APD: 5 Days for Fishing, 10 Days for Assault
Austin Police Department has suspended an officer for 10 days, ostensibly for excessive force:
Detective Joseph Lorett has been suspended for 10 days after video from another officer's car shows he kneed the suspect, who was facedown, in the head and used profane language.
"What I seen was more force being used than necessary and that was my biggest problem there," said Assistant Chief Sam Holt. "We tell our officers to treat people the way they want to be treated, and under normal circumstances, profanity is not something we would normally use."
Thus my use of the word ‘ostensibly’. See how they try to soft peddle this incident as… just ‘using profanity’? And, from what I can tell, swearing at someone (as you assault them and send them to the hospital) breaks the Golden Rule.
More from the MSNBC story:
Other officers on the scene described the suspect as "cooperative" and not resisting arrest. The videotape shows one officer attempting to handcuff the suspect when Lorett approaches and knees the man in the face. As a result of the incident, the suspect required hospital treatment and suffered facial and orbital fractures. [Emphasis added]
"From what I could see (on the videotape) at the time (the suspect) was hit, he had moved his arm, and that may have given the officer the reason to believe he needed to use his knee," Holt said.
Ridiculous. It’s not even soft peddling; it’s just making up excuses. If the officer was justified in using the force he used, then he was justified. (Tautological, I know.) So then don’t suspend him.
On the other hand, if the allegations are found to be true – enough say, to support a suspension –then 10 days is less than a slap on the wrist. Anyone doing this while not wearing an APD uniform gets indicted for Aggravated Assault.
What would a reasonable punishment be? Let’s see. This same officer was previously suspended for five days for fishing on the job.
Hmmmmm. Assaulting an unarmed civilian with no provocation is twice as bad as ripping off the taxpayers.
You know what? Now that I’ve bothered to type this all up… I’m thinking it’s time for an open records request. More on this later.
