Cop Punches Woman after High-Speed Chase
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK, Sheeba, Illinois. OK.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: A woman gets pummeled by a cop after leading him on a high-speed chase. Did he cross the line or was this suspect asking for it? You`ve got to ask yourself, why do these people run? Let`s take a look at that car chase last week. I mean, here`s a high- speed chase. We`re going to show you this video. This one ends up, take a look at this. OK, this guy just risking so many lives. There is nothing more dangerous than a high-speed chase in terms of putting innocent civilians at risk. It`s right up there with walking around with an Uzi sub machine gun. This person then ends up running, and why he runs we don`t know, because they always get caught. And this guy runs into a McDonald`s. All right. That is such a -- such a bizarre end to a chase, but of course as they always do, he gets caught. So my question, Pat Brown, criminal profiler, why do these people run? Why do they drive off when a cop stops them when they have to know they`re in so much more trouble the second they put their foot on that accelerator?</s>BROWN: Well, they don`t want to go to jail, Jane. That`s the No. 1 issue. They think they can get away. Remember these guys are psychopathic. They`re very impressed with their own abilities. They think they can press on that gas pedal. They can speed out of there. If nothing else they can ditch the car and run like heck. And I have to say, sometimes they do succeed and get away, because I`ve seen that with ride- alongs, as I`ve done that occasionally. Yes, they do get a way, I`m sorry.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Really? Because I -- I mean, for -- I don`t know how many -- at least 2 1/2 decades -- well, maybe they didn`t have chases back when I started. But ever since they had choppers with live cameras and I`ve been covering news, I have covered so many car chases. And I can tell you, I have never covered a car chase where I have seen the suspect get away, especially by the time that the TV choppers get above, because they have an aerial view, no matter where the guy goes.</s>BROWN: Well, it depends where you are and who has these great choppers. Because I know in my town, I don`t see the choppers coming out with every -- with every police chase. They just simply chase them down. Or lose them, one or the other. And they do their best, but they don`t always catch them, and they know that. Especially if they can run into the next district, across from like Maryland into Washington, D.C., with their stolen vehicle. And you know, that`s what they`re trying to do.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: I respectfully disagree. I would say not -- at least 99 percent of the time they get caught. I mean, John Lucich, what do you think?</s>LUCICH: No, I`ve been in many chases, high-speed chases, and a lot of times they do get away. And I`ll tell you why. There`s so much pressures on -- pressure on police officers today to end that chase, because the longer it goes on, people die. We`ve actually seen people run through a red light, hit a family of four, kill a family of four. And it goes on and on and on. And all of a sudden everyone wants to come back to blame the cop.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well...</s>LUCICH: And the cop has a reason to chase this guy, who`s taking off. God forbid we have another little girl in the trunk or something like that. That cop had no idea why they`re running. He wants to stop them.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me say this. OK? I worked as a news anchor in Los Angeles for 12 years, and I covered I don`t know how many police chases, and never once, by the time the cameras and the choppers got to that chase, did anybody ever get away.</s>LUCICH: You`re talking about...</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: I think maybe we`re talking about chases that didn`t get police attention. Because once the police know that that televised chopper is there, they`re not going to let that person run away. And never once have I seen a televised chase end with a suspect getting away.</s>LUCICH: That`s few and far -- that`s few and far between, Jane, and the reason being is that not every department has resources such as a helicopter. I worked in Jersey. We`ve been involved in many chases and never on any of the chases I`ve been involved in in my whole career has a chopper ever showed up to help us.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Well, I was talking, actually, about TV news choppers. But, yes, it`s a police chopper and the TV news choppers, either/or. Sheba in Illinois, your question or thought, ma`am?</s>CALLER: Hi, Jane.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hi.</s>CALLER: My thought on this is I would much see him have to slap her around a little bit to get her attention like you have to a mule than for him to be laying out on that pavement with a bullet in his head.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I agree with you 100 percent. Now yes, I want to say flat off, I am a huge fan of police. They put their lives on the line, and they really risk their own lives and go to very dangerous situations every single day. My hat`s off to them. But here`s my big issue. There is an adrenaline rush factor. Officers in high-speed chases get their juices flowing. Any human would. They get worked up. I imagine it would be incredibly hard to control yourself to keep from jumping out of a cruiser and -- and racing up to the person feeling aggressive when this is the person who caused you to risk your life in this chase, possibly risking other people`s lives. Check out this suspect that we`re going to show you in a second on a motorcycle. All you see is the cops` fists flying in his direction. We`ll try to show you that one more time. This chase had ended at this point and this individual was on the ground. And yet you see in this case, the cops pummeling the guy. So my question to Rikki Klieman is where exactly do you draw the line between justifiable force and brutality when a chase has ended?</s>KLIEMAN: Well, of course, Jane, it`s always an adrenaline rush. I mean, everything is teaming at that time. What you do have now in almost all police departments are very, very good use of force investigations. As you noted, you were in L.A. I was married to the former L.A. police chief, and they had, probably, some of the best use-of-force investigators in the country. And there are a lot of high-speed chases. So the question is, was it in protocol? Was it within the training? Is it an appropriate response? They not only review the videos; they re- enact them. They have models of them. They go look, it takes six to eight months to come to a conclusion of whether something like this was in protocol.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you. Got to leave it right there.</s>KLIEMAN: And this may well have been just fine.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you, Rikki, and when that conclusion comes in, we will bring it to you, ISSUES viewers. All right. Thank you, panel. She says her 4-year-old grandson got herpes after he found a used condom inside their hotel and put it in his mouth. And now she is suing. I`m going to talk to her live.