Just check out the TONE!!!!
Also see: What the Local Police State Looks Like
"Probing questions for police July 2, 2008
NOTHING SHORT of an independent investigation into the death of Brookline resident David Woodman will satisfy the need for transparency in a case that is roiling the Boston Police Department. Wisely, Police Commissioner Edward Davis called yesterday for just such an inquiry into the case, which began with Woodman's June 18 arrest after a Boston Celtics championship victory and ended 11 days later when he was declared dead in a local hospital.
"I'd like to have outside eyes look at it," says Davis, who says he sees no evidence of excessive force on the part of his officers. "We have nothing to hide."
Yup, the Globe all in favor of an "investigation."
Official investigations -- for those who haven't figured it out -- are a.k.a. COVER UPS!!!!
Six of the nine officers involved in Woodman's arrest have just one or two years on the force, Davis said. Two of the three veteran officers on the scene have faced departmental discipline, one for domestic violence and one for improper use of force.
That's the FIRST I'VE HEARD of THAT!
In an EDITORIAL of all places!
Why not in the NEWS COVERAGE?
Public confidence in the Boston police hit a nadir in 2004 after the Red Sox pennant victory. Victoria Snelgrove, 21, was celebrating peacefully when she was fatally shot with a pepper pellet fired by police seeking to control a rowdy crowd nearby. Former US attorney Donald Stern headed up an independent commission that found a serious breakdown in police command discipline and poor training. Stern would be an excellent choice to head up any outside investigation of the Woodman death.
The official inquiry by Boston police homicide detectives is well underway, under the control of Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley. Much of that effort will focus on a six-minute interval when police discovered that Woodman, whom they had arrested for alleged public drunkenness and resisting arrest, had stopped breathing. Woodman's parents have accused police of not providing their son - who was born with a heart condition - with prompt medical attention. An initial autopsy revealed that Woodman, 22, had an enlarged heart, according to a report in yesterday's Globe.
But don't mention that the kid was HEALTHY and ACTIVE, right, Globe?!
Gotcha, Globe! We KNOW WHERE YOU ARE COMING FROM!
Sig Heil!
Conley needs time to complete the death investigation and determine what, if any, criminal responsibility may apply. But an independent panel should investigate concurrently whether police procedures, training, or operational plans may have played a role in Woodman's death. That could include whether officers may have overreacted to alleged verbal taunts by Woodman and whether officers threatened Woodman's friends, who were potential witnesses, with arrest if they did not leave the area.
Yup, the kid "taunted" the cops so he had to be SMACKED DOWN and KILLED!
Don't you guys read your own news articles?
The Woodman family and the public deserve the most thorough and transparent investigation - and on multiple fronts if necessary - to learn the truth."
Yeah, like the BOSTON GLOBE would have anything to do with LEARNING TRUTHS!!!
Good Lord, the shit-stinking ARROGANCE!!!
Well, at least their is a news article we can get balance from, right?
WRONG!
Observe:
"Kin cite officers' delay in their report on death" by Shelley Murphy and Christopher Baxter, Globe Staff And Globe Correspondent | July 2, 2008
A lawyer representing the family of David Woodman questioned yesterday why all nine Boston police officers who were present when the 22-year-old was arrested and stopped breathing while in custody during the Celtics title celebration immediately went to the hospital for stress, leaving a superior who arrived at the scene later to write the incident report.
"Was that a way for them to have some time before they spoke to their superiors about what happened?" asked Howard Friedman, a Boston lawyer who represents the parents of Woodman, a former Emmanuel College student who died in the hospital Sunday, 11 days after the confrontation with police. "To have nine officers, including a sergeant, and they were all suffering that badly from stress, is unusual."
While Friedman is calling for a probe by the FBI and the US attorney's office into Woodman's death, another man arrested during the celebration says that police roughed him up and that he had done nothing to provoke them, allegations that police deny. Andre Walter Reed, a criminal justice major at Bridgewater State College who lives in Mattapan, was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Yeah, I know about that kid.
I wrote about it the day after it happened!
So HOW COME HIS COURT CASE isn't being covered, huh?
Friedman said the nine officers involved in the Woodman arrest should have been interviewed immediately because they were the only witnesses with him on Brookline Avenue when he stopped breathing June 18. He said that the officers were interviewed a day later and that the initial incident report was written by a superior officer who arrived after the incident and filed an account later contradicted by police officials.
"The sooner you can interview witnesses the better their memory is going to be," said Friedman, adding that the officers' memories could have been influenced by talking to friends, a lawyer, or a union representative. All the officers were interviewed within 48 hours of the confrontation and have since returned to work, police officials say.
