Re this story, I never say any followup ups and in googling it it appears there are no updates. Anyone know what happened?
[Unprovoked Cops Viciously Beat Student Then Charge Him With Assault
Video exonerates innocent victim and initiates criminal charges against police](Unprovoked Cops Viciously Beat Student Then Charge Him With Assault)
I have no idea but it reminds me of the Leonard Pitts column I just read about dancers at the Washington? Lincoln? Jefferson? memorial who were attacked and arrested by police. The editorial started off with some comment to the effect of, “Now we all agree that the arrests were warranted,” and I was like, say what?
I would like to see a little more dancing in the world and a little less hitting people with sticks. Is that too much to ask? If you see someone dancing, can you just walk on by instead of re-enacting Thog the Caveman?
If you Google: “University of Maryland Student Beaten by Cops Fights Back” you will see some links with updates.
I have nothing to add but wanted to say that I don’t think I have ever witnessed such an outrageous, unequivocal, and absolutely disgusting example of police corruption and brutality as documented in that ABC story (the video is jaw-dropping, especially in relation to the fact that the kid was the one initially charged. And with a felony! My God!)
There was also an issue with missing video footage from the surveillance camera that covered the area where the beating took place. The camera, IIRC, is on campus and looks down Knox Rd where the beating took place. The UM campus police are in charge of it and the video from the time frame was “accidentally” missing when the student’s lawyer asked for it. The UM police officer in charge of the video just happened to be married to one of the Park Police officers on the horses.
At least that’s what I remember hearing a few days after it happened.
I did a Lexis/Nexis search, and the most recent story i could find was from December 4, 2010. It was in the Washington Post.
Here are some relevant details:
I haven’t been able to determine whether the FBI have yet come to any conclusions, or laid any charges.
Given that these cops were in Prince Georges County, i’m sort of surprised they were even suspended. In PG County, it often seems that police misconduct is more likely to draw bravery citations and promotions.
I don’t understand; what was the cops’ motivation for the beating in the first place? All I can come up with is jumping the gun on the assumption that the celebratory sports fans would soon begin rioting and taking inaccurately violent measures to suppress such disorder, but even that seems implausibly wild.
It was a bunch or people raising a wild ruckus (that in the past had gotten out of control and violent) which tends to put police on edge. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time at the point they finally decided someone was going to get a beatdown.
I’m guessing they don’t usually get caught on video.
Just found an update to this story.
Though at least 3 officers hit him, two were charged with assault, one was convicted. The convicted guy faced a possible 10 year sentence. What he got was 30 days of home detention, and 18 months of unsupervised probation.
Fuck.
Yup. From the linked article
Fuck.
For everyone that gets videotaped, I’m sure 10,000 similar incidents are never videotaped and the kids life is damaged by violent cops.
The police were investigated because objective evidence proved they were violent and lying. Had it not been for objective evidence (rather than eyewitness testimony) they probably would’ve sided with the officers. There were easily a dozen cops who witnessed the assault, false charges and the false police report and not one came forward. The only reason this came to light was because of the videotape. The 2 or 3 violent cops are one thing, but the dozen(s) who saw what was happening and covered up their acts are just as bad.
The guy did get a 2 million settlement out of it. I’d take an unprovoked beating by the cops for $2 million. But had there been no videotape then the police would’ve gotten away with it and all the police eyewitnesses would’ve lied and helped cover it up. And the kid’s career path would’ve been heavily damaged by a felony record.
What is also infuriating is that some states, cities and municipalities are dealing with these issues not by enforcing professionalism by the police, but by trying to make it illegal to videotape the police.
Is Prince georges county the county where the police were mandated by the feds to install video cameras on their cars to provide objective evidence, or was that somewhere else?
Here’s an article, an editorial by the Washington Post, claiming the trial was essentially fixed. The judge’s ex-husband was was a PG county cop who had previously been convicted of shooting a helpless suspec. on the ground, and she communicated her disdain for the prosecution of the officers by turning her back on the prosecutor during his summation. She didn’t disclose her apparent conflict until a reporter dig it up. When the cop was convicted, she gave him an ridiculously gentle tap on the wrist.
An update on this story: the only PG county cop convicted of beating a UM student, who received a ridiculous little slap on the wrist sentence, had even that conviction thrown out.
That is incredibly depressing but, in PG County, not especially surprising.
Come on guys, it is just a few bad apples.
The question remains why all the bad apples join the police.
Paging Smapti to the thread. This is the first call for Smapti.
There’s an unfairly-maligned peace officer who needs your services!
“Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown.”