Updated Sunday 6-July-2014
I note that I see no mention of this on my Google news feed, in today’s Boston Globe, or on the NECN news feed.
Danger: Graphic Violence
Here’s the official statement from the LA Police Department (at 2:08 in the video):
A physical altercation ensued as the pedestrian continued to resist arrest, at which point a plain clothes, off duty officer assisted in applying the handcuffs.
Sure. Absolutely. A “pedestrian” (in fact, a young black woman) is repeatedly pummeled (I count eleven punches in the original raw youtube video) to the face by a uniformed officer (a white male) who makes no visible effort to cuff or restrain her. The police spokesperson said the officer was “fearing she would be hurt” — and so he proceeded to beat the bejesus out of her face. Just another “physical altercation”, no police misconduct of course.
Watch the video and judge for yourself. I guess I’m just a “cop hater”, because I abhor behavior like this. I will be curious to see whether any officer is punished or disciplined, and whether the mainstream news media broadcast any followup about this incident.
It reminds me that allegedly no video or audio recording was made while Ibrahim Todashev was killed (by 12 shots, several to the back of the head) while in FBI custody (with Massachusetts State Police on-scene). I note that the shooter, Aaron McFarlane, left the Oakland Police Department under a cloud (and with a generous disability pension) after being accused by multiple complainants of participating in a “ring” of Oakland PD thugs who did similar things to blacks in Oakland. Somebody in the Boston FBI office decided that Mr. McFarlane has a promising future here in Massachusetts. His disability has miraculously been cured. As far as I know, Mr. MacFarlane is still a valued member of the Boston FBI office after an intensive investigation by Florida authorities concluded that there had been no misconduct in Mr. Todashev’s killing. Just another routine day in the life of a valued FBI agent.
Perhaps the Massachusetts State Police can recruit the officer featured in this video. It looks like he’ll get along fine with Mr. MacFarlane.
The problem is not so much that thugs become police officers, but that they are allowed to stay cops even after it becomes obvious to any reasonable person that they are unhinged.
Not just allowed to stay cops, but — in the case of Aaron MacFarlane — recruited by organizations like the Boston FBI office.
And Tom wants to condemn them all for the actions of a few?
That’s just hate fueled by poor math skills
All? Where did I say “all”? Perhaps it is your own reading skills that are compromised.
I condemn this kind of police brutality. I condemn thugs who act like this. I condemn police departments and law enforcement agencies who enable and encourage this behavior.
Do you?
The real problem is that these actions are not those of a few very bad apples. These types of issues are increasingly common and also go unaddressed.
No one is saying that most cops are like this, but it is all too easy these days to find examples like this. Thankfully, we have cellphone cameras to capture these actions today, even if some police departments want to criminalize the practice of taking those videos.
Another issue that gets far too little coverage are the incidents of people killed or injured by police shootings.
They game the system and go to the hospital together to get their stories in sync when they do a mass beating or murder. The union protects even the most blatant actions by police and the politicians, fearful of the union’s power, placate the union. The police power structure doesn’t want bad publicity and works to cover the matter. Medical examiners work for the police and taint the evidence to protect police. (You don’t really believe that the fellow beaten by 30-some cops died of a heart attack, do you?) The DA’s office and the AG’s office doesn’t want to ruffle any political feathers. There is a shortage of police due to the overstaffing requirements put in effect for the war on terror, war on drugs, etc. So a cop in serious trouble within his department need only go to the next town over to get another police job. And the tribal blue wall… A license to kill.
Eight times more likely to be killed by a cop than a terrorist?
I believe it.
“An honest cop still can’t find a place to go and complain without fear of recrimination. The blue wall will always be there because the system supports it.” –Frank Serpico
Related: From Mike Skolnik:
Especially considering that they were likely in response to the 82 shootings, 14 of them fatal (thus far sadly that number is only going up), over July 4th, which was sadly but not surprisingly, the deadliest weekend this year. We need more cops on the streets in Chicago, not less. We also need restorative justice and anti-gang programs in the CPS, and far less metal detectors and security cameras. I get that.
I also get that every police shooting should be thoroughly investigated, and Tom’s initial post was a thoughtful one. But we shouldn’t presume that every police shooting is unjustified, that would be as deadly and foolish as presuming they were all justified.
I did not presume that all of the shootings were unjustified. I pointed it out as an example that shootings by police are increasing, and that this weekend was an example of that in Chicago.
That said, the Chicago police department is a disaster. Police brutality is pervasive there and goes unpunished.
In recent years, 158 incidents of police shootings have been investigated in Chicago. Only ONE was determined to involve an officer violating department rules.
It’s shameful that Jon Burge gets to keep his pension and only serves four and a half years for over 30 years of torture and four botched death penalty cases that were exonerated (and who knows how many that weren’t).
