Why the United encounter sparked more outrage than this violent police incident
The outrage was widespread and immediate after a video surfaced showing a passenger being forcibly — and violently — removed from a United Airlines flight on Sunday by airport security officers in Chicago.
In the wake of the incident, United was slammed by late-night television hosts, derided on social media and chastised by politicians. CEO Oscar Munoz did not help extinguish the controversy with his ham-handed response to the outcry over the passenger's "re-accommodation," as he called it. (Munoz did eventually apologize, and the Chicago Department of Aviation is investigating the officers involved in the incident.)
It isn't the only violent encounter with authority caught on camera this week to go viral. Did you hear about what happened in Sacramento? Maybe not.
On Monday, a Sacramento police officer purportedly beat an African-American man after the officer stopped him for jaywalking. The officer allegedly told the man to stop several times, but the man ignored the officer’s commands and continued walking away. At one point, the man challenged the officer to fight him, according to police.
A video of the incident posted on Facebook shows the officer suddenly throw the man to the ground and begin beating him.
"For an unknown reason, the officer threw the pedestrian to the ground and began striking him in the face with his hand multiple times," read a statement released by police. The department also released dashcam video. The officer in the video has been placed on leave while the incident is investigated.
The Facebook video had more than 1.1 million views as of Thursday morning. Though it received coverage, particularly in local media, it did not generate anything like the level of national furor sparked by the action of police on the United flight.
So why does one incident of aggressive behavior tap into our national indignity while the other gets little more than local attention?
Why the United encounter sparked more outrage than this violent police incident
Officers fired after video shows handcuffed suspect stomped on the head
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — A second Gwinnett County police officer has been fired after a handcuffed man was stomped in the head while lying on a Georgia street.
On Wednesday around 4 p.m. ET, Master Police Officer Robert McDonald responded to assist a supervisor, Sgt. M.F. Bongiovanni, with a traffic stop at the intersection of Sugarloaf Parkway at Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road.
Cellphone video of the incident shows the driver, Demetrius Hollins, being pulled from the vehicle and stomped by McDonald as he arrived on the scene. McDonald was fired early Thursday.
Later Thursday, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, another video emerged purportedly showing Bongiovanni punching Hollins in the head before McDonald arrived, even though Hollins had his hands up.
The first video to come forward, called "very disturbing" by a police spokesperson, was taken by another driver in traffic.
“What I viewed last night was disturbing to me and disturbing to others,” Gwinnett County Police Chief Butch Ayers said at a Thursday afternoon news conference. “What happened last night involving the officer last night was embarrassing to the Gwinnett County Police and other law enforcement.”
Initially police said there would be no investigation of Bongiovanni, but Thursday evening he was fired after the second video surfaced.
A police department statement said the two officers violated their training and state law. The department said both men are under criminal investigation.
“The revelations uncovered in this entire investigation are shocking,” the police statement said.
The first video, which was posted online, shows Bongiovanni appearing to yell orders at a handcuffed man who then lies face down in a left-turn lane of the busy intersection. A second officer, McDonald, arrives on the scene, runs up and immediately appears to stomp on the man’s head before both officers eventually pull him to his feet.
After being stopped by police, Hollins, 21, had attempted to restart his car before Bongiovanni pulled him from the vehicle, according to the incident report.
Police wrote that they smelled marijuana from the car that the driver had changed lanes three times without using a signal.
Hollins handed the officer his license and “began to act strange,” according to the incident report. He started yelling, “I need to call my mom,” and, “You have to let me go.”
The officer said he realized that he had arrested Hollins on Aug. 17, 2016 for having marijuana and a loaded gun in the car. The officer then requested backup, the report states.
"Sir, calm down and let me do my job. I have to make sure your license is good and that the car is not stolen," the officer said.
Hollins replied, "It's not stolen anymore. They stole it from me but I got it back."
Police then asked him to repeat what he just said. Hollins started yelling, "The kids in the neighborhood stole it so I stole it back. It's mine!"
Hollins was becoming angry at this point, according to police. He was pulled from the car, tased and handcuffed while lying on the pavement. That's when McDonald arrived and purportedly stomped or kicked Hollins in the head.
After the beating, an ambulance crew treated Hollins, who later appeared to have blood on his nose and lip in his booking photo.
McDonald was hired by the department in August 2013 and graduated from the police academy in March 2014. Bongiovanni was hired in 1998 and graduated from the police academy in February 1999, the Journal-Constitution reported.
The incident was the second beating by police this week.
A viral video purporting to show a Sacramento, Calif. police officer beating up an alleged jaywalker Monday sparked community outrage and an internal affairs investigation.
Sacramento police officials called the incident "unacceptable" and put the officer on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
Sacramento Police Officer Under Investigation for Beating Alleged Jaywalker
A Sacramento Police officer is under criminal investigation for a “disturbing” incident, captured on two videos, in which he threw an accused jaywalker to the ground and punched him repeatedly.
The two-year veteran of the force, who has yet to be identified, has been placed on administrative leave with pay while his actions are under review.
“I thought I was going to be the next Trayvon Martin to be honest,” Nandi Cain Jr., the accused jaywalker, said later in an interview with KTLA sister station KTXL in Sacramento.
Police released dashcam video of the confrontation, which occurred Monday after the officer exited his patrol car and approached Cain on a residential street in California’s state capital.
In the video, the officer accuses Cain of jaywalking and orders him to stop. After Cain protests, “I looked both ways,” and keeps walking, the officer says, “If you do not stop right now, I will take you to the ground.”
The two men then enter the street. Cain can be heard saying he is unarmed. He removes his jacket and tells the officer to take off his gun “and fight me like a real man.”
“I took off my jacket to let him know I don’t have anything (like a weapon),” Cain said later in the KTXL interview.
A cellphone video, captured by neighbor Naomi Montaie, shows the officer then shoving Cain, slamming him to the ground and climbing on top of him, beating him repeatedly in the head.
Cain was taken to jail and charged with resisting arrest. He also had an outstanding warrant for another misdemeanor charge, police said.
The episode sparked outrage on social media after Montaie posted her video to Facebook.
But after police reviewed the dashcam video and Montaie’s video, Monday’s charges against Cain were dropped.
“The actions of the involved Sacramento Police Officer are disturbing and (do) not appear to be reasonable based upon the circumstances,” the police department said in a statement. “The … actions that were observed are not indicative of the dedicated women and men who work for the Department.”
The outrage was widespread and immediate after a video surfaced showing a passenger being forcibly — and violently — removed from a United Airlines flight on Sunday by airport security officers in Chicago.
In the wake of the incident, United was slammed by late-night television hosts, derided on social media and chastised by politicians. CEO Oscar Munoz did not help extinguish the controversy with his ham-handed response to the outcry over the passenger's "re-accommodation," as he called it. (Munoz did eventually apologize, and the Chicago Department of Aviation is investigating the officers involved in the incident.)
It isn't the only violent encounter with authority caught on camera this week to go viral. Did you hear about what happened in Sacramento? Maybe not.
On Monday, a Sacramento police officer purportedly beat an African-American man after the officer stopped him for jaywalking. The officer allegedly told the man to stop several times, but the man ignored the officer’s commands and continued walking away. At one point, the man challenged the officer to fight him, according to police.
A video of the incident posted on Facebook shows the officer suddenly throw the man to the ground and begin beating him.
"For an unknown reason, the officer threw the pedestrian to the ground and began striking him in the face with his hand multiple times," read a statement released by police. The department also released dashcam video. The officer in the video has been placed on leave while the incident is investigated.
The Facebook video had more than 1.1 million views as of Thursday morning. Though it received coverage, particularly in local media, it did not generate anything like the level of national furor sparked by the action of police on the United flight.
So why does one incident of aggressive behavior tap into our national indignity while the other gets little more than local attention?
Why the United encounter sparked more outrage than this violent police incident
Officers fired after video shows handcuffed suspect stomped on the head
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — A second Gwinnett County police officer has been fired after a handcuffed man was stomped in the head while lying on a Georgia street.
On Wednesday around 4 p.m. ET, Master Police Officer Robert McDonald responded to assist a supervisor, Sgt. M.F. Bongiovanni, with a traffic stop at the intersection of Sugarloaf Parkway at Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road.
Cellphone video of the incident shows the driver, Demetrius Hollins, being pulled from the vehicle and stomped by McDonald as he arrived on the scene. McDonald was fired early Thursday.
