Heartbreaking Video Released of Woman Watching Cops Kill Her Husband in Oklahoma

As I blogged earlier this month, Luis Rodriguez was killed by cops in an Oklahoma movie theater parking lot after running after his wife after she got in a physical fight with their daughter. 

KFOR.com

Cops claim Rodriguez became "combative" and five of them set upon him; by the time the interaction was over he was dead.

As I blogged, they initially took the video his wife took of the incident. Now the video is available at Photography is not a Crime. It's what commenters call a "nutpunch," a real heartbreaker, as she realizes the man she calls "papa" tenderly is dead--a fact the cops lie to her about.

She even gives pretty apt on the scene critique of their technique, why it took five professionals to commit this crime. "Why you came to all this?….Look how you treating him….Can someone tell me why you come to this?…Five men! Training!"

Most interesting/terrible moments: a sort of Monty Pythonesque "he's just pining for the fjords" moment when a cop half-heartedly says to the already completely motionless Rodriguez "calm down sir" (one suspects he was aware of the camera) and the cops telling the woman who just witnessed this that she should "not get herself in trouble." She saw what getting herself in trouble with cops leads to.

Remember: watching that video at the link will upset you.

Comments

[Andrew S.]

In the interest of me not throwing my laptop against the wall, I'm not going to watch the video. The description pisses me off enough.

Serious, yet completely hypothetical, question: If I wanted to kill somebody, would going through police training and becoming an officer first be a good strategy? At this point, it's established pretty clearly that I wouldn't be punished, or if I was, my punishment would be far less than a non-officer would receive, right?

[Brutus]

It's bad, but not as bad as I had thought it would be. It is heartbreaking when the wife comes to realize her husband is dead.

But there isn't any video of what led to the situation, so it's impossible to know if the cops needed to apply this degree of force, and it's not obvious that the husband was beaten or sprayed to death. He may have had a heart attack, for all we know.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

I made it 50 seconds. Fuck.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

Make that 2:50. I literally have no idea how normal humans are doing what is happening in that video.

[Episiarch]

Not even going to try it. I just can't.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

I got a little farther but bf came into the room and I know he will flip if I even mention it.

[Sudden]

He will yell something unspeakable upon viewing, at which point the police will be called in to a domestic violence report. At which point, your bf will look at them with contempt, which they will term in the subsequent police report as "an aggressive stance and failure to comply." They will then coat his entire head in pepper spray so he cannot breathe. They will proceed to throw him on the ground, face first, probably whack him with their nightstick a time or two (or thirty) all while yelling "stop resisting!1!1!!" Your bf will be pronounced dead while you film it all on your phone.

And the cycle repeats.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

Yeah pretty much.

[Hugh Akston]

Obviously cops are not normal humans. The question is whether cops have the humanity drained from them by training and experience, or police work just attracts sociopaths.

[Sudden]

Good question Hugh. Here's how it happens. When you go through the final stages of police academy, they call in a halal butcher who hangs all the students upside down and inserts a tube into them that drains all their humanity out. This is the final requirement before graduation.

[Episiarch]

Do you think their training and experience is enough to drain sufficient humanity to gang up and beat a man to death while making sure they say "calm down sir"?

I'm going to go with the sociopath option.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Me too. It generally takes a lot of indoctrination to take a normal person and turn them into a remorseless killer.

With cops it just seems like a profession that naturally attracts emotionally stunted bullies.

[robc]

This is my bet too.

Ive met some that didnt fit the sociopath model, they probably washed out soon.

[Francisco d Anconia]

The two biggest bullies in my high school class...both prison guards. The only profession worse than a cop.

[Episiarch]

You know, I hadn't thought about this, but I know not a single person from school, growing up, or family that became a cop (or a prison guard). Not a single one.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Two of my neighbors are cops. One's retired from an LAPD gang unit and the other is CHP.

Both are nice neighbors but I can see how their demeanor could be completely different once they're out there on the job.

