Cop Loses Badge Over YouTube Video That Shows Him Body-Checking Bicyclist

[Maverick]

In the video yes, but you seem to be missing the point, we don't know what went on before the video started recording.

Are you arguing that the cyclist make contact with the officer in question at some point before the video began? We have two collisions now between the same 2 individuals?

 

[CopThatSupportsRonPaul]

Are you arguing that the cyclist make contact with the officer in question at some point before the video began? We have two collisions now between the same 2 individuals?

Just stop. You obviously do not understand how the justice system works.

 

[malkusm]

In the video yes, but you seem to be missing the point,

No, you seem to be missing the point. We've established that the guy could be a f--king alien from Neptune who sucked the internal organs out of 10,000 innocents (although he wasn't charged with it).

You've admitted that the cop initiated contact. The officer's formal police report claims that the suspect initiated contact, and even goes so far as to charge him with assault for doing so. Last time I checked, assault was a pretty heavy offense.

 

[revolutionary8]

So it's only the contact that matters?

Even if this guy had just killed 300 people 20 minutes earlier, and the officer was taking him down, the only thing that matters is that on the video it shows the cop tackling him first, and that the guy couldn't have done anything prior that wasn't shown on video?

That has to be the most asinine, absurd, ridiculous thing I have ever heard in my life, and I've heard a lot of ridiculous things.

I give up...

If this guy had just killed 300 ppl 20 minutes earlier, he would have been charged with murder, not resisting arrest, not disorderly conduct, and not assault on a police officer that never happened. If this guy killed 300 ppl 20 minutes earlier, I am sure there would be no need to falsify a police report in a lame attempt to justify police brutality.

 

[fletcher]

In the video yes, but you seem to be missing the point, we don't know what went on before the video started recording.

He was not charged with anything that happened before he appeared on video so that answers that. He was not doing anything illegal before he was on camera. Add to that the fact that the cop lied about what happened and it is a clear cut case of a corrupt cop.

 

[Bruno]

No, you seem to be missing the point. We've established that the guy could be a f--king alien from Neptune who sucked the internal organs out of 10,000 innocents (although he wasn't charged with it).

You've admitted that the cop initiated contact. The officer's formal police report claims that the suspect initiated contact, and even goes so far as to charge him with assault for doing so. Last time I checked, assault was a pretty heavy offense.

Exactly. Which brings us to point #2. Cop did not know he had been videotaped and it would end up in court and blasted all over youtube.

 

[Maverick]

Just stop. You obviously do not understand how the justice system works.

Would you like to try to address the question again without the strawman this time?

EDIT: Here it is again, in case you forgot. "The officer initiated the contact." True or false?

 

[RP4Pres2008]

This thread is embarrassing...

The proof is in the video.

 

[fletcher]

Just stop. You obviously do not understand how the justice system works.

Cop assaults you, arrests you, charges you with crimes you did not commit. The justice system at work. You seem to know the system quite well.

 

[ChickenHawk]

"there had to be a reason" You have GOT to be kidding me. lol.

If this was the case, why did the officer feel the need falsify an assault charge/complaint?

Okay, I'll admit it is possible he did it for no good reason at all. However, it is very hard to believe that a police officer would do this in front of so many witnesses. He also had to know that the possibility that it would be on video was reasonably high. The apparent lie on the report he filed does bring up some very serious questions.

What I find annoying is people who look at a video like this and automatically convict the cop. Some people have such mindless disdain for authority that they can't even look at a video like this and think of any reason the cop might have to use force to stop someone. For all you know he could be protecting the rights of innocent people buy stopping this guy. It doesn't look that way but the benefit of the doubt should be extended until all the facts come out. People in positions of authority deserve to be seen as innocent until proven guilty just like the rest of us. As Oyate point out to me so eloquently earlier in this thread "protection of law extends to ALL Americans, even you ones you don't happen to like".

 

[Bruno]

Okay, I'll admit it is possible he did it for no good reason at all. However, it is very hard to believe that a police officer would do this in front of so many witnesses. He also had to know that the possibility that it would be on video was reasonably high. The apparent lie on the report he filed does bring up some very serious questions.

What I find annoying is people who look at a video like this and automatically convict the cop. Some people have such mindless disdain for authority that they can't even look at a video like this and think of any reason the cop might have to use force to stop someone. For all you know he could be protecting the rights of innocent people buy stopping this guy. It doesn't look that way but the benefit of the doubt should be extended until all the facts come out. People in positions of authority deserve to be seen as innocent until proven guilty just like the rest of us. As Oyate point out to me so eloquently earlier in this thread "protection of law extends to ALL Americans, even you ones you don't happen to like".

