What I find laughable and repulsive is that the Long Beach Police Dept. is defending this blatant police brutality. They claim Santos-Lopez allegedly got into an argument with two other men outside the liquor store and heaved objects at them, then got into a fist fight. Someone called 911, and when police arrived, Santos-Lopez reportedly asked the cops to kill him, then he began throwing a few punches their way and kicked at cops as he laid with his back to the asphalt. Some commentaries by the local press even justify the actions by the cops because the suspect was behaving badly before his electrocution and beating.
A woman cutting hair in a beauty salon close by said it looked like the
officers and Santos-Lopez were arguing and at one point, Santos-Lopez yelled "Shoot
me!"
"It looked like they were trying to arrest him but he didn't want them to," hairdresser Maria Ruiz said. "He tried to kick and punch one of the officers and that's when they took him down." (See:This latimes.com article) But Long Beach Police Chief James McDonnell says it's too early to make any judgments about the incident. Since police said Santos-Lopez was combative and attacked another man beforehand, did McDonnell's minions have a right to beat Porfirio and electrocute him in such a way? Evidently, McDonnell believes so, and although the chief admitted the video could be seen as "disturbing," there's more to the story. Huh? What's this? There's more to the story? What story? I saw a video stream for nearly five minutes of a man who looked like he was being beaten, smashed and shocked to death!
Chief McDonnell also said that there will be a full investigation
into this matter. And I'm sure it will be objective and fair if a police organization conducts this study, particularly if it's done in house, by the Long Beach, Calif., Police Dept.
It seems the chief is asserting this voracious violence by his officers is justified because the victim and suspect was behaving rudely and antisocially before the thrashing and shocking started. According to KNBC, Santos-Lopez admitted to police that he was drunk and high on methamphetamine at the time. The chief said he kicked at officers, but if you view the video, these kicks were more likely just leg reflexes from Santos-Lopez being slammed on the knees, thighs and shins by billy clubs.
Santos-Lopez's wife, Lee Ann Hernandez, told the Los Angeles Times that her husband displayed traits of mental illness before this occurrence, admitting Santos-Lopez recently had acted "paranoid" and "out-of-sorts".
"When those types of incidents happen it never looks good," Long Beach Sgt. Aaron Eaton told local TV news teams. "It never looks good from that perspective."
Well Sgt. Eaton, what it actually looks like in this video is that an entire
police department - your department - ganged up on a man lying on the ground and repeatedly and
incessantly struck him with nightsticks and shocked him with tasers. Your cops look guilty as sin. They're using excessive force and seem to relish in the misery they're dishing out to a helpless, unarmed victim.
Why didn't the Long Beach police roll Santos-Lopez over on his stomach, handcuff him and take him to jail? Don't you think that this was what was needed, Sgt. Eaton? Why all this savagery and cruelty? How is this little slice of Long Beach history going to look good to a judge and jury? It looks like something out of a sadistic slasher film to me!
"That individual seemed to be irrational. He was combative," Sgt. Eaton said. "In the video that is on YouTube, he can be seen kicking at the officers."
Well, I watched the video about six times and what I saw was a man in pain and-- pardon the fact that he has reflexes -- those kicks sure looked like a reaction to being beaten around the legs. Santos-Lopez wasn't kicking at anything. No, the only time he moved his legs was after police hit him at least six times with hard strikes of their clubs.
Santos-Lopz's attorney, Brian Dunn, said his client suffered a broken leg and broken arm after the beating. He also had a nasty gash on his head "consistent with a baton blow" above his hair line, according to the Los Angeles Times. In addition, the beating victim also had a collapsed lung after the incident.
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