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Orange County DA's Office Shrugs Off Sheriff's Deputies Falsifying Evidence Reports
If this were a private business, it would have collapsed under the combined weight of its unhappy customers and its own incompetence. But it isn't. We realize you don't have a choice in your law enforcement provider and all that.
The Orange County Sheriff's Department is a mess. It has been a mess for years. Some of its corruption was exposed five years ago, when an investigation by lawyers in a murder trial uncovered multiple occasions where the department had buried exculpatory information or refused to hand it over to defendants. This resulted in Orange County DA's office (including all of its 250 prosecutors) being kicked off the high-profile murder trial. The Sheriff's involvement was the strategic housing of jailhouse informants to illegally coax information out of defendants awaiting trial.
The problems uncovered here were made worse when the Sheriff's Department shredded documents ahead of a DOJ investigation and then-Sheriff Sandra Hutchens claimed the omissions made by deputies during testimony were honest mistakes
-- the unfortunate result of the officers supposedly not knowing what they could and could not discuss about the Department's informant database in open court.
The same office "inadvertently" collected thousands of recordings containing privileged conversations between defendants and their lawyers. The department claimed a "software glitch" resulted in this windfall of rights violations.
Evidence-handling continues to be a problem for this department. Last year, it managed to anger one of its best friends -- the Orange County DA's office -- by constantly booking in evidence in an untimely manner. The root cause? Very succinctly, the DA's office said the Sheriff's evidence-handling protocols had "no system of accountability."
The audit of the department's extremely faulty booking process continues. And, as Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg reports for The Appeal, it's uncovering even more lax handling of criminal evidence.
Deputies booked evidence days, and sometimes weeks, after it was purportedly collected, according to an internal audit, which examined thousands of police reports filed between 2016 and 2018. Thirty percent of evidence was “booked out of policy,” according to a slide presentation describing the first audit’s findings. A second audit found that deputies had claimed to have collected evidence that was never booked.
Some deputies were far worse than others. One deputy in particular appeared to have set the curve the rest of the department was graded on.
In one investigation, the department found that Sheriff's Deputy Bryce Simpson falsely claimed he booked evidence in 74 cases, according to a motion Sanders filed last month. In 56 of those cases, no evidence was booked at all, and in 18 only some of the evidence he reported was booked.
Another young go-getter, Deputy Joseph Atkinson, claimed evidence had been booked in 26 cases where no evidence could be located. This included seven cases where Atkinson claimed to have booked drugs, leading one to wonder what actually happened to those drugs.
And yet, as angry as the DA's office was with the Sheriff's Department late last year, nothing has been done to introduce any more accountability into a system that clearly has none. The department referred 17 deputies to the DA's office for criminal investigation. The DA's office has decided none of these public servants should be punished for abusing the public's trust.
This isn't DA Todd Spitzer's fault. He defeated the former DA by running as a reformer. And while he has expressed his vast displeasure with the department's booking procedures, his office still decided none of the first 17 deputies referred to him for falsifying records should be criminally charged. That's not much of a reform and it's not going to change the culture that led to this situation. It's going to cost the DA a lot of criminal cases. Maybe once his office bleeds enough, he'll finally start taking this seriously.
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BALTIMORE DEFENSE ATTORNEYS CLAIM SURVEILLANCE PLANE FOOTAGE CONTRADICTS LAW ENFORCEMENT ACCOUNT OF POLICE SHOOTING
https://theappeal.org/baltimore-poli...ng-new-motion/Comment -
Exactly, and that is why the nation is damned/doomed/finished, `cause the clueless snowflakes as you call them are the last thing holding the nation together
and you want them gone
good news pal, you will soon enough have your police-state and you are not going to like it
hopefully you are less than 30 or 40 yrs old, so you see and feel the full effect
dumb-fukkComment -
Keep up the good work
You boneheads are making a huge difference re posting other snowflakes videos in a gambling forum.
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go beat your someone you assume to be weaker than you and in person
even then, you`ll never have any respect
like I am going to allow you to engage me in an argumentComment -
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1064150437292326
SOMERSET COUNTY, N.J. – Two state troopers pulled a man out of a burning tractor-trailer just second before it exploded – and it was all caught on video.
New Jersey State Police say Trooper Robert Tarleton was speaking with a driver during a traffic stop on I-287 in Somerset County, New Jersey, when the tractor-trailer ran off the side of the road at about 3:35 p.m. Monday.
