A Minneapolis police officer has been relieved of duty while his department investigates a profanity-laced video in an encounter with a man at a car stop. During the abusive confrontation, the officer threatens to break the legs of a suspect if he attempts to escape.
The stop in South Minneapolis was captured on video below and the officer can be heard saying “Plain and simple, if you [expletive] with me, I’m gonna break your legs before you get a chance to run.” It is still unknown what led to the arrest. Indeed, the young man can be heard asking why he was being arrested and the officer responds simply “Because I feel like arresting you.”
Some accounts say that the officer is Officer Rod Webber who has been put on paid leave while an internal investigation.
The videotape is another example of the value of videotape in the proving of police abuse. We have been following the continuing abuse of citizens who are detained or arrested for filming police in public. (For prior columns, click here and here). Despite consistent rulings upholding the right of citizens to film police in public, these abuses continue.
More on education and policing (through Massachusetts Chiefs)
http://www.masschiefs.org/files-and-downloads/hot-topics/96-the-impact-of-higher-education-in-law-enforcement-feb-2009-and-summarypdf/file
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/01/are-college-educated-police-safer.html
Stevegroen said: I offered that I think police officers need to be qualified by having a four-year college degree for several reasons,
And I asked. A degree in what? Just any old degree or a specialized field that is actually pertinent to the occupation? Contemplative time. Is that another way of saying navel gazing?
DBQ – cops, like nurses, with college degrees become administrators.
“Can you distinguish why a police officer …should not be required to obtain a college degree?”
What evidence is there that a college degree, with or without a “focus on contemplative time,” confers any special skill as related to killing?
Excellent article Fiver. I’ve heard my brother say some of these same things. My brother, a Milwaukee cop was a counselor for troubled cops toward the end of his career and has been instrumental in setting up other such programs in various cities nation wide. Cops do have PTSD and sometimes they need to be retired or put on extended leave.
Interesting perspective from former NYPD cop.
Why Cops Like Me Are Quiet
Department leadership and the Fraternal Order of Police are poor spokespersons for your average police officer. That doesn’t mean you’ll like what we have to say.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/dreamworks/why-cops-like-me-stay-quiet-about-police-brutality
LOL, Wade. I think Austin should secede and become a separate state. It’s the only place worth visiting in the entire state.
Annie,
I can’t wait until we take over Texas. I hear Obama is going to set up a bunch of concentration camps in Huston. I’ll write him and ask him to call it Camp Pogo. In honor of our little friend.
Queue up the gulags.
I suspect what DBQ called “this recent piling on of an entire police department” is directly related to the Obama administration call to federalize the police, I smell a rat.
Rick writes, “That four years builds civility
This makes me wonder if Steve’s ever been on campus.”
I offered that I think police officers need to be qualified by having a four-year college degree for several reasons, essentially focusing on contemplative time, and the above was your response. Spinelli liked your post so much that he Laughed Out Loud!, which along with apparently having spent the entire day and evening yesterday chatting on this blog, leads me to believe he doesn’t have enough to do.
Officers in the Armed Forces, who can kill by license under limited circumstances, must qualify by obtaining a four-year college degree. Can you distinguish why a police officer, with the same license to kill under limited circumstances, should not be required to obtain a college degree?
Kind regards.
stevegroen wrote: “Officers in the Armed Forces, who can kill by license under limited circumstances, must qualify by obtaining a four-year college degree. Can you distinguish why a police officer, with the same license to kill under limited circumstances, should not be required to obtain a college degree?”
Your question manifests a little bit of sophistry by using the word “officer” in two different ways. The word “Officer” in the Army is a title that refers to someone who manages other soldiers. The word “officer” in the police force simply means any member of the police force. Army soldiers, which form the backbone of the army, are licensed to kill but are NOT required to have a four year college degree. Can you distinguish why a police officer, with the same license to kill under limited circumstances as an army soldier, should be required to obtain a college degree? Should we start requiring college degrees for every soldier too?
