plain to bystanders, including children and an off-duty firefighter, who shouted that Floyd was passing out and begging the police to check his pulse.

The three defendants all described deferring to the authority of Chauvin, the most senior officer at the scene with 19 years at the Minneapolis Police Department.

Kueng and Lane, who first handcuffed Floyd on suspicion of using a fake $20 bill in a nearby store, also noted they were rookies only a few days out of training, which lasted more than a year. Thao had been on the force for eight years.

Medical experts have testified that Floyd almost certainly would have survived the arrest if he had been rolled onto his side once the officers restrained him, as the officers acknowledged they had been taught to do. – Rappler.com