Mr. Cop has got a LOT of explaining to do. Being "mad" is not justification for abusing a suspect.
Posted on 08/12/2007 10:08:08 AM PDT by BBell
A minister's 16-year-old son, an A student with no criminal record, said Wednesday that Jefferson Parish sheriff's deputies beat him while he was handcuffed during a traffic stop in Elmwood. So sharp was one blow that it broke the hand of a deputy who struck the teen in the face. Sheriff Harry Lee said the deputy reported that the youth, Troy Lawrence Jr., had attacked him. Lee said he will reserve judgment on the case until his office investigates. "He's saying one thing, and the deputy is saying another thing," Lee said. "I don't know who's telling the truth." The teenager said he was leaving his sister's Elmwood apartment complex Sunday about 11 p.m. when a deputy pulled him over for speeding at South Clearview Parkway and Citrus Boulevard. The deputy removed him from his vehicle and searched him. His attorney, Richard Richthofen Jr., said the deputy then cuffed Lawrence's hands behind his back, placed him in the back seat of the patrol car and began to search the teen's vehicle.
While in the patrol car, Lawrence maneuvered his cuffed hands from behind his back to the front. He said that when the deputy returned to the car and saw what he'd done, the officer pulled him out of the vehicle, re-cuffed his hands behind his back and threw him to the ground.
"I was on the ground, and he hit me once," said Lawrence, who stands 5 feet, 5 inches tall.
The deputy screamed that he'd broken that hand and called for back-up. Lee confirmed that the deputy broke his hand hitting Lawrence in the face.
Lawrence said eight to 10 other deputies arrived and punched and hit him on the forehead with a flashlight. One deputy put a boot on the left side of his face, grinding
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.nola.com ...
“He’s saying one thing, and the deputy is saying another thing,Lee said.I don’t know who’s telling the truth.”
I would say the deputy has a problem if this is the initial statement from the sheriff.
Cuffing someone with severe diabetes can result in loss of their hands. Police officers who cuff suspects are therefore proven to be attempting to mutilate them. No one ever expects the Spanish inquisition.
There was a case in Tampa about ten years ago, too.
From the looks of that picture I’d say the officers are going to have some serious explaining to do. Once a prisoner id cuffed and the threat is removed there is no cause to go on a beating spree. And I say that as someone who works with criminals.
Street Justice? Why stop there, maybe we should trust the police to go ahead and execute those they think are guilty. Who needs that whole rule of law thing; trials, juries, evidence....
We the people hire police to bring people to face justice, not to dispense it. Be careful what you wish for.
So much for the rule of law.
Why even bother with a trial. Just let the cops shoot anyone who questions them in the face.
Don’t give sob stories for teenage punks; you have no idea what its like on the streets.
Mr. Cop has got a LOT of explaining to do. Being "mad" is not justification for abusing a suspect.
Somebody's smoking craa-aack. I'm tellin'.
The sad thing is, there are some on here who would agree with that.
Wrong grasshopper. Law enforcement DO NOT administer any type of "justice." THAT is not in their job description. Even if this kid did resist, then only the amount of force necessary to subdue the kid is allowed. That is the same with all arrests. Otherwise, when you get pulled over for speeding, handcuffed and tossed in the back of a cop car, you cannot complain. You seem to think "street justice" is legal. It is not. I have a family of police officers and this is one thing my nephew, a state trooper, says that you should never do, is use excessive force to subdue someone. When he was issued his tazer, he had to be shot with it, just so he would know how much the damned thing hurt when zapped. That way, he would not be so quick to use it, only when he actually really needed to use it, instead of just freely using it and making something up.
So basically this whole thing started when the kid skinned the cat with the cuffs, but had he just sat in the car with the cuffs in their proper place in all likelihood this would not have happened...
You sure you’re on the right website?
No excuse for what they did. This was NOT a gangbanger. This was a cop who was a bully! Right is right and wrong is wrong. This was very wrong.
If this were my son I would be raising holy heck!
So a kid with a 4.2 GPA, who practices the piano for hours each day instead of running the streets is a punk? What do you base this on? Does "teenage punk" = black kid with cornrows?
If you are in law enforcement, you need to get out.
If it takes “8 to 10” cops to beat up a 16 yr old, things are pretty bad “on the streets”.
I noted there was no mention of anything was found in his vehicle when they searched it. Also noted it failed to say why they searched his vehicle when they pulled him over for a speeding violation.
Yeah, I detected a whiff of racism there, too.
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