Independent police reviews are essential to ensuring we can trust our departments.
This are questionable actions that will need to be thoroughly investigated. The young ages are just horrible, and even if self-defense can be proven, it’s an indictment on Emmanuel and his preference for closing schools rather than opening them.
…CHP actually has a pretty good record which makes this incident that much more shocking. Tom did not condemn all cops, but he definitely infused his diary with a lot of cynicism that implied that nothing would be done.
Cynicism? I’ll go beyond implying — I’ll outright state that nothing will be done. After a few weeks, the LA Police Department will quietly issue a statement that a thorough investigation has revealed that no misconduct took place. At worst, they will announce an out-of-court settlement with no wrong-doing admitted. I predict that no disciplinary action will be taken against this thug. I predict that there will be no mention of this police beating in the Globe or any local broadcast source.
Finally, I have two questions for you, Christopher, and for methuenprogressive:
1. Should Aaron McFarlane still be an FBI agent working out of the Boston office?
2. Is there anything improper about him doing so while receiving a full disability pension from the Oakland Police Department?
1. It turns out that the woman who was beaten is a great-grandmother.
2. Christopher is correct, the cop doing the serving and protecting is CHP, not LAPD.
I’ve seen plenty of coverage, but you cite two MA-based news outlets. Why are you looking locally?
I rely on the Google news feed for national coverage. I haven’t seen this story there since Saturday.
I’m looking locally because I like to think that our local mainstream media make some effort to cover news outside MA.
I note that the story is not reported on the “Nation” headlines of the Boston Globe site.
I do see newsworthy items such as:
– Court halts denial of licenses for immigrants in Arizona
– Washington state’s marijuana industry takes shape
– Marijuana retailers face chaotic opening
– Blaze that killed NYC firefighter started in electrical cord
– Calif. swimmer recounts shark attack
– 4 children die in Pa. row house blaze
– Homeless in Silicon Valley’s shadow
– Man bitten by great white shark off Southern California beach
– Calif. wildfires destroy four homes
– Jim Brosnan, 84; relief pitcher invigorated writing on baseball
I guess that the death of 84 year old Jim Brosnan is far more important than the LAPD mauling the face of a grandmother who had the gall to walk alongside a freeway. Four homes destroyed by wildfires in CA — that’s important. A black woman beat up by a white cop — nah, nothing of interest.
… And the video is clearly abuse. As well, the stories of disability fraud and hiring practices are chililng. But, as the saying goes, “Tis better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”
Given that the police serve a very distinct and vital function in society, to the extent that it would be folly to get rid of them wholesale, what is the proper response to the abuse clearly displayed in the video?
I suppose there are ‘bad apples’ in any group and that the distinct and vital function of law enforcement might attract a particular type of apple here and there…. but that’s not a particularly compelling answer.
I daresay, also, that the distinct and virulent reaction to the abuse, as here displayed by somervilletom, might be as much a dynamic as any given ‘bad apple’ cop. This is not to diminish either the rightness or the righteousness of somervilletoms reaction. I think somervilletoms reaction has great validity. But it is to point out that the very next time I see a police officer, I’ll think of this video. I will think of somervilletoms response and I’ll tense up. I don’t think, for my part, that such tension and paranoia is all that valid, or righteous, a reaction. But I know I will have that reaction. I’m not sure my tension and suspicions would be fair to any officer save the particular man in the video… but that won’t stop me from having that reaction. And whatever transaction occurs between myself and the next cop I see may have this tension layered on top. I imagine that this dynamic is orders of magnitude worse for interactions across the color line…
All this is to say that I think being a police officer is a terribly difficult job. And I here choose the words ‘terribly’ and ‘difficult’ with deliberation: there’s no excuse for the abuse shown above… but the abuse shown above should not be excuse to distrust all police, else we’ll just fulfill that prophecy.
I agree with most of what you’ve said.
In my view, the onus is on police departments to therefore adopt a “zero tolerance” policy towards such behavior. Asking me to temper my reaction to this clear abuse is focused on the wrong side of the fulcrum, I think.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but there is clear evidence Aaron MacFarlane is a “bad” cop who was invited to leave the Oakland PD after being implicated in a serious and long-lived conspiracy to abuse minorities. Yet we find that he was almost immediately hired by the Boston FBI office. He then killed an unarmed prisoner, pumping 12 rounds into him, several of them into the already-dead victim’s back.
Mr. MacFarlane is still on the Boston FBI payroll. Our Attorney General has found no criticism of the episode. I suggest that such behavior by the Boston FBI and the AG is far more damaging to people’s trust than anything I might say or write.
I think that when citizens learn of abuse by authorities, silence is among the worst possible reactions.
or some other politically influential demographic, actually like it when cops occasionally act in a nasty, brutish, even murderous fashion. especially if the violence is directed at racial or ethnic minorities, and politicians cater to this unsavory tendency. Because there is almost never any action on cases like this.
