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.
Why did the cop on horseback deliberately block the view of the videographer? It seems to me that these JBT's didn't want the public to see their shameful actions of beating an innocent elderly man into the ground.
Why did the cop shove the journalist against the car while spewing an obscenity-filled tirade if they (the cops) were doing nothing wrong?
I'm getting tired of the way cops like you with the "us versus them, if your not cop, you're little people" attitude come here and defend every single incident of police abuse and brutality no matter how disgusting.
You are indeed part of the problem, pal.
So it should be pretty easy to boycott New Orleans-made products.
"Which I wouldn't do because you hurt your hand, but if this cop wants to do that, it's his choice."
Bull cra, cops love war wounds. It makes them feel macho. "ow heck, busted my hand on some perps jaw cus he threw up in my cruiser".
1. The 64 year old had managed to walk into a situation he wasn't supposed to see (and having familiarity with the area he certainly saw it),
2. Everything worth stealing has not yet been stolen in New Orleans.
After watching the "long version" of the news video taken at the scene, things only look worse for the cops in this one.
What happens when you give a goody two shoes boy a microphone?
We had a very stupid Fairfax County cop once stop a neighbor for having rolled through a stop sign and on into our cull-de-sac.
Happened immediately in front of my house. Cop got the guy to step out of his car and lay on the ground. Then he cuffed him. Then he pulled out his wallet.
I didn't say a word ~ just stood on my porch ~ and the cop turned to me and said "Whatcha' lookin' out" and touched his pistol.
Took about two days to get that idiot fired! But this isn't New Orleans. Still, there are places in this country where I would have been justified drawing down on the officer, or even shooting him dead in the street.
I suspect the way this particular case ends up is that a whole bunch of cops will need to find new employment, preferably not with Fairfax County, and no, I don't want the FBI guy, or the Customs agent moving in around here to work at their new "staff jobs". You can keep 'em. Send the DOJ your address and tell them that these guys are welcome next door!
IN NEW ORLEANS? Maybe wherever you worked was just as crooked - fill us poor stupid citizens in.
I'll let the rest of your posts present your position on police responsibility.
Please remind us all - exactly what CRIMES were ANY of these people resisting arrest for?
And anyone who uses his badge to beat up and intimidate innocents should get what's coming to him.
Did you answer my question? Have you ever been there? Or do you think your badge will get you out of having a discussion of criminal police behaviour?
Are you actually describing those police thugs as men?
Did anyone see the sleezy defense lawyer watching the tape of the incident on CNN tonight? (Greta was on her rancid Natalee Holoway story again, so Fox doesn't interest me when she's on.) The lawyer had the biggest grin on his face while watching the jackbooted thugs beat up on the old man...really an odd reaction. I've been to NO once. I would never go back with people like this walking around with guns.
You are obviously a fine example of America's finest.
Cap'n for police and crunch because you like to crunch heads and fingers? You should be very proud of yourself.
he was on hannity and colmes saying that the police never punched this guy in the face WHILE the tape was playing showing the cops punching the guy in the face.Then after he said that colmes told him that the video they were watching and showing to the viewers shows the cop punching the guy. So he changed tactics and said the one cops delivered ONE glancing blow to the side of his head.He said that WHILE the vidoe was being played showing the cop punching him in the face 4 times then later another cop punching him twice while he was on the ground with 4 cops on top of him.
I'm glad I missed H&C tonight. It would have put me in a worse mood than reading this thread has done. :/
It's not the horse dung that reeks, it's the dung from the mouths of the New Orleans 'law enforcement' officers involved in this disgraceful incident. Police brutality against Blacks in the South isn't exactly a new phenomenon, but then again, police brutality is becoming fashionable everywhere these days.
The Feds were around because FEMA is there and it's been declard a national (federal) disaster area; and I'm supposing that anyone they deem to be 'interfering' with their work is subject to federal arrest. But what truly mystifies me is that even though there are numerous incidents of police brutality captured on videotape over the past few years, there are many who continue to insist they are 'isolated incidences', and it's 'only a few bad apples', or that 'the videotape doesn't show the whole story', etc.
Maybe some of these people just happen to like what they see on videotape, and others don't want to believe it, so they deny even what they see with their own eyes.
So trying to keep your body from being beat to a bloody pulp equals 'resisting arrest'?
They claim the guy was 'drunk', but didn't bother to give him any breathalizer or blood tests. There is no police videotape that's been reported showing the guy acting drunk. Not that being drunk in public warrents this kind of beating anyway, but these New Orleans cops are about as believable as their 500 compatriots who fled like dogs from Hurricane Katrina and never returned.
H&C replays in about 35 minutes. Which segment is it on? What did Hannity say about it?
i think it is after the talk with bill bennet he got two segments tonight then it switches to the lawyer and the police video
hannitty said it makes the cops look bad and hes areal big defender of the police in almost all circumstances
Thanks.
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