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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Criminal Justice / Shitty Cops / A Weird Definition of What is Offensive

A Weird Definition of What is Offensive

by John Cole|  February 8, 20127:28 pm| 106 Comments

This post is in: Shitty Cops, Assholes

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Here’s the story- cops pull over a diabetic man in shock who they think is drunk driving. They go all cowboy with guns drawn, kicking the window of his car, screaming conflicting orders at him, and then a half-dozen cops pull him out of the car, and beat and kick him before discovering insulin in his pocket:

I’m not really sure what my favorite part of this video is- first, the warning for offensive language. Actually, the words “mother fucker” don’t bother me any where near as much as watching some douchebag cop run in and kick a man in the neck when he is clearly restrained and not resisting. Check out that real tough guy with a badge at 45 seconds in. Any chief that keeps that guy on the force is part of the damned problem.

My next favorite part is when these morons start asking each other if they are ok. What could they hurt? Their toes on the guy’s head?

And then, of course, the laughter afterwards, when instead they should be shaken up by how bad they screwed the pooch and how poorly they handled the situation.

If you’ll notice, the guy has done what you are supposed to do when you get pulled over, doing so even in a diabetic shock. He’s stopped the car, his hands are on the wheel, and he waits for instruction. Yet our Rockette Rambo has to go over guns drawn, kicking the window, acting like a maniac. I always thought the point of police was to defuse a situation, not escalate it.

At this point, though, with our politicians and courts bending over backwards to negate our rights and to look the other way when cops misbehave, I suppose we should all be happy they didn’t just execute the guy on the spot. Thank god there was no dog in the car.

And by the way, in my near ten years in the military, with all the exhaustive weapon training I received on a number of firearms, never once did an instructor inform me that the proper thing to do with a drawn and loaded weapon was to kick one foot up into the air. If you did that shit on any range in the world, they would kick you out and might possibly give you an article 15. What would happen if his foot slipped and he discharged? What if he shot the guy because of that? Or himself? Would the other cops think he had been shot when they heard the discharge and saw him on the ground and then unload into the driver? Just terrible fucking policework.

*** Update ***

From the comments:

Honestly, the first 30 seconds look like an episode of Reno 911, but without the guy in the really tight shorts.

No kidding, right?

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Previous Post: « The lights are much brighter there: Sunday BJ meet-up at Walker’s Sunday at 3
Next Post: Just because you’re paranoid »

Reader Interactions

106Comments

  1. 1.

    cathyx

    February 8, 2012 at 7:35 pm

    Just curious, how do these videos become public?

  2. 2.

    cathyx

    February 8, 2012 at 7:36 pm

    If the cops release them, then they must be proud of it and want to show it off.

  3. 3.

    BGinCHI

    February 8, 2012 at 7:37 pm

    Too bad the guy in the car wasn’t an assistant football coach at Penn State. He could have avoided all that scrutiny for years.

  4. 4.

    FedSec

    February 8, 2012 at 7:37 pm

    That gentleman had a sucky attorney. I know they settled, but he should’ve gotten way more dough.

  5. 5.

    Soonergrunt

    February 8, 2012 at 7:37 pm

    Yeah, shitty cops alright.

    @BGinCHI: I see what you did there.

  6. 6.

    FedSec

    February 8, 2012 at 7:39 pm

    @cathyx:

    The article says Greene’s attorneys released the video, so I assume it was part of evidence and they released it at their discretion.

  7. 7.

    BenA

    February 8, 2012 at 7:39 pm

    @FedSec: That’s what I was thinking.

  8. 8.

    BGinCHI

    February 8, 2012 at 7:40 pm

    Honestly, the first 30 seconds look like an episode of Reno 911, but without the guy in the really tight shorts.

    Hey other white guys: stop ruining it for the rest of us!

    Assholes.

  9. 9.

    portlander

    February 8, 2012 at 7:40 pm

    I always thought the point of police was to defuse a situation, not escalate it.

    Did you also think you were living in Europe?

    Adam Greene is lucky he is white, otherwise he very well could have been executed on the spot.

    He and his wife got almost $300,000 from the settlement. I assume that most police bureaus have brutality settlements as part of their budget; I know Portland does. Yet no one sees that as government waste.

  10. 10.

    Soonergrunt

    February 8, 2012 at 7:41 pm

    @cathyx: Many jurisdictions treat dash-cam footage as a public record. Certainly the moment this footage was entered into evidence in a civil lawsuit, some enterprising soul was down at the court house demanding a copy.

  11. 11.

    Rawk Chawk

    February 8, 2012 at 7:45 pm

    I don’t think it does any good whatsoever to prosecute these brave, heroic officers or to make the city pay a settlement for something that happened in the past.

    We should look forward, not back.

  12. 12.

    Villago Delenda Est

    February 8, 2012 at 7:45 pm

    OK, so the victim of this criminal activity and his wife have received a cash settlement.

    Now, has anything been done to the criminals who perpetrated this outrage?

