Today’s lesson on the Police PR Spin Machine comes to us from Lieutenant Steve Dorris of the Baytown Police Department in Texas who is trying to justify how officers beat and tasered a man after finding antibiotics in his car.
We published the story last week with the bodycam video showing how a group of cops confronted a man named Kedric Crawford who was sitting in his car parked at a gas station, only to beat and taser him after finding the medication.
In his detailed statement he made after we published the story, Dorris explains that police first confronted Crawford because he was in a “suspicious vehicle.”
But Dorris does not explain why the car was suspicious other than a black man was sitting inside but that’s pretty much all it takes with cops in this country.
However, courts have ruled that in order for police to briefly detain a citizen, they must have a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed or is about to be committed by that person.
In other words, a person needs to be suspicious of something instead of just looking suspicious because that is how racial profiling comes into play which is exactly what took place here as Crawford was only minding his own business in a well-lit area in front of a gas station that may have even been open for business.
Crawford’s big mistake was consenting to allowing the cops to search his vehicle but they probably intimidated him into doing so. It does not appear as if they released the portion of the video where he actually consented.
“As one of the officers searches the vehicle the other officer continues to talk with Mr. Crawford, whose demeanor changes as he becomes increasingly nervous even though officers are being polite and cordial.”
And no, the cop were not “police and cordial,” they were condescending and coercive. This is the type of bullshit cops spew daily where they try to justify their bullying behavior by claiming a person is nervous so therefore guilty of a crime. But anybody who pays attention knows that cops get off on intimidating people, which evidently is all they are trained to do since they’re obviously not learning Constitutional law.
Dorris then stated the following to explain the whole purpose of the arrest:
At one point the officer searching the vehicle locates several small pieces of plastic bag, each of which contained several pills. Recognizing this to be consistent with narcotics packaged for sale, officers attempted to place Mr. Crawford in handcuffs at which time Mr. Crawford began resisting by pulling away from the officer, who was able to only get one handcuff on Mr. Crawford.
So a cop found some pills in what appears to be small plastic baggies then determined it was “consistent with narcotics packaged for sale” when it could also be consistent with a man who buys plastic vitamin baggies at the pharmacy to store his daily meds.
At no point did the cops think to ask Crawford about the contents of the bags. They didn’t even mention it to him. The cop searching the car only motioned to the cop talking to Crawford, who then proceeded to start grabbing him and ordering to place his hands behind his back.
Then the same asshole cop described by Dorris as being “polite and cordial” threatens to “drop” Crawford as he asks why he is being arrested. And then he proceeds to do just that.
Dorris then describes Crawford as being this uncontrollable wild man who was making all the cops fear for their lives which is why they all had to savagely beat and taser him and pile on top of him while ordering him to place his hands behind his back.
Officers pressed Mr. Crawford against his vehicle to try to gain control of Mr. Crawford considering he was not complying, actively resisting and now had one handcuff on, which created a dangerous situation for the officers. A struggle ensued during which the officers took Mr. Crawford to the ground, again to attempt to gain control of him, while calling for assistance from other officers. Mr. Crawford continued to resist and fail to comply with the officers commands. This resulted in the officers deploying their department issue Taser, which was ineffective as Mr. Crawford continued to resist and refused to comply with officers instructions, pulling his arms away from officers and refusing to place his hands behind his back so officers could handcuff him. Due to Mr. Crawford’s persistent resistance, and the fact that the Taser failed to momentarily incapacitate Mr. Crawford, one of the officers delivered a series of elbow strikes and a closed fist strikes to Mr. Crawford’s head area in an attempt to disorient him so they could get him into custody.
But the video shows that Crawford was terrified and begging them not to kill him.
At some point in the evening, the cops were able to deduce the pills were not narcotics so they charged him with aggravated assault on a police officer instead because a cop claimed he had been scratched as he was beating Crawford,
Dorris is the same cop who expressed disappointment in May with a citizen for recording a Baytown cop shooting an unarmed mentally ill woman to death.
“It’s unfortunate that somebody takes a tragic incident like this and posts it on social media,” Baytown Police Lieutenant Steve Dorris told KPRC-TV. “It’s extremely disrespectful for everybody involved, but that’s the day and age we live in with social media.”
What is unfortunate is cops like Dorris and the thugs he defends who have already earned a reputation for their violence, continue to abuse their power without any repercussions.
“This police department is notorious for being out of control,” said activist Quanell X who was addressing another incident in which Bayview cops allowed a police dog to maul a man’s arm even though he had surrendered.
The video, posted below, shows cops allowing the dog to maul the man for nearly a minute as he begs them to pull the dog off.
“Quit fighting the dog,” a cop yells after the 6:50 minute mark. The cop handling the dog appears to be smiling at the 7:32 mark. His name appears to be Nathanial Brown and he has a very violent reputation.
The victim, Ralpheal White, said he ran because he had unpaid tickets. He was charged with evading on foot and injury to public service animal, accused of punching the dog that would not let go of his arm.
Last year, an off-duty cop attacked a 19-year-old man for sitting in a car with the cop’s stepdaughter.The attack took place outside a Whataburger where the two teens worked, according to the Houston Chronicle. It was a friendship the mom did not approve of so she got her husband involved.
In that incident, spinmaster Dorris claimed in a press release that “We are still working to secure an official statement from the 19-year-old pertaining to the incident” to insinuate he is not cooperating with the investigation.
However, the teen, Jeft Sprecaher, told local media in the second video below that cops showed up to the scene, took his statement and allowed the off-duty cop to be on his way.
What Dorris wants is for the teen to come into their station so they can intimidate him. That’s just how the Blue Mafia operates.