[Max Power]

I know a guy from my neighborhood bar that's a cop. He seems like a nice guy and I've been to his house for a couple of parties. But every time I see him, I'm always kind of wary. I always wonder what corrupt shit he's done or condoned. This is Philadelphia, so I"m sure it's something.

[Mensan]

I know a guy from my neighborhood that's a cop. He always seemed like an asshole, and he tried to murder his wife last month.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

I know for certain that one guy I went to HS with went on to become a state trooper after his stint in the army. He had a crush on me freshman year and was really sweet, but dumb. I saw him after a couple tours in Afghanistan and he was still sweet and dumb. I saw him again after he was a state trooper and I was scared of him.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Actually I just remembered my late grandmother was a prison matron.

If you knew the woman you would be shocked at how incongruous that job description is with her appearance and demeanor.

[Episiarch]

A cousin of mine's father is a cop in Paterson, NJ. The father (not blood related to me, luckily) is a legendary asshole, and is divorced from my cousin's insane mother. However, my cousin gets all the gun permits he wants.

Most of my family has a tremendous disdain for the police. My grandfather has never had any respect for them, and since his brother was a judge, he didn't have to.

An example: one time a guy, who was a friend of my grandfather's, and used to pay for parking in my grandfather's lot, was leaving the lot when a cop car drove in quickly, and the guy dinged into the cop car (nothing bad). Out pops a very young half-dressed girl (like, 13 or something) who then runs off. The cop starts to go ballistic on the guy who hit him, until my grandfather walked over to him (right in front of his brother the judge's office) and says "I saw what came out of your car. Now get the fuck off my property and leave [guy] alone." The cop just left. This was also in Paterson.

[Hugh Akston]

Yeah but if you spend every day for years in a professional culture where you are always assumed to be in the right and/or superior to the general public, and also face no consequences for the most heinous actions, is that enough to turn you into a monster?

[Episiarch]

Plenty of people do jobs where they are generally assumed to be superior to the general public, like doctors, IT professionals, and call girls like your mom. Yeah, they can face consequences for their actions, but are those professions even remotely as prone to sociopaths as the cops are?

Like any profession where people are given an exorbitant amount of trust/power, eventually that profession will become filled with the worst people to possibly gravitate to it. Cop, priest, politician; that's what happens. And as more and more of the worst join, they crowd out those who aren't the worst, just making the whole situation even worse.

[pogi]

As an IT professional, I can't tell you the number of times that I've had to correct someone who refuses to comply with my request to "right-click" by beating them comatose with a keyboard while shouting, "Stop left-clicking!".

[UnCivilServant]

They kept us on the far side of the phone so that we were unable to employ phsical remediation techniques.

[Clich? Bandit]

i now need a new keyboard cause this one is filled with coffee.

Thanks.

[Paul.]

or police work just attracts sociopaths.

I believe the latter because of how police forces have been transformed by a combination of tactics, 'contact' or arrest quotas and lack of accountability.

Plus, add in a department's ability to buy their way out of criminal or even job-based penalties by settling lawsuits, it's a recipe for exactly this kind of thing.

I'll not watch the video, I'll allow other commenters to subject themselves to this and report to the thread.

I think I've had enough 'following procedure' for one year, thank you very much.

[Sudden]

Propping a dead human being up with their legs (knowing damn well he's dead) all the while continually re-assuring his frantic wife (the original suspect in the crime) that her husband will be fine once the medical examiners arrive.

These people have no conscience. These people are the embodiment of the State.

[Palin's Buttplug]

This is the police state that Clarence Thomas is so fond of.

[Paul.]

*sigh*

But no, it's not the police state which the progressive mayors are in charge of approve of.

No.

Why am I responding to this?

Fuck!

[Acosmist]

Assuming he meant Scalia and his racism just misdirected the shot, but at this point I don't know what value is served in responding to the little bigot.

[PM]

Forget it, Jake; it's Hymietown

[Hopfiend]

If only there was something short of murder to deal with an "unruly" middle-aged man.

[Sudden]

If only.

But clearly murder is the only option.