    Anything at all? A reprimand? An admonishment? A demotion? Docked pay?

  13. 13.

    danimal

    February 8, 2012 at 7:46 pm

    Thank god there was no dog in the car.

    I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at that line.

  14. 14.

    brent

    February 8, 2012 at 7:47 pm

    Their behavior would have been bizarre enough even if the guy was drunk. Coming out drawn guns with 6 cops on a dui stop? Seriously?

  15. 15.

    freelancer

    February 8, 2012 at 7:48 pm

    Fucking pig cops. “Stop resisting motherfucker!” Your teeth are getting all over my shoes!

    At some point, local government is going to have to hit a breaking point where abuse isn’t worth the insurance premiums they have to payout to cover liability for their short-dicked police force acting like every traffic stop is fucking Fallujah. When that happens, you might see criminal sentences acting as a deterrent. Hey, I’m a dreamer, it can happen.

  16. 16.

    Bmaccnm

    February 8, 2012 at 7:48 pm

    @portlander: $1.2 million for the most recent fuck-up, and the police spokesman takes pains to say the cop who shot the unarmed, mentally ill man in the back “was following his training.” Parents in Portland teach their kids to never, ever engage the cops for any reason. Most people I know won’t even call them because they are so erratic.

  17. 17.

    Tim in SF

    February 8, 2012 at 7:51 pm

    Cops yell “STOP RESISTING” when they’re beating on people the same way Uncle Jimbo yells “They’re coming right for us!” And often, with the same results.

  18. 18.

    brent

    February 8, 2012 at 7:52 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Well according to the article, one of the cops involved did receive some punishment:

    Henderson police said a sergeant involved was disciplined. The sergeant remains employed with the department.

    Henderson, which is a suburb just south of Las Vegas (my current resident city) actually has a good reputation compared to the Vegas police believe it or not. But this video is not even mildly surprising for anyone who has ever had dealings with the police around here.

  19. 19.

    Comrade Dread

    February 8, 2012 at 7:55 pm

    They do this because they’re in a war on crime. We’re the enemy.

    And they continue to do this because they get away with it.

    Their fellow officers won’t report them or turn them in.

    They often will harrass and arrest people who video tape them and do their best to erase the videos.

    D.A.s don’t want to screw the pooch and prosecute officers unless they have no way out due to public anger.

    Even assuming they do, juries will frequently overlook all but the most obviously criminal behavior.

    All the while, they’re put on paid administrative leave as a ‘punishment’.

    Assuming the higher ups in the department want to get rid of them, they have to deal with union appeals.

    So this will continue until more and more of the middle class (read: white males) finds themselves in the sights of those soldiers in the war on crime.

  20. 20.

    Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor

    February 8, 2012 at 7:59 pm

    If you ain’t cop, you’re little people.

  21. 21.

    Mike in NC

    February 8, 2012 at 8:02 pm

    @Bmaccnm:

    Parents in Portland teach their kids to never, ever engage the cops for any reason. Most people I know won’t even call them because they are so erratic.

    According to the new TV show “Grimm”, those poor cops in Portland have their hands full chasing werewolves, shape-shifters, and all kinds of other freaky monsters.

  22. 22.

    Schlemizel

    February 8, 2012 at 8:03 pm

    SING YOU FUCKERS:
    AAAAHHHHHHMMMMMMMM PROUD TA BE A MERICAN WEAR AT LEASE I NO AAAMM FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

  23. 23.

    shortstop

    February 8, 2012 at 8:03 pm

    Where’s Cassidy to tell us that unless we’ve LIVED what these guys go through EVERY DAY OF THEIR LIVES, we pussies have NO FUCKING RIGHT to
    criticize?

  24. 24.

    Maude

    February 8, 2012 at 8:05 pm

    @Comrade Dread:
    I’d like to say you are wrong, but you are right.
    What a travesty.

  25. 25.

    Schlemizel

    February 8, 2012 at 8:08 pm

    @Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor:

    You are not that far from right. I was a firefighter for a number of years & had close contact with police. Many of them were decent guys but they all divided the world into 3 groups: 1 criminals, 2 victims and 3 cops. You could move from group 2 to group 1 but you could never move from group 1 or 3.

  26. 26.

    David Koch

    February 8, 2012 at 8:08 pm

    This is ALL Obama’s fault.

  27. 27.

    barath

    February 8, 2012 at 8:08 pm

    After seeing and hearing about incident after incident like this all over the country, and seeing police everywhere from NYC to Berkeley being violent against protesters for no reason, I really wonder if we need to figure out a strategy for fixing this. First we need to figure out what we want changed, and then figure out a way to change it.

    Here are a few things that need fixing:

    1. Mandatory random substance testing (particularly steroids, stimulants, and alcohol) of police by an independent authority (at the county or state level so that it can’t easily be corrupted by local cops).

