When He Gets Out, I Hear Sheriff Joe Arpaio Is Hiring

Last week, attorneys for special ed student Marshawn Pitts released the security video below, which shows Pitts being beaten by Christopher Lloyd, a police officer in Dolton, Illinois who was working security at the school. Pitts' attorneys say Lloyd administered the beating because Pitts hadn't tucked in his shirt, as required by the school's dress code.

When the video first emerged last week, the Dolton police department refused to release Lloyd's name. With good reason. Lloyd is in jail in Indiana. He was arrested last month for raping an Indiana woman at knife point. He had also threatened the woman weeks earlier, but apparently wasn't arrested or disciplined for it.

But it gets worse. Lloyd was also fired last year from another suburban Chicago police department . . . for killing his ex-wife's husband in front of their children. The town of Robbins fired Lloyd after the February 2008 shooting, but Chicago police bought Lloyd's claim that the shooting was self-defense, so he was never charged. That enabled Lloyd to find work at the Dalton police department 11 months later.

According to a lawsuit filed by Lloyd's ex-wife, autopsy reports contradict the police investigation. The autopsy shows that Lloyd shot the man 24 times. When contacted by the Chicago Tribune, a spokesman from Chicago PD said details of the department's investigation of the shooting "could not immediately be found."

(Via Carlos Miller.)

Comments

[hmm]

I smell promotion!

Chief Lloyd has a nice ring to it.

[Kyle Jordan]

I so hope this shitstain gets raped to death with a sandpaper covered baseball bat.

[Xeones]

Don't worry, Lloyd will have at least two weeks of paid administrative leave to consider the error of his ways.

[Warren]

FUCK
First thing Mon morning.
Thanks Radley

[Fist of Etiquette]

Balko could concentrate solely on Chicago PD and still have enough material to offer up his usual morning, rage-inducing fare.

[Lamar]

Whenever I hear "Chicago PD" I remember a few years back when a group of off-duty Chicago cops came into a bar in Schererville, Indiana and started beating up people for no reason. The bar owners hustled them out the back door before the local cops arrived, but that was apparently for appearances' sake only. The bouncer at the back door was an off-duty Schererville officer. Schererville police covered for the cops and nothing happened.

[Colonel_Angus]

That's disappointing. I was hoping to read that the back door cop-bouncer would have had some grudge against the big city boys and distributed them some whoopass.

[hmm]

Balko needs a site called, "Morning Kick in the Junk." A collection of all his posts that slowly whittle away in one's belief in humanity within the police force. His best, or worst if you look at it that way, posts always seem to come pre-coffee and paper. It's like a cold shower, or a kick in the nuts right after waking up.

[hmm]

There needs to be an uptick rule for Balko posts. One positive puppy/kitten post prior to any evil bastard violating people posts.

[Kyle Jordan]

I suggested something like this a while back. Balko needs to do at least one positive and uplifting story a week.

[Christopher Lloyd]

Ya gotta practice tough love wit these people.

[Doc Brown]

Great Scott!

[Xeones]

One positive puppy/kitten post prior to any evil bastard violating people posts.

Good plan. That way, whenever Balko posts something pleasant, those as wants to can know to log off of Reason for the rest of the day, maybe go hug their children.

My concern is that Balko, being a sadistic bastard, would pull a switch on us and the puppy would get shot at the end.

[Bob]

If you are from College Park, MD 2 dogs get shot in the end.

[Jim Ignatowski]

Apparently my career took a sudden turn for the worse after they stopped making Back to the Future sequels...

[Michael]

This is worth highlighting just for the sheer WTF factor...

Though an autopsy shows he shot McKinney 24 times, the lawsuit alleges, he was not charged because Chicago police accepted his explanation that he had acted in self-defense.

Read that again in case you missed it the first time through.

[WWJGD]

My firearms knowledge is rusty but I'm not aware of any handgun that holds that many rounds. 22 is the highest I think I've heard of.

[bigbigslacker]

I've got a Tec-9 and Tec-22 that hold 25 rounds (standard magazines) and a Calico M-950 that holds 50 (also standard capacity). But, yeah...most guns most people are likely to be carrying around to kill their ex-wives' husbands with are not going to hold more than 10-17 rounds on average.

[GILMORE]

""a Calico M-950""

for when you put on your spacesuit and fight teh aliens?

That gun makes even the guys on Stargate feel silly

[COP]

He made a move!

