Monday, March 29, 2021

 this was titled: cops behaving badly, and i can't think of a better thing to call it, though i can think of things i would but prefer to maintain a bit of decorum;


A lawsuit filed by a 74-year-old Seattle man who was held at gunpoint and painfully handcuffed by police in his own home claims the department has a “policy, practice and custom” of using “welfare checks” to enter people’s homes without warrants.

To illustrate the allegations, the man’s attorneys posted a YouTube video that meshes Seattle police dispatch tapes, Computer-Assisted Dispatch entries and body-camera video to highlight the ordeal of Howard McCay, a retired computer programmer, longshoreman and homeowner who woke from a nap one February evening in 2019 to find a cadre of armed officers in his house.

The officers, including one armed with an assault-style patrol rifle equipped with a flashlight, ordered a dazed McCay out of his bedroom with his hands up, holding a cellphone connected to 911 dispatch, which McCay had called to report intruders. When he exited the bedroom — where he had been sleeping with the television turned up — the officers ordered him to drop the phone, turn around and lift his shirt to show he wasn’t hiding a weapon, then had him kneel with his hands on his head.

The video shows McCay cooperating as officers point handguns at him. “What did I do?” he asked at one point.

“The officers did not explain why there were in the house, nor did they seek to verify Mr. McCay’s name, residence or purpose in the home,” wrote Seattle lawyer Joseph Shaeffer in a lawsuit filed last year in U.S. District Court.

[ … ]

McCay, who in an interview Tuesday said he suffered a shoulder injury while working as a longshoreman in 1999, said that when the officers tried to rotate his arms behind his back to cuff him the pain became “excruciating.” Body camera video from several officers at the scene shows McCay writhing on the ground.

“Please! I’m an old man! I have shoulder problems!” McCay yelped as two officers held him down and attempted to cuff him — at that point, there were four officers in the home. Within the next few minutes, according to the lawsuit, there would be 10. An officer, identified in the lawsuit as Joshua Brilla, replied, “Well thank you for telling us, but you gotta give us a second here … We’re not going to leave you alone.”

The really amazing thing here is that police nation-wide expect to be considered heroes of the community, with people caring whether they go home safely at the end of their shift.

And then they act like this, as if the destruction of their reputation could stand more work.  What’s really needed here is for the officers who were involved in this to be stripped naked, frog marched into the town square, and put in stocks for people to look at.

Mothers everywhere: “See children, behave badly and this happens to you.  Make sure you don’t do things like they did.  They’re bad men.”...........https://www.captainsjournal.com/2021/03/28/cops-behaving-badly-2/

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