"We
do not want a police state, but we need a state of law and order, and neither
mob violence nor police brutality have any place in America." Hubert H. Humphrey
On
July 16, 1957, a 62-year-old man named Elmer Sours watched a car fly out of
control and hit a tree. Sours ran to the
car and told the driver to sit still until help arrived, and then stayed with
the victim. Witnesses say that a cop, age 26, arrived on the scene and shoved
Sours from behind, knocking him away from the car, pushed him on to the ground
and handcuffed him.
The cop lied to the judge and said that Sours
refused to move from the scene but the ambulance crew said that Sours was 15
feet from the accident and moved another ten feet when the cop screamed at him
to move back. The judge acquitted Sours
and criticized the cops conduct. A day
later, two cops were speeding across the county and turned their car over.