In April of 2023, a Kissimmee Police officer illegally and without a warrant entered the home of a man. The cop claims that he saw the man push his father, so the cop attempted to arrest the man, using force by kneeing the man in the face and shooting him with a Taser more than 7 times. The force used did extensive damage to the man’s face, breaking his nose and requiring dental work.
The video was surprising because the knee spikes went against training. However, she said the repeated use of the taser was within what’s considered proper use to gain compliance.
“I couldn’t see it on the video, but I will take Officer Baseggio’s word that he saw what he thought was a battery,” Holland said. “And so with that being said, he doesn’t know if he was going to go arm himself.”
As a result, the cop got an 8 hour suspension. That is the end of it. Or so it seems. It turns out that there was much more to the story.
It turns out that the cop lied on his incident report, as well as intimidating witnesses to tell the story of the incident in a way that was favorable to the officer and his actions. As a result of that, he was indicted by a grand jury on charges of felony battery, misdemeanor battery, official misconduct, solicitation for perjury and two counts of tampering with a witness. He was fired as a result.
Still, that isn’t the entire story. It turns out that while the AG’s office was investigating the rogue cop, they were questioning his fellow officers, and 11 of them lied in official statements in order to protect and cover for him. Those 11 cops were also indicted, and as a result both the chief and deputy chief of police were terminated.
As I have said before, the bad cops lie, abuse their power, cheat, and steal. The so-called “good” cops will lie and cover for them, which makes them all bad cops. At this point, the only difference between most police and a criminal gang is that the cops have badges and immunity.
I repeat what I have said before- we as citizens need to demand one of two things:
Eliminate qualified immunity and force police to get malpractice insurance
Pass a law that any lawsuit against police for unlawful behavior against citizens be paid directly from the police pension fund.
“If I wasn’t Tyreek Hill, Lord knows, I probably would have been, like, worst-case scenario, I would have been shot or would have been locked up” and “put behind bars, you know, for a simple speeding ticket,” Hill told NBC News.
It wasn’t just a simple speeding ticket. Police claim that he was going more than double speed limit in an area where pedestrians were walking to see the game he was about to play in. That’s reckless driving, which is a crime, not a traffic infraction.
Then they go on to blame racism and state that Hill’s lawyers are going to sue.
It’s hard,” Hill said. “I don’t want to bring race into it, but sometimes it gets kind of iffy when you do. What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill? Lord knows what those guys would have done. I just wanted to make sure I was doing what my uncle always told me to do whenever you’re in a situation like that — put your hands on the steering wheel and just listen.”
Were the cops out of line? Let’s take a look at the body cam.
The first thing that I noticed is that the cops aren’t white. There goes the racism charge. We all know that in today’s environment, you can’t be racist unless you are white.
The second thing you see is that the first words out of Hill’s mouth are “Don’t knock on my window like that,” which is setting the stage for how you will be treated. He says something else, followed by “Do what you gotta do,” then rolls his window back up. His windows are tinted far darker than Florida law allows, and it is impossible to see into the car. That is a sure recipe for a cop to demand your windows be rolled down, and that is exactly what happened.
When the cop again knocks on the window, Hill gives more attitude, so he is told to get out of the car. Hill doesn’t comply, so the cops threaten to break the window. As the cops are pulling him out of the car, Hill is busy calling his agent or perhaps the teams security chief ( both are named Drew) for help on the phone.
As they finish cuffing him, several of his teammates show up and begin interfering with the traffic stop. One of them eventually gets cuffed as well.
“Tyreek was in handcuffs for like 20 minutes, probably more. Team security came and was able to squash everything. Other officers pulled up — I think some superior officers pulled up. And everything worked out. But it was a crazy situation. It was not necessary.”
