A bystander"s video saved an innocent man from jail as it exposed the cops who savagely beat him for no reason by proving they lied in their reports.
The post Video Catches Cops Savagely Beat Innocent Man with a Flashlight, The Lie to Cover It Up appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
A police officer was caught choking various protesters, seemingly at random, in multiple videos posted on social media.
A man was repeatedly harassed and threatened with arrest by police officers, after he purchased a decrepit house that one of officers had abandoned.
An off-duty police officer was arrested after she forced her way into a locked Godiva shop and then harassed employees who told her the business was closed.
From smartphones, to dashboard-mounted computers, to on-board cameras, police have a much greater risk for distraction than the average driver.
Louisville, KY — A Kentucky State Trooper on a power trip allegedly got violent with a road construction crew over the weekend. However, as the video of incident shows, unlike most scenarios with cops on power trips, it was the Trooper who got taken down, not the citizens.
According to video and the witness accounts from the road crew, Trooper Anthony Harrison punched a worker and put them all in danger as he drove through a construction site Sunday night.
According to the crew, Harrison drove too fast toward their work zone near Fort Knox about 11:30 p.m. Sunday, adding that he stopped his personal car abruptly, confronted the workers and started arguing.
Two of the workers told WDRB that Harrison was angry about not seeing the crew and their equipment in a closed-off and marked traffic lane.
In the video, Harrison is seen yelling at one of the workers over their disagreement and gets belligerent with the woman who asks him not to yell at her.
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“Don’t yell at me,” the woman says.
“I will yell at you!” Harrison barks back as he tries to intimidate her. “Or what!?”
Harrison flashed his badge and let it be known that he was a trooper, however, he still got unnecessarily violent.
When Harrison noticed that he was being recorded, he became even more enraged. He then appears to attack the man filming and at this point, all hell breaks loose.
“Me pulling the phone and filming him, that just sent him over the top,” said Joey Gaddis, who shot the video. “He lunged at me for the phone. I felt like he was trying to grab at my neck.”
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At this point, the crew takes Harrison down and disarms him in a citizen’s arrest as they called the police. The crew’s level of force appeared to be entirely justified and kept to a minimum, only using enough force to hold Harrison down. Unlike many police officers would’ve done in this scenario, no head strikes, baton blows, or tasers were used to subdue the officer.
“That badge doesn’t give the right to get in someone’s face like that,” the woman said as they held down Harrison.
The crew then continued to hold Harrison down, without incident, until police officers arrived. However, once police arrived everything changed — they let him go.
Gaddis explained that once the other troopers showed up, they immediately moved to protect their brother in blue by treating the road workers as the criminals.
“It seemed like we were in the wrong. That’s the way we felt,” he said. “They lined us all up in a row to take pictures of us like we jumped out of the car on him.”
According to WDRB, KSP said they’ve started an internal affairs investigation and that what’s on the video does not reflect the image the department strives for with the public.
“Obviously, it is concerning what we see on the video,” said Lt. Michael Webb, a spokesperson for KSP. “However, I would caution any of the viewers who see that video to allow us to conduct our internal investigation to its final stages and follow the facts to where they will take us.”
The most disconcerting aspect of this scenario is that had Harrison been a regular citizen and not a cop the result would’ve played out much differently.
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If a regular citizen would’ve just gotten out of their car they would’ve been subject to police force and arrest. However, if that regular citizen then became violent with the crew, like Harrison was seen doing, they most assuredly would’ve been arrested. But not if you are a police officer.
The videos below make two powerful points. The first point is that police officers are not magically protected from citizens they abuse. This cop appeared to be entirely in the wrong and the citizens acted to stop it and did so with minimal force, providing an excellent example of how police should do it.
The second point is that even though there was video evidence of Harrison losing it and assaulting a person for filming, most likely due to the fact that he is a cop, Harrison was not arrested and will likely face no punishment.
Louisville, KY — A Kentucky State Trooper on a power trip allegedly got violent with a road construction crew over the weekend. However, as the video of incident shows, unlike most scenarios with cops on power trips, it was the Trooper who got taken down, not the citizens.
According to video and the witness accounts from the road crew, Trooper Anthony Harrison punched a worker and put them all in danger as he drove through a construction site Sunday night.
