Out of Control

[Content Note: Police misconduct; violence.]

I don't even have words:

After receiving a noise complaint, the Baytown Police decided they needed to get aggressive.

What seemingly should have been a simple house call turned into a nightmare for a family enjoying a birthday party.

According to the Zepeda family and their friends, more than five officers were dispatched to the home and entered SWAT style. Once inside the house, they began using pepper spray, firing Tasers, and pistol whipping anyone who got in the way.

The police have a different version of the story.

Det. Edgar Elizondo asserts that homeowner Jose Zepeda refused to sign a citation for disturbing the peace. When officers tried to arrest him, three of men stepped in and began pushing. This then prompted the officers to use pepper spray. Zepeda and the others ran into the house and the police followed.

This is when all hell breaks loose.

There is video at the link, if you are inclined to watch it.

What I don't understand is why a noise complaint turned into a citation for disturbing the peace in the first place. What happened to telling people having a party to pipe down and seeing if they'll comply, as most folks usually do, before it turns into a citation for disturbing the peace? And why the fuck did it escalate exponentially from there?

So many of these stories about which I write start out with a police approach that presumes bad faith and unwillingness to cooperate. The police in many places are too aggressive, often citing the proliferation of legal guns, which in turn facilitates a mutual mistrust that has devastating consequences.

Just fuck.

[H/T to Shaker Westsidebecca.]