Surveillance Video Shows Cop Hurling Woman Face First Into Concrete Cell, Woman Now Suing Skokie, Illinois Police Department

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via NBC Chicago

Earlier this month, an Illinois woman filed suit against LaSalle County, alleging she was aggressively stripped search by three male deputies and a female in the jail after a DUI arrest and left naked in a cell. This week, her attorney said he has five more women who have come forward with similar complaints.

Now, a separate lawsuit against the Skokie Police Department in Illinois was filed by a Chicago woman, Cassandra Feuerstein, alleging the use of excessive force after her DUI arrest. Surveillance video shows the 110-pound woman talking to an officer off-screen, then walking out of the cell, followed by two cops, and about 30 seconds later being thrown head first toward a concrete bench in her cell, causing bleeding. Feuerstein's lawyer says she required reconstructive surgery and a titanium plate in her cheek. Cops claimed she wasn't looking into the camera during processing and tried to charge her with resisting arrest. The state's attorney dropped those charges and Feuerstein copped a guilty plea to the DUI.

Her attorney says she's suing because charges weren't pressed against the officers involved. Watch a short clip of the surveillance video with Feuerstein's attorney narrating here, or the raw surveillance video, which includes an angle showing her allegedly resisting while having her photo taken, below. Feuerstein walks out of the cell about 1:20 in:

Comments

[Corning]

Honestly I can’t watch this stuff.

[sarcasmic]

Me neither.

[Troy muy grande boner]

I can’t watch them either. I don’t think I can hate these cocksuckers any more than I do. If I were to ever have super-hero powers, it would used to torture these inhumane pieces of shit.

[Corning]

I found a spot in GTA V where you can kill cops by the truck load without being touched or flanked and even has an easy escape way to lose your wanted stars.

[Rock Action]

I started and stopped way before anything happened. It just makes me sick now.

[SomeGuy]

I live near chicago and this scares me to go there. I am afraid of that place because they get away with literally murder

[highnumber]

This happened in Skokie. If you live near Chicago, I don’t need to explain that no one ever confuses Skokie with the city.

[Thane of Steelport]

A surveillance camera is suing the department?

[R C Dean]

Sure. If you had to watch what goes on in that PD, you’d sue for intentional infliction of emotional distress, too.

[Corning]

If the Police Union was suing the camera manufacturer i would believe it.

[Paul.]

Like budgets are racist, surveillance cameras inside jail cells are anti-cop.

[Hugh Akston]

That’s not the worst video I’ve seen on this blog, but what the hell do the cops think they’re doing shoving someone that they arrested for being intoxicated?

[sarcasmic]

What do they think they’re doing? Well, they’re abusing their power. What else would they do? They’re cops. That’s the whole point of the job.

A while back I waited tables with a young lady whose father is/was a cop. When she noticed my contempt for those who seek the profession, she kept insisting that “It’s just a job.”
A few years later we crossed paths on a stairway in college, and she saw that I was wearing a badge that gets me into federal buildings. She was in too much of a hurry to see “civilian” on it, and figured I was part of government or something.

Naturally the mask slipped. She did a fist pump and said “Power! Yeah!”

She knew that being a cop isn’t “Just a job.” She was lying to my face.

It’s about power. That’s is all. Power is a means, and an end all by itself.

[Episiarch]

They’re thinking it’s funnier because she’ll be less coordinated and therefore more likely to do something hilarious like fall down or get hurt. And they were right! See, cops do have a sense of humor!

[Ryan60657]

Is this newsworthy? It’s the Chicago way.

[JW]

I bet she’ll watch her mouth and cooperate next time!

/PoliceOne

[Thane of Steelport]

You forgot to call her a “civilian” and/or “POS”

[JW]

It’s implicit.

[Paul.]

She was clearly going for a weapon at 0:39

[Eduard van Haalen]

When this strong, burly police officer (I hesitate to say police*man*) “goes home in the evening” does he boast about this to his family?

“Yeah, honey, this small woman was disrespecting me, but thank God I was able to get control of the situation by dragging her into her cell and throwing her against a concrete surface. God, you should have seen the blood – I had the most awesome woody!

“Anyway, honey, could you be *respectful* and get me a beer?”

“Of course, sweetheart, right away!”

You see, maybe that’s why no-one rescued the cop in the Philadelphia train station.

[sarcasmic]

You hear cops complain that the “stress of the job” causes them to have bad relationships.

