Outrageous
Someone needs an ass kicking. We swore our soldiers would not be spit on again.
When officers of the law force our veterans to lick the damned ground, we have failed.
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation."
- George Washington
It's happening again.
When officers of the law force our veterans to lick the damned ground, we have failed.
Madison Wisconsin: Two Iraq war veterans allege in a federal lawsuit they were forced by small-town Wisconsin police officers to lap up what was thought to be urine. Wisconsin National Guardsmen Anthony Anderson and Robert Schiman filed the suit against the city of Wisconsin Dells, its police chief and three officers last week in U.S. District Court in Madison. The guardsmen, both of whom have served two tours of duty in Iraq, were in the Dells for weekend training. Two police officers stopped them in the early morning of June 1.
The suit says officers Wayne Thomas and Collin Jacobson accused the guardsmen of urinating in public and pointed out a wet spot in an alley that they thought was urine. The guardsmen denied having relieved themselves there. In order to prove that it was not their urine and avoid citations, the officers made Anderson and Schiman lick the ground, the lawsuit claims. Schiman also was made to eat a plant that was drenched in the liquid, it states. The lawsuit claims a third officer arrived at the scene and was told by Jacobson, “I can’t stop laughing. Wayne just made those two guys lick their own piss off the ground.” After both Anderson and Schiman licked the wet ground, Anderson was forced to do it again after one of the officers claimed he didn’t see it, the suit claims.
The lawsuit states that Thomas, 19, was fired the same day as the incident and Jacobson, 20, was suspended for two weeks without pay. Both were limited term police officers. The lawsuit seeks $600,000 in compensatory and punitive damages for each of the guardsmen, along with other unspecified damages and costs. The suit alleges infliction of emotional distress; negligent hiring, training and supervision of Thomas and Jacobson; false imprisonment and violation of the Constitutional and civil rights of Anderson and Schiman. City Attorney James Gerlach said Wednesday he had no comment on the suit. Thomas’ and Jacobson’s attorney, Jason Baltz, did not immediately return a phone message.
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation."
- George Washington
It's happening again.
Labels: Dirtbags
posted by Xavier at 10:49 PM
16 Comments:
Un-freaking-believable.
There needs to be more than an ass kicking!
I can't express how mad this makes me.
Beyond legal redress, I would hope their community would make these pathetic excuses for law enforcement so despised that they couldn't find a job within Wisconsin. Public humiliation has a place in society; unfortunately it was ass-backwards here.
Time to close Wisconsin Dells permanently... The ONLY way to get these assholes attention is in the pocketbook. F'em...
"Someone needs an ass kicking."
Yeah - the cops for their actions and the soldiers for not standing up to them.
Aw, jeez.
Either Washington was wrong, or today's soldiers don't know how our troops were treated after Vietnam.
Maybe they remember how troops returning from Desert Storm were treated.
There are members of Congress that believe that only police and the military should be allowed to possess firearms. What about these police officers? The three officers have definitely abused the public trust.
It is bad enough that the victims, in this travesty, were service men. The very people that put their lives on the line in a much more inhospitabale environment than Madison, Wisconsin.
An incident like this tarnishes the other 99% of police officers that do their duty. The three power-drunk, cowards that, if found guilty, should be personally liable for as much of the damages awarded, as they are able to pay. Hopefully, this is more than a misdemeanor and the three pukes will go to prison and lose some of their rights and dignity.
As a human being,this disturbs me. As a Vietnam veteran, this infutrates me. These scum shold be...words fail me.
I think the story is bullshit. No way that happened.
Two two-tour combat vets are going to lick urine just because some cops told them to? Yeah right!
We'll have to wait see...
Actually, I think these two should easily be able to find a job in Wisconsin.
Scrubbing every alley in Madison, with a toothbrush, would be a good start. Beginning, of course, with the alley in question.
And who better to personally supervise than the gentlemen filing the suit?
