Philly Cops Fired After Videotaped Beating

Police Department Says 4 Officers Will Be Fired, 4 Others Disciplined For Roles In Incident

(AP)  Four officers will be fired and four others disciplined for their roles in the beating of three shooting suspects, an encounter that was caught on videotape.

The police department made the disciplinary decisions after reviewing frames from enhanced tape of a video shot by a television news helicopter on May 5, Commissioner Charles Ramsey said Monday.

A total of 19 officers - 18 city police and one transit officer - were involved in the apprehension of the three suspects.

Two of the officers are relatively new to the force and can be terminated immediately, Ramsey said. Two others are being suspended without pay for 30 days with intent to dismiss.

Three other officers are being suspended and one sergeant is being demoted.

The video, shot by WTXF-TV, shows the suspects being pulled from their car on the side of the road and groups of officers kicking, punching and beating the men.

Police said they had been pursuing the car in connection with a triple shooting. The three men - Brian Hall, 23, Pete Hopkins, 19, and Dwayne Dyches, 24, all of Philadelphia - have been charged with attempted murder and related counts stemming from the shooting. Their attorneys have said they had nothing to do with it.

One of Dyches' attorneys said he suffered a welt on his head the size of a baseball and that one of his legs was seriously injured.

The beating occurred at the same time police were conducting an intense manhunt for a suspect in the slaying of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, but Ramsey said Monday that there was indication that any of the officers thought the suspect was among the three men in the car.

[observer2020]

thgdriver and scnitelife, I SO agree with you. I live near where this happened and all the cops ARE just plain gang members. Cops can do no wrong. Even when they are caught on tape by a news chopper. Where are the charges against these guys for assault and battery? Just firing only 4 of them and slapping the other on the wrists, condones these actions. Anyone else would be in jail with all sorts of charges against them. I wouldn''t waste the spit either on any of these slimes.

[thgdriver]

Remember all the bullies in school? Want to locate them now? Go to your nearest police department. The only difference now is that they have guns, badges, lots of others with the same mind set in the same large club.

This incident was taped, thousands of other Police beatings/brutality go undocumented.

[scnitelife]

Police are paid gang members, theres not a single cop that can do anything at all without another 8 cops backing him up and just like alot of street gangs they lie and cover up for one another and they kill and abuse and bully anyone who isn''t one of them. Police, all of them, deserve nothing but contempt from the public they daily abuse. They deserve only to be spit on but i personally wouldn''t waste the saliva.

[dinkydog1]

Big mistake to fire these guys. These guys put their lives on the line every day. All they were doing was trying to control the situation and apprehend dangerous criminals. Posted by jackie0428

19 men kicking and hitting a subdued man lieing face down on the ground is not "trying to controll a situation and apprehend a criminal" it''s cowardly and disgusting. None of these cops knew for certain that these men were guilty and even if they did they had no excuse or authority to carry out punishment. If "putting thier lives on the line every day" gives them an excuse for this type of behavior I wonder, statisticly thier job is not really that dangerous so do loggers or farmer with a more dangerous job get to beat people? Allowing police a lower standard of behavior than ordinary people is neaver a good idea.

[honestabe8]

Why not put them in jail? If they were pipefitters instead of cops, they would not get off this easily.

[nishaboston]

Yes they put their lives on the line and that is respect, but they went too far and they should be treated like any other criminals who beat people like this.

jackie0428 wrote:

"These guys put their lives on the line every day."

Yeah, they do, but it doesn''t mean they can beat the cr@p out of people or break the law themselves.

The fact is that they should know better - and if they don''t, then they shouldn''t be in the police force.

[brianbwb-2009]

"These guys put their lives on the line every day." Posted by jackie0428

Jingoistic BS.

The truth is that they also put innocent people''s lives on the line with such fascist tactics, and since they do control the drug, prostitution, gambling, and other illicit trades in all major cities, even the few "good cops" won''t "snitch" on their buddies, making them no better, or worse, than any criminal organization.

The police should be disbanded, and their function should become part of the US military, where at least there is a chain of command that can be held responsible when violations of law occur.

