Officer James Frascatore, who has faced four civilian complaints and has had at least four excessive-force lawsuits filed against him Yea he needs to be fired.
Wonder how fall back are those lawsuits. And if it took a clear video of a famous person being taken down to have change, it tells you why we should have an independent body to handle these type of cases.
James Blake is one guy the cops can't just smear for being a criminal/drug user/someone who dewerved it. Look at the SC cop shooting, now info is being leaked that the victim had drugs in his system, etc. But that is the legal system, a litigant is gonna try to gain any advantage that is available.
Nice try, but intransigent, provincial whites like you are the ones who factionalized politics by region and stifled racial progress by ideologically stigmatizing it.
This is the first chance I've got to read through the whole story. So let me count how much fail there is here. 1. Plainclothes LEO fails to properly identify himself in an arrest. 2. Violently takes a cooperating suspect. 3. Person arrested isn't actually the suspect. 4. The original crime, credit card threat, isn't a violent crime. 5. Suspect isn't actually involved in the crime. Just terrible LE work all around and unfortunately for the taxpayers of NYC they will be paying a lot to settle this.
This is a very difficult position to be in and it is why I consistently preach fighting is the very very last resort of self-defense. Awareness, avoidance and evasion is the best policy but in a situation like this where it is a very determined plainclothes LEO who hasn't properly identified himself that is almost impossible. This is where I would consider environmental awareness. Blake was arrested during the day in public at a busy place. The best thing might to do is make as much noise as possible and letting people know that he is being attacked and who he is. At the minimum that might cause more people to document the situation and attract a uniformed LEO in case the plainclothes isn't really LE. That might not stop the plainclothes from being aggressive and violent but with more documentation it might make them think twice about escalating to deadly force and also provide more evidence for the legal case. I agree if you're approached by LE in uniform or who have very clearly identified themselves as LE cooperation is the best policy. While I'm critical of LE who act aggressively to non-compliant suspects that is a criticism of the LE not of the those in custody. It is the same argument as saying someone shouldn't be waving a round a lot of money. If they get mugged the mugger is still in the wrong but that doesn't mean that the victim shouldn't have been behaving so recklessly. I had a situation several years ago in my own neighborhood where a plainclothes approached me. He had his badge out and clearly stated he was LE. He asked me where I lived and to see my drivers license. I complied without hesitation and he said I fit a description of someone who had been spotted breaking into garages but they figured it wasn't someone from the neighborhood but he wanted to check.
Wasn't able to read the article since at work, but I saw the video. Was the African American fellow dealing drugs which led to his arrest? He looked awfully suspicious just standing there.
When I read the title I thought it was this James Blake... Spoiler <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5S6U_krabrk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> ...and I was confused as to why anyone would assault such a fine, young purveyor of exquisite ambient-electronic soundscapes...and furthermore, why it would be in the D&D.
They have the most resources, enough Ivy-educated private and public defense attorneys and city desk writers to keep their protocols in check, and a city government with challenges they've had to address 50-75 years before the rest of the country: like mass-transit, accessible secondary and collegiate education, drug- and sex-trafficking and now global terrorism. They're also too big in too diverse and rich a city to not have individually corrupt or adversarial agents.
Sure, it's frustrating when suspects run. But not shooting a person in the back or otherwise violate rules that might make your job (all these due process and search and harder when you are frustrated is a part of the job description. And it's not like it's a surprise to any police officer that suspects sometimes run from the police and that the job entails some level of frustration-- and danger. This is what you signed up for. When they gave you that gun and that badge, it's understood that you are gonna exercise self-control in stressful situations. It's the same with other professions-- a teacher frustrated with unruly children can't just beat them, a nurse frustrated with abusive mentally ill patients can't just poison them.
Apparently Mr. Blake was not the only Harvard educated athlete to run into trouble with law enforcement this week: http://news.yahoo.com/jeremy-lin-had-hard-time-010625835.html
