Torture. It’s not just for the CIA. Or the military. Any law enforcement officer can play, and too many are, with the amazing new and improved electro “rock your world” taser, not to mention the trusty “old school” police baton. Just ask Phuong Ho, a Vietnamese student at San Jose State:
A cell phone video shows San Jose police officers repeatedly using batons and a Taser gun on an unarmed San Jose State student, including at least one baton strike that appears to come after the man is handcuffed, as they took him into custody inside his home last month.
The video, made by one of the student’s roommates without the knowledge of police, shows that force was used even though the suspect was on the ground, and apparently offering no physical threat to the officers. Several experts in police force said the video appears to document excessive — and possibly illegal — force by the officers. A police spokesman Friday said the department had opened a criminal investigation of the officers’ conduct, after police officials viewed a copy of the recording.
The confrontation arose as Phuong Ho, a 20-year-old math major from Ho Chi Minh City, was arrested on suspicion of assaulting another of his roommates. He faces pending misdemeanor charges of exhibiting a deadly weapon and resisting arrest. Ho admits picking up a knife as he argued with a roommate. He was not armed when police arrived.
Phuong Ho apparently made the following comment “I would kill you for this” while holding a steak knife after a roommate spilled soap on his steak. Some roommates laughed off the incident, but someone called the police. Four officers responded to the call. When they arrived he was unarmed. You can view the video at the Mercury News .com website. A portion of it was posted on You Tube and can be seen here:
One roommate surreptitiously videotaped the incident with his cellphone. Here’s what experts interviewed by the Mercury News reporter noted after watching Ho being repeatedly struck with a baton and tazed while lying on the ground (bullet points removed):
Ho remains on the ground, moaning and crying, as he is repeatedly struck. He does not appear to offer significant resistance, suggesting
the high level of force is not necessary.The officer most visible in the sequence stands for much of the time in a casual posture, at one point with his legs crossed. He seems to show no concern that the situation is potentially dangerous — raising additional questions about why force was being used.
The final baton strike appears to occur after the handcuffs can be heard snapping onto Ho’s wrists. That particularly troubled several outside experts.
Ho has no prior criminal record. In an interview Ho gave to reporters, he says he was confronted by the police after they arrived in the entrance way to his own bedroom. He gave his name to the officers when they asked him to identify himself, but for whatever reason, one of the officers entered the room and began searching for Ho’s wallet. Ho was slammed against the wall when he attempted to follow that police officer into his bedroom.
The official police report says Ho is 6′ tall and 220 lbs. Ho is actually 5′ 9′ tall and weighs at least ten pounds less. The police report also states that Ho resisted arrest when, after being knocked to the ground he failed to turn over after being commanded to do so. Ho claims he was merely searching on the floor for his thick glasses which had fallen off when the police officer slammed him first into a wall. When Ho’s glasses fell off, he claims he asked the officer if he could pick them up, and the officer, without saying anything released his hold on Ho. Ho then claims that when he tried to pick up his glasses he was hit in the back by the officer which caused him to fall to the ground. He claimed that this was the first of several blows he received from the police. The video begins after Ho allegedly resisted arrest by refusing to obey the officer’s command to turn over. The report also claims that Ho was kicking violently during this time.
I watched the video. I saw no kicking. I did see Ho’s legs moving feebly up and down while he moaned and cried. What I saw was a helpless man on the ground surrounded by police, who did not appear to be in any danger, yelling at Ho, striking him with their batons and using a taser on him while he cried and begged. The officer most visible appeared lackadaisical at times, even bored. The hall way in which this beating occurred is very narrow. I simply don’t believe the police report’s claim that Ho was a threat that deserved this level of force being used against him.
Instead, in my opinion, Ho was a foreigner with a funny accent, and police probably felt they could get away with beating him. Had the video of this excessive use of force not surfaced, it;s doubtful we would ever have heard of this story. And this is far from the first such incident regarding the San Jose police force and the methods it employs to make San Jose allegedly the “Safest Big City in America.” Here’s a story from 2007 about a Filipino family that seems eerily similar reagarding the excessive use of force used against people who were not threatening the officers who applied this level of force:
For the Custodio family, what started as a normal evening on Feb. 5, 2007 turned into a terrifying encounter with the police. Why it happened at all remains a mystery. […]
Supporters allege that during a routine traffic stop, Marlo Custodio, age 18, was dragged from his car and tackled by eight San Jose police officers while two others stood by and watched.
