SFPD Probes Brutality Claim In Arrest

[MrScorpio]

Jul 21, 2010 10:46 am US/Pacific

AN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / KCBS) ―

Two San Francisco police officers stand over a handcuffed woman in an image from a YouTube video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uDo1lGq0v8

The San Francisco Police Department is investigating an incident in which an officer is seen allegedly pushing a handcuffed woman into the pavement face first.

It was shot Sunday afternoon as two officers from the Taraval station were trying to arrest a woman they say was drunk and belligerent.

The woman was pushing a baby carriage, but as the officers tried to put her in a patrol car she pushed back yelling, "it's my baby in the street!" As one officer headed over to the stroller, the other dealt with the woman, apparently pushing her face down while she was handcuffed.

The Police Management Control Unit is investigating whether the use of force was justified. There is also an investigation going on over a baton-swinging brawl that involved cops and a dozen women after last month's pride celebration in San Francisco.

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

http://cbs5.com/local/SFPD.arrest.video.2.1817136.html

[Swede]

1. They didn't even watch the baby.

Bully boys at work.

[rustydog]

2. Holy shit! the officer who threw the woman to the ground

needs to lose his job and be charged with felony assault.
The woman was contained and completely in his control. He chose to physically abuse her rather than wait until his partner entered the car from the opposite door and help pull her into the vehicle.

This jerk should not be a cop. period.

[EFerrari]

21. It's looks like she bit him or something.

I watched the vid twice. He doesn't throw her down, he pulls his arm away and she falls. ETA: Not falls; he pulls his hand away but does also make her go down.

Sorry, guys. I gotta go with the cops on this one. The SFPD have problems but they're not at Taraval Station, imo. :yoiks:

[rustydog]

23. He rotates and throws her to the ground

pushing with the opposite hand as she drops.
Doesn't shake his arm, look at his arm, yell in pain...nothing.

[asdjrocky]

3. At the very end of the video-

I believe I saw one of the pigs look up at the window and say, "He's got a camera."

That's when they know they are caught.

Of course, capturing pig brutality on a camera means nothing, except a little embarrassment for the pig. Hell, if he kills some one, someone like Oscar Grant for example, then he'll only do 4 years.

[EFerrari]

9. This is really sad to me because Taraval is about the best run precinct

in the city. I think there's a new Captain, though. The old one would have disciplined these people, the new one -- who knows.

[rustydog]

16. Integrity is what you do when you believe no one is watching...

That police officer has no integrity, no honor.

[Liberal_in_LA]

31. good catch. Yep, we all have cameras these days

[TexasObserver]

4. Women, children, old people - the modern cop will abuse them all.

Law enforcement no longer has any sense of restraint or duty to handle reasonably anyone they talk to. They're not worried about the law. They know that the right wing Supreme Court has given them cover, and that cowardly citizens won't hold them accountable.

edit: Certainly not every cop is a bad cop, but even the best of cops willfully and consistently refuse to report abuse by other cops.

[rustydog]

5. It is a glaring sign of ignorance, and prejudice to hold ALL

police officers guilty for the actions of one. Use your brain, use common sense.
Judge the offender not the group.

[asdjrocky]

7. 99% of cops give the rest a bad name.

[TexasObserver]

10. That's unfortunately true.

Even the good ones cover for the bad ones.

[rustydog]

12. Prejudice is ugly, Ignorance can be cured

maybe 10% of police drag down the rest. That 99% had to hurt when you pulled it straight out of your ass.

[TexasObserver]

14. Indeed, your prejudice is ugly and your ignorance can be cured.

Educate yourself on this topic, please.

[rustydog]

19. I have worked around police for over 30 years

I can speak from EXPERIENCE not bigoted opinion.
The vast majority of police officers in america are honorable men and women who put their lives on the line every day. Some are bullies, punks and assholes who need to have the badge ripped from their uniform and they need to be jailed.
NOT ALL COPS sonny.

[TexasObserver]

20. That explains why you are so blind to their attributes.

You speak from bias.

[proteus_lives]

28. Look in the mirror.

If you're interested in seeing ignorance and hate.

[asdjrocky]

18. They cover for each other.

They lie for each other. I'm someone who has known a lot of cops. I've done a lot of business with cops.

Didn't you learn anything thing from Rodney King?

As far as pulling stuff out of my ass, I pull that observation from life.

[rustydog]

22. These guys beat the shit out of Rodney King????

Oh my god, they are all evil!!!!

You cannot judge the group by the actions of individuals! That is a form of prejudice!!!!
Are you that blind?

[asdjrocky]

24. No.

I guess it all comes down to background. I don't know too many people who grew up where I did that have a healthy respect for our "public servants" in blue.

While most people that I know that grew up in tidy, upper-middle-class neighborhoods have a real healthy respect for authority. I'm sure you were raised in such a way in such a place. If I'm wrong, I'm sorry for my false assumption.

We have to go with what life experience has taught us, and what we learn for watching the world from outside our own.

As far as my Rodney King statement, tell me this, of all of those dozen or so fine upstanding "public servants" standing around watching their co-workers beat a man nearly to death, did anyone say stop?

That was my point, they cover for each other.

[rustydog]

26. They implies all police officers

You are basing your statement on the lack of actions of 12 or more bad cops and calling ALL police bad. i am simply saying no they are not.

I could easily say that all blacks and hispanics and any other group who rioted after the Rodney King incident were thugs, drug addicts and criminals. I would be ignorant, bigoted and wrong to come to that conclusion, the same as the conclusions being drawn against all police oficers by some on this posting.

