Ronnie Holloway's eyes were still black and blue one week after he was allegedly beaten by a Passaic, N.J., police officer -- an attack that was inadvertently caught on a video surveillance camera. Holloway, who is on medication for schizophrenia, joined more than 80 others outside that community's city hall Saturday to demand that Officer Joseph R. Rios III be fired.
The tape shows Holloway, 49, waiting outside Lawrence's Grill and Bar restaurant in Passaic when a police cruiser pulled up and a female officer asked him to zip up his sweatshirt. Holloway appears to comply, but Rios jumps out and begins hitting him with his fists and a baton.
The scene shows baby strollers and other pedestrians walk by in the downtown retail section of this community of immigrants and working poor.
Holloway does not appear to resist, and at one point, Rios seems to stand him back up and then slam him into the police cruiser. WATCH THE VIDEO
HERE
Bail was set at $2 million for a Chicago police officer charged in a
drunken driving crash that killed a 13-year-old byciclist, but the
brief court hearing started about an hour before it was scheduled, the
teen’s angry family said.
“It’s scheduled for 12 and it’s not even 12,” Morris
Upton, who identified himself as the grandfather of the boy — Trenton
Booker — said about 11:45 a.m. outside the Cook County criminal courts
building at 26th and California.
Asked
by reporters whether he thought the officer charged in the case,
Richard Bolling, 39, was getting preferential treatment — considering
the hearing was held before the dead boy’s family or even the media
arrived in the court room, Upton said: “Well, I’m sure.”
A
man and woman who identified themselves as Trenton’s parents were
walking toward the courthouse building at 26th and California when they
learned the hearing was over.
“We
had no idea they went at 11 o’clock,” the woman, repeating that “we’re
his parents,” but declining to give her name. “We just lost our son,”
she said, as she climbed into an awaiting SUV before adding: “Let’s
just hope justice is served.”
The officer’s attorney as well as his family members also declined comment as they left the courthouse. READ MORE
After being accused of beating a 14-year-old, Toledo police say they
are reviewing a video taken of the incident. Video posted on YouTube
shows part of what happened next.
The video was recorded by Shari Weems, who lives in the Brand Whitlock Homes in Central Toledo.
Shari runs up to the scene in front of one of the homes, where
Toledo Police Department Patrolmen Byron Daniels and Andre Bills are
trying to subdue 14-year-old Trevor Casey.
The police report states the officers asked Casey to stop loitering
and leave, but they say he refused and it then turned into a full fight.
The report says the 14-year-old struck officer Daniels in the chest and was kicking and trying to break free.
The video shows a bloody Trevor Casey, after being struck by police in the head while trying to subdue him. WATCH VIDEO
Five police officers in Birmingham, Ala., were fired Wednesday after
a video became public that shows them beating and kicking an apparently
unconscious man in 2008 after a highway chase.
Chief A. C.
Roper of the Birmingham Police Department called the actions
“shameful,” and the state Bureau of Investigation is considering
charges.
The VIDEO ,
filmed on Jan. 23, 2008, by a patrol car camera, showed officers
chasing a suspect, Anthony Warren, who lost control of his van and was
ejected from a window in the crash.
After the officers raced
toward Mr. Warren, motionless on the roadside, they could be seen
punching, kicking and beating him with a billy club.
The video
was released by the city on Wednesday. Prosecutors for the district
attorney of Jefferson County, Brandon Falls, found the tape in March
while preparing their case against Mr. Warren, who received a 20-year
sentence for first-degree assault for hitting an officer with his van
in the chase.
Mr. Warren filed a claim against the city for more
than $100,000, saying the beating left him with a severe concussion, a
skull fracture, and other injuries, said his lawyer, Wendy Crew.
“He was not a threat to anyone,” Ms. Crew said. “There was no reason for the excessive force.”
She also accused the police department of tampering with the video.
Chief Roper did not identify the officers, but said they were veterans.
“We’ve terminated over 50 years of combined service due to 10 seconds
of injustice,” he said. “In addition to these terminations, we’re also
reviewing our supervisor’s actions, reporting mechanisms and policies.”
Many
officers and supervisors in the police department viewed the video in
the past year but did not report it, the authorities said.
Mayor Larry P. Langford likened the beating to the police violence that occurred in the city during the civil rights movement.
“Dr.
King wrote from the Birmingham Jail that ‘injustice anywhere is a
threat to justice everywhere,’ ” Mayor Langford said. “More than 40
years later, we must send the message that all citizens deserve equal
and fair treatment under the law.”
The officers can appeal their terminations.
A handcuffed Louisiana woman who emerged from a police holding room
with two black eyes and broken teeth said that after the arresting
officer turned off a monitoring camera he slammed her against a wooden
door and then against a metal locker.
Angela Garbarino also admitted that while the camera was off she tried
to leave the room despite orders from Officer Wylie Willis to stay put.
Garbarino spoke to "Good Morning America" for the first time
about what happened during those minutes that the camera was turned
off.
"It was very painful," she said. "Officer Willis came over to
me to the chair. He threw me against the door. He slammed me against
that black file locker [seen in the video]."
Garbarino, who described the incident as "a nightmare," contends
that Willis physically abused her, but Willis' attorney said she was
inebriated and disorderly.
"Although unfortunate, her injuries were caused by her own erratic
behavior and her failure to comply with lawful, reasonable and standard
instructions for persons under arrest," said Willis' attorney Eron
Brainard in a statement to ABC News. "Officer Willis was presented with
an intoxicated and extremely belligerent female criminal suspect who
had just been arrested by other officers for the highly dangerous
offenses of Driving While Intoxicated."
Though police and Garbarino agree the situation was uneasy, Garbarino
said she was not so drunk she couldn't recall the incident.
"I remember everything," she said. "I wanted to make a phone call and
he wouldn't let me. I repeatedly asked him why he wouldn't let me make
a phone call. He just ignored me." WATCH THE VIDEO HERE
