Cops Winning Friends And Influencing People
BY Herschel Smith
11 years, 2 months ago
Here is the setup to understand the upcoming video.
The man, 40-year-old Aaron Tatkowski, said he had just come home when he saw Hart pulling over the woman — his daughter-in-law — and he didn’t like how he was talking to her.
“He hollered for me to get back in my truck, so I got back in my truck,” Tatkowski told CBS affiliate WTOL. “Next thing you know, I’m yanked out of the truck and it made my girlfriend say a few things. He yanked her out of the truck.”
Tatkowski claims he was trying to comply with Hart, but was worried because his two granddaughters were still sitting in the backseat.
Tatkowski said Hart forced him, his girlfriend and his son to the ground, which is where the cellphone camera video — shot by a witness — begins.
The Toledo Blade also has coverage. We don’t have video of the complete event, and it would be good to see the run-up to this “footage.”
But even in the absence of more video, several observations may be made. First, something went horribly wrong for an officer to be pointing a weapon of any kind at people who are laying on the ground and obviously not a threat to him. The escalation appears to have been the officer’s fault.
Second, the officer doesn’t appear to be in the best shape. I’d like to see him with his hands zip tied behind his back, lying prone, and be told to get up. I doubt that he could do it.
Third, I cannot see any reason at all the officer should have taken the cell phone from the caller and thrown it down. I’m not sure what the caller was talking about (officer in distress?), but the phone call appears innocent enough. At a minimum, the officer should be charged with theft and vandalism. It wasn’t his phone to destroy.
Finally, in addition to the unfortunate and irresponsible militarization of police tactics in America, it occurs to me that the problems run even deeper with police forces. For one thing, they apparently aren’t teaching officers well enough in Police Academies.
It also seems that there is a temper problem with many officers. Hot heads don’t belong on the police force – the police need educated men and women, knowledgeable of the law and Supreme Court decisions like Tennessee Versus Garner, and who know how to deescalate sensitive situations. Obviously, this event is a complete fail on every level.
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On September 20, 2013 at 7:27 am, Mark Matis said:
This goes on every day across this entire country. The only ones you find out about are those few who RECORD the crimes and DARE to post it where others can see. And the times when thugs like this suffer ANY consequences, either directly through the “Legal” system or indirectly through their Brothers in Blue refusing to work with them are so few and far between as to be nonexistent. There is only one way “Law Enforcement” will be brought back under control. Yet I keep hearing that same scream:
“NO FORT SUMTERS!!! LET THEM START IT!!!”
as if they have not already done so a thousand times over.
On September 20, 2013 at 8:07 am, Paul B said:
I am of two minds about police. In my town we have a pretty good force. I don’t know of any that would be in the mind set we see in the video. However if you get into larger towns you start to see some bad actors getting into the police.
The police should be sheep dogs with most of the wolf out of them. In some of the bigger departments a few of the wolves make it through the selection process.
We need to have more citizen involvement with police as that well tend to humanize who they are protecting. It is easy to get a us versus them mentality when the only two classes of people you interact with are cops and perps. Everyone becomes a perp to them and that is the way things like what we see in the video happen.
I would hypothesize the cop in the video leans more towards lamb than sheep dog as the lambs are easily frightened.
YMMV
On September 20, 2013 at 2:47 pm, GoneWithTheWind said:
While I certainly think this should be reviewed and maybe even decided by a court following a law suit, I think it is obvious that the whole incident has been made worse by the drama of the woman who is yelling at the top of her lungs and intentionally creating a major problem.
On September 20, 2013 at 3:21 pm, Herschel Smith said:
Wow. So I’m wondering after that comment whether I as a regular citizen (instead of one of “the only ones”) can unholster my firearm and point it at people who are yelling in public? And I’m also wondering if I can beat up people who don’t do what I want?
To me, the only thing that’s obvious is that the officer is a moronic hot-head. But perspective is everything.
On September 20, 2013 at 7:26 pm, Mark Matis said:
For a snapshot of this country’s “finest” at their finest, this is a good place to start:
http://www.policemisconduct.net/
with this providing worthwhile insight as well:
http://photographyisnotacrime.com/
Those sites, of course, do not come anywhere NEAR identifying all the crimes committed by “Law Enforcement”. Instead, they merely highlight what THEY can publicly get hold of. Recognize that “Law Enforcement” does its best to keep charges and complaints against Only Ones from ever seeing the light of day. As an example I give you that fine Chicago officer who beat the barmaid, and then had four of his Brothers in Blue go to the bar and threaten the barmaid and the owner. Fortunately, piggy WAS convicted for his attack, but his Brothers in Blue were NOT touched.
On September 20, 2013 at 7:46 pm, DAN III said:
When abusive LEOs start feeling the pain (literally) of citizen’s wrath, when they start going to an early grave, then, and only then, will this abuse and disrespect of citizens stop.
On September 23, 2013 at 1:01 pm, bobmark said:
My dad, who was a city councilman for a few years, said your best policeman was a contollable thug. Unfortunately most people won’t hit someone to stop a problem but a few want to hit everyone all of the time. The happy median is hard to achieve.
On September 23, 2013 at 1:08 pm, Herschel Smith said:
I think the best police officer is an educated, respectful, thoughtful, wise, controlled individual with a moderate disposition and a HIGH respect for the constitution and state and local laws and who is loath to harm anyone for any reason.
Guess it’s all a matter of values.