Monday, February 14, 2011

"Don't Resist": The Refrain of Rapists, Police, and Other Degenerates














A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothes and wounded him....

Now by chance three men -- a priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan -- came down that same road, and, seeing the man being beaten, joined in on the side of the assailants, for they were emissaries of the divine State. 

The Parable of the Statist Samaritan (offered with the sincerest apologies to the Author of the genuine article). 




Three times each week, 36-year-old Keith Briscoe of Winslow Township, New Jersey would begin his day by going to a nearby Wawa convenience store for soda and cigarettes. Briscoe, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and lived with his parents, went to the local Steininger Behavior Services clinic for treatment, and he would have a smoke outside the store while waiting for the office to open.

As far as anyone in the neighborhood could recall, Briscoe had never bothered anybody. He wasn’t causing trouble on the morning of May 3, 2010, when he had the lethal misfortune of attracting the attention of Winslow Township Police Officer Sean Richards. When Richards demanded to know who he was and what he was doing, Briscoe was cooperative, telling the officer — who had no business bothering one of his betters anyway — that he was waiting to go to the clinic.

"Patients often go up to the Wawa before their sessions to buy coffee [or] cigarettes," a medical professional who worked at the clinic informs Pro Libertate. "The local businesses and police are aware that there are psychiatric patients in the area and know to call Steininger in the event that one of them gets lost or is getting into trouble.  This cop took it upon himself to do what he did without asking anyone in Wawa if there was any problem.  Wawa hadn't called the police to intervene because Mr. Briscoe would frequently go there."

Richards should have left well enough alone, but since he had a gun,  a piece of government-provided jewelry, and an unearned sense of superiority, he didn’t. He demanded that Briscoe get into his police cruiser, supposedly to be given a ride to the clinic. Briscoe wisely turned down the offer.

Richards later admitted that he hadn’t received any complaints about Briscoe’s behavior, and that he did nothing that warranted an arrest. According to the former clinic staffer, Briscoe was known to be "very kind and gentle [and] would never be aggressive." Yet when the harmless and intimidated man refused to get into the police car, Richards committed an act of criminal assault by seizing and attempting to handcuff him.

As Briscoe tried to escape, Richards called for “backup.” He also attacked Briscoe with his Oleoresin Casicum spray, a “non-lethal” chemical weapon that left the victim choking and struggling for breath. 

At this point, three bystanders saw Briscoe struggling with a uniformed assailant, a situation that presented them with the “Tom Joad Test,” which I’ve previously described thus:

“When you see a cop — or, more likely, several of them — beating up on a prone individual, do you instinctively sympathize with the assailant(s) or the victim? Do you assume that the state is entitled to the benefit of the doubt whenever its agents inflict violence on somebody, or do you believe that the individual — any individual — is innocent of wrongdoing until his guilt has been proven?”

The bystanders failed the test. Rather than intervening on behalf of the victim, or simply butting out, these statist Samaritans reflexively gave the uniformed assailant the benefit of the doubt, and joined in the beating. Five more armed tax-feeders, summoned by Richards’s frantic call for “backup,” then arrived to pile on. A few minutes later, Briscoe was dead as a result of “traumatic asphyxia” — that is, he suffocated at the bottom of a thugscrum. The Camden County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide. But the chief assailant was not charged with a homicide-related offense.

According to the Camden County prosecutor’s office, although Richards had committed an illegal arrest, he couldn’t be prosecuted for homicide because New Jersey “law” doesn’t recognize the unalienable right of innocent people to resist unlawful arrest. This supposedly means that once Briscoe “resisted being taken into custody, police had the right to take actions necessary to restrain him” — up to and including the use of lethal force.

What this means is that in New Jersey -- a state afflicted with some of the most corrupt and abusive police officers this side of Tahrir Square -- someone who survives a murder attempt by a uniformed thug can be prosecuted for "resisting arrest" even if it is proven that the police assault was a criminal act.

