Police abuses

[Crazed Rabbit]

That chubby man strolling casually along and spraying a group of people is neither violent nor is it torture. Saying that he used pepper spray is perfectly descriptive.

So what do you call it when you inflict pain on other people if not violence? And if you inflict pain on people sitting peaceably who pose no harm to anyone, what is it if not torture?

CR, don't you have any respect for property rights?

They were students attending a public university and sitting down in public. I'm betting none were arrested for trespassing.

How childish do you have to be to refuse to decamp and then whine about being pepper sprayed? All they had to do was walk away. There's no free speech at stake, it is simply them making the police force them out of the area in the belief that they are now martyrs. It's sick.

Where these people camping? No, they were sitting on the ground with no tents around. Anyone could walk by or over them.

UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza said officers used force out of concern for their own safety after they were surrounded by students.

Why do so many cops seem to be the most chicken cowards in the world?

The group was informed in writing this morning that the encampment violated regulations designed to protect the health and safety of students, staff and faculty.

Ah, the ole government claim that they're only beating you for your own good.

CR

[Sasaki Kojiro]

So what do you call it when you inflict pain on other people if not violence?

Violent is close to words like frantic, destructive, impassioned, raging, uncontrollable.

Is pinching someone violence?

And if you inflict pain on people sitting peaceably who pose no harm to anyone, what is it if not torture?

Torture has a certain kind of intent...it can simply be cruel, or you can have the waterboarding type stuff in interrogations.

Is pinching someone torture?

I'm not your dictionary, Jesus. In your mind (filled with blind hatred for the police) these words may sound right, but words have actual meanings. I expect to see youtube comments talking about nazi's and fascists with these movies but I don't expect that kind of rhetoric here.

They were students attending a public university and sitting down in public. I'm betting none were arrested for trespassing.

Where these people camping? No, they were sitting on the ground with no tents around. Anyone could walk by or over them.

Why do so many cops seem to be the most chicken cowards in the world?
Ah, the ole government claim that they're only beating you for your own good.

CR

There was a camp on the quad. Camping is not free speech. Can I camp at your house all I want, CR? Do I have that right? Answer.

Some left when asked.

If you SIT there in that situation you are VOLUNTEERING. They are choosing to martyr themselves. Why weep over the pain of someone who could have stood up and walked a few steps if they had wanted to avoid the pain?

NO ONE was stopping them from protesting. They were 100% free to do that. They insisted on THAT area with the camp specifically in order to provoke conflict with the police.

Where does your hatred for the government and police come from????

[Crazed Rabbit]

The correct attitude for a cop to have;

Training is necessary because riot control's ultimate goal is to make sure that the rioter in front of you goes home safely tonight, even if you end up in the infirmary. He's a citizen, you're a police officer, his life is more important than yours.

Unfortunately that last bit is directly the opposite of most cops today, who view their safety as paramount. I do not exaggerate in the least; visit a cop news site and read the comments about how they're always focused on making it home safely, and they'll do what they have to do to citizens to ensure that.

Violent is close to words like frantic, destructive, impassioned, raging, uncontrollable.

Is pinching someone violence?

So it's the manner in which you inflict pain that matters then? So if someone is sitting in a chair sipping bourbon, cool as a cucumber, and they shoot someone, that isn't violent?

Torture has a certain kind of intent...it can simply be cruel, or you can have the waterboarding type stuff in interrogations.

Is pinching someone torture?

Indeed it does. And I think it fits this situation perfectly. They didn't need to move those protesters to take down the tents. The cops were not in any danger. The chubby cop, dressed in riot gear, casually strolled in front of the people he swore to protect and serve and inflicted pain on them.

There was a camp on the quad. Camping is not free speech. Can I camp at your house all I want, CR? Do I have that right? Answer.

Some left when asked.

If you SIT there in that situation you are VOLUNTEERING. They are choosing to martyr themselves. Why weep over the pain of someone who could have stood up and walked a few steps if they had wanted to avoid the pain?

NO ONE was stopping them from protesting. They were 100% free to do that. They insisted on THAT area with the camp specifically in order to provoke conflict with the police.

Again, how did their sitting stop police from getting the tents out?

