he's blowing smoke fiddy heart breaks

I saw that on his show Friday night.

It's outrageous what cops are doing. But it's human nature.

Once the Supreme Court ruled for them to be able to pretty much do anything (in the name of the "Drug War"), they realized that they COULD get away with pretty much anything.

If it weren't for cellphones catching them in the act (which they TRIED to make illegal) nobody would have believed this shit.
Even now when you see the cops beating the fuck out of people and killing some people on video...you STILL have folks defending them over it. :(

Cops interactions with the public should be filmed at all times by some kind of camera. It'll help keep them honest. I know they have a tough job, but they can't go choking the life out of someone just because they're trained to do that -- and especially when there's a bunch of big, strong officers on the scene to back them up. That guy should still be alive.

This. I don't get it, you have a grown ass male cop ground and pounding a possible mentally handicapped GRANDMOTHER, smashing her in the face and some motherfuckers are like 'yea well if you don't listen to what a cop says then you deserve it' or 'we don't know what happened prior to the video being shown'. It's beyond me how these types can literally argue against their own liberties and human rights, they don't realize that if it could happen to someone else, it could one day very well happen to them.

The officer attempted to coverup his actions by intentionally tampering with his dash-cam recorder.
 

MELBOURNE, FL ? The subject of a controversial beating from 2011 has died following his traumatic brain injury. A mumbling, elderly dementia patient was kicked to the ground and beaten by an officer who feared that his life might be endangered by the man?s ?aggressive? walk towards him. The officer was later found to have tampered with his dash-cam, but remains on the Melbourne Police Department to this day.

The incident occurred on October 7, 2011. Police received a call that a disgruntled senior citizen had grown upset and had flashed a pocketknife to another person.

Melbourne Officer Derek Middendorf arrived on the scene to settle the dispute. There he confronted Albert Flowers, then 66 years old, who was speaking unintelligibly from a distance. He approached Officer Middendorf, who was standing in front of his cruiser.

When Mr. Flowers was a few feet away, Officer Middendorf abruptly charged towards him, delivering a powerful front kick to his chest. Video shows the officer?s powerful boot sending the gray-haired man sailing backwards, landing him on the ground.

The officer then dove on top of Mr. Flowers, pummeling him with a series of punches and blows to the head. Mr. Flowers flailed his arms in a desperate attempt to deflect the attack. Middendorf then flipped Flowers onto his belly and continued to wrestle with him, striking him again in the head and abdomen.

One minute into the confrontation, a second officer walked up with a taser drawn. As Mr. Flowers lie face-down with a cop on his back, he received an electric jolt to the face, reported Florida Today.
Officer Derek Middendorf punches Albert Flowers.

Mr. Flowers was subdued and arrested, and charged with assault on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest. The violent initiation of force was explained in the arrest report, which stated that Flowers ?walked towards him in an aggressive manner? and that he ?refused to stop at a safe distance,? therefore justifying the kick to the chest and beating.

Further investigation revealed that Officer Middendorf had intentionally tampered with the recording equipment in his vehicle prior to confronting Mr. Flowers. He had attempted to disable the dash-cam system entirely, but only succeeded in cutting out the audio. Unbeknownst to Middendorf, the camera was still recording and the video file would later be extracted from the hard drive.

Following the investigation, Middendorf received a written ?reprimand? from the department ? but only for the video tampering, not for the beating. He was not fired nor charged with any crime. Middendorf was Melbourne?s ?Officer of the Year? in 2008.

?It?s clear [Officer Middendorf] tried to destroy all the video in this case,? remarked attorney Paul Bross, representing Mr. Flowers. ?He thought he had turned off the camera, and that?s why he acted the way he did.?

With the fallout of Middendorf?s tampering, a revelation that the battered man suffered from dementia, and the public?s visceral reaction to the video, prosecutors were pressured into reducing the charges against the now brain-injured Mr. Flowers, and eventually dropped them completely.

Despite the attempted coverup, officials supported Middendorf?s use of excessive force, and said the beating was justified since the officer suspected that Mr. Flowers might have had a weapon. Mr. Flowers did have a pocketknife in his pocket, but his hands were empty the entire time he interacted with police. His ?resistance? to Officer Middendorf was purely a defense against an unprovoked attack.

Officer Middendorf stated, ? had to protect myself in fear he [Flowers] was going to attack me. Not knowing if he was armed or not, I struck the defendant in the face to distract him.?





UPDATE: After struggling with health issues for the past few years following his brain injury, Albert Flowers passed away on July 9th, 2014, at the age of 69.

A family lawsuit following the incident resulted in the courts backing the police. Both a district court and a federal appeals court supported the officers? use of force.

Officer Derek Middendorf continues to work for the Melbourne Police Department.

The 'good' cops will cover for the 'bad' cops.

Which means that there are no good cops.

Sorry but if and officer came up to me, and I did nothing wrong... i'm not going to just lay down and put my hands behind my back. seriously WTF this is not a policed state/country.

your comment is based from someone sitting behind a computer, i'm pretty sure you'd resist if you were being arrested and you did nothing wrong.

Come on irdogg. Why is you lie to your homeboys?

Damn sad there are also many murderers in the police force.

New York is a police state
New Jersey is a police state

The US is moving towards being a total police state.

I hope that's what the majority wants, because once it's in place, it's not coming displaced.

