This Is Going Viral On Facebook ( Graphic )

[damnedifIknow]

Last edited Wed Feb 19, 2014, 10:18 AM - Edit history (1)

&hd=1

[Scuba]

1. Is this really what we're paying our police to do?

Is this what they said they wanted to do when the applied for the force?

[Kablooie]

15. The articles I've read about this so far say yes. This is just police doing their job.

The articles say there will be an investigation but on the surface this is apparently what the police are trained to do.

Something seems very wrong if this is standard procedure to handle a shirtless man lying on the ground.

[Jesus Malverde]

56. If they wanted to help people.

They would have been firemen.

[WhiteTara]

58. Or paramedics. nt

[Jesus Malverde]

59. exactly...nt

[Lizzie Poppet]

80. To protect and to serve...the 1%.

[Warpy]

2. LA and NYC cops are acting like prison screws

and we're all the inmates.

That animal with the baton needs to be in jail, too.

[damnedifIknow]

5. Not just LA and NYC

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/man-in-hospital-dies-after-arrest-by-hazelwood-police/article_7a6a5523-2a32-51e0-b24d-b704d9024dea.html

HAZELWOOD • A Glasgow Village man who family members say was beaten by officers during an arrest on Tuesday has died, a hospital spokeswoman confirmed.

This was last year.

[Dawson Leery]

3. And we're supposed to cry when these parasites get shot?

[Boom Sound 416]

21. Parasites?

[Mr.Bill]

23. The parasite part happens

when they retire. $100,000 pensions are commonplace for California cops and firemen.

[Boom Sound 416]

24. Really?

That was the deal wasn't?

[Mr.Bill]

32. Yes

and it was pretty much voted on by the people as a ballot initiative. The police and firemen pay into their pension funds, but the difference between them and others who pay into their funds is their pension fund is guaranteed by the taxpayers of the state of California.

[Gravitycollapse]

38. Drawing a pension doesn't make you a parasite. Unless we're using GOP talking points now.

[Mr.Bill]

40. It does if the taxpayers

have to make up shortcomings in the fund. And even if not it shows as an unfunded liability for the state and affects their credit rating and the cost of their bonds.

Show me any pension in the private sector that pays 90% of your salary for life as early as age 52.

I'm all for reasonable pensions, but this is out of control.

[Gravitycollapse]

42. That's an argument for greater funding, not that they are parasites. Again, a GOP talking point.

Are you prepared to call food stamp recipients parasites if the entire program isn't solvent each year? .

[Mr.Bill]

45. This thread isn't about food stamps.

Try and stay focused.

Apparently there are some here who want the thugs in the OP's video to receive six figure pensions. I don't. We'll have to agree to disagree.

[Gravitycollapse]

47. Your argument is deeply convoluted. You can't seem to separate the right to pension...

From police abuse.

We all deserve a comfortable pension when we grow old. That is a separate issue from police brutality. And your insistence on using the GOP talking point of "parasitic pensioners" is both telling and inappropriate.

[Mr.Bill]

48. Why don't you attack the person who brought the word parasite

into the thread, then.

[Kelvin Mace]

53. We will never make people reflect on their humanity,

or lack thereof, by denying them their humanity.

[Earth_First]

4. "Just a few bad apples...something, something..."

[WillowTree]

6. Horrifying!

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

7. I wanted to know more....

so I Googled "long beach police beating" and, hey there, I got MORE THAN ONE INCIDENT!

[Scuba]

72. No one could have predicted that.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

79. One of the BIG underlying problems...

Is that police officers are just not trained to deal with mentally ill persons -- this guy appeared to be suffering from mental illness, as he kept asking the officers to kill him.

The paradigm for police officers is, "Do what I say, or I'll assume you're a criminal and beat you into submission." That paradigm -- on shaky grounds when applied to actual criminals -- simply doesn't work on persons with mental illness.

A few years back I lived in Cincinnati, and the police had a mentally ill person cornered in an alley. The man was carrying a brick. When he refused officers repeated orders to put down the brick, they just shot the guy. Killed him.

