Police should release video of alleged beating
Maxwell Smart, of “Get Smart” fame, uncovered many enemy ruses during his stellar career as a U.S. spy agent pushing back against KAOS criminals.
Smart discovered these dirty deeds.
•The old drug-his-prunes, fake-the-fight, ransack-the-apartment, and switch-places-with-the-Admiral trick.
•The old check-the-baggage, take-out-the-insurance, page-him-to-the-phone, spin-the-booth trick.
And, there’s this personal alliteration driven favorite.
•The old Professor-Peter-Peckinpah-all-purpose-anti-personnelPeckinpah-pocket-pistol-underthe-toupee trick.
The Trenton Police Department employs one strategy to justify brutality: simply say or scream “Stop resisting.”
Some officers could explain abuse of a corpse with an assertion that the dead body had somehow fought back.
Trenton police Spokesperson Lt. Stephen Varn chirped a familiar monologue after being questioned about the beating of arrestee, Kendall Rossi.
The Trentonian reported that police “don’t deny that a struggle ensued with Rossi at police headquarters, but claim he “physically resisted” officers.
Following the altercation, Rossi sustained a concussion, a badly sprained shoulder, and swelling and contusions to his face, according to his hospital records.”
Police had transported Rossi to headquarters for processing.
“After that processing, the detectives went to take his property, during which time he physically resisted the detectives,” Varn explained. “At which point, detectives attempted to gain control of him. During that time, a struggle ensued.”
During the struggle, Varn said, Rossi and an officer suffered injuries and police took the arrestee to the hospital for treatment.
Stands to reason that police could protect the public and serve their best interests if actions were recorded.
Lt. Varn could create credibility with a statement that acknowledged such a recording.
Imagine if Lt. Varn said “Trenton police recorded the incident with Mr. Rossi and the videotape justifies our officers’ behavior.”
Good police officers welcome body cameras and dashcams as tools that showcase their professionalism.
Instead, Lt. Varn expects citizens to believe that three police officers could not control one suspect.
We should believe Lt. Varn based on some God-awful belief that police always tell the truth and behave properly?
This is not an indictment of all police officers, but if an alleged 95 percent of police stand as good officers then they own the responsibility to extract their bad brethren.
In July, 2014, Lael Queen suffered injuries after he recorded Trenton police roughing up a young black woman on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.
Queen alleged police assaulted him, even allowed a K-9 unit to bite him.
A citizen’s video showed Queen pinned to the ground by several officers who crooned “Stop resisting.”
The video remains etched in memory as a pathetic display of unnecessary force and use of a narrative just in case they ended up in court.
Queen filed a lawsuit and in July 2016 the City of Trenton agreed to pay him $175,000 to settle allegations.
Trenton officials noted the settlement did not constitute an admission of liability, but city attorneys believed it was in the city’s best interest to settle the matter.
Maxwell Smart might call such verbal rigmarole as
•The old beat the Negro, let the dog bite his black ass, scream “Stop resisting”, and never admit wrongdoing trick.
Stands to reason that police could protect the public and serve their best interests if actions were recorded. Lt. Varn could create credibility with a statement that acknowledged such a recording.