Body camera video shows police using force on trapped protesters on Jan 20
Unicorn Riot has cited a DC Office of Police Complaints report confirming that police attacked protesters against Donald Trump's inauguration with no warning and considerable force. Assistant US Attorney (AUSA) Jennifer Kerkhoff is Deputy Chief of the Felony Major Crimes section of the US Attorney's office in DC, is prosecuting the J20 cases-and now she is attempting to hide the evidence and the body camera video.
Jennifer Kerkhoff(known as Jerkhoff to many of her victims) is behind the efforts to send 209 Inauguration protesters to prison for up to 80 years. At a recent status hearing she introduced a motion that would forbid defendants from sharing video evidence such as the above body camera video revealed in discovery. The raw bodycamera video was originally released by the Indypendent, the annotated version edited by a supporter of the J20 defendants adds captions explaining what police are doing.
Apparently the body camera video has severely embarassed the prosecutors, who are also smarting from the charges of sexual assault contained in the ACLU's lawsuit against the Metropolitan Police Department for the unlawful mass arrest and indiscriminate use of force against J20 protesters. In response MPD and Jennifer Kirkhoff want to hold defendants who release evidence of felonies committed by the police in contempt of court, but this would be limited to future releases after the judge rules on her motion sometime in July. Ms Kirkhoff cannot stop you from watching the currently release video evidence or reading already release reports. That ship has sailed, and she is standing on the dock watching it disappear over the horizon.
From the Unicorn Riot report:
"The American Civil Liberties Union recently filed a lawsuit against DC police over constitutional, civil, and human rights violations carried out by local and federal authorities during the mass arrest. Everyone in the mass arrest was detained outdoors for six hours without access to food, water, or restrooms; one arrestee described the experience as “like being in a cattle car.” The lawsuit states that ‘One of the MPD officers, Defendant Officer John Doe 96, made clear to the detainees that no toilets would be made available by stating in response to one detainee’s request that she should “shit pants” to prove she needed a toilet.’
One of the journalists arrested, Shay Horse, told Democracy Now! “I felt like they were using molestation and rape as punishment. They used those tactics to inflict pain and misery on people who are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty.” The lawsuit describes, among other physical and sexual abuse, that officers laughed while rectal searches were being performed, fondled arrestees’ testicles, did not change gloves while moving from one individual to the next performing anal searches, and “manual rectal searches were performed in the presence of several other detainees and approximately five to ten other MPD officers, including at least one or two female officers.”"
The attempt to break the back of opposition to Donald Trump by sending hundreds of people to prison for what amount to life terms is criminal enough, but apparently the prosecutors and police are very afraid of the general public seeing proof of the crimes they have committed against protesters even before any trials. They are trying to pre-emptively hide the evidence. This is even before Ms Jerkhoff tells her lies on the stand, even before Police Chief Newsham tries to use the prosecutions to duck another Pershing Park style judgement. Newsham was police chief back in 2002, when his criminal misconduct against protesters unlawfully mass arrested at Pershing Park cost DC millions of dollars in a settlement paid out 8 years later.
With abuse like this, police wonder why protesters descended on their headquarters on the 25th of June, ignoring rallies by lesser fascists like Jack Posobiec and Richard Spencer in the process. A US Attorney's office answering to known KKK sympathiser Jeff Sessions and to Trump is a greater danger. So are the police they control, thus the "ACAB" or "all cops are bastards" sentiment expressed at that solidarity protest. Trump himself has invited overt white nationalists or neo-Nazis into his White House staff, notably his strategy chief Bannon.
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https://indypendent.org/2017/06/75-years-for-protesting-in-black/
