Philly mayor: Officers' actions were 'inappropriate'

[TJ Phaserman 2]

PHILADELPHIA - The actions of a throng of police officers shown on a videotape kicking and punching three shooting suspects during a traffic stop were inappropriate, Mayor Michael Nutter said Thursday.

 

A sergeant and five officers have been removed from street duty as authorities investigated the footage. More than a dozen officers were involved, and Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said investigators were having the videotape enhanced to try to identify how many were actually striking the suspects. Information will be sent to prosecutors, who will determine whether to press charges.

 

"It absolutely shows inappropriate behavior," Nutter said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America." "There is a way to take people into custody ... and there (are) not acceptable ways of taking people into custody."

 

Police stopped the suspects' car while investigating a triple shooting Monday night. No weapons were found in the car or on the suspects, Ramsey said, but officers said they had seen them shoot three people on a drug corner moments earlier.

 

The video, shot by WTXF-TV from a helicopter, showed three police cars stopping a car on the side of a road.

 

Officers gathered around the vehicle and pulled three men out. About a half-dozen officers held two men on the ground on the driver's side. Both were kicked repeatedly, while one was punched; one also appeared to be struck with a baton.

 

On the other side of the car, the video showed, more officers kicking a third man who ends up on the ground.

 

The three suspects — Dwayne Dyches, Brian Hall and Pete Hopkins — were each charged with attempted murder in the shooting, police said.

 

The beating happened two days after the fatal shooting of a city officer, the third killed on duty in two years. Ramsey said officers have been on edge since Officer Stephen Liczbinski was killed, but that they still need to maintain a high standard of conduct.

 

Liczbinski was shot with an assault rifle after a robbery Saturday. One suspect was fatally shot by police soon after, another was arrested Sunday and a third was captured late Wednesday.

 

"There nothing our policy that would allow kicking individuals and taking them into custody in the manner I saw on the tape," Ramsey told "Good Morning America."

 

D. Scott Perrine, an attorney for the three men seen in the video, has said that, as terrible as the officer's death was, it does not excuse what police did to the suspects.

 

Dyches had a welt on his head the size of a baseball, and one of his legs was seriously injured, Perrine said. He said he didn't know the extent of the other men's injuries.

 

The mother of one of the suspects said she was outraged.

 

"I'm horrified to see that our city cops would beat some human being like they did, like a gang-style fight," Leomia Dyches said. "I'd like to see them tried for what they did."

 

is it me, or is excessive force is becoming more and more of a past time for cops? <_<

[ussvwbeetle 0]

With all due respect to the families of the Victims, I would have done the same thing if they killed a fellow officer. Granted that wasn't right to beat the suspects but tempers were running high.

[Wishfire 2]

is it me, or is excessive force is becoming more and more of a past time for cops? <_<

 

Is it me, or is the media starting to focus on it more?

[Kor37 9]

I think that they focus on it more because everybody and their brother has got a video camera or cell phone camera and are recording everything in the hopes of selling it to a TV station for some big bucks.

[Theunicornhunter 2]

I love how they gloss over that these people just tried to kill someone - yeah, the officers lost control and they shouldn't have so maybe they'll be some job openings.

 

Let's see - who wants a job where you're in danger of being killed any moment - often for the most trivial of reasons. Every day you get to associate with the absolute lowest dregs of humanity. You also get to respond to heart wrenching scenes - like pulling the mangled bodies of children out of traffic accidents or being the one to find the body of someone's missing loved one. And you still manage to be surprised at the souless depravity with which some people can kill others.

 

When someone tries to kill you, as they often will - certain vocal members of society expect you to not respond. If one of your comrades is murdered you're job is treat the perpretrator like the innocent victim everyone knows he really is.

 

No one will ever say thank you if you do your job right but if you make a mistake - the whole world will be on your case. And, the best part - you get paid less than a living wage to do all this.

 

Don't you want to sign up.