A Virginia teen ended up hospitalized with a concussion Tuesday after police struck him on the side of the head with a baton for video recording them.
The video shows the cop asking his age before attacking the 19-year-old man, apparently figuring he can get away with doing that to an adult.
Devin Thomas was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, your typical contempt of cop charges.
It’s the usual video we normally see, the third one from Virginia this week, but this time Virginia Cop Block joined the teen and his uncle to file a complaint at the police departments, as you can see in the video below.
At first, they went to the Petersburg Police Department along with a television reporter who had been getting stonewalled, only to be told it was a Prince George cop who made the arrest.
Then they went to the Prince George Police Department without the reporter so Thomas could file his complaint and received the usual “it’s under investigation” routine that allows them to avoid the topic altogether.
But it’s interesting to see the reaction from officers at both stations to Cop Block’s cameras. A cop at the first station tried to order one of them away, telling him he has “no business” there, while chatting up the female television reporter, whose business is obviously more legitimate in his eyes.
It’s not.
A cop at the second station asked them why the need for cameras – as if getting struck on the side of the head by a baton for video recording is not self-explanatory. That cop tried to take Thomas to the back room to file his complaint, but the teen refused, so the complaint was filed in the lobby on camera.
At both stations, all the cops tried their best to pass the buck to another cop or agency, which is another common tactic they use, claiming they have no information or knowledge about a particular case.
But now that we’re catching on to their tactics, now that more people are becoming aware of their rights, we need to come up with ways to counter their brush-off attempts.
UPDATE: The cop has been identified as ~~Anthony Patterson~~.
The cop’s actual name is Vance Richards. Sorry, Patterson. We were fed wrong info.
Also, Virginia Cop Block has organized a protest against the Petersburg Police Department on Monday.
