Another police brutality (San Berdino

[PedroDaGr8]

Video (rather disturbing):
http://i.imgur.com/ZWvH30V.gifv

The guy is clearly cooperative at this point. He's keeping his hands behind his back, laying on the ground.

News Article:
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Man-on-Stolen-Horse-Stunned-by-Sheriffs-Deputies-in-IE-299250951.html


In the two minutes after the man was stunned with a Taser, it appeared deputies kicked him 17 times, punched him 37 times and struck him with batons four times. Thirteen blows appeared to be to the head. The horse stood idly nearby.

They said knee to the groin but it's clearly a kick when he's laying with his hands behind his back and legs spread. I left the last line in there from the news article just due to provide some humor in this dark situation. In another article, the suspect claimed, the cop told him that the beating was just the beginning.

[kingcat]

To the fullest extent of the law..no special privilege should be applied.

Not only do they break the law they intentionally make a mockery of it.

These things fall just short of terrorism..maybe imho. And if not dealt with harshly wreak of state terrorism

[suncat05]

This should not have ever happened. Pretty ugly picture, and at the very worst of times for police/citizen dialogues, given all of the bad press(whether true or not) that has occurred in the last couple of years.

[Darrell KSR]

The sad thing is....how many police/citizen interactions, including police/criminal interactions, occur every year?

Millions. Literally.

How many get the headlines?

The rare, rare, rare, rare, rare exceptions.

I get it. None of this should ever happen. And it should be highlighted when it does; this serves an important, chilling effect on intolerable behavior in our society. But when something like this does occur, I try to remember the big picture. In the millions upon millions of interactions, we have a pretty darn good track record.

[PedroDaGr8]

The sad thing is....how many police/citizen interactions, including police/criminal interactions, occur every year?

Millions. Literally.

How many get the headlines?

The rare, rare, rare, rare, rare exceptions.

I get it. None of this should ever happen. And it should be highlighted when it does; this serves an important, chilling effect on intolerable behavior in our society. But when something like this does occur, I try to remember the big picture. In the millions upon millions of interactions, we have a pretty darn good track record.

I agree with you on this point, entirely. Though I think that at this point, the public is starting to see that certain ethnicities are treated worse by some officers than others. That being said, I think the issue isn't so much the fact that the sheer number is high but that it is part of a much more disturbing trend: the militarization of the police. I have a colleague who is a former police officer. He said he specifically left the force for two reasons 1) the stress it put on his wife and 2) the way the police force here in San Diego viewed the common citizen. He said that about 80% of the officers that he dealt with were ex-military and they all viewed policing San Diego as if they were policing Fallujah. He said they often spoke in ways that were very combat oriented (controlling the populace, neutralizing dissent, etc.) He said they without fail had an us verus them mentality not a serve and protect mentality. Eventually it started wearing off on him and that was when he knew it was time to hang it up and move on.

[CitizenBBN]

I agree with you on this point, entirely. Though I think that at this point, the public is starting to see that certain ethnicities are treated worse by some officers than others. That being said, I think the issue isn't so much the fact that the sheer number is high but that it is part of a much more disturbing trend: the militarization of the police. I have a colleague who is a former police officer. He said he specifically left the force for two reasons 1) the stress it put on his wife and 2) the way the police force here in San Diego viewed the common citizen. He said that about 80% of the officers that he dealt with were ex-military and they all viewed policing San Diego as if they were policing Fallujah. He said they often spoke in ways that were very combat oriented (controlling the populace, neutralizing dissent, etc.) He said they without fail had an us verus them mentality not a serve and protect mentality. Eventually it started wearing off on him and that was when he knew it was time to hang it up and move on.

This is my huge concern. it's becoming less about serve and protect and more about being an arm of the state to keep everyone in line.

Part of that is on the police forces and those they answer to who are all too happy to accept MRAPS and have a SWAT team with full auto weapons.

part of it is on the criminalization of the citizenry that seeds the "us versus them" mentality on the other side of the fence. The two forces working together to create a state of affairs that has the Founders spinning in their graves.

[Genuine Realist]

The deputies have to be prosecuted, but I could do without the sanctimony of a lot of the commentators. These guys didn't take shots because they just decided to beat someone up. The suspect had evidently led them on a three hour chase, with hair raising risks to deputies and passersby.

The reason cases like this go south (even with rainbow juries) is that the jury will see the whole series of events leading up to the assault. The MSM only shows the last two minutes. Years ago, shortly after Rodney King, an LA TV station obtained video of what it thought was a Hispanic version of King. CHPies stopped a truck with a number of Hispanics (probably illegals) riding in the on the platform of a truck (type of crop or product truck), after which they waded in and wreaked havoc. Pretty poor. But what the video ALSO showed was tnhe behavior of the arrestees before hand - they'd thrown anything in the back at the pursuing patrol cars, rocks, planks, even a folding chair. The viewing public took in the whole scene, yawned, and went back to sleep.

Mind you, laws are written to curb emotions such as anger, frustration, and all the rest. The Feds are looking into a civil rights case, and rightly so. There is no defense of 'outrageous behavior' on the part of the suspect. But we used to talk about the 'public service' defense to homicide. It has no place in a courtroom, in theory, but it exists. So does the 'He-had-it-coming' defense, which is why so many people like 'Justified' despite the fact that Ryland Givens is almost constantly on the far side of the law. The audience sees how bad the bad guys are, and gives its blessing.

Those factors will come into play in this case, too.

[suncat05]

I personally have been involved in several high speed pursuits, and was even involved in a crash where the suspect rammed my car so hard that it knocked the entire front end AND engine off of the car and deposited both in a vacant field about 40 yards away. I was knocked unconscious and woke up in the hospital with a concussion and was sore from the impact for about two weeks. The suspect hit my brand new patrol car in just the right spot (driver side front wheel well), but if he would have struck my vehicle just a foot further back towards the driver side door I most likely would have been killed, or so severely injured that I would have most likely qualified for disability retirement.
When I regained consciousness, was I mad? Yes, I was. I could have been killed chasing an AWOL soldier from Ft. Knox that was having girlfriend problems. However, I kept my composure during the entire process. The worst thing that happened to the suspect from me was when he tried to apologize to me after court. I told him where to stuff his apology.
In every other pursuit I have been involved in, we caught the suspects and took them to either the hospital and/or jail. I never punched or kicked or physically mistreated a suspect in custody. Did I want to after the excitement and resulting adrenalin rush? Sure I did. But I am able to control myself, I've always had very good self-discipline. And putting some scumbag suspect in the hurt locker and taking a chance on losing my job AND my retirement ain't happening.
I can see where the suspect in San Bernadino got his rear-end worked over. I understand the raw emotion involved. But the deputies involved all know better and I'm sure are better trained than what they showed the world on video. And there's no getting around that video, I can see some suspensions, demotions, terminations, and the usual criminal/civil litigations happening in the not-too-distant future.l

[Darrell KSR]

It's an impossible job. It really is. I'm not excusing behavior, but just tipping my hat to those that can do it and serve and protect the public as they were meant to do.

I'm not excusing, I'm not saying it's inappropriate to criticize (it's definitely appropriate), I'm not saying there's not substantial room for improvement.

I'm just saying I'm glad for the ones that do it right, and there are a-many that do this very difficult job (I overcharacterized it as impossible, but it's dang-near that, at times.)