During a telephone interview yesterday, Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis defended the officers' right to receive stress treatment immediately after the incident, saying: "I don't see a conspiracy there. I just see a kind of a common-sense way of dealing with an event. From what I've seen, it doesn't hurt an investigation."
There's a national trend for officers involved in serious incidents to seek stress counseling, Davis said.
"It's a little unusual to have everybody in the incident avail themselves of those services," he said. "I think more and more often various attorneys are advocating for it. I think that sometimes the attorneys representing police say if you're at all stressed, if you're having a problem, [seek treatment]."
Two lawyers who have been representing police officers in civil rights cases for 25 years, Leonard Kesten of Boston and Timothy Burke of Needham, defended the officers, but agreed it was unusual for all the officers who had been present at a critical incident to immediately seek treatment for stress.
"I've never run across it," said Kesten, though he said officers were entitled to such treatment.
"Without knowing all the facts, I would say it's a little unusual," Burke said.
My theory? They were worried that the kid would DIE!!!
THAT is why they went to the hospital!!!!
If an officer cannot complete a report because of injury or he has to attend to another matter, such as a court date or another crime, it is not unusual for a supervisor to complete the report, according to Elaine Driscoll, a spokeswoman for the Police Department.
Thomas Drechsler, a Boston lawyer who represents the patrolmen's union, said officers have a right to receive stress counseling and a right to talk to a lawyer before being interviewed by investigators.
"It's nonsensical to suggest this was some sort of delaying tactic," said Drechsler, insisting that it wasn't unusual for all of the officers to seek stress treatment. "I do not believe this was anything or is ever anything other than an opportunity for people to get whatever treatment they would like."
Police and Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley are investigating Woodman's death and are awaiting autopsy results.
I'm so sick of the AmeriKan MSM -- and the Globe here -- BENDING OVER BACKWARDS for the AUTHORITIES!!
Woodman had a preexisting heart condition, but his parents, Cathy and Jeffrey Woodman of Southwick, said he led an active lifestyle.
Yeah, STUFF THAT in the MIDDLE of this report!
And how come the two officers' domestic abuse and improper use of force aren't mentioned in the "news" article, huh?
See what I'm talking about?
Woodman, a Brookline resident, had just finished watching the Celtics game at a bar in Kenmore Square and was walking home with four friends when they passed a group of uniformed police officers at the Fenway and Brookline Avenue. One of his friends, who spoke to the Globe on the condition he not be named, said that as Woodman passed the officers, he said, "Wow, it seems like there's a lot of crime on this corner."
Woodman, who was carrying a cup of beer, was slammed to the ground by police and arrested, according to his friend. The friend said officers ordered Woodman's friends to leave or face arrest. Woodman was charged with public drinking and resisting arrest.
In the other incident, which occurred just after 2 a.m., Reed told the Globe that he and a friend had just left Remington's on Boylston Street and were only 4 feet from where he had parked his grandfather's car when police officers ordered them to turn around and walk in the other direction.
Reed said he told an officer, "The car's right in front of us; we're just going to get in and leave," and was told: "I don't care. You have to walk around the block to get to your car."
Keep that in mind for LATER, readers!!!
Reed said when he again asked if he could just get in his car, officers attacked him.
"They tried to throw me down, and I kind of caught myself, but then two more officers came in, so now I've got three on me, and they got me down," Reed said. "While I'm going down, I'm getting punched on the right side of my face, and I can remember I got punched twice. My lip was busted on that side. Basically they throw me down, punch me in the face, and grind my face into the street."
Which is why he was STILL BLEEDING at the hearing the NEXT DAY!!!!
Reed said he was kicked by an officer while on the ground and later went to the hospital for a CAT scan, which was negative.
Oh, no, don't get a CAT scan!
He said he had recently taken the police exam, scoring a 96, and would never resist arrest. His case is pending in Boston Municipal Court.
How come I haven't heard about it in the Globe?
A report filed by police alleges officers believed that Reed and his friend "were being disorderly and attempting to incite the surrounding crowd by their actions" and that "officers were forced to use open-handed tactics to subdue the suspects."
I am SICK of LYING FUCKING COPS!!!
How about OWNING UP TO IT JUST ONCE, assholes?!!!!!!
"In a situation where officers are trying to maintain a peaceful environment with thousands of individuals, it's imperative that individuals do as they are asked," Driscoll said, when told of Reed's allegations. "In this particular situation, it seems clear that Mr. Reed did not do so."
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Oh, yes sir, Ms. Sig Heil!!!
Yeah, do WHATEVER the FASCISTA says!!
But they are just there to PROTECT US, right?!!!!
