Posted on 05/16/2007 7:52:39 AM PDT by E Rocc
Iraq war veteran tells of beating at airport
Soldier accuses Las Vegas police
By DAVID KIHARA REVIEW-JOURNAL National Guard Sgt. Mark England came out of a tour of duty in Iraq with just a hand injury from an insurgent attack near Baghdad in 2004.
His trip to Las Vegas last month, however, ended with a police beating at McCarran International Airport that left him with three broken ribs, he said.
"I could understand if I was in Germany or a foreign country, but we're supposed to be on the same side," England said. "If it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone."
The 37-year-old Orange County, Calif., resident said the officer beat him with a nightstick after England got into an argument with a Transportation Security Administration agent who refused to let England take a soda through the security checkpoint last month. England said he also was shocked three times with a Taser before being taken to jail.
England, who is 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 205 pounds, said he was not aggressive and was polite to all of the authorities he dealt with that night. He and his wife say surveillance footage from the night in question will prove him innocent, but England can't get copies of it.
"It will show I was never a threat to the officer," he said.
Officials said police will get the surveillance tapes within the next few days.
Elaine Sanchez, public affairs and marketing manager for McCarran, said release of the tape must be approved by the Clark County Department of Aviation and the Transportation Security Administration, because the airport owns the equipment and the federal agency has jurisdiction over the tapes. She said a copy of the tape was not given to England because of the ongoing investigation.
Police Internal Affairs investigators are looking into England's allegations but can't discuss it because it is an ongoing investigation, said Bill Cassell, spokesman for the Las Vegas police.
England is facing charges of resisting arrest and violating airport rules. He and his lawyer have been unable to get anyone to tell them exactly what airport rule he violated. England's arraignment is slated for April 10; but his lawyer, Cal Potter, expects that to be postponed because the district attorney hadn't received the case as of Thursday.
England had been sightseeing and gambling in Las Vegas during NASCAR weekend and was scheduled to fly out of McCarran on March 10. He arrived at the airport a little before 6 p.m. Before he went through the Concourse C security checkpoint, he bought a hot dog and a $3.25 soft drink in a cup.
England said he tried to go through the security checkpoint, but a TSA agent told him he couldn't proceed with the food and soda. England told the TSA official he believed that he could bring a soda through the security checkpoint as long as he could show a receipt proving it was purchased at the airport.
According to McCarran officials, you can't take a soda through the security checkpoint even if you have a receipt. You can, however, purchase a drink after passing through the checkpoint.
The TSA official refused to let England pass. England asked to see a supervisor. The supervisor also didn't allow England to pass through the checkpoint. The supervisor also asked to see England's identification and then made copies of his military ID and boarding pass.
"I know it sounds weird, but I have a problem being in the military and having some civilian tell me I'm wrong when I actually thought I was right," England said. "If I'm wrong, I'll admit I'm wrong. But it was their attitude they were giving me" that bothered him.
What really angered England, he said, was the TSA supervisor told him he was a lieutenant in the Army but refused to show any proof of this claim. England pressed him to show a military ID, but the TSA supervisor wouldn't budge.
"I said, 'Sir, with all due respect, that's (expletive) up,' " England said.
A Las Vegas police officer told England to go to his plane's boarding gate, which England did. But he missed his flight.
With several hours to kill before he could catch another flight, England decided to find the TSA supervisor. He met the TSA supervisor and the police officer by the security checkpoint and asked to see the TSA supervisor's boss.
At that point, the Las Vegas police officer asked England to walk with him, England said. They walked about 50 feet from the security checkpoint, and the officer asked to see England's boarding pass.
England fumbled through his pockets and pulled out a dollar bill that he said the officer pulled from his hand and threw on the floor.
England said he asked the officer, "Would you mind picking up that dollar bill from the floor?"
The officer pulled out his handcuffs and told England to turn around and put his hands behind his back. England said the officer placed a hand on his shoulder and that England instinctively rolled his shoulder out from under the officer's hand. The officer then pulled out a baton and yelled at him to get on the floor, England said.
He said the officer hit him multiple times with the baton, breaking three ribs on his left side and injuring his hand and head. Another officer then shocked him with a Taser at least three times, England said.
"I've never seen this much pain in all my life," he said.
When England was released from the Clark County jail the next day, he was bruised and looked horrible, said his friend Ken Dorton who bailed him out.
