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LAPD Plan to Curb Flashlight Beatings
Yahoo news ^ | 12/15/2004 | Unknown

Posted on 12/15/2004 12:25:58 PM PST by Lazamataz

LOS ANGELES - The city's police commission unveiled a plan Tuesday aimed at discouraging officers from using flashlights as weapons, except in emergencies.

The proposal comes months after a telvised beating by Officer John Hatfield showed him striking a motorist 11 times following a foot chase. The June 23 incident sparked widespread objection to the use of flashlights as weapons.

"Officers don't mind being held accountable as long as they have a clear policy to follow, and that's what we're providing here," said Alan Skobin, vice president of the police commission.

The proposed policy, to be considered Jan. 11, stops short of the near-total bans on practice enacted in other large cities. It states that flashlights should only be used for light and should only be used as a weapon in very unusual circumstances.

The proposal seems to permit officers to use flashlights to stop violent suspects, said Bob Baker, president of the Police Protective League, the Los Angeles Police Department officers' union.

"We support policies that, at the end of the watch, mean we are going home safe," Baker said.

Ricardo Garcia, criminal justice director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said the proposal was a good start.

"But I'd like to see them move away from even this permissive a use of flashlight," Garcia said. "On the positive side, at least this will give officers some training on how if they're going to strike with a flashlight to do it. Before this, they could pretty much do anything."

At the time of the Miller incident, the LAPD had no formal policy on proper use of a flashlight to subdue a suspect.

After the beating, Chief William J. Bratton said he would forbid the use of heavy metal flashlights like the one used by Hatfield. Bratton said the department would develop small, lightweight rubber flashlights, which it is still in the process of doing.

The new proposal would require a written explanation and critical review whenever a flashlight is used as a weapon.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: beating; donutwatch; flashlight; govwatch; lapd; rodneyking
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To: Lazamataz; flashbunny

That is a brilliant idea. flashbunny for CEO.


61 posted on 12/15/2004 1:54:41 PM PST by Conspiracy Guy (Boycott Boycotts Warrior. If you aint buying call me!)
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To: stainlessbanner

Never hit them in the head. Go for the collar bone. Works better. They were called Kel Lights back in the old days when I was a happy policeman.

Last complaint I drew was a guy that claimed I pistol whipped him. My completely logical answer was:

"Chief, why would I hit him with a $250.00 revolver when I had a $17.00 flashlight?"


62 posted on 12/15/2004 2:07:27 PM PST by Old Mountain man (Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice!)
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To: stockpirate

How about transferable flashlight beating vouchers? That way, officers who come in under their quota can trade with those who use up their beating allowance. The overall number of authorized flashlight beatings remains constant, but more of the flashlight beatings are administered by specialists, so the average quality goes up.

The free market works!


63 posted on 12/15/2004 2:11:23 PM PST by Slings and Arrows (Am Yisrael Chai!)
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To: timpad
Apparently, there's a bumper crop: Bus Death Mystery

Posted here. Funny thread.

64 posted on 12/15/2004 2:14:52 PM PST by Slings and Arrows (Am Yisrael Chai!)
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To: stainlessbanner

Mag lites are considered a tactical weapon. Keep one within reach

No kidding. And have you ever noticed how a cop who has stopped you holds it when he's using it to look around inside your car? He holds in next to his head, with his arm cocked back and his hand just behind the flared-out lens portion. All he's got to do is extend his arm forward, and the battery end comes down on whatever's in front of him with maxim leverage. If he was only interested in using it for illumination, he wouldn't have to hold it that way.


65 posted on 12/15/2004 2:22:15 PM PST by Flash Bazbeaux ("I'll have the moo goo gai pan without the pan, and some pans.")
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To: Lazamataz

We must be sensitive to the plight of poor flashlights, which are so often the victims of vicious unprovoked police beatings.


66 posted on 12/15/2004 2:33:21 PM PST by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: Travis McGee

Flashlights don't beat flashlights. People beat flashlights....


67 posted on 12/15/2004 2:53:14 PM PST by The Spirit Of Allegiance (FREE people needn't apply to a Government of/by/for the People for a gun (PERSONAL PROPERTY) permit!)
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To: Slings and Arrows

Also, if more than one officer is beating the same guy it only should count as one beating. Not one for each officer but only a percent per officer, like 4 cops one thug = 25% per cop deducted from their beating quota. It is after all only one person getting the beating.


