An unbiased witness always makes things go a little bit better. Something about being accountable.
If a few of these lawsuits are successful, maybe we’ll see a change.
Personally, I think that got got away lightly. He should have been fired, then held financially responsible for the lawsuit.
Can’t be held responsible for something that was just filed and has yet to be won. (I’d like to think the lawsuit includes the officer and not just the PD as a defendant.* The officer won’t be entitled to civil immunity for wilful/malicious actions. That is, If the kid wins; however, well, Georgia … and not merely dependent on a given favorable jury outcome but also the finer points of the law and an inevitable appellate marathon.
- If it doesn’t, the teenager has a very bad lawyer and might want to save his tears for that instead of the rest.
Video: America’s year of police violence
To be sure, it’s only mid-October, and I think best to keep in mind that not all police violence is caught on video. (Prudent to account for what’s caught on video but never makes it to the youtube, etc. A well-placed threat or two coupled with a device destroyed = certain problems solved. (Most people understand what legal mayhem can ensue if they don’t go along to get along. Thankfully, some people are either too stubborn or dumb to think about the myriad of unintended consequences.)
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Just saw this on the AP; thought I’d provide the update for others.
The first step to changing anything (unless you can afford to hire big-shot lobbyists) is raising the public’s awareness that there’s something wrong that needs changing.
No, the video cameras won’t fix things by themselves, but without them, you don’t get to Step 1.
The NYPD officers who beat a Brooklyn teen after he surrendered are being charged with assault.
New York cops must be the best in the world, because they so rarely misbehave:
There may have been only a couple of missed shots since at least some of the injuries were from ricochets.
- Happened in front of the Empire State Building. Cops were entirely correct in shooting a murderer who was also trying to kill them. In the crowded conditions of 5th Avenue and 34th Street, a miss probably would hit a vehicle, a brick or stone building, or a person, if not all three.
I believe none of the innocents injured receive life threatening wounds.
And then there was the Sean Bell shooting. Four cops shot 100 times into a car. They were all standing within (probably less than) 30 feet of the vehicle, yet 50 of the shots missed the auto entirely. One of the strays hit the LIRR railroad station a half mile away.
Another one of America’s finest reaching out and making connections with the local community.
And yet some people can’t understand why people mistrust the cops.
And here’s the cop in question, summing up the way so many police apparently feel about their abuse of authority, and about being held accountable for it:
I would abuse my authority and violate the constitution again, although not if i knew i was being filmed. Nice!
I honestly don’t know what to think about that video.
It seems like the officer was investigating some sort of crime, and that furthermore there was a weapon visible in the vehicle. So he wanted to search it. Without going through the hassle of getting a warrant.
So he attempts to intimidate the punk (who might be a fine citizen for all I know). He slaps him once. But he doesn’t lose his cool: he doesn’t go ballistic. It appears to me that he was doing things by the unwritten book as it were, standard unofficial procedure. I’m guessing that behavior wasn’t out of the ordinary and reflects longstanding suburban cop behavioral norms.
Today, smartphones have video cameras. If we force cops to do things by the book -the written book that is- will there be unintended consequences? That gives me some pause. I don’t want to live in Orwell’s 1984, but I don’t want Mad Max either.
My question to you is very simple: if he really felt like these young men might be the people involved in the crime, what did he possibly have to lose by following the law and getting a warrant?
As for the alleged crime that he was investigating, according to this news story, the officers were investigating “a call of suspicious people parking at another business and entering woods on Route 236 near the Wal-Mart.” Sounds like a pretty dangerous situation. Parking and entering woods! What next? Standing around and chatting?
It’s pretty damn unfortunate that a cop intimidating a citizen into giving up his constitutional rights, physically assaulting him, and following it up with threats of further violence, apparently does not qualify as “losing his cool” in your world, and can be shrugged off as “standard unofficial procedure.” Basically, the only thing in your post that i agree with is your observation that this probably “reflects longstanding suburban cop behavioral norms.” It’s just that i see this as part of the problem, rather than as something that might need to be preserved due to a fear of nebulous, vaguely-defined “unintended consequences.”
I am, however, happy to note that, according to the story linked above, the cop in question has resigned from his position, and was today:
These things take time and municipal funds. Also, if the crime is serious as I assume it is…
LOL. Well there goes my theory. At worst they were smoking pot. So we’re discussing a picayune drug bust (which didn’t happen).
Losing your cool is when a cop leaves visible damage on the suspect. That was controlled (and illegal) violence. SOP.
It’s only nebulous because I don’t know about cop-work. Nor do TV watchers know about it. What I’m saying is that there are all manner of technically illegal police procedures that are routinely used and before we declare nuclear war on them, I’d like to see the situation gamed out. I don’t have the knowledge to do that though. Your stepdad or pkbites might have some insight. Presumably the matter could be studied.
ETA: I suppose they could have been running a stolen goods ring.
You know what else takes time and municipal funds? Lawsuits over constitutional violations.
Much less of a problem when compact video cameras aren’t routinely carried by the citizenry.
I think reforms are inevitable, though the process will drag out. I should like to know the consequences of various proposed shifts in standard de facto police procedures.