Apparently in the City of Brotherly Love the police training for cadets includes how to act like a punks in a schoolyard. I guess we have to be pleased that the Taser wasn’t whipped out as well for good measure. These men in the car may or may not have been guilty, but they certainly don’t look like they are resisting other than to stop the ass-kicking. Why do these officers have to whale on suspects in this manner when the person is already down on the ground?
Fifteen police officers were taken off the street as authorities investigate a video showing three suspects being kicked, punched and beaten after they were pulled out of a car during a traffic stop.“At a glance it does appear to be a bit beyond the pale,” Doug Oliver, a spokesman for Mayor Michael Nutter, said Wednesday. “Officers are not allowed to operate outside of the law.”
…The video, shot by a WTXF-TV helicopter, shows three police cars stopping a car on the side of a road. About a dozen officers gather around the vehicle and pull three men out. About a half-dozen officers hold two of the men on the ground on the driver’s side. Both are kicked repeatedly, while one is seen being punched; one also appears to be struck with a baton. On the other side of the car, another group of officers can be seen kicking a third man who ends up on the ground.
19 Responses to “Philly police 15-on-3 beatdown ‘a bit beyond the pale’”
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After all these years of live cop shows being shown on television haven’t these cops ever heard of a helicopter? Couldn’t they even hear the one above them?
Besides being brutal, they are stupid.
This is the problem when you have dozens of cops involved in a high speed chase (besides the stupidity of allocating that many officers solely to chase a single car — is there nothing else for them to be doing but joining a chase-posse? )– their adrenaline runs high, and then they basically snap once they get the suspects into their grasp and use them as punching-bag outlets for their worked-up adrenaline. I mean, why on earth were that many police involved in the first place?
Video is grainy and from a distance. I’d want to see the dashcam footage. But still, from the viewpoint of the helicopter it very much appears that the officers did a beatdown. This looks very much like what one poster wanted..excessive force.
Helicopters are pretty frequent around Philly which has trauma hospitals and really isn’t that big of a city.
Officers tend to join in a chase if the perps are considered violent, if the officers are allowed to by the shift cap, if the chase crosses jurisdictions.
Was it a high speed chase? The quote says “traffic stop.” And it’s hard to tell, but it looks like the driver had his hands up when he was dragged from the car. He didn’t exactly look like he was resisting anything.
Cops scare the everloving crap out of me.
A cop was killed last weekend. Not that it justifies this crap.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_left_story/20080507_Phila__police_push_to_find_murder_suspect.html
“Besides being brutal, they are stupid.”
I really don’t understand why you would say this. Nothing will happen to them if they are caught. Hiding what they do takes effort and doesn’t decrease their chances of negative consequences, since they will receive no punishment if they aren’t caught, and no punishment if they are caught. The officers involved appear to have made a good cost benefit analysis here.
I keep saying this over and over, and I keep getting dubbed a troll for saying it. Well here goes again…
Looks like perfectly normal cop behaviour to me…
Having been the recipient of a similar beating (resulting in a financial settlement to me - mostly because it actually did happen) I reiterate my assertion that cops are just the kids who were beaten up on the playground in grade school taking out their repressed need to get their own back.
Thugs, bullies, cowards.
I keep saying this over and over, and I keep getting dubbed a troll for saying it. Well here goes again…
Looks like perfectly normal cop behaviour to me…
Having been the recipient of a similar beating (resulting in a financial settlement to me - mostly because it actually did happen) I reiterate my assertion that cops are just the kids who were beaten up on the playground in grade school taking out their repressed need to get their own back.
Thugs, bullies, cowards.
And I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE that the auto ad link above this story asks me to click on a link for
www.public-service.US/PoliceCareers
“Become a Police Officer - SWAT, K9, Narcotics, CSI and more! Online degrees for police officers.”
What wonderfully innapropriate advertisment placement!!!
Snookie — My own dad, while drunk, was tasered into cardiac arrest by cops and is now a three count felon for ‘assaulting officers’. That was the only arrest in his life. I wasn’t aware that drunken raving was assault, but it takes very little to set some cops off, and even less nowadays. I mean, I just saw a video of a cop tasering a drunk guy, because the guy was peeing in public and wouldn’t stop on command by the officer. It’s just nuts.
My great-uncle was the chief of police in Chris Matthews’ hometown outside of Philly for decades (it’s very odd to be writing that while watching Matthews on “Hardball”…).
I think he (my uncle, who was a very good man and a professional police officer for over 30 years before his death) would be utterly horrified, were he still alive, to hear this story and countless others about police committing violent crimes and assaults against those very citizens they were trained and swore an oath to protect.
” a BIT beyond the pale?” OMFG…
You don’t kick someone once they are down.
As I’ve said many times, my inlaws are all cops, so I know they aren’t all bad, but holy shit.
Those guys need to be removed from any position of authority.
You have to watch it at least three times, once for each prisoner. It appears that only maybe three of the officers didn’t participate in the beatings. One seems to go from beating the prisoner on the right to go to beat the one at the top, and then comes back again to kick the one on the right again.
Pai
This is the problem when you have dozens of cops involved in a high speed chase (besides the stupidity of allocating that many officers solely to chase a single car — is there nothing else for them to be doing but joining a chase-posse? )– their adrenaline runs high, and then they basically snap once they get the suspects into their grasp and use them as punching-bag outlets for their worked-up adrenaline. I mean, why on earth were that many police involved in the first place?
Actually, having overwhelming manpower should enable the police to subdue and handcuff the “bad guys” without beating and kicking them. IF, that’s what they want to do. Just looking at that video, it looks like there were plenty of unnecessary kicks and punches.
“This is the problem when you have dozens of cops involved in a high speed chase (besides the stupidity of allocating that many officers solely to chase a single car ”
I’ve noticed up to 3 cop cars showing up for what appear to be routine traffic stops in my small city. I wonder if 1) they really have nothing else to do and 2)is it meant to intimidate the citizens.
This is so horrible. All of the officers should be fired.
My question is this: how do we as individuals protect ourselves from these crooked, corrupt, brutal and inhumane police officers? I live in Vermont, but even here the police do stupid things - one poor guy got tased because he was HAVING A SEIZURE and didn’t respond to the cops’ questions. Years ago there was someone in VT impersonating a cop, pulling women over and assaulting them. And yet we are expected to meekly cooperate with whatever demands they make, without regard for our own safety.
Protect and serve, my ass. These people should be prosecuted, fired and never again allowed to hold a position of authority. They’ve shown they cannot behave themselves like civilized human beings. But I doubt anything will happen to them beyond a slap on the wrist. Suspension with pay, maybe. It’s insane.
Being a police officer is not a profession for the average individual. Until we speak out and demand a police force that is able to make the right decisions during highstress events. I mean, not one officer able to restrain himself during the filming is just the same as the would-be-criminal who doesn’t just pull over and ensues a high-speed chase. Our nation’s police cannot be would-be criminals in uniform. They have too much power and influence to be this sensitive and angry at the next would-be criminal he/she encounters. Each officer ought to have greater psycological balance and recourse and stress-management and control—or give up the badge!
There, corrected that for ya. IME, that corrected statement is far more closer to the truth of most police officers I encountered and/or witnessed in my life.
What Snookie said. I came of age in the mid/late 70s, Houston TX. The PD was brutal. This kind of stuff was routine.