Police brutality in Streamwood, IL

Surely you have seen this video of a suburban police officer delivering a savage beating to 28 year old Ronald Bell in the driveway of his Streamwood home on March 28th.  officer James Mandarino struck Bell 15 times with his baton AND tasered the passenger of the car.  why?  because the officer suspected the driver was intoxicated.  turns out Bell flicked a cigarette out the window of his car and it flew in the back seat.  Turns out it can happen, just ask Neil Page and Del Griffith.  as Bell reached into the back seat, the car swerved a bit and that’s when the police cruiser started pursuit.  that part wasn’t reported in stories from huffingtonpost or chicago tribune.

how do i know this?  as luck would have it, my sister is Bell’s next door neighbor.  that condo in the video is made up of 4 units.  my sister and brother-in-law share a wall with Ronald Bell’s and sometimes they smoke cigarettes together.  i’ve driven down that stretch of road literally hundreds of times.  i hosted keg parties there every saturday night for junior and senior year of high school, one of which resulted in the loss of my virginity in the upstairs corner bedroom.

i can tell you driving down that stretch of Schaumburg Road to East Ave. to Juniper Circle, flashing lights are always going off because the Streamwood Fire Dept. is on the corner.  the only thing between the Firehouse and the building that is home to my sister, Ronald Bell, and two Pakistani families is a drainage basin.  It would be difficult to tell if a police car was following you because the stretch of East Ave. between Schaumburg Rd. and Juniper Circle curves to the left, making it impossible to see a distinguishable police cruiser with his lights on in the rearview.  couple that with the fact that Bell was trying to prevent his car to go up in flames from an errant cigarette flick, i suppose i wouldn’t pull over until i was in the driveway either.  also, the police siren was probably not on because it was almost 4:00 in the morning and he probably did not want to disturb lower-middle-class America.   i estimate it would take 15 seconds driving that whole stretch of road, short enough time to not realize a squad car is pulling you over.

but what the fuck is wrong with cops?  even the Cook County D.A. said it looked like the kid was complying with everything the officer asked him to do.  and you hit him 15 times with a baton and taser the passenger?  what a fucking maniac.  im sure criminal justice students will  blanketly defend policemen and chastize sensationalism in the media claiming this is an isolated incident and that every profession has derelict employees that incorrectly do their job.  but the difference is that in this profession, the employee has a gun.  and a baton.  and a badge.  and that makes it different than a doctor who smokes or a teacher who cuts corners.  Innocent citizens are normally confused when police are questioning them and that confusion is illustrated in this video.  There is no audio but I can imagine that all Ronald is screaming, “Why the fuck are you hitting me?  Stop hitting me!”  Suburban cops are useless as it is, spending a majority of their time busting up house parties and giving soccer moms speeding tickets, but now they are relentlessly beating civilians just steps from their house without warning?  Look at these pictures of the aftermath. I acknowledge that policework is occasionally dangerous and there are plenty of bonafide “heroes” out there, but this is a fucking joke.  people are right to be up in arms when these things happen.  especially coming from a government employee.

I wrote this while smoking marijuana.