Un-frickin'-believable...

ShiftyBob · 28 June 2007

I support law-obiding police officers whole-heartedly. As a former officer, I understand the difficulties of being an officer, and why officers treat people the way they do (not saying I agree, I just understand). Furthermore, I understand that those who do not obey the law, or run from it, for the most part, need to be dealt with within reasonable means to make them comply. This officer though, does NOT fall within those guidelines...

Go Skateboarding Day!

A dispicable act of police brutality was committed on "Go Skateboarding Day" by the Hot Springs, Arkansas Police Department.

This cop (Officer Joey Williams) in the video is a joke and a disgrace not only to the Police Department but to the USA and something should be done by the way he treated these kids.

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Hot Springs Arkansas Police Department
Phone: (501) 321-6789
Fax: (501) 321-6708
Chief of Police, Bobby Southard
FYI - they disabled the Chief's email address. AKA buried their heads in the sand.
email the Public Information Officer
[email protected]
641 Malvern Avenue

nsxotic911 · 28 June 2007

I'm very saddened

. Were they even read their Miranda Rights? Did you realize that the teenager he was chocking was a girl?

Given the prejudice that happens against minorities and young people, this is one of the reasons US actually gets low human and civil rights, surprising to some.

However, as a positive, one of the trends that I see happening is that, with camera and video technology progressing and the costs lowerin, accountability in public (for all, regardless of occupation) will be taken to a new level.

When you know that you may be on camera, you will behave better, and justice will be served easier. I know I think twice when on the freeway and..... knowing that someone might have a camera and video going.

Go Bears! · 28 June 2007

Man, seeing stuff like this really makes my blood boil. There's "law-enforcement" and there's BS like what happend in the video. The only training that this cop had was how to dish out stupid charges one after another.

SWIFTVISION · 28 June 2007

slownsxt said:
When you know that you may be on camera, you will behave better, and justice will be served easier. I know I think twice when on the freeway and..... knowing that someone might have a camera and video going.

That is a VERY dangerous line of thinking.......Big brother watching your every move.

And F' the police...

nsxotic911 · 28 June 2007

SWIFTVISION said:
That is a VERY dangerous line of thinking.......Big brother watching your every move.

And F' the police...

It's not big brother, it's the public

I think in most cases, the public and victim(s) wins, I don't mind. It is (or will be) a deterrant for everyone.

Arshad · 28 June 2007

Unbelievable!

SilverStone05 · 28 June 2007

Not surprised.

comtec · 29 June 2007

It's FARVA from Super Troopers :biggrin: . Sorry but he acts and sounds just like him in the movie. lol

sahtt · 29 June 2007

Not surprising.

What worries me is if I was there when this was occuring. I don't care if you are a plumber named Bobby, an officer named Joe, or a President named George; if I saw -all- the surrounding events and it lead to anyone wrecklessly choking a 13 year old girl I'm going to stop it-regardless of whether I go to jail or not.

The sad part is the criminal-the one in the wrong-the one who should be arrested-is the one committing the act AND the one I have to call to stop the act from being committed.

You get a very real sense of why many people fear/hate police officers when you hang around enough poor inner-city people. If you see a cop abusing his powers, who do you call? Ghost busters?

That being said, the U.S. is still one of the best nations regarding this it's just certain areas where this is really out of control/isolated cases. Certainly still could be better though.

ONEADAM12 · 29 June 2007

OK guys.... I am not defending anything here seen on the video as it is..... BUT.... NOBODY except the guy on the ground and the cop knows what happened to get to that point BEFORE THE CAMERA STARTED TO ROLL !!!!!!!!!
we dont know if the guy on the ground assaulted the officer, is a wanted dangerous felon, had just committed some other crime besides skateboarding or any number of things. nobody here knows how old the guy on the ground is.... AGAIN... i am not defending what we see the officer doing on the vidoe as it is, neither am i condoning it !!!!!! what i am doing is trying to shed some light on the irresponsible posts of those who make assinine statements on a subject like this who have NO IDEA what took place, but are simply judgeing the situation on the LIMITED video. for all we know these three could have all just committed a crime and were using the skateboards as their getaway transportation

heySkippy · 29 June 2007

Criminals fleeing on skateboards? LOL! Didn't you hear the cop at the end rattling off the charges he was arresting the kids for? Disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, resisting arrest. That's your standard cop arsenal of charges for when he doesn't really have anything else.

