Just Released: Dash Cam Video of Oklahoma Trooper Vs. EMT

[IronRanger]

Like all groups, there are bad individuals. 

The best line from the trooper:  (paraphrasing) "You're not gonna pull over to the side of the road for an emergency vehicle?"  If he's gonna use the argument that the ambulance wasn't running its lights/siren, neither was the trooper.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fLO6f8M_gM

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

This is absolutely ridiculous.  I can't believe the OHP put the officer on PAID administrative leave.  One of those things that really makes Oklahoma look bad, IMO. The worst part is that there was a patient in the back of the ambulance who was on the way to the hospital.  That OHP officer should have escorted the ambulance to the hospital (which, knowing the area where this happened very well was at least half an hour away, whether they were going to Shawnee or to Okemah).  He could've picked a bone with the driver AFTER the patient reached the destination.

[IronRanger]

I was about to edit my post, when you pointed-out the trooper's "punishment":  paid leave.  Oh, and they dropped the charges against the EMT.

Apparently, the trooper's wife was in the car at the time.  Was he showing-off for the wife?

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

His wife was in the car??  If she's turned on by that silly display, she needs some serious mental help.  If my husband was acting like that, i don't think I'd claim him.

[muldoon]

about 10 years ago my wife (fiance at the time) was pulled over for doing 38 in a 35.  She apparently had a warrant for a bad check she knew nothing about.  (we later find out it was related to one of her paychecks bouncing when she worked for a shoddy apartment complex).  That was like 6 years before then and neither of us knew anything about it.  The cop was a total redneck asshole, to which she commented to him, "no wonder you guys get shot at all the time". 

Didn't work out so well for her that afternoon, but I knew I had a keeper of a woman! 

[glenn kangiser]

Sometimes you just have to tell it like it is.  She did good, muldoon.

[IronRanger]

   Oh yea, she's a keeper.

I'm tempted to post a poll and start a criminal cop thread.  I'm not a cop hater.  I know people in law enforcement.  I've been given a lift home, a couple times, by my friendly neighborhood police officer.  It's the ones who are weak and power mad who need the light of truth on them. 

[StinkerBell]

Although there are some bad cops. They are asked to do a very difficult job. This guy in the story needs to be fired. But I am sure the union will not allow it. That is the problem imo. The unions have on so many levels created problems in the work force. We have bad teachers and bad cops but the union makes it impossible to rid these good professions of the rotten apples. There are also a lot of bad doctors that need to have their license revoked too. Sigh, I truly believe this is one of this country's big issues, mediocrity.

[Virginia Gent]

If I'm not mistaken, fire trucks and ambulances are the only vehicles allowed to refuse to yield to a police car.

[phalynx]

This was really dumb...  The trooper was off his rocker.  The whole "incident" he was concerned about took 9 seconds from the time he ran up on the ambulance to the time he passed.  During which, a car blocking the ambulance slammed on his brakes and moved over, then the ambulance (probably concerned for the patient) went around the car and then when it safely could, moved over.

There is a 2nd video taken by a different person on the scene that shows how stupid this trooper was.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvEg6bf_I6Y

The 2nd trooper who comes up tp the scene clearly thought the 1st trooper was over-reacting as he kept telling him, "let go of him".

The ambulance supervisor was calm and courtious the entire time until the trooper attempted to rough him up.  At that point, the trooper was outmatched.   The supervisor was a HUGE pile of muscle.

I like law enforcement.  I believe in what they do.  I have many, many law enforcement friends.  But this guy doesn't belong in law enforcement.  He is not up to the standard.

[IronRanger]

I wonder if (what I've bold typed) can be verified?  I haven't found anything "official".

State Trooper Daniel Martin, whose foul-mouthed, petulant assault on paramedic Maurice White, Jr. was recorded and widely disseminated on the Web, "is an Iraq war veteran who returned from the Middle East about a month before the May 24 incident.

...Later, at the hospital, Martin actually said in the presence of witnesses that he was prepared to pull his gun and use lethal force against White.

