Police Brutality... Yet Again

[Idzequitch]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/2 ... mg00000047
EDIT: This source has the uncut dashcam video of the arrest: http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/m ... /70446394/

The violent arrest of an African-American motorist by two white police officers in Inkster, Michigan, was caught on video and shows police brutally beating a man who claimed he did nothing wrong.

The Michigan State Police officers said they pulled over 57-year-old Floyd Dent for violating a traffic violation in January. The dashcam video, which was obtained by WDIV and released on Tuesday, shows Dent opening the door to his car only to be met by an officer who withdrew his gun and aimed it directly at him. Officers dragged Dent out of the vehicle, forced him face down to the ground and proceeded to place him in a chokehold.

“I’m lucky to be living. I think they was trying to kill me, especially when they had choked me,” Dent told WDIV. “I mean, I was on my last breath. I kept telling the officer, ‘Please, I can’t breathe.’”

According to police reports obtained by the TV station, the primary officer served 16 punches to Dent’s head, leaving his face bloody and body bruised. More officers arrived to the scene and attempted to place Dent in handcuffs. The video shows Dent attempting to cover his face to lessen the impact of the punches, while one officer uses a stun gun on him three times and a third tries to place him in handcuffs.

Police said they pulled Dent over for failing to make a complete halt at a stop sign, and later followed his Cadillac down the street through one of the state’s predominantly black neighborhoods.

Dent, who was unarmed and has no criminal record, said he was not intentionally trying to get away, and video shows him driving at the same speed while cops followed behind him. Dent said he did not immediately stop because he was unaware he did anything wrong -- and he has maintained the same argument.

“When the overhead lights came on, I looked and said, ‘Wow, are they stopping me?’" Dent said. “So I just kept going until I realized that they were really stopping me.”

“The next thing I know, the officer runs up to me with his gun, you know, talking about blowing my head off," Dent continued. "Then he grabbed me out of the car and started beating on me, you know. I just couldn’t believe it.”

Dent said he had his hands out after opening his car door. Officers said they did not see both hands and claim Dent yelled, “I’ll kill you.” However, there is no recorded audio from the incident, WDIV reported.

“You have six responding vehicles. Not one officer is equipped with a microphone to take down this alleged threat,” Dent’s attorney, Greg Rohl, told the local news station.

The primary officer claimed he was protecting himself, according to WDIV. Officers said that Dent, who later said he feared he would die as a result of the chokehold, resisted arrest and bit the officer in the arm, which resulted in the series of significant blows to Dent's head. However, no photographs are available of the alleged bite marks and the officer did not seek medical attention, WDIV reported.

The incident led to a protest of around 50 demonstrators who rallied outside of the Detroit-area police department on Wednesday to speak out against this case of police brutality. The protest was led by the Rev. Charles Williams II, who called on officials to fire the officers involved.

"We will shut Inkster down until we get justice," Williams said, according to The Associated Press.

Inkster Police Chief Vicki Yost addressed the crowd Wednesday and said the state police department is conducting an investigation into the case.

"I understand your concern," Yost told Williams, according to the AP. "Again, we're going to let the investigation play out ... We're going to act accordingly. We're not hiding from this."

Well, NSG, it's happened again. Floyd Dent (Who just so happens to be black) failed to stop at a stop sign. The police officers who pulled him over (who just so happen to be white) yanked him out of his car, hit him in the head 16 times, tazed him three times, and nearly suffocated him in a chokehold.

Look, I respect the police. I really do. I know their job is difficult, and requires split-second decisions, and I usually try to give them the benefit of the doubt. But this. This is about as clear cut as it gets. I don't know why Mr. Dent opened his door, and perhaps that was ill-advised. I can even understand why the officer would draw his gun when the door opened. But what followed is unacceptable, and a disgrace to police who do their jobs respectably. Watch the video yourself. He was not armed. He was not resisting in any way, as the officers continued to beat him. We cannot continue to allow policemen to think that this is acceptable behavior. They are supposed to protect citizens and uphold justice, not terrorize people in routine traffic stops.

