Police Repression of the Black Community

Outrageous Myth or Persistent Reality?

White Officer Suspended After Tape Shows Handcuffed Black Youth Was Punched

By Barbara Whitaker

Los Angeles

July 9, 2002

July 8 - A white police officer in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood was relieved of duty today after a bystander videotaped a confrontation on Saturday evening in which a handcuffed black teenager was thrown against a police car and then punched in the jaw.

"It was very disturbing," Mayor Roosevelt F. Dorn said of the videotape, which has by now been widely televised. "It appears that the officer picked this youngster up and body-slammed him on top of the front end of the car and then punched him."

"From the video I saw, there was one officer that was involved," Mayor Dorn said. "As a matter of fact, one of the other officers seemed to be stepping in to prevent any further conduct by this officer." The officer involved, Jeremy Morse, was removed from duty by the mayor pending the results of an investigation.

No action was taken against the three other Inglewood police officers at the scene, or against any of at least two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies who were also there. The Inglewood police said Officer Morse had no comment, and the police union also declined to comment. But the Sheriff's Department, whose deputies had pulled over the car in which the youth was riding, said he had become unruly before the events that were videotaped.

The episode began, said Deputy Steve Jauch, a Sheriff's Department spokesman, when the car was stopped about 5:10 p.m. for expired license plates. "During the investigation, the 16-year-old passenger became involved in an altercation with our deputies and Inglewood police," Deputy Jauch said.

The 16-year-old, who was not identified because he is a juvenile, was taken into custody and charged with assaulting a police officer. The driver of the car, Coby Chavis, 41, was also taken into custody, and charged with driving with expired plates. As a result of the tape, recorded by a man standing at a nearby motel, three investigations are under way: one by the Los Angeles County district attorney, another by the Sheriff's Department and a third by the Inglewood Police Department.

Mayor Dorn said it appeared the incident was isolated. "I have not received any information that would cause me to believe that this type of conduct is going on in the department," he said.

Nor, he said, does he expect the incident to ignite racial tensions. "I can tell you without any question," he said, "this matter will be handled with dispatch, and appropriately."

Source: NYTimes

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