ONEADAM12, you can justify it all you want, but it's the same old broken record to many of us. Yeah, we don't know for sure but given our collective experiences it's quite easy to believe the cop is overreacting to some minor or even imagined offense.

Cairo94507 · 29 June 2007

I will say that it is true that we all have no idea what transpired prior to the video being turned on. But, it also seems, short of a serious felony having precipitated these arrests, that the cop seems to have over reacted and may need some training on how to maintain a level of professionalism on par with the police and not a security guard chasing someone for a candy bar. Ragardless, it is images like this that tend to cause the public to wonder exactly what the police are doing.

NSX-Stalker · 29 June 2007

He probably is over reacting because at least one kid jumped on the cops back which the camera did not catch. Even a 13 yr old can grab your gun and shoot you. It is cleary resisting arrest.

But it is on You-tube though so what we're seeing must be the whole story eh?

NSX-Stalker

comtec · 29 June 2007

I guess my HDTV isn't as good of a monitor as i thought. Which one is the girl? The choking you guys are talking about is the still shot? I can't tell from that if his hand is on the persons neck or shoulder. Plus almost anyone that is being choked will naturally reach for their neck to try and free their breathing. This person in the picture does not have their hand near their neck. So i can't tell he is actually choking the person or holding them down.

The kid that got tackled struck the officer with their skateboard and seemed to be the only one that should have been arrested.

sahtt said:
if I saw -all- the surrounding events and it lead to anyone wrecklessly choking a 13 year old girl I'm going to stop it-regardless of whether I go to jail or not.

I wouldn't suggest that in some areas of the US. Some LEO's don't play and you would be lucky to go to jail.

nsxotic911 · 29 June 2007

comtec said:
It's FARVA from Super Troopers :biggrin: . Sorry but he acts and sounds just like him in the movie. lol

That's hillarious, my wife and I just saw this movie last night! We couldn't stop laughing, haha.
"You boy's like Mexico!! Yeeha"
<Sweedish voice> "Please officer, I can't afford another ticket, can I .. do something for you, or my wife, or you do something to her..? mhhmm..."

Anyway.. back to topic. Unless the person is bitting you, there is no reason to choke. It's unnecessary force. You can hold someone down a lot easier if you're 200+ lbs and the other person is barely 100 lbs.

davidf · 29 June 2007

Small town cops.

NSXrebel · 29 June 2007

slownsxt said:
I'm very saddened . Were they even read their Miranda Rights?

You don't need to read someone their Miranda rights when making an arrest, at all. Miranda rights come into play when you want to interrogate a suspect. Before you can start asking questions you have to advise them of their rights.

NSXrebel · 29 June 2007

davidf said:
Small town cops.

Hot Springs is far from being a small town. Then again , this is Ar-Kansas we're talking about...:wink:

Ko-nsx · 29 June 2007

video does not show all the events that took place. I respect the danger police go through, so some of the stuff i see i could deal with.

For some reason children think they can talk back to police officers, principals, school teachers and others that have some authority in certain situations.

When i get pulled over i treat the officer with the utmost respect. If i got arrested for doing something illegal and my dad found out i backed talked an adult with authority, i'd get a choking. Sometimes i believe some of these kids can be insenstive, disrespectful bastards that an adult raised to be that way. I don't agree with brutality but, all that other stuff was fluff when the officer seemed to be doing his job. BUT again i still don't know what ticked the officer off either. I think the officer felt these kids had no respect

davidf · 29 June 2007

NSXrebel said:
Hot Springs is far from being a small town. Then again , this is Ar-Kansas we're talking about...:wink:

We try to take the bikes there usually twice a year for 3/4 days. It just seems small and very dated and dirty to me. I'll swear on my mother that there were girls in the titty bars we visited with teeth missing. I was completely floored. Yet we still go spring and fall.

