4 Phila. cops fired over videotaped beating of suspects

[flashl]

Four Philadelphia police officers have been fired and four others disciplined for beating three shooting suspects in an attack that was videotaped by a news helicopter two weeks ago.

With Mayor Michael Nutter at his side, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said he exercised his prerogative to act unilaterally without a hearing, The Philadelphia Inquirer writes. Ten other officers identified in the 11-minute video, by a Fox cameraman, will not be punished because they were found to have acted within department guidelines.

The mayor said the announcement "represents our effort to ensure that officers — and more importantly citizens — understand the engagement they should expect out on the street."

The fired officers are Patrick Gallagher, Patrick Whalen, Robert Donnelly and Vincent Strain. Three colleagues were suspended from five to 15 days, and a sergeant was demoted to patrol officer for not intervening.

The swift response to the May 5 incident caught many by surprise.

USA Today

[thunder rising]

1. Assault would land any second class citizen (us) in jail.

[flashl]

2. Swift response suggests officals do not want to start summer with citizens stewing over incident.

[ThomCat]

7. It clearly should result in a group of these cops landing in court.

It's a damned shame that cops seem to have at least partial immunity from the laws they're supposed to enforce. x(

[notesdev]

3. An absolutely amazing

display of brutality. I saw the video... there were a lot more than 8 cops involved. NONE of them should remain on the force. I don't care what the people they arrested did, that level of unprofessionalism cannot be consistent with the rule of law.

[flashl]

4. Didn't follow closely. Thought it was odd officals claim they had to wait for review of video

to identify markers on cars to discipline officers. I guess no one filed a report?

[notesdev]

5. I saw the video

wish I could find a link to it again.

Absolutely brutal, totally lawless... and there were a LOT more involved than just the ones who are being disciplined. There had to have been at least 30 cops participating, some running from one guy to the next to get licks in on all of them.

[zbdent]

6. McCain will say that they were only questioning the "criminals" intensively

(of course, without a trial, these people were being punished ...)