Police Brutality in Rehoboth
Hat tip to Kavips for pointing out this video.
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- Rehoboth Delaware <> Police Brutality in Rehoboth : Delaware Liberal | April 21, 2013
What pigs.
I lived in Rehoboth Beach, I’ve seen their cops in action. This doesn’t surprise me, they are jack booted thugs.
Watch it. Clearly jack bruted brutality. Disgusting.
This video is so disturbing. Not one of those police officers deserves to keep their badges. If these officers aren’t able to diffuse a situation they aren’t law enforcement – they are thugs. They became part of the “disturbance” and obviously took everything personally. That’s the definition of a bad cop.
The Rehoboth business community should not misguidedly rally behind these cops. If these officers aren’t punished, then Rehoboth merchants don’t deserve our dollars.
Someone will come along and ask what happened right before the video began. You know what? It doesn’t matter. No matter what happened, the guy was in a surrender posture when he got tased. Tasing isn’t for punishment for something you did a minute ago. What did he do anyway – call them doody-heads?
Although I will advise the victim he needs to work on his rebellious retorts.
Jack. Booted. Thugs.
Interesting how people are apparently learning how to make a reality show in the process of getting arrested.
And I think it was Angel Clark who pointed out the theatrical production of this episode of police brutality first.
We have an assault culture in America. The community blames the victim for inviting the violation, and rallies around perpetrators when they are cops. It’s better than being on a football team.
If these officers aren’t able to diffuse a situation they aren’t law enforcement – they are thugs.
It’ll probably be worse if there’s more civil unrest due to economic collapse and it amounts to more than people wandering around occupying space while playing with arts and crafts.
But it’s pretty interesting because the bankster’s police $tate hasn’t quite gotten a handle on decentralized media and instantaneous communication yet. In this case, maybe they could make videos like this illegal (unlikely) or partner with big corporations to maintain the ability to shut off all cameras in phones based on their GPS location, etc. (Already in the works, it would seem.)
We have an assault culture in America.
Meanwhile, they torture because they care at a national level?
This is small stuff at a local level but it fits into the overall picture of America emerging as a global Empire based on war and violence too.
Non-violent countermeasures: It looks like the victim had enough control of his arms to grab the wire and rip one of the darts out. That’s why the cop had to touch the taser to the victim’s knee to continue the attack. If the victim had ripped the other dart out, or broken the wire (if possible) the attack would have been interrupted. Although I’m sure I probably wouldn’t have had the presence of mind to do that.
At the beginning of the video, he clearly had a taser pointed at him. It might have been a good move to zip up his coat, or at least turn to the side.
I think I will wait for the results of the investigation before passing judgment. It may be that they should lose their badges and other punishment, but I’m going to resist going into HLN mode.
OK, I’ve made the same point before about reserving judgment. But 1) it doesn’t matter what happened before, and 2) what defense could the cops possibly offer about their acts recorded on video? The only way they can walk is with the “cops can do anything they want” defense.
Usually when I plead for reserving judgment it is when the pictures mysteriously can’t be found, testimony is bought or otherwise shaky, or there are other plausible explanations. I’ll try to keep an open mind but this one seems like a slam-dunk assault or attempted murder. How long do you think you’d be in jail if you did that to a cop on video?
At the beginning of the video, the suspect was putting his hands on his head, and then he was tasered. It all went downhill from there. The kicks to the head by the cop were shocking. That cop, who apparently had a PFA (?) against him after a domestic incident, needs to be removed from law enforcement.
The Rehoboth Beach Police are portrayed very well in this video, this is exactly what they are like, all of the time. They are overzealous, brutal, criminals.
Put yourselves in the Officer’s shoes before you criticize. People are so quick to jump to conclusion on this website. The incident stemmed from a domestic case where he was fighting with his wife (the one taking the video) before the arrival of the Police. Funny how fast people forget, remember Sgt. Joe Szczerba.
anon is right — he was pretty much cooperating (still mouthy, but cooperating) and then he got tasered. He was *rightfully* upset about that and I really can’t imagine being treated by the police in the same manner where I *wouldn’t* be going off. The cop who kicked him in the head was CLEARLY in the wrong. It is going to be interesting to see what the authorities have to say about this.
This is a good time to remind people that the NJ ACLU has a great phone app that helps you to record interactions with the police.
“Funny how fast people forget, remember Sgt. Joe Szczerba.”
So police brutality is OK because sometimes police officers get killed doing their jobs? Are you wearing your jackboots as you type?
“fighting with his wife”
Define “fighting.” She doesn’t seem any worse for it. And even if he was, why would you get tasered for something you did a minute ago and were no longer doing?
“remember Sgt. Joe Szczerba”
Remember Eugene Lamott Allen. Don’t remember him? Shame on you. Although I guess it is hard to remember when the promised investigation never materialized.
Put yourselves in the Officer’s shoes before you criticize.
I don’t put myself into shoes that are stomping on someone’s head.
I wonder if the domestic incident the jack booted thug cop was suspended for was worse than the domestic incident the man whose head he was stomping on was involved in.
http://perb.delaware.gov/pdfs/decisions/2010/691%20ULP%20decision%20Teamsters%20326%20v.%20Rehoboth.pdf
I’ll say it again, this is TYPICAL of Rehoboth Beach police. Like a frequent caller to WGMD liked to say, “come on vacation, leave on probation.”
To put myself in the officer’s shoes, I’d have to start from youth by pulling the wings off flies and beating up smaller kids for their lunch money. I guess as an adult, I could catch up by shooting pigeons released from boxes.
How long do you think you’d be in jail if you did that to a cop on video?
Sometimes people don’t even really have to have done anything to be brutalized or jailed by police, video or not.
I warn all my house guests the only thing you have to worry about in the City of Rehoboth is the police officers
Like I said, People are so quick to jump to conclusion on this website.
http://dsp.delaware.gov/pio/County-NewCastle/November%202010/11042010statepolicereleasethenameofvictiminvolvedintaserincident.htm
Thanks for playing!!
that has nothing to do with the brutal pigs in the video above.
To put myself in the officer’s shoes, I’d have to start from youth by pulling the wings off flies and beating up smaller kids for their lunch money.
Kind of ironic to see Delaware Lemming take a principled stand of accountability for local police, given that little seems to be written here of holding Obama Inc. accountable with respect to detention without trial, the continuation of black sites like Benghazi, Bradley Manning, the DHS and its record tank and ammo purchases combined with its role in militarizing local police, Joe blow Biden’s black helicopters* that can only be seen by “conspiracy theorists” and the military’s progressive partnership with local police… and so on and so forth.
*”Literally”:Military Black Helicopter Drills decend over Miami, Florid
@saveourcity: Thanks for playing yourself. That link is not to the results of an investigation, but to a news release saying that one would be conducted. Puck already said that one was promised.
We already know you’re in favor of these police tactics in Wilmington. Glad to see you’re at least consistent in your endorsement of jack-booted thuggishness.
saveourcity, maybe you need to read that link you posted, it ends with this sentence:
All three Troopers involved in this incident have been placed on administrative leave, as per department policy, pending the outcome of this investigation by the State Police and the Attorney General’s Office.
puck was right when he said, “Remember Eugene Lamott Allen. Don’t remember him? Shame on you. Although I guess it is hard to remember when the promised investigation never materialized.”
Thanks for playing, saveourcity!
All saveourcity’s link does is to confirm puck’s point — that there was a questionable taser incident where investigation results never materialized.
So just for saveourcity’s edification — if you are objecting to a commenter’s point, you provide links that support your point. Adding info that proves the commenter’s point makes you the guy spiking the ball in the wrong end zone.
Thanks for playing!!!
jinx, anon!
A hat trick of “in your face”.
Damn, I’m jinxed.
😆
Having watched the video, it seems clear to me that he was not cooperative. I don’t know that it meets the definition of resisting arrest, since I’m not in law enforcement, but he definitely was not cooperating with the officers. I’m not excusing the officers actions, but their actions do not excuse his either.
The suspect will face a court of law. What will the cops face?
I guess I would ask what the proper response to being unjustifiably tazed should be. I am all in favor of following police instructions, but if they are going to taze me when I am showing a good-faith effort, I am going to change my strategy.
And using a derogatory term to a police officer is not, in and of itself, grounds for a tazering.
To Dave: BINGO!!!!!! “He is resisting arrest plain and simple” Thank you for pointing it out.
What the guy did before. What you or I or anyone else would have done in the cops place. All irrelevant.
Perhaps you can characterize the guy as uncooperative, but he wasn’t doing anything. He was just standing there. Then they get a cop on his back with one hand in cuffs (AND while a 3rd fascist pig stands there) the other cop stomps the guy’s head into the sidewalk twice. If you can’t keep your shit together faced with a wacko, unarmed dude of maybe 165 lbs then maybe you should fine another line of work
“Not cooperating” is not a safe harbor that justifies a taser attack.
@saveourcity. Whether he was resisting is irrelevant. No crime committed gives the cops the right to beat and taze you beyond what’s necessary to subdue. It is plain and simple, you’re right about that much… it’s called assault.
I particularly liked the part where she asked what he was being arrested for, to which the officer replied “resisting arrest.”
Seems a bit circular, don’t you think?
DEL CODE § 1257 : Delaware Code – Section 1257: RESISTING ARREST WITH FORCE OR VIOLENCE, CLASS G FELONY; RESISTING ARREST, CLASS A MISDEMEANOR
(a) A person is guilty of resisting arrest with force or violence when:
(1) The person intentionally prevents or attempts to prevent a police officer from effecting an arrest or detention of the person or another person by use of force or violence towards said police officer, or
(2) Intentionally flees from a police officer who is effecting an arrest against them by use of force or violence towards said police officer, or
(3) Injures or struggles with said police officer causing injury to the police officer. Resisting arrest with force or violence is a class G felony.
(b) A person is guilty of resisting arrest when the person intentionally prevents or attempts to prevent a peace officer from effecting an arrest or detention of the person or another person or intentionally flees from a peace officer who is effecting an arrest.
Resisting arrest is a class A misdemeanor.
11 Del. C. 1953, § 1257; 58 Del. Laws, c. 497, § 1; 67 Del. Laws, c. 130, § 8; 70 Del. Laws, c. 186, § 1; 75 Del. Laws, c. 310, §§ 1-3.;
I didn’t see any of the sections of the code met by this video. There was no force or violence, nor fleeing, nor an injury to the officer prior to lighting the guy up. He was in a submissive pose when he was tazed.
saveourcity show us where Delaware Code allows a cop to taser you 7 or so times and kick you in the head for resisting arrest.
The suspect, in the beginning of the video has his hands on his head and gets tasered. He gets tasered when he’s down on his knees with his hands on his head. He gets tasered when he’s face down on the sidewalk, with an officer cuffing him, then he gets kicked in the head.
Seems to me that it’s the cops that are resisting arresting the suspect – they’re having so much fun, they just keep tasering him and brutalizing him instead of arresting him.
Is “saveourcity” part of a PAC that promotes Rehoboth?
http://www.saveourcityrehoboth.org/
Sorry, SOC, defending and protecting brutal city cops isn’t going to increase tourism or property values.
He was resisting the tasering after having been tasered once. And why wouldn’t he, seriously? Wouldn’t you? Or would you just lie there and take the torture and hope there’s enough of you left for the ACLU to help? There was nothing about what that guy was doing that was stopping the cop from arresting him. The cops told the wife that he was arrested when the guy was sitting on the ground. Sitting on the ground.