Admittedly, this is a case where I don't think they intended to murder the man. But when you coat an obese man's entire face in pepper spray and then have five grown men compress his body against the ground in spite of no resistance, one should assume that you can inflict some pretty severe consequences.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

Admittedly, this is a case where I don't think they intended to murder the man.

Which is part of the horror of the video, I find. The mild surprise...the eerie calm...

[Episiarch]

I think that's an indicator of the sociopathy. This guy's life meant absolutely nothing to them.

[Sudden]

Exactly. That is the disturbing part. That upon killing a man, they had absolutely no reaction whatsoever, almost as though they expected it. And then the farce of propping a human corpse up with their legs, that was the part that almost made me wretch.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

Yes, that was the worst for me also.

A complete disregard for his life. Not in any sense of negligence. A complete disregard. Because you don't fucking play with someone's corpse out of negligence.

[neoteny]

five grown men compress his body against the ground

It is known that such an act can lead to death. I don't see how can they beat voluntary manslaughter charges -- yet they always do.

[Hugh Akston]

Grand juries can't indict a pig until it becomes a ham sandwich, apparently.

[Paul.]

Don't even cross your fingers for any accountability on this. Don't even waste your time. After the Kelly Thomas verdict, I just kind of gave up.

[Cyto]

Yeah, you aren't likely to ever see anything more convincing than a video that shows someone threaten to "fuck you up", then proceed to do so, beating him to the edge of death. Then proceed to direct the EMT team that shows up past the broken and dying body to tend to the little boo-boo you got on your elbow before allowing them to attend to the victim. If that won't win a conviction, I don't see what could.

[Anonymous Coward]

I for one sleep more soundly at night knowing that the King's Men are putting uppity peasants in their place. How dare you raise your voice or your eyes to the Warrior Caste!

Just prostrate yourself along the side of the road when they pass and be thankful for their protection.

[gaoxiaen]

After a long internal debate about whether I wanted to watch something so disgusting, I decided to watch it. Luckily, the link didn't work.

[The Late P Brooks]

This is the police state that Clarence Thomas is so fond of.

As if we needed any more proof of what a disgusting shitbag you are.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Another defender of the police state pipes in....

[Juice]

You're just trolling now.

[Dweebston]

Just now?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Palin, I seriously wonder about you.

When has ANYONE here ever even as much sniffed they defend the police state?

You flat out lie. It's remarkable.

[umh]

The problem is their immunity. And your problem is simular.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

More excellent police work from our heroes in blue: Florida teen spent 35 days in county jail after being mistaken for an alleged statutory rapist

Cody Williams was arrested in late August, charged with the sexual battery of someone younger than 12.

The 18-year-old Clay High School student spent 35 days in jail.

One problem: He was the wrong Cody Williams.

Three officers have received formal counseling for their role in the wrongful arrest and another officer faces a 10-day unpaid suspension and a transfer from investigations to patrol.

My God, how will those brave civil servants ever recover from this devastating reprimand?

Sheriff Rick Beseler said his department has policies in place intended to prevent these types of wrongful arrests.

"If those policies had been followed then this wouldn't have happened," he said. "This is not a routine problem. That's why the supervisors are even being held accountable. We take this stuff very seriously."
[snip]
When Hawkins, who interviewed the victim, thought Cody Lee Williams was the suspect, he failed to show her his photo to confirm he had the right person, according to an internal report on Hawkins' investigation.

But he's only being reprimanded. Not fired like a normal person would for such a horrific screw up.

[Max Power]

You know, I wasn't going to watch this video. But I watched the whole fucking thing because at some point I might be tempted to think that all cops either aren't either:
1. Murderous animals
2. People that will cover for murderous animals.

I'm gonna guzzle Jim Beam now.

[Rebekah]

Pretty much the same logic I used.

I've really got to learn to stop traumatizing myself. You'd think I would have learned after Nick Berg, but nooope.

[MJGreen]

I stopped at about the time the cops all take a breath and have that satisfied look on their faces, like they just did something great and should all go get a beer now. I don't dare to watch until she realizes what happened to him.

[Max Power]

Yeah, it's pretty upsetting when she realizes that he's dead. And the cops keep telling her that's he's fine and the medical people will take care of him.

