Austin, TX — In today’s ‘See Something, Say Something’ society, doing the ‘pee pee dance’ while waiting for a bus is grounds for police action — at least that’s what a woman in Austin thought when she called the cops on a dancing man. Unfortunately, for the dancing man, police would also perceive his harmless behavior as a threat and move to neutralize it.
This latest instance of ridiculous police brutality was captured on video Tuesday outside of an Austin restaurant. As the video begins, a nicely dressed man was standing at a bus stop doing a bit of a sidestep dance in place. The officer responding to the fearful woman’s 911 call perceived this dance as a potentially dangerous act.
The dancing man appeared to have a mental imbalance and may have flipped the bird at someone driving by. According to witnesses at the scene, the man may have had “some kind of disorder” and a “mental imbalance of some kind.” However, this was not grounds for what happened next.
In the video, we see the man doing nothing other than dancing when the officer approaches him as if he’s holding a child hostage. Within just a few moments the officer has his taser drawn, aiming it at the man’s head.
When the bus shows up, the man attempts to get on it, as it appears that was his intention the entire time. However, the cop would not have it. As the man attempted to walk toward the bus, the cop waved it on.
“He didn’t do anything,” a bystander says just before the situation turns violent. “He’s just standing there, minding his own business.”
For dancing, this man was shot with a taser and then tackled, assaulted, and handcuffed.
“Stop tasering him, you asshole,” a bystander yells as the cop continues his assault.
“Am I under arrest,” the man keeps asking as the cop sits on him.
“Put your hands behind your back and stop resisting,” says the officer to the man who is lying face down and not resisting at all.
At this point, another officer shows up and apparently had no other way to join in the assault, so he started grabbing the man’s legs and twisting them.
“What the fuck, you can’t do that,” another bystander yells.
“He is not even moving,” a woman says.
A third cop then shows up and the officers, clearly at a loss for what their justification was for attacking the man, simply stand around and talk about ‘safety.’
For good measure, to make sure this handcuffed dancing man, who had harmed no one, would be absolutely neutralized — a fourth cop showed up.
“Four cop cars for a person that was appearing a little unstable but not bothering anyone,” says the woman taking the video.
The guy was walking quickly to the bus and would have passed near the officer, which seemed to set the officer off. After a cop draws a taser or weapon on someone, the situation is pretty much irreversibly escalated. I can't see any cop then letting that someone simply go their way, regardless of whether drawing was justified or not.
The other 3 cops who arrived later did not witness the prior events, so would have no direct knowledge that this arrest was unjustified, which I think it was, so I don't think they did anything wrong.
When I was growing up, cops were viewed as somewhat dangerous, unfriendly, and people to be avoided, and there was a move about to portray them as friendly and likeable human beings that were on our side. Today, however, it seems cops are rolling that back and the message is now that cops are always in fear for their lives and do not know if you are a killer or not, and that we should never make any moves or take any steps that could be construed as a threat. When pulled over, keep your hands on the upper steering wheel or perhaps have them out the window so the cops can see them in plain sight. But if this is the message that the police want the public to understand, then they can forget about being treated as normal, likeable, friendly human beings. They really should be avoided and treated as people that are always in fear for their lives, and if the guy arrested in this vid made an error, it was that.
" if the guy arrested in this vid made an error, it was that. "
The young man did not do anything wrong !! The cop did. It appears that he was looking for some schmuck to assert his auth or a tay on, and this young man got picked out as the target. The cop needs to be working in a prison, where he can push people around at will.
I suspect that some day, karma will pay that cop a visit, and when he is found, his admirers will be slinging snot, all boo hoo hoo, wah wah wah wah, poor " hero ", not fair .
Don't misunderstand me. If this young man had commited a crime ( like harming a child or elderly person, or done something to provoke the officer, I would probably side with the officer. But based on the evidence we have ( the video ) that is clearly not the case. I remember a time when all cops were highly respected. Sure there were some that were bad, and they weeded out their own. They did not want bad apples pissing all over their good image.
I have two young nephews that are State Troopers in S.C. They are fine young Troopers, and they detest bad cops.
Anyway, the cop in the video is a coward asshole bully, just looking for someone that he can push around. He needs to be fired.
If someone can prove that his actions were justified, I would like to hear it, and see the proof!
