Nevada police beat the hell out of man immobilized with diabetic shock, screaming "Do not resist, motherfucker!"

Here's footage of the police in Henderson, NV beating the crap out of Adam Greene, a man immobilized diabetic shock whom the police have mistaken for a drunk driver. The police point guns at him, pull him from the car, throw him to the ground, pile on him, and one officer, Sgt. Brett Seekatz begins to kick him over and over again, while someone screams "do not resist, motherfucker!" Eventually, they realize that he's not drunk and not resisting and call an ambulance.

Greene has received a $158,500 settlement from Henderson city council; his wife got a further $99,000, and the state of Nevada paid $35,000 for civil rights violations.

Police spokesmen won't say whether any of the officers have been disciplined.

Officials wouldn’t specify how or if Seekatz was disciplined over the incident, saying the information is a personnel matter and will not be released. He remains a member of the Henderson Police Department.

However, the department issued a statement noting changes since the incident.

“Henderson Police Chief Jutta Chambers ordered a closer look at the training Henderson officers receive,” the statement read. “The training on use of force techniques was subsequently modified.”

Police Beat Man in Diabetic Shock – and Nevada City Pays for It (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

• [Guest]

  I hope this is only the civil side of the case. IANAL but I see 2nd degree armed assault with intent.

  • [KeithIrwin]

     No, no, it’s not a criminal matter.  It’s a personnel matter.  The police said so, so obviously it’s true.

• [Chicago_SC]

  PIGS!

  • [Guest]

    Turn this story into “[insert race here] beats the hell out of white woman…”  (because, you know, they ALL do that. If you show me one that doesn’t, I’ll show you how the so-called “good ones” still stand around and let the bad ones do it)

    replace “PIGS” with the racial epithet of your choice.

    Now how do you feel about generalizations and “liking” a comment like this?

    • [Conor H]

       I’m sorry, you seem to have confused a profession with a race.  Allow me to clarify for you.

      A profession is something which people choose, whereas a race is not.  People who are in the same profession receive similar training, have similar standards of behavior, etc.  People who are members of the same race do not.

      So you see, there’s actually something of a logical argument to be made for judging people based on their profession which can’t be made for prejudging somebody based on their race.

      Do you think lawyer jokes are also the same as racism, or do you just have a hard on for thugs in uniform?

      • [Layne]

        Exactly. Given that the incident is directly related to the *profession* of the individuals, the case the attempt at relativism is dishonest.Say some WOOKIES (officially tasked with duties of the government), assault and brutalize a man for no debatable cause – at a level of ferocity far outside any practical limits. Then the head Wookies in charge not only decline to publicly communicate the punishment meted out OR the changes in policy that will prevent further abuses. They just stonewall and obfuscate to the citizens they serve. 

        It would still be unacceptable – regardless of the race of anyone involved. And instead of race-baiting, we can draw a pretty easy real-world parallel with the LAPD and their beating of Rodney King. It was brutal, baseless physical abuse by govt officials that deserved the public outrage – this is no different. 

      • [Guest]

        I’m well aware of the difference. I’m also well aware people will paint an entire profession with the same kind of brush they will paint a race with.

        My point is that “PIGS” carries the same kind of pointless, ignorant hatred as any kind of one-word racial slur.

        Calling a random person a racial slur and calling a cop a pig is probably going to get the same kind of reaction. IMO, the cop has a real reason to be offended: They chose that profession and they are getting hate spit at them for it, whether they deserve it or not.

        If we’re going to judge a group, chosen or not, by the behavior of the worst…. is it OK to use racial epithets because some members fit the bad stereotypes? Didn’t think so.

        And no, I don’t have a hard on for “thugs in uniform” (there’s some prejudice for you, buddy) but I don’t think all cops or even most cops are bad cops. There are standards of training and behavior for police, the majority of cops follow them, and they don’t deserve to be called pigs.

        Lawyer jokes aren’t even in the same category. But on the topic of jokes, I think a joke about a lawyer, a cop, and a minority of your choice walking in to a bar could be funny as hell.

        • [Antinous / Moderator]

          My point is that “PIGS” carries the same kind of pointless, ignorant hatred as any kind of one-word racial slur.

          We don’t allow commenters to call all cops pigs.  We do allow them to call specific cops pigs.  What does it say about you that you’re more concerned about these violent thugs than about the victim?

        • [Brian Boyko]

           >> “My point is that “PIGS” carries the same kind of pointless, ignorant hatred as any kind of one-word racial slur.”

          The hatred would have to be ignorant and pointless.  The slur is being made because we know what they do, the slue is also being made because, as we are often powerless to stop it, we show our discontent.

          “NAZI” would also fall under this criteria when referring to the members of the National Socialist party of Germany in the 1930s-1940s, or their lackeys. 

        • [Guest]

          What does it say about you that you’re more concerned about these violent thugs than about the victim?

          (this limit on nesting is annoying)

          I am very concerned about THOSE violent thugs, specifically, the fact they are still on the police force. They SHOULD be in jail. I’m glad the victim got compensation for what happened.

          I am also very irked by foaming at the mouth comments like “PIGS”.

          PIGS is a slur against cops. If a person of a certain race, gender, religion is behaving as badly as the cops here are, is it fair to just spew ugly names that happen to apply to their whatever attributes?

        • [Conor H]

          Let’s be clear here.  I know cops personally.  I’ve trained martial arts with them.  I’ve trusted them to do dangerous things to me.  When they aren’t in uniform or talking about their job, I’ve found them to be generally decent and amiable human beings.

          That doesn’t stop me from taking issue the police as an institution.  Because the police as an institution generally act in a way which is antithetical to what I believe to be right.  Their leadership pushes for more police militarization (bigger guns, more SWAT teams, armored vehicles, etc.).  Their training emphasizes that they could be killed by anybody at any time, which is what encourages things like what happens in this video.  Their union goes on to defend them when they do these things BECAUSE of that very same logic (they have no way of knowing if that guy was planning to kill them).  At the officer and the department level they frequently (but, disclaimer for you, not always) oppose transparency (by refusing to release information about incidents like this, by arresting those who film them, etc.).

          And like you point out, the “good cops” who don’t do those things are more likely to look the other way or aid in the cover up than do something about it?  Why?  Because they fear, and rightly so, that speaking up is more likely to get THEM in trouble than the “bad cops”.

          The problem with the police is not a problem of bad apples.  It’s the problem of a bad system.  A system which allows this kind of behavior to happen, and which punishes anybody within it who stands up to fight it.

          And the thing you find most offensive about all of this is that some people are angry and draw connections and don’t just plug their ears and scream “ISOLATED INCIDENT”.  And then, to top it all off, you say that getting angry at police violence is the same as racism.  Hilarious in its absurdity when people of color suffer disproportionately at the hands of police BECAUSE of racism.

          Seriously, I don’t know if you’re being intellectually dishonest or you’re really this out of touch.

        • [davidasposted]

          Is your opinion that most cops are not bad cops (or if you prefer, that most cops are good cops) supported by some kind of data, or is it more of an unsubstantiated belief?

        • [RedShirt77]

          I know, next thing you know people will say cops should go to separate schools and spread paranoid rumors that they all follow some command structure..

        • [River Charbonneau]

          Alright….your point is much clearer now.

          But the police @ this point are out of civilian control: too many cops (several a day on average) getting a slap on the wrist for behavior no different than a banana republic.

    • [Chicago_SC]

      REALLY?

      FFS

    • [Chicago_SC]

       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siHIaVcbYsA

      I stand by my comment.

    • [River Charbonneau]

      All he said was pigs…in reaction to the horrible behavior of these cowards specifically.  He did not say “All cops are pigs” but you jumped to that conclusion did you not?  As for the 1st paragraph of your statement…it is incoherent, so i’m trying to tease out what the fuck you are talking about.

    • [MetalPorkchop]

       http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/soundfx/boarsandpigs_sounds/boarsandpigs_pigs-nort_wav.shtml

  • [Wreckrob8]

    The good cops/bad cops game means that we are all complicit in our own oppression – including the police themselves – whether we want it or not. Fuck the police (the institution)!

• [viggy]

  Local droogs make good.

  • [girdyerloins]

    It is an unmitigated delight to find that such trenchant social commentaries as “A Clockwork Orange” continue to make an impression, fourty years on.
    While I’m at it, let me point out that those “uniformed thugs”, the ones which put the lie to the ideals of policing in modern, civilized societies, are reviled precisely BECAUSE they so enthusiastically violate the premise of “public safety”, all the while knowing they are entrusted with special dispensation to use force in all its manifestations and have no problem abusing it for selfish reasons. Not, mind you, unlike many other humans in similarly empowered positions, but not one whit less excusable because “everyone else does it, too”.
    That “good” cops refrain from standing up to these barbarities is certainly understandable in view of what they have invested in the profession and what they stand to lose.  Clearly, the system needs a complete overhaul. Other countries have decent systems but we are too thick-headed to learn from anyone else. Look at how long it took us to replace mercury vapor lamps with sodium. 