According to the crew, Harrison drove too fast toward their work zone near Fort Knox about 11:30 p.m. Sunday, adding that he stopped his personal car abruptly, confronted the workers and started arguing.
Two of the workers told WDRB that Harrison was angry about not seeing the crew and their equipment in a closed-off and marked traffic lane.
In the video, Harrison is seen yelling at one of the workers over their disagreement and gets belligerent with the woman who asks him not to yell at her.
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“Don’t yell at me,” the woman says.
“I will yell at you!” Harrison barks back as he tries to intimidate her. “Or what!?”
Harrison flashed his badge and let it be known that he was a trooper, however, he still got unnecessarily violent.
When Harrison noticed that he was being recorded, he became even more enraged. He then appears to attack the man filming and at this point, all hell breaks loose.
“Me pulling the phone and filming him, that just sent him over the top,” said Joey Gaddis, who shot the video. “He lunged at me for the phone. I felt like he was trying to grab at my neck.”
READ MORE: Jacksonville Implements Orwellian Police State, Going to 18,000 Homes Looking for Drugs and Guns
At this point, the crew takes Harrison down and disarms him in a citizen’s arrest as they called the police. The crew’s level of force appeared to be entirely justified and kept to a minimum, only using enough force to hold Harrison down. Unlike many police officers would’ve done in this scenario, no head strikes, baton blows, or tasers were used to subdue the officer.
“That badge doesn’t give the right to get in someone’s face like that,” the woman said as they held down Harrison.
The crew then continued to hold Harrison down, without incident, until police officers arrived. However, once police arrived everything changed — they let him go.
Gaddis explained that once the other troopers showed up, they immediately moved to protect their brother in blue by treating the road workers as the criminals.
“It seemed like we were in the wrong. That’s the way we felt,” he said. “They lined us all up in a row to take pictures of us like we jumped out of the car on him.”
According to WDRB, KSP said they’ve started an internal affairs investigation and that what’s on the video does not reflect the image the department strives for with the public.
“Obviously, it is concerning what we see on the video,” said Lt. Michael Webb, a spokesperson for KSP. “However, I would caution any of the viewers who see that video to allow us to conduct our internal investigation to its final stages and follow the facts to where they will take us.”
The most disconcerting aspect of this scenario is that had Harrison been a regular citizen and not a cop the result would’ve played out much differently.
READ MORE: Mainstream Media Just Told the World Clinton "Clinched" the Nomination -- But They"re Fooling You
If a regular citizen would’ve just gotten out of their car they would’ve been subject to police force and arrest. However, if that regular citizen then became violent with the crew, like Harrison was seen doing, they most assuredly would’ve been arrested. But not if you are a police officer.
The videos below make two powerful points. The first point is that police officers are not magically protected from citizens they abuse. This cop appeared to be entirely in the wrong and the citizens acted to stop it and did so with minimal force, providing an excellent example of how police should do it.
The second point is that even though there was video evidence of Harrison losing it and assaulting a person for filming, most likely due to the fact that he is a cop, Harrison was not arrested and will likely face no punishment.
The University of California Berkeley Police were recently featured in a video that shows their officers serving local citizens by protecting them from the dangers of—a hot dog vendor without a permit.
The video was posted on Facebook by Martin Flores, with the caption, “The sadness to observe UC Berkeley Police give a hotdog vendor a ticket and his hard earned money taken away #Justice4Juan.”
“That’s not right man, that’s not right,” Flores said as he used his phone to record a UC Berkeley police officer issuing a ticket to a hot dog vender outside of a football game at the California Memorial Stadium.
“That’s how it works,” the male officer responded. “Take it to a judge, and the judge can decide whether or not it’s right.”
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The officer then took the money out of the vendor’s wallet, and when he began to protest in Spanish, the officer told him to “Back up.”
“You’re going to take his hard-earned money?” Flores asked. The officer replied, “Yep.”
“People can drink on campus at football games with no tickets, but a hard-working man selling hot dogs, earning a living, gets his money taken away and a ticket,” Flores remarked.
“He doesn’t have a permit,” the officer replied as he rifled through the vendor’s wallet. “Yep. This is law and order in action.”
