There is an interesting case developing in the Dover Police Department where a video has been released that has resulted in the indictment of Officer Tom Webster for his actions during an arrest on August 24, 2013. The suspect appears to be obeying his commands. What is interesting is that a prior grand jury declined to indict Webster, but prosecutors then tried again with another grand jury and secured an indictment.
Previously, a grand jury declined to issue an indictment and the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware found that there was no civil rights violation. In June 2014, Webster returned to full duty with the Dover Police Department and was reassigned to the patrol division. However, on May 4, 2015, it was disclosed that the Delaware Attorney General’s office took this case before a second grand jury and secured an indictment against Webster on the charge of Assault 2nd degree. In response, the Dover Police Department put Webster on leave without pay.
It is fascinating to see the different results in the two grand juries. You be the judge.
The videotape is below.
We are seeing videos of police encounters with greater frequency for obvious reasons. Whenever a new one is posted, the thread quickly degrades into an exchange of insults. I propose a new policy for police officers which ought to find approval among reasonable people. I’ll call it the Billy Jack Rule: a police officer may not kick a suspect in the head unless the suspect is standing. Implementation of that rule would virtually eliminate this sort of incident.
Mike – wasn’t Billy Jack anti-police? Long time since I have seen the movie but that is my memory of it.
Another stellar example of why there shouldn’t be grand juries assembled for police misconduct (or perhaps anything criminal activity but rather a criminal complaint in a public forum. When is seeing not believing?
A policeman treats a bad guy poorly.
How are bad guys treated by the population in prison?
A President allows a $900k payment to Sec. of State’s “Foundation” from a company after Sec. of State facilitates a larger deal for the company.
Oh the President and the Sec. State didn’t know anything about the larger deal; they were just conducting the typical and usual business of the country.
Egregious?
Blaming any administration for the long standing policy of police getting away with criminal acts IS a diversion. This is happening in red states with Republican administrations also.
Officials low and high engage in nefarious activities.
Some get caught and prosecuted.
Some get caught and NOT prosecuted.
The “Orgy Island” principle was convicted and served 13 months.
The case may be unsealed to investigate why a convicted pedophile served only 13 months.
Pennywise and Pound Foolish?
To wit:
“Women have been charging Bill Clinton with sexual assault since his days as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford 30 years ago.”
“A continuing investigation into the President’s questionable sexual history reveal incidents that go back as far as Clinton’s college days, with more than a dozen women claiming his sexual appetites leave little room for the word ”no.”
“Juanita Broaddrick, an Arkansas nursing home operator, told NBC’s Lisa Myers five weeks ago she was raped by Clinton. NBC shelved the interview, saying they were confirming all parts of the story, but finally aired it Wednesday night.”
“Broaddrick finally took her story to The Wall Street Journal, which published her account of the brutal rape at the hands of the future President, followed by The Washington Post and some other publications.”
“But Capitol Hill Blue has confirmed that Broaddrick’s story is only one account of many attempted and actual sexual assaults by Clinton that go back 30 years. Among the other incidents:”
“Eileen Wellstone, 19-year-old English woman who said Clinton sexually assaulted her after she met him at a pub near the Oxford where the future President was a student in 1969. A retired State Department employee, who asked not to be identified, confirmed that he spoke with the family of the girl and filed a report with his superiors. Clinton admitted having sex with the girl, but claimed it was consensual. The victim’s family declined to pursue the case; In 1972, a 22-year-old woman told campus police at Yale University that she was sexually assaulted by Clinton, a law student at the college. No charges were filed, but retired campus policemen contacted by Capitol Hill Blue confirmed the incident. The woman, tracked down by Capitol Hill Blue last week, confirmed the incident, but declined to discuss it further and would not give permission to use her name; In 1974, One former state trooper said other troopers would often escort women to the governor’s hotel room after political events, often more than one an evening; Carolyn Moffet, a legal secretary in Little Rock in 1979, said she met then-governor Clinton at a political fundraiser and shortly thereafter received an invitation to meet the governor in his hotel room. “I was escorted there by a state trooper. When I went in, he was sitting on a couch, wearing only an undershirt. He pointed at his penis and told me to suck it. I told him I didn’t even do that for my boyfriend and he got mad, grabbed my head and shoved it into his lap. I pulled away from him and ran out of the room.” Elizabeth Ward, the Miss Arkansas who won the Miss America crown in 1982, told friends she was forced by Clinton to have sex with him shortly after she won her state crown…”
“A video shot on board the plane by ABC News shows an obviously inebriated Clinton with his hand between another young flight attendant’s legs. Zercher said later in an interview that White House attorney Bruce Lindsey tried to pressure her into not going public about the assault. Kathleen Willey, a White House volunteer, reported that Clinton grabbed her, fondled her breast and pressed her hand against his genitals during an Oval Office meeting in November, 1993. Willey, who told her story in a 60 Minutes interview, became a target of a White House-directed smear campaign after she went public. In an interview with Capitol Hill Blue, the retired State Department employee said he believed the story Miss Wellstone, the young English woman who said Clinton raped her in 1969…”
”There was no doubt in my mind that this young woman had suffered severe emotional trauma,” he said. ”But we were under tremendous pressure to avoid the embarrassment of having a Rhodes Scholar charged with rape. I filed a report with my superiors and that was the last I heard of it.”
