The story of what happened to DJ Henry. It includes of the facts from the family and many things that have not been said by the media.

Saturday, October 16, 2010, Danroy “DJ” Henry played what ended up to be his last homecoming football game. DJ was a junior at Pace University, who was a corner back on the football team.  DJ was a great student who enjoyed life, loved his family, loved sports, and always put God first.

That Saturday, The Henry family came to New York from Easton, MA to spend the day with DJ.  They watched him play his homecoming game and took him to dinner afterwards. DJ’s family left New York around 6:00pm to head back home. DJ’s best friend Brandon Cox who is a football player at Stonehill College in Massachusetts had played against DJ is their homecoming football game.  Brandon was spending the weekend with DJ at Pace University that weekend. DJ was with Brandon at all times because Brandon was not familiar with Pace and he didn’t want him to be uncomfortable. DJ, Brandon and some other friends from the Pace football team went to go out to Finnegan’s Bar & Grill that Saturday night.

DJ and two friends left the bar because of a disturbance and police were called to Finnegan’s. They were not involved in the incident that brought police to Finnegan’s that night. DJ and his two friends went to get his car and pulled up to the front of Finnegan’s so the other two friends could see him when they came out. DJ was asked to move out of the fire lane by a Mt. Pleasant police officer. He was not trying to flee the scene. He was simply going to do a loop around the parking lot to come back and pick up his friends.

By his own admission, Mr. Aaron Hess, a Pleasantville police officer, stepped in front of DJ’s car and left DJ very little time to stop.  Witnesses, including the front seat passenger, cars parked behind DJ’s, and the bar owner, stated that DJ’s car was trying to stop before Mr. Hess opened fire on DJ’s car.  Ballistic and forensic evidence prove that Aaron Hess opened fire on DJ’s car before being struck by the vehicle.  In the early morning of October 17, 2010, DJ was killed by multiple gunshots and his front seat passenger was shot in the arm.  His back seat passenger had bullet holes on either side of him. Hess’ intentions were evident by the amount of bullets he fired into a moving vehicle.

Witness from the scene verify that DJ was then dragged out of the car, handcuffed and left on the ground face down without CPR for 10-15 minutes.  DJ’s parents were informed by the Westchester Medical Center that police had shot their son because “he was running officers down”.  No one from either police department reached out to the Henry family to tell them what happened to DJ.  It wasn’t until DJ’s father, Danory Sr. called the police department and asked them to meet with him and his family to tell them what happened to their son. The initial statement stated that DJ hit three officers, but in the matter of minutes the statement than changed to DJ only hitting one officer.  Chief Alagno of the Mt. Pleasant police department stated that none of his officers were seriously injured and they all went home that night.

There are many things that took place after the shooting by the local police that are very suspicious and unjust. The same police departments that were involved in the taking of DJ’s life also investigated DJ’s death.  These same departments collected evidence against themselves. They took both the surveillance tapes and the hard drives from the business in the shopping area.  It is also very important to know that not one of the dash cameras from either police departments’ vehicles were operable the night DJ was killing. Also, DJ’s autopsy was performed without any representation from the Henry family despite being informed that the family would be sending someone.  DJ’s cell phone service provider confirmed that DJ’s phone was used twice without permission after DJ was killed.

Two large data transfers were made on his phone, which could include pictures, music or any info that was saved on his phone. When the Henry family brought this information to the Westchester District Attorney, Janet DiFiore, she told the family his phone was only used to see whom it belonged to.  This isn’t true because the police took DJ’s cell phone out of his pocket while he laid on the ground handcuffed and bleeding to death.  The police chief claims police left DJ handcuffed on the ground because they didn’t know he was shot. After firing five bullets into a moving vehicle, three of which went straight through the windshield aimed directly at the driver, they somehow thought no one was hit. DJ’s last words were him screaming “they shot me, they shot me” yet the police claim they didn’t know he was hurt as he bled out on the ground. 

