Police Violence Doesn’t Always Go Unpunished

In Pennsylvania, misdemeanor simple assault involves intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly inflicting bodily injury on another, attempting to do so, or putting someone in fear of imminent bodily injury.  More serious assaults, known as aggravated assaults, are charged as felonies.

This is going to be a supremely important fact in the life of Richard Paul Nicoletti going forward.  He’s the Philadelphia police officer shown in the screen shot above, charged with three counts of simple assault after the video from which it’s taken showed him spraying peaceful, kneeling protesters with pepper spray.  Ironically, this took place during protests against police brutality.

From ABC News: Nicoletti was seen on social media videos on June 1 spraying the three protesters “without provocations,” according to a statement from (Philadelphia DA Larry) Krasner’s office. He was also seen physically pulling down the goggles of a protester who was kneeling in the street and spraying her in the face and “violently” throwing another protester, who was sitting hunched over to protect his face, onto his back and “continually spraying him with [pepper spray] while he was lying down and standing back up,” the statement said.

In the absence of any circumstances warranting greater or lesser punishment, simple assault is a second degree misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment for up to two years and a fine of up to $5,000.  As heinous as this is (if this isn’t “aggravated,” what is?), if this bastard gets two years for each of the three charges, or six years, I’m fine with that.  Of course, he needs to be a) fired from the police force immediately, and b) permanently enjoined against touching a weapon of any sort when he gets out.