After striking a guardrail and bridge abutment, police say the truck became engulfed in flames.
Police say Tarleton immediately ran back to his vehicle to request fire and emergency medical services before rushing to the scene of the crash.
As Tarleton approached the truck, he saw another officer, Lieutenant Edward Ryer, attempting to rescue the driver from the cab. Ryer had been on his way home from work when he witnessed the crash.
Tarleton and Ryer then worked together to pull the driver from the burning truck, dragging him to safety, with just seconds to spare before the explosion.
Police say the driver sustained minor injuries in the crash and was transported to Morristown Medical Center for evaluation.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
Great job Officers !
Last edited by firstclass; 03-05-20, 12:23 PM.Comment -
A police sergeant in Waynesboro, Georgia, showed some quick thinking when he helped save a baby’s life.
Newly released video from January captures Sgt. Harold Drummond arriving in a store parking lot to find a 6-month-old child not breathing.
Drummond performed CPR with his fingers and got the boy to breathe once more. The clip shows the infant crying after Drummond intervened.
Glad he wasn't out harassing Snowflakes at the time
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Sure is gonna get windy in the USA....for cops that are criminals. You guys are outnumbered 1000 to 1 by regular freedom loving citizens of this country and most of us have guns. How's that one gonna work out for ya? I'll give you a pass this time though firstASS cause your cop IQ of only 90 doesn't allow you to think that far ahead critically.
You're just an order follower. "Yes captain, firstclASS will gladly take it up the ass and suck you off for my promotion to sgt1stASS." Yes sir this and that captain of the dept. Lmfao, got vote for Bernie or something you socialist pos. You're just an order follower bud. The rest of us here love the USA and love freedom unlike you! Go root for China in the Olympics you communist pos. The rest of us will root for USA.Comment -
you still seem to be missing the point mr. firstclass, of course we know there are a ton a cops and by a cop's naturesomea lot of them are gonna commit crimes. we dont like that because thats hypocritical but the other part of our gripe is that after committing the crimes many times they go unscathed or a slap on the wrist, thats been a big part of this thread that you dont seem to get or maybe you have an inferiority complex and feel that you are somehow lower than a cop or maybe anything that calls itself authorityComment -
Save your energy for a real opponent. This firstclASS idiot is just some petty beat cop that thinks he's Chuck Norris but in reality is just a Bernie supporting socialist. He's pissed Bernie is getting jobbed again and that we've exposed all his whore coworkers. Female cops will suck anyone off for a promotion but what's really shocking is how the male cops would also. It's all about that promotion in the cop shop otherwise they're just some petty beat bitch like this guy, lmfao.Comment -
Cops Brag About Pulling Over Innocent Man, Stealing $40k from Him—Twitter Destroys Them
Under the fifth and fourteenth amendments, due process clauses are in place to act as a safeguard from arbitrary denial of life, liberty, or property by the government outside the sanction of law. Despite these safeguards, innocent American citizens are routinely denied their lives, liberty and property by the state. One of the most egregious examples of said denials is the controversial and unconstitutional act of civil asset forfeiture — the act of stealing a person’s property before they have been convicted or even accused of a crime.
Though it has received much deserved criticism over the years, police departments from coast to coast continue to rob people of their property without first accusing them of a crime. In what amounts to little more than highway robbery, a man travelling through Michigan this week found out just how easy it is to become a victim of “road piracy.”
On Tuesday, a Michigan State Police trooper accused an innocent motorist of following too close behind the vehicle in front of him. So, the trooper then pulled over the man to extort or otherwise launch a fishing expedition to see what he could find. Spoiler alert, he found cash.
According to police, during the stop, “further investigation” into the motorist resulted in the officer finding $40,000.00 in cash. It is important to point out that carrying cash is most certainly every free American’s right to do so — unimpeded.
Nevertheless, the trooper claimed that simply having the cash was enough of a case for him to steal it. Without charging the innocent 33-year-old motorist with a crime, Michigan State Police then robbed the man of his cash. Because he had not committed a crime and was not accused of a crime, police had nothing on which to arrest or cite the man, so he was then sent on his way — $40,000 lighter, of course.
The officers apparently thought that this is some sort of ‘public service,’ so they actually went to Twitter to brag about it.
“Trooper from First District Headquarters conducted a traffic stop for following too close on I-75 in Monroe County on March 3rd. Further investigation resulted in locating and seizing approximately $40,000.00 in cash. The driver was a 33 year old male from out of state and was not arrested. The investigation continues,” wrote the MSP First District on their Twitter page.