Another unjust gesture by the officials in Westchester County is that the medical examiner “leaked” unsubstantiated blood alcohol content, 4 days after DJ was killed after they told the Henry family the autopsy would take weeks.  The BAC claimed to be .13 when in fact the autopsy states that there was no alcohol in DJ’s digestive track and system. A trace amount was found in his stomach, not nearly enough to give him a .13 BAC reading.  DJ had half of a mixed drink around 9pm and didn’t finish it once he realized he would be the designated driver.  Witnesses including the bar owner of Finnegan’s stated that DJ did not drink the entire time he was out that night.  The police as well as the medical examiner’s office have repeatedly told the press that DJ was “drunk” that night.

After the police left DJ face down on the ground without any first aid, DJ’s friends and teammates tried to save his life by requesting to give him CPR.  In return, the police beat, tasered, and threatened these students with guns to their heads and chests and told they would be next.  These young men of are all different ethnicities, were also arrested and brought up on charges.  Multiple YouTube videos show officers clearly out of control, as they were waving their loaded guns and yelling racial slurs at unarmed students, including young women.  After four months, the DA dropped all charges against DJ’s teammates, claiming she was “siding with justice”.  It’s believed that DA received pressure from the judge to release all audio and videotapes from that night (which still has not been released) which prompted her to drop all charges.  The DA, Janet DiFiore, claims that she will release all tapes if asked.  The Henry family has asked several times, once in court but was told no because it would “sway” a grand jury.  How could these videos of true events “sway” a grand jury?

The grand jury decided not to indict Aaron Hess based off of whatever evidence the DA presented to them. The following day the Department of Justice announced they would be doing a full investigation into this case.  The main concern everyone had was whether or not all evidence including all audio and surveillance tapes will be handed over to the Department of Justice by the Westchester DA.

Since the tragic events of October 17, 2010, the Pleasantville  police chief from, Chief Chiarati has retired,  the other officer who opened fire on DJ’s car, Officer Ronald Beckley has retired, and Finnegan’s Bar  has closed.  Aaron Hess was also named “officer of the year” by his police union after killing DJ Henry and while currently being investigated by the Department of Justice.

DJ followed all the rules, has never been in any type of trouble, yet he was killed in such an inhumane way by the very people that are here to protest us.   DJ Henry grew up in a middle/upper class community, and was well known in his community as a quiet, gentle and giving young man.   Many were influenced by the way he lived his life.  He was a great young man.  Please help us get justice for DJ.

Justice for DJ Henry

This statement is by the organization Justice for DJ Henry . It can also be found on the groups Facebook page.

“More African American men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began,” Michelle Alexander told a standing room only house at the Pasadena Main Library this past Wednesday, the first of many jarring points she made in a riveting presentation.
Alexander, currently a law professor at Ohio State, had been brought in to discuss her year-old bestseller, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Interest ran so high beforehand that the organizers had to move the event to a location that could accommodate the eager attendees. That evening, more than 200 people braved the pouring rain and inevitable traffic jams to crowd into the library’s main room, with dozens more shuffled into an overflow room, and even more latecomers turned away altogether. Alexander and her topic had struck a nerve.Growing crime rates over the past 30 years don’t explain the skyrocketing numbers of black — and increasingly brown — men caught in America’s prison system, according to Alexander, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice  Harry Blackmun after attending Stanford Law. “In fact, crime rates have fluctuated over the years and are now at historical lows.”
“Most of that increase is due to the War on Drugs, a war waged almost exclusively in poor communities of color,” she said, even though studies have shown that whites use and sell illegal drugs at rates equal to or above blacks. In some black inner-city communities, four of five black youth can expect to be caught up in the criminal justice system during their lifetimes.
As a consequence, a great many black men are disenfranchised, said Alexander — prevented because of their felony convictions from voting and from living in public housing, discriminated in hiring, excluded from juries, and denied educational opportunities.
“What do we expect them to do?” she asked, who researched her ground-breaking book while serving as Director of the Racial Justice Project at the ACLU of Northern California. “Well, seventy percent return to prison within two years, that’s what they do.”
Organized by the Pasadena Public Library and the Flintridge Center, with a dozen or more cosponsors, including the ACLU Pasadena/Foothills Chapter and Neighborhood Church, and the LA Progressive as the sole media sponsor, the event drew a crowd of the converted, frankly — more than two-thirds from Pasadena’s well-established black community and others drawn from activists circles. Although Alexander is a polished speaker on a deeply researched topic, little she said stunned the crowd, which, after all, was the choir. So the question is what to do about this glaring injustice.

