Originally published at: Spokane County Sheriff's deputy on paid leave after beating 62-year-old man so badly that jailers refused to book him | Boing Boing
…
3 Likes
Fucking awful. Dude was doing a good thing by taking his tired self off the road for awhile.
35 Likes
I can’t say I feel the same way.
15 Likes
The crazy part is that until Deputy Asshole started physically assaulting Hinton, the deputy hadn’t done anything wrong. It’s stupid, but the city of Spokane has made it a misdemeanor, not just a civil infraction, to be in the park between 11 pm and 5 am. This means that the deputy did have grounds to demand ID from him. Everything that happened after that was entirely bullshit. ACAB.
13 Likes
I don’t understand how it can possibly be legal to charge a person with “resisting arrest” without first establishing that the arrest itself was legal and justified.
If you’re a wanted felon or a carjacking suspect and you give a cop a bloody nose while they’re trying to cuff you, fine. Tack that on the list. But as a stand-alone charge? Nonsense.
19 Likes
That was confusing to read because of the Hilton and Hinton names being tossed in back and forth.
8 Likes
This just re-enforces my firm belief that qualified immunity needs to be eliminated. Until thugs like this are held accountable for their actions we all continue to suffer.
16 Likes
Unless he loses his LEO certification, there will be nothing that approaches justice.
13 Likes
“resisting arrest” is just a bullshit thing they can charge to establish probable cause to cause more trouble.
ACAB
13 Likes
Lived in Spokane County and had a number of encounters when I was younger. They were not, as a rule, very sympathetic and tended to be quick to escalate. No amount of toeing the line, yes sir’ing, and deferment would appease these clowns. Not surprised, it’s part of the county’s sheriff department culture.
10 Likes
Yeah, and that’s a good part of the reason the DA decided to not press any charges against the man. Police are almost always going to recommend every charge they can think of. And some prosecutors will go along with that because it makes their conviction numbers look good come election time. Luckily here, the DA refused to go along with that. I’d like to think the DA is a cool progressive prosecutor, but it’s more likely that they quickly recognized that the optics of this were not good.
10 Likes
As an aside, police need a more specific command than “get on the ground” unless the person is floating in the air. There are so many videos of people with 4+ points of ground contact getting this command and not having any idea WTF they want. I get that this is by design, but it’s time for a design review.
4 Likes
He wasn’t technically in the park, according to his lawyer. Technically legal is, I’m told, the best kind.
5 Likes
Ok, well that definitely changes what I said. That means the deputy had no reason to suspect him of a crime, and, therefore, no reason to demand his ID. Which means he was never given a lawful order, so disobeying those orders is not resisting or obstructing. This is going to cost the taxpayers some money. I wish it would cost the deputy some money.
7 Likes
How is it that this deputy has not been charged with assault? What about the officers that turned off their cameras against policy? Have they been (at the least!) suspended with pay?
Impunity. That’s the word for when people know they can side-step consequences for their actions.
What would have happened had the citizen beat the deputy so badly that he had to be hospitalized?
12 Likes
We know the answer to that though, don’t we? Might as well ask what would happen to me if I beat my kid for as the deputy said “not listening”…
2 Likes
There are no “good apples” and never have been. Every single piggy, whether they directly participate in the beatings of innocent people or not, are complicit in these crimes because they know about them and do nothing.
3 Likes
This guy is definitely one of the ones that should be off the streets, without pay, in jail.
4 Likes
