Video Shows Cuffed Suspect Get Punched By Police

Video Shows Cuffed Suspect Get Punched By Police

www.thepittsburghchannel.com

Two people were arrested and a police officer was put on administrative leave without pay following an alleged burglary overnight in Braddock.

(visit the link for the full news article)

When are these cops going to let their power stop from going to their heads. Everyday now you see more and more police brutality, this has to come to an end.

www.thepittsburghchannel.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I've been watching these police brutality threads for some time.
Is it possible that such abuse of power has been going on since the first police force was commisioned, it's just that nowadays we have portable video cameras as well as instant communication to every part of the world to get the message out? Plus, of course, everyone here at ATS is looking for these stories.

?

Oh this bit is good:

While Braddock Mayor John Fetterman stopped short of defending the officer's actions, he said it was his understanding that the male suspect may have been threatening the officer and trying to spit on him.
"From what I've been told, there was a lot of acrimony being directed at the officer, and I'd also like to point out this individual was apprehended burglarizing a home here in Braddock in the early morning hours with an accomplice. This isn't a case of an innocent individual that fell victim to police abuse," Fetterman said.
The camera angle makes it tough to see what's happening just before the man gets hit, Fetterman said.
"I'm certainly not going to excuse what is seen on tape, but I would ask everyone who views it to consider, perhaps, the context and maybe what had occurred up to that point," Fetterman said. "The officer is a human being just like the rest of us, and sometimes emotions can get the best of us."

So I guess that the mayor is telling folks that if someone makes them upset they can commit battery on them. I guess that if a police officer gets in someones face and upsets them its only human for them to respond with physical force, right?

Wrong, they would charge you with battery on an law enforcement officer.

So how is it different for this officer who became emotional?
Its really not, he committed a battery, as a matter of fact he arguably committed aggravated battery, and he should be subject to the same laws as any other citizen. Not to administrative leave which amounts in a late promotion and a slap on the wrist. He broke the law he is sworn to uphold and should be subject to the same penalties he would expect to be levied on anyone else.

reply to post by watch_the_rocks


Yes, you are right. It has been going on for a long time. But it has to stop. Enough is enough.

Just because something has been going on all along doesn't mean that it's OK. If that were true, then segregation was right. Female sufferage was a bad idea. On and on.

We need to change how our police act, and react, before we can say we are civilized.

Def I agree with u 100%, the law is a 2way road not a 1way. If the cops can strike a person because they are emotional than we should have the same right to strike a cop if we get emotional without the battery on a officer charge.

I think that this is the solution to a lot of the police abuse we have seen recently. If we make them accountable under the law, just as a citizen would be (which is really all they are anyway), then they might be a little more cautious about their handling of certain situations. The problem now is that forces cover up what amount to crimes by placing officers on administrative leave. Administrative leave is a nice way of saying that they get a letter of reprimand that remains in their folder for one year, and they may miss out on a promotion if they were up for one in that year. Most folks dismiss this as the officer having been disciplined and never bother to find out exactly what it means. In truth, it means almost less then nothing.

In this instance, the if the officer was to be charged with a battery, now that would be significant. In many states, you are not allowed to carry a gun if you have any type of domestic violence or battery charge against you, and the officer would lose his right to carry a weapon. This basically means that his little lapse of self-control would mean he was now effectively off the force. I personally feel the punishment against those who are given extra authority and abuse it should be greater then the rest of us, not lesser, and at the very least one abuse of authority should be enough to remove someone from that position of authority.

The problem is that the police departments don’t see things this way because they have laid out a great amount of expense in training each officer. Besides this, they tend to look at the situation as “well we are not going to ruin the career of a good officer over something which was done to a known felon”. In reality they should be looking at things as, “this officer just assaulted the rights of a citizen of this country, whether that person is a known felon or not“.

I understand that police have a tough job, and it’s hard to keep your temper. I also feel that many police are being somewhat falsely accused of things lately because many of them have adopted a stance of, “arrest everyone at the scene and let the judge sort it out”. In reality, this is often the only option the poor officer has at the scene of a case that looks similar to a he-said/she-said battle seen on Jerry Springer. For their own safety, and to move the process along they often don’t have time to hear out both sides arguments, so they just take one or both sides to jail. Still though that is no excuse for some of the blatant issues I have seen recently in arrest protocol, so I am not excusing them by any stretch. However, with that said we have to be careful to evaluate these instances on a case-by-case basis to be fair to both parties.