Caught on Body Cam: Marines, Police Brawl

a reply to: Domo1

Dunno if it's the case here that this cop was former military. Odds are that could be. A lot of times we never hear that part.

I'd love to see more studies too. It's like these cops don't have an off switch. I don't care who you are or what you do, that's some sort of chemical imbalance or deviant medical condition. And if it is caused by the job, they either need more counseling, monitoring, and education or they need to be gone from the job.

Coming Home to Roost: American Militarism, War Culture and Police Brutality

a reply to: Another_Nut

I do not understand.

The Marines were offering first aid to an unconscious person according to their version of events. The crucial thing here, is how, exactly, that state of affairs led to two Marines being bought up on charges of assaulting a police officer and so on. If you see someone performing first aid on somebody, you do not immediately think "Oh, well, clearly we have a criminal mastermind here. We had better stop this guy." What you do, is you call in to get some emergency medical technicians on the scene, and you offer what assistance you can to the people who are trying to help the downed individual, while working out, if possible, how they came to be on the floor.

People offering assistance do not look like people who are up to no good. There is no reason for the officers to have intervened in this matter. That said, the Marines, no matter where they have been, what they have done, or what service they have rendered, are still beholden to the same law and standards as the rest of the population when on their home soil, and if they refused to step off when the officers asked them to, then as stupid as any such request would have been, if indeed it were made, then I can see how they ended up in this position.

I really think, however, that if these Marines were offering aid to a fallen citizen, that their actions afterward ought to be forgiven, and the police officers ought to know better than to a) try to prevent people from offering help to strangers, and b) know better than to use force to do it.

a reply to: Domo1

I can somewhat agree on your point, but many use the experience to further themselves. I have many friends who served and came out better, more disciplined men and women. Although I do know of one person that should never, ever be given power over others. He was part of some Special Ops group and it did things to him that were frightening. He was constantly pissed, always looking for trouble, always looking for someone to say or do the littlest thing he didn't like and then BOOM, he was on them and would use every trick he knew to hurt them. We all started to avoid him like a disease and he couldn't figure out why. Said he was "just having a little fun". Now, imagine him as a cop.

a reply to: TrueBrit

That said, the Marines, no matter where they have been, what they have done, or what service they have rendered, are still beholden to the same law and standards as the rest of the population when on their home soil

Agreed, but so are the Police and they seem to have forgotten that part. It looked to me as if the Marines were simply acting in self defense. Police or not, an assault is still an assault.

Police serve society, they do NOT rule society.

P

a reply to: pheonix358

Indeed. Perhaps I was unclear in my above comment.

The actions of these police officers were unwarranted according to what we know so far. They had no reason to lay a hand on ANYONE in this situation what so ever, and from what I understand, they initiated what came to pass, by presumably attempting to force the Marines to quit their efforts to aid the downed individual.

Anyone, whether a Marine, or a civilian, whether a doctor or a sales rep for a car company, who is rendering aid to an unconscious person, ought to be assisted in doing so, not prevented from doing so. For police, of all people, to step in and prevent someone receiving first aid when they are down and unresponsive is reckless, and places the life of the downed individual at some considerable risk, or rather, increases the risk to them.

When someone is knocked out, the risk of them going into shock is quite high, and simple first aid procedures, including keeping that person in the recovery position, keeping a check on their respiration, and so on, can literally save their life. That is a noble thing for anyone to involve themselves in, and ought to be supported, not curtailed by spurious application of power on the part of law enforcement.

If an officer was down and unconscious, I very much doubt that a person rendering aid to that officer would be bought up on charges, if they refused to cease and desist their attempts to lend a hand, and got into an altercation over it.

Not sure if it's the newsies editing or what, but does it look like the "body cam" isn't turned on until it's going badly for the cops?

I think they should dump any cop video that doesn't have some amount of time before the encounter. In fact, it's stupid to allow the cop to turn the thing on or off. It ought to be running for the entire duration of the shift, or you get a reprimand and the video is erased, and if you testify in court, the judge should preface any testimony with the fact that you had the camera off, intentionally, and that your testimony is likely a lie. Or, of course, you could be brought up on charges of intentionally destroying evidence.

But a camera you can turn on after you've started the problem isn't worth having.

24/7. No ability to turn it off, no ability to access the data, no ability to erase it, or modify it. If not, it's a lie.