"To serve and protect",(the power structure that is).

Gee - I can't remember a day passing without some 65+ something elderly lady going upside the head of some burly armed police officer and making him look like a wimp.......

Why, it's the typical American way!!!!!

My Mom was actually the scourge of the Ithaca Police Department!!

Deputy Marshall G. Abbott sounds like a steroid abuser.

I believe the phenomenon is called 'roid rage (for steROID induced rage). There's something like a national epidemic in local law enforcement using performance enhancing drugs like steroids and human growth hormones as a replacement for weight lifting or other normal forms of body building. (I personally think it's a carry over from the private contractors, like Blackwater, who were busted for killing a bunch of innocent bystanders in Iraq)

But, internal affairs can only investigate crimes within the department. Who ends up policing the police? Who investigates the unwritten policy that allows illegal steroid use to go unchecked?

Barry Bonds? (who cares?) These cops on drugs are a real problem.

It's worth pointing out that this is sadly typical of Southern California law enforcement. All too often, the reckless violence is directed toward racial minorities rather than at guests attending a political fundraiser and doesn't get much notice (I'm not talking about Rodney King, but about the persistent, casual violence--verbal and physical--with which police officers and sheriffs deputies conduct themselves all too frequently in Los Angeles and San Diego). With full regard for difficulty of being a cop, those sheriffs deputies who did use excessive force should be charged with assault and should go to jail.

Can't think of a better scenario for a lawsuit against the SDSD for violation of the constitutional rights of the homeowner and the other guests who were pepper sprayed.

Right to assemble, anyone?

I don't wonder that the ACLU is interested, but so should be the US Atty in SD and the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division.

This was pure and simple assault under the color of law.

Where's the California AG?

There needs to be some serious investigation OUTSIDE the Sheriff's Dept.

Wait'll those Xe boys get back from Iraq, 'roided and pumped-up, with personal experience with deadly force and not hesitant to shoot anyone they feel is a threat. They'll be prime candidates for law enforcement jobs.
Good times ahead!

If the noise complaint was bogus, and it certainly looks that way, the SD will have a record of the person who called it in because they don't take anonymous complaints of that sort. That would be a good place for the county to start collecting the multi million dollar settlement they are going to end up paying. He obviously owns valuable property...

Cops just naturally suck.

A Sheriff named Marshall? You just know he has been owning this pop-gun mentality, since he was hall monitor.

This guy's picture looks like every angry, micro-penis, self hating, racist, homophobe, Christian, willfully ignorant conservative white guy I've ever seen.

I don't see anything comic about this incident. I hope someone sues the pants off the SDPD.

Come on folks, we're being awfully glib here generalizing the overreaction of one schmuck into incompetence and brutality of the entire police force. I'm no fan of the culture of bravado and machismo that seems all too common in SoCal, but I'm not ready to throw all of them under the bus.

This is a systemic problem of poor leadership and poor training, not a problem with anyone who wears a police uniform.

Is there any actual evidence that this guy is on steroids? Or that steroid use is common among police officers? I think it's more likely that the man is unwell, incompetent, poorly trained, and/or just a dick.

And also, if that roomful of middle-aged activists had wanted to beat this cop to death, it's likely they could have done so. He probably could not have shot, sprayed, and zapped everyone there before he got a chair or a wine bottle in the head. It was not impossible for him to be harmed. What is ridiculous about his behavior is that he reacted this way in the absence of any real aggression -- law enforcement officers in particular should have an understanding of physical conflict and be able to tell whether a situation is dangerous or merely annoying.

What I want to know is how much did this cost San Diego County ? And how many real criminals slipped through the cracks while deputies where busy chasing down this non-sense ?

Eh, his wife probably left him and took up with a gay women. That put a burr under his sheriff's saddle that he just can't dig out.

"Feeling intimidated by a group of mostly middle-aged women, he pepper-sprayed a number of guests and arrested Barman."

You all make light of this, but you forget these middle-aged women were LESBIANS! If lesbians can have sex without a penis, who knows what else they are capable of? That cop may have been defending himself from being turned gay.

Risk of violence or no, one would think a large part of police/sheriff's training would teach them not to be the first aggressor, but be ready to respond to violence in kind. I'm not so starry-eyed to think that's out of respect for citizens in the innocent-until-proven-guilty mindset, but in the interest of liability for potential excessive force/police brutality lawsuits.

These stories of various law enforcement officers becoming the first one to pepper-spray/taser/swing a baton in an altercation are becoming more and more common. It's a bad, bad omen, and the hopeful upshot of this happening at a congressional aspirant's rally as opposed to a boozy frat party is that it has gained national attention, and while I know the media won't necessarily have the attention span to follow this particular story beyond the obvious juicy bits, the conversations around water coolers nationwide could be a good thing to raise consciousness about it. Of course, the authoritarians in our midst just loooove this sort of thing (especially when it happens to Democrats), so it may take some sort of adorable-blond-girl-gets-tasered-and-dies sort of travesty to get them to care. Hope not.