...This, according to Martin's attorney, is  "a good man.... He's not this ogre, this depriver of people's rights." Ogre he may not be. Petty tyrant with a gun he most certainly is. And both he and his tantrum make the case for two badly needed reforms.

First, assuming that we're stuck with government police agencies, nobody who has served in the military should ever be permitted to work as a civilian police officer. Martin's conduct is typical of a solider in an army of occupation; perhaps he thought that Mr. White, a black man, could be treated like a "Haji."

Second, the states need to restore the legal protection for the common law right to resist unlawful arrest. If an actual criminal resists arrest, this could be taken into account for the purposes of enhancing the sentence for an actual crime against persons or property.

According to Gary James, Trooper Martin's attorney, "One thing that police officers are taught is that a person that will fight a police officer is an extreme danger to the public."

As to which party to this assault (called, in typical fashion, a "fight," "scuffle," or "altercation," rather than by its proper name) is an "extreme danger," the public can watch the video. To use the proper legal expression, res ipsa loquitir.

Mr. White's calm, dignified resistance in the face of Martin's splenetic, adolescent rage was genuinely inspiring. His was the conduct of a citizen, rather than a "submitizen."

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/027574.html

[Windpower]

"State Trooper Daniel Martin, whose foul-mouthed, petulant assault on paramedic Maurice White, Jr. was recorded and widely disseminated on the Web, "is an Iraq war veteran who returned from the Middle East about a month before the May 24 incident."



explains alot

there are going to be a lot of them too

[Jens]

Iraqis aren't black.  I think it is ironic that the black EMP has the last name of White.  Absolutely despicable behavior by this "Trooper".  He ought to be shot in the arm and fired.  The reason we have so much crime in this country, is precisely because the people don't trust the cops.  They don't trust them, because, in truth, many of them are simply trying to hide and catch you, or make something up.  It may be the exception, but bad press has always sold better than good press. 

Learned something interesting recently...in Israel, the cops always have their lights on.  They want you to know they are there, so that you won't do something illegal.  Sounds like a better way to me.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

LOL, Jens, not so sure about the lights always on being such a good idea.  In South Korea, they do that too, but no one really pays any attentions to them.  The majority of cops there don't even carry a firearm, let alone a taser; they may have a club, but not sure.  Their lights are always going, but with the cutesy cars and uniforms, it is hard to take them seriously. 

[glenn kangiser]

The lights are on but nobody's home, eh?, Homey.

[IronRanger]

Just toying around or sadistic?   

Waffle House waiter sues over Taser incident

A Waffle House employee is suing the Gwinnett County Police Department over what he says was an unprovoked encounter with an officer who stunned him with a Taser.

The department's internal investigation records reveal that the officer used the weapon like a toy with tacit approval from two superior officers.

Daniel Wilson, the 22-year-old waiter, spoke publicly about the encounter Wednesday at his attorney's office in Snellville. The incident has already resulted in the arrest of Cpl. Gary Miles, 33, and the resignations of Sgt. Christopher Parry and Sgt. Joey Parkerson. None of the officers could be reached for comment this week because their phone numbers are unlisted.

Wilson said all three officers were regular customers at the Waffle House at 2725 Grayson Highway in Loganville.

He said the restaurant provided police with free food.

Wilson said the officers often pointed the red laser from their Taser at him playfully. They would do so when Wilson picked a song they didn't like on the jukebox or when telling him not to mess up their order, Wilson said.

"It was uncomfortable, but they are my customers and they tip pretty well," Wilson said. "I just thought they were being foolish."

Then on Feb. 16, Wilson was chatting with Parry and Parkerson when Miles sidled up behind him. Without saying a word, Miles zapped him with the Taser, Wilson said.

"I remember feeling the pulse go through my body," Wilson said. "It hurt."

Taser stun guns deliver a 50,000-volt electrical current capable of incapacitating a person. The weapon can fire barbed probes a distance of up to 35 feet, or it can be used in "drive stun mode" when pressed directly against a suspect. Gwinnett police checked the data recording from Miles' Taser and found it was fired for one second at 2:48 a.m. on Feb. 16.

Miles told investigators that he only "spark tested" the Taser near the employee's back "just to scare him a little bit," according to the internal investigation file.

Parry, 41, and Parkerson, 39, witnessed the employee being shocked but did not report it. They laughed along with Miles, Wilson said. The sergeants later told investigators they didn't realize the Taser made contact with Wilson's body.

Wilson said he remembers telling Miles in the presence of the other officers, "Hey, you actually tased me."

Wilson again sought an apology from Miles a few days later for accidentally stunning him. He said Miles replied, "Who says I did it by accident?"

Miles was arrested June 18 on charges of misdemeanor battery and violating his oath as an officer. Parry and Parkerson resigned in lieu of termination June 19. Police are also investigating allegations that a fourth officer pointed a Taser at Wilson's groin during an earlier incident.

Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said he has not ruled out the possibility of charging the two sergeants.

"If the evidence shows there was an unprovoked use of the Taser, and if the evidence shows the sergeants had some criminal responsibility in the case, then they can expect to be prosecuted vigorously," Porter said.

Michael Puglise, who is representing Wilson in the lawsuit in Gwinnett County State Court, is seeking unspecified punitive damages. He also wants a judge to bar Gwinnett police from carrying Tasers until their policy and training is evaluated.

"What is so concerning to me is the fact that you have a corporal â€" a ranking officer â€" zapping a kid with a stun gun and you have two sergeants sitting there watching for their own amusement," Puglise said. "From their expressions and their actions, it is obvious that this is accepted."

Gwinnett's Police Department has had stun guns longer than any other force from the Atlanta area's largest counties. Currently, 222 of Gwinnett's 715 sworn officers are certified to carry Tasers, said Cpl. Illana Spellman, a department spokeswoman.

Spellman said using a Taser on innocent civilians is not acceptable. It is also against department policy for officers to accept free food from restaurants.

"It is clearly stated in training that the Taser will only be used to defend the officer or someone else," Spellman said. "[These officers] were completely wrong."

Police departments across the state have adopted widely different policies about the use of stun guns. Recently, the director of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police said the state needs to offer standardized training.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2009/07/02/taser_waffle_house.html

[harry51]

They sound like a bunch of common bullies to me. Their deportment clearly falls disappointingly short of what we can rightfully expect and demand from peace officers, and they deserve prosecution.

[glenn kangiser]

Police State - The Militarization of the Police Force in USA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k5y3fBH9Og

[IronRanger]

The mindset that's drilled in the military is target and kill.  The law enforcement mindset is arrest and detain.  The melding of the two was inevitable with the inception of SWAT.  I don't think a soldier who's been to war belongs in law enforcement.   

Hooded men and no name or ID #?  Who are they accountable to? 

I figure I'll throw this in here too:  Did anyone NOT celebrate the 4th of July?  I stopped after the "Patriot" Act was passed. 

[glenn kangiser]

I did the same as you.  The country we would celebrate it for is no longer here.  I worked on the place - better than pretending our country is not being stolen and our Freedom destroyed.

[IronRanger]

I did the same as you.  The country we would celebrate it for is no longer here.  I worked on the place - better than pretending our country is not being stolen and our Freedom destroyed.

Yup, that's how I see it too.  Pretending. 

I'm slowly getting through to a couple people.  It's taken years of conspiracy programming  convincing, but soon they'll believe.

[Windpower]

That's what we did

went to the farm and worked

didn't even watch the fireworks this year

we can see them in town but this year for some reason they set them off on Sunday 

didn't really miss them.....

[glenn kangiser]

I didn't see one fireworks, although if I just went up on the hill I can see them in at least 13 cities in the valley as we counted a few years ago.

If I want to hear a loud bang now I just go shoot something.  Gotta stay in practice.