John Paul DeWitt of CensusScope.org and the University of Michigan’s Social Science Data Analysis Network

 

No. 2: New York

Black Americans in the 2010 Census

What the most recent U.S. Census report tells us now.

bobbi.bowman

What the most recent U.S. Census report tells us now.

<p>What the most recent U.S. Census report tells us now.</p>

02/10/2010 06:27

There are 40 million black Americans on the eve of the 2010 Census. We are 12.3 percent of the U.S. population down from 14.8 percent of the population in 2000. African Americans became the nation’s second-largest minority group in the first decade of the 21st century.

WHERE WE LIVE

More than half of black Americans live in the South.

New York had the largest black population of any state as of July 1, 2008 (3.5 million); Georgia had the largest numeric increase since July 1, 2007 (67,000). The District of Columbia had the highest percentage of blacks (56 percent), followed by Mississippi (38 percent).

Cook County, Ill. (Chicago’s county) had the largest black population of any county (1.4 million), and Orleans Parish, La. (New Orleans’ county) had the largest numeric increase since July 1, 2007 (16,000). Claiborne County, Miss.—on the Louisiana border—had the highest percentage of blacks in the nation (84 percent).

Seventy-seven counties were majority-black or African-American; all were in the South.

More than half of black American (53 percent) rent their homes—that’s the largest percentage of renters among the races in the U.S.

GENDER

We are more women than men.

Households: Nearly one out of every three black households (29 percent) are headed by a single woman, the highest percentage of female-headed households in the U.S.

MARRIAGE

Nearly half of us have never married, the highest percentage for all racial groups. Only 30 percent of blacks are now married.

MONEY

The annual median income of black households in 2008 is $34,218, a decline of 2.8 percent (in 2008 constant dollars) from 2007. It’s the lowest in the United States.

Black median family income was just over $41,000 in 2008, the lowest in the United States of any racial group. A single black woman with children earned a median annual income of $25,958.

No surprise then that one out of five black families lives in poverty. More than 40 percent of black families headed by a single mom are poor.

IMMIGRANTS

Only 3 million African Americans are immigrants. Of that number, nearly two-thirds were born in Latin America, the other one-third of the immigrants were born in Africa.

Only 7 percent of us speak a language other than English.

MILITARY

Number of black military veterans in the United States in 2008: 2.3 million. More military veterans are black than any other minority group

The recommendations include mandatory drug testing for police involved in deadly-force incidents, higher standards for hiring and training, and monthly reports about misconduct.

Tim Burgess, chairman of the council’s Public Safety Committee, said the measures are meant to “stop the erosion of public confidence” after highly publicized confrontations between police and minority suspects caught on video over the past year.

“What we’re hearing from the public are questions about what’s going on and why it’s continuing,” Burgess said. “We want policies in place that create a culture in the Police Department where these incidents will not occur and where the effectiveness of officers will improve.”

Burgess acknowledged that many of the recommendations were subject to bargaining with the department’s two unions. But he said some could be adopted by the council as policy directives to the command staff.

Union contract

The Seattle Police Officers’ Guild (SPOG) issued a statement late Friday afternoon warning that state law requires changes in work conditions to be bargained. The union is negotiating a new contract with the city.

“SPOG has demonstrated for many years that we are always willing to entertain new ideas and recommendations for improvement to police policy and procedures. … SPOG is willing to discuss these recommendations at the bargaining table,” the union said.

The department has come under criticism for its use of force against minorities and the length of time it takes to hold an officer accountable for misconduct.

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether officers engaged in a pattern of unnecessary force, particularly against minorities.

In his State of the City address Tuesday, Mayor Mike McGinn suggested the issue of trust could be addressed through the impending retirement of about 300 officers. He noted that more than 80 percent of police live outside Seattle and that new officers could be recruited who share “our commitment to racial and social justice.”

Critical of speech

Burgess, who is himself viewed as a possible mayoral candidate in 2013, criticized McGinn’s approach after the speech as lacking specifics.

On Friday, Burgess said his committee’s proposals to make the department more accountable and transparent “are focused on specific outcomes,” rather than values, although he said values “are a legitimate concern.”

