Mitchell Crooks arrested - who are the "crooks" here ?

Theres 3 sides to every story, there side, your side and the truth. Remember Rodney king in the early 90's. There were riots everywhere because they let the cops go. What a lot of people didn't know was that Rodney led the police on a 15 minute high speed motorcycle chase in the streets of LA. After finding that out the jury had to decide what to do. Did they make the right verdict???? who knows. The point is before we start getting on the whole race thing and having Al Sharpton jump into the picture lets get all the facts first and then let a court of law decide what to do. The last thing we need is people jumping to conclusions. We have to know what the facts are and why this all happened before we form an opinion.

All righ take it easy

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Well, if he had outstanding warrants, why wasn't he picked up before the incident? Particularly ones that are mandated "without bail?" It sounds like a case of "you turned us in, but we found some dirt that we can use to (hopefully) discredit you" if you ask me... though videotape doesn't lie, it can certainly present things a bit out of context.


Let me begin by saying I don't condone any of this type of activity in anyway. I believe the cops were in the wrong. However, with all the outstanding warrants that are out there in ever city all around the country, combined with their never ending duties, there is no way that warrants can be served for every infration. The fact of the matter is, the police have no choice but to wait until someone shows themselves, be it traffic infraction, domestic violence, or video taping of kid being brutalized. This isn't so much a case of you burn us, we'll burn you, as it is a case of you reared your head and now we know where you are. It just so happens that the guy that taped this atrocity is getting his 15 minutes of fame. If he were picked up in a routine traffic stop, noone would ever say a word about him being arrested for those outstanding warrants.

If in fact, this kid did grab the officer's crotch, there is an instinct to defend that. However, being a Marine with sufficient training in self-defense, I can also say that the instinct to defend MUST be trained, with reason and a thought process, in people that have positions of authority. Maybe we as a society need to evaluate the training we are supplying our police officers and other members of the civil peace keepering community. Maybe we need to realize that we are not teaching them how to control the power they are given. Then again, that would cost more money and to do that, we won't have the money to hear the gentlemen's case that wants to complteley restructure our government by taking the work God out of a couple documents. It's a long unending circle of reasons as to why problems will never get fixed. Maybe people just need to be a little more thick skinned and not so apt to criticize or canabalize someone else's actions. Especially when they don't have the gaul to be in their shoes. Everyone in this country always wants to complain about what's wrong with this country. Look around you, everyone, this is the best country in the world. Why not start to focus on the things that are right. The things that make us stand out in the world as the most advanced land of people in the world. Just food for though.

its not like someone made the man choose that profession... just because your a cop doesn't make you a hero!!! the cop was wrong. what was the cops reason for approching these individuals the kid and his father were at the wrong place at the wrong time?

as far a dressing and looking a certain way, why not make all citizens wear uniforms like germany circa 1932 then maybe we'll feel safe? not! they will still find someway to harrass minorities!!!

ftp

ok guys...

another personal story here that happened a couple years ago. My girlfriend (wife now) was living in another city a couple hours away from me. she calls me up one night and tells me that she was beat up by a cop! I couldnt believe it, but I raced up to her house at like 1am in the morning, and she had a fat lip, a huge black eye and some scrapes and cuts. Apparently what happened was, she was staying at her brothers house and couldnt sleep cause her brother was doing some improvements on the house, so she decides to drive over to her moms house which is right down the street. This was about 10pm at night. While she was driving through a residential area, she noticed that someone had thrown something at her car (rock or something). She stopped the car (1st mistake), got out (second mistake), and asked a guy who was sitting in his garage if he had thrown something at her car. The guy leaped out of his chair and ran over to her and got right in her face and was yelling that she shouldnt have been speeding through the neighborhood. She tried to back away from the guy and put her hands out to create some distance, thats when the guy socked her in the face. She started screaming, so he threw her to the ground, pepper sprayed her, and twisted her arm behind her back (I am shaking as I write this, and this was years ago...)

Apparently this guy was an off duty highway patrol officer, and when his "buddies" arrived, my wife was handcuffed and put in the back of the car and had to give a statement. She was charged with assulting an officer!!! She had to go to court and everything, and was actually found guilty. I could not convince her to press charges on the bastard - she was so traumatized that she just wanted it to be over. Have you ever held your significant other while they are shaking uncontrollably while they are sleeping. I have killed this guy a thousand times, a thousand different ways in my head. My wife never told me where he lives or what he looks like (prolly a good thing she hasnt).

So for the most part, I think cops are power tripper, egotistical *******s. The sad part is that there are a few good cops out there, but I can guarantee you that more people have had bad experiences with cops than good ones. I wish that cops would look on the side of their squad cars from time to time and remember that they are here to "protect and serve" us.

