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Posted on 07/11/2002 4:37:33 PM PDT by socal_parrot
By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The man who videotaped a police beating near Los Angeles that enraged black leaders and then dodged a grand jury inquiry into the matter was arrested on Thursday as he prepared to grant a television interview.
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Crooks' arrest was videotaped and broadcast on local KCAL-TV, showing undercover officers hustling him into a sports utility vehicle with tinted windows outside the studios of CNN as the 27-year-old man repeatedly screamed for help.
Crooks had failed to appear on Thursday morning at Los Angeles Superior Court, where the grand jury was meeting, after telling a local radio program that he feared for his life.
"All we're doing is arresting him on the basis of a warrant," Los Angeles County District Attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said. "If there had not been a warrant, we would have escorted him to the grand jury."
"He is a witness and we need him to authenticate the tape recording, otherwise its value in court would be greatly diminished," Gibbons said. Crooks shot his videotape from a motel room across the street from the scene of the incident in Inglewood, which abuts south-central Los Angeles.
Crooks called a KFI-AM talk radio show hosted by John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou on Wednesday to discuss the case and said he was afraid that officers would be "coming after" him for videotaping the beating of 16-year-old Donovan Jackson.
'I FEAR FOR MY LIFE'
"I fear for my life," Crooks said. "They're going to kick my ass in a cell and take turns on me, probably."
Deputy District Attorney Kurt Livesay, who was also a guest on the show, then told Crooks over the air that authorities did not want to hurt him, and asked that he give his address to investigators. Instead, Crooks hung up the phone.
The videotape, first broadcast on Sunday, shows Inglewood Police Officer Jeremy Morse picking up Jackson and slamming him face-first onto a patrol car. Several seconds later, Morse is seen slugging Jackson in the face with a closed fist.
The tape sparked cries of racism and comparisons to the incendiary 1991 beating of Rodney King, which was also videotaped. The acquittal of four Los Angeles officers in that case led to the worst urban riots in modern U.S. history.
Several local law enforcement agencies and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were investigating the altercation between Jackson and Morse, a three-year veteran of the Inglewood Police Department. U.S. Attorney John Ashcroft ( news - web sites) sent his top civil rights deputy to Los Angeles on the case.
Jackson and his 41-year-old father, Coby Chavis, who was present during the incident, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on Wednesday against the officers involved in their arrest, the city of Inglewood and the County of Los Angeles.
Black leaders, including congresswoman Maxine Waters, a Democrat who represents the area, and Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn have called for Morse to be immediately fired and brought up on state or federal charges.
ATTORNEY: OFFICER DESERVES DUE PROCESS
But Morse's lawyer told Reuters in an interview that the 24-year-old officer had been condemned by public officials before all of the facts were known or the probes even begun.
"I think it's quite unfortunate that people who have sworn to defend and uphold the Constitution would ignore the presumption of innocence and find individuals guilty before there's even been a trial," attorney John Barnett said. "I thought we stopped doing that a couple hundred years ago."
Barnett, who also represented one of the officers acquitted in King's beating, said public officials were offering inappropriate assurances that his client was guilty.
"This very same thing happened (in the King case)," he said. "That's why it was such a big surprise when they were acquitted with tragic, tragic consequences."
Barnett said that Morse lifted Jackson from the ground and heaved him onto the car because the teen had let his legs go limp in an effort to resist.
"After his hands were cuffed, Jackson was able to reach out and grab my client's testicles," he said. "And on that occasion the punch was seen in order to make that activity cease."
In Oklahoma, meanwhile, civil rights activists called for immediate disciplinary action against two white police officers who were videotaped beating a prone black suspect with batons.
The officers, Greg Driskill and E.J. Dyer, were to remain on regular duty pending the results of a probe. Oklahoma City police have asked the FBI ( news - web sites) to investigate.
I wasn't there and I have seen the tape. My guess is that he got what he deserved. Cops don't do this stuff to good people.
