CNN: “A highway patrol officer was caught on camera hitting a woman with what a witness says were “knockout punches.”
Aviva Shen at Thinkprogress writes:
“The officer said the woman was walking barefoot along the freeway on Tuesday and refused to stop when asked. The video shows the cop tackle her, pin her down, and start pummeling her in the face as she tries to shield her head. A passing driver, David Diaz, filmed the encounter and released it on Friday.
“He just pounded her,” Diaz told CBS Los Angeles. “If you look at the video, there are 15 hits. To the head, and not just simple jabs. These are blows to the head. Blows. Really serious blows. And this is ridiculous to me.” ”
I hope he gets punished!
I’m surprised more wasn’t made by the Left of the homeless man in Fullerton, CA who was literally beaten to death by a cop because he wouldn’t tell the cop his name. The entire incident was videotaped and a jury found the cop not guilty. I wonder why this incident become a cause-celebre in the battle against police brutality? Oh, wait. I know why. The Narrative. The cop was Hispanic and the homeless man was just some red-haired white guy.
link to csmonitor.com
Since many progressives are concerned about the rights of disabled Americans, and that certainly includes those with mental disabilities regardless of background, your charges don’t make a lot of sense. It was all over the progressive Internet, particularly in California.
The original story was swept under the rug but the father made sure it stayed in the news. The next step is still ongoing and the last I heard a lawsuit was moving forward.
This man should be permanently removed from any position of public authority, and his authorization to carry any kind of firearm should be similarly, and permanently, removed. Authoritarian personalities are increasingly populating America’s expanding authoritarian security and police systems, adding to the weight of the MIC’s authoritarianism. Freedom of individual Americans in an increasingly authoritarian state is inexorably shrinking.
Yea, you are soooo right.
This is what happens when you allow law enforcement to ‘practice social psychiatry’. I mean, doesn’t ANYONE remember what happened to homeless schizophrenic Kelly Thomas a few years ago, and the acquittal of the government legitimized and uniformed Fullerton police department thugs who BEAT HIM TO DEATH for picking up cigarette butts from the gutter despite the fact that one of the “officers” had the utter MURDEROUS GALL to tell him: “See these fists? They’re getting ready to F*ck you up.”?
It MIGHT be noted that the police initially responded to a call from a local “hipster” bar employee who LIED to the police and said Thomas was ‘car tampering’. Unlike what the police would do if you or I called them for a non-emergency, they DID NOT CONTACT the business caller in person first to ascertain the veracity of the call. Because, much like where I live in Santa Cruz, there’s an ALL TOO COZY relationship between the business community and the police that often approaches the meaning of the words “Blackshirt”, and “Corporatist government”.
I don’t mean to digress here, but I have ‘skin in this game’ being a 60 year old displaced worker, What happened to this woman at the hands of a CHP officer IS ALL TOO COMMON in the United States, and honestly, often supported covertly by ‘concerned citizens’ pandered in fear, and their business communities, just like Okies were routinely beaten by vigilantes at the California border going west during the depression. Does anyone care for a recitation of the fine upstanding Americans and their organizations that took part in those beatings? The American Legion was one of them.
I took a martial arts class from a guy named Tony Vasquez, a retired police officer and hand to hand combat trainer, back in the Fall. He told me that the only training police get in unarmed compliance happens at the academy. The only continuing training that happens is the annual firearms review. There is no money, no time, and no interest in training police in the techniques of unarmed compliance let alone reasoned persuasion. The police don’t know any better and the police chiefs are more interested in SWAT teams and armored vehicles than they are in making sure their officers know how to defuse dangerous situations with minimal force and fuss.
This is part and parcel of the militarization of police forces in the USA and our continuing decline into an authoritarian state.