Cops do stuff in front of witnesses all the time. Just usually there aren't cameras rolling to convict him. He lost his cool, was upset with the bikers, who knows. But what is clear is that he rammed the dude off his bike purposefully, and then lied about it in his report to cover his ass.

I don't think everyone is automatically convicting the cop, but didn't he lose his job today and that is why we are talking about it? Seems he's already in trouble and therefore guilty.
Besides, innocent until proven guilty is in the eyes of the law and the justice system, and does not apply the court of public opinion (and in this case, scorn).

 

[Oyate]

Cop assaults you, arrests you, charges you with crimes you did not commit. The justice system at work. You seem to know the system quite well.

Funny thing is I'm usually biased towards LEOs. I'm usually the one making the point that we don't see the whole scenario, don't know the incidents preceding. But our new RP cop friend is still operating under the "Andy Griffith" model of law enforcement. The good guys in blue. It was a great model of community policing we really miss as a nation.

What he doesn't understand is the new breed of cop is trained to see citizens as the enemy, that pain-compliance is the only technique and that you do in fact do anything and everything to close ranks against all scrutiny.

Of course, a lot of us don't seem to know is that there are a lot of good people wearing the badge. Even still.

 

[Bruno]

Funny thing is I'm usually biased towards LEOs. I'm usually the one making the point that we don't see the whole scenario, don't know the incidents preceding. But our new RP cop friend is still operating under the "Andy Griffith" model of law enforcement. The good guys in blue. It was a great model of community policing we really miss as a nation.

What he doesn't understand is the new breed of cop is trained to see citizens as the enemy, that pain-compliance is the only technique and that you do in fact do anything and everything to close ranks against all scrutiny.

Of course, a lot of us don't seem to know is that there are a lot of good people wearing the badge. Even still.

Well said. I distrust officers in general but know there are many good ones out there. I've had officers lie under oath against me on two separate misdemeanor occasions when I went to court to fight the charges. The bad ones hurt the image of them all.

 

[Oyate]

Well said. I distrust officers in general but know there are many good ones out there. I've had officers lie under oath against me on two separate misdemeanor occasions when I went to court to fight the charges. The bad ones hurt the image of them all.

There's a word for what you went through. It's called "testilying". The officer's word often stands in court. Against his, yours often doesn't.

Most judges turn a blind eye to testilying. And most juries will not convict a cop no matter how clear the evidence against them.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Funny thing is I'm usually biased towards LEOs. I'm usually the one making the point that we don't see the whole scenario, don't know the incidents preceding. But our new RP cop friend is still operating under the "Andy Griffith" model of law enforcement. The good guys in blue. It was a great model of community policing we really miss as a nation.

What he doesn't understand is the new breed of cop is trained to see citizens as the enemy, that pain-compliance is the only technique and that you do in fact do anything and everything to close ranks against all scrutiny.

Of course, a lot of us don't seem to know is that there are a lot of good people wearing the badge. Even still.

I think there are basically two kinds of cops. There are the ones who got into law enforcement to help people and those that got into it to control people. There are obviously too many of the latter. Even if 90% of cops are there to help people 10% is a lot of bad ones.

The sadest thing is cops who make an honest mistake in the line of duty and get grouped in with the bad cops by the media. Imagine your a cop and you shoot a kid with a toy gun on accident and the next morning Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are on your front lawn calling you a racist.

 

[CopThatSupportsRonPaul]

I think there are basically two kinds of cops. There are the ones who got into law enforcement to help people and those that got into it to control people. There are obviously too many of the latter. Even if 90% of cops are there to help people 10% is a lot of bad ones.

I don't think there are that many bad cops. Trust me, if you know what we have to go through during the hiring process, you would be amazed. The hiring process does an amazing job at weeding out the bad eggs.

I think the "bad cops" are mostly just in small departments out in the middle of nowhere, where the sheriff lets his nephews be deputies and all his friends. Or small towns with like 3 officers where everyone knows everyone and the chief of police is the father of all the officers. Those kind of places, ones that don't really hire. And there are still quite a few departments like that. Of course since those officers did not go through a real hiring process, they didn't get weeded out ..

but in real departments, if you're a bad egg, you're not getting the job

 

[Oyate]

Not like the cyclist in this video had much of a chance, but there's a right way and oh so many wrong ways to deal with cops.

The very first technique is de-escalation. The 3 basic ways are your voice, your posture and how you use eye contact.

1. Do not raise your voice, use calm tones, address the officer as "Officer", "Trooper" or "Deputy" (depending on who they work for) or simply "Sir" or "Ma'am".

2. Do not crowd an officer or officers. Give them space, don't square off, DO NOT put your hands in your pockets. Take a back stance, keep your hands at your sides and relax. Relax body. Take a deep breath.