[asdjrocky]

29. Good luck then with your cop love. nt

[Matariki]

15. People wouldn't think this way if there were actual consequences for this sort of behaviour

instead of a culture of covering for each other, no matter how bad.

[Swede]

6. They've been doing this since the dawn of time.

It's just now being caught on tape. Remember the old "he fell downstairs while in custody"?

[TexasObserver]

8. They're doing it much, much worse now than in the past.

Not since the 1960s have police been so brutal in their handling of those they encounter.

And that is the norm now, not the exception.

[Swede]

11. I disagree completely.

They just get caught now. They used to murder people right on the streets,and get away with it.

[TexasObserver]

13. Well, that's your right, but it doesn't change anything.

[Swede]

17. See,this is how we should disagree.

I respect your point of view.

[Dogtown]

25. I do not see brutality in this video.

I'm no friend of the fuzz, but this woman was resisting arrest. Some force was necessary and I really don't see excessive force.

[rustydog]

27. She was handcuffed. she was cursing and resisting being

placed in the police cruiser. The officer had her in complete control.
Throwing someone to the ground who cannot break their fall is cruel and unnecessary.
the situation was in control, the police officer was not.

[Dogtown]

30. I disagree.

But it's open to interpretation. I saw two strong men unable to force a resisting woman into a car. If you've never tussled with an adult you have no idea how tiring it can be.

They tried to protect her head, which she was using to wedge herself outside the car.

They could have "bumped" her head into the car. They could have kidney-punched her. Or twisted her hand/wrist in a pain compliance hold. Some of those techniques would have been legal under the circumstances.

I don't think the situation was "under control". She continued to resist until she fell (with the officer's assistance). I saw no obvious injuries and I saw the officer checking her condition several times.

Had they struck the woman or tased her, I'd consider it excessive force, but forcing a combative person to the ground is not excessive.

I don't like cops, and I certainly don't trust them. Still, they are necessary and often they do things right. This time, force was justified and they used restrained force, probably less than I might have used in the same circumstances. I'm pretty sure I don't have the patience these officers displayed.

[rustydog]

32. I pray your patience far exceeds the officer who threw the

defenseless woman to the ground in a fit of anger or frustration.

The second officer walked to the opposite side of the vehicle to assist in safely placing her in the car.
Throwing her face-first onto the ground with her hands cuffed behind her back is excessive force. She was in his physical control!

As far as tussling with adults...I have been tusslin' with them since 1979. and I have yet to throw a handcuffed individual to the ground rendering them unconscious because they said FUCK YOU and resisted...
That would be Excessive Force!!!!

[Dogtown]

33. My patience does not.

That isn't the only reason I'm not a cop, but it's certainly one of them.

Are you a police officer? You brag of your expertise...
At any rate, how do you know he threw her to the ground for saying "Fuck you"? Can you read his thoughts during a video tape?

I agree that had he done so for that reason, it would be unjustifiable force, but it's ridiculous to assume his motivations in this instance. Perhaps he's not as well trained at tussling as you are and lacks your stamina. Perhaps out of fatigue he was unable to continue to struggle with her and pushed her to the ground to lessen her ability to hurt herself banging her head against the door.


Since I didn't see any outward signs of intentional harming, I have to say give this copper the benefit of the doubt.

Now, if he'd kicked her or punched her after she went down, but nothing like that happened.

[rustydog]

34. Throwing a handcuffed person to the ground rendering her

unconscious is ok with you?

Wow...There is nothing I can say to help you gain reason.

I don't brag about anything. I have dealt with all walks of life in very violent situations.
people have tried to stab me, gang members have tried to ambush me. I have performed CPR on suicide victims and homicide victims. I have performed CPR on babies. I have had drunks, idiots, assholes and certifiable crazy people try to kick my ass and threaten to kill me. i have been told to "fuck myself" so many times in the past 30 years i can't keep count, I've been called a wanna-be a renta cop and could never get laid if I paid for it and I did not EVER let words push me over the edge.
I have been in knock-down-drag-out fights. But when the person was handcuffed and in my control...I NEVER had the urge or NEED to throw someone face down to the ground knocking them unconscious.

[Dogtown]

35. I don't know that she was rendered unconscious.

You don't either. We both saw a woman in cuffs proned-out on the ground.

Maybe she was tired, too. She expended some calories during the exchange.

Could be she passed out from excessive alcohol consumption.

Maybe she's playing possum hoping to catch the cops off-guard.

Or maybe she's trying to fake an injury so she can parlay a conviction into a free-pass.

It would take a lot more than viewing this tape to determine that. What I *am* sure of was that there was no overt brutality, just the use of force in a confrontation.


rustydog, if you've actually been involved in all that without any official sanction, you really need to adjust your lifestyle to less-heroic proportions.

Maybe you should *be* a policeman if you're that cool under fire.

I would not suggest, however, that you seek a career in fiction writing.

[rustydog]

36. Cheap personal attacks don't make you right or me wrong

But feel free to take them because that is all you have got. If you can't tell an unconscious person on the ground after hearing her head crack onthe pavement.
go ahead, watch and LISTEN to the video one more time.

her head strikes the ground from a height of about 5-plus feet. You can hear it. she is completely immobile immediatley after...

[JonLP24]

37. She should be examined for TBI n/t

[Dogtown]

38. Hyperbole and presumption

aren't effective arguments, either.

Anecdotal evidence is also worthless. Primarily because people often stretch credulity in their efforts to make a point.

I think I've had enough of this conversation. Your attack is passive/aggressive, and I find those tactics to be weak and annoying. I called you out for pulling my leg, and I won't feel guilty for failing to get chumped.

See ya around, rustydog.