There is another disturbing videotape of a beating by police in California. This incident involves a bizarre chase of a suspect on horseback in San Bernardino county. The aerial footage shows the suspect on the ground after being stunned by a taser. Despite no evidence of resistance, the sheriff’s deputies proceed to punch and kick Francis Jared Pusok, 30. Pusok was suspected of stealing the horse. Three deputies were injured during the search — two from dehydration and a third was injured when kicked by the horse.
The encounter was the culmination of a bizarre series of events that started when deputies went to a home to serve a search warrant in an identity theft investigation. Pusok took off in a vehicle and deputies pursued him. Pusok then allegedly abandoned the vehicle and took off running. He lalter allegedly stole a horse and rode it on dirt trails. From the video, he does not appear a particularly skilled horseman.
The video below appears to show an unjustified and savage beating by the officers. There is obviously a possibility of not only termination but possible criminal charges against the officers. The police have launched an investigation.
Pusok has convictions for resisting arrest, animal cruelty, disturbing the peace, attempted robbery and failure to provide evidence of financial responsibility. However, that record does nothing to excuse this beating. While the department has claimed that the taser device was “ineffective due to his loose clothing,” it seems quite effective in the video. It would be interesting to see if the officers made this claim in their reports because the video shows Pusok on the ground and not moving. It then shows the other deputy quickly begins kicking him in the head and the deputy with the Taser is seen kicking Pusok in the groin area. Five more deputies arrive and join in on the attack. They then let him lay there for approximately 45 minutes, without receiving medical attention.
I cannot see a viable defense for these officers from this videotape and the analogies to the Rodney King beating are understandable. This case has the makings of a massive civil lawsuit as well as possible criminal charges against the officers. Pusok has an attorney.
Paul,
I’m not talking about existing prosecutors within the DA’s office; I’m talking about special prosecutors without a conflict of interest.
There are plenty of lawyers who investigate and sue cops in civil actions who would qualify, and these lawyers often use ex-cops as investigators. It seems to work quite well.
fiver – here, when it gets sticky, we turn the case over to another county. They run the investigation.
@fiver:
“Authority worship” is not a “straw man” I was “pummeling,” Einstein. It’s the argument I was making.”
“Authority worship” is not an argument, but rather a conclusion.
That is, it was conclusory, and formed the basis for a straw man, much as no one had raised the issue of ‘authority worship’ except you.
You offered no ‘set of reasons with the aim of persuading’, but concluded that other individuals worshiped authority based on the quotes you selected above.
Notably however, those selected quotes offered exactly the same proposition as suggested above by USN420: “that these individuals made a personal choice that was at least likely a contributing factor to the unfortunate results“, which you thought was ‘well written and thought out feedback’.
@ Fiver
A special prosecutor wouldn’t necessarily be needed for all internal investigations….THIS one probably would benefit from that treatment..
But it would be an unnecessary expense for all instances of misfeasance by the police. Malfeasance is more serious and a citizen review board could make the recommendation that an instance, like this, should be kicked up the food chain to a special prosecutor when needed.
Paul,
Good idea, but I think an even better one is appointing special prosecutors who then select their own investigators.
fiver – the prosecutors always have to work with the cops so there is that problem. Even if they use their own investigators, often they are ex-cops (brothers of the badge). An outside commission would have a better chance to come to a clean verdict. It would be the same as an investigative Grand Jury.
Fiver. I do agree with you. The review in these types of occurrences would be better served by being done outside of the organization. As Paul suggests a citizen review panel or some other non interested parties.
Investigating yourself is not really a very good strategy or one that gives credible results.
In my view the only use of force that would have been reasonable after Mr. Pusok put his hands behind his back would have been to handcuff him, frisk for any weapons, then stand him up and walk to a patrol car. I would agree there is probable cause to bring criminal charges against a few of the deputies.
Karen,
The problem here is that these deputies are being investigated by their own department. There is a huge conflict of interest. If you assign the John Gotti investigation to the Gambinos, he’ll be cleared most every time.
fiver – I agree that there should be citizen review panels. I know this drives the police crazy, but I think it would be helpful.
fiver:
Improved community relations does not affect criminal cops. They are two separate issues. The cop who shot that guy in the back appears to be a murderer. The above beating appears to be unjustified. Those investigations are still underway, but I cannot imagine any mitigating circumstances.
Community relations improves the interactions between good cops and the people on their beat. It increases community involvement, making people more likely to give information to the police who wouldn’t before. It helps good cops get to know the people in the areas where they patrol, as well as at the issues that concern them. Moms can tell officers about the new crack house down the way that makes them afraid for their kids. Or that there are gang members on a street corner trying to recruit their kids. Officers can talk about their concerns at neighborhood meetings. It makes it more of a partnership. But it’s a completely different issue than abusive or law-breaking cops.
There need to be efforts to identify officers who are having trouble handling the stresses of the job, or showing a trend at increasing losing their temper before things like this video happen. They also need to identify people who never should have been cops. There are such efforts at many departments, but some are more successful and taken more seriously than others.
To compare. San Bernadino County has a population density of 100 people per square mile. This is averaged out and higher due to the dense population in just two areas.
My area of the county that I live in has a population density of about 8 people per square mile. Lots of space, wilderness and not so many people. Less than 200k people in the entire county. Big and mostly empty and I like it this way.
🙂
They then let him lay there for approximately 45 minutes, without receiving medical attention.