Golly. Maybe people who routinely use violence at every available opportunity without consequence drive people away from them. Think the cops ever thought of that? No. It’s the stress of the job. It’s those pieces of shit they deal with day in and day out. It’s their fault. Not the cops’.

[hotsy totsy]

Don’t cops also have a very high rate of suicide?

[Mensan]

Not high enough.

[Paul.]

Looked like the cop who came in a propped her up at 2:13 looked like he seemed genuinely concerned for the woman’s well-being.

[JW]

Well, yeah, now there’s paperwork.

I had to go back and watch it a couple times. No, he didn’t lightly shove her and, being drunk, she tripped. He shoved her in there with enough force that just about anyone in her weight class would have gone flying.

Big man, there, beating up on a waif like her.

[PapayaSF]

My reaction as well. It wasn’t just a careless “toss her into her cell” thing, but a really hard shove, when she’s about six feet from a concrete bench.

[sarcasmic]

If he was genuinely concerned then he’d report his buddy before he did it to someone else. But he doesn’t. Why? Because he probably does the same thing himself when someone fails to show him sufficient respect (they all do) and doesn’t want to be reported.

There are no good cops. Because if they existed, they’d report bad cops.

[Paul.]

If he was genuinely concerned then he’d report his buddy before he did it to someone else.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I’m not calling anyone a hero.

[Michael Price]

“If he was genuinely concerned then he’d completely destroy his career by bringing up abuses the higher ups won’t punish.”
Fixed that for you.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Why isn’t the sound on in the video of the prison cell? Don’t they have sound? They had it in the processing room.

[creech]

Years ago, a buddy’s father was mugged on the way home from his local bar. The cops caught the perp and invited my buddy and his brothers to step into the paddy wagon for a few minutes and beat the shit out of the perp. They declined and asked why cops would do it. Answer – too many of these nwords get off in court so we want to make sure a little justice is delivered anyway.

[Corning]

The racism sucks….but i really do not feel bad about robbers getting the crap beat out of them.

Of course you know those same cops do the same stuff to non-violent drug dealers or drunk women in jail or random kids on the street…

[Eduard van Haalen]

Sorry, but I don’t accept robbers getting punished without trial – for one thing it begs the question whether they’re actually the robber (you say the cops caught the perp – but these cops who IDed the supposed perp are the same cops whose idea of professionalism was to endorse vigilante violence). If they deny being the robber they should be entitled to the presumption of innocence and all that civics-textbook stuff.

And even on those occasions when you’ve got the right guy (and closing one’s eyes to the beatings of the wrong guys), there’s the issue of human dignity. Waiting until they’re convicted to punish them is a small prince to pay for civilization.

[Habeas Dorkus]

Corning, you and people who think like you are exactly what empowers supposed authorities to feel free to commit these kinds of abuses. We have vested far too much power to these monsters, and we’re reaping the results.
You’re the asshole who sat on the street corner while police fire-hosed civil-rights protesters only to exclaim, “Well, we gotta keep order somehow.”
Fuck you, Corning. Fuck you.

[Edwin]

dude, take a pill

[PapayaSF]

What city?

[Habeas Dorkus]

Skokie, Ill.

[Invisible Finger]

We’ve come a long way.

Cops used to beat the shit out of people for 10 minutes and then they were done with them.

Now they beat the shit out of them and it’s only the beginning of the abuse.

[Habeas Dorkus]

If he’s not fired I’m going to fucking assassinate him.

[Drizzle]

‘Sup, NSA? How’s it goin’?

[Edwin]

Not compelling.
She hurt herself because she tripped, and she tripped because she was drunk. That was a hard shove, but the cops don’t have to be nice to you when they’re arresting you for being drunk, and the fact that they have to deal with your drunk ass would make anyone miffed.

[Big Chief]

She “tripped” because she got thrown into her cell by a thug. She didn’t hurt herself, the nice officer did that for her. Get your eyes checked and your perspective unwarped and watch it again.

[Redmanfms]

the fact that they have to deal with your drunk ass would make anyone miffed.

Isn’t dealing with drunk people part of the job.

If you get miffed and physically abuse people you have to interact with on a daily basis as a part of your job, maybe you should find another line of work.

[JSebastian]

If someone did that to me, or to any of my family, it would inspire me to spend the rest of my life making sure I found them and exacted my revenge. It might be delivered with a baseball bat, a garrotte, a sniper rifle, maybe a knife or machete..who knows.

And I hope all of you would be inspired to do the same. I have a feeling that guard will be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his hopefully short life.

