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.
Care to change your tune.?
Cop suspended in beating had psychiatric treatment
One of the three New Orleans police officers suspended and charged in connection with the videotaped beating of a retired teacher in the French Quarter received psychiatric treatment after an apparent suicide attempt in the mid-1990s, but was hired as a cop about a year later when he passed the department's psychological tests, according to his attorney and three people who worked with the officer before he joined the force.
"The guy is clearly resisting arrest."
How? He is being handled by 5 men with his arms restrained being punched in the skull and struck about the body at the same time.
How bout we try that with you and see if you don't squirm a little bit. I bet your reaction to be assaulted would be very similar to this old man's.
"...The cops are the bad guy no matter what..."
Not true! I have the greatest respect for police officers in NY State. My sister is married to a NYS Trooper who will tell you to avoid driving through NO if at all possible. The same for Arkansas. Both known far and wide for corruption.
Maybe the investigation is of a corrupt NO police department? Hahaha... what am I thinking?
Having not seen the new video, I'm just guessing here that the old man walked right up to the horse (within a foot or so) and didn't back up when told to. Being that close could spook the horse potentially dumping the officer. If the second officer told him to back up and was chastised for interrupting, I can see how it could get a bit out of hand...
police horses are trained for crowd control. One pedestrian isn't gonna spook a police horse.
"...After watching the "long version" of the news video taken at the scene, things only look worse for the cops in this one..."
Heard an interview of the man who was beaten. He said he was talking to the mounted officer who is also black and someone he knows personally, when the horse nudged him and he stumbled as a result. Now he didn't mention he said something negative (expletive) to the next officer and he may not have wanted to admit to that on record, but that should not be reason to do what was done. He also said he hadn't had a drink in 25 years.
Even if he was lying and had been drinking, what exactly was the crime he committed? Getting too close to the horse? Drinking Then Walking? Talking? Stumbling?
I too would resist being beaten by a Mob of Cops.
If you want trouble with the police just try arguing, resisting arrest, running from them, or anything that smacks of arrogance. Someone with a gun says stop, then stop. This isn't rocket science!
There I go (not) thinking again... Thanks.
"Let's not be stuck on stupid. A FEW cops DO NOT represent the hundreds of others that are doing their job. "
More than a few. Just how many people have to get beat up for it to be a problem for you? a hundred, a thousand? Perhaps it would have to be someone in your family?
"Are these guys sissy’s or what?"
I suppose you would have beat up any cop that tried to handcuff you?
So he's lying?
I'm doing OK, thanks. Busy working two full time jobs.
It amazes me that people I have never met and have absolutely no idea how I do my job seem to think they know everything about me just because I'm a cop who disagrees with them.
I've never said there is no police brutality. I've never said there are not corrupt cops.
In my opinion this incident, which the media has only released a portion of the video from, and which we do not know the whole story, does not rise to the level of arresting police officers for civil rights violations and charging them with assault.
No way.
There's another thing that gets me, everybody has their "bad cop" story. They once saw a cop do this and that so therefore all cops are bad.
Sounds like the democrats when they talk about the "scandal ridden Bush administration."
Your right, I did see a different tape than you did. The media has now released a few more minutes of the tape.
Doesn't it bother you that they didn't release the whole thing to begin with? Doesn't it make you think that there might be more to the story?
Reminds me of the Rodney King tape. The media only showed King attacking officers one time, then they only showed the beating.
You don't know anything about me or what I've done in my career.
I hear alot of people talk about the great police officers from the old days when they were out there on the beat rescuing people... blah..blah...blah...
I worked with those guys.. I saw how they did things. They would have jacked that guy in a heartbeat. And then it would have been all over.
I see this tape and I don't see any of these officers clubbing this guy. I see them trying to get submission holds.
The only thing that is controversial is the punches to the back of the head.
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