Apr 23 2009
Police officer goes all Mall Cop on reporter
An El Paso police officer gets all Mall Cop on a reporter (with apologies to Mall Cops).
When an El Paso reporter stopped at the scene of a 18 wheeler rollover he was “just trying to do his job” and interview witnesses when a police sergeant asked him to move along, The reporter and his cameraman were a bit slow to respond, the situation escalated and they wound up handcuffed and arrested. They were later released without charges. The sergeant is doing desk duty pending an investigation which includes preventing a passing nurse from giving aid.
A former police officer calls it “contempt of cop” - “a national phenomenon that’s being studied.”
“People go to jail in contempt-of-cop situations more than any reason nationally,” DeAngelis said. “You could see it in the video. The situation became more personal between the officer and the reporter than the overriding issues of public safety.
“You can see it, and you and hear it in the language of the officer when he said, ‘I gave you an order.’ That’s what contempt means: ‘How dare you not obey my order.’ It’s personal. You’re challenging the officer’s authority. It has nothing to do at that point with the overall safety of the scene. That’s why you see him reacting emotionally rather than rationally.”
http://newspapertree.com/news/3778-cop-who-arrested-kvia-s-news-team-on-i-10-demoted
Police Sgt. Raul Ramirez, a 19-year veteran who has been a sergeant for about 10 years, was demoted to patrol officer last week after an Internal Affairs investigation of a November complaint led to an excessive force finding.
“It’s not related to the Darren Hunt incident,” Sambrano said. “It’s related to an incident in November that’s just finished up. The chief over that region recommended a demotion, so he was demoted.
“The issue involved improper tactics. It was a use of force issue and improper tactics used by Sgt. Ramirez.”