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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Criminal Justice / Shitty Cops / This Guy

This Guy

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The nerve of some people:

A Texas police officer who was fired after Tasering a 76-year-old man during a routine traffic stop is suing to get his job back, with his attorney saying “There’s nothing unreasonable at all about that level of force,” used during the incident, reports the Victoria Advocate.

Victoria police officer Nathanial Robinson was fired on Monday after an internal investigation found that he violated three department policies – conduct and performance, use of force, and arrest without warrant – during the Dec. 11 traffic stop.

The incident, captured by a dash-cam, showed Robinson slamming 76-year-old Pete Vasquez onto the hood of a patrol car before placing Vasquez in a hold and then forcing him to the ground where he used his Taser on the elderly man twice.

***

According to Greg Cagle — a Texas Municipal Police Association lawyer hired to defend Robinson — the 23-year-old cop did nothing wrong.

“I thought it was important for people to know he didn’t do anything that was a violation of policy or law,” Cagle said. “There may be some issues of law we need to talk about, and tactics that I don’t think were considered.”

These guys are starting to give Nazi stormtroopers a bad name.

Reader Interactions

64Comments

  3. 3.

    Baud

    These guys are starting to give Nazi stormtroopers a bad name.

    Absolutely. Unlike the Nazis, these guys have hired lawyers.

  6. 6.

    raven

    It totally sucks and was uncalled for but if you think that was getting “slammed” on the hood you’ve never been slammed.

  7. 7.

    kc

    One witness, car lot sales manager Larry Urich, said Robinson acted like a “goddamned Nazi Stormtrooper.”

    “I told the officer, ‘What in the hell are you doing?’ This gentleman is 76 years old,” Urich said. “The cop told me to stand back, but I didn’t shut up. I told him he was a goddamned Nazi Stormtrooper.”

    I’d buy a used car from that guy.

  10. 10.

    Calouste

    “I thought it was important for people to know he didn’t do anything that was a violation of policy or law,” Cagle said. “There may be some issues of law we need to talk about, and tactics that I don’t think were considered.”

    These guys are starting to give Nazi stormtroopers a bad name.

    It was only at the Nuremberg trials that it was firmly established that “Befehl ist Befehl” wasn’t an excuse for atrocities. Something that btw seems to have bypassed Mr. Cagle.

  11. 11.

    Howard Beale IV

    Sounds like that lawyer should be brought before the Texas Bar as well. But given who they’ve brought forth onto the national stage, I have no faith in real justice.

  12. 12.

    Alison

    @raven: Seems a strange nit to pick. Maybe for a 76-year-old, the parameters might be a bit different than someone younger and/or stronger? Think about it.

    Also, fuck these fucking violent power-mad bastard cops. It’s pretty clear that rather than a “few bad apples” we’ve got a rotting orchard with a few yet-to-be-spoiled fruits.

  14. 14.

    Alison

    @raven: I’m not “saying so”, just think pedantry is a little unnecessary, and also that for an elderly man who is smaller than the cop, it wouldn’t take as much of a “slam” into the hood to hurt him as it might for someone younger and sturdier and bigger. Is that really such an outlandish claim?

  15. 15.

    Keith G

    This cop sucks as a human being and needs to be reduced to lancing marten ass cysts at a Siberian sable “ranch”…

    …but due process is for all. Let him make his case.

  17. 17.

    Violet

    @dubo: Oh, good Lord. From your link:

    “Where’s the majesty?” I had been thinking after surveying the wreckage of America’s political culture. Each time I considered the words, my gut response was the same.

    The majesty? Longing for monarchy and inherited aristocracy is yet another hallmark of wingnuts, conservatives, Republicans or whatever the hell it is they call themselves these days.

  21. 21.

    Bob In Portland

    Gee, John, if our cops are giving Nazi stormtroopers a bad name, then would that make the US fascist?

  23. 23.

    Alison

    @raven: Jeez, okay. I wasn’t trying to start an argument here. But if you enjoy being a rude asshole, well, far be it from me to rain on your dick parade.

  25. 25.

