Cop Block WNY’s Debut
A police officer is empowered to use reasonable force to overcome resistance and effect a lawful arrest. Once a person is subdued and in custody, however, smacking, hitting, or kicking the suspect is straight up brutality. If you hit a handcuffed suspect who’s lying on the ground, you’re basically torturing him.
But why? They don’t appear to be asking him any questions. They’re not trying to get information – there’s no evidence he’s giving that the courts can suppress. They appear merely to be battering him for the sake of it.
That is to say, there’s a fine line between using force lawfully to subdue a suspect who is resisting arrest, and sadism. So, I’d love to know what precipitated this.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxLivtiv6Yo]
I’d also like to take this opportunity to remind people that your smartphone’s shape is like a widescreen TV, but only when you hold it horizontally. If you take video in the vertical aspect, that video is going to suck.
I was wondering those same things myself. The video picks up in mid-incident, so maybe the suspect had been resisting earlier…but it’s very clear, toward the end, that the suspect is not moving at all, but one of the cops goes right back to smack and kick them. Disgusting.
What fun is it being a cop if you can’t smack a suspect around.
Alan, Middle Eastern Folks for some strange reason still like holding their picture takers vertically
That way you can capture the head rolling away.
But, why? asks Mr. Bedenko.
“Well sir I guess there’s just a meanness in this world.”
Bruce Springsteen from the song “Nebraska”.
This type of nonsense would occur less frequently if the city had residency requirements (as most suburbs do). Makes it harder to be an asshole if you live in the neighborhood. The police have little to no connection with the community they are sworn to “protect and serve” and are seen more as an occupying force than a community partner.
Reminds me of the old school episodes of “Cops” that took place in NYC, Boston or Philly in the late 80’s and early 90’s, when even the undercover guys had mullets and staches. You’d see the suspect get cornered and a bunch of cops go in after him, there would be either a cut in the tape feed or the cameraman would point the camera at the ground for a moment or two while presumably moving to get a better shot, you’d here the words “stop resisting” and then a battered perp would be dragged out.
I have never thought of this before, good point!
I remember when I was young my father always told me to respect the police and to call them in the event that I ever needed their assistance. Those days are long gone. I tell my son that he can no longer depend on these people and to just stay out of trouble. As for the respect part I would just show him this and many other videos/ news reports regarding this type of issue….