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| Officer Lebron with meLVin,shortly before giving him a dynamic push. |
Was this force necessary? I have no idea. There is no audio so it's hard to say. Perez definitely got up and approached the officer who had knocked him down. The officer believed he was being charged although, by that time, another officer had his arms around Perez.
Police are reviewing whether the force used was appropriate. Unlike the Facebook video, their body cams will include video and audio.
Jose Lebron is the officer who shoved and ultimately charged Perez with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. I am unable to say whether Officer Lebron used more force than needed, or whether any force was needed at all. Whether wrong or right, it is hard to make the case that Perez is a victim of ethnic intimidation when the arresting officer appears to be a Latino himself.
I'm in no position to condemn or exonerate the officer. But Make the Road Pa is. It bills itself as an organization "in the fight for immigrant justice here in Pennsylvania." Last night, this group conducted a rally for Perez and then cascaded into a City Hall, where City Council was meeting on just about everything else.
I counted 17 people in the audience, but have no idea how many were there to address the alleged assault.
City Council did its best to make sure that Make the Road would hit the road.
Members were denied the opportunity to speak during a "special meeting" as well as a committee meeting that followed.
Council President Roger MacLean, who seemed irritable all night, did agree to give this group a grand total of 10 minutes to be heard. Two people spoke, and one of them is the person who shot the video.
To them, this is obvious police brutality. To me, it's unclear.
I do know this much. When MacLean refused to let them speak during the actual meeting, and then limited the group to ten minutes, he made clear that he's made up his mind, too. He's not there as police chief, and has an obligation to listen.
(Blogger's note: This story is based on a video of last night's multiple meetings. I stayed in my bunker.)
Ther4e are certainly cases of police brutality but this doesn't seem to be one of them. Read the MC and watched a video. The kid in question admits he ran at the police because he said they parked on his property(his property?). Police were there on a domestic complaint. The kid demanded to know what was going on, they told him to back off. He rushed forward. Then he was restrained and he claims, this is hilarious, that he and the officer should settle with their fists.
ReplyDeleteThe stories these guys are giving the press nowadays gets funnier and funnier. He calmly told a policeman that was there on a disturbance to settle things with his fists ,lol. They took him down.
These faux victim stories are getting old and so is the immediate desire to have a protest and mass meetings. No wonder legitimate complaints are downplayed. Every time one of these clowns loses his cool and wants to fight the police, they claim police brutality. Of course maybe they are super smart and are looking towards the lawsuit payoff.
Agreed, at 12:58
ReplyDeleteLet's be honest....the resident pointed to the right towards the property (away from the cop) and then turned his right palms up (as if to say whats up). That is when he got shoved. He did not move towards the cop before. However, if there was verbal battering and he did invite the cop to a fight, the cop gave enough time for the person to back away. The other cops did not react to this battering. If the citizen was simply questioning or trying to provide a verbal account of the incident, the cop should have listened. If the citizen wanted to fight and asked for the fight...the charges should stand and this case thrown out.
ReplyDeleteWe will wait for the audio and other accounts.
"Let's be honest....the resident pointed to the right towards the property (away from the cop) and then turned his right palms up (as if to say whats up). That is when he got shoved. He did not move towards the cop before"
ReplyDeleteExcuse me, but I am being honest. Are you? First, I din't know how close he was to the officer, although it seems that he was is Officer Lebron's face. Second, when he picked his arm up, it was right in the face of another officer who slapped it down. Third, and this is quite important, we don't know what was being said. Was he taunting the officer while in his face? Just complaining about their language? Inviting the cop to fight him? Was he disobeying a command to stay away? After he was knocked down, it appears that he did come at the officer.
I really don't know what happened. The video by itself does not prove that excessive force was used. There may or may not have been excessive force, and that question is being examined by investigators with access to everyone involved and to the body cams.
What I do know, given the identity of the officer, is that it was no act of ethnic intimidation.
"Police were there on a domestic complaint."
It may have been a bit more serious. According to police, they were there bc someone reported gun, but then the person who made the report refused to cooperate.
" If the citizen was simply questioning or trying to provide a verbal account of the incident, the cop should have listened. If the citizen wanted to fight and asked for the fight...the charges should stand and this case thrown out."
Agreed.
The kid acted like an ass confronting the police. They told him to back up, they are doing an investigation and owe him nothing. They weren't arresting him. He inserts himself, got pissed and wanted to fight with the cop. Yeah, that is real sympathetic. I hope the guy goes to jail.
ReplyDeleteTypical faux victim crap from Bernie O'Hare. Nothing more, nothing less. Sincerely surprised that Donald Trump was not found to be the cause of this problem, too.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what the hell you are talking about. I said I am waiting for the investigation.
ReplyDelete