officer nearly choked him to death during a traffic stop. Posted on 07/02/2008 12:10:57 PM PDT by LibWhacker
MOUNT JULIET, Tenn. - A Midstate man said a police officer nearly choked him to death during a traffic stop.
The incident was caught on tape.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating how Mount Juliet Cpl. Bill Cosby interacted with James Anders, Jr.
Cosby stopped the 26-year-old Wilson County man in April.
Cosby suspected Anders hid marijuana in his mouth. The officer used a vascular restraint technique to keep Anders from swallowing.
On the video recorded inside Cosby's patrol car, Cosby said he smelled marijuana and handcuffed Anders and his passenger.
The video also showed the officer putting his hands around Anders' neck. He applied pressure and told Anders to stick out his tongue. This happened for nearly two minutes before Anders lost consciousness.
Photographs released by Anders' attorney showed injuries he sustained when he fell to the pavement.
Cosby didn't find any marijuana in Ander's mouth. Anders passed a drug test the next day.
A small bag of pot was found in his car and Anders was arrested for simple possession and resisting arrest.
After the district attorney saw the video, the charges were dropped.
Anders is expected to file a lawsuit in federal court later this month.
Cosby is still on the job.
After viewing the tape, General Sessions Judge Barry Tatum dismissed all Cosby's cases. He called what Cosby did inexcusable and said Cosby is no longer welcome in his court. In essence, any tickets he writes now are meaningless. The judge will dismiss them.
Anders' attorney said there's no excuse for strangling a man helpless and handcuffed.
"Clearly his constitutional rights were violated. He was choked," said Garry Vandever, Anders' attorney.
Vandever said Anders is fine but he still upset over what happened.
Anders is expected to file a lawsuit in federal court later this month.
Andy Garrett was sworn in as the new police chief Monday night.
"I have viewed the tape. I wasn't on board when this happened," he said. "It is an incident that's been addressed internally through training and discipline with the police officer. Any further investigation that's going to be done by an outside agency will be referred to the city attorney," said Garrett, a 25-year Metro Police Department veteran who recently commanded the force's Central Precinct.
He succeeds former Mount Juliet Police Chief Ted Floyd who retired several months ago.
In a letter sent to the new police chief and obtained by NewsChannel 5, Tatum said he's "dismissing all cases Corporal Cosby has pending" in his court.
Tatum also indicated that he's "dismissing any (future) cases he attempts to bring."
Tatum said Cosby has "cast a permanent cloud over law enforcement and the judicial system."
"We trust that an officer has to have the type of demeanor that when someone is treating them badly, spitting on them, trying to hit them, that that officer will have restraint in his actions toward that person," said Wilson County General Sessions Court Judge Bob Hamilton.
Wonder how long it will take for the boot lickers to show up here and tell us all how the cop was completely justified....
But if you REALLY want to learn how to choke someone, you need to take lessons from the jailers in PG County, Maryland.
Probably not long.
Fire that son-of-a-b*tch and take away his pension.
Well, there goes the revenue stream. Not much reason to keep Cosby on the force unless there is some way to make sure his tickets only go before another judge.
So the Judge has prejudged all of Cosby's cases, not much of a judge.
The perp ususlly coughs up several little baggies of crack.
"We trust that an officer has to have the type of demeanor that when someone is treating them badly, spitting on them, trying to hit them, that that officer will have restraint in his actions toward that person," said Wilson County General Sessions Court Judge Bob Hamilton.
Cops are citizens too and should be able to defend themselves in the course of their duties.
swallowing drugs happens all the time and is usually the first place you look. it's evidence tampering and it's a felony in most places.
so go ahead and tell me that a little pot is no big deal. hindsight is 20/20. policing isn't pretty sometimes.
2 of the first 10 posts supporting police violence, in this case choking someone until he passed out. No big surprise.
Well, then the perp will die of an OD, his family will sue and win millions for wrongful death, but at least the cop did not choke him.
/sarcasm
It sounds like a technique that is useful and reasonable in some circumstances was used when it shouldn't have been. It didn't seem like the officer was being malicious, just foolish.
The video was just a clip, so it's hard to tell if the suspect was cooperating or not, so there might be more to this than is obvious, but it is really strange that the officers didn't do a better job of controlling the suspect for his own safety. There's seems to be no good reason for the suspect to have been allowed to fall and hit his head. They had him cuffed, and even if he wasn't cooperating, which is unclear, he wasn't actively resisting either.
The officers screwed up. What's not clear to me is how badly they screwed up.
Which two?
this is like tasing. it looks all scary, but when it comes down to it, it's a relatively safe exercise where the perp is fine 10 minutes later. but the point is, the cop had cause. that's all.
Another pig on a power trip. He must have been teased in grade school.
So now I’m a racist?
Talk about twisted logic...
Wonder how long it will take for the boot lickers to show up here
++++++++++++++++++++
Officer smelled drugs. There were drugs and it is common for drug runners to try to swallow drugs to hide evidence and to resist arrest. I’d like to see the rest of this officers record before I side with those ready to bash cops so readily. I’ll give you 10 to 1 odds the judge in this case takes drugs regularly. The fact that a judge rules one way or the other, these days, doesn’t mean much. For a judge to issue a blanket statement that the cop is unwelcome in his courtroom in the future is, in itself, suspect behavior from a judge who should form an opinion on the case before him. It appears to me that the Judge is reacting in an unfair and arbitrary manner. I’ll back the cop for now until I see his entire record that might give us more insight into his character and performance. I question the character of both the punk and the judge.
lol you beat me to it, the ‘LEO IS NEVER WRONG’ crowd should be along soon.