The 11 recommendations were sent to McGinn, Police Chief John Diaz, Lt. Eric Sano, president of the Seattle Police Management Association, and Sgt. Rich O’Neill, president of the guild.

They were signed by Burgess, and the public-safety committee’s two other members, Sally Clark and Sally Bagshaw.

The proposals include:

• Improved hiring standards and training. The department should provide de-escalation training for all patrol officers with special emphasis on misdemeanor and low-level encounters. Previous audits of the department have said that too many minor incidents escalate into violence.

• Monthly reports on sustained misconduct findings that include a summary of the incident, the nature of discipline and the name of the officer disciplined.

• Expedited review of cases that could result in criminal charges against an officer.

• Mandatory testing for drugs, including steroids, of all officers involved in deadly-force incidents.

• Priority in recruiting and promotion of officers who have attended college. Current policy requires a high-school diploma or GED.

Burgess said the council will act on recommendations in the coming two months.

Those subject to collective bargaining will be introduced into the negotiations with the unions, he said.

Michael McElroy for The New York Times

Miguel A. Exposito, Miami’s police chief, at a Miami City Commision meeting in January.

By DON VAN NATTA Jr.

MIAMI — The video, shot with a hand-held camera, shows brawny Miami police officers breaking down doors and hauling handcuffed African-American suspects off some of the city’s toughest streets. “We hunt,” one officer says in the five-and-a-half-minute clip. “I like to hunt.”

Where there is no Justice, there is no freedom and when people lose trust in authority and those who are in charge of the authority, they lose faith in the process of the system of Justice that has been their right through the constitution of the United States.

We have watched our Westchester Justice System blatantly defy logic and true transparency and accountability of the law for too long.  Westchester County Justice Officials, Law Enforcement Officials and Elected Politicians have continued to apply band aide solutions to a wound in our law enforcement institution that clear needs a surgeon.

Even the NAACP expressed its disappointment in the actions or lack of same by the  District Attorney and the evasive right of obtaining Justice for African Americans in Westchester County. They also noted that the District Attorney has reneged on the Pamphlet and  fairly investigating police encounter with civilians.

The masses of the collateral damage are victims that can’t afford good lawyers lick Bonita Zelman or Michael Sussman and many others. These masses will never be recognized by our Westchester media; their cries of injustice will continue to go unheard.  This Westchester County Justice System has a history of prosecuting victims of Police Brutality like Naimah Yancy, Dara Massey, Primivita Diaz, and Lance Cooper. Who all was found innocent by trail.  

So when this cancer arise to the level that media pays attention again, they always report the effect but never question the cause and why. We have found that controversy sells media but logic and dialog that don’t fit the status quoi agenda doesn’t.

Of course, there are many in this Justice System that truly believes in the core tenants of Justice. At the end of the day the rank and file of  our Justice System are victims as well because of fear of losing a paycheck, a promotion or so-called respect of their comrades; they play along with this dismal downfall of trust in this system we call Justice. All along forgetting the oath we take to up hold the state constitution and the constitution of the United States and its citizens. These lawyers, officers and officials work within hierarchies that have put personal and political agendas before real freedom, truth, justice and equality for the citizens they have sworn to serve.

We have watched as the victims of this Westchester County injustice syndrome fall victim of character assassination like Detective Christopher Ridley, who was shot and killed while making off off-duty arrest and NYPD Sergeant Kenny Kessiedu who was assaulted on his way to work by uniform police officers. If our Westchester County  Justice system can create an atmosphere with leaks that will create doubt on the victims that are in law enforcement, then young college students that do not live in Westchester didn’t have a chance for any real transparency of the law.

It is a clear insult to the intelligence of the tax payers of Westchester county for the District Attorney Janet Difiore to say “The evidence against the four players would have likely lead to a conviction, interest of justice tempers the defendants’ criminal actions so that a criminal conviction does not further the ends of justice.”

First, these students are innocent until they are PROVEN guilty. The presumption of innocence is an ancient tenet of Criminal Law.  According to the U.S. Supreme Court, the presumption of the innocence of a criminal defendant is best described as an assumption of innocence that is indulged in the absence of contrary evidence. For our District Attorney to make that statement while presenting  no actual evidence or trail is misleading to citizens she claims she serves.

