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Excessive Force

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'Unconstitutional:' Feds Slam Trenton Police For Excessive Force, Illegal Stops 'Unconstitutional:' Feds Slam Trenton Police For Excessive Force, Illegal Stops
'Unconstitutional:' Feds Slam Trenton Police For Excessive Force, Illegal Stops Federal investigators have accused the Trenton Police Department (TPD) of widespread civil rights violations, including excessive force and illegal arrests, calling the department’s practices “unconstitutional” in a damning report released Thursday, Nov. 21. The Department of Justice (DOJ) found that TPD officers routinely stopped and searched individuals without reasonable suspicion, made arrests without probable cause, and escalated encounters with excessive force.  These practices, compounded by poor training, inadequate oversight, and a lack of accountability, have eroded community…

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by Cecilia Levine
Police & Fire
Feds Probe Trenton Police For Excessive Force, Unlawful Searches Feds Probe Trenton Police For Excessive Force, Unlawful Searches
Feds Probe Trenton Police For Excessive Force, Unlawful Searches The Trenton Police Department and the City of Trenton are under federal investigation for a pattern of excessive force and unlawful stops and searches, authorities said. Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke, of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in Washington and U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger made the announcement on Tuesday, Oct. 17. The investigation seeks to determine if there are systemic violations of the Constitution and federal law by Trenton police, they said. The probe will include a comprehensive review of TPD policies, training and s…

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by Jon Craig
Police & Fire
'Want To Feel Pain?': NJ Cop Who Pepper-Sprayed Handcuffed Driver 2X Pleads Guilty, Feds Say 'Want To Feel Pain?': NJ Cop Who Pepper-Sprayed Handcuffed Driver 2X Pleads Guilty, Feds Say
'Want To Feel Pain?': NJ Cop Who Pepper-Sprayed Handcuffed Driver 2X Pleads Guilty, Feds Say A South Jersey police officer admitted in federal court to using excessive force when he twice pepper-sprayed a drunken but cooperative driver while handcuffed in 2017, authorities announced. John Grier III, 51, of Cedarville — who was indicted in 2021 — pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez in Camden in federal court on Thursday, Oct. 5, to a superseding information charging him with one count of violating an individual’s civil rights, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. A sworn Bridgeton police officer since 2004, Grier's admission is in connection with an…

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by Cecilia Levine
Police & Fire
UPDATE: New Details Emerge In Police Shooting Of Jersey City Man With Mental Health History UPDATE: New Details Emerge In Police Shooting Of Jersey City Man With Mental Health History
Update: New Details Emerge In Police Shooting Of Jersey City Man With Mental Health History One of a group of specially-trained Jersey City police officers shot and killed a knife-wielding city man after he charged at them in his apartment, authorities said. An EMS unit was the first to respond to 2:15 p.m. call at the Randolph Avenue residence in the Bergen-Lafayette section of the city on Sunday, Aug. 27, according to a release issued late Monday by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin. "Upon arrival, they requested the assistance of the Jersey City Police Department," the attorney general said. Patrol officers arrived just before 2:30 p.m. and tried to communicate with …

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Ex-Con From Viral Jersey Shore Arrest Video Charged With 1,500 Heroin Bags, Pounds Of Pot, More Ex-Con From Viral Jersey Shore Arrest Video Charged With 1,500 Heroin Bags, Pounds Of Pot, More
Ex-Con From Viral Jersey Shore Arrest Video Charged With 1,500 Heroin Bags, Pounds Of Pot, More An ex-con whose Point Pleasant boardwalk arrest became part of a viral video was busted once again on drug charges, this time along with his roommate, authorities said. A SWAT team led a raid on the Grand Street apartment in Garfield that Zakee Murphy, 32, shares with fish tank technician Ryene Perry, 34, landing both in jail on various drug-related counts, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. Murphy has been arrested dozens of times in multiple counties over the past decade, records show. This time he's accused of using the Garfield home to stash the drugs along with more than $8,…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
WATCH: State Authorities Release Bodycam Videos Of Police Shooting Knife-Wielding Englewood Man WATCH: State Authorities Release Bodycam Videos Of Police Shooting Knife-Wielding Englewood Man
Watch: State Authorities Release Bodycam Videos Of Police Shooting Knife-Wielding Englewood Man A chilling trio of bodycam videos released by state authorities shows a fatal Labor Day encounter between Englewood police and a city man who’d just stabbed three people. Bernard Placide has a bedroom door in a West Englewood Avenue home partially open in the video when Officers Brian Havlicek and Luana Sharpe find him shortly before 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 6. “Put your hands up now or you’re gonna get shot. I’m not kidding,” Havlicek tells Placide as he and fellow Sharpe stand outside the door, their guns pointed, in the video from three police body cameras. Both of them repeatedly t…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Wrongful Death Lawsuit Blames Vineland Police For Man's Fatal Restraint Wrongful Death Lawsuit Blames Vineland Police For Man's Fatal Restraint
Wrongful Death Lawsuit Blames Vineland Police For Man's Fatal Restraint A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against the Vineland Police Department in the 2015 death of Philip White.  The trial begins on Thursday, Oct. 6 in U.S. District Court in Camden. Witnesses apparently differ on many facts including what precipitated Vineland Officer Louis Platania to direct force against White in the March 31, 2015 encounter, according to the lawsuit filed by attorneys Stanley O. King and Michael A. Galpern. At one point, a K-9 dog attacks White. Witnesses also disagree on whether White was conscious or unconscious and whether he resisted the arre…

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by Jon Craig
Police & Fire
Suit Against Camden Officer Who Punched Man 12 Times In Viral Video Settled For $300K Suit Against Camden Officer Who Punched Man 12 Times In Viral Video Settled For $300K
Suit Against Camden Officer Who Punched Man 12 Times In Viral Video Settled For $300K A man who was punched 12 times in the head by a former Camden police officer during an arrest was awarded a $300,000 settlement for a suit filed against the officer, NJ.com reports. Authorities were responding to reports of a man with a gun on Feb. 22, 2018, when then-officer Nicholas Romantino slammed now 35-year-old Edward Minguela to the ground and repeatedly punched him, the outlet says. Romantino, then 27, said Minguela was resisting arrest and pulling his hands away -- but the call turned out to be bogus: Minguela was not found in possession of a weapon. The officer was later pl…

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by Cecilia Levine
Police & Fire
VIDEO: Police, Marchers Clash In Englewood, Four Arrested VIDEO: Police, Marchers Clash In Englewood, Four Arrested
Video: Police, Marchers Clash In Englewood, Four Arrested Tensions were quickly escalating Saturday when the organizer of a peace march in Englewood and a city police officer went chest-to-chest. Then things got out of hand. The officer was one of several who apparently were trying disperse a march early Saturday evening, repeatedly telling participants and onlookers to back up, after what appeared to be a separate incident that occurred along the route several minutes into the event. That's when he and Ainsworth Minott faced off, video shows (see below). Almost instantly, the officer and others push forward. Some marchers are forced to the grou…

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by Jerry DeMarco