I know what you’re thinking: “As if we needed more evidence…”
The short: Guy gets kicked out of establishment for using the wrong bathroom (is that a crime? It might be, though that doesn’t excuse what happens next). Cops arrive and manhandle the obviously dangerous and hardened criminal to the ground. Guys buddy’s dad is a deputy, so buddy calls him (while standing well away from any of the officers) for advice.
What his dad probably didn’t have enough time to tell him over the phone is that that is a clear and inexcusable violation of any cop’s AUTHORITAY! So of course, cop proceeds to beat the crap out of buddy and then arrest him.
What’s not in the story? Well the part about when the cops the go ahead and all LIE about the incident and claim that he took a swing at them compounding their abuse of power and assault with filing a knowingly false police report.
I know what you’re thinking now too: “Police officers lied about being thugs in uniform? Say it ain’t so!”.
Apparently buddy won a lawsuit against the department (for a weak sauce $17 grand) but the department refuses to fire these assholes. And that’s the real problem here. I can understand ass-hole cops. There are ass-hole and downright criminal thuggery to be found in all professions: lawyers, doctors, engineers, businessmen, delivery boys. It’s just a fact of life, but when even video evidence and a successful lawsuit is STILL not enough to remove these “bad apples” from the cart is it any wonder why a lot of people start to think the whole damn cart load is rotten?
Also, pay attention to the camera, apparently is a police cam, probably controlled remotely. Notice how when the copy starts the beat down the camera suddenly pans back. Lol. I winder if the operator was like “shit I shouldn’t of seen that”.
Queue the usual crowd claiming that the guy deserved it for you, know, looking at them funny in 1, 2 3…
You know, the more I think about this, the more angry I get. If there hadn’t been any video evidence you can bet your ass that everyone would believe the cop’s story. Certainly any judge would.
A charge of assaulting a cop is gotta be something you’re going to serve some time for, and you’re going to have a frigging record. These cops were not only willing to beat up people because, well I don’t really know why, because they felt like it? Because they hadn’t filled their quota for assaults, who the fuck knows? But they were also willing to ruing a guy’s life as well. Fuck, I’m still trying to get my citizenship in this great country of ours (I’m not being sarcastic) because of some silly mixup with a parking ticket. I’m picturing that being me. Such a charge would have fucked me. It’s a perfectly valid grounds for refusing me a citinzenship. Man, this realy pisses me off.
It seems that there is a trend towards arresting and prosecuting ppl for videotaping arrests. I don’t have any good links or cites right now, but if this is true, this is more frightening than anything I’ve seen come down the pike. Only video can ever stand against the word of a police officer, and it looks like that is being taken away from us. Who will watch the watchmen, and protect us from our protectors? Obviously, not all cops are thugs, but when ppl are given power over us, there must be checks and balances.
Here’s a crappy blog link for now, maybe others know some better ones.
Something must have happened for the cops to be arresting the 1st guy. Maybe he made a scene when the club told him to leave. Clubs don’t usually call the cops if someone leaves when they’re told too. Regardless, what the hell is that cop doing to that guys ankles with his nightstick? Then they point to the guy on the phone? Why, what is he doing? He’s obviously excited by his hand gestures but even if he’s exaggerating and claiming “they’re beating the crap out of buddy” Is that an arrestable offense. He’s no threat to them. He’s not interfering. Maybe the cops aere going to arrest them both and they had to subdue 1st guy before they dealt with 2nd. It appears the cop tells him to put the phone down and he turns away rather than comply, at which point the ass kicking starts. I notice how the camera pulls away right after the kid is thrown to the ground.
I cut cops a lot of slack because I know they deal with a lot of crap but this appears tp be “we’ll kick your ass because we can”
Looked like he was using the thing like a damn rolling pin – yee-fricking-ouch. Yeah, the only thing that could make that video reasonable would be if the guy on the phone said something along the lines of “Get the fuck away from me or I’ll put a bullet in you” to the cop. ‘Course, we know that wasn’t the case from Sparks’ own testimony.
