Miami Police Union President on Tamir Rice: "Act like a thug and you'll be treated like one."

Wednesday, December 30, 2015 | 12 hours ago

Protests and debates have erupted across the nation this week in the wake of a grand jury's decision not to indict the Cleveland police officers who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice.

Most of that debate has centered on whether police had real reason to fear for their lives, as the grand jury believed. Few have suggested that Rice — a preteen playing with a toy gun in a park — deserved to be killed.

But that's exactly what Lt. Javier Ortiz, president of Miami's police union, argues on Twitter during a debate with Billy Corben over the case. Ortiz writes that the officers were fully justified to shoot the kid. "Act like a thug and you'll be treated like one," he writes.

New Times reached out to Ortiz to see if he wanted to clarify that sentiment. Even the prosecutor in the case called it a "perfect storm of human error [and] mistakes." Plus, the officer who shot Rice had a "dismal" record of weapons training, according to his own former chief. (And that's not even to mention the racially charged use of "thug," which has become internet code in many sectors for the n-bomb.)

But Ortiz sticks by his argument.

"Mr. Rice wasn't your neighborhood kid running around with a water gun. He was brandishing and pointing a pellet gun in which the orange tip was removed," Ortiz tells New Times. "As tragic as the situation is, I support those in law enforcement that had to make a split-second decision in protecting themselves and the community."

Twitter was quick to jump on Ortiz: 

@JavierOrtizFOP he was a 12 year old with a toy, and according to video did nothing wrong.. how was he acting like a thug?

— BRANDON LABELLE (@BBellCanto) December 29, 2015

@JavierOrtizFOP I played with toy guns (airsoft) in neighborhoods as a child. Same with my friends, most white. Are we thugs?

— Matthew (@rebonkulous) December 29, 2015

Ortiz is no stranger to stoking the flames of outrage after police violence. He's previously lashed out at Miami Police Chief Manuel Orosa for supporting charges against the NYPD officers who killed Eric Garner, and Ortiz promoted pages to support Darren Wilson, the cop who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

When a woman filmed a Miami cop kicking a handcuffed suspect last year, Ortiz responded by blasting the witness and spreading photos from her Facebook page. He also perpetuated rumors that a female assistant chief of police was Muslim and ignored the national anthem. Ortiz was also sued by a man who was tasered during Ultra Music Festival. 

In the Tamir Rice case, Ortiz has used the verdict to attack the Black Lives Matter movement, pointing toward the shooting death of a 7-year-old in a drive-by in Miami over the weekend.

"I am sick and tired of the outrage for what is such a justified shooting, yet no outrage for the killing of 7-year-old Amiere Castro, who was killed in a drive-by shooting while playing inside a Richmond Heights house," says Ortiz, who is elected to his post as union president by fellow Miami officers. "Unless you are shot by police, it's not newsworthy or a worthwhile cause by the Blacklivesmatter group."

Of course, that argument misses the point entirely. There's plenty of outrage about Castro's death. Just read New Times' story and the comments about it from Monday. But Castro was killed by a criminal who has since been arrested. He wasn't killed by police officers sworn to protect and serve — yet who face no legal consequences for their mistakes, like killing Tamir Rice.

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At least 28 people holding BB or pellet guns were killed by police in US in 2015

A new law in California bars the sale of BB guns unless the 'entire exterior surface of the device' is white or a bright color, not black. Photograph: Scott Barbour/Getty Images

Police officers in the US have in 2015 killed at least 28 people holding BB or pellet guns comparable to the one Tamir Rice was carrying when he was shot dead in Cleveland, Ohio.

The steady stream of fatalities, recorded by a Guardian investigation into all deaths caused by law enforcement, has prompted some lawmakers and campaigners to push for tighter regulations on the design of non-lethal guns that often closely resemble real firearms.

Announcing on Monday that the officers involved in Rice's November 2014 death would not face criminal charges, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor, Timothy McGinty, said: "I want to call on the legislature and the manufacturers of toy guns not to make guns that look so much like the real thing."

On Friday, a new law aiming to ensure this will go into effect in California. It bars the sale of BB guns unless the "entire exterior surface of the device is white, bright red, bright orange, bright yellow, bright green, bright blue, bright pink, or bright purple, either singly or as the predominant color in combination with other colors in any pattern", or it is transparent.

Related: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States in 2015 – interactive

Support for the measure, which was signed in September last year by Governor Jerry Brown, increased after the fatal shooting by police in Sonoma County of Andy Lopez, a 13-year-old boy who was carrying a plastic toy gun that resembled an AK-47 rifle.

