cops kill hostage, hostage had been suing for 50 million

[SmarterthanYou]

what a coincidence.

Neenah, WI — The only casualty of an hours-long SWAT raid and hostage situation in Neenah, Wisconsin was a disabled veteran who had filed a $50 million civil rights suit after he survived a similar SWAT raid three years ago.

Michael Funk, a co-owner of Eagle Nation Cycles, was shot and killed by police after being held hostage for several hours on December 5. Police evacuated several buildings and closed down an entire street in the city, which is located about 40 miles south of Green Bay.

"Mike worked there," observed attorney Cole White, who had represented him in his lawsuit against the City of Neenah and its police department. "Mike was a hostage ... not a suspect, he was not involved criminally. He was a hostage that was taken at gunpoint by this maniac."

A suspect was taken into custody at about 1:00 PM. His name has not been released, nor has the name of the officer who killed Funk. The official story is that Funk, who had a concealed carry license, refused to drop his gun in response to police commands after he fled the building.According to the preliminary police account, the still-unidentified officer who killed Funk was shot and suffered trivial injuries. It isn't known how the hostage situation began.

In 2012, the Lake Winnebago Area Metropolitan Enforcement Group staged a SWAT raid at Eagle Nation Cycles that resulted in 15 felony charges against Erato -- all of which were dismissed. He was eventually convicted of misdemeanor marijuana possession.

"They threw everything but the kitchen sink at him, and it turned out to be nothing," observed White, who is still representing Erato in the federal lawsuit.

During the raid, "The hyper-militarized force parked an armored tank-like vehicle outside of Eagle Nation, stormed the building, bombarding the occupants with assault weapons drawn, screaming profanities and abuse, all while wearing plainclothes (ununiformed) and face masks," recounted the lawsuit. The raid was supposedly justified because an informant with the task force supposedly witnessed a drug deal in the alley behind the motorcycle shop on the previous day.

The objective of the raid was to close down the business and seize the property on which it stood through "asset forfeiture," the suit contends. Just days ago, the City of Neenah had filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

It's likely that one of the "tank-like" vehicles employed in the most recent raid at Eagle Nation Cycles was the $770,000 "Peacekeeper" armored vehicle, which the department obtained for "free" six months ago through the Pentagon's notorious 1033 "surplus property" program.

Responding to concerns expressed by municipal officials that acquisition of the "Peacekeeper" signified that the department is "moving ... philosophically toward becoming a military, agents of the federal government, much like the military would be, I certainly don't agree with that at all," Neenah Police Chief Kevin Wilkinson told the Green Bay Fox Affiliate. Wilkinson described the vehicle as similar in size and construction to "a snow plow or a garbage truck."

The "Peacekeeper" replaced the armored vehicle that had been used during the first SWAT assault on Eagle Nation Cycles, which was made in 1979 and was considered "incapable of keeping people safe from some of the armaments that have been used in the last few years," Chief Wilkinson continues.

Neenah Mayor Dean Kaufert clearly identified the "people" whose safety he prioritized: "The one thing I don't want to do during my tenure as mayor is ... to go to a policeman's funeral. And so if this vehicle can protect them I'm willing to accept that."

The "Peacekeeper" did nothing to protect Michael Funk, whom the Neenah Police supposedly set out to rescue. His death was the product of either incomprehensible misfortune or uncanny -- and malicious -- marksmanship on the part of a police department that institutionally had cause to resent him.

Mayor Kaufert has not indicated whether he will be attending Funk's funeral, but given that the deceased was a plaintiff in a civil rights lawsuit against the city it's likely that Kaufert and Wilkinson will somehow contain their bereavement.



http://informationliberation.com/?id=53323

[USFREEDOM911]

YEP - that has to be the only conclusion that can be arrived at and I bet it was all a conspiracy.

[PostmodernProphet]

case dismissed.....

