However- what I have seen in our society these past generations is increasing tolerance for ‘bad behavior’ in –ahem– civilians, especially youth. To put it in a simile-if your job is to catch and move a horse, say- something that has the potential to HURT you, badly– and you walk into the pasture and that horse has manners and respect– you simply catch the horse and calmly put him/her into the corral. IF your job is to catch a wild and crazy animal with NO manners – your job description changes. When I was young, real cowboys would lasso totally wild horses, tie the rope to a post, and just wait intil the animal choked itself down and it was safer for the cowboy to handle it. Our cops are given the job of catching wild and crazy people; to protect others from their wild and crazy behavior. This is a tricky situation- how to handle something that can and WILL hurt you badly-for whatever reason. My tiny daughter is a nurse; she has to balance her own personal safety while trying to work with crazed patients. She’s been hit, spit on, called every name in the book. Meanwhile, she has rules and processes in her job-expectations of performance. Have YOU people ever had to try and work with someone as totally discrespectful and dangerous as that woman? I think not. I’ve been attacked by a teen who was literally bigger than I was-and I caught hell for subduing him physically. I’m a woman, by the way. But I would have caught hell for letting him roam freely, too. Imagine that YOUR job is to catch a demented wild animal- that CAN and WILL hurt you–to continue the simile– your job is to catch and saddle and bridle the wild horse in the least amount of time- or you are fired, cause you got a whole bunch more of them to have to catch. And the horse just keeps on fighting you, till you choke it down and hobble it to get the job done, without the horse destroying the corral, or hurting YOU. I can tell you what the cowboys did- and sometimes, sometimes– they would be over stressed and lose their tempers and over correct. But maybe it WAS NOT over correction– maybe it just took that degree of force to get the horse– or drunk woman– to submit, to change behavior. IF that wild horse I used as a simile was on drugs, where they feel no pain and normal responses are altered- then the degree of force needed to attain submission/ability to handle would escalate. The ‘cowboy’s’ personality and experience with the ‘horse’ would also be a factor. I know that I have gotten ‘tired’ of my one horse’s behavior after constant gentility hasn’t worked- and used the whip to make her load in the trailer cause it wasn’t like she didnt’ know the drill, she was just being a pain, and I was tired and stressed. All the other horses were loaded and having to wait, and the one horse was causing all sorts of trouble. Did I beat her bloody? No, cause she figured it out. Refer back to what I said about dealing with creatures who are on drugs, alcohol, othersise demented. Some will fight savagely until they become unconscious. Perhaps the solution is that IF the persons the cops have to deal with appear to be violent– the cops have the right to gas them unconscious so that they can be handled safely. Didn’t they used to just put someone like that woman into a cage and wait until they sobered up to try and work with them? Then you get into a whole ‘nother spectrum of liability. As in, trying to administer aid to an injured person on drugs who is violent– like nurses have to go through, like animal control people have to go through. It is freaking dangerous to handle injured entities; they are in so much pain that they don’t know what they are doing. Where temper comes in is if the entity knows better but is just being difficult because they think the world revolves around them and their needs. One never knows what the ‘rest of the story’ is– unless you are THERE. I had a woman who rebuked ME for swatting my 2.5 year old daughter on the butt; because she’d run away from 9 months pregnant ME into traffic, almost getting run over by a car. The woman hadn’t seen me spending the last hour trying to be patient and calm, hadn’t seen me take the child out over and over–so that I KNEW that the child knew how to behave, she was just pushing the envelope being defiant. In an above comment, the five ‘white guys’ beating up a Mexican– did you know WHY they were beating him? Did the putative victim continue to resist? Did he stop fighting and LET the cops rescue him, or just keep fighting? You can’t just look at segments of life and make a judgement; you have to look at the whole picture.

A little history:

In the 1940′s and continuing into the fifties, the Murphy-instituted Civil Rights division of the DOJ brought many cases against local police forces and correction facilities on charges of abusive behavior, both in interrogation and in custody.

These cases were decided by a Court not unwilling to reach down to the local level using procedural due process arguments. I quoted from two such cases on another thread.

A great deal of reform was gained.

It seems as if we are sliding backward again, and once more there are multiplying abuses of nonlethal force and I include tasers here. We need a new DOJ to start taking interest again.

