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<font size=3><br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3><b>NEW AFRIKAN
MILLENNIUM<br>
16 JULY 2004<br><br>
<br>
Tape Releases Today<br><br>
</b>Posted by Top News on 7/16/2004, 7:39 am, in reply to "<u>Top
News</u>"<br>
<a href="http://www.Playahata.com">http://www.Playahata.com</a> <br>
<b>Breaking News<br>
Message modified by board administrator 7/16/2004, 7:58 am<br><br>
</b>LOS ANGELES The complete and unedited nine-minute tape of the June
23 pursuit and arrest of Stanley Miller by LAPD officers shows that he
took a beating from the cops after receiving the 11 flashlight blows
so severe that it caused the news reporter who taped the incident to
exclaim, “They’re slapping the crap out of him!”<br><br>
The world was shown only a one-minute portion of the tape as early
morning TV news footage of Miller, 36, being pursued by Southeast
Division police in a reportedly stolen car, jumping from the car, leading
a foot chase along a Compton grassy strip, putting up his hands and lying
face down on the ground in surrender, then being swarmed by police,
kicked once and struck 11 times with a large flashlight by Officer John
J. Hatfield.<br><br>
No one except LAPD higher-ups has seen what happens after that. KABC-TV
news reporter Scott Reiff, in the Air 7 helicopter, continued to tape the
incident until Miller was placed into police car number 569. The Wave
obtained exclusive possession of the complete tape, which vividly depicts
the following:<br><br>
After Miller is on the ground, subdued, kicked and hit 11 times by
Hatfield, most of the swarming cops get off him. But the prone,
handcuffed man is inexplicably jumped on again, like a loose football, by
seven of the eight officers present, and kicked again by another one. At
this point, Reiff can be heard on the tape yelling, “This guy must be
resisting, they’re slapping the crap out of him!”<br><br>
Then the cop that kicked him the second time hauls a visibly dazed Miller
up from the ground, kicks his legs apart and pats him down, obviously
looking for weapons. The officer completes the pat-down and retrieves
nothing from Miller. The cop came away from the pat-down empty
handed.<br><br>
In the meantime, Sgt. Angela McGee is standing behind and to the left of
Miller and the kicking cop, busily counting and pocketing some dollar
bills. She is preoccupied with the money in her hands and is not looking
at what is happening with Miller nor at what the other officers are
doing. If she had looked up, she would have seen her officers celebrating
their capture of Miller with back pats, handshakes and high fives.
Reporter Reiff saw it and commented incredulously, “They’re all
high-fiving each other!”<br><br>
At this point, a bald-headed sheriff’s deputy walks into the picture and
exchanges words with Sgt. McGee and another officer, while the kicking
cop takes a wobbly Miller by his right arm and begins leading him back
down the grassy strip to the patrol car.<br><br>
During his lengthy walk to the car, a second officer takes Miller by his
left shoulder and joins the kicking cop in propelling him down the grassy
strip. While this is going on, Reiff maintains a constant conversation
with someone named “Kevin” in the KABC newsroom. Reiff, unsure of the
weapon Hatfield used on Miller, asked Kevin: “Is that a flashlight? Looks
like one of those flap things. What do you call those things? A
persuader? A pursuit-end persuader?”<br><br>
As the police parade to the patrol car continues, Miller begins to
stagger and his gait becomes unsteady, prompting Reiff to ask, “Need an
RA (rescue ambulance) for this guy, or what?”<br><br>
Reiff had some jocular final words on the incident as Miller was hustled
to the patrol car by satisfied officers. “We got that bad guy! Let’s go
get a donut!” he quipped.<br>
LAPD Chief William Bratton announced the day after Miller’s beating that
all eight of the officers shown on the tape had been put on
administrative leave, pending the outcome of several investigations into
their televised use of force.<br><br>
Those officers are Sgt. McGee, a 40-year-old African American; Hispanic
officers Hatfield, 35, and Peter Bueno, 29, and white officers David
Hale, 31; Michael O’Connor, 33; Todd Behrens, 37; Phillip Watson, 33 and
Andrew Moody, 41.<br><br>
Najee Ali, executive director of Project Islamic Hope, convened a group
of community activists in the Wave’s conference room Monday for whom the
full tape was premiered. Ali described the additional footage of Miller’s
beating as “very disturbing and troubling to me.” <br><br>
He will hold a community showing of the complete tape Saturday at 10 a.m.
in Leimert Park, “Because I think it is important for the community to
know the full story.”<br>
Sandra Moore, outreach director for the Compton NAACP, said, “The
community deserves to see this tape in its entirety because it shows the
lynch-mob mentality of the LAPD. The LAPD has no credibility and its time
to stop covering up.”<br><br>
Erica Teasley, western regional counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and
Educational Fund, who was among the group to see the tape Monday, said
she was most troubled by the fact that Miller appeared to be in custody
when he was subjected to even more kicks and blows.<br><br>
The Rev. William Smart said the complete tape is important because “it
was shot by the news media, not by some amateur community person, but by
an entity that often colludes with and enables the police to cover up
their activities.”<br><br>
Activist “Big Money” Griff said he was particularly disturbed by the
officers’ high fiving each other after the beating. “And Reiff’s comment
about ‘let’s go get a donut’ is especially telling and ties into
something I’ve always questioned: Cops’ high consumption of coffee. I
believe they work while high on caffeine,” Griff said.<br><br>
“I think the beating we saw was totally unwarranted, and I want to thank
the anonymous person for coming forth with this tape so we can see the
whole truth.”<br><br>
The Rev. Jarvis Johnson asked the group, “Now that we’ve seen the truth,
what are we going to do about it?”<br><br>
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