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Originally Posted by K9-Lovers
Thanks for posting the article, Jim Joe. No comment from you? I'm interested to hear your take on this.
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I was a prosecutor for 14 years and a defense attorney for 17 years.
The most important thing I learned is that without a complete video it can be difficult to find the truth. We just did our best.
ASSUMING everything in the article is correct, I think it was probably unnecessary to take that old man to the ground in that manner. The old man was probably drunk and unruly, but it is not difficult to subdue an 84 year old man.
I definitely would not charge the old man with felony assault on a police officer. They are just asking for second lawsuit on that arrest in addition to the excessive force claim if they follow that path. Public intox would be the better charge. I know from personal experience that officers act badly on occasion, so every situation is on a case by case basis.
I must say that in those situations where excessive force is used as seen on some videos on youtube, not only should the officer be fired, and charged, but so should the officers who directly witnessed it and did nothing to stop it. I am most frustrated where officers who are sworn to uphold the law do not stop a fellow officer from breaking it.