Here’s the story I shot tonight.
Not really in the mood to do a Pitting, I figured I would just link the story and let everyone see it for themselves.
Is their any chance of a Federal Civil Rights case? Police beatings & misconduct are sometimes handled that way. Especially if the local prosecutor is dragging his feet.
The police need to be held accountable just like anyone else.
I’ll bet a nickel that no charges are ever filed against the officer(s).
Check out this thread about a police beating here in Las Vegas. Despite some video of the attack and audio throughout, no charges were filed against the officer.
We’ve had cases in the Las Vegas valley where officers shot and killed people (one guy was clothed only in a pair of shorts, was on his knees with his hands behind his head, surrounded by SWAT members in the middle of the day, complied with everything he was told to do… and they shot him) with no charges filed.
Police and prosecutors, in my experience, protect their own.
And in this case, there’s no video, no pictures, no audio. Just his word against the officers. Guess who’s gonna win that contest?
It’s funny that I was just watching a documentary about White House Photographer on PBS and then I read this…
I can’t read the linked article because it’s killing my Safari… but is this another case like that of Henry Louis Gates police incident?
I saw this last night. He was taking photos of the police arresting some underage people who were drinking. One of the cops came up and took his camera, arrested him and supposedly threw him against the cruiser. The police claim he threw himself against the cruiser.
His camera was taken away and when he got it back the memory card was either gone or erased. Why would they take or erase someones photos if there was nothing on them?
Maybe so, but there are limits.
This story wouldn’t have surprised me at all if it had originated in Prince Georges County, MD, rather than Montgomery County. Sounds like the PG attitude is spreading.
“And then he repeated ran his face into my fist. It was the weirdest thing I ever saw.”
Fucking MoCo po-po.
We’ve linked the entire interview - raw tape - on the web. It’s a hell of a story.
I have had my run ins with the police; it’s part of the job. This one scares me how it went from taking video to arrest and beating without any middle steps to diffuse the situation.
What wasn’t said on camera but what struck me was this: the officer works in an area with a heavy Latin American population. He was arresting two Latin American men. Apparently the officer’s arrest rate is 90% Latin American.
He went nuts as soon as Mr. Garcia identified himself by name. I honestly don’t want to believe it but it was too obvious for my tastes.
Wow, normally, in the US at least, identifying yourself as a credentialed journalist makes it at least marginally less likely that you’ll get roughed up by the cops.
As someone who likes street photography but has no such credentials, I’ve got to be fairly circumspect. I have sometimes been approached pretty agressively by civilians, but any of my occasional interactions with cops have maxed out at the level of, “please don’t take any photos”, and usually not even that.
So, what exactly were the officers doing during the filmed arrest that they felt they had to go to such lengths to cover it up?
From what we know it was a legitimate arrest, 21 yr old guy bought liquor for underage guy. Honestly don’t know why the officers lost their cool.
No, he claims that the card was gone or erased. Again, it’s a he said/ they said situation.
Do you find it equally likely that a journalist working for the White House is lying vs. the cops are covering up an occurrence of anti-brown-people brutality?
It’s really going to suck for the police when someone makes a camera (not camera phone) that automatically uploads photos and videos to the web and only uses the internal storage for buffering.
True, there is the rare case where good people do the right thing. Note, however that it was an emergency room nurse at the hospital who didn’t believe the officer’s story about Louima’s injuries who called internal affairs and Louima’s family to report her suspicions. All the cops at the precinct house, including a sergeant who saw Volpe walking with a bloody plunger handle (and who was told “I took a man down tonight”), all remained silent until after the investigation was underway. With that in mind, it makes it seem as if any information was given more as a result of preserving their own skin (and/or jobs) rather than simply wanting to do the right thing.
You do realize that the police have no right to ask that, aye?
That’s a great idea. E-mail Kodak, quick. They can use the help.
Why is it necessary to use the word “brown people”? I’m so sick of seeing this phrase.
I think they have the right to ask; maybe not to force. In any event, I should have been clearer: most of the times I was asked (more like ordered) this was in France, where they apparently can enforce that.
- Because it’s descriptive and accurate. The story says (allow me to paraphrase) that the cop flew into an uncontrollably frothy anti-immigrant rage when he heard the last name “Garcia.”
- Because if I said “Mexican” you might have wasted our time nitpicking that the guy was Bolivian or Cuban, or whatever. I don’t know the exact ethnicity of the victim, and as it’s irrelevant to the general discussion here, I didn’t research it. All I know is that he’s non-white.
- Because calling the guy “non-white” would have been even lamer than calling him brown.
- Because the English language is a beautiful and powerful thing. I used it to make you sick without even intending to. See!