Damn. Again.

[brightcove vid=14370236001&exp=1526070353&w=320&h=288]

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

A video showing a King County Sheriff’s deputy pummeling a 15-year-old girl in a holding cell was released Friday over the strenuous objections of the officer’s attorney.

The case goes beyond police misconduct, County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said in a prepared statement.

“It’s about criminal misconduct. And that’s why he needs to be prosecuted,” he said.

The video of the Nov. 29 incident was disclosed Friday, one day after Deputy Paul Schene, 31, pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor assault in King County District Court.

Schene, an eight-year veteran, works out of Precinct 4, which covers SeaTac, Burien and high crime areas in White Center and Skyway.

He is the third sheriff’s deputy since 2006 to face charges on allegations of excessive force. All three are from the Burien precinct.

A detective assigned to the girl’s case discovered the video Dec. 1 and immediately forwarded it to supervisors.

The Seattle P-I requested a copy of the holding cell video and all reports from the incident under the state’s open records law. A judge on Thursday denied a request from Schene’s attorney to bar the video from public disclosure.

“We take this very seriously and we’re very concerned about this,” sheriff’s Sgt. Jim Laing said Friday. An internal investigation would begin after the criminal case is finished.

What could possibly have warranted this? In his official report, Schene, already seemed to be embellishing his side of the story.

In his own report from the incident, Schene wrote that the shoe hit him in the right shin, “causing injury and pain.” He wrote that he “placed” her into handcuffs and that she needed medical attention for a “panic attack.”

He said a “blood filled pocket” formed on his shin, requiring treatment at Auburn General Hospital, according to his report. The video, however, appears to show his shin strike a metal toilet as he pushes the girl against the wall.

G.D.

G.D.

Gene "G.D." Demby is the founder and editor of PostBourgie. In his day job, he blogs and reports on race and ethnicity for NPR's Code Switch team.
G.D.
  • What the hell? That was entirely too fast. He may have felt her shoe hit his leg (accidentally, or on purpose) but there’s no way any sort of ‘injury or pain’ could have registered before he slammed her into that wall. Dude was ready for any tiny excuse or deviation to brutalize that child.

  • Ahlana

    From the way it looks, I’m guessing that girl said something snarky to him as she flipped off the shoe and big strong officer man had to defend his masculinity by pummeling a girl half his size. What an asshat.

  • This is sickening.

    Absolute power corrupts absolutely. I have no respect for the police and what they do to people.

  • Steve

    The injury on the shin obviously came from him hitting the toilet when he was kicking her ass

  • Jason B.

    Damn. That’s just messed up.

  • Briddhi

    Holy fucking hell. What a monster. It’s also sick how the other officer just goes along with it, how he helps him beat her up and restrain her. It reminds me of a forum I was at earlier today where we were talking about things like the rapes at the Puerto Rican pride parade years ago, or the assaults and rapes at Seattle Mardi Gras a few years ago, and how sick it is that you can get that many men to agree to be so brutal and violent. Here we had two officers, one beating up a girl and the other perfectly happy to go along with it. I mean, granted, maybe he thought if he went along with it he could do something about it later, but given the track records police departments have of always defending their own no matter how brutal they are, I kind of doubt it.

  • Angie B

    It takes a real big shot to beat up a 15 year old GIRL! Way to go, tough guy. I hope that the officer involved gets prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Being a cop means you are supposed to enforce the law, not break it.

  • Melanie

    Man, that was brutal. Did you see his two punches to her head after having already slammed her head into the wall?

  • Grace

    That was a cowardly, sick assault. As if a shoe could hurt the cop and even if it did, there is no need to attack and sucker punch a girl in the head several time. Disgusting. Send him to jail with the other violent criminals where he can scrap it out with people his own size and gender. See how tough he is then.

  • Grace

    Looks like he actually picked her up by her hair at after beating her.

  • Belle O’Cosity

    My favorite is how he picked her up by the hair at the end. Do you think that is in the manual for proper procedure?

  • Endrju

    I wouldn’t limit my horror to one gender. It’d cause me no less outrage if the same thing happened to a 30 year old man. I think the core issue is police brutality. (Though, if some one has clearer ways to tie this to gender, I’m all ears.)

  • michaelTO61

    This was just horrible. I have a thirteen year old girl and can’t imagine any man putting his hands on her like this for ANY reason. I’m sickened. And you know what? I don’t think jail is good enough for a person like this. Who punches a girl in the face after she’s all ready down. And before I even watched this I knew it was a black child. She kicked him? I saw her raise her leg I didn’t see any contact. What her parents must be feeling after seeing her face……damn.

  • socgrad

    My favorite is how he picked her up by the hair at the end. Do you think that is in the manual for proper procedure? – Belle O’Cosity

    You may want to reflect a bit on your reaction to this video. It’s supposed to be sickening, not entertainment. You’re watching a teenage girl being brutalized by an adult man…not a UFC match. BTW, Belle O’Cosity, your name is not very funny given the topic at hand.

    I know that having access to videos like this helps, in some small way, keep the police accountable for their behavior, but when you have people giving excited recounts of a young girl being beaten: “Did you see when he did…” “My favorite part was when…”, it sounds more like some people are just getting off on the violence rather than sympathizing with the victim.

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  • lindso

    “Not all cops are assholes, it just seems to be a job that assholes gravitate towards”

    ps- dear socgrad- have you ever heard of sarcasm?