My Friend was Assaulted Last Night

[redneck]

That is complete BS on the police's part. That really makes me mad. They don't know what happened at all other than he got the tar beat out of him for no reason, and might have gotten killed if you hadn't shown up. But they threaten him to keep him from pressing charges on a bunch of scum bags. Underage drinking happens everywhere, not that I think thats a good thing but its no where near attempted murder or assault. Can't even believe that, well I actually I do, but it still makes mad

 

[jojo]

Someone else already said it, and I agree. Let it go.

jojo

 

[TheFederalistWeasel]

Amazing…

After getting the run-around somehow the cops are at fault!

The boy left the scene after receiving a beating, after putting his friends life in danger, then causing the cops to act on what was basically hearsay to detain the reported suspects.

The boy was asked by the cops to meet them at the Hospital, he agreed, but didn’t, he went to his sister’s house instead.

He called his friend a couple of hours later, his friend had to talk him into speaking with the cops, over a cell phone.

The cops had to again change locations to get a statement and now the boy is gone to Texas?

As a cop, I'd a chewed his butt too!

Yeah it’s all the cops fault, some folks around here are totally clueless…

 

[Dbl0Kevin]

I concur TFW....he was obviously an uncooperative witness, and more than likely when he finally DID get around to giving his statement he probably told the officer there was drinking involved. It's a shame to see the punks get off, but it's best to let this one ride as he could get in trouble with the army for being charged in this situation. It's a tough lesson, but if you're doing something that you shouldn't be doing, even if everyone else does it as well, you have to expect to let some things slide like this.

 

[LiquidTension]

TFW - why is it that you cannot even entertain the idea that perhaps the cops were somewhat at fault? While I can see the validity of your argument, you refuse to see the validity of anyone else's. The cops basically said that they'd punish the victim if he pressed charges. Sounds like they didn't want to be bothered with the work of arresting a bunch of minors, so they told the victim that he should just let it go and strongarmed him into seeing things their way. While I don't agree with the way the guy behaved, for the cops to punish the victim of a REAL crime (as opposed to having a few beers with people that are old enough to die in the military) is heartless, lazy, shortsighted, and utterly unbecoming of an officer of the law.

 

[dfaugh]

What about YOU pressing charges?

What crimes did you see them commit during the chase? Did they threaten you, before you told them you had a gun(please say yes*hint*hint*)?

 

[Dbl0Kevin]

TFW - why is it that you cannot even entertain the idea that perhaps the cops were somewhat at fault? While I can see the validity of your argument, you refuse to see the validity of anyone else's. The cops basically said that they'd punish the victim if he pressed charges. Sounds like they didn't want to be bothered with the work of arresting a bunch of minors, so they told the victim that he should just let it go and strongarmed him into seeing things their way. While I don't agree with the way the guy behaved, for the cops to punish the victim of a REAL crime (as opposed to having a few beers with people that are old enough to die in the military) is heartless, lazy, shortsighted, and utterly unbecoming of an officer of the law.

First of all it's hard to prosecute a case with an uncooperative witness as this guy was being. Second of all they're not punishing the victim. The victim took it upon himself to go out in a park and drink in public while underage.....he's not squeaky clean. If they attempt to prosecute the attackers and let this guy slide I'm quite sure the lawyer for the punks would have a field day with him as a witness. Being as how he was underage drinking in public, left the scene, gave the police the runaround, and had to be talked into cooperating......he did not give the police or the local prosecutor a very good case to deal with. They gave him the best advice they could to keep HIM out of trouble which was to let it go.

 

[TheFederalistWeasel]

As someone else posted, go see the Magistrate yourself.

$25.00 and a pre warrant application, POOF! You got yourself the same warrant hearing I get.

It’s not the minor issue the cops were not wishing to fool with, I am sure there is more to this story, there always is… it’s what we call in LE the three-side theory.

There are always three sides to each story, yours, mine and the truth.

TFW - why is it that you cannot even entertain the idea that perhaps the cops were somewhat at fault?

Did the cops create this mess, which ultimately lead to Joe Blow getting his butt whipped?