Later Thursday, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, another video emerged purportedly showing Bongiovanni punching Hollins in the head before McDonald arrived, even though Hollins had his hands up.
The first video to come forward, called "very disturbing" by a police spokesperson, was taken by another driver in traffic.
“What I viewed last night was disturbing to me and disturbing to others,” Gwinnett County Police Chief Butch Ayers said at a Thursday afternoon news conference. “What happened last night involving the officer last night was embarrassing to the Gwinnett County Police and other law enforcement.”
Initially police said there would be no investigation of Bongiovanni, but Thursday evening he was fired after the second video surfaced.
A police department statement said the two officers violated their training and state law. The department said both men are under criminal investigation.
“The revelations uncovered in this entire investigation are shocking,” the police statement said.
The first video, which was posted online, shows Bongiovanni appearing to yell orders at a handcuffed man who then lies face down in a left-turn lane of the busy intersection. A second officer, McDonald, arrives on the scene, runs up and immediately appears to stomp on the man’s head before both officers eventually pull him to his feet.
After being stopped by police, Hollins, 21, had attempted to restart his car before Bongiovanni pulled him from the vehicle, according to the incident report.
Police wrote that they smelled marijuana from the car that the driver had changed lanes three times without using a signal.
Hollins handed the officer his license and “began to act strange,” according to the incident report. He started yelling, “I need to call my mom,” and, “You have to let me go.”
The officer said he realized that he had arrested Hollins on Aug. 17, 2016 for having marijuana and a loaded gun in the car. The officer then requested backup, the report states.
"Sir, calm down and let me do my job. I have to make sure your license is good and that the car is not stolen," the officer said.
Hollins replied, "It's not stolen anymore. They stole it from me but I got it back."
Police then asked him to repeat what he just said. Hollins started yelling, "The kids in the neighborhood stole it so I stole it back. It's mine!"
Hollins was becoming angry at this point, according to police. He was pulled from the car, tased and handcuffed while lying on the pavement. That's when McDonald arrived and purportedly stomped or kicked Hollins in the head.
After the beating, an ambulance crew treated Hollins, who later appeared to have blood on his nose and lip in his booking photo.
McDonald was hired by the department in August 2013 and graduated from the police academy in March 2014. Bongiovanni was hired in 1998 and graduated from the police academy in February 1999, the Journal-Constitution reported.
The incident was the second beating by police this week.
A viral video purporting to show a Sacramento, Calif. police officer beating up an alleged jaywalker Monday sparked community outrage and an internal affairs investigation.
Sacramento police officials called the incident "unacceptable" and put the officer on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
Sacramento Police Officer Under Investigation for Beating Alleged Jaywalker
A Sacramento Police officer is under criminal investigation for a “disturbing” incident, captured on two videos, in which he threw an accused jaywalker to the ground and punched him repeatedly.
The two-year veteran of the force, who has yet to be identified, has been placed on administrative leave with pay while his actions are under review.
“I thought I was going to be the next Trayvon Martin to be honest,” Nandi Cain Jr., the accused jaywalker, said later in an interview with KTLA sister station KTXL in Sacramento.
Police released dashcam video of the confrontation, which occurred Monday after the officer exited his patrol car and approached Cain on a residential street in California’s state capital.
In the video, the officer accuses Cain of jaywalking and orders him to stop. After Cain protests, “I looked both ways,” and keeps walking, the officer says, “If you do not stop right now, I will take you to the ground.”
The two men then enter the street. Cain can be heard saying he is unarmed. He removes his jacket and tells the officer to take off his gun “and fight me like a real man.”
“I took off my jacket to let him know I don’t have anything (like a weapon),” Cain said later in the KTXL interview.
A cellphone video, captured by neighbor Naomi Montaie, shows the officer then shoving Cain, slamming him to the ground and climbing on top of him, beating him repeatedly in the head.
Cain was taken to jail and charged with resisting arrest. He also had an outstanding warrant for another misdemeanor charge, police said.
The episode sparked outrage on social media after Montaie posted her video to Facebook.
But after police reviewed the dashcam video and Montaie’s video, Monday’s charges against Cain were dropped.
“The actions of the involved Sacramento Police Officer are disturbing and (do) not appear to be reasonable based upon the circumstances,” the police department said in a statement. “The … actions that were observed are not indicative of the dedicated women and men who work for the Department.”
