Five Alabama Policemen Fired Over Beating Video

[Nonno]

"Five policemen from Birmingham, AL were fired Tuesday on charges they used excessive force on a man after a pursuit. A video which details the police beating actually emerged, but not until a year had passed, leading some to question whether or not a cover-up occurred. The policemen have already appealed the decision to the Jefferson County Personnel Board.

The video (below), shows the incident in detail, from Jan. 23, 2008, in which police pursued Anthony Warren, 38, who was trying to run for it in a van. The van overturned on a ramp, ejecting Warren, who lay motionless as officers beat him with fists, feet and a billy club.

Apparently during the pursuit, an officer was injured, and this may be the reason for the violent attack. However, while prosecutors had a tape of the incident, their tape did not contain the beating. Only during Warren's trial, when prosecutors could not play their copy for technical reasons and asked for the original did the Birmingham police beating become public."

More with video here: SNAFU-ed .... Situation Normal: Five Alabama Policemen Fired Over Beating Video

 

[unixpirate]

"Five policemen from Birmingham, AL were fired Tuesday on charges they used excessive force on a man after a pursuit. A video which details the police beating actually emerged, but not until a year had passed, leading some to question whether or not a cover-up occurred. The policemen have already appealed the decision to the Jefferson County Personnel Board.

The video (below), shows the incident in detail, from Jan. 23, 2008, in which police pursued Anthony Warren, 38, who was trying to run for it in a van. The van overturned on a ramp, ejecting Warren, who lay motionless as officers beat him with fists, feet and a billy club.

Apparently during the pursuit, an officer was injured, and this may be the reason for the violent attack. However, while prosecutors had a tape of the incident, their tape did not contain the beating. Only during Warren's trial, when prosecutors could not play their copy for technical reasons and asked for the original did the Birmingham police beating become public."

More with video here: SNAFU-ed .... Situation Normal: Five Alabama Policemen Fired Over Beating Video

Been there, the po po have nothing better to do

 

[PsyOps]

Apparently during the pursuit, an officer was injured

This appears to be an understatement. I can't see the video here at work but what I saw on CNN earlier was a cop being run over (the backside of his lower legs) by the guy. Being thrown from his van he's lucky to be alive.

 

[depechemode]

This is another thing that bugs me about our society. Here is a worthless POS that not only severely injured one person (does it matter what the person's profession was?), but put countless other lives in danger and we are supposed to now feel sorry for him?
Ok yes the cops who hit him probably deserved to be fired, and even prosecuted but this guy in no way shape or form deserves any sympathy. But he will probably now sue and win some settlement from the state and wear the badge of victimhood for the rest of his life when he deserves to be in jail.

 

[eddy1]

This is another thing that bugs me about our society. Here is a worthless POS that not only severely injured one person (does it matter what the person's profession was?), but put countless other lives in danger and we are supposed to now feel sorry for him?
Ok yes the cops who hit him probably deserved to be fired, and even prosecuted but this guy in no way shape or form deserves any sympathy. But he will probably now sue and win some settlement from the state and wear the badge of victimhood for the rest of his life when he deserves to be in jail.

 

[Bay_Kat]

This is another thing that bugs me about our society. Here is a worthless POS that not only severely injured one person (does it matter what the person's profession was?), but put countless other lives in danger and we are supposed to now feel sorry for him?
Ok yes the cops who hit him probably deserved to be fired, and even prosecuted but this guy in no way shape or form deserves any sympathy. But he will probably now sue and win some settlement from the state and wear the badge of victimhood for the rest of his life when he deserves to be in jail.

 

[glhs837]

Like that cop that kicked that one guy in the head, these guys thought they were getting some payback...... instead, they bought this guy a free ride. They gotta think before they act.

 

[direxpgw]

pursuit

Am I the only one left in society that sees no problem with this. I mean isnt it an unwritten rule that if you run from the police, and to the extreme in this case, that you will receive a mandatory azz whooping when you are caught. Big deal....so they roughed the guy up a bit. He ran over their fellow officer. Were they supposed to buy him lunch and pat him on the back. The bigger issue I take with them is their lack of self control. They should have politely arrested him and then suicided him on the way to the station.

 

[eddy1]

Like that cop that kicked that one guy in the head, these guys thought they were getting some payback...... instead, they bought this guy a free ride. They gotta think before they act.

