White Policeman
Caught in Racially-Charged Video Beating Indicted
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The
incident triggered dozens of angry protesters.
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LOS
ANGELES, July 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A white U.S.
policeman caught on video beating a handcuffed African American
teenager in an incident that caused fury in racially-charged Los
Angeles is to be tried for assault, his lawyer said Wednesday, July
17.
Officer
Jeremy Morse, who was seen in the amateur film slamming the
16-year-old suspect down on a police car and punching him in the face
during a July 6 arrest was indicted for trial by a grand jury, the
attorney said.
The
move means that the grand jurors, who sit in secret, believed there
was enough evidence for Morse to face trial over the incident at a
petrol station in the Los Angeles area of Inglewood, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) said.
“We
think an impartial jury will find him not guilty and find that the
force was appropriate and necessary to the circumstance,” attorney
John Barnett said, adding that Morse was expected to surrender to face
charges on Thursday, July 18.
The
Los Angeles prosecutor’s office had no comment on the indictment
saying that such proceedings were deemed to be secret until a
suspect’s arraignment in court.
The
battering of teenager Donovan Jackson drew furious comparisons here
with the 1991 beating of black motorist Rodney King by white
policemen, the event which eventually led to the devastating Los
Angeles riots of 1992, AFP said.
African-American
community activists have demanded that Morse, 24, who is on paid
administrative leave from the Inglewood police force pending the
outcome of an internal investigation, face immediate criminal charges
and be sacked.
They
have also demanded criminal charges and the suspension of three other
officers present during the incident that was videotaped from a nearby
hotel by a man who was later arrested himself on unrelated outstanding
warrants.
Jackson
and his family have said that Morse began roughing up the boy shortly
after they pulled over his father on suspicion that his documents were
not in order as other officers stood by.
They
claim that Jackson, whose lawyers say suffers from “developmental
disabilities,” was repeatedly assaulted although he did not provoke
the officer.
But
Morse has claimed through his lawyer that he was using necessary force
on the boy who he claims had grabbed his testicles even while his hand
were cuffed behind his back, AFP reported.
“I
am saying that he [Jackson] took action that required that he be
punched and that the use of force was restrained given all the
circumstances,” Barnett said last week.
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