If you want an example of just how sick our criminal justice system has become, look no further than Regina Tasca. She intervened to pull two other cops beating the hell out of an emotionally disturbed young man they were supposed to be taking to the hospital — and now she could lose her job for it. This report will turn your stomach:
She responded to a call from a mother for help getting her emotionally disturbed son to the hospital. The ambulance was on the way. She called for backup and two officers from a nearby department responded. She had her dashboard camera rolling and here’s what it caught:
Tasca described what we see on the videotape: “The Ridgefield Park officer automatically charges and takes him down to the ground. I was quite shocked. As he’s doing that, another Ridgefield Park officer flies to the scene in his car, jumps out and starts punching him in the head.”
On the tape you can hear Tara, the mother, and Kyle, her son, screaming, “Why are you punching him?” and “Stop punching me!”
The two Ridgefield Park Sergeants are never heard refuting the claims that they punched the 22 year-old man as he was waiting for an ambulance.
Even worse, Kyle was never charged, nor arrested, for any offense. Tasca says it’s because he never threatened, did not have a weapon, and indeed never resisted and was not violent. Eventually Tasca was able to pry the punching Ridgefield Park officer off Kyle, as seen in a picture taken by the Kyle’s mother, who also later commended Tasca in a phone call…
“This was excessive force used against an emotionally disturbed person,” she said. “This was an unlawful tackle, this was a punching an emotionally disturbed person whose arms were pinned under his chest with his face pushed into the ground.”
Photographs and reports from the hospital show showing bruises to the victim’s head, neck and arms. Rather than being commended for protecting an innocent, vulnerable kid, here’s what happened next:
Tasca’s voice began to waiver as she recounted the meeting with her superior officer:
“The next thing I know he asks me to turn over my weapon and be sent for a fitness for duty exam,” she said.
Bogota PD, after hearing Tasca’s story, believes she is psychologically incompetent to be a police officer, and she is being sent for testing. The Ridgefield Park Police officers seen tackling and punching an emotionally disturbed man waiting for an ambulance are never questioned. never interviewed by an Internal Affairs Investigator, and are still working the streets today…
Tasca says the real reason she’s being called out on these charges is she crossed the “blue line” by refusing to support another officer even when he used excessive force.
Unfortunately, this isn’t exactly an unusual story.
14 comments
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Gregory in Seattle
April 24, 2012 at 11:10 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Because anyone who would side with justice rather than brutal assault is, by definition, psychologically incompetent to be a police officer?
evilDoug
April 24, 2012 at 11:22 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Of course she isn’t compentent to be a cop. She isn’t a psychopathic two-bit scum shit-head bully in a uniform.
redpanda
April 24, 2012 at 11:36 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’m not going to defend the PD in this case, but it’s possible that there is more to the story:
http://www.northjersey.com/bogota/Bogota_officers_bizarre_behavior_warrants_termination_boroughs_lawyer_says.html?c=y&page=1
Whether those are just being brought back up as cheap excuses or not, I don’t know. Hopefully the judge hearing her case will be wise and fair enough to cut through any bullshit.
Bronze Dog
April 24, 2012 at 11:47 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I wouldn’t want them walking the streets as civilians, much less patrolling them with badges.
Tasca should be commended for doing her job and trying to stop them.
Skip White
April 24, 2012 at 11:55 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’ve been present at several instances where police were called to assist in dealing with an emotionally disturbed person, including once where someone tried to flee, and at no point did the police use violence. The time someone tried to flee, they simply restrained the person and got them into the ambulance. In those instances, the police were nothing but calm and professional.
The police in this case were very clearly in the wrong to be beating the young man, and Officer Tasca was right in restraining them. I hope a judge sees it the same way.
iknklast
April 24, 2012 at 12:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Redpanda, I find it interesting that the article you posted makes a point of identifying the officer as gay. Perhaps this is the source of her “bizarre” behavior? Her behavior in the situation with the kid hardly seems bizarre – unless beating helpless kids with emotional problems is the definition of normal, in which case it’s time for me to find a new species to belong to.
unbound
April 24, 2012 at 12:42 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@redpanda – Actually, one of the two incidents described in your link is the same incident described in this post. The other incident could easily be revenge for some bad blood between the officers (the accusing officer in that case had apparently been spreading internal information about Regina to someone else that should not have that information).
Reading the whole article, I’m not sure it really contradicts the story in this post.
redpanda
April 24, 2012 at 3:10 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Fair enough. I occasionally hear people from my parents’ generation lament about how we’ve lost so much respect for authority. At least from my perspective, I think a fair bit of that comes from the fact that I see something like this every other time I turn on the news.
The rest is probably related to having been lied to by every adult in my life for my first 22 years about things that most educated people have known for centuries, but that’s another story.
Pinky
April 24, 2012 at 3:34 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Many people think about the police like they do about politicians; theirs are fine, but the ones in every other area are horrible.
The time to prevent a subversion of the police is long past, what we need now is positive action to retake control.
Stop telling your children the person in uniform is always their friend. Rid yourself of the warm fuzzy rah rah belief every police officer is great until proven otherwise. Judge each officer as an individual. We need to take back civilian control of hiring, training and retention of police.
To shrug and turn away because a police officer is abusing a person who is ‘different’ from yourself is a dangerous practice. You will be next.
The police are members of a service organization whose clients are the public. Should we continue to allow our employees to physically and verbally abuse us?
Do not excuse law enforcement crimes because “they are beleaguered heroes forced into a dangerous roll.” Like soldiers in war who flaunt the rights of the people they are supposedly helping, police officers sometimes bring about their own problems.
Granted many police work in stressful environments, however they are volunteers who are paid to do their jobs.
Reward the people who do good work and remove those who don’t – decided by the people they serve.
Short hair and a belligerent attitude should not be the qualifying characteristics to work in law enforcement.
The Sailor
April 24, 2012 at 6:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Why did Tasca call for backup? The ambulance was on its way.
The Sailor
April 24, 2012 at 6:31 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
To be clear at my #10, I was curious, not blaming Tasca.
I see millions of dollars being lost by this town (but not by the brutal cops) from lawsuits brought by the family and Tasca.
Until DAs and judges start charging cops with their criminal actions, nothing will change.
The Sailor
April 24, 2012 at 6:32 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Has become!? It’s always been that way.
Scott Hanley
April 24, 2012 at 7:55 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Huh. And I thought all those donuts were their idea.
Infophile
April 24, 2012 at 8:35 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@10 The Sailor:
According to a different article I read about this, calling for backup is standard procedure for a call like this: In case things do go badly, it’s better to have multiple cops to restrain a single person. In principle, it helps them avoid injury, as multiple cops are less likely to have to resort to violent methods to get a person under control.
That’s the theory, at least. In practice… Well…