David,
Good eye regarding the distinction between officer and grunt in the military and officers on the civilian streets of this country. I don’t know, however, that the distinction should be made.
In the military, lots of warm, fresh, 17 and 18 year old bodies with automatic weapons spraying rounds in front of them are the norm and become a much more frequent necessity than on our streets although our streets are filled with it frequently as a method of preempting speech. The commissioned military officer is there to maintain discipline and guidance. Here, we have middle age men doing the grunt work on their own and they need to have self-discipline and self-guidance as military officers, yet we continually see that they don’t. I think police departments can and should be more selective in recruiting requirements.
And I’m not the only one:
http://www.police-association.org/
As for why I advocate the need for a college degree, I’ve seen too many police officers on video with weapons on a suspect when there is absolutely no danger of imminent harm that an ordinary person on the street doesn’t suffer. Look at this middle-aged, mental midget on steroids:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HcO-UXJ3M8
Do you think he was reprimanded? A civilian who did that would be dead. Do you think he has any notion of what reasonable conduct is under the circumstances?
In San Diego, for instance, if one jaywalks and gets caught, the officer invariably attempts to bait the offending “perp” into a greater violation. From personal experience on many occasions, and in the most diplomatic terms, it’s rather unsettling. If I were constantly hounded by that behavior, I’d be on the streets protesting, too. There has to be change. The military-grunt-cop ethos doesn’t work – people are getting killed for no good reason.
In closing, why is it that a military commission requires a college degree?
Best regards.
“Faysal Mohamed, 17, sent Fox 9 the video recorded by his friend, which he also posted on his Twitter account.
Mohamed and his friends are of Somali descent and said they feel they were racially profiled.”
Huh.
That’s weird.
Ooooooh:
NEWSWEEK 4/20/15:
U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Says State Has a ‘Terror Recruiting Problem’
“U.S. authorities have charged six Somali-American young men from Minnesota with planning to join Islamic State and fight for the militant group in Syria, the U.S. attorney for Minnesota said on Monday.
The six, all U.S. citizens, were part of a larger group of friends and relatives that had been conspiring for the past 10 months, many trying multiple times to leave the country, U.S. prosecutors alleged.
They were arrested Sunday as part of a yearlong FBI investigation into young men from the area trying to travel to join Islamic State and there is no evidence they had plans to conduct an attack inside the United States, prosecutors said.”
“No evidence they had plans to conduct an attack inside the United States.”
Except in Texas.
I would be counted in favor of the police here.
They’re likely terrorists, especially given the CAIR connection.
Prof. Turley is being played for his beliefs in liberty.
The Somalis don’t believe in liberty, except to use as a tool to crush you. Then they will withdraw liberty.
Not unlike progressive Democrats.
There is a concerted effort to delegitimize the police and the enforcement of the rule of law. The drumbeat of videos and posts at this blog is part and parcel of this effort. The progressive left wants to end the enforcement of most laws to free their favored groups to avoid the consequences of living in a civilized society. They want to decriminalize drugs, theft, public urination, turnstile jumping and even in some cases violence. They want to “give space to those who want to destroy as well.” Sometimes they slip up and tell you they actually mean.
What they want to do is protect the criminal element that is their sons, brothers, nephews and cousins. They feel that the law should not apply to them. Why should the cop stop and frisk them even if they are carrying a weapon? Why shouldn’t the cop shoot the gun out of their hand if they pull it out to shoot them? Why even enforce the law? The policeman should just walk away instead of initiating a confrontation that might go wrong in a million ways? The worst miscreants and career criminal is always couched as “young man who is getting his life together” and “was planning to go back to school.” When in fact he would only go back to school to loot it and burn it down.
Once the people who were lionized by the left were people such as Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers and Rosa Parks. Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner. Now the heroes are Michael Brown, Freddie Grey, Ismaaiyl Brinsley and Demetrius Blackwell. They are the ones who are held up as sterling examples of the youth of the community. They are the bloody shirt that the forces who want to destroy the effectiveness of law enforcement wave to rile up the uniformed and gullible.