Local activist Marni Wroth said in the wake of Andy's death regulating toy guns has never been a priority for activists, who have instead prioritized advocating for greater oversight of police use of force. Wroth said McGinty was "deflecting" by calling on toy gun manufacturers to change, and that the primary issue remained with police policy.

"That, to me, is just a smoke and mirrors thing," she said.

The sheriff's deputy who killed Lopez in October 2013 said that the barrel of Lopez's toy gun moved towards him and another officer when Lopez turned around, after the deputy shouted at him to drop the weapon. That officer, Erick Gelhaus, didn't face any criminal charges.

About nine months later, 22-year-old John Crawford was shot dead in a Walmart superstore near Dayton, Ohio, while speaking on his cellphone and holding a pellet rifle he had picked up from a shelf. Surveillance footage showed Crawford was shot almost instantly as he tried to run away when an armed officer advancing down an aisle towards him shouted an order. A grand jury decided not to indict the officers in that case.

Several deaths this year involved people who placed officers in difficult situations by wielding pellet guns while allegedly pretending to be armed with a genuine firearm. But other cases have raised more questions about the actions of responding officers.

Tiano Meton was killed by Border Patrol agents in January after refusing to stop at a checkpoint in Texas, authorities said. Officers pursued Meton for about 30 miles before Meton drove off the road. When agents approached Meton's stopped car, one yelled "gun!" prompting two agents to open fire, according to the Hudspeth County Herald. Investigators later said that a "pistol-shaped pellet gun" was found in Meton's car.

Deputies in San Bernardino county killed Ernesto Flores in April after family members called police when Flores set his sofa on fire, according to officials. Flores' daughter said she told the emergency dispatcher that her father was armed with a pellet gun. Flores allegedly pointed the pellet rifle at responding deputies, who fired beanbag rounds before fatally shooting Flores.

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President Barack Obama signs into law a ban on tiny plastic particles used in personal cosmetic products that scientists say are polluting U.S. lakes, rivers and the oceans.

Say goodbye to the beads.

On Monday, Dec. 28, President Barack Obama signed into law a ban on tiny plastic particles used in personal cosmetic products that scientists say are polluting U.S. lakes, rivers and the oceans.

The bipartisan "Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015," (H.R. 1321), passed by the U.S. House on Dec. 7, "prohibits the manufacture and introduction into interstate commerce of rinse-off cosmetics containing intentionally-added plastic microbeads."

The tiny plastic beads, about the size of a pen-tip, have been shown to filter through municipal wastewater treatment plants after consumers rinse them down the drain while using soaps, toothpaste and other products that contain them.

The concern is that pollutants can attach to the floating plastic, which enters the food chain when fish and wildlife mistake the tiny beads as edible.

Related: Scientists trawl Great Lakes in search of tiny plastic

The House bill was co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St Joseph, and Rep. Frank Pallone, D-New Jersey. The Senate approved the bill Dec. 18.

The law will phase microbeads out of consumer products over the next few years, starting with a ban on manufacturing the beads in July 2017, followed by product-specific manufacturing and sales bans in 2018 and 2019.

In an email blast, the Alliance for the Great Lakes of Chicago said a "wave of action" from California to Maine helped bring an end to the plastic pollution and "now a national ban will protect the Great Lakes and all our nation's waters."

Illinois was the first state to pass a ban, followed by New Jersey. Other Great Lakes States to ban the beads included Indiana and Wisconsin. A Michigan ban went nowhere this fall amid legislative disagreements over allowances for "biodegradable" plastic alternatives.

The act language, which defines microbeads as "any solid plastic particle" less than 5 millimeters in size intended for use as an exfoliant, shuts the door on a loophole that could have let manufacturers switch to a different type of plastic.

Obama did not issue any remarks about the ban, signed alongside a bill hold Medicare reimbursement rates steady for some freestanding oncology centers.

Garret Ellison covers business, environment & the Great Lakes for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Email him at gellison@mlive.com or follow on Twitter & Instagram

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San Diegan wants politicians to display donors anytime they speak on floor

SAN DIEGO - When we see race car drivers, there's no mistaking that sponsors make NASCAR's wheels go round. Imagine if our politicians had to do the same.

"If they don't take any money, they won't have to wear any stickers," said John Cox who's behind the "California Is Not For Sale" campaign. He filed a ballot initiative with the state on October 27.

Cox wants California State Assembly members and senators to display their top 10 donors anytime they speak on the floor - just like the life-size cutouts he's displayed in front of the San Diego County building and on the steps of the state capitol. The cut-outs show state politicians covered in corporate and union logos. 

"It's a corrupt system and it's got to change," said Cox. 

