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Utah Highway Patrolman

Archie Moses

Archie Moses

Well-Known Member
https://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/23/utah.trooper.punches/index.html?hpt=T2

In my opinion, he shouldn't be suspended or put on leave. Dude did his job. Yeah, it was an older lady, but she was operating a deadly weapon and could have easily have killed someone or an officer. Looks to me like the officer did his job without having to use a gun and was able to apprehend the suspect without further injuries to the officers or the public.

People do stupid things and if the cops use force to prevent a problem before it become a bigger problem (like someone getting run over and run into and dying) it's going to be called police brutality. (I'm not saying police brutality doesn't exists, because it does. This isn't police brutality imo though)

What do you guys think?

(CNN) -- A Utah Highway Patrol trooper is under investigation after a video showed him punching a woman several times during a traffic stop, a spokesman for the Utah Department of Public Safety said.

A dashboard camera captured footage of Sgt. Andrew Davenport punching 53-year-old Darla Wright in August.

Davenport is on paid administrative leave, said Brian Hyer, spokesman for the Utah Department of Public Safety.

Wright was speeding in Ogden when officers tried to pull her over, authorities said late Saturday. According to an incident report, the driver evaded police, and a chase ensued. Authorities stopped the woman by trapping her car between two vehicles.

"The suspect was still trying to escape, she had the accelerator floored and engine revving in an attempt to push our vehicles out of the way," Davenport wrote in an incident report.

Davenport said Wright would not roll down her window and gripped on the steering wheel.

On the video, Davenport is seen breaking the driver's side window, reaching into the car and repeatedly punching the woman.

"She refused to comply with commands to give us her hands," Davenport wrote. "Due to my close proximity to the suspect and my experience with Taser failure at such close distances, I delivered three close hand strikes to her head in an attempt to gain compliance with our commands. I did this to distract and stun her and to stop her from trying to drive off and strike our vehicles or possibly run us over. The strikes worked and we were able to grab her hands."

Hyer said investigations involve "multiple layers of reviews." It is unclear when the reviews might be completed.

"The Sgt. Davenport investigation is a personnel matter, and I am limited at what I can say," Hyer said. "There have been several reviews and an investigation, and right now we have a pending personnel matter."

Hyer confirmed to CNN that Davenport is a cousin of Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner D. Lance Davenport, but police say the relationship will not affect the case.

Hyer said the commissioner told him he believes in doing the right thing.

"The commissioner expects all of his employees to be held accountable for his or her actions," Hyer said. "There is a relationship between Commissioner Davenport and Sgt. Davenport, but that's it. It has no bearing on this case."

CNN attempted to reach Sgt. Davenport, but the Department of Public Safety is not allowing him to speak, Hyer said.

The driver was eventually taken into custody on suspicion of driving under the influence, eluding police, reckless driving, assault on a police officer and resisting arrest. Attempts to reach her were unsuccessful.
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Based on the information provided here, it sounds as if the officer behaved reasonably. His explanation makes solid sense. There could always be a gap between the reality and his description of events, and I haven't seen the video, but I'm inclined to agree. It sounds as if he did his best. A maniac is a maniac, old lady or no.
 
I can agree with that. He used non-lethal force in a situation where he could have.
 
Okay without watching the video it sounds like he did what he could to solve the problem. She sounds like she was still a danger to the situation and needed to be stopped. If he had tazered her it could have potentially made the situation worse.

Bottom line she was running from the cops in her car and was still in the car with it on when this happened. She's fair game at that point. Frankly he probably would have been justified shooting her if she was really trying to push the police cars out of the way to escape again. She was endangering the police and others with her actions and it sounds like he was in the right.

Now that I had time to watch the video I still think he was in the right.
 
you guys are defending an armed police officer flanked by several other armed police officers breaking the window of an old woman's car and punching her five times in the face
 
Get Down said:
you guys are defending an armed police officer flanked by several other armed police officers breaking the window of an old woman's car and punching her five times in the face
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Yes, what's your point?
 