    JPL

    @dubo: When the author mentioned the couple who moved their location because of a golf game, he lost me. The President had no idea about the nuptials and the couple was okay because they had a better area on the course. In fact the President called them and apologized. When they arranged to be married at that location, they knew beforehand, there was a possibility they would be asked to move. Facts are important.
    I didn’t bother reading past that because the author obviously had an agenda, with no basis in reality.

  26. 26.

    raven

    @Alison: Yes, this is a model of comportment:

    Also, fuck these fucking violent power-mad bastard cops. It’s pretty clear that rather than a “few bad apples” we’ve got a rotting orchard with a few yet-to-be-spoiled fruits.

  29. 29.

    MD Rackham

    @raven: Man, the truth burns doesn’t it.

    Perhaps being more of an apologist will make it go away. I suspect we’ll all get a chance to see you try that out.

  31. 31.

    blueskies

    @raven: Actually, it’s a very big deal for a 76 year old. Possibly you haven’t been around a lot of people of that age. For some, many in fact, that’s when they’re frailties are really taking off. The ability to rebound also greatly declines.

    So yeah, that’s a big deal.

    Beyond, as you note, the general “uncalled for-ness”.

    As for your discussion with Alison, as a fairly disinterested observer, here’s a pro tip:

    Stop digging.

  32. 32.

    NotMax

    These guys are starting to give Nazi stormtroopers a bad name.

    Confoozled. Since when did they have a non-bad name?

  33. 33.

    raven

    @blueskies: Or what? You and some other schmuck I never heard of won’t like me? I didn’t say it was no big deal, I said he didn’t get “slammed on the hood.” I’m glad the dude got fired and if that is being an apologist then so be it.

  34. 34.

    srv

    @raven:

    On the video, however, Robinson appears to try to snatch a piece of paper from Vasquez without success.

    I understand through all the BJ anti-cop rage you can’t tell a wrist from a piece of paper. He’s already decided to cuff him for whatever reason and the guy is resisting. Stupid is as stupid does.

  35. 35.

    Villago Delenda Est

    This guy must have been cribbing from the Menendez brothers, who presented themselves as orphans at trial.

    For killing their parents.

  38. 38.

    aimai

    @raven: Christ,this is a lot of hysterical bloviating just to flex some online muscles and pretend that your being slammed on a car was really slamming and this poor guy’s was not. You seem to have a lot at stake here. Can you tell us what it is?

  40. 40.

    Pogonip

    Cole [FY Autocorrect thinks you are named “Cold”), how about adding emoticons? Suggestions:

    –angry little red smilie waving its fist
    –confused smilie
    –barfie
    –puppy
    –kitten
    –eye-rolling smilie

    This place can probably get by without an actual smile.

  42. 42.

    jl

    @srv:

    ” Stupid is as stupid does.”

    You talking about the cop or the guy the cop decided for whatever (what exactly?) reason needed to be spread over the car hood, during a stop for what can only be called suspicion for an extremely minor offense?
    You saying that a cop can make any ridiculous order at all, and if someone does not comply immediately and without question, then the person deserves to get beat up?

  43. 43.

    HinTN

    I have seen no pictures but I’m guessing the cop is a muscle built no brains boy that’s got serous steroids in his system.

  45. 45.

    Laertes

    This is just raven being raven. He’s an authoritarian prick and he’s always going to identify with the authority figure. And he’s a tough guy, and likes to exhibit his toughness. “If you think that was a slam, you’ve never been slammed” translates roughly as “Hey man, I’m tough as nails, I know from violence, and you little people got no business talking about it around me.”

    “I don’t give a fuck what you think” comes from roughly the same place–that urge to express dominance. (Which circles back to the whole authoritarian orientation thing.)

  46. 46.

    JPL

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): haha.. What’s an everyday pullover. When I was pulled over, it was with cause.

    One time, I happened to be under stress while driving the son to school and may have exceeded the speed limit. A motorcycle police officer put on his lights and I pulled over. He looked at me and drove off. I wanted to chase him down to see why I didn’t get a ticket. The son didn’t think that was a good idea.