• [mtdna]

  Apologies to all the good cops out there, but the two kids from my high school class who went on to become cops were also the two worst bullies. Hmmm…

  • [Guest]

    don’t apologize, they look the other way from much closer than you or I do. 

    • [ialreadyexist]

      By definition, if they look the other way, they are not good cops.

      • [Guest]

        and if they cross the thin blue line with what they’ve seen they aren’t cops for much longer, either.

        Seems like a corrupt organization to me in that light, eh, RICO?

  • [blueelm]

    Same. Everytime  I think of one I think either of that Fugazi song “Great Cop” or of The Dicks. Yeah, I know there are good cops… 

    Well, cops, there are good people too, eh?

  • [koko szanel]

    There are no good cops, that woman on the Video is probably a “good cop” by your definition, she just stood and watched as “bad cop”  kicked subdued man in the head.

    • [VentcoreFrog]

      By what definition?

    • [ialreadyexist]

      I’ve submitted articles to BoingBoing about good cops.  They haven’t published one yet.  Mind you, I’m not excusing these cops and I would very likely be MUCH more severe in punishing them than you would be.  I’m just saying you’re wrong about there not being good cops.

      • [Guest]

        Good cops don’t exist, because the ones you talk about stand by and watch bad cops do bad things. That’s enabling.

        • [Guest]

          Cops might have authority but they also have fear. Who protects the police? Other cops.

          The last thing a cop wants is to have the bad cop he rats out end up being his backup, because a bad cop that harasses citizens wouldn’t think twice about letting a snitch die.

          Bad cops don’t belong on the force, but making it the responsibility of ALL cops to
          call out the bad ones has the potential to destroy the trust officers have in each other. It is up to the citizens to call out the bad cops. Go to the media or know how to contact your police department’s Internal Affairs office. There is a reason for IA, and a reason IA officers don’t do general policework. In this case, it looks like things are working exactly like they are supposed do.

        • [realityhater]

          Are you for real …..it is not the public’s responsibility to  contact internal affairs. Police see what other Police are doing .
           IA exists for officers to report these misconducts anonymously ,

        • [ridestowe]

          @coyote you said you don’t have a hard on for cops but everything you say leads me to believe the contrary

        • [OldBrownSquirrel]

           I can come up with one counter-example: Adrian Schoolcraft.  IMHO, the only good cops are ones who cross the “thin blue line” and inform on bad cops.  Good cops do exist, but they’re few and far between, and they’re not allowed to keep their badges once it becomes clear that they’re good cops.

        • [Pierce Nichols]

          Coyote_Den, I don’t much care about the trust cops have in each other. I care how good a job they do protecting the public against thugs and predators, including those in uniform. If you can’t figure out a way to do that without fear or favor, you need to get a new job.

      • [Guest]

        Good cops don’t enrage people.
        Good cops don’t make good “journalism”
        Good cops aren’t part of Two Minutes Hate.

        If you want to read about good cops, read your local police blotter. Really, there are plenty of good cops, but being a good cop shouldn’t make the news any more than anyone else just doing their job. That’s what good cops do: they do the job because they want to serve and protect, not for fame or infamy.

        If you are talking about stories of genuine above and beyond heroism being ignored, then I think it’s safe to say BB has a definite bias.

        • [Conor H]

          First you say it’s the responsibility of citizens and the media to call out bad cops.  Then you compare the calling out of bad cops in public to the Two Minutes Hate.

          Do you realize how little sense you make?

        • [Guest]

          @boingboing-4fceec4318ea47d3828f6488c5fa12d8:disqus was saying the “good cop” stories he/she submit don’t get published on BB.

          It IS the responsibility of the media and citizens to call out bad cops. The media runs stories about police heroism too… not too many of them show up here.

          I didn’t call ALL media attention to bad cops Two Minutes Hate. I was speculating as to if this site biases their content towards stories that make people feel hate towards authority…  Playing both sides of the Orwellian field, if you will.

          Notice how I put “journalism” in quotes too. This is blogging, not journalism.

        • [Pierce Nichols]

          Cops who fails to arrest violent cops are themselves bad cops. Every cop in that video should be jail, and the fact that none are, and have no prospect of going to jail, means there are no good cops in Henderson.

          Every cop who thinks their duty to fellow officers outweighs their duty to the public is by definition a bad cop. 

      • [River Charbonneau]

        So…they need special coverage for doing their jobs properly?

        Crime sells..and cop crime is a threat to democracy.

  • [Mujokan]

     http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-man-supports-the-troops-he-didnt-go-to-high-s,154/

  • [River Charbonneau]

    The last person I knew who became a cop….defaced my car since it was Anti-Bush and when confronted on it lied and when I said “You’re old enough..if you support the war so much why don’t you sign up?”  He said as soon as he graduated..I replied “That’s like waiting til 1946 to join WWII”

    He graduated, but by then the failures of Bush were so obvious he choose to become a cop in Carson City, NV.

• [Romeo Vitelli]

  Kind of makes you wonder what kind of beating someone who DID resist would get.

  • [James]

    One that wasn’t on camera, I assume.

• [Noctilucent Studios]

  “$158,500 settlement”

  Seems like there should have been a HELL of a lot  more zeros.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2YgZX9Thm0

  • [Pierce Nichols]

    There should have been more zeros, and the cops responsible should have been first in line to pay it. They should lose their houses and their retirements.

• [nixiebunny]

  Makes you think that the best way to get to beat up people with impunity is to join the police. 

  • [Guest]

     Or, ya know, study martial arts.

    • [ridestowe]

      because martial arts is all about beating people up…i’d say join the army or the police if yer lookin’ for a bit of the ol’ ultraviolence

      • [Guest]

        Well, a lot of “martial arts” schools are just doing MMA, so it kind of is.
        The military doesn’t really give you a lot of opportunity for ultraviolence, and most people who like that kind of thing probably wouldn’t want actual combat
        As for the police? Well, yeah, there are some cops that do it to get their violence kicks. These cops are a few of them.

        • [Antinous / Moderator]

          CoyoteDen,

          You’ve reached your quota for this thread.

        • [Pierce Nichols]

          If there really are so few bad cops, why don’t the alleged good cops put the bad ones in jail where they belong?

        • [Guest]

          Some people watched Red Dawn too many times; others chose The Karate Kid.

    • [travtastic]

       Or, ya know, join the police.

• [SumAnon]

  Since when does an officer need to draw his weapon for a drunk pull-over?

  • [Guest]

    Nine Eleven

    • [Baldhead]

       Think it was earlier- a few well publicised cases of people being pulled over for speeding and shooting the officer as soon as he comes to the window in the late 90′s as I recall.

      • [Guest]

        yeah, but having to pretend to explain it ended on nine eleven. 

      • [ridestowe]

        just like how i’m still terrified about y2k

      • [Antinous / Moderator]

        Boy the way Glen Miller played
        Songs that made the hit parade.

        • [Noctilucent Studios]

          Ooooooooooooooooh, SNAP!!!

  • [Melinda9]

    When the driver doesn’t immediately start doing what he/she is told to do.

    • [realityhater]

      yeah but this idiot “law enforcement” officer ( and I use the term law enforcement officer loosely) ran up to the car gun drawn… and kicked the window,a move that would have had him literally shooting his foot if he needed to discharge his weapon. BTW   IT IS A LITTLE HARD TO COMPLY WITH REQUESTS WHEN IN DIABETIC SHOCK  - YOU SEE THE BODY STARTS TO SHUT DOWN WITH TOO MUCH INSULIN

      • [Belle Gabrielle]

        Actually, thanks for the backup but you missed a detail and as a diabetic, I think it’s an important one.  It’s TOO MUCH insulin that causes “insulin shock” like this driver had, not that he didn’t have insulin.  If anyone had given him MORE insulin they would have killed him.  Just a friendly FYI, and again, thanks for being on the side of the person with the medical issue  :)

        • [realityhater]

          Belle , thank you . I realized after I clicked  post and immediately corrected so not to perpetuate misinformation. Sorry also for typing most of my posts in caps – I’m a little hot headed on this subject.

      • [Melinda9]

        Chill, dude – I didn’t mean I endorse what they did. They usually start yelling at you from inside their cruiser – Remove the keys from the ignition with your left hand! Place them on top of the car! If you don’t start doing it, all hell will break loose. You have no way to communicate some difficulty you might be having like you’re in shock or having a heart attack or you don’t have a left hand. It’s a fucked up world we’re living in.

