Cops at it again

Yonkers · Dec 6, 2008

Boy, I don't want to be the one always posting these 'cop bashing' posts but if they didn't do this sort of stuff I wouldn't have to.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/6150136.html

The Harris County Sheriff's Office is investigating allegations that deputies harassed a family of Sikhs whose home was burglarized last week.

Family members say the deputies handcuffed them, roughed them up and taunted them instead of taking a report on the break-in.

One deputy reportedly asked them if they'd "heard about the bombings in Bombay." Another allegedly said he had been to Kuwait and "knew about Muslims."

Since 9/11, misperceptions about Sikhs' religiously mandated turbans and beards have led to an increase in discrimination against Sikhs, according to the New York-based Sikh Coalition.

The family reported the incident to the Coalition, which called for the sheriff's office to fire the four deputies involved and issue a formal apology to the family.

"The allegations, if they're true, are certainly intolerable and inconsistent with our policies," said sheriff's spokesman John Legg.

The deputies could face anything from disciplinary action to termination, Legg said. He declined to release their names pending further investigation.

The Sikh family returned home to the 10800 block of Oak Bayou Lane on the night of Nov. 26 to discover a broken window in a bathroom and belongings strewn on the floor of the master bedroom. Jewelry and money was missing.

Ramandeep Singh, 28, called 911 and went to the driveway to greet the deputy when his patrol car pulled up.

"Right from that instant, he didn't ask us what was going on or if we were OK, he just looked at me and he goes, 'Do you have an ID?'" recalled Singh, who has a beard and wears a turban.

Singh offered to retrieve his ID from the house and invited the officer to accompany him.

After handing over the ID, Singh and his relatives showed the deputy the broken window. But the deputy couldn't seem to focus on the break-in, Singh said.

"It just looked like he didn't want to be there," he said. "I sensed a little uneasiness from him."

Deputy 'freaked out'
Then the deputy noticed his sister's Kirpan, a small ceremonial knife she wears sheathed on her hip.

The Kirpan is a religious article mandated by the Sikh faith, explained Kawaljeet Kaur, 35. "It's a constant reminder to me that I need to promote justice for all," she said.

The deputy "freaked out," Singh said.

"Before you know it, he has a taser pointed at her forehead, he's calling for backup, he's raising his voice, like, 'Shut up, shut up! '"

"I told him, you know, I'm a law-abiding citizen," Kaur said. "Treat me with respect."

She offered to leave the room if the Kirpan upset him, but pointed out that it was her constitutional right to practice her religion in her own home.

"He said, 'I don't care about that,' " Singh remembered.

He said the situation deteriorated when other deputies arrived and began handcuffing family members, including Kaur's 60-year-old mother.

"They were using the f-word, and we had an 8-year-old in the house," Singh said.

One deputy pushed Kaur to the ground and pressed his knee to her back.

"They basically didn't treat us like humans," she said. "They didn't think they had to give us any answers or talk to us."

One of the deputies told the family he "knew about Muslims," they said.

"But even if I was a Muslim, that doesn't mean I'm a terrorist," Kaur pointed out.

Helpless, in shock
"It was a terrifying experience," she said. "When a hate crime is committed at your own home, you feel so helpless and so vulnerable as to who do you call for help. I will probably think a hundred times before calling 911 ever again."

Although more than a dozen deputies had swarmed the scene, none of them made any effort investigate the burglary, Singh said.

"Imagine the kind of resources that they're putting into this kind of thing instead of all the real crime that's going on out there," he said. "I mean I was just in shock. I didn't think this kind of thing could happen in Houston."

Hours after the initial 911 call, a supervisor showed up and ordered the deputies to unhandcuff the family, Singh said.

"He was like, 'Yeah, these guys are young. They don't know any better,' " Singh said. "I'm like, 'That's fine but that's no excuse to treat anybody this way.'"

Singh said his family moved to Houston from India more than 20 years ago and consider themselves proud citizens.

Racial profiling people won't make anybody safer and will erode trust in law enforcement, especially in immigrant communities, said Neha Singh, western region director for the Sikh Coalition.

"For an incident like this to occur is shameful and shocking," she said. "I really don't understand how they could justify what they did here, and I'm sure they would not have behaved the same way had the family looked different."
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Chopped · Dec 6, 2008

fire em. there is no justification for their actions.

rockbox · Dec 6, 2008

I hate to say that I fear cops more than criminals. At least I can legally protect myself from criminals.

Angkor Wat · Dec 6, 2008

Not surprised. Its Texas. There is bound to be a few ignorant hick cops on the squad.

Yonkers · Dec 6, 2008

Angkor Wat said:

Not surprised. Its Texas. There is bound to be a few ignorant hick cops on the squad.
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If there are just a few... they sure brought them all there

Although more than a dozen deputies had swarmed the scene, none of them made any effort investigate the burglary, Singh said.
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TMac640 · Dec 6, 2008

**** the police!

3814 · Dec 6, 2008

They should all be fired and given a sentence of some kind for abusing their power and committing a hate crime. That is ridiculous!

