When I first clicked on the link, I assumed the subject was black. Upon discovering that he's not, I hesitated to post it because I really didn't want to deal with the insinuation or accusation that I'm racist. Yes, it's obvious that cops target black men more than white men, and one can't help but wonder if just wouldn't have been shot had he been black, but police across the country are fucking out of control. And every instance of police brutality is worth noting- no matter the race or gender of the victim.

I presume that declining to post it on the basis that he was white would be more racist, not less, than the other way around.

In any event, I think this pales to the video last week when the cop put eight bullets in the guy running away and then casually attempted to plant a taser on his dead corpse. Holy fuck that was cold.

when someone posts a 'cops beating up white guy' immediately after another high profile police violence on black person event happens - ie, when it looks like the post is a deliberate attempt to play the 'not all' card. If it's just thrown out as yet another case of police brutality, that's fine. When it's used as a 'not all people police brutalize are black' response OP, then it's obviously going to get flack.

may be the only reason this MAY lead to a conviction.

to death and there was no conviction
I wouldn't be surprised if there was no conviction here

The only reason NOT to post one would be to twist the discussion. The problem is bad cops and they're abusing every race. And now they're being exposed because of video. And they ALL should be shown.

.and the nation watched as they were beaten and brutalized with few complaints.

Granted, if they had been black, they probably would have been killed or "disappeared".

that they should be allowed to skate from the consequences of their actions though and imo most if not all of them should be fired.
Second I suspect the problem with the police isnt just one issues, its many.
Such as the deliberate act of not recruiting people with a high IQ to the recruiting of many former military personal whos training probably isnt the best suited for duty as a police office in civilian life and finally their is the overall issue of the training police are receiving in this country in general.
If they fixed those problems I suspect we would see an overall significant improvement.

Any brutality against anyone should be reported, When my wife and I lived in California we marched a lot in various protests. The police were setting up excuses for violence (IE agents in the crowd trying to provoke violence) was common. While the police are coming down hard on the People of color community, I believe it fits a much broader pattern of hiring people who are bullies and prone to violence. Bullies will attack anyone they think won't fight back and I think that will include men, women and children of any race.

The sheriff says IF the investigation shows any wrongdoing. IF. There is speculation on the video that the officers thought the helicopter was a police helicopter. Oops.

I'm pretty sure the footage removes any ifs.

The horse was injured while that horse-thief rode (badly, jerking the poor pony's mouth and yanking his head around) through rough terrain.

If somebody stole or injured my horse he'd be lucky to get out in one piece.

Oh, and the horse-thief already has convictions for animal cruelty.

and there is no excuse for what that gang of cops did.

And stealing a horse (apparently right out from under his owner) hardly equates with stealing food.

He already has convictions for animal cruelty. He gets zero pity or compassion from me.

and if you think its permissible to beat him on the grounds that he had previous criminal history then you would also be permitting the beating of Rodney King and many others.

to work. They were pissed off because they had to exert some effort in capturing the suspect.

I believe, running when you're obese is not that great for heart. So, they were probably as mad as a cut snake about it.

We should completely bypass the criminal justice system? No due process?

Do you understand what sort of nation you advocate?

after he abused (by shitty riding) and injured that horse (and abused the horse's owner by stealing and hurting the horse) does not equate with condoning the cop's behavior.

You do understand the difference, don't you?

Yes, the cops went overboard in their apprenhending the horse thief.

Tough shit for him, though. He's an animal abuser. Karma bites.

...what ought to be done about the deputies?

They call it, "Curbside justice".

The criminal justice system exists to determine guilt. After the criminal justice system determines guilt it will then determine a sentence. When a cop strikes a suspect they are shitting on the law, on the constitution.

There was still no cause to beat him.

Be sure of that. If you prefer the tough guy attitude, man or woman, make hay while the sun shines. It won't always.

Mercy is he didn't get hanged.

I have no problem with karma kickback.

I'm a tough guy when it comes to protecting my critters. You may want me to coddle horsethieves, assaulters of those smaller, dog shooters, and call it mercy. But I think my first job is to protect my dependents.

I had a neighbor trying to steal my horse for a year. Rumor is he had a buyer all lined up. Since it was sight unseen for an elderly horse, and there is a kill-buyer less than 2 hours from where I live with regular transports to the Canadian slaughter houses, my guess is if I'd turned my back my boy would have been dead before I could find him. That put me out of work for a year, while I stayed home to defend my property.

I also had another neighbor try to kill my dog right in front of me.

Oh, and the police were initially looking for an identity thief. Low and behold, I had my identity stolen by scum that got hold of a Fidelity laptop left in a car in the parking lot at HP headquarters in Palo Alto. They got all of our pension information.