[Episiarch]

have that satisfied look on their faces

The "cop look". All cops eventually sport that look. I've mostly seen it on the faces of cops telling stories about the criminal they fucked up for resisting arrest. It's repulsive.

[sarcasmic]

I will never forget overhearing a drunk cop lament that he'd never had the opportunity to kill anyone, and his drunk buddies assuring him that he'd get his chance.

I did see that look when I was eavesdropping on that conversation. It was when they were trading stories about how much fun it is to choke people. Or maybe it was when one of them was laughing about holding his pistol to a woman's head until she peed herself. I don't remember.

Either way it solidified my contempt for anyone who seeks out that profession.

[The Late P Brooks]

You're pathetic, shreeek.

[SIV]

Florida Man

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

If the cops are inevitably going to beat people to death, why can't it be guys like that?

[Anvil]

I'd need to see the entire situation to arrive at a logical conclusion.

However, based on what I did see in the video, these cops failed to recognize the emergency at hand.

[Juice]

Check this one out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emmoJvpSGyw

I know it's 18 minutes, but damn. Basically the prosecutor is talking to the guy like "we own you, don't act like we work for you." Then later, he's like "you're lucky for video and audio because if it weren't for that it would be like that movie Deliverance." No, I'm not making that part up.

[Anonymous Coward]

That is great video. Tell me again about how people who work for government are selfless heroes doing God's work on the mean streets of Electra, TX.

[darius404]

Are both of those exact quotes or at least close paraphrases? Because that's completely messed up. I expect people like him to THINK like that, but to actually say it all on video? They don't think they even NEED masks anymore.

[Paul.]

If you watch the video, there's some nuance in what the prosecutor is saying. After watching the entire video, the prosecutor actually comes off as a potentially sympathetic character. Let's say "pragmatic".

The way I interpreted the prosecutor's comments was a friendly warning. Not "you're lucky this time!" but, almost a mea culpa on the evidence in the video exonerating the defendant. To me, he's essentially saying, (paraphrased) "Be careful before you get too belligerent with these officers. There are places that don't have video and places that don't have audio. Without the audio, there are officers worse than even Matt Wood and Gary Ellis, and they would have claimed you put hands on them." His warning about "deliverance" wasn't about sinister comeuppance, it was a clear warning that small towns in Texas suck ass and if he pulls that jailhouse lawyer stuff there, he might go home in a bodybag even though he's 100% in the right.

[Rebekah]

Prole: Do we live in a jackboot society now?
Hero in Blue: Yes we do.

Great moment of unintentional honesty, though it seems the cop was genuinely too dumb to know what it meant.

[Gene]

"You were fixin to"

Too funny.

[Gene]

"You were fixin to"

Too funny.

[RishJoMo]

This really makes me ANGRY. Its PUK p o s cops like this I just LOVE to hear about on the news getting clipped in the line of duty!

http://www.Anon-VPN.com

[Ayn R. Key]

Most interesting/terrible moments: a sort of Monty Pythonesque "he's just pining for the fjords" moment when a cop half-heartedly says to the already completely motionless Rodriguez "calm down sir"

Of course. Cops know that if they shout "stop resisting" then it will be accepted that the reason they shouted that was because the subject was resisting. Therefore no matter how limp and still and dead the subject telling a victim to stop resisting shows it was resisting and further force is required.

[Ayn R. Key]

One of these days I'm going to have a cop at my mercy. I'll be shouting "stop resisting" for at least 15 minutes.

[darius404]

I think like that every time I read about this stuff.

[sarcasmic]

Sadly, that will never happen. Karma, religion, and all that "they'll get what they deserve" crap is a fiction invented to make people feel better about the fact that those with power will live happy lives and face no consequences for their actions.

[Gene]

Let us have our revenge fantasies, fuckin buzzkill.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Appreciate those who were able to watch, but just reading the comments here is making my blood fucking boil, so I guess I'll have to skip it.

[Homple]

I used to wonder how they could possibly find people who would work for the Cheka, NKVD, StaSi, SS....

I don't wonder any more.

No, I couldn't watch the video. Reading Buttplug on Justice Thomas sickened me enough for one day.

[sarcasmic]

Tulpa isn't here defending the cops? That's odd.

[sarcasmic]

This is why the government doesn't want us to be armed. An armed public would never allow these things to happen.

[widget]

There is not enough information in that video to warrant the sensational headline.

The only thing we know from the video about the context of the event before this video began was that Mr Rodriguez failed to show ID, according to one cop who approached Mrs Rodriguez. Hmmm. Mr R probably perished from a heart attack, not from strangulation or having his head pounded against the pavement (Kelly Thomas style).

The video doesn't show a police car in the foreground, but there should be at least one, with a dashboard camera, in the background.

It would truly suck if not showing ID to cops on demand would give them adequate reason to take a man to the pavement and rough him up.

I'm going to wait for a bit information.

[sarcasmic]

It would truly suck if not showing ID to cops on demand would give them adequate reason to take a man to the pavement and rough him up.

Failure to obey is considered violent assault, and dealt with as such.

[widget]

"Officer, I have to no obligation to carry ID with me and no obligation to show it to you if I did."

That stuff still works. But if you replace "Officer" with "Asshole" it often doesn't.

Don't start a one-man revolution against the state in a moment of emotional turmoil. That never goes well.

[PM]

Mr R probably perished from a heart attack, not from strangulation or having his head pounded against the pavement (Kelly Thomas style).

Thank God the cops were there to help him to the ground so he didn't crack his head on the pavement!

Seriously? Of course he probably died from cardiac distress of some kind. You say it as if he was on his way out and the cops just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. He probably wouldn't have had a heart attack if 5 guys didn't have their knees in his back while he was choking on a gallon of pepper spray.

[widget]

Or maybe Mr R's grandson would have killed him a month later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IRYpjj2_gw

"Seriously?"

"Hold your fire", is all I have to say on this for now.

[PM]

"Hold your fire", is all I have to say on this for now.

"Don't dribble any" is about all I can say. Jesus Christ, man. That's beyond Tulpa levels of Stasi apologetics.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I saw a couple of Tampa cops in action after a hockey game. They were so frightening confronting a drunk guy who musta mouthed off to them it felt like it crossed a line.

I don't know what Tampa cops face day in and day out but seems to me the cop shoulda just let the guy walk on. But no he had to follow him and be tough. I seriously though he was going to pull out his gun. He coulda killed a guy - all for mouthing off.

The more I think of it, the more it pissed me off.

They all looked like pissed off and unhelpful. In fact, a little up the street we stopped to ask a cop for directions and his reluctance to do so couldn't have been clearer.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

pisses.

[widget]

My theory on cops is that there is a proper price point for their services, and one that has not been found and kept steady. If you pay them too little (like we did in the'70s) some will eat donuts, screw hookers, and engage in corruption. If you pay them too much (like now) some will get an overvalued ego and treat harmless citizens like their inferiors.

[PM]

I don't think it's got jack shit to do with the money. Most of these guys would do the job for subsistence because they're limp dicked spineless assholes with authority complexes who are in it purely and entirely for the control and power. The fact that they get paid like PhDs is just a bonus, and another way of consolidating power over the proles.

[PM]

Also, I don't think corruption within police departments across the nation, including the donut eating, bribe taking and hooker screwing disappeared with the fat paychecks. They just became a smaller percentage of the departments once the police forces were quasi-militarized and started attracting weekend warriors too fat and pussified to actually join the military.

[widget]

Libertarianism and Minarchism (neither of these pass a Google spell-check, it seems to be the 'ism' that breaks it, but please correct me!) require a night watchman. Anarchism does not. So now, PM, you have to make a choice.

[PM]

I have to make a choice between having a government and giving cops carte blanche with military hardware and letting them occasionally kill people to keep them placated?

How do I false dichotomy?