[brianbwb-2009]

"BrianBWB, with your logic, you would have been deported years ago. Since there was enough evidence for me to determine that YOU are an as*shole and a traitor, then there should be enough evidence for the State Dept to kick your worthless scum a*ss out, right?" Posted by jackie0428

Well, since I was born in Highland Park, Michigan to the descendant of African slaves and to a full blood Cherokee, there is enough evidence to show that you assume without adequate knowledge, and are therefore as much a fool as your post would suggest.

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by michaelt302

Once again, you are out there in kkk heaven. The ethnicity of the victims is irrelevant, they have not been proven to be the "bad guys", that part is only your assertion, and one you probably wouldn''t be so quick to make had the victims indeed been "White".


The beating went beyond apprehension, it is not the purview of the police to judge and punish, but to apprehend and deliver lawbreakers to due process. Innocent until proven guilty, remember?

No matter if the victims were "White" what that tape shows is a wanton violation of civil and criminal law by the police.

[taylor2124]

Go Jackie Go. You totally OWNED that shi*t-for-brains BrianBWB!!!

[jackie0428]

BrianBWB, with your logic, you would have been deported years ago. Since there was enough evidence for me to determine that YOU are an as*shole and a traitor, then there should be enough evidence for the State Dept to kick your worthless scum a*ss out, right?

[jackie0428]

Big mistake to fire these guys. These guys put their lives on the line every day. All they were doing was trying to control the situation and apprehend dangerous criminals. It%u2019s these kind of decisions which will deter more and more people from even applying to be cop. It%u2019s just a matter of time before people say forget it, I%u2019m not doing this job if my own employers and the citizenry can%u2019t support me.

[brianbwb-2009]

If there is enough evidence to fire them, there should then be enough to charge them with their crimes.

[thisisfunny]

Fired, I thought assault carries a jail penalty. Seriously, boys and girls this *** of cops beating people occurs every single day, but the citizenry is too stupid to figure that out and almost 100 percent of the time sides with law enforcement. This is the reason why stuff like this happens all the time, because they feel they will get away. And we are shocked!

[mary blankinship]

I DONT CARE WHO THEY ARE OR WHERE THEY ARE FROM!!! HANG THEM TO THE NEAREST TREE!!YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT AND SERVE NOT HARRASS AND DO WHAT EVER YOU WANT TO AND ALWAYS GET YOUR HANDS SLAPPED!!!

[apprxam]

What I fear most is that the regular guy and his interaction with police officers will become even more dangerous. Fear works both ways and the next logical step may become the average Joe becoming more apt to respond with force upon being pulled over or stopped by officers with little intent to do harm.

Firing these four and the steps taken dealing with the others is meant to avoid further public backlash and possible blowback. These conditions exist because the real criminal element isn''t taken off the street, thereby, casuing the "war" mentality of these cops which hurts innocent victims that live in these neigborhoods.

[rushlimpdrug]

mmmmm . . . .

donuts.

Sorry, cop stories just remind me of the scent
of freshly made donuts. . .

I''m hungry.

mmmmmm . . . .

coffee and donuts.

gotta go . . . .

[soshljustic]

Yes IDNNSG some officers do ...""think of themselves as an "army" at "war on crime"." because crime is big business and well funded. They know this, have been educated in this, and see it on the streets, whereas law abiding citizenry does not have the mindset of the criminal and is shocked by these actions of otherwise well-intentioned officers. This situation is obviously a result of a multitude of things and did not just occur after each officer woke up, took his/her shower,had coffee,kissed the spouse and kids ggodbye and headed out the door to work. A person does not easily move from one role to another drastic role without motivating factors,which have yet to be fully disclosed.There exists no perspective to this situation yet, a few possibilities, nothing concrete. Uncover the facts before judgement!!To do less,when we have the time after the fact, is more irrational then the incepting actions of the officers/perhaps youths in the car.

[komoncents]

Yes soshl, everyday we hear of both the finest and saddest of behaviors enacted - and witness the lack of justice and compassion for all humans which should take precedent over the mob mentality so evident on the video and in some of the posts listed here. When national, local, and religiious leaders fail to lead appropriatley, the followers tend to fall astray. Its tough to obtain justice when our leaders exhibit such soundly inappropriate and thoroughly dehumanized behavior. Of course justice will always remain highly subjective and sadly few have the objectivity to discern the difference.