Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Dangerous Police Pursuit, LAPD Investigates Officer Use of Force (with video)
KABC Channel 7 Website ^ | 6/23/2004 | KABC Channel 7

Posted on 06/23/2004 2:55:18 PM PDT by Smogger

LOS ANGELES — Police today chased a man suspected of driving a stolen car and arrested him in Compton, and news footage showed an LAPD officer hitting him repeatedly with a flashlight after he appeared to surrender

The chase began shortly after 5 a.m. in an area patrolled by the Los Angeles Police Department's Southeast Station, said LAPD Officer Sandra Escalante of the Media Relations office. The man's name was not immediately released, and it was unclear if he was injured.

Patrolling LAPD officers saw a white Toyota Camry that was reported stolen from Compton, Escalante said, adding that the officers tried in vain to pull the vehicle over.

The pursuit reportedly ended on Caldwell Street in Compton, where the man got out and ran off.

Eyewitness News aired footage shot from a helicopter that showed the man running down a grassy area near the Compton Creek. He stopped, got down on his hands and knees and appeared to surrender to an officer.

Several other officers then ran up and the man was forced face down onto the ground, where one of the officers struck at the man's upper body at least 10 times with a long flashlight.

Reportedly, one officer told a local news station that the man had been resisting.

The footage was eerily similar to the infamous video of the beating of Rodney King in 1991, which also happened at the end of a nighttime LAPD pursuit. King was struck dozens of times by officers using batons after he led them on a chase that began in the LAPD's Foothill Station jurisdiction. Video shot by an amateur cameraman and broadcast worldwide showed officers striking and kicking King. Officers were later acquitted by a Simi Valley jury in connection with the beating, triggering the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

The officers were subsequently convicted of federal charges.

Today's incident came only days after the LAPD entered a two-year period during which it must show substantial compliance with a raft of reforms mandated under a consent degree agreement reached by the city of Los Angeles and the U.S. Justice Department in 2001.

If it fails to demonstrate compliance, federal monitoring of the LAPD will continue beyond the two-year period.

The city agreed to the consent decree as a way of staving off a federal lawsuit after the Justice Department reported that it had identified a "pattern and practice" of civil rights violations by the LAPD.



TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: abuse; compton; excessiveforce; lapd; losangeles; police; rodneyking
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-96 last
To: FeliciaCat

May I hit you five times with a nightstick and be given the benfit of the doubt? How about one of your family members?


81 posted on 06/24/2004 7:40:55 AM PDT by eno_
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies]

To: Joe Hadenuf

Excellent Post.

I get sooo sick of the whinny "Cops-are-all-thugs" crowd on FR....these posters need to buy a clue. When you have just been robbed, raped, your child murdered, your car stolen, who do you call? Your dentist? NO - THE COPS. I believe there are more good ones then bad ones.


82 posted on 06/24/2004 7:43:53 AM PDT by FeliciaCat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: eno_

The idiot was RUNNING FROM THE COPS AFTER HE STOLE A CAR ...He had a few wacks coming to him for that alone. I dont advocate beating someone senseless, but I prefer REALITY over namby pamby finger pointing. How do you know the guy wasnt going for a weapon? Were you there?


83 posted on 06/24/2004 7:46:02 AM PDT by FeliciaCat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | View Replies]

To: eno_

If I am resisting arrest after endangering the lives of may innocent bystanders yes, you may hit me 5 or more times until I stop resisting.


84 posted on 06/24/2004 8:34:09 AM PDT by eleni121 (Mt. Rushmore welcomes the Gipper!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | View Replies]

To: pageonetoo
Just what we need, another bleeding heart, criminal loving leftist from West Virgina.

You ought to listen to the talk radio shows on the west coast. 90 percent calling in say the AH should have really got the sh*t kicked out of him for real.

People are sick of these assh*les taking cops on high speed chases through their neighborhoods, and killing innocent people in the process. Me personally? I'd let the families of those that have had loved ones killed by those fleeing from the cops take care of him.

But now this freakish, sick judicial system will reward this assh*le with a couple hundred thousand dollars, and the criminal panderers, and other assorted communist and cop haters stand on the sideline and cheer.

It was reported this morning this guy has a *large* arrest record and is a known *felon*. To bad they couldn't just make society safer and just put an end to this criminal assh*le on the spot.

Is that a little extreme for you? To bad, most people have had enough of pussy footing around with these dangerous assh*les.

85 posted on 06/24/2004 9:13:21 AM PDT by Joe Hadenuf (I failed anger management class, they decided to give me a passing grade anyway)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: Joe Hadenuf
Joe, you apparently have had too much!

I guess we ought to just authorize our LEO's to do whatever feels good to them. If they look at a perp and think he isn't worthy of their time, they can just shoot them.

That goes for any traffic stop, even "click it or ticket". Shiite, we don't want these lousy crim'nals fowling up our lives. they are all guilty of being slimes, and dregs of society, so why give them a chance, Sadaam, oops, I mean Joe!

By the way, I will be having lunch next week in DC, ath the AFRH with my Dad, a 20 yr career Navy retiree, and my oldest son, a townie cop from OK. He is a JBT, and we swap stories all the time... I get on him, too!

As for bleeding heart liberal, that is an incorrect assumption, and attempt at demeaning me. I guess you don't agree with the ideas, which our founders placed into effect, with the Bill of Rights. There is nothing in there, that allows for adrenalin, nor testosterone, to supercede it!

see this posting I made a few days ago...