It should scare the devil out of other freepers to contemplate that even members of this forum support the actions of this officer, or other similar cases.
“So the Judge has prejudged all of Cosby’s cases, not much of a judge. “
He is sending a signal to the PD to get rid of this cop. Maybe he can get a job in your neighborhood?
nope. i’m just saying you are being persuaded by how the media presents this kind of stuff. out of context and biased. when it’s a white kid who looks like next-door johnny people are outraged. the fact is that similar things occur daily in the projects (rightfully so usually) and no one says word one and there are definitely no news stories about it.
What difference would the "color" of the person make? Oh, and BTW, swallowing the drugs is not "evidence tampering" nor is it a felony in any jurisdiction I know of.
The cop was wrong on many levels not the least is that he did not have probable cause to do a cavity search of this individual. The old excuse of "I just KNEW he had drugs on him" doesn't cut it.
Looks to me like the town needs a different judge also.
Is it proper for a judge to prejudge all past and future cases involving this officer? Something is fishy here. I am now wondering if the judge is on the take, the judge knows the family of the drug runner or the judge buys his drugs from the drug runner. I’d investigate this judge.
Here is the rest of the story. This same cop has been sued for excessive force before. A few years ago he beat and kicked handcuffed man who was lying on the ground apparently for no other reason than he was angry with him. The city of Lebanon, Tennessee paid out $250,000 in punitive damages in the lawsuit. The cop is a jack booted thug.
http://www.wkrn.com/Global/story.asp?S=8580865
I don’t care what the judge says. I don’t need a judge to tell me if a cop is on a power trip and acting improperly. Even if he did smell drugs, so the hell what? He was not being physically attacked, nor was anyone else, and he did not have a court order to physically assault the man in the hopes of finding evidence.
Actually a good judge; he is basically telling the PD that the JBT should be fired.
thats funny. because i have arrested people on that exact charge for these exact actions and the ADA kept the charges.
I suggest that you cease presuming that you know me, how I think, and who or what persuades me. The fact is that this cop was not in any physical danger, nor was anyone else at the scene, yet he took it upon himself to physically assault the man in the hopes of finding evidence.
Is that what they teach police? To choke someone who is already subdued as a method of trying to get what they are looking for?
I’ve noticed lately that a lot of LEO’s refer to non-LEO’s as “civilians”
Which branch of the Military do the LEO’s serve under?
fair enough. this cop could be a total d-bag and require the proper discipline. there are plenty out there who could use some time off the street. but that doesn’t mean he had no right to believe this kid swallowed drugs.
Three trains of pro-cop thought
1) judge is on the take or uses drugs
2) almost-racism
3) reasonable search tactic that would leave suspect fine in 10 minutes (ignoring bruises)
One should easily see from examining these threads the underlying currents in society which support the formation of the more brutal police states - there is always a portion of the population which supports authoritarian tactics, no matter what.
I’ve noticed that too. It really is quite disturbing.
So another words he is judging him before the cop has had a trial.
Maybe that is the kind of Judge you want in your neighborhood.
police are allowed to kick down a door given certain circumstances. mostly if there is a chance evidence is being destroyed. i don't see a real difference here.
no one ever said the cop was in physical danger. thats not part of the story. it's simple evidence recovery.
It is a LIVING substance created by G_D! As opposed to toxic enzymatic excrement!
The law causes MORE damage than the vegetable matter does! That's a FACT!
Look at one of the great things enzymatic excrement prohibition gave us------- The Kennedys!!!!!
The continued prohibition of plant matter has CREATED the horribly destructive murderous black market gangster society. LEO prohibition MAKES the problem in the first place!
I am far from an anarchist. I appreciate what LEOs do. They have to put up with some cerially degenerate scum. Pot heads are NOT scum. They are generally very peaceful G-d fearing people, who just want to live in peace.
Now crack and meth ought to be given away on the streetcorner with propane torches blazing for free! Of course the morticians would be working overtime for a couple of weeks, but the problem would soon burn itself out!
LOL! What a hypocrite!
You're the nitwit who opened the thread with a very fine example of what you wish others to "cease" doing to you.
I will admit that finding that an alleged LEO is among the vocal supporters of this cop is somewhere between appalling and depressing. My sarcastic comment about finding this cop a job in his jurisdiction may have had more serious merit that I thought.
Is this multiple choice? You can have the cop, I will take the judge, possible fleas and all.
“no one ever said the cop was in physical danger. thats not part of the story. it’s simple evidence recovery. “
I would like to draw attention to this comment, for those that missed it. Your attitude actually illustrates quite a bit.
Looks like from some of the responses here the answer to that would be yes.
i would love to introduce you to the multitude of people/families i have seen devastated by your little natural green friend. you and your pot-smoking friends are god-fearing nice people. great. good for you.
i just wish you could see how many people were hurt and the level of crime committed during the process of growing the drug thru putting it in your pipe.
now go ahead and tell me: legalize it!!! you certainly love the exclamation points. knock yourself out.
Fair trade, a bad cop for a bad Judge!
I did? Where was this?
I opened up the thread by wondering how long it would take for the legions to come on here and justify police brutality.
What exactly are you talking about?
how about getting individuals who are possibly high on drugs out from behind the wheel of a car? should police do that?
I just want to get this straight. Basically what you are saying that is that a police officer, if he even thinks that someone is doing something questionable, is perfectly justified in attacking another person. Did I miss anything?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.