Where does your hatred for the government and police come from????

Read the thread. Seriously, is this a joke question? Read where cops and government agents get away with lying, beating, shooting every dog they see, and sometimes even murder. It's not that they do it - it's that they get away with it. And the government, their employer, promotes them and gives them awards.

CR

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Cleansing myself.

2 NJ officers charged in police corruption case

CAMDEN, N.J. – Corruption charges were announced Thursday against two Camden police officers accused of falsifying evidence in drug cases in what are expected to be the last charges filed in a case that led authorities to dismiss more than 200 criminal cases.
The two officers, Antonio Figueroa and Robert Bayard, were indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday. Both were suspended when the investigation began nearly a year ago.
Lawyers for both men entered not guilty pleas for them during arraignments on Thursday. Both defendants are being held without bail until detention hearings scheduled for Tuesday.
Three other Camden police officers pleaded guilty to related charges earlier this year and free on bail as they await sentencing.
Authorities say the officers, all members of a special operations unit assigned to police hot spots for crime and crack down on open-air drug markets, trafficked in drugs themselves. They say they stole them from some suspects, planted them on others, threatened to plant them on more in order to coerce cooperation, paid informants with drugs, and kept some for their own use.
They're also accused of conducting illegal searches, giving false testimony and filing false reports between 2007 and last year.
Since last year, the Camden County Prosecutor's Office has dropped charges in 210 cases in which some or all the officers were involved. In some cases, defendants had served years in jail.
Prosecutor Warren Faulk has said that some innocent people were jailed in some cases. In others, he believes true drug dealers were allowed to go free because the evidence against them was no longer credible.
Figueroa faces eight charges and Bayard five. For both, the most serious is conspiracy to violate the civil rights of a citizen, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman would not say whether Figueroa, 34, and Bayard, 32, were offered plea deals, or whether the other officers would testify against them.
Fishman said Thursday that Camden's police chief, Scott Thomson, alerted state and federal prosecutors of the alleged corruption after his department's internal affairs department started investigating.
Revelations about the case earlier this year were seen as yet another blow to a hard-luck city that consistently ranks as among the most crime-plagued in the nation.
Thomson said he's been meeting with community leaders for months — and that most of them seem to believe that the problem of rogue officers isn't widespread.
He stood Thursday with Fishman and state Attorney General Paula Dow to try to reinforce that message.
"It places dishonor on the thousands to tens of thousands of law enforcement officers who are out there day and night, basically doing the right thing," Dow said.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

So it's the manner in which you inflict pain that matters then? So if someone is sitting in a chair sipping bourbon, cool as a cucumber, and they shoot someone, that isn't violent?

Of course not. Violent is a word people misuse a lot because they don't know another word for bad. But it's a very important distinction.

Often the police deal with someone who is violently resisting arrest. They thrash around and kick and so on. The police will inflict pain in a measured, careful way to subdue them. If they whaled away indiscriminately with a club, THAT would be police violence.

Indeed it does. And I think it fits this situation perfectly. They didn't need to move those protesters to take down the tents. The cops were not in any danger. The chubby cop, dressed in riot gear, casually strolled in front of the people he swore to protect and serve and inflicted pain on them.

His attitude to you seems to be one of cruelty? That's a distortion...

Again, how did their sitting stop police from getting the tents out?

Why would they steal their tents? This is no different than any of the other camp clear outs

These people are deliberately choosing to protest in a way that forces conflict with the police. That is what they are after. The signs and the slogans are ancillary. There is nothing at all peaceful about that, any more than blocking a street and sitting "peacefully" until the police have to come and force you away is. You would at least agree with that I hope, even if you don't agree with the police preventing camps.

Did you see the video I posted in the other thread? The guy standing up so that his head bumped which was described as "police running his head into the car"? What did you think of that?

Read the thread. Seriously, is this a joke question? Read where cops and government agents get away with lying, beating, shooting every dog they see, and sometimes even murder. It's not that they do it - it's that they get away with it. And the government, their employer, promotes them and gives them awards.

CR

Wow, I knew it was a good instinct of mine to post a case of actual police abuse before you accused of this. Read MY posts in the thread...

