Officer Body Cameras ‘Go Dark’ as Innocent Family Beaten, But the Dashcam Caught It All
DeSoto, TX — The incremental use of police officer body cameras over the last decade has proven to be both a huge asset to police accountability as well as a source of constant controversy. Many times, police departments will simply refuse to release potentially incriminating video, while other times, officers turn them off before committing a crime. As the following case illustrates, despite being required to film all their interactions, many cops will do the exact opposite when they are about to inflict violence on compliant individuals. Now, because these abusive officers got away Scot free, the taxpayers will be held to the fire.
A lawsuit filed this week in federal court seeks to undo the inaction of police holding themselves accountable by suing the DeSoto Police Department for brutality and an alleged cover up.
“From our perspective, we have a family that called police, asked for help and was brutalized as a result, and the story is as simple as that,” said David Henderson from Ellwanger Law LLLP, which is representing the family.
Last August, Sammie Anderson made the mistake of contacting the police to help break up an argument between her two sons. By the time police arrived, however, the argument was over. But this did not prevent the responding officers from escalating the situation.
“I wanted them to come out and be the mediator. The boys never fought, but I wanted them to come out and be there to make sure that they could help diffuse the argument,” explained Anderson. “But by the time police got there, there was no argument, it was totally quiet.”
When police responded, officers tackled Mrs. Anderson and then tasered one of her sons. The son who was tasered appeared to be entirely compliant with the orders given to him to lie on the ground. He was not a threat.
As the video shows, when police arrived, the scene was quiet and there was no disturbance. However, when officers Patrick Krekel, Bryan Scott-Lee, Courie Bryant, Kendall McGill, Ryan Money and Larry Walker arrived, the scene quickly descended into chaos.
“We were not given the opportunity to even tell them what was going on,” claims Anderson. “The first thing they did was draw their weapons.”
When the officers got out of their cars, they held the family at gunpoint and demanded to know if they were fighting.
“No one’s fighting,’’ said Anderson’s third son, Sam, who walked up after just arriving from work.
Officers then yelled for everyone to get on the ground, to which Matt and his mother immediately complied. Sam is seen walking closer and that’s when Anderson gets up to warn her son to get down.
https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/76377/officer-body-cameras-go-dark-as-innocent-family-beaten-but-the-dashcam-caught-it.html