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Friday, July 13, 2007

Choking teenage girls is not a problem.


If you're a cop in Arkansas, apparently. What a power tripping douchebag. No surprise, he was quickly reinstated.

Cop Cleared of Choking Teenage Skateboarder - Skate Theory:
"A police officer who appeared to choke a skateboarder and put two others in a headlock in a video posted online used appropriate force when making his arrests, an internal police investigation found."

Protesters carry boards as they oppose officer's reinstatement:
"Skateboarders with their rides in their hands and under their arms have protested in Hot Springs against reinstatement of a police officer involved in a June 21st fracas with a group of skateboarders.

The boarders chanted "Police brutality is bad for business" as they marched down a Central Avenue sidewalk today, following a route taken by a group of fellow boarders accosted by Officer Joey Williams last month. A city ordinance bars skateboarding on downtown sidewalks.

The June 21st incident attracted national attention after a video of Williams and his actions involving the boarders was posted on the popular Internet site YouTube. The video was made by skateboarders involved in the incident.

It showed Williams on top of 1 of the skaters, apparently choking him. It also showed Williams putting two other skateboarders in a headlock and the officer can later be heard threatening to use pepper spray on a skateboarder lying on the ground."

Personally, I found the comments over at Hit and Run, where I first came across the vid, far more illuminating.

Reason Magazine - Hit & Run > Cop vs. Skateboarders:
"But they're keeping us safe from the evil skateboarders! THEY'RE VIOLATING A CITY ORDINANCE!!!"
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I can not see how it is justified in any manner to use physical force against a teenage a girl that is at best a third of your weight. I thought cops were peace officers not fat thugs.
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In all seriousness, there are good cops out there

I saw one just the other day, riding Bigfoot to work.
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...a wildly disproportionate response to the situation. He probably walked by three dozen violations of nitpicky city ordinances before he decided choking a 13-year-old was a good idea. Vote out the city council later, fire Thuggo McNoNeck right now.
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Every time I hear a cop refer to someone who isn't a cop as a "civilian," I cringe.
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Choking a teenage girl, cuffing a kid in the street, threatening bystanders and arresting people filming you is not disproportionate to the crime of skateboarding? Fuck, I really hope you're not a cop. The death penalty for shoplifting is next, right?
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For me the worst part is the illegal-in-scholastic-wrestling, shoulder-poppin' arm bar the cop put on the scrawny little kid.
As for the kids who didn't jet and were simply thrown to the ground, why couldn't they just get cuffed from the standing position? There's something sick about the "you will kiss the pavement and SUBMIT TO ME" mentality on display there.
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Also, isn't violation of a city ordinance usually punishable by fine, not arrest?
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Matt,your right,but the offense was not being sufficiently deferential to Mr.I am a fat fuck.
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When are we going to admit that police abuse is systemic and not the acts of one or two bad apples in a bunch of good ones?

If it's not systemic, we're expected to believe that it's pure luck that ALL of the bad cops in the entire dept end up working together."

On videotaping cops, as apparently holding public servants accountable for their actions is enough to get you arrested in some places.

FOXNews.com - Straight Talk: Videotaping Police - Opinion
...police are public servants, paid with taxpayer dollars. Not only that, but they're given extraordinary power and authority we don't give to other public servants: They're armed; they can make arrests; they're allowed to break the very laws they're paid to enforce; they can use lethal force for reasons other than self-defense; and, of course, the police are permitted to videotape us without our consent.

It's critical that we retain the right to record, videotape or photograph the police while they're on duty. Not only for symbolic reasons (when agents of the state can confiscate evidence of their own wrongdoing, you're treading on seriously perilous ground), but as an important check on police excesses.
In the age of YouTube, video of police misconduct captured by private citizens can have an enormous impact.

Consider Eugene Siler. In 2005, the Campbell County, Tenn., man was confronted by five sheriff's deputies who (they say) suspected him of drug activity. Siler's wife surreptitiously switched on a tape recorder when the police officers came inside. Over the next hour, Siler was mercilessly beaten and tortured by the officers, who were demanding he confess to drug activity. Siler was poor, illiterate and had a nonviolent criminal record. Without that recording, it's unlikely anyone would have believed his account of the torture over the word of five sheriff's deputies.

Earlier this year, Iraq war veteran Elio Carrion was shot three times at near-point-blank range by San Bernardino, Calif., deputy Ivory Webb. Carrion was lying on the ground and was unarmed. Video of the arrest and shooting, however, was captured by bystander Jose Louis Valdez. Webb since has been fired from the police department and is on trial on charges of attempted voluntary manslaughter and assault with a firearm. The video is the key piece of evidence in his trial.

While it's possible that police and prosecutors would have believed Carrion's version of events over Webb's even without the video, it seems unlikely. Webb is the first officer to be indicted in the history of the San Bernardino Police Department.

...Legislators need to repeal laws explicitly forbidding the recording, photographing or videotaping of police officers. And to the extent that more generalized wiretapping laws meant for the general public also apply to the police, they should be amended to allow private citizens to record officers while they're on duty.

This isn't to say police don't have the same privacy rights as everyone else. They do — when they aren't on duty, in possession of a sidearm and carrying with them the authority that comes with enforcing the law of the state.

But while they're on duty, they serve the public. And the public, their employer, should have every right to keep them accountable."

Other horror stories...

Chicago Reader | Killed on Camera: Officer Alvin Weems shot an unarmed man point-blank in view of CTA security cameras. Investigators recommended that he be fired. Phil Cline promoted him. By:
"Officer Alvin Weems shot an unarmed man point-blank in view of CTA security cameras. Investigators recommended that he be fired. Phil Cline promoted him."

Former trooper sentenced in Arkansas shooting case- mlive.com:
"A judge has sentenced a former Arkansas state trooper to 90 days in jail for fatally shooting an unarmed, mentally disabled man he mistook for a Saginaw County fugitive."


But on a lighter note, this old Nike running commercial made a smarter point about the "perils" of skateboarding more than anything else.

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