The more I read about this dog-shooting, horse stealing, woman beating, probably identity stealing loser, the more schadenfreude I feel at seeing him get the snot beat out of him.

you still don't get it. There is no reason to suspect that they would not have done it to any fugitive, with a record or without one.

Brown didn't have a record. He may or may not have robbed that store; the owner didn't recognize him, one way or another - though that may have been down to fear. But the point there is that Wilson didn't even know about the robbery.

I hope you have a less fraught life ahead of you. You've had a rough spin by the sound of it.

because in this case, the "victim" was a bully who happened to meet up with bigger, badder bullies.

It is possible to simultaneously believe the cops behavior was bad, and believe their victim's behavior was also bad and deserving of severe punishment.

I just hope the poor horse is ok, and that the horse's human is ok.

albeit, expanded later, gave the impression that you have connections with the police, perhaps a family connection.

With the bad luck you have been having there, seemingly surrounded by criminals on the loose on all sides, have you ever thought of moving to a more congenial, less criminal locality?

Actually I tend to fear them too, although up here they're much lower key than in more populated areas. But not as much as I fear horse thieves and dog killers.

The identity theft occurred as a result of employment at Digital Equipment (now part of HP). Nothing to do with where I live.

The animal issues have to do with being rural and having one place nearby that is a rental. So far, every other newcomer there is a disaster, and every other one is ok.

We're supposed to be more civilized than that now.

That does not justify the beating he took after he clearly surrendered.

More cops committing violence under the color of authority.

Next time maybe he'll think twice before stealing somebody's horse. Also before abusing any more animals.

Too bad the horse was so well behaved, even while being abused by that jackass. My mare would have saved the cops a lot of effort, and may well have left him in pieces.

I'm not a horse guy, but the dude in question sounds like a bad guy. I actually hope this police misconduct isn't used as a means to put him in the position of hurting more animals.

...to say that he got what he deserved, to say that you have nothing against what happened to him because of what he did in the past, to say that you take pleasure from him being beaten, and a plethora of similar statements.

Yeah, sure, you don't condone what happened to him. And pigs fly.

After reading the article all you get out of it is the Horse?

Nothing about the Police Brutality
Nothing about the lives of the people whose identity he stole
Nothing about his girlfriend's well being.

You want to walk up and all John Wayne on his horse stealing ass. Hang em' High. Clint Eastwood would be proud.

this is not justified no matter the crime or past record............

and not just in the USA

My ex, a cop, use to tell me she was a member of the biggest, baddest gang in the world, you fuck with one of us and fuck with all of us. Thank goodness, after 20 years on the force, they ran her out of the department.

safeinOhio

Two - Hubris. When a group gets away with literally any bad thing, they surely must assume it is okay to do bad things, and have no qualms about punishment or censure, and may even expect praise and support. "Bad thing has, it seems, been redefined.
Hell, we see that with the Democratic Party and the Republican Party these days. So many politicians, and both parties, simply reek with hubris, and are rewarded. Why not the police?

I can see why you hesitated on posting this. Sometimes, to stay with this subject, a really heinous act by police will be followed with posts about police saving a puppy, buying an old black woman groceries, things like that.
Or there will be posts about the police being vile to a white person, as if that somehow means white people are treated the same. (I am white).

I doubt the police were that vile because "the guy was a horse thief." The police can be that vile over anything, it seems.

News choppers with image stabilized long lenses can sit out a very long way and get great video.

When I was directing a news show at a broadcast TV station in the late 90s our station helicopter was feeding live on the air some cops chasing a suspect and when they caught up to them they beat the crap out of him with their batons, it lasted quite a long time. Our helicopter was so far out and at about 1000 ft AGL the police didn't even know they were live on TV. I can't remember the outcome of the what they did to the cops, but there was some kind of disciplinary action.

but I had assumed there would be noise, wind, and shadows that would have been noticed!

The lenses (even back then) are just that good.

I live in a little town right below Tampa, and when we hear/see helicopters we assume something bad happened. And we all go inside. Gotta admit that if I saw a drone in my back yard, and could get to it, I would try to disable it. And if it was some hobbyists' toy - stomp on it.

Not only on helicopters or drones, but almost everyone carries video capability around in their pockets. Not to mention traffic and store surveillance cameras. Yesterday I passed a Google Maps camera car, guess I'll be in Maps at sometime, or at least my car.

I think it's safe to say, anytime you're outside of your house, it's possible you are being photographed. I just purchased a new laptop complete with a little camera above the screen. I plan on putting a nice piece of black tape over it.

It's the Virtual Panopticon society...and as author John Twelve Hawks says, "The first icon of the 21st Century is the closed-circuit surveillance camera..."

"In the two minutes after the man was stunned with a Taser, it appeared deputies kicked him 17 times, punched him 37 times and struck him with batons four times. Thirteen blows appeared to be to the head."


