Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Free Speech, Justice, Media, Torts

Bleed on a Ferguson police officer? Get charged with destruction of public property. Oh My!

By Charlton S. Stanley, Weekend writer

We should have seen this coming. I believe it is going to get worse before it gets better, if ever. At some point there is going to be a “pitchforks and torches” backlash.

Ferguson MO logoIt may be starting in Ferguson, MO. Take a look at one of the latest stories to come out of there. It’s sad that we have to look overseas to get reliable and up to date news about what is happening in the good ol’ US of A. Because of the great sucking sound that is the US corporate mainstream media, people who want to get a more balanced read on the news check sites such as Al Jazerra, The Guardian, RT, The Epoch Times, and Der Spiegel.

This is a brief clip from a story posted yesterday on RT (Russia Today). Emphasis is mine:

Nearly four years to the day before Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson opened fire and killed Brown, 18, a complaint filed in federal court accused the same law enforcement agency of violating the civil rights of a man who says he was badly beaten after being wrongly arrested, then later charged with “destruction of property” for bleeding on the uniforms of the cops alleged to have injured him.

Full story at this link.

It gets better. Reading the court filings, we learn that on September 20, 2010, Henry Davis missed his exit and found himself in the the St. Louis County community of Ferguson at 3:00 AM. As it happened, there was a warrant was out for a Henry Davis, but the wanted man has a different middle initial, different birth date, and different Social Security number.

However, Davis, a 54 year old African-American welder was assaulted by four officers (one of them female). The records show that he was thrown forcefully into a one-person cell, but the one-person cell already had an occupant. He would have had to sleep on the concrete floor, because the one bunk was already occupied. There was a pile of sleeping mats near the cell, so Davis asked for a sleeping mat. Because he asked for something to sleep on, he was called disobedient. At that point, Davis was thrown to the floor, and put in restraints. During this assault in the jail, one of the officers kicked Davis in the head.

After being restrained and kicked in the jail cell, paramedics took Henry Davis to the hospital where he insisted that his picture be taken before he was treated (photo and story at the link). The Emergency Room doctor diagnosed him with a concussion and stitched him up before releasing Davis back to custody of the Ferguson PD.

He was released 3 days later on a $1500 bond for “destruction of public property.” If they kick and beat you, you better not dare bleed on their uniforms.

Davis sued. When the four officers were deposed, all four denied that they had blood on their uniforms as they had signed on their affidavit of complaints. What does this mean? They either perjured themselves at trial or had falsified affidavit. That level of perjury is a felony. The county prosecutor declined to prosecute because he claimed Davis’, injuries were de minimus.

Bob McCullouch
Bob McCullouch

Let’s take a look at the prosecutor. The St. Louis County Prosecutor is a man named Bob McCulloch. He has a reputation of being extremely harsh in his prosecution of offenders. However, McCulloch has some personal baggage which calls both his judgement and racial neutrality into question. You see, Bob McCulloch is the son of St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officer Paul McCullouch. Officer Paul McCullough was killed in the line of duty on July 2, 1964. Officer McCullouch was 37 years old at the time. His son, current prosecutor Bob McCulloch was 12 years old in 1964. I remember that cop killing, because we lived in St. Louis, and it happened not far from where I was working at the time. Officer McCullouch was responding to a kidnapping call at the infamous Pruett-Igoe Housing Project when he was shot in the head by the fleeing kidnapper. His killer was a black man.

Bob McCullouch wanted to become a police officer like his father, but lost a leg as a teenager. That eliminated him from joining the police force, so he went to law school and became a prosecutor, a position he has held for the past twenty years. His tenure as a prosecuting attorney has been marked by controversy. He has a reputation as being almost fanatical about prosecuting alleged perpetrators, but turns a blind eye to even the grossest misconduct by law enforcement officers. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a story about him.

Mr. Davis’ injuries were de minimus, and according to McCullouch, not worth pursuing, yet Davis’ spattered blood on the officer’s uniforms did warrant charges. Maybe somebody smarter than me can explain that logic.

