The shootings are more dramatic, so they get a lot more attention, and that’s understandable. But there are a lot more incidents like this one that just don’t get caught on camera, or the victim doesn’t want to make an enemy of the local police, or is too traumatized to follow through.
Police officers assaulted this man, body slammed him, broke his wrist, because they had a warrent for a *different guy.* That guy? He was already arrested and in custody. They talked to the arresting officer *BEFORE* they mistreated this innocent man, but because they misunderstood what she told them, this poor guy was in fear for his life and suffered physical and emotional harm.
THEY HAD HIS I.D. All they had to do was compare it to the warrent BEFORE stalking up behind him and slamming him to the ground. Article and video here. Note that indeed the stalker cop already has the guy in a bear hug from behind, pinning his arms back *before* he tells him to put his hands behind him.
https://www.valdostadailytimes.com/news/valdosta-police-sued-for-700k-in-excessive-force-case/article_e5272248-b4c4-11ea-bb96-13027dc5665b.html
This is hard to watch – they broke this man’s wrist when they body slammed to the ground and cuffed him, and the pain and terror in his voice is palpable. I got knots in my stomach- and I don’t know this guy, I’m remived by thousands of miles, a couple of months, and I’m seeing/hearing it through social media. This was his life. IMagine how friendless, alone, and totally at risk he felt at the time. Imagine if he was your cousin, your brother?
And then think about why we have to imagine that, when he is a fellow member of the human race, a fellow citizen of this republic who should not have been subject to this treatment by civil servants whose job is to protect and serve. Something has to be done, something related to how we screen officers, and how we train them, so that they have more basic respect for other humans, for their rights, and a lot more comon sense than to ambush, assault, and cuff and body slam a man before they have even compared his I.D. (which he gave to the officer quickly as soon as he was asked).
For all intents and purposes, these men assaulted him without compunction. I don’t hear the kinds of apologies and contrition one ought to be hearing. The total lack of self-awareness is absolutely astounding. They seem surprised that he’s suing when they offered to call hiim an ambulance and asked if he was okay. Would you hang around with your rapist if he was so kind as to call an amublance for you afterward? Of course he didn’t want anything from them but distance- as much distance as he could put between himself and his abusers. They hurt him, bullied him, assaulted him, traumatized him, and they did it without any sign of contrition, and no valid reason in the first place. He cannot trust them. He has no way of knowing what they will take in their heads to do to him next, since there was no logic or reason to what they already did. They don’t seem to get this at all.