    2. Elimination of statistics-based evaluation.

    3. Lowering police priority of non-violent crimes, particularly anything drug related.

    4. Repealing (drug-related) asset forfeiture so that police departments don’t have an incentive to make such cases.

    5. Eliminating funds set aside for cops who go nuts: make them pay out of pocket.

    6. Sell off Rambo police equipment like armored vehicles, large automatic weapons, large chemical weapons, riot gear, stun weapons, etc.

  28. 28.

    SEIG HEIL

    February 8, 2012 at 8:10 pm

    the fucking pigs should all be lined up against the wall and gunned down like the vermin scum that they are.

    nazi gestapo motherfucking swine.

  29. 29.

    pseudonymous in nc

    February 8, 2012 at 8:10 pm

    The county and city po-po don’t have dash cams; the Highway Patrol does, which is why this ended up with the victim getting paid a civil settlement as opposed to being banged up for attacking an officer with a deadly health scare.

  30. 30.

    Villago Delenda Est

    February 8, 2012 at 8:11 pm

    @shortstop:

    Yeah, waiting for that ridiculous fucking argument to show up any time now.

    As someone mentioned above, there is rot in the supervisors. This is another obvious case of leadership FAIL, like the massacres in Iraq and Afghanistan. Someone is not holding the troops to standards.

  31. 31.

    freelancer

    February 8, 2012 at 8:12 pm

    @Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor:

    Need that old Neck-Kicker magic again.

  32. 32.

    Hal

    February 8, 2012 at 8:17 pm

    Come on folks. Cops can put 50+ bullets into an un-armed man and walk away with nothing more than a few weeks on desk duty. Fake BART Cops can unload into the back of a hand cuffed black man and end up spending less than two years in prison, with a substantial portion of public support. Hey, we all make mistakes, right?

    We’ll only see substantial changes and public outrage when police regularly shoot and kill white folks. Until then, I don’t expect much.

  33. 33.

    R. Porrofatto

    February 8, 2012 at 8:19 pm

    Love the ending to that article:

    This wasn’t the first high-profile incident involving a medical episode in Clark County. In both cases, the Highway Patrol was involved.
    Las Vegas doctor Ryan Rich, 33, died in January 2008 after trooper Loren Lazoff used a Taser on him five times.
    Rich’s vehicle had crashed into two vehicles and then the center median on Interstate 15.
    Lazoff said Rich appeared intoxicated, dazed and was combative, but an autopsy later revealed he only had seizure medication in his system. Rich had been diagnosed with the seizure disorder shortly before he died.
    The Clark County Coroner’s inquest jury ruled the death excusable.

  34. 34.

    freelancer

    February 8, 2012 at 8:20 pm

    Where’s Cassidy to tell us that unless we’ve LIVED what these guys go through EVERY DAY OF THEIR LIVES, we pussies have NO FUCKING RIGHT to
    criticize?

    Apparently busy on the Las Vegas Review Journal website under a different handle:

    pkokkinis wrote on February 08, 2012 04:20 PM:
    The wimps at the Journal should switch positions with Metro for just one Friday night, maybe even for just 15 minutes on the streets. Then they’d stop running these stupid stories of how police are abusive when the suspects are clearly resisting arrest. I usually don’t stick up for pigs, but the Journal has really over done it lately. Hey, reporters, you put yourself out there and be the nice guy – great if you didn’t have kids and couldn’t pass down your wimpy dna – but bad if someone has to explain to your now widow wife and 9 year old boy that daddy wasn’t aggressive enough against the bad guys. Pathetic.

    Po-lice work is hard. Reporting on Police is wimpy. How dare you journalists! Fucking Proto-Fascist.

  35. 35.

    Spaghetti Lee

    February 8, 2012 at 8:34 pm

    @freelancer:

    I usually don’t stick up for pigs

    Oh, do tell! Hey, shithead-he wasn’t “resisting arrest”, he was going through a fucking diabetic shock. And if your beloved thug cops had gone a little farther, someone would have had to tell HIS wife and kid that he isn’t coming home, because he was fucking murdered by a bunch of meatheaded cops.

  36. 36.

    Benjamin Franklin

    February 8, 2012 at 8:35 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    like the massacres in Iraq and Afghanistan. Someone is not holding the troops to standards.

    Most cops derive from military service. They can carry guns and have teh AUTHORITY.

    Question that authority, suffer the consequences.

  37. 37.

    FuriousPhil

    February 8, 2012 at 8:35 pm

    @freelancer:

    You tend to get this response from military types too. I was reminded of this recently when I responded critically on FB to the pissing on corpses debacle. “STFU you werent there and dont know what those guys go through.” It’s like brutality and unprofessional behavior just get a pass if you have a uniform and a gun.

  38. 38.

    Spaghetti Lee

    February 8, 2012 at 8:38 pm

    None of the officers was named in the lawsuit, and authorities have not released their names.

    For the folks wondering what can be reformed to stop this, here’s a good start. Release the fucking names. Splash them all over the local news and the internet, just like anyone would be for violent assault if they were anything besides a cop. Then maybe America’s Finest will think twice about going full metal jacket during a fucking traffic stop.

