DailyKenn.com — Police in a small Virginia town were video recorded pulling over an Army officer, pointing guns at him, pepper spraying and kicking him, reports say.
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Were the actions justified?
"Army Second Lieutenant Caron Nazario, still in his uniform, can be seen with his hands visible out of the window of his new car," according to cbsnews.com.
Ostensibly, Nazario was pulled over due to tags not being displayed, though the paper plates — typical on new vehicles — can be seen in the video.
Nazario filed a lawsuit.
What the media didn't tell you ...
• While the video seems to corroborate with the media story, it remains difficult to draw a conclusion. That's why we have a judicial system: To determine who is and who is not violating the law. We don't know the full context. Were police alerted prior to the stop? Did police have reason to believe the vehicle may have been stolen?
• The media largely ignored a far more serious incident that occurred earlier. Mesa, Arizona police fatally shot Daniel Shaver in a hotel. Shaver was unarmed and innocent of wrong doing. He was complying with police when shot multiple times.
Take aways...
• Individuals who have experienced harassment from small town police will likely sympathize with Nazario.
• The media reported Narario's race and ethnicity. Had he been another race or ethnicity, would it have mattered to the media?
• Police, in the aggregate, are neither good nor bad. Place a bad man in a uniform, you have a bad cop. Place a good man in a uniform, you have a good cop.
• Police are trained to take firm control in such encounters. Sometimes, firm control crosses the line and becomes abuse.
• The video gives the impression that the two police officers were accustomed to such behavior, leaving some viewers to believe badge bullying is a common practice among Windsor police. It's likely their routine protocol.
• Was Nazario's fear of being shot dead by police justified? Absolutely, as demonstrated in the following video in which Mesa, Arizona police shot Daniel Shaver in a hotel.
"I've not committed any crime," Nazario said.
When two Windsor police officers, guns drawn, ordered him to get out, he said, "I'm honestly afraid to get out."
"Yeah dude, you should be," one officer responds.
In the video, Nazario repeatedly asks why he was pulled over, and one of the two officers pepper sprays and kicks him. He is then handcuffed while police search his car.
Nazario asks, "Why am I being treated like this? Why?"
"Because you're not cooperating," an officer responds.
Attorney Jonathan Arthur, who is representing Nazario in a lawsuit filed earlier this month against the two officers, said that he was afraid if he took his hands out of view, something bad would happen.
"To unbuckle his seatbelt, to do anything, any misstep — he was afraid that they were going to kill him," Arthur said.
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