[firefighter4884]

This is going on in the town where I work. As a little back story, the suspect was pulled over for running a stop sign coming out of a development. He was rude and mouthy to the initial officer as the officer approached his car. I believe the guy was driving with a suspended liscense, however I could be wrong. For whatever reason, they cuff him and place him in the back of a patrol car, after he refuses to not move from the back of his car, or follow the officer's directions. They open the rear door to ask him a question, and he ends up kicking one of the officers between the legs. At that point, the officers drag him out of the car, and subdue him.

My question for all of you, after reading the news articles, and watching the video, what do you think?

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/SPECIAL/60316016&template=theme&theme=DEPTFORDPOLICE


My honest opinion, they may have hurt him a little bit, (reports say that he had a broken jaw), but I don't think they deserve the charges that have been brought against them. What do you think?

--Jim

 

[madmike]

I was able to watch only up to the point where they drug him out of the back seat. (Too much 'Net traffic, start and stop video.)

Just exactly how do you get that much STUPID into one kid?

mm

 

[P95Carry]

Well - got thru the vid, after server seemed to slow to a crawl!

Whole thing started bad when the kid's attitude fired up the first trooper - who I suspect is an old hand who won't take any crap from anyone. This made for a bad combination!

Whatever the kid felt about his situation, however unjust he thought it - all he had to do was go along with things and make his complaints later. Every time he mouthed off and protested he added fuel to the fire. If he was driving on a suspended licence too that hardly helped.

Arguably a different day - different trooper and the kid being freer of attitude - whole thing may have been a simple citation for failure to obey a stop sign.

I have no doubt he was somewhat ''roughed up'' but not such that there appeared to be any serious harm done - other than to his pride. He could have made things way less difficult, right from the start.

 

[jarhead79]

I watched that for what seemed like about 10 minutes. I don't see where they ever laid hands on him. Other than the bald guy getting into the back seat. When the Big guy walks up to the perp on the back of the car, it looks like this may have been when he choked him. I don't think the video shows enough for them to get burned, but they still have testimonies and medical evidence.

 

[Redneck Repairs]

you should be able to copy/paste rtsp://208.44.78.12:554/deptfordpolice_031606.rm?cloakport=8080,554,7070 into realplayer to get the vid direct , its about 60 meg tho so i can see why its slow lol downing it now to watch

 

[yoshi]

I personally thought the first officer was antagonizing the kid (not "illegal") - whom he probably already knew was Pretty STUPID (kid: "I get stopped everyday"). Not saying he caused an incident, but he let it occur (like re-opening the door and asking "what did you say") - and endangered the other officers.

I know some Corrections officers who would do that kind of thing on a slow day. A slow day can turn into a PANIC very fast.

 

[Redneck Repairs]

IMHO the only officer in the right here is the last officer that brought the shackles. I also note that there are some interesting gaps or omissions on the tape . This is a classic example of the issue law enforcement has ( that being that the exact kind of power mad asshole that wants to wear a badge is the wrong person to have one on ) . as a former officer and former administrator responsible for supervising officers this vid frankly makes me ill to watch. there is nothing ( IMHO ) that will excuse the actions of the officers from the first of the vid to the last , yes the kid was a scrote , yes he had a mouth , but folks really if you cant get beyond the mouth and treat arestees as human the get the hell out of the job. i hope they lock up both the officers withour hats as imho they are worse offenders than the suspect . the third guy is mearly complicent by not stoping this bs ( and after reading the indictment lying in his report ) . I suspect being fired and maby some probation would be approprate for him , the last officer ( who brought the shackles ) seemed pretty blameless to me and no action should be taken there . but the two hatless officers should go to jail over this , its classic escelation of the situation by the officers and they know better than to buy into this . This is a black eye for every good honest cop out there and must be addressed for any community to have any faith in its police dept .

 

[Gelicious]

Being a smart ass and being a stupid kid gives them no right to treat him like they did. I have seen some pretty bad things before but that was hard to watch. Not because it was violent but i could almost feel that kids hatred! The fat bald cop had a bad attitude and was not REPRESENTING an officer of the law very well. Then ofcorse the kid did mouth off but I have seen cops before that can just "let them talk" and give the ticket and move on, NOT pull him out of the car and then get more and more angry. That guy was out of line, the other cops not calming him down diddnt help eigther. All three cops should have their badges taken away. I know you have to be hard on some perps for your own saftey and such, but you NEED to know the DIFFERENCE between someone that was going to attempt to kill you and just some loud mouth kid. If i were in the back seat of the car and the two officers were "handling" me on my back like that I would feel so confined and my animal instinct would have kicked in and i would have done the same thing!

 

[500Mag]

wow, that kid was a punk that probably needed a beat down but not by an officer, at least not under those circumstances. I've always under the impression that an officer should try to de-escalate a bad situation not encourage it. Listening to what some of the officers said was out of line.

 

[madmike]

It may well be true that the LEO's are one the wrong side of this one. But it does serve to demonstrate what they do have to contend with, and that is the reason I decided against making LE a career.

I am pretty sure I could NOT do the job the way it should be done.

My hat's off to those who can and do. :congrats:

mm

 

[rocky]

while susupects need to be controled, there is no need to taunt them. It just makes the situation worse. the officers needed to overlook the mouth and just do their jobs. Sure taunt the hell outta him, ....................once he is secured in the back and on his way to the jail.:hand5:

 

[exposurecontrol]

Ok, I watched until I got tired of watching. While the kid had a mouth and should have just shut up, the cop had an attitude from the minute he walked up to the car. He could have deescalated that situation from the start. I know the cop had to keep control of the situation, but there are ways to do that without the continual verbal tirade. In my opinion, while from a strict legal standpoint the cops will not face prosecution, that guy's commander better have a piece of his a** in private and at least put a note in his record re: poor on-scene management.