I wonder if the people defending these cops are telling their families to just submit to whatever bullshit cops want you to submit to.
When does defending yourself against a beating become resisting?
Of course I did not say he was resisting arrest, because I don’t know how that is legally defined. However, I did say he was non-cooperative and was so from the get go.
Is there a different video that people are watching? It starts with him on his knees and at then at the 2 second point, he gets up prior to being tazed the first time. Once he got up he was uncooperative and he clearly remains uncooperative.
Again, not being there, I have no idea if his actions warranted tazing. Of course, now that it’s classified as torture means the outrage machine has officially kicked in.
@Dave
I have no idea if his actions warranted tazing.
Try the national police guidelines on use of tazers
http://delawarelibertarian.blogspot.com/2013/04/rehoboth-beach-police-violate-national.html
They clearly violate them about five different times.
I was trying to find the national police guidelines for kicking a suspect in the head when he is on the ground, but they don’t appear on the internet.
I’m sure the Rehoboth Beach PD has a copy.
I didn’t hear any cop tell him to stay on his knees. I did hear them say to put his hands behind his head, and his hands were rising and were on his head as the darts hit. He would have been better off using his hands to close his leather jacket and protect himself.
If you want to meaningfully resist this kind of attack, you or your partner pretty much have to be willing to become a martyr. Which will also be excused and whitewashed by authorities. Maybe suburbanites need to travel to Rehoboth in armed gangs.
Jack boot thug? That’s an old NRA line. Glad to see you all get it. How about those head kicks when the victim was laying on the sidewalk? Living in a police state, my friends.
So according to a few witnesses this is what happened before the video started:
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013304150056
“He was pushing her,” Lewandowski said. “He was in her face, grabbing her. She was telling him to calm down.”
The first officers to arrive were Cpl. Tyler Whitman and Cpl. Curtis A. Sauve, Banks said.
Lewandowski said the man fought with the officers for several minutes.
“He was screaming at the top of his lungs,” Lewandowski said. “He was wrestling with them and spitting on them.”
That’s when the woman began recording the incident, Lewandowski said.
(so it seems like he was possibly assaulting his [i assume if she’s telling the truth on the video] visibly pregnant girlfriend, and then physcially fought the the officers pre-tase. That being said I’d like to clarify that i’m not pro-head stomp. That’s unacceptable)
I have to keep reminding everyone that even if he did wrestle with officers, you aren’t supposed to be tased for something you did a minute ago.
i’m not making that argument. i just saw speculation about what happened upthread and wanted to supply the answer.
“Try the national police guidelines on use of tazers”
I did. I wasn’t there and so I have no idea if they followed the guidelines, such as this one:
22. A warning should be given to a subject prior to activating the ECW unless doing so would place any person at risk. Warnings may be in the form of verbalization, display, laser painting, arcing, or a combination of these tactics.
“Maybe suburbanites need to travel to Rehoboth in armed gangs.”
Of piffle. I am in Rehoboth 5 and 6 times a week, at all hours. Never had problem. Never had an altercation. I call hyperbole on that one.
Good catch on the hyperbole.
Please, I’ve had a Rehoboth cop threaten to arrest me in front of my child for the terrible crime of honking my car horn in traffic. They are the worst of the worst.
According to the News Journal
“What viewers don’t see, according to one witness who called the police, is that previously the man had been physically fighting with his wife, then wrestled with arriving officers for several minutes before they subdued him.”
“The man came in, demanded the key to his “girlfriend’s” room and became belligerent when the clerk would not give it to him. He was swearing, she said, and spitting bits of wood from a small stick he had been chewing. It is unclear if he was referring to the woman who called herself his wife.”
During the video didn’t his wife so called say she was eight months pregnant?? It takes a brave man to attack / strike a pregnant woman.
saveourcity,
Nobody has defended the suspect. So I grant you that he is a complete fuck-up and disaster of a human being. So what?
When the video starts he has not yet resisted enough to be tazed by the cop (you can tell because of the way he reacts and what he says when the cop DOES taze him; he is surprised; it has not happened before).
And given that this cop obviously (watch the rest of the video) has a really low threshold of tazer use, this suggests that he could not have been too physically aggressive or they already would have tazed him.
But you are apparently far more interested in whitewashing Corporal Whitman and his accomplices than in examining their conduct.
saveourcity thank you for making the point that the suspect was an a-hole, that point was already made several times.
That doesn’t excuse the brutality we see on that tape.
Or let me put it in terms that you will understand:
Why did it take 3 fully armed Rehoboth Beach police officers to handcuff one little weasel of a suspect? Why did these big, brave officers have to taser and kick the suspect over the course of at least 5 minutes before they could subdue him? Are they just getting off on torturing him, or are they just a bunch of pussies?
And when Officer Whitman was suspended for 9 days and disarmed by the police because he had a restraining order out against him, what kind of behavior do you think got him into that situation? Do you think his conduct in his domestic situation was somehow better or more moral than the behavior of the suspect he brutalized? Do you think that Officer Whitman was kicked in the head by police for his domestic situation that resulted in a PFA?
I really can’t tell if the victim was an a-hole or not. I’d have to see him when he wasn’t being tazed.
To Anon, it all depends on what the suspect is on / using, why it takes so many officers to subdue a suspect. If you whatch the video real close you will even see one of the officers use is cuff key to pin the handcuffs so they no not cause any further injury to the suspect. Most people think the officer is jumping on his back or hitting him but he is following proper proceedures.
It looked like the victim was under the influence of electricity.
oh come on puck. be real. The cops behaved in a way that was completely unacceptable but if that guy isn’t hammered i’m the queen of england.
stil doesn’t excuse head stomping but lets not make a martyr out of the idiot.
Studies show that police are more likely to engage in abusive brutality when in groups of three or more. One cop probably would have been more effective in this incident.
saveourcity the suspect wasn’t charged with being intoxicated or having drugs, and we all saw the cop going through his pockets, so they checked. I wonder if Officer Whitman was “on/using” something when he got into a domestic situation that resulted in a PFA and a 9 day suspension. I can do this all day…one guy being a scumbag doesn’t excuse another guy, particularly a cop, for being a scumbag.
i’m NOT excusing it. I just think it’s a little disingenuous to pretend like this guy was some sort of doe-eyed innocent. we’re allowed to be critical of the rehoboth pd and also acknowledge this guy seems from early accounts to be sort of a shit. it’s ok to do both.
jeez.
Why don’t we just make him a poster child like Wesley Cook.
Why don’t you just go down to headquarters and give all the boys in blue a hummer someplace where we don’t have to listen.
My, my I thought we were all able to express feelings not suppress our feelings on this website!!! Or Attack
Urban Dictionary: hummer
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hummer1. hummer More than a blowjob; it’s when a girl actually hums (thus vibrating her lips) when her mouth has encased your engorged penis or balls.
saveourcity-
No one has supressed your idiotic feelings. We’ve simply mocked them.
Ron, So what you are savings if you disagree with someone you try to cyberbully them by mocking them.
If you were being bullied by anyone here, you’d certainly know it. Just because you’ve typed any old bullshit doesn’t mean that what you’ve typed is automatically accorded any respect. You have to do some work to earn that around here.
I don’t think it is possible to cyberbully an anon. You can’t take it personally when you aren’t a real person.
Just so you understand, jackboot, I’m suggesting that you’re so enamored of cops that you’d rather fellate them than criticize them. Untrue?
The only way an anon can be cyberbullied is by outing them. Maybe if you weren’t online lobbying in favor of police brutality people wouldn’t think you were such a moron.
“Just because you’ve typed any old bullshit doesn’t mean that what you’ve typed is automatically accorded any respect. You have to do some work to earn that around here.”
yeah! it isn’t like this is some sort of free and open forum where ideas are discussed and debated by knowledgeable people for the purpose of expanding knowledge and understanding of local and world issues or anything, ya dumb-dumb.
This is a place where you get viciously attacked by the “enforcers” and if you put up any kind of a fight, they use extreme force because someone dared to not lay down and give up. Like Rohobeth. Respect the authoritaw!
Furthermore, you’re the asshole who compared this guy, whose “crime” consisted of hollering at cops, with Mumia Abu-Jamal — whom you made sure to disrespect by calling him his former name. My insult was a direct response to that.
PLUS you’re using the same name as the asshole who told everyone how great Dennis Williams was because he would take the toughest stance against crime — the same Dennis Williams who didn’t know until he was elected that the city’s budget was less than $200 M, rather than the $500-$700 M he thought it was. No change in the crime rate, either. So your track record is unworthy of respecty.
Just because you’ve typed any old bullshit doesn’t mean that what you’ve typed is automatically accorded any respect. You have to do some work to earn that around here.
This applies to you too. Just because you have something to say doesn’t mean that anyone here has to take it at face value or respect it. If you don’t like it, you are welcome to rejoin the kids’ table.
The teen years are so difficult.
You owe me a new keyboard, P!
it’s too easy.
Keep your guns–I want one of those tazers. These kids will have that yardwork done in no time–and it’s Spring! Out, out, out of bed!!!!
The civilian version of the tasers only goes up to Medium, but the police versions go all the way up to Well Done.
That will do–it’s only weed pulling, not boulders to be moved. Now if only I can buy one where I get my wooden spoons………
The new Motto for the merchants of Rehoboth….Please don’t Tazer our Tourists. I am having bumper stickers made up.
saveourcity-
Who is this Ron you speak of, and what is he savings?
Local residents and business owners should really pay attention to this issue. This video is a gift to your community, a community that really needs to become aware of what their tax dollars are supporting.
Never in my almost 50 years have I ever been in trouble with the police (except for a speeding ticket). I recently had a run in with this same officer and some others in Rehoboth. My civil rights were violated over and over again. I wasn’t tased but I was handcuffed so tightly that I had red marks on my wrists for days. The hours of harassment I endured at the Rehoboth Beach Police station made it clear that there were at least two officers in that department with serious personality disorders. Another thing I was sure about was that I probably was not the first person they did this to, and most definitely I knew I would not be the last. I don’t have a video of the abuse I suffered from my encounter with the Rehoboth Police but I will never forget their names or their faces.
I have not been back to Rehoboth Beach since this incident. I use to go down almost every weekend during the off season. I miss the friends I have made down there as well as the beach. Your community is no longer a safe place in my eyes. I did nothing wrong or illegal that afternoon, nor did I act in an aggressive manner to the police or anyone else. That your so called “PEACE OFFICERS” are allowed to abuse people, tourist or not, is inexcusable!
I am constantly amazed that victims of this kind of police contact (innocent or guilty) and their friends and family do not vow to hold the officers and their superiors accountable via street justice. It is a testament to the decency and restraint of our criminals 🙂
Good Lord – if I had to sit there and watch a man pump electricity into my spouse’s body, I don’t think I could contain myself, even years later.
“My name is Puck Jr. You tased my father. Prepare to fry.”
Puck it is called intimidation. My blog is filling up with comments from LGBT folks who have been roughed up by this officer over the years. Some filed complaints, but most didn’t because they were scared witless. Most just stopped ever coming back. Listen to people who feel powerless–I mean really listen, and you will realize how much power the police now have, for good or evil.
