A Santa Monica, CA man arrested by city police while attempting to charge his electric car has filed an excessive force lawsuit alleging he was tackled and pepper-sprayed after refusing to show his ID.
Video recorded by a concerned bystander shows the tail end of the April 21 interaction in which 36-year-old father of four, Justin Palmer, can be heard yelling at Santa Monica police who have him handcuffed on the ground at a Virginia Avenue Park charging station.
Palmer says he’d gone to the park just before 11 p.m. to charge his electric vehicle because he’s not allowed to charge at his apartment complex a few blocks away.
He says police approached him and told him to leave, claiming the park was closed, but the police report shows his arrest was made at 10:56 p.m. The park closes at 11:00 p.m.
Palmer does admit to refusing to show is ID but asserts the officers had no right to interrogate him.
“I couldn’t believe that this happened over me just trying to plug in my car,” Palmer said. “I didn’t know what was going on, I just felt he was singling me out and asked for my ID.”
Palmer says after officers asked for his ID he demanded to know why they were approaching him, since other people were also in the park. He said one officer then threw him to the ground causing him to hit his head on the concrete which resulted in a concussion.
“He swept my legs and held my arm and threw me to the ground,” Palmer said. “I hit my head on the ground and blacked out.”
Palmer says police then pepper-sprayed and arrested him. He spent the night in jail but was released the next morning without charges.
“That’s how obvious it was my client didn’t do anything wrong,” Palmer’s lawyer Justin Sanders said.
Sill, Santa Monica police have defended officers actions saying they “acted within policy” because Palmer “resisted arrest.”
Users of the park contend the charging station is regularly frequented by city residents after hours as it is one of the only few charging stations in the area.
Local news coverage containing partial raw footage:
Tesla Model S P85D Electric Car breaks—before Consumer Reports testing even begins
So it is not enough to be a good boy who owns an electric car.
Dear Escher,
It’s truly frightening.
Even cowering and groveling before the costumed thugs won’t immunize one from possibly being crippled or even murdered.
What is there left to say about a country when its government has degenerated to that level?
Incidentally, I lived in Santa Monica for quite a few years.
It was known as “The Peoples Republic of Santa Monica” because it was so leftist Nanny State.
Never let the term Nanny State fool you though. Anyone who imagines that a Nanny State is merely over-solicitous doesn’t understand the nature of political power.
Don’t confuse the Nanny State w/Mary Poppins or other movie ‘nannies.’
This is just more proof the coptards see themselves as part of the federal felonists who intend to run roughshod over the public when things get tough or when they just finally see it as time to make it a full-blown prison state.
Talk about backlash. A great many clovers are going to get their mouths shut, maybe permanently when they try to play peacemaker between the people who have had enough and the pheroes that are intent on killing them or making them slaves.
I’m ashamed to say Tx. is full of clovers but even those who don’t recognize things for what they are get their back up when you tell them somebody will be coming for their guns. They can’t come to terms that it’s going to be those same costumed thugs they think actually need to exist. Personally, i’d like to go to DC but would content myself with going to Austin. I have a lot of new rope. I’ll let those closer to the big problem take care of that……fertilizing cherry trees.
Dear 8sm,
“They can’t come to terms that it’s going to be those same costumed thugs they think actually need to exist. ”
I like the way you put that!
Yes, hear hear!
bevin, maybe there’s hope that a change is imminent. There are more links in this Washington’s blog that spell out to me why DHS and other domestic terrorists are arming for a war: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/05/americans-are-less-proud-of-our-country-than-yemenis-mexicans-libyans-rwandans-ghanaians-zimbabweans-pakistanis-nigerians-egyptians-jordanians-azerbaijanis-armenians-moroccans-kazakhstani.html
Dear 8sm,
Good.
Patriotism is love of one’s country, not one’s government.
Presumably some of those polled get that.
bevin, I think it’s human nature to be comfortable and derive happiness from country they have grown up in or lived in a long while. I say country as in geography, climate, history, cultures, etc. As far as I’m concerned one of the most abused people are Texans, to this very day by Yankees of one sort or the other. Our legislature isn’t as bad as it could be but the govt. as a whole, like any other govt., sucks the big one but it could be worse which isn’t really here nor there. I’m actually partial to various parts of Texas although I love everything from the ocean to the swamps, to the pine forests, to the hill country, to the border country, to the heart, to the west rolling plains, the high plains, the desert, the west Mountains and even the Red River area bordering Ok. ha ha. Sure, there are places I’ve been I thought were very nice except Ms. naw, I’m just kidding. Ms. is very pretty and I used to have the best water you could find, mixed great with Platte Valley 100 Proof or Wild Turkey 101, even tasted better by itself than any I had before or since.
My point is, we’re predisposed to like the things we know the best. If that weren’t so there’d be no population in the NE. No joke…..or at least not all the concentrations that have outlived their original reasons to exist. So loving geography, climate, history, mixed cultures and what you’re familiar with and people you communicated and empathize with is very natural. It’s common to see people flying the flag, the Texas flag and nothing else. I prefer the Bloody Arm or Come and Take It(my local liquor store is having a bunch of shirts with Come and Take It made). But we could turn the capitol building into a giant marijuana grow farm(divided into sections and drawn by lottery, constantly changing growers) or a multi-level roller rink as far as I’m concerned. The govt. sucks……worse every day. Actually, I’d like to use the dome to house my cooling tower for my new Capitol B. bourbon still, give samples away every Friday. Shit no, I don’t mean a stamp. I mean bring your own container and I’ll measure you some. Fuck the Feds….and I wouldn’t even feed ’em fish heads.
NCLB