It can happen.
Happened to me once. Valentines Day, 19 years ago. Called police on my drunk husband, who wouldn't let me in the house and was making faces at us through the windows. The cop who came was POed at having to come out on a domestic, he grabbed ME in a chokehold. It went downhill from there. I hadn't yelled or screamed or anything, i was just wanting in that house where the breast pump was waiting and i was in discomfort. I burst into tears and he grabbed me. I'd just given birth by C-section 4 weeks before, to a tiny preemie. My milk went out overnight.
It traumatized me for years. i couldn't have a police car behind me, i'd have a panic attack and have to pull over and calm down. I wasn't some weirdo, druggie or anything, just a middle class mom with an alcoholic husband.
I'm pretty sure I saw that on a "Cops" episode. Was that you?
Of course it can, and I'm sorry it happened to you. I have often been annoyed on FR threads by those who are sure the cop did no wrong, as well as by the ones who are sure the cops acted as jackbooted thugs, when such judgements are made in the absence of sufficient data. It seems the basic rule is perp = some kid on the street -> cop = hero, whereas perp = drug user/dealer at home -> cop = JBT, or something like that.
It happens a lot, when I was standing in a carpeted, air conditioned, open office at the Houston police dept, with two handcuffed friends the police started beating them.
My brother went to the 7/11 down the street, cops swooped in, took him to the station and beat him badly enough he was taken to the hospital, One cop called and told my mother he was so horrified that he would testify against the other cops. The best any of us could find out was that they thought he was someone else.
I helped another friend after I saw the police driving away from him on the street, he was pretty roughed up and we had to nurse him that night.
I have seen a lot of police misdeeds, interestingly I have never seen any Houston like behavior from San Diego cops.
I know any big city is going to have a few problems and San Diego is pretty casual about gunning down people, but I don't think they could ever do something like the HPD did when they took Airborne Ranger Joe Torres down to their sleeping area by the bayou, then beat him almost to death and pitched him into the river, where he drowned.
I was roughed up a little in LA when I asked a cop what his probable cause was, but really, almost every Southern Californian cop, and sheriff I've ever met or watched, has always been the emotionally detached professional we all desire as police.
Why is it that scandals among the Highway Patrol are almost unheard of.