DC Talks

In Irving, Texas a 43-year-old illegal immigrant, was beaten and pepper-sprayed by an Irving police officer during a traffic stop.
A Dallas County jury acquitted former officer Dan Miller of charges that he used excessive force. On the replay, Miller can be heard telling Palomino to “get down” on the ground several times while Palomino stares at him blankly. When Palomino squats down by the side of the road, the officer asks him to “get down all the way,” the video shows.
It then shows Miller spraying Palomino twice with pepper spray directly in the face. Miller then hits Palomino several times in the back and legs with a baton until he is handcuffed, the video shows. However, none of that was good enough to convict a man who obviously “lost it” dealing with a member of the public he swore to serve and protect.
Miller has even filed an appeal to get his job back despite the vicious attack being caught on video. Wants his job back after that debacle?
It is unnerving to think that any police department would consider putting that man back on the street.
In Austin, Texas, a similar incident where police officers beat an unarmed Latino man, who was face down and handcuffed. One offficer was acquitted last week on charges of official oppression, after the arrest and beating of a handcuffed Ramon Hernandez last September. According to accounts, the police video showed a visibly Hernandez cuffed and face-down on the ground as officers delivered more than a dozen punches to his kidney area. He was also handled roughly and tasered on the legs and one officer used his boot on Hernandez’s shoulders to keep him pressed in the dirt. The video apparently was not good enough for officers to be punished for their actions.
In Dallas, an elderly resident claims he was the victim of police brutality at the hands of four Dallas police officers. John Nixon says the officers slammed him to the ground outside his home on April 9. He says the officers were investigating reports of shots fired in his neighborhood. Nixon said that he was standing in his front yard when the officers pulled up and surrounded him with their guns drawn. The 79-year-old said the officers were yelling at him to take a gun from his pocket. Nixon insists he didn't have a gun. He claims the officers then slammed him face first to the ground, leaving him with a lump on his head, two black eyes and an injured arm.
Excessive force, brutality, crazy taser practices and down right beatings are not what you think of or expect when you deal with the men and women in blue. The Brown Watch website catalogs long lists of fatal police missteps across this country. Some of the cases where video proved raw and honest, but justice was denied include the following:
-Charges were dropped against the Columbus Police Officer who shot Kenneth Walker to death.
-The Philadelphia Police Officers beat Thomas Jones and faced no charges.
- The Cincinnati Police fatally beat Nathaniel Jones captured on video tape. No officers were charged in the beating.
- The LAPD officers who beat Rodney King were acquitted
- Two years ago, Oklahoma City Police beat Donald Pete more than two dozen times. It was recorded, but the charges against the police were dismissed.
One of the main themes in all the cases of beatings, brutality and death are the stereotypes, racist overtones and the failure of police to care about protecting the most basic and sacred rights guaranteed to every citizen living in this democracy.
These cases remind of the abuses going on across the state of Texas and nationwide where the “Badge” is fast becoming the new symbol designating who the “Bad Boys, Bad Boys” really are.
The big question that looms is how many times do these stories have to be told and how many times does history have to repeat itself before the public reacts?
Police codes in most cities have clauses that remind and encourage all police officers to render aid and assistance to citizens, respect and protect the rights of citizens, and be courteous and treat citizens with the same dignity and respect they expect and want as fellow citizens and public servants. However, the continued abuse of “certain liberties” and the targeting of Blacks and Hispanics “just because” is a symptom of the sick psyches going on in the minds of some police officers whose personalities are flawed and personal life failures leave them in a state of mind to take out their frustrations on someone in the name and under the cover of law.
After all, if I dress in “Blue” records prove that juries are extremely kind to policemen who decided to beat the hell out of citizens at will and take God’s seat above the judge and jury guarantees. Suspects human and civil rights are violated and in the process, those same officers make life and death decisions determining who should live and die on streets that belong to the people.
Pictures don’t lie and all I have researched and seen in videos is frightening to the naked eye and should raise questions in the minds of Dallas Chief David Kunkle, Fort Worth Chief Ralph Mendoza, Houston Chief Harold L. Hurtt, Irving Chief Larry Boyd, Austin Chief Stanley L. Knee and other police chiefs and departments about how committed are the cadre of officers to the premise of protecting and serving. Being a police officer does not give one human power to violate another human’s basic rights or function like a group of school bullies after “lunch money.”
This growing problem also must be addressed by city councils and county commissioners in Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio and in every American city where abuses have occurred. We must prepare citizens to deal with incidents like this that are becoming more common place than rare. There is no justice when it comes to being Black or Hispanic, because police apparently do not respect the most basic rights that citizens are suppose to enjoy under the constitution.
New codes of conduct are in order and new training methods for dealing with citizens during arrests and traffic stops and strict disciplinary action (firing) for officers who violate that sacred trust in any way.
How many more people have to be brutally beaten, shot, maimed or killed by police before changes occur in our cities Police officers shown (video) and found to have stepped on the line and over must be removed and the public must demand that before another incident that results in the funeral of a loved one!!!!
The public should be mad enough or concerned enough to demand better given the evidence of how much danger you could face if you are stopped or questioned by a police officer.
The police code is a pact of trust between citizens and law enforcement, but when rogue cops cross the line and “cover up” the truth about dealing with citizens and loved ones are left with the “lifeless remains” of loved ones, it is time the public to get outraged over “Bad Boys”.
No lawsuit, settlement or any amount of money can bring a loved one back from the grave… and you know what I mean.