Henry Davis sued the city for civil rights violations, but late last year Magistrate Judge Nannette A. Baker ruled in favor the city. His attorneys filed a notice of appeal in March, and the case is currently slated to be considered later this year by the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals.

A PDF of the filing to the Eighth Circuit is embedded in the RT article.

–ooOoo–

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441 thoughts on “Bleed on a Ferguson police officer? Get charged with destruction of public property. Oh My!”

  2. For the first time in my life I must say that Fox News does the better job. CNN is being chumped.

  3. There is a way to curb the demonstrations in Ferguson and then stop the violence from the late night out of towners: How? Easy. Don’t let any person into the shopping center areas of parking lots like one sees on the tv. Make them walk sidewalks only, not the street. Arrest the violent folks and charge them with crimes and let them sit in jail for bail hearing. Anyone who throws a Molotov cocktail should be shot at that time. Nuff said.

  4. I am going to change the lyrics of my previous humor about Ferguson and turn it on CNN.

    C N N, C N N,
    Greatest channel in Ala bam
    Here across this great big land
    There aint not dick like CNN.

    – Randy Newman, with some changes in the lyrics to the song Birmingham

  6. Jay Nixon: Tells the world and the media and the state that the police officer needs to be prosecuted for a crime.

    GIVE ME A BREAK! After all the apCray on this story, this is the most offensive and anti civil rights act statement made by a Governor since that schmuck named Wallace said Segregation now etc. The Governor has joined the Mob. The mob includes the news media calling for the prosecution of the cop for shooting Brown.
    Why is this wrong? Because it is up to the Prosecutor and the Grand Jury to determine from facts presented that the officer had commited a crime. NOT that the initiation of a criminal charge will quiet the Mob.
    Jeso Jay. You are really a friggin Nazi. !!!

    Fox News is onto this aspect of the Nixon position and opposes it. CNN adheres to Nixon’s position and has indeed been part of the MOB. From now on I will call this The Media Mob. Things are getting worse in Ferguson and in Missouri and in the United States. Eric Holder is coming to town tomorrow. Boy is he needed. I guess he will screw up as well.

    Jeso. America. Where the hell have you gone?

  13. Jack
    Are you suggesting a nontransparent policy is a good policy for police to have? One that depends on deceit and misinformation? And this creates trust?

    I’ll wait for the hospital report to surface… If it’s there.

    On a side note:
    The reporter that kept stating that there were a dozen witnesses corroborating Wilson was put on leave due to violations in reporting. No other details given by her. I’ll post her tweet shortly.

  15. Max, Do you really think the officer guarding Officer Wilson’s home is going to tell the reporter anything more than that? Heck, the family could have been sitting in the living room watching TV and the officer could have said the same thing.

    But most importantly…What does it matter?

  17. Jack
    When the hospital report is released… When… More like if.

    Last week, and I’m going from my understanding and am not in a position to properly Google it, last week when a reporter went to Wilson’s home the reporter was greeted by an officer guarding the home and was informed by that officer that Wilson and family were out of town.

    Nine days later we’re being told, by you, that he was in the hospital. If so, there are records.

    p.s.
    Where is the shooting report?

  18. Beldar, I’ll be in Soulard on Thursday. Let me know if you want to meet up for a beer.

  19. I am staying in a hotel in Downtown St. Louis and going to different bars and restaurants. Now in Soulard. Yep. There are a lot of young folks who live in this City neighborhood who are vibrant and intelligent. I got away from the crime scene out there on W. Florissant Rd. because I was not going to learn about Ferguson or St. Louis with all the hype and outsiders mulling around. Over all this is the most intelligent city I have been to in America and is not at all bigoted. My last visit to Long Island puts it up there with the deep South in terms of hearing the N word and in NYC they predicate the N word with the F word. This media scene out in Ferguson and Jennings will go on for as long as the media stays on the street. My hotel is full of folks who came for the events. I wont borrow anyone’s email router again, my Beldar one works fine now. We are from France.

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