I want my country back.
“but I was handcuffed so tightly that I had red marks on my wrists for days.”
I am in Rehoboth Beach often. Sometimes daily. Will be there tonight in fact. I have yet to be handcuffed. Are there certain places to visit there? Does one have to do certain things? I honestly have no idea what one does to warrant an encounter with the police in Rehoboth Beach?
I am not defending the police in Rehoboth Beach (especially and apparently one individual in particular) but from I’ve seen written, including on Steve’s blog, you would think people were essentially out for an evening stroll and all of a sudden the Rehoboth Beach SWAT jumps out and starts an altercation.
Tales are told from from the tellers perspective. I get that. But I find it difficult to believe that one can find themselves in handcuffs with no action on their part. If you end up in cuffs, it cannot be just because you were standing there with your hands in your pockets playing pocket billiards.
Nicely said Steve. As a professional woman with a career as a real civil servant I cannot afford to jeopardize my reputation further. I feel guilty about that as I know that wasn’t the right decision to make but after my experience I was hoping to make it just go away. Unfortunately I am still haunted by this experience, a fact I am sure would make Whitman smile. He and others in that department need to be stopped. I am not a lesbian but I am interested in reading your blog. Like I said I knew I couldn’t be the only one this happened to in Rehoboth. Still, I’m surprised that such a great community would support this department. If it is a lack of awareness maybe we could join together and help make these abuses known. How do I find your blog?
Former Tourist, click on his name, it will bring you to his blog
@Dave – your point about most people having no negative police contact is irrelevant. We are talking about the rights of a minority. The experience of the majority is not the point.
There was no need to take the guy down like he was the Dzhoker. If he had previously committed some violence, then he would have been charged with that, but he wasn’t. All he did apparently was get angry and act out in public. That should have been resolved verbally with everybody remaining on their feet.
When did police lose the knowledge of how to talk to citizens and defuse situations without first trussing them up like a hog?
The problem with most of the small police departments in Delaware is you have a force that is not properly screened or trained. They tend to draw the bottom of the barrel. Rehoboth and Dewey summer temps are ever worse. A lack of professionalism by these guys unfairly taints all police forces in the state.
Dave
But I find it difficult to believe that one can find themselves in handcuffs with no action on their part. If you end up in cuffs, it cannot be just because you were standing there with your hands in your pockets playing pocket billiards.
If this is your experience, you have led a fairly sheltered life. To be LGBT in Rehoboth is not, and never has been, to be safe from police harassment.
I have never been harassed in Rehoboth, but then I’m not part of that community, But I have experienced similar harassment at points during my life, including the handcuffs, including the long rides in police cruisers, without probable cause or even improbable cause.
Police harassment happens every day in this country, and while it shouldn’t be treated hyperbolically, to minimize it is to enable it.
“Police harassment happens every day in this country, and while it shouldn’t be treated hyperbolically, to minimize it is to enable it.”
I absolutely agree. However, the question remains, what does one have to do to end up in handcuffs. Since you have been in that situation, would you care to share?
When you examine causality, you don’t do it with blinders on oblivious to other factors. Nor should one effect solutions without considering the other factors.
The gay community in Rehoboth seems to be thriving. Gays aren’t walking the streets with their shoulders hunched over trying to blend in with the landscape. They walk around loud and proud and are a part of what Rehoboth is. In fact, just last weekend it was um…Women’s Fest 2013 or whatever they call it. A fine time was had by all and no one ended up in handcuffs.
What I am trying to get at is that there may be some bad apples on the force in Rehoboth which needs to be fixed. But it shouldn’t end there or be the only focus. We have higher expectations of our law enforcement as we should, but that doesn’t mean we should lower our expectations of ourselves. When someone is handcuffed, it rarely means they were just standing around.
I will start a coversation with some of my friends who are gay and live in Rehoboth about police harrassment. I report back when I have some more information.
Live in Sussex County for Low Taxes etc you get what you pay for
Dave – First this has NOTHING to do with being gay. I am not gay and the guy in the video is not gay.
That said, there was a time I would have agreed with you but after my experience with the Rehoboth police department I can honestly say that you just are not aware. Having never been in hand cuffs or police detention before I have nothing to compare my experience with but none of that is really the point. The point is not what someone does to be put in hand cuffs, the point is how someone who is put in hand cuffs is treated. Once in hand cuffs you are powerless and the police should not harass or abuse you, regardless of what you did or did not do. This is about civil rights and abuse of power. You have no idea how quickly your assumed ‘rights’ can be taken away. Look at your comment, you condemn me just because I was put into hand cuffs. You know nothing about me yet you feel justified in judging me because a known abusive police officer put me in handcuffs. Interesting wouldn’t you say? What does your judgement say about the broader ramifications of police harassment and brutality?
Well, you know what they say, ignorance is bliss! I hope that you always remain blissfully unaware but please stop making judgements against others who have not been as lucky as you have been.
Thanks!
I’ll approach Dave’s question from the point of law enforcement.
1) you have to be a threat.
2) you have to be a public nuisance.
3) you have to disrespect the legal authority of the people of that locality you are in..
The first is without question. No officer should put himself in danger of a suspect whom he doesn’t know. A 92 year old grandmother can pull out a Glock and waste you in the back of the head. Standard procedure, if you’re going to be physically close to me.. it will be in handcuffs.
The second. I was called to respond to a disturbance call. I don’t know you. I know the owners of the business who called me. Trust me, I will be on their side. If they called me for a disturbance, it means you are hurting them by making a scene. My task as a civil servant, is to “make that scene go away.” Most people when I arrive, understand and disappear willingly. Those that don’t, will get processed for this one reason alone. There is no way I as a enforcer of law, will tell you to stop and when you choose not to,… say, “ok, it’s all good; I was just kidding anyway…” If I have to process you, then for reason one above, the handcuffs will go on.
