Here
we
go
again.
Another
cop
given
a
free
pass
on
brutality
because
established
law
had
yet
to
inform
Deputy
Vincent
Castoro
that
body-slamming
a
13-year-old
weighing
less
than
120
lbs.
to
the
ground
might
violate
the
minor’s
right
to
be
free
of
immediate
and
permanent
injuries
simply
because
he
didn’t
immediately
comply
with
an
officer’s
demands.
And,
to
ensure
law
enforcement
officers
avoid
having
to
think
twice
before
pulverizing
children,
the
Eleventh
Circuit
Appeals
both
(1)
declined
to
establish
this
as
a
rights
violation
going
forward
and
(2)
issued
this
as
an
unpublished
decision
to
prevent
it
from
being
used
to
establish
similar
rights
violations
in
the
future.
It’s
an
altogether
depressing
affair.
It
all
starts
with
the
sort
of
thing
that
should
never
have
involved
law
enforcement:
a
momentary
interaction
between
a
parent
(of
other
children)
and
a
couple
of
(normally)
rude
teens.
From
the decision [PDF]:
On
January
4,
2019,
H.S.,
a
120-pound
thirteen-year-old
boy,
and
R.S.,
his
twelve-year-old
friend,
were
walking
through
a
residential
neighborhood
in
Jensen
Beach,
Florida.
As
the
boys
were
walking,
H.S.
and
R.S.
picked
up
a
ball
from
a
ditch
across
the
street
from
a
home
and
started
to
play
with
it.
At
the
same
time,
a
mother
and
her
children
were
outside
of
the
home.
The
mother
told
the
boys
that
the
ball
was
hers
and
they
needed
to
return
it.
Instead,
H.S.
cursed
at
the
mother,
gave
her
the
middle
finger,
let
the
ball
go,
and
left.
That
should
have
been
that.
A
parent
claiming
(without
facts
in
evidence)
that
a
ball
found
in
a
ditch
belonged
to her kids
demanded
its
return.
That
demand
was
rebuffed
in
the
rude,
but
incredibly
harmless,
delivery
of
the
middle
finger
by
the
older
of
the
two
kids.
Rather
than
just
wait
for
the
boys
to
move
on
and
reclaim
the
ball
the
mother
swore
was
rightfully
hers,
she
did
this
instead:
The
mother
called
the
police,
reported
the
incident,
and
provided
a
description
of
the
boys.
This
is
America
and
you’re
absolutely
free
to
be
an
absolutely
vindictive
piece
of
shit.
But
law
enforcement
presumably
has
larger
crime
fish
to
fry,
so
—
at
best
—
calls
about
middle
fingers
and
balls
in
ditches
should
be
treated
with
every
last
bit
of
condescension
they
deserve.
But
this
is
America.
More
specifically,
this
is
Florida.
So,
rather
than
pretend
to
type
up
a
report,
a
sheriff’s
deputy
decided
this
was exactly the
sort
of
crime
he
should
be
expending
his
considerably
limited
resources
on.
Not
only
did
he
rush
to
the
sound
of
middle
finger
deployment,
he
decided
the
only
narrative
that
mattered
was
the
one
told
by
the
parent,
which
(at
this
point
in
the
pleadings)
was
just
a
bunch
of
lies.
Deputy
Castoro
of
the
Martin
County
Sheriff’s
Office,
a
250-pound
man,
responded
to
the
dispatch
call.
The
dispatcher
told
the
deputy
that
two
boys
entered
the
mother’s
yard,
took
her
children’s
toy,
and,
when
the
mother
told
them
to
return
it,
the
boys
either
threw
or
kicked
the
toy
back
and
then
cursed
at
her.
Deputy
Castoro
not
only
outweighed
the
alleged
teen
perp
2-to-1,
but
it’s
probably
not
unfair
to
assume
he
outweighed
both
minors combined.
(We
should
also
assume
he
was
twice
their
age
—
again,
possibly combined.)