Oski2005 · Dec 6, 2008

I wonder if WWR was involved?

yobod · Dec 6, 2008

Why do I get the sinking feeling that these guys are just going to be suspended without pay for a week or something, and nothing more? Seriously, the only difference between a cop and a thug is that a cop has the Constitution on his side.

Mr. Brightside · Dec 6, 2008

Oski2005 said:

I wonder if WWR was involved?
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Shouldn't do bad things.

Red Chocolate · Dec 6, 2008

buy guns, protect your home. leave the police out of things. things are going to get worse and worse if people tolerate this stuff.

Harrisment · Dec 6, 2008

F the police. Seriously.

bejezuz · Dec 6, 2008

I've had the chance to go to school and work with several Sikhs, and each has been incredibly cool and interesting. What a shame.

rockbox · Dec 6, 2008

bejezuz said:

I've had the chance to go to school and work with several Sikhs, and each has been incredibly cool and interesting. What a shame.
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I've known several cops well in my life, and all but one (he quit after a few years on the Austin Police Department) were total dickheads.

rpr52121 · Dec 6, 2008

My dad is really scared of cops. He was scared ****less when I when to A&M and even more worried some cop here (i'm now in temple, texas and soon in Beeville for a time) will arrest me for some similar stupid reason as this.

I've never met any cops like this. I've been lucky.

(I'm Indian for anyone who doesn't know. Used to have beard & long-hair, but not a Sikh.)

rhadamanthus · Jul 21, 2009

Another story.

Ill. deputy accused zapping 3 kids with stun gun

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. – A sheriff's deputy zapped three children with a stun gun at an Illinois emergency youth shelter, threatening to sodomize one of them before choking a fourth child and throwing her in a closet, according to a federal civil-rights lawsuit.

The suit against Jefferson County sheriff's deputy David Bowers and another deputy claims they were unprovoked in the incident at the adolescent center in southern Illinois that houses youths ages 11 to 18, often with behavioral issues.

No charges have been filed in the case. Sheriff Roger Mulch, who also is named in the lawsuit, said Monday the deputies followed protocol and did "nothing out of the ordinary."

The suit, filed July 1, called the deputies' actions "extreme, outrageous and unjustified," and it does not release the names or ages of the three boys shot with the stun gun. The fourth kid was a foster child who did not live at the center, according to the lawsuit.

The suit claims that Bowers and sheriff's deputy Lonnie Lawler went to the center near Marion on July 4, 2008 in response to a report that three teenagers were acting unruly. But the young people suing the deputies were not those disruptive children, the lawsuit said.

Bowers allegedly pushed one boy toward his bed, and repeatedly shocked him with a stun gun. Bowers then held down a second boy, stunned him several times and threatened to sodomize him, ultimately causing the child to soil himself, the lawsuit claimed.

A third child complied with the deputies' demands that he sit on a couch, but Lawler handcuffed him before Bowers zapped him repeatedly, the lawsuit said.

The fourth child, a girl, pleaded with the deputies to stop but Lawler handcuffed her. Bowers lifted her off the ground, pressed her against a wall and choked her, the lawsuit alleges.

"Do you want to live or die (expletive)?" the lawsuit, filed July 1, claims Bowers asked the girl before she was thrown into a closet, vomiting.

Bowers did not immediately return messages left at his home, and Lawler does not have a listed home telephone number. It was not known whether either had an attorney.

Gene Svebakken, president and chief executive of Lutheran Child and Family Services of Illinois, which runs the center, said Monday after reviewing the lawsuit that he was "really alarmed and distressed by the allegations."

"These are young people often traumatized in their circumstances, and that they, like all children, needed to be treated with dignity and respect," he said, noting that the shelter serves a myriad of children, ranging from runaways from placement elsewhere to youths between foster homes.

Mulch portrayed the center as a chronic hassle, this year accounting for more than 100 requests for his department's help.

He defended his deputies, saying separate investigations by his department and Illinois State Police determined Bowers and Lawler did nothing wrong.
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eveluvsrox · Jul 21, 2009

NSFW Language

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dskillz · Jul 21, 2009

3814 said:

They should all be fired and given a sentence of some kind for abusing their power and committing a hate crime. That is ridiculous!
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More than anything, this is the problem. Stuff like this happens more often than we hear about. The cops get a paid slap on the wrist and go back to work. Without serious discipline, the cops can get away with whatever they want and do. I have a couple of friends who are cops and they tell me that being a "good cop" is hard because there are so many a-holes running around with a badge. He did place the number around 65/35 Good/bad mix.

Harrisment · Jul 21, 2009

eveluvsrox said:

NSFW Language

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You might want to spoiler tag that video.

Blake · Jul 21, 2009

No way...close-minded police officers who abuse their authority????

Unthinkable

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