Posted on 12/15/2004 12:25:58 PM PST by Lazamataz
LOS ANGELES - The city's police commission unveiled a plan Tuesday aimed at discouraging officers from using flashlights as weapons, except in emergencies.
The proposal comes months after a telvised beating by Officer John Hatfield showed him striking a motorist 11 times following a foot chase. The June 23 incident sparked widespread objection to the use of flashlights as weapons.
"Officers don't mind being held accountable as long as they have a clear policy to follow, and that's what we're providing here," said Alan Skobin, vice president of the police commission.
The proposed policy, to be considered Jan. 11, stops short of the near-total bans on practice enacted in other large cities. It states that flashlights should only be used for light and should only be used as a weapon in very unusual circumstances.
The proposal seems to permit officers to use flashlights to stop violent suspects, said Bob Baker, president of the Police Protective League, the Los Angeles Police Department officers' union.
"We support policies that, at the end of the watch, mean we are going home safe," Baker said.
Ricardo Garcia, criminal justice director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said the proposal was a good start.
"But I'd like to see them move away from even this permissive a use of flashlight," Garcia said. "On the positive side, at least this will give officers some training on how if they're going to strike with a flashlight to do it. Before this, they could pretty much do anything."
At the time of the Miller incident, the LAPD had no formal policy on proper use of a flashlight to subdue a suspect.
After the beating, Chief William J. Bratton said he would forbid the use of heavy metal flashlights like the one used by Hatfield. Bratton said the department would develop small, lightweight rubber flashlights, which it is still in the process of doing.
The new proposal would require a written explanation and critical review whenever a flashlight is used as a weapon.
That is a brilliant idea. flashbunny for CEO.
Never hit them in the head. Go for the collar bone. Works better. They were called Kel Lights back in the old days when I was a happy policeman.
Last complaint I drew was a guy that claimed I pistol whipped him. My completely logical answer was:
"Chief, why would I hit him with a $250.00 revolver when I had a $17.00 flashlight?"
How about transferable flashlight beating vouchers? That way, officers who come in under their quota can trade with those who use up their beating allowance. The overall number of authorized flashlight beatings remains constant, but more of the flashlight beatings are administered by specialists, so the average quality goes up.
The free market works!
Posted here. Funny thread.
Mag lites are considered a tactical weapon. Keep one within reach
No kidding. And have you ever noticed how a cop who has stopped you holds it when he's using it to look around inside your car? He holds in next to his head, with his arm cocked back and his hand just behind the flared-out lens portion. All he's got to do is extend his arm forward, and the battery end comes down on whatever's in front of him with maxim leverage. If he was only interested in using it for illumination, he wouldn't have to hold it that way.
We must be sensitive to the plight of poor flashlights, which are so often the victims of vicious unprovoked police beatings.
Flashlights don't beat flashlights. People beat flashlights....
Also, if more than one officer is beating the same guy it only should count as one beating. Not one for each officer but only a percent per officer, like 4 cops one thug = 25% per cop deducted from their beating quota. It is after all only one person getting the beating.
Actually, putting cops that get tagged with abuse reprimands in pink uniforms for 6 months would probably chill out their testosterone poisoning.
Well...I used to think that NYC at night was pretty dangerous...until I visited L.A.
My friends in the Newark, N.J. P.D. (see motorcyclists in an old Queen Latifa video, forgot name, for introduction to them) did astounding things with their recreational bikes....in an effort to "stay brave" ALL the time. In their job...if you thought about it, and were sane, you probably wouldn't report for work, especially at night. "Testosterone" properly managed, has saved many lives. It helps one to survive. Just ask commercial fishermen.
The late-night streets of parts of L.A. require a LOT of guts to patrol, and remember...one is wearing the "enemy uniform" too, and being rather conspicuous...not hiding....and deliberately entering already violent situations, among people who often don't mind losing all they have, including their lives, just to commit a public act of bravado. They are also often chemically altered beyond the point of any rationality or restraint. They don't just go down and give up when even mortally wounded. This is evidently why even with the new directives, officers are not completely refused "permission" to use whatever force and implement immediately available and necessary in order to go home alive.
Two Detroit cops went to jail in a highly racist persecution by the courts for murder by mag-lite. Never mind that the bad guy died from a cocaine induced heart attack. He was hit on the head a couple of times by the cop while the bad guy was trying to take the cops gun.
Mag-Lite...Tested and Approved by the Detroit (and Los Angeles) Police Department. Accept nothing but the best.
What a crock. Not a sound uttered until today. Sheesh. MSM nonsense.
"The Following People GUARANTEED a Flashlight Beating:
1. Michael Moore..."
I was in court one day watching a guy up for concealed weapon. The judge asked, "why was it loaded?" The guy answered, "well, if it weren't loaded it'd be as useful as a round rock, now wouldn't it?" He got probation.
Hey. if the subject is a threat it is better to shoot and KILL him under the warped system of today-no one can be "shown the light" whilst still a petty criminal. We forbid all corporal punishment and correction except execution after the petty criminal becomes a hardened killer with multiple offenses.
I laughed before reading anything else!
Now for the war stories.
During a riot I Streamlighted 11 stitches into a gentleman's forehead after I Streamlighted him once to the 'jewelli familia' and another strike to the forehead went unnoticed.
A defence lawyer once accused me on the stand of hitting his client with my nightstick and I had to admit that it wasn't the nightstick, it was my partner Streamlight.
Beat 'em if you got 'em.
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