This sounds to me like you are reaching to place blame everywhere except where the blame should go. The cops did not create this mess; no one has a right to be immediately locked up just because a crime is suspected. All the above charges described are misdemeanor charges. I could take up to 2 years to ask a judge that formal charges be brought in a case like this, 4 years for most felonies and for a few as long as time it self.

I’m sure you dislike cops for one reason or another, which is fine I meet a lot of folks who don’t like me or my brothers and sisters until the SHTF.




Now speaking from experience if I was to write up this incident as it happened per what we know then lock up just the “attackers†based on what we know I guarantee you the first thing the judge would want to know is why no charges were leveled against the “victim†because he was intoxicated. See in GA if you are intoxicated and you are involved in a fight we have a specific charge for you, its called Disorderly Conduct- Fighting While Intoxicated. Darn near every state has a disorderly conduct law that makes it a crime just to be drunk in public, to disturb the peace, or to loiter in certain areas causing obnoxious, unruly conduct or violent behavior.

I could do one of three things here,

1. Both parties sigh a lack of prosecution form on the scene.
2. Write up the incident, refer both parties to the Judge for possible warrant.
3. Lock up everyone including the dog.

 

[OpenRoad]

I don't know what jurisdiction in which this took place, but most underage drinking laws would give him a ~$150 ticket. So he let them off to avoid something as minute as that? You can tell your friend he has now convinced the other kids that they can do this again without consequences to someone else.

Too bad. Blame the laws for being messed up, not the victim for trying to avoid trouble.

Now he can go over to Iraq and die, but can't drink a beer.

 

[Carlos]

Damned unfortunate. This stuff happens more and more all the time, even recently in Portland. After beating up several people, including two who were forced to jump into the River, Thugs got busted in the middle of a bridge trying to get back to their homeless camp. Total mean spirited waste of oxygen.

Glad your friend is OK.

 

[LiquidTension]

How easily you glean only what you wish from my post I did say that I do not agree with the way the guy acted. And I was not saying that the cops "created this mess," but nice attempt at putting words in my mouth. And just so you know, I have no ill will towards cops - I work with LEOs on a very regular basis for accident investigations and other work related things. I've met a few bad ones, but the vast majority of cops are good guys. My point is that the assault is a serious crime, whereas the underage drinking is a status offense. BTW, the guy in question was not underage, but I'm sure you caught that in the initial post. The cops are at fault because they ACTIVELY DISCOURAGED THE PROSECUTION OF VIOLENT CRIMINALS. What about that is hard to understand?

Personally, I would have taken the chance with the distribution charge because by the time they actually got on the scene the only evidence was hearsay, which is to say no evidence at all. I'm not knocking response time, and I know that it was the guy's own fault for not cooperating - that's not what I'm arguing. If the case ever made it to court, I'm sure some enterprising lawyer could try to bring up the underage drinking stuff, but guess what - they never actually had proof of that. No beer, no kids running up saying, "he bought me the beer and I drank it!" There is this concept called "discretion," maybe you've heard of it? The responding officers used their discretion in a manner that I think is pretty stupid, to be blunt. But I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one. So, let's recap:

Guy that got beat up - acted improperly by not talking to cops immediately
Cops - acted improperly by discouraging the arrest of violent criminals

Since I wasn't there, I'm sure there are more considerations to take into account. Based on the information provided, my opinion stands. The underage drinking stuff is a farce as far as I'm concerned, but this isn't the thread to debate the "merits" of having the drinking age higher than the voting, enlistment, and firearms purchasing age.

 

[Parallax]

Alright guys, enough bickering. My friend learned a valuable lesson, he wants to let it go and move on with his life, and at least now he won't make this mistake again. In that way he's a better man than me, because I could never just drop something like this. I'm sure eventually these punks will get what they deserve.

 

[JimP]

1) there is more to the story than you are letting on

2) if the civ's refuse to prosecute, the military won't step in. At most - he'd be looking at an article 15 but having spent some time at Hood myself, they won't prosecute it if the civilian police won't.

I'm with weasel - there's more to this post than you are letting on. You weren't there and didn't see what led to the attack. I think your friend is holding out on you or you don't know the whole truth.

I fail to see how this is the fault of the cops.

