Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Here's an appalling case from Denver, where a cop chased down a 15 year old boy and stomped him so hard it nearly killed him. Here's what happened to the kid:
In the end, the boy lay prone and handcuffed on the ground with several of his ribs smashed, his kidneys half- pulverized and his liver lacerated.
Here's how other cops at the scene described what the officer in question did to the kid:
"Officer Porter grabs hold of the fence with both hands," Officer Luis Rivera, who was partnered with Porter that night, testified. "He jumps up, raises his knees and lands with both feet on the kid's back."He then demonstrated the jumping to the jury, the loud thud of each jump reverberating through the courtroom.
Back in their squad car, Rivera said he questioned Porter as to why he jumped on the kid. "Officer Porter said, 'I don't know why I do that. It's just something I do lately. I guess I just like the way they sound.' "
Bear in mind that cops testifying against other cops almost never happens. It's unbelievably rare. Despite this, you can probably guess what happened. The cop was acquitted by a jury. And justice wept.
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And the pundits wonder how in the world the jury in the O. J. Simpson could possibly have not believed the police.
Posted by: SLC | March 22, 2009 9:33 AM
"Officer Porter said, 'I don't know why I do that. It's just something I do lately. I guess I just like the way they sound.' "
I like the way gunfire sounds. Can I use that line as a precedent for a shooting spree? Obviously, the side effects of my enjoyment don't seem to matter.
Posted by: schism | March 22, 2009 10:04 AM
"I like the smell of napalm in the morning."
Posted by: Herod the Freemason | March 22, 2009 10:55 AM
That comment by the cop makes me afraid. "I like the way they sound"?
Posted by: Patrick | March 22, 2009 11:12 AM
You need the Get Out of Jail Free badge first.
Posted by: Scott Hanley | March 22, 2009 11:37 AM
I don't doubt that the cops who testified against their fellow officer will be the ones who have their careers destroyed. It is ever thus.
Posted by: Romeo Vitelli | March 22, 2009 12:26 PM
I just can't wait for the police sychophants to blame this kid. Every time a cop jumps up and down on someone's kidneys until they explode, shoots someone in the chest or rips out someone's colon with a plunger handle, someone always comes around to blame the victim. "If he'd just followed the law, none of this would have happened!"
Posted by: Z | March 22, 2009 2:15 PM
Z,
Read the comments at the link Ed gave....it's already happened.
Posted by: Gretchen | March 22, 2009 2:36 PM
Z - That's almost exactly what the foreman of the Jury said they'd done. The kid had a small discrepancy in his testimony, so clearly the kid was lying, despite two police officers confirming he was beaten half to death.
Posted by: Armchair Dissident | March 22, 2009 2:58 PM
"It's something I do lately"
So it's fair to say he does this rather often?
Posted by: Ethanol | March 22, 2009 3:13 PM
The feds may now be investigating this case on civil rights grounds:
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_11968364
Posted by: Jim Lippard | March 22, 2009 5:57 PM
The article that Jim Lippard links to makes the jury's verdict more understandable. According to that article, the problem was not that they thought that the kid magically beat himself up, it was that they weren't sure whether it was Porter, who was on trial, or the other two cops, who were responsible for the beating. The inconsistencies in the victim's testimony are relevant because they were on the very subject of which officers attacked him. In particular, if as he said he was attacked by two cops, that lends some credibility to Porter's claim that he fell behind in the chase and arrived to find the kid already beaten up.
Posted by: Bill Poser | March 22, 2009 6:32 PM
Bill Poser:
But Porter is such a stand-up guy that he doesn't offer to rat out the guys who ratted him out? Please excuse my cynicism.
Posted by: democommie | March 22, 2009 7:51 PM
demcommie,
Supposing for the sake of argument that Porter is telling the truth, although it is a reasonable inference that it was the other two cops that beat up the kid since no one else seems to have in the vicinity, Porter didn't actually see them do it and therefore couldn't testify that they did. I see nothing implausible in his account.
Posted by: Bill Poser | March 22, 2009 9:03 PM
Bill Poser:
Of course you don't. Nor does the Denver PD who apparently settled out of court with the kids family.
Posted by: democommie | March 23, 2009 7:30 AM
is there a place to write in against this?
Posted by: dg | March 23, 2009 9:28 AM
As a Denver resident, I'm pretty pissed off at the verdict. But Bill Poser has it right - it wasn't a question of "juries don't convict cops", but of which cops to believe. Clearly someone beat the kid up (and deserved to go to jail over it), but the jury wasn't convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Porter was the one who did so. Cops are innocent until/unless proven guilty too, you know.
On the contrary, the Department was backing them 100%.Posted by: WScott | March 23, 2009 10:16 AM
I forgot to link to this interview with the jury foreman: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_11974038
In summary:
Posted by: WScott | March 23, 2009 10:25 AM
Yet one more argument for cameras in all police cars, to be turn on at every stop. Although I understand that the police can't carry the cameras with them at every stop, when they get out of the car and must continue on foot. So such abuses will always occur.
But the line "It's just something I do lately." should be enough to get any cop fired and banned from any type of law enforcement or security work.
Posted by: Constance Reader | March 23, 2009 11:34 AM
This applies to all law enforcement.
We give them special authority
We give them the power of life and death
We give them the benefit of doubt in court
We honor them for sacrifice in the line of duty
We don't demand accountability
and we get???????????????
Posted by: JimSpencer | March 23, 2009 12:52 PM
However, as the article Jim Lippard linked to mentions, they can bury him in a crap desk job somewhere he can't embarass the city anymore. I predict it'll be a long time (if ever) before this guy sees the streets again. Small consolation, but better than nothing.
Posted by: WScott | March 23, 2009 3:24 PM