Arizona police vow probe into bloody arrest of grandfather at Walmart

[alp227]

Source: CNN

An Arizona police department will conduct an investigation into the bloody arrest of a 54-year-old grandfather during a Black Friday sale at a Walmart, an assistant police chief said Saturday.

Jerald Newman, 54, was released Saturday from a Maricopa County jail, his wife, Pamela, told CNN. He has been charged with resisting arrest and shoplifting.

"(He is) as good as expected ... but he is emotionally and mentally a wreck," she said.

Newman was among a throng of shoppers crammed into a Buckeye, Arizona, Walmart soon after it opened late the night of Thanksgiving.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/26/justice/arizona-walmart-arrest/index.html

[cutlassmama]

1. I didn't realize he'd been accused of shoplifting. I hope he has a good attorney.

[panzerfaust]

8. Even if observed stealing, being slammed to the floor was excessive force

However, being paid to beat people up is one of the attractions of becoming a "peace office."



I know. I know. It is only the 99% who make the other 1% look bad.

[FreakinDJ]

11. Had to charge him to justify the Brutality

even thou technically it is not shoplifting UNTIL you leave the store

[lonestarnot]

18. Ah who gives a fuck about the law! What law? We have militarized police! Who needs law!

:sarcasm:

[FreakinDJ]

23. No argument from me on that one

[tuckessee]

25. Not in all states. Certainly not in Kentucky.

I don't know about other states, but here simply concealing an item while in the store constitutes shoplifting. I saw dozens of people arrested for shoplifting while woring at a comic book/used CD store and none had left the building or made any attempt to do so.

According the security guard and the cops, they figure a person is much more likely to become violent or resist when detained outside a store or at the door and only a few steps from freedom so they encourage confronting them well within the confines of the store.

[Bozita]

32. Bingo!

[guappo1]

22. Shoplifting?

I have worked in retail for several years after I got out of
the navy. We were told that for a person to shoplift they must
try a leave the store with items on them. I have two children
that are cops and they say the same. 
I think the police who did this must be made to answer.
Stopping criminals is one thing but harming a shopper who is
trying to protect items is wrong..

[DeSwiss]

2. The cops involved here should be tested.....

...for http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/25/1039918/-Steroid-Abuse-and-Excessive-Force-by-Police">steroid drug abuse.

- K&R

[meow2u3]

16. One comment on the Daily Kos post, re: cops' steroid abuse

Gives new meaning to the term "War on Drugs."

[quakerboy]

3. interesting quote at the end of the article

"I will never leave my house again on Black Friday, because I don't want to put my daughter through that again," she said, noting her daughter was there to see police standing over her bloody grandfather. "I'd rather stay home. And if they have Black Friday, they need more security."

For the first part, that makes sense. But that last sentence blows my mind. Security was exactly what escalated this from a misunderstanding to be resolved to a violent incident with potential for serious damage.

[ingac70]

4. The guy's grandson was trampled....

and people were trying to snatch the game the old guy is accused of stealing from the kid. Not that the cops give a shit about any of that.

[quakerboy]

6. The last sentance is key.

Would a couple more off duty cops present have been able to make people polite with each other, to prevent that from happening, with however many hundreds of customers in the store?

All it took was one cop to go vigilante on someone, and we have the situation that happened. How would more cops as security, hopped up on self importance and unchecked power, have made that situation any better?


Additionally, I wonder about another aspect of this. The assaulter was apparently a police officer. Was he on duty, or moonlighting? Do all the wall marts get Police coverage for Black Friday? Do they pay the localities for the man hours, or do the tax payers get to cover it for them, as we cover their other operating costs?

[ingac70]

7. From what I read, Walmart hired the cops, so it was moonlighting.

[freshwest]

21. I understand your questions, but store security should have prevented so many people coming in.

WalMart has had incidents of unruly crowds trampling to death the employees opening the door, as happened a few years back at a Black Friday store opening. They then permitted shopping to continue, as the store employees/security, not paid/numerous enough to resist, just let the mob in.

That is why security should have been more, not less; but at the door to allow for orderly conditions inside the venue.

But I think people ought to consider what they do with their time and energy and what they are showering their love upon. Camping outside the store to get some item is a form of mental illness, IMO.

Is it really that important? Is it some shallow sense of status, of having 'won' something over others, the 'thrill of the hunt' over chunks of plastic, or whatever? We're not talking people fighting in a line over food, water or even a cause.

This is the love of dead things as promoted by media and that the possession of these dead things is more important than civility, community or life and limb in this case.

I understand the reason the man wanted more security. People don't get unruly and trample each other, for example, in lines inside of a bank because they know they'll get in trouble. He might be envisioning something orderly like that, but even condemning the general lack of civility and respect for others, doesn't come close to the reason those people were all there.

They thought they could buy happiness from their chance to compete for a dead thing. Can we get any more irrational than this? Can we please just wake up from this nightmare now?

That being said, the man and his family are traumatized. I hope they can avoid having to shop at a WalMart again. But even then, he is still buying the lie that advertising sold his family.