68 posted on 12/15/2004 3:21:16 PM PST by stockpirate (Check out my homepage and learn about sKerry and his Socialist friends.)
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To: PoorMuttly

Actually, putting cops that get tagged with abuse reprimands in pink uniforms for 6 months would probably chill out their testosterone poisoning.


69 posted on 12/15/2004 3:27:57 PM PST by eno_ (Freedom Lite, it's almost worth defending.)
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To: eno_

Well...I used to think that NYC at night was pretty dangerous...until I visited L.A.

My friends in the Newark, N.J. P.D. (see motorcyclists in an old Queen Latifa video, forgot name, for introduction to them) did astounding things with their recreational bikes....in an effort to "stay brave" ALL the time. In their job...if you thought about it, and were sane, you probably wouldn't report for work, especially at night. "Testosterone" properly managed, has saved many lives. It helps one to survive. Just ask commercial fishermen.

The late-night streets of parts of L.A. require a LOT of guts to patrol, and remember...one is wearing the "enemy uniform" too, and being rather conspicuous...not hiding....and deliberately entering already violent situations, among people who often don't mind losing all they have, including their lives, just to commit a public act of bravado. They are also often chemically altered beyond the point of any rationality or restraint. They don't just go down and give up when even mortally wounded. This is evidently why even with the new directives, officers are not completely refused "permission" to use whatever force and implement immediately available and necessary in order to go home alive.


70 posted on 12/15/2004 3:48:12 PM PST by PoorMuttly ("The right of the People to be Muttly shall not be infringed,")
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To: Lazamataz

Two Detroit cops went to jail in a highly racist persecution by the courts for murder by mag-lite. Never mind that the bad guy died from a cocaine induced heart attack. He was hit on the head a couple of times by the cop while the bad guy was trying to take the cops gun.

Mag-Lite...Tested and Approved by the Detroit (and Los Angeles) Police Department. Accept nothing but the best.


71 posted on 12/15/2004 3:54:32 PM PST by cyclotic (Cub Scouts-Teach 'em young to be men, and politically incorrect in the process)
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To: hobbes1

What a crock. Not a sound uttered until today. Sheesh. MSM nonsense.


72 posted on 12/15/2004 3:55:39 PM PST by Hi Heels (Proud to be a Pajamarazzi-Leef lang de Katjes van Viking)
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To: Lazamataz
The criminals (and ACLU) have been demanding a kinder & gentler police force for years. Maybe they'll succeed in banning maglites and the PD can resort to a different means of approved lighting.


73 posted on 12/15/2004 3:56:07 PM PST by SiVisPacemParaBellum (Peace through superior firepower!)
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To: LanPB01

"The Following People GUARANTEED a Flashlight Beating:

1. Michael Moore..."


74 posted on 12/15/2004 3:57:25 PM PST by Hi Heels (Proud to be a Pajamarazzi-Leef lang de Katjes van Viking)
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To: Old Mountain man

I was in court one day watching a guy up for concealed weapon. The judge asked, "why was it loaded?" The guy answered, "well, if it weren't loaded it'd be as useful as a round rock, now wouldn't it?" He got probation.


75 posted on 12/15/2004 3:59:35 PM PST by Hi Heels (Proud to be a Pajamarazzi-Leef lang de Katjes van Viking)
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To: Lazamataz
I know of private security companies that forbid their people carry ANY weapon and they include large flashlights in the list;several years ago a Kentucky State Trooper told me their maglites were taken away and 2-cell PLASTIC flashlights issued instead.

Hey. if the subject is a threat it is better to shoot and KILL him under the warped system of today-no one can be "shown the light" whilst still a petty criminal. We forbid all corporal punishment and correction except execution after the petty criminal becomes a hardened killer with multiple offenses.

76 posted on 12/15/2004 4:24:30 PM PST by hoosierham
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To: Lazamataz

I laughed before reading anything else!


77 posted on 12/15/2004 4:25:14 PM PST by dakine
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To: Lazamataz
I prefer a Streamlight over the Maglite myself.

Now for the war stories.

During a riot I Streamlighted 11 stitches into a gentleman's forehead after I Streamlighted him once to the 'jewelli familia' and another strike to the forehead went unnoticed.

A defence lawyer once accused me on the stand of hitting his client with my nightstick and I had to admit that it wasn't the nightstick, it was my partner Streamlight.

Beat 'em if you got 'em.

78 posted on 12/16/2004 8:25:22 AM PST by Cap'n Crunch
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