Showing just how in tune many Americans are with the idea of state-sanctioned robbery is the fact that not a single comment in their Twitter thread was in support of the MSP.
“Cops out here just blatantly bragging about the crimes they’re committing smh,” one Twitter user wrote.
“This is so messed up. Police should not be able to do this. CHARGE HIM with a crime or give him his money back,” wrote another.
“Literal highway robbery.”
“So you legally robbed him? And you wonder why people don’t fully trust the police. Be transparent or give the guy his money back because this is theft.”
We agree.
Despite the fact that there was not enough probable cause to charge the man with a crime, Lt. Brian Oleksyk, Michigan State Police spokesman, defended the decision to steal his money, claiming that there was at least enough probable cause for robbing the man.
Oleksyk noted that the case has been referred to the Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office for further investigation where it will be determined whether or not the man gets his property back.
Just like that, a man who had not even been accused of a crime, was deprived of his constitutional rights and robbed by public servants on the side of the road.
Unfortunately, this is a huge problem that has been going on for decades.
The 1980’s-era laws were designed to drain resources from powerful criminal organizations, but civil asset forfeiture has become a tool for law enforcement agencies across the U.S. to steal money and property from countless innocent people.
As the case above illustrates, no criminal charge is required for this confiscation, resulting in easy inflows of cash for law enforcement departments and the proliferation of abuse. This phenomenon is known as “policing for profit.”
In the last 25 years, the amount of “profit” stolen through civil asset forfeiture has skyrocketed.
According to the US Department of Justice, the value of asset forfeiture recoveries by US authorities from 1989-2010 was $12,667,612,066, increasing on average 19.5% per year.
In 2008, law enforcement took over $1.5 billion from the American public. While this number seems incredibly large, just a few years later, in 2014, that number tripled to nearly $4.5 billion.
When we examine these numbers, and their nearly exponential growth curve, it appears that police in America are getting really good at separating the citizen from their property — not just really good, criminally good.
To put this number into perspective, according to the FBI, victims of burglary offenses suffered an estimated $3.9 billion in property losses in 2014 as compared to the $4.5 billion stolen by cops.
That means that law enforcement in America has stolen $600,000,000 more from Americans than actual criminal burglars.
When police surpass the criminal accomplishments of those they claim to protect you from, there is a serious problem.
The good news is that Americans are waking up to this Orwellian notion of police robbing the citizens, and they are taking a stand.
Even police officers are taking a stand against civil asset forfeiture. In an exclusive interview, the Free Thought Project talked to officer Stephen Mills, chief of police at the Apache, Oklahoma police department. Mills became an outspoken advocate against civil asset forfeiture, after he became a victim of it.
The idea of thieving cops has also united organizations on opposite ends of the political spectrum. In October 2017, the ACLU and the Koch Brothers came together to stop the inherent police theft in America.
While the police keep grabbing your property, it is important to remain vigilant. Only through a lesser ignorance and the spreading of information will we overcome this blatant tyranny. Please share this article with your friends and family to wake them up to the criminal reality that is civil asset forfeiture.
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bored, wrote this for those that drag society down
I`ve been one of them while an adolescent, as we all were, it is one truth/fact we all have in common
as adults we have an obligation, a reality to either mature or die
isn`t that difficult to either be kind or s t f u, unless one is a social retard
anyway, here is the song I`m working on
I wanna tell you 'bout Texas Radio and the Big Beat
Comes out of the Virginia swamps
Cool and slow with plenty of precision
With a back beat narrow and hard to master
Some call it heavenly in its brilliance
Others, mean and rueful of the Western dream
I love the friends I have gathered together on this thin raft
We have constructed pyramids in honor of our ...Comment -
Thanks for your service, of posting other tin foil hat liberals videos on a gambling forum
Keep up the good work of showing the pathetic lives you live
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Let me guess you goofs are sovereign citizens also
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You libs amuse me Keep up the good work
Post those videos help save us all
Last edited by firstclass; 03-05-20, 02:31 PM.Comment -
The firefighters where I live have a food drive for the needy every year. I always go out and get enough canned goods, rice, pasta, fruit, other healthy foods to fill multiple boxes and take it up to the firehouse.
The military base where I live has a toy drive every year for the less fortunate kids. I always go out to target or costco and get a bunch of toys and donate them.
