Woman Catches Cop Beating Handcuffed Suspect; Police Union First In Line To Shoot The Messenger

from the no-one-to-blame-but-everyone-else dept

The presumed illegality of filming police is a law enforcement mental disorder. Far too many officers believe they have the right to perform their public service unobserved. Officers continue to take cameras from bystanders who happen to catch them behaving badly. Abby Phillip at the Washington Post details another apparent act of police misconduct that resulted in more misconduct as officers attempted to shut the recording down.

Just after 4 p.m. Thursday, a woman stood a few feet away from several Miami Police Department patrol cars with her cellphone camera recording. After a few seconds, an officer entered the frame, escorting a handcuffed young black man to the back of a police car.

Suddenly, the officer put his head inside the car door and appeared to punch the suspect.

“Oh!” a woman exclaimed on the recording, reacting to what was unfolding before her. The woman, who the Associated Press identified as Shenitria Blocker, moved closer, and the officer climbed into the back seat of the car. Moments later, the camera shook and the video ended.

Here’s the video:

The camera shake was due to an officer’s attempt to take Blocker’s phone away from her. Blocker says they then ordered her to delete the footage or face being arrested. While the video does show Blocker moving in very close to the police car to get a better view of the action, any arrestable offense would have been limited to “interference,” and that would only be legit if she refused to move away from the vehicle when ordered to. No such order was given. Instead, the cop went for the camera and threatened her with arrest.

Even if the cops can’t find a sufficiently malleable “violation” to charge photographers with, the law enforcement community (including police departments and, especially, their unions) finds ways to ensure no damning recording goes unpunished.

To its credit, the Miami Police Department has suspended the officer caught punching the handcuffed arrestee and is investigating the incident. On the other hand, it hasn’t said anything about the unidentified officer who attempted to take Blocker’s phone, nor has it issued a statement affirming the public’s right to film police officers.

The Miami Fraternal Order of Police, on the other hand, is going out of its way to deliver its own brand of “justice” for Blocker having the temerity to catch one of its officers behaving badly.

In a statement, the police union said “social media has placed a very negative tone on law enforcement nationwide” and that the officer in question was “protecting our community.”

Ah. So that’s what happened. A now-suspended officer didn’t punch an arrested man who was already in the back of a patrol car. Social media did. In fact, social media should be made to answer for the hundreds of incidents of police misconduct every year. At the very least, people should stop running to social media with their clips of police abuse because being a cop is hard work.

But the union has gone farther than simply making the ridiculous assertion that all of these police officers captured on film doing the things they were actually doing is nothing more than negative spin by Social Media Co. LLC. It’s also attempting to disparage Blocker herself — ironically, by using the same social media that’s apparently destroying the reputation of its suspect-punching police officer.

The union has delivered screenshots of Blocker’s since-removed Facebook page, claiming these show Blocker is a bad person and therefore, all video captured by her phone should be disregarded… or something.

The remainder of the union’s statement focused on criticizing Smith, the woman who at the time they believed recorded the video. It highlighted screenshots of Smith’s Facebook page and accused her of posting photos of herself with men who have handguns.

According to the farcical police officers’ group, the real problem is men with guns on Facebook pages, not an officer punching a handcuffed suspect. If only the “community” had done more to raise Ms. Blocker right, Unidentified-and-Suspended Officer X wouldn’t have had to punch a handcuffed man in the back of his patrol car.

“Our community has accepted behavior that motivates violence in our younger generation. It’s time for the community to take a stand against this reckless behavior and stop the violence,” he continued. “As the saying goes: It takes a village to raise a child. Guns don’t belong in the hands of children.”

So, remember: the next time you see a police officer beating a handcuffed person, remember that somewhere out there, there’s a male with a gun and someone’s daughter might be friends with him. Ask yourself: what’s more important here? The reputation of the misbehaving officer? Or the reputation of the misbehaving officer? And then put the camera away. Because as the union sees it, the only people above reproach are the officers whose abusive actions prompt poorly-thought out and thoroughly ridiculous statements from their unions.

Filed Under: filming, miami, miami police department, photographing police, photography is not a crime, police, shenitria blocker