This situation is being described by many as an instance of police brutality. To help understand why, here is some important contextual information:
According to the Ground Report,
The grim event took place in the Huntington Park section of one of the United States' biggest cities (by population). Recently, in the close-by Port Richmond part of town, 12-year law enforcement veteran Sergeant Stephen Liczbinski, 39 years of age, was gunned down, making him the third Philly law enforcement member killed while on duty in the last two years...And, from the Philadelphia Inquirer:
According to police officers on the scene, the three men are all suspects in a drug-dealing ring and possibly in the killing of the police officer and they were observed firing guns from their car, shots which resulted in the injury of at least three citizens on a street corner. There was a fourth suspect but he ran away from the scene on foot, according to observers.
The video shows as many as 15 officers, all of them white, rushing the vehicle of the three black suspects, yanking them from the car, and kicking and beating them after they were prone....So, Philadelphia officers' emotions were understandably running high after the tragic death of Sgt. Liczbinski, and the three men shown being beaten in the video -- who allegedly had fired shots from their moving vehicle, injuring several people -- were believed to be connected to Sgt. Liczbinski's slaying. Add to this the racial implications of yet another instance of white police officers using extreme force against Black suspects, and it is easy to see why this situation has garnered so much media attention.
The news of sanctions against seven more officers came just hours after police captured Eric DeShawn Floyd, 33, the last of three men suspected in Saturday's slaying of Police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski - and shortly before the beginning of last evening's viewing for the 12-year police veteran in Northeast Philadelphia....
Among other developments yesterday, D. Scott Perrine, the attorney for Dawayne Dyches, one of the three men beaten and arrested Monday night, said police had pursued Dyches because they believed he was Floyd....
Police have said the three men - Dyches, 24, of the 2000 block of North Marshall Street in North Philadelphia; Brian Hall, 23, of the 1900 block of North Marshall Street; and Pete Hopkins, 19, of the 2000 block of East Firth Street in Kensington - were arrested after they drove from Fourth and Annsbury Streets, the scene of the shooting in North Philadelphia's Feltonville section, shortly after 10 p.m. Monday.Police say a fourth man had arrived with the three suspects and fled on foot after firing into a crowd. Police said that 15 spent 9mm casings had been found at the scene, but that no weapon had been recovered from the vehicle, which was stopped about two miles away in the 3700 block of North Second Street.
At that point, the video shows officers charging to the suspects' vehicle with guns drawn. In the next minute, the officers pull the three from the car, beating them after they have been forced to the street. The beatings take up about one minute of the video.
Not being a policing or use of force expert, I'm curious to hear from Scoob, Cranks, or the NY Kid -- have you been following this case? What are criminologists who study use of force saying about this incident?
3 comments:
It's always difficult to pin-point exactly where the line is regarding use of force in these instances. On the hand, considering the history of racial tension and unreasonable force, it is easy to see why the community at large would be upset. On the other hand, the officers had numerous reasons to view the suspects as dangerous (even outside of the fact that they were believed to be related to the shooting of a fellow officer).
In my dissertation, I found that the most consistently statisticly significant effects were for the variables dealing with the officers' perceptions of danger (e.g. the suspect was known to carry a weapon; the call was for a violent crime; the lighting in the area was poor).
That said, I am definitely a bit of an officer apologist (although perhaps not unrightfully so), having spent close to 250 hours riding with patrol officers. I was continually amazed at the amount of restraint shown by officers to verbal and physical provocation, often resulting in the officers not reacting when they would have clearly been justified in doing so.
There is no excuse for this brutality. None of the men were fighting back, yet they were kicked and beaten. All of the officers involved need to be fully prosecuted for assault with intent. No deals. No excuses. No special protection in prison. For too long, police have considered themselves public masters instead of public servants. They no longer protect the public--only each other. In fact, the public has a better chance with the criminal element; at least with them, a person can defend themselves. Trying to protect yourself from an officers harasssment and abuse is in itself a crime. Law enforcement and the judicial system keep saying it is only a few bad apples that are abusive, yet watching the video and doing the research it is very easy to see that the good cops are the minority.
I would have to disagree with your conclusion the "the good cops are the minority". I'm in no way defending the Philly officers. I understand the situation that might have lead them to their actions, but would never defend the choices they made.
I've seen enough police training and received some myself. If you think you have a carload of armed suspects who just shot a colleague, you don't charge the vehicle en masse with weapons drawn. Officers are trained in very detailed ways to conduct high-risk felony traffic stops in a way that mitigates possible risk. This approach was far removed from anything akin to that level of training and caution.
There are a few bad apples. In some agencies, it is more than a few. However in the last 20 years I've spent around 5000 working with and observing police officers (never as an officer). I have seen questionable conduct. I have seen illegal conduct. Those incidents, however, were few and far between and none ever came anywhere close to this level of violence.
There are "bad" people in all occupations. These officers would probably have been problematic employees if they worked at the local McDonalds.
What we need to ask ourselves is how does an organization's culture evolve to allow such conduct to be viewed as "safe" and acceptable? In Gates' LAPD it was arguable from the Chief's office on down ("compliance through pain" was the mantra of training"). Why haven't we found better ways to screen out these types of potential employees at the point of application in policing?
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