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The following video depicts actual violence and may be unsuitable for some viewers.
A friend sent me a link to this video last night to ask me what I thought.
I don’t have words to describe this; anything I can choke out is inadequate. Even what I write here will not adequately do justice.
This is a child — a 15-year-old youth only a little older than my youngest and a little younger than my oldest. And Houston’s so-called finest are kicking him while he is down on the ground, kicking him in the head, near his kidneys, his groin after nearly running him down with their car.
This is a child who at the time of this battery was suspected of being involved in a home burglary along with three other suspects. The other three had been under surveillance; Holley was seen exiting a townhome with two of the suspects. When the police gave chase, Holley ran — and what appears in this video is the outcome of that chase.
The police did not take fingerprints at the townhome; they didn’t fingerprint the stolen goods. There’s apparently nothing in the way of evidence to tie Holley to a burglary, only association with others suspected of burglary.
And yet the police tried to run him down with their car; he was stomped, kicked and beaten by at least five officers although he was already down on the ground. At no point in any of the coverage of this story does it appear that the officers believed Holley was an adult, or that Holley might have a weapon, offering little excuse for the battery show in this video. It’s cruel and unusual extra-judicial punishment without any due process. . . .
Making the situation worse is the city’s handling of this tape; they did not want it released. The mayor made statements that were perceived as a threat to anyone releasing the tape. The subsequent response of the police force also appears inappropriate. There’s no denial, no non-denial, which might be expected, but there’s also no apparent effort to calm the community’s concern about police brutality — and residents claim this is the first time there’s been video evidence published showing the kind of brutality they have put up with for a very long time.
This child’s civil rights were violated. There needs to be an examination of both the administration and the police of the city of Houston by the Department of Justice, to find out why this happened and just how often this kind of thing has been happening to other children and adults alike in Houston.
And the mayor — once a shining light for Houston — needs to invest immediately in some serious community relations-building. Not merely damage control, but credible, intensive effort made to restore the faith of the public in the mayor’s office and the police of Houston.
86 Comments
Thank you and the other journalists who brought this case to light. Too often police & prosecutors & press ignore police behavior obviously constituting crimes.
Trying to run someone down with a car must be Assault with a Deadly Weapon at the very least, as is kicking someone with a shod foot. I doubt if they will charged with that, or with Torture. “Human Rights Violation” just doesn’t quite cover it, after seeing the video.
Interestingly, I became aware of the beating through Al Jazeera English when they ran the video last night during a lull in Egypt news.
Police brutality is police brutality no matter where it occurs.
Here’s an interview with Holly April 29, 2010.
http://www.khou.com/home/khou-houston-police-beating-92463334.html
Here’s a very dark website dedicated to trashing him (it’s a hard read, but familiar). Gotta run, I found more, but this is soo fucked up, and common. Some wonder why black males hate cops? I don’t.
Ooops. http://chadholley.org/
If it were my house he robbed, I’d say he got off light.
If we still live in the same United States, that would be “alleged” robber until proven guilty, at which point he would then be sentenced.
And humanely, according to the Constitution.
But you glibertarian/conservative types really don’t believe in the Constitution, for everybody, now do you…
If you caught him in your house, that’d be one thing. You’d have specific rights to take action depending on the state you lived in.
But this is NOT the case. We’re talking about police who chased him only because of association and so far cannot prove he had anything to do at all with the burglaries in question.
Are you really that careless with American’s freedoms that you’d advocate pummeling a child based on a flimsy suspicion?
Would it be okay if the police did that to you as an adult, simply because you were in proximity to people who may have committed a crime, even though no crime was in progress at the time the police tried to detain you?
It seems that the ‘new standard of justice’ for municipal police is taken straight out of John Yoo’s little book of horrors: If the ‘perp’ does not in fact end up in the morgue, then it is permissible.
So bonus.
Recommended.
Yes, massive sunlight of disinfectant on this please.
Really, really ugly.
I used to live in Houston. The police were even handed in their treatment of suspects of all races: they killed them all if given a chance. They were relatively lawless back before about 1980. The mayors began to clean up the police department and the incidents of outright murder and assault dropped way off. Apparently the mayors have decided to give the police a much looser rein now. The two incidents I have linked are to one caucasian youngster that was killed when surrendering and one Mexican-American young man whose crime seems to have been breathing.