Three. The law is supposed to stand above all. In our society, we choose to uphold the principle that whether you are governor, mayor, libertarian, Jeff Christopher butt-licker, or a Jedi Knight, you or Mr. Beer Belly will all be treated equally. If you think that you can intimidate us from doing what the law demands us to do, then you are mistaken. Although there is not a slippery slope in which, if we let one person off everyone will then rise up and challenge every law and every legal authority, we have to deal with every situation as if that possibility could occur. We, represent the town. If you disrespect us, you by default are disrespecting the town. If we let you go for a gross disturbance, though we may have given you a break we in turn thoroughly upset all our locals who count on us to come at their beck and call when they have a situation with which they need force to deal… Although as law enforcement officers we are not perfect every time, we still think that we are the better alternative than giving everyone a six shooter, and letting them settle it out as a duel on the Boardwalk… If you shout, and scream, and cause us great unhappiness, we are going to return the favor. There is no law that requires us to undertake verbal abuse without retaliation simply because we are cops, especially when a particular law has been broken (public disturbance) giving us the opportunity to perform duty number two. Making the disturbance go away…
And kindly remember, we are human beings too. If someone were acting like you, at you, and it would make you see red… well, even though we are trained somewhat to handle it, we too have those same feelings you would have if our roles were reversed… Deal with us as you would wish to be treated, It makes steps one, two, and three much easier for both our parties…
Hope that helps with balancing the perspective. Some shallow minds may think that is condoning brutality. As I said, they are shallow minds.
The problem, kavips, with this admittedly realistic presentation of the police officer’s mind, is that around number three you wander into the officer being both judge and jury, with the ability to inflict retaliatory pain/abuse without any real check other than his/her own conscience.
And you ignore a lot of constitutional realities as, I guess, niceties.
My first significant encounter with police abuse came in North Carolina in the 1970s where I apparently committed the infraction of “walking in public with long hair,” when I was singled out on a Friday night near a bar to be stopped and frisked on the “suspicion” that I was dealing drugs. There was no probable cause (I was neither inebriated nor in the vicinity of anyone using drugs, nor had anyone given them my name). It later developed that the cops in Rockingham NC had developed their own little weekend extra-legal “drug sweeps” to keep “undesirables” out of their town. I was searched, and when that turned up nothing incriminating, I was sat–cuffed–in the back of a police cruiser for three hours. Upon being set free I was warned that if I complained I could be “in more pain that you’ve ever been in your life.” Episode one, Dave.
Episode two: the mid-1980s in a US Army NCO club, where I was drinking, listening to the band, and trying to pick up a nice young lady. An altercation broke out at the table in front of mine, leading to a fistfight and the immediate arrive of the MPs. One of the MPs, it turned out, knew that the young lady in question was married (I didn’t know that but in all honesty back then I don’t know if that would have made a difference to me), and was married to one of his friends who was currently in the field. So he decided to include me in the round-up of the people fighting when one of them fell into our table. That time I was held overnight in a drunk tank (I wasn’t; I passed my blood alcohol test and–even if I hadn’t, being drunk in an NCO Club isn’t a crime) and my commander had to be called to release me. Although the MPs later dropped the charges (“a regrettable mistake”) I lost a very good job over the incident.
Episode three: 1989: a police officer shows up at the door of a house I am renting in Clarion PA (on a one-year teaching assignment) and tells me that he has had reports of teenagers using a shed on the back of the property to get high and wants to search it. I told him to wait, called an attorney friend, and was advised not to allow that under any circumstances without a warrant. Told that to the officer who then advised me “to be very careful around stop signs and speed limits and such around town because we know your car, and we know how to enforce the law on people who don’t cooperate.”
There are more, but you get the idea. I have worked with some honorable cops and I have seen my share of scumbags. The problem is that, by and large, the honorable cops don’t seem to be able to get the scumbags out of their profession.
A friend of mine in law enforcement estimates that around 50% of the people who go into the profession, go into because they get off on bullying people.
Good points Steve. I am intrigued that the response in every public forum is always personal. As in, look, this happened to me.
I have come to the realization that Police as an institution are not bad. Big Government as an institution,is not bad. Corporate entities are not bad, and Patriots are not bad.
But there are bad people. And when one of these bad people gets into a position of power, bad things happen… Therefore we need balances on power to a degree, but not to the point they render that entity powerless or ineffective. For when that happens, the bad people then will have zero force offsetting them and our lives do become hell…
The secret to bettering our lives, boils down to micro surgery. Standing up and supporting good people when and where they may be, and pulling out, getting rid of, and removing bad people wherever they happen to lurk…
From your blog, and I think you should provide a link here for all to read the comments since it has been buried several pages down on your site, it appears that perhaps, micro surgery may be appropriate in this case.
However we should not do a broad brush and tie the hands of all those we may one day need to protect us…
Restated. We should not eliminate the power of all authority which we may one day need, to respond to the actions of one or two or three bad people who somehow got as far as they did.
kavips
First, here is the post link you asked for
http://delawarelibertarian.blogspot.com/2013/04/rehoboth-beach-police-brutality-you.html
I don’t agree with respect to your comment about institutions not being bad. I believe that certain institutions–as organized and constructed–are inherently bad, evil, malfeasant, whatever you want to say. The KKK is bad, no matter how good any individual may be who is involved. The COINTELPRO organization of the 1960s was bad. Any government commission that polices free speech (as such exist in Canada) are inherently–at least to my mind–bad.
But I take your point about people and organizations, which brings us back to James Madison’s conundrum:
“If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”
Oh, and as for this
We should not eliminate the power of all authority which we may one day need, to respond to the actions of one or two or three bad people who somehow got as far as they did.
