Woman punched by California police officer to receive $1.5m settlement

A woman punched repeatedly by a California highway patrol officer on the side of a freeway in an incident caught on video will receive $1.5m under a settlement reached on Wednesday, and the officer has agreed to resign
Woman punched by California police officer to receive $1.5m settlement | World news | theguardian.com

I don't know how to comment this case. A lot of police forces have become nothing more than Taxpayer funded Gangs that have apparent license to kill. Police Lawlessness has become the norm in our lives. Who will protect us from the police?

Simon Feltser said:

A woman punched repeatedly by a California highway patrol officer on the side of a freeway in an incident caught on video will receive $1.5m under a settlement reached on Wednesday, and the officer has agreed to resign
Woman punched by California police officer to receive $1.5m settlement | World news | theguardian.com

I don't know how to comment this case. A lot of police forces have become nothing more than Taxpayer funded Gangs that have apparent license to kill. Police Lawlessness has become the norm in our lives. Who will protect us from the police?

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I mostly agree - the answer commonly to not doing exactly what the officer tells you to do means you will be assaulted by that officer whether or not there is a justified cause. This reminds me of the 10th grade girl who was taken down and handcuffed by 3 officers because she refused to give up her cell phone while at school. The amount of force applied at times is not justified. People have rights to not do what an officer tells them to do and some police need to be better trained, more informed to handle the public. The answer is not always a foot on the neck and handcuffs. It must be said that there are a lot of very good cops out there but we only react to the very bad ones... the only way to get through to some of these guys is to have large payouts and cops who resign like this one.

$1.5 mil? Where do I sign up for the police beatings? It's ok, I'm white so they probably won't shoot me and I don't live in Oklahoma so they probably won't rape me either.

In all seriousness police brutality is becoming quite a problem. I support putting a go-pro on every one of them.

RabidAlpaca said:

$1.5 mil? Where do I sign up for the police beatings? It's ok, I'm white so they probably won't shoot me and I don't live in Oklahoma so they probably won't rape me either.

In all seriousness police brutality is becoming quite a problem. I support putting a go-pro on every one of them.

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In many states they made it illegal to film police officers, you think they're going to voluntarily film everything they do?

Deuce said:

In many states they made it illegal to film police officers, you think they're going to voluntarily film everything they do?

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Of course not, who said anything about them voluntarily doing it? They're servants of the state and they'll do as they're told.

RabidAlpaca said:

$1.5 mil? Where do I sign up for the police beatings? It's ok, I'm white so they probably won't shoot me and I don't live in Oklahoma so they probably won't rape me either.

In all seriousness police brutality is becoming quite a problem. I support putting a go-pro on every one of them.

Click to expand...

So long as your not homeless, if you're homeless they can beat you to death and nothing will happen because of it. Just be sure that you are employed at the time of your police beating.

The picture is worth a thousand words. Most of those words would have to do with race.

I'm not sure it's only race. I've become increasing concerned over the past few years over the police predilection to resort to lethal force in the face of mental illness. This poor woman seems to have had the misfortune to have both race and mental illness staked against her.... but at least she lived.

A case in point; several years in Sebastopol (a lilly white bastion of liberal vegetarians, to put the place in context), a city close my home town in California, parents of a teenage boy who was in the process of having a psychotic event, holing himself up in the family's camper armed with a kitchen knife, out of desperation called 911 for 'help'. The 'help' the local Sheriff's department had to offer was to ultimately shoot the kid dead. No tazer, no attempt to manhandle him down, straight to guns, due to as the police stated, a mortal fear for the lives of the two deputies

The event prompted me to do a little comparison research, in order to write the local newspaper (Santa Rosa Press Democrat).

In the UK with a population of 60M, with I assumed a similar rate of mental illness to California, during the period of 2000-2005 which was the only data I could verify, those poor unarmed British Bobbies suffered not one death (I could find no details of injuries) due to an encounter with crazed mentally ill suspect.

My conclusion was, either we have a much more violent and deadly version of the mentally ill, OR, just maybe we have developed a police force just a tad too trigger happy.

I know which conclusion I'm more inclined to lean towards!

Simon Feltser said:

I don't know how to comment this case. A lot of police forces have become nothing more than Taxpayer funded Gangs that have apparent license to kill. Police Lawlessness has become the norm in our lives. Who will protect us from the police?

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First off, not all police officers are like this, not evena majority of them. Secondly, when you risk your life every single day and see typically only the worst of society it takes a toll. I would suggest you take the job and walk in their shoes for a year and see how you are afterwords. In a nation where we pay athletes millions yet our servicemen and women in the military, police department and fire depratment that actually protect us get scraps says a lot about our nation.

If you think the police are corrupt, than be the change you are wanting to and take up the job yourself and change the corruption instead of complaining about the corruption.

Simon Feltser said:

A woman punched repeatedly by a California highway patrol officer on the side of a freeway in an incident caught on video will receive $1.5m under a settlement reached on Wednesday, and the officer has agreed to resign
Woman punched by California police officer to receive $1.5m settlement | World news | theguardian.com

I don't know how to comment this case. A lot of police forces have become nothing more than Taxpayer funded Gangs that have apparent license to kill. Police Lawlessness has become the norm in our lives. Who will protect us from the police?

Click to expand...

I think law enforcement is way less excessive and corrupt today than they were back then. Technology and easier access to that technology just makes it easier to expose police brutality and it gets on the news. Without the video most of the public would have took the officer at his word while only those who hate law enforcement would have sided with the victim.

Simon Feltser said:

A woman punched repeatedly by a California highway patrol officer on the side of a freeway in an incident caught on video will receive $1.5m under a settlement reached on Wednesday, and the officer has agreed to resign
Woman punched by California police officer to receive $1.5m settlement | World news | theguardian.com

I don't know how to comment this case. A lot of police forces have become nothing more than Taxpayer funded Gangs that have apparent license to kill. Police Lawlessness has become the norm in our lives. Who will protect us from the police?

Click to expand...

Cool Story, Eric Moller.