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The Attack on Paul Pelosi
From Fox News:
A California court on Friday released surveillance and bodycam video of the October 2022 attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, at their San Francisco home.
The San Francisco County Superior Court made the footage public after Judge Stephen Murphy denied a request two days earlier by prosecutors to keep it secret.
The Oct. 28, 2022, attack sent Paul Pelosi, 82, to the hospital for emergency surgery on a skull fracture.
There were a lot of conspiracy theories about the attack. The security cam footage of the break-in into the Pelosi home shows that the suspect was not invited to enter the house.
The body cam footage at the front door shows that the attack on Paul Pelosi took place within about 15 seconds after the door was opened. The suspect is holding Mr. Pelosi by the wrist. He’s told by an officer to drop the hammer. He refuses to drop the hammer.
“What’s going on man?” an officer asks.
“Everything is good,” DePape responds as he and Pelosi each have one hand on a hammer, with DePape also placing a hand on Pelosi’s wrist. Pelosi appears to be holding an object in his other hand.
“Drop the hammer!” the officer then says.
“Umm, nope,” DePape then responds, before wrestling the hammer away from Pelosi and swinging it at him.
“Oh, s—!” one of the officers says as police burst into the home and apprehend DePape.
There was a lot of nonsense and speculation in the media, blogosphere, and pundits about the attack. You can click on the link for the video. Regardless of what you think of the Pelosi family the violent attack is horrific.
Regardless of the suspect’s mental condition it does not hurt any less to be hit with hammer, stabbed, or shot regardless of the offender’s mental condition. That is a lesson that should not be forgotten for those that run American cities from prosecutors to city council members.
You can click on the link.
Published in Law
Fantastic speed by police. This is an instance where they did good.
911 call for background:
https://cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/nAAUpZzh
What are your thoughts on the 911 operator and the street cops?
Should Pelosi have screamed for help when the cops arrived?
Why was Pelosi holding a drink in his left hand?
Very weird. It’s clear (sort of) that DePape was present, and could hear Pelosi. Guessing that Pelosi told him something about finding out when Madame was going to return. Possibly DePape thought that Pelosi was calling somebody other than SPD. Assuming that DePape couldn’t hear the dispatcher.
The dispatcher’s responses were really odd. But fast forward to the end, it sounded like she agreed not to dispatch police. But it’s obvious that she did. I’ve known a few dispatchers. Nobody would not have immediately dispatched officers for a welfare check, at minimum. The whole thing screams, “suspicious circumstances.” So there’s one thing we haven’t heard, that would be interesting – the dispatch tapes.
It doesn’t sound like Pelosi is under the influence. There’s way too much still unknown to make any judgment regarding the incident. Right now, I don’t think it looks as bad for Paul Pelosi as some have speculated.
The only thing I observe as suspicious is that it took a court order to release this information.
Perhaps he was thirsty.
The prosecutor and the defense attorney did not want the videos released.
Perhaps the attacker was outside the bathroom door when Mr. Pelosi made the call to 9-1-1. I suspect the attacker did not let Pelosi out of his sight, except to allow him to use an enclosed bathroom. When the police came to the door he was holding Pelosi’s wrist.
If the dispatcher thought the perp might be listening, she might say they were not coming?
Yes, I was tracking that but was unimpressed with the arguments for not releasing the information. The concern about “conspiracy theories” seems pretty lame given that it was precisely the close hold (and the suspension of the NBC reporter) that did more to feed speculation. Had the information been released earlier, the conspiracies likely would have died earlier. Now that the conspiracies have had more time to fester and spread, it will take longer to fade as people get invested in their narratives.
The videos (in my opinion) do not show anything sensational (e.g. someone wearing a dog collar or Barney costume). The audio of the 911 call sounds as if Pelosi was doing about as well as he could in asking for help under the circumstances.
What she said, and didn’t say, was close enough.
I think that it would be good to distinguish between conspiracy theories and people asking legitimate question based on the circumstances and lack of information ( e.g., the video) that was presented.
This makes jury selection very, very difficult for both sides. And the potential for influencing witnesses. On one hand it pretty much mandates a motion for change of venue. On the other hand, to where, exactly?
