What should I do about a witnessed act of police brutality?

What sort of brutality are we talking about here? Beating up guys, pepper spraying people, or rubber bullets?

Unfortunately there’s not much you can do that will lead anywhere in the absence of cell phone video footage.

Well first of all I wouldn’t go all crazy and hate every cop in the world as your tags would suggest… second.. I’d go through the appropriate channels as it appears you may be doing.. as well as get some of those 100 other witnesses involved.

I believe you’ve already accomplished the first and best step by visiting that link to the police department to notify them of the incidents. Since there isn’t any video, I’m not sure what interest the media might have but you could ask them if they’ve received additional information besides yours from witnesses who saw the same things you did. Someone else that was there might have gotten video evidence of the situation and if that’s the case, you could offer corroborating testimony (along with other witnesses) of what occurred that evening if that was needed at a later time.

I’ve been a military policeman for 21 years and I would hope that you consider what @NaturalMineralWater suggested. Don’t judge all law enforcement personnel by the unprofessional and unacceptable actions of a few bad cops. I don’t think you’re doing this anyway. Just a thought on my part.

Call the cops, quick.

@Bluefreedom and @NaturalMineralWater first off i dont hate all cops, but fact of the matter is a god majority of them are fucking pricks. Also the hate tag was more meant to imply cops showing hate, not vice versa, though i do stand by fuck da police :P

The story.
It was about 1am when the MSTRKRFT concert ended at the TLA everyone was funneling outside and there were 5 cops making sure everything stayed ok and there were no fights. (shame they were the problem not the cure) All of a sudden a stocky white cop was pushing a skinny black man from behind yelling at him saying something along the lines of “if you fucking do that one my time ill have you in hand cuffs so fast” but i didnt actually see the black man do anything. The black guy then tried walking away from the officer but made a glance over his shoulder. At this point the cop lunged at the man who now had his back turned to the cop, grabbed him by the shoulder, and slammed him to the ground, and then threw his bike down on top of him. The officer than proceeded to cuff the man in a very violent matter who put up no resistance what so ever. After this the cop got violent towards the crowd of people who was all coming out of the theater telling us all to “get fucking walking” and actually pushed a couple of people in the crowd. He then looked over towards me and another kid who had our phones out recording the whole thing, i dropped my phone down real quick, but the kid next to me didnt. The cop then lunged into the crowd grabbed the other kids phone and snapped it in half and threw it into the street. He then grabbed the kid by his shirt ripped him out of the crowd, threw him down on the ground and cuffed him. At this point i saw more than i ever wanted to see and decided it probably wouldnt be a good idea to hang around any longer. Leaving in a rush i shut my phone real fast and thats when i realized i didnt save ANY of this.

During all of this the 4 other officers both said and did absolutely nothing. They all just stood there like statues. Not a single person in the crowd fought back in any matter what so ever and even when shit was looking really ugly tried talking the cop down in a peaceful manner. It was the cop that was trying to start a fucking riot. It didnt happen.

I am convinced that if this happened after any other show other than this one there would have been a riot on south street.

@NaturalMineralWater i also have no way or no idea of how to contact those other people who saw this…..

@uberbatman Well without proof or another witness.. in all reality I don’t see this going very far.

As far as the whole “fuck da police” thing.. I know there are a lot of really good cops that are working dangerous streets every day who cringe whenever they hear that.. as if what they do is tainted by the acts of those few “prick” cops. For that reason I think it’s wise to steer clear of blatantly hateful generalizations. But of course.. that’s me.

I don’t know what you do for a living.. but imagine if people had such a saying for your occupation.. not because of anything you did.

@NaturalMineralWater I judge only by every experience ive had in life with police. Ive had maybe 2 good ones.

Several things are readily apparent in this situation. First of all, it started with excessive force being used by the officer to affect an arrest, devolved into possible police brutality (throwing a bike on top of someone isn’t department policy I’m sure), and ended up with destruction of private property when the officer destroyed the cell phone of a witness.

I don’t know what the African-American person did to get arrested but the officer did not have probable cause (which he needs) to cuff and arrest the person with the cell phone camera. He wasn’t doing anything illegal. As far as IPC skills, the officer doesn’t seem to have any because he appears to be fond of using profanity to get his messages across in a very poor manner. As for the other 4 officers who stood idly by and did nothing? That says very little about their character and their concern for performing their civic duties in a proper and professional manner.

Like @NaturalMineralWater already said, without additional corroborating testimony from further witnesses or video evidence, this might not go anywhere. On the other hand, if you report everything that you told us in your answer to the proper authorities listed in that link, you’ve done the right thing and hopefully Internal Affairs would look into it. Maybe this caucasian officer has a prior record of problems in the department and this latest incident is the catalyst that is needed to move on severely reprimanding him or getting him suspended. His behavior is menacing to the public at large and sooner or later, it is going to catch up with him in a bad way.

GA, Thanks.

@uberbatman
I’d go to the bands site find a fan blog or a forum and get the witnesses together via email, then I’d contact the local media and find out if anyone covered the show or preferably the incident. Then I’d contact the producer of that report as a spokesperson for the witnesses. Also try to find out exactly what the charges were against the two individuals, it should be in public domain. I would even contact some civil rights orgs.
Do not let this go, stand up for your rights! And thanks for making us all aware of it!

I love these people that Protect and Serve us sometimes.

Even if you dont have the video you should report it, maybe go to the forums of that band or venue you went to and see if anyone else got video. You mentioned that other people had their cell phones out, maybe some of them caught it as well.

are you from philly? this doesn’t surprise me :(

Let me be the voice of discord here. You witnessed a “act of police brutality”, yet instead of saying something to the cop, you caught the act on your cell phone. Reminds me of a joke I heard after the Rodney King beating. The punch line was “If you see me getting my butt kicked, put down the G D camera and HELP me!”

Yes, mouthing off to the cop is not a great idea. However, you could have let the cop know you were watching, and recording, without being a smart ass. It might have made a difference.

Fuck ‘em. Those four other “good” cops did nothing. Why? If they cringe, they should do something about it.

@Eureka are you fucking kidding me? Did you read the story i wrote above about the other kid who was caught recording it and then go arrested? Uh no thanks. You dont say something to a roid ranging cop.

@uberbatman You do if you thought what he was doing was that wrong. Martyr!

Put an ad up on craigslist. Maybe you can track down some other witnesses.

@Triiiple The only difference between martyrdom and suicide is press coverage. Saying something then would have been suicide :P
especially with a Q of mushies in my pocket. No thanks.

You could try getting in touch with ColdSnapLegal via Twitter. Or their real website, which I don’t know. They did a lot of the legal side of protecting protesters during the RNC convention last fall. They may not have a solution, but they probably can give you some ideas.

@uberbatman i also have no way or no idea of how to contact those other people who saw this…..

You could post on craigslist. I always get results no matter what I do on there.

what would be the most appropriate section to post under? local news?

@uberbatman I’d try a few categories. Local news sure. Also items wanted, called wanted. If you can pay a couple dollars you can post in gigs. And also you can try the discussion forums.

I suppose that wasn’t too helpful, lol.

@RedPowerLady lol that was helpfulls :)
Thanks.