Posted on 10/13/2005 3:00:39 PM PDT by freepatriot32
MANATEE - Getting shoved around, handcuffed, manhandled and witnessing a police beating - these are the memories two young hurricane relief workers from Manatee County say they took away from Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Saturday night.
After about a month of volunteer work in areas hit hard by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Manatee County residents Calvin Briles and Mike Monaghan decided to take it easy in the Big Easy for an evening.
The two men, program consultants for the Volunteer Center of Manatee County, had spent the day buying chain saws and delivering them to volunteer reception centers to aid in rebuilding what Katrina destroyed. Afterward they went out to dinner and had a couple of drinks on Bourbon Street on Oct. 8.
While strolling along the strip, Briles and Monaghan noticed a scuffle.
Briles said they saw New Orleans police officers punching, kicking and kneeing a man to the ground and another official shoving an Associated Press Television News producer who was taping the beating. On Monday, two police officers accused in the beating of Robert Davis, 64, and a third accused of grabbing and shoving the AP journalist pleaded not guilty to battery, according to The AP.
"We couldn't believe it," said Briles, a 21-year-old University of South Florida student and self-described humanitarian from Palmetto. "We saw the man being beat and the cameraman pushed. . . . It was just a bad situation."
Briles and Monaghan were not bystanders for long.
When law enforcement officials tried to clear spectators out of the area, Briles said, "I want to tell somebody about this."
He said that's when a man wearing a U.S. Customs vest grabbed him, threw him against a dark blue Chevy Impala, pressed his head against the hood and told him, "It's none of your business."
"I was just manhandled like I've never been before," Briles said, adding that another unidentified official also pushed him around. "They wouldn't let me say anything."
Monaghan, a 22-year-old USF student and Bradenton native, said he was shocked when he saw his friend thrown against the Chevy.
Monaghan and Briles - both former presidents of ManaTeens, a youth program of the Volunteer Center of Manatee County - have known each other since sixth grade.
"I was scared to death - didn't know what really to do," Monaghan said. "I wanted to make sure they weren't going to punch and hurt Calvin."
Monaghan said he saw Briles' cell phone hit the ground as he was pressed against the car and handcuffed.
Monaghan said when he bent over to pick up the phone, a police horse "nudged" his head with its snout and an unidentified official grabbed him from behind and asked him why he hit the horse.
He said he hadn't hit the horse but that the official handcuffed him, kicked his legs open and searched his pockets.
"I knew what was happening was all a bunch of bull," Monaghan said.
He said he was let go shortly after, but Briles remained face down on the pavement.
Briles said officials listed a handful of charges he would face, including impeding a federal investigation. Still, no one read him his rights, he said.
After checking into Briles' record, the officials let him go. Briles said they told him things would have gone less smoothly if he had a criminal history.
"Had I been someone convicted of a felony in the past," Briles said. "It would have been the criminal's word against his."
"We felt violated," Briles added.
The two reported the incident to the FBI and to U.S. Customs officials Sunday morning.
And, said Monaghan, they have no plans to return to New Orleans unless they are duty-bound.
"We enjoy helping people," said Monaghan, who dropped two classes this semester at USF so he could volunteer with post-Katrina efforts. "But it's very hard to fathom what happened to us Saturday night. . . . We were trying to have an enjoyable night, but our enjoyable night turned out to be crap."
Erica Rodriguez, Herald reporter, can be reached at erodriguez@HeraldToday.com or at 745-7095.
He is, and as such, with his attitude, he is part of the problem.
I'm with you two...
Some people's threshold of being "ruffed up" is a notch or two below other's...
It was reported that the original "victim", referred to by the media only as "the retired school teacher" supposedly walked right up to a mounted officer to "ask him some questions" while another officer on foot "interrupted" the victim and told him to step away from the mounted officer.
The victim said in his own words that he told the second officer that "he shouldn't do that" (interrupt his conversation with the mounted officer).
Use your imagination pn how the "victim" worded his request to the second officer....
The school teacher probably incited the beating by resisting and it's evident that he kept on fighting by trying to buck the occicers off even when grounded.
With witnesses present, if the yeacher was completely innocent he would/should have just laid down peacefully imo...
Lets see now:
NOPD looting - check
NOPD stealing Caddys - check
NOPD ghost payroll - check
NOPD beats stuffing out of old man - check
Time for the NOPD to be cleaned out. Period...
As long as you don't go out to eat, this vow should be pretty easy to keep.
This is the exact behaviour I have personally witnessed of NO "cops" in the past.
I've spent maybe 15 days there total lifetime.
How much time have you spent in NO?
Don't defend these animals - and that is exactly what they are - the only intersting thing in any of this is the media's sudden interest in NO cops criminality - this is standard procedure in the French Quarter. STANDARD PROCEDURE. The only reason this is getting any attention is the video.
Who exactly do you think is going to do the prosecuting? Someone else from NO? Please describe exactly why you think they are under any sort of control down there.
I'm not stuck on stupid - I'm stuck on smart. Anyone defending NO cops is stuck on uneducated.
Fox just had more video of the incident.
Why didn't they show more of it to begin with? Was the media trying to hype something up again?
Sure looks that way to me. The new video shows the guy clearly resisting arrest.
In the old days some of the guys who taught me would have taken out their jacks and put some stitches in this guys head. Faster than you could say Bob's your uncle.
First they would have slapped that jack down on his knuckles and then one to the head.
But they took jacks away from us because they were too messy.
Then they took the carotid choke hold away and gave us pepper spray. Then they said pepper spray was killing people so they gave us tazers.
Now they say tazers are killing people.
It's the same old story. The cops are the bad guy no matter what.
Ever been to NO?
It's all part of the liberal no personal responsibility, "you can't touch me no matter what I do" mentality.
And it's thriving in public schools. At least the ones here.
I guess I have to chime on you -
Ever been to NO? Downtown at night?
Note that quite a few posters are asking this question of the NO police defenders - wonder why?
In your "unbiased" opinion as someone who believes everyone is guilty until proven innocent.
In the old days some of the guys who taught me would have taken out their jacks and put some stitches in this guys head. Faster than you could say Bob's your uncle.
Yep, we all miss the good old days when out-of-control thugs with badges could beat on innocent citizens just for the fun of it.
Police departments need to weed out the sadists in their ranks.
That would be a nice start.
"But I loved it" squealed the self desrcribed humanitarian
The guy is clearly resisting arrest.
The media is clearly hyping the incident.
I'm not advocating beating on people for grins.
Your argument is weak. The only thing that is percieved as wrong is the punches to the head. Which I wouldn't do because you hurt your hand, but if this cop wants to do that, it's his choice.
I worked nights for 10 years. If someone resists arrest they should be prepared to man up to what happens afterward.
You are on the money there. Is not "a few bad cops". It's the whole culture. It's the "us (cops) verses them (citizens)" attitude. In the eyes of the fuzz we are all either criminals or potential criminals.
If I am in New Orleans on business, I may not have much of a choice. I won't be spending any leisure time there however.
OMG thanks. . .I hear them. . .'sorry'; just a hurried, and yes, cruel act of thoughtlessly placing an apostrophe where none is required. . .a typo really. . .
I mean who ever heard of a city named 'New Orlean'. . .
Hope you are okay. . .I will be ;^)
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