This involves an incident that happened shortly after a stabbing at the Vanguard Lounge, a bar/nightclub located on what is known asFremont East in Downtown Las Vegas. While members of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department are clearing people out of the area where the stabbing occurred, Officer Glowinski apparently wasn’t happy with the pace at which a man, named Dominic Generino (possibly spelled differently), was moving and decided to arrest him.

What happened next is that all of the other Metro police in the immediate vicinity dove on and began beating Generino. In particular, one of them, identified as Officer Kolkoski, begins jabbing his nightstick into Generino’s body (the descriptions indicate he is hitting him in the legs, but it’s not real clear exactly where he’s being hit on the video because of the number of cops involved) with such enthusiasm that he looses his balance. The fact Kolkoski knocked himself down and appears to almost injure himself by hitting his head against a nearby table doesn’t seem to diminish that enthusiasm very much, as he subsequently has to be pushed away by another (as of yet unidentified) officer, in order to prevent him from resuming his attack with the nightstick.

As is mentioned in the description that was included with the submission, the video raises several questions about the “official story,” which was filed by Ofc. Glowinski as part of the police report (excerpts from which are included in the submission description). The first and most obvious is whether Generino should have been arrested in the first place. The claim that he “pushed back into” Glowinski is a complete fabrication that is in no way supported by the video. Also, the idea that he should have been moving faster or refused to do so is dubious from the start because there is a rather visible and large crowd in front of Generino, which would prevent him from doing so, even if he wanted to. While you can see what appears to be some verbal exchange between Ofc. Glowinski and Generino, arguing with cops isn’t an arrestable offense and even Glowinski admits in that police report that he “complied” with his orders to leave the area. So, at best (from Glowinski’s standpoint) Generino was not complying fast enough to satisfy him and at worst that was simply an excuse to justify beating and arresting an innocent person because a member of the LVMPD had a personal issue with that person.

Secondly, in the video Ofc. Kolkoski has his nightstick out and is swinging it immediately. Prior to that, there is no visible sign of Generino jerking or pulling away, as claimed. The idea that he could determine that such a tactic was necessary with a half dozen other cops (none of whom are using nightsticks or any other weapon) already on him that quickly is another incredibly dubious aspect to this incident. Further, the fact another officer has to stop assisting in the arrest to restrain Kolkoski and prevent him from continuing his assault on Generino (about 0:30) casts doubt (to put it mildly) on that idea. That’s even more so the case, since after he is prevented from continuing his attack, he simply stands back and watches as the other cops arrest Generino. Also, in spite of what is stated in the report, the entire video only lasts 1:30 and the portion with the arrest takes less than one minute. So, the claim that they had to struggle for several minutes after he was on the ground is, at the very best, an exaggeration by Golkowski.

Of course, you can watch the video and judge for yourself (that’s one of the reasons Cop Block encourages people torecord their encounters with people wearing badges) whether this was justified or yet another case of theLVMPD’s unnecessarily heavy-handed tactics that have become so common place in the Las Vegas area,especially downtown. One thing you can be sure about is that, regardless of what you or anybody else outside of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department thinks (including the department’s Use of Force Board that is supposed to prevent this type of thing, but that the sheriff is under no obligation to actually listen to, so it doesn’t), this incident will be “investigated” by other people working for Metro and then declared justified. The history of Las Vegas area police departments pretty much guarantees that. The fact that the cops working for those departments know that pretty much guarantees that these types of incidents will not only continue, but will become more numerous, unless people in Las Vegas put enough pressure on themthat they have no choice but to reign their enforcers in.

The original video, which has been embedded below is available on the youtube channel of Las Vegas attorneyStephen Stubbs, who currently does monthly (every last Thursday) free “Know Your Rights” seminars within the Las Vegas area. He also was himself featured recently in a post on Cop Block and NVCopBlock.org after an incident in which he personally was arrested for refusing to leave the side of a client that had requested him as an attorney while being detained by members of the LVMPD.

The text in quotes below was included in the original submission and is included as it was received, without any editing.



Date of Incident: 6/4/14

Location of Incident: The Vanguard Lounge – Downtown Las Vegas

Department Involved: Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department

Known Department Employees Involved: Officer Kevin Kolkoski (P#10002), Officer Robert Glowinski, Officer Jacob Werner (P#13017)