As Santos-Lopez was recovering from surgery in a hospital, his family members said they plan to sue the Long Beach Police Department, according to Santos-Lopez's wife, Lee Ann Hernandez.
"They broke two of his bones in his right arm around his elbow. They broke it so bad that he needed surgery," Hernandez said.
And police training experts who reviewed the video weren't certain whether excessive force was used. If they would have killed the poor man, would this evaluation be the same? How much force is excessive? There looked to be a baker's dozen of cops around poor Porfirio, and the monster with the crew cut with his back turned to the camera throughout most of the video is big enough to play on the line for the Oakland Raiders!
"It is too early to make any judgments. The YouTube video is certainly disturbing," Chief McDonnell said to the press. "Any time you see someone hit with the baton, there is a level of discomfort."
A level of discomfort? A group of big burly policemen beating a man lying on a sidewalk with thick, hard, forceful blows of billy clubs? A level of discomfort? Is this meant as cop humor? Dark blue humor, as in bruises and blood clots? Chief McConnell, it looks like a scene out of a concentration camp! There's no discomfort here, sir, no none at all! Using words like "abject fear and loathing," "police brutality," and "with cops like this, who needs felonious criminals?" would be more apropos.
According to innumerable news items about the incident, it's not certain what Santos-Lopez was even charged with -- or if he was cited for anything whatsoever. Although one news article said he was hit with four charges, "they were unclear" one report suggested. I suppose the Long Beach Police Department had to put something down on paper. It just won't look good in any upcoming civil and criminal proceedings that the entire police department did their damnedest at trying to beat and shock a 46-year-old man to death.
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This is the first article of a series on police brutality. Check into OpEdNews in the coming days to read more on the subject.
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