That’s exactly the same formulation that civil libertarians would use, except that we would reword it thuse
We should not eliminate the rights of all citizens which they may one day need, to respond to the actions of one or two or three bad people who somehow got as far as they did.
Again, Madison: it has to work both ways.
“but please stop making judgements against others who have not been as lucky as you have been.”
@Former Tourist.
1. It might not be luck. That’s just a presumption on your part.
2. Please point out where I judged anything. I posed questions and opined about perspective of someone being a simply a victim, which is how this has been portrayed.
3. While this incident may not be about gays, Steve offered commentary about LGBT as part of the discussion of police harrassment as a larger issue than this one incident. You gotta keep up with the flow because it’s not all about you.
@Steve,
Thanks for sharing. Kavips put it more eloquently that I could have, so I’m can’t add anything. However, I do want to echo the “broad brush” meme. There are a great many (now you can count them on one hand) who would post on DP and rail against government as if there is one monolithic entity called “government.” What they fail to comprehend that government is people. The agencies themselves cannot be good or evil. The individuals are good or evil. Even the KKK itself cannot be thought of as good or evil. Only the members of the KKK.
We tend to anthropomorphize pets, government, countries, states, yadda, yadda. While doing this with our pets is relatively benign, when we do it an institution, we effectively absolve those individuals of any responsibility for their actions. Instead the institution bears the burden. Personal responsibility is not a principle, it’s a reality. Individuals act, even if they are acting in the name of any institution.
I have no loyalty or feeling for the Rehoboth Beach Police Department, but to characterize the institution in a certain way is to relieve individuals of personal responsibility for their actions. This is similar to assigning victimhood to entire class of people, effectively absolving them of personal responsibility.
If there is a bad apple in an institution, that bad apple needs to be called out.
Sorry Dave I do not buy the moral neutrality of institutions.
Institutions specifically organized to do immoral or evil things are inherently evil. Individuals within that organization may be good or evil as people, but the Totenkopf units that guarded Dachau were inherently evil. I will grant you that evil has different meanings in different cultures, but we are talking about making such judgments inside our culture.
If you join the KKK you are joining an inherently malicious organization. If you join NAMBLA you are joining an inherently evil organization. Reasonable people may disagree over whether this or that organization is evil from their perspective, but I am not willing to give up on the idea that institutions must be held morally accountable for their orientation.
Police organizations always–ALWAYS–totter on the brink, because they are organizations empowered by the state to use force against individuals, and the temptation to step over the line for personal gain, or personal kicks, or ideological/political reasons, or just from excessive zeal is there.
P.S.
If there are many “bad apples” in an institution, the institution could have a culture of bad appleness. But it’s still the people, not the institution.
Dave
I did respond to you, but either it is on hold somewhere or I brain-farted and forgot to send it. Either way it was too long and the day is too nice to repeat it.
Hmm. Steve… What if both were truisms, as I believe they are.
We should not eliminate the power of all authority which we may one day need, to respond to the actions of one or two or three bad people who somehow got as far as they did.
and…
We should not eliminate the rights of all citizens which they may one day need, to respond to the actions of one or two or three bad people who somehow got as far as they did.
But what if a balance between the two, as each theory struggles for survival, is really the ideal path? What if, like moose and wolves battling it out on Isle Royale the mystery lies in that balance and stability which exist when both try their hardest to survive, and neither side wins the upper hand?
In other words what if the battle is, and must be on-going? As soon as one begins to get the upper hand, the other side must work to impede the momentum…?
But alas. Such grand thoughts are too heavy for such a beautiful Saturday afternoon….. I will arise and go now.
Steve I disagree that institutions or regulations are inherently evil. They inevitably are a response to some form of abuse. There is a paradox in much of the Libertarian thinking. People should be free of regulation but there rights end where it affects me, how do you enforce that.
“I did respond to you, but either it is on hold somewhere or I brain-farted and forgot to send it.”
@ Steve,
I know you did. When I said “Thanks for sharing,” that was a genuine thank you. Sometimes it’s hard to tell with me because I don’t typically call people names. So you don’t get things like “Thanks for sharing, dickwad.” It was serious thank you.
And I also disagree that institutions are inherently evil, since institutions do not exist and do not accrue qualities of good or evil without the people.
It may be semantics, but when we say or think of an evil corporation for example, they themselves are not evil. If a corporation what you perceive as evil is suddent “peopled” with good people, it doesn’t remain an evil corporation.
Institutions reflect it’s membership. In fact, institutions are the membership. It is true the members can be assimilated or subsumed into the corporate culture. Regardless, the culture is a reflection of the members (and primarily of the leadership).
So back to the police department, if harrassment is a characteristic, it is a characteristic of its members and/or the leaderhsip.
As one more rejoinder to the discussion that it is the people inside the organization that make it evil, and not the organization itself, the Republican Party would be a rather benign organization if it wasn’t so darned stocked full of Republicans.
Tom
Steve I disagree that institutions or regulations are inherently evil. They inevitably are a response to some form of abuse.
Really? Were the laws that identified Jewish individuals and businesses in Nazi Germany inherently evil? What about the Jim Crow regulations of the supposed “New South”? Or how about Plessy v Ferguson?
I’m sure there were good people on the Supreme Court in 1896, but the ruling that officially made second-class citizens out of African-Americans for decades was inherently … what? Only bad because bad people enforced it?
What about the regulations at the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the late 1960s and early 1970s that called for the involuntary sterilization of a few thousand Native American women? Just a morally neutral set of regulations implemented by a few bad seeds?
Of course laws and organizations and institutions can be inherently evil as long as you have a common cultural definition of evil. And to my mind any law, organization, or institution that is fundamentally designed to deprive people of life, liberty or property without due process of law is inherently evil. Even the 14th Amendment appears to agree with me–that’s why the practice is supposed to be prohibited.