I am in no way trying to excuse actual criminals or give them a pass. It is just that we have laws to follow because we still have the innocent until proven guilty standard.
Looks like a few cops get a paid vacation, Holley gets a hundred grand.
http://blog.operation-nation.com/
It’s changing very fast. We are in for big trouble when we can steal peoples homes without consequence, torture people without a trial, and beat children because we feel like it.
It’s hard to put my head around how quickly things are changing.
“It’s hard to put my head around how quickly things are changing.”
While I recognize that police brutality has been a problem forever, I also feel my country has changed almost beyond recognition in the past 15 years. That’s less than a quarter of my lifetime. Frightening and depressing.
Thank you for this. Yesterday I was with a group of Texans in a waiting room when this coverage was shown. There was shock and outrage…An articulate response that no one could deserve this. Just scary.
There are many things I’ve seen for sometime that went unnoticed by most Americans. Now these things are very visible. However, we can put the difficult circumstances to a positive use by using them to develop more compassion for others.
AllVoices.Com tracking US-Mexico border murders. “More than 300 women were murdered in Ciudad Juarez in a wave of violence which started in 1993 and lasted for a decade. [..] Ciudad Juarez is the most violent city in Mexico, with 3,100 people killed in 2010 out of a population of more than a million.” (excerpt from “Juarez killings activist Chavez murdered in Mexico” (BorderlandBeat.Com, Jan. 13, 2011)
(excerpt from “New approach brings US homeless in from the cold,” by Agence France-Presse, Feb. 6th, 2011)
Decent background piece regarding the legal circumstance of Tibetan refugees in India–
”
(excerpt “Why India Is Investigating a Reincarnated Tibetan Lama,” by Ishaan Tharoor, Feb. 3, 2011)
Tibetan activist disappears in Sangchu County, Kanlho “Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture” in Gansu Province (see “China rearrests Tibetan writer Gyitsang Takmig” Phayul.Com, Feb. 04, 2011 15:58).
And the mayor — once a shining light for Houston…..
Was she ever, really? My memory is that she was always a business Democrat.
If your only issue is gay-friendliness, she’s wonderful. Other than that, is there anything good about her?
How often does this happen everywhere in the U.S. but never gets reported.
I’ll pose your Q to my friend who lives in Houston & is active in grass roots D politics.
I’m shocked, shocked that police in the U. S. are, very often, just thugs. For more, check http://counterpunch.com/roberts02042011.html
As a former greater-Houstonian, I count my lucky stars that I left that shit hole behind 20 years ago.
With the advent of smart phones, pretty much everyone has a video recording device. One would think that the police would realize this and behave accordingly.
Or maybe they are okay with video of this type of police activity getting out to the public.
Houston’s finest are training to whip and run down folks with horses and camels…
As there are never any negative consequences to the cops of this info being public, I think they don’t care.
The penalty for burglary is not death, and repeated kicks to the head can, and has caused death in the past, which is why, if the shoe was on the other foot and it was a cop seen being beaten, the perps would be facing attempted murder charges right now, and the video would be touted in court as proof positive that they were guilty.
Have we no sympathy for the cops, who were probably suffering from roid rage ?
Or put a little more extremely, perhaps they want the incidents to get publicity so that the peeps get cowed the minute they show up, and they get away with intimidation without using actual force.
Welcome to reality! If this is something new to you it would seem that it is time to get your head out of your rectum! I am 64 years old and after many contacts with police that always ended like this, I believe. I am white, male whose infractions were always minor but ended in violence. Roid Rage from these juicing supposed to be police as well as mob mentality allows them to release their agression on anyone weaker and therefore vulnerable is the norm, not the exception. If you will notice you never see them one on one doing this. Only when they can gang up. The police car in the video did not almost hit him, it did! Can you not see him flip over the front of the car, not jump? They tried to pin him against the fence. This behavior is I believe the reason for so many police being shot or otherwise attacked lately. You do not need to be a criminal to be treated like this, only suspected. Hired thugs in Egypt? How about the good ole US of A. Well trained by XE. Supported by you!