I am usually of the mindset that he should have had the right to stand his ground and not given in to them, but these days, that isn't always the best solution to keep us alive and breathing - I'd much rather, as Sly said, go with it and stay breathing than to argue with them. BOTH sides, citizens and cops, have gotten a great deal more violent by nature these days anymore and a bad thing can go worse in a matter of seconds for either side.

MY son was arrested 4 months ago for being basically in the wrong place at the wrong time and trying to protect a friend - but because it was a violent crime, or so it was being reported - they went after him like he was a violent criminal and this boy could never harm a hair on anyone's head unless he was protecting friend or family - but they went at him with guns drawn and dogs on the ready - as his mother, it scared the living HELL out of me that this would be one of those things that went very wrong very fast so I pointed him out to them and told them he had no weapons or anything, his dad and I were terrified he'd be shot trying to explain what was going on.

So in TODAY'S age, hell yes, I'd stand still and let them cuff me or whatever, just simply because the other direction is permanent - having to explain yourself in a more controlled area (jail) isn't - I don't think they should have killed him, but to the naked eye - he was resisting so he got their dander up right away.

But sometimes just being docile isn't enough for these guys, because it's a wasted day if force hasn't been applied to someone.

Yup, I get that too - it's a tough call - I am a firm believer of standing up for the things you believe in and for yourself, rights and all of that - absolutely - but also, at the end of the day, I can't do that if I am dead, some things you just can't come back from to live to fight another day!

I, in NO uncertain terms think this guy should have been choked to death - but sometimes you just have to pick your battles - and he didn't do that well here - he didn't think of his kids and what was going to happen to them if he didn't just do as he was told - it's just sad all the way around, for sure!

lol i doubt so...

please don't resist.

think of it as a wonderful reason to sue after.

who thinks though when in that particualr situation "I better not do anything than roll over and have my tummy tickled as I might get choked to death in broad daylight with a dozen witnesses, cameras, and other police officers there"?

The whole situation is just so absurd, even down to thinking someone who is animated in their own thinking because of excacerbations xyz, has rational thought processes going on right at that very moment, let alone truly considering they might actually die.

It's truly shocking and downright awful that anyone should have to think this way, even worse when we are 'supposed to' according to the powers that be that spread the lies in the first place about all this 'terrifying danger' they are in 24/7/365, hence we must 'comply'.

unfortunately it's not absurd. the dude is huge.

and being huge, he knows what that means. should have shut up, gone to jail.

part of the fun of being big and scary, alas.

oh please... at what point did a single one of those cops look in any danger whatsoever, prior to they themselves exacerbating the situation?

jesus fucking christ lol

ridiculously funny https://gfy.com/images/icons/heee.gif

I am not saying for a minute I believe that they had a right to choke him to death and I am not saying he got what he deserved, not even for a second - what I am saying is that when two cops and then more and more come at you the way they did him, isn't it best to move on the side of caution versus standing your ground if they are coming at you? I mean, come on, we all know they can do as they want and say resisting arrest. In that video even, one can see that he is a MUCH MUCH bigger guy than they are and he's being loud and belligerent so there isn't a way in hell that's going to end well - and ALWAYS the advantage is on the side of the people with guns and weapons - so why not just stay put, throw your hands up and shut up - chances of ending up still breathing are much better that way than screaming and freaking out in their faces and putting them on high alert.

Do I agree with what they did? Oh god no!! NO one deserves to be dead - especially for being a hero - but they didn't know this and what they had in front of them wasn't exactly screaming "hero" - and if you go ask inmates, not even one of them did it, they are all innocent - but in no way do I agree with the end result at all - just think he'd possibly still be alive had he just stood there and kept his great big mouth shut - especially being twice the size of anyone around him.

just the name of the game.

if you are 'same size' or 'bigger' than they are... shit like this, and worse than this, happens all the time. other examples would be 'cliches'.. so bikers, DWB, etc etc

I should have made it clear in my reply - I quoted you, but was replying in general, not because I thought you thought it was ok etc :thumbsup

I agree, he would be alive if he'd kept his mouth shut, I just think it's a tragedy that that's what it's come to - again, I'm speaking in general terms and not implying you think it's ok.

so we should all be apathetic about this kind of stuff, shrug it off, and say well it was his own fault for not thinking 100% rationally in an irrational environment? Considering that every single person on the planet loses rational thought/behaviour in certain situations, it seems fucked up to me to not find what happened in this case, as well as obviously many others, completely outrageous. Because in the heat of the moment, with a bunch of misinformed gung-ho cunts creating a volatile situation, we should all act like we do when sitting in front of our keyboards with hindsight. Gimme a break...

Ok, great, thanks for clearing that up, you know how people can read things into something that isn't there - ;)


It sucks, I brought my kids up to stand their ground, but now we have to modify that so much because of the way things have gotten over time - and I don't want to raise people who cower down, but a gun is a gun no matter who is holding it!

Where is baddog defending these pieces of shit?

i am not, at all, saying we should be apathetic. this is targeting 'weak members' of society. if this is what these people do for their daily jobs.. what else do they do?

what i am saying, is the guy is 400 pounds. he sells cigarettes illegally. he should know what every 'tough looking guy' should know. this is how life works.

ah sorry mate lol - I'll just reference this...

I sure do Tam :1orglaugh