with city cops beating the bejesus out of a middle-aged mom for DUI and what they say was resisting arrest and get this, battery on an officer.
While the incident happened a month ago, Tallahassee Police Department just released the dashboard video after trying to hide the incident when a story in the Tallahassee Democrat was published a week earlier.
I have not watched all of the video but here it is if you are curious. Around 8 minutes in gets nasty. Apologies for the ad intro.
Link to this morning's article on the Democrat's mobile website is here. And again, apologies if the Democrat blocks non-registered viewers.
Link to the editor's remarks on this is here. "Disturbing doesn’t begin to capture what happened on – and off – that police video." He is referring to the silence of TPD on this (and other incidents), the delay in investigating, and that city commissioners were cautioned not to view the video or to comment on it.
The officers involved were Chris Ormerod and Matthew Smidt. The beating occurred in front of other officers on the scene. The 2 officers are on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of an internal-affairs investigation. Not the first incident for Officer Ormerod; in 2009 he "Tased" a 15-year-old who ran away from him after the kid stepped in front of his patrol car and then taunted him as he tried to slip into his grandmother's house.
More below the fold - warning, it's a horrific picture on the youtube link.
From the editor's blog:
I’ve been a newsman for a long time. I’ve seen a lot and faced a lot, including being threatened, shot at and having my car windows smashed out. I’ve seen victims of floods, mudslides, blizzards and tropical storms. I’ve seen the newly dead bodies of people shot to death.
But on Tuesday, while watching the woman being treated brutally during an arrest on Aug. 10 at the hands of two police officers – while two others stood and watched — I got physically sick. My hands and legs started shaking. I skipped lunch and was unable to even think about eating.
It was very unprofessional of me as a journalist to allow myself to be so affected by a story. But I was.
Local news report on youtube:
Personally, the woman does not act all that incapacitated during the drunk test. She's upbeat and light-hearted. I do not hear "slurred speech" but I do understand and support the zero-tolerance for drinking and driving. However stupid the woman's thrill ride was, it does not warrant the police reaction.
Oh look - another diary just up on the cops beating on folks.