What do you say, NSG?Were these officers justified in using this level of violence against an unarmed man? Was Mr. Dent resisting arrest? Why was he pulled out of his car in the first place? Was race a factor here? Do you believe Mr. Dent when he says that cocaine was planted in his car? How can we prevent future cases like this one?

[Socialist Tera]

I am not surprised, American Police are one of the most brutal in the western world.

[Keyboard Warriors]

It doesn't matter if he was resisting arrest or not. The video clearly shows him being thrown to the ground, and then at least one police officer proceed to beat the stuffing out of him. If he was on the ground with two police officers on top of him, it beggars belief as to why they needed to punch him. Quite a clear cut case here, the officer who had him in a headlock needs to find a different career.

[Russels Orbiting Teapot]

What does he expect for daring to drive a car while being black in this country?

This shit just keeps on coming, doesn't it?

[Idzequitch]

It doesn't matter if he was resisting arrest or not. The video clearly shows him being thrown to the ground, and then at least one police officer proceed to beat the stuffing out of him. If he was on the ground with two police officers on top of him, it beggars belief as to why they needed to punch him. Quite a clear cut case here, the officer who had him in a headlock needs to find a different career.

So you'd argue that it's excessive force, even if he was resisting? Watching again, I think you're right.

[Infected Mushroom]

We should withhold judgement until the police investigation into the incident is concluded.

The findings of fact are not clear yet. Anything we think we know right now is just hearsay. We should wait for the facts to be clear based on the results of a proper investigation.

[Keyboard Warriors]

It doesn't matter if he was resisting arrest or not. The video clearly shows him being thrown to the ground, and then at least one police officer proceed to beat the stuffing out of him. If he was on the ground with two police officers on top of him, it beggars belief as to why they needed to punch him. Quite a clear cut case here, the officer who had him in a headlock needs to find a different career.

So you'd argue that it's excessive force, even if he was resisting? Watching again, I think you're right.

Essentially, yeah. Even if we give the two police officers the full benefit of the doubt and say the man in question was a dangerous fugitive who needed to be arrested at gun point, that doesn't explain why you need to punch, taze and choke him after he's thrown himself on the ground.

[Idzequitch]

We should withhold judgement until the police investigation into the incident is concluded.

The findings of fact are not clear yet. Anything we think we know right now is just hearsay. We should wait for the facts to be clear based on the results of a proper investigation.

I watched the video. He was hit in the head until he was bleeding profusely, and clearly not resisting. 16 times, he was hit in the head, full force, while in a chokehold no less. And that's ignoring the three tazings. I don't need some investigation to tell me what I can see with my own eyes. There was no need to lay a damn hand on him.

[Seangoli]

What does he expect for daring to drive a car while being black in this country?

This shit just keeps on coming, doesn't it?

Out of tens of thousands of interactions with police officers in the country per day, only a handful at best end up as poorly as this one did. Part of what is occurring, from what I can tell, is that instant wide-spread reporting of these events is becoming far simpler, and it disseminates into the public mind much easier due to the rise of social media. Essentially it's not that the problem is getting worse at all-it's that the reports on the incidents are becoming easier to spread to the population at large. People then interpret finding out about a larger number of reports as being evidence of a larger number of incidents. The actuality is that it's evidence of an increased efficiency in disseminating information, and likely nothing more.

I would have no doubt if the actual rate of such incidents has declined or at worst stayed constant in recent years. We've just gotten better at making the incidents publicly available.

That said, there are a few things:

1. You are required by law to bring your vehicle to a full stop if the sirens of any public service vehicle are nearby. It doesn't matter if you are being pulled over or not. It is a public safety issue, and the lights being on requires one to come to a complete and full stop, regardless of where you are. The fact that he refused to pull over and come to a complete stop was illegal in and of itself; the fact that he was being pulled over means that he was fleeing the police and turned the situation into an actual police chase. His original minor infraction is rather meaningless towards him being arrested. It was the later infraction of fleeing the police that is the bigger legal issue.

2. You do not open the door to your vehicle when pulled over. It will end poorly regardless of your intentions. Stay in your vehicle until instructed otherwise.

