Man arrested for being pushed by a Ft. Collins, Colorado police officer

[Video Link] Do you think any disciplinary action will be taken against this duo? I don't.

Fort Collins police investigating after video shows officer shoving man (Via biotiv)

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John Smith

They’re gonna call me sir they’ll all stop picking on me
Well I’m a high school grad I”m over 5 foot 3
I’ll get a badge and a gun and I’ll join the P.D.
They’ll see
awjt

They didn’t say why they arrested him, at least not audibly on the tape. All we hear is the man pleading, “for what?” It *could* be public intoxication or any of a hundred other petty laws they were questioning him about before the tape started rolling.

But of course, there was no reason for their excessive belligerence and violence towards him, and he should sue. I would, if I were in that situation. It would be my only recourse to address my grievances. That and running for public office on a platform of cleaning house at the police station and bringing in fair minded individuals to do the job right. But that’s just me…
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Christopher-Lee/100001074475538 Christopher Lee
  
  I agree. He should run for public office. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.
  - awjt
    
    He’d be perfect for the job. Just listen to him dialogging.
- SP123
  
  The article lists 3 people who were charged. My old favorite, “Obstructing a Peace Officer,” was there, of course, but one person was charged with my new favorite, “Interference.” What is this, a hockey game? Was he given a two minute minor?
  - Ralidius
    
    Plus, why he had no helmet on… that ain’t safe.
Ito Kagehisa

I’m sure the other cops will chastize both these men for their failure to administer a proper beat-down to the photographer.
http://jimbeach.net mindfu

Nothing makes me angry like seeing cops throwing their weight around.

I’d be interested if the guy with the camera had to show his ID, like the cop had no right to demand but still demanded.

I don’t think the cop’s buddy off to the side saw the push happen, but I’m sure he had to rush in to “defuse the situation”. Of course, he could have defused it by telling his buddy he was wrong, rather than arresting the pushed civilian. That would be “undermining situational authority” or some similar BS.
- Sean Nelson
  
  It depends on what happened before the video started rolling, I suppose, but he may have had a right to demand ID:
  
  16-3-103. Stopping of suspect. (1) A peace officer may stop any person who he reasonably suspects is committing, has committed, or is about to commit a crime and may require him to give his name and address, identification if available, and an explanation of his actions. A peace officer shall not require any person who is stopped pursuant to this section to produce or divulge such person’s social security number. The stopping shall not constitute an arrest.
  - http://profile.yahoo.com/DHVU2IR2WPTIABRZTMVTABCT7A yahoo-DHVU2IR2WPTIABRZTMVTABCT7A
    
    Yeah and if it were me the ID would be “unavailable” without an arrest warrant.
cpm5280

Oh come on, this is clearly just (yet another) “isolated incident.”

Cops are all properly motivated and trained. Move along.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=620862876 Bob Brinkman

Seriously, crap like this is just another symptom of what is wrong with this country. If there was any justice these men would be fired and the first brought up on charges of assault.
http://bhtooefr.org/ Eric Rucker

Wonder how long it’ll take until someone’s JUST unstable enough to wear a bomb everywhere, and suicide bomb a cop that tries to pull that.
- flickerKuu
  
  Someone watches too many movies…
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I, for one, would occasionally find it convenient to be able to explode someone’s head with a thought.
  - Felton / Moderator
    
    Scanner mods!
kekko

Wait… what? I’m confused.

Police officers are now dodgeballs.
EH

They’re just spending taxpayer dollars on settlements. No biggie.

Also, these officers should be drug tested.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Also, these officers should be drug tested.
  
  These officers should be used for drug testing. FTFY.
  - grs
    
    In soviet Russia, road forks you!
- http://profiles.google.com/carboncow robert feller
  
  Actually most settlements are paid by insurance…but there is a deductible in a painful my manageable size usually $2000-8000K in my experience.I think hitting the offending officers with this vs. the dept/tax payers is the way to go!
  - rijrunner
    
    Fort Collins is effectively uninsurable right now. They lost a huge lawsuit for railroading Tim Masters. They have also been eating the costs for defending a police officer’s perjury trial in that case.
    
    I was downtown last year for the “riot”. A couple guys got into a fight in front of a bar. The beat cops (including one of the ones here) did not stop the fight. They called in the SWAT team. The Swat team formed a skirmish line alone College and started walking down the street arresting anyone who even asked what was going on. They also started throwing flares along Mountain and caught a concession stand on fire.. essentially, they escalated it from a minor incident into a major one.
http://www.disoriented.net/ angusm

C’mon, guys, can’t you see the way that man deliberately strikes the officer’s hand with his chest? If the camera hadn’t been rolling, he might even have continued his assault by hitting the officer’s knee with his face and his genitals.

