This absolutely sickening report, with accompanying video, tells its own story.
A 65-year-old Army veteran filed a lawsuit this month after he was assaulted during a traffic stop. Gregory Gross was in handcuffs and complying with officers when he was slammed to the ground and his neck broken.
Gross filed the lawsuit earlier this month and the body camera footage was released shortly after. The hard to watch video shows officer Joshua Jackson slamming the elderly handcuffed man to the ground, breaking his neck in a move officers referred to a “pain compliance.”
The lawsuit also names fellow officers Scott Hansen and Nathan Livingston, and Yuba City. According to the lawsuit, Hansen assisted in Jackson’s repeated use of force and Livingston failed to intervene.
As the video shows, Gross is standing there, doing absolutely nothing when Jackson begins throwing him around. For no reason, Gross is then thrown to the ground, his face smashed in as the officer contorts his body to get him to “comply.”
Gross repeatedly tells the officer that he is hurting him and that he is in pain but Jackson couldn’t care less. He continued to twist Gross’ arms, bending them backward as he forced the Army vet into an impossible and painful position.
“It’s called pain compliance,” an officer is heard saying on the body camera footage as Jackson seemingly tortures the non-violent man.
“You can start going with the program,” the officer tells Gross as he tells them, “I didn’t do nothing” and “that hurts.”
“It will continue to hurt if you don’t shut up and listen,” the officer says as he tortures the elderly man.
“I can’t breathe,” Gross tells the officers, who reply, “if you can talk, you can breathe.”
The “pain compliance” was entirely unnecessary as Gross was not resisting, was already in handcuffs and was walking to the car as he was told to do by the officers. Nevertheless, excessive force was used, and an elderly veteran suffered as a result.
At some point during the assault, Gross’ neck breaks and he tells police that he can’t feel his legs.
“Dear God, I can’t feel my legs,” Gross says as officers mock him.
“Yes you can,” an officer says.
But he could not and he’s never felt his legs since that fateful day in April 2020.
There's more at the link, including video of the incident.
I'm a firm believer in the Golden Rule. The traditional Christian formulation is "Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them."
That being the case, would someone please tell me why we shouldn't apply the Golden Rule to these rogue cops, and treat them - and injure them - in precisely the same way they treated and injured Mr. Gross?
Oh - and while we're at it, let's cancel their health insurance, and make them pay for their care themselves. They deserve nothing less.
I'm a strong supporter of law and order, and of the police and deputies who keep us safe . . . but when some of them behave like this, they tarnish every other officer's reputation, and make us distrust all of them. Why did their fellow officers not stop them from behaving like this? There must have been signs of it prior to this incident - I refuse to believe it just blew up out of nowhere. Every officer who should have spoken up, but did not, deserves the same punishment as (I trust) will be visited upon these rogue cops.
Peter
Put me on THAT jury!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I want to be on that jury too! Pathetic and they deserve to pay!
ReplyDeleteOh, he is Caucasian. "Nothing to see here, folks. Move along."
ReplyDeleteJury? We don't need no steenking jury! String 'em up in the town square, slowly. Can ya breath now? How about now?
ReplyDeleteIs this an isolated event with these cops?
ReplyDeleteHad prior dastardly events occured?
Had prior events escalated to the point which paved the way for this event to occur?
And had every other cop stood silent?
I think 'Yes' is the answer to all the above. Events like this are not spurious. They arise from previous events, which unchecked, deepen the depravity.
Since when did Yuma city become such a cesspool the cops even needed to use these techniques? I am getting to the point I fear interactions with the cops more than dealing with some strung out junkie.
ReplyDeleteI do not submit to things I fear.
I used to keep a mail file on Yahoo that I called, "The thin blue line" where I noted "isolated events", but I stopped when I began to get sickened from recording too many. And it was always presented in the news as a 'isolated event'.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Paul but will add, a junkie isn't operating under color of law. They do it because they know they can get away with it.
This also goes along with 'policing for profit'. They do it because they know they can get away with it.
Why are you so mad? Y'all were cheering when this kind of shit was happening during the BLM protests. All the "thin blue line" myth does is establish cops as above-the-law thugs.
ReplyDeleteSupport for law and order is not the same as support for the police.
ReplyDeleteThe police have evolved to this state and we Llowed it to happen.
Regardless, qualified immunity needs to dissappear to be very narrowly defined.
Just your daily reminder that anyone who thinks the local gestapo is 'on their side' is a suicidal idiot.
ReplyDeleteI used to believe in Blue Lives Matter, then I started paying attention to what cops were actually doing. I assure you, there is absolutely nothing 'rogue' about what those monsters did. The only astonishing thing about the story is that it made it past the thin blue line without being completely swept under the rug.
Stories like this (of which there are many), along with the nation-wide glee with which police brutalized the filthy unmasked/vaxxed untermensch (to say nothing of the equally nation-wide support for the child murdering animals of BLMtifa) should make it clear to anyone with at least half of a functioning brain-cell that "I'm proud to call myself a cop" and "I'm a grotesque sack of subhuman gestapo filth" are perfect synonyms of each-other.
