Philly Police Brutality Against Blacks [Video]
Taped by a helicopter, the footage shows
several police cruisers pulling over a car,
whose three occupants are then dragged out onto the street
and beaten. The three men were held down while
police kicked, punched and struck with their batons
The parents of the victims beaten by Philadelphia police react
to the videotape. Maggie Rodriguez speaks to Philadelphia's
police commissioner, who is investigating the incident.
Vicious Racism
THE SICKENING brutality of Philadelphia police is on display for the world to see in a video showing more than a dozen white officers descending on three African American men May 5.
Taped from above by a Fox TV helicopter, the footage shows several police cruisers pulling over a car, whose three occupants are then dragged out onto the street and beaten.
The three men were held down while police kicked, punched and struck with their batons. A few officers could be seen rotating from one beating to another.
"They kicked these individuals while in handcuffs," Pete Hopkins, the father of one of the men assaulted, told CBS News. "It was brute force. Any of these individuals could be killed."
According to the victims' lawyer, D. Scott Perrine, the beating of one of the men produced a seriously injured leg and a welt the size of a baseball on his head.
The three men--Dwayne Dyches, Brian Hall and Pete Hopkins--are currently being held on bail as suspects in a shooting that happened prior to the incident, though no guns were found on them or in their car.
Thirteen police officers have been taken off the streets and given administrative duty.
As the videotaping quickly became national news, Philadelphia's new mayor and police commissioner stepped in to comment. While labeling the beatings "inappropriate," they both tried to downplay the significance of the assault.
Mayor Michael Nutter urged people not to "rush to judgment," and Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey claimed race played no factor in the beatings.
But many outraged Philadelphia residents aren't likely to forgive so easily. African Americans in particular have long complained of police brutality and racism in this city.
This incident also comes just months after a white Philadelphia police officer was caught with "White Power" and KKK illustrations in his locker.
Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton spoke out against the beatings after participating in a mass civil disobedience protesting the acquittal of three New York City police officers in the shooting of Sean Bell.
"I've not seen anything like that since Rodney King, and it's worse than Rodney King," Sharpton said. "We cannot allow our community to be under siege."
The victims' family members and lawyers are calling for the officers to be arrested.
"I'm horrified to see that our city cops would beat some human being like they did, like a gang-style fight," Leomia Dyches, the mother of one of the victims, said. She added, "I'd like to see them tried for what they did."
"Worse Than Rodney King"
The Rev. Al Sharpton called a videotaped police beating of three shooting suspects in Philadelphia "worse than Rodney King," prompting the city's police commissioner to chide anyone "fanning flames ... from afar."
The civil rights activist made the comments Thursday as he interviewed the mother of one of the suspects on his radio show.
Thirteen police officers have been taken off street duty as police investigate the television news footage, according to Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman.
The video shows officers kicking, punching and beating the three black men during a traffic stop Monday.
"I've not seen anything like that since Rodney King, and it's worse than Rodney King, and we cannot allow our community to be under siege," Sharpton said. "We've got to stop this nonsense in our community, acting like you got to be a certain level black to be treated within the law."
Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said he does not believe the confrontation was racially motivated, but instead thinks that tensions in the wake of the weekend slaying of a fellow officer played a part.
The beating occurred at the same time as police were conducting an intense manhunt for a suspect in the slaying of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, 39, who was killed responding to a bank robbery Saturday. He was the second city officer killed on the job in seven months.
At a news conference Thursday morning, Ramsey called the confrontation a "black eye" for the force and "an embarrassment to the entire department."
In an interview later in the day with The Associated Press, Ramsey said: "I know everybody's trying to make this into a racial thing. I don't believe it is."
"We just had a policeman murdered on Saturday ... and emotions are running high," he said.
"There's no excuse for it, but fanning flames, and making accusations from afar, is not in anybody's best interest," said Ramsey, who took over as commissioner in January after serving in the same role in Washington, D.C.
King, who is black, was videotaped being beaten by white Los Angeles police officers after he was stopped for speeding in 1991.
Four officers were acquitted of most criminal charges in 1992, triggering rioting in Los Angeles and neighboring cities that left 55 people dead and caused $1 billion in property damage.
In the Philadelphia case, officers who stopped the car Monday night believed its occupants had been involved in a triple shooting a few blocks away.
They included members of a narcotics unit working the area and patrol officers called in response to the shooting.
The three suspects - Dwayne Dyches, Brian Hall and Pete Hopkins, all of Philadelphia - were each charged with attempted murder and related counts in connection with the shooting, according to court records.
D. Scott Perrine, a lawyer representing the three suspects, has said his clients had nothing to do with the shooting, police had no reason to follow their car and the beating was unjustified.
Leomia Dyches complained to Sharpton on Thursday that she could not see her son when he was in the hospital.
Ramsey noted to the AP that he was in custody at the time, charged with attempted murder. All three suspects were treated at a hospital soon after the confrontation, Ramsey said, and they were being held Thursday in lieu of bail of $100,000 or more.
The commissioner pledged to send the department's preliminary investigation to the District Attorney's Office by next week. If prosecutors decline to file charges, he will deal with the officers involved internally, he said.
Ramsey said it was too early to say what kind of discipline the might be warranted.
He told CBS' The Early Show Thursday that should the district attorney's office throw the case back to the police department, "I'll take appropriate action," adding that he'd judge each officer involved individually.
Ramsey said he did not know the race of all the officers on the scene - there were about 15 - but said that at least one sergeant involved is African-American.
The Internal Affairs unit is still working to enhance the tape and identify all of the officers in the footage, a department spokesman said.
Sharpton's remarks came a day after he was arrested along with hundreds of other demonstrators as he blocked traffic to protest the acquittal of three New York detectives who fatally shot an unarmed black man in on his wedding day.
