Flap Your Lips Friday
Posted by Michelle Moquin on August 10th, 2012
Good morning!
Cops Accused Of Beating Jordan Miles, Pittsburgh Teen, Cleared Of Malicious Prosecution Charge
PITTSBURGH — A federal court jury found three white Pittsburgh police officers did not maliciously prosecute a young black man who was arrested for prowling and fighting with police, but was unable to come to a verdict on whether officers used excessive force and falsely arrested him.
The verdict Wednesday came after five days of deliberations. It means the jury of five men and three women, all white except for the black male foreman, could not award damages to Jordan Miles who maintains he was stopped without cause – likely because he was a young black man walking in his high-crime neighborhood – then wrongly arrested and beaten before and after he was handcuffed on a frigid, snowy night.
“It’s a good win for us,” said James Wymard, the attorney for Officer David Sisak who wasn’t in the courtroom because he’s vacationing with his family.
“We said all along once this case was exposed to the light of daylight these allegations would not stand,” said Robert Leight, attorney for another defendant, Officer Richard Ewing.
Ewing said only that the officers “weren’t allowed” to comment as he and Officer Michael Saldutte, the third defendant, walked briskly from the courtroom.
Miles, now 20, his mother and sister declined comment, but his attorneys promised to continue the legal battle.
“There will be a new trial on the most important issue: Was there excessive force?” said Tim O’Brien, one of Miles’ attorneys.
The officers had always maintained they did nothing wrong and that they stopped Miles only because he appeared to be lurking near a neighbor’s home and had a bulge in his coat pocket which they took for a gun before finding only a soda bottle about 11 p.m. on Jan. 12, 2010. Miles has denied having even the bottle. He said he was merely walking about a block to his grandmother’s house, where he routinely spent the night, when the plainclothes officers rolled up to him asking for money, drugs and a gun – a tactic the police denied using, but which Miles’ attorneys said is used to put suspected drug dealers on the defensive.
Miles, then an 18-year-old senior at Pittsburgh’s performing arts high school with no criminal record, was charged with assaulting police, loitering and prowling at night, resisting arrest and escape. Miles said he ran away and struggled with police only, but only because they didn’t identify themselves as police and he feared being robbed.
Saldutte’s veteran police union lawyer, Bryan Campbell, said the verdict shows the jury believed the officers. “The jury had to decide which story they wanted to believe,” Campbell said.
Miles’ malicious prosecution claim alleged the officers filed the criminal charges without justification, possibly out of spite or to justify the force used to arrest Miles. The wrongful arrest claim, though similar, must be retried and dealt specifically with whether the officers had reasonable suspicion, on the spot, to arrest Miles.
Also to be retried is Miles’ claim that police used excessive force – choking him and hitting him in the head with a hard object after he was handcuffed, among other alleged abuse – that left him with post-traumatic stress disorder and short-term memory problems that will keep him from completing a college education and realizing his full personal and earning potential.
A district justice dismissed the criminal charges against Miles two months later when the woman who lived in the house where police contend they saw Miles lurking testified she never told police she didn’t know who he was and was never asked, as officers claimed in a criminal complaint, whether he had permission to be there.
O’Brien said he’s hopeful a new jury will see the case differently – especially if the judge can be persuaded to allow some evidence in the retrial which was barred from this trial, including a police commander’s testimony that Saldutte and Ewing had made up claims to support similar arrests in the past.
See video, click here.
*******
Readers: Whenever I read writes such as this one, I get so upset. This proves once again that the justice system is “just us”. I’m sure cops do this horrific behavior because they know they can get away with it. Make sure there is all white jury, which it doesn’t seem to be tough to get, and they are practically guaranteed they will never be convicted. It is just so unfair and so not right.
These cops have done it before and they will do it again, as long as they know they can get away with it. It angers me and sickens me. I can feel what the family must feel – frustrated…HOPEless when the system is obviously not just.
What are your thoughts? It is Friday…Blog me.
Robert, RT: As always, it is a pleasure seeing you here.
Ruth: I have come up with a moniker ( finally) that I think you will like. I’ll e-mail it to you, and if you like it, use it.
Zen Lill: Sorry to have missed you again. I HOPE you had fun with your BF – sounds like you did! I have a wonderful friend in town too so I was unavailable last night. We’ll keep trying. :)
Peace out.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)
Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:
Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129
Thank you for your loyal support!
All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2012
“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream
" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"
August 10th, 2012 at 10:33 am
Don’t Tell Your Doctor What to Do
I recently asked my doctor to take a look at a rash on my arm. She thanked me for not trying to diagnose it myself. Two of the doctor’s prior patients that day had searched for their symptoms on the Internet, then informed her of what they had.
