Is it safe to say these cops acted stupidly in arresting this homeowner?
http://www.vnews.com/06042010/6673969.htm
‘Temporary Custody'
By Jim Kenyon
Valley News Columnist
Hartford Police officials issued a press release on Tuesday announcing they had asked Vermont State Police to investigate whether their response to a 911 call of a “burglary in progress” last Saturday afternoon in Wilder was appropriate.
According to the one-paragraph statement, Hartford police found an “unknown male subject on the third floor” of a Stony Creek townhome who was taken into “temporary custody” before paramedics treated him for a known medical condition.
End of story?
Far from it. The police department's press release lacked critical details about what happened at Stony Creek last Saturday afternoon, facts on which I hope the state police investigation will shed light. Meanwhile, I'll share what I have found.
The unknown male subject found in the home? He was actually the 34-year-old African-American who owns the home and has lived there for four years.
And the part about taking him into temporary custody?
Hartford police neglected to say that in the process he was: blasted with pepper spray; struck with a nightstick; handcuffed, wrapped in a blanket and hauled -- naked -- out of his home, according to a neighbor and what the man says police later told him. When the neighbor tried to tell cops that the handcuffed man on the pavement was the homeowner -- not a burglar — he said he was threatened with arrest for interfering in police business.
http://www.vnews.com/06042010/6673969.htm