BenDF · 30 June 2007

What if that was your kid?

My 11 year old nephew is about that size, and skateboards as well. I couldn't imagine my reaction if I saw a cop choking him.

If you think that was bad:

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2007-06-28/news/death-by-electrocutioner

http://knoxnews.com/kns/state/article/0,1406,kns_348_5565844,00.html

http://www.cleveland.com/crime/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1180514389194890.xml&coll=2

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=d8pcr70o0&show_article=1&catnum=0

http://abcnews.go.com/us/story?id=3196477&page=1

Don't be surprised. There are plenty of bad cops out there. Many people seem to not believe it when I talk about how bad it is.

chado · 30 June 2007

Ko-nsx said:
video does not show all the events that took place. I respect the danger police go through, so some of the stuff i see i could deal with.

I agree officers face plenty of dangerous situations... but common PLEASE that was not even close to dangerous. Its called someone in a position of authority probably having a bad day and taking it out on someone else. And if that was my little girl being choked like that... umm I don't want to think about what I'd do.

BenDF · 30 June 2007

NSX-Stalker said:
But it is on You-tube though so what we're seeing must be the whole story eh?

NSX-Stalker

Exactly. Imagine all of the incidents that have happened that did NOT have video evidence! It goes both ways.

steveny · 30 June 2007

bodypainter said:
Criminals fleeing on skateboards? LOL! Didn't you hear the cop at the end rattling off the charges he was arresting the kids for? Disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, resisting arrest. That's your standard cop arsenal of charges for when he doesn't really have anything else.

ONEADAM12, you can justify it all you want, but it's the same old broken record to many of us. Yeah, we don't know for sure but given our collective experiences it's quite easy to believe the cop is overreacting to some minor or even imagined offense.

...and if the cop had any real charges he would have been listing those off instead of the BS charges he was rattling off.

whiteNSXs · 30 June 2007

ONEADAM12 said:
OK guys.... I am not defending anything here seen on the video as it is..... BUT.... NOBODY except the guy on the ground and the cop knows what happened to get to that point BEFORE THE CAMERA STARTED TO ROLL !!!!!!!!!
we dont know if the guy on the ground assaulted the officer, is a wanted dangerous felon, had just committed some other crime besides skateboarding or any number of things. nobody here knows how old the guy on the ground is.... AGAIN... i am not defending what we see the officer doing on the vidoe as it is, neither am i condoning it !!!!!! what i am doing is trying to shed some light on the irresponsible posts of those who make assinine statements on a subject like this who have NO IDEA what took place, but are simply judgeing the situation on the LIMITED video. for all we know these three could have all just committed a crime and were using the skateboards as their getaway transportation

I agree with you. I have seen many of these partial clips that their only purpose is to misrepresent facts to mislead. Viewers do not know what happened before the start of the clip. Could the kids be disturbing the peace or harrassing pedestrians? Perhaps, they were running away from the arresting officer and one finally got chased down and pinned down while the buddy decided to clip out that segment. I can also clearly see that the kid who ran across the street was told to stay but he chose to cause a scene by start running like mad. If you were the officer, wouldn't you get all pissed off and start chasing too? I am not a big fan of some cops' attitudes. But I have to say that out of my experiences with them with my flawed behaviors such as speeding, I was treated with professional manners and respect more times than the contrary. I am not happy about the tickets and fines I got, but I am not mad at the officer's for doing their jobs either. Of course, there are bad apples in any trade. There are bad cops, bad doctors, bad lawyers, bad people, period. This clip does not prove one way or the other.
Steve

Un-frickin'-believable...

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