[hmm]

Unless he was using a rifle or larger pistol like an uzi that's at least a reload. I'm sure he did it to claim he was scared and emptied his weapon and another magazine to reinforce his fear. It seems like you see this a lot with police shoot outs and it usually raises the question of why a professional with marksmen training would need two clips to down someone or why they would be so fearful and ill prepared to defend their self they would use such force. Again it's just to play up the fear of injury and harm to get to self defense.

Either that or he was using a .22 or a Daisy.

[JB]

Many officers are 'professional' idiots. That is the only thing professional about them.

[Dello]

Glock 9mm with the 32 round 18c magazine. Gotta keep firing until the body stops twitching.

[Kyle Jordan]

In any situation where you have to shoot someone that is threat to you, you shoot until the threat has been stopped. Whether it's one round or one hundred rounds, you're defending your life, or the lives of your family/friends, and/or the lives of innocent bystanders.

If the shooting was truly in self defense, and I question that it was, the shot count should have no bearing on the case so long as the circumstances surrounding it support the number.

As to the rounds in the magazine issue, it doesn't say if he was using a pistol, rifle, or other. A rifle and a submachine gun can hold more than 24 rounds and Glock manufactures magazines that can hold more than that for some of their pistols.

And hmm, from what I've seen, 90% of the police in this country simply can not shoot. Including a good number of SWAT members.

[Brett]

I agree many/most cops can't shoot straight, I hear this firsthand from cops in my shooting club. But per what I'm reading above, he was shot 24 times, not shot AT 24 times. I find it impossible to believe that it took 24 shots before the "threat" was neutralized. While some guns or tricked up mags can hold 24 rounds, I would bet at least one reload was required here.

[Kyle Jordan]

I agree with you completely. Just wanted to point out that it's not always as cut and dry as it may seem.

[JW]

The autopsy was covering up the fact that his ex-wife's husband was also a zombie. The 23rd and 24th shots were finally to the head.

I would refrain from hiring anyone who doesn't know how to take out zombies efficiently. Won't be much good during a zombie uprising, ya know, wasting all that ammo on body shots.

[Untermensch]

I guess it just shows how little the police have to fear in terms of accountability. In any other industry a simple background check would have ensured that the best job Lloyd could ever have gotten would have involved being locked in the mailroom from 8 to 5 with supervised bathroom breaks. Anywhere other than a PD they would have known that this guy posed a serious risk for liability to the company and they wouldn't have hired him. But with a PD, there is no accountability and the "bad apple" argument often seems to sway prosecutors (who rely on these toads) and juries. But this one is so egregious that I hope that a case is successfully brought for criminal negligence on the part of the PD. But I'm not holding my breath. It will never happen and Lloyd's union will make sure he get paid for the time off he has as a result of this.

It's a shame. I know some nice cops who aren't on power trips and want to do good. This kind of crap makes their jobs harder and helps push them towards being absolute jerks? It's a vicious feedback loop.

[DWCarkuff]

While I can sympathize with the good cops and how this makes their jobs more difficult, but you know the ususal rejoiner to this sort of thing - if there were any good cops, there wouldn't be any bad cops. I accept that is isn't that simple, but there is an element of truth to the view. If the cops can't police themselves, how are they fit to police the rest of us?

[BakedPenguin]

New professionalism! We need to send a collection of these videos to Scalia's office.

[I, Kahn O'Clast]

To quote one Hanover Fiste:

"Hanging's too good for him! Burning's too good for him! He should be torn into little bitsy pieces and buried alive!"

[Warren]

I say we stomp him!
Then we tattoo him!
Then we hang him!
And then we kill him!

[swillfredo pareto]

Paging Mr. Herman. Mr. Herman you have a telephone call at the front desk.

[hotsauce]

Tequila!

[Wicks Cherrycoke]

And they dared not give Chicago the Olympics!

[smartass sob]

Simply criminals with badges, guns, and uniforms. Who will protect society from its protectors?

[affenkopf]

Who will protect society from its protectors?

The second amendment.

[P Brooks]

Maybe he needed all twenty four rounds to complete the smileyface on the ex-husband's back.

[Brett]

24 is enough to get the ears, eyebrows and dimples in there.

[P Brooks]

Professionalism, baby.

[FrBunny]

shows Pitts being beaten by Christopher Lloyd

Great Scott!

[ev]

Fuck. Way to taint the name Christopher Lloyd forever. I much prefer the "When this baby hits 88 mph...you're gonna see some serious shit" version.

"Lloyd was also fired last year from another suburban Chicago police department . . . for killing his ex-wife's husband in front of their children."

Umm....ummm.....ummmm.....HE WAS FIRED?!

And Balko, do you just sit on these stories so you can hit us with 'em on Monday morning over coffee? I mean, that's kind of a dick move. I need sunshine, lollipops, rainbows and tits in order to start the day right.