Gameface said:
Yes, what's your point?
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well um perhaps people should wait for more information before calling her a "maniac" as punching someone's window out before immediately beating the **** out of them isn't exactly considered polite behavior in its own right
 
Get Down said:
well um perhaps people should wait for more information before calling her a "maniac" as punching someone's window out before immediately beating the **** out of them isn't exactly considered polite behavior in its own right
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But it is clear in the video that even after being PIT maneuvered off the road she tries to ram the police car and after two cars block her in she is still trying to push her way out. That could easily result in someone's death. The police officer subdued her without killing her, which he very well may have been justified to do.
 
Why do people that disobey the law, put others at risk, and drive cops on a wild goose chase feel like they're victims somehow? It's ALWAYS seems to end this way these days.

Obey the damn law. If the cops want to pull you over, pull over.
When you don't, you waiver whatever rights you had. If they blow you away, then that's what you get for failing to obey the law.

In these case, the cop punched her. Better than getting shot IMO.

I just grow tired of all these "victims." What about the potentially real victims? The cops, their families, the people she could have killed? This woman isn't a victim. She's an idiot that deserved an *** kicking and the loss of her car and license.
 
Gameface said:
But it is clear in the video that even after being PIT maneuvered off the road she tries to ram the police car and after two cars block her in she is still trying to push her way out. That could easily result in someone's death. The police officer subdued her without killing her, which he very well may have been justified to do.
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i don't really see how it's clear?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0vdeCwGPC4

and though the video in archie's article mentions a second police officer using a taser to subdue wright in addition to davenport's punches, the article doesn't.

so. the car appears to be stopped. there are four officers surrounding the car. one breaks her window and IMMEDIATELY begins punching her, multiple times, in the head. a second officer uses his taser. the other two stand there yelling, aiming their guns at her.

given that the nature of her crime is still murky at this point, i'm not going to give the benefit of the doubt to the police officers. this seems excessive.
 
They do a great job of spinning that video. It is carefully edited to show exactly what they want it to show. I would like to see the uncut footage from the dash cam. From at least one angle it looks like the car is still moving back and forth as if she is pumping the gas pedal as the officer claimed.

For me the kicker is the witch-hunt mentality against the trooper. Notice how little time was given to the fact that the woman was driving a 3000 lb projectile that could have easily killed multiple people, that she purposefully evaded police when they tried to get her to simply pull over, that she led them on a chase that put civilian lives in danger on every street she drove down, and that she did not heed an officer's lawful warnings and still attempted to flee and possibly run over anyone nearby.

Noooo, she is just a cute little grandma who was driving 23 mph in a 50 mph zone until the evil horrible pigs jumped her unawares in her car and beat the crap out of her because they were bored.


Whatever, she deserves to be in jail.
 
LogGrad98 said:
They do a great job of spinning that video. It is carefully edited to show exactly what they want it to show. I would like to see the uncut footage from the dash cam. From at least one angle it looks like the car is still moving back and forth as if she is pumping the gas pedal as the officer claimed.

For me the kicker is the witch-hunt mentality against the trooper. Notice how little time was given to the fact that the woman was driving a 3000 lb projectile that could have easily killed multiple people, that she purposefully evaded police when they tried to get her to simply pull over, that she led them on a chase that put civilian lives in danger on every street she drove down, and that she did not heed an officer's lawful warnings and still attempted to flee and possibly run over anyone nearby.

Noooo, she is just a cute little grandma who was driving 23 mph in a 50 mph zone until the evil horrible pigs jumped her unawares in her car and beat the crap out of her because they were bored.


Whatever, she deserves to be in jail.
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thriller is a better fakeposter than you fyi.
 
Get Down said:
well um perhaps people should wait for more information before calling her a "maniac" as punching someone's window out before immediately beating the **** out of them isn't exactly considered polite behavior in its own right
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Dude, the video shows her running from the police and ramming into their cars. She deserved what she got, regardless of age.
 
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