Police Brutality?

[RedCeltic]

This seems like a clear cut case of police brutality. What are your opinions?

http://www.msnbc.com/news/777480.asp#BODY

[Felicia]

I'd like to see that video tape. Judging by what was said in the article, I would say that it was police brutality. It didn't seem that the teen was fighting back, and if his was it shouldn't take that kind of aggression to subdue him. The police officers abused their power. A couple of police officers here in Canada took a native homeless man of the streets in the dead of winter and drove him out to the middle of nowhere and just left him there to freeze to death! (this may not be relevant). I'm not sure of they got off for it.

[Red Revolution]

Yes I agree its definetly police brutality of the worst kind (assault), but surely there are many cases like this happening all the time, why start a thread on this incident?

[Capitalist Imperial]

Well, far be it from me to believe most of the BS that MSNBC puts off on the public, and this story is a great example. This story obviously leans to suggesting it was brutality, effectively judging the situation before all the facts are in and submitting a biased report. I will reserve full judgement until I see the tape.

Please note, though, that according to the officers, the 16 year old allegedlly attacked 1st, and injuries sustained by the officer on his head and body may corroborate this. This initial attack by the detainee may not be on the tape, so keep that in mind.

[ID2002]

I saw the video!
It was most certianly POLICE brutality! The cop repreatly slammed the kids head into the hood of his squad car, while his police buddy did a WWF slam job on the kid + adding a few punches in. SICK AND DISCUSTING!

[Felicia]

Stuff like this happens a lot :(

[ID2002]

....did I also say that the COPS strangled the kid with a metal chain! YES...THIS IS TRUE...on the video as well!

[Capitalist Imperial]

who attacked 1st?

[American Kid]

I was in Cappie Imperial's frame of mind. I realize that police work is not an easy job. People take cops for granted, like doctors. They think it's like it is on TV, all action and drama and glory, when in reality it's hard, stressful, and dangerous. Cops see the worst society has to offer, daily. They see only the worst people do to each other. They see what, underneath it all, is probably what most of us are made of, really.

I also "heard" about this before "seeing" it and was skeptical. I bear little faith in people's reactionary opinons, particularly if they're on a mass scale. I held off any "outrage" til I was able to see the tape.

So I just saw it. And it's brutality, no doubt. Doesn't matter who attacked who first. Doesn't matter if the fucking kid (and I'm talking like 16 yrs. old) SHOT at them. The cop picks him up, like a bag of trash, and fucking SLAMS him on the squad car. He doesn't drop him. He slams him. Like he's hammering nails with the kid's head. They can't claim the cop felt threatened and reacted with proper force, because the kid is handcuffed. That's what kills me. If he wasn't, if he'd actually lunged at them with a knife or something, and that's what the cop did, then I'd be okay with it. They have to protect themselves. But he was handcuffed. It's a fucking larf.

And then dude punches him in the face. This isn't debatable. It's actually quite disgusting.

And it wasn't even a good punch. I don't know what you'd call that. He like, punches the kid with almost the side of his hand, and like nicks him with his outer three or four knuckles. It's stupid. It's like amatuer-hour schoolyard, only it's a school yard is for special needs.

I actually made a sound when I saw it. Some stupid, undefinable sound, like the ones you hear hick, red-necks exclaim on those videos of air-show accidents. Really. It's disturbing.

-Kid

[Xvall]

Where'd you get the video?

[American Kid]

I just saw it on TV. I think it was Capitalist Imperial's favorite channel MSNBC to be honest.

-K

(Edited by American Kid at 1:03 am on July 10, 2002)

[TxFreedomFighter]

Yeah that was fucked up what the police did to that poor kid, i heard that he had some kind of a speech problem or a mental disorder, which would make it even more fucked up. Now i don't know if the kid really had a problem or not but he was only 15 and handcuffed, clearly police brutality.

[Guest]

as far as i know he was 16, handcuffed and is mentally handicapped, according to what his teachers and lawyer says.

it still seems unclear if he provoked anything, but what the officers did before the video starts was to drag him around a bit on the huge chain he was wearing around his neck. Anyway once the suspect is cuffed you do not fucking hit him. I've seen the video about 8 times now i think and it's just disgusting.

The boy doesn't appear to be a threat at all, well how should he with his hands tied?

[Guest]

By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The FBI on Tuesday began investigating the videotaped beating of a black teenager by a policeman in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, but the city's mayor called for the officer to face assault, battery and child abuse charges without further delay.

Kweisi Mfume, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the tape showed that officers "took the law into their own hands" and used excessive force against 16-year-old Donovan Jackson during the incident.

The videotape, made by 27-year-old Mitchell Crooks from a motel room across the street, shows Officer Jeremy Morse slamming Jackson, who was handcuffed, head-first into a squad car and slugging him in the face as other officers converge.

The incident sparked cries of racism and comparisons to the incendiary 1991 beating of Rodney King and triggered swift investigations by three local law enforcement agencies.

"We've asked the FBI to open an investigation to look into possible civil rights violations and my understanding is that the case has been opened," said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.

