Slashdot Mirror
Youtube Video Prompts FBI Probe of LAPD
PachecoJ writes "The AP has a story of a Youtube video showing police brutality that has sparked an FBI probe of the LAPD. A group called 'Cop Watch LA' placed the video online to draw attention to the actions by officers. The officers pictured in the video are now being defended by police defense attorney John Barnett, who defended the officers in the 'Rodney King' trial of 1991." From the article: "A search on YouTube for the terms 'police brutality' found more than 500 videos, including ones that claim to show police violence in the U.S. and as far away as Egypt and Hungary. A search of Google's video site also yielded hundreds of videos. In response to the surge in amateur videos, some law enforcement agencies have installed cameras in squad cars to protect officers against false allegations."
A little background regarding this incident that I can recall (covered days ago on other places, can't remember where);
1. Offender is a known "Gordon Street" gang banger in Los Angeles.
2. Offender had a warrant out for his arrest for accepting stolen goods.
3. Offender was running from the police officers before they had tackled them.
4. In the video, you can see the offender grabbing the officer's inner thigh before the officer started to punch the offender.
In my opinion, although this offender did get what he deserve regarding the first set of punches, I believe the officer went a little overboard on the second set of punches (first set is to let go of his inner thigh, the second set was to get him to submit to a roll-over for handcuffing).
Thats just my thoughts, please excersize your independant thinking!
We have it pretty good in the USA, you should see the other places in the world
Yeah... your obviously white and middle class... I recall being in Oakland and SF in 2003, the amount of homeless was disgusting. Come to think of it, I think on the TV there was a proposed plan to relocate the homeless out of public view...
Get your head out of the sand.
Excuses Are Like Assholes - Everybody's Got One
One officer has his knee on the guys neck, they both have his arms. While the officer on the left is calling it in, the officer on the right begins punching the guy while he is saying he can't breathe, It does not look to me like the guy is continuing to struggle at that point. They should be completing the handcuffing, but instead the other officer punches him several times in the face. I think you are just trolling. Go look at it again if you aren't.
Is there heaven? Is there Hell? Is that a Tuna Melt I smell?-Primus
1: The guy clearly was breathing. It can be seen and heard.
Sheesh. Read some of the other posts here. The cop was kneeling on his neck. They had Pepper-sprayed him, too. He was evidently having trouble breathing. He said "I can't breathe." WHat he meant was "I am having trouble breathing, do to your KNEE on my NECK and the PEPPER-SPRAY you squirted me with." He just chose the more concise way of saying it.
3: Where's the rest of the video? Why was it cut off?
RTFA. It was taken with a camera phone. Those things often have a time limit on how much video they can record at once. 20 seconds sounds about right. (I personally have a digital camera that can record video as well- it can record 20 seconds of 'high' quality, or 80 seconds of 'low' quality at one time.)
I'm not a big fan of the police but this is a bullshit video. It's propaganda designed to manipulate me. Show me the whole video and let me make my own decision.
That WAS the whole video.
The systems in use today in many jurisdictions record continuously to a hard disk, and mark time spans to keep, starting one minute before the flashers go on, to five minutes after they're turned off. The camera is always on, but to save disk space only certain parts of the recording are retained.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Watch the video, 15 seconds in, the suspect goes for the officer's upper thigh or groin. Or at the very least it's entirely possible to interpret it that way. It's only after that point that the officer punches him.
How would you interpret such an act from someone you've just had a fight with and who you're still holding down? Would you wait and see what he was doing with his hand?
btw, if you answered yes to that last question, you're a walking victim, it's just a matter of time before something nasty happens to you completely unexpectedly.
Deleted
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
> The judicial argument is that, IN SPITE of these established facts, his treatment was unlawful.
> Court concluded it was not. What exactly is wrong ?
Nothing wrong at all. Those countries quoted earlier have similar laws making detention and torture without being charged perfectly legal too.
> He is a terrorist.
Until he is tried and convicted in a court of law no he isn't. Having one law for yourself and another for *terrorists* makes you no better then the terrorists or states quoted earlier.
> Do you have any idea what that word means ?
I have lived in Ireland and England during the worst times of the troubles between the two countries. Do I know what it means? Yes I do. For me and family/friends I know it means having to be taken out school in England for fear of being beaten by children/adults every time the IRA set off a bomb. It means being segregated every time you took a flight or a boat. It means being treated like a criminal every time you entered a pub in England. It means having a rifle pointed point blank range at your face while customs check your car or being detained for over an hour being asked endless stupid questions and then getting an armed police escort to a plane yet.
For others it means being picked up off the street and thrown into a camp where you are tortured for months on end because you may have a similar sounding name as a terrorist or just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time or due to a clerical error on the pickup warrant. It means not being able to get work because people denote your race/religion to mean terrorist.
All that did was escalate terrorism in Ireland/England.
So I know full well what the word means. Do I agree with terrorism? Fuck no. However throwing laws out the windows or implementing laws of torture and denying rights to people to protect yourself is folly in the extreme and will only bite yous in the ass years from now.
And unless your willing to experience such laws enacted on yourself you have no right to claim that they are good or bad.
Here is more reading material for you.
http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/intern/index.html
A much more widespread problem. However, I think the problem is circular. If the public were a bit more polite to the police, in general, the police would be a bit more polite to the public. Still, I think police should make the first move in rectifying the situation.
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
You've obviously never engaged seriously in judo, wrestling, or other sports where serious restraint is involved. Getting that much pressure on the carotid and sustaining it is very difficult with something blunt, like a knee. Squeezing and even brusing a windpipe is far simpler, and it will cause the restrained person to panic. Even a "law-abiding" citizen will often panic iin such a situation. Punching him at the time is not only adding insult to injury, it's criminal assault. And playing the macho game of "don't you move, bitch, or I'll punch you again" can break down the restrained person is extremely dangerous, because not only will some victims of such handling panic and lash out unpredictably, but it means the next cop or guard who faces that person is in far more danger, because they know they have nothing to lose: unless they escape, they're going to get hurt, anyway. Unfortunately, I see your attitude far too often in people who've never actually been restrained by a cop, or had to restrain soomeone violent. And people like you are usually the first to wind up bent over for the soap in a prison shower, pretending they know how to fight or how to handle danger and learning the hard way that the other guy just doesn't care if you know where a carotid is. Oh, and by the way? The carotid pinch actually takes about 30 seconds to make someone unconscious, less if they're struggling and burning oxygen wildly, more if they can keep their head down and neck clenched to protect the arteries and throat.