What if this was your wife

http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=40824

Wow, something extreme needs to be done to punish those who pretend to protect people

EDIT:
Same Case, follow up video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUdwawQ7HPY

Ironically, the dashcam video is "non-existent."


Original youtube links for the first video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWimXzEa9Xo

(posted here in case Breitbart takes it down.)

Stark County Sheriff is

Timothy A. Swanson

Here is his website.

http://www.sheriff.co.stark.oh.us/

Telephone
(330) 430-3800
FAX
Postal address
4500 Atlantic Blvd., N.E., Canton, Ohio44705
Electronic mail
General Information: strkshrf@raex.com

He has a proud smile, doesn't he?

Hell Chuck,

That’s unbelievable. I think I would be uncontrollable if that was my wife. I hope they get what they deserve,

Ian

Okay - just to play devil’s advocate here - we DON’T know:

- what her demeanor was prior to the taped incident;
- why she really surrendered her dead sister’s DL (I am suspicious of the story that she carries it as a memento and ‘accidentally’ gave it when asked for ID);
- how many additional female officers were available to act as back-up.

We DO know
- that she was arrested and convicted of assaulting a police officer (plus an additional charge I didn’t quite catch in the report);
- incarcerating mentally unstable prisoners without clothing (or anything else they could use to harm themselves) is a very common practice at most jails - was she deemed to be mentally unstable? A case could be made for it.

I’m not saying that officers here acted correctly but I can’t say that they acted incorrectly either. The video is shocking on its face but it doesn’t sound as if the entire story is being told by either side. I wouldn’t expect female officers dealing with a belligerent and combative prisoner to be required to put themselves at risk because additional female officers were not readily available - we need to know that before deciding if the presence of male officers was justified.

People who love sausages and love the law would be well advised not to watch the practical side of either of those things too closely.

Again, I’m just playing devil’s advocate and yes, as a retired police officer I definitely have a bias. But I certainly get the impression that there’s more to this story than Channel 3 News is telling.

Exactly - these tapes show nothing (IMO).

I guess it depends on you definition of nothing Mike. Could you be as dispassionate if it was your wife? Which is what Chuck asked. I don’t know if the lady was innocent or not but it at least seems a little heavy handed.
Ian

Ian,

Not to speak for Mike but if it were my wife - she would know not to do anything that would constitute an assault (especially on a police officer), not to provide someone else’s identification when asked for ID, and not to resist a lawful order from a police officer in the execution of his/her duty.

In other words, I find it very difficult to imagine my wife ever finding herself in this situation. And, as harsh as it may sound, if my wife did ignore all those common sense things - even though I’d be angry and upset - on some level I would think that she got what she deserved or, at least, should have known could result.

But, as I said before, we don’t know enough about what happened in this specific instance to come to any firm conclusions. And, frankly, my faith in the media to accurately report details of any incident is less than complete.

Well,
I take your point Bill. Maybe I get too emotional about these things. It would be good to hear the whole story come out so that we’re in a better place to judge. I have to say I’ve never been in custody and hope I never will. If you hear an update on the story let me know.
But I have to say, what I saw doesn’t look right, let’s see,
Cheers,
Ian

If there’s one thing to be said about Sir Bill Clarke, it is about his clarity of thought and fairness. My hat’s off to you Bill.

I TOTALLY agree with the following…

Quote:

And, frankly, my faith in the media to accurately report details of any incident is less than complete.


… unfortunately. If it don’t sell adverts via sensationalism, it ain’t worth spending time on reporting it accurately and fairly. At least it seems that way…

D
Quote:

I guess it depends on you definition of nothing Mike. Could you be as dispassionate if it was your wife? Which is what Chuck asked.

No - that was not the main point of Chuck's post.
Chuck's was trying to use emotion to bolster his main point which was and I quote:

Quote:

Wow, something extreme needs to be done to punish those who pretend to protect people


Now as far as the question about my wife - that is a hypothetical that has nothing to do with whether or not the police used excessive force in this instance or not.
Sorry but I am not going to answer that question.