Lawsuit alleges excessive force by BR police

[damnedifIknow]

Lying in a pool of his own blood about two months ago with his two front teeth knocked out, Brett Percle recently recalled, he watched as police officers ransacked his friend’s Baton Rouge home.

The officers, members of the Baton Rouge Police Department’s Special Response Team, were looking for marijuana and anything else that might be pertinent to an investigation into whether drugs were being dealt from the Lila Avenue home off GSRI Avenue between Gardere Lane and Nicholson Drive, according to police documents.

When the police showed up at the home, Percle, 22, was there visiting an old college roommate. He wanted to hang out and play some music at the house."

*About 2:30 p.m. on June 11, Percle and the other four people inside the Lila Avenue home heard a knock on the door. Before anyone had time to react, Percle said, a team of officers wearing black military-style outfits barged in with guns pointed at the occupants and ordered everyone to lie down on the floor.

“They were prepared for war,” Percle said in a recent interview. “Everyone had grenades. Everyone had a machine gun.”

Just inches away from a prone position, Percle felt a blow to the back of his neck, which caused his face to slam into the tile floor. Teeth went flying. Blood started flowing."
"
*Officers ridiculed Percle, he said, calling him a jack-o’-lantern. On several occasions, Percle said, officers walked up to him and asked, “How did you lose your teeth?” One suggested his teeth must have been rotten before the beating, Percle said, while another told him he must have slipped and fallen.

Percle was never arrested or charged with any crime. In fact, he said he’s never been arrested."

Loughlin, Percle’s attorney, said one goal of the suit is to prevent what happened to his client from happening to anyone else.

“I think they were over the line in this case,” Loughlin said of the police’s actions.

The attorney said there is a trend to militarize America’s law enforcement agencies, adding, “there’s got to be a check on it at some point.”

http://theadvocate.com/news/police/9969710-123/suit-alleges-excessive-force-by

[woo me with science]

1. Homeland security grants. This is driven by federal policy

arming local police departments with military equipment.

Military device used on Detroit protest against #WaterShutoffs
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014852205

All The Infrastructure A Tyrant Would Need, Courtesy Of Bush And Obama - TheAtlantic
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022973186

The Militarizing of Local Police (through Federal Grants)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bradlockwood/2011/11/30/the-militarizing-of-local-police/

Another Day, Another 124 Violent SWAT Raids
https://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/another-day-another-124-violent-swat-raids

Does your local government have a “black budget” too?
https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-technology-and-liberty-criminal-law-reform/does-your-local-government-have

Too many cops are told they're soldiers.
https://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform-free-speech-technology-and-liberty/too-many-cops-are-told-theyre-soldiers

One ongoing scandal in the criminal justice world, for example, is the fact that there's no reliable data on how often police officers fire their weapons at citizens. The federal government is supposed to collect these figures, but for whatever reason, it simply hasn't done so.

Towns don't need tanks, but they have them.
https://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform-free-speech/towns-dont-need-tanks-they-have-them

Full ACLU Report on Police Militarization
https://www.aclu.org/criminal-law-reform/war-comes-home-excessive-militarization-american-police-report