"My first reaction was, 'Oh my god. What did they do to you?' " said Dorton. He said England had dried blood on his hand and face and a swollen eye.
England admits that he had two beers over several hours before he went to McCarran but said he wasn't intoxicated. He also said he was never disrespectful toward the officer.
"I was raised to honor the police and I've always done that," he said.
Police can take you into custody for nothing? You mean that you don't have to actually break a law? They can beat you because you annoy them? And you're ok with this?
Btw, we have a police chief in the family. He's never arrested anyone or beaten them for annoying him.
Yes. That’s exactly what I mean. They do have to charge you to hold you. What? Do you think when the cops are chasing down a suspect they have an ADA shouting out the charges from a megaphone, complete with “Party of the First Part”s?
And your ham-fisted use of strawmen is not helping your case.
Strawman? Facts are a strawman? You have to actually break a law and be charged. This man was never charged with anything. This isn't Hitlers Germany. Asking questions is not probable cause.
They do have to charge you to hold you.
England was never charged. How can you believe that beating was justified when there were NEVER any charges?
While I don't agree with their treatment Sgt. England, I expect that a review of the tape will exonerate them of wrongdoing.
Regards,
GtG
From all info I gathered so far: He mistakenly thought he could bring in a soda bought AT the airport when he could not. TSA told him he was wrong and the supervisor told him she outranked him. He wanted to see military ID which makes sense.
In the video: You can see him talking to the officers. He does NOT have any threating posture towards them and is NOT raising his hands or making any gesturing moves.
The security tape out of sight is to grainy to ‘really’ determine what happened for sure. However, the cop does seem to spin around and start beating him out of the blue.
Now, he might have said something to start it but it still is unnecessary force. The guy complied with all orders given to that point.
And that he hasn’t been charged with anything so far should tell us ‘something’!.
watch the first video in post# 16
Again, very slowly, you can be arrested without being charged. Show me where they held him in jail without charges. The trial comes later, son. It’s the thingy with the judge.
Heh heh heh.
In the video I saw there was no attempt by this guy to fight back and when he was tasered (after being hit by the night stick and still not resisting), he was standing in front of both fat guys with his arms crossed.
I hope he sues the heck out of them.......
Nobody likes to have their authority questioned which is exactly what happened with the TSA Supervisor when England requested to speak with his boss. The Supervisor could have avoided all this furor had he simply taken England to his manager's office and let him difuse the situation. That is what managers are for.......
Are you one of those that believe cops are perfect and never human?
Al Qaeda has zero chance of taking over Iraq. Some Islamist group will, but certainly not a tiny foreign minority within the Sunni minority. In fact, the last person you want to be when America pulls out of Iraq is a foreign Sunni militant.
Really? I think she was probably being snarky to his "Do you know who I am?" type of behavior. The fact is, in the civilian airport, she does outrank him.
I read the article with a cynical eye and I was picking out little things in his story, but what really killed his case is that he admitted to being told to get on the ground and admitted to not being on the ground later. The only thing that's keeping him from having a criminal record is that the cops went WAY overboard and weren't satisfied just to handcuff him and let him stew in a corner of the airport.
I believe that to be debatable given what I've read here.
Do you have any comments on the subject of the thread?
At which stage? At some point it was "resisting arrest."
Did you watch link 16.
The surveillance footage can be subpoenaed by the court when England sues.
I called it "Air Club for Men (and Women)".
It would be like membership-only retail stores, only it would be an airline that we could join, be prescreened and have its own bio-related memebership ID.
If some airline doesn't go this route, the airlines are going to see a decline as people opt to arrange their lives (Via computer and other choices for transportation) in ways to avoid these insults.
Yes, I made them and you went into a tizzy of demonstrably false statements that aren't worth a drop of American blood. In the meantime we are shredding the Constitution and all you idiots care about is following Bush's failed strategy into the abyss. I'm all for killing our enemies but this administration is a complete disaster by any standard, certainly by conservative standards. TSA is just one of many examples of pathetic policy.
Sorry but you are wrong- we must resist a police state.
It's mutual assured destruction. If he sues, they'll charge him. He will be convicted (although it is unlikely that he'll serve jail time or even pay a fine) and he'll have a criminal record.
If you want to talk about annoyed, I was annoyed by the fact that all of the critical information (his use of profanity, his "rolling of the shoulder", his "one or two beers") came at the end of the story.
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