# Beating videotaper **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 12, 2002, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beating-videotaper/118613 "2002-07-12T13:34:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beating-videotaper/118613/41 "2002-07-25T11:44:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by wring \* > \*\*he’s 16, in special ed, legally a minor - I have no problem identifying him in publications as a ‘child’. \*\* Even though he is every bit as large as the officer in question? And was possibly belligerent and combative? I would like to see the whole tape before I would pass judgement on this officer. Hey, maybe he is a bad guy. But I could not say that on the basis of that snippet of tape alone. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beating-videotaper/118613/42 "2002-07-25T21:51:22Z")
Pay attention, spooje: He. hit. a. person. who. was. handcuffed. That. is. legally. and. morally. wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beating-videotaper/118613/43 "2002-07-26T13:13:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by carnivorousplant \* > \*\*3) The police already beat the snot out of him. > > \*\* Pay attention yourself. Do you have any evidence for your claim here? Or should I say do. you. have. any. evidence. for. this. claim? Yeah, he hit him. Yeah, he shouldn’t of done that. But if this guy had a hold of his nads, it seems pretty understandable. Like I said, I want to see the rest of that tape. It may put those actions in a different light. Or may not, I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beating-videotaper/118613/44 "2002-07-26T13:21:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by spooje \* > \*\* Do you have any evidence for your claim here? > \*\* I withdraw this. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beating-videotaper/118613/45 "2002-07-26T13:21:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by spooje \* > \*\*Pay attention yourself. Do you have any evidence for your claim here? > \*\* Yes, I saw it. > [@](#): > > \*\* > Yeah, he hit him. Yeah, he shouldn’t of done that. But if this guy had a hold of his nads, it seems pretty understandable. > \*\* Then he shouldn’t be a policeman. Grownups use the word “testicles” BTW. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beating-videotaper/118613/46 "2002-07-26T13:28:57Z")
Horse manure. If someone grabbed your ‘testicles’, you are gonna strike out. It’s a reaction, and it’s instinctive. And lighten up with insults, pal. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beating-videotaper/118613/47 "2002-07-26T13:37:23Z")
I had many bike wrecks as a kid, and was kneed in the groin as a child…excuse me, young teen. It hurts, but no more than having your nose pulled or your ear twisted. Anyway, he apparently lied about hitting the person in his report. He shouldn’t be a policeman. They’re the good guys. If you do wrong, you tell the truth about it. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beating-videotaper/118613/48 "2002-07-26T13:46:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by carnivorousplant \* > \*\*I had many bike wrecks as a kid, and was kneed in the groin as a child…excuse me, young teen. It hurts, but no more than having your nose pulled or your ear twisted. > \*\* I was nadvertanly kicked in the groin in a sparring match. I have a videotape of it. I writhed on the ground in agony for a good 5 minutes and was done for the day. Maybe your nose and ears are more sensitive than mine are. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beating-videotaper/118613/49 "2002-07-26T14:03:02Z")
So what did they do to the guy who broke the rules and kicked you in the testicles? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beating-videotaper/118613/50 "2002-07-26T14:06:44Z")
He didn’t break the rules. He threw a kick that was supposed to be to my mid-section. He just didn’t get his leg up high enough. Or, that’s his story, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beating-videotaper/118613/51 "2002-07-26T17:13:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by spooje \* > \*\*I was nadvertanly kicked in the groin in a sparring match. I have a videotape of it. I writhed on the ground in agony for a good 5 minutes and was done for the day. \*\* and > [@](#): > > If someone grabbed your ‘testicles’, you are gonna strike out. It’s a reaction, and it’s instinctive. vs. > [@](#): > > The ‘beating’ consisted of weak punch to the face See, that’s why I suggested that you pick one position or the other. Either the man’s groin was attacked, which would elicit the ‘natural’ response of striking out because of the accute pain involved, **or** the punch was weak. My personal take on it: I wouldn’t consider what I saw on the tape as a ‘weak’ punch, and I didn’t see the officer in question bending in pain afterwards, either, so I’m not particularly convinced that there was a shot to the groin. See, if it was a weak shot to the groin, the officer should write it up as a seperate assault and charge the kid (ie not hit). If it was such accute pain that he lost control, hitting at the kid, I cannot figure out why he’d not be dropping to his knees/ground as you state you did. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2002, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beating-videotaper/118613/52 "2002-07-28T05:21:00Z")
Wring, IIRC, you are a woman, so I’ll ask this. If someone you did not know were to grap your breast, not enough to send you to the floor in pain, but simply to grab it, would you not instinctively strike out? Would you not consider it an assault on your person? IF the kid did grab for the jewels, it’s likely he didn’t get a good enough grab to do damage. Wouldn’t matter. He’d still be _resisting arrest and attempting to do damage_. The guy couldn’t deliver a ‘shot’, as you put it. But he could still inflict pain if got a good enough grasp, and that’s just not OK. When the cops put the cuffs on ya, you are supposed to stop. When you don’t stop after the cuffs are on (and it happens, you see it on ‘COPS’ and other FOX shows all the time), then you get hit. Frankly, that’s not the kind of thing that makes into police reports, IMO. They would simply put that the suspect resisted arrest. As far as what did or did not happen, I don’t know. If this kid was stopped for no reason, put up no struggle, cooperated as he is supposed to do, then yes, the officer was indeed wrong and should be kicked off the force immediately. However, if the kid was stopped for valid reason, was verbally and physically combative, and was still trying to grab the officers package with his hands cuffed behind his back…then I don’t see a crime here. I really don’t have all the info to make a call either way. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2002, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beating-videotaper/118613/53 "2002-07-28T05:35:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by spooje \* > \*\* > > They would simply put that the suspect resisted arrest. > > \*\* But they didn’t. I’m tired of wasting my breath on you. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cookeze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@cookeze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cookeze)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2002, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beating-videotaper/118613/54 "2002-07-28T13:46:04Z")
The idea that the police shouldn’t hit someone that is handcuffed is ridiculous. In the 60s, when I was 16, and drunk, I hit a cop when he tried to arrest me and a group of my friends. This happened just as a couple of backup squad cars arrived. The cop had to go to the emergency room for his nose. And me and the rest of the cops continued the altercation, and after a minute or so they got me handcuffed and pressed to the ground. But I didn’t stop fighting even then, so I continued to be struck with batons and kicked and punched while handcuffed. This was in front of several hundred witnesses. Everybody, including me when I sobered up, said I got just what I deserved. In fact, I was lucky I didn’t get shot. For the next week I could hardly move with all the bruises. Handcuffs don’t put an end to all struggle. There’s lots you can do. The cops are certainly within their rights to bring a suspect under complete control. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2002, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beating-videotaper/118613/55 "2002-07-29T12:23:56Z")
**spooje** - the answer is: Yes, I have been groped/assaulted, and no, I didn’t lash out. When operating a correction center, and was assaulted by an inmate there, I did **not** hit back, I wrote the report and she was arrested. (which if you’ll review is what I suggested that the officer’s obligation was). In private life, no, I don’t generally hit back - that can get you an assault charge. Some one grabbing at me may get any of the following - dirty look and a comment drawing attention to their action “Gee, why do you think you have the right to touch me?” ; their hand taken away from my body; their hand shoved away from my body, criminal charges filed etc. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beating-videotaper/118613.md?page=2)