PJBoosinger

Houston’s finest are at it again!  “You see the young man get out (of his car) and take off running — and you see a (patrol) car hit him,” he said. “When the car hit him, you see him lay all the way down and the cops just pounce on him like a pack of wolves pouncing on raw meat.  “While he is handcuffed and lying down, you see a black cop run up and kick him in square in the face. They’re punching and hitting him, punching and hitting him.”  The entire incident lasts about two and a half minutes, Quanell X said.

“There is a possibility that (the arrested man’s) rights were violated and that he may have been assaulted by the officers while in custody,” [Mayor] Parker said. “I hope it’s not true, but if it is, we will thoroughly investigate it, and the officers involved, if necessary, will take the consequences.”

Above is the late breaking story and below is how it was initially reported.  Sad, very sad that the media ran to publish before having the atrocities of this case to report OR if they deliberately left them out of their stories.  More sad that I so often have to piece these details together from multiple reports because it seems NO ONE does thorough reporting any more.

“Eight Houston police officers have been relieved of duty… caught on tape beating a suspect… happened at the end of a chase.”  According to someone who has seen the video, the suspect had been subdued and, after he lay down prone and spread eagle and then had been cuffed, THAT’S when the cops decided to beat the snot out of him.  KPRC also reported that the officers were on PAID leave.  Seriously???  What does it take to get put on unpaid leave?

And they were on duty for about a month after this incident so who knows what other violent crimes they’ve been perpetrating even though “Harris County District Attorney’s office received copies of the tape from the business within five to seven days.”  Wow, nice job Pat!  I see the new DA is about the same as the former one.

“The video was apparently taken from a surveillance camera at a nearby business.”  Gee, 8 officers.  How many vehicle units is that?  WHERE’S THE DASHCAM VIDEOS???

“The officers are with the Westside Command Gang Unit.”  Sounds more like the Westside HPD GANG to me!

I don’t care how much adrenaline one is pumping; there is ZERO excuse for hitting or otherwise assaulting an already subdued person.

[Mayor] Parker said. “He forwarded a copy of those tapes to the District Attorney’s office and to the chief of police. They immediately took action.”  “The incident, which happened last month” and it is now the 28^th of this month.  “Immediate action” my ASS!  If they took more than 48 hours to arrest these officers and toss them in cells, they did no such thing and that’s a blatant lie.

I fully understand not tossing officers into jail, into hazard, if the charges against them are questionable but, where there’s video tape and a relatively straight forward situation, officers should NOT get one bit of consideration after assaulting people while on duty.  These officers should be sitting in jail cells at County, right in there with all the other common criminals; exactly where you or I would be if we’d gang assaulted someone AFTER hitting them with a CAR!

And here’s another of Houston area’s finest being convicted of official oppression.

“November 2008, officer Jon Fitzgerald, 39, was involved in a chase with…  Ryan Sanders.  Sanders crashed… was pinned under his motorcycle…  Fitzgerald… grabbing the back of his head and slamming it down on the concrete at least four times while he was pinned down.  During the trial, one of Fitzgerald's colleague's testified against him.”  Again, that’s the short and “nice” version.  The officer rammed the 400 pound motorcycle, then tackled the guy and THEN bashed his head against the CURB.

“Sanders declined medical attention at the scene.”  Gee, think maybe he might not have wanted to risk “treatment” by other “officials”?  Can’t say I’d blame him!

“Fitzgerald was sentenced to one year probation.”  That’s just offensively little punishment for an officer gone wild!

Sadly, I suspect these really are “Houston’s FINEST” police officers and it’s going to keep getting worse so long as the DAs and Grand Juries are willing to let them slide.  People think they will never be the victim of these abusive officers.  That’s a bad bet because bad behavior spreads in police departments when they know they can get away with it.  Some day, it will be a fine, upstanding citizen laying dead after a police beating because the officers have deluded themselves into thinking they can treat anyone as they please.  Well, why shouldn’t they think that when the DA is telling them as much?

With friends of the public like these police officers, who needs enemies?  WTF is wrong with cops these days?  It's a wonder we aren't all agoraphobic.  I support the RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS for good reasons, including the right to defend oneself from police officers!