I was thinking more along the lines of "administrative punishment - twenty lashes"
Posted on 04/23/2011 3:02:32 PM PDT by DariusBane
When Mitchell Crooks checked out of the county jail last month and checked into a Las Vegas hospital, the 36-year-old videographer knew he had a fight on his hands.
His face was bloodied and bruised. His $3,500 camera had been impounded by police, and he faced criminal charges for battery on a police officer.
One month later, things have changed for Crooks.
The Clark County district attorney's More..office has dropped all charges, and Crooks has retained an attorney of his own. The Metropolitan Police Department has opened an internal investigation into the Las Vegas police officer, Derek Colling, who Crooks says falsely arrested and beat him for filming police.
And his camera -- which captured the entire March 20 altercation between Crooks and Colling -- has been returned.
The words are friendly enough, but the tone is tense:
"Can I help you, sir?" Colling asks from his patrol car after parking it in front of Crooks' driveway and shining the spotlight on Crooks.
"Nope. Just observing," Crooks responds, fixing his camera on the officer.
Crooks had for an hour been recording the scene across the street from his home in the 1700 block of Commanche Circle, near East Desert Inn Road and South Maryland Parkway, where officers had several young burglary suspects handcuffed and sitting on the curb.
As Las Vegas crimes go, the activity was fairly boring. Crooks wanted to use his new camera, and he figured his neighbors would like to see the suspects' faces.
When Colling loaded suspects into the back of his car and drove in a circle through the cul-de-sac, Crooks said he thought police were leaving. Then the officer stopped his car.
"Do you live here?" Colling asks.
"Nope," Crooks says.
Colling steps out of his patrol car.
Crooks said he now regrets not telling the officer that he was in fact standing in his own driveway. He realizes his response seemed cheeky, but he said the officer made him nervous. Colling walks toward Crooks, left hand raised.
"Turn that off for me," Colling orders.
"Why do I have to turn it off?'' Crooks responds. "I'm perfectly within my legal rights to be able to do this."
The officer repeats the command several times; each time Crooks reiterates his right to film.
"You don't live here," Colling says, now close to Crooks.
"I do live here!"
"You don't live here, dude."
"I just said I live here!"
As Crooks backs away, Colling grabs him by the shoulder and throws him down. On the ground, Crooks grabs the camera and turns it toward his face.
Colling's leg then enters the video frame. Crooks says he believes that was the kick that broke his nose.
The camera records the sound of Crooks screaming. He said that's when Colling was punching his face.
"Shut up!" Colling yells. "Stop resisting!"
YOU'RE IN A WORLD OF HURT,' OFFICER SAYS
In his arrest report Colling wrote that Crooks grabbed his shoulders "and attempted to take me to the ground. I in turn took him to the ground."
At Clark County Detention Center, Crooks was booked for battery on a police officer and obstruction of justice. He was released from jail the next day. On March 26, the Review-Journal reported on his case. Four days later all charges were dropped.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Laurent said he dismissed the charges because the police report was vague.
"I asked for a more definite description of the battery because battery requires a violent touching," Laurent said. Police never provided that information.
Crooks said he always believed he'd be vindicated, but after police returned his camera he knew he had proof.
"I was confident I was doing the right thing, but I was excited they (the DA's office) weren't wasting any time, and that somebody was smart enough to know I was acting within the law," he said.
Crooks said the incident looks worse on tape than he remembered.
What bothered him the most, he said, was Colling's attitude after he was placed in handcuffs.
"Why did you do that? I live here," Crooks is heard pleading on the tape.
"You just told me you didn't live here," Colling says. "You live right here, in this house?"
Crooks asks for paramedics. Colling tells him to shut up and follow orders.
"If you fight again, dude Hey, if you (expletive) fight again, dude, you're in a world of hurt. You hear me?
"You're not in charge here, buddy. You hear me?"
Colling mocks Crooks' labored breathing.
"Oh yeah, buddy. Hey, when you don't do what I ask you to do, then you're in a world of hurt. Then you're in a world of hurt. Aren't ya? Huh?"
Crooks was later diagnosed with a deviated septum and a chest wall injury. Crooks believes his ribs were broken, but never got X-rays that could prove it.
ACLU LAWYERS SAY OFFICER WAS WRONG
Allen Lichtenstein, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney, reviewed Crooks' video and said Colling was clearly in the wrong. Officers are trained to avoid escalating situations, but Colling initiated the incident and created a physical confrontation without provocation, he said.
"It raises serious questions about whether the officer used good judgment and whether he was properly trained," Lichtenstein said. "Those questions require answers."
Police have no expectation of privacy, and it's perfectly legal to film officers as long as it does not interfere in their investigation, he said. Colling erred in claiming that Crooks was trespassing. By law, only a property owner or resident can make a trespassing complaint, Lichtenstein said.
"Even if the officer didn't think he lived there, that doesn't mean he didn't have permission to be there,'' Lichtenstein said. "In the video I heard, that question was never asked."
Crooks' attorney, David Otto, on Thursday sent police a statement from Crooks, along with a demand for $500,000 to cover Crooks' medial care, pain and suffering.
