Vol. 72/No. 21      May 26, 2008

As a cop clubbed one victim seven times another stood by restraining an agitated police dog.

This incident of police brutality was filmed in its entirety by a Fox29 TV news reporter in a helicopter. Within hours, the aerial images of the men being dragged from the car, pushed to the pavement, and assaulted by three groups of cops were aired nationally.

After their beating, Dawayne Dyches, Brian Hall, and Pete Hopkins were arrested and remain in jail for allegedly participating in a drive-by shooting incident. Their combined bail is $1 million. The young men—aged 24, 23, and 19, respectively—required medical treatment for their injuries.

As the video gained national and international attention, recently elected mayor Michael Nutter and head cop Charles Ramsey were forced to answer questions about the police’s actions.

Nutter called the beating “inappropriate behavior.”

In an effort to justify the brutality, Ramsey said, “Emotions run very high in the [police] department right now. Obviously that puts a lot of pressure on our officers.” He was referring to the fatal shooting of a cop trying to catch bank robbers two days earlier. “We don’t know the circumstances,” he added. “The video doesn’t tell you everything.”

Vowing to conduct a thorough investigation, Ramsey removed 13 cops from street duty, but none have been charged or disciplined. All remain anonymous.

Osborne Hart, Socialist Workers Party candidate in the city’s 2nd Congressional District, denounced the cop beating, demanding the “immediate jailing and full prosecution of all the cops responsible for the act of brutality. Working people should protest this outrageous action to make the rulers pay a high political price for this most recent example of class ‘justice,’” he added.
 
 
Related articles:
Protest police brutality!
N.Y. politicians hold hearing on police ‘reform’  
 
 
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