[?]

I know some nice cops who aren't on power trips and want to do good.

No, you don't.

[Untermensch]

I live in a relatively small town where the Sheriff's department tries to maintain good relationships with the residents. It's the sort of place where most people still don't lock their doors and where, one day when I left my front door open while gone for twelve hours, I was reasonably sure nothing would happen, and indeed nothing did.

Another time I had a problem with the phone company where my phone line somehow got mixed up with someone else's. This someone else decided it would be funny to call 911 at random times in the middle of the night, and I had the cops show up about six times in three nights before I got the problem fixed with the phone company (who didn't tell me who the prick was who was calling 911). The cops were totally cool about it, no pushiness at all, and were friendly. I would have let them in my house to confirm that I didn't have a captive or something, but they didn't want to come in and were apologetic. Every dealing I've had with them has been good, and even when I called them to deal with a drunk throwing bottles at parked cars they were good at dealing with the drunk.

So, no, I don't think all cops are pricks, and the ones I personally know are pretty cool folks. They are the first to tell me about other cops who are pricks, and I know some of them who hate the whole idea of a brotherhood of cops and all that crap.

[R C Dean]

Actually, cent sign, I know one. But she's new at the job.

[Lamar]

Cops who are good people have a tough time. They are in a system that puts terrible people with questionable motives high on a pedestal. Good people who are cops will either become bad in order to succeed or they will fail, which will drive them out of police work or make them simply not care.

[The Gobbler]

There are only two groups of people making their living off of crime: criminals and cops.

[Bill]

Let's not forget defense attorneys and prosecutors

[P Brooks]

Once more I say:

Until The "good cops" start actively arresting and testifying in open court against the "bad cops" I will refuse to believe there is such a thing as a "good" cop.

General Sheridan's sentiment applies.

[Christopher Lloyd]

Though an autopsy shows he shot McKinney 24 times, the lawsuit alleges, he was not charged because Chicago police accepted his explanation that he had acted in self-defense.

Had to. That sumbitch kept twitching like crazy.

[Mike H]

Its Dolton .... what the hell do you expect?

[Russ 2000]

Best laugh I had all morning.

[Drew]

Is the other kid in the video coming to Pitts' defense?

[P Brooks]

killing his ex-wife's husband in front of their children.

I misread that, the first time. He killed the guy his wife married after she divorced him for being an evil, degenerate piece of shit?

Now I'm pretty much okay with him getting the broom handle/ broken bottle enema.

[T]

Until The "good cops" start actively arresting and testifying in open court against the "bad cops" I will refuse to believe there is such a thing as a "good" cop.

This can't be repeated often enough.

[Jonas]

The more succinct version is, of course, "There are no good cops or there would be no bad cops." FWIW.

[Michael]

Another question comes to mind. When did it become accepted as perfectly normal that there are cops roaming the halls of schools? I'm under the suspicion that all the law and order types that supported the idea of metal detectors, armed guards and random locker searches - basically turning schools into prisons - are now in complete and utter shock to find these cops behaving like correctional officers. Hey, maybe we need to install more cops to keep an eye on the cops we already installed.

[R C Dean]

Now I'm pretty much okay with him getting the broom handle/ broken bottle enema.

Apparently, he's never going to be arrested or go to jail, so I'm not sure just where that's going to happen.

When I read that he shot somebody 24 times, I'm wondering if he reloaded once, or twice? How many magazines was he carrying? I'm guessing he had two 12 round mags or three eight round mags. Only the CPD knows for sure!

[JW]

RC--He *is* in jail currently. Apparently, the CPD couldn't get to this most recent case soon enough to sweep it under.

Lloyd is in jail in Indiana. He was arrested last month for raping an Indiana woman at knife point.

[PR]

look for the union label.

[WTF]

Thug with a badge. Fucking pig.

[John]

This is what happens when you let public employees have unions. Unions will defend anything and anyone no matter how vile.

[JB]

Generally unions are a way to protect the incompetent and retarded.

I see 0 reasons why government employees should be able to join them.

[PR]

I could live with collective bargaining for government employees as long as it included collective punishment for them too.

[Troy]

I guess pigs have some king of defacto universal immunity. I agree with the sentiment that every time one of these stories pops up, someone gets to shit in Scalia's face.

[JB]

Police officers really are stupid when they protect bad apples. It makes their lives inherently more dangerous.

[Tenrou]

What an awful person, makes sleazy corporate lawyers look like wonderful human beings.

