Matt Agorist writes on Alternet:

Orlando, FL — Ryan Richard Diaz and two of his friends were huddling under the corner of a parking garage last July, trying to get out of the rain, when they were approached by officer Michael Napolitano.

According to a lawsuit filed this week, when Napolitano arrived he became very aggressive which compelled Diaz’s friend, Mario Manzi, to begin film.

Napolitano became irate after seeing these teens practicing their 1st amendment right to film the police; so, he proceeded to violate their rights by stopping them.

As Napolitano attempted to grab the phone, the teens began passing the phone off to each other. This behavior infuriated the already raging Napolitano, so he then resorted to his only available tactic — violence.

Because the teens didn’t immediate prostrate themselves before his divine authority, Napolitano struck Diaz in the stomach with his knee multiple times and threw him to the ground. While on the ground, the video shows Napolitano continue to dole out blows to Diaz’s legs and head.

During the melee, you can hear Napolitano attempt to take the phone several times.

When told by one of the teens that he cannot take their phone, Napolitano answers, “You don’t understand how this works. When you are detained, you do not run the show.”

“You cannot grab my camera,” one of them then says.

Napolitano’s answer, “Yes, I can.”

The other two teens involved were then molested by Napolitano as he searched them for the non-existent plant.

The entirely unscathed Napolitano then accused Diaz of battery on a law enforcement officer and arrested him. Prosecutors dropped the battery charges but, unfortunately, they held a lesser charge of resisting arrest without violence in October.

Diaz and his friends had committed no crime, they had harmed no one, yet they were subject to state-sponsored violence and harassment because a cop claimed to have “smelled marijuana.”

“This kid is 5-6, 130 pounds, and his only crime is being at the wrong place at the wrong time and trying to video-record a police officer,” said his attorney, J. Marc Jones.

Unsurprisingly, officer Napolitano faced no punishment and, in fact, received support from his superiors for his actions.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, police Cpl. Joseph Catanzaro reviewed video of what happened, talked to Diaz and his friends and concluded that Napolitano’s use of force was justified.

The video below shows a symptom of much larger sickness in America today. The state is addicted to controlling what individuals can and can’t put into their own bodies. In an ostensible attempt to protect individuals from themselves, the state will kidnap, cage, and kill you — for your own good.

If you are truly concerned about reducing the level of brutality among American cops, you cannot be taken seriously unless you address the war on drugs.

The city of Orlando has agreed to pay $30,000 to a 37-year-old Orlando man whose jaw was broken when former police Officer William Escobar kicked him in the face, according to the man’s attorney.

The settlement was with Kentluku Nugent, an ex-convict who was taken to an Orlando hospital Jan. 1, 2013, shortly after a foot chase and his arrest, records show.

Escobar is the former Orlando officer who was video-recorded hitting and kicking another unarmed man, Refus Holloway, in a separate incident last year. Holloway was handcuffed at the time.

Escobar was awaiting trial on battery and perjury charges in that case.

His attorney, Mark Horwitz, did not return a phone call.

There was no video-recording of Escobar arresting Nugent about midnight Dec. 31, 2012, said Travis Williams, Nugent’s attorney, but there were several witnesses.

In his arrest report Escobar wrote that Nugent was injured because Officer Jonathan Mills shocked him with a stun gun, and Nugent fell and struck his mouth on a concrete sidewalk.

But Williams said the injury was from Escobar kicking Nugent in the face after his client was already on the ground.

Nugent was taken by ambulance to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he was admitted, Escobar wrote in his report.

Escobar had gone to a motel on Orange Blossom Trail because of a domestic-violence complaint involving another man, he wrote in his arrest report.

Nugent matched the description of the suspect, Escobar wrote, but when the officer began to pat him down for weapons, Nugent thrust his wallet at the officer in a way that made Escobar think he was about to get hit, so he tried to force Nugent to the ground, the officer wrote.

Nugent then started running.

During the foot chase Escobar twice fired a stun gun at him but that didn’t stop him, neither did a shot of chemical spray, Escobar wrote.

Mills then shot Nugent with his stun gun, and the suspect went down, Escobar wrote. Nugent still resisted and Mills and Officer Joel Williams hit him with their batons and chemical spray, they wrote in separate reports.

The settlement was signed July 6. Nugent had not filed a lawsuit against the city but had filed notice of his intent to sue.

In an email City Attorney Mayanne Downs said the city disputed Nugent’s allegations but settled the case for “less than nuisance value.”

Police department spokeswoman Sgt. Wanda Ford would not comment, except to say that the settlement was a decision made by the city’s risk-management department.

Nugent has a long criminal record that includes arrests for marijuana possession, battery and resisting arrest. He spent five years in state prison following a 2002 attempted escape arrest in Maitland.

He had tried to bolt from the back of a patrol car after being taken into custody for driving an unregistered car with no license plate and with marijuana in his pocket, according to his arrest report.

In this case, he was accused of resisting arrest without violence, but after reviewing evidence, the State Attorney’s Office opted to file no charge.

From Orlando Sentinel

Independent media outlet Orlando Unfiltered released a video Sunday that highlights a swath of recent incidences of police brutality and excessive force.

The news recap shows both local and mainstream reporting on police violence, misconduct, and false testimony, all having taken place within the last year in Orlando alone.