*These are excerpts from “www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1157708/posts.”
Statistics are not available, as much of this abuse was not documented, because police were not policing themselves. Since the citizenry are out with video cameras and cell phones, the citizen documentation has begun in earnest. And the country is watching.
My impression is that there is a greater frequency of this type of article, but nothing more.
I will see if there is an answer.
But my best guess is that this is, as Squeeky so deftly pointed out, merely ‘grey propaganda’, offered to distract from the disastrous recent Blue City/Blue State race riots.
Whenever I see a media phenomenon like this, I wonder what I’m being sold.
I think this one’s pretty clear.
Tyger:
“The incidence of police bad behavior seems to be increasing, which is a result of a greater need for police enforcement.”
Based on what? Is it actually increasing? Has there been any study about the rate of IA and criminal investigations?
Actually, in Baltimore, the number of allegations of police misconduct has been decreasing, but you would never know that from the media coverage.
Media shapes public opinion, and the media is giving the impression that police abuse is suddenly, inexplicably rampant. But what is the true rate of allegations and proven instances of police misconduct?
It is true that the majority of allegations of police misconduct do not lead to charges filed. But does that mean that it is swept under the rug or the non credible allegations dismissed? In one of the counties in which I lived, the DA dismissed most cases against criminals in general unless he had the best chance of winning in court. That was for non-police criminal complaints. So it’s not surprising that there are more allegations than charges.
You illustrate the problem – people are beginning to believe that the police force has suddenly gone rogue without any evidence of the actual trend in allegations.
Good question, Pogo. That’s why I said “police bad behavior SEEMS to be increasing.” If you want actual numbers to support or disprove this statement, perhaps you would be will in to do the research to provide them. My impression is based upon personally seeing a greater frequency of this type of article. But that is probably biased by the media I tend to consume. My statement was personal opinion. I would leave it to you or someone else who deems it important to have actual statistics on which to make a statement to do the work of finding those numbers. The overall relevance of this blog in changing what is actually happening in the world is insufficient motivation for me to do it.
So Paul, you are willing to charge based on that portion of the video alone?
That’s what conclusory means.
I advocate, you know, an actual inquiry.
One was already done and came up blank.
So they took a second bite (why?).
What are we NOT seeing here?
You are satisfied (self-satisfied) enough to charge on the video alone.
“Is this how suspects are treated? Kick first ask questions later?”
I don’t know what happened.
I think I know what it looks like.
Seems like time to step back and review it, see if it a calm reasoned inquiry makes it clearer.
But you are being played by the media, jerked around on your string.
“Here, wacth this vid.
It says: “Bad Cop Again.”
Your required response: Outrage.
You’re watching it Paul, so it’s for you.
And it got the Pavlovian response.
I’m merely noticing that fact, is all.
Anyway, you maintained your SJW Prog cred in this discussion.
So here you go:
http://new.coolclassroom.org/files/adventures/5/fish.png
Trooperyork – that was my question, too. Does Double Jeopardy not apply to Grand Jury shopping during the statute of limitations? Would it be OK to do this to a citizen who was not a cop?
I believe in evidence and the impartial rule of law. If a law has been broken, it should apply equally. This is becoming politicized when politics should have nothing to do with it.
