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.
May I hit you five times with a nightstick and be given the benfit of the doubt? How about one of your family members?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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!
A predictable response.
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.
...and yours is the only worthy opinion... LOL at your conceit!
Ivehadenuf!
Thank you.
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.
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.
It appears that the suspect clearly confused the LAPD's request to surrender with the FRENCH form of surrender...
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