Televised Police Brutality in LA

desertjedi · Post by **desertjedi** » 2004-06-25 03:54pm

You know.. no matter who said it.. no one should rush to judgement. All the worse anyone on the news had said, "It looks bad."

And if it's found he had bad intentions (which it looks like) then go ahead and charge him with as much as possible. We don't know what went on there, the best we had was a shot at an angle that was being blocked by other officers from a moving helicopter. I'm no cop lover, but I do work surveillance and have seen video footage that doesn't show the whole truth.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2004-06-25 04:46pm

desertjedi wrote:You know.. no matter who said it.. no one should rush to judgement. All the worse anyone on the news had said, "It looks bad."

And if it's found he had bad intentions (which it looks like) then go ahead and charge him with as much as possible. We don't know what went on there, the best we had was a shot at an angle that was being blocked by other officers from a moving helicopter. I'm no cop lover, but I do work surveillance and have seen video footage that doesn't show the whole truth.

Actually, we do know what happened. I watched the whole video of the capture and assault.

The events were as follows.
-A single cop and the perp were on camera running down a corrider of some sort.
-The perp slows and stops. He places his hands on the ground.
-Two other cops show up and approach.
-Cop #1 tackles the perp and forces him to the ground, Cop #2 joins him. Cop #3 gets on the front and starts beating the perp on the head with his maglite.
-More cops appear and surround them.

Unless you are suggesting that the perp was going to sprout a cannon from his ass when he put his hands on the ground, the cops were completely unjustified. He surrendered so there was no reason to pound on him a bit with what is essentially a metal club (which can easily do more damage than his nightstick).

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-06-25 04:50pm

This video is definitely the real deal, unlike the doctored Rodney King tape.

desertjedi · Post by **desertjedi** » 2004-06-25 05:30pm

You don't know the situation, he might have tried to resist once he got tackled, someone might have thought he had seen a gun or a knife. You see what's on the video, but you still don't know for sure what went on. The guy might have been trying to bite one of the cop's legs for all we know... The point is.. you don't know everything that happened. Video is can be very misleading and easily misinterpreted.

But if he did sprout a canon from his ass, the cops would have wasted that thief's ass on national television.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2004-06-25 05:37pm

desertjedi wrote:You don't know the situation, he might have tried to resist once he got tackled, someone might have thought he had seen a gun or a knife. You see what's on the video, but you still don't know for sure what went on. The guy might have been trying to bite one of the cop's legs for all we know... The point is.. you don't know everything that happened. Video is can be very misleading and easily misinterpreted.

I watched the video. He had put himself in a position that he was no threat, was not resisting, or doing any on the things you described. It was at that point that two of the cops threw him down and held him as the third started clubbing him. He wasn't struggling or brandishing an object (kind of hard when your palms are on the ground) or anything like that.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2004-06-25 05:39pm

Oh, come on. Even if he had a knife in his pocket or something, he had his hands on his head. He's not going to pull it out with his magical mind-powers, there were two or three cops ON TOP OF HIM and they didn't just hit him a once or twice, they cracked him again, and again, and again, and again...

"But he was surrendering in a threatening manner!"

desertjedi · Post by **desertjedi** » 2004-06-25 05:55pm

There must have more than one video angle then, because the live feed I had seen had him raise his hands, then tackeled, then three or four other cops jump on top.. after that you couldn't see what the suspect or the other cops were doing until the one by the suspect's head pulled out the flashlight and beat him with it.

As for having three cops on top of him... have you ever seen someone try to fight their way out of an arrest? I have seen one guy of average size wrestle with five security officers (all went through the police academy) for several minutes before one was able to get him down. I'm not saying that's what happened here,I'm just saying we don't know for sure what happened. If the officers are found to have acted savagely then I say go ahead and throw them in jail and toss the key.

My point is... people are so quick to judgement without taking in the ALL the facts. A court of law and the judgement by citizens will decide their guilt or not.