Police Thugs: Store video catches cop bullying woman!
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania - July 21, 2009 - When Agnes Lawless and three friends were inside a Lukoil convenience store in the Northeast at 3 a.m. last August, they'd all but forgotten the fender-bender in which they'd been involved moments earlier.
There was little damage and the other driver had left the scene, near Northeast Philadelphia Airport.
What they didn't know was that they'd been rear-ended by the son of a police officer who was on duty, and dad was about to get involved.
Lawless was standing at the counter of the store, at Comly Road and Roosevelt Boulevard, smiling and chatting with the clerk, when she was grabbed from behind and violently pushed back with a police officer's gun in her face.
"He hit me with his left hand, and he had his gun in his right hand," said Lawless. "He pushed his gun into the left side of my neck. It caused a scrape-type bruise on my neck."
After a chaotic struggle, Lawless was arrested and charged with assaulting the officer.
Lawless and her three friends, all in their early 20s, filed complaints with the Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau. But in cases in which it's a defendant's word against a police officer's, the benefit of the doubt always falls to the cop.
Except when there's video.
Once surveillance video from the store's four security cameras was released, the case against Lawless collapsed and disciplinary action commenced against the officer, Alberto Lopez, Sr. A lawsuit against the city is likely.
The incident provides a vivid example of how the countless video recordings generated today by security cameras and cell phones are affecting police work.
Drexel Law School professor Donald Tibbs said that video recordings are capturing more criminal activity and assisting prosecutions, but they're also monitoring police conduct.
"Police are now aware they're more accountable for their actions, because these tapes may be used against them in misconduct cases or civil-rights lawsuits," said Tibbs.
Tibbs said that there are numerous cases of police seeking to confiscate and destroy tapes that may have captured a police action.
There was little damage and the other driver had left the scene, near Northeast Philadelphia Airport.
What they didn't know was that they'd been rear-ended by the son of a police officer who was on duty, and dad was about to get involved.
Lawless was standing at the counter of the store, at Comly Road and Roosevelt Boulevard, smiling and chatting with the clerk, when she was grabbed from behind and violently pushed back with a police officer's gun in her face.
"He hit me with his left hand, and he had his gun in his right hand," said Lawless. "He pushed his gun into the left side of my neck. It caused a scrape-type bruise on my neck."
After a chaotic struggle, Lawless was arrested and charged with assaulting the officer.
Lawless and her three friends, all in their early 20s, filed complaints with the Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau. But in cases in which it's a defendant's word against a police officer's, the benefit of the doubt always falls to the cop.
Except when there's video.
Once surveillance video from the store's four security cameras was released, the case against Lawless collapsed and disciplinary action commenced against the officer, Alberto Lopez, Sr. A lawsuit against the city is likely.
The incident provides a vivid example of how the countless video recordings generated today by security cameras and cell phones are affecting police work.
Drexel Law School professor Donald Tibbs said that video recordings are capturing more criminal activity and assisting prosecutions, but they're also monitoring police conduct.
"Police are now aware they're more accountable for their actions, because these tapes may be used against them in misconduct cases or civil-rights lawsuits," said Tibbs.
Tibbs said that there are numerous cases of police seeking to confiscate and destroy tapes that may have captured a police action.
