Cops are here to protect you from anonymous 13 year old shoplifters by slamming them down to the ground, choking them, punching them, handcuffing them, and torturing them with 50,000-volt electric shocks. Here’s the latest from Niagara Falls, New York:

This is what happened to 13-year-old Dominic Gualttieri after he says police stopped him outside a laundromat and accused him of shoplifting.

Dominic Gualttieri said, He asked for my name and I’m like, I’m a kid you don’t know, you don’t need to know my name because I didn’t do anything.

— Alysha Palumbo, WIVB Buffalo (2008-05-07): Niagara Falls teenager claims police brutality

Confused and enraged by some punk kid actually acting like he belongs to himself and not to the police, here is what the cops did:

What happened next shocked one man so much he took pictures of the melee.

Witness: They threw him on the ground. They tased him. They choked him. They punched him.

I can still hear his voice. His scream was like a scream of death. A 13-year-old boy should not be screaming like that.

— Alysha Palumbo, WIVB Buffalo (2008-05-07): Niagara Falls teenager claims police brutality

The pigs, of course, have tried to defend this over-the-top violence by saying that it was all done By The Book (which of course makes it O.K.), and pointing out that Officer Jack Miljour ended up a broken bone in his left arm during the struggle. Or rather, Officer Jack Miljour got a fractured elbow in his effort to beat up an unarmed boy and wrestle him to the pavement. Thus Officer Jack Miljour needed to gang up with his buddy in order to beat up a 13 year old boy, slam him on the ground, torture him with 50,000-volt electric shocks, choke him, and punch him, in order to to hold the youth down so he could get control and handcuff him. Why the fuck they needed to force a 13 year old boy down and handcuff him in the first place, or how this could be even remotely proportional to any offense that he may have committed, is, strange to say, left completely unexplained. Perhaps because it is supposed to be so obvious. I mean, hell, if they didn’t, he might have possibly have gotten away while still suspected of ganking an energy drink. This, in the minds of Niagara Falls Police, is doing what had to be done.

As a result, the 13-year-old boy who was beaten and tasered by the cops is being charged with assault.

Self-identified professional special-ed childcare worker Lori, of Buffalo, New York, has this to add to WIVB’s comments thread on the story:

For starters, this kid should have been taught to have respect for adults, especially a police officer!! He was simply asked his name. He needed to answer accordingly. Your first mistake kid! And the abuse issue? I work in a program that deals with children ages 5-12 with behavioral issues. It doesn’t matter if it’s one of the 5 yr olds or 12 yr olds, if they’re having a bad day and start to go off, it sometimes takes 3 adults to get them under control and that’s without a laser [sic] gun! If this kid’s adrenaline was flowing, I’m sure those officers could have used more help to subdue this mouthy kid.

And freelance sado-fascist bully boy Tax Paying Citizen, of Cranbury, New Jersey, would like to say:

Well, next time a peace officer asks for his name, maybe he will comply.

Damn kids with their parents supporting their insubordination to law enforcment…

— Tax Paying Citizen, (2008-05-08): Re: WIVB Buffalo: Niagara Falls teenager claims police brutality

Please note that, in the minds of those who rush to defend cops from police brutality allegations, you and I and our neighbors ought to make sure we act as subordinates to government peace officers.

And that the threat of assault and battery is a good way to ensure that we comply with our superiors’ arbitrary commands.

There is a lot more to add here, but honestly I just can’t. I’m much too angry, and much too tired, to say much of anything more, and whatever else I could say would hardly be anything new. For what I might say, by way of analysis and context, just re-read:

• GT 2008-05-10: Cops are here to protect you. (#3)
• GT 2008-02-18: Cops are here to protect you.
• GT 2004-11-14: Civil defense

It’s the same God-damned thing every day, so going on about it any further would just be so much cut-and-paste.

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(Story thanks to Mike Gogulski.)