Your thinking is very distorted...your biased hatred is disturbing...the way you cry wolf only hurts the cause you care about. Harsh but true.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Why would they steal their tents? This is no different than any of the other camp clear outs

These people are deliberately choosing to protest in a way that forces conflict with the police. That is what they are after. The signs and the slogans are ancillary. There is nothing at all peaceful about that, any more than blocking a street and sitting "peacefully" until the police have to come and force you away is. You would at least agree with that I hope, even if you don't agree with the police preventing camps.

These people weren't blocking a street. They weren't stopping police from moving the tents, which was their stated goal.

They didn't force conflict. The police force escalated the situation. It's a sad part of police culture that cops seemed trained to always escalate the situation, and never back down, even if it leads to violence.

These people are no more forcing conflict with police than the old civil rights marchers - who were set upon by police batons, dogs, and fire hoses - were. What's frustrating to me is that so many people view violent police overreactions as expected and just, that the only way for police to solve confrontations is with escalating the situation.

These are supposed to be civil servants.

Did you see the video I posted in the other thread? The guy standing up so that his head bumped which was described as "police running his head into the car"? What did you think of that?

I thought he was somewhat silly.

Your thinking is very distorted...your biased hatred is disturbing...the way you cry wolf only hurts the cause you care about. Harsh but true.

You seem to be the only one giddy about police shooting people filming them.

Hatred? After a while all the abuse sort of blends together and it doesn't get the blood boiling. It's like reading that it's raining outside.

Nor is there distortion - just the result of a reasonable review of empirical evidence.

CR

[InsaneApache]

I have to agree with CR and GC here. It's as though The Star Chamber and Magnum Force were training videos for these guys.

[Crazed Rabbit]

http://boingboing.net/2011/11/20/ucdeyetwitness.html

XJ: Can you tell us how it happened, from where you were sitting?

W: I'd pulled my beanie hat over my eyes, to protect my eyes. I received a lot of pepper spray in my throat. I vomited twice, right away, then spent the next hour or two dry heaving. Someone said they saw him spray down my throat intentionally, but I was so freaked out, and I was blinded by my hat, so I can't verify. I did get a large quantity of pepper spray in my lungs.

Another girl near me who has asthma had an attack triggered by the pepper spray, and she was taken to the hospital.

He used military grade pepper spray on us. It's supposed to be used at a minimum of 15 feet. But he sprayed us at point blank range. Another student, 20 years old, who was sprayed and then arrested—instead of receiving medical care for the pepper spray exposure, he was made to wait in the back of a police car. His hands were sprayed, and he had intense burning in his hands throughout the evening while he was being held. He asked a police officer what they could do to stop it, and they refused to give any advice.

...
They handcuffed the students so tightly. One kid, later on they were unable to cut off his ties, they'd been tied so tight. One of the other students couldn't feel his hands they were so purple, his circulation was cut off so badly for so long. He took himself to the hospital after he was released from the zip-tie restraints. They told him he had nerve damage and not to expect to be able to feel his hands for the next week. He has to come back next week to see if there was permanent nerve damage in his wrists.
...
We were never warned that we were going to be pepper-sprayed.

Lt. Pike walked up to my friend, and I am told that he said, "Move or we're going to shoot you."

Then he went back and talked to a few of his police officer friends. A couple of other officers started to remove people who were sitting there, blocking exit. Pike could have easily removed us, just picked us up and removed us. We were just sitting there, nonviolent civil disobedience.

But Pike turned around and I am told that he said to the other officers, "Don't worry about it, I'm going to spray these kids down."

He lifts the can, spins it around in a circle to show it off to everybody.

Then he sprays us three times.

As if one time of being sprayed at point blank wasn't enough.

I was on the end of the line getting direct spray. When the second pass came, I got up crawling. I crawled away and vomited on a tree. I was yelling. It burned. Within a few minutes I was dry heaving, I couldn't breathe. Then, over the course of the next hour, I was dry heaving and vomiting.

Sadists with badges and the backing of the state.

CR

[Sasaki Kojiro]

The stuff that makes the news is the tip of the ice berg. The type of people that are choosing to become cops are clearly the wrong kind.

What percentage are?

