If you have spoiled kids, beware, cops may do this to them:

[World Traveler]

Re: If you have spoiled kids, beware, cops may do this to them:

Many of us have dealt with mouthy and defiant teenagers as parents. And we manage not to explode in rage and physically attack them.

With an uncontrollable temper like that, this guy does not belong on the police force. He's a menace to society!

I'm glad this tape was released to the public. There was a huge scandal here in Texas 1 1/2 years ago about severe mistreatment of teenagers (sexual and physical) by guards at state-run juvenile facilities. Gov. Perry and crew "managed" the news cycle by claiming to be on top of it and taking corrective actions. But that was only the details were leaked to the press and after years of complaints by kids and their parents.

This girl wound up in detention for auto theft - stealing her parent's car. This implies it was was probably her parents who turned her in.

Given what happens in America's juvenile and adult prison systems, I cannot agree with "tough love" advocates who often support jailing juveniles to "scare them straight".

[blazespinnaker]

Re: If you have spoiled kids, beware, cops may do this to them:

http://www.komonews.com/home/video/4...?video=pop&t=a



Warning very graphic!

This girl might have been on some drug and she was freaking out. You really don't know all the details. If permanent damage was done, then yes, I think a case should be made. Otherwise ... I think people need to appreciate the conditions that police are constantly working under.

[World Traveler]

Re: If you have spoiled kids, beware, cops may do this to them:

There's not justification for the attack on that girl.

She kicked her shoe off. Police officer then raced into the cell, threw her against the wall, threw her against the floor, and pummeled twice with blows to the head, while she was face down on the floor.

At no time was that officer in physical danger...the girl did not resist or attack him in any way.

Officers know they often deal with unruly people. If they cannot control their temper, they should not be on the police force. And there are safeguards built into system... in this case, there was a second officer in immediate vicinity.

[bpr]

Re: If you have spoiled kids, beware, cops may do this to them:

If permanent damage was done, then yes, I think a case should be made.

So, assault is okay, as long as the victim recovers. That's absurd. Recovery can only be determined after the fact. What is "permanent damage"? Does permanent psychological damage count?

This argument is akin to the Bush administration's definition of torture: it's only prohibited if it causes organ failure or death.

Q1: Was she disrespectful? Yes.
Q2: Did she threaten him (not verbally, but, did she represent a credible threat to his person)? No.
Q3: Did he assault her? Yes.
Q4: Was he acting in self defense? No.

It's possible that the video doesn't show the whole story, but there is no way she posed a legitimate threat and he was acting in self-defense.

He's a violent offender and they should throw away the key. We don't need animals like that patrolling, or even living in, our neighborhoods.

Further, this guy gives her a really solid case for resisting arrest or fleeing the scene of a crime should she be involved in something in the future. This is how our justice system turns nonviolent offenders into violent offenders.

[Guest]

Re: If you have spoiled kids, beware, cops may do this to them:

Blaze -

You havent' got a strong case to argue in this particular instance. The video clearly shows the extent of "resistance" this girl was offering to their commands. She was venting her dislike for this correctional officer verbally. It is waaay beyond the mandate provided to him, to reply with anything remotely approaching that degree of forcible physical suppression.

In effect all this video clip shows is a stronger man perfectly capable of keeping any physical disobedience on her part under effective control, instead indulging his vexation by summarily beating up a teenage woman.

In a functioning penal system this video evidence should be grounds for severe demotion of responsibilities, or dismissal, and quite frankly there is an excellent case for the pressing of assault charges against him. Not that this kid will likely ever get anywhere with that. The evidence was nothing short of putrid to the quality of our correctional system.

This girl might have been on some drug and she was freaking out. You really don't know all the details. If permanent damage was done, then yes, I think a case should be made. Otherwise ... I think people need to appreciate the conditions that police are constantly working under.

[tombat1913]

Re: If you have spoiled kids, beware, cops may do this to them:

The problem is that if the state comes down on the officer than police will be afraid to use force on children. It will also send a message to teenagers that they are invulnerable to cops and they will use that to their advantage.

It's a pretty difficult case, I think.

My concern is more about cases like this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13judge.html

"Judges Plead Guilty in Scheme to Jail Youths for Profit"

That's pretty frightening and undermines the entire youth justice system.

Afraid to use force? Difficult case? Did you see that video man? She's a 15 year old girl throwing a temper tantrum, not a 200 pound man on methamphetamines. There is no excuse for what I just saw. period.

[Spartacus]

Re: forget about your kids - don't get caught YOURSELF

if you do get taken in, you might not be as lucky as these people

http://www.the-freedomproject.org/exonerated.html


and, as has been posted here before, NEVER TALK TO THE COPS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8z7NC5sgik

[roxtar]

Re: If you have spoiled kids, beware, cops may do this to them:

I think people need to appreciate the conditions that police are constantly working under.

I considered a career in law enforcement for about 30 seconds and then realized what I'd have to deal with on a daily basis... That's why I chose not to become a cop.

These meatheads ought to be intelligent enough to know what sort of abuse they're going to have to shrug off day in and day out. I think that police should be held to a higher standard.

I know that if I were in a bar and someone shot their mouth off to me and I reacted like that, I'd certainly be held to a higher standard.

[MLM]

Re: If you have spoiled kids, beware, cops may do this to them:

Horseshit. Nothing she could have done deserved that. He deserves jail time.

[FRED]

Re: If you have spoiled kids, beware, cops may do this to them:

An unarmed 15 year old girl cannot possibly pose sufficient danger to a police officer to justify this kind of force.

A soon as we begin to accept less than the highest world of professionalism from our law enforcement we are opening the door to many abuses.

This is America. We don't do this.

[Guest]

Re: If you have spoiled kids, beware, cops may do this to them:

With much respect for the same country you also hold dear Fred, this is America, and we most definitely do do this, and have done so in scattered but quite frequent instances around the US, for many years. I think a good number of us here know quite well that prisoner abuse is rife in the US penal system, if only due to the caliber of people gaining employment as ward staff which is exceedingly low. And you know I'm not one of the ones who seizes on every opportunity to dump on this country.

An unarmed 15 year old girl cannot possibly pose sufficient danger to a police officer to justify this kind of force.

A soon as we begin to accept less than the highest world of professionalism from our law enforcement we are opening the door to many abuses.

This is America. We don't do this.

[Rajiv]

Re: If you have spoiled kids, beware, cops may do this to them:

You have to ask the question as to how the US comes up with the highest incarceration rate in the world?

U.S. prison population dwarfs that of other nations

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population. But it has almost a quarter of the world's prisoners.

Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.

Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences.

There is a causal link between the news item and the video

[mfyahya]

Re: If you have spoiled kids, beware, cops may do this to them:

With much respect for the same country you also hold dear Fred, this is America, and we most definitely do do this, and have done so in scattered but quite frequent instances around the US, for many years. I think a good number of us here know quite well that prisoner abuse is rife in the US penal system

Not just in the US. Abu Ghraib wasn't just a few rotten apples.

[Guest]

Re: If you have spoiled kids, beware, cops may do this to them:

Are we giving Fred a migraine yet?