In this unsettling follow-up to incident in inglewood , CA, where ciops were taped beating a teenage suspect,CNN reports that the man who videotaped the incident, having been arrested yesterday on “unrelated charges” was hospitalized for injuries suffered while in custody.
You know, this is a really good way to blow the good opinion for policemen that was generated last year after 9/11. The police are supposed to be the good guys, arresting suspects, not beating them, still less beating bystanders who caught them in the act.
What’s next? “Disappearing” suspects in custody? The old knock on the door in the middle of the night and being whisked away “im Nacht und Nebel”? Oh, right, that’s Homeland Security.
It is possible that this man has found a good way to avoid serving his sentence. He violently resists, gets a few bruises, and claims he was battered in retaliation. A good plan, if that’s what it was.
I’m not saying that’s what happened. Just that we don’t know, and shouldn’t assume. But the cops should have been extra careful with this guy…
Don’t become the focus of the national media with OUTSTANDING WARRENTS!
Yup, the arrested a bad guy who was trying to avoid paying for his crimes. If I were him, I’d sure as hell be screaming about police brutality, it could keep me out of jail. Lets face it, he’s already tried once to stay out of jail, him doing so a second time isn’t a very large stretch of the imagination.
And I think why there weren’t any other posts on this subject is that it’s pretty clear he was arrested on outstanding warrents.
I don’t know whether the guy taken into custody was abused (it would be pretty dumb with the FBI and DOJ already involved in the first case). I did find it pretty stupid to pick the guy up in a big SUV with windows tinted so dark that it was impossible to see inside. I think they should have used one of those black helicopters we keep hearing about instead.
I don’t think it’s suspicious at all, that he got arrested, he brings attention on himself when he has outstanding warrants for his arrest. He was convicted of the crimes years ago, and skipped out on the sentence. I don’t quite know what to think about him being injured, have to get more info on that one.
On the punching of the handcuffed kid, the jury is still kind of out on that one, IMHO. I saw the clip, the kid’s hands are cuffed behind him right where the officer was standing. One trick I learned in Judo, is if someone grabs you in a bear hug from behind, trapping your arms, just bring your hands behind your butt, and grab the dude’s nuts. Works like a charm, this kid could easily have done something similar because of the relative body positions, which is what the officer’s attorney is alleging happened.
It may be that the cops didn’t know where he was until he sufaced with the tape. I would have been surprised if the cops DIDN’T arrest him after checking his background.
He deserved to be punched in the head with that much force because he grabbed a cop’s nuts? I’m sorry, but I don’t think using that amount of force with someone you’ve arrested is ever acceptable. There are lots of different ways of handling a suspect that’s being unruly, but I don’t think punching them in the head is one of them.
The video not only showed a punch, Cheesesteak, it also showed an upper-body slam onto the trunk of the car. What did he do to deserve that?
Doesn’t it seem a bit ridiculous to say that three (or four?) cops who have a young man in handcuffs, grappled between the lot of them, and two feet from a caged backseat needed to slam and punch him because he was “grabbing”? Toss him in the car, take him downtown, and add assault of an officer to the charges. Once they had the suspect restrained and cuffed they had NO right to assault him.
At some point, the cops have to take the highroad don’t you think? At some point the cops have to realize that their job is to take a guy into custody. Yeah, maybe the kid is a total prick, swearing, lunging, taking swings at the cop, and even IF it was necessary to slam his head against a car hood, once five cops have him held down, I think it’s sad for a cop to think: AND NOW I’m going to punch him in the face for good measure. That’ll learn him.
I don’t particularly like the term “deserved” that was in my quote, but that’s how the link presented it. I’m no big fan of the police, nor do I enjoy the idea of them beating on people for no reason. However, I can’t say that they should just sit there and allow themselves to be attacked, either. If the kid continued to attack, even while handcuffed, I can’t fault them for continuing to use force.
If the officer punched him for “good measure” rather than in direct response to the kid grabbing him, that’s just no good, and he deserves appropriate punishment.
I’ve never said this before, and I hope you won’t think less of me, but…regarding the grabbage and the squeezing?
It may be a guy thing: you might not understand.
If someone has me by the family jewels, I’ll do whatever it takes to get them to stop. Just as I’ll never know how much childbirth apparently hurts, you might not realize the level of body-wide agony that those two little organs can generate.
Regarding any punches after the perp has let go (which isn’t the way I heard it)? They’re certainly wrong morally, but it’s completely understandable.
Unfortunately we’re unable to recruit perfect paragons of virtue or machines to be policepeople. Given the amount of pain the cop must have been in, I feel he showed admirable restraint.
Don’t you think that if the kid had grabbed the guy’s nuts the cop might have said something to that effect, claiming he did punched the kid to avoid further injury to himself? The cop hasn’t, so far as I’ve heard.
If I was a cop and a cuffed suspect grabed my balls, you better believe I’d hit him until he let go.
And if you watched the video the cop didn’t haul off and pound the kid in the head as hard as he could… I was a fairly small arm movement at a band angle to generate force.
If the perp never grabbed said balls, then yes hitting him was TOTALLY unjustified. But if he had a double handfull of warm salty cop sack, then I kinda see the cop’s side here.
Change the situation slightly, say the kid punched the cop in the kidney, wouldn’t the cop have the right to use force to restrain the kid? And compared to kidneys, testicles are a lot easier to damage.
I see no evidence that Crooks was actually hurt from that CNN story. He had no visible injuries, and was taken to the hospital because he “complained” of injuries. If I was the police, I’d take him to the hospital too, just to prove that he wasn’t hurt. Any word on what resulted from the hospital visit?
The arrest so close to the taping was because previously, they didn’t know where the guy was. Since they were “minor” offenses, the police weren’t actively looking for him. But you can be sure that when someone turns up with outstanding warrants, they get arrested. I would expect no less.
And with a name like “Crooks”, what did you expect anyway?
As far as grabbing nuts, if that teen actually did grab the officer’s boys, he was lucky to get off with a punch in the face and a slam on the car. Plus, when people are resisting with all their might, it’s not easy to be gentle with them. Slamming them down on the car is the only way to do it. You can’t place them nicely because they’re fighting you.