Joking aside, you have to admire the elegance of the approach: any time a cop doesn’t like the way the conversation is going, he can simply shout “Step back!” and accompany the command with a hard shove. His fellow officer, who may or may not have seen what actually went on, will run over and make an arrest, and the subject’s natural reaction of protesting or moving away can be read as ‘resisting arrest’. Human memory working as it does, Officer #2 may even testify in all honesty that he remembers seeing the arrestee ‘acting aggressively’ towards his colleague. After that – assuming there are no cameras present – it’s a case of the word of two cops against one civilian, and for most judges the word of any cop already carries more weight than the word of a private citizen.
- gtrjnky
  
  Actually, the cop shoves him first, and then shouts “step back” to justify his felonious assault.
  - http://roofus.me/ RoofusKit
    
    I’m pretty sure calling a one handed shove “felonious assault” is just as much to blame for the decline of the justice system in this country as cops on a power trip.
    
    At most it’s misdemeanor assault under color of authority. And really it should just go on his jacket as excessive force. That would mean a suspension, possibly a pay dock, and possibly a missed promotion in the future.
- grs
  
  One of my best moves in a fight once was a genital thrust. Of course I lost the fight. I don’t have many moves.
Eark_the_Bunny

I grew up watching shows like Dragnet and Adam-12. I like and respect police officers. When I was a Firefighter/EMT, I worked with police officers. I have been friends with police officers. I am very ashamed of the things I see these so called “law enforcement officers” doing. This is just wrong. It is TO PROTECT AND SERVE not TO SHOVE AND BEAT UP! This is another disgrace like the pitiful treatment of the all of the OCCUPY demonstrators throughout the world.
- http://profiles.google.com/carboncow robert feller
  
  Agreed…put some compassion back into the job. Know the constituents of your great city…unless they are the “other” color…in that case just shoot them in their neighbor hoods with rent-a-cops…
Ihavenofuckingname

I’ve seen a similar scenario where the cop tells the guy not to ‘square up’ at him (I guess like fighting-stance-wise?) He more or less doesn’t like the way the guy’s standing, so when the guy doesn’t move, he just lays into him. I’m sure he got away with it, too.

I’ve also seen a cop try to run a red light, and when a guy in the intersection doesn’t ‘yield’ making the cop hit his brakes, he flips on his lights, grabs him and throws him on the hood of his car. You could almost sense how the cop did it because the guy made him feel stupid.

Hell, I got sideswiped by a cop making some dangerous maneuver around me while I was changing lanes and got charged with a moving violation and arrested. They sat in front of me and joked about how they were going to ‘pile-on’ the charges… going through some law book and pointing out 7-8 things they thought they could charge me with.

I’ve basically given up on the myth of the ‘good cop.’ I’ve never seen one.
- http://profiles.google.com/carboncow robert feller
  
  Not buying most of your “sighting” bs…
  - Ihavenofuckingname
    
    I don’t buy your skepticism, so I guess we’re even.
ActionFrank

This is kidnapping.
WillieNelsonMandela

Did the guy challenge the cop by saying “Push me again”?

Cops in the flyover states don’t like that sort of thing. An internal investigation will find no wrongdoing.

The cops are at fault, of course, but every Barney Fife is looking for a reason to throw somebody in the hoosegow next to Otis the drunk. Best to ignore those fools and keep walking.
- Mantissa128
  
  I heard that too – push me again, sir. The moment he says that, the guy starts writing him up and his buddy goes in for the arrest. The cop’s shove was unconscionable, but that was the wrong thing to say.
cosmichorror

Seems perfectly reasonable to arrest him for this. I mean, it’s not like he murdered an unarmed black kid or something.
http://twitter.com/chrisjimson chris jimson

Homer Simpson: “You know, one day, honest citizens are gonna stand up to you crooked cops!”

Chief Wiggum (suddenly scared): “They are? Oh, no! Have they set a date?”
miasm

all encounters with police officers should be conducted with hands placed on top of one’s head, t-shirt pulled up and held in the teeth whilst slowly rotating on the spot to show front and back of an empty waistband, all the while repeating the word ‘sir’ at random intervals to ensure understanding of compliance.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  And loudly singing In Heaven, Everything is Fine while spinning.
  - Ihavenofuckingname
    
    I smell a viral video! A viral video where an Eraserhead fan gets shot in the face for aggressive reference-making.
- http://marjaerwin.livejournal.com/ Marja Erwin
  
  Um… that doesn’t work if we’re female, we could get arrested for doing that too.
macegr

Tag! You’re arrested.
sean

Where is the Symbionese Liberation Army when you really need them?
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness
  
  Patty Hearst was my first childhood celebrity crush.
  - sean
    
    She was a steely-eyed goddess of the revolution in that beret with the machine gun.
sean

All the tough-guy pigs favor the “skinhead nazi” look these days. If they have any bit of hair loss they have to make sure they remain “macho” by shaving their skulls so they look like the dick heads they are.
bombadillo

I am a Fort Collins resident, and we typically have very well behaved LEO’s here. The few interactions I have had with them (traffic stops/DUI checkpoints) have been respectful and efficient. It is usually Denver that has the behavior problems with its PD (like this incident involving an artist I know personally: http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2010/02/beaten_by_denver_cops_artist_e.php). And the location that this shoving incident happened in is a a tourist friendly walk-around district that is usually very mellow. However, I view this as an escalation of the “create the appearance of resistance” method used by police to justify a poor reaction to a situation they are ostensibly in control of. Local news article that discusses this can be found at http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20120327/NEWS01/203270317. Kudos to the local PD Chief for asking for more citizen video of the incident, but I hold little hope of any proper corrective action.
- Cowicide
  
  Maybe these cops were transferred up from Denver. They sure are acting like Denver cops.
- http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/RA4AVVHBDO7ZTD3ANU6CLVQZPI pierre
  
  Pigs everywhere behave like pigs. Yours are no better than anywhere else. I’ve been to Ft. Collins, the pigs there are all ex-military roid heads.
  - EvilTerran
    
    Have you considered that you might have less negative interactions with cops if you didn’t unilaterally pre-judge them?
    
