Baton-wielding "bitch"-shouter removed from duty at any more protests....

[moriah]

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/aug/27/codepink-optomist-after-release-jail/

Around noon Tuesday, an officer allegedly forced Forrest to the ground with a baton and later pulled her away from interviews with reporters.

The Rocky Mountain News captured the exchange on video.

CodePink said in the statement that the officer has since been pulled from the protest lines and can no longer interact with demonstrators.

----------

Very happy to hear that.

Cops are people too. I am very well aware of this. They are people who are given very great power in our nation -- and they need that power to protect themselves and the rest of us. With that power, however, they were also given a responsibility and a duty to control themselves and not let their emotions get in the way of their judgment. If they can't keep their emotions in check under pressure, they're not suited for the job.

Knocking a protester to the ground while calling her a "bitch" was an obvious demonstration that the officer involved was not able to keep his emotions under control.

There is no such charge as "contempt of cop" -- taunting a police officer, while not a very intelligent thing to do, is not illegal. Police officers are supposed to be trained to not lose control when they are being taunted. And his demeanor and language, not just his actions, show that he was not in control of himself.

Glad that Denver PD has acknowledged this and is no longer having him work in such a stressful assignment.

[John Q. Citizen]

1. I think the cops are probably crazier than the demonstrators. Stress.

[Breeze54]

10. The "demonstrators using violence are OPERATION CHAOS RETHUGS!!!

:grr: They're all there and trying to make PEACE demonstrators look bad and cause problems!

Watch it on PBS now! It's on my TV from the '60's and 70's demonstrations. ;)

France kicked ASS!! :woohoo:

[goodgd_yall]

13. Huh?

:think:

[Breeze54]

14. Huh? You can't read words?

The rethugs from Operation Chaos (Rush Limbaugh's plan) are in Denver causing trouble!

Pretending to be a part of Code pink and any other group... they even have a WAR ROOM

3 blocks from The Pepsi Center in Denver! And the video's of the police beating up Vietnam

anti-war protesters in the USA and in France is on PBS tonight! Got it? Same shit, different day!

[goodgd_yall]

18. I say "huh?" because it doesn't seem to be working

Are the demonstrators even being given much air time? And the Repugs wouldn't have to go to that trouble to make them look bad since they are fundamentally opposed to protest unless it's their side doing the protesting.

[goodgd_yall]

2. Hallelujah!

I wonder what the 3 DUers in the thread about this story who were so adamant about defending the cop will think of this. Of course, the source in the article is a Code Pink member, so until its confirmed by the Police Department, they may not believe it.

It's too bad there is no reprimand, but at least its vindication that his actions were inappropriate and the force he used was unnecessary and excessive. I'll make sure to kick this so people who read the first posting of this see the results.

[Danger Mouse]

3. If that's true then I was wrong. Period.

:shrug:

[Danger Mouse]

4. Oh, and I made the mistake of reading a thread about this incident on one of those

'other' websites. I was so revolted by what I read there that I no longer felt so strongly about what happened to her. RWer's are disgusting pigs. Saying 'I wish I were that cop' or 'I hope one of them eats lead next time'...absolute pigs.

[goodgd_yall]

7. Ugh

Here on DU, as I'm sure you know being a longtime DUer, you'll find a lot of people that hate to see the abuse of power (remember how Joe Biden brought up "abuse of power" in his speech Wednesday night?) I think that's one of the things that separates us from the RWers. Very, very few of us hate ALL cops, but when we see one doing the wrong thing, because they do have so much power, it makes us very, very angry.

[Danger Mouse]

11. The freepers feel that authority is always right and should be applied with more force...

as long as it's not on them. That's the extremist view at least.
An extremist on DU would be an anarchist. There aren't too many of them here, thankfully.

[Mother Of Four]

9. I guess my first view of it was right-

and I was wrong the SECOND time...

Or...uhm since it was posting for the first time...is it wrong the first time?

:shrug:

If that's what he said and did, then he was out of line...period. Think I can get an "Sorry honey" from hubby and bump my right percentage to 91 from 90? :D

PS- I'm really glad he was taken off the line, honestly I think they need the older fellas that actually have a head on their shoulders out there instead of the young bucks that have something to prove. That way lays loads of trouble.

[goodgd_yall]

12. Never doubt

a woman's intuition. :D

[Raineyb]

20. Amy Goodman mentioned it on Democracy Now! last night

That's when I first heard of the cop being removed from duty.

Regards

[TexasObserver]

5. This cop was way out of control and in the wrong.

I can't believe how many DUers watched the video and blamed the protester for the cop losing his cool, hitting her, shoving her down, then trying to arrest her.

Someone high up saw this on TV news, and they acted quickly to cauterize the wound. Good job by the police commanders to get this dangerous man off the street.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

17. Not that many really, some just posted the same reply over and over. n/t

[goodgd_yall]

19. True---I counted 3.

[avaistheone1]

6. What a relief.

What that cop did was sickening and wrong. I am glad he has been taken out of commission.

Thank God that so many people have cameras and recorders at the convention to capture this crap.

[goodgd_yall]

8. Here's some more of this story:

an earlier report:

CodePink protester Alicia Forrest, 24, was released on $500 bail Tuesday night and has a court date for late September, she said Wednesday at an antiwar protest march through the middle of Denver.

<snip>

She and others were asking officers why they were arresting another protester Tuesday afternoon outside Civic Center when the officer poked her twice with his baton. He then pushed her with the long side of the stick once, Forrest said, before yelling, "Back up, b----" and shoving her hard to the ground.

The final shove was captured by a Rocky videographer.

The video, which also showed Forrest minutes later being dragged away and arrested while talking to reporters, stirred controversy when it was posted to the Internet.

It cuts out between Forrest's landing on the ground and her arrest — a time during which Forrest said, "I laid on the ground for a while," before getting up and starting to answer reporters' questions.

"I was taking photos, (and) he kept hitting me with his baton," she said. "I was so shocked that he did that."

<snip>

Forrest was in jail about five hours, then spent another two hours talking with the Denver Police Department's Internal Affairs Division, she said.

"So many people were calling them after they saw the video," Forrest said, adding that this was the lone incident she had had with police during the convention.

"All of the police throughout this week have been pretty nice, and pretty cooperative," she said.



http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/aug/27/protester-video-says-officer-hit-her-four-times/

[goodgd_yall]

15. Kick for those who didn't get the latest on this n/t

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

16. .