Multiple readers have sent us this Youtube video of a Tucson Police Officer shoving a woman near Park Avenue and University Boulevard during the unlawful assembly on Saturday, March 29. The woman appeared to be on her phone when a officer used a baton to knock her on a metal bench. We are awaiting for an official response from TPD.
Bisbee comedian Doug Stanhope is eager to find out the officer responsible for this:
Post by Doug Stanhope.
This article appears in Mar 27 – Apr 2, 2014.
You really might want to check the definition of horrific.
Truth: My dictionary uses “terrible” and “awful” as synonyms. You wouldn’t describe what’s seemingly seen on that video clip with either of those words?
Terrible? Awful? Not unless it’s your kid, I guess, that got knocked over for no apparent reason, by a cop in riot gear.
She was clearly just walking on the sidewalk, not bothering anyone. That cop should be arrested for assault.
What about the officer smashing a helmeted head into the face of the man walking toward the officers? That was horrific in my view.
Mr. Gibson: A soldier blown apart by an IED, a child running down the street naked after being hit with a napalm bomb, unarmed protesters being sprayed with machine gun fire, mass graves filled with women & children. All horrific. Someone knocked over while police are trying to get a drunk crowd to disperse? Not so much.
She wasn’t “knocked over”, she was assaulted. That was an intentional act.
TPD is an absolute disgrace to the city of Tucson and the University of Arizona for the way they handled this supposed “riot” as local media are describing it. TPD went down there looking for a fight and their presence in numbers even before the game started provoked this. We knew what was going to happen hours before tipoff when the lemmings in local TV news gave TPD air time to show off its riot gear and new officer-mounted video cameras. It was obvious TPD wanted a fight and they went down there geared up for one. Vladimir Putin would have been proud of their effort.
Contrast TPD tactics to those of the Madison, WI police department where there were no arrests or injuries even though there were more students in the street, climbing up trees and climbing onto buildings.
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/fan…
Even more pathetic than the TPD boot stomping of students is the U of A apparently supporting it by cancelling any celebration for team when it returned to Tucson. Seriously? Punish the team and student body and support the out of line TPD. Great message.
So there you go, more national exposure that depicts Arizona in a negative way. Sadly, we deserve it.
Get ready for the out lay of law suits that are about to unfold against the city and Tucson PD. I suppose if they were looking for a way to increase local businesses, all our local law firms are about to get busy!
I also saw the man being butted in the face by the helmeted cop. I think it was in the footage that channel 4 showed at 6pm. It was clearly an unjustified use of brutality by a cop with an attitude problem.
I would like to see a city review of the plan for the police intervention, and whether these kind of tactics were approved. Why does Tucson handle these incidents in this manner? Instead of going after the people who threw bottles and fireworks at them, the police knock a calm coed backwards over a metal bench and onto the curb. I also don’t see the point of the cops yelling so aggressively ..it’s like they are trying to further incite the crowd. After all that there was only 1 arrest? It’s behavior management 101 guys. Find some city that does it right and learn from them.
Question: why are the police in riot gear not able to be individually identified? Is it part of the design? And is it a feature or a bug?
It’s horrific that TPD has gotten away with this heavy handed unconstitutional crap for over a decade now. They absolutely try and incite violence and in the absence of it working just go ahead and start behaving violently. Pretending that just because they didn’t murder anyone this time makes it somehow lawful is asinine at best a terrifying threat to democracy at worst. We in Tucson have been long denied our right to freedom of assembly and Tucson you should be outraged. There was exactly NO riot Saturday night, not one single report of property damage or violence besides the numerous reports of police violence. Chanting “UofA,” is not a crime. Two smashed beer bottles and one fire cracker is NOT inciting nor an act of rioting. Can you imagine if they did this every Saturday night on 4th Avenue? Absolutely disgusting and horrifying. Not one single student in this video appeared to be rioting and if anyone who is defending this affront to our Constitutional right to assemble as necessary because there was an imaginary riot wants to continue that line of defense I highly recommend they watch the infamous LA riots after the Rodney King verdict. That IS what a riot looks like, not chanting students calmly watching from sidelines as police try their very best to get them to react violently. Notice again how the witnesses are just as calm as calm can be merely demanding the guy explain his disgusting abuse of power and force? They didn’t attack him, overwhelm him nor show any indication of rioting because no one was rioting the only riot on Saturday night was the police force violently assaulting people for daring to exist.
It’s bad, and should result in discipline, but it’s hardly “horrific.”
I’d really like to hear this cops reason for doing this. It seemed like just plain assaulting a young girl. What a big man!
I thought it was pretty horrific. You trust the police to protect you from random violence, not perpetrate it. She wasn’t doing any thing to deserve that and could have been hurt badly. I’m sure she is bruised. It was a very hard shove.
We get it! YOU DON’T THINK IT WAS HORRIFIC! Whatever!
jIm: Al Tam is not me. The Weekly can confirm that through email/ip address. Sounds like you just have a problem with people who disagree with you. We get it. Yea, whatever.
The fact is that unless you were actually there, you do not have the full story. The overall issue is if the cops are in riot gear are at a particular area, than it is bad idea to stay in that area. That is common sense 101. Something I guess many that go to the UofA lack. The woman said she was walking back to her car, but she was walking right towards the back of a line of police officers. The officer that pushed her, can not read her mind and did not know if her group was a threat to the line of officers.
It is easier to blame the police for the actions of a group of rowdy drunk college kids. I used the term “kid” because that is how that crowd of people were acting like. These types of mobs quickly descend into a full blown riots with property damage and injured people. One of my first memories of the UofA was when a riot erupted after the Duke game in 2001. The police where trying to stop things like that from happening again.
Here is a friendly reminder of if the police did not respond down there BEFORE the crowd turn into a mob of animals…
Maybe if these kids were out on the streets protesting the recent case of the Supreme Court of McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission that lifts the ban on aggregate campaign donations, which further allows wealthy donors to buy our politicians in the name of “free speech”, than I might have a little more compassion for these kids. However, they were out there because of a game, a freaking game. I wish our college kids, and country in general, cared as much about their politicians and who owns them as they do about sports. I think we be living in a lot different country.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_zFQ7e0Ovo