Let’s go to the tape. Do watch the whole thing, from beginning to end, but after you do that, let’s start watching it, again, starting at 3:40 into it.
3:50 MPD squad, lights and sirens on, screams to a stop, and two cops leap out and join the struggle. The one furthest from the camera brings his fist — it’s not clear if he’s holding a small weapon in it — up and down seven times, apparently striking Jenkins repeatedly.
4:05 a third and fourth squad car scream to a stop, and a cop in a wool cap runs over, and at 4:06 shoves one of the cops out of the way, and begins kicking Jenkins. While Jenkins is being kicked and punched by several cops, one voice can be heard to shout, “Put your hands behind your fucking back.”
4:25 One of the cops screams about “something sharp,” and the cops take a break from the beating long enough for Jenkins to roll to a sitting position. He’s then dragged out of view of the closest squad camera, and the beating continues, with one of the cops taking what appears to be a cigarette break, looking back from time to time to the camera, then for whatever reason, positioning himself so that he blocks the view of Jenkins.
Over on the forums at officer.com, Buck Eight and Squad51 sum it up thusly:
I watched the video and didn’t really have a problem with it. Things always look worse on video. Now that Dolan has the FBI getting involved and the story is ALL over the news, the guy is in for a big payday. I hope nobody loses their job over this.
Tasing, spraying and joint locks/pain compliance all look a hell of a lot better to someone watching a video (ie: a jury) than punches and kicks raining down.
http://www.startribune.com/local/534…tml?page=3&c=y
…I doubt that any of the officers will be in serious trouble over this. Kicks our part of our use of force training when dealing with combative suspects. This will be ruled a policy failure and kicking will disappear. The reason that the other officers will not get into huge touble or worse is that they where responding to an officer need help call and when they arrived saw that one officer was fighting with one and they responded to that with force to take one that they had reason to believe had assaulted an officer and he was dealt with. we have a good relationship with the county prosecuters I doubt that they would get much milage out of this. Not only that but I bet you money that if he does sue it is settled out of court for basically lawyers fees….if you watch the video in its entireity..yeah this is a no brainer the cops are in the clear…
Happy to be here proud to serve.
Minneapolis is in Hennepin County; the County Attorney — the guy whose office prosecutes felonies in HennCo — is Mike Freeman. squad51 and his friends have a “good relationship” with county prosecutors.
The quote? That’s from Officer Richard Walker, early on in the stop. Tim Dolan, the Minneapolis Police Chief, has ordered all of his officers to watch the video. The kicking it seems, was too much even for him. “Dolan said the actions of Officer Richard Walker, the initial officer involved, ‘all appear to be very appropriate.'” He just doesn’t like the kicking. Walker not stopping the thumping? Doesn’t bother Dolan. Nor does the thumping bother squad51 and his friends at officer.com. After all, they have a “good relationship” with the county prosecutors.
What will they learn from this? A skeptic might think that they’ll learn to station cops in front of the cameras to block recordings of the kicking in the future.
Either that, or there’ll be an in-service on the use of the erase button.
But I’m sure they’ll all watch the tape. Hell, maybe they’ll even use some CI money to buy doughnuts for Movie Night. Been done before, after all.
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