Activists told us that once we put body cameras and dash cameras on police officers that there would be no controversies, and that the “camera doesn’t lie.” They were only half correct. You see, the camera itself is only a recording device, not an understanding device. It is incredibly common for two people to watch the exact same video of an incident and drawn two radically different conclusions.

What they “see” is actually only an interpretation, and that interpretation is shaped by their perceptions, education, training, and biases.

https://youtu.be/K2FqeePfNoE

Here’s how new news media is reporting the incident.

Police have responded to the video of the dramatic arrest of a man in a Del Paso Heights neighborhood Monday afternoon.

Sacramento police are calling the behavior in the video “unacceptable conduct by a police officer.”

The video shows an officer grabbing a man by the neck, taking him down and punching him repeatedly for what started as a stop for jay walking.

Here’s how Blue Lives Matter reported the same incident.

A textbook use of force turned into sensationalized BS after Fox 40 reporters obtained a video showing a Sacramento police officer arresting Nandi Caine Jr. on Monday. Video of the incident can be seen below.

According to Fox 40, the incident started on Monday at around 5 PM when the unidentified Sacramento police officer repeatedly told Nandi Caine Jr. to stop after he committed a jaywalking violation at the intersection of Cypress Street and Grand Avenue. Caine ignored the officers commands.

The officer followed until Caine finally did stop. The details aren’t clear from there until the video starts.

This is where the BS starts flying from Fox 40. The news channel reported:

“After finally stopping Cain, police say the two got into an argument and Cain took off his jacket, challenging the officer to a fight. That is when police say for an unknown reason the officer threw down Cain and began punching him over and over.”

That’s the same thing as saying, “The guy tried to fight with the police, then for some unknown reason, the officer fought him.”

I think the reason is pretty clear.

I’m not in California, and I’m not familiar with California law, but I’m fairly certain that ignoring a police officer’s commands to stop, and then standing in the middle of the roadway threatening to fight the officer, is a crime everywhere in America.

Fox 40 and the rest of the news media have made hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars in the past few years attempting to foment outrage over how law enforcement officers do their jobs. They have no interest at all in telling both sides of the story, and instead draw revenue from inflaming public opinion with controversial statements about how officers hand incidents, with no concern as to why the officers are using the TTPs (tactics, techniques, and procedures) that they do in a given incident.

In this incident, Nandi Caine Jr. shrug off his jacket, which is a universal sign of someone who wants to fight.

The officer then takes the initiative and quickly makes contact with Caine by grabbing and pulling Caine’s left arm, while pushing Caine’s upper chest/collarbone area.

As Caine turns, the officer reaches across Cain’s chest and takes him down.

The officer’s hand did not touch Caine’s neck as Fox 40 and numerous other outlets falsely reported.

Once the officer has Caine down he quickly mounts him and drops a few punches as Caine appears to attempt to flail back against him. Anyone familiar with MMA knows, Caine isn’t going to be able to generate much punching power from the bottom position.

Caine then acts like most of us would, and attempts to “turtle up” to protect his head. The officer in the mount position allows Caine to roll over to a face-down position, intercepts his arm, and starts putting him in cuffs.

A second officer then arrives to finish taking Caine into custody.

I didn’t see anything approaching the “police brutality” narrative the media is attempting to sell here.

While I think jaywalking is an utterly absurd charge, Caine should have simply accepted his ticket and gone on with his day. Instead, he challenged the officer to a fight and ended up getting his butt kicked in a brief and very technical encounter that resulted in his arrest.

Cravenly, the Sacramento Police Department is refusing to support their officer. They and Mayor Darrell Steinberg are hanging the officer out to dry instead of explaining to the public why the officer used the TTPs he did (as I just explained in maybe 30 seconds worth of reading).

I don’t expect Steinberg to step up for his police department. He is after all a politician and politicians neither have spines nor morals. I am very disappointed in the Sacramento Police, who seem to care more about protecting their image than protecting an officer who appears to have done everything by the book.