Dallas police brutality cases prompt calls for oversight

DALLAS — Video obtained by News 8 last week is raising concerns again about the actions of a Dallas police officer.

"What I saw did disturbs me, and I have some concern," said City Council member Dwaine Caraway.

In the recording, Officer Brian Bradley is seen pulling over 59-year-old Albert Butler for an unsafe lane change in December 2012. Bradley immediately starts searching Butler.

"Why would that give him the right to search Mr. Butler like that before anything had taken place?" asked defense attorney Daryl Washington.

But it's what the officer does next that is more troubling. He pulls Butler to the side and out of view of the camera.

Butler — who is disabled and hearing-impaired — said Bradley then beat him.

"I was doing all that hollering and screaming and crying out to God, 'Please, make him stop,'" Butler said. He was hospitalized for his injuries.

The officer was cleared by the department's Internal Affairs for excessive force, and that has some civil rights leaders outraged. They maintain that Dallas police cannot investigate their own.

"We've requested for the FBI to come in and start investigating these cases with the Dallas Police Department, simply because of those reasons," said Rev. Ronald Wright, the founder of Justice Seekers Texas.

On Tuesday, the case of Tobias Mackey will be heard by a federal judge. His mother filed a federal civil rights violation lawsuit after Mackey was shot and killed by police. He was unarmed and had committed no crime."

http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Dallas-police-brutality-cases-prompt-calls-for-oversight-262434621.html