  39. 39.

    jurassicpork

    February 8, 2012 at 8:38 pm

    As a former Navy SEAL, when I look at these fascist yahoos, I shake my head sadly and realize our society is circling the porcelain bowl at warp speed. This would be hilarious if it wasn’t for the innocent victim and the fact that these gang bangers with badges will get some people killed one of these days unless someone puts them out of their misery and ours.

  40. 40.

    mellowjohn

    February 8, 2012 at 8:39 pm

    as the late, great mare daley said in 1968, “the police aren’t there to create disorder. the police are there to preserve disorder.”

  41. 41.

    pragmatism

    February 8, 2012 at 8:40 pm

    NHPers in Vegas ate those who couldn’t be Vegas metro. The frustration shows.

  42. 42.

    chopper

    February 8, 2012 at 8:42 pm

    @Schlemizel:

    ♪♪when they broke down your door with their guns in the face of your wife and child…♪♪

  43. 43.

    Spaghetti Lee

    February 8, 2012 at 8:43 pm

    If anyone’s in the mood for (slightly) lighter fare, this bullshit pro-SOPA Wikipeda-hurt-mah-feelins’ Op-Ed might be fun to take a few whacks at.

  44. 44.

    pragmatism

    February 8, 2012 at 8:44 pm

    That should be “are” not “ate”. Fywp and fat finger.

  45. 45.

    chopper

    February 8, 2012 at 8:44 pm

    @mellowjohn:

    great mare daley

    he ain’t what he used to be.

  46. 46.

    Joey Giraud

    February 8, 2012 at 8:46 pm

    How about we pass a law that cops who do this stuff get to change their uniform and be sent to the Eastern Front?

    If they want some action, give it to em.

  47. 47.

    chopper

    February 8, 2012 at 8:46 pm

    @jurassicpork:

    as a former 5 star chef and vice-president of the united states, i have no choice but to concur.

  48. 48.

    Cacti

    February 8, 2012 at 8:50 pm

    Dude’s lucky he’s white.

    If he was black, he’d have at least been tazed and possibly shot.

  49. 49.

    chopper

    February 8, 2012 at 8:51 pm

    @freelancer:

    but bad if someone has to explain to your now widow wife and 9 year old boy that daddy wasn’t aggressive enough against the bad guys. Pathetic.

    if the situation in the video had gone even a little different, the cops would have to explain to this poor sap’s now widow wife and 9 year old boy that daddy got shot in the back of the head for the crime of having diabetes.

  50. 50.

    FuriousPhil

    February 8, 2012 at 8:52 pm

    @jurassicpork:

    I read “Lone Survivor” recently (about SEAL team 10 and operation Redwing) and had to put it down – it was light on the details and heavy on the attitude – the phrase ‘liberal media’ came up so many times I though I was reading neocon war porn. It seemed like it was ghost-written in places.

    Just let it be known that I’m open-minded enough to not lump all military in with the Rambo conservative stereotype, but it sure seems to permeate. Lots of respect for those who do dangerous and thankless jobs day in and day out with high standards and don’t make headlines doing so.

  51. 51.

    Nylund

    February 8, 2012 at 8:54 pm

    Something like this nearly happened to me. I had an ulcer that unfortunately ate through to a network of blood vessels while I happened to be driving. I could tell something wasn’t right and did my best to immediately pull over. The blood loss was real quick though and I passed out. I woke up in a smoking car that had crashed into a small tree. When the cops came, they immediately assumed I was drunk, threw me to the ground and roughed me up a bit. It wasn’t as bad as this, but I’m pretty sure if it hadn’t been for the intervention of an EMT, I would have been sent to jail bleeding internally (I had no injuries from the slow-speed crash itself), instead of going to the hospital for emergency surgery.

  52. 52.

    freelancer

    February 8, 2012 at 8:55 pm

    @chopper:

    as a former 5 star chef and vice-president of the united states, i have no choice but to concur.

    Walter? Is that you? I’m Neil Armstrong’s son and I have a bone to pick with you…

  53. 53.

    Cacti

    February 8, 2012 at 8:57 pm

    @chopper:

    as a former 5 star chef and vice-president of the united states, i have no choice but to concur.

    This Nobel Prize winner and former Olympic medalist thinks you’re both right.

  54. 54.

    Cassidy

    February 8, 2012 at 8:58 pm

    @shortstop: Entering a house where you believe someone is armed and making a traffic stop are two different things. But don’t let false equivalence stop you from being an idiot.

  55. 55.

    freelancer

    February 8, 2012 at 9:01 pm

    @FuriousPhil:

    I read “Lone Survivor” recently (about SEAL team 10 and operation Redwing) and had to put it down – it was light on the details and heavy on the attitude – the phrase ‘liberal media’ came up so many times I though I was reading neocon war porn. It seemed like it was ghost-written in places.

