In an effort to get back on topic... On top of everything else, there are dozens of reasons why it is a bad idea to piss off the media. Does anyone know if they were in their designated "media areas"? LAPD agreed in their 2001 lawsuit settlement not to assault journalists in designated media areas. Doesn't mean they should assault the ones that stray out of there... Doesn't mean they should fire into crowds that aren't violently resisting either.

I always remember the twist at the end where the family of Matasareanu filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the LAPD for basicly allowing him to bleed to death in the street. If memory serves, he was alive but significantly wounded, handcuffed, and laying on the road with police all around him for more than an hour before recieving medical assistance.

Oh, its mentioned in the wikipedia article, but only says the trial resulted in a hung jury and the family dropped the case.

google search for 'Matasareanu lawsuit' showed the jury trial was "hopelessly locked" at 9 to 3.

The incident highlighted the growing divergence between the means available to the police and the offensive and defensive technologies employed by criminals. Video footage of the incident clearly shows police pistol bullets striking the suspects with little or no effect, largely due to the body armor worn by the suspects. Their body armor was able to stop the .38 caliber and 9 mm projectiles fired by the officers' service handguns.

The ineffectiveness of the pistol rounds in penetrating the suspects' body armor led to a trend in the United States towards arming selected police patrol officers with .223 caliber/5.56 mm AR-15s semiautomatic rifles. This provided first responders with greater ability to effectively confront and neutralize heavily armed and armored criminals.

Advocates of gun control in the United States cited the incident as evidence that U.S. gun control laws were inadequate to prevent military-class weaponry ending up in the hands of prior felons. Opponents of gun control counter that as the weapons had been obtained illegally, the incident did not indicate that criminal use of legally registered fully automatic firearms was a problem.

The LAPD patrol officers were not adequately armed or protected to deal with such criminals. The gunmen were firing rifle rounds from illegally-modified fully automatic assault rifles while being protected by full body armor. The officers' handguns and shotguns could not penetrate the suspects' armor, while the suspects' weapons were capable of severely wounding officers and bystanders through cement walls and automobiles.

The North Hollywood shootout was an armed confrontation between two heavily-armed and armored bank robbers (Larry Eugene Phillips, Jr. and Emil Dechebal Matasareanu) and patrol and SWAT officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) on February 28, 1997, at a Bank of America teller-office.

The shootout resulted in the wounding of fourteen people (twelve police officers and two civilians) and the deaths of both bank robbers. Although only the suspects were killed, the sheer number of injuries made this one of the bloodiest single cases of violent crime in the 1990s, and one of the most significant single bank robberies of the 20th century.

The Weapons
Larry Phillips and Emil Matasareanu had a large array of firearms, which included:

o HK91: Used by Phillips as he fired at officers on the left side of the bank, the rifle itself took a hit to the bolt guide rails, which caused little damage.

o Type 56 Assault Rifle: Used by Phillips after discarding the HK91, as he started the escape. The rifle jammed.

o AK47s: Both Phillips and Matasareanu used these rifles during the robbery.

o Bushmaster AR15: Matasareanu retrieved this rifle from the trunk of their getaway car after sustaining a leg wound. He then waited in the car for Phillips, while shooting through the windows. This was also the rifle used by Matasareanu as he was engaged in his last shootout with SWAT officers.

o Beretta 92 9mm pistol: Phillips committed suicide with this weapon after sustaining several gunshot wounds.

Facts
* Approximately 370 LAPD officers were called to the scene.

* Other than the LAPD, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and units of the California Highway Patrol (CHP) responded to the scene. In the MVP documentary film, the LAPD sergeant being interviewed discusses the roles of those agencies as well as LA Airport PD, Burbank PD and LA School PD. Off-duty LAPD officers came in prior to the announcement of city-wide TAC-ALERT, which activates all personnel on duty. Members of the LAPD training at the Valley area police academy as well as the main LA police academy located in Elysian Park also responded. SWAT officers also responded from the police academy. One response was from Chief Willie Williams, who came from Parker Center, the LAPD's headquarters, located downtown.

* The following year, seventeen LAPD officers were awarded Medals of Valor from the department for their actions and bravery during the shootout.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_hollywood_shootout


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i34fbTMEius The video is from the film adaptation 44 minutes : North Hollywood Shootout - "Based on a shocking true story, 44 MINUTES recounts a fateful day in the life of several LAPD officers. In the summer of 1997 in North Hollywood, two wild gunmen with AK-47's began an assault on dozens of defenseless policemen. The results were tragic, but in the midst of the madness several well-trained and heroic individuals rose to the challenge, saving innumerable lives in the process."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0362389/

Ok - this guys a tool. Period.

If your dealing with a law enforcement at ANY time - you better comply with their requests immediately.

Should he have been repeatedly tased? Yup. Why? Because he did not comply with the officers request. Obviously the kid was not trying to comply. Right after he was being tased he would spout anti-political nonsense that had nothing to deal with the fact he was being an asshole. Although the officers used seemingly excessive force the guy was an idiot for A) Not complying quickly. and B) for trying to cause a riot with his actions. It is the officers first job to protect themselves and those around them - even if the moron students had no real clue as to what was going on with the situation.

If you feel your being unfairly treated - it would be wise to talk with a lawyer AFTER the incident. I have unfort dealt with the LAPD many times in my life. And 99% of the time I was treated just as I should. I was never beaten, tortured, or injured while dealing with them (even though I probably deserved it a few times)

The LAPD and the FBI launched an investigation after a home video was filmed by a female bystander showing the brutal arrest of 23 year-old William Cardenas in Hollywood on August 23rd. The amateur video shows a police officer sitting on the victim as a second officer places his knee on the victims throat and punches him six times in the face as Cardenas lies on his back, waving his arms and calling for help, "I can't breathe!" He suffered black eyes and a split lip, requiring stitches above his right eyelid to repair the damage inflicted by the LAPD officers. ACLU official Ramona Ripston charges that "Californians are entitled to more transparency than a chance video. YouTube is not an acceptable substitute for accountability." For more on this story visit http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-beating11nov11,0,3597574.story?coll=la-home-local

westy, I think you're thinking of Mike Ruppert. He's an ex-LAPD cop who busted the CIA trying to move drugs through LA, and he's now a journalist. His website is here: http://www.fromthewilderness.com/

The clip is to be found near the start of 'The Truth and Lies of 9-11' - go here: http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=8797525979024486145&q=ruppert

I'm not going to post it because it's over two hours long, and theo47 will probably go mental if I do!

Freeze-uh! lapd