Cox says the goal is not to embarrass politicians or to attack corporations, unions or collective bargaining. He simply wants to call attention to the fact that big money controls politics.

"I think many of them, most of them, are probably good people. But they're caught in a corrupt system," said Cox.

Cox made his money in real estate in the Midwest and now calls California home. He paid for the effort to recall former mayor Bob Filner. Now, he's paying for this new campaign.

"These people are not going to change it on their on," said Cox, referring to state leaders.

10News called state assembly members and senators representing San Diegans in Sacramento to get their reaction to this effort. 

Senator Marty Block stated in an email that "he supports reasonable measures to provide more transparency to our legislative process."

Assembly member Rocky Chavez told 10News that he agrees, but added we should maintain some professionalism on the assembly floor.

"To have everyone decked out like race car drivers would be a circus element which wouldn't really benefit the public," said Chavez. 

Chavez pointed out information is already available that shows who is donating to politicians, but suggested one change could be for them to list their top 10 donors on their websites.

"That may be a more convenient way for the average voter to see," said Chavez.

In January, Cox will start collecting the required 365,000 signatures statewide. 

"I actually think this idea will be so popular that we'll get 3 million signatures," said Cox.

If all goes his way, Californians will vote on this next November.

He plans similar demonstrations in Los Angeles and San Francisco. 

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Rape victim forced to call boyfriend, calls 911 instead

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — Police say quick thinking by the victim of a frightening abduction and assault helped them catch her attacker in the act.

The attack happened early Monday in the back of an adult entertainment store.

Officers say Robert Giles, 27, asked the victim to call her boyfriend so he could hear the assault.

Robert Giles (Channel 2 Action News)

Instead of calling her boyfriend, she called 911. Police say the savvy 911 operator also kept his wits about him.

"It was quick thinking on his behalf. In fact, (it) might have saved her life," Clayton County police Maj. Joe Woodall said.

Officers say Giles kidnapped the victim from Hapeville and brought her to the closed Starship Novelties and Gifts store on Tara Boulevard around 4 a.m. Monday intending to rape her. That's when he allegedly asked her to call her boyfriend so he could listen to the assault.

The victim called 911 and told her attacker it was her boyfriend. The 911 operator played along.

"She explained to him what the perpetrator had told her; that he was wanting him to listen while she was being raped," Woodall said.

The operator tried to talk the attacker out of the assault and sent police. Police quickly arrived and say they arrested Giles in the act.

"They were able to stop it right then and there and snatched him right from the car," Woodall said.

Giles now faces rape, false imprisonment and obstruction charges. Hapeville police are preparing kidnapping charges against Giles.

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Arrest Warrant Issued for Bill Cosby

An arrest warrant has been issued for entertainer Bill Cosby for allegedly drugging and sexually assaultingformer Temple employee Andrea Constand at his Elkins Park, Pennsylvania mansion in January 2004, Montgomery County District Attorney-Elect Kevin Steele said at a Wednesday press conference.

Cosby is expected to be arraigned later this afternoon in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.

"A prosecutor's job is to follow the evidence wherever it leads and whenever it comes to light," Steele said. "Upon examination of all the evidence, today we are able to seek justice on behalf of the victim."

Steele said that Constand "came to consider Mr. Cosby her mentor and her friend."

He said that Cosby "made two sexual advances at her that were rejected." He added, "Mr. Cosby urged her to take pills and to drink wine, the effect of which left her unable to [rebuff his advances]."

Prosecutor say the the release of a deposition last summer from a 2005 civil suit filed by Constand, in which Cosby admitted to giving quaaludes to women he wanted to have sex with, caused the District Attorney's office to reopen the case.

Constand was not available for comment but one of her attorneys expressed gratitude toward the prosecutor.

"Obviously we appreciate the expression of confidence in her," says Dolores Troiani of her client, Constand, 42, who is now a massage therapist in Ontario, Canada. "We'll have to see what happens. We hope justice will be done. We will cooperate fully."

Cosby has previously said what happened between him and Constand was consensual, but in new court filings last summer Constand said she was in a relationship with a woman at the time. She also called Cosby a "narcissist" who missed cues that she's gay.

The statute of limitations to charge Cosby runs out in January.

Troiani exclusively told PEOPLE in September that if prosecutors decided to arrest Cosby for the alleged assault, Constand would fully cooperate.

"I think she's a very strong lady," Troiani said. "She'll do whatever she needs to do, whatever they ask of her."