King's beating by Los Angeles police officers after a high-speed chase was caught on videotape and its broadcast shocked the city and much of the nation. When four officers were acquitted in criminal court the city erupted into some of the worst riots in modern U.S. history, leaving 54 people dead and over $1 billion in property damage from looting and arson.

When officers were tried again in federal court two of them were convicted and sentenced to prison terms.

MAYOR: OFFICER COMMITTED FOUR CRIMES

Mrozek said the FBI had not drawn any conclusions but would try to determine if officers had committed federal offenses because they were acting under "color of authority."

Inglewood police officials have called the Crooks videotape "disturbing," but cautioned that the tape caught only part of an altercation that allegedly started with the teen lunging at officers as they questioned his father about a suspended driver's license and expired vehicle plates. Morse can be seen on the tape with a bloody gash above his ear.

Meanwhile a second man has come forward to say that he filed a complaint against Morse and other officers two weeks ago after they beat him so badly that he lapsed into a coma.

A representative for the Inglewood Police Association could not be reached for comment on the allegations.

Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn, a former prosecutor and judge, called on prosecutors to charge Morse with at least four felonies and said he had no patience for investigations and did not care what happened before the tape started rolling.

"I'm not concerned at this point what happened before the video was turned on," Dorn said. "In my mind, I can't think of anything that this teenager could have done that would justify the conduct that I observed on the video."

"When this officer picked this young man up and slammed him face-down into the hood of that car, in my opinion, (that was) number one, felony assault," Dorn said. "Number two, assault with a deadly weapon ... Number three, battery. Four, child abuse. And I'm sure if I looked there are other crimes."

The mayor said he was not criticizing the Inglewood Police Department, but instead condemning one officer, Morse.

"This is an indictment of one officer," Dorn said "I hope that ... the country will see that Inglewood is a city that will not tolerate any individual's civil rights being violated. This man's civil rights without a question were violated."

MFUME WANTS TO HEAR FROM COPS

Mfume, who was attending the NAACP convention in Houston, said he was willing to wait for an investigation.

"It appears that officers took the law into their own hands when they thought no one was watching and we think exhibited excessive force," Mfume said. "We need action here. We need a clear investigation."

He added: "If the police officers have a position we want to hear what it is. If they can refute what so many people are now seeing in this tape and tell us why that level of brute, excessive force was needed to subdue that situation I think all of us in America are waiting to hear those answers."

Legal experts, meanwhile, cautioned that Mayor Dorn and community activists were treading a dangerous line when they pronounced Morse and other officers guilty before any charges were even filed.

"The reality is you don't want the mayor or anybody else coming out and saying someone is guilty," said Stan Goldman, a professor of legal ethics and criminal law at Loyola Marymount Law School in Los Angeles. "I think what you end up doing is causing the courts a lot of trouble."

Goldman said Morse, like any other citizen, had due process rights under the U.S. Constitution and could have grounds for an appeal if he were ever convicted of a crime.

"I think any good, ethical prosecutor says 'oops' when he hears comments like (Dorn's) because he just created a potential issue on appeal," Goldman said. "You may have a great case against this cop and if you've got a great case why jeopardize it? You're better off keeping your mouth shut."
http://wwwi.reuters.com/images/2002-07-09T143415Z_01_GALAXY-DC-MDF68016_RTRIDSP_2_NEWS-CRIME-POLICE-DC.jpg

[Capitalist Imperial]

Quote: from American Kid on 1:02 am on July 10, 2002
I just saw it on TV. I think it was Capitalist Imperial's favorite channel MSNBC to be honest.

-K

(Edited by American Kid at 1:03 am on July 10, 2002)


LOL, Jeez

[Capitalist Imperial]

OK, I saw it.

Brutality.

[American Kid]

Now, this raises a profound question. When RED REVOLUTION and CAPITALIST IMPERIAL agree on the same thing, on the same thread, does that make this an interesting, important thread, or does it make it the worst, most least-consequential, banally irrelevant discussion ever?

(no offense, Celtic. You couldn't've known it was all gonna end like this..................)

RIP debate

-Rev. Kid

(Edited by American Kid at 1:50 am on July 10, 2002)

[Capitalist Imperial]

Quote: from American Kid on 1:48 am on July 10, 2002
Now, this raises a profound question. When RED REVOLUTION and CAPITALIST IMPERIAL agree on the same thing, on the same thread, does that make this an interesting, important thread, or does it make it the worst, most least-consequential, banally irrelevant discussion ever?

(no offense, Celtic. You couldn't've known it was all gonna end like this..................)

RIP debate

-Rev. Kid

(Edited by American Kid at 1:50 am on July 10, 2002)


LOL, good one

[ID2002]

CI...

glad u agree. isn't it horrific!

[RedCeltic]

Ok.. sorry guys, I posted this before I saw it myself, and only read this article...

At the time I thought it was debatable.. lol

[American Kid]

No problem Celtic. You didn't know..................

You just didn't know...............

-AK

[RedCeltic]

AK: Your discription of the victom being thrown (handcuffed) onto the squadcar like a bag of nails was extactly how it was. I