In fact, according to one recent ruling from the state Superior Court (State of New Jersey v. Craig Byron Joseph Martin), it is a crime to resist even when a police offer specifically and repeatedly states that the subject is not under arrest. The police officer in that case testified: "I said, `Sir, you're not under arrest. I'm just patting you down for my safety."

The subject was instructed to place his hands on his car. When he removed his hands from the vehicle, the officer told him, "I'm going to handcuff you. You're not under arrest." Eventually the incident degenerated into a "scuffle," in which the officer -- once again, by his own account -- exclaimed: "You're not under arrest; stop resisting arrest!"

Ah, yes: "Stop resisting" -- the refrain of rapists, police, and other violent degenerates.

Richards, who murdered Briscoe for the supposed crime of resisting an illegal arrest, was charged with simple assault and as a result was sentenced to a year on probation and the loss of his job. He also agreed that he would never seek to expunge his record, although it’s not clear how that provision could be enforced.

“This plea ensures that Richards will be forever barred from holding such a position of authority again,” insisted Camden County Prosecutor Warren W. Faulk. Actually, it’s entirely possible that Richards will join the ranks of corrupt, disgraced  “gypsy cops” who invariably find employment elsewhere as members of the coercive caste.

None of the other four police officers who collaborated in the crime has been punished at all. However, all five officers, along with the “Samaritans” who collaborated in the murder of Keith Briscoe, are the subjects of a $25 million civil lawsuit filed on behalf of the victim’s family.

Legal commentator Elie Mystal points out that the “Good Samaritans” in this matter had no reason — apart from a “reflexive trust of police” — to assume that Sean Richards was justified in using force to subdue Briscoe. “They chose the wrong side, and now a man is dead,” Mystal observes. “There should be some kind of punishment for that.”

“And don’t tell me that holding these people accountable will have some kind of  ‘chilling effect’ on the willingness of citizens to help their fellow man,” Mystal continues. “This is America! We are founded on a skepticism of authority. We believe that a person is innocent until proven guilty. It’s entirely consistent with the American experience … [not to assume] that police officers are always right or on the side of good.”

The Mundanes who joined in the assault will most likely end up ruined financially. The same is true of Sean Richards, now that he’s no longer wearing the habiliments of the State’s punitive priesthood. But the others still employed as agents of coercion will probably be spared similar hardship through a settlement worked out in collaboration with the local armed tax-feeders’ union.

And still, somehow we’re supposed to believe that the take-away here is that the lawsuit poses a new threat to “officer safety,” because it will discourage Mundanes from coming to the aid of police next time they assault a helpless individual.

“They saw a cop struggling and they jumped into action,” says Tim Quinlan, the attorney representing Sean Richards, of the Mundanes who helped murder Keith Briscoe. “Now you’re going to have cops getting killed because people are afraid to get involved.”

Somehow that unlikely prospect fails to send a chill down my spine, or leave me prostrate with inconsolable grief.

New Jersey cops appear to specialize in unprovoked assaults on harmless people who suffer from mental illness.



On May 29, 2009, Ronnie Holloway was standing on a street corner near a restaurant when Officers Joseph Rios III and Erica Rivera pulled up in a cop car and berated the 49-year-old man for having his jacket unzipped. As is usually the case in such encounters, things went dramatically downhill in a hurry.

Rios, an Iraq combat veteran, appeared to be on "contact patrol" -- that is, prowling the neighborhood looking for an excuse to throw somebody to the ground. Holloway, an unassuming man on medication for schizophrenia, presented a perfect target of opportunity.

A video recording of the event shows  Holloway meekly zipping up his jacket. As he did so, Rivera exits the vehicle and distracts Holloway while Rios blind-sides him, slamming him to the ground and beating him repeatedly with his fists and baton. After a brief pause, Holloway -- who is clearly terrified, but not putting up any physical resistance -- is able to rise to his feet before being slammed onto the hood of the police car.
Joseph Rios in Tirkit, Iraq.

"I didn't know if I was going to see tomorrow at that point," Holloway later said of the assault, which left him battered and bloody and with a serious injury to one of his eyes.

The beating continued until backup -- in the form of two additional police cars -- arrived to help drag Holloway off to jail.