    I had the same reaction reading that book. It was ghost-written, albeit poorly. Especially the later parts, where I love the fact that he’s talking about a buddy being SO tough, just a man’s man and the buddy had to have surgery years earlier that they couldn’t afford and he’s like “NO, Dude, Hey Doc, just operate on me WITHOUT Anesthesia. That way I can afford it. Same wingnuts mentality that loathe Obamacare.
    And then, like later back home, I found out months later that everybody was at home Praying for me and that at the same time I was found by an Afghani tribesman and they invoked a local law to protect me from The Taliban. The prayers back home prove that God saved me, etc.”
    Then there was the part about coming across 3 Aghani’s on a trail that they said later gave their position away to the Taliban. He was so pissed at the liberal media that they let them go and then he blames the liberal media on the deaths of his fellow operators. You know what? Judgment call is yours, your situational awareness behind enemy lines leaves you suspicious about people you run across, you smoke them and I don’t have an issue, (this wasn’t a drone strike on a wedding) but don’t blame me when you don’t and shit falls apart and suddenly a healthy media is why your buddies got killed.

    It is a vile, clunky, off-putting read and though the sailor made it out alive, bless his heart, his attitude is ignorant and poisonous.

  56. 56.

    Cassidy

    February 8, 2012 at 9:02 pm

    The prayers back home prove that God saved me, etc.”

    Which is funny because it was the Afghan’s and their rules that saved him. Oh well.

  57. 57.

    amk

    February 8, 2012 at 9:04 pm

    guns rule, baby. yeeeah.

  58. 58.

    Roger Moore

    February 8, 2012 at 9:07 pm

    @Schlemizel:

    SING YOU FUCKERS:
    AAAAHHHHHHMMMMMMMM PROUD TA BE A MERICAN WEAR AT LEASE I NO AAAMM FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

    I think the correct thing to sing is:

    When they kick out your front door
    How you gonna come?
    With your hands on your head
    Or on the trigger of your gun

  59. 59.

    SiubhanDuinne

    February 8, 2012 at 9:09 pm

    @pragmatism:

    Works either way, though.

  60. 60.

    GARY CAMPBELL - So the BITCHEZ CAN READ IT-IF they can READ!

    February 8, 2012 at 9:11 pm

    Merican Spring!
    Time to start.
    When they don’t come out of their sty unless there’s 20 of em heavily armed, then we’ll know we’re making progress.
    And when there’s 150 US Military trained citizen/patriots with heavy arms there to meet them, then we will know we are winning……
    Until then Americans will continue to be like the Syrian people……targets!
    It’s all there now, soon it will be here, where it belongs.
    Raise your fists America, you are the targets of the Stazi/Gestapo of Amerika!

  61. 61.

    Polar Bear Squares

    February 8, 2012 at 9:12 pm

    Every argument I hear conservatives make about overreach, big government, controlling our lives, judicial activism, think they know better than us, personal freedom, personal liberty … can be made about the current state of law enforcement in this country, particularly when it comes to young black and latino males. The only time I see the evil face of big government is when I encounter police officers. One pissed off cop can fuck up your day at a minimum and your life at the maximum. And it’s all legal. When a cop can kick your ass to make you pay attention to him (distraction strikes) and then simultaneously claim he’s afriad YOU might endanger his well-being and thus justifying the said asskicking …. dude. That freaks me the fuck out. On Glenn Beck levels of paranoia.

    I don’t get these vibes when I hear a liberal judge read his dissent in Citizens United or in defense of same-sex rights but I do get these vibes hearing Scalia say “I’m a law and order judge,” which to me just means you’re cool with cops breaking the law in order to get convictions. Or hearing Thomas defend cops regardless of how depraved their actions are. I can’t count how many highways we have in California named after slain cops. Not one named after a victim of police brutality who has died needlessly. And believe me. They are legion.

    There are certain truisms I’ve come to live with. One is there is a large swath of Americans who really don’t give a shit about things like Colombine or Rep. Giffords. They couldn’t care less as long as they have a right to horde their guns. The second is there is an equal large swath of Americans who really want cops to fuck over as many people as possible. Harass them. Arrest them. Smack ’em up if they get mouthy. Shoot them as much as possible. There really is nothing they wouldn’t allow them to do to “maintain order.”

    I’ve always wondered why some of my east coast friends don’t drive. Traffic and parking are reasons I hear but the main reason is it decreases contact with law enforcement. This video is making me reconsider driving myself.

    (Sorry for the rant. The video just resonated with me).

  62. 62.

    jeff

    February 8, 2012 at 9:14 pm

    When cops start getting personally prosecuted things will change. I know they do for murder, but, hey, who’s going to charge them with murder if it’s on the job. I treat the NYPD as really, really dangerous people whose salary I pay, and for whose presence I am sometimes grateful. I think I’d feel the same way about the Mafia.

  63. 63.

    mellowjohn

    February 8, 2012 at 9:16 pm

    @chopper: i was using the chicago (actually “da chicaga”) pernunseeashun we employ over by here, e.g., “da mare” or “da man on five.”