    At the very least, I hope you’ve got the sense not to call them “pigs” to their faces then act like you had nothing to do with it when it pisses them off.
    
    Sure, they *shouldn’t* act up when insulted, but it takes two to fight.
    - sean
      
      ”EvilTerran… “Evil”… and then “Terran”… wait a sec… Oh, I GET it! You’re evil, and you’re from Earth! You must be a cop!
    - donovan acree
      
      If a cop reacts badly to being called a pig then they are not qualified to hold the office.
- rijrunner
  
  Umm… Tim Masters?
GrymRpr

Weep boy’s & girl’s for the death of America.
- EvilTerran
  
  … we’re burying grammar in the next plot over. But don’t worry, melodrama’s still alive and kicking!
Ralidius

What a bunch of winos, some with badges.
pjcamp

Cops are scum.
- EvilTerran
  
  Wow, you’re so insightful!
  
  Also, repetitive: http://boingboing.net/2012/03/27/city-of-boston-pays-170000-t.html#dsq-comment-body-478021468
  - sean
    
    Well, true is true… it deserves to be repeated: cops ARE scum. Want to help society, do some good? Become a fireman or an EMT. Want to throw your weight around, spend most of your time fucking with people? Become a cop.
    - howaboutthisdangit
      
      Most cops are just ordinary people doing a tough job. Of course any position of authority will attract some people who should never be allowed to have any real authority, and there will be others who lack the social skills which are essential to the job. These people SHOULD be weeded out as they are found. Unfortunately, in the ranks of the police these people are often protected and ultimately promoted, where they can do even more damage.
      - donovan acree
        
        Most cops aren’t ordinary people. Ordinary people do not seek a job in which they carry a gun and have absolute authority over the public.
        All cops are scum and criminals until they start arresting their fellow officers. Instead we have systemic cover-ups and protection of ‘brother’ cops.
  - pjcamp
    
    Some things bear repeating. I’m 53 years old and every experience I’ve ever had with police in my entire life has been negative. I’ve had “evidence” planted in my car. I’ve been stopped for license checks 12 times in my life and 11 of those were during the year and a half I lived in a predominantly black neighborhood of Atlanta, and all of those were on the bridge across the river leading into a predominantly white suburb. You tell me what’s going on. I look at how the occupy protestors have been handled, in flagrant violation of their civil rights, with indiscriminate use of pepper spray. The University of North Carolina at Charlotte now has its own SWAT team, feebly justified by the miniscule number of students who have flipped out nationwide, but really justified by the fact that all cops really want to be military. Do you think they’re going to sit around on their ass for the next 20 years doing nothing while they wait for a Situation? No, they’re going to be sent out with their special weapons and attitude to raid frat parties. And that military attitude is the entire problem. It is not about protecting and serving. It is all about domination. They don’t serve anybody. The militarization of the police separates them from you. Instead, you serve them. Serving would mean prosecuting cops who commit crimes. Instead, they are protected. Yes, I have contempt for cops. Arrogance breeds contempt.
http://adavies.org/ Andrew Davies

It’s a good thing for the “for what” guy that it’s legal to tape police officers in public.
Miss Cellania

The guy was obviously guilty of “mouthing off,” which I hear is against the law in 46 states.
Rotwang

I’d like to see a report on steroid use among cops. Start with the skinheads.
Rotwang

That said, I got stopped by the local PD last night and it was all very professional.
http://www.facebook.com/creesto Christopher W Lynch

In a twist on the classic “Back in my day…” I suspect that police generally behave better across the racial and class lines now, than they did in the 50s and 60s. Sure, there are Mo Plenty dicks these days, but there are also Mo Plenty recording devices catching many more law enforcement transgressions. But still, seems like police should be trained in the Jedi/Bene Gesserit way of controlling others with speech and psychology…but subtley is not what they seem to hire or train for…
- donovan acree
  
  Back in the day cops didn’t have military equipment. They were trained in peacekeeping. These days cops are trained in intimidation, shooting, and covering up your crimes.
CognitiveDissident

I know that you can’t lump all cops together, despite the increasing number of “law enforcement with incredibly aggressive behavior” videos (I’m sure that there are plenty of nice cop videos too), but the phrase that still comes to mind when I see these types of videos is:

“Fusion Center much?”
benher

Well, I for one welcome our pushy porcine overlords!