Posted on 03/12/2015 9:21:18 AM PDT by rarestia
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri is defending the actions of one of his deputies seen on a video breaking up a fight on St. Pete Beach.
The video, which has been viewed a million times, captured Sgt. Bryan Bingham tussling with two men on St. Pete Beach on Sunday.
On the video, you can see Bingham grab 25-year-old Joshua McMahan by the neck and throw him to the ground. Bingham said he used a pressure point technique on the jawline and directed McMahan to the ground after he spit in his face.
"So what Sgt. Bingham did was use appropriate pressure point techniques on his jaw, (McMahan) started spitting back at him and started resisting him so he took him to the ground," Gualtieri said. "And he’s surrounded by a crowd of 200-300 people, by the way, very few of which came to Sgt. Bingham’s aid."
In another part of the video, Bingham is seen putting 24-year-old Justin Lewis in a sleeper hold.
"That was me being in a situation where it is actually equivalent to a deadly force scenario," Bingham said. "Where again, my main goal is to maintain control of that situation and being justified to do anything at that point in time to make sure I go home at the end of the day and everyone else is safe."
Gualtieri said Bingham would've been justified in using deadly force in this situation and that he used appropriate techniques.
"Sgt. Bingham did what he had to do to protect himself and the others out there and he handled the situation extremely well given the circumstances. We're fortunate that he wasn't hurt,” he said.
Gualtieri said Bingham's backup arrived just over two minutes from when he radioed for help and that there's adequate staffing on the beach for spring break. The sheriff also said the two men who were arrested just got out of prison and are "thugs," not spring breakers.
Bingham, who some people are referring to on-line as Sergeant Hulk and Sergeant Stud, said he's surprised at all the attention he's getting.
"It's humbling, very, very, humbling. And like I said before, one of the main points I want to stress, I am a quiet individual. I'm a humble individual. All I did was simply do my job," he said. "I appreciate the overwhelming public support for simply doing my job. I routinely answered a simple call for help."
The sheriff said there's not going to be an Internal Affairs investigation because Bingham did everything right that day on the beach.
Both McMahan and Lewis were charged with felony battery on a law enforcement officer and disorderly conduct.
FWIW, it's illegal to drink on Florida's public beaches. Doesn't mean you can't show up drunk, but these "kids" weren't likely drinking in the lead up to this event.
I saw the video. The second guy the Sgt brought down was a dumb-a$$ punk who was clearly asking for it.
IMO, he used restraint. He put the first one to the sand without throwing him down head first, and the other punk was creating an immediate cause for concern. The deputy was outnumbered and was fortunate that he wasn’t jumped or sucker-punched.
I think the officer did the right thing without overdoing it. The first kid spit in his face, which means he was out of control. He deserved to be brought down and cuffed.
The Officer skillfully uses brute strength to PUSH the second kid out of the way. #2. was pushed away hard enough to make him sommersault backwards. I’m sure that boy thought a battering ram had just hit him. This humiliated and engraged schoolboy #2., who was probably drunk on the beach.
I was heartened that #2. was subsequently restrained by a cluster of his own friends, other young people with cooler heads could see what was happening. They were trying to protect the boy in spite of himself.
Both ended up getting themselves arrested anyway.
The Officer could have resorted to tasing or some other means to keep boy #2. from interferring with his work, but he didn’t.
The Officer took care of business..... LIKE A BOSS!
The deputy does good work.
They should defend him ... he’s a badass!
But the sheriff called these youths “thugs”. I thought that was a racist buzz word, or maybe a micro-aggression or is it a dog whistle. Please help me, I’m so confused
Maybe it’s just me, but when you have all these good-cop, bad-cop stories, it seems like the good stories usually tend to be Sheriff’s deputies, whereas the bad-cop stories tend to be City police. Hmm.
Bfl
They were thugs,
Good police work.
He did an excellent job.
Love that part where the cop had him in a hold,,, and he tried to tap out. lol
Stellar work by the Deputy.
I got the feeling that the onlookers were siding with the cop.
The cop is licky the perps were white. Otherwise the facts wouldn’t matter.
I’ve had several discussions recently with freepers claiming a cop is justified in using lethal force simply because somebody runs in his direction. In one case the guy was nude and obviously unarmed. Presumably because somebody might take his gun and use it on him. Which is true.
But here we’ve got a guy in the middle of a crowd, with random morons jumping at him at intervals. He’s clearly armed, but doesn’t seem to feel the need to shoot anybody who comes within ten feet of him.
This is more what I would expect from cops.
Yeah, there weren’t no tapping out of that.
I love it, knee on the neck of one perp and a guillotine on the other. SCHVEET!
Hats off to the Deputy. This is why you never backtalk a cop. Especially one a head taller and 50-60 pounds heavier than you.
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