WHY CAN’T COPS CONTROL THEIR TEMPERS?

A recent NYPD case, in which one officer punched a 16-year-old black youth in the face and another cop slugged him in the mouth with his gun, would never have happened had the officers controlled their tempers

On October 2, NY Police Commissioner Bill Bratton told a meeting of NYPD brass that the department must fire the brutal, racist, corrupt and incompetent cops that are “poisoning the well” for the rest of NY’s finest. The talk given to 800 of NYPD’s top cops was well publicized.

DNAinfo New York reports that on August 29, cops chased 16-year-old Kahreem Tribble down a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. After a brief time, he stops running and turns around to face the cops. Surveillance footage shows Tyrane Isaac, the first cop to reach the youth, threw a punch at the face that missed as the youth was able to duck under it. Tribble then raised his hands in surrender, but David Afanador, the next cop to reach him, slugged him in the mouth with his gun. Afanador then leaves Isaac alone to handcuff Tribble as he retraces his steps to retrieve a canvas bag the youth had discarded. But before Isaac handcuffed Tribble, he punched the youth and threw him down on his stomach. Afanador then returns and is shown on the video smacking Tribble with the bag.

Isaac and Afanador explain that at 2:30 a.m., while they and officer Christopher Mastoros were on patrol as anti-crime cops, the trio spotted Tribble peering into the window of a parked mini-van. When they stopped and got out of their patrol car, the youth took off running, tossing away a small black canvas bag along the way. Afanador drew his gun during the chase because he was worried that Tribble could be armed.

The canvas bag contained 17 small packets of pot. Tribble, who suffered a broken tooth and a chipped tooth, as well as bruises, was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana and disorderly conduct. During his arraignment he pled guilty and was released.

Afanador has been suspended without pay. Isaac was placed on modified duty, stripped of his badge and gun. Both are now facing criminal charges. Mastoros is facing departmental charges for not stopping the assault on Tribble. All three cops are nine year veterans.

Patrick Lynch, the police union president, came to the defense of the three cops, claiming that the video does not tell the entire tale. He said, “As usual, the video fails to capture the offense that resulted in police action or the lengthy foot pursuit that culminated in the arrest. Situations like this one happen in real time under great stress. It’s very easy to be judgmental in the comfort of an office while sitting in front of a video screen."

Amy Rameau, Tribble’s lawyer, says "My client was minding his own business and they decided to chase him for no reason. Their account is concocted to justify what they did, to cover their asses, to legitimize their criminal conduct." She intends to file a federal civil rights lawsuit against the NYPD and the three officers.

Union president Lynch’s standard response to incidents like this simply will not fly. This is clearly a case in which the cops got pissed off because Tribble had the audacity to run from them, forcing them to give chase. There can be no other explanation.

In 1829 the father of modern policing, Sir Robert Peel, put forth the principle that “No quality is more indispensable to a policeman than a perfect command of temper.”

The problem with police work is that there is no amount of training about what constitutes proper and improper police behavior that can prevent the loss of temper. In this case the pissed-off cops could not stop andcount to ten because by that time the kid would have been long gone.

What with the widespread use of surveillance cameras and the proliferation of cellphone cameras, it is imperative for officers to take extra care in controlling their tempers, because if they don’t, they are likely to end up behind bars.