Joseph Swink
By Elaine Magliaro
Adam McDonald of KMOV reported yesterday that police in St. Ann, Missouri, had apologized to an innocent college student “after they admitted to causing severe injuries to his face” when they arrested him Thursday afternoon. Twenty-two-year-old Joseph Swink was on his way home from an internship when police, who were in pursuit of Anton Simmons, mistook Swink for Simmons. Simmons was wanted on seventeen different warrants.
According to reports, Simmons’s car crashed and went into a ditch–where he was arrested. St. Ann Police Chief Aaron Jimenez said that Swink’s car had been clipped by the suspect and had also crashed. Swink ran from his vehicle when it began to fill with smoke. He was tackled and injured by officers who thought Swink was the suspect police were pursuing.
Roche Madden (Fox2News) reported that when a second police car arrived on the scene, “the three detectives inside only saw Swink’s car and him running from it. Police assumed the worst.” Chief Jimenez said, “They ended up grabbing him [Swink], tossing him to the ground, and were trying to handcuff him. All the sirens and lights were going off. It was very loud and they couldn’t hear anything the citizen was saying.” The police chief also said, “Most of the time when you see that you know this is the bad guy. He’s running. Unfortunately, he was a citizen.”
David Ferguson (Raw Story) reported that Swink “suffered serious injuries to his left ear and his vehicle was totaled.” Photographs of Swink’s face show that it was severely bruised and bloodied after his encounter with police.
While the St. Ann Police Department has apologized, it said that the mistaken identity had “zero to do about race.” Swink told Fox 2 News that he felt differently. He said, “There was nobody black on the scene, just a lot of white cops. I didn’t feel safe around them. I think they probably felt they could get away with it because I was and they can do this.” Swink was also quoted as saying, “I never really had 100 percent trust in police before. But I really don’t now.”
Swink, an accounting student at the University of Missouri, has no criminal record.
SOURCES
St. Louis cops apologize for beating wrong black man bloody in chase after suspect (Raw Story)
St. Ann Police admit to injuring, arresting wrong person after chase (KMOV)
Police In St. Louis County Admit They Beat Up The Wrong Young Black Man (ThinkProgress)
St. Ann police chief apologizes for mistaken arrest and injury after chase (Fox2Now)
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Elaine,
You should read how the St Louis Post Dispatch (famous for “leaking” all that info in the Wilson/Brown case) framed this story.
First we have the headline: “St. Ann Police chief apologizes for officers handcuffing wrong man after chase”
Then this in the article itself: “The officers will not be disciplined because it was an honest mistake, Jimenez said.”
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/st-ann-police-chief-apologizes-for-officers-handcuffing-wrong-man/article_be6ce5f8-77df-5648-8c3f-1125e62ddf4a.html
Blouise,
Thanks for that link. Just an honest mistake…that’s all it was.
http://www.ocalapost.com/deputy-disciplined-after-he-ordered-cpr-to-be-halted-on-a-child/
Swink forgot to ask, “Mother, May I?”
woof
Bob,
At least they didn’t shoot Swink while he was running from his car.
*****
Pete,
That’s an interesting story.
Another case of a mistaken identity beating by police in San Antonio:
Trio of SAPD officers suspended for ‘mistaken identity’ beating
http://www.kens5.com/story/news/investigations/i-team/2015/01/08/sapd-beating-mistaken-identity-update/21457943/
Excerpt:
SAN ANTONIO — Three San Antonio Police officers were suspended last month for using excessive force on a man the department admits was mistaken for a felony suspect.
The city released suspension information for the three officers Wednesday.
The beating happened in May 2014 in the 10600 block of Westover Hills Boulevard. The victim, Roger Carlos, suffered broken teeth and injuries to his face, neck and back. Carlos said Thursday he has undergone two procedures to relieve neck pain because of the beating, and still has only limited movement.
He told the I-Team he has racked up around $15,000 in medical bills so far.
“These guys, they beat me like a bunch of thugs,” Carlos said Thursday.
Carlos was taking photos of a building that now houses his wife’s medical practice when two SAPD SWAT officers and an undercover drug task force officer approached him.
Carlos said he was struck about 50 times, even though he complied with the officers’ instructions and did not fight back.
According to an SAPD incident report released to the I-Team last summer, the officers had been pursuing a suspect nearby who was wanted on a felony warrant.
So why do police feel they have the right to beat up a suspect guilty or innocent? To my mind there has to be a lot of sadistic pleasure involved and that those who do it should lose their jobs because they are unfit for duty.
It’s called the SA Brown Shirt Syndrome in that the being suspect is all that is required by the command structure and society as a whole.
Mike, I agree. Even if Swink were the actual suspect he should not have been injured as he was. And, yes, the good news is that he wasn’t shot and he lived to tell his side of it.
Hope he sues and gets enough to cover his medical bills, including whatever counseling he’ll need, a new car, legal fees, and more.
I attended a community council/police meeting last week. A detective and a uniform of some rank (7 stripes on his sleeve) attended, a mediator consultant working for the city, 2 community members and 5 or 6 members of the council. Community councils have been set up in each police area for these conversations.