The most damning thing here is that Sparks continues to claim that DeHerrera “spun to his left attempting to strike [Sparks] in the face with a closed right fist”, even though the video shows it’s flat-out not true. Hey, I can understand thinking the guy may have been about to make a move – the reaction was out of proportion, but whatever. But when you’re shown on video that that was absolutely not the case at all, own the fuck up to your mistake.
Yep, that’s the biggest problem. You have to wonder how many people have criminal records because the jury took the cop’s word in cases like this, and there was no video evidence.
Sure, some cops act like assholes. But if cops in general, and the people who defend them, don’t want the public to extrapolate from incidents like this to the police force as a whole, then the police force needs to make sure that it removes the bullies and the liars and the criminals from its ranks. As long as departments defend cops like this, and refuse to fire them, it is no exaggeration to say that these bad elements are representative of the force as a whole.
The independent Monitor charged with reporting on this incident, Richard Rosenthal, notes that the problem here is not simply the excessive force, but the concerted effort on the part of the officers to misrepresent what happened that night. From this article:
As noted upthread, the camera seems to move away from the action as soon as the cops start laying into DeHerrera. While some people in Denver have alleged some sort of conspiracy on the part of the police camera operator, Rosenthal, according to this article:
What’s most amazing, i think, is that instead of treating this as both a serious case of brutality, and an attempt at a cover-up, the Department itself is waving the whole thing away as a mere paperwork issue. From the first link:
Submitting an inaccurate report? Are you fucking kidding me? That sort of disciplinary charge should be reserved for cases of accidental error or inattention; it should not be used, as it is here, to act as a fig leaf for outright lies and attempts to deceive.
Wait, so if the citizens of Denver decide to respond to collectively this via Molotovs and lynching, the problem was the police assuming that the people would do the right, smart, legal thing and not use their overwhelming force advantage against the few, outnumbered police to make there ‘not be none’?
That seems…tenuous. No, wait, not tenous. That seems utterly unconnected with reality.
I can’t tell if you’re being serious or not, but did you watch the video? The guy under discussion was not the original guy the club called the cops on and the video clearly shows he was doing nothing to interfere in the arrest of his buddy – he was simply talking on the phone.
This results in a beating and an arrest, which lead to police officers conspiring to lie to investigators with nothing more that three-day suspensions without pay (not to mention what looks likes actions with intent to cause unnecessary pain and harm to the first arrested guy).
Heh, yeah, had the same thought. The operator probably went : “what’s going on here, then ? Hmm… OK, arrest… OH SHI- traffic cop traffic cop traffic cop. I’m a traffic cop tonight. Whoah, look at all them cars, lots of them innit ? Look at the pretty lights please !”
I think there are quite a number of sociopathic personalities who go into law enforcement. These guys like to be on top and in control. The fact that they can function in high stress situations without losing it makes them an asset.
Often the criminal and the cop are just flip sides of the same coin. Some guys, perhaps because of a decent upbringing, or maybe for other, more self-serving reasons, chose to use their personality qualities in socially approved ways.
If there are a number of these folks channeling their traits in a positive way, all the better for society. If they start to drift to the dark side en masse then all heck breaks loose.
Not all cops are good people. Not all cops are bad people. They are however given powers over us civilians that requires we hold them to a higher standard. I expect cops to treat people they encounter fairly and with respect. They should obey the law at all times. When they do not, the law should come down on them hard.
There must be something else going on here. Else, why wouldn’t the cops have been fired? Why would the kid settle for a lousy $17k, which is practically a rounding error?
Did the kid on the phone, who clearly was upset, call the guy a cocksucker, or maybe he loudly told his dad he was going to kick the cop’s ass, rape his daughter, or something provocative? Not that that would necessarily excuse the behavior, but… taking the 17 grand means there’s more to this story. Even if the kids were idiots, I’m sure Dewey, Screwem, and Howe would never have let it go for that low, unless there was a good reason.
I have friends who are cops. But they’re good guys. Want to know what they hate most about the job? Not the ciminals - it’s the bad cops. I have one friend who quit the force because he claims all of his coworkers were thugs w/ badges.
The biggest problem is not that there are bad cops. The biggest problem is that “the system” does not prosecute the bad cops.