Excessive Force

CNN just played the full 5 minutes of the video showing the beating of Robert Davis in New Orleans. You can't have missed this story over the past few days. It's bothered me every time I've seen it - from the footage itself to the interviews with Mr. Davis. He has seemed to be a very reasonable, surprisingly forgiving person. Maybe I'm a sucker, but I believe him when he says that he hasn't had a drink in 25 years. Of course, we'll never know for sure since the officers didn't do a blood or breathalyzer test.

So it's their word against his. And in that horrifying video, it certainly looks like the police are using excessive force. So what's their credibility? The fact that the cop on horseback kept positioning himself in front of the cameras is very suspicious. What does anyone walking down the street do to deserve getting beaten by 4 or 5 cops? And the cops were yelling at, pushing around and handcuffing witnesses who tried to intervene? This doesn't look good for the cops. I saw an interview with Frank DeSalvo, the attorney for the cops. Man, does he seem like a slimeball.

So is it really necessary for us to watch this kind of video? My eyes are glued to it, but I'm a product of the 24 hour cable news cycle. Are we better off seeing this kind of footage? Who knows.