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Old 03-18-2013, 01:13 AM   #20
frinkprof
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There are some factors to these sorts of situations that can make things on the surface appear very negative for the security/police but on further thought might temper that negativity.

1. 4-5+ people subduing one person. This may seem excessive, but it really can take that many people to safely handle another person who is struggling. A grown man who is strong enough, determined enough and perhaps on the right combination of drugs and adrenaline can be a handful to take down and keep down. Even when you have him down, flailing arms and legs can be a danger if there's only one or two people trying to subdue someone. Not saying this was the case here by any stretch. Just saying that 4-5 guys might seem like an excessive amount against one person but it isn't necessarily.

2. The shrieks the guy is putting out from about 1:13 onward and for how long he does so make the situation sound/look really bad and perhaps worse than it really is. Not saying he wasn't in pain or anything, just that the tone, amount and duration of the sounds he is making will give any onlookers/viewers of the video an impression of helpless struggling based on an emotional response and will induce sympathy. Just something about the particular noises he makes. Again, it may be legitimate suffering, but objectively you can't let the type of sounds he is making be an indicator of severity or appropriateness of the actions. Maybe the sounds of pain are exacerbated by the injured shoulder. That alone doesn't mean that a takedown isn't warranted, just that the takedown will be extra unpleasant for the person being taken down. The officers can't reasonably be expected to know about an injured shoulder when first responding to whatever situation this stemmed from.

3. The "quit smashing my face" calls by the person could be legitimate, but it could be that through his struggles his face is contacting the concrete or the boots, knees, etc. of the officers. We don't know if the officers are striking his face (the one officer is striking him somewhere, see below for my thoughts on that, but it may not be his face). It could all be incidental. Again, the words "smashing face" induces an emotional response from onlookers and viewers. Hard to tell if that's what's actually happening though.

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Just a couple things that I think should be kept in mind. Not siding with anyone really yet. Way too little information, context and a small recorded sample size to make judgements on.

The biggest thing to me is them striking him with punches while he's down at 0.35. I think that's the most clear case of wrongdoing based on the video. The guy being taken away by his colleague/supervisor and then another person rushing into the scene look bad too. Ultimately it seems nothing (physical) came of that though.
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