        • [realityhater]

          Sad but TRUE !

        • [ffabian]

          I know it’s difficult to believe for a sheltered USian but:

          world =/= USA

        • [Richard Mitts]

          I so agree with ffabian. I’m Scandinavian and I’m totally shocked by the amount of violence they use. Is this normal in the US? Does cops draw guns when they suspect a drunk driver? By the way the cop pointing the gun looks like he’s high on steroids. And how can you need five strong cops to control one defenseless man?

          If I had to guess who was in that car,  only judging by the cops’ behaviour, I’d say he was a psychopath expert in martial arts, armed to his teeth, who had raped and murdered.

    • [Guest]

      And when is a good time for law enforcement to try de-escalating a situation that they may have misread? If you’ve felt the need to pull your weapon, you need more eyes and level heads in the situation.

      People fail to the level of their training. 

  • [Guest]

    FTA apparently there was a chase… the guy didn’t pull over, probably because he was in insulin shock and might not have been aware he was being pulled over…

    I can understand the weapons drawn. The rest is pretty inexcusable.

• [Manny]

  I have a neuropathy that, among other things, makes it difficult for me to walk without intermittent drifting to the side. I actually do live in fear of what would happen if I lurched toward a police officer or if I raised my hands without remembering to drop my cane. (I have trouble with my hands, too, and I keep the cane tethered with a wrist cord.)

• [snagglepuss]

  Of course, if a civilian had recorded that on their cell phone, they’d have been joining Mr. Greene in his jail cell. Because as obedient Americans, we must place cops’ civil rights above our own….

  • [dambrisco]

    I think you’re mistaking “civil rights” for “civil permissions”. The former implies they’re not something that can be taken away without due process.

    • [snagglepuss]

       I’m mistaking nothing. I was being sarcastic.

• [Oliver Schmieding]

  nice bonus: the disclaimer at the beginning of the video states it might contain offensive language.

  *heh*  i swear, i’ll never understand you americans… 
  if the LANGUAGE is what anybody finds offensive here, i’d say he or she deserves exactly this kind of police officers.

  • [blueelm]

    With you on that, though I’m as “American” as, well, the US.  I watched it with the sound off because I’m at work. It was still amazingly offensive. But that’s good. Offensive is good when you’re constantly being asked to pretend that something like this either doesn’t happen or isn’t as bad as it looks.

• [nesnora]

  Typical cop mentality. The hunt, the chase, the adrenaline… it all feeds their need to bully and beat the shit out of things they couldn’t as children. The kicking and screaming of the sadist cop should certainly be addressed. And these are the people we were taught as children to trust? To serve and protect?

  Wonder what a heart-attack victim would get— maybe a kick in the ribs and a black eye? You’d think medical ailments at the wheel would be common enough to where they would be trained to recognize the difference…

  I’m glad there was a settlement, but it doesn’t change the fact these cops are still working.

• [Forkboy]

   ”HAHAHAHA – I could’ve taken him by myself – HAHAHAHAHA”

  You could have taken a “semi-conscious” man in diabetic shock by yourself ? You don’t say. Christ, what an asshole.

• [Sasha@librtee]

  How, how, how do we begin to cleanse this scourge from the human species?

  These types exist in so many countries around the world. America, being one of the most violent and sociopathic countries in world history, has more than average, however.

  This is one bad effect of war that will linger with us for years and years. How many of these men do you think are Iraq veterans? Their humanity destroyed, trained to treat every situation as a life or death threat, trained to see every civilian as a potential suicide bomber and threat. He was probably having a flashback from Baghdad as soon as the guy didn’t open the door right away.

  How do we cleanse this scourge? How do we heal these people?

  • [Mujokan]

    How do you avoid employing the ones that beat people indiscriminately while still managing to beat those who didn’t join the cops but are trying to break into your house?

  • [Phil Fot]

     Lots of marijuana and ecstasy. And time.

  • [Guest]

    A scourge is someone who administers harsh punishment or severe criticism.

    Be The Change.

    • [suburbanhick]

      A scourge is also a type of whip with a bunch of knotted thongs, used to deliver corporal punishment or self-flagellation.

      • [Guest]

        it’s also a terrible metaphor that can easily be reversed onto those trying to wield it. It’s one thing to lecture someone, it’s another to then claim they are the ones being pedantic.

        • [suburbanhick]

          Hm??

  • [Layne]

    I don’t know – I’d think it’s unlikely that a majority of these alpha-cops are vets. I’ve read a few articles regarding how most returning vets are shocked by the kind of arrogant, aggro attitude that the domestic cops display nowadays. 

    The cops who run around eager to kick in doors and engage in shootouts are the ones who don’t value civilian life or realize how terrible those situations quickly become. 

  • [Guest]

    America, being one of the most violent and sociopathic countries in world history, has more than average, however.

    You’re kidding, right?

    Violence and sociopathy in the USA has never approached the levels seen in countries that existed in the dark ages of Eurasia, or the kind of crap that happens in Africa today.

    The police alone are much more corrupt in Mexico/central/south america. Extrajudicial killing by cops that don’t want to do the booking paperwork are common.

    • [ffabian]

      The big difference is that:

      1) unlike the USA no country “in the dark ages of Eurasia” or Africa styles themselves as the epitome of liberty, freedom and human rights while doing exactly the same shit they criticize the others for (torture, death penalty, police brutality etc.).

      2) compared to other democratic first world countries the US is quite violent and sociopathic. E.g. after WW2 the countries of Western Europe had enough of starting wars with  bogus justifications which killed hundreds of thousands civilians unlike the US (WMDs in Iraq?)

      • [Antinous / Moderator]

        Also the fact that we’re funding all those other regimes.

• [Manny]

  I keep thinking about the same cop shouting alternately “DO NOT MOVE!” and “HANDS UP!”.  You fail to obey a so-called lawful order no matter what you do.

• [Mark_Frauenfelder]

  I can’t wait for the T-shirt the officers will make to celebrate this: “Diabetics: They Go Into Shock Once, We Shock ‘Em Twice.”

• [Christopher Lee]

  It’s weird that all the resident apologists for authority haven’t shown up yet….

  • [blueelm]

    Give them time, they’re busy googling symptoms of diabetic shock so they can explain why it would be *super threatening* to a gaggle of armed officers.

    • [deaduncledave]

       I propose that collective collective noun for a group of police officers be changed to a “Crock.” The proper usage would be  “A crock of cops.”

      • [K-9]

        Nah. A crock is a container so the meaning is muddled.  I suggest that a “flaccidity of cops” is more in keeping with traditional terms of venery.

        • [deaduncledave]

          Actually, I own a crock, a 1 gallon pickling crock from my great grandmother. Something that you stick a bunch of odds and ends into, and let stew. Honestly, I think the comparison is rather apt. =P

  • [Navin_Johnson]

     If the victim was a protestor you can be sure that half of the people here would be having “concerns”.

• [zachstronaut]

  This is unacceptable.  The officer who comes in throwing kicks needs to be charged with assault.

  Fines and training do not do, and have not done, enough to address completely inappropriate police behavior like this.

  • [Pierce Nichols]

    Until cops who do shit like this go to jail on a regular basis it is impossible to respect cops.

• [DiscoStu]

  I just hope no one here is actually surprised or shocked by this.

  • [Guest]

    I’d say the victim was. Twice at least.

  • [Shinkuhadoken]

     I hope there are. It would be nice to have more outrage and less grudging acceptance of this behavior.

• [signsofrain]

  Cops should be held to a high standard of behaviour. These guys should be in jail. At the VERY LEAST they shouldn’t be cops anymore. If your judgement and self-control are that poor you have no business wielding deadly weapons on behalf of the government. I’m pretty sure that we’ll see these clowns in the news again sometime in the next few years, and they’ll probably have killed someone next time. Love how the police, by refusing to discuss disciplinary measures taken, keeping these guys on, and not offering any kind of apology has basically endorsed what they did.

• [Chris M. Carroll]

  I’m a type I diabetic, and this kinda thing worries we whenever I drive. Makes me sick that this happens.

  • [suburbanhick]

    My ex-girlfriend is diabetic, and I had to make a trip to the hospital more than once with her, 4-ways flashing at 150kph+ on the highway (no ambulance coverage where we lived back in those days). Thank heavens we never got pulled over!

• [simonbarsinister]

  “To Serve And protect”

  Assholes.
  You hear one of them laughing it up at the end. Ha hahaha what a funny mistake. He was in medical distress and we thought he was drunk hahaha. we kicked his head in for being in distress instead of kicking his head in for being drunk. hahahha. ooops.

