Local Government TV

Sunday, July 12, 2020

APD To Produce Videos Showing Whether Officer Used Excessive Force

Seven weeks ago, George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer who placed his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes. The officer has been charged with murder, and the outrage by people of all colors marks a significant departure from previous examples of police brutality against minorities. Did a police officer do this in Allentown on Saturday night? A 23-second video, broadcast on CBS-3 and other news outlets, suggests an officer may very well have done this, but for a much briefer period of time.

The mob outrage was immediate, but there was no violence. This is likely because Chief Glenn Granitz and Mayor Ray O'Connell both greeted the protesters and listened to them.

Tonight, Allentown police issued this statement:
Officers with the Allentown Police Department were at the Emergency Room Department outside Saint Luke's Hospital – Sacred Heart Campus in the 400 block of W. Chew Street on Saturday, July 11 at approximately 6:42 p.m. While at this location due to an unrelated matter, APD Officers observed a male outside who was vomiting and staggering in the street, eventually stopping in the driveway of the Emergency Room.

The observed erratic behavior resulted in the officers and hospital staff interacting with the individual. The individual began to yell, scream and spit at the officers and hospital staff. As the officers attempted to restrain the individual, all parties fell to the ground. The individual continued to be noncompliant which required officers to restrain the individual and the hospital applied a spit shield.

The male in question was escorted into the hospital for treatment. The male was treated and later released.

The investigation into this matter will be reviewed by the Lehigh County District Attorney and an internal investigation of the use of force is being conducted by the Allentown Police Department. The Lehigh County District Attorney will issue a statement when his review is complete, which is not anticipated until late this week. The District Attorney has assigned two county detectives to the investigation.

The investigation into this incident is moving swiftly. Part of the investigation has included the review of a 23 second video posted to social media. Although significant, the entirety of the interaction is being reviewed. Witnesses are being interviewed and additional videos of the interaction are being reviewed. We plan on releasing relevant videos later this week as we complete this inquiry.
Bloggers Michael Molovinsky and LVCI have weighed in on what has happened. Both note, and correctly, that mobs do a particularly lousy job of dispensing justice, unless you like lynchings.

I am appalled by Allentown City Council member Joshua Siegel, who refers to himself on Twitter as a "visionary" who wants to make Allentown a "laboratory for democracy." In his quest to become Mayor, he has apparently foprgetten about a little thing called due process.

5 comments:

  1. I read the ones videotaping went around the block to see the arrest after the first view of it. So how long are police suppose to take to subdue a subject? 3 trips around the block? Four? 10? is there a limit? How about a felony for active resistance?

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  2. BURN IT DOWN if they don't get what they want, very interesting statement in itself. This just may have been a design that has been going on for a long time locally and has become a national rage for the nude team of social justice teams vying for some sort of free hand out of compensation.

    Allentowns police have become militarized in a police state run by destructionist of the Pennsylvania economy as well as cause homelessness of many in the near future. At the Wal-Mart in tracked down today a fine young looking family with two small children father holding a sign that said, family struggling i have lost my job!

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  3. I am not a police officer nor do i play one on tv

    But if a subject is vomiting or appears likely to vomit keeping the subject prone is safest from the perspective of aspirating vomit.

    As with any instance/allegation the totality of information needs to be reviewed. Perhaps briefly restraining a suspect in this manner prevented aspiration pneumonia but ironically could lead to inquiry /prosecution of the officer.

    Hopefully a full review will have access to all available information and determine what happened and take what ever corrective actions IOC any are deemed needed.

    Regardless, I feel there willl be reluctance in future for persons including police to intervene. Wouldn’t it be sad if a person developed and died from aspiration pneumonia because the police fail to adequately restrain resisting subject in a prone manner?

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  4. When my kids were toddlers, that's how I handled their vomiting. Tossed them on the floor and held them there with a knee on their necks.

    No aspiration pneumonia ever - of course, the kids never visit me now. I wonder why?

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  5. Was he tested for Covid-19 and could vomiting and staggering be a symptom?

    The restraint of the head appeared to be done by wrapping the medial collateral ligament area of the knee and upper tibia over the head, ear, and jaw without the ability to apply full body weight, at no time in this video does it appear that undue pressure was on the neck as a result the male was unharmed and treated for his illness and later released.

    Both in timing and technique this is an example of how to properly use the knee to restrain the head, if only George Floyd had been arrested by the Allentown Police and restrain by these officers we could have avoided the destruction caused by months of Biden rallies and riots.

    ReplyDelete

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