The police chief may be waiting on the findings of the internal review, but many of the thousands of people who’ve already viewed the arrest video of Romengeno and Brenda Hardaway on YouTube have already made up their minds, and it’s pretty much what you’d think.
The police are either jackbooted, racist thugs beating up on a pregnant woman, or the Hardaways are overweight welfare spongers who scream racism as naturally as breathing.
For what it’s worth, I spoke to John Klofas, a criminal justice professor at RIT, about a different topic recently, and he brought up how police oversight is being democratized by technology. The ACLU has even released an app that lets you surreptitiously record your police encounter and upload it to the ACLU for review.
What does it all mean? Maybe the internal review will find that Officer Lucas Krull acted according to police procedure when he struck Brenda Hardaway in the back of the head. Maybe this is how the police have always operated, and we’re just finding out about it now because of the proliferation of cell-phone cameras.
If the investigation does clear Krull, I think we need to ask if this is how we want our city policed. Do we need to insist that police be specially trained to deal with pregnant women, if that isn’t happening already?
And what is our role, as media, as more of these types of videos surface – as they surely will? Do we throw up a link to the video because we know it will generate page views – without context, without explanation – and consider our job done?
This article appears in Aug 28 – Sep 3, 2013.
You’re right, there are many extreme YouTube comments on this but those comments are apt to be from trolls with no connection to our community. If you look at the local forums where this is being discussed, I think you’ll see more level-headed comments. The top comment on one news sites is “what will it take for people to understand that resisting arrest is not a wise decision?”
As far as the idea that maybe Rochester is shocked by the video, Cops has been on TV for no short amount of time and it’s really no mystery what police procedure is for dealing with those who resist arrest. Yes seeing it happen to your neighbor may bring it home a bit, but of course an officer will forcefully put an offender face down to the ground at any sign of resistance and will kneel heavily on the offender’s neck or back in order to incapacitate him or her while applying handcuffs. And yes, those who struggle further will end up being hit with a taser, maced, dog bitten, or receiving blows by hand or by stick, depending on the difficulty of obtaining compliance and the degree to which officer safety is put at risk.
The reality is that it’s difficult to handcuff somebody who is uncooperative. The only way to do it is to physically dominate the person as described above. From my reading of the video, I think the involved officer was actually conflicted about putting this particular offender on her stomach, perhaps due to her claims of pregnancy, and ultimately was able to avoid doing that. I think he did what he had to do and thankfully, with some help, was able to avoid forcing this woman to eat dirt.
Please, no community dialogue about “how we want to be policed.” Okay she’s probably been locked up long enough but if released, she should still return to answer for the serious charges that she faces. A use of force by the police is reviewable and that’s fine, but absent any finding or clear evidence of abuse of power, a lot of noise isn’t warranted or helpful. There’s only one valid lesson to be reinforced here and the city administration needs to hold the line on it: resisting arrest and assaulting police is unwise and will not play in your favor.
The sense of entitlement is ridiculous. There are repercussions for your actions. When you assault a police officer, you get arrested and you go to jail. Period.
Why is this even an issue? Because she’s black and the LEO was white. That’s the only reason. Pathetic.
I hope she gets prison time.
First, it’s not “oversight” if nothing happens to the police officers who are videotaped beating people up.
Second, I’m not commenting on the specific video because I want to know (not just from the RPD perspective) why these two were being arrested to begin with. Having said that, I’m dismayed by the number of people who are just assuming the police are always right and people should just do whatever they say. I’m pretty sure none of these folks live on Jefferson Ave.
The people in neighborhoods of color are harassed by the police every single day. Their streets are “cleared” every day. I see a lot of people hanging out on Park Avenue, but the police don’t “sweep” that street.
So it’s pretty easy to say, just get arrested and deal with it in court. Because the system is set up to protect the individual, right? No, it’s not. And let’s see how well YOU do in society with something on your record.
Very easy to tell another person to just accept being arrested.
Nobody got beat up here. The arrestee decided to take it physical and got a bit back in the process. Seriously, how is this news?
Dave – As far as why the two were being arrested, the brother was being detained for flying off the handle when the police showed up to investigate a domestic complaint. His sister stepped in and interfered with that process, swung on an officer and aimed pepper spray. That is what she was arrested for – interference and assault. During her own arrest, she fought being handcuffed. Police will handcuff you the easy way if you’re cooperative, but if you run or physically resist, the normal technique involves taking you to the ground. The execution here could have been a bit cleaner. The process here took longer than it should have. The additional officers at the end were helpful.
Rick – While I appreciate what you said, I’ve just seen enough and talk to enough people who have been affected by some of our police department’s actions to know that what is “justified” in the words of the police is not if you’re the one on the other end of the fist or club (or actually by the actual letter of the law).
Blanket acceptance of what the police say happened just doesn’t float anymore. And the police investigate themselves. That is why we need a fully independent citizen review board with complete subpoena power.
