Officer Takes Action Against CBS4 After Story Airs

Sergeant Peter Schumanich, of the Lauderhill Police Department, filed an injunction in a Broward County court to stop the airing of the story where he appears on the air and online.

Schumanich was caught on camera cursing and screaming at a member of a police watchdog group who went to his department asking to file a complaint against an unspecified officer. The officer was caught on camera literally chasing down the man out of the police station and off the block, after he did not act the way Schumanich wanted him to.

Watch the video. It may be a bit of an overstatement that Sergeant Schumanich was screaming but his manner was certainly unprofessional if not sinister. He clearly implied that he wants to hear the complaint first, before it gets to the Internal Affairs. He clearly wanted to know who the pontential complainant is which may be an important part of a potential intimidation campaign. And being rebuked he simply chased the would-be complainant from the office.

One strange thing was that Schumanich asked the man if he was on any medication. I am not sure what the objective of that question was - perhaps, to write him off as a mental case.

It is also telling that Schumanich feels that he can effectively not only chase citizens out of the police station but also censor the TV station, too. But the stange thing about the police in the US is that they seem to more and more view themselves as an authority first, law enforcers second. They tend to think their job is to make rules, not enforce laws, rules and regulations on the book.

This, of course, is just a subjective impression which may or may not be solidly grounded in reality. But between police officers making perversely proud claims that "We shoot people here. We shoot the fuck out of them." and acting like Sergeant Schumanich the trend seems frightening. Note that in neither situation were the police reacting to an actual crime in progress or attempting to capture a known criminal suspect; nor did either situation take place in a holding cell or elsewhere beyond public reach.

tags: provocation  police  intimidation  law