Thursday, July 19, 2012

Police Brutality Worse than Rodney King - The Robert Leone Story

The title fairly well says it all. I have chosen to not embed the YouTube video here, because it is so graphic and so heart-rending that some people will not be able to watch it in anything approaching its entirety. I know Mrs. S would not be able to handle it. I know I barely did.

I do, however, encourage you to give it a try. The victim of this horrific incident was incarcerated for a term of 1.5 to 4 years in prison... for four counts of aggravated assault on a police officer. At trial (after waiting for six months in jail) he was found not guilty of the other TWENTY fictional charges. Please help spread this video!

This video will probably sicken and enrage you. It did me. It also caused me to ask myself a lot of questions, not the least of which was: When did the Pennsylvania State Police begin hiring non-humans?

Here is the link to the video -- created from police dash cam recordings and narration by the editor and analyst, retired state policeman Larry Hohol.

http://youtu.be/O5eOknaXgYU
The video's run time is 37:10.

Here is a short narrative of the incident and the mockery of justice that followed, from change.org/petitions/
Two years ago, 31 year old Robert Leone was driving late at night when he failed to pull over for a state trooper car. Mr. Leone did not speed or attempt to avoid the troopers, and was eventually successfully "pulled over" and driven into a ditch. A police car blocked his door, and he was instructed to get out. After attempting to tell the trooper that he could not get out, he was shocked repeatedly with a taser, and was forced out of the car from the other side. The troopers then proceeded to brutally beat and tase him while he lay facedown on the ground. During this assault, one trooper punched Leone in the face and broke his hand. Afterwards, they pulled him into the car, handcuffed. After claiming that Leone had spit on one of them, the Troopers began beating and tasing him once again after hog-tying him in the back, as they decided that the cuffs were not enough restraint. Leone was then taken to the hospital for treatment. However, one of the troopers overheard Leone begging one of the nurses for help, claiming that the troopers had beaten him. Upon hearing this, the troopers ordered all hospital personnel out of the room and proceeded to beat Mr. Leone once again for trying to inform the staff. He was then taken from the hospital untreated and incarcerated [without being xray-ed or CAT-scanned in spite of obvious severe head trauma, and without blood being taken to test for alcohol or drugs].
At WorseThanRodneyKing.com there are more details.

This case involves a New York State resident operating his car just across the border from his New York home in Pennsylvania. His name is Robert Leone.

This case is worse that the Rodney King episode in many, many ways. Here are but a few:

Rodney King was involved in a high speed pursuit that involved at least 4 police cars, a helicopter, and exposed the general public to serious injuries or possible death. During this pursuit Rodney King committed innumerable traffic violations including attaining speeds approaching 100 MPH.

Other than not stopping when directed, this incident involved no serious traffic violations and was simply the low speed following of a car that would not pull over.

When finally stopped Rodney King acted in a very bizarre fashion. He did not follow police instructions to lay on the ground but rather pointed at the sky, patted the ground and was laughing and giggling while being ordered at gun point to lay on the ground. When Rodney King was finally “swarmed” by police and taken to the ground he resisted violently by kicking, punching, and flipping the arresting officers.

When finally stopped by the police Mr. Leone COULD NOT comply with the orders of the arresting officers to exit his vehicle with his hands up because one of the officers had blocked Mr. Leone’s door with his patrol car. Mr. Leone sat calmly in his driver’s seat with both hands on his steering wheel, smoking a cigarette. Mr. Leone was tasered multiple times through his sun roof even though he did not display ANY threatening behavior whatsoever. Mr. Leone was then forcibly removed through his passenger door and repeatedly beaten, kicked and tasered while not even attempting to defend himself. The Senior State Police Officer is clearly seen jumping from Mr. Leone’s car roof and intentionally stomping Mr. Leone with both of his feet and all of his weight while Mr. Leone is face down on the ground.

There has never been the claim that Rodney King was ever beaten by police AFTER he was taken into custody.

Mr. Leone was repeatedly beaten by out-of-control State Troopers before and after he was handcuffed and also after he was hog tied. Numerous non-authorized maneuvers were used against Mr. Leone by the arresting Officers including the punching in his face with a closed fist by one of the Troopers. This punch caused the Trooper to break his own hand on Mr. Leone’s face. Mr. Leone was subsequently charged with a felony charge of Aggravated Assault on a Police Officer for using his face to break the Troopers hand.
Read the rest here.

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