Brickbat: To Protect and Serve

Former Prince George's County, Maryland, police officer Bryant Strong was sentenced to a year in prison followed by three years of probation for assaulting a handcuffed man, leaving the man paralyzed from the waist down. Police had stopped Demonte Ward-Blake for an expired tag. Ward-Blake was "verbally agitated" but cooperative with officers. After Ward-Blake was handcuffed, Strong took him to the ground, injuring him. A police department spokesman had claimed Ward-Blake was injured when he fell trying to run from police. But Ward-Blake's girlfriend and another officer on the scene contradicted that story.