ICPD “Party Bust”
Creating chaos, assaulting citizens, and violating rights
The following video of the Iowa City Police Department “busting a party” has been making rounds on social media today (full transcript is here):
Putting aside an apparent illegal entry, what infuriates us most about this video is the ICPD’s unhinged, animalistic aggression, including shouting, intimidation with weapons, random, punitive arrests, assault on the person filming the encounter, and general use of force where none was warranted.
The most appropriate term that comes to mind when watching this is “thugs”.
How the ICPD can’t see that these tactics are needlessly escalating a 100% peaceful situation into a violent chaos where anything can happen, dramatically increasing the risks of injury or death for everyone in the room including the cops themselves, is beyond us.
Serve & protect this is not.
Update: Raid witness comes forward with testimony: http://ICPDwatch.us/2014-09-06-raid-press-release
Outraged by this blatant police misconduct? Let the ICPD know!
Not sure what to say? Use this sample letter as a starting point.
- Captain Jim Steffen: 319–356–5440 (7 a.m. - 3 p.m. Mon-Fri), jim-steffen@iowa-city.org
- Police Chief Sam Hargadine: 319–356–5271, sam-hargadine@iowa-city.org
