Protect our rights

If there’s one subset of the American public on whom corrupt police officers might want to go easy re: civil rights violations, it would probably be civil rights lawyers.  Unfortunately, some overzealous Brooklyn cops didn’t get the memo.  In 2008, Sgt. Steven Talvy tackled a man in the course of an arrest and, after shackling the now-subdued, peaceful, and compliant man, kicked him right in the face.  This excessive force was witnessed by Michael and Evelyn Warren, the aforementioned civil rights lawyers, who then approached Talvy and informed him that he was being pretty brutal as an officer of the law, suggesting that he take the suspect to the precinct instead of, say, beating him to within an inch of his life.  After weighing this constructive criticism for a moment, Talvy flew into a rage, punching them both repeatedly in the face and arresting them for “disorderly conduct”.

The couple was held in jail for 6 hours and their charges were delayed for a year before being ultimately dismissed.  They filed a lawsuit claiming their Fourth Amendment rights were violated (false imprisonment being the operative segment here).  Today, some four years later, on the morning that the trial was set to begin, the city settled with the Warrens for $360,000.

That’s all well and good, but the city and its police force admit no wrongdoing here.  In fact, the violent policeman, who with his crew has cost the city more than half a million in other settlements, was actually promoted in 2009 to lieutenant.  Makes you wonder where true justice lies and whether it’ll ever be found.