WATCH: Cop Accuses Innocent Man of Stealing, Smashes In His Face With a Baton

Detroit, MI — A Detroit police officer has come under fire after video was posted online that shows him beating an innocent man with a baton after accusing him of shoplifting—but the city’s police chief says the force was justified and the officer “acted appropriately.”

The 65-year-old officer, who has not yet been named, was off-duty at the time of the incident and was still in uniform while working security for a local Meijer supermarket. He claimed he was responding to reports of shoplifting.

The officer apprehended a 23-year-old man who was near the entryway of the store and began questioning him about the items in his backpack. As The Detroit Free Press noted, even after “a female acquaintance of the suspect meanwhile, showed up and claimed she had a receipt for the merchandise. She was taken elsewhere by security personnel.”

Failing to acknowledge whether the piece of paper in the woman’s hand was, in fact, a receipt for the items in the man’s backpack, the officer continued to question him, while the two were left alone in the store’s entryway. Police reports claim that the man then “became agitated and made profane, hostile remarks to the officer.”

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The officer also made profane remarks and could be heard by witnesses yelling “Don’t be f—king with me!” at the suspect.

After the officer warned the man that he could be arrested for disorderly conduct, he attempted to place the man in handcuffs, and when the man resisted, the officer “struck him three times on the thigh with his baton.”

Police claim that the man then grabbed the baton from the officer and a struggle ensued as the officer tried to regain control of the weapon, which led the two out to the parking lot. However, bystander video shows the officer trying to grab ahold of the man with one hand, while using his other hand to strike the man repeatedly with the baton.

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The officer also hit the man’s face and head with his baton, which sent the man to the Emergency Room, where he was treated for a broken tooth and a contusion at the side of his face.

In a statement, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said that although the officer was off-duty at the time of the incident, “he is subject to all the rules and regulations of the Detroit Police Department and we are treating this as a Detroit police incident.”

As with many “Detroit police incidents,” Craig was quick to defend the officer’s actions, claiming that “it appears the force was proper,” even when the officer used his baton to strike the man’s face.

“I can understand that, if you’re stopped and you’ve done nothing wrong, you’re going to be agitated,” Craig said. “But this officer had the right to investigate, based on the information that was coming to him. So please, I would ask everyone, cooperate with us.”

There were several bystanders who witnessed the incident, and they can be heard on video making comments such as, “that officer can go to jail, hitting that boy like that,” which Chief Craig claims was enough to make the officer “fear for his safety”—a common excuse used by police when they are caught using excessive force.

“I believe the officer acted appropriately to de-escalate the situation,” Craig said, noting that the man was eventually arrested, and is in jail on charges of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

It should be noted, as Craig admitted, that an investigation found no evidence of the man shoplifting anything from the store. This means that if the officer would have taken the time to listen to the woman who tried to intercept the situation with a receipt that proved the man’s innocence, the entire incident could have actually been “de-escalated” and ultimately avoided.

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Watch the video captured by a witness below:

Netflix Does it Again: Exposes Extreme Police Corruption on Coerced Confessions

A new Netflix original series, The Confession Tapes, has once again given the viewing public a stimulating look into the American injustice system—with an up close and personal look at the psychological games employed by police to elicit taped confessions that suspects claim were coerced—but resulted in convictions.

The Confession Tapes encompass a wide array of suspects and situations, revealing that there is no race, religion, background or class that immunizes a person from being persecuted. The only common thread throughout the series is that every single person featured in the series maintains their innocence to this day.

The chilling reality of the series is the resounding message that no one is immune from the hyper-focus of law enforcement, regardless of the evidence, once police have fingered a particular person to be guilty.

The series makes clear that this could happen to anyone.

While some may feel safe “being honest” with law enforcement due to their assured innocence, after watching the seven episodes of this series, they will likely think twice before choosing to so implicitly trust the police in such a tenuous circumstance.

The stories featured in the show reveal a mix of interviews and archival footage in a documentary style that allows the suspects themselves, friends, family, lawyers, prosecutors and jurors to tell the story. It is distinct in that it allows the record to speak for itself, rather than relying on dramatic interpretation.

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The Confession Tapes takes you directly to the scene, using actual footage of the crime scene, instead of using actors and dramatizations. Without question, the series allows the viewers to feel the true tragedy and weight of the cases.

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Perhaps the most troubling part of the series is the confession tapes themselves, as they reveal mentally fragile people being pushed into likely false confessions using a barrage of psychological tactics.

As TFTP has previously reported, not even children are safe from these brutal tactics to make innocent people say they are guilty.

A study of juvenile interrogations at 17 police departments found that none of the suspects had attorneys present during questioning, and only 21% had parents present. All of them had already waived their Miranda rights. This does not happen by accident; it is a deliberate setup by the cops.

Interrogation is a calculated, manipulative, nine-step procedure known as the Reid Technique. The goal is to heighten anxiety and wear away one’s ability to defend oneself. Loaded questions, implicit assumptions of guilt, and even fabricated evidence are used. Interrogators are trained to recognize and exploit verbal, non-verbal, and paralinguistic behavior in order to gain a confession.

In the series, each episode reveals people confident in their innocence, and happy to engage with police to prove it—only to be worn down to the point of confessing to crimes that they did not commit.

The skeptic may ask, “How could anyone ever confess to a crime they didn’t commit?”

And while on the surface that seems to be a legitimate question, The Confession Tapes reveals the extent to which police have the ability to figuratively beat down a suspect with hours of intimidation, manipulation, deception, and pressure in an effort to force a confession.

The tapes reveal police lying about evidence to coerce a confession, while trying to convince the suspects that the only chance they have is to confess in order to potentially gain a lesser sentence.

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While the series doesn’t provide airtight proof that every person featured is innocent, it raises serious doubts about the veracity of the case brought against each and every one. Without question, each episode makes a compelling argument that the methods used by law enforcement were often extremely questionable—and in some cases outright illegal.

The Confession Tapes raises the question in many people’s minds of just how often these types of extreme tactics are employed—but not caught on tape.

In the cases where retrospectively the innocence of the suspects seems a foregone conclusion, it can be truly heartbreaking to see an innocent person be mentally broken down so thoroughly by police.

In one of the most poignant moments of the series, a man convicted of murder is partially exonerated through the use of DNA evidence – only to plead to a lesser charge in exchange for time served.

According to Journalists’ Resource, “National Registry of Exonerations statistics suggest that young people in particular are more prone to admitting guilt for crimes they did not commit.”

“Thirty-eight percent of exonerations for crimes allegedly committed by youth under 18 in the last quarter century involved false confessions,” reporter Zusha Eilson is quoted as saying in the article, “compared with 11% for adults, according to a new database of 1,155 individuals who were wrongly convicted and later cleared of all charges.”

So why would an innocent man plead to a charge that still officially deems him a “murderer?”

The sad answer is that after having seen the injustice in the system at work, he clearly understands that being innocent is no protection when facing the prospect of a jury trial.

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