|By Mike Thomas, COMMENTARY
If I grabbed a 100-pound woman, threw her face-first into the street and broke her teeth, I'd get arrested for attacking her.
But if an Orlando cop does the same thing, the 100-pound woman gets arrested for attacking him.
So goes law and disorder in the Orlando Police Department.
It seems like just yesterday that I wrote about an Orlando officer throwing a then-84-year-old man to the ground and breaking his neck. The cop got an all-clear from Chief Val Demings, and police charged the 84-year-old man with attacking the officer.
Last month an Orlando officer was arrested after a security camera showed him beating up an 18-year-old man in an elementary school.
Does anyone detect a disturbing trend here?
The latest case of cops gone wild began Feb. 25, when a husky Officer Livio Beccaccio threw a tiny Lisa Wareham to the ground.
We'll start with his report and then move on to what really happened.
He wrote that a group of people was involved in something of a melee near the downtown library. Beccaccio says he ordered two men who were fighting to sit down. One did, and the other didn't.
Beccaccio says the one who didn't stepped toward him, and he pushed him, with the man stumbling backward into Wareham, 20.
According to Beccaccio, Wareham then started screaming at the man and tried to attack him, pushing the officer in the chest to get at him.
Beccaccio says he took her by the left arm and led her into the street, writing that Wareham "smacked me several times.''
He said he then pushed her to get her away from him, and she "stumbled forward and fell to the pavement.''
He said he did not see her hit the ground in a subsequent report.
Now, I understand that surveillance videos are grainy, have no sound and often don't have the best angle.
But here is what it shows.
There are people milling about. Two bicycle cops pull up. Beccaccio walks up on foot. I can't see anyone fighting.
Beccaccio pushes a man into Wareham. He then hits the man again, this time sending him flying backward like a quarterback hit by a linebacker.
It's hard to keep track of Wareham because she is so small. It appears a bystander is trying to restrain her at one point, and another officer tries to move her out of the way. She may well be behaving badly.
You then can see Beccaccio looking down at Wareham, but it doesn't look like a physical confrontation.
If she touches him, you can't see it.
He then takes her left arm in his right hand and walks her out on the street. She turns to face him. He grabs her arm with both hands and flings her to the ground in what looks like an arm-bar takedown. It looks like he watches her the entire time, including when her face hits the pavement. He then walks away, shoving an onlooker in the chest. In fact, in the entire video, he is the only one I could see pushing or hitting anyone.
Beccaccio's claims that Wareham hit him, that he only pushed her, that she "stumbled forward and fell'' and that he didn't see her hit the ground don't stand up to video scrutiny.
Police reports are the foundation of the criminal-justice system. And that makes this report very disturbing. It makes you wonder about all those "resisting arrest'' charges police file, and all those cases cleared by internal affairs. It casts doubt on the majority of officers who are good people doing a hard job.
But if an Orlando cop does the same thing, the 100-pound woman gets arrested for attacking him.
So goes law and disorder in the Orlando Police Department.
It seems like just yesterday that I wrote about an Orlando officer throwing a then-84-year-old man to the ground and breaking his neck. The cop got an all-clear from Chief Val Demings, and police charged the 84-year-old man with attacking the officer.
Last month an Orlando officer was arrested after a security camera showed him beating up an 18-year-old man in an elementary school.
Does anyone detect a disturbing trend here?
The latest case of cops gone wild began Feb. 25, when a husky Officer Livio Beccaccio threw a tiny Lisa Wareham to the ground.
We'll start with his report and then move on to what really happened.
He wrote that a group of people was involved in something of a melee near the downtown library. Beccaccio says he ordered two men who were fighting to sit down. One did, and the other didn't.
Beccaccio says the one who didn't stepped toward him, and he pushed him, with the man stumbling backward into Wareham, 20.
According to Beccaccio, Wareham then started screaming at the man and tried to attack him, pushing the officer in the chest to get at him.
Beccaccio says he took her by the left arm and led her into the street, writing that Wareham "smacked me several times.''
He said he then pushed her to get her away from him, and she "stumbled forward and fell to the pavement.''
He said he did not see her hit the ground in a subsequent report.
Now, I understand that surveillance videos are grainy, have no sound and often don't have the best angle.
But here is what it shows.
There are people milling about. Two bicycle cops pull up. Beccaccio walks up on foot. I can't see anyone fighting.
Beccaccio pushes a man into Wareham. He then hits the man again, this time sending him flying backward like a quarterback hit by a linebacker.
It's hard to keep track of Wareham because she is so small. It appears a bystander is trying to restrain her at one point, and another officer tries to move her out of the way. She may well be behaving badly.
You then can see Beccaccio looking down at Wareham, but it doesn't look like a physical confrontation.
If she touches him, you can't see it.
He then takes her left arm in his right hand and walks her out on the street. She turns to face him. He grabs her arm with both hands and flings her to the ground in what looks like an arm-bar takedown. It looks like he watches her the entire time, including when her face hits the pavement. He then walks away, shoving an onlooker in the chest. In fact, in the entire video, he is the only one I could see pushing or hitting anyone.
Beccaccio's claims that Wareham hit him, that he only pushed her, that she "stumbled forward and fell'' and that he didn't see her hit the ground don't stand up to video scrutiny.
Police reports are the foundation of the criminal-justice system. And that makes this report very disturbing. It makes you wonder about all those "resisting arrest'' charges police file, and all those cases cleared by internal affairs. It casts doubt on the majority of officers who are good people doing a hard job.
