Detroit’s ? Chief of police backs one of his ? cops after he brutalizes an innocent black man…
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94e64G9ZFio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI0vPfT_8CAhttp://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2017/10/09/video-shows-officer-striking-suspect/106479604/
Police review video of cop striking man outside store
Detroit police officials are reviewing a video that shows an officer striking a shoplifting suspect with a baton during a tussle outside a Detroit store to determine if the use of force was justified.
Police Chief James Craig said he has reviewed both a shaky 4:52 video that was uploaded to YouTube and more comprehensive surveillance footage from the Meijer store on Eight Mile, where the incident occurred about 8:30 p.m. Sunday.
“Preliminarily, it appears the officer’s use of force was proper,” Craig said during a news conference Monday at police headquarters. “But we’re not finished with our investigation yet.”
The 23-year-old suspect was arrested and police are seeking charges of disorderly conduct, and resisting and obstructing. If charged and convicted, he could face up to two years in prison.
Craig said the trouble began when a security guard told the officer, a 39-year veteran who was moonlighting at the store as part of the Police Department’s Secondary Employment program, that the man had shoplifted some items.
“It turned out not to be the case,” Craig said, adding the man’s friend produced receipts for the merchandise he’d been accused of stealing.
The YouTube video begins with a struggle already underway near the store’s exit between the 65-year-old officer, who is assigned to the 11th Precinct, and the suspect.
The struggle takes both men through the automatic door and into the parking lot. Although it’s not clear in the YouTube video, Craig said store surveillance video shows the man pulled the officer into the parking lot.
The cameraman in the YouTube video walks outside the store, where the officer is seen pinning the man to the ground. The man eventually rises to his feet, and the officer follows him further away from the store.
The two men parry for a few minutes in the parking lot, with the officer apparently trying to compel the man to surrender.
“You’re under arrest,” the officer tells the man, who replies, “You have no legal right to arrest me.”
The man pulls the officer down, knocking him off balance, and the officer swings his baton, striking the man in the face.
“Why you hit him?” a bystander asks, and the officer replies, “He’s under arrest.” Another bystander yells, “Not like that.”
A crowd gathers around the officer and suspect, who keeps yelling “no!” or “go!”
The officer eventually leads the man back into the store, apparently by the collar, and the video winds down.
“Any time a police officer uses force, particularly with a side-handle baton, that always looks bad,” Craig said. “It never looks good, although it’s part of our our force continuum.
“This quickly escalated from active resistance to active aggression.”
The struggle drew criticism of the officer’s actions by a community group.
"Hitting people in the head is what led to the death of Malice Green. The officer could've made the arrest without striking him in the head. That's why federal oversight of the DPD should still be in place," said Kenneth Reed of the Coalition Against Police Brutality.
Craig said the suspect has no arrest record, and the officer has been disciplined in the past, including one incident in which he was censured for using force, although he declined to provide further details about the infraction. Craig added it’s not unusual for a cop to have been disciplined after so many years on the job.
“There are some concerns I have with this incident,” Craig said. “I hate to Monday-morning quarterback ... but I would have preferred early on, when this officer saw it was beginning to escalate, that he notify dispatch and requested assistance.”
Craig also said he wanted to find out why store security guards left the scene once tempers began to escalate.
“I understand the frustration if you’re stopped by a police officer and you’ve done nothing wrong,” Craig said. “But my wisest counsel is to just cooperate. There’s a process of making complaints later on. The officer had a right to investigate, based on the information he had at the time.”
Craig said the incident would likely have justified the use of a Taser if the officer had been equipped with one. Tasers have already been approved for use by Detroit police and officials are choosing a vendor, Craig said.
Craig said while the video showing the officer hitting the suspect in the face with his baton is graphic, the officer’s use of force likely was proper — and, he said, the officer accomplished his goal.
“What was telling was when he deployed the single strike to hit the suspect in the face, the suspect’s resistance stopped, and the officer de-escalated the situation, and there was no force after that,” Craig said.
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But: "What about black on black crime?"
Isn't that the black cop's favorite topic/argument?
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http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2017/10/09/video-shows-detroit-cop-hitting-mans-face-his-club-chief-says-proper/748411001/Video shows Detroit cop hitting man's face with his club; chief says it was proper
A bystander’s video went viral Sunday night after an off-duty Detroit police officer struck a rowdy shoplifting suspect on the side of his face during a struggle at a Meijer store in Detroit.
The video on YouTube incited a chorus of online critics alleging police brutality, but Chief James Craig said Monday the veteran officer "acted appropriately" in subduing the 23-year-old man.