• [zachstronaut]

  Can you think of anybody else who wouldn’t get fired for a $300,000 ethics violation on the job?

  • [snagglepuss]

     Ohhhhhhh…Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs….

    It amazed me that Newt Gingrich got into any trouble for “ethics violations” at all – But then I realized that “ethics violations” were a convenient way to remove an all-around gigantic pain in the ass from the congressional floor, while leaving the rest of congress alone, to carry on doing the exact same thing…..

  • [Guest]

    at least 535 names come to mind.

  • [Pierce Nichols]

    The city should at the very least sue the cops for recovery of the money.

• [HDN]

  Born, raised and still live in Henderson. Yeah. Henderson has second city syndrome to Las Vegas; can’t let the LVMPD get too far ahead in the unwarranted beatdown category. Not too stoked to see it make boing boing in this fashion.

• [causticagnostic]

  Unfortunately I believe this is a common trick amongst corrupt officers.  They yell “stop resisting” to plant the idea in any nearby witness’ heads that the force they are about to use is necessary. Something similar to this happened to me during my wayward youth (without the beating, thank god). An officer kept yelling for me to stop resisting even though I was totally compliant.  At 19 I had no idea why he was doing this; it wasn’t until years later that I realized he was possibly trying to set me up for a beating. The only thing that may have saved me was my instinct to yell back at him “I am not resisting!”. I suggest you do the same if you ever find yourself in a similar situation.

• [Someone Else]

  Thank goodness the officer didn’t slip or have the gun accidentally go off while he was kicking wildly at the window. Either way the guy would probably be dead after all the other cops opened fire because the guy “assaulted” their buddy.

• [joeposts]

  In Toronto, a man with a brain injury was beaten to death by police because he didn’t respond to their commands – he was mute and couldn’t understand them anyways. The police told his mom to shut up while he lay dying in front of her, and brushed her off when she begged them for a ride to the hospital to be with him during his last moments.

  The police were cleared – they did nothing wrong according to the police that investigate the police. Because the police did not know he was disabled, they were right to kick him to the ground and squeeze the life out of him. It was his undiagnosed heart condition that killed him; not a terrifying, unprovoked assault.

  But there are Good Cops.

  • [Marko Raos]

    So according to the police, public beating of an obviously unresisting man is perfectly legitimate? Oh my… I must congratulate all the good cops out there because with that kind of laissez faire I’d expect much much worse on the streets on america. And I congratulate America for joining the ranks of police states, because if the above statement is true, then it obviously is an police state.
    Oh you’re talking about Canada.. sadly it’s the same thing nowadays :(

• [Ianto_Jones]

  All of the police officers in this video should be serving lengthy prison sentences right now.  How come people will riot in the streets if their college sports team loses (or wins), but they laugh off and ignore insanity like this?

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    How come people will riot in the streets if their college sports team loses (or wins), but they laugh off and ignore insanity like this?

    Because the fans from the other team probably aren’t all wearing Kevlar and carrying guns, batons and tazers.

    • [MetalPorkchop]

       Probably depends on the country.

• [seanmchugh]

  I don’t buy the “they were bullies in high school” argument.  Most of these criminals were turned this way by the job and the corrupt culture fostered in police departments of fraternity over civility.  See Stanford prison experiment for proof.
   
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment

  • [floodslayer]

    See Stanford prison experiment for evidence of a similar phenomenon at work.

    FTFY

• [Ihavenofuckingname]

  This is how my grandfather died.  He was having a stroke and they thought he was drunk and detained him instead of calling for help.  Threw him in the back of a cruiser while he drifted into a coma.  He died 5 days later.

  Since he never came out of the coma, there’s no way to know what happened between the moment the cop arrested him and the arrival of the ambulance.

• [bingo]

  OMG.  and the stupid cop that shows up later keeps asking all the officers if THEY’RE alright.  FFS.  yes, the scary man in a diabetic coma nearly got all of us.  but thankfully we beat him into a second coma.

• [Layne]

  Yes, there are ‘good’ cops. But the 800 lb problem in the room is this kind of typical overkill, always followed by *ZERO* accountability or adjustment of training and techniques. The brutal, arrogant thugs stay on the force, everyone else stonewalls and covers up. And the citizens who missed out on being assaulted the first time around still get bent over to pay out the endless settlements.

  Next time your self-proclaimed ever-benevolent local/state/federal civil servants rattle the cup to raise funds or protect pensions or pass laws, remember that this is what true unchecked arrogant authority looks like.

  • [realityhater]

    Layne – let the truth be spoken !    bottom line here is we pay  TWICE 

  • [Guest]

    What do you mean zero accountability? The PD is quoted as saying training was modified as a result of this. Yes, the officers at fault are still on the police force, but the PD declined to comment on exactly what action was taken. They could have been busted down to meter maid for all we know.

    Should they have lost their jobs. Absolutely. Can that particular PD afford to fire officers? Unless they wrongfully kill someone, probably not. And that is the sad truth.

    Let’s inject a little rationality into the situation:

    Does this kind of thing happen? Obviously.
    Does it make the news when it does? At least some of the time, yes.
    Are there bad cops? Yes, if this kind of thing happens there are.
    If every cop was a bad cop, would this happen all the time? Probably.
    So does it happen all the time? No. This kind of thing isn’t in the news that often… Consider police officers have these kind of interactions all the time, plenty of stops of impaired drivers. Probably more than a few are aggressive/uncooperative… if they did this to every one of them, there would be a lot more outrage. You WOULD have the public rioting against the police.

    That would make the news, even if the incidents leading to it did not.

    • [realityhater]

      Ok Officer CoyoteDen…you keep drinking the kool aid and tell yourself over and over this kind of thing does not happen often…- it happens every day ! 

      http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cops+beating+citizens&oq=cops+beating+citizens&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=274l5604l0l5953l23l22l0l12

      look at the 2800 results posted here !

      • [Guest]

        Define “often”. If we take the 2800 results on YouTube, then screen out the dupes, fakes, and (if we are talking US police brutality) non-US clips… For accuracy’s sake, let’s limit to when it is clearly an unprovoked assault, with pre-incident footage and/or news footage.

        That’s a couple thousand across YouTube’s entire library… which is how many years worth of footage?

         I never said it didn’t happen. Hell, it probably happens at least once a day in every major city in every country in the world. What I was saying is that compared to the total interaction of the police with the general public, it is infrequent. It is not part of routine police work.

        Cops aren’t there just to beat you up, in other words.

        • [K-9]

          Because it only ever happens when there’s a video camera running?

          Moron.

        • [Pierce Nichols]

          Then it should be really easy for you and all the other alleged good cops to round up the uniformed thugs and put them in jail, or at least on the unemployment line. 

        • [Guest]

          yeah, youtube. Woohoo, it’s almost 7 years old now. That’s like, forever n shit. 

        • [realityhater]

          ok – if you want to start eliminating  evidence… ( now I know your a cop CoyoteDen) , lets then add to this little equation every time this Bullshit  happens with no one around  to film it  ! … the point I am trying to make is if it happens once — that is  one too many times . however this , as proven in recent months is a TREND AMONG POLICE OFFICERS WHO THINK THEY ARE ABOVE THE LAW THEY SERVE ! IT HAS BECOME MOB MENTALITY AS YOU SEE BY THE SWARM OF OFFICERS SWOOPING IN AND LITERALLY KICKING THERE VICTIM IN THE HEAD.    In most of these offenses on the public ,unless someone dies …the officers are given a two week desk job or vacation and a scrap of paper in their file that is removed within one year.That is salt in the wound – the officers in question should be made to suffer a more extreme punishment than a regular citizen would for this type of assault . Why ? because they should be held to a higher level of responsibility because they are LAW ENFORCEMENT !  Even when someone does get MURDERED by the police – the offense is usually overturned in court –  very rarely is an officer excommunicated from the BROTHERHOOD.  They should be held to a higher level of accountability , not given a GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARD
          These pricks think just because it comes out of their mouth its the law and we must comply – they cannot reason with logic  and half the time do not fully understand the laws they uphold, so they cir-cum to the BRUTE FORCE MENTALITY -” DO AS I SAY OR SUFFER A BEATING BY ME AND MY FRIENDS ”

          The good cop is one who is willing to uphold the law against his peers , especially when those peers are committing civil rights violations. A good cop is one who takes his oath to Serve and Protect the CITIZENS seriously…  So if that’s you great , but don’t minimize the issue. There are plenty of Bad apples in the bunch and this type of thing occurs daily and it MUST STOP.Until officers are held to accountability for their actions on the job , No one is SAFE 

          .Now  Go shine up your badge and clean your gun-ASSHOLE

    • [Layne]

      Gee, maybe I mean that there were ZERO tangible acts of correction by the police dept. in response to a criminal act instigated by members of their force. The official PD spokesperson says the equivalent of “Don’t worry, we handled it.” And your response is “Oh, great. Thanks for including us in your private decisions on a simple, harmless misunderstanding.” 