So,
not
only
was
he
bigger,
he
was
older.
And,
as
a
public
servant
he
should
have
known
better
than
to
address
this
absolute
non-crime
(even
if
there
was
arguable
trespass,
it
only
resulted
in
an
angry
mom
and
the
extremely
temporary
loss
of
control
of
an
extremely
inexpensive
object)
with
the
amount
of
force
he
chose
to
deploy
when
the
two
kids
decided
(correctly)
this
wasn’t
the
sort
of
thing
a
law
enforcement
officer
should
be
getting
bent
out
of
shape
about.
Neither
of
the
kids
did
anything
to
escalate
this
confrontation.
All
of
the
confrontation
was
on
the
officer’s
part,
as
was
all
of
the
escalation.
Deputy
Castoro
pulled
up
to
the
boys
in
his
marked
patrol
car
and
got
out.
He
was
wearing
his
uniform.
H.S.
recognized
Deputy
Castoro
as
a
law
enforcement
officer
but
he
did
not
try
to
flee.
Instead,
the
three
of
them—Deputy
Castoro,
H.S.,
and
R.S.—talked
while
standing
on
the
side
of
the
road
near
a
grassy
area
about
six
to
ten
feet
apart
from
each
other.
Deputy
Castoro
explained
why
he
was
there
and
asked
for
the
boys’
names.
R.S.
gave
his
name
to
Deputy
Castoro
but
H.S.
did
not.
Deputy
Castoro
asked
several
more
times
for
H.S.’s
name
but
H.S.
refused,
again
and
again,
to
identify
himself.
As
Deputy
Castoro
and
H.S.
were
going
back
and
forth,
H.S.
put
his
hands
into
his
hoodie
pocket.
(H.S.
was
wearing
a
pullover-style
hoodie
with
a
single
large
pocket.)
So
what,
most
people
would
reasonably
ask?
A
kid
refused
to
identify
himself
and
put
his
hands
in
the
pockets
of
his
hoodie.
Jensen
Beach,
Florida
isn’t
exactly
Miami. It’s
a
small-ish
community of
12,000
residents. It’s
87%
white.
Its
crime
rate
is lower
than
most
other
locales
in
Florida and
lower
than
many
other
places
in
the
United
States.
There’s
no
reason
any
cop
there
would
reasonably
believe
a
teen
with
hand
in
his
hoodie
—
especially
when
being
accosted
out
of
the
blue
over
alleged
bird-flipping
—
posed
a
threat
to
the
officer
or
anyone
else
in
the
area.
None
of
this
content
mattered
to
Deputy
Castoro,
who
can
only
blame
himself
and
his
inadequate
training
for
his
response
to
H.S.’s
action/inaction.
Deputy
Castoro,
based
on
his
law
enforcement
training,
knew
that
“any
sort
of
weapon[]
can
be
kept
in
pockets”
and
“anybody
can
be
a
threat.”
And
he
believed
that
“where
[he]
can’t
see
.
.
.
[a
subject’s]
hands,”
it
creates
“a
potentially
dangerous
situation”
because
of
“the
access
to
what
can
be
in
those
pockets.”
Cops
are
the
best
conspiracy
theorists,
capable
of
seeing
known
“threats”
in
an
innocuous
situation.
A
hand
in
a
pocket
is
just
a
teen
dying
to
gun
down
officers
who
dare
to
trifle
with
their
ball-troubling
crime
sprees.
That’s
the
problem
with
courts:
a
cop
says
something
literally
unbelievable
but
because
the
the
cop
reference
“training
and
experience,”
it’s
not
the
cop’s
fault
he’s
so
fucking
stupid.
In
fact,
he
might
actually
be
smarter
than
the
regular-ass
people
who
are
victimized
by
abusive
cops
and
whose
lawsuits
are
rejected
by
regular-ass
law
experts
who
man
the
courts.
Deputy
Castoro
said
a
teen
he
outweighed
by
130
lbs.
posed
a
threat
because
at
least
one
hand
was
hidden
during
this
escalation
of
force.
