A cell phone video showing a Saratoga County, NY Sheriff deputy allegedly slapping a young man who refuses the officer's request to search his vehicle has gone viral, resulting in the suspension of the officer WITHOUT PAY. Responding to a call about suspicious activity, Sgt. Shawn R. Glans, a 27-year veteran officer, arrived at the scene to see two men dressed in dark clothing exiting a wooded area. There was allegedly a rifle on the backseat of their car.
From the PostStar.com:
A video posted online that appeared to show a Saratoga County sheriff’s officer slap a person he had stopped has led to suspension of the officer and a criminal investigation, police said early Saturday.
The video shows the officer, Sgt. Shawn Glans, cursing at the person he was speaking with, and the sound of what the videotaper alleges was a slap can be heard. Officers had spotted a rifle in the back of the parked car, according to the video.
I'm not going to bother speculating on what would happen if this cop had rolled up on two black dudes coming out of the woods in dark clothing on a suspicious activity call, with a gun visible in the car, refusing a search. Probably a lot more than a slap, right? And I'm not going to speculate on Desk Duty with pay pending and internal investigation. Historically, we likely know the answer to those questions, even if the Sheriff's Department statement on this incident says otherwise.
"The Sheriff's Office takes matters such as this very seriously and does not in any way condone anything less than professional behavior from our members. Sheriff's wish to thank the members of the community who brought this to light and cooperated fully with the investigation."
That's quick action once the video went viral. All of this, the incident and the suspension without pay, happened this past Friday. No stonewalling or equivocation, which is commendable and rare. So what was happeing here, because the Sgt. Glans made a
statement on this video, which is also rare:
Reached Saturday, Glans said there was more to the encounter than is captured on the video.
"You saw the video. It doesn't look good," Glans told the Times Union. "I'm all about doing the right thing. I had to go to that point because of the factors that came into play. There was a gun that was involved (that) I spotted in the vehicle."
Asked if he would have handled the matter the same way again, Glans said he would, but not if he knew it was being filmed. He acknowledged that he did not know the incident was being videotaped.
"I was concerned. It was a public safety issue," the sergeant said. "If I had to do it all over again ... I'd probably do the same thing. If I knew the camera was there, no, because it does look bad."
Here we have the cop making a statement about the presence of a gun justifying his alarm and subsequent behavior. Note he did not draw his weapon during this encounter, did not have his hand at the ready to draw, and was arguing back and forth in close physical proximity to the dude who owned the car. He's some
transcript from the video:
"We'll get a (expletive) search warrant," Sgt. Glans can be heard saying.
"I mean if that's the route you want to take, but there's no reason to search my car," the man responds. "I wasn't in my car when all this was happening. Like, why don't you want to search, like, my house or something."
"Let me see your (expletive) keys," Glans yells.
"Why?" the man says. "You can't do that."
"You want to (expletive) resist?" Sgt. Glans says as he apparently slaps him — but the slap cannot be seen on the video, only heard.
I'm not sure this cop is going to get much sympathy from the public on the gun thing here, which is certainly why he is talking to the media in such detail about this. And it is likely his last resort because frankly, if the Sheriff Dpt. has moved this fast and suspended without pay, he probably isn't being brought back, right? Plus he is probably getting sued.
And in case you were wondering, it does get worse:
Keys can be heard as they are apparently tossed. “Search the (expletive) car,” Glans said.
The camera angle returned to show Glans’ face. His breathing appeared slightly labored.
“I really don’t want to stand out here in the middle of the (expletive) rain, said Glans.
“Neither do I,” said the person.
“So if you have nothing to hide in there, we’re just going to check and be on our (expletive) merry way,” Glans said. The person could be heard saying, all right during that exchange.
“Understand, (expletive)?” Glans asked, while pointing at the person.
The camera operator commented, “That was intense.”
“You like that, eh,” asked Glans. “I can get a lot more intense.”
When a comment was made, “Can you slap me around?” Glans replied, “I’ll rip off your (expletive) head and (expletive) down your neck.”
Please check out the various links for the remainder, which includes
statements from the officer's wife about how hard things have been and the stress he has been under, and varying degrees of media bias including some straight up stenography from abc
News10.com.
The difference between how this entire incident has been handled compared to other police abuse incidents is worth examining. I find it quite striking, no pun intended. Kudos to the Saratoga Sheriff's Department for moving so quickly and I am so glad no one was gunned down, beaten or more than slapped and searched this time around.