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Do you think police officers take advantage of their job???
Iono where the hell this belongs... Feel free to move it to the right area...
Anyways, what do you think? Do police officers take advantage of their job? Do they go over board by arresting, pulling over, etc.
I've seen police officers pass red lights, do illegal turns, etc.
Here's a story for you:
INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — The mayor, police department and district attorney have pledged to investigate the arrest of a teen-ager who was videotaped being slammed onto a police car and punched in the face while he was handcuffed.
Police Officer Jeremy Morse, a three-year police veteran, was relieved of duty and placed on administrative leave following the arrest of 16-year-old Donovan Jackson, police Lt. Eve R. Irvine said Monday.
``It was wrong,` Jackson said at his attorney`s office. The youth, whose right eye was red and swollen and who had a mark across his neck, said nothing else.
The police and sheriff`s departments began separate internal investigations. The district attorney`s office was also investigating, spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said.
``What occurred within the video is extremely disturbing to the Inglewood Police Department and to the administrators of the city,` she said.
The videotape was taken by a tourist Saturday at a motel across the street from the gas station where the arrest took place. It shows the teen hoisted to his feet by Morse and slammed onto the 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.
Sheriff`s spokesman Sgt. Richard Myers said the teen-age passenger became ``combative` and was subdued with force and taken into custody. Jackson was booked for assault on a police officer.
A request to Inglewood police to interview Morse was referred to the Inglewood Police Association. Association officials did not return calls for comment Monday.
Roosevelt F. Dorn, mayor of the city of 115,000 in southwestern Los Angeles County, called the tape disturbing and pledged a thorough investigation.
``I also want the public to know that the conduct of this one officer does not reflect the attitude and conduct of the Inglewood Police Department,` Dorn said in a news release.
What happened before the camera began taping was unclear.
The Inglewood officers were assisting two Los Angeles County sheriff`s deputies who were investigating a car driven by Jackson`s father that had an expired registration. Irvine said Jackson lunged at a sheriff`s deputy, provoking the altercation.
The videotape showed a bloody gash over Morse`s left ear. Irvine said the officer also had lacerations on his elbow and knee. He was treated at a hospital and released.
The family`s lawyer, Joe Hopkins, said the teen is developmentally disabled and a special education student with no arrest record. ``I doubt he is emotionally capable of doing what they say he did,` Hopkins said.
According to Hopkins` account, the father and son pulled into the station to get gas and the son went to get potato chips. The deputies passed by and came back, then ordered him against the car, Hopkins said.
``From there it went crazy,` he said.
The youth was seated in a squad car when the Inglewood officers ran up, Hopkins said. The youth stood up and a deputy grabbed him by the neck before the city officers began to beat him, the attorney said.
Hopkins said the teen wore a heavy chain around his neck and the officers dragged him by it until it broke.
Irvine said sheriff`s investigators had collected images from gas station surveillance cameras but she did not know what they showed. Two cameras were visible at the station.
The three other officers at the gas station were not relieved of duty.
Poor kid...
What do you think?
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07-12-2002 01:21 AM