3. The police did appear to use excessive force in the situation, quite obviously. Repurcussions should occur for the officers. This, however, does not remove the fact that he committed a massively illegal act, and acted in such a way that has shown itself to be dangerous in the past. He certainly isn't absolved of anything for this; rather the officers far outside reasonable bounds given the situation. Two incredibly wrong, and illegal, acts occurred here.

[Noraika]

Given that an independent, official, inquiry and report has yet to be filed and completed, to my knowledge, I will be withholding any conclusion on the matter until such a report has been completed and made public for review. Media outlets have a tendency to leave out significant contexts - even when there seems few to be expected - which add a legitimate explanation for police actions, or place them within protocol. It has happened numerous times, and I expect that it may be the case here as well given the automatic bias seen against the police side of the story via this particular news media outlet.

Out of tens of thousands of interactions with police officers in the country per day, only a handful at best end up as poorly as this one did. Part of what is occurring, from what I can tell, is that instant wide-spread reporting of these events is becoming far simpler, and it disseminates into the public mind much easier due to the rise of social media. Essentially it's not that the problem is getting worse at all-it's that the reports on the incidents are becoming easier to spread to the population at large. People then interpret finding out about a larger number of reports as being evidence of a larger number of incidents. The actuality is that it's evidence of an increased efficiency in disseminating information, and likely nothing more.

I would have no doubt if the actual rate of such incidents has declined or at worst stayed constant in recent years. We've just gotten better at making the incidents publicly available.

This is another thing that is important to keep in mind. Even when there are cases of police brutality they are rare and far between, with only the ability for the reporting of such events to easily spread. Even the use of force by officers is rare and by no means prevalent in even a large minority of cases. That being said, with how sensationalist news media outlets are, they are very quick to deem any use of force by officers of the law as a form of 'brutality', so this can also serve to paint a disproportionate view of police actions, and cause the public to take a position of bias against officers regardless of the truth of the matter.

[Idzequitch]

What does he expect for daring to drive a car while being black in this country?

This shit just keeps on coming, doesn't it?

Out of tens of thousands of interactions with police officers in the country per day, only a handful at best end up as poorly as this one did. Part of what is occurring, from what I can tell, is that instant wide-spread reporting of these events is becoming far simpler, and it disseminates into the public mind much easier due to the rise of social media. Essentially it's not that the problem is getting worse at all-it's that the reports on the incidents are becoming easier to spread to the population at large. People then interpret finding out about a larger number of reports as being evidence of a larger number of incidents. The actuality is that it's evidence of an increased efficiency in disseminating information, and likely nothing more.

I would have no doubt if the actual rate of such incidents has declined or at worst stayed constant in recent years. We've just gotten better at making the incidents publicly available.

That said, there are a few things:

1. You are required by law to bring your vehicle to a full stop if the sirens of any public service vehicle are nearby. It doesn't matter if you are being pulled over or not. It is a public safety issue, and the lights being on requires one to come to a complete and full stop, regardless of where you are. The fact that he refused to pull over and come to a complete stop was illegal in and of itself; the fact that he was being pulled over means that he was fleeing the police and turned the situation into an actual police chase. His original minor infraction is rather meaningless towards him being arrested. It was the later infraction of fleeing the police that is the bigger legal issue.

2. You do not open the door to your vehicle when pulled over. It will end poorly regardless of your intentions. Stay in your vehicle until instructed otherwise.

3. The police did appear to use excessive force in the situation, quite obviously. Repurcussions should occur for the officers. This, however, does not remove the fact that he committed a massively illegal act, and acted in such a way that has shown itself to be dangerous in the past. He certainly isn't absolved of anything for this; rather the officers far outside reasonable bounds given the situation. Two incredibly wrong, and illegal, acts occurred here.

Perhaps I'm being presumptuous here, but don't you think that it's possible to not notice the flashing lights right away? It's happened to me before, you start daydreaming, or simply get distracted and you don't notice that there's a police car behind you with its lights on. It's not a good excuse, but it happens.