      They are a public institution, yet they are hiding behind bureaucracy to cover their own asses and insulate their members from the consequences of their actions. That is inexcusable. Even more – it reeks of criminal conspiracy. If any citizen in their jurisdiction attempted a fraction of this abuse on a cop, it would be met with overwhelming criminal charges or even lethal force. All of it justified by the “tough on crime” mantra that these morons love to trot out whenever the crime in question isn’t of their doing.

      The public has to pay insane amounts of money to compensate for this kind of mindless brutality. The fact that you can accept these events happening regularly and then turn around and say that it’s not an “often occurrence” is ludicrous. It does make the news – repeatedly. Although in one case it’s a beating, in another it’s tasering, in another it’s smashing a camera, shooting a dog, etc. etc.

      The “official response” that mollifies people like you is only good when it happens once and only once. It’s a useless PR wank-off and it’s not going to count for shit after the umpteenth time a cop steals your money or smashes in your face and goes right back into the rotation.

    • [OldBrownSquirrel]

       Real accountability would be criminal charges against the officers involved.  And why should a PD be unable to “afford” to fire officers whose misconduct is costing their department hundreds of thousands of dollars?  Do you honestly believe the department’s liability somehow goes down if they keep these officers around? It’s more likely that firing them would save the department money down the road.

    • [Pierce Nichols]

      The cops in the video are not only not in jail, they’re still cops. And they didn’t have to pay a dime for what they did. That’s zero accountability.

      Accountability would be every one of them in jail and all of their assets confiscated to pay the judgement.

    • [Hanglyman]

      “Should they have lost their jobs. Absolutely. Can that particular PD afford to fire officers? Unless they wrongfully kill someone, probably not. And that is the sad truth.”

      A crooked cop is worse than no cop at all. A crooked cop is nothing more than a criminal who is untouchable. I’ll take regular criminals over that any day. Even if there’s no immediate replacement, they should be fired, and, in cases like this, jailed. They’re incredibly dangerous and need to be put where they can’t hurt anyone, NOW.

    • [Guest]

      Ahh, youth. Idealistic youth. In real reality, when you don’t get enough to eat, you don’t riot much. Ego can in fact be beaten out of you, and the knights are always bigger and better fed than the serfs. Same as it ever was.

• [awjt]

  It’s ridiculous.  When I was in the Las Vegas area a couple years ago, I noticed an INCREDIBLE number of obviously drunk/impaired drivers after midnight.  It was downright scary.  I think, there, the police have this knee-jerk reaction to erratic drivers; moreso than other parts of the world.  Of course they should get more training and not kick people and hurt them.  But the first part about assuming the driver was drunk – that part was somewhat understandable. But only *somewhat* because the presentation is the same.  

  But what if it wasn’t a diabetic?  What if it was a stroke like the person said above me?  Or something else?  Police need more training.  These guys behaved like ignorants.  THAT is unacceptable, on top of the excessive force.  Get a frigging education, thugs.  And we also need to do something about the drunk driving problem. That’s unacceptable too.

  • [Marko Raos]

    “But what if it wasn’t a diabetic?  What if it was a stroke like the person said above me?”
    What if he was actually drunk? Would that justify cops behaving like they did? I don’t recall “public beating by half a dozen sweaty men” as legitimate punishment meted out by the law for the offense of drunk driving.

    • [awjt]

      I think they beat him because he was repeatedly non-compliant, not simply *because* they thought he was drunk.  It was most likely his non-responsiveness they were responding to. But sure, drunk drivers don’t deserve summary punishment. They should be jailed, fined heavily and otherwise made to not ever do it again! Drunk drivers KILL people.

      • [K-9]

        And non-responsiveness is punishable by extrajudicial assault?

        You’re making almost as much sense as CoyoteDen.

        • [awjt]

          Jesus, you people. If you actually watched the video, you would see that they didn’t start beating him first thing.  It wasn’t until the guy walked up and started kicking him in the head.  Get it right and actually WATCH the thing before beating up your fellow Boingers!  Microcosm.  YOU are the same problem.

      • [Ito Kagehisa]

        You can’t have a gun because some other people misuse them.  You can’t drive drunk because some drunks kill others.  You can’t get a job if you can’t pass a piss test because some people abuse drugs on the job.  You can’t have a vote because some people vote for evil men.  You can’t publish your opinion because some people’s opinions cause others to commit suicide.  You can’t speak because speech has been known to incite other people to commit violence.

        I applaud your goal, but I think you should probably avoid using those kinds of justifications…

    • [Guest]

      so, the collective noun here is ‘a jury of sweaty men’? :P

  • [Yamantaka]

    Sadly, the ’90s saw the increased militarization of the police. On the 5th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing, RAND had a conference to discuss the future of counter-terrorism. One of the primary threads within that conference, among military leaders and analysts alike, was the dismay at this increased militarization… the transmogrification of a civil police corps to something more akin to a gendarmerie, but without the national standardization, the mandate, or the proper training.

    The core of that concern came from the following logic:

    * Police, as a civilian force, _should_ (ideally) see themselves as a part of the public that they are protecting. Likewise, they should be trained to respect the law while enforcing it.

    * Gendarmaries and other paramilitary forces are trained to see themselves as separate from the public. Likewise, they are trained to view all members of that public to be possible threats requiring “neutralization.” 

    Paramilitary law-enforcement forces (e.g. SWAT) in the U.S., according to the military speakers at this conference, did not have either the gun discipline or the accountability of actual military forces under the UCMJ.

    Also note that it was acknowledged that the ideal police force may not (and may have never) existed. 

    The two views are not compatible, at any rate; hence, the concern way back in 2000.

• [cstatman]

  the best line I read was months back here on BB.   

  If there were “good” cops,  there would be fewer “bad” cops

  • [Guest]

    What a cop believes: If there were “good” cops, there would just be fewer cops. Namely me.

    The bad ones would lose their jobs, and the good ones would either lose their jobs (squeaky wheel) or lose their lives because they wouldn’t have backup.

    Cops are trained to believe you don’t rat out “bad cops” because they might just save your life someday.

    Whether it is the truth or not, that is the doctrine.

    • [teapot]

      Whether it is the truth or not, that is the doctrine.

      And that’s why people hate cops. I’ve met 2 police officers ever that weren’t power-tripping jerks. They were both senior police who weren’t trying to suck dick to get promotions.

      good ones would either lose their jobs (squeaky wheel) or lose their lives because they wouldn’t have backup.

      So, we have it coming from the mouth of a cop… they specifically don’t provide backup to good cops. What a fucking leech on taxpayers most of you high-school flunkees are.

    • [Pierce Nichols]

      Anyone who believes that is a bad cop, by definition.

• [suburbanhick]

  They don’t need the comma in  ”Do not resist, motherfucker”. They were just telling him what to do – isn’t the cop’s name Motherfucker?

  Assholes.

• [Mujokan]

  nvm

  • [awjt]

    I often don’t agree with your posts, but right on.  This one is good. But you deleted it, dag nebbit!

    • [Mujokan]

       If I could offer you some advice, you should agree with me more. In the long run, you’d feel better for it.

      • [awjt]

        I’ll just keep you over there at arm’s length, thank you.

        • [Mujokan]

           That’s what my horse said when I tried to make him drink.

          Edit: Didn’t realize you had read  that before I deleted it!

        • [Antinous / Moderator]

          I don’t know how to tell you this, but that wasn’t your horse’s arm.

        • [Mujokan]

           Antinous, you have been super cool to me during my time here, but I have to take a break, I’m posting too much drunken crap.

• [Mister44]

  Sigh. That is fucked up. It is also my nightmare that would ever happen to me due to the chronic pain I’m in.

• [vulturesandhyenas]

  Just find the dox on Mr. Brett Seekatz

• [Josh Gardner]

  This is like Reno 911, only horrible and not funny. So really, I guess it’s just a lot like Reno 911.

• [lknope]

  “Officials wouldn’t specify how or if Seekatz was disciplined over the incident, saying the information is a personnel matter and will not be released. ”

  Um, excuse me? Publicly funded officers violently assaulted a member of the public without just cause. That is a lot more than a personnel matter. That is an abuse of authority given by the people. You are supposed to use it to maintain law and order, not to needlessly beat people on a whim. The public deserves to know the outcome.

