officer nearly choked him to death during a traffic stop. Posted on 07/02/2008 12:10:57 PM PDT by LibWhacker
MOUNT JULIET, Tenn. - A Midstate man said a police officer nearly choked him to death during a traffic stop.
The incident was caught on tape.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating how Mount Juliet Cpl. Bill Cosby interacted with James Anders, Jr.
Cosby stopped the 26-year-old Wilson County man in April.
Cosby suspected Anders hid marijuana in his mouth. The officer used a vascular restraint technique to keep Anders from swallowing.
On the video recorded inside Cosby's patrol car, Cosby said he smelled marijuana and handcuffed Anders and his passenger.
The video also showed the officer putting his hands around Anders' neck. He applied pressure and told Anders to stick out his tongue. This happened for nearly two minutes before Anders lost consciousness.
Photographs released by Anders' attorney showed injuries he sustained when he fell to the pavement.
Cosby didn't find any marijuana in Ander's mouth. Anders passed a drug test the next day.
A small bag of pot was found in his car and Anders was arrested for simple possession and resisting arrest.
After the district attorney saw the video, the charges were dropped.
Anders is expected to file a lawsuit in federal court later this month.
Cosby is still on the job.
After viewing the tape, General Sessions Judge Barry Tatum dismissed all Cosby's cases. He called what Cosby did inexcusable and said Cosby is no longer welcome in his court. In essence, any tickets he writes now are meaningless. The judge will dismiss them.
Anders' attorney said there's no excuse for strangling a man helpless and handcuffed.
"Clearly his constitutional rights were violated. He was choked," said Garry Vandever, Anders' attorney.
Vandever said Anders is fine but he still upset over what happened.
Anders is expected to file a lawsuit in federal court later this month.
Andy Garrett was sworn in as the new police chief Monday night.
"I have viewed the tape. I wasn't on board when this happened," he said. "It is an incident that's been addressed internally through training and discipline with the police officer. Any further investigation that's going to be done by an outside agency will be referred to the city attorney," said Garrett, a 25-year Metro Police Department veteran who recently commanded the force's Central Precinct.
He succeeds former Mount Juliet Police Chief Ted Floyd who retired several months ago.
In a letter sent to the new police chief and obtained by NewsChannel 5, Tatum said he's "dismissing all cases Corporal Cosby has pending" in his court.
Tatum also indicated that he's "dismissing any (future) cases he attempts to bring."
Tatum said Cosby has "cast a permanent cloud over law enforcement and the judicial system."
"We trust that an officer has to have the type of demeanor that when someone is treating them badly, spitting on them, trying to hit them, that that officer will have restraint in his actions toward that person," said Wilson County General Sessions Court Judge Bob Hamilton.
Uh huh. So all those times you locked people up who *weren't* convicted...not one of those times was a mistake? Every person you locked up was really guilty of the crime you arrested them for, even if they weren't convicted?
i love people who get all of their knowledge of the criminal justice system from "law and order". go away.
No thanks, I kind of like it here. You are perfectly free to ignore my posts, if they bother you that much.
It is a problem. But it's something that needs to be addressed on an individual basis. It's partly because we're in a war. It's also partly because the cops sometimes face criminals (not to mention terrorists) who are militarized themselves. Put yourself in the situation. If you had to go up against a guy with even a semi-auto deer rifle, wouldn't you want to out-gun him?
Also, boys love toys. But, if you live in the Midland area, how many times have you seen the armored car on the street? Do the police use it for "routine" patrol? Or do they use it judiciously as situation calls for it?
Is your opinion based on what you know, or what you believe?
We are???? Who did Congress declare War against??? I may have to dig out my old dusty U.S. Constitution, uh BTW do you have one and did you read it, if not you can get a free pocket copy from the Cato Institute, but my memory seems to tell me that only the U.S. Congress has the constitutional right to declare "war" and that would be on foreign enemies. Are you saying you've declared war on U.S. citizens???? I could believe that.
The U.S. Constitution, learn it, love it, live it.
Whether congress declared war or not is irrelevant. al Quaida declared war on the US. (Bet you forgot that.)
Not only is a little pot no big deal, we, the People, NEVER GAVE government the authority to ban ANYTHING and especially to ban things then behave like this toward the people, who are the ones with the authority. YOU who are legends in your own minds have ONLY the authority We, the People, delegate to you. Not one whit more.
One fine day one or more of you slugs are going to grab the wrong man and there WILL be BITS and it will be yours, not his. And, if the circumstances are at all similar to what happened here, I won’t mind it one bit. You are way too full of yourself, SERVANT.
When the bullets start flying cops are at the donut shop. Witness Columbine. Cops hung around outside while folks were being killed by those two psychopaths and only entered the building AFTER the shooting stopped. They tried to justify it as SOP. Yours is a totally bogus claim. It’s folks like ME who have to run to the sound of the guns... not wannabees like you.
Like those "savages" who aren't wearing their seatbelts?
So Congress didn't declare war on the American people then???? I don't think that that is irrelevant since you justify the militarization of police by saying "we're at war".
Look up the word fascist.
And lest you forget, Congress authorized the use of force against Al Qaeda.
Be safe out there and try not to crap all over the Constitution while you're at it, a lot better people than you have died and gave their blood for it.
http://www.catostore.org/index.asp?fa=ProductDetails&method=&pid=144278-A
you’re an angry, pathetic old man. and i’m sorry for you.
That’s IT? That’s the best you got? And you wanna call ME pathetic? As compared to what? YOU? Only in your dreams, thug. Because, unlike YOU, I’ve been there and done that. Things you could only DREAM of doing. Go crawl back under your rock.
I agree with the statement you reference. Cops are paid professionals who are given substantial amounts of authority. They should be held to a high standard and expected to behave professionally at alltimes. That doesn’t mean they can’t defend themselves it only means they should be judicious and appropriate in their responses.
I would think that a cop would be the most angry person on here when it came to rogue cops. After all they are responsible for the image problems that unfairly plague many good cops. But I guess that thin blue line and all makes that impossible.
“only liberals whine about how the rights of criminals are infringed by the big bad cops.”
Or people who take the constitution seriously. Personally I think strict adherence to the constitution and to existing law is a very conservative position.
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