[IronRanger]

"Store Video Catches Cop Bullying Woman"

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20090720_Store_video_catches_cop_bullying_woman.html?viewAll=y

WHEN AGNES LAWLESS and three friends were inside a Lukoil convenience store in the Northeast at 3 a.m. last August, they'd all but forgotten the fender-bender in which they'd been involved moments earlier.

There was little damage, and the other driver had left the scene, near Northeast Philadelphia Airport.

What they didn't know was that they'd been rear-ended by the son of a police officer who was on duty, and dad was about to get involved.

Lawless was standing at the counter of the store, at Comly Road and Roosevelt Boulevard, smiling and chatting with the clerk, when she was grabbed from behind and violently pushed back with a police officer's gun in her face.

"He hit me with his left hand, and he had his gun in his right hand," Lawless said. "He pushed his gun into the left side of my neck. It caused a scrape-type bruise on my neck."

After a chaotic struggle, Lawless was arrested and charged with assaulting the officer.

Lawless and her three friends, all in their early 20s, filed complaints with the Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau. But in cases in which it's a defendant's word against a police officer's, the benefit of doubt often falls to the cop.

Except when there's video.

Once surveillance video from the store's four security cameras was released, the case against Lawless collapsed, and disciplinary action commenced against the officer, Alberto Lopez Sr. A lawsuit against the city is likely.

The incident provides a vivid example of how the countless video recordings generated today by security cameras and cell phones are affecting police work.

Drexel Law School professor Donald Tibbs said that video recordings are capturing more criminal activity and assisting prosecutions, but they're also monitoring police conduct.

"Police are now aware they're more accountable for their actions, because these tapes may be used against them in misconduct cases or civil-rights lawsuits," Tibbs said.

And Tibbs said that there are numerous cases of police seeking to confiscate and destroy tapes that may have captured a police action.


Internal Affairs probe



The clerk on duty the night that Lopez confronted Lawless told investigators that three times after the incident, police officers spoke with him about the security tape and that two asked if he would erase it.

An Internal Affairs investigation found no misconduct among officers who spoke with the clerk about the tape. But it concluded that Lopez had verbally abused Lawless, had jammed his gun into her face and had violated departmental procedures that night.

A hearing to determine what discipline, if any, will be imposed on Lopez is still pending.

Lopez's attorney, Gerald Stanshine, declined to comment and said that Lopez couldn't discuss the incident. Lopez's son, Alberto Lopez Jr., didn't respond to messages seeking comment.

Although some details of what happened are in dispute, it's clear that the Lukoil encounter occurred a few minutes after the blue Mazda in which Lawless was riding was rear-ended at Decatur and Comly roads by a Buick Century driven at slow speed by Lopez Jr.

Lopez Jr. left the scene and drove to the Eighth District police station, at Academy and Red Lion roads, to report the incident to his father. Officer Lopez and his son then left in his patrol car and soon saw the blue Mazda in the Lukoil parking lot.

Officer Lopez entered the store with his son and got into a physical confrontation with Lawless. Lawless ended up in cuffs, charged with assaulting Lopez.

At a preliminary hearing four days later, Officer Lopez testified that he'd come into the store and ordered Lawless and the three young men with her to the floor, and that "she freaked out, started punching, slapping and kicking me multiple times."

Based on the officer's testimony, Judge Robert Blasi ordered that the case proceed to trial.

But four days later, investigators from Internal Affairs got the store's surveillance video of the incident, and things changed quickly.

Lopez was assigned to desk duty and his weapon was removed. He failed to show up at three trial dates for Lawless' assault charges, which then were dropped. Images from four security cameras at the store reveal an encounter consistent with the accounts of Lawless, her three friends and Carlos "Tito" Ruiz, the clerk on duty at the time.

There is no audio, and the video is not continuous, capturing images at intervals ranging from three per second to one every few seconds.

The images show that when Officer Lopez entered the store, Lawless was at the counter, smiling and apparently unaware of his presence behind her.

Lopez grabbed Lawless' neck from behind with his left hand, with his gun in his right hand. Lawless broke free and faced him.

