Jailers,Jeffrey Bieber and Justin Piro, Cleared of Abuse of female prisoner, Shocking Video Released

[Liberal_in_LA]

Source: KTLA news

Jailers Cleared of Abuse, Shocking Video Released
Three officers have been cleared of abusing female inmate

KTLA News

8:33 AM PDT, July 24, 2009
PEKIN, Ill -- The court case may be over, but the court of public opinion has yet to weigh in on the just-released surveillance tape showing three jailers restraining a female inmate.
The Tazewell officers seemed to be quite forceful with an unarmed woman who was apparently taunting them from her cell. After months on paid administrative leave, the officers are all set to return to duty immediately.


http://www.pjstar.com/opinions/x2047450478/Our-View-No-excuse-for-Tazewell-jail-brutality
Our View: No excuse for Tazewell jail brutality
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Journal Star
Posted Jul 24, 2009 @ 10:30 PM

What in the world does it take to get fired as an employee of Tazewell County?

It's a fair question after viewing the videotape of two Tazewell jailers beating up a 40-something female arrested on DUI charges last October, and after reading of the Merit Commission's unanimous decision to let them get away with it without penalty.

The video is on the Journal Star's web site. There you can watch two angry Tazewell correctional officers, Jeffrey Bieber and Justin Piro, roughing up Becky Behm - slamming her head against a concrete wall in the locked, segregated cell where she was being held; punching her, closed fist, in the face; pepper-spraying her; knocking her to the floor. This is what the Merit Commission concluded was "minimal force," in the words of one member, appropriate to the situation at hand.

We couldn't disagree more, nor could Tazewell Sheriff Robert Huston, who rightly sought the dismissals of Bieber and Piro, as well as their supervisor, Sgt. Richard Johnston. The latter himself testified that he "cringed" while viewing the video, though when it mattered he apparently did nothing to intervene.

"The worst use of force ... we've had in my 10 years as sheriff," Huston characterized it, which is saying something in Tazewell. Arguably it's every bit as unsettling as what we saw with the "subduing" last year of a 33-year-old Peoria man by city police officers after he'd led them on a vehicle chase. Captured on tape by a squad car's dashboard camera, the incident resulted in the criminal indictment of three Peoria officers, now awaiting trial.

Yet the Tazewell Merit Commission - comprised of Chairman Gerald Wise, Lloyd Orrick, Harvey Richmond, Solie Myers and Donald Sharpe - unanimously reinstated the suspended officers with full back pay.

Read more: http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-jail-abuse,0,115025.htmlstory

[Sanity Claws]

1. The woman was wearing street clothes

Why is she being held?
I know that it shouldn't matter whether or not she was criminal, but it appears that she was not convicted of anything. It doesn't take much to get picked up and arrested these days (think of Prof. Gates); can you imagine being treated like this when all they did was not be polite to a cop?

Also, I wonder whether the woman may be mentally ill -- did you see how she wet her face with water from the toilet? The mentally ill are often picked up and put into the criminal population because our society just doesn't seem to care for them.

Those guys should be fired. Instead they got a paid vacation. I wouldn't want them anywhere near me or children.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. She was a DUI

[Sanity Claws]

3. Thanks

I read the story but didn't catch that.
The guys were not in danger and thus no reason for their behavior.
I hope they are shunned by their neighbors and everyone else who knows them.

[47of74]

4. And "good" cops wonder why so many consider them to be pigs and thugs

[frog92969]

5. And when "good" cops look the other way...

they are pigs and thugs.

[Iggo]

6. Good cops cover for bad cops...

...making them all bad cops.

[Stumbler]

7. Wow, how's that not an abuse of power?

Just before the 30-second mark in the video, one officer swings her by the arm, face-first into a concrete wall... I'm amazed she didn't crack her head open and leave blood stains. Inexcusable...

[bitchkitty]

8. And you can clearly see one of them hit her, closed fist. n/t

[ScottLand]

9. How could someone see this and clear them?

The public should be outraged over this but I fear that we've become desensitized to this kind of violence. Look how many people condone the torture of terror suspects on the basis that it's making us safe. That's the problem -- we're starting to think it's not any big deal when an authority figure beats the shit out of someone.

We have the wrong people doing this. In order to control a suspect, the officer must first be able to control HIMSELF.

[kimmylavin]

10. Jesus Christ!

Cops can't handle a 40-year-old woman "taunting" them from a locked cell?
So they are justified in doing THIS?

How are people supposed to trust the police, in light of their wrist-slaps?

[Odin2005]

11. Sick, evil, monsters.

All of you people defending these "good cops" can go to Hell! :grr:

[demosincebirth]

12. Some cops are awfully tough when they deal with women or men in cuffs ore shackles