So last weekend a St. Louis cop got caught whipping a guy’s ass. Maybe you’ve heard about it.
Oh like you thought we weren’t going to make an animated gif out of this?!
First off, I think we were all pretty surprised that it wasn’t a black guy getting beat up here. No no no, it’s ok. When you clicked on a link that says “Police Officer Caught Beating a Guy” you totally expected to see a black guy getting his ass whooped. I bet if the camera did a 180, you’d see a black guy coming out of the gas station with a hotdog, jumbo soda and his jaw laying on the ground in front of him. The world works in mysterious was to keep itself in balance though. Just as this St. Louis cop was beating the booze out of this white guy, somewhere in Mississippi, a black guy finally got decent service at a Cracker Barrel.
Moving on…
If we take a moment to break down the video of a police incident that occurred New Year’s Eve at the gas station at Arsenal and Highway 55 (right across from Gus’ Pretzels). First thing you hear is the woman passenger saying “Oh my god! That guy told the cop to shut up! Oh my god!” with the suspect already on his knees and hands cuffed behind him. At that point the officer, who, according to the gas station attendant was off-duty ans working “security” at the station, grabs the man by his shoulders, throwing him to the ground. The officer then take out ole Mr. Billy Club, give himself a little ass tap with it (seriously, watch it again) and proceeds to beat the hell out of a detained helpless man with his face on the gas station concrete. Gross. Gas station concrete has to smell like mixture of gas, nacho cheese and ass. That had to be the worst part of all of this…or maybe it was getting beaten with a stick while handcuffed and then maced.
“The guy was plainly drunk,” [gas station owner Joel] Platke said. “Inebriated.”
STLToday has identified the officer as Dustin Ries, an officer who has moonlighted as security at the gas station for some time, and received a second-hand report from the gas station owner that…
“The officer grabbed him and tried to get him to come out of the car. The guy fell onto his chest and locked his arms around this officer’s ankles and would not let go,” Platke said. “(The officer) was there with his feet locked together, screaming at this guy to let go. He used his baton to try to hit him to get him to let go. He finally had to use (pepper spray) and the guy finally let go.”
The problem with that report is that it isn’t quite what the video shows.
As we said earlier, it’s clear the suspect didn’t fall to his chest, but was clearly grabbed by the collar and pushed down by Officer Ries. It’s not clear from the video if his hands were cuffed at this point, since they appear to be behind his back initially, but then fall forward as he goes towards the ground. So, if unrestrained, he could be holding the officer’s feet as reported, and it does look like the officer’s posture supports that claim somewhat. Now could you argue that hitting a drunk guy seven times with your club is a bit excessive he just has a hold of your ankles is a bit much. In fact the incident doesn’t end until the officer maces the suspect. Why not just do that in the beginning? There was no reason to hit a guy, full force, with a baton seven times.
In other YouTube news, did you see the video of the homeless guy with the amazing radio voice? YouTube is awesome! Officer Ries probably isn’t a big fan right now though.
[Editor’s Note: Updated title to better reflect our article content.]