Dehumanizing Force for a 'Dehumanizing Look'

[XLFD]

Indisputably, police officers have a difficult job, where one mistake potentially can get you killed, or alternatively end your career.  With all the powers that come with being a police officer come corresponding responsibilities to the people you are sworn to protect and serve.  These duties should be drilled into all police officers, and constantly reinforced.  In the heat of the moment, some officers can easily get distracted from those duties and abuse their power. 

 

Such seems to be the case in a Florida incident that happened at 11:00 AM on Memorial Day, when 14 year old Tremaine McMillian says he was feeding his puppy from a bottle, when police confronted him.  He had been roughhousing with a friend in the water beforehand, an action which drew the nearby police's attention.  The two officer's drove up on their ATV and confronted the teen.

 

According to Tremaine: "That's when the police had told us to stop, so I asked, why, and he told me, because he said so, and I asked why again. That's when he told me, 'Show me where your mom's at."

McMillian said he was cradling his puppy Marco when it all went down. He said he was obeying officers and only wanted to lead them to his mom. His mother said, "As he was walking along the beach, the catwalk where the picnic area is, the police officers were on their ATVs, and my son was walking, and they jumped off their ATVs, grabbed him and slammed him to the ground."

According to the police report, they had to restrain the teenager because he gave them “dehumanizing stares,” clenched his fists and appeared threatening when he walked away and refused to obey their repeated orders.  Police wrote, "He attempted to pull his arm away, stating, 'Man, don't touch me like I did something.'"

 

According to Police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta speaking officially on behalf of his fellow officers: "All of that body language alone is already letting the officers know that this is a person that now is obviously getting agitated and can become violent.  Of course we have to neutralize the threat in front of us, and when you have somebody that is being resistant...that's the immediate threat. At this point we're not dealing or concerned with the puppy."

 

According to Cell phone video shot by his mother shows the unarmed teen pressed to ground at Haulover Beach as one police officer holds his forearm across McMillian's throat and another places him in handcuffs.

"He started choking me, and as he was choking me, I urinated on myself because I couldn't breath, said Tremaine. 

Tremaine McMillian, his mother, and his sister say the officers' version of events isn't accurate.

“How could I be clenching my fists when I was taking care of my puppy and giving him some milk with a bottle?” asked Tremaine

He said the puppy was injured when it wound up beneath him when he was taken by officers; it yelped when he touched one of its small legs.

Tremaine was charged with a felony count of resisting arrest with violence and disorderly conduct.  At the Juvenile Justice Center, an Assistant Public Defender entered a plea of not guilty for McMillian. He also asked that the state reconsider the charges against McMillian.

But Judge Maria DeJesus Santoveria declined to do that and said McMillian’s trial would start at 9 a.m. on July 16th.

Read more at:  http://miami.cbslocal.com/2013/05/28/teen-says-police-overreacted-t...

Read more and see the video here:  http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/21010747256984/family-accus...

[easymoney]

when I was a kid, it didn't take two full grown cops to take a 14 year old down.

the kid is far luckier than the grandfather in texas, who went out to check on a neighbors alarm, only to be shot 6 times by an inexperienced cop.

They, cops, seem to be having a problem with authority, theirs.

[Lisa O'Brien]

Wow - I had never heard of dehumanizing stare being a threat before, I had better watch my own behavior cause lord knows I have given police some awful stares - especially when they are parked on the expressway during rush hour - even though we are lucky to go 10 mph the minute a driver sees the police car they slam on the brake out of habit as if they were speeding.

[XLFD]

The old saying about "if looks could kill" is being interpreted as attempted murder by these officers.  Unfortunately, the Miami Police Department can offer all the community outreach programs and be an otherwise sterling organization, but it only takes one incident like this-- where two officers apparently overreact and their department officially backs their actions with flimsy rationale-- to lose that trust by the community.  This wasn't Crockett and Tubbs in action, these were a couple of bullies acting under the color of law.

[Jane]

Police officers need to realize that just because they exist in a uniform does not give them a right to boss people around and tackle/taze them or be bullies. Cops think they are the bosses of everyone they run into. We have as much right to defend ourselves against police as we do against any other attacker.

I have spent years pounding onto my 12 year olds head to NEVER answer any question from a police officer without myself or a lawyer present. we all have the RIGHT to be SILENT and it should not mean getting tackled or tazed or beat up by a cop who is pissed that we won't answer them.

I have a right to tell a cop anything I want, they call it a false statement, I call it my right not to be bothered by them in the first place.

We need police to watch out for the distracted drivers and pedofiles and truly dangerous people who will hurt someone, not harass every one of us because they think they have the right to rule everybody.

We live in a fascist society with police being trained to HATE the citizens so they feel empowered to take over the country on behalf of the feds when commanded to do so. It is OUR RIGHT to resist the so called 'authority'

[XLFD]

Police officers are fellow citizens given special powers to enforce the law, but they are not above the law, and they cannot idly take away your rights.  Know your rights, but be respectful and don't fall for grandstanding tactics that officers use to infringe upon them.  Here's a good video for a traffic stop that illustrates how you can insure your rights are not violated.  Warning:  police drunk with their own power will go beyond the theatrics of this officer: