Interesting threat, to be sure. Brings up a few memories.
Did the cop cross the line? Oh Hell Yeah!
Should there be a 7digit settlement for kid? Oh Hell No!
Do I hate cops? Some of them, damn right!
And don't go spewing any crap about deterrence Nim.
Originally posted by AKDejaVu
Also seems that there wasn't much physical damage. Do a little research and find out how much money has been awarded to people that only have a bruise to show for something.
Not alot, I can attest to that first hand.
Many years ago a friend of mine and I were showing some friends around some caves in north GA. It's night, we're walking out of the woods, and suddenly a real bright flashlight is shining in our faces from pretty close. My bud says "How about gettin the light outta my eyes boy." Next thing a guy says "I ain't yer boy, son", a sherriff's deputy uniform flashes by me, and you hear the resounding crack of a maglite slamming against my bud's hardhat and smashing the light mounted on it. For the next 15minute or so this cop proceeded to beat my friend senseless, and damn near killed him.
Then we hear the cop calling on the radio for backup, officer needs assistance and an ambulance.
Then it was my turn. Told to put my hands on a tree so I do. Get frisked, get cuffed, get slammed in the back of the head and eat dirt. Kick to the ribs, get flipped over, and get his 9mm jammed in my face. The muzzel on those things look big enough to drive a KW through in that situation.
So the cop says "ok, I got some questions for ya Sparky. That's your name, right? Sparky?" Sometimes it's better to just agree with folks, but I didn't this time, and earned 4-5 shots to the ribs for it. Then he asks me about his niece who has apparently run away (for the second time) and I tell'im what I know (which was about the first time she ran off, a week or so before). I get popped a couple more times and he pulls the 9 again, lays it against my forehead, and tells me he's gonna blow my brains out if I don't tell'im what he wants to know. I accept the fact I was about to die at the hand of a love muffin that needs a clue.
The 'calvary' arrives at this moment, in the form of the backup he called for. So my friend is loaded into the ambulance, I'm loaded into one the cars that has just arrived, and the cop puts the 3 folks who saw it all into his car to haul'em to the station.
So, I spend a night in jail (charge: assaulting an officer), get some bruises and bruised ribs, and end up with broken glasses. My friend's lawyer asked me if I'd like him to represent me also, but he didna think I'd get much. I said sure and didna expect much. I get the bills for the doc to tell me my ribs are bruised and not fractured paid, a new pair of glasses, and don't make it to 5 digits. It was so little that the lawyer (and this surprised me!) said he wasn't going to charge me the fee, so I got the whole settlement for my part. My guess is he got more than he expected for my friend.
The cop was suspended w/ pay a day or two after the incident. Less than a week later it's changed to suspended w/o pay. Roughly a month later he was fired (right after the settlement). Last I heard he was working in a chicken plant gutting chickens. But that was over a decade ago.
What started it was about two weeks before this happened the guys niece had runaway, and my friend and I were the unwitting fools who gave her a ride to a friend's place in the next county. When we discovered what she was doing we talked her out of it, she called her grandmother to come get her, and we sat there til her grandmother showed up. The grandmother even thanked us for helping. Then a week later she up and runs off again, so my friend and I are the first ones looked at.
And I've no idea when I bothered to tell this tale, save it's been buggin me since this threat started I guess.
Oh, my friend. Don't know the amount, we never discussed it, but he was verra well off. But I wouldna be surprised if he made it well into 7 digits. Broken ribs, fractured arm, permanent damage to his left eye, over a week in the hospital. They thought he wasn't gonna make it through the first night. And all that agravated some condition he already had.
