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Pastor brutalized by police at “border” checkpoint
Steven Anderson, a Pastor at Faithful World Baptist Church in Phoenix, Arizona, encountered a “border” checkpoint about 75 miles from our southern border.
Border agents told Anderson that a dog had indicated the presence of contraband in his vehicle. At some point, thankfully, he turned on a video camera. Shortly thereafter, his car windows were broken and he was horribly brutalized by police officers, including being shocked by electrostun weapons over and over again.
Please take the time to watch both of these videos. The first is his account of the situation; the second is actual footage.
Warning: The second video contains audio of the pastor being shot by multiple TASERs and is highly disturbing.
Police brutality in the United States of America is completely out of control. Does anyone have any suggestions? With each passing day, I feel more and more strongly that we must divest every police officer in the country of electro-torture devices such as TASERs. These are tools of government control and brutality, nothing more.
Join the new anti-TASER facebook group here.
….and here’s a Facebook group dedicated to stopping the wall on the border.
“Pastor” Anderson brought this on himself. If he had answered their questions he would have been on his way soon after. I he didn’t want his car searched, he should have told them that the search was against his will, and that he thinks they need a search warrant, but he should not have interfered with the officers. If they did need a warrant but searched his car without one, he would have cause to sue the officers. I don’t know how the case ended, but I hope he was convicted and did a little jail time. This is the same “pastor” who has been calling for the death of President Obama. The secret service knows about his “sermon”, because I called and reported him to the secret service. I doubt one of his wackjob congregants would be able to harm the president, but they could harm others in their attempt. Check http://YouTube.com/watch?v=u4-JieEI-0Q
Posted by Zaphod on August 27th, 2009.
I think you are mostly right, and I appreciate your comment, but I do disagree with your conclusion.
To me, it doesn’t matter that Anderson is a whackjob. Nobody deserves to be brutalized by the police. Period. There was absolutely no need for any kind of physical force. He was not resisting or physically engaging the police at any time.
Also, and I’m less firm on this point, it’s a tough swallow to say that he’d be able to sue the officers later for violating his rights if indeed the search was illegal. Cops are pretty much granted to blanket immunity from suits now under qualified immunity doctrine. Thus, a degree of active resistance, non-violent of course, is warranted and appropriate in my mind.
At very least, answer me this: What is the possible justification for deploying an electro-assault weapon here?
Posted by Justin on August 28th, 2009.