Colling had no legitimate reason to approach Crooks that night, Otto wrote.
"Officer Colling was aggravated that a citizen should have the audacity to video tape, him -- a Las Vegas Metropolitan Patrol Officer,'' Otto wrote. "Officer Colling decided to use the fear and terror of his physical ability to beat Mr. Crooks into submission -- to teach Mr. Crooks and, by example, all citizens and residents of the Las Vegas Valley."
Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie declined comment, saying the internal investigation remains open. Colling remains on duty, and Crooks has declined requests to be interviewed by detectives.
The suspects in Colling's patrol car may have witnessed the event and given statements to detectives, but their names have not been released. Police said they were not arrested or booked, so their names are not public record.
Crooks said he doesn't want to talk to detectives.
The thing that really bothers me is the criteria for resisting arrest is as small as asking them not to arrest you.
The Largest Street Gang in America - A Compilation About Police Brutality in America [PART 1]
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a73_1251661761
The Largest Street Gang in America - A Compilation About Police Brutality in America [PART 2]
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5ad_1251663926
guess maybe he did get it back...I was too quick to remember a situation where a friend of mine out on Interstate 10 lost a lot of “goodies” in “drug” stop in Louisiana...friend had a brand new custom van....Cops stop my friend, and says they are looking for a van like his.....they meant it....the sheriff was looking for a new Ford van...
You are sticking up for brutal and out of control cops and whatnot... yet your signature line is this, “Public employee unions are the barbarian hordes of our time.”...
Hypocrite much?
?
So you won’t address the question will you. You insist on adhering to your position, no matter how tenuos it gets. Last night I said something really stupid on a thread. I admitted I was wrong, then I moved on.
You can do the same.
You now have:
The Evidence.
The Context.
You are wrong.
“Reading comprehension much?”
I stated the opposite.
When the chips are down Psycho, which camp are you in? Law and Order? Constitution?
I wouldn't even say that. A person who is truly "law and order" will first and foremost support the Constitution, and will oppose any police officer or agency that violates that document. You can't be "law and order" if and when you don't support the Constitution. Police do not have the authority to violate the Constitution, even if they sometimes use their access to brute force to do so. "Law and order" does not mean "the police are always right."
The real dichotomy is between those who love liberty, and those who are nothing more than instinctive bootlicks to police and other presumed authority figures. In any society, you will always have people whose first thought is how they can ingratiate themselves with those they perceive to have the most power.
Cops. About every tenth one is just dying to use force on someone, anyone.
Did you predict the Cubs would take it all, or that the Lions would make the playoffs?
I agree with you technically.
However, the Law and Order Conservatives, the old school Southern Democrat tradition that came in during the 80’s are a special breed.
The officer didn't have probable cause so it didn't matter what you told him.
Do you know the guy taping this video? Do you know what was going on before the COP stopped or why he was there in the first place? Do you know what gestures the guy taping the video was making etc? Do you know what action was taken by the police department against the officer if he was acting out of line? What other than the so expertly advice of some babel head do “you” actually know about this event? Other than speculation, conjecture and hyperbole, what do you have in terms of facts outside of a video?
You're a waste of time- Why don't you go look for some Iraq video that looks horrible and formulate your entire position on the Iraq war based on this? Ignorance is bliss.
Har, har. It was worst, and even more obvious.
Now I don’t even know what you’re talking about. Literally.
I never said anything about the story other than the cop should be fired and arrested.
What I took issue with was your lame attitude.
Which continues to impress...
You do know that because of this video all the charges the cop brought against the man were dropped and now the cop is under criminal investigation?
I was thinking more along the lines of "administrative punishment - twenty lashes"
This cop was with other cops shaking down "burglary suspects"..who also were not charged.
The same thing goes for "drug" or "prostitute" stings. It's all about blackmail and protection money.
Of COURSE they don't want to be video taped... only the sheep civilians can be taped. I like the way he made sure to yell out..."don't resist" before he put the beat down on this guy.
It's justified for the cop to beat the cr@p out of anybody when they say, "stop resisting" or "drop the gun" when you have nothing. bwahahahahahaha.
This guy is already involved in 2 shootings.. makes you wonder..
This is so common. The police make an unwarranted and illegal demand and then use force when someone refuses to kow tow.
Idiots apparently either forgot to “lose the camera” or they have such a reinforcing hierarchy that they never even considered that they would get in trouble.
Hate to say it, but generally the only way that this type of thing could get evened out is to catch up with the cop when they are off duty and give them a major blanke party.
Red6 Wrote:
“Do you always formulate a general opinion about some macro level concept, action or idea based on some video posted on LiveLeak?”
Ah, again.
A poster that imagines that this post, this circumstance occurred in a vacuum. It did not. This is a long standing debate concerning the balance of power that exists between the State and the individual. A long standing argument about the nature of the institution that is “Police” in this country. Again, a poster that wants to pretend that we do not have a problem in this country. A poster that pretends that voters have demanded a government so big that it can “fix” anything. A government so powerful that resistance is futile.
So continue to believe that this occurred in a vacuum. Go back to sleep citizen. Everything is fine, the skies are blue and Uncle Sam really cares about you. Nighty night.
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