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Video: New York Police Officers Beat Handcuffed Suspect

New York authorities have suspended two police officers and are considering criminal charges after this video showed them assaulting a handcuffed man, Jonathan Baez, 28. The video shows Officer John Cicero, 28, hitting Baez. Officer William Green, 26, is also seen hitting and kicking Baez.

Before the beating, two officers were wounded by a ricocheting bullet fired by a third officer at a pit bull reportedly belonging to the drug suspect. During the chase, the dog had pounced on the officers.

Two sergeants – Junior Carela and Phillip Connor – were also present and did nothing to stop the abuse. They only received desk duty even though they were witnessing a crime by two officers and did nothing to stop it. That seems to warrant something a bit more significant than desk duty.

Once again, it is worth noting that this case probably would never have materialized if it were not for a citizen’s videotaping the attack. Yet, police in Boston and England are arresting people for filming them in public places, here.

For the full story, click here and here

60 thoughts on “Video: New York Police Officers Beat Handcuffed Suspect”

  1. why do police departments hire ex servicemen? Servicemen are trained to kill the enemy.
    Too often We citizens are often looked upon as the enemy by the police. Police are suposed to be public servants. Do we live in ancient Rome, In fact, even in Roman time the Roman guards repescted the honored citizens.
    Our Police departments must change their mind set. Instead of producing police department to assert their control of the honored citizens of the USA that pay their salaries, the police should provide a presence of support of the citizens.

  3. anon nurse

    The professor posted the story about the 18 year old honor student beaten by police in Philedelphia. I had seen the story on other sites.

    The comment was a little bit of artistic license on my part. IOW it was a smart ass prediction of the outcome. This kid should get a lot of money and the cops should get fired and charged.

  4. Trying to do the right thing in this society is sometimes very difficult. As what is the right thing is hard to tell. You have so many that don’t want to rock the boat that they do whatever they can to stay afloat.

  5. Don’t get me wrong the Blackwater men commited a crime but the general population IMO doesn’t look at it that way.

    Just like the prosecution of the men who gave an Iraqi a bloody lip when arrested for his involvement in the bridge hanging and mutilation of U.S. citizens.

  6. I hate to say it but this is why the general public has such distrust for this administration.

    Prosecute are own, free the terrorist.

  7. In other news

    The Justice Department has announced the release from Gitmo of a terrorist who conspired to bomb Los Angeles International Airport in the 2000 Millennium plot. Hassan Zumiri, who was part of an al-Qaeda affiliated terror cell in Montreal, has been repatriated to his native Algeria — a country so rife with terrorists that it was recently placed on the list of 14 countries whose travelers warrant enhanced screening at airports. Worse, the Justice Department won’t say whether the terrorist, Hassan Zumiri, and another Gitmo detainee who was also sent to Algeria will be in custody there. They may be free and clear.

    http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YmFlMTdjNzVlOWFhMjY0NGViOWY0YWEzZjUzYWQ2MTg=

  9. Pinandpuller:

    “…who buy young, black honor students houses for their mothers.”

    I’m missing something… Could you (or someone) elaborate?

  11. I’d just like to jump in here and say it’s not so much an issue of police dept’s hiring veterans but of the militarization of the police.

    I’ve read several stories about returning veterans being hassled and assaulted by police. The vets didn’t go all Con Air on them either.

    Cops nowdays are mostly tax-collectors and thugs who buy young, black honor students houses for their mothers.

  14. Duh,

    Thanks for the additional information. We’ll see how it all works out in the end.

    bdaman — I’ll take a look at the links you’ve supplied. Thanks.

  15. I got distracted and didn’t take the numbers to a logical conclusion.

    With NYC being the largest and having less than 500 officers trained, and many of the departments having most likely less than 25 officers trained, The average number of officers trained per department would probably be less than 100. 100 (I think is a reasonable average) times 50, is 5000. That is less than 1%.

  16. Blouise,

    We have about 800,000 law enforcement officers in the U.S. The largest police department to receive training from Blackwater would be the New York City Police Department. Though that department employs nearly 40,000 officers, only a small percentage of those officers receive the special tactical training that Blackwater provides. These officers would be those attached to S.W.A.T. and anti-terrorism task forces. That would account for less than 500 in NYC. Given that NYC would be one of the largest departments, and Blackwater is known to have provided training for about 50 departments, that would result in about 25,000 officers who received Blackwater training.

    If anyone has numbers that depart from my estimates, I welcome them.

  18. I’ll be more precise in the future. I might better have said, ““I’m guessing that it isn’t lost on some who blog here that Blackwater (Xe) has trained police officers in this country.”

    Having said this, from where I’m sitting, even “less than 1%” is troubling. Still, I’ll look forward to the number/s — I’d like to know.

  19. Duh
    anon nurse,

    “Don’t be so quick to judge.”

    I dont’ think my judgment was “quick”. I based it on many comments left over a relatively long period of time.

    “You don’t know who we are, where we’ve been, what we’ve seen and/or what we’ve done in our lives.”

    That would be correct, but it is hardly an excuse that would permit you to paint with a broad brush. If you have life experiences that would justify demeaning the police officers, or our military personnel, as a whole; please share those experiences.

    “I’m sure it isn’t lost on many who blog here that Blackwater (Xe) has trained many police officers in this country.”

    Many? Less than 1% is many?
    ******************************************************

    anon nurse
    Duh:

    “I’m sure it isn’t lost on many who blog here that Blackwater (Xe) has trained many police officers in this country.”

    Many? Less than 1% is many?

    Could you supply your source for the “less than 1%”?

    =============================================================

    I don’t have a dog in this exchange but I am waiting for the source that backs up the less than 1% claim.

  20. anon nurse,

    You took that in the wrong spirit. I pointed out that your choice to remain anonymous and your claim to be a nurse is all that I know about you. I wasn’t trying to attack you for doing so.

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