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DA: No excessive force in police takedown of teen at Roxbury Community College

Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley says a review of the arrest of a juvenile with outstanding warrants at Roxbury Community College last October shows police acted appropriately and used only enough force to bring the teen under control.

"It is my opinion that I saw nothing in the myriad of reviewed incident related materials rising to the level of excessive and therefore illegal force utilization," Gregory Connor, an independent expert on the use of force and now-retired professor emeritus of the University of Illinois Police Training Institute, who was hired by DA Dan Conley to review the case, said.

In a statement, Conley said the suspect, not named because of his age, "was resistant and assaultive" when officers tried to serve multiple warrants on him:

The investigation established that two Boston Police officers and one DYS apprehension officer approached the suspect, who was not an RCC student, at about 2:30 that afternoon as he walked through a campus administration building. When they attempted to remove his backpack and place him in handcuffs, he began to resist, grabbing hold of one end of the cuffs while an officer held the other end. The two struggled and the juvenile struck another officer just above the eye. The officers then brought the juvenile to the ground, where he struck his head on the grated floor.

At the point at which [the suspect] was prone on the ground and struggling with the officers, he had not yet been searched for weapons. Moreover, his backpack, which was within his reach, had not yet been examined. It was, therefore, entirely reasonable for the involved officers to fear for their safety as [the suspect] might have been armed with a weapon within his reach.

Additional officers responded to the arrest team's request for assistance. The evidence, including the video clips, established that the suspect continued to resist being handcuffed and would not allow his hands to be brought out from underneath his chest. One officer used a series of blows delivered from a shorter distance than a traditional punch as a distraction technique. The suspect continued to resist.

As more officers responded to a call for assistance, others took part in the arrest as well. Conley noted that one of them delivered a series of compliance and distraction strikes to the juvenile's leg, lower back, left side, and rib area. Though many of these strikes were ineffective, they were all consistent with the officers' training. They were delivered as the suspect refused to bring his hands out from under his torso and even kicked one officer off of his legs. Only one officer at a time employed strikes or blows.

The suspect assaulted officers during a lawful arrest and remained actively resistant when they attempted to take him into custody. These officers had a justified and reasonable fear that [the suspect] could have been armed with a weapon. The officers used a level of force proportional to [the suspect's] resistance and within Boston Police training and that of other police agencies nationwide. Therefore, no criminal charges against any police officers are warranted in connection with this case."

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Comments

Sad we had to waste time on this.

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I guess my eyes decieved me.

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Just to good ol' knoggin'

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After a one year investigation, Conley picks a Friday for this news dump? I smell the stench of injustice.

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"The officers used a level of force proportional to [the suspect's] resistance."

Proportional my ass. Did the kid punch any of the cops or stick a knee in their ribs??

So Officer McManus is back in business on the BPD after his role in subduing a man suspected of an open container of alcohol with merited "proportional force", and beating up on a 16 year old? No this is good. We get the BPD we deserve, and you can thank Conley, Davis and Menino for setting a low bar on what protect and serve means.

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Proportional is not the same as equal to.

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Very intelligent commentary on the video. If you don't want the cops on you, don't commit crimes. Pretty simple.

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He's not a bad prosecutor, but I don't think he should have jurisdiction over these types of cases. He probably knows personally some or all of the officers involved.

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Not a cop, but I know a bit about what they can and can't do. It really doesn't look like more than two guys are hitting him. The rest are just sitting on him or trying to get out of each other's way. It looks bad but it doesn't look dirty bad. The report seems believeable. I don't disagree with the final decision.

But I don't know how a DA can ever really look at his own major city PD objectively. Places like Boston, Cambridge, Worcester, Springfield, they make up too many cases for the local DA. There will always be a hope of not having to charge them. They ought to refer them out.

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The kid is a known scumbag, possibly dangerous and given the fact that 9 year old kids pack Glocks nowadays, I see no problem in how the cops took this kid down.

And this from a guy who got his ass beat by 4 cops in a room with a phone book in the basement of the old District Four when I was 16. Just for mouthing off.

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A dozen grown men versus one 165 pound teenager- five holding the kid down while one or two beat and kick his squirming body. Like a violent "screw in a lightbulb" joke. Really, guys? Truly a shameful display.
Anyone who's ever broken up a fight knows it takes no more than two guys of reasonable strength and weight to immobilize a person who doesn't have a weapon, unless they're fucking Mike Tyson or something. Which this kid was clearly not.

Out of curiosity, did anything happen to those thugs who found the time to beat on you "for mouthing off"?

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I had been pinched in Kenmore Square with some of my friends for DTP and before the wagon showed up to haul us away, I engaged the arresting officer in some angel dust influenced speculation on how his formative years with his mother caused him to become a cop.

Once the wagon had gone down the ramp into the garage at District Four, they moved my three companions into holding and took me in a room where there was another uniformed cop and two plainclothes.

One of the plainclothes looked at me and said; "Gotta big fucking mouth on ya, we he-ah?" Before I could respond I was smacked squarely in the side of the head with a Yellow Pages. One of the OLD Yellow Pages. One of the other cops joined in and started beating me with another phone book for about five minutes. When it was over, the took me to holding and tripped me so that I fell face first into the cell door, thereby establishing an alibi if I complained about the beating.

When the old man bailed me out and I told him the story, he sat me down at the Bulkie and told me I got off easy and how mouthing off to my friends was one thing, but never mouth off to a cop. He also told me not to tell my mother, who would have given me a worse trimming than the cops gave me, graduate of Cardinal Cushing High that she was.

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They were trying to handcuff him and he didn't want to be handcuffed, what more needs to be said? It would have been very simple if he cooperated but he chose not to. I guess they could have ended it pretty quickly with a few boots to the head but they didn't do that. Maybe if they had said, "pretty please" he would have let them arrest him without a struggle. I'm sure the kid is a wonderful and productive member of the community.

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I assure you that it is very hard to get someones hands away from their body if they try to keep them close to their body.

Immobilizing someone is different than securing their hands.

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(for those who know case law regarding use of force and the police)

But I am hearing that the Rt3 shooting case is taking an interesing turn. There are some questions that need to be answered there from what I am hearing.

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Shooting someone that's unarmed who just got out of a disabled car doesn't pass the sniff test. Sounds like some military vet turned police officer got way too jumpy, or too heated.

This one? It's legal and not surprising. If you're resisting arrest and not letting a cop handcuff you while holding you hands under you body like you're concealing something; they have every right to strike your limbs and body at pressure points so they can cuff you.

The charge of brutality here was laughable. Would you better he be tazed by .5 amps? I sure wouldn't.

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Ive never seen a chase go that far for a hit and run type crime. Those almost always get called off.

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Pete you're not a Boston cop - you're a campus cop - and shouldn't be speculating on what his justification was for shooting when you don't know all the facts.

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And I'm just telling you what I heard.

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That's great Pete. Lets pass on speculation and rumors regarding an ongoing death investigation. You have zero credibility or professionalism.

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no gun on the suspect......

no chase called off on a multi-city/county pursuit....

It seems like you have more? Share it then.

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No comments yet on the fact that bystanders recorded audio of the police? You guys are slipping.

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you can almost hear the dissappointment that nobody was arrested for recording the incident. :)

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n/t

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