Some small minded people claim that those of us who protest this drumbeat of blog posts and comments “worship” the police. That is nonsense. What we do revere is the law and the constitution. Any police officer who violates either should be subject to the full force of the law and punished to the maximum extent after a trial by a jury of his peers. Not a trail by the mob that burns down the CVS and the liquor store. A sense of balance might be in order. A denunciation of the crimes that destroy lives and neighborhoods of so many that are glossed over and not even mentioned because it is business as usual. You will not get that here. Only the ravings and multiple comments of the mentally disturbed who are being exploited to drive up comment totals and page clicks. I have seen this before in other blogs at other times. It does not end well for anyone.
The crocodile tears of the politicians are ludicrous because they don’t really care about the members of their community who are victimized and murdered every day by the career criminals that are now the heroes of the mob. More people are murdered in Chicago in a year by thugs then are killed by police in questionable shootings in the entire country for ten years at time. The racialists and the radicals are using every means possible to drive toward a federalization of the police. They should be careful what they wish for. Since leftists have no concept of the real world they don’t realize that they will not always hold the reins of power. How will they feel if a much more authoritarian figure controlled a federalized police force? Their lack of imagination is staggering.
You should rethink your campaign against law enforcement and provide a little balance. Or you will end up living on a one way street. With no traffic laws to protect you and yours. No policeman to turn to when you in need. No law to stand as a shield for civilized society. Only a space for those “who want to destroy.”
Nick
I agree with you about the DAs that pile on the charges until something sticks and/or try to make it big with a ‘murder’ charge. If Angela Corey, that imbecile, had of charged Zimmerman with manslaughter he would be where he belongs now, behind bars for a decade or two or maybe three.
OK, I’ll start watching TV, I want to be trusted. Can I continue reading newspapers?
So tired of seeing these videos of cops behaving badly. Its disturbing. Cops should be held to a much higher standard. They are trained to deal with high tension situations and as such there should be severe penalties to cops if they have crossed the line of what is acceptable behavior. I’m not talking the usual suspension with pay. Jail time should be the looming threat. Some will argue that if a cop has a threat of time behind bars over their head they won’t be as affective at they’re job. To that I would say, simply look at the number of police brutality incidences over the last 20 years. Its a staggering number. Only recently have police come under fire because everyone is walking around with a cell phone that will capture video. Its time that the nations police forces are cleaned up a bit.
Four years, filled with drunken frat parties, hardly builds civility or tempers unjustifiable behavior. By the time one becomes a police officer or a college student, one’s temperament, I would argue, is well formed. If there are behavioral problems or anger management issues, a campus environment will never serve as a substitute for addressing those problems, should they exist. Yes, college is a time of growth and exploration. No denying that. Just not so sure that requiring a four year degree will solve any kind of psychological problems inherent in any one individual.
bam bam – not all college students belonged to fraternities.
Rick, LOL!
What precipitated the stop? Were there, ultimately, any charges filed against that person? If so, what were they? We know that the officer was placed on paid leave, but why the scarcity of other relevant information?
That four years builds civility
This makes me wonder if Steve’s ever been on campus.
Cops should be required to have a four-year college degree. That four years builds civility, enhances stress-management, and gives one a sense of investment, the loss of which tempers unjustifiable behavior. Theirs is one of the most difficult jobs out there, requiring split-second decision-making which can change one’s life permanently if the cop’s judgment isn’t appropriate.
Bailers, There are bad prosecutors @ all levels. But, there are good, righteous ones as well. They don’t seek press and don’t get it. We have a real political animal US Attorney here in San Diego. Laura Duffy has her finger in the political winds. These type are easy to spot because they seek press coverage. I am w/ you 100% on the DEA. What I hate most about their practices is the bust a guy and let him walk if he sets up 2 or 3 other guys. That is SOP. That is one of thousands of reason to end the insane War on Drugs.