-
-
Folks, it has become incredibly obvious that certain factions of the police are very excited to do whatever they want whether it follows the law or not. This is very disappointing to all of us fans of “innocent people not being shot” and the only reason we’re aware of just how many policemen there are who straight up kill people is the advent of the smartphone. Thanks to the smartphone, the deaths of countless innocents have been recorded and the world became aware of just how terrible cops can be, which makes this video all the more infuriating. Watch as one of West Covina’s police officers demands that someone he is stopping hand over her phone — going as far as to curse at her in order to intimidate her to get his way, and claiming the phone is a weapon.
The video continues with the policeman forcibly grabbing the phone out of the woman’s hand and the video ending abruptly. The footage has made the rounds online, and admittedly makes this policeman look absolutely abusive to the point where if we were the woman, we would never put the phone down — and I assume if the person in the car was black, we would be writing a more tragic entry.
The West Covina Police Department gave its explanation of the incident — none of which said why an officer, who carries a gun with him every damn day and has complete power over the situation, thinks a phone is a weapon. Here we go, according to Lt. Tibbets —
“At some point during the stop the officer learned the male was a convicted arsonist, on probation and previously arrested for possession of a loaded firearm. The officer chose to investigate further by conducting a probation search of the vehicle. The officer requested the female and male to exit the vehicle. The male initially complied but later became agitated. The female passenger delayed exiting the vehicle and was recording the incident with a cellular phone…
To the best of our knowledge, the alleged misconduct was not recorded on her cellular phone. The West Covina Police Department is releasing the dash camera footage from the police car, which is not consistent with the female’s version of events. Furthermore, the male driver is a convicted felon with previous convictions for battery on a police officer, arson and being a convicted felon in possession of a loaded firearm.”
So, now we can see the police thinks they can justify abuse because none of this has to do with the phone snatching incident in question. The reason people carry phones is that of statements like these — where the police will twist themselves into pretzels to justify abusive behavior. Again, everything they discuss has nothing to do with the actual things everyone is mad about. A phone is not a weapon and the police can’t pretend they have rights they don’t. They can’t act this way towards people they have not arrested, lest they risk continuing to alienate the public further and further until they are no longer trusted.
We saw the guy say the phone can be a weapon when it clearly isn’t. That’s the magic of these things.
What do you think of the video? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter at @WhatsTrending.
