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Think Police Brutality Doesn’t Happen? This Will Change Your Mind
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Think Police Brutality Doesn’t Happen? This Will Change Your Mind

by
November 27, 2018

I think that we can all agree that most law enforcement officers are decent people who want to help people. That doesn’t change the fact, however, that some encounters with law enforcement officers turn violent and people get beat up, and, sometimes, these situations create allegations of police brutality.

Some people, though, want to argue that allegations of police brutality are simply situations in which a criminal doesn’t like the fact that they were busted, and this is almost certainly the case sometimes. Sometimes, though, police brutality is a real thing. Sometimes, police officers abuse people. Matt Agorist gives us the details of a disturbing recent case of this:

A man’s call to 911 for help turned into a nightmare last month after police showed up and nearly killed him. On October 21, a 27-year-old maintenance worker, Christopher Penn was handcuffed, choked, tasered on his testicles, and beaten until he fell unconscious.

That night, Penn was in need of mental health help. Clearly delusional, he had called 911 telling police that he had taken some pills and said a friend let some people into his home who wanted to kill him. Six officers showed up.

As police enter the man’s bedroom, he is on the phone, not resisting and allows officers to place him in handcuffs—despite not having committed a crime. As officers put the handcuffs on him, he is peaceful but now scared that police are trying to set him up.

“Why y’all trying to set me up?” he asked.

“Hey, Dad! I’m handcuffed now, and they’re going to put a gun on me,” he said talking to the phone on his bed. “You heard me?”

“Dad!” he repeated.

“Nobody’s on the phone,” one of the officers said.

Obviously scared and still fairly delusional, Penn repeatedly asked the officers if he could sit down, a request officers repeatedly denied.

According to the police report, Penn was violent, tried grabbing a child as police escorted him out of the home, and beat up officers. However, [a Times Free Press report states that] the police report is not backed up by video of the incident.

Further details of the situation show that Penn fell onto a couch near a child but does not indicate that he tried to grab the child. Also, you have to ask if you would fight if you felt like you were being attacked and set up and if you were tasered in your testicles. Maybe the problem wasn’t that Penn was violent but that the police tactics in this situation were to blame.

Unfortunately, this type of physical abuse of citizens by law enforcement officers happens on a regular basis around the country, but it shouldn’t happen at all. Frankly, because you don’t know if the police officer which you encounter is one of the good guys or one of the bullies, you might be better served by avoiding any interaction with law enforcement whenever possible.

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