Another nurse with a gun
I also have to doubt the veracity of the report - no way in HELL anyone is making me lick the ground, police officer or not. If it came down to it, I'd sooner spend time in jail. The fact that the two soldiers so quickly complied seems strange to me, especially knowing that all they would be avoiding by doing so was a citation and a fine.
Waiting for further info before I decide who to send to the gallows on this one...
Let's slow down a bit everyone.
"When officers of the law force our veterans to lick the damned ground, we have failed."
"An incident like this tarnishes the other 99% of police officers that do their duty."
What these officers did (if this proves to be an accurate description of what happened) is reprehensible. They do not deserve to be police officers. They should be fired, sued, and prosecuted.
Let us save our well deserved outrage and disgust for the people who committed this act and not let it bleed over on to all law enforcement officers.
If we use that very same logic, then it would somehow be appropriate to blame those soldiers for past war crimes and atrocities, or hold all gun owners responsible for past gun crimes.
Cops are human beings too. If there was a pool of perfect people that they could recruit from, they would. Sadly, they can only recruit from normal, average Americans. Our true test isn't preventing this from happening (which, like preventing any crime, is darn near impossible, if we still want to live in a free society), but with how it is dealt with afterwards.
It looks like we are off to a good start. The incident has been publicized, so the citizens have been informed. It looks like the people involved were fired and are in the process of being sued. Let's keep an eye on the situation and see that it comes to a satisfactory solution.
Having said all that, it is a bit much to start going off on anyone wearing a badge, don't you think? Let's just throw out the bad apples instead of distrusting and having a bad attitude towards the whole bushel...
Let's just throw out the bad apples instead of distrusting and having a bad attitude towards the whole bushel...
Better yet, let's slather their names across the internet so every time a prospective employer does a google search, they are not hired.
The outrage is specific to these two officers. Why do you feel otherwise?
Anon...
I said that because of the two quotes in the second and third paragraphs of my post.
I'm a cop, if you couldn't tell. I get defensive. Looking back over the post and comments, it really wasn't as much of a cop-bashing thread as it seemed to me at the time I responded.
I just hate getting lumped in with people like this. It is part of human nature to group people together into any different number of catagories, I was just trying to point out that it is unfair.
And as much as people complain about being oppressed by our government, it seems to me that there are unrealistic expectations of law enforcement. Officers have abused their power in the past, and will do so in the future. The same goes with mistakes made in deadly force situations too. This is the nature of the beast.
Like I said earlier, there is no place where they grow perfect cops. Cases like this, although outrageous and wrong (if proven true), are inevitable. The important thing is to make sure they are handled correctly after the fact.
I am all for transparency. I was taught something at the academy that seemed to be silly at the time, but proved to be wise. I was warned not to do anything that I wouldn't feel comfortable being published on the front page of the paper the next day. An excellent lesson for young officers.
What is a "limited term police officer?"
Wisconsin allows commissioning of police at 19 and 20 years of age?
Hmmmm... Something tells me that these weren't actual cops at all, but future recruits, or something.
I do note that they were fired.
This isn't how I treat soldiers, it isn't how any officer I know treats soldiers, and it isn't how any department that I could think of would allow its officers to treat soldiers.
Or, for that matter, anyone else.
Police officers didn't do that. At best, it was persons with uniforms and badges. There's a difference.
I personally believe there are two types of people that become LEOs: The first (and majority) are good people that want to do right & fair and to help others, the second are the people everyone picked on throughout school & have found a way to gain "power" and use it & abuse it.
As for believing this could/couldn't happen, anyone would do about anything it took to get an unbalanced person with a gun to leave them alone. A LEO can ruin your day & your life if he wants to. He has the ability & the power. Thankfully, most LEOs only do that to the bad guys.
I am NOT bashing LEOs, I am punting the little idiots that duck in behind the badge & gun to do their little "power" games. I respect the hard work & sacrifice the good & honest officers do everyday.
These two shouldn't be allowed to serve hamburgers, let alone anything else.
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