Posted on 02/25/2014 9:32:06 PM PST by Altariel
SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLORIDA - All Gilberto Powell, 22, a five foot tall man with Down Syndrome, wanted to do was walk a half block home from a friend's house, but this was enough time and distance for the police to intervene.
Police "followed" Powell because they noticed a "bulge in his pants." He was not happy to see the cops; this was only his colostomy bag (which police ripped from his body). Powell was then beaten down in the street by police, leaving him bruised and battered from blows to the face.
The beating officer insisted Powell ran, but Powell disputes this and said he did everything he could to comply. When Powell's mother asked the cop if he could tell her son had Down's Syndrome, the cop said he wasn't a doctor.
Powell said he felt "helpless" and wants an apology from the police. He also wants to community to be aware that this could happen to YOU
It’s fair to say corrupt elements of law enforcement have been running wild under this president, for instance, the anal cavity search of that man in Arizona on a roadside, not to mention all the TSA insanity.
LOL!
I can't imagine why....
A colostomy bag? Sheeh!
I'll put myself in the shoes of a free citizen, thank you very much. And as a free citizen, I judge the actions of all government officials based on the Constitution. If police officers cannot abide by those standards, then they should seek work elsewhere.
This cop is probably just sorry the guy did not have a dog with him he could have shot.
Things are different in Obama’s America.
And with all due respect, you have offered zero insight as to how a policeman really ought to handle this situation, other than a blanket stereotype of the “blue wall of silence”. The trust between people and police must not break down, or else anarchy will ensue. (Look at Detroit, after all.)
Let’s start over, with you on the scene of this young Downs man, not able to articulate clearly, with a bulge in his pants that may or may not be a firearm—and you just implied that police training is not enough to differentiate between the two, somehow. What to do next? I’m listening.
You picked a real a winner to defend. Next time googling the officer’s name will save you a lot of embarrassment.
I'm think the employer of the public servant is more than justified in judging whether said public servant is serving the public's interest.
Was he doing anything...anything at all, wrong?
I know quite a few downs syndrome people...and quite a few people who are disabled with colostomy bags. Those people do not go out looking for trouble. People in those conditions are almost universally very reserved.
This is another travesty.
They allowed their, what I am willing to bet were unwarranted suspicions of him to cause them to intrude on his walk home, and when he was not fast enough responding to them (and Down’s Syndrome can easily make that happen), so they beat him to the ground and ripped his colostomy bag off of him.
It’s indefensible unless they can show in any way that he was participating in any criminal/illegal behavior, or that he was a threat to anyone. But it is a pretty sure thing that he wasn’t.
They should have just left him the hell alone.
Hey doc, ya wanna bet the tax payers down their Florida, who are already beat down, pay big time dollars for this beat down of this Down Syndrome kid?
By the time this is over, the local government and their agents down there will be happy to settle with our money!
Bet the rent.
Guy seems like a monster.
Is that real?
Wowza...
Well dufus, if he had a gun and had harmed no one, ( just gotten the crap beat out of him by donut munchers) nobody decrying this would be commenting differently.
Its that second ammendment thing which you seem unaware of.
I don’t see a colostomy bag very often, but I am not too stupid to know what one is. I realize that law enforcement routinely employs bottom feeders without the meager intellect to recognize one, but they should call for instructions when they are really confused before administering a beatdown.
I’m not sure of the actual cutoff, but I remember reading about a police department in CT a few years ago that gave IQ tests to job applicants—and then turned down those who scored too high.
The theory was that police work was dull and repetitive and that officers with too high an IQ were likely to quit too soon after training.
Catch these cops alone and give them one hell of a beat down.
Oh, Bravo Sierra, doc. It sounds an awful lot like the "Blue Wall," coming up there really fast to me.
What happened to this kid is simply indefensible. I do not need to be a cop to see that. As an American citizen, who has taken an oath to protect and defend the US Constitution and bear true faith and allegiance to the same, I am capable of using that standard...as it was intended.
This does not come close to that standard...nor does it pass the most simple of smell tests.
When you add to that this particular officer's own long record of accusations of abuse and wrong doing...well, this guy should be nowhere near a badge or any position of public trust.
And that is what it is. Remember...as a public "servant," they work for us...not the other way around. Too many are forgetting that and thinking some how that they are in some kind of class above the rest.
In smaller places, yes. Small towns hate being used as training grounds for larger city police forces that pay better. Smarter guys do that. As soon as they are fully accredited officers in regular employment their resumés are going out.
You do?
I know ya didn't write this to me doc, but considering you're defending this, that's the scariest statement I've heard lately...
Have ya notice the ever escalating widespread distrust of government and it's agents in law enforcement lately?
The only reason I posted at all was to bring out all the cop haters ... and they came out in abundance. LOL!
In your estimation the cop should probably have shot the kid on sight, I’m sure. The cop would be less likely to get in actual trouble had he, in fact, just shot the kid in the back and then said to the next person on the scene, “I felt threatened,” then go off on his paid extra vacation reward.
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