More thuggish cops being caught on their own camera

You've really got to wonder how these officers, even the most boorish and thuggish of them, can consistently forget the fact that their every move is being filmed and recorded by their own bloody dashboard camera. Maybe if they kept this in mind they'd be a little more conscientious about conspiring to falsify police reports to try and cover up their brutish natures:

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- New details emerged on Wednesday in a video that got two police officers fired and brought scrutiny to the West Palm Beach Police Department.

Arrest documents showed that the officers concocted a story to explain the beating caught on dashcam video. The problem was that, when they huddled together to come up with a story, the discussion was also caught on tape.

Former officers Kurt Graham and Louis Schwartz first claimed they kicked and punched robbery suspect Pablo Valenzuela because they were trying to kick away his knife. Graham explained it that night to his lieutenant that he "kicked him in the head at the same time."

"When the knife was right by his face, I kicked the knife forward," he told the lieutenant, according to police records.

According to the investigative report, Graham went back and watched the dashcam video with his lieutenant, and on that video it was clear that there was no knife on the ground by the suspect's head and that the knife was still in the suspect's backpack. Then, the report said, Graham motioned to Schwartz and they went to the sally port and had a discussion, but it was all caught on videotape. There was no audio.

After they talked, they went back inside and their story had changed -- there was no mention of the knife. Instead, the officers said they punched and kicked the suspect because he tried to bite one of them.

The good news here is that the three thugs were fired, something that's incredibly rare – most departments would rather aid them in covering their crimes up rather than face public scrutiny.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)