BALTIMORE, MD (WBAL/CNN) – A police officer in Maryland is caught on camera punching a man after exchanging words. However, it’s the man who was charged with assault. “It was a very vicious attack that was uncalled and unwarranted,” said Ivan Bates. Attorneys Ivan Bates and Tony Garcia announce a seven count lawsuit against Baltimore police officer Vincent Cosom Monday. Bates and Garcia claim their client, 32-year-old Kollin Truss, is the victim of police brutality and the alleged attack was all caught on police surveillance video. According to charging documents back on June 15, officer Cosom says he saw an intoxicated Truss loitering in front of a liquor store at Greenmount and North avenues and told him to move. The two exchanged words and Truss went into the liquor store to make a purchase. When Truss came out, a female friend of his is seen on the video pushing him away from officers as more words are exchanged. Eventually Truss is backed into a nearby bus stop and all of a sudden, Truss’ attorneys say, officer Cosom comes out of nowhere and hits Truss several times. Truss is eventually arrested and charged with assaulting an officer. “There’s a pattern here, first these officers are stripping clients of their dignity, their rights, then charging with an assault that they themselves have perpetrated it’s the same pattern, stripped of rights and forced him to submit, this is not Baltimore justice it’s Baltimore horror,” Garcia said. Truss’ attorneys say that their client is the victim and that officer Cosom lied on his police report about fearing for his life when it was their client who was in danger. They also claim a police cover-up as they say charges were immediately dropped once the state’s attorney’s office saw the video. “There was a video from the Citywatch camera, meaning the BPD was manning the camera, watched the vicious assault on our client and then said absolutely nothing at all,” Bates said. Truss’ attorneys say they are hoping for a settlement in the case and a full police investigation. “Now there a number of good Baltimore Police officers however the ones that are vicious and violent and that are terrorizing the community they need to go,” Bates said.
Source WBAL/CNN KHON 2
http://khon2.com/2014/09/15/maryland-police-officer-punches-man-charges-him-with-assault/
16 Comments
siftbotsays...The thumbnail image for this video has been updated - thumbnail added by eric3579.
newtboysays...The one's that are sitting silently allowing those violent criminal cops to terrorize the community need to go too. Yesterday.
I certainly hope all involved here, from the officer, the other arresting officers, the chief, and the camera monitor all lost their jobs and are prosecuted for filing a false police report, assault and battery, hindering prosecution, kidnapping, false imprisonment, etc. Each and every one of them were complicit here and just happened to get caught this time by their own tools.
rancorsays...No kidding. Shit like this hidden behind the "wall of blue" is such a betrayal of public trust. It takes egregious stories like this for them to ever do anything about it. (Which, fortunately, sometimes they actually do.)
edit: Jesus, I watched a second time and it's brutally clear that the camera is actively manned (pan/zoom), and that there are at least three officers physically present. Yeah, egregious is the word.
Paybackjokingly says...Please, even after just a couple views it's OBVIOUS he smashed his face belligerently on the cop's fist.
lantern53says...I think the guy stripped his own dignity when he got drunk.
But what about this possibility? The black cop and the black drunk share a black history, they understand each other, and when the black cop punches the guy in the face, both know that the drunk will understand it.
Anyway, the black cop probably learned from slavery that punching black men in the face is acceptable, and the black drunk knows from slavery that getting punched is what happens.
So...somebody tell the lawyers.
Bottom line...fault lies with white people, who enslaved black people.
Another way to handle it would be for the cops to ignore drunks, and when the drunk falls face first into an alley and the dayshift cop comes across him, he just calls the squad, who pack the guy off to the detox center. No harm, no foul. We just raise taxes to pay for all the additional detox centers and ambulances. People will be happy to pay extra just so there is peace on the street...and the occasional drunk to step over.
Bucksays...copblock.org
aaronfrsays...Straight to trolling since you can't spout your usual BS about how we don't know everything that happened before we saw this and being a cop is dangerous and that guy probably had an attitude towards the cop.
When confronted with a video where the police are clearly in the wrong, rather than condemn them, you just throw out straw men left and right. It would be laughable if it weren't sad that you can't recognize your own biases.
I think the guy stripped his own dignity when he got drunk.
But what about this possibility? The black cop and the black drunk share a black history, they understand each other, and when the black cop punches the guy in the face, both know that the drunk will understand it.