How can anyone defend these things by saying "The law says they can't protest there?" The law also says that they can't pepper-spray down peoples' throats at point blank range. Defending the police here would be hypocrisy.

The law says you deal drugs...but if the police break into someones house without a warrant (illegal) we defend the drug dealer. This is the same kind of thing, like I said in the other thread.

You can criticize police tactics and competence all you want. But we're talking about right and wrong. Thou shalt not worship false martyrs.

We were never warned that we were going to be pepper-sprayed.

...

I'd pulled my beanie hat over my eyes, to protect my eyes.

...

Lt. Pike walked up to my friend, and I am told that he said, "Move or we're going to shoot you."

...
He lifts the can, spins it around in a circle to show it off to everybody.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

That is exactly my point, though. You and apparently many others seem to think you should default on the side of the cops. I'm saying you should always default to the other side. Always. Every time there is doubt. The moment you value a police officer's convenience more than an alleged criminal's life, you have invalidated the entire system. I realize these are broad sweeping statements, and I won't be offended if that's your entire objection.

Actually I usually agree with this 100%. Or at least I agree with it in theory. I don't agree with it when the source article on the subject is written by the defense lawyer, as has been the case for many of the things posted here. And I don't agree with it regarding the tactics of the ows movement.

But setting those kind of things aside we should definitely hold high standards for the police as a default.

[Nowake]

We cut through the minor differences in our policy and reached a fundamental common truth

Read his post again
Your trade of minor differences translated:
Kojiro accepted to acquiesce your principle while you agreed with his principle-breaking position on a case by case basis.
It's the long term view that once all the "wrong" people are silenced the principle won't even need to be enforced anyway.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

With thousands of arrests, the real story has nothing to do with a student whose zip tie was too tight. When there are enough protesters and rioters in Oakland that the city has to call out tons of cops who aren't trained for riot duty, the story has nothing to do with the one cop who got pissed and shot someone with a rubber bullet. The story is about the protest itself, how it proves we should raise the voting age, how immoral their propaganda tactics are, and heck, after we finish with that we can discuss the issues they vaguely reference with their slogans.

If there is a story about the police it's about how we live in a country where students who are "protecting" a mere half dozen tents are told by police "Move or we're going to shoot you" and sit their calmly knowing that nothing truly bad is going to happen to them...it's about how hundreds are willing to get arrested on a lark by blocking a bridge--without worrying about what will happen to them as a result. Anyone who payed attention to the news from the "Arab spring" (which these jokers compare their movement too) has seen the corpses and heard the stories of people who were tortured for hours for singing a song...they beat that guy with steel rods and jumped up and down on his back and head for two hours before going to work with the cattle prod, if I remember correctly...

In the abstract, you can talk about ideal police tactics and training and competence (which is where GC and I agree, yes?), but the abstract is completely irrelevant here. It's worse than irrelevant actually, talking about the abstract is seriously misses what's important and promotes propaganda, which if successful will lead to MORE of the very incidents that are being bemoaned here. If the tactics of the OWS had been condemned by everyone weeks ago do you think they would still be trying it?

[Major Robert Dump]

Gentleman

I do not come to this thread to read debate, I come to watch roided or fat cops with a little man complex assault people with cameras, shoot dogs and tazer old ladies. Please get back on topic and continue posting videos.

[Vladimir]

So true. Get back to it!

[lars573]

Gentleman

I do not come to this thread to read debate, I come to watch roided or fat cops with a little man complex assault people with cameras, shoot dogs and tazer old ladies. Please get back on topic and continue posting videos.

Fine, how about some black friday hijinks. From the fine officers of the Pheonix PD.



CNN story

Taken from the youtube links description:

Man put two video games under his shirt in his waste band because his grandson got knocked down and hurt in the rush and he needed his hands to help his grandson. A cop saw and immediately arrested him for shoplifting. The man was cooperating while the cop was putting on the handcuffs. The cop out of no where tripped the man and bashed his head nose first into the ground knocking him out and there is blood everywhere. The cop did not know how to care for the man so someone that was there shopping had to help get blood out the mans airways.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Rookie cop tasers and kills a man peaceably riding his bike along the road. Good to see we're training cops correctly.

