[Dryerase] Butal cops caught on tape

[Shawn G]

Butal cops caught on tape

By Brendan Conley

July 17 (AGR)— In two incidents reminiscent of the 1991 beating of Rodney 
King, white police officers have been caught on videotape beating unarmed 
black men.

Inglewood, CA police officer Richard Morse was videotaped beating Donovan 
Jackson, a black teenager, in the course of a routine traffic stop.  Morse 
is shown slamming the handcuffed boy onto the hood of a patrol car and 
punching him in the face.

In Oklahoma City, two white police officers were videotaped striking a black 
man 27 times with batons.  The man was also pepper-sprayed twice.

Hundreds of protesters marched on Inglewood City Hall in multiple 
demonstrations over the July 12-14 weekend.  The protesters said that racial 
profiling led to the incident, claiming that Jackson and his father, Coby 
Chavis, would not have been stopped by police if they were white.  Chavis 
was cited for driving with a suspended license, and Jackson was charged with 
battery on a police officer.

Inglewood is adjacent to Los Angeles, scene of the 1991 beating of black 
motorist Rodney King by white police officers.  The 1992 acquittal of the 
officers on assault charges sparked a multiracial uprising in which 
fifty-four people were killed.

The protesters in Inglewood also demanded that Mitchell Crooks, the man who 
videotaped the Jackson incident, be released.  After coming forward with the 
tape, Crooks, who is white, was arrested on outstanding warrants and is 
serving a seven-month sentence.  Crooks said the police considered him a 
“marked man” for his role in the incident, and that he feared for his life.

Officer Morse defended his actions, saying he punched Jackson only after the 
youth resisted arrest and grabbed the officer’s testicles.

Other officers present said Jackson attacked Morse, scratching him above his 
ear and on his neck.  In the video, Morse can be seen bleeding from a cut 
near his ear.

On July 12, Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn said that investigations will be 
reopened into two previous complaints made against Morse.  Morse is on paid 
leave while the investigations proceed.  Also Friday, a woman filed a civil 
rights lawsuit against Morse and other officers, claiming that they beat her 
when they raided her home Oct. 20.  Morse is being represented by John 
Barnett, who won the 1992 acquittal of LAPD officer Theodore Briseno in the 
Rodney King case.

Another officer present at the scene, Bijan Darvish, who has alternately 
been described as being white and of East Indian descent, admitted to 
striking Jackson.  In a police report obtained by the Los Angeles Times, 
Darvish wrote, “Fearing that Jackson would pull me into him and strike me 
with his other hand, I punched him two times in the face, using my right 
hand.”

National black leaders converged on Inglewood over the weekend, including 
Dick Gregory, Martin Luther King III, and Maxine Waters.  After a march on 
city hall, hundreds of activists and community members met at Faith United 
Methodist Church for a rally and organizing meeting.  The organizers said 
they would demand a civilian review board to investigate police misconduct.  
Internal police investigations are often corrupt, according to Taleeba 
Shakur, Jackson’s cousin and one of the organizers.

“We don’t want Jesse James to be investigating Frank James,” the Los Angeles 
Independent Media Center quoted her as saying.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters dismissed speculation about what occurred before 
the videotaped beating.

“We don’t know what happened before the video, we don’t know what happened 
after, but we do know what happened during the video, and that’s enough,” 
she said.

Other activists focused on the education and organization of the black 
community as a political force.  “It’s not police brutality, it’s not police 
abuse,” said James Simmons of the National Conference of Black Lawyers.  
“Stop talking like it’s an administrative problem.  Let’s call it what it 
is. Absolutely, what happened is a crime.”

Jackson and Chavis have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Los 
Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Inglewood Police Department, and 
several officers.  In addition, a grand jury is investigating the incident, 
a prosecutor revealed on a call-in radio show.

In Oklahoma City, police officers Greg Driskill and E.J. Dyer were 
videotaped beating Donald Pete, 50, who police said was soliciting 
prostitution and resisting arrest.  The beating was videotaped by Brian 
Bates, a “video vigilante” who routinely videotapes illegal sex acts and 
reports them to authorities.  The police chief defended the officers’ 
actions, and said the case was under review by an internal police committee. 
  Sean Baker, a local representative of the National Association for the 
Advancement of Colored People, said he was “appalled” by the videotape.

Nationally, the two incidents were decried by human rights organizations as 
more evidence that police brutality remains endemic in many areas of the 
United States, and usually goes unpunished.





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