I don't know if former Lincolnite Alex Svoboda deserved harsh treatment by North Providence (Rhode Island) police officers. Maybe she whacked one of them with a drum stick, and maybe she reacted poorly when they took offense at the whacking. But come on, officers, does it really require a rough take-down and knee inversion to subdue a small woman at a peaceful demonstration? Whatever happened to "minimal necessary force"? Anyway, I have watched a lot of videos of similar incidents. Sometimes the protester is obviously at fault, sometimes it's the cops, but usually all of the parties involved are to blame thanks to hot heads, overreactions, and swelled egos. It's too bad nobody had a video camera.
Note to police departments: Want to secure easy convictions? Always record video at these events. Note to protesters: Want to secure an easy victory in your civil suit against the police? Always have several video cameras on hand. There, now that everybody is watching each other, we can all get along.
I digress. None of that is what this post was supposed to be about. There will be a support rally on Sunday. The LJS is silent on the date and time, but the Nebraskans for Peace blog says 12:30 on the north steps of the Capitol.
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I wonder about the rough take-downs too. On To Catch a Predator, they treat these guys as if they were Dylan Klebod and Eric Harris. All they’re ever armed with is pack of condoms, some lube, and the occasional sex toy. But I’ll still side with the cops. Their experience probably tells them to treat everyone as if they may put up a fight.
Who knows what actually happened, but I find it hard to believe that this girl was so capable of harming an officer that three of them had to jump on her and cripple her.
Having just watched a great retrospective of the 1960s on NET that showed the violent reaction to non-violent protests, I can’t say I would side with the police.
The photos of Alex in today’s LJS story are truly gruesome (see photo 2). I like the fact that even after the bottom portion of her leg is twisted out at a 90 degree angle from its natural position and looks nearly torn off, the cop is still holding her down.
Best wishes to her and her family on a speedy recovery.
Whoa! Just looked at the photo. That’s sickening.
Nice how two cops have their knees in her back while she is “threatening” them by screaming out in pain.
Ok, it looks gruesome, but let’s be honest; none of us were there. None of us know iexactly what happend or why what happened happened. Usually the police do what they need to do and no more; however, there have been incidents where they went beyond what’s necessary. I say let’s wait and see what happens during the investigation. Just because Ms Svoboda comes from Nebraska doesn’t mean she couldn’t have been at fault just as the police officers, because they are police officers, couldn’t have been wrong in their actions. Don’t pass judgment unless you were there.
You have your reaction, I have mine. Looks pretty brutal to me even though I wasn’t there to witness it.
I’m not saying the police caused the injury or that they are at fault. I’m just saying she’s clearly compliant, maybe they could kindly remove the knee from her back.
She’s ‘compliant’ because of the knee in her back. I wonder if they have any pictures/video of her swinging drum sticks at the police officers.
Dave K - She is not compliant because the cop is pinning her down. She is compliant because her lower leg is basically rotated backwords out of her knee.
To say she looks compliant in the photograph doesn’t mean anything because you don’t know what happened before the picture was taken. If someone beats on a cop with a baseball bat and gets 50 rounds in the chest as a result, you don’t look at a picture of their corpse and say they look compliant with the officer’s demands.
The worst part about all this is that they were protesting something completely meaningless and irrelevant as far as life goes. Whatever happened to protesting KFC because they kill chickens before serving them?
The worst part about all this is that they were protesting something completely meaningless and irrelevant as far as life goes.
Cute comment Dave. Nice.
The protest was to compel a restaurant to stop doing business with a supplier, HWH of New York City, who allegedly:
Not a meaningless endeavor if it’s true. Pretty admirable cause in my opinion.
Sounds like that’s a problem for the Attorney General of New York, not a bunch of hippies in Rhode Island. I would boycott all restaurants that use that supplier. Maybe they’ve already done that. But demonstrating and getting in fights with the cops over one restaurant is stupid.
Dave, it’s not important what she was demonstrating against. She has that right.
We should have a rally for Ken Svoboda, too.
I’m not saying she doesn’t have that right. I’m saying that if you’re going to fight the cops, it should be something a little more important.
Yeah, come on everybody. Alex Svoboda deserves to have to walk like a flamingo for the rest of her life because she was stupid enough to march over something lame like “slave labor conditions”. Had she chosen a less “hippie” cause—Dave K has the list of Acceptable Causes if you need it—the police would have been less justified in their decision to cripple her while arresting her.
They still would have been justified. Just less so. I mean, she clearly posed an imminent threat to the officers’ well-being. Even with a good cause she still deserved some bruises and abrasions.
I would go to a rally for Ken Svoboda’s mustache.
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