Of course he was afraid. Everyone knows liberals have strong tendencies toward authoritarianism and violence... especially the middle-aged female ones.

/s

Look, Abbott's problems are just beginning. Even if nothing at all happens when it is investigated and he's exonerated, he will forever be known as the guy who called for backup to help break up a party of middle-aged lesbians. His fellow deputies are going to be laughing up their sleeves at him, and he'll know it. And even if they aren't, he's always going to suspect that they are and start overcompensating. Sooner or later, he's going to wind up wandering a warehouse with a flashlight.

ERIC HOLDER WHERE ARE YOU!?

This is infuriating. Every time I read something about this story, I'd like scream. That nasty neighbor must be revealed and prosecuted for making a phony 911 call. The SD Sheriff's and DA's office must be taken to task.

For goodness sake, they were in an upper-scale neighborhood. I'm betting (hoping) that the folks at this event aren't the type of people to take this sitting down and besides getting Ms. Busby a great fundraising issue–(I donated)-will take down some unworthy public servants and punish a vile, hateful fraudster.

A cop is a cop is a cop.

Re: Deputy Marshall G. Abbott - San Diego

I get real concerned about police brutality* --- the attack on Ms. Barman should be jumped on hard.

In addition Abbott's apparent blog on Facebook details his love of motorcycles, guns and other manly, virile things. (He says "Guns r cool!") To me this person seems rather infantile and not the kind of person who should be carrying a gun!

There is also a website called RateMyCop.com which gives Deputy Abbott a "five star" rating from someone. (Possibly a friend.) Anyone can join and rate a police person.

Police in major jurisdictions are compensated very well with their base salary, benefits, normal overtime and accelerated overtime during the last years of tenure to enhance their retirement pay. And they back them up when they make little mistakes. (Like those 41 shots needed to kill unarmed Amadou Dialou in NY.) Moreover police unions seem to be a little too effective at protecting even the most dangerous police officers.

Complaint letters to the sheriff with copies of that letter to all concerned (all county supervisors, the county administrator the county personnel head, etc.) by attendees at the fundraiser held by Ms. Barman are very important. (Multiple copies insure that such documents won't be "lost".) Police people like Abbott will likely make these kinds of mistakes again. And they will probably get proper oversight only when one of those really nasty plaintiffs' attorney drags these letters out of the files as evidence to support the pattern of violence.

*As an older white guy with careful verbal skills who has never had more than a minor traffic ticket (expunged by going to traffic school) I personally have little to worry about in any chance event with police. But rouge police officers worry me.

It sounds as though these women got off lightly in comparison to how Jamiel Shaw, his wife, little boy and sister were treated in Los Angeles, by Mayor Antonio Villaragosa. In case you aren't familiar with the Shaw family, their eldest son, Jamiel jr. was shot to death by an illegal alien gang banger (who had a tattoo "KB" on the back of his neck, "KB" stands for kill blacks, as do all members of the 18th st. gang), 3 doors down from the family home, while he walked home from school. Jamiel was a great student, and a football star, so great he was being scouted by Rutgers and Stanford. His family was poor, but hard working, his mother was serving in Iraq at the time her son was slaughtered.

After their son's death, the Shaw family sought to amend Los Angeles' Special Order 40, just to allow police to check the immigration status of gang members who were arrested. The illegal alien who had killed their son, had just been released from jail the day before he killed Jamiel. The killer had an extensive rap sheet, for violence, possession of weapons, robbery, drugs, you name it, he'd done it. Because they merely sought to amend Special Order 40, the city attorney assigned to their case, sought to blackmail the Shaws. Telling them if they pursued such an amendment, she would claim that Jamiel had been in a gang, when she knew he hadn't.

The Shaws started a petition drive, to gather signatures to get their amendment on the ballot. They went to a local park each Sunday to gather signatures. On the Sunday Mayor Villaragosa left to attend the Democrat National Convention, he sent a fully armed SWAT team, helicopter patrols and police to the park to harass the Shaws. The same mayor who doesn't want illegal aliens to have to show documentation, had SWAT demand the Shaws provide ID, plus social security numbers and other documents, this was to intimidate them. It was so ridiculous, the police and SWAT officers were embarrassed and apologized to the family. But Villaragosa, himself a former gang banger, has refused to apologize. Also, after they'd gathered more than 67 thousand signatures and handed them in to city hall, the city claimed they had only handed in 17 thousand signatures, and that they couldn't find all the petition sheets the Shaws had turned in, so the amendment wasn't allowed to go on the ballot.

The woman who had the fundraiser, will surely get better protection under the law, than the poor Shaw family has, so any complaints she might have sound pretty frivolous by comparison.