Secondly, it is our view that the decision had nothing to do with justice”. This was a decision by the District Attorney’s office that strictly political rather than “the ends of Justice”.

Now that crucial evidence in the Danroy “D.J.” Henry shooting has been so-called sealed in the Grand Jury proceedings, along with the District Attorney’s office ignoring demands from the Henry family, community leaders and organization for an independent investigation. It would be suicide for the DA’s office to pursue the case against these four young men.

Why? Because the DA’s office would have to produce the evidence that they have  denied the Henry’s family’s attorney Mr. Sussman and the Cox’s family  attorney  Mr. Ogletree in the investigation of  the shooting of Danroy “D.J.” Henry. 

These young men and their lawyer Bonita Zelman stood firm in the face of injustice. Ms. Zelman requested any Video from police cars, any and all Radio Transmissions from the police department and EMS. To really establish a case against the four students we must really and clearly establish what happen to D.J. Henry. 

The district attorney’s office back was up against the wall . Pursue the charges and turnover evidence that might lead to a different view of what really happen to DJ or bow out gracefully and appear beneficent to the four college students.  District Attorney  Janet Difiore chose to appear merciful but she fools nobody.

This is not a black and white issue; this is an issue of “Fair Dealing”. You would have think she would have learned in the investigation of Detective Ridley that fair dealing means no bias or the presumption of bias. Clearly the investigation of the shooting of DJ Henry, Detective Ridley and other victims of Police Misconduct will continue to fuel the growing doubt among black, white, brown and yellow if there is any Justice in Westchester County Justice System.

The principal concerns of Blacks in Law Enforcement of America (BLEA) are the promotion of freedom, justice, fairness, and effectiveness of law enforcement issues, and the effect of those issues upon the total community.

Blacks in Law Enforcement of America

The dismissal of the four Pace college students has once again brought into question should police investigate police and should the District Attorney’s office request an independent investigator for questionable police shooting.

Delpeche, 23, of Brooklyn, Parker, 23, of Florida, and Garcia, 22, of Floral Park had been charged with disorderly conduct and obstruction. They were accused of disrupting police efforts to control the crowd after the shooting, and interfering with efforts to aid Henry. Delpeche was shot with a stun gun.

Romanick, the team’s quarterback, who is from Louisiana, was accused of smashing a bagel store window after a shoving match with another man. He’d been charged with felony criminal mischief.

All of these charges were dismissed by Town Justice Robert Ponzini.”You should go forward with a clean slate,” he said, “You leave this court as the day you came in — without a criminal record. Go forward and make the best of your life.”

The attorney for the four Pace collage students, Ms. Zelman has obtained videotaped footage and photographs proving the serious and unlawful misconduct of law enforcement personnel in the arrests and prosecutions of these four defendants after their teammate Danroy Henry, Jr. (D.J.) had been shot by police.

The Westchester District Attorney’s Office has withheld production to the defense of surveillance and police videotapes of the scene which defendants believe contain exculpatory evidence.

The video and still pictures demonstrate serious questionable actions of police misconduct but they show that there was no “crowd of unruly onlookers” threatening to invade any crime scene perimeter.

1. Photograph depicting a uniformed police officer run around the corner of his police car taking a two-hand support stance [meaning aiming for accuracy and ready to fire] pointing his gun at innocent unarmed college students.
2. Photograph with female students huddling together and police with guns drawn.
3. Photograph with unarmed students being threatened by police with guns drawn.
4. Photograph depicting student with his arms raised high in the air and police with guns drawn.

 Click to view slideshow.

The defendant Daniel Parker exhibited his CPR first aid certification to police and had a gun put to his ribs, and was charged at by police who physically assaulted him. The defendant, Yves Delpeche, with his hands raised high up in the air, asked to be allowed to help D.J. and was tasered twice in the abdomen.

