This is about as outrageous an example of police abuse of a citizen as you’ll find anywhere.
A San Francisco sheriff’s deputy has been arrested and charged with 4 felonies and 1 count of misdemeanor battery for allegedly attacking an emergency room patient and then lying about the incident. He was caught when prosecutors reviewed hospital surveillance video.
The incident occurred Nov. 3 at San Francisco General Hospital. The video shows the patient, who uses a wooden walking cane, sleeping in a chair while waiting to see a doctor. The deputy approached him as he began waking up, engaging him in conversation. The patient then got up, using his cane for assistance, and began walking toward the exit.
At that point the deputy grabbed the man from behind by his collar, knocked his cane away, dragged him back into the chair, and choked him by the throat; or, at least, that’s what the video allegedly shows. The deputy then arrested the man and filed a police report that claims the man attacked the deputy with his cane. But prosecutors, after reviewing the video, say the man “never raised his cane in a threatening manner.” False arrests like this are usually dealt with by the defendant seeking legal help from a law firm experienced in criminal law.
Prosecutors dropped charges against the patient and accused the deputy of felony assault, filing a false police report, filing a false instrument, perjury, and misdemeanor battery. He was suspended without pay and is out of jail on $138,000 bail after being able to utilize the services of somewhere like this online bail bonds company, or putting forward the money gifted to him from the generosity of his family or friends.
It’s not clear what triggered the incident. From various news reports I read, the deputy was assigned to patrol the hospital and was on duty at the time. I’m guessing he said something to the patient about loitering, which would explain why the patient got up to leave; and, human nature being what it is, the patient may have said something in reply that set off the deputy.
The deputy, 33, apparently is a recent military veteran (see photo from a San Francisco TV station). It’s clear in the photo that he’s white. I found nothing in news reports indicating whether the victim was a minority, or referring to race, but I doubt this was a racial incident, it more likely involves poverty and marginalized populations.
According to Wikipedia, San Francisco General is a public hospital and trauma center, similar to Seattle’s Harborview, that “serves poor, elderly people, uninsured working families, and immigrants. About 80 percent of its patient population either receives publicly funded health insurance … or is uninsured. SFGH also cares for the homeless, who make up about 8 percent of its patients.” While we have to be careful about drawing inferences, I’m guessing the waiting room is something of a zoo and the deputy, who regularly worked there, was kept busy keeping the place under control.
We also have to be careful about making generalizations, but it certainly seems like something has changed with America’s police. What seems to be happening all across the country is that cops are increasingly resorting to violence as a control tactic, even when it’s not necessary to protect themselves or others. This seems to be another case of gratuitous violence against a non-criminal citizen who at most was guilty of some trivial offense against public peace and order, and at most, mouthed off to a cop. That, alone, is getting citizens beaten up by cops these days.
Things are out of control. Killer cops aren’t prosecuted. Bully cops aren’t fired. Police unions publicly demonize the victims of police brutality. And stories are legion of dishonest cops bringing false charges, planting evidence, and lying in police reports about citizens who have done something they don’t like. Which may be as little as asking a question or taking video of an arrest. There’s a widespread perception among the public, and especially among minorities, that the police see the civilians they’re supposed to protect and serve as enemies, that the police are dangerous, and that there are no consequences for police misbehavior.
Maybe San Francisco is a more progressive city, or maybe prosecutors and police management there have been sensitized by the anti-police protests occurring all over the country in the aftermath of the police killings of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, John Crawford, Tamir Rice, and others; but, in any case, in San Francisco the authorities apparently have decided this incident is a bridge too far.
My wife thinks part of the problem is that police departments have been too eager to hire military veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, that many of these veterans are mentally messed up (a flood of VA disability claims seems to support this), and are unfit for police duty. If so, this is occurring in conjunction with a broadly embraced policy of militarizing America’s civilian police departments. Before I comment on that topic, I’m a Vietnam veteran, and I think it’s both inappropriate and dangerous to encourage a police philosophy that views our cities as battlefields and sees police work as a type of warfighting. This needs to be revisited, and soon, by people at the top of our police hierarchies.
I have an idea of where the idea of police departments acquiring military equipment and weapons, and adopting military tactics, may have come from. The other night I watched a made-for-TV dramatization of the North Hollywood shootout between two bank robbers equipped with body armor and fully automatic AK-47s, and street cops armed with pistols whose bullets couldn’t penetrate the criminals’ body armor. (The robbers were killed, and a total of 18 cops and bystanders were wounded.) At the end of the movie, a narrator commented that this incident prompted many police departments to, in effect, become militaries capable of dealing with such a situation.
I think we need SWAT teams, and police prepared to deal with terrorist incidents, heavily armed criminals and gangs, and other major incidents. But we also need better controls on when, how, and against whom these resources are used. At the same time, we need to also consider things from a police point of view. Although general crime rates are falling in America, it does appear we’re becoming a more violent country.
About 10 years ago, during a midwest trip, I went fishing with a retired cop who supervised a SWAT unit for a northern Illinois sheriff’s department for many years. He said at first the SWAT team got 1 or 2 calls a month, but it had become almost daily, and the incidents had become more dangerous, by the time he decided to leave before getting killed. While this is anecdotal, it makes perfect sense that policing may be getting more violent in response to a society that’s getting more violent. If so, I can’t think of a simple or obvious solution for this. (Can you?)
I do think it’s clear that some of the things that some of our police are doing are intolerable to the citizenry, and need to change. My suggestions are: More extensive training on use of force, clear and unambiguous policies on use of force, a clearly communicated expectation that officers will strictly adhere to these policies, more intensive supervision to make sure they do, and much better accountability. The latter means that those in police management and supervisory positions must stop protecting bad cops, take disciplinary action when called for, be willing to fire abusive or unfit cops, be willing to stand up to police unions that try to keep bad and unfit cops on the force, and actively prosecute abusive cops when their actions rise to criminal msbehavior. There should be zero tolerance of gratuitous violence or physical abuse, of lying and filing false charges or false reports, and of threatening witnesses and bystanders.
We need the police. They have an important job to do. It’s a difficult and sometimes dangerous job. We need to be able to trust them, and they need to trust us, and remember that their role is to serve. It’s very important that the job be done right, and when they do it right, we owe them our enthusiastic support.
News file photo of San Francisco sheriff’s deputy charged with assaulting hospital ER patient.