I disagree with the comment since there are more cameras there is more footage of unbelievable violence

something has changed within the nation and it is seriously considered that Federalization is the root cause and that local police are reporting to federal agencies and have now received new orders

the country is aghast, afraid, and ready to take the bull by the horns

the police departments around the nation will be litigated like the pharmacuticals and they will lose

it is horrific to witness what happened in that video

guilty before proven innocent??

making excuses for that kind of behaviour for someone in handcuffs who could not even stand or sit without assistance is appaling

that officer can say how right he was a million times, he’s going to trial don’t you think

horrible

However, I realize I have to be responsible, careful, and not paint ALL of law enforcement with a tainted brush. That is unfair on my part, and I know I’ve been guilty of going a bit “overboard” on the subject at times. Sorry about that. I know there are many dedicated police officers at all levels who do an excellent job, and don’t indulge in any kind of abuse. I guess I should be reading more of those stories instead.

That’s not to say citizens shouldn’t be concerned.

Watching the video above, you have to know Officer Willis has been rough with women before and he almost assuredly has issues at home and/or in his past. Garbarino was belligerent and loud but not physically threatening or aggressive – she was trying to walk away from him.

p.s. Hey, Binx, go for the Turley Zin, if you can get it and YOU probably can in CA, otherwise settle for “a nice Chianti”…

Most assuredly, I’m very sorry to give the impression, through my awkward writing – “It becomes part of the dialog that has occurred here … cops bad – victims good” – that I was referring to your part of the dialog. I should have been clear and explained that I meant the greater ‘Internet dialog.’ Your comments were reasonable and clear – Mine on the other hand – require editing and nice bottle of Amarone or perhaps some 2004 Turley Zinfandel / Hayne Vineyard.

But it does alarm me as an average citizen that we are seeing a rising number of these acts of abuse by some police officers. I also find it disturbing that not much is being said by law enforcement officials that they consider such behavior totally unacceptable, and they’re taking steps to be more careful about WHOM they are allowing to become police officers in future.

Personally, I’d love to see more active “citizen review” boards in more communities, to ask tough questions of our law enforcement officials when such abuses occur, and to try and prevent more of them occurring in future. Has that become less important to everyone in the interests of keeping the “bad guys” off the street?

You want to hear some outrage ?? Imagine the outrage if the act in this underlying story happened to be committed by someone who is called a Public Safety Officer. The entire dynamic changes. So does the dialog.

So after this disturbed police officer, who ostensibly made it through Shreveport’s extensive psychological screening process is ceremoniously disemboweled or promoted what happens to the story. It becomes part of the dialog that has occurred here … cops bad – victims good. But unlike here, that may not necessarily be true. What’s behind this wave of violence by police? Or is it less and we’re just seeing more of it because of our Web enabled society?

One thing is for sure – we need to train those that are tasked to deal with public safety in another way. It may sound infuriating to those that have been abused by police – I understand this reaction completely – but this dialog begins with the leadership of our country. In a nutshell – we permitted our government to be run by the equivalent of a suspected crime family. We accepted platitudes and marched our bravest and the newly brave into a cauldron that we created by invading a sovereign nation and ruthlessly created millions of refugees and militants. Not only does the economic
consequence trickle down, but so do the enormous social ramifications of how we respect others in this world and in our neighborhood. It may have been the singular reason that LEAA was created originally – because our Nation at war (Viet Nam) seemed to be connected to increasing police related violence around the country.

Don’t get me wrong – this is a grave tragedy. This woman was beaten because the police officer wanted to hurt her and because the Shreveport Police department is dysfunctional and apparently out of control. If one police officer calmly knew to turn off that camera and casually turns it back on after he caused that kind of physical harm to an essentially defenseless human being – the department chain of command has other problems. No question.

That being said – getting the cops head on a stick is only a temporary fix – we need to return to the dialog that escalating anti-Vietnam sentiment quelled. Peace Officer / Public Safety Officer and a great degree of attention to the selection, training and on-going evaluation and continuing education of those responsible for ensuring public safety, including community accountability which puts public safety back in forefront.

The initials LEAA were adopted by another organization – the Law Enforcement Assistance Alliance = which is supposed to be an organization of Crime fighters and Victims – but has only Crime fighters on its board and is apparently a lobbying organization. It has nothing to do with the former organization that had Congressional oversight and was responsible for promoting education in Criminal Justice, Forensic Science and public affairs, including scholarships and tuition assistance. However, I find it most curious that they adopted the otherwise distinguished handle.

That tape was played at least once during the actual trial, and viewers saw, many times, how these so-called “corrections officers” treated a 14-year-old youth, Martin Anderson when he was in medical distress. I saw it at least three times, if not more. One of the officers actually struck Martin, more than once. A nurse, who was also charged, was just watching, and from what I could see, made no attempt to actively intervene while this was going on. Nevertheless, all seven defendants were found “Not Guilty.” I was stunned to hear that, not to mention furious.

This latest outrage by “law enforcement’s finest” may end the same way if it becomes a criminal case. People are still too willing to give cops a pass on their obvious criminal behavior, as long as it isn’t THEY who are the victims of abusive police or corrections officers.