Note that the USA today article spends a good bit of time detailing the football accomplishments of the people involved in the incident: NFL man of the year, Heisman this, statistics on the football field that. Also there was Hill’s agent and the director of team security. Any bets on whether or not the director of team security is a former cop, and that’s why Hill was let go with only a ticket? The team had this to say:
It is both maddening and heartbreaking to watch the very people we trust to protect our community use such unnecessary force and hostility towards these players, yet it is also a reminder that not every situation like this ends in peace, as we are grateful this one did,” they said in part. “‘What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill?’ is a question that will carry with resounding impact.
The Dolphins also called on the Miami-Dade Police Department to take “swift and strong action against the officers who engaged in such despicable behavior.”
What if he wasn’t Tyreek Hill? Well, he would not have gotten out of driving nearly 100 mph on a surface street without a valid driver’s license, that’s for sure. The left keeps lecturing us on how “no one is above the law,” but that isn’t true, and everyone knows it. Although he was cited for speeding, reckless driving, and driving without a valid license, there are currently no pending traffic tickets in Miami-Dade’s system for him. They have been magically erased.
The cop is on a paid suspension pending an investigation.
My opinion on what caused this incident to escalate of control?
This isn’t a race issue. It’s an issue of entitlement. He’s good at playing a child’s game, and for that reason he has never had to follow the rules. Schools don’t discipline them as children, because they are good at sports. The same happens as adults. They are the puppy from Starship Troopers- never disciplined, then everyone is surprised when they turn out to be criminals with no respect for the law or the rules. You know what? They are right- being good at playing with a ball means being too rich and famous to follow the same laws that the rest of us must follow.
Both have been arrested for theft of a firearm, and the ex-felon was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. If they get a decent lawyer, they just might beat those charges.
They didn’t steal the gun- it was left in a public bathroom.
There is no evidence that the convicted felon ever had possession of the handgun.
The state could argue that they knew it was a crime because they concealed the handgun when they walked out of the gas station, but a decent lawyer will claim that they concealed it because open carry is illegal in Florida.
The only crime that was committed here in my opinion, is that the Deputy left his firearm where anyone could reach it- with the barrel wedged into a toilet paper roll in the stall of a public bathroom. Those two are no more guilty of stealing that firearm than the deputy is in trafficking firearms.
Via Wirecutter. An intoxicated Sheriff shows up at the home of a man in a neighboring county, making threats and claiming to have used a police database to look the man’s record up. Here is a video of the encounter:
This is why you don’t answer the door. Tell him to fuck off, close the door, and don’t engage him.
Misusing police databases is a felony.
Then he says “I’m gonna get your ass another way.” That statement is now a lifetime get out of jail free card. If he is ever arrested for anything from spitting on the sidewalk to murder, all his defense attorney has to do is play this video.
Then the sheriff walks up to the man and punches him in the face. A Federal felony. (Deprivation of rights under color of authority)
Then he and his wife stood on the property making accusations while filming everything, even after being told to leave. That is trespassing, and if he has a police issued firearm with him, this is also a felony.
He drove there. That’s DUI.
He contacted the local prosecutor, who told him that he didn’t see any violations of the law in this video. This man doesn’t need to be calling and making complaints. He needs an attorney, and he needs one yesterday.
Those of you who read this blog know that I am not shy about posting and calling out the cops when they screw the pooch. Let’s look at this fatal shooting to see what happened. Youtube won’t let me embed the video, so I will wait here while you take a look.
He passed a cop on the highway at 105 miles per hour. In every state that I am aware of makes it an arrestable offence to exceed the speed limit by more than 30 miles per hour. Not only that, but the tags that were affixed to the Dodge truck were registered to a Subaru Forester. Both of these facts meant that the driver was getting put in handcuffs and probably going to jail.
What the deputy couldn’t have known at the time of the stop was the motorist he had stopped had just been exonerated after serving 16 years for a crime that he didn’t commit. That likely contributed to his actions that day on the side of the road, but again, the cop didn’t know any of this, nor does the exoneration have any bearing whatsoever on the shooting. All the cop knew was that the man was being belligerent, noncompliant, and was physically attacking him.
