The MUST-READ story that the Daily News bizarrely buried on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend
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The MUST-READ story that the Daily News bizarrely buried on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend
My colleague Jan Ransom published an article in the Daily News over the weekend that I thought that was both the best and maybe the most important article that's run in the paper this year. The subject was an ongoing pattern of outrageous and unconstitutional behavior by the Philadelphia cops -- confiscating and destroying videos that might (or might not) show police misconduct. During my occasional editing shifts here, I've read several articles in which the police have done this, and I wondered how they get away with iit. The bottom line: They shouldn't.
One other quick note: I can't fathom for the life of me why the Daily News -- the newspaper that won a Pulitzer just last year for its courage in exposing police misconduct -- all but buried this article by publishing it on possibly the lowest circulation day of the entire year, the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. I'm not casting aspersions towards anyone -- I've worked here long enough to know that usuallly when things happen here...it's usually just one of those things. That said, it was a big mistake not getting this article to a wider audience, which I hope to do my small part in rectifying.
Here's the story:
TAMERA MEDLEY begged the police officer to stop slamming her head - over and over - into the hood of a police cruiser.
Thinking they were helping, passers-by Shakir Riley and Melissa Hurling both turned their cellphone video cameras toward the melee that had erupted on Jefferson Street in Wynnefield, they said.
But then the cops turned on them.
Riley had started to walk away when at least five baton-wielding cops followed him, he said, and they beat him, poured a soda on his face and stomped on his phone, destroying the video he had just taken.
Please read the whole thing -- and if you have a blog or are on Twitter or Facebook, please get the word out, now that folks are back to work, etc.
Just one added bit of commentary: John McNesby of the FOP claims in the article that citizens exercising their legal right to film arrests are "a recipe for disaster." That's more BS from the guy whose credibility was ripped to shreds in the "Tainted Justice" series. For the most part, the people making these films are on public property and a reasonable distance from the events they are videotaping; the "problem" is not that they are interfering with officers making an arrest, but their film could interfere with officers trying to make an arrest improperl,y with excessive force. In other words, they are not crimninals -- but performing a valuable public service.
Comment removed.- It's probably about time to get your diaper changed Billy. You had better call the nurse before it starts running down your leg you old senile Nazi loving geezer.
— taxmanndumbeth - Comment removed.
- No, it's the fault of citizens who don't defend their rights. Why does journalismIsDead hate the Constitution?
- Comment removed.
- Stories about angry looking black women are always a 'must read' in Will's world.— RufusG
- Stories about criminal behavior by police officers are important to any good citizen. Filming public events is not a crime. It's a civil right.
- The typical responds from the insane right wingers who post here, why do they hate our constitution? It is up to the police force to command the respect of the people. This is not respectful behavior. This is an action should be opposed by every honest police officer. Any good cop would not fear a video of their job performance. They should stand up to their fellow officers and tell them to stand down. It takes one good honest officer to change this behavior, and then maybe more will follow, as for their union leader John McNesby, I think he should stand down and resign.
— DavidAG - Will, what if this woman bit the police officer or kicked him in the groin before the innocent bystanders began filming the episode. Looking at her picture I wouldn't put it past her to be combative if approached by the authorities. She looks anything but cooperative.— RufusG
- Rufas, even if a person punched an officer in the mouth, it still does not give an officer the right to bounce their head off a car. What do you think their training is for? How to get the best bounce when slaming a head against a car?
Why are the so-called conservatives so violent? The right wing thinks is perfectly fine fo them to inflict violence against another but when they are in a political rally and somebody bumps into them they roll over and claim whiplash? It should say whenever and whereever somebody bumps into a right winger, they roll over and scream whiplash. It could be their own 80 year old grandma!— DavidAG - Furthermore, it doesn't matter whether the beating was deserved. Citizens have a right to take photos and videos of things police do in public. http://boingboing.net/2011/08/30/federal-court-recording-cops-an-unambiguous-first-amendment-right.html If the cops are acting properly, what do they have to hide?
- It still doesn't justify them beating the person with the camera, unless you think that the worry that a jury would misinterpret evidence justifies violence. Does that extend to everyone? If I'm worried that a judge would take a cop's testimony against me out of context when I get a speeding ticket, am I allowed to beat the cop so badly he is incapable of testifying? — linusbern
- Comment removed.
- "The police department is like a crew -- it does whatever they want to do" - KRS-ONE "Illegal Business"— Murrayman
- It's absurd how youse liberals can accept a mere snippet recording of an event to determine the reality of a situation.— RufusG
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