• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Another police beating caught on tape

I had to contest a speeding ticket the other day and I was going to cite all these instances of police using excessive force, not being 100% truthful, etc as a basis for my defense. My point was to ask the officer how he clocks speed and if there is any chance that the speed on his device was reading from a prior stop. A cop's word should no longer carry more weight than an average citizen when more and more officers have been accused of wrong doing. My defense would have been that an officer claiming that someone is speeding needs to be backed up with more than just his word.


As far as this case is concerned, I hope ALL officers involved are convicted.
 
mpw said:
I too recently contested a speeding charge.
The officer 'couldn't' show me the reading on the speed gun at the stop because she 'accidentally' hit clear; I showed in court that the distance involved would not allow my car to get to the alleged speed; and I showed that the officer did not understand how her speed gun worked.

The judge ruled that because my evidence related to the speed/performance of my car, I would need an engineer from Ford Motor Company in court to confirm their published figures, and that there was no reason for the officer to lie: therefore she found me guilty; the judge literally found me guilty of breaking the laws of physics!!

The police, as individuals, are given way too much respect.
Click to expand...

My ticket was dismissed due to Dallas County's incompetence. If you can, it's best to ask for a trial by jury as you'd have better luck convincing strangers of your innocence. I find a judge will mostly side with law enforcement as they are practically co-workers. The prosecutor for my ticket didn't even get started until 1 hour AFTER court was scheduled so she dismissed a.bunch of tickets. She told me that the officer clocked me FASTER than the ticket but wrote 80 MPH to "cut me a break". She actually lectured me about it. I came close to telling her, "you may consider not lecturing people about speeding, as slowly as you're running this operation, you could benefit from a little extra speed.". But since she dismissed my ticket, I kept my mouth shut.


An officer's word is definitely given more weight than it's worth. They have proved time and time again that just like anything else associated with man, there is always a possibility of error, corruption, and mis-stepping.
 
The legal logic is that you, as the defendant, have every motivation to lie through your ass. The officer shouldn't care one way or the other if you get convicted or not so he's not motivated to lie. That's the theory behind it though.

I was appalled recently when it was revealed that the city had actually tagged some streets with the wrong speed limit sign. The speed limit in the area that's written on the books is 55 mph. The sign says 45 mph. It came to light when a guy got tagged for going 59 mph in the zone and thought he should've got a warning. He dug out the law books and found the discrepancy. The media got a hold of it and did more research and found that the city had racked up $60k in fines in that area in the past several years and many of them for going less than 55 mph. So they were ticketing people for speeding who were going less than the legal limit. The city's solution was to change the sign to reflect the proper speed limit, dismiss the ticket for the guy who was going 59 mph and tell everyone who had paid those $60k in fines that they were SOL.
 
mpw said:
I too recently contested a speeding charge.
The officer 'couldn't' show me the reading on the speed gun at the stop because she 'accidentally' hit clear; I showed in court that the distance involved would not allow my car to get to the alleged speed; and I showed that the officer did not understand how her speed gun worked.

The judge ruled that because my evidence related to the speed/performance of my car, I would need an engineer from Ford Motor Company in court to confirm their published figures, and that there was no reason for the officer to lie: therefore she found me guilty; the judge literally found me guilty of breaking the laws of physics!!

The police, as individuals, are given way too much respect.
Click to expand...

The judge is right legally. You need an expert witness to attest the facts are true. Otherwise, as far as the judge is concerned, they're just something you fabricated on your computer the night before. Unless you happen to be an engineer who designs cars, you're SOL.
 
OutofDate1980 said:
The government is not bound to provide an expert witness to attest to it's facts. Nice setup, guilty until proven innocent, funding to prove innocence born by the accused.
Click to expand...

A police officer is generally considered to be an expert witness on law enforcement procedures.
 
mpw said:
Even though I showed that she did not understand how the speed gun she was using worked, how she could've recorded a false reading, how she admitted having pressed the clear button before showing me the recorded speed, and how I showed that her colleagues had lied in similar circumstances previously.

Wonder if the murderers in the video above are considered experts in law enforcement restraint procedures when they get to court??
Click to expand...

I don't know how you "showed she didn't know how the speed gun worked". People use things every day that they don't know how they work, but they do know how to operate them competently.

