(Minneapolis Police) Chief to ask for FBI investigation of alleged police beating

Source: kare11

The police chief in Minneapolis says he will ask the FBI to investigate the alleged police beating of a man during a traffic stop.

No matter which perspective you see it from, seven minutes of video recorded by a police squad car camera speak volumes about what happened the night last February Derryl Jenkins was stopped in north Minneapolis for allegedly speeding.

Minneapolis police officer Richard Walker made the stop.

Jenkins says he didn't know why he had been pulled over, asked Walker to see a police supervisor and became the victim of an unprovoked attack, Jenkins says, when he got out of the car to get his driver's license.

On the video, Walker calls for back-up and the situation escalates. Officers punch Jenkins, one kicks him and they taze him three times.

...

In a written statement, Chief Tim Dolan says Walker's actions appear to be appropriate. But even for Dolan, there is concern about the officer seen pushing another officer out of the way, then kicking Jenkins.

Read more: http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=822277

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video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX4iSbCztzU

............responsibility by asking for the FBI. To stop this police violence, we have to start prosecuting cops and putting them in jail.

We have far, far too many cops. And whenever there are talks of budget cuts, many tend to spout a knee-jerk response about preserving funding for cops. Even Democratic politicians are always looking for ways to provide more cops on the street. The time for that type of thinking has passed. We should be pushing to cut police funding to the bone so they're so busy dealing with real crime, they won't have so much free time on their hands to abuse the public.

And while we're at it, the public should insist on hiring a different type of person for the job: no more ex-military, above average intelligence an absolute requirement, and thorough psych evals to screen out the low-brow sadists who seem to be drawn to the work.

This is a profession that needs to be rebuilt from the ground up, because as things stand now, cops are a bigger threat to the public than criminals.