Member-only story
Can We Trust Law Enforcement?
Driving through Los Angeles in heavy traffic one afternoon, I heard helicopters flying overhead. Looking in my rear view mirror, I saw several police vehicles headed up the street I was on. It was a fairly typical scene in Los Angeles — nothing new.
The police cars all pulled into the parking lot of a shopping center to my right. I scanned the scene to see what might be going on.
I noticed a Latino man riding his bicycle casually through the parking lot.
One police SUV pulled up about 20 feet away. An officer jumped out of the vehicle and sprinted towards the man. The officer caught the man off guard and punched him on the side of the head, causing him to fall off his bicycle to the ground. The man got up and the officer began punching him in the face. The man put his hands up to block his face and try to deflect the punches. The office grabbed the man’s neck and shoulders to pull him down towards himself, and started kneeing him in the stomach. The officer then threw him to the ground, straddled him face down, and continued punching him in the head and body. 3 more officers then ran up, dog piled on the man and started punching him as well.
Traffic began moving again, and I didn’t see what happened afterwards.
