Man Assaults Seven Cops, Rants About Ferguson, Salutes In Mug Shot

A Massachusetts man allegedly assaulted seven cops and ranted about Ferguson after being pulled over for a minor traffic violation Tuesday morning, WCVB (Boston) is reporting.

Joseph M. Parker, 34, of Wakefield, Massachusetts, is facing a laundry list of felony charges for his crime rampage, including assault and battery, malicious destruction of property, assault and battery on a police officer, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest.

The bizarre series of events began early Tuesday morning when Revere police, on duty at the scene of some construction work, noticed that Parker was driving too fast. Revere police officer Jeremiah Goodwin waved to Parker to slow down — and that’s when Parker allegedly lost his cool, to say the least. Police say the man jumped out of his car. CBS Boston reports that Parker screamed at the cops that he was filming them.

Parker then allegedly punched Lt. Goodwin, according to police spokesperson Dennis Hickey Jr., who fell to the ground and was knocked out cold when he hit the ground. Three other cops on the scene wrestled with the man.

“He was combative at the scene. When we arrived it was very hard to get him into the cruiser.”

Handcuffed and riding in the back of a cop car, Parker continued his attempts at assault, somehow managing to take off his shoe and pound it against the window of the cruiser until it broke, then sticking his shoe through the broken glass in some bizarre attempt at escape.

During and after the assault, according to the New York Daily News, Parker ranted about Ferguson, although the specifics of his rant aren’t clear.

“F**k you cops with your guns!”

Back at the police station, Parker was calm and remorseful — that is, until he wasn’t. Seemingly without warning, Parker assaulted three more cops, severely injuring one’s leg, and somehow managed to break a metal detector. Hickey explains as follows.

“At times he was very compliant with us. And he was actually quite cordial, and then at other times he would fly off the handle.”

Quartz writer Jake Flanagin is a little perturbed at the fact that a white man who assaults seven cops lives to tell about it, while black men aren’t given that luxury, in his opinion.

“Joseph Parker’s mugshot shows a white man a little scraped, a little bruised, but defiant. Unrepentant. Because those are things white men get to be, in America. If you still don’t believe the system of law enforcement in the United States isn’t brutally, blatantly, unforgivingly biased when it comes to race, you’re simply not paying attention.”

Parker’s lawyer insists that he assaulted seven cops because he was having a bad reaction to medication.

[Image courtesy of Suffolk County District Attorney via People]