Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Another Case Of Police Abuse In L.A?

From the Los Angeles Daily News: Ray Branch, who has a 1950 Oldsmobile, is one of the regulars. One day last week, he was sitting by the window when he saw a car turn into the Tujunga restaurant's lot, followed by a Los Angeles Police Department cruiser with its emergency lights on.
Two officers got out and walked up to the car, where a woman sitting in the driver's seat argued with them. Then the woman got out.
"I told the guys inside that she probably shouldn't be arguing with them, because it usually doesn't end up too good," Branch recalled Wednesday.
It didn't.
Officers took the woman, 34-year-old Michelle Jordan, to the ground twice the morning of Aug. 21, including once after she was handcuffed, a video of the incident shows. They arrested her on a charge of "resisting, delaying or obstructing" an officer, a misdemeanor that carries a year in jail, and she spent six hours in custody.
If she'd stayed in her car, she likely would have faced nothing but a ticket for talking on a handheld cellphone.
It was at least the third complaint about LAPD officers' use of physical force to draw wide media attention in the past two weeks, joining an Aug. 18 encounter with a skateboarder in Venice and one in May with a bank executive in Highland Park that led to a $50 million complaint against the city being filed this month.  http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_21428639/traffic-stop-becomes-another-lapd-lightning-rod
Well, this isn't a case of racial profiling or racial discrimination as the suspect is a white female.  From the video, you cannot tell if the 2nd throw was justified.  So far, the chief of the LA police dept. has demoted the commander of the district the cops worked.
But being a cop is very dangerous as this case points out: Corporal Marshall Bailey was shot and killed after he and another trooper stopped a vehicle for reckless driving at the commuter parking lot adjacent to I-79, in Clay County, at approximately 8:30 pm.
The troopers determined the subject was intoxicated and placed him under arrest. The subject was searched and placed in the back of the patrol car when he was able to reach a concealed 9mm pistol that was not discovered in the search. He shot both troopers inside of the vehicle and took Corporal Bailey's service weapon. After climbing out of the vehicle he shot a tow truck driver who had been called to the scene to impound his car. The tow truck driver was able to get away from the scene and call for help.
The subject then fled on foot and set up an ambush in a ditch. He later opened fire on officers from multiple agencies who responded to the scene, wounding a Roane County deputy in the arm, hand, and stomach. The responding officers returned fire, killing the subject.

Read more: http://www.odmp.org/officer/21372-corporal-marshall-lee-bailey#ixzz250eumwEZ
So, in the case of a tie, I am going to give the benefit of the doubt to the cops. 

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