A Ferguson, Mo. police officer allegedly hog-tied and choked a 12-year-old boy who was checking the mail at the end of his driveway, according to a lawsuit filed in 2012 in Missouri federal court.
The Huffington Post reported Sunday on the lawsuit, which accuses Justin Cosma, who was with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s office at the time, and another officer of using “unreasonable and excessive” physical force against the boy. The accusations came in September 2012, just after Cosma joined the force in Ferguson.
The Huffington Post’s Ryan Reilly, a former reporter for TPM, identified Cosma as one of the officers who arrested him and another journalist from the Washington Post last week at a Ferguson McDonald’s amid heated protests.
Cosma and the other Jefferson County officer, Richard Carter, approached the boy in June 2010 and asked if he had been playing on nearby highway, according to the lawsuit. When the boy said that he hadn’t, the lawsuit claims the officers “became confrontational.”
“Unprovoked and without cause, the deputies grabbed [the boy], choked him around the neck and threw him to the ground,” the lawsuit reads. It also alleges that the boy, who was shirtless, “suffered bruising, choke marks, scrapes and cuts across his body” and at some point was “hog-tied” by the officers.
Neither a Ferguson police spokesman nor police Chief Thomas Jackson responded to the Huffington Post’s requests for comment.
Police officers in St. Louis County have come under increasing scrutiny since protests against law enforcement over the Aug. 9 fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white Ferguson police officer became heated.
An unnamed officer, believed to be with municipal police, who was recorded approaching a protester with his firearm raised and saying “I will fucking kill you” was removed from duty Wednesday. Then St. Louis County Officer Dan Page, who worked on crowd control at the protests, was suspended Friday after a YouTube video surfaced that showed him disparaging various groups and describing himself as a “killer.”
The Dead Kennedys had this pegged 30 years ago:
The left newspapers might whine a bit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PScmRiaZhwkBut the guys at the station, they don’t give a shit
Dispatch calls, “Are ya doin’ somethin’ wicked?”
“No siree, Jack, we’re just givin’ tickets!”
First you criticize the cops for using the taser like a “fun gun” and now you don’t want them choking kids. Where is the incentive for cops to go to work anymore?
-Sean Hannity
No surprises here – this shit has been going on since slavery. On reflection, what’s amazing to me personally is that the community was able to keep their anger and frustration contained for so long.
If there’s a silver lining to the death of Michael Brown, it’ll be a systemic change in policing nationwide, and that will take a generation to implement as these old-school bigots are either jailed, fired, or finally retire as circumstances will have it.
Only to be replaced by more of the same, I’m afraid. Policing, especially on the local level, tends to attract people who have a strong need to control others, people who feel powerless and who see a career as a policeman as a way to acquire power. There are certainly many cops of the other variety, those who really just want to serve their communities, but separating the wheat from the chaff is pretty tough.
Lord, so many tiny dicks wearing the same uniform.
Maybe just send the Ferguson PD a case of Cialis?
Or would they just all get taller?
Hmm.