Police Brutality - Officer Points Gun In Girls Face

WHEN AGNES LAWLESS and three friends were inside a Lukoil convenience store in the Northeast at 3 a.m. last August, they'd all but forgotten the fender-bender in which they'd been involved moments earlier.

There was little damage, and the other driver had left the scene, near Northeast Philadelphia Airport.

What they didn't know was that they'd been rear-ended by the son of a police officer who was on duty, and dad was about to get involved.

Lawless was standing at the counter of the store, at Comly Road and Roosevelt Boulevard, smiling and chatting with the clerk, when she was grabbed from behind and violently pushed back with a police officer's gun in her face.

"He hit me with his left hand, and he had his gun in his right hand," Lawless said. "He pushed his gun into the left side of my neck. It caused a scrape-type bruise on my neck."

After a chaotic struggle, Lawless was arrested and charged with assaulting the officer.

Lawless and her three friends, all in their early 20s, filed complaints with the Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau. But in cases in which it's a defendant's word against a police officer's, the benefit of doubt often falls to the cop.

Except when there's video.

Once surveillance video from the store's four security cameras was released, the case against Lawless collapsed, and disciplinary action commenced against the officer, Alberto Lopez Sr. A lawsuit against the city is likely.

The incident provides a vivid example of how the countless video recordings generated today by security cameras and cell phones are affecting police work.

Drexel Law School professor Donald Tibbs said that video recordings are capturing more criminal activity and assisting prosecutions, but they're also monitoring police conduct.

"Police are now aware they're more accountable for their actions, because these tapes may be used against them in misconduct cases or civil-rights lawsuits," Tibbs said.

And Tibbs said that there are numerous cases of police seeking to confiscate and destroy tapes that may have captured a police action.

Visit: http://www.stopthebrutality.org/

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[newfoundlandidiot]

bring on the caps lock.

[PhillyCopsAreCorrupt]

COPS CARE LITTLE IF AT ALL ABOUT HUMANITY OR JUSTICE. THEIR ONLY CONCERN IS TO FUEL THEIR UNWARRANTED GOD COMPLEXES, FAUX BLUE-COLLAR HERO VANITIES, PETTY TYRANNIES, AND UNJUSTIFIABLY INFLATED EGOS WITH THE BLOOD OF TAXPAYERS WHO IRONICALLY PAY COPS FOR PROTECTION!

[FkPoliceThe]

loser and your son is a loser...dumb cop...wishing aids on yah

[PhillyCopsAreFelons]

That fact that Officer Alberto Lopez is STILL a cop screams volumes about the contempt that the Philadelphia Police Department has for the taxpayers who ironically pay them for protection! Not only should Lopez have been fired over this incident, but he should have been prosecuted for simple and aggravated assault, possession of an instrument of crime, witness intimidation, evidence tampering, conspiracy, false arrest, terroristic threats, perjury, harassment, and several other crimes.

[alexherrera84]

This isn't a race issue. I'm Hispanic and I hate this piece of shit pig

[tean2269]

I hit that bitch in her middle hoe.

[Viper6454]

Sounds like another typical mexican idiot.. with a badge who thinks its "ME-O! all ME-O Retardo! VIA DUMBASS MEXICO!!" again shows that it does not matter what nationality you are.. still can be a typical pile of crap.. cop or none cop when the hell is america gonna fucking get rid of these retarded types.. especially 75% of the republicans on the chair just send them out too war let them get shot at and hopefully KIA/DOA

[applepiebetty]

I have been around a long time & I have seen the street beat cop who cared about their part of town, & the low mentality kids going into the uniform today. They are power hungry, & corrupt almost as soon as the squad car door opens. They deal with real low life's everyday and begin their own vigilante. The trouble is, they cover each others lawlessness. I.A. seldom finds any guilty, so not much justice there. It's like asking a close relative to find you guilty of hurting some stranger.

[applepiebetty]

Well her name was "Lawless." May as well been "Guilty." :-)

[dbrewerbrewer]

kill all cops...have a nice day

[PhillyCopsAreCorrupt]

Justice for Billy Panas, Jr., who was murdered by thug Philadelphia cop Frank Tepper! Tepper is on trial now for the murder of young Panas, but the crooked police union and its thug pig members hired powerful attorney Fortunato Perri in an effort to get Tepper acquitted and allow him to get away with murder!