At first glance this looks like a mistake: Video shows Arizona officers beating unarmed man

Washington Post Link

Video

Four police officers from a Phoenix suburb have been put on paid administrative leave after video showed them beating an unarmed man last month, the Mesa Police Department said. On Tuesday, the department released a 15-minute video of the incident, which took place May 23, in an effort to be transparent after recent high-profile cases where its officers’ use of force was questioned.

The footage shows four men in uniform frisking a man in a gray shirt as he stands near a railing on the upper floor of an apartment complex, holding a phone to his ear. The officers appear to give direction to the man — later identified as 33-year-old Robert Johnson — at which point he walks toward a wall. Moments later, the officers have Johnson backed up into a corner near an elevator, then take him down. Johnson does not appear to resist. In the video, at least two officers are shown punching Johnson several times in the head; one officer pummels him on the left side of his face five times in rapid succession, before landing a final right hook that causes Johnson to slump down to the ground.

Mesa Police Chief Ramon Batista told several local news outlets Tuesday night that he first became aware of the video after a civilian reported it to him about a week after the incident, and that four of the officers involved were placed on leave immediately pending an investigation. He did not identify the officers placed on leave or specify whether the others in the video were also under investigation.

Respect My Authority

The officers had been responding to a call about a woman in distress and found Johnson and 20-year-old Erick Reyes, Batista told the Arizona Republic. While police were questioning Reyes, they asked Johnson to stay behind; the incident escalated after Johnson didn’t sit down when he was told, he added. “When the person didn’t sit down, our officers then engaged in use of force to make him sit down,” Batista told the newspaper. “I don’t feel that our officers were at their best. I don’t feel that this situation needed to go in the way that it went.”

The video is pretty horrendous. He doesn't have any weapons and he is not acting aggressively. To me, it looks like these thugs just didn't like him not respecting their authority when they told doggy to sit. Biggest gang in America is our police force.

I live in Mesa and I know of this complex/officers. It is not the greatest place in the world but there are worse places in AZ.

a reply to: PraetorianAZ

I used to have ultimate respect for police officers but over the years I have come to learn a few things. Most GOOD people who become cops quit shortly after, which only leaves one kind behind.

And I care not to those who say most cops are good. They cant be, period. 99% of the laws they enforce are against that very oath they took. So they may seem or think they are good, they unwittingly are not.

All I have to say is that I left Chicago to get away from the violence and all I SEE on the local news are stories on police shootings and police brutality (mostly out of Mesa) and then my own experience with Pinal Co. (I didn't even have a SPEEDING ticket since the 1980s!!)

I too used to have nothing but the utmost respect for law enforcement, (I worked in medicine for 30 years), but over the past 2 decades, I have watched a steady decline in the respect the men in blue have for the people they are SUPPOSED to SERVE and protect!
a reply to: PraetorianAZ

Roided out cops are no better than street gangs.

They knocked the guy out and were still hitting him. This got caught on camera, but if you notice it looks like it is just a normal thing those cops do regularly.

originally posted by: PraetorianAZ
Biggest gang in America is our police force.

Really?

Can you show me stats vs other gangs to back that up?

I'm going to guess it is well below 1% of all arrests result in a LEO using too much force.


I didn't watch this video, but like most other like this, it's clearly the LEO's took things too far, and should be punished. But I will never stop saying, obey commands, and things won't escalate.

I saw that vid yesterday and posted it as a reply to another thread talking about police brutality. It seems that the police in America are going crazy drunk with power or something.

a reply to: PraetorianAZ

I don't live in Mesa, but I do often shop in Mesa. Not anymore. If they can't keep their police in line, then I'm not spending our hard-earned dollars to fund their abuse. And I will be letting them know. I just looked up some contact info if anyone is interested:

Mayor John Giles
Phone: (480) 644-2388
Email: [email protected]

Mesa City Council
Email:[email protected]
Phone: (480) 644-3000

Mesa Chamber of Commerce
Phone: (480) 969-1307
Fax: (480) 827-0727
Email: [email protected]

San Tan, Chandler, Tempe, Scottsdale... I can find somewhere else to do my business. I'm ashamed of myself for not doing so after the vicious and sadistic hotel video, but I had hoped for better with the new police chief. My bad.

tekaran they thank you for the free pass .
Funny if Washington just obeyed orders you would like in that country you want so badly were they round you up when ever they please .

laws Washington - Jefferson - paul rever and all the guys who dumped the tea from the ships broke .
1 TREASON
2 sowing dissension
3 forming a militia
4 braking and entering
5 Felony destruction of property
If the kings men had got them they would have all been hanged .
Laws are only as good as the people who wright them and enforce them .
The police and Government corruption has reached te point to were they are doing the worst and most crimes .
calling it leagle does not equite to right .
pS btw the constitution gives you the RIGHT to resist a illegal arrest even to teh point of causing a death of a poilice officer .