As for the door, that is the part of the story I'm most curious about. I don't know why you would open the door in that situation. I'd like to hear the explanation.

As to your last sentence, let's not beat around the bush. Beating a man half to death is a far more egregious violation of the law than anything Mr. Dent did (Unless you count drug possession, and that is still murky).

[Torisakia]

At least the police district accepted that something like this happened instead of trying to cover it up. Hopefully they'll do a proper investigation.

[Idzequitch]

This is another thing that is important to keep in mind. Even when there are cases of police brutality they are rare and far between, with only the ability for the reporting of such events to easily spread. Even the use of force by officers is rare and by no means prevalent in even a large minority of cases. That being said, with how sensationalist news media outlets are, they are very quick to deem any use of force by officers of the law as a form of 'brutality', so this can also serve to paint a disproportionate view of police actions, and cause the public to take a position of bias against officers regardless of the truth of the matter.

I agree with you. But don't you think that such events are worth covering? Especially considering that a separate recent example lead to the death of Eric Garner? I understand that the average cop doesn't beat people up for no reason, but it's important that the ones who do get disciplined/fired.

[Laanvia]

That wasn't "protection". That was an unjustified and vicious beating.

[Seangoli]

Perhaps I'm being presumptuous here, but don't you think that it's possible to not notice the flashing lights right away? It's happened to me before, you start daydreaming, or simply get distracted and you don't notice that there's a police car behind you with its lights on. It's not a good excuse, but it happens.

Quite certainly. I've done it. He didn't, as per his own words on the subject:

“When the overhead lights came on, I looked and said, ‘Wow, are they stopping me?’" Dent said. “So I just kept going until I realized that they were really stopping me.”

He saw the lights, figured nothing of it, and continued on. If the officers had acted with the least bit of care in the situation, we wouldn't even be talking about this. He would have been arrested for felony evasion and that's the end of it.

As for the door, that is the part of the story I'm most curious about. I don't know why you would open the door in that situation. I'd like to hear the explanation.

To be frank, it's unfortunate he did that. It implies intent to flee, or at worst can (And has) led to violent confrontation with the police. I have no doubt that his intentions were nothing of the sort, but given past precedent on what occurs when a person gets out of their vehicle it's not unreasonable to treat a person who does so as being hostile. This does not, in the least, legitimize the officer's actions. There is more to treating a suspect as hostile than tackling them and beating them down. You give orders first, and act only after said orders are not being met or if the situation escalates.

As I said, I doubt he had any intention of being hostile or fleeing. Likely hasn't been pulled over in ages(He's 57 after all) and didn't know proper actions to take. Once again, the officers acted far outside their bounds, and there are numerous things they should have done prior to physical altercations with a suspect.

As to your last sentence, let's not beat around the bush. Beating a man half to death is a far more egregious violation of the law than anything Mr. Dent did (Unless you count drug possession, and that is still murky).

[/quote]

Quite true at that.

[Laanvia]

What does he expect for daring to drive a car while being black in this country?

This shit just keeps on coming, doesn't it?

Out of tens of thousands of interactions with police officers in the country per day, only a handful at best end up as poorly as this one did. Part of what is occurring, from what I can tell, is that instant wide-spread reporting of these events is becoming far simpler, and it disseminates into the public mind much easier due to the rise of social media. Essentially it's not that the problem is getting worse at all-it's that the reports on the incidents are becoming easier to spread to the population at large. People then interpret finding out about a larger number of reports as being evidence of a larger number of incidents. The actuality is that it's evidence of an increased efficiency in disseminating information, and likely nothing more.

I would have no doubt if the actual rate of such incidents has declined or at worst stayed constant in recent years. We've just gotten better at making the incidents publicly available.

That said, there are a few things:

1. You are required by law to bring your vehicle to a full stop if the sirens of any public service vehicle are nearby. It doesn't matter if you are being pulled over or not. It is a public safety issue, and the lights being on requires one to come to a complete and full stop, regardless of where you are. The fact that he refused to pull over and come to a complete stop was illegal in and of itself; the fact that he was being pulled over means that he was fleeing the police and turned the situation into an actual police chase. His original minor infraction is rather meaningless towards him being arrested. It was the later infraction of fleeing the police that is the bigger legal issue.

