In Philadelphia, a white cop has been charged with assault and perjury after sucker-punching a black guy and then lying in his official report that the black guy threatened him. A surveillance video shows what actually happened.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk4NQZZmf2s
Yeah, the black guy was drunk, belligerent, and disorderly. He probably mouthed off to the cop, and that’s probably why the cop hit him. But under the First Amendment, you can say anything you want to a cop, about a cop, or about the cop’s mother, and he can’t arrest you for it. Cops know this, so they exact “street justice” against citizens who give them a hard time. That’s illegal and turns the cop into a criminal.
From the initial encounter at a liquor store with a black cop who tried talking with him, until the beating by a white cop at a bus shelter down the street, the drunk black guy’s girlfriend is seen trying to drag him away from the confrontation with police and even shielding him from the police with her body by positioning herself between him and the cops.
When police reinforcements arrived, they followed him down the street to a bus shelter, where they apparently tried to arrest him. The girlfriend, we can guess, just wanted to keep him out of trouble and take him home. There was no melee. The white cop simply stepped around her, closed in, and slugged the guy in the jaw, then threw six more punches to his face and abdomen.
That’s not law enforcement, it’s criminal assault, but the police department didn’t do anything except drop charges against the black guy until he filed a lawsuit and his attorney made the video public. Then the police commissioner suspended the cop, and the prosecutor filed charges against the cop for assault and lying in his police report. At least the city is taking action, but they had to be forced to.
We know the streets are mean. We know there are bad cops. We also know police departments close ranks and protect their own against accusations of misconduct, and have no reticence about falsifying official reports and giving perjured testimony in courts to get off the hook for police behavior that’s illegal and violates citizens’ civil rights. They do it all the time, all over the country.
And it seems to be escalating. Some citizens report being beaten up simply for asking why they’re being detained, or questioning a cop’s actions. Even bystanders are being attacked by cops for questioning police behavior that is, in fact, questionable.
No one is thrilled about living in a surveillance society. But video is a two-edged sword. It allows government to watch citizens, but also enables citizens to prove when cops are misbehaving and then lying about it.
I’m sure this will fly over the heads of cop defenders, but the reason we should be concerned about this is because if we let police do this to guilty people, they’ll do it to innocent people, too. Giving anyone absolute power is, well, dangerous.