I don't think they bought him a free ride, he plead guilty and can get up to twenty years once the pre-sentencing investigation is done.

 

[eddy1]

Am I the only one left in society that sees no problem with this. I mean isnt it an unwritten rule that if you run from the police, and to the extreme in this case, that you will receive a mandatory azz whooping when you are caught. Big deal....so they roughed the guy up a bit. He ran over their fellow officer. Were they supposed to buy him lunch and pat him on the back. The bigger issue I take with them is their lack of self control. They should have politely arrested him and then suicided him on the way to the station.

While I feel bad for the police officers who are losing their jobs, it is hard not to feel that the decision to fire them was just. The guy was unconscious. It is not the role of the police officer to dish out the punishment. If the guy was fighting back or resisting ever so slightly, I would say yea for the cops, but the guy was obviously limp on the ground.

 

[Larry Gude]

Am I the only one left in society that sees no problem with this. I mean isnt it an unwritten rule that if you run from the police, and to the extreme in this case, that you will receive a mandatory azz whooping when you are caught. Big deal....so they roughed the guy up a bit. He ran over their fellow officer. Were they supposed to buy him lunch and pat him on the back. The bigger issue I take with them is their lack of self control. They should have politely arrested him and then suicided him on the way to the station.

Here's the thing. Like any other power in human hands, it DOES get abused. Then the problem becomes one of balancing serving the public interest, which can't help but become a political issue, and then the two wings go at it; the wing that says the good that cops do outweighs the excesses and then there's the wing that says any excess is too much excess.

Joe Arpaio in Arizona tends to be recognized as most people's ideas of the perfect cop. He feeds the inmates on the cheap, they have very few creature comforts and he keeps them busy. Anything you read about him, it sounds like what jail is supposed to be; a place where folks who broke the law get their freedom taken away and have a very spartan existence while serving their time. It's not unhealthy. It's not some LA county lockup gladiator school full of barely constrained mayhem 24/7. It's...jail.

Yet, he is under attack.

It would be nice to see the balance start swinging back towards the 'good cops do being outweighing the excesses.

 

[glhs837]

Does that mean we should condone the excesses? Or even look the other way? I agree the good officers do far, far outweighs the bad. And the percentage of bad cops to good cops is most likely lower than in almost any equivelant slice of society.

But bad cops, like bad soldiers, given the power of life and death they hold, have a higher standard, and have to live up to it. If you cant, flip burgers. I hold not one shred of sympathy for this lowlife, its not about him, its about the officers losing control. Will the next time one loses control require less provocation, say my little girl waiting for the next gas station to pull over at night when he lights her up?

 

[Larry Gude]

Does that mean we should condone the excesses? Or even look the other way?

Condone, no. Look the other way, no. However, Cops are human beings. They are not robots. Doctors are not robots. Politicians are not robots. Things happen.

I made the argument awhile back that Miranda is at the core of what is wrong with our society in many ways. We took the principle of holding people responsible way off the charts of common sense into shear lunacy; an illegal search means the dead body in the trunk doesn't count and you are free to go.

A cop snaps and kicks a kid in the head he just caught whom he's been chasing through neighborhoods for an hour and the guy has been hitting cars, nearly hit three pedestrians, raced through red lights and stop signs and could have, at any second, plough into a mini van full of kids off to soccer practice.

Cop has a good record. So now, he's off the force? How about he has to apologize, send the kid a card and some flowers and pay $1,000 fine?
And the judge says "Lucky for you they didn't shoot your dumb ass" to the kid.

Instead, a punk, a criminal, has it made for life and doesn't even have to pay for what he did?

 

[glhs837]

I think we are on the same page, Larry. No, the scumbag doesnt get a free pass. The officer gets a punishment more reasonable than losing his job, depending, of course. That chicago detective who beat that woman in the bar, he needs to never be a cop again, and some jail time. That Baltimore waterfront cop who rousted that skater kid, thats an apology. These guys in question, retraining in adreneline management, maybe a few days off. Scumbag gets his medical paid, maybe.

 

[Larry Gude]

I think we are on the same page, Larry. No, the scumbag doesnt get a free pass. The officer gets a punishment more reasonable than losing his job, depending, of course. That chicago detective who beat that woman in the bar, he needs to never be a cop again, and some jail time. That Baltimore waterfront cop who rousted that skater kid, thats an apology. These guys in question, retraining in adreneline management, maybe a few days off. Scumbag gets his medical paid, maybe.

