Sunday, March 24, 2013

Cops chase man with cell phone video of their violent takedown into house, flip wheelchair-bound woman onto floor — but miss video taken by neighbor

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Update: headline is misleading; cellphone recording did not appear to start until after Johnson was thrown to the concrete.
Below: after action to tow his vehicle, an Omaha policeman grabs Octavius Johnson by the neck and slams him to the pavement. That part of the video was amazingly described by the Omaha World-Herald as showing "another officer assisted in subduing and handcuffing Johnson."
     Later, (at about 2:55 mark) you can see the officer accused of pinning Octavius to the ground with a knee to his neck looking back and forth to see if he could be seen by other witnesses and cops, and then punching Johnson in the face several times.

Below: Original Tactix94 YouTube video, which has already been ripped off
repeatedly on YouTube and used without attribution by WorldStarHipHop.




Above: coverage by KMTV, which broke the
story, KETV, and WOWT
Last week, after grabbing Octavius Johnson by the neck, throwing him backward to the concrete, and punching him several times in the face, Omaha Police arrested him for reckless driving, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
     His brother, Juaquez, said they demanded the cell phone he was using to record them, presumably in an effort to destroy evidence of their actions; and when he ran into the house with it, they pursued him, flipping his aunt over in her wheelchair and briefly handcuffing her.
     What the police didn't know was that a neighbor was recording them from a second floor window of a house across the street from the home into which they swarmed. Eventually 12 police cars converged at the scene.
     The OPD report says Juaquez sent his disabled aunt sprawling. She says a cop did: “He took my wheelchair and flipped me. I fell and my whole chair was on top of me."
     The incident arose over four cars that the police were having towed, (one for being parked in the wrong direction) which they say were either unregistered or dead storage.
     His [Octavius'] Aunt Sharon was watching the scene from inside her home, and called Johnson's mother for help.
     "She said 'they're beating him, they're beating him.' I said 'call the police'. She said, 'they are the police.'"
     Sharon said she tried to show paper work to police to prove they [the cars] were registered. She admits one was not.
     Of the three officers who the police report says first responded, Matthew Worm, Dyea Rowland and Bradley Canterbury, one has been reassigned and none have been placed on administrative leave. OPD has declined to specify which officer was reassigned.
     All three Johnson brothers were arrested: Octavious on suspicion of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, obstructing police and reckless driving; Juaquez on suspicion of disorderly conduct and obstructing police; and Demetrius on suspicion of obstructing police and having an outstanding warrant.
Above: police report (left) vs. audio of police via KMTV

City Councilman Ben Gray called a press conference Saturday to address the footage. He called what he saw in the video “appalling.”
“I have serious concerns not only about the officer that flipped the individual and was punching him in the face several times, but I have concerns about officers chasing citizens off the street who were just doing what they were supposed to do.”
     Related: Glenn Reynolds reports that "The Connecticut state senate approved a bill Thursday that would allow citizens to sue police officers who arrest them for recording in public, apparently the first of its kind in the nation. . . . According to the Hartford Courant, the bill was inspired by the 2009 incident in which a priest was arrested for video recording cops inside a store shaking down immigrants, which led to a Department of Justice investigation and the arrest of four officers.”

1 comment:

  1. Fucking ridiculous and the sad part is this kind of shit happens all the time!!!!! Just so happens someone had proof and used our great technology to show it to those interested. How dare he look around before hitting the guy on the ground.....that right there was premeditated. Then they chase his brother soley because he is recording the events taking place. Its quite obvious if they had nothing to hide nor had they not done anything wrong the issue of them being taped would not be a big deal. I mean the brother was only doing what anyone would do as they witness their sibling being beaten for NO REASON.......God dont like ugly and best believe no matter the results of this bogus investigation in which they speak of everyone involved, and those who participated or did nothing to stop it will have their day. Its no wonder why people dont trust the law!!

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