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DA to join probe of Roxbury Community College arrest

District Attorney Dan Conley said today his office will participate in a review of the way Boston Police officers subdued a teenage suspect at Roxbury Community College this past weekend.

The arrest of the teen - a runaway from a DYS facility wanted for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon - sparked controversy when somebody posted a video on YouTube of several officers taking him down in a college lobby. City Council President Mike Ross expressed his outrage; at-large Councilor Ayanna Pressley said she was shocked and deeply troubled by what she saw.

In response, patrolmen's union President Thomas Nee called Ross "a fraud," the Herald reports. Meanwhile, some Roxbury residents are organizing a rally over the video for 5 p.m. tomorrow at the Roxbury Crossing T stop, the Phoenix reports.

Police Commissioner Ed Davis said he would conduct a review of whether the use of force was justified. In a statement, Conley explained why he was appointing First Assistant District Attorney Josh Wall to the probe:

It's important for everyone involved that there be independent eyes reviewing what occurred here. I spoke with Commissioner Davis, who has already initiated what he promises will be a complete and thorough internal investigation. Commissioner Davis has further pledged ongoing cooperation with my office, including providing us with all of the investigative materials so we can make an impartial determination concerning possible criminal conduct.

The DA's office says the teen, not identified because of his age, had his bail on open cases for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and trespassing revoked at his arraignment Monday on a charge of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.

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Comments

RCC would be a much better place if it was made a police-free zone.

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RCC would be a much better place if it was made a racist/overly- zealous police free zone.

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Where do you see racism?

If you're saying that the cops were racist because they're white, well, that's a racist thing to say.

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then you're contributing to it more than people who do.

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What happens when there is an assault/violence/robbery/hostage/kidnapping at the college and no police are there to protect, then?

There are no easy answers.

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Reviewing the clip of Boston Police subduing teenager at RCC is obvious even to a jaundiced eye the police, some 10 to 12 officers, are intent on establishing a curtain with their bodies to keep the videographer from filming the brutality. This is the reason for so many officers.

Should the Police Commissioner indicate his officers innocent from brutality, it behooves the people to demand the commissioner's removal by Mayor Menino.

Those of us who are trained emts can understand the delay. It was not about subduing, but instead waiting for the unconscious captive to become conscious.

No PhDs or MDs ae needed to view the clip. Unbiased reviewers dare not point an accusing finger lest they be condemned in their career by the commissioner.

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The Police Commissioner doesn't need to find anyone innocent. Anyone that knows the law or procedure in regards to excessive force can tell this is not going to amount to the level of excessive force.

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we get it, you hate cops.

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What makes you think he was unconscious?

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So what you're saying is that when the cops were told to pick this kid up on outstanding warrants, the officer in charge at the scene planned ahead to have more cops there on the off chance that someone might have a video camera? Seriously?

Mike Ross should be ashamed of himself. Just another ward heel grandstanding to satisfy his liberal donors.

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The Boston Police clearly acted by the book and should be commended for taking this hoodlum off the street without serious injury. The media frenzy is laughable. I see officers controlling each limb, another guiding the head while blows and knee strikes (as taught in the academy) are delivered until the suspect decides to comply. Strong work! What is truly disturbing is that this 16 year-old "runaway" (felony escapee?) was reportedly on the lam so that he could attend the birth of his baby! The cycle never ends. Also, if the profanity laced gibberish spewed by the narrator is any reflection of the student body of the state's public colleges, we are all in serious trouble. Yo dawg!
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?...

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So. What you are saying is that the cops are intentionally trained to deliver a beat down with excessive force and that is okay with you? Gee, it only takes a couple of orderlies to hold down a raging mental patient without punching and kicking that person ... but it somehow takes this many cops with punching and kicking? Odd.

Wonderful. Why bother with juries and judges - being suspected of something is enough to justify a harsh beating, eh?

As for spewing gibberish, well, people can and do google your comments on other sites you know.

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I have refrained from commenting on this issue so far, but this takes the cake.

It takes a couple of orderlies to hold down a mental patient because that patient generally never has a firearm. He/she is generally just reacting to his/her mental issues and/or medication issues when acting out. He/she is never approached in a situation where the orderlies' lives may actually be in danger, out on the street. And if that patient were such a danger to him/herself or the staff, they would never be allowed outside of extremely controlled environments.

So for you to equate a police stop in an uncontrolled environment, with an unknown suspect, with no knowledge of a weapon (but the distinct possibility of one) to your orderly situation is ludicrous.

And why has no one commented on the obvious kicking this kid did about a minute in, pushing one of the cops back and away? To my cursory review, it seemed like that helps demonstrate that he was struggling and fighting the whole time, but then again I don't harbor a hatred of cops and only see what I want to see.

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In hospital environments, when someone is really out of control and risking the safety of self and others, that person can be given an injection of a fast-acting sedative. An order from a prescribing clinician is obtained after the fact, by a prescriber who didn't witness the incident. In other words, it's pretty commonplace and quite safe and doesn't require advanced clinical skills to decide whether it's appropriate. While this is more common in inpatient settings, it's also legitimate in hospital ERs and by paramedics with people who haven't signed in and consented to treatment and documented their allergies and whatnot.

