Florida Marine Gets A Beating For Sassing Back To A Cop

Here's another reason why so many Americans love those who are dedicated to protecting and serving their community. Last December, Marine Corps Corporal Curtis Shannon got himself a good beating for his refusal to roll down his car window all the way when confronted by an increasingly angry, out-of-control cop in St. Petersburg, Florida. The cop had pulled him over for allegedly driving in an "erratic manner," and like some kind of maniac who thinks he has rights, Shannon recorded most of the interaction on his cell phone. Even though you KNOW where it's headed, it's just fucking terrifying.

As the video begins, Shannon explains that he asked the officer why he had been stopped, and the officer replied, “Because I wanted to, now step out of the vehicle!”

The officer asks for a license and registration, and Shannon offers it through a three-inch opening in the window. The officer, however, refuses to recognize that the documents are being offered, and threatens to break the window.

“My name is Cpl. Shannon, USMC,” Shannon says. “You can have my license and registration.”

“I need to see you,” the officer responds. “I need you to get out of this car, that’s what I need you to do.”

When Shannon asks why he is being asked to leave his vehicle, the officer says, “Because I asked you to.”

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Shannon refuses again, mostly because he hates law and order, or possibly because, as he says, “I’ve already heard enough about SPPD around here. I’m not going to step out of this car so you can beat the hell out of me.”

The cop is not pleased by the suggestion that the fine men and women of his beloved department would ever do such a thing and shouts, “So, I can do what to you?!” Then he offers several times to break out Shannon's window. When backup officers arrive, Shannon agrees to get out of the car and is immediately seized by the cop; we hear Shannon's protests that he is cooperating, a few thuds, and the video goes dead.

Shannon describes the entire encounter on his GoFundMe fundraiser page, where he is trying to get money to recover some of his legal expenses and to help pay for the costs of moving -- for some reason, he doesn't want to stay in the welcoming neighborhood where he lived. He also would like to raise some money to have a birthday party for his son, Dyson, maybe, which gives us an excuse to relieve this horror with an adorable baby picture:

After being pulled from the car, he says, he got treated to some more truth, justice, and the American way:

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The officer then slammed me onto the ground, making sure that my head made full contact with the curb on the way down.

He got on top of me and demanded I give him my arm (so he could handcuff me). I couldn't. He was intentionally pinning that arm to the ground with his knee and he knew it. For almost two minutes, he would elbow me in the back of the head (elbows don't leave bruises or bumps as easily), knee me in the ribs and kept yelling for me to give him my arm. Then it started to make sense. As the stars flashed behind my eyelids after every strike, I realized that we are between two parked cars. No one can see us. As far as anyone else can tell, I'm fighting this officer on the ground. So I just laid there and shouted as loud as I could , "YOU'RE PINNING MY ARM TO THE GROUND!! QUIT PUNCHING ME!!" He stops and you can start to hear the mumbles and murmurs of the neighbors as they start to discuss what's happening. The officer realized that playtime is over and cuffs me. When he gets me off the ground, I could see the mischevous grins on two of the officers' faces. The third one, the one who said I would'nt be harmed, just stood there almost in disbelief. Maybe he was new, I don't know.

Shannon also transcribes the police report, verbatim, reproducing the report's many typos -- though he doesn't have a scanner to provide the actual document, so maybe he's making the whole thing up! Dear readers, you will almost certainly not be too shocked to learn that the cop claimed that Shannon assaulted him:

I advised him that he was under arrest and he attempted to closed the door on me., and he began reaching for a unknown object in the passenger seat.

I reached inside the car and placed my hands on Shannon's left arm and attempted to pull him out of the car and he pulled away aggressively with force. Shannon then exited the car and charged towards me. Shannon pushed me in my chest causing me to lose my balance as I stilhad a hold of his triceps, which help me regain my balance. I then pushed Shannon away from me and advised him "to stop resisting". Shannon then attempted to charge towards me again and I escorting Shannon to a the ground using an armbar takedown maneuver.

While on the ground Shannon continued to resist as I attempted to place, my department issued hand cuffs on his arms, as I yelled for him to "stop resisting and place you hands behind your back". Ofc [#2] abd Ofc [#3] were unable to assist me in detaining Shannon because we were on the ground between a set of closely parked cars.

Darn those awful resisting motorists who record cops. Just the second that his cell phone stopped recording, Shannon turned into the Incredible Hulk and repeatedly charged the cop, conveniently doing so out of the line of sight of the other two cops. This is, after all, an official report, and no police officer would ever just lie in an official document. Obviously, something needs to be done about these out-of-control polite motorists who turn into monsters the moment their own cameras stop recording encounters with police.

We looked to see if perhaps Jim Hoft might have posted anything on his blog about this particular police encounter; since he's so very concerned about violence done to former Marines , the beating of an active duty Marine by a cop would no doubt get his attention. But we were disappointed. And yes, let's go ahead and acknowledge for the rightwing comment section Perry Masons out there, we do not see the very first moments of the traffic stop -- Shannon only begins recording after the officer has left the car's front door to write down his license plate information -- so we can't say for certain that Shannon had the calm demeanor he displays in the video. Who knows, maybe when the cop first came to the window he shouted "Fuck The Police! Off the Pigs! By Any Means Necessary!" Also, maybe the whole thing is just a desperate bid for attention, and Shannon is just trying to stir up trouble. You know how those Marines are, what with all their defiance of authority figures and all.

[ RawStory / GoFundMe ]