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Contempt of Cop

July 1, 2011, 9:47 am

The point of this story seems to be to criticize cops for tasering, beating, pepper-spraying, and incarcerating a handicapped boy who apparently did nothing wrong.

Dayton police "mistook" a mentally handicapped teenager's speech impediment for "disrespect," so they Tasered, pepper-sprayed and beat him and called for backup from "upward of 20 police officers" after the boy rode his bicycle home to ask his mother for help, the boy's mom says.

But the larger issue is the culture that seems to exist among many police that disrespecting them is somehow a crime.   Sorry, but it is not, anywhere in this country, a crime to disrespect a cop.

As an aside, the three words that are always a big flashing warming light for me are "he disrespected me."  I am amazed when I hear this on the news all the time as if it justified whatever bad behavior that was to follow.  In investigating customer service problems in our company, any employee of mine whose explanation of an incident with a customer that includes the line "he disrespected me" is not going to be an employee very long.  Nothing gets in the way of good customer service faster than an employee trying to save face or protect his or her ego.

via Mike Riggs

Tags: , , ,
Category: Police and Prosecutorial Abuse

7 Comments

  1. el coronado:

    beating, pepper-spraying, tasing, and calling in 20 of your homies for help with a (perceived) disrespectful 'other' differs from classic police-state 'security forces' tactics - or a common street gang's M.O. - how, exactly?

    oh, THAT's right! if you fight back against the cop who's pounding on you, you've committed a felony.

    i'm sure the good folks of (this week) Dayton, OH can all be proud of their brave security forces, who are always on watch 24/7/365 against the terrible national scourge of disrespect.

    July 1, 2011, 11:06 am

  2. Jerry:

    I hope they win a big chunk of money from these Dirt bags. I'm sure the rest of the cop nation are totally behind these guys and can't believe that they didn't anything wrong. I used to have large respect for Cops, my father was one for 20 years. Now I have nothing buy contempt for most cops until they prove otherwise that they are worthy of my respect.

    July 1, 2011, 11:30 am

  3. Don:

    RE: The employee comment.

    THANK YOU!!!

    July 1, 2011, 7:55 pm

  4. Jon:

    Probably worth pointing out that at this point the whole 'disrespect' thing is based entirely on the word of one side in a lawsuit. I am not aware of any evidence that the officer actually said anything like that. A review of what info is available from the two side makes it clear the mother was not present when the altercation started.

    There is a lot to dislike about what happened here, but the story that is going around is so incomplete and blatantly slanted that forming conclusions is a bit premature.

    July 4, 2011, 10:19 am

  5. Bram:

    What's the other side Jon?

    He didn't disrespect the cop, but they chased down the handicapped kid and tased / arested him for...?

    Riding a bike without a helmet? Riding on the sidewalk? What did he do to justify a felony take-down?

    July 6, 2011, 6:28 am

  7. fl_litig8r:

    As a civil rights lawyer, I can confirm that "contempt of cop" is the #1 reason for false arrest/excessive force lawsuits. If a cop has a taser, you can be sure he'll make you "ride the lightning" if you supposedly disrespect him. Red flags for most of these kinds of cases are arrests solely for "resisting without violence" and/or "disorderly conduct."

    August 1, 2011, 1:21 pm