SF cop probed after video shows use of force

[alp227]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

(07-20) 17:14 PDT San Francisco --

The San Francisco Police Department is investigating an incident caught on video that shows an officer apparently forcing a handcuffed woman face first into the pavement.

In the video, posted on YouTube, the belligerent woman - who police said was drunk and pushing a baby in a stroller - shouts obscenities at two Taraval station officers attempting to arrest her Sunday afternoon.

The woman can be seen resisting both officers' efforts to place her in the police car. The baby, left in the stroller on the sidewalk, can be heard crying. The officers almost manage to get the woman into the unit, but she pushes against the car and yells, "It's my baby in the street!"

While one officer goes to the other side of the patrol car, the other is left to deal with the woman alone. The video shows him bracing her neck with his hand as she pushes back to avoid getting into the car.

Then, the officer appears to move to the side and grunt as he appears to push the woman face first into the pavement on the street between two parked cars.

In the police report, the officer gave a version of what occurred and acknowledged that he used force against the woman, authorities say. The officers stopped the woman because they believed she was the suspect in an assault they were responding to, police said.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/20/BADC1EH5ES.DTL

[Proletariatprincess]

1. cops are out of control.

Don't believe a thing they say. Who knows why they stopped her. But they seemed to have little or no concern for her baby either.
Remember that this is libral San Francisco where I live. Imagine how much worse it must be where there is less awareness of police activity and where there is no civilian police commission to monotor the police department like there is here. Incidents like this go on every day in every city and town in the USA...but here we take notice and outrage.
The Police State is here and the prison industrial complex is thriving.

[TheMadMonk]

4. Won't say he didn't go overboard, won't say he did, but she certainly doesn't...

...appear entirely blameless in this affair either way. This wouldn't have happened if she hadn't mouthed off. This couldn't have happened if she'd accepted the consequences of mouthing off and done as she was asked. Her kid would not have been distressed if she hadn't screamed and behaved like a drunken idiot. Why was said drunken idiot out with a baby in a pusher in the first place?

And if you are right and the Police State is here, then she forgot the first rule of living in one. "Don't give the bastards a reason to notice you." In fact it's a pretty good rule for anywhere, anytime.

[Occulus]

5. Holy FUCK. What a terrible attitude to hold.

Are you asking to be repressed by police?

You just advocated for taking shit like this. Shame on you.

[TheMadMonk]

13. NO! I advocate AVOIDING shit like this.

Mea culpa on one thing: I misread the OP and thought it was her swearing and beligerance that attracted police attention in the first place. On re-reading I see it wasn't what attracted their attention in the first place, but it does seem likely that at some point it became a factor in escallating the situation and subsequent actions. She did nothing to help her situation, and quite probably contributed to turning an already bad situation into a nightmare. If so, is it her fault? Did she deserve it? No! Is she entirely blameless. Also no.

You can not possibly know in advance if any given copper is a good joe or Sheriff Joe, so swearing at one is never a good idea just on general principle. And if you are silly or drunk enough to attract one's attention, or simply happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, becoming beligerent and argumentative is not going to improve matters at all, even with the best of coppers. And a bad cop is going to do his level best to make your time with him a misery.

Whether what he does to you is right or wrong, desrved or undeserved, doesn't really come into it, of course it's bloody wrong, but without witnesses (or a recording) he's going to have his sick fun at your expense and there's not a damned thing you can do about it except avoid to the best of your ability attracting his attention in the first place. And if you do have his attention for any reason, cooperation and civility is far more likely to see you through than being an arsehole. It might not help, but it can't hurt.

Certain things (rape, random assault, getting bashed by a copper) shouldn't happen, but outside of ideal fantasy worlds, they DO happen, regardless of should or shouldn't and all that a sensible person can do in the real world, is avoid as best they can, creating or becoming involved in circumstances that make it possible/more likely for those bad things to happen to them and those they care about.

I do not know what happened here: The copper COULD have deliberately guided her face into the ground; he COULD have simply stepped aside and allowed her own struggles to do the damage; or PERHAPS she manage to briefly wind him and forced him back a step. I haven't looked at any footage, or attemped to form an opinion there. Case one, yes he deserves a judicial kicking and it's a very sad comentary on the state of your nation that he's less than likely to get it; Case two, while not exactly noble, is understandable and I'm sure we've all had moments where we've thought: "Fuck it! If you're so bloody mindedly determined to headbutt the concrete then go ahead, I'm sick of trying to stop you."; and Case three he's blameless and he probably copped hell back in the squadroom.

Whether or not this particular cop is actually "bent" is largely irrelevant to the argument I was making. The bloody question would probably never have come up, if the person claiming victimhood hadn't gone out of their way to create circumstances which made much of the rest possible.

I won't defend or excuse a demonstrably bent cop, but nor will I give a free pass to a victim who out of sheer stupidity or bloody mindedness contributes to their own victimhood at the hands of such a cop. The time for complaining and kicking up a stink is NOT when the subject of your complaint is in a position to kick your noble fool head in.

Polite, cheerfull cooperation has always seen me through my encounters, one semi major, with the police with minimal hassle. Virtually every story I've heard from friends and workmates of less than ideal encounters with cops begins with words to the effect of: 'I gave him a bit of lip' or 'He stuck to me like shit to a blanket and got me up against...'; more than a few of them saw a ride up and down XYZ Hill in the back of the paddy wagon without seats, padding or restraints as something of a rite of passage. They also said the worst hurt to be found was predictably when they fought back.

Cops shouldn't let their emotions get the better of them, and they most certainly should not be permitted to use their position to indulge a penchant for violence or other sick/hamful interests. However, given an imperfect world, we best serve ourselves by not giving the second any excuse to play their nasty little games, or discovering the hard way that the first had already had a very bad day.

[TommyO]

6. You were doing fine until, "Don't give the bastards a reason to notice you."

[No Elephants]

8. No, he wasn't doing fine until then.

[TommyO]

9. I was trying to give the benefit of the doubt

Upon re-reading, you're right.

[No Elephants]

7. "mouthed off?" Cops are supposed to be able to deal with killers w/o excess force.

Paulsby, is that you?

"She was asking for it."

Mel Gibson, is that you?

[WhiteTara]

10. mouthing off is not a jailable offense

and she was probably trying to protect her baby they were leaving in the middle of the sidewalk. By the way, most drunken people do act like idiots. Police should be a calming force, not an escalating one.

[Exultant Democracy]

12. yup

[SoapBox]

2. Let me go ahead and post the headline that will appear in about 1 year...

"SF Cop Found Not Guilty"

...predictible as the tides...

[pipoman]

3. "SF Cop Found Not Guilty"

That quote would imply a trial...there won't be a trial..I think the headline on page 10 will more likely be, "SF Cop Determined Not Guilty"

[mulsh]

11. Every interaction I've had with individual SF cops over the past

10 years has been nasty. I'm a pudgy middle age, middle class white boy. I mostly go to the financial district, North Beach etc. In my experience SF cops can't reel in their inner asshole ever.

I've seen 2 cops pull their billy club on a well dressed elderly man who merely asked directions. I've been told to "fuck off" as I walked up to some beat cops who were aggressively girl watching in Union square. when a couple of the cops I've been talking to found out I lived in Oakland I was showered with their highly misinformed racist white wing opinions. The boys on the force have been consistently nasty and brutal. worse than anything I've seen on Oakland's mean streets.

The only decent cop I've encountered in the last few years is the bike cop who patrols Washington Park. He's about 2 years away from retirement.

with my personal experiences it is difficult for me to thing anything but the worst of SF's boys in blue these days.