11 seconds

This is video footage of a police chase in Alabama. The suspect shows no regard for other drivers and is seen to deliberately drive at a police officer who is deploying a stinger and gets hit. The suspect then crashes, is thrown out of the vehicle and lies motionless on the ground. What happens next is the story.



The suspect, Anthony Warren, had an extensive criminal record including convictions for theft, receiving stolen property, and escape.

The police officers have not only been sacked, but who face compensation claims (from a career criminal) and prosecution, while Warren, is now serving 20 years for first degree assault.

My worry about this case is that it takes place in Alabama against a historical backdrop of hideous racial oppression. Warren is black, as is the chief of police and the mayor. The police officers involved were white. It transpires that the mayor had first hand experience of racial violence against himself, from the police, in the days when racial abuse was routine and endemic. You can see from the video that the mayor is straining to control his emotion. On this occasion, the cops did not. They took out their emotions in eleven seconds of animal ferocity which has collectively ended 50 years of police service.

What is your verdict?

4 comments:

Administrator said...

If the culprit had been white, hopefully he'd have got the same treatment.

Spartan said...

The question that l have is who was driving the police vehicle with the video coverage? ... l'm amazed it came to light!

foxhunter said...

Crazy. 11 seconds difference between getting a medal for bravery and being sacked. I think the fact that they all ran to beat the guy up points to 'institutional racism ' as we like to call it in the UK. If it had been one of the officers then you could put it down to blood to the head. But all of them beating him even when he was out of it points to a general attitude.
I don't think the police can get access to the video to tamper with it so there wasn't a chance of a cover up.

strapworld said...

foxhunter shows a contempt for the police which I deplore. Institutional racism' was a nonsnese. I served for thirty years in the Metropolitan Police. Yes there were police who had racist views, as I found in teaching, in council life, in politics. I came across Black people who hated white people and tried to take it out on me- yet they did not know that I had black family who I loved! Likewise Asian people and Greek and Turkish Cypriots who together hated black people with a passion and then turned on each other when there was nobody else about! West Indians who hate each other. Africans the same. The world is full of prejudice- so do not along with your holier than thou bullshit.

What these officers did was totally wrong. BUT I can understand it. The man not only nearly killed a colleague, they placed each police driver in danger- as well as everyone else on the road.

Perhaps if one had shot him -as they can do in the USA- nothing would have been said.

BUT. I find the wholesale sacking quite extraordinary. NO Disciplinary hearing, No attempt to hear mitigation.
One could have said he was jumping in to stop the first, the third could have been preventing the guy (Who WW says was motionless- implying unconciousness. That is a very wide statement to make on the basis of this clip.

Five have lost their jobs. Great. Is that what foxhunter and WW call justice? I dont. If anything Justice must be blind and even handed.

It is easy sitting at your desk, looking at a video tut tutting. But I can tell you, from experience, that when you are in the middle of things being rational is difficult. Especially when one of yours has been seriously injured! Strange that WW does not mention the injuries, if any, of the officer. Doesn't matter?

Sorry WW. Cannot agree with you this time. Cannot agree with the decision of the Mayor. IF he has put his previous shocking experiences before careful consideration then he should NOW consider his position. As for the Police Chief- he is a tool of the Mayor as electable officials. The Mayor could kill him off electorally!