By Carlos Miller
A 29-year-old corrections officers says he was severely beaten by six Boston police officers after he attempted to film them with a cell phone camera during a traffic accident investigation.
Michael O’Brian, who works for the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office, said he suffered a brain injury during the March 16 beating.
He filed a federal lawsuit today, according to the Boston Herald.
O’Brien claims Officer David Williams led an attack on him after responding to a car accident involving O’Brien’s friend. O’Brien claims Williams threw him to the ground and choked him after another officer grabbed his cell phone while he filmed police.
O’Brien was charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and assault and battery on one of the officers.
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10 responses so far ↓
1 ClintJCL // Sep 24, 2009 at 3:27 PM
It’s always nice when both sides are cops. It makes the victim’s story more believable. Which is fortunate for pointing out abuses, since judges seem to nerve take a civilian’s word over a cop’s word.
2 Michaelk42 // Sep 24, 2009 at 3:35 PM
@ClintJCL
I don’t know for certain, but police might just think that mere “corrections officers” are just as far beneath them as everyone else. They might even take severe offense at having COs lumped in with them as “cops.”
3 ClintJCL // Sep 24, 2009 at 3:37 PM
Heh… you may have a point MichaelK42. I guess fairness is really hard to find
4 Rob Molecule // Sep 24, 2009 at 3:40 PM
My father was a CO. Trust me, cops do not think they are on the same level as them. COs are not cops. In the town he lives in, the cops have no respect for COs.
5 Rob Molecule // Sep 24, 2009 at 3:51 PM
C.O.s should really not be lumped in with cops. They don’t have any power on the outside, and are no threat to the general population. Now if corrupt cops put an innocent person behind bars with them, that’s a different story.
6 Legal Eagle // Sep 24, 2009 at 10:22 PM
Correctional officers are not law enforcement officers as a matter of law.
7 EdinMiami // Sep 25, 2009 at 12:44 PM
As an ex LEO, I can assure you that cops not only have no respect for COs but also have no respect for other cops, outside their own jurisdiction and frequently within. Expressions of love for other cops only comes into play during stick time.
8 genewitch // Sep 27, 2009 at 10:39 PM
people who want to become sheriffs in Los Angeles County have to do the CO gambit before they can drive cars with lights on them and arrest people.
don’t know about the rest of this country, though.
9 Professor Coldheart // Sep 29, 2009 at 12:50 PM
An added bit of context on the accused officer, David Williams:
“Williams, who joined the force in 1991, was one of the officers found liable in the 1995 beating of Michael Cox, who was at the time a patrol officer. He was in plainclothes and chasing a homicide suspect in Mattapan when the officers mistook him for a suspect, beat him, and left him near death on the street.
No one was ever charged in the beating, one of the ugliest times in Boston police history. Williams and two other officers were fired, but Williams was reinstated six years later after an arbitrator found the department did not have just cause to terminate him.”
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/25/correction_officer_who_says_boston_police_beat_him_files_suit/
10 Rail Car Fan // Jun 8, 2010 at 3:59 PM
If Cops will do that to one of their so-called own.. then it just goes to show what will happen when it’s us the general public in the same situation.
And to think NOTHING will most likely ever become of it.
Rail Car Fan
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