They didn't "lose" the case, they settled. Big difference.
When your settlement means you are the one paying out, it could be argued you are the looser.
I watched the video. Unless I am missing something, I have no idea how that man could have gotten $270,000. He gets up and walks with the officer to the car. What I see is a drunk, obnoxious man, and an officer who maybe over reacts slightly.
His settlement stems from the severity of his injuries. When he's walking back to the car, his broken ribs have already punctured several major organs, and it was while he was in intensive care that he was given a five percent chance of survival.
I also saw a drunk, obnoxious man summoned out of his home in the dead of night. He was in his shorts, another resident can be seen in a bathrobe. One of the first things the officer comments on was that the man was drinking, and bluffs a stock laundry list of usual symptoms (slurred speech, stumbling, bloodshot eyes).
The officer becomes noticeably agitated when he fails a challenge to state what color the mans "bloodshot eyes" are.
He quickly looses composure.
At 6:52 minutes into the tape, officer moves in chest to chest, sticks finger in suspects face. The suspect comments "back up" and the officer yells "No im not gonna back up!" and continues to yell while the suspect speaks softly. By 7:50 the officer has moved so close into the suspects face that the suspect's teetering makes contact ("assault"), at which point the officer escalates the encounter into physical violence and begins shoving.
City legal saw they couldnt win this one.
In Civil court, the ineptitude of Internal Affairs and the cronyism of the DA are all stripped away, and you have to deal with just the evidence. The video plainly showed the officer had lost control of his professional conduct, and the city decided to cut it's losses and write a $270,000 check for the damage he caused.
Anyone who has had to pay for hospitalization lately knows the victim isnt exactly rolling in cash now after having to pay two weeks of intensive care and subsequent rehabilitation.
This could have been a lot more costly if the city had to loose this in front of a jury.
The saddest part is that there were no consequences to those that acted irresponsibly on behalf of the city, and no apparent incentive to keep something like this from happening again. The money to pay for lawsuits grows on the taxpayer tree, and we know that's limitless....
If anything, it reminds me that officers really do have to put up with all sorts of cr*p.
Yes, they do. They have to maintain their professionalism while having to deal with the worst of society.
Many succeed, but there are too many others that devolve to the point where they view everyone as the worst of society, and they become ineffective.
...and expensive.
Guess who I'd put first in line on the layoff list?
The union would prevent that, since they have seniority.
These are the people the FOP fight hardest to protect.
It will be the fresh, bright-eyed youths right out of the academy that will end up thrown under the bus.
