Cop Hits Man in the Head 20 Times as Onlookers Plead 'Don't Punch Him No More'

Shay Kilgore / Facebook

Once the cops have pinned a non-violent suspect to the ground, how many times are they allowed to punch him in the head? Is it fewer than 20? I would say so, but I'm not a Greenville County, South Carolina, deputy.

Greenville officers approached a man at a Walmart parking lot on Saturday. The man appeared to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and didn't respond to police questions or instructions. Eventually, the officers followed the man inside the store, where they attempted to detain him. The deputies claim the man resisted, though video footage of the incident certainly makes said resistance look passive, rather than violent. But once the two cops had the man on the ground, one of them immediately began punching him in the head. I count at least 20 blows.

Onlookers were horrified, and begged the deputies to stop. Many thought the treatment of the man was cruel, according to WSPA.com. "Please don't punch him like that, don't punch him no more," said one witness. (More video footage can be seen here.)

The man was eventually tasered and then taken to the hospital. Police have not given his name or explained what the charges against him are. The department is reviewing the footage, however, to determine whether the deputy acted properly when he punched a helpless man in the head over and over and over again.

Comments

[invisible furry hand]

The man appeared to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs

Unfortunately the cops don't have that excuse

[AdamJ]

They feared for their safety.

[straffinrun]

Power Drunk. The victim gets the hangover.

[Jerryskids]

The department is reviewing the footage, however, to determine whether the deputy acted properly when he punched a helpless man in the head over and over and over again.

Unless the department doing the reviewing is the Men's Department at Wal-mart, we all know the answer to this one.

[WTF]

They will thoroughly investigate themselves before determining that they acted properly. What more do you want?

[Doctor Whom]

Our heroes in blue, unlike the serfs, are entitled to proper procedural protection.

[Kure'i]

Another plea deal, and our heroes in blue go to bed safely for another night. Everybody wins.

[Coeus]

It's a white guy. Nobody gives a fuck.

[Lord Peter Wimsey]

^^This is the truth, sadly. A little noise and then this guy's story will go away. Wrong color; no political advantage to be gained; no narrative to sustain.

[KPres]

/thread

[AdamJ]

At what point to victims of his violence get to sue the people who call the cops on them? It is certainly reasonable to expect that if you call the police, they will beat the shit out of someone. I think this guy has a claim against Wal-Mart.

[Cowboydroid]

It's always appropriate to sue the police for abuse of power. Unfortunately, the courts do not look kindly on those who sue cops, and will make it very difficult and costly.

The police don't do this to people who can afford good lawyers.

He doesn't have a claim against Walmart. If anything, Walmart also has a claim against the cops for trespassing.

[Kure'i]

Aside from public outcry turning the odds in this guy's favor, the Resisting/Obstructing laws are generally written so loosely that doing anything other than "following the lawful commands of an arresting officer" will be enough to support a charge of resisting, and allowing the cops to use nondeadly force to secure an arrest. It'll probably be part of some plea deal for him to sign a waiver saying the cops didn't abuse him, in order to avoid some trumped up felony charge.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Police have not given his name or explained what the charges against him are.

The charges are assault on a police officer. The perp repeatedly battered the cop's fist over twenty times with his skull.

[Doctor Whom]

There are probably additional charges of damage to government property by bleeding on the uniforms of our heroes in blue. Anyway, the whole concept that police need a reason to do anything is just so quaint.

[SugarFree]

Maybe the cop was high on PCP.

[Bill]

LMAO

[CatoTheElder]

Anabolic steroid abuse is a more likely explanation.

[The Late P Brooks]

Police have not given his name or explained what the charges against him are.

RESISTING, duh.

[db]

The cop hasn't had his union-negotiated 72 hour rest period to review all the evidence, calm down, and come up with a story.

[Restoras]

Is there a website that is devoted to cataloging these abuses of power? Seems like if there was then it would be, or at least might be, easier to start reining these assholes in a bit.

[AlgerHiss]

http://www.policemisconduct.net/

It's a great site.

[The Late P Brooks]

What id some child had been watching, and the cops allowed that guy to get away with his flagrantly antisocial and disrespectful behavior?

The entire fabric of society would unravel.

OBEY.

[Dave Krueger]

The department is reviewing the footage...

...in order to fabricate a story that somewhat matches the video. They will present that story when they are reasonably sure no one else is going to come out with additional video that might contradict their story.

[Kure'i]

"The video recording only started after the suspect had already lunged at, and repeatedly threatened officers." Or some similar crap.

An attorney friend told me about a case he had last year, where the cops claimed they had stopped his client's car for "following another car too closely -- about 6 feet behind the front car." After reviewing the footage in court, and showing that the client's car was a reasonable distance from the car in front of it, the cop switched to, "No, before it was captured on camera.... before that, I saw the car following the other car too closely."

And, as par for the course, the judge agreed with the cop and dismissed the motion to suppress evidence.

[userve32]

Its POS cops like this I just LOVE to hear about in the news that get clipped in the line of duty.

http://www.AnonCrypt.tk

[Agammamon]

Unfortunately its not these cops that get clipped. Its the who helps someone out and then gets shot by a third guy who comes into the restaurant to rob it.

[Ghetto Slovak Goatherder]

LAME. Anonbot was much more intelligent yesterday.

[Robert]

Has Anonbot ever been on one of those Reason cruises?

[MP]

'course, then there's also the other man of authoratah who had his weapon pulled when no obvious threat of life threatening force in sight.

Disgusting.

[The Late P Brooks]

'course, then there's also the other man of authoratah who had his weapon pulled when no obvious threat of life threatening force in sight.

You never know when some goody-two-shoes civilian might get some insane notion to intervene.
OFFICER SAFETY.

[creech]

Thanks for the reminder. I'm afraid if I witnessed something like this I'd try to pull the cop off, but I must remember to step back and allow the gestapo to get their kicks or I'll be just another victim who tried to interfere with our heroes in blue.

[thom]

I'm still trying to figure out when it was that cops started pulling out their weapons as a matter of routine. Was it when the show Cops went on the air?

When I was a kid (mid 80s) I toured a police station and the cop who was giving us the tour made a big point of saying "in the 20-some years that I have been a police officer I have never unholstered my gun in the line of duty and almost every other officer in this building could tell you the same thing." I probably don't have the exact wording right, but it seemed to be a point of pride with him - like he didn't need that crutch to do his job. Now you drive by people getting speeding tickets and the cops got his gun out.

[CatoTheElder]

Same here. When I was a kid in the late '60s, some cops came to our school and said pretty much the same thing. According to them, a cop had to file a detailed report every time he unholstered his weapon and would avoid that unless absolutely necessary. I don't know if that's true, but it was a good story.

One thing for sure: every cop needs to wear a camera and microphone, and that device needs to bluetooth (or something) with the holster to be sure that it's on whenever the weapon is removed.

[Pope Jimbo]

Can you please re-link to the video of the drunk norwegian yelling at the cops? I'd like to compare and contrast the cops reaction in that video with the actions of these cops.

[invisible furry hand]

I'M FROM LOFOTEN FOR FUCK'S SAKE AND YOU'RE A FUCKING JELLY!

[LibertyInfusion]

Because Al-Queda!

[Mainer2]

Greeneville's Finest.

That had to be so satisfying for the cop. You strut around in a uniform with a club and a gun, and finally a chance to really brutalize another human being. Once you start punching, how can you stop, really, when the visceral satsifaction just keeps rising.

[Joe M]

Procedures were followed, stop resisting, officer safety, etc. Did I miss anything?

[chris3145]

its ok ive investigated my self and found i did nothing wrong....ill be back in 30 days after my tax payer funded vacation

[Jeffrey29]

This is ridiculous.... He wasn't even resisting, after taking 20 blows to the head he still wasn't fighting back... I'm sure this officer forgot how to properly handcuff somebody so he had to punch him to remind himself... If you and your partner can't handcuff one man without mma punches you need to find a new career...

[Jeffrey29]

Joe your an idiot, that's what you missed.....id like to see if you would have commented differently if that was your family member getting his head smashed....

[LibertyInfusion]

I think Joe was implying sarcasm in his post.

[Mike Parent]

Officers are only supposed to use. NECESSARY force justify how that was necessary. The offices actions should be reviewed and proper actions should be administered

[GB]

Two new idiot cops who should be fired. One for beating up a helpless citizen and the other for holding the citizen and allowing it to happen. No wonder people hate police.

[dungbeard]

WTF? Al Sharpton told me this only happens to blacks.

[benpal]

No normal person would hit another person - defenseless above all - on the head repeatedly. It seems that uniforms have a deleterious influence on human behavior.

[KerryVAN2]

Greenville police are among the worst in the nation. Super corrupt, super power hungry and the worst part is that they're just puppets in the real problem which is Greenville's justice system. Lawyers, politicians, judges they're all in each others corner and they're against all citizens. All they care about is how much money they can take from the people, they don't give a damn about anything else, let alone the people they're suppose to serve. I went to college in Greenville and one time my buddy was being harrassed by a local towny at a bar. My friend is asian and this local was saying racial slurs to him. One thing leads to another and I start talking with one of the cops who shows up. The cop begins to defend the local specifically siting the first amendment. He says to me "racism is legal in America. It's the freedom of speech." I responded by calling him ignorant and he immidiately arrested me for disorderly conduct. It was a blatent power trip that ripped my first amendment rights away within seconds of him defending those same rights. Of course everything got dropped and cleared as soon as I paid a lawyer $1700. F the Greenville PD