  64. 64.

    cromagnon

    February 8, 2012 at 9:31 pm

    @jurassicpork:

    Interesting statistic. There are about 100 times as many people who claim to be ‘a former Navy SEAL’ than there are actual former Navy SEALs. Funny how that works. Though as a former Navy SEAL I’m sure your well aware of that ;)

  65. 65.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    February 8, 2012 at 9:35 pm

    What gets me is that the guy was treated by EMTs at the scene, released without charges and then he went to the hospital for treatment. What kind of fucking EMTs responded where they would leave a clearly injured man with police after ‘treating’ him?!

    They should have their licenses pulled. What fucking FAIL.

    This is just another incident, one of many, that happens regularly across the nation that proves that our police, the people who have vehicles that clearly state their mission; “To protect and serve” emblazoned on them, are not protecting us.

    We need protection from them. I avoid cops for good reason, I have a ‘history’ with them, all minor, but in just about every case they went out of their way to be assholes. If one is behind me in traffic, I will lose him as quickly as possible by pulling into a large parking lot or the like just to get them off my tail.

    They make me nervous when I have no reason to be and they made it that way, not me.

  66. 66.

    Villago Delenda Est

    February 8, 2012 at 9:41 pm

    @cromagnon:

    Navy SEALs are very hot right now, thanks to the OBL incident. If it had been Army SF types, we’d all be former Green Berets.

  67. 67.

    AxelFoley

    February 8, 2012 at 9:43 pm

    @Rawk Chawk:

    I don’t think it does any good whatsoever to prosecute these brave, heroic officers or to make the city pay a settlement for something that happened in the past.
    __
    We should look forward, not back.

    You’re still being a douchebag today, I see.

    You should go fuck yourself, that’s what.

  68. 68.

    chopper

    February 8, 2012 at 9:51 pm

    @mellowjohn:

    well den, carry ahn. i’ll just get back to dis cheddy brat i’m eatin’.

  69. 69.

    Corbin Dallas Multipass

    February 8, 2012 at 9:52 pm

    Just so we’re clear…

    If he was in fact an actual drunk driver, it still wouldn’t be cool to kick him in the ribs to the point that they broke. Right?

  70. 70.

    Rawk Chawk

    February 8, 2012 at 9:53 pm

    @AxelFoley:

    You should go fuck yourself, that’s what.

    Wow. I just don’t understand the bitterness. I’m simply encouraging others to follow the example set by President Obama at the top level of law enforcement. Why does that make you angry?

  71. 71.

    Corbin Dallas Multipass

    February 8, 2012 at 9:53 pm

    @AxelFoley: ? Pretty sure that was sarcasm. Unless you’re being sarcastic. Then I’m even more confused.

    EDIT: NM I see what you meant.

  72. 72.

    Cowbelle

    February 8, 2012 at 9:58 pm

    @AxelFoley: Don’t feed the trolls.

  73. 73.

    WyldPirate

    February 8, 2012 at 10:02 pm

    AxelFoley:

    Why should he fuck off for giving the same flippant excuse Obama gave for overlooking the misdeeds of the war criminals that preceded him?

    Sarcasm bothers you that much, Mr. Sensitive?

  74. 74.

    Rawk Chawk

    February 8, 2012 at 10:11 pm

    @WyldPirate:

    Because any comment that does not obsequiously flatter Prez O is considered rude here at Bot Central. What the usual suspects in this thread are generally ignoring is that The Cole himself is trashing them and O in this post.

    giggle

  75. 75.

    Villago Delenda Est

    February 8, 2012 at 10:13 pm

    Wow, I just got a “bad behavior” message for mentioning the name of our pet Romney troll…who has been making himself scarce after the failure of his “sure thing, bet the farm and the kids” Romney VICTORIES! in MN and CO last night…

  76. 76.

    freelancer

    February 8, 2012 at 10:14 pm

    Wow, I just got a “bad behavior” message for mentioning the name of our pet Romney troll

    Wait…wut?!

  77. 77.

    Villago Delenda Est

    February 8, 2012 at 10:18 pm

    @freelancer:

    Yeah, it was rather strange, there was an entire string of stuff indicating I’d crossed some line I’d never heard of before.

  78. 78.

    chopper

    February 8, 2012 at 10:25 pm

    @Rawk Chawk:

    yes, clearly cole’s post trashes Obama. It’s right there in the bit where he doesn’t in any way mention Obama.

  79. 79.

    Ruckus

    February 8, 2012 at 10:52 pm

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:
    They make me nervous when I have no reason to be and they made it that way, not me.

    I’m a white male over 60. I grew up with people who are retired cops. I haven’t had a traffic ticket in 23 years. I go out of my way to avoid cops.
    Because I don’t trust any of them. Not a fucking one.
    They used to use the excuse, he’s black, he’s a hippie, he’s drunk. Now it’s, he is not paying me enough respect, he’s not doing whatever it is that I think he should be doing. Hell it’s not even respect it’s just blind obedience and they will accept nothing less.