Proving what could've happened doesn't prove what did either. I'm just saying. Someone could've dressed up as John Wilkes Booth, shot Lincoln and disappeared into the night to frame Booth. Doesn't mean it did.

I'm not aware of the law in your state/jurisdiction. I don't know if the officer is required to show you the reading on the radar or not. And just because other officers have lied doesn't mean this one is. It's completely irrelevant.
 
Looks like only 2 are being charged, BS. And they wonder why the general population is not trusting of law enforcement.....
 
Depressing indeed. While Kelly Thomas was likely up to some mischief, beating a mentally ill man to death while he screams for his dad is pretty damn low. In case anyone doesn't know much about the case, Kelly's dad was a retired police officer. You can also find pictures of the damage they did to him on Wikipedia or PINAC. I hope these officers get what they deserve.

One thing I would love to see in the future, is officers convicted of crimes to not get segregation from the main population. If you have committed a crime and you're a LEO, you're now just another criminal. They can take their chances with the snitches and thieves like everyone else.
 
^^^

i do not agree with the part .. about being put with the main population.

that is crossing the line over to torture.

a cop that put a lot of bad criminals be hind bar...
then screw-up with DWI -- i dont think we need to be tortured and death as punishment.
 
dan330 said:
^^^

i do not agree with the part .. about being put with the main population.

that is crossing the line over to torture.

a cop that put a lot of bad criminals be hind bar...
then screw-up with DWI -- i dont think we need to be tortured and death as punishment.
Click to expand...

I would expect a cop to be above getting drunk and driving considering they arrest dozens a month for such a charge. Most would bond out for a minor charge like that and do a few drug and alcohol classes. There's also a good deal of difference between jail and prison. Jail you wait to be sentenced, prison you're there for however you have been sentenced. A cop who has earned a good long prison sentence sounds more like someone that mowed down a pedestrian than you're average boozer. Either way, they know the laws better than we do the majority of the time. I would expect them to be above such things.
 
OutofDate1980 said:
The screw-up was beating a man to death, not DWI.
Click to expand...

i was talking in general policy...

the *****e bag cops that beat that helpless man to death.. deserves the same x 10.


Drhyde said:
I would expect a cop to be above getting drunk and driving considering they arrest dozens a month for such a charge. Most would bond out for a minor charge like that and do a few drug and alcohol classes. There's also a good deal of difference between jail and prison. Jail you wait to be sentenced, prison you're there for however you have been sentenced. A cop who has earned a good long prison sentence sounds more like someone that mowed down a pedestrian than you're average boozer. Either way, they know the laws better than we do the majority of the time. I would expect them to be above such things.
Click to expand...

cops are human.. they make mistakes... bad choices.
a lot of people know better.. but they do anyways for what ever reason at the time.

in general.. cops do good...
and most work hard and help clean up and get rid of bad people.
but make a bad choice and do wrong.. I dont think they should be extra punished for it, because they are cops... by putting them in the general prison population where they can be even more harmed! they are in prison because that is the punishment.

we need good cops...
buy why would good people want to be cops.. if they will be extra punished when they screw up?

NOTE.. the cops that beat that man.. that is not screwing up.. those guys are just evil.
 
Sticking them in the general population seems logical. I mean, let's say I'm a dbag cop. I go around and hey, there's a minority/disabled person I can beat to death and claim self defense. Worst case scenario I get tossed in a special cop prison, not with criminals who would butt@&$&$ me.

Reason enough. Although getting to the prison in the first place would be tough. It would have to be a cover story. Imagine how many incidents like these haven't made it to the media and resulted in the cop getting away with it for being an honest and straight shooting cop.
 
yep thats exactly what the new indiana law will achieve........ the cops will stop acting like thugs ........

sorry maam...... I cant enter your house and stop your husband from beating you..... if he shoots me in the process it will be justified and I just cant take that risk
 
5 year old kid standing in his front yard crying..... cop walks by..... hey kid why are crying?....... my dad is punching my mom in the face....... are they in the window where I can see them........ nope.......... then I have no reasonable suspicion of a crime.... I cannot legally enter teh house without a warrant...... have your mom call in when hes done beating her........ otherwise your dad can shoot me for entering his house illegaly
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom