He called cops - they beat, cuffed him

[Leonard Washington]

Mathias Bolton, 34, of Palisade Avenue near Bowers Street, suffered a broken arm, black eye, possibly a broken foot, and many abrasions on his arms, back and shoulders, as a result of the incident on Monday at 10:11 p.m., he said.

The police report says Bolton tried to close the door but an officer held it

open and then Bolton punched him in the chest and tried to push his way through.

They grabbed him and told him they were investigating a burglary and

Bolton replied, "So get the hell off me," and then fell

trying to run away, kicking at Hill and Vargas while down, the reports said.

When the cruiser arrived, the report said, Bolton said: "Get the

(expletive) off me. Who are you guys?"

According to the police report, after the uniformed officers were on the

scene, Bolton said, "OK, I give up. I'm sorry" and was taken to the police

station and then to the hospital for treatment of what the report calls

"minor scrapes....."

assuming that the police are telling the truth...why did they have to beat him so bad and then call it "minor scrapes"? i can comprehend the misunderstanding but the part where they beat the **** out of the guy turned me off.

[Destino]

Why would you ever assume the police are telling the truth in an incident such as this? Seriously, why?! One should never assume someone with something to LOSE is being 100% honest when evidence suggests otherwise. They have reason to lie thus you hear them out but try to verify their story with the evidence.

Beating a guy to the point where he ends up with a broken arm, black eye, and a damaged foot takes a great deal of effort. The fact that police described it as scrapes tells us something immediately - the police involved are lying. Their credibility is destroyed and on this alone the case deserves a full investigation.

Sorry but no one should be assumed honest if the evidence says otherwise. No one. If there is also reason to believe they are lying then they should immediately be looked upon as suspects. That is the only reasonable way to look at these things.

BTW - notice I haven't said they are guilty of anything. This deserves to be investigated. Personally I think what we have here is a mistake that lead to a bad situation. The cops showed up in plain clothes and asked a honest questions "did you call the police?" the man took this question the wrong way and hadn't seen a badge yet. The cops misread his reaction to them... and this is the result. I wouldn't toss them in prison for this as it seems to be a miscommunication.

[Commander PK]

Why would you ever assume the police are telling the truth in an incident such as this? Seriously, why?! One should never assume someone with something to LOSE is being 100% honest when evidence suggests otherwise. They have reason to lie thus you hear them out but try to verify their story with the evidence.

Uh, for all the reasons people are innocent until proven guilty in this country.

:whoknows:

What evidence is there? That the guy is busted up? That is only evidence that he took a ass whipping, but WHY that happened is hardly evident. As for people harping on the "minor scrapes" thing. Maybe when the officers wrote the report, which is usually right after the incident, they didn't KNOW that he had broken limbs. People fake injuries all the time, and perhaps they didn't know until he was seen by a Doctor. Broken bones aren't always obvious.

Something else to bring up, is that just because this guy MAY have called the police, doesn't make him a nice guy. He could have acted like a total ass when they arrived. Maybe he was drunk?

Beating a guy to the point where he ends up with a broken arm, black eye, and a damaged foot takes a great deal of effort. The fact that police described it as scrapes tells us something immediately - the police involved are lying. Their credibility is destroyed and on this alone the case deserves a full investigation.

We don't know that they are lying. See above. Like I said, people fake injuries all the time. I've seen inmates fake seizures, and other ailments to try to get a trip to the hospital.

Sorry but no one should be assumed honest if the evidence says otherwise. No one. If there is also reason to believe they are lying then they should immediately be looked upon as suspects. That is the only reasonable way to look at these things.

What evidence? The guy is busted up. Ok, we know that. We know that plain clothes officers responded. We also know that we have two completely different versions of what happened.

BTW - notice I haven't said they are guilty of anything. This deserves to be investigated. Personally I think what we have here is a mistake that lead to a bad situation. The cops showed up in plain clothes and asked a honest questions "did you call the police?" the man took this question the wrong way and hadn't seen a badge yet. The cops misread his reaction to them... and this is the result. I wouldn't toss them in prison for this as it seems to be a miscommunication.

Absolutely, it deserves to be investigated. All alleged cases of abuse by cops should be investigated fully. If they are out of line, then they deserve whatever they have coming. You may be right in your assessment Destino.