"I was really confused," Lawless said in an interview. "I didn't know if we were getting robbed. I remember seeing his uniform on his arm, he swung me around and hit me with his arm. He hit me first with an open hand, then he hit me with his gun in the face."

The video shows Lopez's left arm extending toward Lawless' face, and then his right arm driving forcefully toward her, jamming the gun in her neck or jaw.

Lawless broke free again, and for several seconds the video shows the three young men sitting on the floor, while arguing occurs among all four and Officer Lopez and his son.

"I had noticed his son as the guy who had hit us," Lawless said, "and [Officer Lopez] was screaming, 'You think you can hit my son and get away with it, you think you can f--- with me?' "

The store clerk reported hearing similar comments from Officer Lopez.

Lawless said that she and her friends were yelling back that it was Lopez Jr. who had hit their car and left.


'I was really scared'



About a minute after the gun was in her neck, the video shows Officer Lopez on his cell phone, apparently calling for more police, when Lawless grabbed her bag and tried to walk out of the store.

"I remember stopping for a second, and thinking, like, 'This is out of control, I need to go get a real cop or something,' " Lawless said. "I was really scared."

Lopez Jr. intercepted Lawless and pushed her backward over the counter, with his right hand on her neck. Officer Lopez joined in and struggled with Lawless, who swung her arms at the two of them.

At that point, Lawless' friend Matthew Whatley came over and got between them, as did Ruiz, the store clerk. According to his statement to investigators, Ruiz managed to get Lawless and her friends to lie on the floor and wait for more police to arrive.

Then, according to the Internal Affairs report of Ruiz's statement, Officer Lopez told him to "do himself a favor and get rid of the camera tapes."

More officers soon arrived, and Lawless was cuffed and arrested. Her three friends were questioned and allowed to leave.

In his arrest report, Officer Lopez mentioned the auto accident that had initiated the events, but never mentioned that his son had been involved, referring to him in the report only as "the witness."

Ruiz told investigators that Lopez mentioned erasing the tape again after other officers arrived. He said that police visited him at the store twice the next day and asked him whether he would erase the tape. He also said that they had advised him to "help the cop out and testify for the cop."

Eventually, Lukoil turned the tapes over to Internal Affairs and to Whatley's family.

Although Officer Lopez and his son declined to discuss the incident with the Daily News, transcripts of their interviews with an Internal Affairs investigator provide their account of the events that night.

Lopez Jr. said that after the accident, the occupants of the blue Mazda got out of the car and began shouting, cursing and kicking his car.

He said that he left and drove to the Eighth District station, where he described the events to Officer William Forster in the operations room.

Forster put out a "flash" description on police radio of the car and its occupants. Forster told Internal Affairs that when Lopez Jr. described the incident, he never mentioned the possibility that any of the car's occupants might be armed.

But in his statement to Internal Affairs later, Lopez Jr. said that in the shouting at the accident scene, one of the occupants of the Mazda, a Hispanic male, "was reaching under his shirt and he was saying, 'Get him the f--- out of the car; I got something for him.' "

Ruiz, the Lukoil clerk, told investigators that after officers arrived following the altercation in the convenience store, he heard Officer Lopez give his son some instructions in Spanish, including, " 'Say he had a gun.' "

Lopez Sr. and Jr. both denied that, saying that the younger Lopez speaks almost no Spanish. Officer Lopez told investigators that his son had said from the beginning that a Hispanic man from the Mazda "lifted up his shirt and made a motion as if he had a gun."

The Internal Affairs report noted, however, that Officer Lopez's conduct inside the Lukoil store seemed inconsistent with a suspicion that he might be confronting armed suspects.

The video showed that he never frisked any of the young men, and at times left them unattended on the floor of the store while he went outside. When asked by Internal Affairs why he had allowed his son into the store if he thought someone had a gun and he was going to take police action, Lopez said: "I didn't even think about it. It happened so fast. It was bad judgment."