3. Don't do the angry eyes. Keep a cool head. Don't let that fire come into your eyes.

De-escalate the situation. You can do it when getting pulled over way before you even meet the cop. When you see the lights, immediately put on your turn signal and look for a safe place for BOTH OF YOU to pull over in. Switch on the interior light. Safely pull over where they guy won't get run over by traffic, roll down your window, put both hands on the steering wheel and once again relax.

Now go ahead and protect your Constitutional rights, but you can set up the whole encounter to go well or poorly just by de-escalating from the start.

For some good pointers about how to protect your rights when encountering law enforcement, have a look at these videos:

1. BUSTED: The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqMjMPlXzdA

2. Don't talk to cops part 1 (the lawyer)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8z7NC5sgik

3. Don't talk to cops part 2 (the cop)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08fZQWjDVKE

 

[Oyate]

I don't think there are that many bad cops. Trust me, if you know what we have to go through during the hiring process, you would be amazed. The hiring process does an amazing job at weeding out the bad eggs.

I think the "bad cops" are mostly just in small departments out in the middle of nowhere, where the sheriff lets his nephews be deputies and all his friends. Or small towns with like 3 officers where everyone knows everyone and the chief of police is the father of all the officers. Those kind of places, ones that don't really hire.

With respect, the biggest, baddest problems we've seen are NOLA, LA and NY. Chi is up there too, but we find historic, systemic corruption in these departments.

And remember, this is an issue of perception as much as it is of fact. What's a good cop to you at the end of the shift might have left a string of disgruntled citizens behind him or her.

 

[CopThatSupportsRonPaul]

Not like the cyclist in this video had much of a chance, but there's a right way and oh so many wrong ways to deal with cops.

The very first technique is de-escalation. The 3 basic ways are your voice, your posture and how you use eye contact.

1. Do not raise your voice, use calm tones, address the officer as "Officer", "Trooper" or "Deputy" (depending on who they work for) or simply "Sir" or "Ma'am".

2. Do not crowd an officer or officers. Give them space, don't square off, DO NOT put your hands in your pockets. Take a back stance, keep your hands at your sides and relax. Relax body. Take a deep breath.

3. Don't do the angry eyes. Keep a cool head. Don't let that fire come into your eyes.

De-escalate the situation. You can do it when getting pulled over way before you even meet the cop. When you see the lights, immediately put on your turn signal and look for a safe place for BOTH OF YOU to pull over in. Switch on the interior light. Safely pull over where they guy won't get run over by traffic, roll down your window, put both hands on the steering wheel and once again relax.

all good tips and I suggest everyone reads that.

If I feel safer, you're going to be safer. If you are acting suspicious and I feel my life is danger, my finger is going to be closer to the trigger.

If I come up to a car during a traffic stop, no lights are on in the vehicle, the driver is slumping down and and quickly reaching for something underneath the seat, you can understand I would be a bit on edge.

likewise if someone has the dome light on and his hands on the wheel where i can see them, and greets me with a friendly voice, i'm going to be much more at ease.

that's the problem with all these incidents, people just act stupid around police and expect things to go OK for them, forgetting that the police are armed and have authority to kill you if they feel you are a danger.

like in the other thread about the kid getting tased... did he think everything was going to go OK for him when he told the police he was going to kill them? jesus christ...

 

[revolutionary8]

all good tips and I suggest everyone reads that.

If I feel safer, you're going to be safer. If you are acting suspicious and I feel my life is danger, my finger is going to be closer to the trigger.

If I come up to a car during a traffic stop, no lights are on in the vehicle, the driver is slumping down and and quickly reaching for something underneath the seat, you can understand I would be a bit on edge.

likewise if someone has the dome light on and his hands on the wheel where i can see it, and greets me with a friendly voice, i'm going to be much more at ease.

that's the problem with all these incidents, people just act stupid around police and expect things to go OK for them, forgetting that the police are armed and have authority to kill you if they feel you are a danger.

like in the other thread about the kid getting tased... did he think everything was going to go OK for him when he told the police he was going to kill them? jesus christ...

I can completely understand why cops are guarded. I agree with what oyate said, except for rolling the winda down all the way, I would only roll it down enough to pass them my license, registration and insurance. I don't want anyone I don't know personally sticking their head in my vehicle. Well, maybe Ron Paul.

That said, lets turn the tables. Say you were tazed umpteen times 10 seconds each time, would you want to "kill em"? If so, would you have the capacity to keep your mouth shut in that state? He is a 16 yo boy for chrissakes, who most likely, up until that moment, felt invincible.
God I would give just about anything to go back to my "invincible" mind set.