57-Year-Old Michigan Man Beaten to a Bloody Pulp by Police Officer Known as “RoboCop” for Running a Red Light

Screen Shot 2015-03-31 at 10.49.43 AM

Dent opened his door and was dragged out of his Cadillac; almost immediately, Melendez put him in a chokehold. Melendez then proceeded to deliver 16 blows to Dent’s temple. This all took place in about 15 seconds. Another officer arrived moments later and proceeded to use a taser stun gun against Dent, three times. In the video, Dent, with blood dripping from his forehead and cheek, appears not to be resisting Melendez’s efforts to arrest him.

Melendez’s record shows he has faced similar allegations before. At one point, he garnered more citizen complaints than any officer in Detroit, where he started his career in 1993 and served until his resignation in 2009. He entered Inkster’s police force a year later.

Over nearly two decades, Melendez has been named as a defendant in a dozen federal lawsuits, accused of planting evidence, wrongfully killing unarmed civilians, falsifying police reports and conducting illegal arrests. Some suits were settled out of court. Others were dismissed.

In 1996, Melendez, who was known in Detroit as “RoboCop”, and his partner shot and killed Lou Adkins. While Adkins was on the ground, several witnesses said the officers shot him 11 times, according to the Detroit Free Press. The case was settled for $1.05m, court records show.

– From the Guardian article: How a Traffic Stop Left a Michigan Man Beaten, Bloodied and Bitter at Police

Michigan police officer William Melendez has a sordid reputation. Amongst other things, he has come to be known as “Robocop” for his shady and often violent behavior. Additionally, he was “cited as the ringleader of numerous officers indicted by a federal grand jury in 2003 on civil rights violations.”

In contrast, Detroit native Floyd Dent worked at Ford for 37-years, has no criminal record and seems to be a decent and thoughtful citizen. He just happens to be black, driving at night, and had the unfortunate experience of running into William “Robocop” Melendez on the evening of January 28, 2015.

One of these individuals should be behind bars for a very long time, and one of them shouldn’t.

From the Guardian:

At about 10pm, the Detroit native says he went to visit a blind friend in the neighboring city of Inkster, to deliver a bottle of Rémy Martin and a 40oz of Bud Ice. He stayed for a few minutes, then left to drive home.

Moments later, a police cruiser behind him flipped on its overhead lights. According to a police report on the incident, Dent, 57, had failed to use a traffic signal and disregarded a stop sign. He continued to drive at roughly the same speed for about three-quarters of a mile, to a well-lit area where he says he felt comfortable. There, near an old police station, he pulled to the side of the road.

Dent opened his door and put both his hands out of the window.

“I wanted to let them know I’m unarmed,” he told the Guardian.

But officer William Melendez – believing Dent was reaching for a gun – approached with firearm drawn. What happened next was captured on a patrol car camera.

No audio of the incident exists. According to Dent, one of the officers told him to “get out the car, before I blow your fucking head off”.

Dent opened his door and was dragged out of his Cadillac; almost immediately, Melendez put him in a chokehold. Melendez then proceeded to deliver 16 blows to Dent’s temple. This all took place in about 15 seconds. Another officer arrived moments later and proceeded to use a taser stun gun against Dent, three times. In the video, Dent, with blood dripping from his forehead and cheek, appears not to be resisting Melendez’s efforts to arrest him.

In the police report, Melendez contended that as he had approached Dent’s open car door, the 37-year veteran Ford employee, who had no criminal history, looked at him “with a blank stare as if on a form of narcotic” and plainly stated: “I’ll kill you.”

Melendez, 46, claimed Dent was immediately combative and bit his forearm, though he would later testify there were no marks because he was wearing several layers of clothing.

So Melendez claims he had to keep beating Dent due to this supposedly vicious bite, which incredibly left no mark.

For that, Dent says he spent two days in hospital for a fractured left orbital, blood on the brain and four broken ribs.

Inkster, with a population of about 25,000, is 73% black. Melendez is Hispanic; the other eight officers who arrived to the scene on 28 January were white. 

While Dent was sitting in the back seat of a cruiser, police say they found a small bag of cocaine underneath the passenger seat of his vehicle.

Dent, whose post-arrest drug test came up negative, says police planted that evidence. Rohl, Dent’s attorney, contends that a close review of a video released this week shows Melendez pulling a bag of drugs from his pocket.

“I saw [an officer] with drugs in his hand, and I thought, ‘Look at them dirty dogs,’” Dent said. “After that I just held my head down.”

Hilton Napoleon, a former Inkster police chief, said the allegations levied by Dent came as no surprise.

Citizens told him during his three-year tenure that officers planted evidence at a crime scene, he said.

In the wake of the video showing Dent’s beating, demonstrations took place in Inkster – where the police force is estimated to be 80% to 90% white.

While black police officers can be notorious for abusing fellow black citizens, it still seems incredibly bizarre that a city that is 73% black has a police force that is 80%-90% white.

The only person who has been prosecuted since the incident is Dent.

Initially, he faced charges of assault, resisting arrest and possession of cocaine. Upon viewing the patrol car video at a preliminary hearing earlier this month, a district court judge tossed out nearly all the charges. A court date on the drug charge is scheduled for Wednesday.

“I don’t care if he’s got a kilo of cocaine and two dead bodies in that car, I don’t give a shit,” he said. “It’s never appropriate ever to see that kind of brutality visited upon someone being arrested.”

In the case of Inkster, the question of a financial settlement with Dent comes at a difficult time for the city. Since 2012, Inkster has been under a consent agreement with the state of Michigan to address its dire financial problems. During Napoleon’s short stint as police chief, the number of officers in the department dropped from 73 to 24.