Their self-diagnoses were wrong, but one of the patients still insisted that he had shingles. She finally said, “If you want to have shingles, fine, but take this medicine for what you really do have.”
At Bottom Line/Personal, we often report on the importance of playing an active role in our medical care—but sometimes patients’ attempts to do this undercut a successful working relationship with their doctors.
According to Steven Z. Kussin, MD, founder of The Shared Decision Center, which helps patients make informed choices, and author of Doctor, Your Patient Will See You Now (Rowman & Littlefield), the secret to getting doctors to respond to patient input with respect is citing sources of information that doctors respect.
Your doctor might roll his eyes if you say you found a natural remedy on an Internet chat room—but you should get his full attention if you point to a medical journal or a respected publication such as Bottom Line/Personal.
When you mention an article to your doctor, preface your comments with, “You know I trust you and rely on you, but I’m wondering…” This acknowledges the doctor’s importance, further reducing the odds of ruffled feathers and fostering a team approach.
Kussin also recommends that patients focus on understanding conditions that they’ve already been diagnosed with, rather than trying to self-diagnose their medical problems.
Such self-diagnoses usually fail—and those who attempt them often scare themselves unnecessarily with unlikely worst-case scenarios.
Source: Karen Larson, editor of Bottom Line/Personal.
August 10th, 2012 at 10:41 am
My advice is they are willing to use jUStice then we need to do the same thing. Tit for tat. Find the bastard and repeat the treatment.
August 10th, 2012 at 10:56 am
Time To Start Blowinq Cop’s Heads Off…
August 10th, 2012 at 10:57 am
I dont get mad over much things in this word, but when someone helpless get beat by someone hiding behind their badge of authority it gets me furious.
August 10th, 2012 at 10:58 am
mikey,Right on brother fuck these pigs. We are a stronger generation an we have more heart then our parents so you know I’m bout
August 10th, 2012 at 11:01 am
If these punk ass cops wanna be thugs then be thugs. Don’t go get a badge and come to communities you would never come to or live in without a badge and try to be tough and terrorize that same community you signed up to protect.
That’s some soft hearted shit! You wanna be tuff, loose them badges and come to these same neighborhoods with that shit. Bet they won’t make it home for sure then pussies!
August 10th, 2012 at 11:02 am
If you sell drugs, then you are dog shit. If he`s so innocent what is he doing posted in the dope spot?
Lets face this is another drug dealer who got what he had coming to him, hey its big boy rules so he should have worn his big boy pads.
August 10th, 2012 at 11:03 am
and yet your not furious over the animals in society for sellin drugs, killin people…etc but the minute a cop crosses the line then you mad?
try bein a cop in N>Y or chicago knowing you might not come home to your family
August 10th, 2012 at 11:05 am
Rufus, you should know about “shit” since you that same piece of shit, dumbass. He was “posted” walking to his grandma’s house.
You see how stupid you are? You have to mess with drugs in order to be a drug dealer and this dude did not, so get your bitchass outta here.
August 10th, 2012 at 11:05 am
America is a fascist police state what do you expect?
August 10th, 2012 at 11:23 am
Just in from TED NUGENT: Conservation science, not rocket science
A foolish piece that needs brought to conservatives attention: Paul Ryan’s Washington lineage could be risk for Mitt Romney. Expect more of this ‘insight’ from mainstreamers as we get closer and closer to the Veep pick, and November, in general.
Roger Hedgecock’s column is quite good: Chicago values are wrecking America
David Keene, president of the NRA, writes for us, in the first response from the NRA since the Aurora shooting, that the left’s adamant exploitation of a tragedy to advance their policy agendas was predictable, but shameful.
Take a look at some of the offerings from our staff, including Audrey’s story of the continued fallout from the Obama cancer ad, and Hope’s piece on Michele Bachmann’s quest to look in to the background of Huma Abedin.
Have a great weekend. Talk to you all on Monday.
Onward and upward,
-Adam
August 10th, 2012 at 11:24 am
Face it you niggers need a good ass whooping every now and then.
That’s why we pay our cops so good.
George,WN
August 10th, 2012 at 11:27 am
You can tell who all the dumb young thugs are by there comments. Like it or not we need cops or society will collapse with criminals and drug dealers and the murder rate would go sky high.
No doubt there are bad cops out there but they are out numbered by the scumbags in society and is killing a cop worth spendin your life in prison takin showers with grown men who might rape you?”