Sorry for the rant...

Let me summarize what happened here as far as it can be seen:

The cops had a struggle with a mildly retarded child. They succeeded in handcuffing him, using whatever force was neccesary, which is what their job calls for. As far as I can see, they also succeeding in shackling him. Then 3-4 GROWN MEN slammed this child into the back of the car, and while two were holding him, one sucker punched him in the face. How is there a question that this is police brutality and child abuse? You do what you have to do to get a suspect restrained. Fine, I have no problem with that, because an officer's safety is the most important thing in a situation like that. But after the struggle is over, you have clearly won the struggle, the suspect is already beaten into submission,and then you slam him into a car, and punch him in the face....Not my kid. I wouldn't stop until I had the testicles this kid supposedly grabbed hanging from my rearview mirror.

Now let me go onto the testicle grabbing. This was supposed to have happened while they had this kid handcuffed and were slinging him around like a stuffed animal. I've never been handcuffed, so I don't speak from experience. But I'm guessing your range of movement is slightly restricted. And your hands are behind your back. Not the easiest way to reach anything. Seems to me if there was some "testicle touching" there's a pretty dang good chance it was accidental. In any case, an officer of the law has some responsibility to handle himself in a disciplined, civil manner. I don't see any discipline or civility in what I have seen.

To me, it doesn't matter what happened before the handcuffing. Once you have a suspect in handcuffs, the confrontation should be over, especially between a child and adults. When you have someone in restraints and you punch them in the face while others hold him, it's police brutality.

Deb

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by mrcoffee12
i really really hate to bring this up but, do you try and dress like you're in a gang and are you of african-american descent? i no thats horrible stereotyping but just that type of dress and unfortunately usually african-americans are looked down upon by law enforcement because the few that are in gangs and hate the government make the feds all suspicious and disdainful toward all the rest. i bet its 10 times more likely for an african american to get pulled over in the same situation in whitch a middle aged white guy would just get let off with either a ticket or a warning. just another example of how life aint fair and you just gotta deal with it...

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Yea, that is a horrible stereotype...what just because I might look or dress a certain way, that means I just have to get used to it. I gotta get used to being looked upon in a different way just cuz of who I am, even though I may not be doin anything wrong.

And I really dont even know where gangs and gang attire came into the picture at. What do gang members wear t-shirts that say "I'm in a Gang" on the back or somethin, just curious so I won't make the mistake and buy the same thing. Cuz hey they're already looking down on me, I dont want them to have any more reasons. I know you hated bringing it up, but next time if you hate it that much....dont say it.

If you're willing to read this then don't go and give me negs for posting it, I hid it so you had a choice and had some idea that it might be offensive.

You may not like my point of view and im certainly not racist, I have lots of friends that aren't white but it is probably along the same lines of thinking as most cops, so here's a little insight to a few of your problems with the police.

You know what I mean when I say "gang attire". the Cryps and Bloods in LA? well guess what, now they're everywhere and the cops have to deal with them probably in every town or city with more than 50,000 people. You can't wear red or blue in certain parts of town just because if you do they're either gonna kill you or beat the living sh*t out of you if its not their color and what are the cops supposed to do? theres 20,000 gang members and 50 cops in the area, are you going to arrest the ones you can when you can or are you just gonna let them continue to run around doing whatever they want in the lower class parts of town. And if you're young, not caucasian, and wear bandanas with your pants down somewhere just above your knees you're probably going to be looked down on because people have had problems with people that look like you, it doesn't mean you're a bad person at all but that somebody that dressed the same or had the same look did something they didn't like. The same goes for cops, and the person that was arrested was not a minor so why is everyone calling him a child or saying it was child abuse? You want an example? Washington, D.C. has the worst crime rate in the nation, and guess what, more than 65% of the population in that city is African-American, that doesn't mean that its all African-Americans that are breaking the law, but a good percentage of them are, that gives every African-American in the nation a bad reputation before anybody even knows you.

I dont have any reason to neg you, cuz its your own opinion and I cant get mad at someone for their opinion. The part I really didn't agree with was the stereotype and just having to deal with it. It's hard for people to get past stereotypes, people just dont wake up and think differently but some of this stuff is just not believable.
I'm not saying you're racist or anything, I'm not questioning who you are friends with...It's just the principle of the stereotype. I can see where you're getting at with D.C. and everything, cuz the facts are the facts and you cant ignore them. But just remember that you can till wear blue and red in alot more places than you cant. Even at six flags some days its not a "good" thing to wear red, for those who have been there.