Female, gay and ID’d as a Democratic candidate is a far walk from a town which has been under the thumb of Harris County Republicans for a long time. This was promising.
As for being pro-business: she’s betrayed her pro-business status with this nonsense. It’s bad press, not good for business at all when the community’s demographics hover around 50% white/50% minority members. What minority business owners want to put up with poor transparency combined with abuse of their businesses’ constituency?
There should be no penalty applied to a teen SUSPECT who has not been charged and is obviously lying on the ground and smaller in size than any of the cops battering him.
The mayor needs a forceful citizens’ reminder that however useful a well-trained, restrained law enforcement agency undoubtedly is, his constituents are those that pay his salary, vote or not vote him in office, and as George Bailey is wont to say, do the working and paying and living and dying in Houston, elsewhere in Texas and in the United States proper.
So If my house was robbed and I saw you walking by, and I beat you viciously because I thought there was a decent chance you were the perp, that would be ok with you?
Or do these rules only apply to other people?
Well, at least we now know, thanks to Scalia, that it is not punishment, because by definition, punishment comes after conviction, and since he’s not been convicted nothing that happens to him, by definition, is punishment.
“houston, too close to new orleans”
damn that’s one stupid mayor, even the crackers might have a problem with running over and beating a child
There seems to be little training in the use of restraint these days, little training in the use of alternatives to violence, and little training in the use of the minimum force necessary to restrain violent behavior in others in a manner with their constitutional rights – as well as those of others.
The PTB have too long used 9/11 and any other handy excuse to shut down reasonable criticism of and to look the other way at such uses of excessive violence, especially where huge sums are at stake, as in the adoption and use of the deadly weapon known as the taser and electronic snooping into all manner of things only tangentially, if at all, related to domestic law enforcement.
The mayor wanted to prosecute the person for releasing this video? Under what charges?
She didn’t want people to see the footage? Why is that?
Tells you all you need to know. And yes, cops behave this way all the time. Chilling indeed.
Analogy to the Wikileaks releases in microcosm: Make public clear instances of government wrong-doing and you are the criminal. They actually wanted to pursue the person making the video!
Keep in mind, there are now laws that make photographing the police a crime. But what if the images show police lawbreaking? Oh, yeah that’s the point….
“The police did not take fingerprints at the townhome; they didn’t fingerprint the stolen goods. There’s apparently nothing in the way of evidence to tie Holley to a burglary, only association with others suspected of burglary.”
-Can we keep this out of the conversation, please? Regardless of what he may or may not have done, or what evidence they may or may not have had against Holley, this was a senseless, brutal beating. Period.
Confusing the conversation with evidence, or lack thereof, of a crime he may or may not have committed, is lending credence to the activities of the police. It can infer that if he indeed was guilty, or if they did have some evidence, the beating may have been okay. Probably not in the minds of readership here, but definitely in the MSM world.
If, as you say, biz is half ‘n half white vs minority owned, what % of political contributions come from white vs. minority biz?
I cannot speak to this case, but many states have laws against filming someone without their consent that they apply to filming police doing their official duties while breaking the law. Obviously, that poses a pretty serious First Amendment problem, but courts have not stepped up to put a stop to that. Regardless, it would be worth agitating for far more broad rights to record and disseminate this sort of things in every jurisdiction.
I think that they’ll be prosecuted. Only due to the press attention, of course. If the video hadn’t come out, the city wouldn’t have done anything but terminate the officers. Maybe not even that.
Now that the video is out, they’ll have to prosecute. And hopefully (*fingers crossed*) there’s a prosecutor with a pair in Houston who will bring these former police up on attempted murder charges, or at least felony assault with a hate crime enhancement.
And what about the 50 year old womon the cop punched in the face 5 times?
Anyone see the escalation of the police state emulating the Egyptian situation here?
In a heartless, souless society that condones torture and has contempt for those less fortunate, this comes as no surprise.
This is representative of a much bigger problem.
Recommended.
