By my count… 9 or 10. According to the Police in Stockton, California 16-year-old Emilio Mayfield did not respond to an officer’s request to get out of a bus lane and onto the sidewalk. The bystanders who recorded the confrontation stated, "The kid got stopped for ‘jaywalking’ when he barely stepped out of the bus he was 2 feet away from the sidewalk. The cop was telling him to take a sit but the teen kept walking to his bus but the cop kept grabbing his arm & the kid took off the cop’s hand off his arm so the cop took out his baton & that’s when I started recording because everything happened too quick."
So… jaywalking is an offense. Is it one that warrants this level of response? Even if the kid did backtalk and walk away and ignore the officer? What if he DID just get off the bus as the bystander reported? We don't get to see what the officer did prior to this video but the kid has his hands on his nightstick. Police will refer to that as their weapon and they'll certainly use force to stop someone from taking their weapon… ANY weapon. Having said that the kid is curled in a fetal position trying to keep the officer away from him and then 9-10 other officers show up and the kid gets thrown to the ground and carried off crying.
The use of force by the officers is now under review.
"Anytime an officer uses force there's an automatic administrative review," Silva said, adding that "the preliminary investigation is showing that the officers were within our policy."
"If everyone would just comply with lawful orders from the police," he added, "we wouldn't have to use force in the first place."
I mean yeah but… was this officer reacting this way over jaywalking or overzealous because the kid ignored his orders… for jaywalking… I get it, it's not legal, but… well you watch the video and decide for yourself.
src: http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2015/09/17/caught-on-video-stockton-teens-detainment-raises-questions-over-police-use-of-force/
src: https://news.vice.com/article/video-shows-cops-wrestle-a-black-teen-to-the-ground-for-walking-in-the-street
src: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/video-shows-nine-cops-arrest-crying-black-teen-for-jaywalking/
's on this one?
The Kid needs to learn to respect authority. To every story there's three sides don't based your opinion on just one.
We don't know what happened before the video was filmed.
+Yamel Perera
Nor does it matter. This type of abuse of power is unacceptable regardless of what happened. Stop trying to blame the victim, it makes you look insane.
+Daniel Carelli How does it make me look insane? I'm not emotionally led by what I see in the media. I look at the facts.
That guy (he's not a kid) was walking in the bus lane, a violation of the city code, and ignored the officer’s order to get out of the lane. He didn't comply and started cussing and walking away.
He had it coming. Sorry!
Its so easy for all of you to talk, but when your life is in danger everyday I'm sure you would be making some of the same decision's.
+Yamel Perera
It's their job, genius. That doesn't give them an excuse to abuse their authority and mistreat the very people they are supposed to protect and service.
+Daniel Carelli alright smart one, what do you suggest for him to do? call the pixie dust fairy? That guy tried to grab the officers weapon.
I'm done talking with the liberal left.
+Yamel Perera Yea, I bet we're all devastated to be missing out on what I'm sure would have been brilliant commentary. e_e
+Yamel Perera First of all a 16 year old is a minor, so he is in fact a kid. We can't see what the 'initial confrontation' was but the police have stated that he refused to get out of a bus lane and there was a confrontation… at which point the video picks up. Bystanders said the kid had only been off a bus for a short while.
Now my dad was a cop… so if I give benefit of the doubt and say the officer tried to move him along and he resisted and fought (and then we get to the video above) and the kid is trying to TAKE the officers nightstick then the officer is fair to stop the person from doing that. Even if that's the case… by the time the other officers arrive he's just sitting there stunned, holding his head, when the other officers grab him and throw him to the ground. I'm not sure in what world that was an appropriate level of force. I mean they stand him up and then throw him to the ground. Even if he were resisting at that point three officers had their hands on him and FOUR had hands on him when they threw him to the ground.
"Respect authority".
LOL
I'll respect authority when the behavior of the people who are supposed to be protecting and serving me doesn't include gang-like behavior and excessive force.