Meet Wally (he needs legal help)

Vanity | 6/`4/2004 | pageonetoo

Posted on 06/16/2004 12:28:14 PM PDT by pageonetoo

I guess I must bleed a lot... for injustice, and ignorance!

86 posted on 06/24/2004 10:06:47 AM PDT by pageonetoo (Rights, what Rights'. You're kidding, right? This is Amerika!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 85 | View Replies]

To: pageonetoo
If they look at a perp and think he isn't worthy of their time, they can just shoot them.

A predictable response.

87 posted on 06/24/2004 2:16:05 PM PDT by Joe Hadenuf (I failed anger management class, they decided to give me a passing grade anyway)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 86 | View Replies]

To: Joe Hadenuf
Freepers, can't we all just get along?

88 posted on 06/24/2004 2:18:01 PM PDT by evets (God bless president George W. Bush)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 87 | View Replies]

To: paul51

Making the same point over and over doesn't make it correct or reasonable, friend. Work out your issues with the police; much is asked of them. This policeman deserves some sort of punishment but he shouldn't be publicly eviscerated simply to sate the bloodlust of those who hate cops.


89 posted on 06/24/2004 3:11:44 PM PDT by thegreatbeast (Quid lucrum istic mihi est?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 79 | View Replies]

To: Joe Hadenuf

...and yours is the only worthy opinion... LOL at your conceit!
Ivehadenuf!


90 posted on 06/24/2004 3:17:46 PM PDT by pageonetoo (Rights, what Rights'. You're kidding, right? This is Amerika!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 87 | View Replies]

To: pageonetoo
and yours is the only worthy opinion

Thank you.

91 posted on 06/24/2004 4:27:00 PM PDT by Joe Hadenuf (I failed anger management class, they decided to give me a passing grade anyway)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 90 | View Replies]

To: thegreatbeast
Not only do I not have any 'issues' with the police, friend, I happen to believe they deserve the respect and level of professionalism a dope like this undermines. Get it yet?
92 posted on 06/24/2004 6:08:34 PM PDT by paul51
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 89 | View Replies]

To: solitas

Thats not what happened. the jackass was resisting arrest and a 4 shots to shoulder with a flashlight along with 2 knees stopped him from doing so. i saw it and the suspect appeared to try to keep his hands from being handcuffed.


93 posted on 06/25/2004 8:36:01 PM PDT by Mustangcountry (Is it just me or is David Brock lying about his previous truths?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: Sir Gawain
Sir,

Like it or not, the vast majority of YOUR police officers ARE heroes. The general public has no idea what their police officers do every day. I have not seen the video, so I won't comment on it. I will tell you that the rate of police officers who are corrupt is less than 1%, a better average than members of the clergy.

About 170 police officers will be killed in the line of duty this year, many of them violently. But do you see any do-gooder lawyers jumping up and demanding a truck load of money for the survivors of the slain officers? Of course not. Why? Because the people who murder and assault police officers generally don't have anything for the lawyers to take from them. Civil lawyers are well aware that government agencies will pay off to settle even the most bogus of claims because it is cheaper to do so than it is to litigate it.

I have been kicked, hit, punched, spit on, had knives and guns pointed at me, hit with any number of objects and shot at. I have seen other officers badly injured and watched a friend die in the line of duty. In almost every instance, these officers, myself included, were trying to protect an innocent person or apprehend a violent criminal.

Here is little scenario for you. Two armed subjects break into your home in what has become an increasingly popular trend, the home invasion robbery. Someone in your house gets out a 911 call, or your neighbor calls the police about the strange car in your driveway. The police officers who are dispatched to your home {perhaps the same guy you cursed for that speeding ticket} are going to do everything they can to protect you and your family, even to the point of being killed to do so, even though they have no idea who you are. Not because they are paid to do so, but because they believe in what they do.

A relatively unknown fact is that for every police officer killed in the line of duty, two commit suicide. After years of watching the innocent suffer and seeing the very worst that our society has to offer many officers are left dysfunctional and horribly depressed. As soon as you pin on a badge your life expectancy drops ten years.

I'm not asking for sympathy and you certainly don't have to like me, but you should understand the profession if you are going to bad mouth me.

I'm not saying police brutality does not occur, but I am saying it is far less prevalent than the media would have you believe. The bottom line for police officers is this: If you lose a fight, you are perceived a coward. If you win a fight, you are perceived as brutal.
94 posted on 07/04/2004 2:15:12 PM PDT by xrcop
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: xrcop
Here is little scenario for you. Two armed subjects break into your home in what has become an increasingly popular trend, the home invasion robbery. Someone in your house gets out a 911 call, or your neighbor calls the police about the strange car in your driveway. The police officers who are dispatched to your home {perhaps the same guy you cursed for that speeding ticket} are going to do everything they can to protect you and your family, even to the point of being killed to do so, even though they have no idea who you are. Not because they are paid to do so, but because they believe in what they do.

A 911 call isn't going to be made from my home until I call for a cleanup crew. Dial 911 to save your life and you die.

95 posted on 07/04/2004 2:24:35 PM PDT by Sir Gawain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 94 | View Replies]

To: Smogger
after he appeared to surrender... ..where the man got out and ran off.

It appears that the suspect clearly confused the LAPD's request to surrender with the FRENCH form of surrender...

96 posted on 07/04/2004 2:33:48 PM PDT by Experiment 6-2-6 (Meega, Nala Kweesta! There’s no point pooling resources with people who have no resources to pool...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-96 last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson