Watch Broward County Sheriff's Deputies Slam a 14-Year-Old Boy's Head Into the Pavement

The cops were there to break up a fight, not start one.

Broward County sheriff's deputies were called to a popular teen meet-up area, a McDonald's parking lot, Thursday afternoon. The police were there ostensibly to breakup a fight, not start one.

But according to video footage of the encounter, sheriff's deputies pepper-sprayed at least one black teenager, tackled him, punched him in the head repeatedly, grabbed him by the back of the neck, and slammed his face into the pavement. The Sun Sentinel reported that the victim was a 14-year-old student at J.P. Taravella High School.

Okay c'mon #BlackTwitter , this needs to be seen period! These are MINORS, they going to school to get literally beat up by the police? Oh nah ????????‍♀️ #BlackTwitter Tag the right people so this could be seen cause this is truly SICK. I am disgusted. pic.twitter.com/dwVORGg74m

— Lea ????????‍♀️. (@LeProsperity) April 18, 2019

The victim left the scene in an ambulance, blood covering his face.

The Broward Sheriff's Office is "investigating the incident to determine exactly what happened, how it started, how it escalated and they're looking at the outcome of it," a police spokesperson told The Miami New Times. But bashing a person's head against hard concrete is never appropriate, regardless of which party escalated the encounter. The officers involved could have killed this young man, and they should face serious consequences.

Comments

[Cyto]

That's my tax dollars at work there! Makes me proud!

On a related note, I was up at the South Florida State Fair in Palm Beach County a while back and a fight broke out among some high school kids. It was fairly violent, and despite my age and melanin deficiency I was able to wade into the fray and separate the combatants without sending anyone to the hospital.

Perhaps it was my lack of training?

[a ab abc abcd abcde abcdef ahf]

Your Fraternal Order of Cyto union is probably not working as hard for you as they should. Their backing be a major confidence booster for you. Their marketing seems to need some work.

Oh wait .... you do have a union, don't you!??!

[ThomasD]

That's because nobody messes with Crazy Ol White Dude.

Bad juju.

[Cyto]

If this ever sees a courtroom, I'll look forward to the frame by frame explanation of how grabbing a 14 year old boy's head with two hands, aligning his face directly with the pavement and smashing his face against the ground is proper technique according to training.

[Noonan Mark]

It’s not. I have four cousins who are Police Officers. 1 with the Seattle PD, 1 with Boston PD. Two with the NYPD.

[Cyto]

There is always some use of force expert who will break it down frame by frame and tell you that you are not seeing what you are seeing. This is the legacy of Rodney King.

[IceTrey]

In Seattle they shoot you in the back. In NYC they choke you to death. In Boston they drown you in baked beans.

[a ab abc abcd abcde abcdef ahf]

In Boston they drown you in baked beansmolasses.

FTFY.

[Quality Beef]

Oh they're black? Fuck em they're on their own.

[squid_hunt]

Well, I mean, race baiting does seem the most reasonable response...

[Ray McKigney]

This is your brain on Hollywood:

Charlize Theron revealed that her 7-year-old child Jackson is transgender.

[Fancylad]

“Until she looked at me when she was three years old and said: ‘I am not a boy!'”
I wanted to be an anthropomorphic firetruck when I was three. If only my parents weren't such bigots.

[Quality Beef]

You're a guy. You're already an anthropomorphic firetruck, complete with hose.

[Quo Usque Tandem]

"You’re a guy. You’re already an anthropomorphic firetruck, complete with hose."

This is why I thank God the comments section survived the upgrade.

[Bob2]

I consider it a huge downgrade

[ThomasD]

Lights and siren optional.

[Michael Ejercito]

This is sick child abuse!

[Fancylad]

To be honest, as much as I dislike cop thuggery, I'm in favour of slamming every 14-year-old in the country’s head into some pavement.
Get them at least once in their freshmen year too.

[Ron]

the kid was clearly not responding so I really don't give a shit

[Cyto]

Allow me to put on my Dunphy hat for a moment and talk about "totality of circumstances".

Something startling clearly happened just before the objectionable incident that we don't get to see. It was enough to make a bunch of kids exclaim and move out of the way. What that something is will be important to determining what those circs are in their totality.

Judging by the violent actions of the police officer, I'm going to speculate that the kid did something to that officer, probably in an attempt to escape. In that case, the officer acted in anger from some form of assault.

This would be much more forgivable than the alternative (losing your temper for a second when hurt is part of the human condition and can be dealt with). The alternative circ would be that the officer did something that got that reaction from the crowd - slamming the kid into something while attempting a takedown, hitting him violently.. something like that. Those circs would be quite different in their totality and then we have a much bigger problem and a much more criminal act.

So Dunphy was right... it is all about the totality of the circs.

In either event the officer's conduct is needlessly violent and dangerous. But one is a sociopathic attempt to harm a juvenile that requires jail time... and the other is a momentary lapse of judgement and control that could be remedied by some therapy, discontinuing steroid use and moving to a less "interactive" position with the force.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

to make a bunch of kids exclaim and move out of the way.

One of the cops (not head slammer) used or threatened pepper spray. You can see it in his hand when he throws the kid down before other cop jumped on him and started slamming the kid.

[Cyto]

Yeah... if that's what happened.....

Pepper spray as a "stop resisting" compliance measure is completely useless.

In fact, let's just assume that's what happened so we can use this entire episode as an example of stupidly bad tactics and terrible training.

So, kid is in a fight and when you grab him and try to take him into custody he continues struggling. And then you decide to get him to comply ... by spraying him with pepper spray?

That stuff is designed to get your attacker to leave. Pure and simple. Pain, discomfort, blinding, can't breath - Run Away!! So of course that's the perfect thing to do when you want someone to become docile and compliant.

Next they sling him to the ground as he attempts to run away. Ok, fair enough. You got the kid under physical control, even if you have not yet gained full cooperation. Get on top of him to maintain control... Ok, with you so far....

Now you want him to put his hands out to the side so he can't grab a weapon and you can place him in handcuffs... So..... Grab his head, turn his face toward the ground and begin slamming his face into the pavement! That will keep him from trying to put his hands under.... Oh, wait. No, that's pretty much guaranteed to get him to move his arms underneath to protect his face. And that level of violence is pretty much guaranteed to get him to attempt to escape...

So, what to do? Now he's got his arm under his head to keep you from breaking the bones in his face on the pavement.... you need to gain compliance. I know! Start punching him in the face! Get those hook shots in their as hard as you can! That's guaranteed to get him to trust that you won't hurt him and allow himself to be handcuffed! And there's no way that that is going to encourage him to respond by trying to escape your grasp and perhaps respond with violent resistance!

In that short 10 or 15 seconds they did just about everything wrong that you could possibly do. Well, I mean, nobody got shot. But other than that!

Look, if you want to break up a fight and the combatants are too big or too violent to risk jumping between them, pepper spray is probably a good option. A couple of blasts into the fray and they'll probably lose interest in fighting and start running away pretty quickly. But that is going to make taking them into custody more difficult. In this case we don't know anything about the fight. But a couple of 9th graders in a fight? Yeah, I'd say that just breaking it up would be sufficient. You don't really need to arrest anyone at that point, absent something worse than a normal fight.

So that takes us back to the original sin - the decision that they had to make arrests. We can't really judge based on what is available here, but using "most commonly" as a starting point, I'm going to say that this was a screw-up. Pulling them apart and calming them down would have been the primary mission, had a rational, intelligent adult been present.

So everything points back to training. Bad training all around. The only thing outside of "procedures were followed" is the part where he smashes the kid's face into the pavement. Other than that, I'm sure the department is perfectly fine with their minions behavior. But they shouldn't be.

They should be looking at why they have officers who think that you have to violently take down a couple of 9th grade kids who are in a fight, handcuff them and take them into custody. They should be looking at why they have officers who think that hitting someone with pepper spray is a good way to get them to quit resisting and come quietly. They should be looking at why they think that when straddling someone that you have double-teamed and outsized by a wide margin, your first go-to move should be to violently assault them... skip the face-smash - he also went immediately to punches to the head as well. Not even a half a beat for simply trying physical restraint.

The department is to blame on this one. But they'll never see that. At most they will call it a momentary lapse by a bad apple. But they should be looking at their incompetent training.

[A nerdy Fred]

When we hear an agency talk about a "bad apple", let's remember the original proverb that phrase comes from.

It says that a single bad apple spoils the entire barrel.

[Lowdog]

It’s only bad training to those of us who think the police should be protecting and serving. It is not bad training for those who believe the police should be terrorizing citizens into being cowed and compliant.

They *want* escalation so they have an excuse to beat, maim, and murder.

(Btw, I think non-private police are most likely unnecessary, at best.)

[MatthewSlyfield]

"So, kid is in a fight and when you grab him and try to take him into custody he continues struggling."

It's not at all clear from the video that the kid was one of the original fighters as opposed to some kid in the crowed of bystanders who just didn't get out of a cop's way fast enough.

[colorblindkid]

The race of the victim of crimes are only ever indicated when it is a black person, especially with police violence, even though there are twice as many white people killed by cops every year, and everybody who reads Reason knows that this is a huge problem that is no longer largely about race. A poor white person is far more likely to be the victim of police violence than a middle class black person.

Focusing entirely on race and taking part in the current journalistic practice of inconsistently mentioning race in articles is one of the biggest barriers to actually addressing the underlying issues.

[Cyto]

It certainly seems like the #blm movement was promoted and funded to coopt the growing law enforcement reform movement and deflect attention toward "racism" as the cause.

Just a note for those who care about criminal justice reform - if your diagnosis is "the police are racist", there will never be a cure.

What possible answer can you have as a police officer when you are accused of being racist? There is only one possibility... "No, I'm not."

And there endeth the discussion.

Things were actually making good progress before we had a string of strange choices by the media to push false narratives that split people along racial lines - "White hispanic" murders innocent, skittles eating kid because he is afraid of his hoodie... racist officer executes "gentle giant" who was minding his own business while his hands are in the air saying "don't shoot".

And magically all progress is gone. Well, until Trump shows up and does something about sentencing reform.

[Rossami]

Without disagreeing with anything in Cyto's analysis, it is worth noting that twice as many white people killed per year when there are ten times as many white people still means that five times as many blacks are being killed on a per-capita basis.

While I agree that it is often unhelpful to focus on race, those statistics make it hard to argue that race has no role at all in the targeting.

[colorblindkid]

Yes, black men are 2-3X more likely to be shot by cops, but they are also 7-8X more likely to commit murder and over 5x as likely to commit violent crimes. You can not talk about one without the other. Black men are more likely to have interactions with cops, and more likely to get in confrontations with cops, and the reasons for those are very complicated, some of which are due to racism, but the fact is that a cop is no more likely to shoot a black person than a white person in the same situation (several studies have shown this, and the NYT had a great article awhile back about it), and the prevailing narrative that cops are going around just shooting black people for fun or are more likely to shoot a black person running away is 100% grade A bullshit not backed up by anything but media anecdotal stories.

[colorblindkid]

Historical racism plays a large role in the class and wealth disparity between blacks and whites, but actual racism today has an insignificant role in so many issues for which we focus entirely on race. It is almost entirely class and wealth.

Also those murder statistics come from a 2011 report by Obama's DOJ. Not once in 25 years has the black homicide rate been less than 7X higher than the white murder rate. Some years it's over 8x.

And while we're talking about per capita numbers, between 20-25% of hate crime offenders are black every year according to the FBI stats, which means they're twice as likely as white people to commit hate crimes.

The media picks and chooses which statistics matter and which don't, and when to state per capita numbers or total numbers, and their decisions on this matter always go in one direction.

[colorblindkid]

With school shootings and terrorism, you will always see headlines like "white people commit majority of mass shootings/terrorism". of course they do. White people still make up approximately 2/3 of adult Americans. The racial breakdown of mass shootings (and school shootings) actually matches the demographics of the country pretty closely. Meanwhile, there are about 150 million white Christians in this country, and fewer than 5 million Muslims of all races. The fact that the latter is anywhere close to the former when it comes to terrorism is startling, but you will never ever see those per capita statistics.

The way the media fearmongers about white supremacists, gay bashings, Nazis, and all hate crimes are as statistically nonsensical and irrational as Trump's fear-mongering about illegal immigrant crimes. The media rightfully calls out the bullshit in the latter, but actively encourages the former.

[RestoreWesternHegemony]

What they mean when they say that is that whites aren't disproportionately unrepresented as they are with normal crime.

[IceTrey]

It's not complicated it's drug prohibition.

[colorblindkid]

We could release all drug offenders tomorrow and still have an overincarceration problem with a huge racial disparity. Part of the crime and murder discrepancy can be blamed on drug prohibition, but that is not the biggest part by far.

[TripK]

I think you're underestimating the impact of fatherless homes on the likelihood that a young men will commit more crime.

We criminalize drugs -> over-incarcerate black people for drug crimes -> create massive amounts of fatherless homes in the black community -> young black men are raised without father figures -> young black men grow up to commit crime -> over-incarcerate black people ....

The welfare state also played a role in the rise in fatherless homes in the black community, but that's another can of worms.

[A nerdy Fred]

Adding to TripK's thought, not contradicting it, there has been a rapidly increasing number of children who have lost their mothers to the prison system. The impact is severe. It is even more severe when the woman is a single mother. If the children are very lucky they may be taken in by relatives. If not they go into the foster system. In short order that becomes permanent: https://preview.tinyurl.com/familybreakup.

If you think the foster system is benign, reflect that over 80% of the people in my state serving LWOP for aggravated murder are graduates of the foster system.

Even families that are destined to be reunited are damaged by restrictive communication and visiting policies, and placements in remote rural prisons difficult to travel to.

Not surprising then that research shows that incarceration of a parent greatly raises the chance the children will someday be convicted of something.

[A nerdy Fred]

To elaborate on colorblindkid's correct observation, a lot of the non-drug convictions stem from the consequences of drug prohibition.

Someone has to pay black market prices for their addiction and re-sells stolen goods like Gina Panetta? It doesn't say "drug" on the paperwork but the crime happened because of prohibition.

Someone kills someone else in a business dispute because peaceful legal dispute resolution is closed to their line of business? The paperwork says "murder" but it was caused by drug prohibition. Tobacco company employees aren't doing drive-by shootings to settle disputes.

[a ab abc abcd abcde abcdef ahf]

Yes, black men are 2-3X more likely to be shot by cops, but they are also 7-8X more likely to commitbe arrested for murder and over 5x as likely to commitbe arrested for violent crimes.

There is a difference. If the system (ie, cops) are racist, they are more likely to arrest and frame blacks than whites.

[squid_hunt]

Right. They're all framed. It's the whole darn system...

Where do the cops come from in the ghettos? Are they shipping them in from Alabama Klan meetings?

[Tony]

How do you know what race they are, what with being colorblind?

[Still Curmudgeoned (Nunya)]

You don't watch enough Chapelle.

[Quo Usque Tandem]

Broward County. Need I say more?

[Cyto]

Broward county is huge. With a budget of almost a billion dollars a year, they cover a lot of citizens. So they are going to have a lot of interactions.

And the BSO has a reputation for corruption at the top. But interestingly it was because of a lack of aggressive action during the MSD shooting that the Governor unseated the elected Sheriff.

[Tom Bombadil]

" But interestingly it was because of a lack of aggressive action during the MSD shooting "

Translation: "Cowardice". Please don't mix the apples with the oranges, they aren't the same price.

[Michael Ejercito]

It is clear that the military should replace them.

[Griffin3]

Best friend in college, his little brother was going through the academy, trying to hire on to the police department. He asked me to write his ethics paper for him. He did not see the irony.

[Noonan Mark]

WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST SEE. If that had been my kid i’d Make damn sure that cop lost his job. There was no need for that.

[Tu­lpa AKA "feeling smug"]

You'd try. And almost certainly fail.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

Immunity bitches!!

[intrathecal]

Welcome to the USSA (Amerikkka), comrades.

[Broward County Sheriffs Deputy Slams Kid - ForLiberty.News]

[…] Read the entire article at Reason. […]

[Morbo]

The Cowards Of Broward are at at it again, I see.

[Tony]

Isn't it well past time we end the experiment of hiring retarded psychopaths to keep the peace in our communities?

Let them scoop sewage, or whatever it is you do with sewage. Where they can't do any harm.

[Video: Deputy slams high school student’s head to the ground – Fox News | Sam Feaster]

[…] Watch Broward County Sheriff’s Deputies Slam a 14-Year-Old Boy’s Head Into the Pavement  Reason […]

[kayr]

Togel Singapore merupakan salah satu pasaran judi yang banyak dimintai masyarakat Indonesia, terutama di situs togel singapura Jika bos ingin bermain colok jitu, pertama yang harus anda lakukan adalah menentukan angka mana yang ingin di mainkan, lalu anda harus menebak di mana posisi angka itu akan keluar

[kayr]

Judi togel merupakan salah satu jenis dari permainan judi yang banyak digemari oleh para pemain judi, bahkan seiring dengan berjalannya waktu, permainan judi togel hongkong dapat dimainkan secara online sehingga para pemain menjadi lebih mudah dalam memainkan judi online tersebut

[Hank Phillips]

Look at it from the First Responder™ viewpoint. The DemoGOP Kleptocracy, (not minorities) is what writes violent laws and signs their paychecks. The kid getting his face bashed into the pavement was clearly brown, hence, outvoted. To the Kleptocracy and its minions, this is Democracy in Action, nothing more.