It feels good to help the heroes with their charity to the community. Great people in the fire dept. and military. Real American patriots and heroes selflessly serving their community and people in need. God bless them.Comment -
Journalist’s Home Raided and He Was Kidnapped for Refusing to Name a Source
In the land of the free, journalists are now being raided by SWAT teams in an effort to find out their sources and this is in spite of the law protecting journalists from this very act. Freelance journalist Bryan Carmody fell victim to the police state in California last year as multiple San Francisco cops with sledge hammers and weapons began breaking down his door in an effort to find out his source for a leaked police report.
Thankfully, Carmody’s case received much deserved attention and and the police department came under heavy scrutiny. After the raid, Carmody filed a lawsuit to go after the tyrants who did this to him. This week, the city of San Francisco announced they will be paying $369,000 to settle claims over its police raid on Carmody’s house last May.
As the Society for Professional Journalists points out, California’s Shield Law protects journalists from being held in contempt for refusing to disclose their sources’ identities and other unpublished/unaired information obtained during the news gathering process (California Constitution, Article I, § 2(b); California Evidence Code § 1070(a)). California Penal Code section 1524(g) provides that “no warrant shall issue” for any item protected by the Shield Law.
Despite this protection under the law, police still raided Carmody’s home.
According to a report from NPR at the time:
"The raids on Carmody’s home and office are the latest in a series of events concerning the death of San Francisco public defender Jeff Adachi in February, at age 59.
Within hours of Adachi’s collapsing in a San Franscisco apartment, details from a leaked police investigation into his death were already showing up in news reports, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
A number of the details in the police report were salacious, suggesting that perhaps one or more members of the police department were trying to tarnish the reputation of Adachi, who was known as a police watchdog and fierce advocate for criminal justice reform. In San Francisco, a public defender is an elected position."
After Carmody sold the report to several outlets, it showed up everywhere and this likely infuriated the police department.
“There were leaks happening all over the place,” Carmody recalled to the Los Angeles Times.
Due to the nature of the report painting police in a negative light and hurting their image, the raid could’ve been retaliatory in nature. Indeed, since it was in direct violation of California law, it appears as such.
After the raid was investigated, the five warrants that authorized the searches were deemed illegal and quashed last summer by the same five judges who initially approved them.
Unsealed warrant applications show police did not inform judges that Carmody had a valid press pass issued by the San Francisco Police Department, reported Courthouse News.
“The city egregiously overstepped its bounds, and the search warrants served on Bryan were unlawful,” David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition said. “They were in violation of California’s journalist shield law so I’m happy to see that Bryan is going to get some compensation for that.”
As TFTP reported at the time, according to Carmody, before the raid, two cops came to his home to demand he tell them the source of his report. However, knowing full well that he did not have to, Carmody politely refused. Two weeks later, a SWAT team of cops showed up.
Carmody recalls the officers showing up to his home, who began smashing in his door with a sledge hammer and a battering ram, without knocking. To avoid having the front of his home demolished by the raid, Carmody opened the door.
When the police came into his home, they kidnapped Carmody for over six hours, holding him in handcuffs.
“I’m smart enough not to talk to federal agents, ever,” Carmody told The Washington Post. “I just kept saying ‘lawyer, lawyer, lawyer.'”
While they held Carmody captive, the officers tore his home apart, confiscating all of his computers and equipment.
“It’s designed to intimidate,” Carmody’s lawyer, Thomas Burke, told The Associated Press. “It’s essentially the confiscation of a newsroom.”
Naturally, the police stood by the Stasi-style raid of a journalist’s home, and referred to Carmody’s detainment and theft of his equipment as part of an “investigation.”
David Stevenson, a spokesman for the San Francisco police, told the Chronicle last year that the “search warrant executed today was granted by a judge and conducted as part of a criminal investigation into the leak of the Adachi police report.” He called it “one step in the process of investigating a potential case of obstruction of justice along with the illegal distribution of a confidential police report.”
However, as stated above, this alleged “investigation” was completely illegal.
As NPR notes, Burke said that normally journalists would receive a subpoena, and then get a lawyer to ensure the proper protections. “So much information has nothing to do with the purpose of their investigation,” he said. “If you are looking for one piece of information, that’s why you issue a subpoena.”
But this did not happen and instead, police carried out an extremely disturbing raid on a journalist.
Luckily, because Carmody had committed no crime, he was eventually released, but not before the cops took the report, stole his property, and damaged his home.
