Althouse: "I screamed, 'The bird!'" and the cop said "'F--- the bird,' and he, like, stepped on it."

December 8, 2013

"I screamed, 'The bird!'" and the cop said "'F--- the bird,' and he, like, stepped on it."

'I was shocked... It was a blue and green bird. It was really pretty."

The cop, the parakeet, and — the bone of contention — the traffic cone (the cone of contention).

21 comments:

Oso Negro said...: That photo of the poor little bird, dead on the bottom of his cage, should be worth a few million.; 12/8/13, 9:17 AM
MadisonMan said...: The police will investigate the incident and find themselves really innocent.; 12/8/13, 9:31 AM
TomHynes said...: On the plus side, they will stop trying to save parking places with traffic cones. The space does not belong to them even if it is in front of their house.; 12/8/13, 9:34 AM
Bob Boyd said...: He's pining.; 12/8/13, 9:50 AM
Wince said...: "Tito get me some tissue."; 12/8/13, 9:51 AM
Clyde said...: Jackbooted thugs on the streets of New York!

We've seen that sort of thing elsewhere: "Papieren! Zeigen Sie ihre papieren, bitte!"; 12/8/13, 9:58 AM
Unknown said...: When the Fraternal Order of Police call you for a donation - hang up.; 12/8/13, 10:00 AM
cubanbob said...: Another example why police unions should be banned and public officials and employees stripped of qualified immunity. At the minimum those cops should be fired, stripped of their pensions and banned for life from government employment.; 12/8/13, 10:25 AM
MadisonMan said...: Another example

This story is told from the suit-filers point of view, so anything that undermines her point of view is missing.

If the police in this story have acted as portrayed, with no justification, I agree they should be fired and blackballed.

But who's going to do the investigation into whether or not they followed procedure?; 12/8/13, 10:52 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "This story is told from the suit-filers point of view, so anything that undermines her point of view is missing."

I know. Even assuming the cop said "Fuck the bird" and stepped on it, the bird got out of the cage and the people were screaming about the bird, so the cop said "Fuck the bird," because he needed them to address the particular criminal violation under investigation. Then, the bird was on the floor and got stepped on.; 12/8/13, 10:54 AM
great Unknown said...: Critical issue, and simple to verify: was there really no warrant. If so, there's needs to be a whole lot of 'splainin to do by the NYPD.

Note that NYPD settlements of complaints comprises a significant portion of the city budget.

But no cop is ever fired.; 12/8/13, 11:09 AM
Joe said...: This, outfitting police departments with military equipment, the arming of tax agencies and so forth is the face of fascism.

Crony capitalism in the form of excessive regulation which favors the rich and powerful completes the circle.

This is liberalism writ large. Unfortunately, Republican politicians are largely complicit in this in the interest in maintaining power and moral ineptitude. Unfortunately, the conservative electorate largely accepts this tyranny with the hope that they will soon be those doing the dictating. And, so the perverse bed is made.; 12/8/13, 12:19 PM
Robert Cook said...: "On the plus side, they will stop trying to save parking places with traffic cones. The space does not belong to them even if it is in front of their house."

Your snark is duly noted, but it has never been factually established they placed the cone there. Although we can assume they very possibly did place it there, this is only an assumption, and neither we nor the uniformed thugs who went berserk that day know that as a matter of fact. But, even if the family did place the cone there, the young man's refusal to show ID and his retreat into the house did not warrant their violent and destructive intrusion into the house and their brutalizing of those inside or the killing of the parakeet. The cops could have knocked on the door and asked to speak to the owner of the house. Or they could have sought a warrant to search the house and come back another day with warrant in hand to conduct a legal (and hopefully non-violent and non-destructive) search for the young man.

These types of violent assaults by police on citizens, on the street or breaking into their homes, destroying property, beating and tasing the residents, killing family pets, are becoming an everyday event in our country. When we think of criminal gangs blighting our cities, we cannot forget the police as perhaps the most dangerous to most Americans as the most likely to ever inflict violence on average citizens around the nation.

The MC5 put it succinctly and well 40 years ago in their song "American Ruse," which includes this lyric about the police:

"When they pull you over, its suspicious,
For something that's just not your fault.
If you complain they're gonna get vicious,
Kick in your teeth and charge you with assault."; 12/8/13, 12:37 PM
wildswan said...: The police are determined to contain every situation they are in. So don't run and hide and scream which makes them think they have to escalate to keep from being overwhelmed. Stand still and speak calmly. It does work. After all calm rationality in the midst of sudden chaos is what we expect from the police so why not expect it from ourselves?; 12/8/13, 12:39 PM
Anonymous said...: “They (the cops) don’t care about us as humans, they’re going to care about the bird?”

Yep. I'd say that summarizes it.; 12/8/13, 12:42 PM
James Pawlak said...: "Tis time to apply Thomas Jefferson's advise as to tyrants: Before the NY police finish confiscating modern guns as they have begun to do so.; 12/8/13, 12:46 PM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: Can someone explain to me why the traffic cone is an issue?

TomHynes, granted that the space doesn't belong to the householder, but if the householder, oh, I don't know, parked a car in it, that would be legal, yes? Is it that it was a traffic cone? If it had been a set of luggage, or a dog crate, would that be worse, or better, legally speaking?

Meanwhile, we have what appears to be a very violent raid on the home for no particular reason that I can see, with charges against three injured people filed and then sealed and dismissed, and charges against the (uninjured) guy originally confronted about the traffic cone not filed in the first place. WTF?; 12/8/13, 1:11 PM
Unknown said...: Geez people. These cops went WAY overboard. But dammit if a cop stops you and requests ID. You show it! You don't have to have "done something wrong" for a cop to id you. It is mandatory procedure to see the ID of every single.person the police interact with and run a warrant check.

So many incidents would be avoided if fols would just be nice, cooperate with the authorities and then go on your business.

Drop the libertarian "I should be able to scream, cuss and be uncooperative and cops should just stand and take it" mentality. That is not how it works.; 12/8/13, 2:55 PM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: Patrick Turner,

Geez people. These cops went WAY overboard. But dammit if a cop stops you and requests ID. You show it! You don't have to have "done something wrong" for a cop to id you. It is mandatory procedure to see the ID of every single.person the police interact with and run a warrant check.

That's not so. There is no requirement that US citizens carry ID at all times. (There is such a requirement for holders of green cards.) As people point out every time someone suggests that some sort of ID might be a good idea for voting, there's no American equivalent of "Papieren, bitte!"; 12/8/13, 4:55 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: No charges filed... so how can the police breaking into a house and beating those inside be justified? It wasn't part of an arrest, there was no search warrant, so.... what's the reason? Why'd they do it?; 12/8/13, 11:14 PM
Robert Cook said...: They did it because they could, and because they will not tolerate any citizen refusing to obey their commands, immediately and without argument.

They did it to punish the boy and his family for his refusing to submit to their questioning, and to show they were boss and their orders always to be complied with.

This is a nationwide problem, and not just an anomalous incident.; 12/9/13, 10:42 AM