August 10th, 2012 at 11:30 am
This is crazy, black people in every area are always unjustly beaten, jailed, not given jobs, not given loans, unjustly prosecuted. Why, because the world hates black people and people of color, why? Only God knows! Stop hurting black people and give us justice.
August 10th, 2012 at 11:34 am
If you have ever served on jury duty…it’s always about the jurors. If you have jurors that are more impartial or neutral it’s relative easy to find someone guilty or innocent.
August 10th, 2012 at 11:35 am
Howie, Your stuff is for real. love it.
August 10th, 2012 at 11:36 am
HV, They poll each potential juror before any jurors are assigned to a specific case. For instance, 100 jurors get called in to court. The polling takes place, then they assign jurors to the cases for that week/day.
August 10th, 2012 at 11:37 am
Joel, That’s close, but not quite. Attorneys select from a pool of about 100 potential jurors for each trial.
The attorneys for each case are allowed to vior dire/question/poll the potential jurors before the actual trial commences.
Each attorney is allowed to dismiss/kick off a certain number of potential jurors, usually 8, for no reason at all and an unlimited amount “for cause”.
The whole process takes a minimum of 4 hours and up to days to complete.
August 10th, 2012 at 11:40 am
Oh, so you think that was funny. He’s not that smart folks we were both sitting here writing a reply to HV. He waited until I posted and posted right after me.
We work for the same law firm. I gave the short answer.
Joel.
August 10th, 2012 at 11:41 am
Yeah, but I gave the correct one.
August 10th, 2012 at 12:05 pm
Hafa adai. You guys are not the only ones that have to be on a constant vigil less the white boy rear his ugly racist head.
Recently they were at it again trying to reconstruct history to clean up their racist bull shit.
=========================
As the children of the late Speaker Carlos P. Taitano, we are writing to raise strong objections to the comments of Adm. Bushong and to the inexcusable endorsement of these comments by Lee Webber in his Aug. 2 column, “Bushong’s remarks were on the nose.”
As restated by Webber, Adm. Bushong gave a warped depiction of our people’s struggle for citizenship and democracy through the Organic Act.
In 1949, members of the Guam Congress, including our father, staged a walkout for citizenship and voting rights and an end to the naval government which ruled our island as a virtual military dictatorship. Because of the attention drawn to the plight of our people, the Truman administration ended the naval government and Congress approved the Organic Act, which granted us citizenship and limited self-government.
Our father served as an army officer during World War II. Upon his return to Guam after fighting in a war for democracy and against military dictatorship, it disturbed him that Guam’s people were still denied democracy and were ruled by an un-elected naval officer who had all executive, legislative and judicial powers in his hands. It was to end this injustice and secure basic democratic rights that the Guam Congress chose to defy the naval governor and protest a situation that was unjust by America’s own standards of freedom and democracy.
Civil rights struggle
Contrary to how Bushong portrayed it, this was not an act of self-determination but a striving for civil rights and human rights. As our father explained to us, if you are in a desert and looking for water, that is not self-determination — that is just survival.
Guam still has not determined its ultimate political status, whether it be statehood, independence or something in between. As painful as it is to consider, we continue to be governed by a president we did not elect and a Congress we have no vote in, which amounts to being a colony. Unbelievably, this was denied by Bushong, even though the U.S. government has classified us as such to the United Nations.
In a speech eight years ago to the Young Men’s League of Guam, our father said: “Today, in the year 2004, 106 years after Guam was acquired from Spain, our island is still a colony, and its people only second-class citizens of the United States of America.”
It was his dream that he would live long enough to see Guam decolonized. But that was not to be, as he passed away three years ago.
Bushong may have the excuse of being just ignorant of the true history of our island. He might have had the opportunity to be educated if he had “manned up” and shared his views at any time during his tenure on Guam instead of hiding them until he was on his way out the door. Lee Webber, who called Bushong’s comments “accurate” and who touts his PDN credentials and Guam residency at the end of his column, has no such excuse.
Linda Taitano, Carl W. Taitano and Tyrone J. Taitano are the children of the late Carlos P. Taitano.
=================
The Taitanos have always stood up for democracy for the people of Guam. They believe that the people of Guam are deserved the same human rights, America claims it provides its citizens.
Sure we still reserve the right to self determination, but the right to equality should not be on the table that should be a given. That was Carlos P. Taitano’s desire.
It would have been hypocritical to put his life on the line for white America’s desire to end Hitler’s dictatorship over whites in europe and return home and accept that same dictatorship over his own people.
The white boy lee weber has his reasons for attempting to bolster the lie that Bushong’s comments were correct.