  • [Pierce Nichols]

    He’s still a cop, and not in jail. Therefore, he was not disciplined in a meaningful way.

• [Richard Lalonde]

  Yet more police abuse. It keeps getting worse and worse. Things are turning into a police state. The public needs to fight back against this abuse. It’s out of control. Lawsuits are not enough. They are no longer serving and protecting, but terrorizing and abusing.

  • [ialreadyexist]

    Oh, it’s going to get worse before it gets better.  

• [Mark McKinnon]

  I’ve been a type 1 diabetic for almost 40 yrs. This scares the shit outta me because my illness is becoming harder to control.  Jack-booted thugs suck.

• [Mark McKinnon]

  I just had NY state police benevolent Association call me and ask me for a donation???!!! WTF?? Right after I posted above. Makes me think paranoididly!

  • [Marja Erwin]

     Yeah. I’ve been beaten before, and those calls are trauma triggers.

• [vulturesandhyenas]

  http://transparentnevada.com/salaries/search/?q=Brett+J+Seekatz&t=name

  • [Layne]

    Jesus, $96K/year??? 

    I’m continually amazed at the pay scale these guys pull down. And that is most likely separate from benefits and a fat pension that  continually amasses and survives in spite of even the most criminal behavior by cops who eventually run out of luck and are removed. 

    And what price can you really put on the other perks to assault, steal, surpress evidence, intimidate and violate constitutional law with absolute institutional impunity?

    • [realityhater]

      Good point… maybe the new rule should be – Wantonly Beat an innocent  person-loose your pension !

• [lmc56]

  I have to ask: Why hasn’t Seekatz been arrested for battery? Seriously, there’s no question about probable cause. Does he have immunity because he’s a cop? WTF?

• [ialreadyexist]

  Two truths: (1) If you want to be a cop, you’re not qualified.  (2) If you want to be a politician, you’re not qualified.

• [realityhater]

  The sad truth here is the officers in question probably received a slap on the wrist and a black mark in their file that will be removed in a years time.  The perpetuation of the GOON SQUAD is evident , or these and all other lawbreaking “LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS” would be out of a job and unable to do police work in any capacity – like it should be – if you are a law enforcement officer and you break the laws you are paid by the taxpayers to uphold , you should be banished – period! Time and time again these folks are kept on the force to continue to facilitate this nonsense at the tax payers expense – Fu%K the police unions, they are to blame ! – yet every year when heads are supposed to roll due to a slim budget – we keep getting the same BS – if you reduce the force the people will pay ! – WELL HELL WE PAY ANYWAY !AND SOME OF US WITH OUR BLOOD ! – If the altercations that occurred at all Occupy movements isn’t enough damning evidence , I don’t know what is !

• [ialreadyexist]

  The purpose of law enforcement agencies has gone from protecting the public to protecting those in power.  This is why they are rarely punished for their acts against the public.  They are doing the job that their employers want them to do.

• [Guest]

  There honestly needs to be a prosecutor whose entire job is prosecuting corrupt and violent cops. It’s incredibly obvious that cops get a free pass on following the laws.

  • [realityhater]

    prosecutor =law enforcement= more corruption.

    we need a new variable

• [Marko Raos]

  Am I the only one who thinks that the fact that he wasn’t drunk actually has no bearing on the case? What the cops did would have been equally unjustified even if he was drunk but unresisting.
  You see how habeas corpus and the rule of law has been quietly phased out of public consciousness? Only such cases of mistaken identity are publicized, thus implicitly creating an impression that it IS ok to beat up and abuse drunk drivers.
  And if you are saying “drunk drivers are pigs who deserve what is coming to them” then you are actually giving the police the right to mete out the punishment according to their own whim… In short, lynch by the executive.

  The same goes with “innocent man goes to prison” stories where all the horrors of faulty prison system are described… But there is no compassion whatsoever for legitimate convicts. I don’t see “anal rape, indefinite solitary and beatings” listed in any law book as appropriate punishment, but somehow it is taken for granted. It’s the “bad guys” you know, so the rule of law does not apply to them… or human rights, or anything. Smoke a joint and you can legitimately be tortured to death, at least according to cop shows and hollywood. NDAA is just an extension of this brain rot in american society.

  • [wysinwyg]

     I think most of the Americans reading this thread will agree with you that
    1) even drunk driving, as heinous as it is in itself, doesn’t warrant this kind of treatment at the hands of LEOs and
    2) prison rape shouldn’t be considered “part of the punishment” for committing crimes.

    Granted a lot of people (not just Americans) are stupid enough to think they should, but that’s not really the point here.  I think most people are saying, “Yeah, this is really bad but it’s even worse because the guy needed medical attention before they started beating him.”  Not that it’s only bad because he was in diabetic shock.

    • [Marko Raos]

      As anal rape and solitary go, I’m sure that many who lived through both would choose anal rape before prolonged solitary punishment. Just like waterboarding, it is one of those punishments which don’t look like much until you actually experience them. Prolonged solitary is one of the most heinous and damaging tortures. Yes, people regularly go permanently insane because of it.  Sadly, in order to cut costs, many private maximum security prisons just lock up prisoners in solitaries.  While not as spectacular as nail pulling or electrocution, prolonged isolation is in many ways much worse, because sensory deprivation directly damages the mind and rehabilitation is almost impossible.

      • [wysinwyg]

        Yeah, I agree completely.  Atul Gawande wrote a really compelling article on the evidence for this.  That’s irrelevant to what I was trying to say, which is that you’re painting with a broad brush when you imply that Americans are too stupid to agree with you on these things with which many Americans already agree.

        • [Marko Raos]

          Not really… This is a common misconception… the word “americans” means radically different things to different people.  For example when G.W.Bush said that “they hate us (americans) for…” he was speaking the truth. But “Americans” in America means “american people” and in a war-torn CIA-infested middle east hell-hole “Americans” means “American intelligence services and predatory corporations.” Actually ordinary american “americans” hate middle eastern “americans” pretty much the same.
          Personally I don’t think americans are any more stupid or smart than anybody else in the world… Humans are pretty much the same everywhere and many of the smartest people I know are americans, so… labels are always mislading. The country that gave us Dante and DaVinci kept electing Berlusconi. Nuff said.

• [Commodore Crush]

  “Anybody hurt?”  Um, yeah… me laying here on the ground after you dicks kicked me in the face.

  The laughing at the end is really creepy too.

• [Chauncey Scott]

  The old, playing diabetic shock dead, trick, I see. Hmmmmm…..

  • [photodawg]

    I have had two friends die from diabetic shock, it just ain’t that funny to me.

• [realityhater]

  Drunk or Not – no one deserves 5 LEO’s kicking the SHI% out of them and then laughing about it on tape – I would not stop until Justice is served and heads rolled 135000 or whatever  is not nearly enough -and it should not be paid by taxpayers –  WTF freeze their pensions- kick them where it hurts…  in the pocket !

  • [Guest]

    It really is the laughing that gets me. They enjoyed it.

    ‘for the lulz’ : police are doing it wrong.

    • [Ito Kagehisa]

      “The infliction of physical punishment is not every man’s job, and naturally we were only too glad to recruit men who were prepared to show no squeamishness at their task. Unfortunately, we knew nothing about the Freudian side of the business, and it was only after a number of instances of unnecessary flogging and meaningless cruelty that I tumbled to the fact that my organization had been attracting all the sadists in Germany and Austria without my knowledge for some time past. It had also been attracting unconscious sadists, i.e. men who did not know themselves that they had sadist leanings until they took part in a flogging. And finally it had actually been creating sadists. For it seems that corporal chastisement ultimately arouses sadistic leanings in apparently normal men and women.”  — Rudolf Diels

• [Brad Zimmerman]

  Land of the free, home of the brave!  Seriously though, there’s a really good chance you’ll never have to deal with the cops trying to beat your ass into a pulp so no worries.  And, hey, if they get caught there’s a reasonably good chance (1:5?  1:10?) you’ll get some cash afterwards.  Bonus if you’re not permanently disabled!

  • [Lobster]

     More and more, you’ve got to be brave to live here.

• [sirjohncabbage]

  Is it possible for a victim of a crime like this to sue the police officers in civil court for damages? Maybe if the police could be hit in the wallet instead of having the police department insurance pay the damages, it might cut down on this type of behavior.

  • [Marja Erwin]

    It’s harder to prove, because of qualified immunity. I guess without the impunity it would be hard to recruit qualified bullies. And apparently qualified immunity was introduced for fear police would be too careful to respect people’s constitutional rights without it, although I for one don’t understand how they can be too careful – if anything the courts should worry that police are not careful enough.