In Seattle, police beat a man senseless for driving while black.

SEATTLE — What turns out to be an innocent black suspect ends up at the hospital with a bloody face and a broken rib -- courtesy of a pair of white Seattle police officers.

SPD defends the injuries as "justified" but finds itself again fighting an uphill public relations battle over accusations of racism and brutality.

KIRO Team 7 Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne has videotape of the latest incident getting the city sued.

Halsne reports that the video tells part of the story, but it's our copy of the audio tape (of officers talking inside their patrol vehicle prior to the arrest) that is coming under scrutiny.

Undercover officers from the Seattle Police Department's East Precinct Anti-Crime Team were running a "drug traffic loitering" sting in January last year when Terry Jefferson's white Cadillac DeVille caught their attention. It’s unclear from public records if police knew Jefferson lived in the neighborhood.

According to an incident report, "Officers observed (suspect) S/Jefferson make a hand to hand exchange" near a 76 gas station at 23rd and Union. There is no video of that, but dash camera video obtained by KIRO Team 7 Investigators shows a marked cruiser stopped in front of the Cadillac a few blocks away. Jefferson says he thought police wanted to go past him on the narrow street, so he backed his car up on the curb out of the way.



Police saw it differently, reporting to their superiors that "they believed the suspects were possibly concealing weapons and/or evidence."

Video and audio from the scene indicates the officers opened their car doors briefly and shouted, “Hey. Stop moving. Hey,” as Jefferson started to park his car. The officers shut their doors and drove forward a few feet, while one officer told the other inside the case “Just yank ‘em, right out.”

Gallery: 'Use of force' photos depict injuries

The passenger in Jefferson’s car tells KIRO Team 7 Investigators she only heard one command given to Jefferson – and that was to "turn the car off."



Even though Jefferson appears to comply with the request, within six seconds of exiting his cruiser, the first officer pulled Jefferson from his car and used a "straight arm bar takedown."

Reports say Jefferson “hit his face on the pavement." Two officers spent the next 15 seconds behind the car door using "feet - knees- hands - and elbows" before getting Jefferson into custody.

Jefferson's attorney, James Bible, says the videotape proves the violence was unnecessary.

“The officers made a predetermined decision to yank him - that's precisely what they did. And after they yanked him, he was then laying on the ground and they proceeded to do what they did, which resulted in significant injury to Terry.”

Officers filed a "use of force report" and four commanders up the SPD chain signed off on the arrest as proper.

The collateral damage was documented at the hospital - Jefferson's lip, cheek, eyes, teeth, knees, and ribs took a beating.

After finding no weapons or drugs in Jefferson's car, SPD arrested him for "obstruction."

Prosecutors later dropped that charge.

Bible, says he sees drug loitering and obstruction statues frequently misused on members of the minority community.

He told Halsne, “Essentially what it means is: we thought you were a drug dealer, you look like a drug dealer to us. You didn't have any drugs on you and because you didn't have any drugs on you, we, of course cannot be wrong, so somebody still has to go to jail.”

CR

[Crazed Rabbit]

http://www.startribune.com/local/135...1&c=y#continue

The Minneapolis City Council approved a $1 million settlement Friday after a botched drug raid in 2010 in which an officer threw a "flash-bang" grenade into a south Minneapolis apartment burning the flesh off a woman's leg.

The payout to Rickia Russell, who suffered permanent injuries, was the third largest payout for alleged Minneapolis police misconduct on record.

Flash grenades are intended to distract and intimidate, not to injure people, but during the raid the device rolled under the legs of Russell, who was seated on a sofa, and exploded. The police were looking that day for a drug dealer, narcotics and a firearm, but found nothing.

Russell, now 31, suffered third- and fourth-degree burns that caused a deep indentation on the back of one leg, requiring skin grafts from her scalp. She is still undergoing physical therapy.

"What happened in this case was an accident," Minneapolis city attorney Susan Segal said in a statement. "It's very unfortunate that Ms. Russell suffered serious injuries, however, accidents like this are rare."

.......

Police had applied for a "no-knock" warrant but did not get it, Bennett said.