Despite the fact that he had behaved like a properly docile Mundane, absorbing an unprovoked beating without making any effort to flee or fight back, Holloway was charged with resisting arrest and "wandering," supposedly in search of narcotics.


In filing their official report of the incident, Rios and his partner did what police in such circumstances always do: They committed perjury in the form of "creative writing." Rios claimed that when he and Rivera told Holloway to leave the corner, Holloway "verbally challenged" them. "Step on the sidewalk, you'll see," Holloway supposedly said to Rios, assuming a "fighting stance" as he did so.

Rios had no right or authority to demand that Holloway -- who had done nothing to anybody -- leave the street corner. It's also clear from the video that the beating began before Holloway would have had an opportunity to fling a verbal "challenge" at Rios. Some measure of Rios's reliability as a witness is found in the fact that his Use of Force Report claims that Holloway wasn't injured in the attack.


After the May 29 assault was publicized, the Passaic Police Department "pulled a Mubarak," as it were: They defied public outrage for as long as possible, keeping Rios on active duty, and then suspending both Rios and Rivera (the latter for failing a fraudulent claim of a job-related injury during the incident) when the outrage failed to dissipate.


Owing entirely to public pressure put on the Passaic municipal government, Rios has been charged with aggravated assault and official misconduct. He has entered a plea of "not guilty by virtue of a government-provided wardrobe."

"I did what was proper," lied Rios in a June 2009 press conference. "I did what I was trained to do under circumstances that existed at that time. I stand by my actions."


His attorney, Anthony J. Iacullo, defended the assault as a pre-emptive strike against some unspecified threat posed by an uppity Mundane: "Based upon what Officer Rios feared might happen, and based upon his not submitting to arrest, the actions were taken."

Holloway's "resistance" consisted of cringing and covering up in confusion and terror as Rios rained down punches and baton strikes. In New Jersey -- as is the case elsewhere in the Soyuz -- even such minimal and reflexive attempts to protect one's self from State-sanctified violence is treated as a criminal offense.

Incidentally --


The indispensable news aggregator Cop Block, citing a recent nationwide survey on police misconduct, points out that during the past year "police officers committed sexual assaults at a rate of 79 per 100,000 law enforcement personnel.  That rate is over two times the rate of the general public (28.7 per 100,000)."



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Dum spiro, pugno!



28 comments:

Mr. Mcgranor said...

Most do not understand the psychopathic coin's two sides. Heres a question: Can we not arrest a cop? Also, where is the starting parable from?

Anonymous said...

Wesley,

it's from the bible:

Luke 10: 30-37.

rick

spec/ops ret. said...

As someone who was born in Philly
and lived in Camden NJ for many yrs who almost went to prison for
defending my self in school(8th grade) from attacks by left-back 17yr old kids for my lunch $,it looks
like things are going to get a lot
worse for the people of Camden as they are laying off police most likly the best ones(if there is such a thing).

Cederq said...

The cops will never learn, don't they have a clue we are taking names and when the time is ripe, they and their families will suffer terribly? They will wonder why we won't come to their aid then.

Anonymous said...

Another Interesting Point to be made is that in California, according to an LAX airport Police officer I know, if a Police officer asks for your assistance in a matter you MUST assist him or else you are in Violation of the law.Combine this with California's Government Code, Sections 821, 845, and 846 it state, in part:

"Neither a public entity or a public employee [may be sued] for failure to provide adequate police protection or service, failure to prevent the commission of crimes and failure to apprehend criminals.''

and you have a group of individuals who,despite your tax dollars being used to fund their protective services,do not need to provide those services but you MUST service them when called upon.

Anonymous said...

An unlawful arrest is an assault and battery. Otherwise what the hell is the factual difference between law-breakers and law-makers?

Anonymous said...

""Stop resisting" -- the refrain of rapists, police, and other violent degenerates."

Mr. Grigg, may I use this line? I would give you full credit of course.

Excellent writing as always. I miss listening to you on LNR.

WWalker

William N. Grigg said...