So, how do we make it happen?

 

[eddy1]

I think we are on the same page, Larry. No, the scumbag doesnt get a free pass. The officer gets a punishment more reasonable than losing his job, depending, of course. That chicago detective who beat that woman in the bar, he needs to never be a cop again, and some jail time. That Baltimore waterfront cop who rousted that skater kid, thats an apology. These guys in question, retraining in adreneline management, maybe a few days off. Scumbag gets his medical paid, maybe.

I would have been ok with a few days off as well, but I understand the administration's decision to terminate. It is a difficult life for a police officer, seeing someone they care about, a brother being struck down like that, and chasing down the person who did it. I think any other person other than a cop would have handed out an equal if not greater beating to the bad guy, but like someone on here already said, we have to live up to a higher standard. We should be given the benefit of doubt, but that priveledge requires that when we are wrong, our punishment be justified.

One other thing, the scumbag plead guilty and is facing twenty years in an Alabama correctional institute.

 

[glhs837]

So, how do we make it happen?

Not sure how one goes about injecting common sense into lawyering. Thats where it goes wrong, when common sense can be so lost in the maze of words, and perception overrides reality. I know how to fight that on a personal level, and have taught my children how to parse so as to clear away that chaff. But how one goes about it on a larger level? Electing folks like Larry Jarboe, I think. But people who keep it simple and clear wont reach the stage on higher levels.

eddy, good to hear that scumbag will do hard time, I'll bet if the running over of that officer was not on tape, it might not be as long a sentance. Not sure about the choice to deploy spike in traffic like that, first time Ive seen that done.

 

[Larry Gude]

Not sure how one goes about injecting common sense into lawyering. Thats where it goes wrong, when common sense can be so lost in the maze of words, and perception overrides reality. I know how to fight that on a personal level, and have taught my children how to parse so as to clear away that chaff. But how one goes about it on a larger level? Electing folks like Larry Jarboe, I think. But people who keep it simple and clear wont reach the stage on higher levels.

eddy, good to hear that scumbag will do hard time, I'll bet if the running over of that officer was not on tape, it might not be as long a sentance. Not sure about the choice to deploy spike in traffic like that, first time Ive seen that done.

Judges, judges, judges. Good judges. There's nothing wrong with asking if I can have ice cream for dinner as long as there are judges that say 'No. Eat your vegetables."

 

[ImnoMensa]

This one is pretty bad. There isnt much a person can say in defense of beating an unconscious man, especially one thrown from a vehicle in an accident who may already have broken his friggin neck. It's the pack mentality of men high on adrenaline.

IMO if the first cop had used good sense the others probably would have been allright, but once it started it was hard to make it stop. What needs to be done here is a look at the records of these Officers.. Has any of them received complaints of exceeding authority before? I have always believed Rotney King got the asswhipping he had coming to him. This guy obviously deserved it to, but not while unconscious and before he had been looked at to determine injuries. One other thing enters my mind. How stupid is it to do something like this when you know you are being taped? This isnt like a civilian with a camera , this is a tape from a police car and they all knew it was running.

Not sure all of them should be fired, but they all need some further training. I would assign them to sit in a high school for a year as high school security, cant think of a much crappirer assignment than that.

 

[soul4sale]

Am I the only one left in society that sees no problem with this. I mean isnt it an unwritten rule that if you run from the police, and to the extreme in this case, that you will receive a mandatory azz whooping when you are caught. Big deal....so they roughed the guy up a bit. He ran over their fellow officer. Were they supposed to buy him lunch and pat him on the back. The bigger issue I take with them is their lack of self control. They should have politely arrested him and then suicided him on the way to the station.

Oh, you are so hardass and droll. Why is this county so full of chickenhawk blowhards? I don't care who you are, you do not punch and unconscious man in the head repeatedly. That's just plain assault.

It appears to me that the officer who got injured did so by jumping out in front of the van at the last second to throw a stop strip...like a moron. Did anyone get the reason for this extreme show of force by Alabama's Finest monkeys? I did. It was a bullsh!t drug stop. No one hurt; nothing stolen; just a bunch of roided up bully boys exercising "exceptional restraint" while chasing a van down a busy highway at top speed and then dogpiling their quarry like a pack of savage playground brats. Land of the free; home of the brave...