There’s not enough public information on what happened before the video started. It’s easy and convenient for people to say if anyone does X you go to jail. It’s not always that simple. You cannot tell from this video everything that went down. That’s why I’m not posting here, calling for the firing of the police officer. I’m looking at system change.
The theme of most responses to this video is essentially: “That’s what she gets! You mess with the cops, you get beaten. She should have known”
How about we have a new theme- it’s less obviously and more likely to be helpful, “When cops brutalize women, it will cause public outrage and jeopardize their jobs! He should have known.” Very similar. Both are simply observations about the status quo and not at all useful in a discussion about policing in our city.
The important question is: “How do we want our city policed?” Should they intervene in extremely emotional situations, like domestic disputes, where they KNOW people may not be able to control themselves. Should they go into those situations and escalate tensions? And once they’ve done that, should they use VIOLENCE to solve the problem? Is violence and physical force the best public policy for private family problems?
I for one think we can do better.
But really, this isn’t so much about police tactics as it is about race. Clearly.
The strong reactions I’ve seen from this video- some people even seem delighted or satisfied about what happened. Happy to see the white man finally take down the distressed black woman.
If the context and characters were flipped, let’s say a black police officer punches a young wealthy pregnant white woman in front of her family and friends on park avenue, and then takes her to the ground. Do you think the reactions would be the same? Of course not, we’d be horrified. I honestly don’t even think there would be discussion about whether it was justified.
The real problem here is that much of white Monroe County cannot empathize with poor minorities. So we do not treat them with dignity or compassion. I really hope that changes soon, even if I do not hold out much hope. In the mean time though, in the City of Rochester, we can insist that our police officers treat everyone with respect and compassion. The poor, oppressed minorities, and even progressive white folks, we ARE Rochester. This is OUR city. We can run it however the hell we want, despite the ignorant racist conservatives that make up most of this country and county.
We desire, and can make this change. Chief Sheppard; there’s a great place to start. Let’s show the police chief that RPD WILL show everyone respect and compassion. Either he comes out with an apology that satisfies, or we’ll find someone else who will.
Yes, some people’s perceptions about and reactions to this are definitely about race, but I don’t think that can be helped and I don’t see how that’s important. Everybody is entitled to an opinion but not all opinions are valid or relevant to public policy.
Police were called to the scene for a reason. When police roll up to do their job and somebody won’t calm down, it’s normal for police to cuff them so that the police work can be done safely and efficiently. This is true in all neighborhoods and regardless of race.
Police need and have latitude to use some force to effect an arrest if necessary. This is not a Rochester thing, it’s just how policing works. What’s the alternative, struggle back against the police and get your way? Resisting arrest is a serious thing and typically results in much more force being applied than we saw here. We know this to be true from COPS, etc. Yes this was male-female but to describe it as “brutalization” is outrageously silly. Obviously the officer was having trouble with the big girl and what he had tried to that point wasn’t working. The woman was apparently reaching for his balls or for his gun belt so I’m not sure what the community activists want or expect here. He stepped it up one notch to get the result he needed.
Nobody wants to see the police rolling up and arresting random people with heavy force, I get that. But this wasn’t that. The police were called to the scene for a reason. The people on scene were acting nuts and asserting that they had some right to deny police the access to do their job. Obviously those people were mistaken and police did what was necessary to control the situation.
Activists can try to stir this up into some big thing all they want, but the police only did their job and most people will see that. And all of the “oh but if the races were reversed or the neighborhood was different, you people would understand,” I don’t particularly see that. But regardless, public perception isn’t really the important thing here. The situation would be handled the same way in any community and there’s no reasonable alternative way that it could have been policed.
White people have the privilege of being able to say it isn’t about race. To be honest, it’s not our call.
And those who are talking about the police needing to beat people up to arrest them have no idea what is going on in neighborhoods of color…even those white folks who may happen to live in them as their not being profiled.
So the police were called to the location for a possible domestic disturbance… neighbors called because of some noise. No one has said the woman didn’t deserve the arrest, however they are questioning the tactics used on said pregnant woman, with 2 other police officers on the scene, I find it HARD to accept this was the best or even necessary way to handle the situation. I love how so many of the comments here infer so much about what the cop must have been thinking, no concern for what the woman is thinking as she screams “No!” to putting her hands behind her back that she’s pregnant. It’s pretty obvious the comments on here are by men, none of you knowing anything about being pregnant or being man-handled while pregnant. She doesn’t try to run and she is not reaching for the officer’s balls or his gun, as S.O.’s comment says with no evidence. She repeatedly screams she will not put her hands behind her back. I’m sure it is difficult to handcuff someone when they are resisting, maybe he could have said I know you’re pregnant but you’re still getting arrested today put your hands in front of you. Without even trying anything else or asking for help from the other 2 officers Krull takes the matter into his hands and konk’s her on the head and throws her belly first onto the driveway. As the police continue to act more and more like a paramilitary, those of us with BRAINS will continue to question their tactics. F*ck the police