 

[LiquidTension]

Parallax - I'm with you as far as your friend being a bigger person than you - or me. I wouldn't be able to let it go, but if he can swallow his pride, more power to him. Like you said, he learned a valuable lesson and I'm sure he'll never forget it. Thankfully he wasn't seriously hurt

I posted a while ago about an incident that happened at a beach here to the son of an acquaintance of mine. He and his buddy were on the pier in Garden City one night when two hot girls came up and asked if they'd like to go to a bar or something. They agreed. As they were walking off the pier, they were ambushed by 7 or 8 guys and beat up pretty bad - reconstructive surgery was required. The girls were decoys, working with the group of thugs. Both of the guys were Marines and pretty big...just goes to show that numbers can easily overwhelm training. That story isn't really relevant, but it happened at the beach so it just popped into my head

 

[OpenRoad]

I fail to see how this is the fault of the cops.

Of course not. It's never the fault of the police when they fail to serve and protect. "They were just doing their jobs." (Which is scary in and of itself.) Telling a felony assault victim and member of our military that they were as concerned about charging him with some petty b.s. charge as they were in catching the scumbags who did that because they have no moral code, are too lazy to write reports and are too lazy to do their job. It's AmeriKa with a big fat K.

But I'm sure he was just "holding out information" and lieing about the whole thing right? Wow this brainwashed police state loving country has degenerated rapidly over the past ten years. I think I'm gonna go puke my guts out right now.

 

[38SnubFan]

I'm giving my opinion based SOLELY on what I've read thus far.

The simple fact is that a serious assault causing serious bodily injury is a FAR MORE SERIOUS offense than underage drinking. A cop who tells a victim, "OK, I'll take 'em for Assault if you want to press charges, but if you do I'm going to charge you with Underage Drinking," is simply looking for a way out of getting hassled by paperwork. The officer would be right to press an Underage Drinking charge against the victim in addition to charging the BGs with the Assault, AS LONG AS HE CAN PROVE THE UNDERAGE DRINKING CHARGE AGAINST THE VICTIM! I see just a lazy cop in this case - plain and simple.

Yes, there are plenty of good cops out there. I work with many of them. I even work FOR one. Some of them will probably also agree that the police officer in this case is also being lazy.

Unfortunately, there are also a lot of less-than-ideal cops who tarnish what being an LEO is all about. It's no different than any other workplace - you have good employees and not-so-good employees.

Yes, the victim should not have been underage drinking to begin with. However, the fact that victim was commiting a crime does not give someone else a right to commit a crime against him.

Parallax, I hope your friend heals soon and I wish him good luck. Hopefully, he'll learn to wait until he's 21 to drink; however I too agree he should have pressed the Assault charge - and let the judge rule on the Underage Drinking charge the officer would place against him. Considering the circumstances, a fair judge would have probably dismissed it based on its pretenses.

-38SnubFan

 

[garyk/nm]

Define Underage Drinking.Your friend is Active Duty Military? Maybe things have changed, or I'm not remembering correctly(it was a LONG time ago), but I recall at age 18/19 being able to buy alcohol on the strength of my Military ID card. Something else going on here.

 

[XavierBreath]

"Alright guys, enough bickering. My friend learned a valuable lesson, he wants to let it go and move on with his life, and at least now he won't make this mistake again. In that way he's a better man than me, because I could never just drop something like this. I'm sure eventually these punks will get what they deserve."
__________________

That's good thinking, and he is obviously getting good advice from what we call a "Sea Daddy" in the Navy. I'm sure the Army also has senior men who willing give practical life advice to their younger troops.

Your friend is subject to the UCMJ as well as the laws where he happens to be. There may or may not be more to this story, but the military can prosecute even if the civilian courts decide not to. If the civilian courts decide to prosecute, it is guaranteed that the nilitary justice system will follow suit with the same and additional charges. For a military man, sometimes it is best to just let the matter drop, suck it up, learn the lesson, and get on with your career. The sad fact is that civilian scumbags can and will use this against the military guy. Being subject to two systems of justice is not easy.

FWIW, if you are underage and in the military, you have to abide by the drinking age of where you happen to be. A military ID does not give you license to purchase alcohol (or at least it did not from 1981 to 2001).