So,
whatever
happened
to
the
teen,
the
teen
had
coming
to
him,
says
the
Eleventh
Circuit.
This
is
what
happened
to
the
teen:
While
still
trying
to
get
H.S.’s
hands
out
of
his
pocket,
Deputy
Castoro
grabbed
H.S.
by
the
lower
waist,
lifted
him
into
the
air,
and
slammed
him
onto
the
ground
in
a
way
that
resembled
“a
wrestling
move.”
H.S.’s
body
landed
on
the
grass,
but
his
head
struck
the
paved
road.
After
H.S.
hit
the
ground,
a
pocketknife
fell
out
of
his
hoodie.
As
a
result
of
the
struggle,
H.S.
suffered
a
black
eye,
a
brain
bleed,
and
fractures
to
his
skull,
sinus
bone,
shoulder,
collar
bone,
and
ribs,
as
well
as
permanent
injuries.
The
weapon
that
was
dislodged
by
this
assault
wasn’t
illegal.
And
it
certainly
didn’t
pose
a
threat
to
the
officer,
considering
it
was
never
removed
from
the
teen’s
pocket,
nor
brandished
in
a
threatening
fashion.
Nevertheless,
the
Eleventh
Circuit
—
carefully
threading
the
needle
to
both
terminate
this
lawsuit
and
prevent
establishing
any
new
qualified
immunity
precedent
—
says
this
is
all
well
and
good
under
its
particular
interpretation
of
the
Constitution…
or,
at
least,
the
Qualified
Immunity
Doctrine,
which
has
zero
basis
in
the
US
Constitution.
H.S.
was
resisting
when
Deputy
Castoro
used
the
wrestling
move
to
free
H.S.’s
hands
from
his
hoodie
pocket.
And
H.S.
was
not
subdued.
He
refused
to
give
his
name
and
he
refused
to
remove
his
hands
from
his
because
he
believed
Deputy
Castoro
was
trying
to
arrest
him.
Indeed,
in
similar
cases
where
the
plaintiff
was
resisting
and
was
not
subdued
when
the
officer
used
force,
we
have
found
the
officer’s
conduct
was
not
so
egregious
that
it
violated
the
Fourth
Amendment.
[…]
As
in
Merricks,
Deputy
Castoro’s
significant
force
to
subdue
H.S.
was
not
“far
beyond
the
hazy
border
between
excessive
and
acceptable
force
.
.
.
and
every
reasonable
officer
in
[his]
situation
would
[not]
know
that
the
force
used
was
unlawful.”
While
this
all
may
add
up
when
you
consider
nothing
more
than
precedent
and
ignore
the
specifics
of
this
incident,
it
doesn’t
make
any
sense
when
you
factor
in
what
actually
happened
here,
especially
in
light
of
the
officer’s
defensive
claims.
A
cop
subduing
someone
roughly
their
size
and
age
because
they
did
not
comply
with
orders
is
not
the
same
thing
as
a
cop
brutalizing
someone
half
their
size
and
age
just
because
they
refused
to
remove
their
hands
from
their
pockets.
That
sort
of
thing
should
matter
in
cases
like
this
but
it
never
does.
A
cop
gunning
down
an
armed
person
that
presents
a
clear,
immediate
threat
is
indistinguishable
from
a
cop
beating
or
killing
an
unarmed
person just
because
the
cop
claimed
in
court
they thought the
person might be
armed. And,
in
this
case,
the
balance
of
power
—
both
physical
and
governmental
— clearly favored
the
deputy.
Because
of
that,
any
use
of
force
should
have
been more restrained
because
the
officer
always
had
the
upper
hand.
And
yet,
few
judges
are
willing
to
recognize
this
disparity,
instead
pretending
to
believe
that
because
all
opinions
are
issued
on
white
paper
with
black
ink,
anything
previously
printed
in
the
same
fashion
negates
any
discussion
about
case
specifics.
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