Pogo has hit the nail on the head. The goal of delegitimizing the police is to allow the career criminal to proceed without any impediment because he is a member of the progressive tribe. It is all of a piece with the desire to give the vote back to convicted felons. To prohibit emploeyers from even asking if applicants have been convicted of a felony. To grant status to illegal immigrants whose very presense in our country is breaking the law. To give space to those who feel the need to destroy.
That is the goal. That is the purpose of the drumbeat of media stories highlighted here. It doesn’t matter to the self satisfied elites who are insulated from the carnage. They can sit back and be proud of themselves.
They want the constable to be shackled and in the dock so the career criminal can go free. After all the have to give him space to destroy.
That is the plan. They told us that. Why don’t you want to believe them?
Isaac:
“The mess of America has been a long time in the making. The strength is there to repair. However, the anchor dragging this country down is the person who believes in the good old days. These are the good old days. This is the time to progress.”
What is your explanation for the bombed out neighborhoods ruled by Progressives for decades, yet continuing to decline for just as long? That’s not “progress” it’s “regression.”
If Progressive policies actually worked then there would be well documented track record of their doing so. And yet we have Detroit. Baltimore. Chicago. And the neighborhoods aren’t even slowing improving. They’re getting worse. These politicians keep saying vote for us and we’ll make your lives better, but they don’t.
Here in CA we live the Tax-and-Spend dream. We have a $65 Billion Vacation Train Boondoggle while we struggle with the most potholed streets in the nation. We have human trafficking and drug cartels and gangs crossing the border. The highest rate of hit-and-runs from illegal alien uninsured drivers. The highest taxes in the nation, although NY sometimes switches places with us. The most unfriendly environment to businesses. We live in a drought state but it took until 3 years ago to make rain barrels legal without a permit and we have yet to build a dam or a reservoir.
Pogo – Conclusory? What I know of his actions is he ran up to him and kicked him in the head as he was nearly laying on the ground. If indeed he felt threatened and felt his life was in danger, he will have his day in court. I know nothing of his motivation other than what I saw. Had I been on the grand jury I would have voted to charge. Here is something else I suspect, this happens a lot. In fact it happens so often that residents of neighborhoods where it happens so frequently are finally starting to revolt.
Is this how suspects are treated? Kick first ask questions later?
“The incidence of police bad behavior seems to be increasing”
Is it?
I have seen that the incidence of discussing police bad behavior seems to be increasing.
But are there actual data about police behaviors documenting a real increase?
#AskingForAFriend
I’ve watched a lot of news coverage of the last few riots, and there is one common theme: any of the protestors and people on the street interviewed don’t seem to know what they want.
When asked what they are so angry about, they make vague references to oppression and racism, but when asked for specifics, they can’t give any. They say they need jobs, but businesses (and jobs) are burning in the background. They say they want opportunities, but they burned the businesses of their neighbors who were successful enough to own their own businesses. They cite failed policies, but could not give a single example when asked, and they burned the local youth center. When asked for specific examples of what is making them angry, a local mayor said the discussion was not productive and walked off. He had a microphone and a camera and he just walked off.
Do they even know? Or is it more likely that a good riot now and then just blows off steam from the disaffected?
Martin Luther King, Jr must be rolling in his grave.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D8giwv6aiJM/VU0DOnOhOPI/AAAAAAAAAqE/LKlZ-lc7-FU/s1600/SPARTACUS.png
Police are a tool of society used to maintain a civilized way of life. Any tool may perform badly or be misused a certain percentage of the time. The more a tool must be used, the greater the frequency of problems with it there will be.
The incidence of police bad behavior seems to be increasing, which is a result of a greater need for police enforcement. Which is a result of increasing violent and criminal behavior in the general population. Which is a result of the bad economy and unemployment conditions currently. Which is a result of the actions (or lack of) and policies of the governments. Fix (or get rid of) the governments and their policies and systems, and the economy will get better, and the populace will be happier, and violence will go down, and the need for and use of the police will be reduced, and you will have less beatings by cops.
Follow the chain of causes and effects to see the source of the problems. Follow the money to see what controls that source.
I know as much of you as you do of the cop’s actions in the video.
If you can be conclusory based on 3 seconds, so can I.
pogo – you know nothing of me. Nothing.