[Solus]

I was born in 1951. There have always been bad cops. Thank fully those I encountered were decent. Cops must be no nonsense but some go WAY over the line. The problem is stress and the “thin blue line”. Stress from the job gets internalized and no nonsense becomes “give me an excuse”. The thin blue line protects officers (some with serious issues) when they should be out on disability. Coupled to this has been the “war on drugs”. I can understand armed & drawn drug raids but when dealing with non threats, especially someone who has been searched and compliant right along, the thin blue line MUST be crossed and these serial abusers removed.

[Redmanfms]

I can understand armed & drawn drug raids

Jesus.

Why can you understand that? Why?

I almost hope some vengeful dick SWATs you, or some shitheel CI gives your address as a drug den. We’ll see how understandable you think “armed and drawn” drug raids are then.

[Frank_Carbonni]

In all fairness REAL drug raid (which I admit shouldn’t even exist) do bring the police in contact with some rather dangerous people and some of them aren’t afraid to kill police officers. That was one of the original reasons behind the creation of SWAT teams. There are situations and criminals that are so dangerous (or potentially dangerous) that your average police officer is ill equipped to handle it.

That being said, SWAT teams are overused. They were originally meant to take on hostage situations, shootouts with heavily armed suspects, and raids on fortified buildings holding dangerous criminals. Now you have SWAT teams raiding places for selling raw milk to willing customers, medicinal marijuana patients, and people for unpaid parking tickets.

[Invisible Finger]

In all fairness REAL drug raid (which I admit shouldn’t even exist) do bring the police in contact with some rather dangerous people

But it’s not a chicken-or-egg question. The police initiate violence and then wonder why the violence escalates.

This proves their stupidity AND their sociopathy.

[Invisible Finger]

I can understand armed & drawn drug raids

Then you’re a fucking idiot who has no idea what he’s talking about.

[HarryUSA]

I wonder what will happen to the career of the officer that threw this girl. Would it surprise anyone if he keeps his job?

[Art Stone]

My guess is he will retire on a disability pension due to PTSD due to the trauma of this incident, but not before putting in a few thousand hours of overtime to boost the pension. Then Skokie will need red light cameras to raise money to pay for this.

[Andrew Jackson]

Uh, the cop(s) didn’t do anything wrong. She wasn’t cooperating and then held onto the wall with both arms when they were putting her back in her cell. The officer forcefully shoved her out of the “stance.”

She’s a typical drunk, irresponsible moron. It’s 100% her fault.

There are PLENTY of real videos where cops DO abuse power. This is not one of them.

[Bill]

Looked for that and did not see it. He had her arms
behind her back when he pushed her. Did not see her grabbing the door frame as he already had her arms behind her.

He prevented her from being able to use her arms to stop herself and threw her face first into a concrete bench. When someone is drunk you help them so they don’t trip, not put them off balance and throw them so they do trip.

[Andrew Jackson]

Maybe you need to get your eyes checked…

Hand clearly on the doorjamb:
http://i.imgur.com/NMGTTld.jpg

Both hands clearly on the doorjamb holding on:
http://i.imgur.com/quIxKgQ.jpg

Once again, you people are distracting from REAL abuse of power from cops with this “poor woman” crap. If the drunk moron was a male, this post wouldn’t even exist.

[Yancey Ward]

This comment is utterly disgusting, and you really should be ashamed of yourself. She put one hand on the door frame while being literally shoved through it with great force. And, let’s even grant your misperception about her resistance- it still doesn’t justify what the police officer did- he isn’t allowed by the law to throw someone face first into concrete just because she put up even the level of resistance you claimed.

[Andrew Jackson]

I didn’t claim anything. I even posted a screenshot of her holding on with both hands.

You’re just a hypocritical sexist and refuse to see what really happened.

“If he didn’t push so hard!!!”

If she wasn’t completely wasted, she wouldn’t have fell over so easily and landed on her face. Didn’t you learn this in grade school? You lose most motor skills when you’re drunk.

No pity for an irresponsible, disrespectful, inconsiderate, lowlife drunk driver. You’re not allowed to struggle with the police (especially when you’re already arrested in a cell) just because you’re a woman.

[Andrew Jackson]

Once again, both hands clearly on the doorway:
http://i.imgur.com/quIxKgQ.jpg

[Yancey Ward]

This is aggravated assault, and it is open and shut. This not only should result in a large financial settlement, but where in the Hell is the DoJ? For all the bluster about how George Zimmerman was being let go by indifferent police officers and prosecutors, here you have a real example of such abuse of power and violation of civil rights.