WWalker -- thank you so much! I'm still planning to return to the airwaves as soon as the details get worked out. For heaven's sake, the "line" is yours to use! God bless.

liberranter said...

...the refrain of rapists, police, and other violent degenerates."

Redundant, but spot-on.

ParaPacem said...

just linked from one of my mini-blogs; great work Keep it up!

ParaPacem said...

PS - although it will not help the murder victims, I would also suggest the remedy often voiced by my old Uncle Walt of blessed memory:
"Sue the bastards! Sue them all!!"
Bankrupt every one of them in civil suits!

Anonymous said...

Here, yet again, is another example of one of the Sturmtruppen returning to the heimat and foisting "ordnung" amongst the proles. One can only wonder about the previous wolf and whether he too donned the imperial costume in service to Leviathan.

Rios, like the other thieves in blue, deserve an extended smack-down with batons until they come to understand their "place".

Lemuel Gulliver said...

MoT,
I have it on the authority of Germans who were children under Nazism, that this sort of attack by any Gestapo officer on a German civilian would, without any question, have landed the officer within a week in front of a firing squad. But, unlike the Nazis, America is far too civilized for that.

Mr. Grigg et .al.,
That video was sickening. Your headline is misleading, as Ronnie Holloway was not resisting in any way, shape or form. He was not standing in the street, but legally on the edge of the sidewalk, and zipped up his jacket promptly as demanded by the police. (Since when are they hired to enforce fashion sense and how people wear their clothes?) The vicious assault by Rios was purely an act of aggressive and potentially deadly hooliganism.

Here is another brutal Los Angeles video at this link. In this case the victim was not so lucky:

http://www.examiner.com/la-county-libertarian-in-los-angeles/cop-faces-no-consequences-for-forever-crippling-innocent-man-a-societal-lesson

How much longer will we put up with this?

- Lemuel Gulliver

liberranter said...

How much longer will we put up with this?

Until members of "favored" demographic groups (i.e., middle and upper-class WASPs who are prominent members of influential organizations) start becoming frequent and favored targets of the escalating random porcine violence, a "privilege" reserved so far for "soft targets" like Keith Briscoe and Ronnie Holloway, both members of the "poodle"* class.



(*PWDL, or "People 'We' Don't Like")

mark edward marchiafava said...

After the Baton Rouge city cops beat and hospitalized my brother, I refused to stop the next night at the same exact spot, instead drove to the nearby McDonald's, thereby avoiding an ass whooping.

Anonymous said...

In watching the two videos related to Rios' assault of Mr. Holloway I was reminded that, like the video of the Seattle cop who killed an innocent man, there is more than likely a car camera video that is being suppressed. Because if there were indeed anything said to cause Rios to go ape you can be sure that the powers that be would flood that "evidence" to the media in order to poison the well. Strangely, or not, there is no such incriminating tape. Passaic bottom feeders in blue, including Rios' lawyer, must be heaving sighs of corrupt relief. Rios must have felt the Napoleonic urge to wail on poor Holloway for the benefit of his fellow lady porker plopped in the seat next to him. What a man! And based on his later scripted ten second press conference comments I guess I myself am allowed to baton both he and his lawyer into a bloody mess simply because I "fear" some lies are about to vomit out of their pie holes. Come to think of it... they already have in the falsified "reports".

Liberanter said the obvious when stating that until the privileged class get a taste of this particular medicine will things ever change. Much like the old saying of a Conservative is a Liberal who has been mugged I say a Libertarian is one who's been mugged by the State!

ParaPacem said...

MoT - you need to get some posts on your own blog, too. There can never be too many of us out there.

Lemuel Gulliver said...

LIBYA IN TURMOIL

Libya is the latest Arab country to erupt. Several (no indication how many) police stations have been torched, and the unrest is spreading. Tomorrow, Thursday, is supposed to be a national day of protest.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/02/20112167051422444.html

Like I said before, the people are unhappy at corruption and their resultant poverty. But it is the brutality and violence of the police, in every case, that sparks the revolt and is the focus of the people's rage.

