A woman who witnessed this arrest was adamant that Thomas was 'hugging the road next to the construction site.' The sidewalk was under construction, and was roped off to pedestrians.
Who do you believe here? The 'Man' (Lt. Olson) said he was 'in the middle of the street.' The witness as well as the defendant said otherwise. In our criminal justice system, we almost always believe the word of the arresting officer, and in this case, that would be the testimony of Lt. Tim Olson.
And yet we have the protests of the defendant, Mr. Thomas and an unrelated witness giving statements as well as the above video that contradict the lieutenant's sworn testimony (as was written up in his police report). The obvious truth to the matter was that this guy was simply walking around a construction site. That's it. And he got arrested for it, for whatever stupid motivation this crappy cop thought he could get away with.
The media of course is playing this up as a race related incident. The walking guy was black, the arresting officer was white. I don't see this as the issue at all.
I see it as more evidence to bolster my assertion that our country is overrun with really bad cops. Cops who know that the legal system will take their word, and whatever they say, as gospel, and accordingly abuse this knowledge to brutalize the population whom they have sworn to protect and serve.
This has been the way of cops for a very, VERY long time. They know that they will be believed in a court of law 100% of the time, and no matter what the circumstances, the defendant will suffer whatever fate the legal system bestows upon them based solely on the word of the arresting officer. And these officers across the fruited plains are lying like dogs constantly.
Technology, however, is now catching up with these bad cops. Nearly every citizen has at his/her disposal a video camera that can capture the truth as it plays out in real time. Bad cop after bad cop are getting caught lying, planting evidence, stealing, hurting and killing people and then falsely presenting their side of things as just keeping the community safe, or in this case just 'following protocol.'
When in reality they are brutalizing their public. This scumbag police lieutenant in Edina, Minnesota should be cashiered out of the force, his pension forfeited and maybe even prosecuted for false arrest and imprisonment. This would send a message to the cruddy cops nationwide that their behavior is on display, and that they better clean up their act. I don't believe for a second that this guy is the small minority of misbehaving officers, as always put forward by the police and media that just less than 1% of cops that are bad. The percentage is WAY higher than that, subject of course to debate as to the actual percentage.
My guess would be 50% or more. Less than 1% is laughable. Every community has bad cops that do just what Lt. Olson did, virtually every day. Our country is lousy with bad cops, and we shouldn't put up with it anymore.
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5 comments:
In actuality, the police officer was trying to keep Mr. Thomas safe from traffic. Xerxes is a very busy street and Mr. Thomas was somewhat inebriated. While there was construction on one side, the sidewalk on the other side of the street was clear. He was also walking in the line of traffic.
The typical Edina SJW who shot the video should have minded her own business as she was making it harder for the officer to do his job. I watched the video and see a half drunk man screaming at a police officer who is doing his job. All Mr. Thomas had to do was move out of the middle of the road when the officer first requested he do so.
From the Edina Patch:
http://patch.com/minnesota/edina/edina-police-video-mayor-says-officer-followed-established-protocol
A video of one of our police officers is circulating online. This incident started several minutes prior to the recording. During that time, our police officer observed a man walking southbound on Xerxes Avenue at West 60th Street in the southbound lane of traffic, though there is a sidewalk on the east side and a sidewalk under construction and a paved shoulder on the west side of the street.
Recognizing the risk to the safety of the public, the officer pulled in behind the man with his lights and an audible signal in an attempt to advise him to get out of the roadway. The man, who was wearing headphones, turned and looked at the officer and continued walking in the lane of traffic. The officer then drove in front of the man by approximately 15 feet, to block him from continuing in the southbound lane of traffic. The man deliberately went around the squad car and continued to walk in the lane of traffic. The officer got out of his vehicle and started to follow the man, asking him to get out of the lane of traffic and stop. The man did not stop and was defiant. It was after that point that the recording began. The officer smelled alcohol on the man’s breath during the incident. A breathalyzer later confirmed the presence of alcohol.
As a bystander, it’s your right to film officer interactions. However, it’s important to note that attempting to interact with the officer and/or suspect creates a greater risk to the safety of the officer, suspect and bystanders. Public safety is our first priority. It makes it more difficult for officers to deal with the situation on hand when they are at the same time dealing with the distractions of bystanders.
Edina is one of the wealthiest suburbs in the Twin Cities metro. It has a white population of 88.1 percent. Black residents make up 3 percent of the population.
The man, identified by the Star Tribune as Larnie B. Thomas, 34, of Minneapolis, was later cited for disorderly conduct and pedestrian failure to obey a traffic signal before being released. That citation will be dismissed, according to the mayor.
I used to have a neighbor that always said that there's no such thing as an honest cop. Half of them are criminals themselves, and the other half knows it and refuses to do anything about it.
Adrienne: without a video, I don't believe a word of anything any police department puts out there as 'clarification.' They lie, and then they lie to cover up the lies. All of this 'prior to the video' material sounds reasonable, but I don't buy it. They just lie so much, their credibility is complete garbage.
In my small Texan farming community there are 800 people employed in LE. 8000 people live here.
Surely there's nothing rotten in the state of, er...
Pastor: boy, that's a lot of law enforcement folk on the public payroll. I bet a guy can't spit on the sidewalk around your neck of the woods without getting tazed. And then the police report will insist that they guy tazed himself.
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