Via South Carolina’s Bobby Frederick , the bad apples keep falling off the tree. This time, Streamwood (which apparently is somewhere around Chicago) cop James Mandarino wails on motorist Ronald Bell, who appears to be fully compliant, non-threatening and cooperative. Not even a furtive gesture.
James Mandarino, 41, beat the motorist 15 times as the man knelt on the ground March 28, according to Assistant Cook County State’s Atty. Alexander Vroustouris. The man received seven stitches to his ear and was treated for a concussion and multiple contusions, abrasions and bruises, Vroustouris said.
“At no time during the time period when the defendant is beating the victim with his baton does the video reflect that the victim had anything in his hands, nor does the video reflect the victim making any threatening motions toward the defendant,” said Vroustouris. “The victim is completely compliant.”
As Bobby notes, the comments to the original article are interesting in how police Gestalt compels the faithful to believe that Bell, the compliant victim, must have done something to deserve the beating, or that Mandarino, the cop, is endowed with an inherent excuse (like the stress of the job) to excuse the beating. One way or another, the victim is guilty and the cop is not.
Watch the video and decide for yourself:
Some of the more curious reactions involved the assumption that something must have happened beforehand, outside the camera’s eye, to justifiably enrage the officer, for his conduct is otherwise wholly inexplicable. Others suggest that the Bell, the victim, must have “mouthed off” to the cop, and everybody knows that if you mouth off, you get beaten, not necessarily suggesting that it’s right but that it’s the way life works.
While the officer’s conduct on the video leaves little room for doubt that it was legally unjustified, it does raise a hard question. If this officer was simply a psychotic animal, one might expect that he would have shown his true nature at some earlier point during his 15 years on the job. Why did he crack this night? The problem is that we can’t answer the question, but only engage in speculation that reveals our point of view. Mine is that “protect and serve” is a very hard job, for which most people are not qualified, and that we don’t put a gun and shield in the hands of such people and tell them to go out on the street and use them.
I guess we just have to suffer these bad apples rolling in, one at a time, day by day, until people (and particularly judges) can’t ignore them. I don’t know whether that day will ever come.
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It is a long story as to why I chose to carry and employ a tape recorder while working among some of my peers and supervisors in the police department. The Reader’s Digest explanation is that too many where infected with Pinocchio syndrome – lots of really long noses.
During a civil suit the police department’s attorney condescendingly informed the magistrate judge that I recorded surreptitiously (he spit the information out as if it were a vile taste in his mouth and I had done some evil thing) even though I made no extensive effort to conceal the fact I carried and used a tape recorder. I plainly warned those around me when I first decided to start taping, even supervisors – although I felt no need to continue to remind people over the months and years. One day one of my sergeants announced at line-up that the Chief didn’t want anybody taping anybody else without their knowledge. Although the statement was made to all present at line-up it really was directed at me.
The sergeant continued, “It’s wrong,” he said. “What if an officer makes a sexual joke and is later charged with sexual harassment? What if an officer says he enjoyed kicking someone’s ass and later is charged with excessive force?”
Heaven forbid that any such things should be recorded…
I certainly don’t know if James Mandarino’s behavior was a first time event or part of a pattern but I do know that in both police departments at which I worked, officers with similar and regular behavior as depicted in the video, continued as police officers for many years and often with the knowledge of supervisors.
And if I may continue to indulge in a long comment, while “protect and serve” or similar statements may be a motto for many LE agencies, protecting and serving the public is, at best, second place among police priorities.
To be fair, it was a police department official reviewing the previous night’s arrests that identified the abuse. The police department promptly turned it over to the DA and felony charges were made against the officer.
While it should not be cause for celebration that the police officer who reviewed the previous night’s arrests did the right thing, the fact remains that he did, and he should be applauded for it, as should those who prusued charges against the officer. You are quite correct, though it’s sad that it’s necessary to note.
A Wesminster cop who’d recently been promoted to Detective and had been on the force for 5 years is currently in custody for carjacking and kidnapping a woman unknown to him in broad daylight and then beating and raping her while photographing the whole thing and sending pics to his CO buddy who picked him up when he fled.
The sad part is the most shocking part to me of the whole ordeal is that they both gave statements which did not help their cause at all. Doesn’t a cop know the first thing you do is invoke??