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.
When questioned about the incident, the chief of police had this to say:
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.
Make cops have skin in the game.
6 Comments
Joe Blow · October 29, 2024 at 6:55 am
This is Aristotelian logic at its finest!
At the heart of the criminal justice system in our country is the idea of crime and punishment. Criminals (once tried by a jury of their peers, etc.) are sentenced to a punishment deemed to be fitting for the crime (capital punishment for capital crimes, etc.)
THE PURPOSE OF THIS ENTIRE EXERCISE, is that future would-be criminals, folks thinking “eeehhh, maybe I’ll off that bitch this weekend?” would see or be aware that individuals who attempted this previously suffered sentences sufficient to deter their interest.
“Yeah, you could, but Pooky got 12 years when he did that…”
If the respondent thinks it’s still worth it, you need to up your punishment (i.e. 25 years instead of 12). When crime rates start dropping, you know you’re at the magic amount of punishment, as that IS serving as a deterrent to the crime.
Qualified Immunity, as it’s been practiced, removes every single deterrent a cop has for not committing the crime. They KNOW in fact, they WILL get away with it. It is essentially a get-out-of-jail-free card for them. Since they are human beings, this feature is being abused (shocked face).
Likewise the lack of any financial incentive to not-breaking-the-law, does not act as a retardant on the crime. It has the opposite effect, in fact. In addition to your above recommendations, I would also add that any cop CONVICTED of such egregious crimes against the citizens they swore an oath to protect and serve, should FOREFEIT 100% their pension. Every one of these blue-shirts tells you they took the job for muh-pension when confronted about the problem in the force, they’re telling you what the carrot is, use it as a stick!
Divemedic · October 29, 2024 at 9:33 am
That is the law, at least in Florida. Public pension is forfeit if convicted of a felony
TRX · October 29, 2024 at 8:47 am
That’s my feel-good story for this morning.
Though nowadays it seems to be normal that cops terminated for cause just wander off to some other department and resume their accustomed activities. The whole lot are probably out there somewhere, criminals hiding behind badges, paid for by tax money.
Univ of Saigon 68 · October 29, 2024 at 1:54 pm
Here’s another one for your list –
Court dismisses couple’s lawsuit ‘with prejudice’ after police dispatched to wrong address fatally shot their dog
https://lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/the-law-just-does-not-provide-a-remedy-court-dismisses-couples-lawsuit-with-prejudice-after-police-dispatched-to-wrong-address-fatally-shot-their-dog/
Aesop · October 29, 2024 at 3:52 pm
It should also be legal to shoot police officers on the spot if they are engaged in criminal conduct, with the presumption being that private citizens are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Which actually is the law nationwide, but it’s never enforced that way by the cops or the district attorneys.
Skin in the game should also equal “brains on the pavement”.
Taking their badges and special privileges away is only a first step.
Make them nothing more nor less than civil security guards, with no privileges whatsoever, and we exit the police state we’ve been building for 100 years, after the first 5 or 10 shootings of same.
Suddenly, common sense will prevail. Or, at minimum, badgeholes will flee the profession once official thuggery has real and permanent consequences.
The senior leadership should be prosecuted as co-conspirators in the noted incident, either for knowingly permitting the above, or as criminally negligent supervisors.
Make kicking the can down the road and looking the other way criminal again.
JP_IN_MI · October 29, 2024 at 9:57 pm
A couple more bad actors for you. (popo actively engaging in election interference)…
https://x.com/JamesBlairUSA/status/1851336103217004585
Trump said anyone involved with cheating on the election will go to jail, hopefully including those two fargin bastages (even if they were just “following orders”).
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