Beer Forum

WTF! I've never been a skateboarder and, sometimes, can find them annoying. But, this is insane! Possession of a skateboard or a video camera seems, in this cop's eyes, to be disorderly conduct. Ok, the kids were taunting him a bit--I liked the scene with the nimble kid being chased by the lumbering cop--but, for the most part, they were really well behaved and not causing trouble at all! This cop was an ass!

Does anyone know where this happened?

Do anyone know the outcome?

So, what I got from the video is that the kid was resisting arrest. Yeah, he had a skate board. But you can't jump to he was being arrested for nothing. Did he get man handled? Yup.

Makes you wonder what happened prior to the video rolling.

The cop probably got sick of telling them for the hundredth time there's no skateboarding there...

Sheen wrote:The cop probably got sick of telling them for the hundredth time there's no skateboarding there...

The 'kids' who tried to physically interfere with the cop during the arrest were lucky they didn't get shot.

dkrel wrote:Makes you wonder what happened prior to the video rolling.

Sheen wrote:The cop probably got sick of telling them for the hundredth time there's no skateboarding there...

I agree with both dkrel and Sheen, we don't know what happened before the filming began and the kids probably were ignoring the cop's warning. Nor am I trying to defend the kid who taunted and ran. I don't think the cop would have been justified in unholstering his weapon at any time during the encounter; the use of deadly force was not justified as the teens did not pose a threat to either him or society, so it would have been an even bigger over reaction to 'shoot' the kid that ran, or any of the others.

What get's me is how the cop reacted throughout the video to the other kids that were standing around watching. It appears that he was getting pissed that they were exercising their 1st Amendment rights (peaceful assembly and the press) and decided to violate their 4th Amendment rights (unreasonable seizure) too.

As for them resisting arrest, I would point out that the cuffed kid did not make any attempt to depart the scene, but milled around and even stated that she was not going anywhere--again, we don't know what happened before the video began. The other two that we see 'resisting' are were peaceful bystanders until the cop battered them by 'restraining' them with one arm around each of their necks.

If the other kids were violating an ordinance, before the video began, the cop should have placed them under arrest in succession, not in, as it appears, in reaction to their continued presence (note that he walks away with the cuffed teen and then only engages the remaining teens after they follow. Note also that they never made any threatening actions or speach against the cop.).

Here's how I see it. You have a bunch of smart-ass kids that are full of their first amendment rights and are egging on the cop. You have kids that are not dispersing as they are told to do, and you have resisting arrest (the kid that the cop tells to stop and takes off).

Then you have the cop trying to deal with the one kid in cuffs and the other kids are swarming around him like bees, each with a skateboard in his hand and each looking to escalate the situation a bit more out of control.

When the cop tries to get the girl and she resists, then everything gets amped up some more. Then to add to it, another kid jumps in with the cop while he's trying to subdue the girl - now he's trying to control 2 teenagers who are both resisting arrest. His adrenaline by this point must be pumping.

This reminds me of Rodney King, the loser who led LAPD cops on pursuit and then got a wooden shampoo when they finally caught him. Those cops were amped and pissed off, and the rest is history.

I'll bet the cop wishes none of this ever happened. If I lived near him I'd invite him over for a homebrew and a cigar, and we wouldn't say one word about the shitbags that populate the streets.