Editorial
By The
Daily Targum
Did anything in that headline actually surprise you? We know
it didn’t, but it should — no matter how common police brutality has always
been, we refuse to become desensitized to it. David Castellani’s dreadful
experience isn’t any different.
We wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve never heard that name
before. The trend of the media underreporting police brutality is obvious. We
can imagine the same trend applies when it comes to the known corruption of
Atlantic City — where six armed police and a K-9 officer tackled Castellani, a
20-year-old Temple University student.
Surveillance footage of the attack is available online, and
it is beyond clear that excessive force was used on the prostrate Castellani,
who was already lying on his stomach. At the time, the K-9 officer unleashed
the dog on him and it gnawed on his head and neck, which could have killed him.
This is after the first five cops beat the crap out of him with fists, feet and
batons — a type of force that should only be used when a weapon is present.
Castellani had emptied his pockets in front of the cops moments before the attack.
What prompted it? Castellani directed offensive comments and
gestures at the police from across the street after they approached and
released him.
While disrespecting a cop seems like automatic grounds for
disorderly conduct, there’s absolutely no reason why so many needed to bumrush
one 20-year-old and use so many different forms of violence against him. Fists
and batons aside, they let the dog rush at his neck and could have very easily
killed him.
Here’s a shocker for you: The cop with the K-9 already had
15 complaints of excessive violence filed against him prior to this incident
and five pending lawsuits.
What we’re seeing here is a recurring pattern of corruption
and oversight in police departments. In our previous editorial “Circuit
judgment a bad call for NJ,” we noted Atlantic City’s known corruption and
inefficiency. Here it rears its ugly head, at the expense of a college student
who now has to live with the scars of 200 stitches at the hands of a corrupt
police force.
Strong and respectable leadership is missing. The police
chief condoned the actions of the officers and, while an “internal
investigation” is taking place — which we presume to be like the internal
investigations that absolved that police officer of his 15 excessive force complaints
— no disciplinary action has been taken against any of the cops involved, which
we feel is absolutely unacceptable.
But this isn’t a problem just limited to A.C. Rutgers
University experienced a similar incident in 2011, when two University students
filed a lawsuit against New Brunswick police for using excessive force after
officers wrongly broke into their apartment and attacked them while they were
asleep in their beds.
When cops are getting hired based on connections rather than
merit, their superiors’ priority is to cover up their tracks rather than carry
out thorough backgrounds checks and take necessary action against officers with
repetitive offenses. We are only fostering a breeding ground for this type of
sanctioned violence by law enforcement officials on the civilian population.
Castellani and his stunned parents are justified in their
decision to sue the city and the police department for their clear disregard
and negligence.