2. You do not open the door to your vehicle when pulled over. It will end poorly regardless of your intentions. Stay in your vehicle until instructed otherwise.

3. The police did appear to use excessive force in the situation, quite obviously. Repurcussions should occur for the officers. This, however, does not remove the fact that he committed a massively illegal act, and acted in such a way that has shown itself to be dangerous in the past. He certainly isn't absolved of anything for this; rather the officers far outside reasonable bounds given the situation. Two incredibly wrong, and illegal, acts occurred here.

It wouldn't be the same if the offices were beaten to within an inch of their life, choked and tased. These officers deserve a severe punishment. Their punishment would be a savage beating if I had any say.

[Noraika]

I agree with you. But don't you think that such events are worth covering? Especially considering that a separate recent example lead to the death of Eric Garner? I understand that the average cop doesn't beat people up for no reason, but it's important that the ones who do get disciplined/fired.

There is a difference between covering these types of stories, and the coverage that you will typically find on most forms of news media regarding these forms of situations. I have seen it many times where the news media jumps to the conclusion of 'police brutality' immediately without waiting for any concrete evidence regarding the case. Mainly I would attribute this to the fact that they are eager to cause increased traffic to their website by using sensationalism. I have run into many cases of so-called 'police brutality' which were nothing more than sensationalism, and which, under independent inquiry and official reports, provided crucial contextual information regarding the actions of officers in these situations, and which can often not only paint a clearer picture of the situation, but also place the officers within the lines of proper procedure.

To put it another way, while coverage of such events is crucial to police transparency, jumping to conclusions on these sorts of cases and incidents does nothing to help support those officers who do their duty, and cause undue hostility towards officers who may not be guilty of wrongdoing in the first place.

Whether this is the case, so far, is unclear regarding this particular incident, but there is minor mentions give that the suspect behaved in a manner which could have provoked a more extreme response by officers. An independent inquiry should definitely be launched, and the results of that inquiry I consider more credible then any news media outlet.

[Infected Mushroom]

We should withhold judgement until the police investigation into the incident is concluded.

The findings of fact are not clear yet. Anything we think we know right now is just hearsay. We should wait for the facts to be clear based on the results of a proper investigation.

I watched the video. He was hit in the head until he was bleeding profusely, and clearly not resisting. 16 times, he was hit in the head, full force, while in a chokehold no less. And that's ignoring the three tazings. I don't need some investigation to tell me what I can see with my own eyes. There was no need to lay a damn hand on him.

video? what video?

well even if there was a video

1) How do we know the footage is real?

2) We don't see what happened before the footage was shot (assuming it is real), it provides a likely incomplete picture

I'm going to withhold judgement until the investigators issue a formal finding of facts

[Seangoli]

This is another thing that is important to keep in mind. Even when there are cases of police brutality they are rare and far between, with only the ability for the reporting of such events to easily spread. Even the use of force by officers is rare and by no means prevalent in even a large minority of cases. That being said, with how sensationalist news media outlets are, they are very quick to deem any use of force by officers of the law as a form of 'brutality', so this can also serve to paint a disproportionate view of police actions, and cause the public to take a position of bias against officers regardless of the truth of the matter.

I agree with you. But don't you think that such events are worth covering? Especially considering that a separate recent example lead to the death of Eric Garner? I understand that the average cop doesn't beat people up for no reason, but it's important that the ones who do get disciplined/fired.

Absolutely true. I come from a family of law enforcement, and my dad in particular had no patience for his officers who broke protocol of any sort, or acted outside of their authority. Fired a couple, and ruffled some feathers. While he understands the difficult situations that can arise in some situations, he feels appalled that these people are given such a bad reputation to the vast majority of officers who are just trying to actually help their community, and that all they are doing is making the job more difficult and more dangerous for others. Hell, he spent the last ten years of his service before retirement repairing the damage caused by his predecessors. Granted, he never dealt with brutality cases, but there were plenty of other issues he had to sort out.

