Posted on 06/07/2018 7:44:40 PM PDT by lowbridge
An unarmed man who was beaten by Arizona police officers last month said Thursday that he wants changes in the Mesa Police Department so that it doesn’t happen to anyone else.
"I am a family man and a God-fearing person," Robert Johnson, 33, said at a news conference at a Mesa church, occasionally becoming emotional. "I want Mesa to be held accountable for what, what they have done."
A police officer claimed in an arrest report that Johnson refused a request to sit down and looked ready to fight. That's why the officer tried to detain him, the report said, and the officer struck him several times after he resisted.
Four police officers had been placed on administrative leave, and a fifth officer was placed on leave Wednesday night, police said Thursday.
This week the police department released surveillance and body-camera video of the incident. The video does not appear to show Johnson, who is black, try to attack officers before police strike him with their hands.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
It looked unnecessarily brutal to me.
The big black cop needs to lose his badge, right away.
He’s a CRIMINAL.
what was the charge?.....cops shouldn’t be the judge and the jury...
Yeah, right, slumped back against the wall. In no position to do anything.
ping
He was staring at his cellphone, I think.
Well, he did sell his soul to the Devil and all.
I’m not shocked. This happens all the time but it’s a tough jump over that blue line.
The police had legitimate concerns yet their actions seem unreasonable. Getting him away from the ledge was reasonable. Asking him to sit down was reasonable but cops are faced with passive aggressive all the time. They need to deal with this with methods other than beatings or shootings.
At least he wasn’t begging for his life and begging them not to shoot him right before they shot and killed him.
He didnt comply in a timely way with officers...he just acted very passive...he shouldnt have been beaten so fiercely...he kept on rolling around even when handcuffed...could have been on psychotropics...either way...barrage of blows.over the top..but who in their right mind will resist ,even if passively, and risk an unnecessary beatdown? Cops definitely made quick and sure work...but way too much...a nightstick to shins or a flashlight to skull or pepper spray might have caught his attention.
Do we always have to be reminded of human stupidity?....i mean always?
There is one thing — civil service unions — that is a universal factor here. That has to go down as a whole.
The department did change their policy to not react to nonviolence with violence. This is a sore topic nationally and one which explains why it’s getting splashed all over.
Wasn’t as “brutal” as it may have looked. Those punche were low-powered if not pulled. When they picked him up off the floor there was no blood or stray teeth. His face on a video interview later looked just fine, not even bruised.
Nonetheless it was a stupid way to deal with passive resistance, especially with video being recorded. They don’t select cops for sterling intellect and superior impulse control. That’s why it’s best to minimize contact.
I would sentence EVERY OFFICER THERE TO DEATH!!! The young man did NOTHING WRONG, they deserve to be EXECUTED for this beat down under the Color of Authority
All of this could have been avoided, from the beginning, if the guy would have simply sat down, up against the wall, as initially and repeatedly requested to do so by the officer...and the subsequent officers who arrived on the scene. Play stupid games, get stupid results.
Right and knees to the groin were just boys being boys .. and the elbow thrown at the end (1:57) was just a playful tap.
When someone isn’t doing anything wrong and when they are not posing a threat then the police don’t have a right to order them to do ANYTHING.
By the way if you want to celebrate a policy of: “Play stupid games, get stupid results.”
...then I hope you won’t mind when people weary of law enforcement playing stupid games and getting themselves killed as a result.
Too many law enforcement agencies in this country now behave as if they were military occupation forces and they act as if the civilian population is their enemy.
This behavior will only go on so long and then it breeds an insurgency and like we saw in New York City a few years ago the NYPD didn’t stop their brutal tactics until someone killed two cops on Staten Island just for being cops.
It shouldn’t have to come to that.
All that law enforcement has to do to earn back the trust and respect of the people is simple:
1. Uphold and defend the Constitution that they all swear to uphold and defend.
2. Obey the laws that they enforce.
3. Don’t be a dick.
If they can’t manage these three simple things then they either need to find another job or else don’t bitch about it when people rise up and do to the police what the police have been doing to them.
- Megan
Megan, it was a reasonable request by the officers to tell the guy to sit down against the wall. He is large, healthy and strong looking. Getting him to sit down reduced the opportunity of him physically going off on the officers. The first guy simply complied, and had no problems, from what the video shows.
The initial officer arrived on scene, saw two guys leaving, did not know what was actually going on, and told them to stay put. One complied. The other half complied. The additional officers repeated the request to sit down against the wall. The guy half complied, leaning against the wall.
He was pummeled into getting down, and ended up prone on the floor, handcuffed. For a Christian family man, he was swearing profusely and profanely.
None of this would have happened if he had simply initially complied like the first guy did. His biggest injury was to his pride. Physically, he seemed to not be injured.
He made a stupid decision and received the consequences of his decision.
Had he simply complied, initially, and presuming he was as innocent as a newborn lamb, then nothing further would likely have happened to him. A quick interview, innocence established, and he would have been out of there.
Passive/aggressive behavior might work in some settings for some people, but it rarely has a benefit for someone disobeying lawful instructions of the police.
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