Video Shows Philly Officer Bullying Woman

[Joanne98]

When Agnes Lawless and three friends were inside a Lukoil convenience store in the Northeast at 3 a.m. last August, they'd all but forgotten the fender-bender in which they'd been involved moments earlier.

There was little damage, and the other driver had left the scene, near Northeast Philadelphia Airport.

What they didn't know was that they'd been rear-ended by the son of a police officer who was on duty, and dad was about to get involved.

Lawless was standing at the counter of the store, at Comly Road and Roosevelt Boulevard, smiling and chatting with the clerk, when she was grabbed from behind and violently pushed back with a police officer's gun in her face.

"He hit me with his left hand, and he had his gun in his right hand," Lawless said. "He pushed his gun into the left side of my neck. It caused a scrape-type bruise on my neck."

After a chaotic struggle, Lawless was arrested and charged with assaulting the officer.

Lawless and her three friends, all in their early 20s, filed complaints with the Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau. But in cases in which it's a defendant's word against a police officer's, the benefit of doubt often falls to the cop.

Except when there's video.

Once surveillance video from the store's four security cameras was released, the case against Lawless collapsed, and disciplinary action commenced against the officer, Alberto Lopez Sr. A lawsuit against the city is likely.

The incident provides a vivid example of how the countless video recordings generated today by security cameras and cell phones are affecting police work.

Drexel Law School professor Donald Tibbs said that video recordings are capturing more criminal activity and assisting prosecutions, but they're also monitoring police conduct.

"Police are now aware they're more accountable for their actions, because these tapes may be used against them in misconduct cases or civil-rights lawsuits," Tibbs said.

And Tibbs said that there are numerous cases of police seeking to confiscate and destroy tapes that may have captured a police action.

Video at link.
http://www.officer.com/web/online/Top-News-Stories/Video-Shows-Philly-Officer-Bullying-Woman/1$47632

[tj2001]

1. The fact that Lopez is not suffering any consequences for his scumbag behavior

speaks volumes about cops

[Echo In Light]

4. And the mindset and public acceptance of authority structures in general

[kirby]

2. Disgusting...

Especially that the cops apparently contacted the store owner trying to make the video disappear.

[bobburgster]

3. Another fine example.....

of police misconduct.

[OwnedByFerrets]

5. How the hell do we come back from the abyss of this police state?

[CrispyQ]

7. A good question & worthy of it's own thread. --nt

[TexasObserver]

6. Recommend

[T Wolf]

8. But, bt, bt, bt... The police are our friends and protectors and NEVER do anything wrong.

Armed scum like this pig, his buddies on the Philly force, and the special treatment they get from the "just-us" system are the major reasons why crime has become such a problem.

If the police and prosecutors were really public servants interested in crime prevention, etc. instead of psychotic assholes on power trips, the public might actually cooperate with them. As things are, the real enemy are the pigs and most people know that.

It's events like this and what happened to Dr. Gates that make me applaud every time a cop goes down. The minority of good ones are too few and too cowardly to buck the "thin blue line."

[crikkett]

9. "there are numerous cases of police seeking to confiscate and destroy tapes..."

"...there are numerous cases of police seeking to confiscate and destroy tapes that may have captured a police action."

In the UK, it's become a crime to videotape police who may be involved in 'counter-terrorist activities.'

I give it about 18 months before that's the law of this land.