"I'm done talking with the liberal left."
Good.
Now scurry along Mr. Hyper Conservative Closed Minded Bible Thumper.
🙂
(I say this as an ex-hyper conservative closed minded Bible Thumper.)
+Ryan J. Rhoades I'm like 8 miles (as the crow flies) from Ferguson. I saw first hand the excessive force. #crazy
This is crazy. When will this end?
I can think of at least 1000 alternative endings where force is not necessary. The continuum should authorize use of force only if it becomes the ONLY viable solution of last resort. Not as it was here, where only a minimum necessary threshold is evaluated to determine if it CAN be used. This is fucked up. A baton wasn't necessary, but could certainly be used to antagonize and provoke a situation if your goal is escalation.
That kid was traumatized after that cop punched him. An alleged jaywalking (without so much as a complaint or victim) escalated into an assault with a deadly weapon, and a gang beating.
The world would have never known if the cop had just decided it wasn't worth pursuing. Try picturing this same situation but using a "pretty rich white girl" instead (same crime) and it appears less like a crime stop and more like a prejudicially motivated abuse of power, authority and force. To add insult to injury, it's followed up with a conspiratorial and sympathetic peer group (who should have arrested the cop) making the whole thing qualify for a cabal or racketeering (RICO organized crime) status because it is a hate crime carried out under color of authority.
Sound absurd?
So does a child getting beat up by 4 police officers, sucker punched, jumped and blind sided, then arrested at school for jaywalking.
I'd like to see the entire episode. Not just from where the cop is restraining the kid (who, BTW, is resisting at this point). I keep saying it over and over. The time to be indignant and outraged about the cop being in the wrong, is when your filling suit against them, not while the situation is unfolding. A fluid situation is too unstable a time to try and assert your innocence.
However, we seem to have been taught that if one feels a cop is in the wrong, that gives us the right to act any way we see fit.
…..and please, before, any of you give me all kinds of hate and venom, learn a little about my position on the police. I don't defend their actions, nor am I an overall supporter of them. I have said before that I don't just think, I know that the police have long ago stopped looking out for us and are just looking for us. They are not much more than a revenue collecting agency for the state.
The cops body camera fell off and they haven't released anything (that I've seen) yet +West Kagle. I don't think we actually KNOW that the cop was restraining him. I mean he could have been hitting the cop, then the cop pushed him, and then the cop went to restraint and the kid grabbed the nightstick… at which point we see things unfold. Or the kid could have just mouthed off and ignored him and the cop grabbed and threw him and the kid had a "WTF is happening moment" as the cop came at him with a nightstick. We don't know at this point though…. that's all speculation.
We DO KNOW that as the new cops come up the kid is just sitting there. A new officers grabs him, and then additional officers do, and the kid starts resisting (he could also be fucking dazed from getting clocked in the head with a nightstick several times. I've been hit in the head in martial arts matches and my head wasn't all there… but I continued to fight until my senses came back!). All we know for sure is four cops and the kid struggles a little, and IMO excessive force was used. It should only take one officer to restrain a 16 year old who's already been hit with a nightstick several times to restrain him. Instead there's four and the kid is slammed to the ground. The officer on the right, who swings the kids arm, is totally over the line.
+Paul Spoerry
It's too bad we don't have footage of the run-up. That usually clears up the picture, one way or the other. I will say this, I have seen the 'contempt of cop' rage that some officers exhibit when you defy them. As someone with authority and power, cops need to be able to reign in their emotions and maintain control of themselves.
I'm not justifying the actions of the kid or the cop (and without the before hand footage there is no way to know all the variables), but I'll wager that the kid acted stupidly, and the cop then went into 'I am the law' mode. Clearly both would be at fault, however the cop, as the trained authority figure, needs to be the responsible one and act accordingly. If he had, the blame would be entirely on the foolish kid, and this would be a non-issue.
Well said +West Kagle.