• [Red Leatherman]

  The last part of the article referred to training or retraining or some sort of lack of. Well I Just saw an article that dealt with an officer that got his job back and $200.000 in back pay after kicking the shit out of a dog that was suspended from a leash.
  That article went on to share the reasoning for giving the cop his job back was that in training it’s something to the effect of “whatever it takes” and that for that reason the cop was only doing “whatever it took”
  (police dogs are considered officers of the law) Sooooo why can’t other 2 legged cops get retrained using “whatever it takes”?  I sorta like the idea that these 2 legged cops have a slight chance of learning too especially if their suspended by their necks while getting the shit kicked out of them.

  • [Guest]

    Are you SERIOUSLY advocating the beating of police dogs because a bad cop abused a dog? First: You are a psychopath. Second: What is that going to accomplish? Do it to the guilty cop, not the K9 units.

    • [Red Leatherman]

      No,I’m saying a cop beat his dog and was fired, then got his job back because it was upheld that beating the dog while it was hanging by his neck was how the cop was trained to train the dog therefore…..train the cops likewise.
      I may not be the best at conveying what I’m thinking but I re read my post and though the post is not ten pages of ranting about the idiotic findings of the powers that gave the dog beating cop his job back I am in no fucking way in support of beating an animal. the dog, I’m attempting to convey that if by some whacked out reasoning that successful training consist of kicking a suspended trainee. then Train the 2 legged cops that way because I’m reading over and over that training was lacking and the cop didn’t know any better and some sort of 2 week refresher course in a hotel in Las Vegas is the answer.
      and before you think I’m advocating a two week training session in Downtown Las Vegas, I am not. I am using that as sarcasm and the actual idea of suspending a human by the neck to train him to be a better cop is also sarcasm.

      • [teapot]

        I may not be the best at conveying what I’m thinking but I re read my post and though the post is not ten pages of ranting about the idiotic findings of the powers that gave the dog beating cop his job back I am in no fucking way in support of beating an animal.

        Don’t fret man, your point was logically laid out and easy to understand. How Coyote could have so completely misunderstood you is beyond me and is yet another indictment of a police officer’s level of reading comprehension and intelligence.

• [Rachel Isaac]

  GOOD JOB… They got someone who was really ill… so they rapists/drug dealers/abusers/molesters and  all of the above had a free night. Good for these cops. God, no wonder the government is so corrupt… I hate this cop so much and I hope he goes straight down to where I am thinking.

• [hakuin]

  things change, cops didn’t always exist, there is no reason to assume they always will.  Time to be looking ahead.

• [Guest]

  May I just point out one thing that I’m surprised hasn’t been brought up yet?

  Whenever recording of public/police interactions gets brought up here, the talk inevitably turns towards the police editing or conveniently losing their own footage that incriminates them.

  Didn’t happen here…

• [ridestowe]

  see? it only takes someone getting the shit kicked out of them to get somebody to wake up and do their fucking job

• [goopy]

  It is sad to see US slowly turning into hellhole since 911. I wouldn’t move there even if I get green card for free.

• [ffabian]

  Seems like the Rule of Law is suspended in the US when ”Equal before the law” is no longer true. The ‘Land of the Free’ is a police state now.

  … and still there are USians that like to tell others what amazing freedoms they have and that the Europeans live in second class democracies when e.g. they’ve implemented an other version/interpretation of freedom of expression than in the US (see BB article about the BBC troll hunting – freedom of expression =/= hate speech)

• [golvio]

  I find that posts which involve some degree of authority over others either attracts domineering jerks or brings out the domineering jerk in some people. I hope these guys are thoroughly disciplined in order to set an example for anybody else who could go on a power trip like this.

  I’m wondering if it would be a good idea to do a psychological evaluation for jobs which allow people access to weapons. It could weed out those who could potentially abuse the power they’ve been given.

• [gratefulvideo]

  I used to work night shift at a covenience store, one of the most dangerous jobs around.  Can you imagine if I treated every customer like they were a deadly threat.   If I could do that job without being a paranoid asshole then cops can learn to do their jobs without treating everyone like they are deadly threat. 

• [teapot]

  Redneck Cops – just what the world needs less of. Here’s to hoping they got t-boned by a semi on the way home.

  Opinion of US law enforcement: fallen to an all-new low. I’m surprised they didn’t mace the guy as well.

  • [Marja Erwin]

    Maybe you should think about who the Red Necks were.

    In West Virginia, the mine owners had hired the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, a private death squad, to kill union organizers. In Colorado, the Baldwin-Felts gang had been one of those responsible for the Ludlow Massacre. In West Virginia, at Matewan, sherriff Sid Hatfield deputised several miners to stop the Baldwin-Felts gang and prevent another massacre. Afterwards, the Baldwin-Felts gang assassinated Sid Hatfield, and the miners rose against the gang.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain

    • [teapot]

      Clearly by virtue of his actions Sid Hatfield would be in the non-redneck category. I stand by my comment based on the true definition of the word.

      http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/redneck

      • [Marja Erwin]

        That’s not the true definition.

        The Red Necks were people who organized against the Baldwin-Felts gang after Sid Hatfield’s assassination.

        • [teapot]

          That’s funny… I don’t remember mentioning any “Red Necks”. Rednecks. One Word. It originates from before the events to which you refer, which would mean the true definition is not as you understand.
          http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=redneck
          http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=62717

          The miners to which you referred appropriated the name.
          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redneck#Political_term_for_poor_farmers
          “The United Mine Workers of America (UMW) and rival miners’ unions appropriated both the term redneck and its literal manifestation”

          Correcting people: You’re doing it wrong.

• [snagglepuss]

  For those ass-kissers who point to “9-11″ or site the “increased dangers of today’s street environment” in order to make excuses for violent thug cops…

  About 30 years ago, I pulled into the parking lot of my apartment building, and a sheriff’s deputy was right behind me. He rolled down his window and told me that my license plate sticker had expired, and I realized that he was right – I had recently moved to that apartment, and my renewal notice had not yet arrived in the mail.
  I told him this, quite politely and promised to walk over to the secretary of state’s office (three blocks away) the next day, and purchase my new sticker.

  Not good enough for Joe Goodcop. He got out, pointed his gun at me and ordered me to assume the position. He frisked me, cuffed me and threw me in the back of the squad car, and when I asked if this was really necessary for a license plate sticker, he told me he’d kill me if I opened my mouth again.

  I spent four hours in lock-up until I could arrange bail. I was a law-abiding citizen then, and generally still am. I’d had one previous arrest in my life, for loitering, which was thrown out, as was the license-plate sticker case when I appeared in court a month later. I’m not a bomb-thrower, I pay my taxes, I help little old ladies across the street, I’m straight, I don’t get high, I don’t look like a biker or anybody violent or threatening,  and I’m not black. None the less, I’ve been pointlessly hassled by plenty of other local cops since then, usually when they were covering for somebody with political connections who’d blundered into my life and caused problems, and the cops always got away with it scot free. The jailer bragged to me that, ever since a rookie deputy had been killed during a roadside stop ten years earlier, the cops have felt “justified” with abusing their authority.

  I didn’t hate all cops then, and I don’t now. But the actions of several shitstain pigs with tiny dicks has permanently colored my attitude towards all cops for the rest of my life. Even more than priests and politicians, I’m convinced that cops inevitably attract the LAST people in the world who should be allowed to join their ranks, and that cops do THE most absolute piss-poor job of weeding them out before it’s too late.

• [Manny]

  This really freaks me out. We’ve criminalized addiction and other mental illnesses. Now brain damage, deafness, and diabetes? Kids with life sentences? Even if I didn’t have a dog in the fight, I’d still think this is all very wrong–these are the people least able to protect themselves. These are people we are supposed to be taking care of, not beating or throwing in solitary confinement.

• [Hanglyman]

   I really wonder what it would take to stop this. Every possible system that’s supposedly in place to prevent this sort of abuse is broken beyond all hope of repair, like pretty much every aspect of government in the United States right now. Mandatory life in prison for abuse of police power would be a nice start, considering it’s just about the most heinous and society-damaging crime imaginable, but it will never happen.

  • [mothernatureseven]

    If voting could change anything it would be made illegal.
    2nd American Revolution against Amerika this time
    Non violence will not work ~ it is time

    • [Hanglyman]

      As much as I agree with the concept (and that in itself scares me a bit), I don’t think that’s a real option currently either. How would we get people to unite when a large percentage of our fellow citizens outright support this sort of thing? Despite the whole “99% vs. 1%” idea, the truth is that lots of American citizens are completely supportive and complicit in the destruction of their own freedoms. How would we stand any chance of winning when, as you say, every small town has its own SWAT team and state-of-the-art equipment? WHO would we fight? The police are just a tool, who are the actual, real people that it would make a permanent difference if we got rid of? And if we somehow got that far, what then? We’d need to create a better system, one that can’t be so easily corrupted, but how?

