Raging Cop Claims to Smell Weed, So He Beat and Arrested an Innocent Teen
No marijuana would be found on any of those involved.
By Matt Agorist / The Free Thought Project
November 2, 2015
Orlando, FL — Ryan Richard Diaz and two of his friends were huddling under the corner of a parking garage last July, trying to get out of the rain, when they were approached by officer Michael Napolitano.
Officer Napolitano was allegedly responding to a call of some teens “smoking marijuana.” However, no marijuana would be found on any of those involved in Napolitano’s stop.
According to a lawsuit filed this week, when Napolitano arrived he became very aggressive which compelled Diaz’s friend, Mario Manzi, to begin film.
Napolitano became irate after seeing these teens practicing their 1st amendment right to film the police; so, he proceeded to violate their rights by stopping them.
As Napolitano attempted to grab the phone, the teens began passing the phone off to each other. This behavior infuriated the already raging Napolitano, so he then resorted to his only available tactic — violence.
Because the teens didn’t immediate prostrate themselves before his divine authority, Napolitano struck Diaz in the stomach with his knee multiple times and threw him to the ground. While on the ground, the video shows Napolitano continue to dole out blows to Diaz’s legs and head.
During the melee, you can hear Napolitano attempt to take the phone several times.
When told by one of the teens that he cannot take their phone, Napolitano answers, “You don’t understand how this works. When you are detained, you do not run the show.”
“You cannot grab my camera,” one of them then says.
Napolitano’s answer, “Yes, I can.”
The other two teens involved were then molested by Napolitano as he searched them for the non-existent plant.
The entirely unscathed Napolitano then accused Diaz of battery on a law enforcement officer and arrested him. Prosecutors dropped the battery charges but, unfortunately, they held a lesser charge of resisting arrest without violence in October.
Diaz and his friends had committed no crime, they had harmed no one, yet they were subject to state-sponsored violence and harassment because a cop claimed to have “smelled marijuana.”
“This kid is 5-6, 130 pounds, and his only crime is being at the wrong place at the wrong time and trying to video-record a police officer,” said his attorney, J. Marc Jones.
Unsurprisingly, officer Napolitano faced no punishment and, in fact, received support from his superiors for his actions.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, police Cpl. Joseph Catanzaro reviewed video of what happened, talked to Diaz and his friends and concluded that Napolitano’s use of force was justified.
The video below shows a symptom of much larger sickness in America today. The state is addicted to controlling what individuals can and can’t put into their own bodies. In an ostensible attempt to protect individuals from themselves, the state will kidnap, cage, and kill you — for your own good.
If you are truly concerned about reducing the level of brutality among American cops, you cannot be taken seriously unless you address the war on drugs.
0 Replies
BillRM
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Sun 8 Nov, 2015 10:08 am
@ehBeth,
Quote:
and were you then shot?
I did not run away nor did I fail to obey the police officers instructions either and by not doing so placed the officers in reasonable fear for their lives.
Oh, so you think that a basic traffic stop had the driver running away from the cop and then even after he been taser refusing to show his hands!!!!!!!!
A hell of a lot of cops over the years had lost their lives on such so called basic traffic stops.
It was once more the actions of the driver not the cop that resulted in a minor traffic stop resulting in his own death.
Charges should never had been filed and the jury got it right in finding her not guilty of any crime.
0 Replies
revelette2
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Sun 8 Nov, 2015 10:34 am
@BillRM,
For someone who go on and on about internet privacy you seem to miss the point that the officer had no right to take their phone.
For someone who go on and on about internet privacy you seem to miss the point that the officer had no right to take their phone.
Phone how did we get to the subject of phones and in any case for years the courts had upheld the legal right for the police to look at cell phones with out a warrant and only very recently had the SC rule otherwise, so for those years the cops did indeed have such a right even those I did not agree with them doing so or having that right.
One reason as a matter of fact why I never move to a smart phone is the lack of rights to privacy and the poor security you can have on them compared to even a netbook for example.
do people not understand that threats come from people moving toward them, not away from them
LOL he would not show his hands and kept moving them into positions that she could not see after repeated being orders not to do so.
He was a threat as she have no way of knowing what weapons he could reach without her having a clue, at least until he would turn to perhaps employ them.
I know you are not all that dumb so shame on you putting out nonsense you must know is nonsense on it face.
Suggest you might do some rides along with your local police department.
footnote no deadly force was employ when he was running away from her only when the taser had put him on the ground and he would not show his damn hands after being order to do so over and over.
So your nonsense that he was running away when he was shot and therefore not a threat to her is completely untrue.
At every point she used reasonable force at those points.
An it was in his hands not her hands how that minor stop would turn out.
According to FBI Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted reports, 62 officers were killed during traffic stops from 2003 to 2012. That does not include 34 others who died during and after vehicle pursuits. Most involved shootouts like the one that took place in St. Paul between police and Patrick's suspected killer, Brian Fitch, hours after the slaying. In 2012, 4,450 officers were wounded or assaulted in various manners during traffic stops.
Improving officers' safety and analyzing their reactions during stops that turned dangerous was the centerpiece of a much-cited study conducted last year by the Mankato-based Force Science Institute.
Ninety cops from 22 police agencies in Washington and Oregon took part in the exercise. Officers were asked to approach the driver, a study researcher playing the role of a belligerent motorist acting that way to intentionally distract the officer. The participants, 80 men and 13 women, were told to approach the vehicle at various angles and stand near a line that delineated the B-pillar section of the vehicle, near the outer edge of the closed driver's-side door.
The B pillar is also the leading edge to an area in the rear of the vehicle called the mitigation zone, where officers can retreat for cover in case things go south. The participants were told only that they would be conducting routine traffic stops that may or may not escalate.
The study, billed as the first to systematically evaluate police officer responses to the threat of lethal force during a routine traffic stop, found that:
-- The driver, armed with a fake gun resting on the console, was able to pick it up and shoot 90 of 93 participants several times before the officers could return fire. It can take a quarter of a second for a driver to pick up a gun in such a location and fire off a shot
-- One officer deflected the weapon and shot the driver; another subdued the motorist with a choke maneuver before he could fire, and a third struck the gun away as it discharged. Nine others tried similar reactions but were shot. Cops are generally trained to move forward and neutralize potential harm rather than retreat when they are in such close proximity.
-- Officers who drew their weapons after they had entered the mitigation zone were on average 0.39 seconds faster reaching that safety area than officers who drew their weapons as they retreated.
-- Officers who approached the motorist from the passenger side got to the safety zone an average of a half-second quicker than those who approached from the driver's side.
"Such a small window of time could mean the difference between life and death in the field," the researchers noted in the study.
0 Replies
bobsal u1553115
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Sun 8 Nov, 2015 03:06 pm
@BillRM,
Show me the death penalty as punishment for anything he did. That cop killed him in cold blood. TonyRM. Watch the video.
0 Replies
bobsal u1553115
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Sun 8 Nov, 2015 03:07 pm
@revelette2,
That's obvious to everyone but TonyRm.
0 Replies
bobsal u1553115
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Sun 8 Nov, 2015 03:09 pm
@BillRM,
We're discussing two different cases of a cop murdering an innocent person, TonyRM, do try to keep-up!
Who can or even desire to keeping up with your massive cut and past attacks on law enforcement.
I had been address the case of a female cop just found innocent of murdering an asshole that would not obey her repeated orders to show his hands after he was put down on the ground by way of a taser when he was running from her after a simple traffic stop.
so you chase them/shoot them