Police insist they shouted "search warrant" before knocking down the door, according to police reports, and say the grenade was dropped on the door threshold and not rolled toward Russell. Officer Cliff Taylor wrote in after-action reports that he was the one who dropped the flash-bang grenade.

The department's instructions state officers should "toss the device ... ensuring that the area is free of hazards and people."

James Desmarais, an assistant professor of criminal justice at Johnson & Wales University, an expert hired by Bennett, said in a deposition that "the flash bang grenade was thrown blindly or Officer Taylor saw the adults and the flash bang grenade was thrown anyway.

"Both cases would violate all standards, policies, practices and training as well as legal mandates for such a use of force."

Russell, who was visiting her then-boyfriend Mario Bogan, was sitting on the corner of a couch, and Bogan was on the floor playing a video game with Willy Barron, a friend.

Russell testified in a deposition that she heard a loud noise, the door flew open and police tossed the grenade in her direction.

"It blew up," she told lawyers, "it was just a big boom, it was just light. The flash kind of blinded me a little bit. There was dust."

On police orders, she lay face down on the floor and officers handcuffed her. Then she noticed her leg was burning and told Bogan, who was lying face down next her. When Bogan tried to tell officers about Russell's injuries, she said they told him to shut up.

She said an officer then walked over, shined a light on her and uttered an expletive. "We have a problem," the officer said, "somebody call an ambulance." She said they grabbed towels from a table and stuffed them into her wounds.

Paramedics took Russell to the burn unit at Hennepin County Medical Center. The following day she had surgery, and remained hospitalized for two weeks. "Oh my God," she said in the deposition. "The pain level was beyond a 10."

Russell was arrested on a misdemeanor for having a "disorderly house" but never charged. She sued the city in federal court last year.

No discipline was imposed on the officers, Minneapolis spokesman Matt Laible said.

Standard police actions; wildly reckless, dangerous acts based on poor information. Adding insult to injury by charging the victim of their violent actions with a completely fabricated crime. Absolutely no discipline for breaking into innocent people's homes with machineguns, throwing grenades and severely injuring people. Taxpayers pay for it all.

And the city says it was an accident. No, it wasn't an accident, you loathsome ****. It was the result of a series of deliberate actions by the police.

CR

[Crazed Rabbit]

Huzzah - an officer was fired for blatantly abusing a prisoner;


Of course, now the local union is fighting like hell to get him back on the job. Also note that the internal affairs found in the officer's favor, but the chief fired him anyway. Huzzah!

CR

[Crazed Rabbit]

Seattle Police show a pattern of excessive force:
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/artic...se-2407378.php

SPD officers escalate situations, and use unnecessary or excessive force, when arresting individuals for minor offenses. This trend is pronounced in encounters with persons with mental illnesses or those under the influence of alcohol or drugs. This is problematic because SPD estimates that 70 percent of use of force encounters involve these populations.

Related: Seattle Cops actively trying to escalate situations:
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/N...?tab=video&c=y

SEATTLE - A newly released dashcam video shows continuing problems within the ranks of Seattle police just as the U.S. Justice Department released a scathing report accusing the police of a pattern of excessive force.

The video, obtained by KOMO News, shows taunts and profanity dished out by Seattle police during a routine traffic stop - exactly the kinds of problems highlighted in the civil rights investigation.

The lawyer who released the video says it backs up Justice Department findings that Seattle police use "unnecessary and excessive force" in violation of the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution.

The officers involved were reprimanded - but the lawyer questions if the punishment went far enough.

The video shows Seattle police stopping Miguel Oregon for speeding in March 2010. Police also pulled his passenger Hugo Perez from the car.

But it's not what the officer did - it's what he said - that's behind the latest complaint.

"This badge is the only thing preventing me from skull you and dragging you down the street," one of the officers can be heard saying in the video.

Attorney James Egan says now that the Department of Justice has found a pattern of excessive force by Seattle police, the public should see their officers at work.

"And ask yourself if this is the face of the Seattle police that you expect to project with your tax dollars," Egan says.

The taunts and profanity continued throughout the stop, as shown in the videotape.

"Don't suck my here, all right," says one officer.

Instead of de-escalating the situation, the lawyer says police provoked his clients.