[Minister of Truth]

Pot sounds dangerous if it requires SWAT to deal with it. Next we'll have CDC containment teams deal directly with people who have colds, instead of leaving them to general medicine and home remedy...

[SmarterthanYou]

Police officers gave hostage Michael L. Funk no warning to drop his handgun before they shot and killed him Dec. 5 outside Eagle Nation Cycles, according to video evidence obtained exclusively by USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.

A prepared statement that was issued by Neenah Police Chief Kevin Wilkinson about 10 hours after the shooting said Funk was shot after he didn’t obey police commands to drop his handgun.

In addition, the criminal complaint against accused hostage-taker Brian T. Flatoff stated Menasha police officer Raymond Berna heard officers yell, "Police, show me your hands" or "Police, drop the gun" before officers shot Funk.

The video, which was recorded by a dashboard camera of a Neenah police car, contradicts those statements.

Wilkinson acknowledged that point Thursday afternoon after the video was made public.

"The video does not give any indication that there was a verbal command given directly to Michael Funk before he was shot," he said.

so they lied........

Wilkinson said the Dec. 5 information about Funk ignoring police orders came from witness statements. "If it turns out that there were no commands, as we don't hear in this video that you posted today, then that would indicate that those witnesses were wrong," he said.

The police chief said there is no legal or policy requirement for officers to give a warning before shooting when there is an imminent threat.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice is investigating the shooting but has not released its findings. Wisconsin law requires that an independent agency investigate when police kill a person.

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin filed public records requests for video with the DOJ, Neenah Police Department, Winnebago County Sheriff's Department and Winnebago County District Attorney's Office. None of the requests have been granted.

Wilkinson previously said he wanted video evidence released to the public but that his hands were tied by the DOJ. He said that from his perspective and training, the video appears to show that officers "acted in accordance with their training."

"Ultimately, what I think is not as important as what the Attorney General's Office thinks, obviously," Wilkinson said. "They are the ones who will make the ruling whether it was a justified shooting or not."

City attorney Jim Godlewski declined to comment on the police actions shown in the video when reached by telephone Thursday. He said the city was leaving the analysis of the shooting to experts.

Funk, 60, and two other men were held hostage by Flatoff in a dispute over a motorcycle. A so-called hasty team of five Neenah police officers tried to enter the building through a back door to rescue the hostages but were driven back by gunfire from Flatoff, who was armed with a machine pistol, according to the criminal complaint.

Neenah police officer Craig Hoffer was shot in the helmet and knocked to the ground during the gunfight. The officers retreated from the building and scattered in two directions.

Soon after, an out-of-breath officer radioed his assessment of the ordeal.

"We're not sure if these were actually hostages, or if it's a bait pile (trap for police), so we backed out," the officer said.

Minutes later, Funk escaped out the back door while Flatoff shot at him. No police were in the immediate vicinity. Funk either fell or dove to the ground and quickly got to his feet. He pulled a handgun from the small of his back as he took cover by Flatoff's truck and pointed the gun at the door in the direction of Flatoff. Funk had a concealed carry permit.

Funk then turned and took one or two steps and was shot multiple times by police officers, who were stationed about 75 feet away at the corner of Vicky's Beauty Shop. Some of the shots were fired after Funk fell to the ground.

Funk didn’t point his gun at police and didn’t fire a shot.

About 3½ minutes passed before police learned that the shooter was still inside.

The video confirms previous reporting by USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin that Funk died at the scene and lay in the alley for at least 25 minutes, contrary to the Dec. 5 police statement that he received medical care and later died at a hospital.

so they lied again......

Police brought an armored vehicle into the alley after Funk was shot, but they made no attempt to help him.

When Neenah acquired its armored military surplus truck in May 2014, police justified the acquisition to elected officials by saying it could be used for protection when confronting armed, barricaded suspects. They also said it could be used to evacuate people from an unsafe scene.

and they lied again........


http://www.postcrescent.com/story/ne...ning/83595386/