Anyway, the black cop probably learned from slavery that punching black men in the face is acceptable, and the black drunk knows from slavery that getting punched is what happens.
So...somebody tell the lawyers.
Bottom line...fault lies with white people, who enslaved black people.
Another way to handle it would be for the cops to ignore drunks, and when the drunk falls face first into an alley and the dayshift cop comes across him, he just calls the squad, who pack the guy off to the detox center. No harm, no foul. We just raise taxes to pay for all the additional detox centers and ambulances. People will be happy to pay extra just so there is peace on the street...and the occasional drunk to step over.
Engelssays...I still don't understand why sift tolerates the token right wing troll. It used to be someone else, he's gone, now there's this guy. Its a shame, because otherwise the sift community is rather nice.
newtboysays...His blatant racism didn't used to be as constant or blatant. I think with his comrade gone he feels the need to ramp it up to make up for a lack of insanity, instead of learning to follow sift rules.
I still don't understand why sift tolerates the token right wing troll. It used to be someone else, he's gone, now there's this guy. Its a shame, because otherwise the sift community is rather nice.
Paybacksays...Be pretty boring if we all agreed on everything. I've never really noticed him ad hominem attack anyone here unless he was attacked first for posting his opinion, which he's entitled to. Think of it as practice for arguing those ideas in real life...
The people I really don't like are of the ShinyBlurry ilk. Not even due to his religious beliefs (which I don't think are real) but his basic pigheaded judgmental verbal diarrhea of people here, let alone on the videos. He can go.
I still don't understand why sift tolerates the token right wing troll. It used to be someone else, he's gone, now there's this guy. Its a shame, because otherwise the sift community is rather nice.
VoodooVsays...so it's ok to ad hom me if I criticize your ideas?
It's ok to be a racist as long as I'm just "defending" myself?
Lantern is a long time troll. and this is just his latest racist rant.
Time for him to go.
Be pretty boring if we all agreed on everything. I've never really noticed him ad hominem attack anyone here unless he was attacked first for posting his opinion, which he's entitled to. Think of it as practice for arguing those ideas in real life...
The people I really don't like are of the ShinyBlurry ilk. Not even due to his religious beliefs (which I don't think are real) but his basic pigheaded judgmental verbal diarrhea of people here, let alone on the videos. He can go.
rancorsays...I would always give someone the benefit of the doubt in an opinion-type situation for all the usual free speech reasons, primarily for the contrasting viewpoints. In fact, I gave lantern that benefit for a very long time because not all of his arguments were trollish, and often forced me to work through my own viewpoints that much more thoroughly. But over time I decided the stress cost of the troll parts was not worth the benefit, so I turned on the ignore and haven't looked back.
I still don't understand why sift tolerates the token right wing troll. It used to be someone else, he's gone, now there's this guy. Its a shame, because otherwise the sift community is rather nice.
messengersays...So, you think Lantern can share his opinions, but SB can't? Why?
Be pretty boring if we all agreed on everything. I've never really noticed him ad hominem attack anyone here unless he was attacked first for posting his opinion, which he's entitled to. Think of it as practice for arguing those ideas in real life...
The people I really don't like are of the ShinyBlurry ilk. Not even due to his religious beliefs (which I don't think are real) but his basic pigheaded judgmental verbal diarrhea of people here, let alone on the videos. He can go.
Paybacksays..."Allowing" opinions like Lantern's makes it possible to begin to understand the "wrong" side of the argument.
SB is just a deluded, self-aggrandizing zealot. He has no qualms attacking sifters without provocation, based only on his microscopically narrow, scientifically impossible world view.
...but, I haven't seen evidence of him in months, so I'm hoping the question is moot anyway.
So, you think Lantern can share his opinions, but SB can't? Why?
lurgeesays...North Avenue? One of the many bad neighborhoods of Charm City.
VoodooVsays...are you saying we have to allow trolls like lantern in so we know what a troll is?
That's fucked up dude.
racism isn't a "different" opinion It's a BAD opinion.
"Allowing" opinions like Lantern's makes it possible to begin to understand the "wrong" side of the argument.
SB is just a deluded, self-aggrandizing zealot. He has no qualms attacking sifters without provocation, based only on his microscopically narrow, scientifically impossible world view.
...but, I haven't seen evidence of him in months, so I'm hoping the question is moot anyway.
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