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Bodycam videos show cops going after protesters downtown after that George Floyd vigil on May 31; officials to investigate

Attacks on demonstrators from Boston Police 5/31

The Appeal gets copies of some of the video from the night of May 31, after a George Floyd protest ended and as looting began. The videos:

[S]how police officers bragging about attacking protesters, targeting nonviolent demonstrators for violence and possible arrest, discussing arrest quotas and the use of cars as weapons, and multiple instances of excessive force and liberal use of pepper spray.

In a statement, Police Commissioner William Gross says he's put one sergeant on administrative leave as the department's bureau of professional standards launches an investigation.

WBUR reports Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins is also vowing an investigation. WBUR reports:

One clip appears to show a police officer saying he hit protesters with his car. When the officer wearing the camera notified his colleague that the body camera was recording, the officer changed his story, saying he didn't hit anybody.

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Comments

...to abuse and brutalize citizens. I can’t imagine why people would want to slash and re-allocate police budgets to other services.

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To start ejecting the bad apples from the barrel, which I'm pretty sure is the second half of the old adage

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...turned around and walked away as soon as he realized that his buddy made an admission of hitting protesters with his cruiser directly into his body cam.

https://youtu.be/sMYF-Y_r52Y

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The good apple was mad that his camera caught it.

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he wouldnt have said a word and filed a report

but his gut instinct was to warn the other guy which is an admission that he knew it was wrong

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Or put another way the cop recording willing chose to become an accomplice and tamper with evidence. Every cop in that video needs to be fired and the cop assaulting people with a car needs to be criminally charged.

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I don’t know that anyone tampered with anything but the fact the bragging cop clearly expected his commentary would be met with laughter and support rather than outrage infuriated me. And I rarely get angry. Look, protests that block traffic are designed to get your attention. I can imagine some frustration there. But these protesters were being let through a barricade. And as an officer it’s imperative that you remain above the frustration when provoked.

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yeah he didn’t seem frustrated at all. It sounded to me like he was having a blast hitting protesters with his vehicle.

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"durka durka durka, u need coffee with cop"

- aB0sToNc⁰P

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Gross announced one sergeant is now on administrative leave pending an investigation.

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Swift action in the form of extra vacation during the holiday season. That'll teach 'em!

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Video snippets selectively taken and edited from hundreds of body cams from hours of police officers being assaulted, cruisers set on fire, businesses being looted and set on fire.

The arrest “quota” - that was the sergeant making sure the station did not go over capacity before prisoners needed to be shifted to another station. There are not arrest quotas in the Boston Police.

Officers had M80 fireworks set off in their faces - one suffered complete hearing loss and a major concussion - injuries from bricks and frozen water bottles, assaults from individuals that were given multiple warnings to leave the area as the protest turned into a riot. At that point, the “protest” was deemed an unlawful assembly (remember the cruisers being set on fire w police officers inside them and large scale looting and arson) and officers were ordered to make attempts to clear the area. The pepper spray was used on those individuals, not the people who gathered to exercise their first amendment right to protest.

There have been other videos posted of raw footage showing what happened that night. Watch those ones too. Some will don’t show the police in the best light but they give better context than the 15 second snippets of selectively edited video that everyone is reacting to today.

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We know that part of the story but police officers still can’t brag and laugh about driving into peaceful protesters, looters or rioters. Also peaceful protesters were being pushed around and that’s why some of it got out of control. That kind of bragging and disgusting behavior happens way too often when police officers are in the right company just so happens the camera caught it this time.

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Cops are pieces of shit. There are the violent, dumb thugs like the ones in those clips. And then there are the ones who let those violent criminal cops get away with it.

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You’d be the first one to call the police if you were in a jam, Mr. Internet Tough Guy.

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Do we have choices? Is there a better alternative for us? Telling people they can’t call 911 in an emergency because they don’t support police brutality is just Dumb. Our tax dollars buddy so we kinda have a say in this. Sorry to hurt your feelings.

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I’ve had pizzas come faster than the police

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Because I can tell you that I have, twice, and both times they were completely and utterly useless. I guess at least they only directly insulted me one of those times, though.

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You should take a poll on how that works out.

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In one instance, a commanding officer approaches the man behind camera X81413955 and hands him a necktie with a price tag still on it, presumably from a store looted during the unrest.

“It’s pretty nice,” replies the cameraman, adding that it’s a “$50 tie.”