Agreed – I carelessly used the term in its present dominant colloquial (i.e. a theory originating from the political right).
I agree. I’m afraid I know people who have accepted the conspiracy that this was a gay encounter gone wrong, though I don’t think there’s any solid reason to accept that. Paul Pelosi is elderly, and how elderly people react in a situation like that is going to be variable. And who knows, maybe he had been consuming adult beverages since he had a glass in his hand. It doesn’t matter – it was a vicious attack, and to spin it into a gay thing seems a petty partisan thing to do.
I could reply . . . “tell that to Derek Chauvin and to the Jan 6 defendants!” But, those cases are distinguishable as the videos were not under exclusive control of law enforcement. The judge who ruled for the Pelosi video being released noted that it had already been shown in a court proceeding.
Perhaps. But many of us around these parts are news junkies. It wouldn’t surprise me that when the jury pool is formed, it will be easy to find 12 in the Bay area that haven’t seen the video or followed the case closely at all. I’ve come to find that most people are pretty ignorant of current events.
I only see the body cam footage. Where has the security cam footage been released?
Well, I grant you that!
That, I think is because Pelosi has his hand on the hammer (so as not to get hit with it). Once he gets Pelosi’s hand off the hammer, he swings. Ugly stuff.
It remains a concern to me that the private residence of the Speaker of the House was so unguarded.
The excuse seems to be that she wasn’t there at the time. Most of the security apparently goes wherever she is.
Update, now that I’ve heard a clearer recording – DePape could hear both sides.
Re: SFPD & the dispatcher – I think they did great, given the circumstances. Just as there’s no perfect crime, there’s no perfect response. That’s why we have AAR’s, Hot Washes, whatever you call the review immediately after an incident.
If that’s true, that needs to be rethought. Documents and private correspondence, gifts and possessions that are probably worth quite a bit, . . . her husband there alone–an obvious target who could be kidnapped because of whom he is married to . . .
Maybe I watch too many movies, but it seems really weird that there was not more security. I would hope there would be some security added in the future for any of the highest high mucky mucks in our government.
I haven’t watched it yet but shouldn’t there be more than one set of footage? Aren’t all the cops wearing bodycams? I would like to see everything from all bodycams. Like from when the cops leave their cars to when they get back in their cars.
I think I’ve heard the dispatch tapes. Or at last read the transcripts.
It is pretty easy in retrospect to listen to the 911 tape and judge that the operator was dense. However, Pelosi’s tone did not in any way betray fear or imminent threat. He was intentionally trying to be vague while at the same time trying to send out a message about his visitor. It does seem that there was failure on multiple levels, first and most important is the Capitol Police who are supposed to be monitoring his home.
The cops who came to the door responded about as I would expect cops to respond to a situation they were confronted with. Neither Pelosi nor the perp seemed to be in a conflict until the cops told him to drop the hammer. Then it all went very, very quickly. The only thing that might have prevented the actual assault on Pelosi is if the cops had their guns drawn and fired on the assailant when he refused to drop the hammer. It is sort of like the reality that a man holding a knife who is within 20 feet of a potential victim can frequently inflict injury before a gun is drawn and fired, making it a reasonable response to fire at the first sign of an oncoming attack. This was a terrible situation, one that probably could not have worked out any differently once the perp was inside of the house.
I fear that a problem bigger than the pool of ignorant people is the fact that a lot of people today are liars. This is one of the biggest problems with Western culture today. When the culture is cut off from a moral standard that is external to man, then each person is free to do whatever s/he thinks is to his / her benefit.
My father-in-law’s experience was interesting. He got called for jury duty more than anybody else I know. When they got to his occupation – college professor – he was quickly challenged. When his occupation changed to “retired,” he was empaneled.
One of Norm Macdonald’s OJ jokes was that for the civil trial, they had trouble finding jurors. Then they finally found one person who had no knowledge of the criminal trial, but that person was disqualified when they found out he’d been a juror in the criminal trial.
I only see the body cam footage. Where has the security cam footage been released?