Is Getting Fired Enough?????? ( Archived) (33)

4 Philadelphia Police Officers in Videotaped Beatings Will Be Fired

-By JON HURDLE-

Published: May 20, 2008

PHILADELPHIA — Four police officers who were caught on video beating three suspects in a drug-related triple shooting will be fired, Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said Monday.

Joseph Kaczmarek/Associated Press
The Philadelphia police commissioner, Charles H. Ramsey, announced disciplinary actions against eight officers on Monday with Mayor Michael Nutter.

Protesters rallied at police headquarters and planned to demonstrate outside the district attorney’s offices.

Three other officers have been suspended, Commissioner Ramsey said at a news conference, and one officer has been demoted.

The disciplinary action follows a two-week investigation of the May 5 beating, filmed by a television news helicopter, in which the three men were dragged from their car and then kicked and punched by as many as 15 officers in the Hunting Park section of North Philadelphia.

The men are in custody on attempted murder, assault and firearms charges.

Commissioner Ramsey said he did not know why the officers acted as they did but he added that emotions were running high because Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski had been killed two days earlier in a robbery in the Port Richmond area of the city.

The 67-second video, which has been broadcast repeatedly on local and national television, is now being examined by District Attorney Lynne Abraham, who will decide whether to file criminal charges against the officers. The F.B.I. is also reviewing the tape, Commissioner Ramsey said.

Some of the officers used “indiscriminate force” that went beyond what is justified to make an arrest, he said. The officers kicked one man in the head and hit another in the head with an object while they lay on the ground.

“There are a group of officers whose actions were outside of department policy,” Commissioner Ramsey said. “We have to be better than some of what we showed on the fifth of May.”

D. Scott Perrine, a lawyer for one of the men, Pete Hopkins, 19, said the disciplinary action “falls far short” of the appropriate response, which he said should be criminal charges of aggravated assault for the officers involved.

“The only reason these people are not in handcuffs is because they are police officers,” Mr. Perrine said. “They behaved like a pack of wild animals.”

Two of the four officers being fired were new recruits on probation; the other two were more experienced officers.

The most senior officer on the scene, Sgt. Joseph Schiavone, was demoted to the rank of police officer and transferred to another district for failing to stop the beating; he had no contact with the suspects. Three other officers were suspended for 15, 10 and 5 days, respectively, and were transferred to other districts.

The four officers being fired are Patrick Gallagher, Patrick Whalen, Robert Donnelly and Vincent Strain. The three who were suspended are Sean Bascom, Demetrios Pittaoulis and Jonathon Czapor.

Eight other officers were found to have had “physical contact” with the men, within the limits allowed by police procedure. They were not disciplined but will undergo additional training in arrest procedures. Two more officers among the 18 on the scene had no contact with the men, Commissioner Ramsey said.

(Cont'd)......

The Philadelphia Police Department has hired the Police Executive Research Forum, an independent group, to determine whether it is following best practices.

Mayor Michael Nutter said at the news conference that he was satisfied by the department’s response to the beating, pointing out that 16 of the 18 officers at the scene had been fired, disciplined or subject to retraining.

“Today’s announcement represents, I believe, what is required in this matter: swift, direct action,” Mr. Nutter said.

Paula Peebles, the Philadelphia chairwoman of the National Action Network, led by the Rev. Al Sharpton, said the disciplinary action was an insufficient reaction to the beating.

“The position of the citizens of Philadelphia is that the response by Ramsey and Nutter was not enough,” Ms. Peebles said. “We want all the officers prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

She said supporters would demonstrate outside the district attorney’s offices on Wednesday and were planning to file a complaint with the United States Department of Justice.



Is getting fired enough for these officers OR should they be prosecuted???????


My feeling is...they committed a crime and they should be prosecuted just like anyone else would be if they were to do the same thing...Officers should be held to an even higher standard than the regular public because they occupy a position of trust.....This is not just another excessive use of force charge...this is an actual beating caught on tape!!!!!!!!!

No, HK, it's not enough.

I don't think so either and I hope the D.A. decides to press charges....this goes on far too often and police seem to get away unscathed!!!!!!!!!!

You should check out what was happening in Sacramento, California, near my previous residence. THe police were routinely beating the crap out of prisoners in their jail. They had so many lawsuits going on about the time I left for my paradise here in SD, that it half the lawyers in Sacramento were on the case. It's unbelievable that this kind of thing could go on in a supposedly civilized country.

I can't post the link but look up "philadelphia police beating by 18 officers" on You Tube...

why do we not see this on the COPS show?
show us the real cops!

They should be charged with assault just like anyone else would be.
but I would like to hear the rest of the story first.
What led us to this?

This is what led to the men being pursued and pulled from the car:


Police said they had been pursuing the car in connection with a triple shooting. The three men - Brian Hall, 23, Pete Hopkins, 19, and Dwayne Dyches, 24, all of Philadelphia - have been charged with attempted murder and related counts stemming from the shooting. Their attorneys have said they had nothing to do with it.

One of Dyches' attorneys said he suffered a welt on his head the size of a baseball and that one of his legs was seriously injured.

The beating occurred at the same time police were conducting an intense manhunt for a suspect in the slaying of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, but Ramsey said Monday that there was indication that any of the officers thought the suspect was among the three men in the car.