Whisper
#byefelicia
Thomaston Police Officer Phillip Tobin is accused of using excessive force and making unnecessary arrests over the past decade.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...tands-local-terrorized-town-article-1.1860578[...]
georgia town is standing up against a police officer who they say has terrorized the community for the past 10 years.
Dozens of people recently attended a town meeting at Saint Mary’s A.M.E. Church in Thomaston to complain about the alleged rogue cop, Phillip Tobin
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“He’s a public servant, he’s a public menace,” one woman told a panel that included state Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) and civil rights attorneys Albert Mitchell and Mawuli Mel Davis.
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angry locals claimed Tobin is known to lose his temper during routine encounters with the public and has repeatedly used excessive force to make unnecessary arrests.
But with all the complaints made against the controversial cop — more than 70 in the past decade,
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— he has managed to keep his job every time. Only some cases resulted in Tobin being subject to departmental discipline
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One woman said Tobin treated her and her son as criminals when he responded to her home after she called 911 because her husband violated a restraining order.
She claimed Tobin held a pistol to her son’s head with a finger on the trigger during the ordeal and threatened to “blow (his) head off.”
I was the victim,” the weeping woman told
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“He pulled a gun ... I wasn’t trying to cause no trouble.”
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man said Tobin beat him into a coma in what he called an unprovoked attack.
At least one police captain warned top brass that Tobin could be a liability
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“If we do not do something about Officer Tobin, then we could be guilty of negligent supervision,” Thomaston Police Captain Richard McDaniel wrote in a 2008 letter
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department’s chief, Dan Greathouse.
Tobin has been suspended with pay since June 11, when he fired a Taser at a man for loitering outside a
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store.
Footage from a surveillance camera outside the store shows the man apparently put his hands up and surrendered when Tobin shot the Taser. The officer claimed he fired because the man made a sudden movement towards him.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is examining whether Tobin was justified to stun the man.
Attorneys
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at the community meeting told the news station that the list of complaints could turn into a possible federal civil rights lawsuit against the officer, the police department and the city.
One man said Tobin beat him into a coma for no apparent reason.
http://www.11alive.com/story/news/l...ton-officer-hearing/12391827/?source=nletter-Anger, tears and resolve filled a community meeting Tuesday night, where about two dozen people rose, one by one, to speak about one, single police officer who they say is hurting lives, not saving them.
Some called on the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney's Office to investigate not only the controversial officer, Officer Phillip Tobin, but also the Thomaston Police Department for keeping Tobin on the job for more than a decade despite all the complaints against him.
It was standing room only
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for the community meeting, organized by the Thomaston Improvement Association, with help from civil rights activists from Atlanta, including Georgia Sen. Vincent Fort, (D) Atlanta, Michael Langford, and civil rights attorneys Albert A. Mitchell and Mawuli Mel Davis.
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She and others spoke of Officer Tobin repeatedly losing his temper during routine encounters with the public such as at traffic stops, then using excessive force and arresting people, on charges such as disorderly conduct that he provoked.
Has Tobin been such a proactive crime-fighter that he has generated the most complaints from people simply because they don't like getting caught? Or is he a rogue officer?
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