If, as a society, we're going to force mentally ill persons to live on the street (as opposed to providing them with safe and appropriate housing options) could we at least train our police officers in how to deal with these folks without resorting to deadly force?

[Jesus Malverde]

8. Somewhere along the way the taser went from being a defensive weapon to a compliance tool.

Last edited Wed Feb 19, 2014, 01:25 AM - Edit history (1)

Like a cattle prod.

Watching these officers stand around and yell. Stop resisting. Roll over. Comply or you will be beaten some more. Made me sick. I couldn't watch the whole thing.

By replacing physical ability and grappling skills with tools like batons, tasers and guns we have put the public, especially those with mental health problems, at great risk.

The police fall back on their training manuals. Those are rules of engagement from the war on drugs and should be changed.

[Bonobo]

12. +1. Precisely. nt

[Vinnie From Indy]

87. Cops call it "street justice"

No muss, no fuss. They can administer severe physical pain with these tasers and leave hardly a mark in comparison to pre-taser days when there would be blood all over them and the suspect. No broken bones with a taser. Cops LOVE them!

[Jesus Malverde]

9. September 04, 2013

Long Beach police found themselves under scrutiny Wednesday after a YouTube video surfaced showing officers beating a suspect while he was on the ground and using a Taser to subdue him.

The video was shot around 6 p.m. Monday in the 300 block of South Street when police tried to arrest the man, Sgt. Aaron Eaton, a Long Beach police spokesman, told City News Service.

The suspect remains hospitalized from the injuries he suffered during his arrest.

Eaton declined to release his name because he hasn't been booked yet. The Los Angeles Times identified the man as 46 year-old Porfirio Santos-Lopez.

http://longbeach-ca.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/long-beach-police-scrutinized-for-alleged-excessive-force

[Jesus Malverde]

10. broke the man's arm and leg

An attorney for a man captured on video being repeatedly Tasered and hit with a baton by Long Beach police said officers broke the man's arm and leg and left him with a gash in the head consistent with a baton blow.

Attorney Brian Dunn said the officers' blow broke a bone in Porfirio Santos-Lopez's arm and a bone in his lower leg. Dunn said Santos-Lopez also has a large gash "consistent with a baton strike" above his hair line.

In addition, Dunn said his client suffered an injury to his lung from the impact of the altercation with police officers.

Civil rights advocate Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Thursday wrote U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte, asking his office to investigate the altercation captured on a video that went viral on YouTube.

Police training experts who reviewed the 4 1/2-minute recording were divided about whether it amounted to excessive force. Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell said he understands the community concern and promised a vigorous investigation.

“It is too early to make any judgments.… The YouTube video is certainly disturbing,” the chief said this week. “Any time you see someone hit with the baton, there is a level of discomfort.”

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/sep/06/local/la-me-ln-long-beach-police-arrest-video-20130906

[Laxman]

11. Yes, I Too...

felt a sense of "discomfort" upon seeing this man hit with a baton. We're in a heap of trouble in this country folks. I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that the Long Beach Police Department champions it's "community policing" policies as well.

[d_r]

14. it reminded me

of this incident in Chattanooga when the police beat a man in a red cross shelter.

This part of your quote 'Police training experts who reviewed the 4 1/2-minute recording were divided about whether it amounted to excessive force." is chilling.

I think some are training police to beat people with those batons if they yell at them to move and the person doesn't move.

That's what both of these videos look like to me, they yell at someone to get up and move and they don't, so they start whipping them with the batons. Like the idea is to inflict pain until they move.

A judge ordered these officers in Chattanooga reinstated because she ruled their actions were consistent with their training.

[tblue37]

26. They paralyze them with tasters, then beat them because they can't move on command. nt

[d_r]

75. right

that's how it looks in those two videos

[KansDem]

77. And if you raise your hands and arms to protect yourself...

You're "resisting arrest."

I've seen a few videos where the victim is instinctively protecting himself during a police beating only to be told between baton blows: "Don't resist!"

[progressoid]

83. “It is too early to make any judgments.…

WTF? No, it's not.

[Lifelong Protester]

13. I don't blame the recorded lady who says

"I'm so scared. Look, I'm shaking". Me too.

[zeemike]

43. That's the whole point.

to make you afraid of them...terrorism works to control people.
Like Machiavelli said, it is better to be feared than loved if you can't be both.

[Lifelong Protester]

57. Yes, I agree. That is the point.

And it looks like we are screwn.

[LibDemAlways]

16. Until prosecutors get tough with these thugs and

juries start convicting, expect more of the same.

[WillyT]

17. I Really Really Don't Want To Go Back To The Days Of Calling Cops "Pigs", But...

I fear we are getting closer and closer each passing day.

And these THUGS... don't help at all.

[Lucky Luciano]

18. That was some serious thug action by the police. Jailtime for all of them. nt

[tblue37]

29. Unfortunately, a paid vacation, exoneration, and reinstatement are more likely. nt

[Jefferson23]

19. Animals. n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. And experts are torn if this broke procedure

gash on the head consistent with a baton strike. Well folks, that is what is called a red zone. Translation, a no hit zone.

These cops broke all kinds of procedures, but the department will protect them. HEY FEEEDDSS, over here!

[DeSwiss]

31. Who do you think they got the ''torture equipment'' from? :-| n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

33. Actually what you watched were civil rights, serious civil rights violations

I am sanguine like the rest of them, but the DOJ should open an investigation, and since the tape made it to social media, it has a better chance of that. That is where my cynicism comes in. This happens, out of mind and out of sight every day.

[DeSwiss]

41. And yet not a mumbling word could be heard. Anywhere. :-/ n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

44. As I said, I expect to see the ACLU

file on this. There is tape.

And the sound can be enhanced. A few times you can hear him begging.

[DeSwiss]

46. Begging doesn't always help.

- I wish it would work too, nadinbrzezinski. It can't be fixed though......

[nadinbrzezinski]

50. Well I can see a nice lawsuit and a settlement by the department

I wish I could say cops fired, but I can count on a lawsuit and settlement.

I hope the feds get involved as well, but I see you are even more cynical than I am, and damn I thought I was already too cynical.

[DeSwiss]

54. And then there's another view:

“The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who haven't got it.” ~George Bernard Shaw

- Care to meet me halfway?

[nadinbrzezinski]

55. It is not about meeting you half way

the experience is when tape is available (check) things are not as bad for victims as when there is no tape. Which explains why cops go berserk when civilians tape them when they go off the rails.

That is the truth.

If those cops learned they were being taped, the lady saying she was afraid, would have reason to be. In fact, with the tape out she still does.

This means it will take years, lady justice does grind her way through ever so lovingly and purposely slowly, to try to wear down the victims so they give up. But a lawsuit with a fair chance of success in LA Superior Court will likely come.

That said, in a just society those cops would be facing charges for assault and attempted murder. Now let me laugh myself to sleep, just society and US do not go together, especially when you are talking of brown and black people, in POOR areas, (Long Beach is), in particular.

[DeSwiss]

61. But in a half-assed ''just'' society.....

...they'll be exonerated, protected and even feted by some. I suppose that's why I was offering to meet you halfway. But on second thought, I suppose it is an empty gesture.

- When all the way is what I want......

[nadinbrzezinski]

62. Whatever

Good night

[deaniac21]

85. Cell phone with tape?

Definitely not Apple.

[nadinbrzezinski]

86. You want to get technical I guess

Technically, even though we are using class 10 or above cards, camera people still call it tape. Call it an affectation of another era. Just as we keep speaking in ASA and F stops, never mind the kit lens on my Nikon lacks such pesky things such as F Stops and three to five the electronics will stop having them.

You can tell how much of old foggeys people are as to how much they still think in film speed (ASA) and F-Stops.

So yes, people still use terms such as roll tape, and tape, when the electronic gadgets have no need for them.

[PotatoChip]

70. That whole Kelly Thomas incident haunts me to this day.

And it is mind blowing that the cops involved got away with it. I watched the entire video of them murdering him. Absolutely horrible.

It is because of the Kelly Thomas video that I simply can't stand to watch the ones in this thread. It's not only the brutality that I am sure occurred, but also the fact that fair justice is unlikely to be given to the victims. I hope I'm wrong, but after Kelly Thomas' murderer's trial, I'm not so sure.

[DeSwiss]

82. I felt that I owed it to the man to watch. So that his suffering doesn't go unnoticed.

- It was hard. But not as hard as it was for him. We look away too much as it is, which cumulatively can result in desensitizing us to other's pain. That's what got where we are now -- too scared to look. Until we ALL start looking at what's happening to us, it won't change. How can it? You can't fix a problem when you're not looking......

[PotatoChip]

84. Good point.

Too bad there are not more people like you in the world.

[Gravitycollapse]

22. Oink oink.

You cannot force a suspect into a physical need for self defense by beating the shit out of him and then use that as an excuse to beat the shit out of him even more.

Fucking pigs.

[clandestiny]

25. If we were to do this to another human being it would be called assault and

we'd be imprisoned and sued for it. The only time we're legally able to justify a brutal attack on another person is when our life is threatened. Why are the laws different for the police? They should be held to the same standard as the rest of us. If they're so afraid of a man that four of them had to beat him while he was helpless on the ground, then they have no business being police. Maybe they would be better suited driving an ice cream truck.

[ErikJ]

27. Why wouldnt the dude just roll over onto his stomach?

You dont want to aggravate cops no matter what.

[DeSwiss]

30. Maybe he couldn't. n/t

[Gravitycollapse]

34. It could be the excruciating, mind numbing pain from the taser or multiple broken bones.

Might be from a concussion inducing blow to his head with a baton.

Go break your arm and leg, have someone beat you about the head and face with a mini bat and then taser you and then see how easy it is to roll over onto your stomach.

[ErikJ]

49. I believe they started beating after he wouldnt roll over.

I had 10 cops jump me once for talking back to one after he asked me a question. Just do what they say. Spent the night in jail but charges dropped bc they didnt have anything to charge me with.

[Gravitycollapse]

51. Have you considered the possibility the man being beaten suffers from mental illness?

A disproportionate number of homeless individuals are mentally ill. Serious psychotic disorders are common. So maybe he didn't have the presence of mind to woefully submit to the power of the police state.

Hopefully he learned his lesson.

[ErikJ]

52. Or maybe he was deaf or didnt know english.

I wonder if they tried it in spanish?

[Th1onein]

63. SHAME ON YOU!

You talked back to a cop and ten of them jumped on you? THEN, they put you in jail with no charges, and you're telling us to "just do what they say"? Are you crazy? Do you HEAR yourself?

You have every right to "talk back" to a cop. THEY are civil servants. These are YOUR rights. They have no right to arrest you for nothing, and no right to imprison you for nothing. And yet you sit there and say, "just do what they say"?

Unbelievable.

[ErikJ]

65. It wasnt a political rally. That would be different.

They had the power over me and there was NOTHING I could do unless I went commando on them which I would have had a charge.

[Th1onein]

66. No, it is NO different. No difference AT ALL.

Listen, you have these rights all of the time, not just at political rallies. And, although they had the physical power over you, they don't have the power to beat you in court. You should have filed on them. You can represent yourself, pro se, in any court, and you can do it in a civil rights case, as well. Or, you can hire an attorney to represent you.

When you let them off without a whisper, you said something to them. You said, "Hey, it's okay to deprive me of my right to free speech; to arrest me without cause and to deprive me of my freedom with no cause." It's A-ok for me; and it's probably A-ok for the next person you do it to.

This is the thing: People before you, for hundreds of years, have fought for these rights that YOU now enjoy. And you have an obligation to stand up for your rights. When you stand up for your rights, you do so, not just for yourself, but for everyone who comes behind you. Just as those who fought for YOUR rights did. It is your obligation as a human being.

[DiverDave]

73. Maybe because he was getting

the shit beat out of him.
I suppose YOU would.
FUCK THE POLICE.

[DeSwiss]

28. I wonder how many more must be openly tortured?

I wonder who they'll have to kill before it breaks open?

I wonder if these out-of-shape bastards think they'll get away with this shit?

I wonder if our leaders will ever remark on police torturing citizens in plain view or do they agree with it?

- I wonder how long.......

K&R

[Lizzie Poppet]

68. These videos fill me with anger...

...and the realization that they are few and we are many. I don't like feeling this way one little bit.

I realize, to no small degree of horror, that it would have been very difficult indeed for me not to attempt to intervene, especially when that fat fuck started laying on with his baton. It would be the end of me...but there are worse things to die for.

[DeSwiss]

69. This system is the evolution of a lopsided power dynamic in which:

''Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.''~Frederick Douglass

- Our anger has to be the impetus for change. As Buckminster Fuller said: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” Leave the ''willfully ignorant'' to inherit the remains......

[damnedifIknow]

78. I agree

I couldn't just stand there and do nothing. I've been fortunate enough not to witness something like this on the spot so I can't say for sure what I would do but being the way I am I suppose I'd be the next deflecting strikes.

[Logical]

35. They delivered milk earlier in the day so it is ok! n-t

[madrchsod]

36. my wife could have handled that situation without any violence

she`s trained to take care of these situations in non violent manner. if she needs help she relies on another trained staff that can assist her. if she used any force that would result injury she would be fired and state and local authorities would bring criminal charges against her.

these cops are cowards who know that is acceptable to beat a defenseless man on a city street.

[Gravitycollapse]

39. If you're talking about psychiatric hospital staff, they often aren't much better than cops.

[madrchsod]

74. no i am talking about my wife and the people she works with and for.

the company she works for has zero tolerance for abuse. we also have a state facility that the same restrictions on abuse.

[Gravitycollapse]

81. Is this a psychiatric facility?

[delrem]

37. Why is "the homeless" a class in the US?

The US spends more on its military than the rest of the world combined.
The US has an empire that extends, militarily, across the entire planet.
The cost of that is far more than the US is able to pay - yet the US goes into massive debt to pay it.

Notice that the US "debate" wrt fiscal responsibility doesn't address that cost, that issue - but focuses on mindless bullshit instead. On nickel-and-diming food stamps, for fucks sake.

So why is it that the US has created this "homeless persons" class, at the same time as it has created this globe spanning military empire?
It isn't the fault of the police. It isn't something that the police can rectify.

No more than the so-called "US war" in Afghanistan is the fault of the grunts on the ground - whether these grunts consider themselves to be "liberal" or "conservative" or whatever.
No more than deaths by drone are the fault of techs in some US wonderland - regardless of the personal philosophies of those techs.
These people aren't the *cause* - nor are the police, or the grunts, the *cause*.

[SamKnause]

60. Video

After watching this video does anyone think there is a shortage of police in this country ?

I continue to hear mayors, governors, police, and even presidents say we need more police.

This video and many many others prove we have too many police.

We have police that can not handle the most basic situations.

After each incident we are told procedures were followed correctly.

If this is true, than our police are trained to mercifully beat, taser, and kill suspects.

I am curious as to what parents say to their children about the police ?

I am curious as to what parents say to grown children when they announce they are going to be police ?

[Th1onein]

64. DEFUND them; cut off the money from drug seizures.

Get their names and their addresses and picket their homes. Call them the murderers and torturers they are. Refuse to do business with them; refuse them seats in your establishments; turn them away at the door.

[ZombieHorde]

67. Anything that is unethical do to without a badge

is unethical to do with a badge. A button doesn't excuse us from unethical behavior.

Thousands of people have peaceful interactions with the police everyday, but still, we need to keep in mind that the behavior in the video is considered standard procedure by many in the field and police have a history of intense racism. Humans have a long history committing atrocities under the guise of "just following orders."

[Wilms]

71. ^

[1awake]

76. Unless Police tactics and standards have changed

since my day, as a former.. let's call it a "protect and serve" person, It is clearly abuse. Passive non-compliance does not equal aggression nor anything else. Some of these men need fired, and others need fired and charged.

Disgusting