At around 6 a.m. on July 4, John Sexton was walking with his 6-year-old son, who has autism. He was stopped by two officers for suspicious activity before being thrown to the ground and briefly detained.
“We’ve had over 200 phone calls this weekend,” Daugherty said.
While it isn’t his department, the sheriff called for both officers involved to be taken off of the streets while OSBI works the case.
“I can understand why they feel the way that they do, because of hearing that child scream is one of the hardest things,” Daugherty said.
That officer has a history of other complaints, including from his former colleagues, according to the sheriff.
The article says that the OSBI is investigating the use of force but what about the 4th amendment violation?
Will this be another ranking cop involved fired; the other suspended and then the cops move to a new department with a clean record? If a private citizen did this, they’d be charged for the crimes that they committed.
If they go to court, you know they’re going to defend themselves with qualified immunity with the age old “I didn’t know the law, so I can’t be held accountable” even though that does not work for regular private citizens.
The sheer lack of accountability for police officers in the US is abhorrent. We all though ‘finally’ when most police officers had to wear body cameras so that when they are caught maliciously committing crimes, lying and at best, being incompetent that things were going to change. But they haven’t. It is still too rare for police officers to be held to any sort of accountability and for departments with horrible trends to be reorganized.