  47. 47.

    feebog

    Checked the Victoria TX website. The city is far too small to have a Civil Service Commission, so I assume the appeal process will be some type of arbitration, depending on the TMPA contract with the city. As a Labor Arbitrator and Hearing Officer I would never make a judgment based solely on the recording, but my initial impression is that the officer is way out of line. It would be an interesting case, but I don’t do Texas.

  49. 49.

    SRW1

    Slightly OT, but only slightly in a thread titled ‘This Guy’: Apparently, it is radical feminism that is responsible for paedophile priests in the RCC.

    At least Cardinal Burke tells me so. And he is an expert on “human sexuality and the marital relationship”. I have no idea how he came by that expertise, given that he supposedly doesn’t practice either.

  50. 50.

    Keith G

    @raven: Since I don’t pay a cable monopoly have the mouse’s sports broadcast monopoly (yay free market) wired into my home, I am off to a pub.

    Fish & chips, porter, and hopefully a Buckeye victory.

  53. 53.

    srv

    @jl:

    then the person deserves to get beat up?

    If you don’t know by 76 that cops do whatever the fuck they want, a good beating will fix that attitude right up.

  56. 56.

    Mike G

    It’s Texas, the Land of Freedom(TM).
    If Vasquez wanted to be left alone by the state, he should have been a fertilizer plant full of explosives.

  58. 58.

    Tree With Water

    When I was a Teamster, stealing or drunk driving were about the only two offenses the union refused to defend. I wonder what criteria guides this particular police union? Assault and battery while on duty apparently doesn’t rate as indefensible, even when captured by the police’s own video cam.

  59. 59.

    EriktheRed

    “I thought it was important for people to know he didn’t do anything that was a violation of policy or law,” Cagle said. “There may be some issues of law we need to talk about, and tactics that I don’t think were considered.”

    What kinda fuckin’ back-of-the-matchbook-cover law school did this doofus go to?

  61. 61.

    NonyNony

    @jl:

    You saying that a cop can make any ridiculous order at all, and if someone does not comply immediately and without question, then the person deserves to get beat up?

    srv is either an authoritarian or a guy/gal who likes to mock authoritarians by repeating what they say. I still haven’t figured out which – I suspect mockery because srv is all over the map. But then so is my uncle – an outright authoritarian wingnut who occasionally spouts things about freedom and liberty that would make you think he was a far-left leftist until you remember that he only thinks that way about white people who are like him.

  62. 62.

    J R in WV

    I’ve driven across Tejas several times, and never had any interaction with Police.

    On the other hand I was shackled to a bench by the fuckin’ Border Patrol, searched vigorously, and put into a holding cell, all the while being told I wasn’t going to be arrested, which was because I hadn’t done anything. Amazing, when you just write it down like that. I watched them put other people into other holding cells. They let me out about 2 am, which was good, because I needed fuel at the time.

    Never pass through El Paso on I-10, because you will come under the control of the Border Patrol, which is as lawless a bunch of Nazis ever empowered by an American government. They are totally out of control. My particular little gang of them didn’t even speak English in the presence of people who knew no Spanish – they were all Mexican people with US citizenship. Go figure.

    They shoot Mexican kids who throw rocks at them… which is how lots of Palestinian kids get killed, somewhere else in another part of the world. The Border Patrol is in charge of killing juveniles of Mexican heritage here, in “our country”…

  63. 63.

    glocksman

    My Mama, who was an ER nurse, told me one thing that still sticks.

    ‘If you’re ever arrested, even if totally innocent, don’t ever resist arrest.’

    She saw too many people who resisted that were brought in with dog bites, broken bones, etc.

    I took that advice to heart and when I had a DUI in 2012, and while I wound up going through DT’s in a solitary cell, I cooperated with the cops and didn’t have any injuries resulting from the cops.

    In fact, I bear the cops no grudges because my BAC at the time was three times the legal limit, which was my fault and not theirs.

    I hate to think what would have happened if I had been stupid enough to resist arrest or cooperate in any way.

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