Video below:

The Orlando Unfiltered website, emblazoned with the slogan “You don’t know the half of it,” features coverage of Orlando’s politics, in particular stories of suspected corruption. Among its coverage: a video of the Lawanna Gelzer, President of a local chapter of the National Action Network civil rights organization, demanding the resignation of Orlando’s police chief.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando police supervisors are investigating the arrest of a 12-year-old boy who was mauled by a police K-9 unit on June 4.

According to reports, the boy spent three days in the hospital after receiving multiple dog bite injuries to his arm.

Police claim the boy pried open a door at the Shingle Creek Elementary School late at night on June 4. Police have not identified the boy because he is a minor.

Police let the dog loose to assist in the arrest. According to the Orlando Police Depratment, it is not normal police protocol to have a dog attack a child under the age of 13, but police say they may not have been able to identify the age of the child they allowed their dog to maul.

Two witnesses to the attack say the boy had dropped to his knees and surrendered to police before police let the dog attack the young child.

The boy’s family hired an attorney, Bradley Laurent, who says the boy will need extensive rehabilitation and physical therapy. “This kid is going to need extensive rehab,” Laurent said. “There’s no telling if he needs surgery to repair any nerve damage, and he may need plastic surgery.”

Update: The unnamed boy was reportedly kept in the hospital for two days to receive treatment for his injuries. Pictures of the boy bitten by the police dog were released by his family and are available below.

ORLANDO, Fla. (CNN) — The video shows a police officer repeatedly winding up and kicking a man sitting on the curb, and while Orlando’s police chief says the officers involved remain on duty, attorneys for the man who got kicked say the video is all they need to demand the officers’ arrest.

“If it were you or I that kicked someone and used a weapon against them while they were sitting passively, we would be arrested. That doesn’t happen to the police,” attorney Natalie Jackson said during a Wednesday news conference. “I don’t have to tell citizens what they see. It’s there. It is the police who are asking us not to believe what we see on the tape.”

Her client, Noel Carter, a 30-year-old Miami-area banker, wore a suit and a bandage over his right temple as he told reporters the police first approached him as he was engaged in a “disagreement” with a woman he had known for a long time. The incident did not warrant police intervention, he said, denying allegations he was intoxicated.

Carter thanked the woman who recorded the police as they kicked him and dubbed the footage “an accurate representation of the abuses inflicted on me … while I was seated with my hands raised on the curb.” Though the video shows an officer kicking Carter in the arm, he was kicked in the head before the woman started filming, he added.

First, muscle, pepper spray and a baton…

The June 4 incident began when a staff member at a club where Officers David Cruz and Charles Mays were moonlighting told them about an altercation down the street, according to Cruz’s statement from the arrest affidavit.

Cruz saw Noel Carter “attempting to grab and hold” a Hispanic woman as she tried to walk away from him, he wrote. The woman was crying, and Cruz asked Carter to stand on the corner while he interviewed the woman, the statement said.

The woman told Cruz that Carter was intoxicated, the report said, and they were arguing because they had just broken up after dating for two years and Carter did not want her to leave.

When Cruz finished interviewing the woman, he walked over to talk to Carter, who told Cruz he was going to speak to her, Cruz wrote. The officer told Carter he couldn’t speak to her, to which Carter replied, “You’re not going to stop me,” according to Cruz’s report.

Cruz tried to handcuff Carter, who resisted, Cruz said. At that point, Mays pepper-sprayed Carter, who walked off unfazed, according to the report. The officers tried more physical force to subdue him and Cruz deployed his Taser three times, “but it did not have the desired effect,” Cruz wrote.

“Carter turned towards me and attempted to grab my Taser,” Cruz’s statement said, adding that the officer then hit Carter with a 2- to 3-second burst of pepper spray before attempting to pull him to the ground.

Carter broke free and ran about 100 yards before sitting on the curb. His eyes stinging from the pepper spray, Cruz ordered Carter to put his hands behind his back, an order that Cruz claims Carter refused, instead lunging at the officers. Cruz then hit him five times in the arm with his baton, he wrote.

This, too, failed to subdue Carter, according to the officer. Fearing Carter might “regain power and get back up” Cruz “attempted to restrain him using my legs and arms,” he wrote. Carter broke free, tried to stand up, then sat back down, causing Cruz to scrape his elbow and knee on the concrete, the statement said.

Taser deployed multiple times

“I decided to deliver foot strikes using the top of my foot, in order to maintain distance and in hopes Carter would comply. I stood up and began delivering several kicks with my right foot to Carter’s right arm in between his elbow and shoulder while telling him, `Stop resisting,’ ” Cruz alleged.

Mays then deployed his Taser again and Carter rolled onto his stomach and placed his hands behind his back, according to the officer.

There are at least three videos of the incident, none of which show the entire altercation. The aforementioned video begins with Cruz kicking Carter.

Another witness’s video shows an officer deploying a Taser and Carter running in the opposite direction, disappearing behind a curtain as the sound of the Taser is heard a second time.

A third video, which the Orlando Sentinel bills as surveillance footage, shows Carter trotting across the street and sitting down as the officers give chase. The video is grainy — and it doesn’t help that it’s nighttime, about 10 p.m. — but the officers appear to approach him on the curb, kick him and wrestle with him before one of the officers hits him with a baton and delivers another series of kicks.

A video covering some of the incident is below:

Continue reading this article at CNN.com