Good lesson for police training class: Don’t beat up citizens when the news helicopter is overhead

by philg

Our local NBC affiliate station runs a turbine-powered helicopter that captured some video of the end of a State Police chase (see the raw footage on youtube and also ABC News with some wider angles). It seems that beating up an unarmed on-the-ground suspect is not a good idea when you’re being filmed in HD. A couple of state troopers are now suspended. What might that cost them? This database (type in “Department of Police” and then click twice on “2015 Earnings” to show the highest earners on top) shows that the top-paid employees with a title of “Trooper, 1st Class” earned between $239,000 and $288,567 per year.

Massachusetts State Troopers can start work at age 21 and are eligible to retire after 20 years. The guy who tried unsuccessfully to escape them was 50 years old. Thus very likely what we’re looking at is about 8 guys with guns (and a dog) beating up a guy old enough to be their father.

I wonder if this is going to become more common. Here the public servants were apparently unaware of a 5000 lb. jet-powered Airbus Helicopter (formerly “Eurocopter”) hovering overhead. The drones that are proliferating don’t announce themselves with the sound of a Turbomeca Arriel. It would be unfortunate to lose a $288,567/year job because of the neighborhood drone nerd and his or her $499 DJI Phantom 3.

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3 thoughts on “Good lesson for police training class: Don’t beat up citizens when the news helicopter is overhead”

  1. I’d really like to know the behind the scenes stuff regarding this incident. Watching the drama unfold, the whole thing seems staged. The cops run up to the guy in unison and throw these sort of wild-looking blows and punches from all directions.
    It looks like a badly directed b-movie.

  2. The Guardian might be of help: http://gu.com/p/4j59e

    (I’ve been wondering about these—let’s call the spade the spade—fascist troopers’ apparent obliviousness to the helicopter’s presence… are turbine-powered helis that much quieter than piston-engine-driven ones? Or did they mistake it for one of their own?)

  3. kinda like the Blues Brothers: “What have I done to piss you off THIS TIME?”

    He’ll be out by November to vote Trump.

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