http://www.msnbc.com/news/777480.asp
THE PROBES by the Inglewood Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office were announced after the tape, taken Saturday by a man staying at a nearby motel, was turned over to police and local media.
The incident occurred after two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies stopped a car for a routine traffic check in Inglewood, a Los Angeles suburb, and were joined by three Inglewood officers, said sheriff’s Deputy Bill Spear.
The deputies and police “became involved in an altercation” with a 16-year-old passenger in the car, Spear said.
The video shows an officer lifting the handcuffed teen from behind, then driving the side of the youth’s face into the hood of the patrol car. Another officer later punched the suspect once in the face.
The officers shown hitting and slamming the teen’s head into the car both are white; the teen-ager, who was not identified, was black. Two other officers, who appeared to be black and Latino, could be seen on the tape observing the scene.
“I don’t think that he was resisting. I mean, there were five cops,” Mitch Crooks, the Sacramento man who made the tape, told KNBC-TV. “The guy picked him up like he was a doll and slammed him on the car, and he wasn’t resisting at that point. They already had him in custody.”
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The passenger, whose name was being withheld, was booked for investigation of assault on a police officer. The driver, Coby Chavis, 41, was accused of driving under a suspended license.
Inglewood police Officer Jeremy Morse was suspended with pay Monday pending the outcome of an investigation, said Lawrence Kirkley, executive assistant to the city administrator.
“I found the conduct of Officer Jeremy Morse as observed on the videotape to be very disturbing,” Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt F. Dorn said, according to KNBC.
Michael Gennaco, a Los Angeles attorney who will lead the sheriff’s department investigation, cautioned against comparing Saturday’s incident with the 1991 police beating of Rodney King, a black Los Angeles motorist who was stopped and beaten by white police officers after a high speed chase. His beating also was caught on videotape.
“Every case is different and every case has to be handled differently,” Gennaco said. “I don’t think it’s sufficient simply to rely on videotape — it only captures part of an incident.”
The acquittals of four white Los Angeles Police Department officers charged in the beating of King sparked the 1992 riots and led to a federally mandated overhaul of the city’s police department.
Two of the officers were later convicted in federal court of violating King’s civil rights, and King went on to win a $3.8 million settlement in a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/07/08/police.video.ap/index.html
INGLEWOOD, California (AP) -- A police officer was suspended Monday after he was shown on a videotape slamming a handcuffed teenager onto the back of a car and striking him during an arrest.
"What occurred within the video is extremely disturbing to the Inglewood Police Department and to the administrators of the city," police Lt. Eve Irvine said.
An investigation will try to uncover what happened before the bystander began taping the arrest at a gas station Saturday, Irvine said.
An attorney for the family of Donovan Jackson, 16, said the teen was seated on the ground before officers began hitting him.
Before the tape began, Irvine said the teen had lunged at a deputy and a physical altercation occurred. Investigators collected images from gas station surveillance cameras, Irvine said.
The family's attorney, Joe Hopkins, said he had doubts that Jackson was "emotionally capable of doing what they say he did."
Inglewood Officer Jeremy Morse, a three-year veteran, was suspended with pay. Three other officers were at the gas station but were not relieved of duty.
The Inglewood police officers were assisting two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies who were investigating a car that had an expired vehicle registration. Driver Koby Chavis, 41, who is Jackson's father, was cited for driving with a suspended license.
The deputies and police "became involved in an altercation" with a 16-year-old passenger in the car, Spear said.
The videotape, taken by a tourist from a motel across the street, shows the prone teenager hoisted to his feet by Morse and slammed onto the rear trunk of a police car. The officer put a hand on the back of the teenager's neck, slugged him with his other hand and then appeared to choke him. Two officers appeared to intervene, with at least one trying to pull away the first officer's arm.
"I don't think that he was resisting. I mean, there were five cops," Mitch Crooks, the Sacramento man who made the tape, told KNBC-TV. "The guy picked him up like he was a doll and slammed him on the car, and he wasn't resisting at that point. They already had him in custody."