Unlike you George was smart enough to know the only way to change bad laws is through Resisting .

Ps saying tehre are good cops is no different then saying there were good red coats .
as even the so called good red coats killed people because tehy OBEYED orders

originally posted by: CosmicAwakening
a reply to: PraetorianAZ

I used to have ultimate respect for police officers but over the years I have come to learn a few things. Most GOOD people who become cops quit shortly after, which only leaves one kind behind.

And I care not to those who say most cops are good. They cant be, period. 99% of the laws they enforce are against that very oath they took. So they may seem or think they are good, they unwittingly are not.

In the town I live in there's an investigation going on regarding police killing a teen girl because she had dirt on them, and then they did everything they could to cover it up. The only reason it's even being looked at is because one of the officers had all of the evidence in a storage shed of his, and he just happened to not pay his bills on time. So, after someone bought the rights to said storage shed, all the evidence came to light.

www.canoncitydailyrecord.com...

If anyone ever wonders why people don't trust the police, there you have it.

a reply to: Tekaran

I didn't watch this video...

And yet you somehow think you know enough to comment intelligently on the facts of the situation? Oh dear.

But I will never stop saying, obey commands, and things won't escalate.

You can keep saying it, but it doesn't make it true. I guess it helps when you don't bother to watch the video before pronouncing your judgment, eh?

a reply to: Boadicea


Oh! By hotel video, are you referring to the one where the guy was shot for walking on his hands and knees instead of just on his knees? Was that video taken in the same town as this one??

originally posted by: KansasGirl
a reply to: Boadicea


Oh! By hotel video, are you referring to the one where the guy was shot for walking on his hands and knees instead of just on his knees? Was that video taken in the same town as this one??

Yup. Same city, same police department. As I understand it, a different police chief, but apparently that hasn't changed anything.

a reply to: Grimpachi

Not all cops obviously, but the bad ones are literally the trash of society..


They are worse than gangs, because gangs can’t legally beat you the. Throw you in a concrete box.

originally posted by: Boadicea

originally posted by: KansasGirl
a reply to: Boadicea


Oh! By hotel video, are you referring to the one where the guy was shot for walking on his hands and knees instead of just on his knees? Was that video taken in the same town as this one??

Yup. Same city, same police department. As I understand it, a different police chief, but apparently that hasn't changed anything.

Holy crap.

originally posted by: Boadicea

originally posted by: KansasGirl
a reply to: Boadicea


Oh! By hotel video, are you referring to the one where the guy was shot for walking on his hands and knees instead of just on his knees? Was that video taken in the same town as this one??

Yup. Same city, same police department. As I understand it, a different police chief, but apparently that hasn't changed anything.

Two incidents of this type caught on video in the space of less than a year from this police department. Makes you wonder what goes on that isn't caught on tape?

The defenders of cops always say there are millions of interactions every year and only 1% end like this with the cops being bad.

But that does not work both ways for them. If there are millions of interactions every year even less end in violence against the cop yet the cops are always so scared of the citizen.

And they are always like he coulda had a gun or he coulda drove off and killed someone lol. But that happens less then the cops beating your ass.

Im so tired of the double standard . They are so scared of us pulling a gun or whatever but tell us not to be scared of them.

ATS members need to have a community project and collect all the videos of police violence and abuse of powers that can be found and then find out the outcomes of the incidents. The problem with this issue is that each incident gets lost in the blur of new headlines and quickly forgotten. As someone who has suffered this abuse I ask for your help b/c this is a national issue where no one is immune. the 20yr old white girl was just pummeled at the beach the other weekend for not "respecting my authoritar" (has to be said with Cartman accent).

I'm sure there are some sites that do something similar but something more needs to be done. I think the NFL players might have had cause for their actions. When the nation is in crisis, drastic actions are required.

a reply to: PraetorianAZ

Cops need to be monitored at all times. Audio and video. No exceptions. The only reason they would balk at this proposal is because they know that they would lose the ability to cover their own asses and manipulate evidence.

a reply to: KansasGirl

Two incidents of this type caught on video in the space of less than a year from this police department. Makes you wonder what goes on that isn't caught on tape?

It sure does. And it should. I have had positive interactions with Mesa police officers, so I certainly don't want to blame them all for the abuse of others. But as long as we know there are some abusive officers not being held accountable, we have to assume there is more and probably worse that is also happening with no accountability. And that accountability goes to the top. Far too much focus is placed on the individual officers, and not nearly enough on their bosses.