[Chuck Beeno]

What I want to know is why have the parents of this kid not dealt with this PUNK cop personally? If that were my kid, there would not be a spot on this planet that PUNK would be safe from me!

RT
http://www.true-privacy.net.tc

[Lamar]

Funny how the expert detectives can never seem to find any wrongdoing until a video surfaces.

[Troy]

I bet the Eighth Circuit would look at y'all and ask, "what's the problem?"

[Xeones]

Funny how Anonymity Guy makes more sense on the issue than any of Officer Lloyd's superiors.

[PR]

give this guy the Nobel Peace Prize

[Bill]

For what he's done, or for what we expect him to do, based on his lofty rhetoric to date?

[Solanum]

I'm very disappointed in the resident H&R geeks. Not a single Jim Ignatowski or Doc Brown reference in this thread yet.

[JW]

That's from his lesser known stuff. What gets me is not one Commander Kruge reference!

[Solanum]

Shit, missed it at 9:11.

[ev]

What the fuck do you think that 88 mph shit was about? HUH?!

[Bob]

This makes the DARE officer, also the chief of police in Waterville OH, a fucking saint. All she did was get drunk while on the job and not get charged because the other pigs didn't breathalyze her and they had no "evidence" besides a drunk pig and an open container with alcohol in her cruiser. I'm sure the public gets treated with the same discretion.

[wylie]

To be fair though, I'd also have to get real tanked to give a DARE presentation.

[Shelby]

details of the department's investigation of the shooting "could not immediately be found."

Damn straight they couldn't! If they could be found, someone would've screwed up real bad.

[Bronwyn]

could not immediately be found

translates to:
Hold on a moment while our office lackey feeds the last few pages through the Giganto-Shredder.

[Russ 2000]

I'm curious as to what the other 2 people in the video were doing. We're they helping the cop or helping the victim?

[P Brooks]

The autopsy shows that Lloyd shot the man 24 times.

It's surprising the Coroner didn't rule suicide.

[Thom]

If the kid had just obeyed the rules this wouldn't have happened. I think it's obvious where the real fault lies here.

[joshua corning]

The autopsy shows that Lloyd shot the man 24 times.

Not an expert on guns...but with most hand guns or even rifles wouldn't this require a reload?

[Kyle Jordan]

Most handguns yes. Rifles too but not as much.

[Brett]

I sure with the details would come out. To avoid a reload, he's have to use something like an AR15 with a 30 round mag. In that case, most of the 24 rounds would have passed straight though into whatever was behind him!

I still can't believe that "hit 24 times" aspect of the story can be true. There's no way that happened and he got away with it (up til now, at least).

Hell, I don't think Sonny Corleone was hit 24 times!

[Brett]

Sure WISH the details would come out...preview is your friend.

[Bill]

Maybe he shot him twice with a shotgun, using shells holding 12 pellets each.

[BeesInTheBrain]

basically turning schools into prisons

I would argue that in a lot of ways prisoners have more rights than students. Students' due process rights are basically non-existent,

[joshua corning]

I agree with the sentiment that every time one of these stories pops up, someone gets to shit in Scalia's face.

Inept, corrupt and criminal government in Chicago is Scalia's fault? That is a bit of a stretch.

[Lamar]

Scalia has done more to enable police brutality and corruption than most.

[Kevin P.]

What does this story have to do with Sheriff Joe Arpaio?

[Fluffy]

What's not a stretch is that Scalia authored an opinion supporting restricting due process rights because the "new professionalism" of our modern police forces made explicit protection of the rights of the accused unnecessary.

If Scalia is so sure that police in 2009 are always professional, he really shouldn't mind agreeing to let me shit on his face every time one of them commits an outrageous act. What's the risk, from his end? No risk at all, as far as his previous statements are concerned. If he's going to put it out there that police never have malice, ever, then he shouldn't worry about putting his face at risk if evidence of malice surfaces.

[anonymous]

So, basically the entire Chicago PD needs to die in a fire?

[Jason]

Im a cop and shit like this sickens me. My department has on several occasions recently put their own in jail and treated them just like anyone else when found breaking the law. I am sick of places like Chicago PD and others making everyone else look like shit.

[wylie]

I didnt know they had a police department in Imaginationland.

[Abdul]

Maybe I was working with challenging youth for too long, because the first thing I noticed while watching the video is "Damn, this kid didn't even tuck in his shirt when he's going on national television!"

I mean really, what's it going to take to tuck in your goddamn shirt, son?

[Foo Bar]

Digital cameras are now so small we should require cops to wear an iVideoEvidenceRecorder whenever they are on duty, 100% of the time. Fire them the first time they don't retain the video.