Officer in beating video suspended
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A Los Angeles police officer has been suspended after slamming a black teenager into a car and punching him in the face, evoking memories of the notorious Rodney King beating 11 years ago.
Officer Jeremy Morse was put on administrative leave after a tourist filmed him hoisting the handcuffed 16-year-old to his feet and slamming him on the boot of a police car. The youth, Donovan Jackson, was left with a swollen eye and a mark across his neck. "It was wrong," he said. Officers said they were trying to speak to the teenager before he became "combative".
The video was taken last Saturday at a motel across the street from a fuel station in the Inglewood district. The footage, broadcast worldwide, shows the officer putting a hand on the back of the teenager's neck, hitting him with his other hand and appearing to choke him. Two other officers – one of them black – tried to intervene, one trying to pull away the first officer's arm.
Three investigations are being run. "[This video] is extremely disturbing to the Inglewood police department and to the administrators of the city," Sandi Gibbons, for the district attorney, said.
The police department said the officers had been checking the car driven by the teenager's father. A spokesman said the 16-year-old lunged at the officer, provoking the altercation.
But the family's lawyer, Joe Hopkins, said the teenager was developmentally disabled and a special education student with no arrest record. "I doubt he is emotionally capable of doing what they say he did," Mr Hopkins said.
The teenager had been wearing a heavy neck chain and the officers dragged him by it until it broke, Mr Hopkins said. A police spokeswoman said images had been collected from the fuel station's surveillance cameras but she did not know what they showed. The sheriff's department is also investigating the incident.
In 1991 three Los Angeles Police Department officers were caught on video clubbing and kicking Mr King after his car was stopped. Their acquittal a year later by a jury that had no black members sparked five days of rioting that caused 50 deaths, with 4,000 more people injured, 12,000 arrested and $1bn in property damage. Mr King won compensation of $3m.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments