14 police officers take down a one-legged homeless black man armed with crutches in San Francisco

[Garion_55]

Writer Chaédria LaBouvier reported that she had seen 14 San Francisco police officers subduing a homeless black man who had one leg outside Twitter headquarters.

In a column for Medium, LaBouvier explained that she recorded the incident on Aug. 4 during a visit to Twitter HQ.

Witnesses told LaBouvier that police had been called because the man was waving “sticks,” which later turned out to be his crutches.

Video of the incident begins with the homeless man hidden under a pile of police officers. As the man struggles, it becomes clear that he is wearing a prosthetic leg.

“It is often twisted and backwards in the video,” LaBouvier noted. “An officer can be seen at the 5 second time-mark stomping on the man’s prosthetic leg. In further efforts to subdue a man already on the ground with four people on top of him, they stood on his leg, held it, and twisted it around even after they had cuffed him and pinned him to the piss-stained concrete.”

“These incidents are so quotidian, so mundane, that they do not merit a mention in even passing on the local news. Which is to say, this is everyday harassment,” she lamented. “Yes, it’s racial profiling. Yes, it’s racism. Yes, it’s inequality. This is an American heritage.”

LaBouvier pointed out that none of the employees at Twitter or other tech companies came out to object as the 14 officers took down the one-legged homeless man. She argued that residents needed to get involved, ask questions and speak out.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/watch-14-police-officers-take-down-a-one-legged-homeless-black-man-armed-with-crutches-in-san-francisco/

[PatrickforO]

1. Hard to trust the police after thousands of incidents like this

Sick. Racist. Going against everything this nation should stand for.

[zebonaut]

2. Cowards. Couldn't take 30 seconds to be courteous and chat with the guy to find out whats up?

Maybe actually assist him?

[winetourdriver]

3. Typical

Same old story: Too many cops, too many of them believe they can do anything at all with no accountability. I've lived in SF for many years and I can tell you SFPD went off the rails a long time ago. They are dangerous, they are out of control. and I tell the tourists I drive for to take great care if they ever have to deal with any of them face to face.

[Mnemosyne]

4. Miscreants. nt

[DustyJoe]

5. Lucky Guy

Last disabled thread I saw was the guy at a traffic stop that got shot grabbing his cane as he exited his vehicle.
This guy was lucky, 14 cops 17 rounds in each glock, lucky he wasn't a record holder for 200+ bullet holes.

14 cops for a call for someone waving sticks ...

[MrMickeysMom]

6. How many police officers does it take to screw in a citizen?

Fourteen.

Yay! Police! Way to keep stepping on a prosthetic leg, even after the citizen repeatedly cries, "Hey, Get off me, man."

Nice touch that they got a fucking wheelchair to haul this citizen into the "justice" system.

[kacekwl]

7. All these guys had hand cuffs hanging from their belts but choose to use zipp ties .

Don't know what happened that caused him to be on the ground instead of cuffing him and asking what's up. Poor training perhaps ?

[TygrBright]

8. OMG.... Black people must be SO DANGEROUS!

I mean, if it takes FOURTEEN stalwart law enforcement officers armed with clubs, guns, and tasers, to subdue ONE black guy... a black guy with only one leg, yet...

I mean, think about it! I'm going to assume that a black guy with TWO legs, it would have taken, maybe, like eighteen or twenty officers to subdue him!

And if they hadn't been armed with cuffs, guns, tasers, clubs, radios, etcetera, who KNOWS how many it would have taken to subdue ONE BLACK GUY? Fifty? Sixty?

We're screwn. The whole rest of all the black people in America could instantly rise up and overpower the police, the military, EVERYONE! Think about it! Now I get it the whole "race war" thing, except it's pretty clear, we've ALREADY LOST to the Invincible Black People!

sarcastically,
Bright

[truth2power]

21. Thanks, Bright. Doesn't it just make you feel all warm and fuzzy....

contemplating what an EXCEPTIONAL nation we are??

Ugh!

[Enthusiast]

9. "Stop being homeless, you one legged fucker!"

[jtuck004]

10. You can't see the really dangerous ones. They are all the Twitter and other employees who

did nothing.

They are paying those cops to stand on that man's leg on the piss-stained ground.

#fucktwitter

[world wide wally]

11. This is totally disturbing in so many ways.

Every one of them should be fired.

...as if

[EEO]

12. I hate watching this incident, but am relieved dozens of people recorded it.

[radhika]

13. I'd love someone to create a 'Wiki-Cops'

Sort of along the lines of Wiki Leaks. It would be accessible to users to upload their own videos, images, media links and the like for these incidents. Searchable as to date, location, PD involved etc.

Would need editor-level moderation - for obvious reasons - but might collectively be very informative.

PS: I have no idea how to do this myself in a secure and public way.

[IHateTheGOP]

14. Hey, give them credit, at least they didn't blow his head off.

[yuiyoshida]

15. As a native

San Franciscan This makes me sad.

[november3rd]

16. FBI report:

White supremacists have infiltrated law enforcement.

Reverberations can be deafening:

http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/402521/doc-26-white-supremacist-infiltration.pdf

[zeemike]

17. It's how they celebrate their power.

They take their time and keep him pinned to the ground and in pain as long as possible while their fellow celebrants form a circle around it.

We hire the wrong type of people to be cops.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

18. ... while his pants are half off. Couldn't afford the guy a smidge of decency.

[FailureToCommunicate]

19. And once again "someone phoned in" an imagined threat. It's racism, pure and simple.

On both sides of the "law"

[truth2power]

20. WTF is going on in this country???..

On and on and on...but why is no one getting to the heart of the matter and demanding of PD's across the country to explain where in their training of officers this behavior is taught and why?

No one is asking.