[BadLib]

Although this officer's actions appear to be inappropriate, I can't agree completely with:

But bashing a person's head against hard concrete is never appropriate, regardless of which party escalated the encounter.

If an officer is in a hand-to-hand combat with an armed suspect, almost any action (including hitting the suspect's head into concrete) may be appropriate if the alternatives mean allowing the suspect to kill or seriously injure the officer or another person.

If a school shooter is tackled by a police officer and is struggling to get away, and is on the verge of doing so, to continue shooting students, I've got no problem with the officer smashing the suspect's head into the ground if that's the most reliable way to prevent the suspect from continuing with their mayhem.

[Eddy]

OK, fair enough, but this is a fight among adolescent boys.

[MatthewSlyfield]

It's not at all clear in the video that the kid being beat up by the cops was one of the original fighters as opposed to a bystander from the crowd.

[RestoreWesternHegemony]

I'll start caring about black males when they aren't responsible for 10 times as much violent crime as whites are.

[BillEverman]

Here's the thing, though: putting aside that it's unreasonable to judge any individual by the worst actions of someone with the same race or gender, the difference between how much violent crime black males commit as opposed to white males is far smaller than the difference between how much violent crime males commit as opposed to how much crime females commit. So, are you going to stop caring about males; are you going to admit that you made an honest mistake; or are you just a racist asshole looking for a fig leaf to hide your bigotry?

[Reasoner]

Lacking specific information about an individual - his history and temperment ..it is TOTALLY REASONABLE to Judge an Individual by his race , and we are aware that Black males commit a God-awful amount of crime in proportion to their percentage of population . That is why Jesse Jackson said that if he were walking alone , late at night , on a city street and he saw a group of white youths approaching him ...he would have Much Less fear than if he saw a group of Black males [look it up - google is your friend]. To have an appreciation of the problem - merely consult the DOJ Stats .

In 2013, number and percentage of murder arrests by race were:
Black or African Americans 4,379 = 51.3%
White Americans (non-Hispanic Americans) 2,861 = 33.5%
Hispanic Americans 1,096 = 12.8%
American Indians or Alaska Natives 98 = 1.14%
Asian Americans 101 = 1.18%[52][53]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_crime_in_the_United_States

[ipsquire]

Reasoner - so you and Bill Gates are afraid of sharks. Maybe that's reasonable, but it's innumerate.

There are about 20M black men in the US. If only 10% of murders result in arrest (the reported totals are an order of magnitude better), there's 1 in 500 chance that any one individual is a murderer.

[mad.casual]

So, are you going to stop caring about males; are you going to admit that you made an honest mistake; or are you just a racist asshole looking for a fig leaf to hide your bigotry?

You are aware that he doesn't actually care about black males, right? That he doesn't care about male vs. female incarceration rates until it's brought up about how males run society and dominate women, right?

You seem to think that you and he share a goal of racial equality when you don't. You're the racist who perpetually desires more equality for the races (and maybe genders). He just doesn't give a fuck equally.

[markm23]

RestoreWesternHegemony: "I’ll start caring about black males when they aren’t responsible for 10 times as much violent crime as whites are."

If you are going to judge a group by the actions of its worst members, we need to kill all the cops.

[Fist of Etiquette]

They were outnumbered and felt threatened. It's like prison. You pick the largest guy and take him out to give everyone else pause. Here the largest guy was a14-year-old boy.

[Links #460 | The Honest Courtesan]

[…] Never call the cops for any reason whatsoever. […]

[markm23]

I hope that was a satire of how this would be viewed through a leftist identitarian lens...

I can't tell if the cops are female - both their faces are down - but if they are either female or very lightly built males, it could partially explain this violence. With a very few exceptions, cops in my day were large men with the strength to simply overpower most 14 year olds, with no risk of injury to the cop or the suspect. Women - or men who got in through grossly weakened physical requirements intended to allow the average woman to pass - might be justifiably worried about getting hurt in a wrestling match with a middle-school student.