ya, but they got a flashlight...

LOS ANGELES — Police today chased a man suspected of driving a stolen car and arrested him in Compton, and news footage showed an LAPD officer hitting him repeatedly with a flashlight after he appeared to surrender. The chase began shortly after 5 a.m. in an area patrolled by the Los Angeles Police Department's Southeast Station, said LAPD Officer Sandra Escalante of the Media Relations office. The man's name was not immediately released, and it was unclear if he was injured.

Patrolling LAPD officers saw a white Toyota Camry that was reported stolen from Compton, Escalante said, adding that the officers tried in vain to pull the vehicle over.

The pursuit reportedly ended on Caldwell Street in Compton, where the man got out and ran off.

Eyewitness News aired footage shot from a helicopter that showed the man running down a grassy area near the Compton Creek. He stopped, got down on his hands and knees and appeared to surrender to an officer.

Several other officers then ran up and the man was forced face down onto the ground, where one of the officers struck at the man's upper body at least 10 times with a long flashlight.

Reportedly, one officer told a local news station that the man had been resisting.

The footage was eerily similar to the infamous video of the beating of Rodney King in 1991, which also happened at the end of a nighttime LAPD pursuit. King was struck dozens of times by officers using batons after he led them on a chase that began in the LAPD's Foothill Station jurisdiction. Video shot by an amateur cameraman and broadcast worldwide showed officers striking and kicking King. Officers were later acquitted by a Simi Valley jury in connection with the beating, triggering the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

The officers were subsequently convicted of federal charges.

Today's incident came only days after the LAPD entered a two-year period during which it must show substantial compliance with a raft of reforms mandated under a consent degree agreement reached by the city of Los Angeles and the U.S. Justice Department in 2001.

If it fails to demonstrate compliance, federal monitoring of the LAPD will continue beyond the two-year period.

The city agreed to the consent decree as a way of staving off a federal lawsuit after the Justice Department reported that it had identified a "pattern and practice" of civil rights violations by the LAPD.

[center] ...man, fuck the police!!!

Ugh, what's the world coming to...

What the fuck is wrong with the LAPD?

That's right, blame the police.....
It 's not the criminals fault , He didn't see all of the police behind him, He didn't hear all of the sirens, He's not the one that didn't stop, He's not the one that ran from the police.....

They should have SHOT the dumb ass & they should have SHOT Rodney King as well.

How is it that everyone wants to blame the police & then cry that the crime rate is so high ????
Let's call it as it is, a criminal is a criminal, end of story.

How about any one of you that complain about the mean policeman try to do their job for just one day.

ROTHFAN said:

Well, ya have a point... Personally, I'm torn about whom to blame. Seems there's fault on both sides, but that doesn't make anything like this alright...

Imagine that during the pursuit that the criminal hit a little kid on a bike, would you blame him or the police for chasing him ?????

ROTHFAN said:

Well it's not the police's fault in that case. But the criminal in question didn't necessarily hit the kid on purpose. I'd wonder where the kid's parents are and why the kid is riding on the street like that. No one is really directly to blame for something like that though. It's just a terrible accdient. But the criminal is the one who started that whole mess, so they are at fault. Still, running from the police doesn't necessarily mean you deserve to be beaten up.

If I were to drive drunk & hit someone, would it be my fault ???
I didn't mean to do it....

you don't have to run!

starkitty said:

That was my point..... Thank you.....

ROTHFAN said:

They have a difficult job no doubt.But it's there own policies and rules that there breaking.
I agree,some of these fools need a straight ass whoopin'.
Rodney King didnt deserve that.12 fuckin dudes standing round with guns n batons and they can't subdue him?Gimmie a break.The LAPD is taught some of the same arm and leg locks n breaks as I was in the service.They could of had him under there control almost instantly if needed.Sometimes your gonna get caught fuckin around and they did.

ROTHFAN said:

eh?

ain't nobody defending the criminal here, just pointing out the unnecessarily heavy-handed tactics of the police.

a criminal is a criminal - that's true, but it's a truism. the problem here is the reaction of the LAPD, no? if the dude has surrendered, he's surrendered.

ROTHFAN said:

dude i was just singing the song.

The funny thing about all of this.....
In a country where you are innocent until proven guilty, the police have already been tried & hung.
The anger should be directed towards the criminal that started the whole thing.

As for arm bars & wrist locks to subdue a subject, that only works if you can get ahold of an arm. If you can not see his hands or what might be in them would you jump in ????
Compliance is when the subject listens to the commands given by the police, including putting your hands behind your back. If they are not obeying verbal commands then they are resisting arrest. At that point the police can use whatever force necessary up to and including lethal force.

ROTHFAN said:

so you quote the "innocent until proven guilty" maxim and yet you want the police to shoot this guy and shoot rodney king?

does not compute.

ROTHFAN said:

I would and I have jumped in alot worse than that.
No reason period for what they did.They had more than enough men and support to get hold of the situation.They actually lost complete control of what was going on.Thats how people get hurt,killed etc...

ROTHFAN said:

Not exactly my point...

All opinions taken into account, I urge you just to consider the possibilities of the situation first. "Criminals" are not a different species deserving the utmost discrimination by the human race. They're members of our race who have done something against the law. But in some cases we're not aware of what they did, why they did it or why they're scared enough to run away. Fear can make people do some crazy things. And considering the person is facing an expensive embarrassing trial, some fines and possibly some jail-time for what they've done, I don't think they need a beating to go with it. Maybe if the police have chased down someone who's been beating their significant other or abusing their children or murdering people or something really evil... Then they deserve to endure a beating for what they've done. But shoplifters, people who've run a red light, people who've been framed or wrongly accused, all kinds of people get scared and may try to run away when they think they're in trouble. It doesn't mean they deserve such a harsh punishment, especially if they've already surrendered.

And yes, if you hit someone driving drunk it is your fault because you were dumb enough to drink and try to drive a car after all the information and stories everyone hears. Also if a person running from the police hits a kid on a bike it's their fault for driving unsafely and for what they've done to be being chased in the first place, but it's a circumstance of the situation. I'm not sure if my point is getting across. You seem determined to prove me wrong. I wasn't looking for an argument, but I just really hate it when people refer to "criminals" as some kind of rogue species that all deserve the harshest treatment possible because they're so evil. I'm not trying to say the police are useless evil people. But in the story that started this thread, the person who had already surrendered to the police took a very unnecessary beating. Surely the police were frustrated from the chase, but it didn't give them the right to beat him like that. That's all I wanted to say.

hIsMiRRoR said:

WELL SAID

starkitty said:

Everybody ooh (ooh), alright (alright), dance music sex romance
Everybody say ooh (ooh), alright (alright), dance music sex romance, oh

Everybody clap your hands now

All the white people clap your hands on the four now
One two three, one two three, one two three, one two three, listen 2 me
I don't wanna be a poet
'Cuz I don't wanna blow it
I don't care 2 win awards
All I wanna do is dance
Play music sex romance
And try my best 2 never get bored
If U feel all right lemme hear U scream!

j7isapunk said:

Back when I was delivering pizza, I carried a 4 D-cell Maglite (a favorite among law enforcement and private security guards) as a way to get around the company policy against carrying weapons on the job.

"Weapon? What weapon? I use this to find people's houses at night!"

A large Maglite can do serious (even fatal) damage to a person if used as a club.

What next ???