The woman from the community who chaired the meeting was very concerned about letting the community know how great the cops are. One woman on the council asked about what she should be telling gang members since she has contact with some of them as individuals. The cops tried to address her question, asked in 2 or 3 different ways, but I don’t think she got a satisfactory answer.
Message from the detective is that the new chief, the one who claimed that the officers who killed the homeless man didn’t do anything wrong, is hardline about disciplining officers who go over the line. [cognitive dissonance on my part]. He said that an officer whose camera malfunctioned twice during an arrest was fired. These two cops have both shot someone, no indication of fatality or not. They advocate that the cop be interviewed 3-4 days after the event when their head has cleared and they can remember what happened. There is too much adrenaline and shock for them to be accurate at the time. The detective claimed that the choke hold on Garner wasn’t really a choke hold and he thought there were many other ways that situation could have been handled. He, quite reasonably, wouldn’t comment on the situation with the homeless man
The cop in uniform made a video that he claimed was on you-tube that tells how people should behave if stopped by the cops. I had my computer and wifi at the time but couldn’t find it. They promised to email a link to me. I’m still waiting. I’m sure he included the parts about how the cops want to be protected. I’m curious if he included the parts about how the citizen should protect his/her rights.
Mr. Swink’s face shows how someone who’s actually been hit hard, looks. Darren Wilson should try to copy this look, next time he sustains a “shattered eye socket.”
Bettykath,
Re: your community meeting, back when I worked for NYC in the Welfare Department we used to call our community meetings “dog and pony” shows. The idea was to give the impression of a sympathetic ear, while providing justification for what the Agency was doing, right or wrong. The problem was that the politics of the issue in the Agency and with the politics of those over the Agency reports to, limits any real response to community feedback. Ergo “dog and pony show”.
The other aspect that enters in here is that the power of police unions presents a menacing aspect towards the politicians they report to, as we see in NYC with Mayor DiBlasio.
Mike, In addition to what I reported earlier, there was a question from one of the councilors about excessive force. I was glad the question was asked. The answer was about the chief having no tolerance for it and officers would be disciplined. I was prepared for a dog and pony show. I believe the community councils are basically that, a pr event. Considering that the members of the community are “approved” and there were only 2 other members of the community there, I don’t see these meetings as being very effective. Just prior to the group meeting there was a police shooting where they claim that that the suspect shot first and police returned fire. He died. Police claim the person shot was wearing a bullet proof vest. A witness said he heard two different guns.
Current police chief was hired Feb. 2014. He has fired two officers:
Vigil was fired in April in connection to a police response for suspected child abuse. No incident report was filed, and a 9-year-old child who lived there, Omaree Varela, later died as a result of suspected child abuse. Vigil attorney has said his client planned to appeal the firing.
Parrish was fired in July for numerous policy violations that included lack of familiarity with laws, insubordination, failure to report for duty, not responding promptly to calls and not writing reports. There was nothing in his termination letter that stated he was suspected of using excessive force.
http://www.abqjournal.com/497237/news/five-of-17-officers-fired-at-apd-let-go-due-to-use-of-force-violations.html
James Boyd, the homeless man, was killed in March 2014. Why did it take so long for there to be a preliminary hearing on this shooting? (Thank goodness it isn’t a private gj hearing!)
“In a newly released dashboard audio recording obtained by KOB4, officer Keith Sandy can be heard dismissing Boyd as a “fucking lunatic” and threatening to shoot the man in the penis with a shotgun just two hours before the deadly confrontation.
In an interview with the station, civil rights attorney Shannon Kennedy — who is representing Boyd’s family in a wrongful death suit — said the fatal shooting of Boyd may have been premeditated.
“It’s chilling evidence and stunning that he has not been criminally indicted,” Kennedy said of Sandy. “He says to a state police officer ‘that f’ing lunatic, I’m going to shoot him in the penis. It’s crystal clear and he says it with contempt in his voice.’”
.
.
This isn’t the first time Sandy and the department have faced criticism. In 2007, Sandy was fired from the New Mexico State police over accusations of fraud, KRQE reported. He then joined the Albuquerque Police Department. His rise through the ranks, however, has come at a time that the APB has been under Department of Justice review.
Since 2012, APB officers have shot 25 suspects, resulting in 17 fatalities.
Since 2010, Albuquerque police have shot more people than the NYPD, even though the NYPD is a much larger law enforcement agency, serving a city 16 times as large, according to a statement by ProgressNow, a grassroots advocacy group.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/30/james-boyd-lunatic-penis_n_5907696.html
——————
New Albuquerque Police chief Gorden Eden said Friday the video shows that the latest officer involved shooting is justified.
http://krqe.com/2014/03/21/apd-officer-involved-shooting-was-justified/
Rationale for a good shoot is in this article.
oh, dear. My post was in moderation so I re-posted, breaking up the number of links. Maybe you could delete the first so the thread isn’t unnecessarily long? Thanks..
At the community-cop meeting, the detective, after the meeting, said that Garner was not in choke hold b/c the cop had one of his arms around his neck and the other under Garner’s arm. I finally checked. Detective didn’t get it right. It’s very clear that the cop had both arms above Garner’s, left arm around his neck and right arm around his neck holding his left hand. Both of Garner’s hands were on the ground. Easy to see. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2014/dec/04/i-cant-breathe-eric-garner-chokehold-death-video