Like the lying sack of shits on Fox weber attempts to cover his prejudice with the claim that he has lived on Guam for so long.
I would remind you that those whites that enslaved Africans for as long as they could get away with it now claim to be citizens of those liberated nations in good stead.
When a racist is forced to behave because those his race no longer has the power to abuse that group, the scoundrel usually resorts to the claim that he has resided among his past victims for years.
For the record Michelle this piece of shit belongs in your LSOS club.
Peter
August 10th, 2012 at 1:25 pm
Hi Michelle:
I am sorry but I posted my comment on yesterday’s blog but meant for it to be read today, Flap Your Lips Friday — so I am reposting it now.
You inquired about Adam, AH and Bita. I can tell you what is up with them and why we haven’t heard from them recently.
They are stuck in the time May 18, 2014. If they can not find a way to escape they will live that date continually until this one catches up with them. Adam managed to achieve the leap to the future. But it is actually the past because the parallel plain he accidentally shifted into itself was the victim of a shift in time in relationship to our earth’s time.
The far side of that galaxy got caught up in a pull from an exploding nebula that was being pulled by dark matter into a yoder. A yoder is a time hole that broke away from a worm hole in a particular time zone. They can range from a several-century loop to a few hour loop. Anything caught in its dark energy wake is frozen in time along that loop until they die or find a way to escape.
So the swirl is the same in location as its counterpart on our earth, but the reflection of time is not mirrored. 2014 is merely a loop being experienced continually by the three time travelers. If they do not find a way to escape, they will remain there until our earth’s time catches up with May 18, 2014 at 1623 hours.
They must be able to slip through the wormhole corridor that will open up for about 37 minutes and emerge on this side. They are lucky that they ended up in a parallel galaxy that is part of a parallel universe that exists simultaneously with our Milky Way Galaxy. One in a billionth stroke of luck. Otherwise they would be stuck there in that time loop until they perished.
Adam and AH are now working together to solve the equations Adam used to program their time machine. AH thinks it is a hardware problem and not the software problem Adam thinks it is. Bita is learning to operate and navigate the time machine since all she has on her hands is time.
HOWIE
August 10th, 2012 at 6:48 pm
Howie that is a complete plot for a screenwriter. With what you wrote in that comment you could make you a 8 figure fortune.
I can’t believe that you are willing to give this stuff away.
Kent
August 10th, 2012 at 7:01 pm
In Ohio the republicans are allowing the counties that went red for McCain to stay open to vote late on nights and weekends, but those counties that voted for Obama have been denied the same benefit. They will be closed for voting earlier on week days and NOT open for voting on weekends.
If you ever wonder how easy it is for whites to refuse to convict white thugs with badges when they abuse OTWs, consider how easy it is for whites to look the other way at his voting disparity that favors them when the go to the polls late nights and on weekends.
These are the same bastards that didn’t smell the burning bodies in Germany. And OTWs they will be the same jurors that will refuse to find a white guilty of what they will all to easily find an OTW guilty for if he did it to a white person.
Is this a sick race or what?
Jake
August 10th, 2012 at 7:51 pm
Hafa Adai, How about our Guam swimmer? He didn’t win a medal but he did finish the race.
===================
Guam swimmer far behind – but at least he finishes
Updated: August 10, 2012, 1:48 PM ET
LONDON — Benjamin Schulte could’ve quit. Wanted to, in fact.”Around the second-to-last lap, I was just like, ‘Man, I’ve still got two laps to go,” he said, the pain just oozing from his voice. “I was already completely exhausted by that time.”
No one would’ve blamed Schulte for giving up. He had been swimming alone most of the day, the rest of the field leaving him far behind during the men’s open water marathon at Hyde Park.
But the 16-year-old from Guam — a boy among men — didn’t want to let down his family, or his friends, or his tiny Pacific island homeland.
So, long after everyone else had climbed out of the water Friday, Schulte finally touched the timing pad, more than two hours after he started.
In keeping with the true Olympic ideal that so often gets obscured by the focus on gold medals and endorsement deals, he had given it his best to the very end, even when his arms were burning and he couldn’t really feel his legs anymore.
Schulte did what he came to do.
He finished.
“I just did one stroke, then I would say, ‘OK, let’s do the next stroke,” he said. “Then I was like, ‘OK, I can put my hand up again.’ And that’s what I did.”
Over and over and over again.
Swimming just the fourth 10-kilometer race of his young life, and knowing he had no chance to go as fast as Olympic medalists such as Ous Mellouli and Thomas Lurz, Schulte finished about a half-lap behind everyone else, finally touching in 2 hours, 3 minutes, 35.1 seconds.