In response the claim from Flores that officers were targeting a hot dog vendor, while there were other people around who were breaking the law that they were ignoring, they insisted that Flores should have called them, and that they would look into his claims “later.”
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As others on the scene watched the officer extort Juan the hot dog vendor, one man began to chime in with comments such as, “You must have voted for Trump,” “Good cop, way to go, good job,” and “Nice work dude, you protected the public.”
Flores, who graduated from UC Berkeley in 1996, said he was “disappointed” as an alumnus, to see the campus in its current state. The officer quickly replied, “Well, I’m disappointed in you … I don’t believe you’re using critical thinking right now.”
In response to the injustice, Flores has started a GoFundMe page to raise money for Juan. The page’s description states:
“This is the official go fund me account for Justice4Juan the hotdog vendor at UC Berkeley. The funds raised will be utilized to cover legal and personal loses. In addition, funds in excess are to cover other vendors who have been robbed of their hard earned living through citations and removal of their carts. It is my goal to locate Juan in Berkeley. Any and all help to support and locate him is welcome. On Saturday, September 9, 2017 I took my children to enjoy a Cal Berkeley football game. We had a great time. After the game I promised them that I would support the hotdog vendors by buying food from them. I captured this video as we were interrupted by UC Berkeley Police officer. Thank you for your compassion to support this effort.”
The GoFundMe page has a goal of $10,000, and over $3,800 has been raised by over 250 people in the last 7 hours.
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Ormond Beach, FL – Ironic body-camera footage reveals a retired Putnam County Sheriff failing every field sobriety test he takes, while telling deputies during the tests that he “wrote the book on DUI.”
Sheriff Jeff Hardy was subsequently arrested for driving under the influence. Hardy was previously sheriff of Putnam County. Revealing the blue privilege consistently extended to members of the “thin blue line,” the stop resulting in Hardy’s arrest was his second contact with law enforcement that day—with his first contact with officers, earlier in the day, resulting in officers escorting an intoxicated Hardy to his brothers home.
Sgt. Keith Peck of the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, who was wearing the body camera, can be heard noting that the Ormond DUI stop was the officers’ second official meeting with Hardy that day.
“I’m done. I’m done,” Hardy said to Peck about one minute into the video.
“No, you’re not done because this is our second time out here tonight, which means this is going to keep going on,” Peck said.
Subsequently, Hardy’s brother, Todd Hardy called 911 on his brother.
“Jeff Hardy is insane. He grabbed my throat. And I’m done with him. We’ve already had the police here once,” Todd Hardy said to the dispatcher. “Leave my property.”
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Officers reportedly found the former sheriff one street over behind the wheel of his vehicle. Hardy, who claims during the footage that he “wrote the book on DUI,” is seen barefoot as he fails every field sobriety test he is given.
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“One, two, s***, three, four, five. I was home and I just pulled out of my f****** driveway,” Hardy said as he attempted to count his steps while walking in a straight line.
The body camera footage shows Hardy lightly punching Peck in the chest, with Peck quickly instructing Hardy not to touch him. If someone that wasn’t a former cop had done the same, it’s likely they would have been met with violent force.
Hardy can be heard on the video gives numerous excuses as to why he is unable to pass the tests—with him claiming at one point that he’s having trouble with the tests due to one of his legs being shorter than the other. Later he attempts to claim that he has a broken leg.
“Well, your leg’s not broken or you wouldn’t be walking,” Peck said.
“No, it’s f****** broken,” Hardy said.
Hardy can be seen in the footage holding onto Peck’s police cruiser, unable to stand on one leg as the deputy had instructed. The entire episode is reminiscent, in many ways, of an old three stooges skit.
“This is an exercise that doesn’t require you holding onto my police car, OK?” Peck said.
“Well, I wrote the f****** book on this,” Hardy responded.
“You wrote the book on DUI?” Peck said.
“Yeah. I don’t drive and drink,” Hardy said.
Peck then handcuffs Hardy only minutes later—and in typical police fashion claims Hardy of resisting arrest.
“You know, when you start pulling away, that’s resisting,” Peck said.
“Trust me, I’ve done this for 32 f****** years,” Hardy said.