    ETA. When did I move to a police state? Or has it just always been this way but they never ganged up on us as much? 6 guys with guns to arrest on suspected drunk. WTF

  80. 80.

    cckids

    February 8, 2012 at 10:54 pm

    @brent:

    But this video is not even mildly surprising for anyone who has ever had dealings with the police around here.

    No lie. It is no surprise that here in Vegas there has NEVER been an fatal shooting by an officer that was ruled to be unnecessary. Ever.

    We bring our kids up to fear the police, for a very good reason.

  81. 81.

    Rawk Chawk

    February 8, 2012 at 11:01 pm

    @chopper:

    It’s right there in the bit where he doesn’t in any way mention Obama.

    Denial is your handmaiden, my child. Must you have everything spelled out?…nevermind…

    Let’s see…Gitmo remains open for business and progressives who once howled for its closure (and against other Bushian security state excesses) now are all “meh.” I wonder who it is that replaced the Bush Boy and who is now CIC? hmmm…

  82. 82.

    WyldPirate

    February 8, 2012 at 11:03 pm

    @chopper:

    Cole didn’t mention Obama directly, but he did make mention of this:
    “… with our politicians and courts bending over backwards to negate our rights and to look the other way when cops misbehave, I suppose we should all be happy they didn’t just execute the guy on the spot.”

    It’s not a stretch for Raw Chawk to make the sarcastic analogy he did. In fact, if you watch the interview where Obama dropped the “look forward not back” bit, he basically implies that he WILL let the big fish go, but prosecute the little fish.

    It is the same sort of two systems of justice that applies here with the cops that everyone is bitching about in this thread.

  83. 83.

    Rawk Chawk

    February 8, 2012 at 11:19 pm

    @WyldPirate:

    Also, too: Is it really up for debate that the President of the United States and the Justice Department sets the tone for how “justice” is administered in this country?

    It’s simply part of why the Bradley Manning prosecution is such a joke while Bush and Cheney walk free. The lower down the ladder you are, the more likely you are to pay for your alleged crimes. Is that change we can believe in?

  84. 84.

    opie jeanne

    February 8, 2012 at 11:19 pm

    @brent: This was Henderson? (no, I couldn’t bring myself to watch the video)

    I was afraid it was another Seattle issue.

  85. 85.

    Kiril

    February 8, 2012 at 11:50 pm

    @barath: Sell off Rambo police equipment like armored vehicles, large automatic weapons, large chemical weapons, riot gear, stun weapons, etc.

    Sell them to whom?

  86. 86.

    Suffern ACE

    February 9, 2012 at 12:04 am

    @Kiril: Why, the well regulated militia, of course.

  87. 87.

    Mnemosyne

    February 9, 2012 at 12:14 am

    @Rawk Chawk:

    Ah, good to know that Rodney King’s beating was Obama’s fault. After all, those cops only did what they did because they knew Obama would be elected 16 years later.

  88. 88.

    barath

    February 9, 2012 at 12:16 am

    @Kiril:

    The foreign countries we’re always selling equipment to so they can oppress their citizenry.

  89. 89.

    WyldPirate

    February 9, 2012 at 12:28 am

    Mnemosyne:

    Not trying to pick a fight or anything, but I fail to see how you connect Rodney King to this.

    Justice has never been equally applied in our society, but it seems to me that it has been getting worse in recent years. Perhaps I’m wrong, but the percentage of our population that have been arrested, imprisoned or under some sort of court supervision has exploded in the last 30 and most are neither wealthy or well-connected.

  90. 90.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    February 9, 2012 at 12:32 am

    @Ruckus: “They used to use the excuse, he’s black, he’s a hippie, he’s drunk.”

    I’m the hippie, that’s all they’ve ever needed. I’m lucky though, unlike people of color I can disguise myself by tucking my pony tail into a light jacket I always wear out. That and wear a baseball cap. They help but if either one of us is turning into the other I have to make a point of looking at him and nodding a greeting so he doesn’t see the pony tail stub still visible.

    If they see that then all bets are off. They usually turn around, pull me over and check me out. The excuses are many and I never get a ticket, they always have to let me go. I would say that they are fishing but it feels more like they are sharks and we are the swimmers.

    If we’re not ‘tasty’ then they let us go.

  91. 91.

    srv

    February 9, 2012 at 12:40 am

    @cromagnon:

    Interesting statistic. There are about 100 times as many people who claim to be ‘a former Navy SEAL’ than there are actual former Navy SEALs. Funny how that works. Though as a former Navy SEAL I’m sure your well aware of that ;)

    Actually, that’s not true. 20 years ago, if you walked into a bar, there would always be some yahoo who said they were SF and would be lying.

    Today, SF is like 80K troops or so. So it’s actually a big deal when you encounter someone who is like ‘regular’

    Special is just not that special anymore.

  92. 92.

    Fwiffo

    February 9, 2012 at 12:55 am

    @Tim in SF: Stole the “they’re comin’ right for us” right out of my mouth.

  93. 93.

    Fwiffo

    February 9, 2012 at 12:58 am

    Man, it would be worth going through police academy, and becoming a cop, and working my way up to chief, just to have the opportunity to shit-can pigs like those.

