Local prosecutors are investigating three police officers who beat a University of Maryland at College Park student last month during street celebrations that followed a men’s basketball game in which Maryland defeated Duke, The Washington Post reported. A video of the incident shows the unarmed student, one of many milling around the area, approaching several mounted police officers, but not otherwise seeming to pose a threat to them. Other police officers then shove him into a wall and beat him with their batons, with more than dozen blows landing. The student, who suffered a concussion and other injuries, was later arrested and charged with assaulting police officers on horseback, one of more than two dozen students arrested that night, but the charges against him were dropped when the video directly contradicted the police version of events.
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20 Responses to Filmed Beating of Student Prompts Investigation of Maryland Police Officers
cspdoc - April 13, 2010 at 3:42 pm
This article title suggests that it was a University of Maryland police office, yet the Washington Post story clearly states that it was a Prince George’s County police officer. It would be helpful to correct the title of this article as to not mislead readers.
cspdoc2 - April 13, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Thanks, I was about to note that as well. Important distinction.
woodcreeper - April 13, 2010 at 4:20 pm
hmm… did they change the title? because if not, then there’s no implication of U of M officers. Maryland Police Officers implies they are officers, from Maryland, which is true.
drmemory - April 13, 2010 at 4:23 pm
As I recall, the student was originally charged with punching one of the horses. The video shows he was never close enough to do so and never threw a single punch at any of the officers who attacked him. Supposedly three P.G. County officers are currently under investigation for the unprovoked beating and a fourth is also under investigation for filing the false report.
princeton67 - April 13, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Note the difference between the USA and, for example, Thailand, Myanmarn RUssia, China…… Here, police brutality is exposed and investigated; there, police brutality is authorized and promulgated.
12052592 - April 13, 2010 at 5:58 pm
Is there any reason they can’t prosecute ALL of the officers present who witnessed the beating? They were watching a criminal assault take place and did nothing.
cspdoc - April 13, 2010 at 6:54 pm
When you use Maryland to refer to University of Maryland in the body of the article, the use of Maryland in the title would also have the same meaning for readers. Typically journalist stay consistent in their writing. In addition, they were P.G. County officers, not Maryland State Troopers supporting the notion that the use of the words “Maryland Police Officers” would not be accurrate in this case.
edrand - April 13, 2010 at 8:22 pm
I can’t believe these comments – who cares about semantics – let’s focus on the situation at hand. If not for the filming these hooligans, the police, would have gotten away with unprovoked life threatening behavior. These idiots should lose their jobs, be put in cell, and let out in a year or two never having seen the light of day. This is absolute BS and unless there is a public outcry these kinds of incidents will continue without abatement.
willynilly - April 13, 2010 at 8:34 pm
It is certainly not near enough of a resolution to simply drop the false charges levied against the student be the police. Every police officer, who participated in the unwarranted assault, should be fired and forced to surrender the full amount of any pension benefit they may have accumulated.
goodeyes - April 13, 2010 at 11:04 pm
If true, all the police officers involved should be fired and have criminal charges against them.
physicsprof - April 14, 2010 at 10:36 am
Upon watching the video posted on the WP site, the student was acting stupidly, he approached mounted police moving as a mentally-challenged idiot with his heels hitting on the back of his thighs (likely drunk) and after saying something grabbed the reins of the horse. What did he say? Did the officers perceived him as a threat? Nobody knows. Police probably overstepped the limits (though the ones who were pounding the student were some distance away at the time of incident, with the horse possibly blocking partially the view of him, which might have contributed to their perception of the danger). But the dude got a valuable lesson he should benefit from.
greeneyeshade - April 14, 2010 at 10:39 am
princeton67, This may not be those countries, but without the fortuitous video, this is the kind of police action that would have been easily covered up. This may not be China, but at the street level, individual cops or small groups of them can behave dictatorially, and often do, even while normally decent refuse to “rat” on fellow officers. The PG police department has a long history of abuse among its ranks, which was often racially motivated in the past. The culture in that department still needs to be reformed.
greeneyeshade - April 14, 2010 at 10:40 am
“…decent officers…”
greeneyeshade - April 14, 2010 at 10:51 am
physicsprof: You are correct that the student behaved stupidly and was probably high, but all the more reason police should act with restraint. Truncheons are not needed to subdue a silly drunk.Too bad the UMCP Dept. of Public Safety wasn’t in charge. Having spent a bit over two decades there, I witnessed their ability to handle student exuberance with finesse; exceptions were rare. One would think that the PG police would have long since learned to do the same–there are at least three large institutions in the county—UMCP, Bowie State, and PG Community College with numbers that would justify training a special group to handle situations like these.
lakemendota - April 14, 2010 at 11:40 am
PG County police are not known for the high quality of their policng.
jchslrc - April 14, 2010 at 1:55 pm
physicsprof – Perhaps a “valuable lesson” could have been taught without inflicting a concussion.
fsusocialwork - April 14, 2010 at 2:39 pm
I am sorry to see that, as often is the case, so many people are ready to convict without a trial. I agree the behavior of the officers looks bad, and the behavior of the students looks pretty bad as well. Good grief, the only innocents here are the poor horses! But no matter how bad it looks, I prefer to wait for a trial/hearing before passing final judgement on people who have a difficult job to do. I say put the pitch forks away give everyone a fair trial. If you knew your local police had “a long history of abuse,” wouldn’t you think twice about taunting them in the first place?
physicsprof - April 14, 2010 at 2:46 pm
#16. Drinking and going public is always a bad thing. It often ends up with something much more serious than a concussion. Honestly, I see it as a win-win situation for everybody, the beneficial use of modern technology. The jerk got what he deserved, and a few incompetent police officers will probably be fired. I just hope that the student and a bunch of briefs will not benefit by ripping monetary rewards from MD taxpayers, but so far I see no victims in this incitent.
rick1952 - April 14, 2010 at 4:32 pm
physicsprof – if you think this is a win-win situation with no victims, I believe you have a very distorted sense of what is a “win” and who is a “victim.” Assuming the student engaged in provocative behavior behavior and/or the officers involved violated the law in their response to the student’s behavior, the basic concept our parents taught us,”two wrongs don’t make a right”, seems apropos in this situation. Of course, that common sense principle is not a law of physics.@17 is correct, we need to let the courts work their way through this incident and hold accountable those whose behavior is shown to have violated the law if that is demonstrated.In the end, there is a loser and it is the law enforcement community which once again has its reputation for integrity placed in question, accurately or not, by this incident. As some previous posts indicate, there are many who will make judgments based on the initial information.
physicsprof - April 14, 2010 at 5:22 pm
rick1952, why is the law enforcement community a loser? The incident, if properly assessed, will only be for the benefit of LE. It might hurt in the short run, but not all lessons should be painless.