In a news conference Monday afternoon, Craig said, "It appears that the force was proper" even though an investigation found no evidence that the man had shoplifted.
The incident, and the negative online buzz, prompted Craig to call for cooperation from citizens whenever a police officer stops them.
"I can understand that, if you’re stopped and you’ve done nothing wrong, you’re going to be agitated. But this officer had the right to investigate, based on the information that was coming to him. So please, I would ask everyone, cooperate with us," Craig said.
Both the officer and the suspect were black. The officer — a 39-year veteran of the department — is 65, making him 42 years older than the suspect and adding "the issue of age here," Craig said.
On the video, the officer can be seen repeatedly hitting the youth with a nightstick as the two tussled, pushing and shoving from the store's lobby to the parking lot. Seeing the scuffling turn violent, a woman can be heard on a bystander's video saying: "That officer can go to jail, hitting that boy like that."
The officer, seconds later, leans over the prostrate youth and shouts, "Don't be f-ing with me!"
The suspect, treated at a hospital for a broken tooth and a contusion at the side of his face, was in custody Monday night while police sought warrants to charge him with resisting and obstructing arrest as well as disorderly conduct, Craig said. The department is investigating whether the officer’s conduct justifies disciplinary action, he said.
Although the officer was off duty, working for the Meijer store at 8 Mile and Woodward as a paid security officer, he was in full Detroit police uniform — a common practice for officers who are moonlighting. And so "he is subject to all the rules and regulations of the Detroit Police Department and we are treating this as a Detroit police incident," Craig said.
While wrestling with the much younger man for control of his weapon, and hearing shouts from bystanders saying "they were going to get involved," the officer might have feared for his safety, the chief said.
Based on a preliminary review, "I believe the officer acted appropriately to de-escalate the situation," he said.
Detroit police declined to give the officer's name. Police gave this account of the incident:
It began about 8:30 p.m. when the shoplifting suspect became profane and verbally hostile, then wrestled the officer to the ground while a crowd of about a half-dozen watched and filmed the struggle with cell phones. Leading up to the scuffle, the officer had been told by the store’s other security staff that the man, who wore a backpack, was suspected of shoplifting the items in it.
The officer, along with other security staff, confronted the suspect. A female acquaintance of the suspect, meanwhile, showed up and claimed she had a receipt for the merchandise. She was taken elsewhere by security personnel.
The suspect and the officer were left alone in the store’s entryway, and the man became agitated and made profane, hostile remarks to the officer. The officer warned him he could be arrested for disorderly conduct, then told him turn around and be handcuffed. At that point, the man resisted and the officer struck him three times on the thigh with his baton, or nightstick, "in keeping with our training," Craig said.
The suspect grabbed the baton and used it to yank the officer through the entry doors into the parking lot, where the two fought to the ground, then got up still struggling when the office struck the man on the side of his face, police said.
Craig said that the use of a Taser-type stun gun might’ve ended the struggle with no injury to the man. "We’re in the process of getting them," Craig said.
In this era of citizen videos that go viral online, Craig said: "I’ve been very vocal about this — whenever an officer uses force, it never looks good. I just urge folks to be patient and let us fully investigate this."
The Detroit police have decided to “investigate” themselves.. What could go wrong... -
https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/new-video-released-by-detroit-police-shows-off-duty-officer-using-baton-during-arrest-at-meijer_Prosecutor's office denies resisting warrant against man beaten with baton at Meijer in Detroit
City pursues disorderly conduct charge
DETROIT - The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office rejected the Detroit Police Department's request for a warrant of resisting and obstructing for a man wrongfully accused of retail fraud and beaten with a baton by an off-duty officer at a Meijer store, according to the man's attorney.
The incident prompted claims of police brutality after cellphone video circulated social media. David Bivins was taken into custody for disorderly conduct and resisting and obstruction. The interaction with police began with accusations of retail fraud.
Detroit police Chief James Craig held a news conference Monday evening as the cell phone video continued to be shared across social media. The Detroit Police Department released surveillance video Tuesday from inside the store showing the moments before and after the incident.
The Wayne County Circuit Court entered a writ of habeas corpus Monday directing the Bivins be released. However, the City of Detroit Law Department charged Bivins with disorderly conduct. -
part of police tactic is to strike with the baton until the suspect surrenders, and to my knowledge the force or the location of the strike or strikes have no limits
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Pigs gone pig
https://youtu.be/KPHv_-fqdjM
