Clark testified yesterday that such an approach is “considered to be demeaning, objectionable to the person receiving it, especially if they think they haven’t done anything.” Martínez’s initial “hey you, come here”-type statements, Clark said, are specifically discussed in police officers’ training in terms of what not to do. What the video showed was a “continuous flurry of beating.”īut it wasn’t just the beating the officers’ approach was problematic from the start, Clark testified. The reactions by Spiers were indications of compliance, he said. “When you hear ‘okay, okay,’ and you don’t hear a statement of challenge in terms of aggression,” Clark said Stangel should have stopped. While Clark insisted that Stangel should never have pulled out his baton, he did say that if the weapon had to be drawn, Stangel should have paused and given Spiers a warning, an opportunity to comply or surrender between each of the eight baton swings. “It’s obvious here, one officer got one side, you get in and get the other side!” Clark said of how Stangel could have just helped to handcuff Spiers. In fact, he said a trained officer would recognize these reactions. Since the officers that night didn’t make their intentions clear, Spiers’ “natural” and “instinctive” reactions (backing away, and his movements when being beaten) did not register as resistance in Clark’s eyes. ![]() A higher level of force was not necessary, he testified. Over the course of multiple cross-examinations yesterday, Stangel’s attorney, Nicole Pifari, suggested that Stangel was justifiably using his baton to defend Martínez, who was wrestling with an “assaultive” and resistant subject.Ĭlark vehemently disagreed with Pifari’s assessment. ![]() Spiers pulls his arm away, Martínez and Spiers engage in a scuffle, and seconds later, Stangel has pulled out his baton and is beating Spiers with it. Within seconds, Martínez tries to grab Spiers’ arm. In the body camera footage, which was shown again in court on Thursday, Martínez makes contact with Spiers and Richard, issuing commands to “come over here” as he approaches the apparently confused couple. Stangel beat Spiers, a domestic violence suspect, with a baton on Oct. He was presented as the final witness in the prosecution’s case against Stangel, who is the first on-duty San Francisco police officer in the modern era to be criminally tried for use of excessive force. What Stangel’s defense has characterized as unlawful resistance from Spiers was, in fact, natural confusion to a poorly executed approach by SFPD officers, according to Clark, a retired Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy and current police-practices consultant.Ĭlark was on the stand for about five hours. Clark said both SFPD officers failed to de-escalate the situation, and testified that Stangel’s use of his baton to beat Spiers was wholly unwarranted. Others weren’t so lucky.Roger Clark, an expert on police practices and use of force, testified Thursday in the trial against San Francisco Police Officer Terrance Stangel that Stangel and his partner acted counter to their law enforcement training when they rapidly approached and beat unarmed Black man Dacari Spiers in 2019. Gale-force winds whipped across the road from all directions and the lashing snow and rain reduced visibility almost down to zero. After negotiating mile after mile of standing water and avoiding fallen trees on the road, I was relieved to arrive back in Carlisle. I still had to make it back to my hotel though, and the 65-minute B-road blast in the morning ended up being a near 2.5-hour nerve-racking return ordeal. I lasted about an hour, which was enough time to see the leading 10 cars. ![]() The gloves I wore lost badly to the damp quite early on, and my camera began to act up after 25 minutes. I must admit though, it was not a pleasant experience. This was proper RAC weather, like ’73, ’93 or ’96. ![]() Masochists maybe, but this felt authentic. In a forest, at night, in blizzard conditions, we stood. Amazingly though, the banks remained lined with spectators. It was the same location as earlier, but with just a slight change in conditions.Īs I mentioned at the beginning of this story, Storm Arwen absolutely battered the area. SS12: Bewshaugh 2 is a special stage I will never forget.
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