[wwhorton]

I know I'm late to the party here, but shit. Night watchman != jackbooted thug. The dichotomy that you're proposing--that any law enforcement at all must inevitably be total, brutal, and oppressive, or entirely absent--is why people make peace with cops like this. If someone doesn't want to live in a stateless society, and the only other option you present is an authoritarian dictatorship, then they'll pick the latter and just hope to nudge it in the right direction or fly under the radar. It's completely counterproductive.

[Paul.]

If you pay them too little (like we did in the'70s) some will eat donuts, screw hookers, and engage in corruption. If you pay them too much (like now) some will get an overvalued ego and treat harmless citizens like their inferiors.

Unfortunately, the evidence has shown that if you pay them too much, they eat donuts, screw hookers and engage in corruption.

Money has dick to do with it.

It's the accountability, stupid.

[MasterDarque]

This video made me cry

[widget]

Nice to have "Heartbreaking" in the headline, that way you don't to have to examine the evidence before emoting.

I'm nuts about this.

Here's the headline:

Heartbreaking Video Released of Woman Watching Cops Kill Her Husband in Oklahoma

This is not a headline that Radley Balko, a true warrior against the police state, would write based on the the video.

Radley!

[PM]

Nice to have "Heartbreaking" in the headline, that way you don't to have to examine the evidence before emoting.

There's a link to the fucking video, which he presumably watched, since he said:

This video made me cry

Not, This headline made me cry

Good thing cops are always in the right, that way you don't have to examine the evidence, let alone think, before mounting a vigorous defense when some obese fat slob happens to conveniently have a heart attack right as 5 cops are pummeling him after he's been gagged with mace. Just goes to show you how far some assholes will go to smear our brave boys in blue, amirite?

[Dweebston]

Weren't you around here several months ago making daft, discredited arguments about the case against Zimmerman?

[Hyperion]

Well, there are stories like this all over the web now, almost daily. And so it's up to us citizens now if we're going to continue to put up with it.

Most of the comments on these stories, now, all over the webosphere, are now probably 80% negative against the statists and their pigs, so that's at least a good sign.

[db]

If the description is accurate, I won't be able to watch this.

[db]

If any of you know any cops, have them watch this video.

[Agile Cyborg]

Dying is a poor excuse for movement, civilian. Even in those tragic throes of the forever nap ya gotta stoppa resista sez da killa coppa.

[Sardondi]

I spent a career as a state and federal prosecutor, and even I recognize that, across the nation, we are close to losing control of our police forces. Apparently today it is justifiable for a police officer to kill someone who might lay a hand on them. And yet we have dozens of mass murderers, who were each convicted after a fair trial and multiple direct appeals and habeas motions, who remain on Death Row for 20, 25 and even 30 years. But police can instantly summarily execute a citizen trying to help his wife.

Something is really wrong here.

[widget]

When cops get payed $100,000k+ per year and get their government employers to also separately pay their union dues and retirements benefits, the train might go off the rails. Who'd a thunk it.

[Paul.]

we are close to losing control of our police forces

Close? I think we've crashed through the guardrail and are now airborne, aimed hood-first into the freezing drink.

[widget]

Humble yourself dear Paul.. Only clergymen will divert you from the gates of hell.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....-protests/

I am not one of them. I could not stand before God and profess my faith while a Roman soldier nailed my wrists to a wooden cross.

[JeremyR]

Here's one I saw posted on reddit

http://i.imgur.com/bAgl1ho.jpg

[Clich? Bandit]

Holy Shit!

Those boys are true believers. I respect the massive testicles they are putting on display. Though I often rail against the hypocrisy of organized religion, it is always refreshing to see the truly devout stand up for their principles. The lowest parish priest is often more pious than the pope.

[MoreFreedom]

There they are, 5 of them holding down a dead man like he's a threat, and with the wife asking him if he's OK, an officer says he's fine.

In my opinion, they harmed him, neglected to call for medical help, and killed him.

[Agile Cyborg]

Resistance is futile because it's deadly. According to the ground-pork brain Austin tippy-top cop Acevedo the fatman was just lucky he wasn't raped before they suffocated him to death. Had this occurred it would have been a blatant act of PBDSM (P for piggy). As it was I guess it was a tragic piggy gang bang.