 The Taser X26 is a device that causes electro muscular disruption [EMD] over the central nervous system. There is a shaped pulse discharge of 2.1 millilamps of 50,000 volts which amounts to a disruptive shock to the nervous system causing the victim to collapse. The device hits a person with two separate probes that penetrate into the body. Training on the use of the taser considers that the device is NOT TO BE USED IN THE FRONT OF THE PERSON’S BODY (COMPLICATIONS WHEN USED CLOSE TO THE HEART AND OTHER MAJOR ORGANS].  

The taser should not be the weapon of first resort and its use is not justifiable where the officer is not directly threatened with the imminent use of equal if not greater force. The defendant Joseph Garcia, who was unarmed and not threatening force upon anyone, was also “tased”.

The District Attorney’s Office or any law enforcement official has offered no justification for tasering two defendants and brutally beating the two other defendants. The fact that each of the defendants sought to aid and help D.J. as he lay wounded and dying in not as asserted, a concession that defendants disobeyed the commands of police, nor is the intent to aid DJ Henry while he lay dying conclusively probative evidence of intent to disregard lawful police commands at a crime scene.

The White Plains NAACP as well as the New York State Conference of the NAACP in November of 2010 requested that the Federal Justice Department assign a Federal Investigator when the dispute over the facts reached by the coroner’s office along with the obtuse leak of information by the involved Police Department. In our opinion, The Danroy Henry investigation and the Grand Jury results suggest that the Westchester DA is more interested in clearing the police than obtaining justice for the citizens she is sworn to protect.

I stated once again because the Westchester Branches of the NAACP and the Black Law Enforcement Officers met with our elected officials including the Westchester DA before the Henry shooting and expressed our concerns regarding Police Brutality. The only solution that was offered was the creation of a comprehensive pamphlet which included a detailed explanation of the process for the filing of complaints against officers. The pamphlet has not yet been produced for public use.

The District Attorney has reneged on the Pamphlet and on fairly investigating police encounter with civilians and our elected officials have offered no legislation nor mandated any education for Police Officers on how to deal with different cultures. It seems the County Executive’s answer was to dismantle the Westchester County Human Rights Department. Clearly, Self Policing just Does Not Work. Those of us who battle for justice and civil rights are disappointed and look forward to an impartial investigation by the Federal Government and the next Election of some of our County Officials. Many of our supporters should also reflect on their next voting opportunity.

It is time that we make sure that our votes go to people who also serve our interest.

NAACP

White Plains/Greenburgh Branch

A friend sent me a link to this video last night to ask me what I thought.

I don’t have words to describe this; anything I can choke out is inadequate. Even what I write here will not adequately do justice.

This is a child — a 15-year-old youth only a little older than my youngest and a little younger than my oldest. And Houston’s so-called finest are kicking him while he is down on the ground, kicking him in the head, near his kidneys, his groin after nearly running him down with their car.

This is a child who at the time of this battery was suspected of being involved in a home burglary along with three other suspects. The other three had been under surveillance; Holley was seen exiting a townhome with two of the suspects. When the police gave chase, Holley ran — and what appears in this video is the outcome of that chase.

The police did not take fingerprints at the townhome; they didn’t fingerprint the stolen goods. There’s apparently nothing in the way of evidence to tie Holley to a burglary, only association with others suspected of burglary.

And yet the police tried to run him down with their car; he was stomped, kicked and beaten by at least five officers although he was already down on the ground. At no point in any of the coverage of this story does it appear that the officers believed Holley was an adult, or that Holley might have a weapon, offering little excuse for the battery show in this video. It’s cruel and unusual extra-judicial punishment without any due process.  . . .

Making the situation worse is the city’s handling of this tape; they did not want it released. The mayor made statements that were perceived as a threat to anyone releasing the tape. The subsequent response of the police force also appears inappropriate. There’s no denial, no non-denial, which might be expected, but there’s also no apparent effort to calm the community’s concern about police brutality — and residents claim this is the first time there’s been video evidence published showing the kind of brutality they have put up with for a very long time.

This child’s civil rights were violated. There needs to be an examination of both the administration and the police of the city of Houston by the Department of Justice, to find out why this happened and just how often this kind of thing has been happening to other children and adults alike in Houston.

And the mayor — once a shining light for Houston — needs to invest immediately in some serious community relations-building. Not merely damage control, but credible, intensive effort made to restore the faith of the public in the mayor’s office and the police of Houston.