SC troopers used cars to ram suspects (on foot)

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Source: Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Videos have surfaced showing two members of the South Carolina Highway Patrol using their cruisers to ram fleeing suspects, just weeks after two leaders of the agency resigned because of a furor over a trooper's use of a racial slur.

In one of the two new dash-cam videos, which were first reported Wednesday by The Post and Courier of Charleston, Lance Cpl. Steven C. Garren drives after a man on foot, striking him when he crosses in front of Garren's cruiser. The man flips over the car's hood and into high grass on the roadside.

"Yeah, I hit him. I was trying to hit him," Garren, who is white, can be heard telling another trooper.

In the other, Lance Cpl. Alexander Richardson drives between apartment buildings, on sidewalks and past onlookers in an attempt to run down a suspect. After about a minute, Richardson's car bumps the man, who grabs the vehicle in an attempt to steady himself. The man doesn't fall and takes off running again.

Sid Gaulden, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said neither trooper was available for comment. A message left at a number for an Alexander Richardson was not immediately returned. Garren did not have a listed phone number.
...
"They're just lazy," Alpert said. "Rather than get out of their car or get in a foot race, or tackle someone ... they'll just hit them with the car door, with the bumper, and hope they don't run them over."

Alpert said he had never seen any training materials that advised authorities to use cruisers to hit suspects on foot.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080320/ap_on_re_us/trooper_aggression_videos

[panzerfaust]

1. safer for the cop

more dangerous for the rest of us.

To deliberately hit someone with 2 or 3 thousand pounds of steel does seem to be excessive use of force?

[harmonicon]

5. I would think it was excessive use of force...

... but I'd rather get hit buy a car - even if it was a rather hard hit - than be shot and killed. I'm not saying this is ok, mind you, but for some of these shitty cops (shitty cops, I mean - most police officers are really great people) the alternative would be to shoot first.

[eib1]

2. So were these suspects

the wrong color?

[Eagle_Eye]

3. If you run from the police just remember, when they get to you they are bringin' kickin' with 'em

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-URG2fv0knI

.

[DRoseDARs]

4. Last time I checked, vehicular assault was codified into law and very illegal. n/t

[Doctor_J]

6. I saw Tony Soprano do this to a deadbeat on the Sopranos' pilot ep

Maybe that's where they got it.

[unkachuck]

7. "Yeah,...

"...I hit him. I was trying to hit him,"....a clear case of state-sponsored terrorism?

[DRoseDARs]

8. I don't know about that, but it's a clear premeditation charge; prosecutors love those. n/t

[slampoet]

9. i had this happen in RI to a guy i knew. He was a school teacher and the cops came up and rammed

His bicycle.

They had him for 45 minutes cuffed on his belly in the middle of the street without medical care before they told him he didn't match the guy they were looking for and to go to the hospital on his (ruined ) bike.

[Javaman]

10. "look how I can use my gun as a can opener!!"

:banghead:

[sweetpotato]

11. They drove the patrol cars ON THE SIDEWALK

I saw a teaser video for the news last night and it showed the perspective from the patrol car. You could clearly see playground equipment in their path as they chased a suspect.

They are going to kill an innocent bystander this way.

Its disgusting.