See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.
By Shavana Abruzzo
Brooklyn Daily
Studies show that police officers booze and drug more than the average American, and their life expectancies are 10 years lower while their suicide rates are higher, reports the cop-run website Law Enforcement Today, accounting perhaps for why cops turn rogues. In recent weeks: An NYPD cop is videotaped throwing a pregnant woman to the ground belly first for protesting her son’s arrest, and a cop is filmed kicking a fruit vendor in the back in an unprovoked attack. The cruelty is brutal to watch, say eyewitnesses.
“Marty,” a photo-journalist, has seen cops hit perps, rupture their wrists with too-tight handcuffs, ram their faces in the hoods of their police cars, pour rubbing alcohol into their wounds, and mace them in custody.
“Maceing is a preferred method of inflicting agony because it doesn’t leave marks,” he says.
A flatfoot once gave Marty a brutal warning at a crime scene: “He thumped me hard in the chest and said, ‘If you take any pictures, I’ll break your f------ camera.’ ”
Fearful observers tread carefully, even under anonymity.
“Cops can make your life miserable and place you in physical danger,” says “James,” a paramedic. “I’ve been in situations where they’ve told the ambulance driver to slow down because they wanted to delay medical treatment or abuse the suspect.”
Copwork is dangerous, and unpredictable, and people shouldn’t rush to judgement, says “Phil,” a former NYPD officer.
“You see a robbery. You start chasing the guy. Your adrenalin is pumping. You don’t know what’s gonna happen. You might be killed. You grab this guy. He resists. When you get him in cuffs and in the car, you’re sweaty and pumped up, so you give him a couple of smacks because he deserves it,” he says.
The hotheaded officer is usually jolted back into reality, he claims: “He’s told by his partner or another cop, ‘Just relax, you stupid, f------ p----! What the f----- your problem?’ ”
Onlookers don’t always know the full story, says “Tommy,” a former undercover at the 70th Precinct in Flatbush where Haitian immigrant Abner Louima was sodomized with a broomstick in 1997: “When a perp has been handcuffed and they’re still kicking and spitting at you, you have to do what you have to do,” he says. “A cop’s work is subjective.”
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