Posted on 06/23/2004 2:55:18 PM PDT by Smogger
LOS ANGELES — Police today chased a man suspected of driving a stolen car and arrested him in Compton, and news footage showed an LAPD officer hitting him repeatedly with a flashlight after he appeared to surrender
The chase began shortly after 5 a.m. in an area patrolled by the Los Angeles Police Department's Southeast Station, said LAPD Officer Sandra Escalante of the Media Relations office. The man's name was not immediately released, and it was unclear if he was injured.
Patrolling LAPD officers saw a white Toyota Camry that was reported stolen from Compton, Escalante said, adding that the officers tried in vain to pull the vehicle over.
The pursuit reportedly ended on Caldwell Street in Compton, where the man got out and ran off.
Eyewitness News aired footage shot from a helicopter that showed the man running down a grassy area near the Compton Creek. He stopped, got down on his hands and knees and appeared to surrender to an officer.
Several other officers then ran up and the man was forced face down onto the ground, where one of the officers struck at the man's upper body at least 10 times with a long flashlight.
Reportedly, one officer told a local news station that the man had been resisting.
The footage was eerily similar to the infamous video of the beating of Rodney King in 1991, which also happened at the end of a nighttime LAPD pursuit. King was struck dozens of times by officers using batons after he led them on a chase that began in the LAPD's Foothill Station jurisdiction. Video shot by an amateur cameraman and broadcast worldwide showed officers striking and kicking King. Officers were later acquitted by a Simi Valley jury in connection with the beating, triggering the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
The officers were subsequently convicted of federal charges.
Today's incident came only days after the LAPD entered a two-year period during which it must show substantial compliance with a raft of reforms mandated under a consent degree agreement reached by the city of Los Angeles and the U.S. Justice Department in 2001.
If it fails to demonstrate compliance, federal monitoring of the LAPD will continue beyond the two-year period.
The city agreed to the consent decree as a way of staving off a federal lawsuit after the Justice Department reported that it had identified a "pattern and practice" of civil rights violations by the LAPD.
oops.. forgot the link to the video:
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/news/video/062304_CaughtOnTape.html
Going to be on Hannity and Colmes tonight too at 9pm est
I saw this this am. he obviously was exrememly upset. One officer pushed him to the fence, and was talking to him. He paced around trying to compose himself. they got the guy up and he did the spread eagle etc without a problem.
Note the weak press cannot bring itself to identify the officer caught in a bald lie.
Yeah. It's difficult to say for sure, but it sure looks like the first officer had things well in hand (suspect prone, hands behind back, maybe even cuffed) when this second officer just ran up and started beating the guy with his flashlight.
Yeah, looks like in this video that the guy stopped and got down on the ground before he was even touched. Hard to tell, though, I've seen suspects on COPS get sqirrley once the cuffs start going on.
Some license has to be given to cops who've been in a dangerous pursuit and finally catch their perp. I don't mean to say they can whip the punk but you do have to allow for the infusion of adrenaline in those situations.
Pray for W and Our Troops
Only to those trying to sensationalize this story.
Do we know for sure it was a flashlight?
I saw the entire chase and takedown on FOX this morning.
I thought the black instrument was one of those rubber
slap sticks, or whatever they call them.
I looked strange that even when the guy was down
on the ground, there was some indication that he was strongly resisting, as the police had to keep piling on.
It looked like quite a strugle for an unusual length of time.
I guess the other cops had a hard time doing their job with him swinging the "flashlight"
You should take another look. No one "piles on" the guy goes down one cop climbs on to cuff him, and one cop just runs up and starts beating him for no reason (apparent on the tape). The two other cops just stand and watch. Didn't look like much of a struggle to me.
That was my impression too.
No your wrong, after the original cop jumped on him four or five came in to help.
If it's a slow news day and something good happens, then they'll sensationalize it for all its worth.
BS. If the cop can't control himself under stress, he should be in another profession. Can you imagine an idiot like this walking around with a loaded gun? All he did was cost the city a lot of money today. He makes the perp look like the smart one and insulted the cops who are true professionals
No your wrong. Two cops are on the guy while a third guy just runs up, kicks him in the head, and beats him with whatever (flashlight?). The other two cops didn't participate at all.
I would imagine that the guy was refusing to give the officers his name....
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