Utah cop charged with assault after punching a high, 16 y.o. boy in the face

hlat

The Living Force
FOTCM Member
Utah cop charged with assault after punching a high, 16 y.o. boy in the face

I read the article and watched the video. The 16 year old male was passed out from using drugs outside a gas station and tried to kick the police officer before the police officer punched him. I don't see a problem here. The 16 year old male deserved the punch and the police officer did not deserve a conviction. The general society of people should not have to put up with drug users passed out in public who assault people trying to wake them up.
 
Considering the number of time cops have assaulted and murdered people with no punishment whatsoever, this is unexpected. Yes, in this case, the cop was in the right and shouldn't have been convicted of anything. Though arguably, did he really need to punch the kid? He was kind of passed out. I'm sure his arrest is going to rile some people and it's going to be one more round of "lefty snowflakes are destroying the country, poor blue lives, and yada, yada..."

The youth was white instead of black, so for once we won't hear about how black people are intrinsically violent and anti-social and about victim mentality.

But again if the race had been reversed and the youth had been black instead of white, I'm not sure the story would have turned quite in the same way - people contacting the police department and the police officer actually receiving a punishment.

Anyway, it's all same old, same old to me.
 
I remember as a young kid I would fall asleep on the living room floor or couch at night while watching TV. When my brothers tried to rouse me to get me to go to bed I would swing and kick at them to get them to stop and leave me to sleep. Not wanting to be disturbed in such a case is a natural reaction. There is no evidence that the kid, high as he was, was aware that he was striking out at a cop and he certainly did not deserve getting socked in the face no matter who was trying to wake him.

On approaching a scene such as this, a cop could only assume that a person is drunk/high or suffering from some sort of medical crisis (i.e. hypoglycemia). This cop in particular could've had prior knowledge of the boy as a drug user but nevertheless his condition did not warrant such an excessive reaction. He could've have skipped the face punch and called an ambulance which he ended up doing anyway.

The cop knew he was wrong as evidenced by the fact that he didn't include the punch in his reporting of the incident until about a week later. And the kid knew he was wrong for being high and passed out in public so he didn't report the assault. They were both in the wrong but the cop was more wrong due to his state of being sober at the time (we assume) and because he abused his power.
 
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