Solar Bell

I am usually 100% on the sde of law enforcement...

The victim, who was arrested for "Public Drunkeness" claims to not have had a drink in over 25 years.


Click on "Video" "French Quarter Altercation" on the right hand side.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...track=morenews

-cw-

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Chuck Willard
The Willard of Oz

"Don't be afraid to see what you see."
Ronald Reagan

wiseone2

I believe him.
Wilmer

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Be sure Brain is engaged before putting Mouthpiece in gear.
S.Suark 1951

Manny Laureano

Three cops, two of them "veterans of the force", take time out to wail on a 64 year old man who's confused and looking for something.

WTF?!

He wouldn't make a claim of not drinking because that's too easy to verify, right? I, like Chuck, generally side with law enforcement because of the difficulty of the gig especially in a place like NO but this makes no sense on the face of it. Even if it were a case of "Okay, move along, old man, you're taking up the sidewalk." "Oh, yeah? Well eff you and get outta my face!", you would think those cops would be able to handle this better than that. Now, after watching the tape, the old man has got quite a bit of fight in him. It took the cops a while to bring him down to the ground. Ultimately there were a total of four officers on the scene. I have no idea if the man struck an officer first, in which case, you're asking for it, or if the cops were having a bad night and this fellow was an easy target.

I hate this stuff... for a variety of reasons. One, we don't know everything and now I can't trust the cops' accounting of it nor can I trust "eyewitness" accounts because of the many times agenda-driven testimony can remain unchallenged and be unjustly damning. Two, in a place that currently needs a firm hand from the law enforcement community has now been weakened in its future effectiveness because of crap like this.

Great... so, now New Orleans can lay claim to cops that walk off the job when the going gets tough, cops that join in the looting when it happens, and now this behavior. Just what they needed down there.

ML

trickg

When I was in the National Guard band, several of my friends were Police officers in their day jobs and a couple of them work in some pretty rough precints. Needless to say, they wind up dealing with some pretty belligerent people pretty regularly and sadly, because of that, the attitude winds up becoming one of "subdue the subject first, ask questions later." And, some officers are spoiling for that kind of action and look for an excuse to get into an altercation. It's a power thing.

The problem comes when a subject shows a little more backbone than normal. They might pop off to an officer, an altercation occurs and if the subject resists AT ALL, they are wrong - period.

I agree with Manny that without really knowing the whole story, it's hard to formulate an opinion as to what was what because it turns into a matter of just who you want to believe, and most of the time the courts err on the side of the officers' testimonies.

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Lazorphaze

I agree....there's no excuse for what the police did to that guy.

On the other hand, if I was Davis, I would have gone down fighting....just my style. 4 cops tell you to go home cuz you're looking for something, and are confused? "man, mind your business"

Manny Laureano

I've read some more about this fellow, Robert Davis, and I think the cops overreacted to a few words and got way tough with someone who merely didn't like the way he was being treated by another officer.

It seems, from his account, that he stopped an officer to ask a question and another stuck his nose in where it didn't belong. Maybe that's where the whole confusion thing comes in. He asked a question. They're still charging him with public intoxication. In interviews I've seen, he refuses to make this a racial issue which, these days, takes a lot of character but I'm glad to see that he's suggesting these guys shouldn't be cops anymore at the very least. I hope he gets the money his lawyer is requesting.

I think Davis is a stand-up guy with a legitimate gripe from these early accounts. I really, really hate this stuff. Fine, I can imagine what the force down there is dealing with right now is not pretty. Not in the least. But out of four officers, are you telling me not one had a cool enough head to control the situation. That's what troubles me about all this. But Davis doesn't seem to be a headline-grabbing type. His attitude seems to be "Well, stuff happens and it's a bad situation right now, here, in New Orleans but I don't deserve what happened to me."

ML

Tootsall

I think that, based on what I saw, Mr. Davis is correct and that the police grossly abused their powers. In one series of video he is laying out on the ground, cuffed and with two cops sitting on top of him while another (plain-clothes... FBI?) does his damndest to either roll the guy over or break his leg trying.

He went from the arrest directly to the hospital to have his injuries treated... he was being arrested for "public drunkenness". I don't suppose the hospital did any bloodwork to determine the degree of his intoxication or would release the results of any such tests?............I thought not.

To hear the cops' lawyer claiming that since you never actually SAW the police beating him in the face in the video, that he must have "struck his head when he fell" or some such is absolute nonsense. They spent most of their time clubbing him in the back of the neck and head.... probably the best place to hit someone if you want to kill them (brain stem injury). HE (the lawyer) claimed that police are trained to do this: a retired police TRAINER said exactly the opposite. If you hit someone in the back of the neck while they are face down on the ground you are bound to injure them.

It's going to be an interesting "day in court".

Mikey

Yeah, I think the city will settle out of court, pay the victim millions of $$.........

cornetguy

i hate this kind of crap and the media goes into a feeding frenzy about it, and you know what, In my opnion IT IS NOT THAT IMPORTANT OR NEWSWORTHY. But it puts eyes in front of television sets for the commercials that is all that matters.

I concluded a long time ago that the only difference between cops and criminals is that cops are smart enough to pass a civil service test. The police force is the career placement for folks that were bullies in school.

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Per aspera ad astra

Mikey

Yeah, I will be sure to mention what you said to my brother the next time I talk to him. After all, all he does is put his life on the line every time he goes to work, protecting pieces of scum with your kind of attitude.



(Apology accepted)



Are you going to dam* to h*ll all Catholic priests for the actions of a small minority of Father Ben Dovers?

Yes, there are rogue cops, rogue priests, rogue Presidents.........But your blanket attack against all policemen is an insult.