  94. 94.

    gex

    February 9, 2012 at 12:59 am

    @freelancer: If police work is so hard, they can make it easier on themselves by not instigating a full fledged battle against each civilian they encounter.

  95. 95.

    Triassic Sands

    February 9, 2012 at 1:22 am

    Every one of them should be fired. Then jailed.

    I’m so sick of seeing police act like this.

    I’m also less interested in seeing the victims of police misconduct receive large sums of money than I am in having the offending police removed from the force and criminally prosecuted. The cops who did this don’t have to pay the award out of their own pockets — maybe they should.

    The American Diabetes Association recommends that people with diabetes wear a bracelet indicating their condition, but “police still have to look,” Yatvin said.

    Yeah, in this incident they would have seen his bracelet after they beat him and just before they found the insulin in his pocket. Outcome? The same.

    At the same time that I want to see thugs like this fired and jailed, I’m concerned about the driver. My brother was a diabetic and never took proper care of himself. If he had been the driver in this video it would be a safe bet that his condition would have been a result of carelessness on his part. Someone who hasn’t controlled his or her diabetes has no business behind the wheel of a car — they pose a very real threat not only to themselves, but to others.

    Of course, whether the condition of the driver is a product of his carelessness or some other cause can’t be known until after the police have stopped and questioned him, and maybe not even then depending on the condition of the driver. I didn’t get the impression these cops were interested in anything but kicking the shit out of Mr. Greene. Even if Mr. Greene’s condition was a product of poor disease management on his part, there is no excuse for police to behave like this.

    In a number of these videos I’ve been impressed by what constitutes “not cooperating.” Perhaps, if the driver handcuffed his own hands behind his back while in the car and then dove to the ground face first…

    It’s hard to imagine any amount of training helping thugs like these.

    To Serve and Beat the Shit Out Of… catchy.

  96. 96.

    Gus diZerega

    February 9, 2012 at 1:50 am

    @Triassic Sands: You are totally right. A civil penalty of a financial reward paid by everyone but the thugs that did the crime is no deterrent. The victims should still get lots and lots of money, but that is not enough.

    Jail time, lots of it, and loss of pension, would be an appropriate start and the thugs in uniform will not get better till that happens.

  97. 97.

    Paul in KY

    February 9, 2012 at 9:10 am

    Good point by John on the careless handling of weapons. I received much more weapons training in USAF than these guys seem to & my men who were packing were under much more control than these POSes.

    When you are at the firing range, the instructors all carry sidearms. That’s so they can shoot you if they have to (for going wacko while having a loaded weapon). You quickly learn to obey all their commands & always keep your weapon pointed down range.

  98. 98.

    Ken

    February 9, 2012 at 9:30 am

    “News 3 has learned that only one officer with the Henderson Police Department was disciplined as a result of the incident…

    All Henderson officers seen on that tape are still employed with the police department. ”

    This is what they are really talking about when they say shit like “our use of force training has been modified” – the cops break the law by beating the shit out of an innocent man, and they receive no punishment. That’s exactly how you train someone to be an authoritarian thug.

  99. 99.

    chopper

    February 9, 2012 at 11:07 am

    @Rawk Chawk:

    and all of that is in cole’s post about these cops beating up a dude.

    man, some people read ‘obama the boogeyman’ into everything.

  100. 100.

    chopper

    February 9, 2012 at 11:11 am

    @Mnemosyne:

    no, silly, rodney king getting beat up by cops was clinton’s fault. i’m sure rawk and wyldie were both screaming that from the rooftops back then. right? yeah, not bloody likely.

    obama’s to blame for every bad thing that happens now that clinton wasn’t to blame for when it happened back then. it’s science.

  101. 101.

    chopper

    February 9, 2012 at 11:13 am

    sorry, bush. and hell, clinton was to blame for every police beating that happened on his watch too.

  102. 102.

    shirleyujest

    February 9, 2012 at 3:19 pm

    @Ken:

    That’s exactly how you train someone to be an authoritarian thug.

    27% of the country would call that successful training.

  103. 103.

    Redleg

    February 9, 2012 at 5:24 pm

    Fucking pigs.

  104. 104.

    DanielX

    February 9, 2012 at 7:11 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Nothing will happen to them…period. And at that, I’m surprised this guy wasn’t tased or shot. It happens all the time and if you don’t think it can happen to you, you’re wrong.

  105. 105.

    mere mortal

    February 9, 2012 at 9:37 pm

    You could tell they all knew they really screwed the pooch. Several of them looked furtively at the camera and hurried out of its field.

    Just horrible behavior. I understand that it is a really tough job and you have the stress of knowing you could face injury from some random asshole at any moment.

    But come on.

  106. 106.

    no name

    February 11, 2012 at 4:11 pm

    THIS IS WHY I REFUSE TO TRAVEL TO THE U.S.!!!!!

    AND YOU WONDER WHY YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH VIOLENCE …

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