@TCK: I'm sorry, but you're the problem far more than the cops are. Yes, there are "bad cops": but there are also very good cops, and far more of them than I think you'll accept or believe. I'm proud to call some of them my friends, and I've worked alongside others in my role as a prison chaplain. They're good men by anyone's standards.
ReplyDeleteYou can't paint all cops with a broad brush like that, just as you can't paint all Democrats or Republicans or leftists or rightists or religious believers or atheists with a broad brush. In the end, it all boils down to the individual, and anyone who doesn't recognize that still has a lot of growing up to do.
Last time I checked, I've never tortured or murdered anyone in cold blood, nor am I a gleefully willing accomplice to the same.
ReplyDeleteBut go ahead, tell the guy who watched dozens of 'good cops' stand shoulder to shoulder with self-admitted terrorists and watch while they committed a fully premeditated act of gruesome attempted murder of an innocent woman with a spear they brought to their 'mostly peaceful counter rally' for precisely that purpose, with the only arrest made being that a man who drew (but didn't even point) a concealed handgun after he was surrounded by subhuman terrorist thugs shouting about how they were going to murder him (said thugs, of course, were not arrested nor so much as forced to surrender their various blunt and bladed weapons).
If they weren't grotesque sacks of subhuman filth, then why are they working for the gestapo, and gleefully enforcing the will of their Fuhrer?
But go ahead, tell me I'm the problem because I dare to speak what is obvious to all who look upon it. I'm sure your gestapo 'friends' will have a good laugh over it after they finish putting bullets in you and your wife's backs the moment their masters give the order.
This is nothing new. See "A Clockwork Orange" for examples.
ReplyDeleteWhile there are good intentioned people serving as LEOs, the system selects for thuggery.
Peter, I will agre that some of TCK's comments may be over the top.
ReplyDeleteHowever....
There are Good Cops and there are Bad Cops, and a fair number in between who are Average. The problem is there is no way to tell which is which except by their actions and by then it's too late. If one knew a Good Cop would respond to one's needs there wouldn't be a problem; unfortunately, all too often one gets either the exact opposite or one on the lower end of Average who isn't as interested in the citizen's plight as in their own career.
That, very much to the great detriment of our society, means one is best served by not trusting any of them at any time. Herschel Smith at captainsjournal.com has repeatedly pointed out that, very frequently, arrival of police, any police, in any form, makes a situation worse, sometimes very much worse, especially for the citizen in need. That is, fortunately, not always true, but given the severity of the consequences, it's the prudent way to bet.
Police are armed government agents; that was recently confirmed by police actions in Ottawa where - at the command of the local government - they seized fuel supplies, preventing truckers from refilling their tanks and keeping their trucks warm (if the government wants the truckers to leave Ottawa and go back to work, confiscating their fuel supplies would seem rather counterintuitive). Incidents such as this are not common, but should an individual be the focus of police malpractice "averages" are irrelevant in the face of "it's happening to me." And, that police are largely immune from legal consequence due to the judicially-created concept of qualified immunity is not a positive factor.
Should the level of citizen distrust or police substantially increase it won't be a good thing, either for the citizens or our society but especially for whomever may be left in the ranks of police.
OK hit and run and DUI aside,there is no justification for this...these cops should be jailed.
ReplyDeletePeter one question.
ReplyDeleteHow many of the "Good" cops are over 50 years of age, and how many younger?
My guess is that the number of "Good" cops skews to the older age limits.
I would also speculate that the vast majority of "Good" cops are actually retired Ex-cops.
As for the 23-33 yr old Line Cops right now? I would not trust any of them, Veteran or not.
Painting with a broad brush? Yep. Guilty as charged. You see, I do not get to pick the Cop who responds to my incident. I can't have coffee with him and get his views. So, do I get Jackson, or Officer Friendly? Nobody Knows.
So, I'll judge all cops by Jackson's metric, as his type seem to be the ones hired nowadays.
You'll note that the others stood and watched. They did in George Floyd's case too. Seems to be an awful lot of "Non-interference" happen anymore.
We need to get rid of immunity so the police and their leaders can be held responsible in the only way tyrants understand.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who thinks the police will side with freedom as a whole hasn't been paying attention. Ignore what they say and watch what they do.
Be careful not to confuse Law and Order with paid thuggery in service of the State.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking this:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw2evtnTm2c
Done live, by judicial order, and shown to eery sworn officer in the state, including every police academy recruit, mandatorily, with any failure to view it in its entirety punishable by revocation of their certification as peace officers within that state, immediate firing, and ineligibility to work in that field for life.
Peter, in my experience, especially recent experience, the only difference between a "good cop" and a "bad cop" is the day. Over a lifetime, I have learned that any man entrusted with the kind of power we give the police are untrustworthy over time. The only solution I can offer is the equivalent of term limits. You can only carry the badge, no matter where you are in the hierarchy, for so long, and then it's mandatory bye-bye.
ReplyDelete