The family of the deceased man has hired Benjamin Crump (don’t they always?) and are suing the deputy and his department for unlawful and excessive force. This is the dream of black families- you have a family member that runs afoul of the law, fights with an armed person, then sue them to win the ghetto lottery.
Voice commands (that didn’t work- the reply was “I ain’t doing shit.”)
Open handed technique- the man grappled with the deputy
Less lethal- note that this is another case where a TASER didn’t work. He rode out the shock, then swept his arm to rid himself of the wires, then began to physically attack the officer.
Less Lethal 2- Now the ASP baton was brought into play, and the man became even more aggressive, grabbing the cop by the throat with enough force to bend him backwards while yelling, “Yeah, bitch.”
Lethal- having exhausted the rest of the force continuum, he shot the man.
Later in the video, you can see that the cop was so exhausted from the fight that he was likely going to be overpowered if it had continued.
“And when they want to use excess force there, you have other parts of the body. You can shoot, you don’t have to always kill somebody,” [the dead man’s mother] said.
This is an example of the “shoot to wound” versus “shoot to kill” myth. That was exhausted earlier in the force continuum when the open hand, TASER, and baton failed to control the attacker.
“I’m not going to jail,” Cure says at one point.
Well, he was right about that. He went to the morgue, instead.
I don’t have a problem with the officer’s actions in this incident.
More to the story on the cops who were ambushed in Eustis last week. The cops entered the house and split up. They obviously didn’t clear the rooms very well, because one of the occupants got behind one of the cops and shot him in the back. The other cop fled, and the arriving backup didn’t have the balls to go in and rescue their comrade.
When the wounded cop ran out of ammo, the occupants of the house simply walked up and shot him. When the dead cop’s phone rang, the occupants answered it to find out it was the dead man’s wife. They taunted her.
Local media is making a big deal out of the fact that the home had a stockpile of guns, ammunition, food, and bottled water, and lacked cell phones, regular phones, or a television. OK, a stockpile of guns, ammo, food, and water describes most of the households in Florida.
It could be that the two people killed in the house were victims of the original nutball who prompted all of this, or it could be that they were struck by bullets fired by the “brave” cops who were indiscriminately firing at the sound of gunfire in a “spray and pray” tactic.
Either way, I don’t care about the cops who were killed, and I don’t care about the crazy bitch who likely bought it. I will reserve my sympathy for any innocent bystanders. To anyone reading this who is a cop- stop being tyrannical cowardly assholes that slap unarmed citizens around, toss grenades into baby cribs, arrest parents who are demanding that you do your jobs, and rid your profession of the dead wood, and maybe I will care again.
It’s really a shame, because I used to have lots of love and respect for a profession that has lost its way.
* On a side note, the driver in the original Eustis case does not have any record of charges actually being filed against him in that county at any point this year. I am guessing that the State Attorney didn’t think that his behavior warranted criminal charges, still it cost him money to get his car out of impound. All for telling a cop that where he worked was none of his business. I would consider an attorney, were I in his place.
Your property is stolen, including a credit card. Your bank calls to tell you that the stolen credit card was just used at a fast food restaurant right down the street. You and a couple of friends head down the street to confront the thieves.
I would argue that, should this happen, you should go down there expecting an armed confrontation. These people didn’t, and the accused thieves opened fire on the would-be detectives.
Go down there to confront them, while your friends who are heavily armed standby with heavy weapons. If the thieves shoot, you overwhelm them with a large volume of return fire (situation permitting, of course).
Before you argue about whether or not you will be prosecuted, remember that if you are really worried about that, you wouldn’t choose to head up there to confront the thieves in the first place. if you DO choose to confront them, don’t hold back.
Expect to see more evidence that people are sick of the cops simply taking a report and then doing nothing. We might as well do away with most police and simply replace them with an online reporting form.