Surely if we were really interested in public safety and dignity, we could provide cops with sedatives in an injector pen. These can be administered safely by anyone, and it would hardly be a big deal provided we currently allow them to kick people, punch people, shoot people, etc. if the person is out of control.

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That's a cool idea. Sort of a reverse epi-pen for resistors. I'm sure there are a lot of concerns in regards to allergic reactions or people slipping into some sort of coma or something (interactions of whatever is already in their systems with what is sedating them).

But you're right, when the other sanctioned options are (depending on your jurisdiction) pepper spray them, tazer them, stun them, beat them into submission, beat them into a paste or shoot them dead, well I guess an injection of something to knock them out doesn't sound that bad. As long as there was training as to how to recognize when someone is sedated versus slipping into a coma or something severe like that.

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it's not that i wouldn't trust the police to effectively use a drug pen to sedate a person. it's easy. i've done it in a mental health system. but the fact that it's easy doesn't mean it's harmless.

i think you are much more likely to do secondary harm by injecting somebody with medication. for example, i have epilepsy. i take medication for it. and the list of drug interactions is *huge*, and some of them are common tranqs. they can cause not only seizures, but also delusions and hallucinations.

i would take my chances with an inelegant physical take-down, or even a beat-down, before i want them putting anything into my system.

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Yeah, these are all good points, but if you (or anyone else) is out of control and the paramedics show up, they're going to sedate you without getting a full medical history. Same if you're transported to the ER and are flipping out and don't come up in their system or won't tell them your name or something.

However, the ambulance/ER would also have other drugs to treat blood pressure/breathing issues if they ended up giving you a benzo on top of an anticonvulsant or some other combination that causes problems.

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I worked in a mental institution. We do get kicked, punched and even bitten by patients. Worse of it is that we can not fight back. It often takes more than one person to subdue someone if they are very upset. And these are people who are on different types of treatments including being restrained (Bat wings) or shocked a majority of the time. (shock therapy still exists.)

This, I would call excessive because he is already on the ground. Even if his arms are under him there are other ways to bring them out. We are trained for it! He clearly did not have a weapon. Being punched or kneed in the ribs while there are 8 - 10 200lb men kneeling on you is just unnecessary.

I was not present when this happen, so I do not know what lead up to this point in the video. But I do know, I don't like what I did see. I think it could have been handled better.

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And the weapon is the big issue here.

But you are right that there are other ways to bring an arm out. There are several baton techniques which can do this. Those tecniques can also break bones a small percentage of the time as well though. But courts have still allowed these baton techniques nontheless.

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You worked in a psychiatric hospital some time in the past 50 years and the term being used there was "mental institution?"

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maybe I was not with the right orderlies but I can remember being in hospital situations where we needed a roomful of people to control some situations.

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A wish I could show you the thousands of cases I have seen of abuse in mental health facilities and some of the lawsuits involved there. You don't hear and see about them as much because there is never any video in there, and the people locked up there often times aren't beleived.

And we can foget about the orderlies who do nothing about physical violence in these facilities and what happens when they don't intervenene.

I don't have the numbers off hand, but I would be willing to bet you would be suprised at the amount of sexual and violent assaults that happen in mental health facilities that do and don't get reported.

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Abuse in facilities definitely happens, and yes, some is and isn't reported, and people are often not believed.

However, the only time in a licensed facility that it's ever acceptable whatsoever to hit someone is the hit to the wrist to get someone to drop a weapon. There are no other hits taught in any of the restraint methods used in facilities, and it's made absolutely clear that you don't ever hit anyone. That's where the fields differ; the police seem to think there are circumstances in which punching a person is acceptable.

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It has nothing to do with what the police think, it is what judges and courts have deemed necessary force that one can apply to another who shows another form of force.

I've talked about it before, its a use of force chart. Here is a link to a generic one:

http://brillianter.com/2009/03/use-of-force/

You also have to remember that for many weapons, (knife or any other sharp object), you should never try to hit someones wrist.

I will have to admit that punching someone with their hands under their body isn't going to do anything. That person is already going to be full of adrenelin and the punches are not going to hurt or make that person bring his hands out.

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The Herald talks to Boston police union president Thomas Nee about Mike Ross's comments on the video.

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The fact that guy had a known history of assault with a dangerous weapon and had escaped from teen jail probably count for more than they're mentioned in this debate. The police were expecting trouble and maybe it became a self fulfilling prophecy or maybe the kid lived up to his rep. I wish the video showed the entire encounter, did he run or swing at the cops? Punching the kid while he's being held down certainly looks bad.

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Agreed. Setting up a wall of backs and the demands to stop filming don't make it look any better. I hate when advocates of increased State surveillance say "what's the problem? If you have nothing to hide you shouldn't be worried." That's not a valid argument, but...

We give law enforcement officers powers that no one else in society has. And like Uncle Ben said "with great power comes great responsibility" and some other serious union-won benefits that I think only firefighters match and Federal politicians exceed. In return for all that power and those benefits, police should expect a high standard for getting in (no more MDC cops please), stringent review of their actions when questioned, harsh treatment for violations and the respect of the community for those who aren't douchebags.

Lots of good cops out there, but when they're assholes they can do a world of damage. In this case I don't think we know enough or are watching the whole story to pass judgment on their actions.

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