Steve, laws are not sentient.
Don’t fall into a trap of absolving people of responsibility by allowing them to off load that responsibility onto an inanmimate object.
It’s not Islam that promotes radicalism and terrorism. It’s the people who that in the name of Islam or the NRA is evil.
We have come to assigning institutional blame for just about everything. I sometimes think this is a way to avoid criticizing (judging) individuals. Look how often the public rails against the system; or the government; the Catholic Church. While institutions have a cultural identity, it is the people that give it that identity and the people that act within those cultural norms. Yes, group behavior exists, but only because individuals in the group take their cues from the group. Why does one person choose to become part of a mob and another does not? One may one may lack cognitive maturity or poorly developed executive functions as a result of damage to their frontal lobes or in simple terms, because one may be good or evil.
Jason said “Studies show that police are more likely to engage in abusive brutality when in groups of three or more.” The reason for this is that individuals abdicate executive functions to the group, which of course have no frontal lobes and therefore no inhibition.
Anyway the bottom line is that institutions and groups are not sentient and assigning them anthropomorphic qualities such as good and evil, absolves individuals of responsibility. If you want people to be accountable, you have to give them the responsibility commensurate with their accountability.
It’s almost a which came first scenario – the individual or the institution. Yeah, individuals are responsible for their actions, but many institutions attract and protect the individual that adheres to the institutions main goal – protecting the institution.
You cite the Catholic Church, Dave. As a firmly patriarchal group, that institution was ripe for abuse. So which came first? Pedophile priests, or an institution willing to offer these predators a safe haven? And not only a safe haven, but a single-minded goal that, not only looked the other way, but covered their tracks by moving pedophiles out of one parish (when people became suspicious) and into a new one – with a fresh batch of innocent children. To me, that’s an evil institution. In this case, nothing was more important than protecting the institution called the Catholic Church – not even children.
While the hierarchy of the Church plays boy,s club, most members ignore them. Is the institution evil because of pedophile priests and immoral bishops or is it righteous because it is the world’s largest social service organization staffed by priests and nuns living in terrible conditions helping the poorest and most underserved in the world? Organizations are made of people and almost all people are a mixture of good and evil.
“But I find it difficult to believe that one can find themselves in handcuffs with no action on their part. If you end up in cuffs, it cannot be just because you were standing there with your hands in your pockets playing pocket billiards.”
“When someone is handcuffed, it rarely means they were just standing around.”
@ Dave
These are some of your judgemental statements. Unfortunately, as I stated earlier, I knew that I could not be the only one this happened to and I knew I wasn’t going to be the last. You’re right Dave, this is not all about me but it is all about abuse of power. AGAIN this is not about getting into cuffs it is about how the cops in Rehoboth then abuse you once you are in cuffs.
“There is no law that requires us to undertake verbal abuse without retaliation simply because we are cops, especially when a particular law has been broken (public disturbance) giving us the opportunity to perform duty number two. Making the disturbance go away…”
Really Kavips!?!
Are you saying cops have the right to abuse you as a form of retaliation? This is your right as a cop? In my job I can and have been attacked physically by my clients. It is my job to keep them and myself safe. I have no retaliation rights and neither do you. That you would even suggest such a thing is disturbing. This has nothing at all to do with being a cop. It has everything to do with abusing your power of authority. If your still working as a cop you should really pressure your leadership to get you and your coworkers training on how to handle your position of authority in a professional manner. Above all else you are a professional. You are being paid to preform a job that does not include abusing others in retaliation or for any other reason.
No one is saying that we don’t need police, all we are saying is that we don’t need to be abused by them. Micro surgery may not work in Rehoboth as not one of the other officers tried to stop Whitman. That says the problem is more than just this one officer. People talk about “look, this happened to me” because to us it is personal. We are the ones who suffered the abuse and our rights were stripped away. That’s personal!
Those were not judgments about whether someone did or not do anything to warrant cuffs or did anything wrong. They are merely observations that generally someone just “standing around” or “standing there” does not find themselves in cuffs.
Police responding to a call is exactly that, a response to some event or situation. Rarely, if ever, do they respond and find someone just standing around. That’s not a judgment, it is just Newton’s third law of motion.
Someone was doing something. The police responded. So the pretense that the police were acting and not reacting because nobody was doin nuttin could cannot always be true, even when it it sometimes true.
Really, it’s not a judgment it is just logic.
Dave
The problem here is not in your logic, it is in your immediate presumption that any narrated series of events that starts with the police doing something inappropriate is automatically suspect. I read you and I see you as always giving the benefit of the doubt to the police.
That, unfortunately, does not match my own experience with police, nor that of many others.
Shorter Dave:
“Obviously the baby seal was doin’ somethin’ or he wouldn’t have been clubbed.”
More hyperbole so as make what I said sound unreasonable. Occasional use can be funny. Frequent use, makes one wonder if it is someone’s “go to” method of refutation.
@Steve,
“it is in your immediate presumption..is automatically suspect” Au contrare. I don’t presume that at all. In fact, I am even willing to stipulate that was and is the case in many instances, including yours.
So no, I am not inclined to give the “give the benefit of the doubt to the police.” Human beings are flawed. Police are human beings. Therefore they are flawed.
However, so are those human beings they come in contact with flawed. I simply was questioning what precipitated their actions and almost to a person, the response was “nuttin honey!”
I find it hard to accept that with nothing going on, someone placed a 911 call which the police were required to respond to and who knows what it looked like to them, maybe domestic abuse with a pregnant woman involved.
None of which excuses police brutality (I keep feeling the need to have to add to every comment lest someone will eventually equate the person involved in the incident to a baby seal).