They say Custodio managed to place a call to his mother on his cell phone, asking for help, before being repeatedly tasered by officers.
When she arrived, Marilou Alvarado Custodio, age 50, accompanied by Marlo’s two brothers, was violently restrained, her head repeatedly slammed against the side of a police car. Though cooperative, Romel Custodio, 25, was subdued, tasered and kneed in the face. All three were then arrested and booked into San Jose county jail. Although present, O.J. Custodio, 16, was not arrested. […]
No one at the rally seemed to know why police arrested members of the family in the first place or what led them to use excessive force. […]
“Marlo was parked at the lake with his girlfriend when the police asked him to exit the car,” she said. “When he pointed to his shoes (still in the car) and asked if he could retrieve them, that’s when the police grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the ground.”
[Rowena] Tomaneng [an organizer for the Justice for Custodio Family Campaign] says that Marlo was tasered even though he was submissive and cooperated with the police.
Like Konda, she is unsure why the violence escalated with Marlo and with his mother and brother when they arrived on the scene. “The Custodios are upstanding citizens in the community,” said Tomaneng. “This kind of violence has just become institutionalized in the police department.”
Many who attended the rally saw the incident as part of a bigger problem of police violence in San Jose. Speakers cited the case of Cau Tran, a young Vietnamese woman shot to death by San Jose police in 2003 when her vegetable peeler was mistaken for a weapon. They also cited the case of Rudy Cardenas, a San Jose man shot in the back and killed by a state narcotics agent in 2004. Unarmed, Cardenas was mistaken by the agent for another man.
Both cases ended with officers cleared of any misconduct.
More about the “Custodio family’s encounter with the San Jose Police:
Marlo Custodio: An 18 year old Evergreen Valley High School senior and student leader who founded a campus cultural and philanthropic organization. He was also the former captain of the wrestling team and a member/volunteer for the Filipino Youth Coalition of San Jos[e] that participates in and organizes social service programs.
Romel Custodio: A 25 year old resident of Santa Clara County for 25 years. He is also Marlo’s older brother.
Marilou Custodio: A 50 year old resident and employee of Santa Clara County. She is also a single mother raising four sons, including Marlo and Romel.
Eight police officers participated in the beatings while two officers observed but did not interfere.
Examples of excessive force include:
– Excessive bodily force: Romel was swarmed by five officers who proceeded to tackle and beat him.
– Excessive use of a Taser: Romel was also tasered with three weapons for 40 seconds (longer than the accepted time). Medical attention was necessary for the Taser burns he sustained.
– Violence: One officer choked and tasered Marlo even though he was complying with the police. Afterwards, Marlo was kneed in the face. Marilou’s head was slammed against a police car three times.
Then there is this story about a wrongful death lawsuit against the the City of San Jose and its police brought by the daughter of an unarmed naked man who had been repeatedly tased by San Joses’s finest in his motel room:
Steve Salinas was unarmed and naked and had not committed a crime when officers beat, kicked and used a Taser to subdue him in a room at the Vagabond Inn at 1488 N. First St. on May 25, 2007, said the suit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in San Jose.
The repeated use of a stun gun and other force “was unreasonable and excessive under the circumstances, demonstrating a deliberate indifference which shocks the conscience,” said the suit filed by Salinas’ daughter, Noreen Salinas. […]
Salinas is the fifth person to die after the use of Tasers by San Jose police since 2004, when all officers in the city were given the stun guns for use on patrol, according to police watchdog groups.
The common denominator in each of these incidents? The person beaten and/or tased was a member of a minority group. None of them were armed at the time police used this high level of force against them. And the fact that five six people have died after San Jose police used their tasers in the four year period 2004-2008 since 2004 suggests a fondness by the San Jose officers for using this so-called “non-lethal” weapon much too often. I live in a metropolitan area not much smaller than San Jose, yet we’ve had no one die as a result of being tasered to death to my knowledge.
My advice to you if you are a person of color and living in San Jose? Move. ASAP. The police there apparently do not see you as a person to whom the owe a duty to “serve and protect.” You can be an upstanding, law abiding citizen living there and apparently that will not matter to the SJPD in the least. Instead, they apparently see you as their enemy, an enemy who deserves whatever punishment they choose to dish out. All in the interest of Public Safety, of course.