Bill and Camille Cosby

TheImageDirect / FameFlynet

So far, more than 50 women have accused the entertainer of drugging and/or sexually assaulting them. (Cosby has vehemently denied all of the allegations). The warrant comes just two weeks after Cosby filed defamation lawsuits against several of those accusers, who have filed defamation lawsuits of their own against him.

Of those lawsuits Troiani would only say, "I think this arrest warrant speaks for itself. I don't think I have to talk any louder than they have."

RELATED VIDEO: Bill Cosby Admits to Drugging Women to Have Sex with Them

Last summer, outgoing Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman quietly reopened Constand's case, sending detectives to Canada to interview Constand once again while Kevin Steele, her first assistant, oversaw the investigation. (Steele is now the District Attorney-Elect.)

The existence of the new investigation only became public after the Constand case became an issue in this year's race for Montgomery County district attorney.

Democrat Steele, who ultimately won, ran a TV ad blasting his opponent, Republican Bruce L. Castor, Jr. for not prosecuting Cosby when he was the county's district attorney in 2005. At the time, Castor cited "insufficient credible and admissible evidence."

Castor responded with an ad of his own criticizing Steele, the county's first assistant district attorney, for not taking action himself.

• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

In late October Constand filed a defamation lawsuit against Castor for comments he made to various media in the preceding weeks, saying he had made her "collateral damage for his political ambitions," according to the complaint.

How It All Began

Constand was operations manager of the Temple University women's basketball team when she first met Cosby in November 2002, about a year after she started working there, according to a civil suit she filed against him after Castor initially decided not to prosecute him. (Cosby settled the lawsuit with a confidentiality agreement, which Constand is trying to undo, in late 2006).

Cosby, who is now 78, "fostered a friendship" with her, "so that over time she considered him to be both her friend, albeit older, and a mentor," the suit said.

Andrea Constand

Ron Bull / Toronto Star / Zuma

She socialized with him over the next year, discussing Temple women's basketball with him, talking with him by telephone and "being his guest at dinner parties and other events hosted by him at his Cheltenham home and other locations," the suit said.

In January 2004, Cosby invited Constand to his mansion, "telling her he wanted to offer her assistance in her pursuit of a different career," the suit said. She agreed to meet him and arrived at his home around 9 p.m. They began talking and, during the conversation, Constand said she was feeling "stressed" about making her career decision, the suit said.

Cosby "then offered [her] three blue pills, which he told her were herbal medication, which would help her relax," the suit said. Constand took the pills with bottled water and within a short period of time, her "knees began to shake, her limbs felt immobile, she felt dizzy and weak, and she began to feel only barely conscious," the lawsuit said. (Cosby had denied drugging Constand, saying that he gave her Benadryl.)

She allegedly told Cosby she didn't feel well and, because she couldn't walk on her own, he led her to a sofa and laid her down, the suit said.

"Subsequently, [Cosby] positioned himself behind [Constand] on the sofa, touched her breasts and vaginal area, rubbed his penis against her hand, and sexually assaulted her," the suit alleges. Constand was "semi-conscious" throughout the ordeal, the suit said, then lost consciousness shortly afterward.

She allegedly woke around 4 a.m., "feeling raw in and around her vaginal area," the lawsuit said. Her "clothes and undergarments were in disarray," the suit said.

After she woke up, Cosby greeted her "in his bathrobe," the suit said. She left his home by herself and, one year later, reported his actions to police in Durham, Ontario then was referred to authorities in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, where the alleged incident occurred.

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Starting Jan. 1, pharmacists in Oregon will be able to prescribe birth control. Which means women won’t have to see their doctors first. Pharmacists who have a religious objection don’t have to prescribe. But they have to refer a patient somewhere else.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2016, pharmacists in Oregon can prescribe birth control to women over age 18.

Pabkov/Fotolia/AP

Starting Jan. 1, pharmacists in Oregon will be able to prescribe birth control.

Which means women won't have to see their doctors first.

Instead, women will fill out a health questionnaire at a pharmacy and get their blood pressure checked, then if there are no problems, they'll get a prescription.

Oregon State University instructor Lorinda Anderson helped design the training course for the change.

She was asked on OPB's Think Out Loud whether a five-hour online program was sufficient for pharmacists.

"I haven't heard that anybody's worried about it yet. I think that it's a very narrow area that they're allowed to prescribe within. And so I think because of that, people are feeling a little bit safer with it."

It'll be the first time pharmacists have been able to write any prescriptions in Oregon.

Women under 18 won't be able to get birth control at the pharmacy, unless they've had a previous prescription. But that restriction is scheduled to sunset in a few years.

Pharmacists who have a religious objection don't have to prescribe. But they have to refer a patient somewhere else.

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