Ohio Police Beating Death

has anyone read about this and seen the tape? this kind of thing really pisses me off. if the guy would have just LAID DOWN WITH HIS HANDS BEHIND HIS BACK it wouldn't have happened. he was on drugs though, and had an enlarged heart. now the officers are getting blamed for HIS stupidity. i'm sick of police getting blamed for the acts of criminals. and yes, i do realize that there are bad cops, but in general i think that they are just easy targets. when i was in high school and got arrested, i blamed the police-god forbid it was actually MY fault! then i grew up.
sorry for the rant. anyway, here's the story:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=716&e=7&u=/ap/20031202/ap_on_re_us/died_in_custody

i saw the video of the dude trying to take them on, and he was completely out of his gourd. i really don't know how else they could have taken him down, besides using violence. maybe some pepper spray.

it's too bad he died, but i can't really blame the cops, because i don't know what else they could have done. they needed some elephant-size tranqs

exactly! the guy was giant AND on PCP!!!! they should have called in the zookeeper!!!

i'm pretty sure an autopsy will show the cause of death to be from the effects of the drugs on his enlarged heart. but i do agree on the being disgusted part.

who here is saying that he DESERVED to die?

nobody.

tell me exactly what you would have done to subdue this guy, because i would like to hear it? did you see the video? the guy was going absolutely apeshit. of course i don't believe that he deserved to die just because he was on PCP and cocaine. i'm sure the cops didn't mean to kill him either.

all i'm saying is to put yourself in the position of those 2 cops that the guy was trying to kill and tell me what you would have done. i would have shit my pants and ran away, so i guess that's why i'm not a cop. having seen the video though, i really have no idea what options they had.

[Edited on Dec 01, 2003 by el_oso]

nm

[Edited on Dec 02, 2003 by Jeff_Fries]

i've been taken down HARD by a group of policemen when i was out of my mind on drugs and alcohol. i was also going apeshit-i don't know what else they could have done. at the time i blamed them "fucking police beat the shit out of me-wah wah wah". it wasn't until years later that i realized they were doing what they had to do to keep me, the public, and themselves safe.

but s5, what if i had a heart condition and what they did to me had triggered my death? then who's fault is it? what if this is the same situation-if it turns out it wasn't the officers, but the heart condition that caused his death?

From your posts above, it's kinda clear that you allude to the fact that this guy deserved what was coming to him.

"From your posts above, it's kinda clear that you allude to the fact that this guy deserved what was coming to him."



well, i didn't mean to allude to that fact, so i apologize.

i was mainly trying to say that, after seeing the video a couple of times, i find myself at a loss for what they could have done to handle the situation.

[Edited on Dec 01, 2003 by el_oso]

"The first two officers to arrive, Baron Osterman and James Pike, were shown on the video striking Jones after he ignored orders to "stay back," took a swing at an officer and put his arm around an officer's neck. "

so, because the police showed up when called and woke him up, it was they who caused the disturbance?

afterwards, of course.

but it sounds like they were trying to calm him down by asking him to stay back. i don't think they were looking for a fight, and he went after them unprovoked (unless you consider waking him up and presumably asking him to leave the area to be provoking him).

if it had been the fast food employees that had gone outside to wake him up and this had happened, would it be different? he might have took a swing at them and put his arm around their neck and, more than likely they wouldn't have been able to defend themselves against him.
are you seriously saying that it is their fault for showing up?

If this had happened and two fast food employees had clubbed the man would anyone be nearly as outraged?

nope. they would say they were defending themselves. the argument people make is that police should be held to higher standards because they are trained to deal with theses situations. and i agree that every death where police are involved should be scrutinized in every detail, but even if it shows heart failure as the cause of this guy's death, people will STILL blame the police. that's what gets me.

Well, I have to give the Cops some credit; at least they didn’t just start shooting.

Though, I think it sucks that in the tool kit available, the next step up from “harsh language” is “beat with stick.”