The strapping youngster was more than nine minutes behind the next-slowest swimmer, nearly 14 minutes behind the winner Mellouli, who became the first swimmer to capture medals in both the pool and open water at the same Olympics.
But, as modern Olympic founder Pierre de Coubertin said (you know, the most important thing “is not winning but taking part”), Schulte had no grand ambitions, no golden dreams. He knew how fortunate he was just to be an Olympian.
“Just being given the opportunity to be here and compete here, I didn’t want to let down all my friends and family back home,” he said. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep up all the way through. I just wanted to finish.”
New Zealand was supposed to get Oceania’s slot in the open water event but passed it up, feeling it didn’t have anyone who would be competitive.
Schulte leaped at the chance to take it, though he knew he would be totally outclassed by the rest of the elite, 25-man field.
His main goal was just being respectable at the start. Indeed, he managed to keep up for about 500 meters or so. Unfortunately, there were still 9,500 meters to go.
As everyone else pulled away, Schulte just chugged along by himself. He was trailed by a safety official in a kayak, who made sure the teenager didn’t get in any serious trouble and would have to be pulled from the water by a rescue boat.
In a sport known for its tight packs and rough-and-tumble tactics, this became a race outside the real race.
The fans lining the banks cheered when the leaders came by. Then they cheered again, a few minutes later and even louder, when Schulte labored by.
“I wasn’t really concerned about swimming it alone,” he said. “I knew I was going to be swimming it alone. I just put that in the back of my mind and accepted it and just did my best to hang in there.”
Don’t get the idea that this was another “Eric the Eel,” a swimmer with no real credentials turning the sport into a bit of a mockery. Schulte competed in last year’s world championships as a 15-year-old, taking part in the 100- and 200-meter breaststroke.
But this was an entirely different kind of race, held in an iconic royal park in the center of London, comprised of six laps around a narrow lake known as The Serpentine.
“I like it,” Schulte insisted.
Why, exactly?
“I don’t know,” he said, smiling. “The first four laps are great. The last two laps are not so great.”
Schulte lives in Australia with his parents, giving him a chance to train under noted coach Denis Cotterell. He’s in the midst of his 11th-grade year and will return to school in early September. He wants to attend college in the United States, listing Stanford as his first choice and architecture as his preferred degree.
He also hopes to build on what he’s done in the water.
“I want to come back for Rio and do a little bit better,” Schulte said. “We’ll see where it eventually takes me, which events I want to do. I really do enjoy swimming breaststroke, so we’ll see.”
He was asked how the people of Guam, a U.S. commonwealth that competes independently at the Olympics, will view his effort. The island of 182,000 sent only eight athletes to the London Games.
“There’s never been an open water swimmer from Guam before,” Schulte said. “Hopefully they’re proud of me. I know I’m proud to be here representing my country.”
=======================
And we are proud of you Benjamin Schulte.
Lea
August 10th, 2012 at 8:25 pm
Howie, do they repeat the same actions every day? Can they die from something that happens to them as opposed to just dying of boredom?
August 10th, 2012 at 9:20 pm
I just heard something interesting. The big donors have told Romney that he can’t win with your man. I know he was picked by Romney. But they think this tax issue of his is hurting him too bad.
August 10th, 2012 at 9:32 pm
I have been told that the money men want Paul Ryan to be the second. They are hedging their bets because they want Paul Ryan to have the lead in the coming election after Obama wins.
They don’t believe that Mitt can win honestly. They are still planning on stealing the election with control of the vote counting and the voter restrictions to prevent OTWs and the old whites from voting.
But they feel that putting Paul Ryan up now is a win win because if they can steal this election great. But if they lose Paul Ryan will have been vetted and as the losing VP candidate he will automatically be the in the lead for the nomination in 2016.
They know they have a winner in Ryan because he is willing to sell the farm for the job. They feel that if something comes up during this run to make him a Palin they want to know it way before they spend the next four years pushing someone with a closet like Romney.
Mike, TM
August 10th, 2012 at 10:27 pm
Hurray for Ben Schulte, 16, and representing.
http://www.news.com.au/sport/london-olympics/guams-benjamin-schulte-16/story-fndpu6dv-1226448006891
Hafa Adai
Anna
August 10th, 2012 at 10:34 pm
Romney wanted Sen Portman of Ohio. But he was voted down. He personally had guaranteed Portman that if he set into place voting rules that would prevent the Left from getting the votes they gave to give the state to Obama against McCain he would be his VP.
Portman did his part, but the LSOS back stabbers screwed him.
Louis