Despite the illegal nature of the entire raid on this journalist’s home, none of the officers or officials involved in it were held accountable for their actions. Instead, it was the taxpayers of San Francisco who paid up.
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This is what you snowflake cop haters would deal with if there was no police
I wonder if you would call 911 if this happened to you
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Why would anyone call 911 after the fact? The police aren't going to put much, if any, effort into figuring out who committed the crime unless the person assaulted has some level of importance. There's no money to be made doing that when they could be out harassing and collecting elsewhere.Comment -
WATCH: NYPD Cops Beat Man Claiming he had Weed which he Denies in Viral Video
The New York City Police Department claimed the man was running away from them but the video proves that to be a lie.
A plainclothes NYPD cop stopped a man on the street without telling him why, holding him against a wall for 90 seconds before several other cops came running and pouncing on him, punching, kicking, choking and piling on top of him, all while yelling the obligatory "stop resisting."
Fitzroy Gayle ended up charged with possession of marijuana along with the misdemeanor contempt-of-cop charges of obstructing government administration and resisting arrest. He told the New York Daily News he didn't even have weed.
And even if he did, the video further confirms the longstanding NYPD policy of using outdated marijuana laws to arrest minorities. The fact that they do so using minority officers does not make it any more acceptable.
The incident took place Wednesday evening as the 20-year-old man was walking down a street in Brooklyn and was confronted by the plainclothes cop.
New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea told the Daily News that cops were possibly in fear for their lives because they had heard gunshots at a nearby park but anything that comes out of the mouths of the New York City Police Department should be taken with a grain of salt because it manipulates facts all the time.
The truth is, the NYPD has long used the failed drug war as an excuse to crackdown on minorities for victimless crimes which does nothing for public safety but helps fund their retirement pensions. Some retired NYPD cops make more than $300,000 a year in pensions.
In other words, their livelihood depends on destroying the livelihood of others. That's the definition of modern-day policing. We see it daily with these videos.
See the video in the link above.Comment -
pretend to get bent out of shape when citizens jump another citizen but crickets when the cops jump an innocent citizen minding his own business. how did it come to thisComment -
NYPD cop charged with assault for attacking his fiancée
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Clark Neily, vice president for criminal justice at the Cato Institute, discusses problems associated with the U.S. Supreme Court's "qualified immunity doctrine." Neily offered these comments during an interview for Carolina Journal Radio. Video courtesy of CarolinaJournal.com.Comment -
Total guess/comment, Domestic Violence for average families is probably higher than 40%
for families attached to the Courts and cops I`d bet the number to be all of 80%, closer to 99% when one considers all forms of Violence
the definition of Violence is simply "the abuse of power"
if one looks closely they will see that we men and the USA are
pretty fukking good at it !Comment -
Three POS deputies get a paid vacation after senselessly beating a man.
Bootlickers, their fellow blue line gang members and their families must be proud.
WATCH: Cops Mistake Medical Emergency for Drug Use, Viciously Beat Man with Batons
St. Johns County, FL — At least three St. Johns County deputies have been placed on administrative leave after cell phone video surfaced of them savagely beating Christopher Butler. Predictably, police were quick to determine Butler was high on PCP but his lawyer says he was suffering from a diabetic event and was not able to follow police officer commands.
The incident began 12/29 with Butler being observed driving 15 mph on I-95, the interstate with minimum speeds set at 55mph. A Florida Highway Patrolman (FHP) made the stop but requested backup after he was unable to get Butler to exit the vehicle. A passerby then witnessed the beating and stopped to record. That Good Samaritan later passed his cell phone videos on to Ms. Morgenstern, Butler’s mother, who contacted the news media.
Butler’s lawyer claims the beating was the “worst he’s ever seen” and says it doesn’t matter whether or not his client was on drugs or not, no one deserves to be treated inhumanely. John Phillips, the family’s attorney, said his client did not deserve to be treated that way:
"It’s just so abusive and it just goes on for so long…They just kicked him and used a baton and tased him over and over…He was not high on PCP and any statement to that effect is going to result in defamation…He was having, as we understand it, a diabetic or blood sugar event throughout the course of this. Regardless, even if he was hopped up on whatever, you can’t just beat somebody because they’re high on drugs."
But cops do just that. They often mistake health problems with drug use and then justify their beatings by claiming the suspects were “not following lawful orders.” As TFTP has reported on numerous occasions, federal use of force guidelines permit officers to escalate their uses of force for non-compliance. Such use of force can include, closed fist strikes such as Butler received while appearing to be seated on asphalt, hardly a threat to anyone.
