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Sadly the city of Oakland, has yet another brazen incident in which excessive force was used to subdue and unarmed suspect. Earlier this year, the world witnessed the horrific shooting of unarmed Oscar Grant on a BART subway platform. yesterday, the city of Oakland is stunned to see a BART officer slam a man through a thick plate-glass window… The man was unarmed and can be seen walking with the officer just before he’s smashed through a window..he is reported to be mentally disabled.
This incident comes on the heels of the Oscar Grant trial being moved to Los Angeles… Words can barely contain the anger or express the outrage.
-Davey D-
An Oakland, California-area transit police officer was captured on video forcing the head of an unruly man into a heavy-duty glass window, which shattered, during an arrest at a passenger station, authorities said.
The video, posted on YouTube, shows an unidentified Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) officer in a scuffle with a man identified by authorities as Michael Joseph Gibson, 37, of San Leandro, California.
Gibson, who appears disgruntled and gesturing while on a train at the West Oakland station, is pulled off the train by an officer, who has the man in an arm grip.
The officer forcibly walks the man toward the station wall, which is topped by large widows, and one window shatters as the officer appears to force the man against it.
The incident happened about 5:40 p.m. Saturday (8:40 p.m. ET), according to a statement from BART police Sunday. The officer sustained facial lacerations and a concussion, while Gibson suffered cuts to his hand, forearm, palm and a cut to his head. Both were treated at a hospital.
“This is a use-of-force case that we will thoroughly investigate,” BART Police Patrol Commander Daniel O. Hartwig said in the statement. “We will review all available information and video and are requesting anybody with any other video or information to please come forward.”
Once released, Gibson was booked into the Santa Rita County jail. He faces charges of battery on a police officer with injury and resisting arrest — both felonies — and public intoxication, a misdemeanor.
The officer was placed on leave due to his injuries, authorities said.
Did someone say “change”??? Sorry, but I don’t see it. This is the second heinous “caught-on-video” incident in Oakland in less than a year, and likely, our president will be just as mum on this one as he was the other (He didn’t even comment about the murders of black youth in Chicago – his home town – but he strove hard to get the olympics there). Wow!
The aftermath of Katrina is still quite evident in New Orleans; black men are getting shot in cold blood and brutalized across the U.S. by those sworn to protect and serve, but yet, our black President finds it more necessary to stablize a country that didn’t even elect him to power.
He was kind enough to sanction a “bank bailout”, I wonder if he has ever considered a “black bailout”. After all, I would bet that there are more black people wearing his t-shirts than there are rich bankers and Middle Easterners.
If something seems to good to be true, then it probably is. Realize that there is a big difference between a saint and a saleaman. I’m jus’ sayin’….
Tungz
Not seeing it. The officer here is doing his job and needs to be supported. That guy was drunk and out threatening the train.
All for justice here-but lets make sure we are using accurate evidence to make our case stronger.
g, that officer committed assault, period. He drove that guy into the glass window, a distance of about 10 feet, at least. He could have taken him to the ground. Even mace would have been more appropriate than that, although I don’t believe from watching the video that even mace would have been necessary either. That cop was not doing his “job”. A police officer’s job can not overwrite the law. My opinion is that the cop felt personally challenged by the suspect due to the suspect yelling at him on the train, with his arms in the air, as if he was challenging him to a fight. While I understand the cop’s temptation to best him physically in order to prove a point, as we all have pride, he still has no right to act out that way. The legal way to handle it is to subdue the guy in the safest way possible, not to bash his head through a window a good 10 to 15 feet away from their first contact. That cop lost his cool, broke the law, and should be brought to justice for it. The suspect should face charges for threatening a police officer, too.
The BART spokesperson in the CNN interview says the guy who filmed it “jumped to conclusions”. Uh, ok, did he superimpose an image of a cop bashing a guy’s head through a window? What in the fuck is he talking about?
I don’t think that the cop should’ve done what he had done. They were both wrong. I’m sure there was a reason why the cop did what he had to do, but there was no reason for him to slam him into a thick peice of glass and shatter it, instead, he could’ve tackled the guy onto the floor than wrestle with him and cuff him up. Again, not enough information to show what really happened. Good article though, thanks for posting this up!.
Absolutely heinous acts by this so called officer…the man was DRUNK and being a loud mouth…he should have been taken to the ground and cuffed- not slammed into plate glass…who does that??
barneyy, there’s enough information to see that the officer clearly fucked up. There is no excuse for slamming his head through a window. The officer intentionally walked him over to the window, they weren’t falling in that direction. He could have walked him to that concrete pillar. I’d give the cop the benefit of the doubt that he didn’t mean to actually put his head through the glass, and didn’t know how flimsy the glass was, but there was no reason to slam his head up against the glass to begin with. It was police brutality, and all of the information is there, on tape. You sound like the BART spokesperson in the CNN interview, who said the guy who filmed it jumped to conclusions. LOL. OK….
there is justifiable use of force and then there is excessive force. that was a case of excessive force, meaning that the cop overstepped his bounds–probably didnt realize he was on candid cel phone camera. the man could have been subdued without being smashed through a window.
my question now is, what kind of training do these officers get? maybe mehserle wasnt rogue, as many have assumed, but was actually trained to react in that way? this video implies that BART police are way out of pocket when it comes to defusing situations. yes he got him off the train, yes dude was drunk and belligerent, but he didnt have to put his face through the window. that is just too much. maybe we need an “officer-cam” trained on every single BART cop to ensure they are not abusing their responsibility.
The “code red” defense, like the movie A Few Good Men. Good point, scribblah. And it’s not a stretch to assume that police today are being trained “under the table”, so to speak, to just kick ass and let the brass deal with the fallout. But then of course, you’ll get the brass saying, “hey, we didn’t tell him to do that”. That’s why we need independent investigations to find out just what in the fuck is going on with cops these days..
i agree, rob. if i was on that train i probably would have wanted that guy removed too. but the humanitarian in me doesnt want to see him take a header through the window. i think the casual use of excessive force by officers is a concern. look, these are highly-paid professionals who are supposed to know exactly where the line is in terms of use of force. cross that line, and you violate public safety and the trust of the passengers you’re supposed to protect. you cant not refer to the Mehserle/Grant case here, as it seems to indicate a patterns of cops crossing the line and hurting people when they could have done their jobs with less force. all i can say is thank god for cel phone video cameras, keep it up!
It has nothing to do with the humanitarian in us, LBR. It’s illegal for a police officer to bash a guy’s head through a window. And I agree, thank God for the cell phone camera. I’ve always said, people need to turn their cameras around. I’m not saying shut down your myspace page. Do the whole self promotion thing too. Get 20 pictures of yourself after getting a haircut, with every different facial expression. But turn that camera around once and a while and capture life. Getting pictures of yourself can make your life more fun. But getting pictures of everything else can change society. Imagine if that guy who saw Rodney King getting beat down decided it was just none of his business and went to bed.
“It’s illegal for a police officer to bash a guy’s head through a window”
apparently, the officer’s momentum carried him through the window–he actually suffered more damage than the arrestee, and his head impacted first. so, this isnt as clear cut a case of excessive force as oscar grant. it looked excessive on video and the initial emotional reaction is one of shock. but we need to be able to look at stuff like this objectively. as i said earlier, my question is about what kind of training these cops receive, and what kind of policies are in place to ensure excessive force is not used. in some cases, it’s a fine line. in others, like grant, there’s a clear pattern of escalation of violence by the police. in any event, officers need to make the public feel more safe, not less safe.
Hopefully this will be a new policy in Oakland: smashing assholes through windows when they fuck up my BART ride.
Props to the cop.
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