Damn.

I kid.

However, horses are a symbol of wealth. The cop's main function is protecting the wealth of the very wealthy. The cops probably felt it was their opportunity to display their loyalty to the rich by inflicting a special punishment on the miscreant.

I think every single officer that stuck even the slightest blow to the guy should be dismissed from the force. The guy had obviously surrendered. It is NEVER law enforcement's job to administer punishment.

Precisely

Congress/State Legislatures seems unwilling to clean up yet another mess they've created.
So what do we do? This crap can't go on.

We are horrified on a daily basis now...what about the ones than never make the news cycle? The ones never captured on video? The murdered ones who can never tell their story?
How BIG Is Our Problem?
We don't even know.

Require posting how much money is paid out each time a judgment is handed
Take a certain % of the police budget equivalent to how much the insurance coverage goes up each year

I realize money should not be the issue. But, I think if people knew how much money was spent each year on police brutality and heard about it each time they might take a less disinterested view

like a great idea for the public to begin to understand the severity of the problem(s) and hold them accountable.
I know We need to also start riding our lawmakers toward Reform, en masse' at both the state and federal level.

All LE officers are Not like this...but, sadly...it IS a growing population as I have heard from "good cops" and reason why Many are getting out.

I suspect after his lawyer settles the case against the cops he won't have to steal anything ever again.

.

The other cops should be put on desk duty or suspended.

Someone should have stopped the assault.

Cops should not be handing out their brand of justice.

Hard to see what facts could come out that would justify this.

They are like a pack of jackals descending on a carcass.

Once he said it appeared the force was necessary because there was a struggle at the start (when the guy was face down with his hands behind his back), I knew those cops will get off.

Fucking monsters.

It doesn't matter that this guy was white and if he's really an identity thief deserves jail time. The cops are monsters.

I hear a lot of "ifs ifs ifs" and not any full throated condemnation or accusation from the head law enforcement officer - like you would hear for any other criminals caught red handed on video.

And when did all these sheriffs and chiefs become four-star fucking generals? Who do they all think they are? Douglas MacArthur or Dwight Eisenhower?

FIRED!

In an ideal world they would ALSO be brought up on assault charges and have to stand trial.

Unfortunately, we don't live in an ideal world. Since the passage of the Patriot Act, we live in a police state.

in the facility for the criminally insane in Butner, NC.
This really is extreme mental illness and criminal. We must stop worshiping uniforms. A uniform does not make the person wearing it a hero.
There are many things gone awry in the United States, insane cops gone wild is one that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.
Giving carte blanche to the criminally insane, under the color of law, is a recipe for insurrection.

One would think with all those good cops, and with these bad cops being "the exceptions" that there would also be so much video of the good cops doing good things to outweight all of this, huh?

And one would also think that those "good cops" would be outraged by this stuff and reporting it themselves rather than it having to be captured of video.

"Only watched part of the video", "looked like there was a struggle", NO ASSHOLE it looks like your asshole deputies are beating a unconscious man to death!

GOD I HATE PIGS!

Incomprehensible. Not one cop in that bunch was one of the supposedly good ones. Because not one cop said hey man, back off, we got him.

felt they were missing out on the fun.

As for the multiple layers protecting against the tazer...! I've never heard that one before. Funny being togged up for the cold in a hot state like Arizona. Or do they have cold winters there? And it was a cold day? They've even got barbs on them, like fishing hooks. Great fun pulling them out, eh?

If not the tazers should be sent back to the manufacturer as 'not fit for purpose'.

If they had any god damn sense, they would drag him a little bit over to the bushes on the left then beat the shit out of him out of public view and what was the stupid moron sheriff helicopter pilot thinking when he didnt alert them that a fricken news helicopter was overhead?

Gosh! Such stupid idiot moron cops here and what was the stupid moron camera person doing zooming in on that, don't they know you're supposed to pan up and away once they get on top of the guy? The local FOX, CBS and ABC stations pan out but the morons at NBC didnt.

So much stupidity on everybody's part.

and start from scratch. Pigs, goons. bullies, racists and sociopathic assholes seem to have a virtual monopoly on employment in what is euphemistically called "law enforcement."

Fuck em all.

It's because there are rarely if ever consequences for their bad behavior. If you are used to acting with impunity, if you know your superiors "have your back", if you know the local prosecutor has never once prosecuted a cop (which is the case in many places), if you have never in your career seen anyone successfully sue for excessive force (thank you, qualified immunity), then you probably aren't thinkIng about the consequences of beating a guy. Therein lies the bigger problem.

and I could barely watch it. There've been so many beatings done by cops on blacks that I was surprised that the victim was white.

People seem to be entering law enforcement for the wrong reasons. I wonder, has it always been this way and we didn't know it till video phones?