Melendez’s record shows he has faced similar allegations before. At one point, he garnered more citizen complaints than any officer in Detroit, where he started his career in 1993 and served until his resignation in 2009. He entered Inkster’s police force a year later.

Over nearly two decades, Melendez has been named as a defendant in a dozen federal lawsuits, accused of planting evidence, wrongfully killing unarmed civilians, falsifying police reports and conducting illegal arrests. Some suits were settled out of court. Others were dismissed.

In 1996, Melendez, who was known in Detroit as “RoboCop”, and his partner shot and killed Lou Adkins. While Adkins was on the ground, several witnesses said the officers shot him 11 times, according to the Detroit Free Press. The case was settled for $1.05m, court records show.

Think about how backwards this is. An abusive cop leads to million dollar settlements that the taxpayer has to pay for, while the officer responsible goes right back out on the street. Total insanity.

The US prosecutor’s office examined Chancellor’s case as part of an investigation into allegations against Melendez, who was cited as the ringleader of numerous officers indicted by a federal grand jury in 2003 on civil rights violations. The officers were acquitted in 2004; jurors who spoke with the Detroit News explained they didn’t believe the government’s witnesses, many of whom had criminal records.

Notice that jurors let this psychopath go free.

Around the time Chancellor’s case was concluded, in 2007, the city of Detroit settled another suit involving Melendez for $50,000. The lawsuit alleged Melendez and his partners knocked on Ernest Crutchfield III’s door in November 2003. When they received no response, they entered the premises without a search warrant and, in the kitchen, shot Crutchfield dead. According to the case, the officers planted a gun near his body before falsifying statements and lying under oath.

Melendez, who could not be reached for comment, is currently named as a defendant in one case related to conduct in Inkster. In July 2011, he is alleged to have assaulted Deshawn Acklin, choking him until he lost consciousness. Acklin was using the bathroom at a friend’s house when Melendez and other officers arrived, on suspicion of an alleged shooter being inside.

Melendez – who would later contend Acklin resisted arrest – is alleged to have beaten Acklin until another officer said “that’s enough”. While being treated in hospital, Acklin testified that Melendez asked him how he liked his “wrestling moves” while he was choked. Melendez denies ever saying that.

Eventually, a court filing stated, Acklin “succumbed to the pain and lack of oxygen and passed out while defecating on himself”.

If anyone should be behind bars and off the streets forever, it is Melendez. Instead, he is a Michigan police officer.

Police officers said they were “protecting themselves” from Dent as a justification for the beatdown. Watch the video below and judge for yourself.

 

Recall how toward the end of the video we are informed that Dent refuses to accept a deal on drug charged because he says they were planted? Well, additional video has surfaced that seems to show the officer planting the evidence. Just incredible. See below:

 

The key takeaway from this post is that whether it’s Wall Street, the NSA, politicians in D.C., or police departments across the country, the sickest sociopaths are never held accountable for their actions and are often promoted. This lack of justice is far and away the greatest threat to the nation at the moment. If you put these people in jail, you have civilization. If you don’t, you get this dangerous fraud society you see all around us.

For related articles, see:

Meet Jason Villalba – The Texas State Representative Who Introduced a Bill that Criminalizes Citizens Filming Police

Innocent Army Veteran Framed by Louisiana Police and Prosectors Barely Escapes Jail Due to Cellphone Video

Video of the Day – Watch as 8 Police Officers Fire 46 Shots and Kill a Homeless Man in Broad Daylight

Caught on Video – LAPD Guns Down Homeless Man in Broad Daylight

Video of the Day – This Is What Happens When You Call the Cops

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

Like this post?
Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G


Follow me on Twitter.

13 thoughts on “57-Year-Old Michigan Man Beaten to a Bloody Pulp by Police Officer Known as “RoboCop” for Running a Red Light”

  1. Mike, here I go again. I can’t say it any better than you did except one request of officer Melendez, please arrest Dick Cheney. And here is the reason, “The key takeaway from this post is that whether it’s Wall Street, the NSA, politicians in D.C., or police departments across the country, the sickest sociopaths are never held accountable for their actions and are often promoted. This lack of justice is far and away the greatest threat to the nation at the moment. If you put these people in jail, you have civilization. If you don’t, you get this dangerous fraud society you see all around us.”

    Reply
  2. I get the impression that there are more and more Hispanic poleeeece officers taking out their frustrations on others for their mediocrity. This seemed to be Hispanic on Black. Nothing new here.

    Reply
  3. That “on-scene” reporter lied. Scripted propaganda.

    At the ends of both videos, the in-studio talking heads ask the same question, “How is the local community reacting/responding?”

    The on-scene guy replies, both times, with some scripted bullshit to the effect of, “The local community thinks it’s best to just wait for the police investigation to run its course”.

    He says that, he repeats that, because that is the propaganda message that the media wants to convey.

    But it’s obvious propaganda bullshit.

    According to the Telegraph article, that community is 73% black. There is no way in hell THAT “local community” feels that they should just “wait and see” or “wait for the police investigation to run its course”.

    My ass. That community has absolutely zero faith in the system. Despite what the Ministry of Propaganda wants everyone to believe, those people don’t trust the system to deliver either truth or justice.

    No more than I do. And I don’t.

    Reply
  4. Cops are nothing but legalized gangs. Yea idiot paleocons and idiot leftists want to make turn it into a racial debate but the reality is, its the state vs you.

    Reply
  5. He opened his door (follow police orders if they pull you over). He resisted arrest (he didn’t put his hands behind his back and kept trying to pull away). Pretty open and shut case.

    I would definitely be on his side if he would’ve went to the ground immediately and let them handcuff him.

    Reply

Leave a Reply