Happy new year, or I hope you had a happy old year, based on if you are reading this in 2013 or 2012. Well, a topic of mine has been police abusing their authority and yes, once again, this will be one of those columns. In this video police in Chicago are writing a guy a ticket. What for exactly, I am not sure.
The cop gives back the guy's I.D. and the man takes it. Then all heck breaks loose. The cop (who is much bigger then the other man) shoves the man against a wall and starts choking him. The cop said he snatched the I.D. back but I don't really see a snatch, even if so, it does not justify this horrific police abuse.
I don't expect this cop to be punished. They almost never are in fact, even when video exists. Prosecutors provide cover for all but the very worst abuses and even in those cases it usually takes quite a bit of public pressure for a cop to get anything more then being suspended with pay.
In this video out of Seattle police officer Sonia Fry harshly grabs protestor Maria Morales, during a parade earlier this year. Fry throws Morales on the ground, where other cops pounce and arrest Morales. Officer Fry states that Morales cursed at her and pushed her. The video shows that she didn't push Fry and if she curses her, so what.
That does not give Morales the authority to use physical violence against someone else. If she can't handle an obscenity against her, which based on her lying about the shove is doubtful in of itself, then she shouldn't be a cop.
The charges, when the video of this incident was found, were dropped against Morales. If there was no video, you can be sure that Morales would spend at least months in jail with a criminal record which would follow her for the rest of her life. Indeed, she states she lost her apartment and job as a nurse because of this arrest.
Morales is suing, good. Officer Fry has suffered no punishment I am aware of, and she probably won't suffer any now and into the future. That is just the nature of violent attacks by cops.
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