Ironically, Lopez Jr. had a .22-caliber Magnum revolver in his waistband during the accident and throughout the confrontation in the Lukoil, according to his statement to Internal Affairs. He had a permit to carry the weapon, he said in the statement.

The driver of the Mazda, Stephen Soda, also had a handgun in his glove compartment along with his carry permit, according to police. Police reviewed the permit and released Soda without charges. Neither weapon was drawn in the incident.

Officer Lopez said that before he grabbed Lawless in the store, he'd ordered her and her friends to the floor several times, and that the three men had complied.

But the video shows that Lopez grabbed Lawless' neck no more than five seconds after he entered the store, and that all three men were still standing.

He said that he had his gun in his hand with his finger outside the trigger, and "used three fingers of my gun hand and gripped her shirt to try to get her to the floor because she was still swinging at me."

The video doesn't show Lawless swinging at Lopez then. She does appear to swing at Lopez and his son later, after they stopped her from leaving the store, and Lopez Jr. appeared to push her back over the store counter by her neck.

Officer Lopez said that Lawless "told me I was a Mexican, I was here illegally, and that I should go back to Mexico." Lopez Jr. said she was "calling my father a f---ing s--c, a Mexican."

Lawless acknowledged in an interview that in her fury she "got racial."

Lawless wasn't seriously injured in the incident, but she said she had pain in her neck, back and jaw.


A night in jail



She spent the night in a jail cell, where she counted 23 mice and saw feces on the walls, she said.

"Somebody had probably had s--- on their hands and smudged it all over the wall," she said. "In the morning I threw up. It smelled so bad."

She said that she was emotionally traumatized for months, and afraid of the police. She moved to Florida earlier this year.

The District Attorney's Office reviewed the case and declined to prosecute Officer Lopez in December. Eight days later, he was reissued his weapon and returned to full duty.

But he may yet face discipline from the Police Department.

The Internal Affairs report concluded that Lopez had verbally abused Lawless and that he had pushed his gun into her neck.

Investigators did not sustain a charge of physical abuse based on Lawless' reported injuries. The report cited a lack of visible signs of injury on her arrest photograph, and said a "very minor scratch/abrasion to her left chin area . . . may have occurred at any point during Ms. Lawless' resistance to P/O Lopez's attempts to restrain Ms. Lawless or during her physical confrontation with Alberto Lopez Jr. when she tried to flee the store."

The report noted that Lawless was treated for bruises and abrasions at Frankford Hospital-Torresdale (now Aria Health's Torresdale Campus), two days after the incident, but that efforts to secure further medical records from her attorney had been unsuccessful.

The Internal Affairs report concluded that Lopez had committed "departmental violations," and it expressed skepticism about the claim that one of the four occupants of the Mazda appeared to have had a gun.

The report also noted that "by taking his son inside the Lukoil to confront the complainants, P/O Lopez made a dangerous situation even more volatile because of his close relationship with the alleged victim of the earlier attack."

Lawless' attorney, Alan Yatvin, said that he was exploring a civil suit on her behalf.

"I'm troubled by the conduct of the officer, about his telling a story that lacks credibility, and about the fact he thought he could get away with it," Yatvin said.

He said it's also troubling that so many officers apparently sought to dispose of the video, the key evidence in the case, and suffered no consequence after Internal Affairs investigated.

At the end of his interview with Internal Affairs, Lopez was asked if he would like to add anything that would assist the investigation.

"I would like to have used better judgment that night," the officer said.

[Squirl]

Philadelphia is becoming known as one of the most corrupt police forces in the nation.  There have been literally dozens of articles of corruption this year alone.  Many of them have been caught on tape. Three defendants were acquitted of a shooting and attempted murder when on a news camera police were caught pulling them out of the car and nearly beating them to death when they were unarmed. Shake downs of immigrant store owners and the list goes on and on. There is currently a federal grand jury probe into corruption in the Philadelphia Police Department.  I hope that woman gets every penny.  They refuse to install camera's in Philadelphia patrol cars.