Justin
And byt the way, you sound like the idiot!!
Justin
If you do work, you probably sit behind a desk in an air conditioned office all day. Cops deal with nothing but pieces of sh*t every day, and these no count dirtbags get exactly what they deserve. If you can't handle the consequences of your actions, I don't know what to tell you.
Justin
A powerful person commands it....
I wonder too how many libertarian cophaters have found people's lost children? How many libertarian cophaters caught rapists, robbers, burglars, and put them away? How many libertarian cophaters got people's stolen property back or put away somebody who killed someone's friend, or a family member?
I think the evidence is pretty clear as to just who are the heros and just who are the zeros.
I see that you are a new poster/register to FreeRepublic. I'm being nice and ask for equal respect in return. BTW, on the outside chance that you are new to the Internet thus unaware of the demeanors that can be all over the map on discussion boards, my post 257 to you was a tongue-in-cheek wake-up call. Moving on...
Considering that those who claim themselves to be Libertarian, of which I am not one, make up about 1.5 percent of the population (that's based on a one-percent voter turn out and adding a half percent for non-voting Libertarians), that statistic means that they are far and few between. You seem to be implying that all Libertarians are cop-haters, or perhaps you mean only a small faction are cop-haters, thus in the later case they'd be a miniscule segment of the population. Yet with such small numbers you imply, ironically, that their numbers could be so great that they would be readily seen or accounted for if they were out saving children, catching rapists, robbers, burglars; retrieving stolen property and putting away murders.
Frankly, any person that is a cop-hater, be they a go-along-to-get-along republican or go-along-to-get-along democrat or be they disassociated from politics, regardless of their race, gender, age or religion, if they hated cops it is absurd to think that they would be doing half the noble things you mentioned. ...For that would require them to be a cop.
Probably ninety-five percent of the population realize they don't have the wherewithal to be a cop. Though many in that very large majority appreciate the police and many people admire them for the honorable work they do. And you know what, it hurts them and for many it tears at their heart when they see one of their heroes violently breaking the law. It's seeing their "hero" act violently that pains them. It's understandable that when they do see what looks to them and the majority of people like a violent police officer abusing a person, they tend to speak out in dismay or revulsion. And most are quick to add that they do in fact respect and admire cops in general, just not that particular cop. Nobody wants their hero images tarnished. Yet it does happen occasionally.
In sum, probability of statistics indicate that there are magnitudes more democrats that hate cops and magnitudes more republicans that hate cops and multiple-magnitudes more people disassociated from politics that hate cops, that there are Libertarians that hate cops. I other words, in each of those segments there is twenty to forty times more people that hate cops, and in total about ninety-eight times more non-Libertarians that hate cops than there are Libertarians that hate cops.
Regards,
O we are all so weak at the knees at your power, o liege.
(I think you should get banned for this remark)
I guess if you call some sad schmoe whose taillight burned out since he left his garage, and then who the cop doesn't like the looks of, a "piece of sh*t" this might be a true statement
I've never had a problem with them either. With one exception, all of the police I've run into have been courteous and reasonable. One guy was a complete jerk. As we've all been taught, if I'm stopped I keep my hands visible by placing them on the steering wheel. He said my keeping my hands visible in such an exaggerated manner was suspicious and wanted to search my car. I declined (this was before that lousy SC ruling), he wrote me my ticket and that was it.
Except of course the once you described.
You may be surprised to learn that private employers have the legal right to record the activity of their employees.
Likewise, prison inmates are in prison as punishment, not to be further punished by the cruel guards! I worked in a prison for a time, and guards frequently saw their duty otherwise.
Churchill once said, "If you wish to see the scum of the earth, visit a prison at the time of the changing of the guard!" I agree, and, too often, that goes for cops too.
[bold mine]
Wasn't there an allegation that the boy was earlier the subject of a choke hold. He could have come to by that point.
Why not a radical change of facial expression at the time of the "balling"?
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