Joseph Rios: Ronnie Holloway Beating Cop Indicted

Police officer Joseph Rios, who was caught on surveillance tape beating a disabled man, has been indicted on misconduct and assault charges.

Rios stopped Ronnie Holloway in front of Lawrence's Grill and Bar in Passaic, NJ on June 6th. After demanding the 49-year-old schizophrenia-sufferer remove his sweatshirt, Rios can be seen slamming him into the hood of his car and hitting him with his nightstick.

NBC New York has the shocking footage:

Comments

[the evil zargos]

what is everybody so worked up about all of a sudden?? POOR PEOPLE AND PEOPLE OF COLOR have been SCREAMING OUTLOUD about this for decades!!!!

[Ping]

He should get jail time.

[dwill123]

He would have tazed him but he had legs.

[jcadams]

For the really excellent compensation given to public employees like these rouge police officers the public deserves a better professional service. I have worked as a management consultant and know salary levels for college educated people in a variety of corporate disciplines. Moreover in recent years --- in a private business setting --- I had the opportunity to interview several college-educated patrolmen who worked for different (San Francisco) East Bay municipalities. The total cash compensation with overtime, solid benefits and retirement given to police employees was really excellent. Much, much better than their college-educated "peers" in corporate America received. (Moreover in some police departments the last 5 years of a police employee’s tenure is spent with escalated service hours and overtime so the taxpayers can reward that police retiree with an unnecessarily inflated pension.) Finally, police employees are protected by really tough and effective unions unlike their college-educated counterparts in corporate America. Police employees cannot be easily terminated like an “at will” corporate employee, laid off by an economic downturn or a merger, etc. Furthermore even policemen who make serious mistakes --- such as apparently committed in this matter or like the NY officers who shot an unarmed black man 41 times --- are guaranteed to receive the most rigorous legal defense possible because the cities that employs these rogue police employees are afraid of a large awards from civil suits.

[Yurasis Dragon]

Very nice comment, thank you.

[LetMeUnderstandThis]

Excellent post jcadams...­..we haven't forgotten about Sean Bell and the NYPD is very concerned about the threats from gangs in NYC.

[wwoody]

Policeman job is to catch them, not cook them.

[charon]

Typical cop. They are above the law. Juries always bow low to them. We've been in a police state for decades.

[RTIII]

True enough, unfortunately.
.

[magnolialiberal]

This police officer cannot have felt threatened, his partner got in and out of the car and did not act concerned in the least. What on earth set him off? This is awful.

[thrdr]

I'm sorry but I did not get that impression from the video, though it's hard to tell.

I got somewhat the opposite impression. That his partner tried to get him to go easy and failed. At one point at least--about midway through this recording--she(?) steps up behind her partner and places her hand on his shoulder--I could be wrong but it does look like she was trying to tell him to cool it. She didn't however try too hard. Were I in her shoes I might have considered pulling my weapon on him--but that's a bit tricky to explain when backup arrives, isn't it? But again it's hard to tell.

(People should be aware that this video is sped-up considerably--the actual incident, starting from where the cruiser pulls up to the point when the cavalry shows, spanned about three minutes.)

[magnolialiberal]

She may have been trying to get him to cool down, but what I meant was that she did not seem concerned at all that her PARTNER might be in any danger. That was my point, that his use of force seemed quite excessive by her behavior, because she does not appear to believe that she or her partner are in any danger. She may have been concerned about the excessive use of force, I cannot tell really, but that was not what I was commenting on.

[JerseyGirl4Obama]

Outrageous. He should have been indicted and hopefully he will be convicted. Did you notice that the victim did not fight back at all. These rogue police are totally out of control.

[KIVPossum]

They've been out of control for decades. Now there are video and cell phone cameras to catch them and easy ways to put the information out for all to see.

[madtom]

Thank God for videocams and phones.

Cops have ALWAYS done this, and up to now they ALWAYS got away with it.

This has happened thousand if not millions of times. FINALLY the cops are getting caught by video.

Prosecutors have always been AFRAID to prosecute cops -- but with enough evidence we can begin to make the prison bars slam shut behind the worst ones..

[JerseyGirl4Obama]

You are so right.

[NoSillyName]

Too many cops are out of control.

Its sickening hearing these stories.

[kpmclean]

Wow, their range (Repuglicans) is so evident everywhere. Looks like he was Black too?

[Dark Sphere]

Leftists always inject race to divide and conquer. The cop was hispanic, the victim was black.

[TeejMan]

How is it "injecting race?" The victim was black. Simple truth.

[ISO9001]

RRRrrrrrage!

[madtom]

RRRRRRROID RAGE !!!

[ISO9001]

t SOB stopped hitting the man when backup arrived.

[ISO9001]

Screw indictment­s... Run this piece again only after a CONVICTION.

[madtom]

Oh, darn, I thought at first you said run OVER him. As in, run over him with a squad car, repeat, repeat, and repeat until mission accomplished.

Save the taxpayers a trial, and take money out of the thug lawyers who defend thug cops. Yep, our tax dollars usually pay for the criminal cop's defense, too.

[ISO9001]

The police acted stupidly.