These cases should be reported on, and it's a very good thing that we have become more effective at it. It is highlighting incidents that are clear abuses of power, causes severe injury or death that can often be swept under a political rug, damages the ability of the officers to do their job safely, as well as the general safety of the public in general. Reporting on these incidents is a very important thing.

But, as I said, people do need to realize that these incidents aren't rampant everywhere, and that the rate is not necessarily increasing. We are becoming more effective at disseminating the knowledge of these incidents (Which is a good thing).

[Noraika]

video? what video?

well even if there was a video

1) How do we know the footage is real?

2) We don't see what happened before the footage was shot (assuming it is real), it provides a likely incomplete picture

I'm going to withhold judgement until the investigators issue a formal finding of facts

One thing I did note is that there was a cut between the time the officers pulled him over and he opened his door, and when the officers pulled him from his vehicle. For all we know he could have pulled a gun on officers in that cut, and then dropped it within the vehicle as he was being pulled out.

Hypothetically speaking of course~

[Idzequitch]

I watched the video. He was hit in the head until he was bleeding profusely, and clearly not resisting. 16 times, he was hit in the head, full force, while in a chokehold no less. And that's ignoring the three tazings. I don't need some investigation to tell me what I can see with my own eyes. There was no need to lay a damn hand on him.

video? what video?

well even if there was a video

1) How do we know the footage is real?

2) We don't see what happened before the footage was shot (assuming it is real), it provides a likely incomplete picture

I'm going to withhold judgement until the investigators issue a formal finding of facts

The original source I quoted showed some of the video, I've edited the OP to add a source that show the video from the time they pulled him over to the time they got him cuffed and standing up.

[Infected Mushroom]

video? what video?

well even if there was a video

1) How do we know the footage is real?

2) We don't see what happened before the footage was shot (assuming it is real), it provides a likely incomplete picture

I'm going to withhold judgement until the investigators issue a formal finding of facts

One thing I did note is that there was a cut between the time the officers pulled him over and he opened his door, and when the officers pulled him from his vehicle. For all we know he could have pulled a gun on officers in that cut, and then dropped it within the vehicle as he was being pulled out.

Hypothetically speaking of course~

indeed

let's not crucify the police officer before we find out the whole truth

[Idzequitch]

One thing I did note is that there was a cut between the time the officers pulled him over and he opened his door, and when the officers pulled him from his vehicle. For all we know he could have pulled a gun on officers in that cut, and then dropped it within the vehicle as he was being pulled out.

Hypothetically speaking of course~

indeed

let's not crucify the police officer before we find out the whole truth

As I said, I prefer to give the police the benefit of the doubt, but there is no two ways about this. They needlessly beat a man, and nearly killed him. At the very least, the one doing the choking/punching needs to lose his badge. The one bright spot is that the police department launched an investigation of their own accord, so hopefully they will be honest with their findings.

[Noraika]

As I said, I prefer to give the police the benefit of the doubt, but there is no two ways about this. They needlessly beat a man, and nearly killed him. At the very least, the one doing the choking/punching needs to lose his badge. The one bright spot is that the police department launched an investigation of their own accord, so hopefully they will be honest with their findings.

According to what is known already: he was driving without a proper license, was seen in areas known for dealings in illegal drugs, failed to stop even when realising that police were behind him, has allegedly resisted arrest and verbally threatened officers, performed behaviour which could be interpreted as threatening, and was found with cocaine in his vehicle.

Quite a list there, but, as you said, the investigation should shed further light on this issue. That being said, the use of force should definitely be evaluated, and carefully at that. I'm not too hasty to pass judgement on the officer, but the contextual information would have to be substantial to justify the choke-hold punching.

[Russels Orbiting Teapot]

He saw the lights, figured nothing of it, and continued on. If the officers had acted with the least bit of care in the situation, we wouldn't even be talking about this. He would have been arrested for felony evasion and that's the end of it.

Don't they usually get on a loudspeaker if you don't pull over right away and make it abundantly clear? That's been my experience when I've been pulled over on a narrow road and it took me a minute to figure out where it was safe to park.