Well…..short of flying in a helicopter ambulance, IF there were one available within any sort of reasonable distance, it is understandable that it would take some time to get medical help. 45 minutes is actually a very GOOD response time given the remote area that they are in and how sparsely populated the area is. Not that this is in anyway an excuse for their behavior. He should never have needed medical help…… but they have no other choices when it comes to medical response time.
The last call we had to make to the sheriff, to respond to an alarm at a client’s house……it was a TWO HOUR response time. We are thrilled if they can show up in less than an hour if the call is in the evening or weekend. (This also explains why everyone is basically armed and willing to defend themselves and their neighbors. As much as we would like to have the officials take care of it….most of the time….we don’t HAVE the time to wait).
People just do NOT realize how BIG and how remote some areas of California are. Especially people who reside on the East Coast and are used to small distances and more people per square mile and who have the luxury of resources being close by.
With an area of 20,105 square miles, San Bernardino County is the largest county in the United States by area, although some of Alaska’s boroughs and census areas are larger. It is larger than each of the nine smallest states, larger than the four smallest states combined, and larger than 71 different sovereign nations.
Located in southeast California, the thinly populated deserts and mountains of this vast county stretch from where the bulk of the county population resides in two Census County Divisions, some 1,422,745 people as of the 2010 Census, covering the 450 square miles
Karen,
I just don’t see how improved community relations addresses the problem of violent criminal police officers. Sure, it might help police from a PR standpoint, but this isn’t merely an issue of public image.
Regarding horses. I love ’em. Can’t ride well, but my niece (now 15) has been an avid (and quite successful) competitive hunter/jumper. Her first pony, Kali (one hand shorter than a horse) is a beautiful pinto. After years (my niece started riding very young), when my niece was ready to graduate to a full horse, Kali was actually worth significantly more money than she was when purchased because of all of the additional training Kali had received. They didn’t sell Kali, but kept her at the barn where she is rented out for lessons with the youngest riders. The kids love her, and I genuinely believe Kali loves them.
Noro Lim!
Police are aggressive gangsters, bullies and “tough guys” who escaped discipline, arrest and prosecution in their young adult histories.
Police Chiefs stuff their forces with them.
Well balanced “nice guys” who are motivated by a desire to “help” people are shunned.
It is the “Brotherhood.”
It is perpetuated knowingly by judges, for example, who refuse to award simple TRO’s against gangster/cops because it can ruin a career. The gangster/cops’ careers are superior to and corruptly mitigate their “misdemeanors.”
It is unacceptable that police agencies cannot be managed better, with well-balanced officers, given the staggering amounts of funding they enjoy.
@DBQ
You beat me to it! Animal cruelty??? Oh hell yes kick that SOB a few times for me! Seriously though. . . kick him a few more times for me!
The cops were wrong, but it is understandable that they were p*ssed off after having to chase this goofy SOB all over the place. H. L.Mencken expresses the feeling of “katharsis” very well. A little long, but a funny and intelligent read:
http://grammar.about.com/od/classicessays/a/menckenpendeath.htm
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
USN420,
Thanks for the well written and thought out feedback (like all other other comments of yours I’ve read).
I suppose my problem is two-fold. First, despite the disclaimers, I believe that the argument, intentionally or not, deflects blame from the criminal officers.
Second, as this video demonstrates, complying with an officer can easily get you horribly beaten or worse. In Mr. Scott’s case, video clearly showed that Slager was a murderer, a man who calmly shot Mr. Scott repeatedly in the back as he ran for his life. Slager then calmly lied into his radio and planted the taser to back up his lie.
It’s a question of trust. And people like Slager and the officers in this video are simply not deserving of trust.
What….???? This guy has a record of animal cruelty?
Now I really wish I could kick the ever lovin’ you know what out of him. There is NO excuse for mistreating animals.
You know this place seems to be trolling itself. It is alternating between threads that solicit bashing the cops or bashing religion.
The same couple of people saying the same things over and over.
Boring.
Everyone gets enraged at times when dealing with the public. Nurses get pummeled, kicked, slapped, have urine and feces thrown at them from demented patients, yet nurses don’t get to express that kind of rage when dealing with the public. There are video cameras in many psych and nursing home facilities. If a healthcare provider would mistreat someone in their care they would lose their liscence and probably go to jail. Why have cops gotten away with this for so many years? Hero worship? The thin blue line? Same thing goes for prison guards, they’ve been videoing their prisoner extractions for quite sometime now and don’t usually get away with prisoner abuse.
DBQ – great post. It’s like that here in our small town, too.
Any anyone who tried to pull me off my horse would get my boot in his face. I hope that rider wasn’t hurt when his or her horse was stolen, and that the horse wasn’t hurt too badly. The rider and horse were innocent victims in all of this.
I hope we get an update to this story about how it resolves. This is also a good reminder of why it is detrimental when some unions create huge barriers to firing employees for cause, whether it’s a government employee or a teacher. There are some cases where firing is called for.
funny how none of the officers yelled: “stop,stop …. stop beating him, he’s on the ground, he’s not resisting, we got him guys, we got him, stop hitting him now ….” – can you just imagine – he would have been a hero. there is at least one officer that i think did not through a kick and he is black … he was smart but not smart enough … he should have prevented the others from beating the guy on the ground …… it is common sense – you don’t beat someone who is on the ground – not if you are a police officer and not if you are on a street fight, you just do not do that….to bad we don’t have death by hanging here in the u.s. (public is what i mean)