Right or wrong police have to realize they can be captured on video at anytime. Keep this in mind or lose your police career. You chief will not back you up in the least.
Personally I have no problem with this cop. But this is the age of video anytime, anywhere. He screwed himself out of a good job. You can’t blame the bestial girl he was dealing with. She’s on automatic like a zombie. Plus he was the adult here. Adults don’t let some punk mess up their career.
I’m SO glad I retired from law enforcement before the advent of readily available and easy to use video recorders.
What was seen in the 70’s and 80’s when I was wearing the uniform as acceptable use of force situations is now documented on video and in many cases sensationalized to the point where cops are increasingly becoming paralyzed by fear of losing their jobs or going to jail.
Want to know why vehicle pursuits happen so often nowadays? Because back in the day, everyone knew there was going to be a good ass kicking administered at the end of the pursuit. Same goes with running away or resisting arrest or a lawful order. If I had to chase you down or lay hands upon you so we could conduct our business, you were going to pay for it. There were no busybodies or eyes in the sky with high def video recorders capturing everything that happened. For whatever reason, people with poor impulse control understand bad behavior earns an immediate ass kicking much more readily than the long term ramifications of a court appearance somewhere in the future and they acted accordingly.
As harsh as that may sound, almost always, the bad guy ended up going to jail, even if we had to make a stop at the ER before booking. Now, with so much scrutiny, and so many people pointing at video to make a case for the suspect and against the cop, things have escalated to the point where the bad guy is as likely to end up going to the morgue instead of the hospital then to jail.
Certainly, things have evolved since I retired in 1988, but in my day, if you shot someone, that person had better actually have a gun they were going for. A “furtive movement” or “reaching for his waistband” would never have been accepted as an excuse for shooting an unarmed person.
Back then, failure to comply by putting your hands in your pocket would get you a punch in the face, or at worst, a flashlight across the head. Doing so today gets you shot.
But then, no one I ever worked with shaved their head so they could look like a storm trooper and we wore wool police uniforms that cost a full days pay, not the military style uniforms they wear today.
What I’ve written here is not meant to be justification of how the deputy handled the situation that is the subject of this thread. If this particular case does nothing else, it will be a message to every cop on the job, if the shit hits the fan, every one behind you is going to make sure you’re in front and for every punk kid that doesn’t want to behave in school, do whatever you want because you will get away with it. It’s impossible to predict just how big this can of worms is that just got opened here, but it’s going to be huge.
I must admit that the increasingly militaristic behavior of the police is shocking to me as well, but I also understand well why it’s becoming this way. And I’m glad I’m no longer a cop.