You can take photos in public places (http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how-to/computer-security/taking-photos-in-public-places-is-not-a-crime), but many would have us believe otherwise.
“Legally, it’s pretty much always okay to take photos in a public place as long as you’re not physically interfering with traffic or police operations. As Bert Krages, an attorney who specializes in photography-related legal problems and wrote Legal Handbook for Photographers, says, “The general rule is that if something is in a public place, you’re entitled to photograph it.” What’s more, though national-security laws are often invoked when quashing photographers, Krages explains that “the Patriot Act does not restrict photography; neither does the Homeland Security Act.” But this doesn’t stop people from interfering with photographers, even in settings that don’t seem much like national-security zones.”
(the html utilities are not showing up, sorry)
Well, at least they were shocked.
Concur.
I’d also like to point out that a lot of members here, whenever a story like this comes out (in my time there’s been the Oscar Grant killing, the Missouri police shooting two dogs during a worthless bust, and now this), take the opportunity to talk about how police are all worthless thugs and worse than the criminals they pursue.
This is horseshit. Every single one of us lives a safer life because police exist. The very fact that we have local law enforcement mechanisms deters a lot of crime. And just like with bus drivers, air traffic controllers, janitors, bloggers, politicians, etc., some police officers are just douchebags. Or sometimes they do really stupid, horrible stuff. That doesn’t make police in general bad.
They do far more good than they do wrong. All over the world, every day. There are millions of cops just doing their jobs, which entails protecting and serving you and your loved ones.
These asshats should go to prison. They beat a child. Who knows who else they may have beaten over the years. There’s no excuse for this behavior, and Houston should immediately figure out how to implement better screening and hiring procedures. At the very least, they should also launch some form of training, announce stiffer consequences for similar actions, and institute periodic psychiatric screening.
Police are still, for the most part, good people though. Let’s not bash all cops because these guys, and some others out there, are assholes.
If I wanted to see big, armored men in groups beat up on others, I’d tune in the Super Bowl.
I’ve seen and known law enforcement that actually followed the law rather than violating it while doing their job.
“houston, too close to new orleans”
No kidding. I grew up in NO. I am 61. The police were beating anyone up that they felt like hitting or shooting. When I was a teenager the favorite targets were African Americans or Tulane University students or DFH’s. It is still an issue. Look at what happened during Katrina.
Were the oinks drug tested? Lockers full of ‘roids. Look at them waddling around, 300lbs to a man. Likely to be ex-military among them, and likely to have any number of mental “issues”. You need a proper police force to protect you from the actual police.
But I’ll answer my own question. Steroid abuse amongst them is rife. It is a felony. Testing is 100%. They are never tested. If they were, thousands would end up in jail.
Cairo Texas…………..yuk
Thank you, Kris. That needed to be said.
Ding!
Thank you. I was expecting to be flamed horribly for that comment. Called an apologist or something. I’m glad the first response was a nice one.
arguably there are places where police are good and not so good. I would guess that in affluent areas of houston people generally take your view, while in the projects they see police a whole lot differently. They might both be right.
It really took 5-6 “police officers” to subdue an unconscious 15 year old?
This act is unconscionable.
Pigs is a suitable name for them.
That’s a good take on it. I’m in the SF Bay Area and I’d say that most of the cops in Oakland are unsympathetic dicks who just go through the motions, while the cops in Napa or San Ramon of Black Hawk are probably absolute sweethearts.
The job wears on people, I’m sure. Like all of us, to a certain extent we become products of the environment we’re exposed to or immersed in. This is why I think periodic psychiatric check-ins should be required for police officers. Monthly appointments wouldn’t be a bad idea.
buck,
I was sitting on the grass,smoking a refer at a concert 30 years ago and was accosted by some cops. I got to “bob for some frogs, asshole” in a nearby mud puddle while they laughed. F*cking pukes.
I’m still pissed.
I realize that one can chose to bring a great deal of consciousness and good motivation to any activity. However, the one time I was assigned to watch a Super Bowl’s half time advertisements (that broadcast slot is related to a ton of lucrative commercial activity), I was very turned off by the violence, misogyny and bigotry depicted in the ads for the engagement and entertainment of the prospective viewers. The whole dynamic seemed very reminiscent of gladiator games. If you took away the money dynamic (gambling, game-rigging for kickbacks, etc.), would the scene collapse “like a flan in a cupboard” (hat tip Eddie Izzard)?
The FDL report failed to mention that the local governmental whitewash of this incident resulted in the lowest level misdemeanor charge available to prosecutors: official oppression (as opposed to assault). Even though the damning tape was part of the evidence that inspired these minimal charges. It’s not just the officers on the street who are engaged in “official oppression.”
Will Uncle Tom corporatist Eric Holder step in with federal charges? Probably not
You’re conflating the police’s existence or non existence with the way they do their jobs, as if anyone is saying there should be no police. The issue is their abuse of the power their position gives them.
Now every time this young man looks at a cop He will wonder if He’s going to be beaten and tortured,and rightfully so.Even if He’s guilty of the crime it’s not their job to inflict pain and punishment.They should be fired and pay this child half of every dime they make till they die.
I’ve lived in large cities and small – and my generalization is the police in the large urban areas I’ve lived in (Seattle and San Diego) were much quicker to shoot and ask questions later. In the ’70′s, in one year, Seattle police shot 19 male African-Americans, majority unarmed. This came out in the newspapers as they were asking for more lethal bullets for the police force (dum-dum bullets).
I couldn’t find the old statistics I remember. Apparently, Seattle is doing better, with 9 fatally shot suspects in 2000. San Diego, in this report from 2001, had the 2nd highest rate of shootings per police officer. See this Seattle report, which references national data:
http://www.seattle.gov/police/publications/Policy/UseForce/UseofForce.PDF
Of course not, Obama has a Nobel Peace Prize doncha know.
Most non white young men already do that, just saying.
Not all cops are bad apples but when in the streets we’re always on the lookout for that 1 or 2 who think it’s okay to use gratuitous violence against those with whom they disagree.
Many white young men, too. Many women, many people young or old, whatever their complexion.
Just about anyone who grows up black already knows that the police are potentially dangerous to them, not necessarily for any good reason.
However it’s not just the 1 or 2 that are the problem, there’s the other cops who cover for them. And the bureaucracy that does the same.
JohnEmerson,
If you’re still around, here’s what my Houston friend sez about Parker:
“There are lots of good things about her. She has not always been successful (i.e., she put together a “blue ribbon” commission to decide how long terms should be, turned down by City Council, to extend two year terms to three years, with two-term limit). She has immediately gotten rid of a fire chief who did not handle a sexual discrimination situation appropriately. She tried to get the previous mayor, who is really a business Democrat, to not invade the rainy day fund, and he did. She has had the idea, now implemented by a vote at the last election, to FINALLY institute a “water tax” which will fund flood control projects. It was fund control projects that took up all the rainy day fund ($25 million). She has hired a new police chief who is not commuting to another home in Phoenix. I saw her Friday at the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance good bricks award on Friday — she and her partner live in a historic house in a historic neighborhood. She and her partner (who is head of fund-raising for Planned Parenthood) have adopted three kids, the oldest they picked up as a homeless 16-year-old whose parents had thrown him out of the house for being gay. (But they did not know that for a long time, he was just hungry, cold, etc. when they found him in a neighborhood full of runaways.)
The other thing she is is very bright — your kind of smart. High honors at Rice in accounting, full scholarship.”
My take on this is that once Law Enforcement chooses to protect their own at the expense of society, they have lost the opportunity to be counted amongst the “good ones”. Nothing new here – google Serpico.
“The penalty for burglary is not death ..”
Could be in Texas. Texas’ castle law permits deadly force in defense of property including shooting suspects in the back as they are walking away.
(CBS) The 911 call came from a Pasadena, Tex., resident, who alerted police to two burglary suspects on a neighbor’s property. Before he hung up, two men were dead by his hand.
Joe Horn, 61, told the dispatcher what he intended to do: Walk out his front door with a shotgun.
“I’ve got a shotgun,” Horn said, according to a tape of the 911 call. “Do you want me to stop them?”
“Nope, don’t do that – ain’t no property worth shooting somebody over, OK?” the dispatcher responded.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/17/national/main3517564.shtml?source=mostpop_story
“The penalty for burglary is not death ..”
Could be in Texas. Texas’ castle law permits deadly force in defense of property including shooting suspects in the back as they are walking away.
(CBS) The 911 call came from a Pasadena, Tex., resident, who alerted police to two burglary suspects on a neighbor’s property. Before he hung up, two men were dead by his hand.
Joe Horn, 61, told the dispatcher what he intended to do: Walk out his front door with a shotgun.
“I’ve got a shotgun,” Horn said, according to a tape of the 911 call. “Do you want me to stop them?”
“Nope, don’t do that – ain’t no property worth shooting somebody over, OK?” the dispatcher responded.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/17/national/main3517564.shtml?source=mostpop_story
Of the group at the scene, most of the cops took a lick or two on him.
No, they’re not ALL bad.
As I recall, the good Gov. Perry has threatened to secede. I encourage him and all of his elected officials to get the ball rolling. The more I learn about Texas, the more I think they don’t belong part of the U.S. They don’t support environmental protection. They don’t condemn political corruption-they actually encourage it. They don’t believe in science. They revise history to some distorted right wing extremist psuedo Christian fantasy, they don’t believe in healthcare for all, AND, they have “W” which the rest of the country would love to sever ties with both historical, present and future. Obviously, they don’t believe in civil rights, human rights or the Constitution. If they secede, we also get more tax dollars since they receive more than they contribute. These guys should have been arrested as soon as this video was released. I’m not holding my breath.
Where do you live? If Perry succeeds, will you welcome us Texas progressives as refugees?
And if it was son? Let me guess…right wing Christian?
I think the extreme inequality is going to fuel more and more of this. And no amount of increases in the prison population are going to fix it.
That’s what they tell themselves, whatever they do.
No, filming police is legal in the US.
Oceania.
I just read the Houston Chronicle Sunday paper yesterday about this. Apparently, the Houston Internal Affairs Bureau confirmed to the Houston Chronicle that of the approximate 2300 complaints a year against HPD officers for allegations of theft, sexual assault, and battery, HALF of them STICK and are investigated as legit complaints.
The paper went on to identify that number as hovering around 6 legitimate complaints PER DAY against the Houston Police Department being CONFIRMED by Houston IAB.
On the one hand, it is encouraging to see that Houston PD has a robust and somewhat transparent IAB division that is taking these complaints seriously. On the other hand, these numbers beg the question – if 1,250 complaints a year against HPD are LEGITIMATE, then what kinds of disciplinary actions are being taken? And if these complaints are of the theft of property, sexual assault and physical battery type, are those disciplinary actions sufficient?
Those are the kinds of offenses one should be fired for. At 1,250 complaints a year, Houston would have no more police officers to deploy if they fired that many. Which means that although IAB is finding the complaints, investigating them, and REPORTING them publicly, they are probably not going to the next step of PUNISHING them properly.
And with Houston’s budget problems, and low pay for cops (29k starting I believe), and massive urban sprawl (cops don’t ride two/car too much in Houston – its one cop/one car) with response times of almost 2 hours in many violent crimes and property crimes, it is hard for Houston to staff its police force. The city has grown so big, but can’t fund the police department and has resorted to lowering its hiring standards (thugs with a badge now) just like the US Military has done (gang-bangers in the Marine Corps now).
On other news, the City has just approved the building of A NEW STADIUM for its Soccer Team, the Houston Dynamo. Great use of funds for a cash-strapped city, huh?
The article above was front-page on the Sunday Chronicle. I recall on a local news station the past week that a few officers were just fired and now being prosecuted after dozens of women came forth with evidence of sexual assault by those cops. Houston is not a city you want to be pulled over in.
Joe Horn was never prosecuted for that either. And for the record, it was taking place in Pasadena, which has its own separate Police Department. And while Houston PD may have a 2 hour response time to violent crime, in this instance at least, Pasadena PD was much faster. They already had an undercover cop trailing the thieves and he was parked on the street where the shooting took place. He watched the whole thing. Stranger than fiction.