Attorneys representing the two police officers beating and Taser-ing the San Jose Vietnamese student claim the student was at fault for resisting arrest, says the San Jose Mercury News here.
Terry Bowman, representing Kenneth Siegel, the officer who repeatedly beat Phuong Ho, told the paper that Ho “is responsible for his conduct, and he is responsible for not taking lawful directives from a police officer.”
The “lawful directives” apparently refers to Siegel telling Ho to stay still while Siegel went to look for Ho’s ID in his room. Ho, instead, followed the cop, and officer Steven Payne Jr. slammed Ho into a wall to put handcuffs on him.
According to Ho, his glasses fell off, so he went after the glasses, and that was when the police started beating him.
Bowman said of Ho’s conduct, “He is being combative and noncompliant, and he raises the stakes of the game.”
The beating was captured on a grainy cell phone video taken by Ho’s roommate.
At one point, handcuffs could be heard snapping (which the lawyers now dispute), and after that Siegel delivered yet another baton blow.
Both Bowman and Craig Brown, representing Payne, claimed the sound wasn’t that of handcuffs snapping.
“Whatever people think they are hearing, it is not the sound of handcuffs before the last baton strike,” Bowman said.
Now, on the one hand, pretty much the only reason cops would beat somebody is because the person resisted arrest.
On the other hand, on those occasions where cops beat people for no good reason, they always claim the person resisted arrest.
That’s not to say the claim is not valid, but it does mean that, until there’s a jury verdict, the claim is pretty much predictable and doesn’t really say anything….
of course they deny it. Even a 2 yrs old could guess their response…I hope Ho’s attorney has enough aggressiveness to pursue this case which will lead to the conviction of these cops and at the same time send the message to other cops that the Viet community is not that passive.
No surprises here………chickens protecting their young.
Keep making those phone calls to SJ. council members.
these cops must appear on Cops to show how tough they are when they encounter an underweight geeky, nearly blind student restrained…imagine what would happen had Phuong Ho reached for his books. That would have been the last of our commie student.
Karma says that these cops will face their own demon in many forms…sometimes a quick outright job dismissal is better on the mind then a long drawn process. Even if they are able to remain on the force, I can only imagine their reputation among fellow officers.
Yeah, they can play apathetic for so long, but this sort of thing gets to you in the end…so enjoy your new journeys tough guys!
Terry Bowman thinks this was a “….game”?
Let me have same cops beat up your brother with a baton ……after he was already arrested.
i think now phuong ho knows where to kill people .phuong ho ,go back vn and kill the F vc for me .
well, I don’t expect those bastards’ lawyer to say “ok, my clients are guilty. Please convict them.”
1. Cops are never wrong
2. If cops are ever wrong, look up #1.
Mr. chuot, calm down,
The rodney riot is the key to the winning case. Are the vietnamese community, politician, big gun protestors ready to follow the Rodney King foot step. How come I only hear Madison’s voice and everybody else is a silencer? If nothing happen………….Cop is still # 1 and always right. Don’t you get it.