Burlington police gave a detailed account of a struggle that led to two arrests and accusations of police brutality after a video of it was posted online Sunday, saying a man assaulted officers.
In 38 seconds of video footage captured by a witness near the intersection of Main Street and South Winooski Avenue early Sunday, two officers are confronted by bystanders as they grapple with a man lying face-down. One of the officers strikes the man on the ground, who appears to have his hands underneath him. Some bystanders yell at the cops, with one saying, “You can’t do that!”
Monday afternoon, police said that the officers’ strikes were “consistent with officer training and are referred to as ‘distractionary strikes.’”
Burlington police issued a lengthy statement describing the incident as follows:
Around 2 a.m. Sunday, officers Ryan Rabideau and Ethan Czyzewski responded to a report of a man climbing a telephone pole. On the way there, they saw Shane Langevin, 20, of Winooski, hit another man on the head, causing him to fall to the ground, police said.
As they tried to take Langevin into custody, he refused to put his hands behind his back. A struggle ensued. After officers brought him to the ground, he tried to stand up, and “delivered a blow with his elbow to the right eye of [Rabideau]” according to the police statement.
“Langevin also struck [Czyzewski] in the jaw during the struggle,” police said.
Langevin briefly broke free, police said, before he was hit with a Taser shot, which caused him to fall to the ground. (The statement did not say which officer fired the Taser.) While lying on the ground, Langevin continued to struggle, and officers were unable to get his hands from under his body, leading to what police called the “distractionary strikes.”
Meanwhile, a crowd gathered and began yelling at the officers. Staff from nearby bars and restaurants helped officers keep the crowd back, police said.
Michael Mazza, 34, of St. Albans approached the officers “with clenched fists,” police said, as the officers struggled with Langevin. One of the officers pepper-sprayed Mazza, which stopped him.
Langevin and Mazza were not together, police said.
Czyzewski was treated and released from Fletcher Allen Health Care for bruises to his face, police said.
Langevin, who has convictions for disorderly conduct, assault, and domestic assault, was on probation for violating an abuse prevention order and other charges, police said. He was held on $5,000 bail on two charges of assault on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and simple assault.
Mazza was charged with impeding a police officer, police said.
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These Police Officers did nothing wrong, job well done!! Potentially saved someone’s life that night by taking a violent thug off the streets. I’m Police but not biased, just saying what needs saying!!
These thugs in uniform used potential deadly force (a Taser) and inflicted brutality on a prone, subdued victim. They should be brought up on charges. “Distractionary strikes”– distractionary Orwellian language, I say.
It very well may be SOP (standard operating proceedure) to beat on a man laying down on the ground, who is no current threat, but that doesn’t mean it’s right or just. Also, using deadly force (a taser) in a situation like this is also unreasonable. I understand the guy was being an asshole. But you shouldn’t get to use deadly force on someone who’s not threatening your life. Just as you shouldn’t be allowed to beat on someone because they aren’t doing what you’re telling them to do. I usually respect the police enormously, but this is just wrong.
Colm Gallagher that is a college student, NOT a THUG…
So. Taser happened before he was on the ground and was no longer affecting him in the video.
Saying a taser is deadly is like saying condoms don’t protect against stds and pregnancy.
Listen to the hits. That is an open hand. It’s real hard to do anything but sting when you are slapping someone.
Bottom line: dude was resisting arrest. The officer was well in his rights to do more than what he did.
Don’t understand why these citizens decided it was appropriate or legal to interfere with these officers doing their duty (“consistent with officer training”). Lethal force? The writer is absolutely incorrect that a Taser is legally considered “deadly force” and should go to any legal dictionary and educate himself. As I view it, “reasonable force” was utilized in subduing this suspect who was observed committing assult on another person by striking him on the head causing him to fall to the ground. I have absolutely no idea why Mr. Mazza thought he could attempt to interfere with the police and I hope he’s prosecuted. And sorry realist, there are plenty of student “thugs” in the popultion. I just can’t find any fault here by the officers (according to this report) and I’m certainly not a love of the BVT police force and Chief White’s hiring practices.
Hard to tell if the cops were being unnecessarily brutal and I’m a firm believer that they typically go well, well beyond what they are allowed to do & most of them due to sadistic tendencies that bought them to police work in the first place. But two things disturb me about this.
First, the cop screaming repeatedly in a rage, at the person video tapping, “turn it off” as if he has any right at all to make such a demand and second, as the article states. “Staff from nearby bars and restaurants helped officers keep the crowd back, police said.” I have to wonder… Power tripping bouncers, which wouldn’t surprise me as many are off duty cops working side jobs or just restaurant staff believing they have some manner of authority over other people?
The cops were wrong in the simple respect that they continued to escalate the situation, both with the suspect and with the crowd, who has every right to demand that they obey their mandate and oath of office. The suspect was of no immediate danger & the people are fed up with violence and outright murder from behind the badge. Maybe their “training” should teach them something about that.
It’s easy to watch a short video clip of a man lying on the street and think of him as being defenseless, and that the police are in the wrong. However, the police are REACTING to this man’s violent actions – where he struck a man with no warning and caused him to fall to the ground. He was accosted by police after they responded to a call and he attempted to flee. Police have the obligation to take that man into custody and, if needed, to respond with force to do so. This man was not responding to vocal commands, not responding to Taser and these blows which are not to critical areas – from what I can tell. It definitely appears the police were taking control of the situation in an appropriate manner. Kudos to the BPD in this situation. Job well done.
College student? Shane? Don’t make me laugh!
1. Cops always lie.
2. If you believe the cops, see #1.
I think this is so great that we are having this conversation. Videos like this give us the chance to really think about what can happen in a situation like this. The police have an awful job to do dealing with these kind of people and the whole picture is often not seen. We need to have video going all the time. Hopefully it will lead to more humane training, and actions by the police and not worse. It can be truly a new age for law enforcement.
Stupid hippie. Listen to the cops, tough guy.
Btw, I was being SARCASTIC. 😉