I’ll thank you to keep your broad brush in your closet. The problem is not in the voting booth; it’s in the lack of accountability of police forces. Unless you can show that any significant portion of EW voters support candidates because they let the cops get away with murder, your speculations border on the offensive. There’s one candidate currently running for a major office who is susceptible to that charge, but the major group endorsing her doesn’t claim to represent elderly or white voters. Further, I do not believe that the group they do claim to speak for “likes it when cops act in a nasty, brutish, even murderous fashion.” There are authoritarians in all demographic groups. pointing at one of those groups and making them responsible is oversimplifying the problem.
The answer is to point out officeholders – elected and otherwise – who enable bad cop behavior, and seek to have them moved from positions where they can do that.
I should not have made such a blanket generalization, especially without linking to supporting evidence such as a poll on police brutality.
When you hear about outright violence by police, it’s generally in non-white communities or against people lower on the economic scale. While some Americans face this kind of police violence, I’ve noticed that the cops in more affluent towns (e.g. Newton, Wellesley) will see absolutely blatant bad behavior by motorists and not flinch. I can’t even imagine them tasing or shooting at a neurosurgeon in a 5,000 square foot house. The communities would never stand for it. And for that reason, many people in those communities don’t really know that it exists.
But I don’t think many people are voting specifically for this. More likely is that it never really comes up in elections because too many candidates are wary of seeming “soft on crime” or “anti-police.”
So your poutrage over this incident thousands of miles away is a weird attempt at connecting it somehow to your conspiracy theory involving the FBI and conflating it to an attack on a candidate you oppose?
Yes, Tom. Coakley gave that cop in the vid you found on Facebook a ride to the scene after being flown to Cali in an FBI black helicopter piloted by Arron McFarlane and Elvis.
Ms. Coakley should be just as aware of Mr. MacFarlane’s history as the rest of us. Ms. Coakley was aware of his identity as the Florida shooter well before the Globe published that information.
You can be as contemptuous as like, it doesn’t change the way Ms. Coakley — the Attorney General — enables and rewards brutal behavior by abusers like Aaron MacFarlane and the cop in the video.
I suggest that blacks, latinos, and other minorities here in Massachusetts see nothing “weird” about connecting government encouragement of racist brutality by police in LA, Chicago, and elsewhere with the same thing here in MA.
The common thread is the eagerness of the government authorities in question to be silent about — and therefore enable and encourage — police brutality like this.
I guess it is “weird” to connect all this to the response of local authorities to the killings by police of Victoria Snelgrove and David Woodman. Apparently you (and apparently Christopher, judging from his up-rate) agree that there was no police wrong-doing in either death.
Just two dead young people, in Boston. A terrible but unavoidable tragedy. Right?
Wrong.
…is that you lay federal misconduct in the lap of a state AG. I’m not sure she would have the jurisdiction to investigate, prosecute, etc., hence my uprate.
An obvious bad apple is recruited by the federal FBI office in Massachusetts (the same federal FBI office recently made famously corrupt by the trial of Mr. Bulger). A contingent of Massachusetts state troopers (clearly under the command or at least influence of the AG) accompanies said bad apple to “interview” a “witness” in Florida. The unarmed witness is shot, execution-style, 12 or more times by the bad apple while the State Troopers stand outside.
You’re telling me that Ms. Coakley has NO resources to indicate her concern, if she had any? None? No independent investigations she can launch? No leaks she can arrange for her staff to make to any of her many Boston Globe contacts? No special conversations she can have with, for example, Ms. Ortiz?
I think you know as well as I that any Attorney General who didn’t approve of what is going down could find all kinds of ways to make it stop.
Ms. Coakley did none of that. Just as there was no police wrong-doing in the deaths of Victoria Snelgrove or David Woodman, Ms. Coakley agrees with Florida authorities that there was no wrong-doing in the shooting death of Mr. Todashev. I note that the US Attorney General ordered the FBI to conduct ALL future “interviews” in FBI offices, and that they be videotaped in their entirety. Somebody smells something rotten in the killing of Mr. Todashev.
But here in Massachusetts, the code of silence regarding police misconduct remains un-blemished.
I’ve heard it surmised that the bombing was an FBI entrapment plot gone wrong. Would anyone really be surprised? Certainly the FBI has a plot every month or so where they sucker some dull-witted saps into planting phony explosives and –Ta DAAH!– capturing the fools before they do any damage. What if this time the perps were smarter than the handlers?
How to keep the FBI from being embarrassed? Well, “dead men tell no tales.”
“A conspiracy is nothing but a secret agreement of a number of men for the pursuance of policies which they dare not admit in public” –Mark Twain