"What I think these officers were doing was goading these guys into possibly taking a swing at them so they could take them down," Egan says.

Egan says officers lied in their follow-up reports, saying the car didn't stop for a stop sign - and pedestrians were near the crosswalk.

But the dashcam video clearly shows brake lights as the car halts - and no one in sight crossing the street.

"I think if you look at the record, they circled the wagons to protect themselves," says Egan.

Ultimately, the case against the driver was dropped for lack of evidence. Three of the four officers were suspended 15 to 20 days for profanity - another black eye for the thin blue line.

"I've seen the good and the bad - and this is super ugly," says Egan.

Egan doesn't plan any civil actions against Seattle police, saying he just wants the public to see where the department needs to improve.

In Spokane, 50 cops salute a fellow cop who was charged, tried, and convicted for his part in beating a mentally ill man who hadn't broken any laws to death;
Spokane cops estranged from community
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/s...unity-15178283

t was the salute that shocked Spokane.

About 50 Spokane cops stood and saluted a fellow officer as he left a federal courtroom in custody last month after being convicted of using excessive force in the death of a mentally ill janitor.
...
The most notorious police death in Spokane occurred in 2006, when Zehm, a schizophrenic, died at the hands of a group of officers in a convenience store. Zehm, who had committed no crime, was beaten, shot with a Taser, hog-tied and sat on until he passed out and died two days later without regaining consciousness.

Our law enforcement officers: saluting those convicted of murdering defenseless people. Classy.

CR

[Crazed Rabbit]

Cop drives through an intersection at high speed, at night, without any lights on. He wasn't going to a crime scene or chasing anyone.

He did hit and kill two pedestrians. At the accident scene there were arrests.

The cops arrested some of the relatives of the dead victims who came to the accident site.

The cop who was speeding without any lights in the dark was not detained, nor tested for alcohol or drugs. He was taken to the hospital and is currently on a paid vacation.

I wonder, how many other democracies could such a thing happen in?

CR

[lars573]

I wonder, how many other democracies could such a thing happen in?

CR

More than you might think. For example in the past responsibility for tactical counter terrorism and foreign intelligence gathering was the responsibility of the RCMP in Canada. But various bungles and scandals that cost lives and money led to the creation of CSIS and JTF2.

[Crazed Rabbit]

In Florida deputies stripped a 62 year old man, tied him to a chair, tied a 'spit hood' over his mouth, and then pepper sprayed him until he died (see video). They were cleared of doing anything wrong.

A Denver cop was driving 143 mph in a 55 mph zone. Drunk. He was fired, but the union wants him back on the job.

A New Jersey cop drove a 30 year old bar out of business when they wouldn't pay protection money.

Maryland cops beat up a Vietnam veteran/professional news photographer and destroy evidence:

The Vietnam veteran also photographed the fall of the Berlin Wall, genocide in Rwanda and the war in the Balkans.

But one of his worst experiences occurred as he stepped out of a restaurant in Maryland last year and saw police officers detaining two young men.

He pulled out a video camera and stood on the sidewalk recording.

Seconds later, a Montgomery County police officer walked up to him.

He ended up beaten up and jailed on a disorderly conduct charge.

This is how it was explained by Donald Winslow, editor of News Photographer, the official magazine of the National Press Photographers Association:

Garcia, 58, wasn't physically close to the police, the suspects, or the cars. "I was across the street and about half a block up the street, toward the street light," he says. "When an officer came up to me, I let the camera go, I opened up my hands, and I said, 'I'm Mannie Garcia, and I'm with the press.' Then two things happened at about the same time: he grabbed me by the neck and says, 'That's it, you're under arrest'; and he pulled my arm behind me, put me in a choke hold, and started dragging me across the street. That's about the time I hollered out, 'Vicki!'"

The MCP officer accosting Garcia was C. P. Malouf. "He had me by the neck and he overwhelmed me," Garcia said. The photographer says he offered no resistance. "The camera was around my neck, he could see there's nothing in my hands, but he went for my neck, and by the neck he dragged me across the street. He assaulted me. He hit me, grabbed me, and while he did it he kept moving across the street. When I got to the police cruiser, I was shoved up against the cruiser a couple of times. I was handcuffed, and he kicked my right foot out from under me."