• [pjcamp]

  Of course they haven’t been disciplined. That’s why they won’t say. Cops are scum.

• [awjt]

  You freaks are doing to each other exactly what these officers did to that poor man.  I am defiantly jamming my insulin into your legs and pressing the plunger!!!

  • [mothernatureseven]

    Corn hole

• [Culturedropout]

  And it’s the taxpayers who are paying _them_ AND compensating this poor bastard for the beating he got.  Why should the cops give a shit?  They should garnish the wages of every one of those thugs until the fines are paid off.

• [benher]

  I think Wendy O’ Williams said all that ever needs to be said about police officers.

• [Soliloquy]

  I have no words, just horror face. D:)

• [Daemonworks]

  Screw “discipline”, this is a clear case for criminal charges. Not that those exist for police officers…

• [mothernatureseven]

  Police state Americka!
  Happening right before our hopeless selves doing nothing.
  These “pigs” should have been tried for aggravated battery and sent to prison.
  Wake the fuc k up Americka before the baton is up you @ss and on your head.
  Every sh!t hole town now has machine guns, APCs , swat team.
  The police state is here.
  These “pigs” just got off on group beating a helpless person.

• [mothernatureseven]

  The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life, the sick and the needy, and the handicapped.” – Hubert Humphrey

  We fail the sh!t out of this test! 46% of children in Amerika live in poverty. Elderly are choosing between medication and food.

  Amerika has got the sickness.
  Occupy is right.
  It is 99% against 1% who are out to fuc k us over.
  Now is the time ~ the place is here.

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    Oh, dear. We really are fucked when Hubert Humphrey sounds like a radical. Also, you’re allowed to say fuck here. And shit. And motherfucking shit.

• [Sooper8]

  What worries me is that for everyone of these that gets through and is broadcast and some kind of justice prevails, I guess there’s 10 that don’t. They ‘lose’ the film, the ‘camera was broke’ or they just drag them away somewhere to beat the shit out of them.
  When are things gonna change? And how?

• [Mary Nir]

  I had a sudden onset episode of extreme hypoglycemia myself earlier this year – I was walking to the subway, and one block, I felt fine, the next, I was only dimly aware that I couldn’t see or stand, and was bracing myself against a parked car as I sat on the sidewalk. I remember being worried that the car would drive off, but I lacked the strength to do anything else. I was lucky that concerned citizens, thinking I was drunk, called the EMTs, who recognized the issue and treated me – but I was so exposed, the experience made me feel very terrified for days – I could have been robbed, beaten, or raped and been powerless to resist. Worse, in that condition, the brain does not create memories, so often I cannot recall what happens when I have extremely low blood sugar because my brain isn’t storing it.  As a person with Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes, this is one of my biggest fears – that I’ll be unable to explain or defend myself because of my condition from an attack, whether by police or civilians.

• [MetalPorkchop]

  The guy I went to school with who became a cop, was a bully and not bright enough to become much else.  I met a cop at the dojo I used to train at, and he seemed all right, even made it in the local paper as a hero.  Like with everything else, there is a large grey area, but most people focus on the black and white.

• [photodawg]

  I am 65 years old white guy, and have seen some horrible things in my life, and I have personally known police officers since I was 13. When I was 21, I witnessed my first non-racist beating, of a 15 year old white boy, by 6 officers of the law. In the South, racist beatings by law officers were very common in the 50′s & 60′s. This was something new, but foretold of the coming violence toward those, of whom, the establishment didn’t approve. Personally, I have not seen a more out of control police establishment than the one we live with in the present. Most police departments require their officers to bulk-up in order to intimidate their adversaries, you and me. If police departments were forced to administer steroid tests, there would not be Congressional hearings on the charges, it would just be a case of  “boys will be boys”.  Their motto is no longer “to protect and serve”, today it is “don’t fuck with me, or you might not make it to jail”. When I was a child, I was told that the police were your friend, I would never lie to a child, like that again.

• [Someone Else]

  “Hey, my brother is  a cop, but he’s one of the good ones.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry for your loss.”

  All joking aside, though, I don’t think that such an extreme view is warranted, and it certainly isn’t helpful. Cops suck, and even the “good ones” are bad cops for doing nothing about the bad ones. I honestly don’t know what the solution is, but wishing them all dead probably isn’t it.

  (In reality, I just wanted to tell that joke. I just didn’t want people to think I actually agreed. Sorry for sounding all holier than thou and crap).

• [Mujokan]

   Of course it’s not warranted. If you think can get cooperation with no enforcement of rules, you are either about 15 or a moron.

• [Ito Kagehisa]

  Maybe you’re just using the wrong rules.

• [wysinwyg]

   Honestly, how many situations have you been in where you were like, “Damn, so glad the cops were there…”

  On the other hand, I’ve seen plenty of regular citizens prevent assault and battery, theft, etc.  People are actually surprisingly good at policing their own communities.  Which is good because 99% of the time the cops get to the scene after the crime is committed.

  Not saying we don’t need police but believing that regular citizens are responsible for most of the policing that goes on in their communities is more common sense and less being 15 or a moron.

• [Mujokan]

   Yes, most of the time the community enforces the rules. That is how is should be.

  I’ve been in situations where I think “thank God someone decided to become a cop” and in situations where I think “screw you for thinking becoming a cop made you judge, jury and executioner”.

  “A good cop is a dead cop” = “Go fuck yourself” in my opinion.

• [wysinwyg]

   Yeah, not defending that statement, just pointing out that “If you think can get cooperation with no enforcement of rules, you are either about 15 or a moron” is similarly stupid.

• [Mujokan]

  So you think you can get cooperation without enforcement of rules, then. Please go on.

• [wysinwyg]

  Yes, most of the time the community enforces the rules. That is how is should be.

  You’ve already admitted it happens “most of the time”.  (Note: most of the rules you allude to are unwritten rules at the community level.)  So there’s really no need to go on.

  Edit: Also, I haven’t seen a cop all day and yet haven’t committed a single crime. Weird, right?

• [Mujokan]

  The original poster says “A good cop is a dead cop”.

  My reaction is that you have to have enforcement of rules to enable cooperation. I would love it if you could get by without cops, but I don’t think it’s possible. So therefore  I contend that if you think a good cop is a dead cop, you’re a moron.

  Of course most enforcement is carried out at the community level. I will step in and do it myself, if I am feeling brave enough. At the least I will give a dirty look, at the most I will step into a fight. But I hate to do that, mostly because it scares the crap out of me.

  My neighbor was beating his wife a couple of months ago. Did I go over there and stop it? No, I called the cops. Because I don’t want an enemy living next to me. I could give other examples.

  What my post meant, I think fairly obviously, is if you think all cops should be killed, you are a moron. That in no way means that I think all community policing should be done by people in uniform. They are a last resort. But they are absolutely necessary.

  If you could explain more how you got from the original post “A good cop is a dead cop” followed by my response “If you think we can enforce rules without cops then you are a moron” to implying that I meant “What you are saying is that most enforcement of rules must be done by cops” it might help me to understand how I managed to screw up my drunken posting.

  Please bear in mind that I never specified the amount of enforcement of rules that should be done by the police. Merely that they are needed for enforcement of rules.

• [wysinwyg]

  If you could explain more how you got from “A good cop is a dead cop” to “If you think we can enforce rules without cops then you are a moron” to “What you mean is that most enforcement of rules must be done by cops” it might help me to understand how I managed to screw up my drunken posting.

  I agreed with you about the original statement to the extent that I don’t even want to repeat it.  But I disagreed with this:  “If you think can get cooperation with no enforcement of rules, you are either about 15 or a moron.”  It seemed hyperbolic, like you reacted to the idiocy of the original statement with an opposed but also stupid statement.

  In my experience, most human beings seek the approval of other human beings and tend to cooperate voluntarily without any sort of enforcement.  There are exceptions and that’s why we need police.  I suspect we pretty much agree on this and I was just disagreeing with the specific phrase you used.

• [Mujokan]

   Welp, sorry but I don’t see any reason to revise what I said originally. Don’t think there was anything stupid about it. Open to further elucidation.

• [Guest]

  “My neighbor was beating his wife a couple of months ago. Did I go over there and stop it? No, I called the cops. Because I don’t want an enemy living next to me. I could give other examples.”

  So, Mujokan, you’re not enemies with a wife beater? Good for you.