But I lived in a rural town with several shopping options, all small businesses, until WalMart came in and did their price-fixing ploy just long enough to sucker in the locals. The majority of people in the area were low income, work not being that plentiful.

WalMart did what was once illegal and which eliminated the competition, closing all the other places down. Then jacked the prices up, because they had NO competition, they were the ONLY place left for over fifty miles to shop for food, clothing, etc. This may be the case where this gentleman lives.

The Black Friday mentality is mindlessness. People are so hyped up by commercials, and the kids even more so that see more media than their parents, most likely, that they are in a frenzy to get some frigging piece of crap. That will end up the land fill, has no lasting value as an investment, does nothing for their family's bottom line.

This is part of the reason that the 1% feel such disdain, I imagine, that the 99% are so easily shammed into throwing their time, energy and money away on trifles. In other words, 'monkey see, monkey do,' is what's going on here.

I hope this will teach a larger lesson to people in that community about what's really important: a roof over your head, clean food, water and air, health and family.

The police were definitely out of line, but they shouldn't have been necessary. With thinking people, this would not have happened. This is how we impoverish ourselves, by following the herd.

:rant:

[lbrtbell]

5. NOBODY should go out on Black Friday

For a variety of reasons.

[Magoo48]

9. It truly is Black Friday...

I know this retail chaos happens all over, but Wal Mart is a heartless, malignant growth infecting our country.

[madrchsod]

10. right now there`s a team in the home office trying to figure out who to blame...

and the dollar amount to make this go away.....


fat chance this is going away anytime soon!

[russspeakeasy]

20. Some low level managers are about to be out of a job.

If you get a chance read "The Store" by an author, last name Little.
It's written as fiction, but pretty interesting about how "The Store"
can influence a city and the psychology of the population.

[madrchsod]

26. thanks.....i`ll check it out

[christx30]

27. The author's name is

Bently Little. Just trying to help.

[Hubert Flottz]

12. Taking the kids to Wally World around here is...

like taking them to the Zoo!

[meow2u3]

14. Wally World IS the zoo!

Only these exhibits feature two-legged animals!

[leftyohiolib]

13. i feel another paid admin leave coming

[IDemo]

15. I believe I may have been speeding on the freeway last week

Depending on the results of my investigation, I may do something about it.

[razenman]

17. Is this America

How can it be shop lifting if you haven't left the store
unless you ingest it? Are the police still governed by
"minimum force necessary" the same as the general
public? Being they were off duty they should not have more
authoritarian rights than anyone else. The police need to be
drug tested for steroid use, if found guilty they should
surrender their career or at least the same as athlete's but
they carry guns????
Police across this nation have taken an aggressive stance
against the public they have sworn to serve.
Can anyone tell me the guidelines to using pepper spray? The
cops can spray it on peaceful protesters but the US didn't
like Saddam using gas on his own people, the same chemicals
our government provided to him! 
 People we need to wake up in this country and take it
back!Your representatives to congress can walk out on
committee's in the name of partisanship! Our supreme court is
governing by partisanship instead of upholding the
Constitution of the United States! Our executive branch can
not dictate to the judicial branch! It now has come down to
the local level and US citizens that have occupation of police
officer are pitted against US citizens as general public, we
are turned against each other. I would have avoided the draft
in 1971 and gone to Canada had i known this is how it would
be! At least I would have decent Health Care.
"We The People" need to unite again and demand our
rights as laid down by Franklin D Roosevelt in addition to the
Bill of Rights. I can go on but as long as we divide by Party
lines this country will continue to be run by Corporations
buying political candidates. The very same corporations that
employ millions of citizens. Nothing is stronger than a united
citizenry!!

[kgnu_fan]

19. It is America, a rogue state nt

[BiggJawn]

24. Sheriff Joe will personally over see the whitewash-uh, "investigation"...

I don't get it, none of the 4 Wally-Worlds in my area used "off duty" Roid Rangers for "security" during Black Friday.

[droidamus2]

28. Don't ya love it

The first thing the cops put on the report when they have kicked the crap out of somebody is that the victim was 'resisting arrest'. Yes, as I was walking the perpetrator to the security area I determined he wasn't walking fast enough in an attempt to 'resist arrest' so I proceeded to body slam him on the floor in an attempt to make him comply. Unfortunately after I subdued the perpetrator he was no longer able to walk on his own as he was unconscious".

[truthisfreedom]

29. It's not shoplifting until you leave the shop.

He was still inside. He didn't try to evade the cashiers. What a crock of shit.

[enigmaticang3l]

31. walmart grandpa assaulted and arrested

Yes, it is bs. The set up of noncriminals after police abuse and brutality has been ongoing for atleast 2000-01. How far cops will go to cover their tracks, in court defies imagination. Once again, the greatest threat to the public ispolice, no longer interested Jim doing the right thing. So sad. I know exactly how the grandfather feels. It is terrifying to learn cops do not serve and protect people. I no longer recognize America.

[mainer]

30. And he had $600 other merchandise he was going to pay for

So why would he steal a measly video game that his grandson picked?

As for "why would any idiot bring his grandson on Black Friday," could it be that grandpa had no idea what the grandson wanted, so he brought grandson to choose his own game?