More on L.A.P.D. critical mass incident
From today’s LA Times:
Four LAPD officers accused of clashing with bicyclists are relieved of field duty
By Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times
June 3, 2010
Four police officers involved in a clash with cyclists in Hollywood during a protest ride have been removed from field duty while investigators review the incident, officials said Wednesday.
The move comes as outrage over the videotaped incident grows, threatening to derail LAPD Chief Charlie Beck’s recent efforts to improve relations between the department and cyclists who have complained about the way police treat them.
The LAPD launched an internal investigation into the Friday night altercation after a videotape that appears to show an officer kicking the wheel of a passing bicyclist circulated across the Internet.
Several bike riders have also accused police of other aggressive behavior during the ride, including allegations that police tackled several cyclists off their bikes and jammed a baton into the spokes of one bicycle. None of those incidents are shown on the tape.
LAPD Commander Andrew Smith said the internal investigation will look at all the incidents of alleged police use-of-force as well as address complaints by one bike activist that the LAPD refused to take a complaint when he called the Hollywood watch commander. Investigators will also look into whether officers forced the person who shot the video to stop recording moments after the alleged kick occurred.
The video, posted on YouTube with the title “Hollywood Cops Attack Bike Riders,” inflamed L.A.’s cycling community. It had been viewed more than 73,000 times by Wednesday.
The thing about these incidents that creeps me out so much is that these officers were probably not acting in an unusual fashion. They probably act with that kind of aggression all the time. It’s just that this time, somebody had a camera. (So they attacked him). And how often do they take the next step and just break the camera when they find themselves being filmed?
It seems to me these guys need to be relieved of more than their field duty. They need to be relieved of their freedom via incarceration. Their behaviour does nothing for law enforcement except engender disdain among the public, and if law enforcement knows what’s good for it, these officers will be removed from the force immediately and, hopefully, prosecuted.
–Erik Ryberg
June 3rd, 2010 at 2:02 pm
This is a manifestation of car-headed perspective
from these cops. No cyclist who happened to be a cop
would do these things unless in pursuit of a felony
or other major infraction. This really touches the
hate-crime definition and I’d like to see it handled
that way sometime. There needs to be more cyclists
who are cops and in any other position that has to do
with transportation. That’s where the real life
representation is.
June 3rd, 2010 at 4:05 pm
I thought the most telling comment was about how cops don’t throw people to the ground for minor traffic violations when they’re driving a car. Why is that OK when it’s a cyclist?
June 3rd, 2010 at 6:08 pm
The police had to drive into, tackle, clothesline, trip and jamb nightsticks into spokes of cyclists who were suspected of a traffic code violation.
It was all in order to protect the cyclists from their own dangerous riding see?
June 3rd, 2010 at 7:14 pm
So what do cops want to do about things like this? Train the officers so they don’t act this way? Nope.
They want to make it a crime to video tape police officers so that they don’t get caught.
http://gizmodo.com/5553765/are-cameras-the-new-guns
June 3rd, 2010 at 10:11 pm
Great link and info, Tucson Velo! Red Star has always assumed that when anyone is out in “the world” that is, out in public, they by definition implicitly give up their right to privacy regardless of what they are doing. That’s why Red Star doesn’t have a problem with the photo radar vans and such. Sadly, the way matters are trending in Arizona, Arizona is ripe for cop-specific restrictions described in the link you provide.
Scenario: when they are set up at 3rd and Treat standing around eating doughnuts and bagels and swilling orange juice (yuck) they are not to be photographed or videotaped? Even by news media? People not allowed to tweet or whatever to the effect that they are there?
It could happen here.
Great find and somewhere in TBL blog there is a photo of a TPD bike officer riding on a sidewalk.
June 4th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
So I assume that the police are exempt from the wire-tapping restrictions that require consent from all parties in those states where such laws are being used to prosocute video whistleblowers? Otherwise I’d assume no dashcam videos in those states, and none of these (http://www.vievu.com/) either.
June 4th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Speaking of which – does anyone know anything about any outcome from the PCSOs’ “internal investigation” of the Deputy that drove headlong into the shootout pack awhile back causing crashes and injuries? As I recall, the PCSO rep cited “ongoing internal investigation” to duck having to address the Deputy’s behavior at a forum that was supposed to have been *about* that behavior, then the whole thing just went away quietly. This is an excellent example of how police misconduct gets swept under the rug when the only video on the scene is the video under the control of the cops. Also why this sort of retaliation against video and still-camera whistleblowers has got to be nipped in the bud wherever it pops up – even if it’s in some other state far away from your own.
June 7th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
It’s law enforcement officers like these who make SB1070 so objectionable.