The commanding officer quickly leaves the area, turning his back on the camera. Meanwhile, the officer with the camera appears to pocket the item. The Boston Police Department did not provide a case number, evidence log, or any information about the tie.

Maybe we should pay these people more to disincentivize theft?

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It's real cool that an increasingly large amount of our tax dollars is funding this violent street gang and anybody who questions that is dismissed as an irrational radical.

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Are you talking about the rioters/looters or the cops?

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No, we’re talking about the “peaceful” protestors, lol.

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Who are shown on that video rioting and looting.

Watch the video. They are stealing, they are rioting. Read some recent news- the union was led by a child rapist for decades, the state police are all stealing from us, and the organization is out of control.

People went to protest and the thugs came out to beat the shit out of them.

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The cops ARE the RIOTERS and the LOOTERS.

$50 tie. Sweet.

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On the other side we have tens of millions of dollars in stolen goods and property damage.
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2020/05/31/violence-erupts-in-dow...

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the rioters/looters or who are the cops.

Fixed.

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Yes.

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Really proving a point there guys, good work. As the old adage goes, when someone shows you who they are, believe them.

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Subpoena and pour over the finances of each Lord and Lady of those tacky Overtime Estates that these badged criminals have erected with our money.

The Union of retired sensitive snowflakes won't let one of their own be held accountable so
forget trying these thugs in criminal court.

Instead we need to continue to nail them to the wall on tax evasion and falsifying work records, etc.

There is a heirarchy that allows this to happen. Encourages it.

We need to start at the top; smash the BPPA and all of these offshoot "benevolent" organizations then let the people who live here control the police, not corrupt maga retirees who skimmed for years then moved to Hingham.

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I was there and had left my younger daughter and my son's girlfriend , as me and others walked away we began to see armored trucks rushing down Washington Street for no reason. They came with the intent to make the peaceful protest look violent. I'm over them thinking black folks are here to be disrespected and mistreated. The laws never apply to the oppressed because they're created by and for those meant to do the oppressing. Things have to change. I pray this country does better by it's own citizens.

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All cops working in the city of Boston should be mandated to wear bodycams that includes campus, MSP, and Transit.

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That they don't have control to turn off.

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All Coppers Are Bastards

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Grow up

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Right on time, breaking irony meters left and right with her petulant screech to "Grow up" while not providing one single thing of substance to refute the evidence. Hey Carmella, where's the cop who stopped the "bad apples"? Only a few, huh, Carmella?

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“We gotta start spraying more,” the officer wearing camera X81417350 says.

“You out?” he asks another police officer offscreen, holding up a can of pepper spray. “I got a little left.”

“I want to hit this asshole,” he says, gesturing toward the young man being pushed back. “I’ve used two of these already—I’ve got a little left, I want to hit this kid.”

Williams cited those comments in particular as indicative of the attitude police in Boston take toward demonstrators and the community.

“This is not law enforcement,” he said. “That’s not what they’re doing right there in the streets, ganging up on people using weaponry.”

“And they’re enjoying it,” he added.

I hope people take the time to read the entire article.

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I don’t feel sorry for looters and vandals. The cops didn’t pull these people’s names out of a hat and decide to attack them. These are troublemaking vandals that are destroying America. Force is all they understand. And no, I’m not a cop nor am am I married to one.

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You weren’t there right? Ok so mind your business and let this get sorted out. Should we ignore a video of a cop admitting and laughing about driving into protesters on purpose? Not sure if you know this but even if people are looting cops can’t run them over.

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LOL.

The “greatest nation on Earth” is being “destroyed” by a bunch of “troublemakers and vandals”.

Why did Osama bin Laden spend all that effort hijacking planes when he could have simply activated an army of 20-somethings with spray paint?

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Do the Boston Tea Party next!

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Cop Apologist and Queen of the Irish Riviera Carmella is here to tell us all who's the REAL Americans! She knows all about "looters and vandals"! Fuck evidence, Carmella KNOWS!

Stupid brainwashed troll.

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Oh ok Carmella maybe next time a Black person is murdered by police and we see it on tv we should ask them nicely to please stop, march quietly and in order, stop to let traffic through and just be nice. Cuz that works right? Did the nice pleading and begging for George Floyd’s life by people who witnessed it help the cop to remove his knee?

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I'm sure she had lots to say about the Kaepernick protests too (probably something about how he should just shut up and play football)

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