Five Memphis Police Officers Charged in Beating Death Belonged to 40-Member SCORPION Unit with History of Violence, Poor Training, and Lack of Supervision

The five former Memphis police officers who were charged last week with second degree murder in the beating death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols were part of a special, 40-member SCORPION (Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods) unit established in October 2021 by Memphis Police Department Chief Cerelyn Davis and Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, a Democrat.

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Brooklyn Center Police Chief Says Minneapolis Suburb Needs Help Fighting Crime

Brooklyn Center’s new police chief has taken stock of the crime situation and determined the city “really” needs help.

Chief Kellace McDaniel spoke at a Brooklyn Center City Council meeting last Monday evening after Commander Tony Gruenig presented various statistics on the city’s crime and police staffing levels, CCX Media reported. McDaniel was appointed to his new role three weeks ago after previously serving as a lieutenant in the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office.

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Whitmer, Challengers Bolster War Chests for Michigan Gubernatorial 2022 Race

James Craig and Gretchen Whitmer

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s 2022 campaign funds have grown to about $12.6 million after raking in $3.1 million between July 21 and Oct. 20.

The Democratic governor has continued claiming an exemption to accept contributions above the state-imposed limit of $7,150 from an individual throughout the entire election cycle. Whitmer’s campaign says it can do this, citing a loophole by which donors may exceed campaign funding limits if their candidate of choice is facing a recall election. Despite several past recalls against the governor over the past three years, none are currently active.

The GOP has challenged this strategy in court, where an Oct. 13 court filing suggests roughly $3.4 million in excess donations must be returned or given to a charity since no recalls are active. New large contributions include Whitmer’s father, Richard Whitmer ($40,000), billionaire George Soros ($25,000), and Vice-Chair of the Detroit Pistons Arn Tellem ($25,000).

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Mayor John Cooper Announces Detective John Drake as New Metro Nashville Police Chief

Veteran Detective and Interim Chief John Drake has been selected as Metro Nashville Police Department’s new chief, Mayor John Cooper announced Monday at a press conference.

Drake, 56, is a Nashville native who began his MNPD career in 1988 and has served in a number of jobs throughout the department, the city said in a press release here.

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‘Not Interfering with People’s Thanksgiving Dinners’: New Jersey Police Chief Vows to Limit Enforcement of Governor’s COVID-19 Orders

by Jake Dima   A New Jersey police chief vowed to limit enforcement of a recent string of coronavirus orders from Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy ahead of Thanksgiving. Howell Township Police Chief Andrew Kudrick Jr. said he would rely primarily on community judgment rather than law enforcement intervention in response to Murphy’s regulations, according to a statement. The governor’s order limited indoor gatherings to ten people, shuttered restaurants and bars at 10 p.m. and capped the number of attendees at funerals and weddings, among other gathers, NBC Philadelphia reported. “Howell Township Police will rely on the community to be responsible for their own actions without enforcement intervention as they have done in the past,” the chief wrote. “Of course they will respond to egregious violations such as packed house parties, so please think as you plan any gatherings.” “We are not going to be interfering with people’s Thanksgiving dinners or their holiday dinners or their social gatherings, unless it’s something egregious,” Kudrick said, according to NBC News. The New Jersey police boss also criticized Murphy for allegedly exempting those engaged in political activities from the order. “When you exempt certain peoples, especially those who are attending political activities, from the executive orders, I think that same…

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Autopsy Finds Ohio Police Chief Died of a Fentanyl Overdose

by Steve Birr   The recent death of an Ohio police chief was the result of a fentanyl overdose, an autopsy report released Friday by a local coroner determined. Authorities in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, found Kirkersville Police Chief James Hughes Jr. dead in the bathroom of his home on May 25, along with a plastic sandwich bag containing cocaine residue and two syringes that later tested positive for fentanyl, a synthetic opioid roughly 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. Hughes was police chief for little more than two months before his death, reported WCMH. The autopsy report, issued by the Franklin County Coroner’s Office, said Hughes died from “acute intoxication by fentanyl,” which they found to be the result of an accidental overdose. Hughes’s death is the second tragedy to befall the Kirkersville Police Department in the past year. The community lost Chief Steven Eric DiSario in May 2017 after he was fatally shot while responding to a hostage situation. The coroner’s report underscores the dire nature of the opioid crisis spreading across the state. Ohio currently has the second largest drug overdose death rate in the country, trailing only West Virginia. Nearly 40 in 100,000 people die from drug-related overdoses in Ohio. The state lost 4,329 residents to drug overdoses in 2016, a 24 percent increase…

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