When will oligarchs and rulers learn that having a brutal police force is a guaranteed recipe for an eventual uprising? I can see it. All of us can see it. But, insulated as the plutocrats and kleptocrats are from the common Mundanes behind their walls of securitah, they cannot see it.

Ah, well, sooner or later the sheeple of Amerika will get tired of being shorn of their wool and rendered into mutton, and will get nasty.

Some numbers for us to consider:
Plutocrats 3,000,000
Police 1,000,000
Mundanes 306,000,000
Guns in the hands of Mundanes 200,000,000
Bullets for those guns 2,000,000,000 (two billion - estimated minimum)
Bullets per cop 2,000 (minimum)
Bullets per oligarch 600 (minimum)

Can anyone see a wonderful truth and a glorious sunrise, in those numbers?

- Lemuel Gulliver

Anonymous said...

"...New Jersey -- a state afflicted with some of the most corrupt and abusive police officers this side of Tahrir Square..."
New Jersey is also arguably the state that most aggressively and thoroughly represses the right of mundanes to defend themselves, particularly with the most effective tools for that task. Think that there could be a connection? In fact, the basis of New Jersey firearms law is that ownership of guns is banned. The state then proceeds to chisel a very few shallow, convoluted, and mostly useless exceptions to that ban. Sweet of them, isn't it?

"Richards... also agreed that he would never seek to expunge his record, although it’s not clear how that provision could be enforced."
Good question. In NJ, the presumption in an expungement request is (supposed to be) for it to be successful, unless the porkers and prosecutors involved in the relevant arrest and conviction file credible objections. I think that we can make a reasoned presumption how that will turn out in Richards' case, can't we?

Bob said...

Another valid argument for the ending of all taxpayer funding for "law enforcement."

Matt said...

"New Jersey “law” doesn’t recognize the unalienable right of innocent people to resist unlawful arrest."

It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.
-- Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

Anonymous said...

Lemual asks how much longer we will put up with this.

I cannot answer for anyone else, but I can answer for myself. The moment a member of my family is victimized in this way, the bowells of Hell will be unleashed on any and all responsible. Without hesitation, without remorse. Only once we are all sworn to such a code and carry it through will this insane thuggish behavior cease.

jk

Anonymous said...

Nah, forget what they say.

Resist.

With any means available.

Arctic Patriot

Anonymous said...

When they kick out your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun

When the law break in
How you gonna go?
Shot down on the pavement
Or waiting in death row

"Guns of Brixton", by the Clash

Anonymous said...

“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from it’s government”. Thomas Paine

Greece/Tunis/Egypt/Bahrain & now in America.

Just read a new thriller that’s about revolution coming to America. It’s a must read cause it’s so true for nowadays.
www.booksbyoliver.com

Unknown said...

William, thanks for the kind words and link back to CopBlock.org. We're all huge fans of yours. I heard your interview with Mark, from FreeTalkLive, on podcast, great job.

If you have the time and interest I'd like to run an idea by you. ademo[at]copblock.org

Keep fighting the Good Fight
-Ademo

Anonymous said...

The cops are generally acting on orders from up above, appointed police chiefs and deputy chiefs. They are directed by elected officials, mayors and city councils, who then act shocked and surprised at the brutality but regularly approve lawsuit payouts with no repercussion for the departments responsible. Maybe it is because keeping the street people is what they had in mind all along.

Unknown said...

Thank you for writing this informative article. The media and Sean Richards lawyer continuously referred to to Keith as Schizophrenic as if having this mental illness makes you violent. It is quite the opposite. Most people who suffer from Schizophrenia and other mental illness' are not violent. They assume by making that statement and showing a picture of a black male would lead people to believe he had to be a dangerous criminal. During the trial they went as far back as high school to attempt to prove he was violent but they could not. I am grateful that he was a calm, quiet,intelligent individual before and after his illness. This denied them the "privilege" to paint him as a super criminal which I am sure they would have loved to do.Since my brother is dead now I will speak for him. I am my brothers keeper.
Sunserray Briscoe