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“I’ve done it for 38,” Peck said.
The former sheriff refused to submit to a breathalyzer test, but body-camera footage showed a Putnam County Sheriff’s Office koozie and an open can of Miller Lite under a seat in Hardy’s truck. Additionally, police found that Hardy was carrying his badge in the center console of his vehicle.
“Don’t know why he’s still carrying that around,” Peck said.
Putnam County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Capt. Hancel Woods said there is no formal policy about what retirees must do with their badges, according to CBS 47.
“The law enforcement officer’s badge is a representation of their authority. But it’s not – the formal authority actually comes from their credentials,” Woods said.
Woods said retirees typically get to keep their badges as mementos.
While Woods says that the badge is simply a representation of the authority, with formal authority coming only from credentials, to a layman on the street it’s likely that they would act differently to someone saying they are a cop and flashing a real badge—and judging by Hardy’s actions during the stop it’s certainly not beyond the realm of reasonable possibilities.
Columbus, GA – Two college students learned the hard way that life in a Police State often includes unnecessary interrogation, false accusations and citations for victimless “crimes,” even when the suspects in question were helping to clean up the community.
YouTubers Brandon Jordan and Tristan Yaptengco, both students at Columbus State University, were interrupted by police while they were filming what they referred to as a “river treasure” video. This consisted of Jordan and Yaptengco diving into a local river, and recovering the objects they found at the bottom—sometimes unique finds, and sometimes pieces of trash that they removed from the river.
Jordan told The Free Thought Project that he and his friends have gained a reputation in the community for helping to clean it up, while featuring their adventures on YouTube.
“We all do ‘river treasure’ videos in the river where we are always cleaning up old lures, nets, bundles of fishing line and anything we find on the bottom of the river,” Jordan said. “So we are always cleaning it up. Everyone down there knows us from our YouTube channels and how we do a lot of good publicity for the city.”
Well I’m not sure if it really covers it in the video but myself jake and Tristan all do “river treasure” videos in the river where we are always cleaning up old lures, nets, bundles of fishing line and anything we find on the bottom of the river. So we are always cleaning it up. Everyone down there knows us from our YouTube channels and how we do a lot of good publicity for the city. So that’s also why at one point in the video i say “as much as we do for the city”
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While in the water, Jordan and Yaptengco were interrupted by a police officer who was calling to them from the edge of the river, and demanding that they meet him on land. The men complied, and when they did reach the officer—who was patrolling the area on his bicycle—he began asking them about their knowledge of the law.
“Are you guys familiar with the code sections that cover swimming in the river [with] flotation devices?” the officer inquired.
When he asked if the two men had any I.D. on them, Jordan and Yaptengco replied and said that their driver’s licenses were in the truck they travelled in, which was in a nearby parking garage.
The officer then responded and said, “Well, I’m going to issue both of you guys a citation.” When Jordan inquired what the citation was for, the officer said it was “Code violation 1445,” which would have meant that Jordan was receiving a citation for not wearing a life jacket.
However, Jordan noted that he had, in fact, been wearing a life jacket the entire time—as is clearly documented in the video. In response, the officer said, “No, you didn’t have that on, sir.”
Jordan stood his ground, and insisted that the cameras he and Yaptengco were using to film their underwater video showed that he was wearing a life jacket at the time they were approached by the officer. In response, the officer insisted that he also had documentation of the encounter on the police-issued body camera he was wearing.
When Jordan began questioning the logic behind the officer’s claim that Jordan was not wearing a life jacket when he was in the water, and then he magically had the time to find one and put one on as he and Yaptengco approached the shore, the officer changed his strategy, and began talking directly to Yaptengco—who was not wearing a life jacket.
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Jordan continued to question the officer, who insisted that the only way he would not issue Jordan a citation was if he reviewed the footage from his body camera, and saw that Jordan was, in fact, wearing the same life jacket the entire time.
“What I do for you, okay, I turned my camera on when I walked over here,” the officer said. “And if it shows you with that on, you won’t get a citation. Plain and simple … You got a camera and I got a camera. If my camera shows that you had that on, then you’re good.”
