7 APR 05: NO BEANS, NO FEET, NO SERVICE?
The man on the phone was upset, and demanding action. He claimed Wednesday night a friend of his had just become a victim of Columbus Police brutality. We're sad to report it was NOT a batting practice session by the police softball team....
Two callers claimed a man was arrested on Third Avenue Wednesday night for standing along the roadside holding an open container of beer. But they claimed police brutalized the man, by kicking him into a squad car. Do some people really WANT law officers to act the way David Glisson is accused of acting?
Well, perhaps some people DO want officers to act that way. "There's no reason for an officer to kick someone," a grandmother said later, "when they've got handcuffs and guns on them." This raises an interesting question - can handcuffs double as brass knuckles?
"He's not a dog. He's a human being!" the grandmother said of watching Columbus Police kick a man into a police car. Which is weird, because I thought I've heard plenty of news stories lately about how wrong animal abuse is....
But the police complaint doesn't stop there. Apparently several people on Third Avenue watched this arrest occur - and when they complained to officers, one of them reportedly threatened to arrest the group as well. The citizens call that police harassment. I'd call it about half the episodes of "NYPD Blue."
The squad car and a second vehicle from the Metro Narcotics Task Force drove off with the allegedly kicked man - but not far. The grandmother says they stopped at 38th Street and Third Avenue for at least 15 minutes. She called that an act of humiliation. I take it this grandma never has a "time out" area for misbehaving children.
Even making a man sit in a parked police car for 15 minutes is wrong and humiliating, this caller claimed. And then people wonder why City Manager Isaiah Hugley doesn't do it....
(If this is humiliation, imagine if the callers had received what they wanted when they called. The alleged beer drinker's name would have been all over the late-night newscasts.)
Yet the complaining callers found a fourth Columbus police foul on this play. The man said he tried to report the misconduct to the Metro Narcotics Task Force - but a lieutenant on the other end of the phone hung up on him! Some officers may need to learn the secret of keeping people on hold until infinity.
The callers claim Columbus Police have been abusive at other times recently in the Bibb City neighborhood. But all we have to go on here is what the complainers say. There could be much more to the story....
+ Was the suspect refusing to get in the squad car? If so, perhaps the Columbus Cottonmouths can spend the summer teaching officers how to body-check people instead of kicking.
+ Did the suspect say the wrong words to police? You know -- something like, "I hope the City Manager gets a raise before you do"?!
+ Did police stop the squad car at 38th Street and Third Avenue to interview the suspect in private? Did officers perhaps have second thoughts, apologize to the man - and offer him a free smoke detector?
This was actually the second questionable incident of the day involving Columbus Police. At an afternoon news conference, Chief Rick Boren revealed a man died two days after officers shot him with tiny beanbags. First there was Kenneth Walker, then the Taser debate - and now this?! It's a good thing water pistols are on sale in stores right now....
Lester Zachery was shot in the chest with beanbags Monday, after he called a Veterans Affairs hotline about his dreams. Zachery's dreams reportedly involved committing suicide and murdering children. Maybe the real message was that Zachery needed to start a punk rock band.
Chief Rick Boren says Lester Zachery threatened to shoot officers who showed up at his house. But a search of his home after the beanbags were fired found no sign of a weapon. First Columbus law officers were accused of acting like Afghanistan's Taliban - now they might be compared with C.I.A. agents in Iraq.
An autopsy will determine exactly how Lester Zachary died. Meanwhile, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation will review the beanbag shooting. In fact, the Columbus NAACP might be ready to start a fund-raising campaign to put a permanent G.B.I. office in town - simply to check every move law officers make.
Amid all these incidents, WXTX "News at Ten" revealed Wednesday night the number of sexual assault cases in Columbus has doubled so far this year. We're told that's because more women are speaking up and reporting attacks. It can't be due to better police watches - because I keep hearing hardly anyone is doing that....
On to other items, from a Wednesday which turned wet:
+ The Columbus Riverdragons failed to clinch the N.B.D.L. regular-season title, by losing at Asheville. When you play in "the valley," trying to climb to the top of the mountain IN the mountains must be even tougher.
+ Chattahoochee Valley Community College hosted a free concert by Talbot County native Precious Bryant. Bryant sings and plays what you might call countrified blues - which could explain why so many people in the audience were smiling, and didn't seem blue at all.
+ Auburn University held its annual "World's Fair," with displays by international students. Perhaps engineering students from Venezuela can show us how that country keeps the price of gasoline around 25 cents a gallon....
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