If the police were not successful in getting Butler out of the vehicle they would have been justified with sending a K9 through the window, as we’ve seen before. There’s no limit to the extent law enforcement will go to subdue a suspect, including tasering a suspect to death, beating someone to death, choking someone to death, and/or running a suspect over with a moving vehicle.
We’ve seen it all folks. It’s not the first time citizens who were allegedly having a medical emergency have had their rights violated by raging police officers. For more information on rights violating police officers, see our police brutality archives. police brutality archives. https://thefreethoughtproject.com/ca...ity-cop-watch/
Butler’s lawyer implied he and his client intend to sue for civil rights violations and defamation of character for the beating and subsequent blaming the victim by stating he was high on PCP.
https://thefreethoughtproject.com/wa...n-with-batons/
Cop Fired, Charged As Chilling Video Shows Him Torture Naked Unarmed Man in ‘Diabetic Event’
St. Johns County, FL — In January, three St. Johns County deputies were placed on administrative leave after cell phone video surfaced of them savagely beating Christopher Butler. Predictably, police were quick to determine Butler was high on PCP but his lawyer says he was suffering from a diabetic event and was not able to follow police officer commands. Now, after video of the incident garners much deserved attention, one of the cops involved has been fired and charged.
On Thursday, Sheriff David Shoar said he withdrew the commission of Deputy Anthony Deleo and then filed criminal charges against him during a use-of-force investigation.
The victim’s mother, Teri Morgenstern told First Coast News that she is happy her son’s abuser has been charged. However, she said she is not done fighting for justice and wants to make sure this violent maniac doesn’t become a gypsy cop and get hired in a neighboring county.
“I’m grateful, I’m happy,” Morgenstern said. “This is one step closer to showing police brutality exists in every state in every county. It doesn’t matter your race, it happens. And we need to get this out there so it doesn’t happen to someone else’s kid. I don’t want him to leave this county and go to Duval and become an officer there tomorrow because they can if we don’t go get his certification. I want his certification gone. I don’t want it to be your child or your child or another one of my children to be beaten—savagely beaten, like he beat Christopher.”
Butler was booked into the St. John’s County jail and is still being held on resisting arrest and felony assault on a police officer charges. His mother decried the way the men who were supposed to protect and serve her son treated him.
The incident began 12/29 with Butler being observed driving 15 mph on I-95, the interstate with minimum speeds set at 55mph. A Florida Highway Patrolman (FHP) made the stop but requested backup after he was unable to get Butler to exit the vehicle. A passerby then witnessed the beating and stopped to record. That Good Samaritan later passed his cell phone videos on to Ms. Morgenstern, Butler’s mother, who contacted the news media.
Butler’s mother noted:
"They kneed Christopher in the face and punched him in the face inside the car…And our video shows once they had him on the ground they started kicking him in the face. They beat him so many times with the baton. They kept punching and my kid ended up at the hospital in critical care."
Indeed, as First Coast News points out, video shows Deleo hitting Butler 19 times with his baton and kicked him in the head and face for the next three minutes and 44 seconds, the warrant says.
While he was getting beaten, or rather tortured, Butler was naked, unarmed, entirely passive, and presented absolutely no threat.
Butler’s lawyer claims the beating was the “worst he’s ever seen” and says it doesn’t matter whether or not his client was on drugs or not, no one deserves to be treated inhumanely. John Phillips, the family’s attorney, said his client did not deserve to be treated that way:
"It’s just so abusive and it just goes on for so long…They just kicked him and used a baton and tased him over and over…He was not high on PCP and any statement to that effect is going to result in defamation…He was having, as we understand it, a diabetic or blood sugar event throughout the course of this. Regardless, even if he was hopped up on whatever, you can’t just beat somebody because they’re high on drugs."
But cops do just that. They often mistake health problems with drug use and then justify their beatings by claiming the suspects were “not following lawful orders.” As TFTP has reported on numerous occasions, federal use of force guidelines permit officers to escalate their uses of force for non-compliance. Such use of force can include, closed fist strikes such as Butler received while appearing to be seated on asphalt, hardly a threat to anyone.
If the police were not successful in getting Butler out of the vehicle they would have been justified with sending a K9 through the window, as we’ve seen before. There’s no limit to the extent law enforcement will go to subdue a suspect, including tasering a suspect to death, beating someone to death, choking someone to death, and/or running a suspect over with a moving vehicle.
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