“So I’m guilty until proven innocent?” Jordan replied. “This is incredible … as much as we do for this city, and you’re going to give me a hard time about this, when I clearly have this on.”
The officer proceeded to justify the encounter by insisting that Yaptengco needed a citation because he was not wearing a life jacket. Even though Jordan was wearing a life jacket—which the officer criticized, because both the jacket and his shirt underneath were black—the officer went on to threaten Jordan by saying that if he ever caught him without a life jacket, he would receive a citation.
Jordan said that Yaptengco now owes a $250 fine for the citation he received for swimming in the river without a life jacket.
As The Free Thought Project has documented on numerous occasions, the Police State is alive and well in the U.S., and police often waste their time pursuing victimless crimes, such as issuing citations to children who are running a lemonade stand without a permit in California, or children who are mowing lawns without a permit in Alabama.
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In the case of Jordan and Yaptengco’s “river treasure” filming adventure, which substituted as a trash cleanup, it could be argued that if they had chosen not to wear life jackets, and they had encountered trouble in the river, they would have faced the consequences for their own actions. As for the officer who questioned them, it could also be argued that he had better things to do with his taxpayer-funded time.
Long Beach, CA — Solomon Brooks, 31, was freed from jail Friday. He was facing life in prison after two police officers — who brutally beat him with their batons for a bicycle light — lied, and said he attacked them. Luckily for Brooks, a bystander decided to film the police and the video caught the offending officers in the act.
On June 3, 2016, Brooks had harmed no one when he was targetted by Long Beach police officers who were going to ‘protect society’ by extorting Brooks over his lack of proper bicycle lighting. This much of the story, both sides agree on.
According to police, however, when they tried to stop Brooks, they said he fled and then threw his bicycle at them. Police then claimed Brooks attacked them. This account was never verified and, in fact, it was disputed by multiple eyewitnesses and video.
What actually happened—according to the video and witnesses—was much different.
According to one eyewitness, the officers began beating Brooks with their batons before he even got off of his bicycle.
As the video shows, Brooks was scared of the officers and did, indeed, try to get away. However, he is then seen crouching down behind a car and raises an arm, saying to the officers, “Don’t Tase me,” or, “Don’t hit me.”
In their reports, neither of the Long Beach police officers, Brady Vriens and Leticia Newton, mentioned the subsequent beating that ensued in the video.
“Do you really believe that both of them forgot about this interaction?” Brooks’ attorney, Meghan Blanco, pointed out during the trial.
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During the chase, the officers said they Tasered, pepper-sprayed and used a baton on Brooks multiple times, but did not mention the beating that was caught on film.
“He would run, stop, turn, face us and confront us, and when the force was used, he’d run again,” Vriens said. Again, however, this was never verified by witnesses and, in fact, disputed.
As the Press-Telegram reported:
Two people dining at the Korean restaurant where the altercation ended testified they watched Brooks fleeing but never saw him raise his fists.
Although Blanco challenged the officers’ credibility using the video, the footage also cast doubt on the defense’s key witness.
Elizabeth Brainard, the burger shop employee who said police instigated the violence, testified that she witnessed firsthand what happened in the video.
Prosecutors attempted to discredit Brainard because she didn’t immediately come forward to police. However, when she took the stand, she explained why it took her some time.
“I also know what I saw was wrong, and for that, I want to speak up,” Brainard said.
To show just how unjust Brooks thought this case was, he was offered a deal in May that would have freed him from jail immediately if he pleaded guilty to one count of resisting arrest. Instead, Brooks, who was facing life in prison because of California’s ‘third strike’ law, chose to fight the charges. His gamble paid off.
If jurors would’ve convicted Brooks on the felony charges of attacking police officers, he would have gone to jail for the rest of his life. However, the jury only found him guilty of misdemeanor resisting for fleeing the officers.
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“I’m ecstatic,” Brooks’ mother, Kathleen Brooks, said in the courtroom. “Every time I came up here, I thought I was taking him home. Now it’s really happening.”
Below is what it looks like to ride your bicycle without a light in the land of the free. If you attempt to resist your extortion, you will be swiftly and violently dealt with. Thankfully, because a vigilant citizen decided to film the police, an innocent man was spared from the unfortunate fate of spending the rest of his life in a cage.