Garcia says when the police picked him up off the ground, "they were laughing and he [Malouf] said, 'Will you quit trying to hurt yourself?'"

The photojournalist says that his wife was approaching closer at that time, and one of the other officers yelled, "If that takes one more step I'm going to arrest her ." Garcia remembers that he shouted to his wife to step back. "And that's when I got my head slammed into the car."

When the police cruiser with Garcia got to the 4th District Station, he saw Malouf fiddle with the camera and then while they were parked in the station's parking lot saw the officer figure out how to open it at the bottom.

"I saw him take the chip out," Garcia said. Although he would eventually get his camera back, the memory chip was never accounted for.

In their police report, police claimed Garcia "threw himself to the ground, attempting to injure himself,” then threw himself against the car in an attempt to injure himself.

They claimed that in order to save Garcia from himself, they had to use force on him.

LA Sheriff Deputy elbows an autistic woman in the face for talking back.

On occasion even the cops hit the limit for what they can get away with; this Rhode Island cop kicked a woman, handcuffed on sitting on the curb, full on in the head while he was standing several feet away. Of course it only came to light because of a business's surveillance camera. His fellow cops were just fine with him not getting in trouble for such violence.

CR

[Crazed Rabbit]

Cop or Soldier: A Visual Quiz

Try to determine if the image is of US police officers or (mostly US) military personnel. I got 17/21.

CR

[a completely inoffensive name]

13/21 Wow, why do cops need such hardware?

[Vladimir]

18 out of 21. I got a little impatient and missed a couple.

More pictures taken out of context to frighten an ignorant and fearful public. I'm really not impressed.

Protip: Look at the headgear. Police are also the ones with the shiny, unused vehicles.

I better not see any of you people complain about criminals being better armed that police.

[Vladimir]

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh but it's entirely out of context. All they're showing you is images of people and vehicles. There is no context as to why they are there or what is happening letting the viewer fill in the gaps. The cops depicted could just as easily be from LA or border patrol as they can be from another country. I'm pretty sure one photo is of IDF soldiers, who, it could be said, are both.

The only context is a thread called "Police Abuses" and that sets the tone.

[Vladimir]

Oh, on the contrary, bias is what makes this place so fun to visit.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Officers beat up a guy in diabetic shock, while yelling "stop resisting "
Video at link.

Adam Greene is on his stomach as a pack of police officers pile on him, driving their knees into his back and wrenching his arms and legs. One officer knees him in the ribs; another kicks him in the face.

"Stop resisting," officers on the video yell, but Greene, his face pushed into the pavement, hasn't resisted. He doesn't even move -- maybe can't move -- because he's gone into diabetic shock caused by low blood sugar.

The video, recorded more than a year ago by a police car dashboard camera, was released Tuesday by Greene's lawyers. The same night, the Henderson City Council approved a settlement of $158,500 for Greene. His wife received $99,000 from Henderson, which is just under the minimum amount that requires council approval.

Nevada Highway Patrol troopers also participated in the traffic stop but do not appear to kick or knee Greene on the video. The state has agreed to pay $35,000 to Greene for a total of $292,500 between the two agencies.

It was a Highway Patrol vehicle camera that captured the incident.

CR

[Sasaki Kojiro]

That's true police abuse!

But I will nitpick for traditions sake. The suggestion is that they are even more terrible because he is in diabetic shock gets in backward. The diabetic shock is what made him act so weird that they took precautions (the other three officers took precautions I mean, not the guy who ran up and kicked him in the face...). It would be worse if they had done the same thing to someone who wasn't in diabetic shock.

[Crazed Rabbit]

That's true police abuse!

But I will nitpick for traditions sake. The suggestion is that they are even more terrible because he is in diabetic shock gets in backward. The diabetic shock is what made him act so weird that they took precautions (the other three officers took precautions I mean, not the guy who ran up and kicked him in the face...). It would be worse if they had done the same thing to someone who wasn't in diabetic shock.

The problem is police tend to respond to anything but immediate and exact compliance with disproportionate force. Even if the person is not resisting violent, they treat the victim as though he's trying to attack a police officer.

CR