You may have seen the video of the Indiana cop shoving a paraplegic, tipping him over from the curb onto the street. That was bad enough.
You may even have already seen the video of the incident alluded to in the title, where a California Highway Patrolman mercilessly beats a woman by the side of the freeway, which came out about the same time. Here it is if you haven't.
But what we didn't know until now was much of anything about the woman. It's coming out bit by bit in the Los Angeles Times, and I think we can honestly say CHP has stooped to a new low.
"She's not just some animal," said attorney Caree Harper, who declined to name the woman. "She has an aunt, a sister, a brother, a father and a great-grandchild."
...
The woman is being housed at a mental health facility at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in South Los Angeles and doctors are not allowing the family to see her, Harper said.
The woman seems to have been found walking in traffic by the CHP officer who then began beating her repeatedly, swinging his fists into her head. CHP claims, almost miraculously, that she was not hurt. I have my doubts, but here's the quote:
CHP officials told reporters at a Friday news conference that she was not injured and that she was undergoing a mental health evaluation.
What of the CHP
officer monster? He hasn't been identified. He's been put on paid leave. The family's attorney did say
"There is no justification for the way that he savagely beat her. He's the one that should be in a mental health facility... We are not going to let this woman be on trial. We're going to turn the attention on the wannabe MMA [mixed martial arts] cop who repeatedly punched her as she was lying on her back."
The District Attorney will no doubt refuse to prosecute him (if in fact charges are not pressed against the woman for "resisting arrest."). The DA will conclude that the use of force was justified.
There will be a lawsuit. The State of California will probably have to pay some significant amount of money. Only because of the existence of the video, of course.
And the officer? He'll likely keep his job - you know, the one they advertise about prowling California's highways for great-grandmothers to beat the living shit out of.