Video footage of Phoenix police officers beating and tasing a deaf black man with cerebral palsy has led to an internal investigation and widespread media coverage—and it couldn't come at a worse time for the city. This summer the Justice Department (DOJ) released a scathing report accusing the police department of systemically violating the civil rights of vulnerable residents.
Local TV news outlet ABC15 first published footage last week showing the violent arrest on August 19 of Tyron McAlpin, who is now facing felony aggravated assault and resisting arrest charges as a result of the incident.
According to reports filed by the officers, they were responding to a man trespassing at a Circle K. That man told the officers he'd been assaulted by McAlpin, pointing him out. Officers leaped out of their car and immediately began a physical confrontation with McAlpin, who could not hear their commands.
In their incident reports and court testimony, the two officers said McAlpin took a fighting stance and repeatedly punched them. One of the officers claims McAlpin bit him on the wrist.
In June, the Justice Department released the findings of an investigation into civil rights abuses by the Phoenix Police Department. That report concluded that the Phoenix police routinely use excessive force and illegally retaliate against residents, violating their First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
The investigators documented incidents where Phoenix police fabricated incident reports, needlessly used physical force and dangerous restraints, illegally detained homeless people and destroyed their property, delayed medical aid to wounded suspects, and assaulted people for criticizing or filming them.
Among the report's findings was that Phoenix police officers "use unreasonable force to rapidly dominate encounters, often within the first few moments of an encounter."
The Justice Department is pushing the city to enter into a court-enforced consent decree to overhaul its policing practices, a move the city is resisting. But it will be harder to make the argument that Phoenix can police itself when videos of arrests like McAlpin's are coming out.
"It's hard for me to see how the city can come out and say with [a] straight face that it is meeting the DOJ report head-on when this man is being charged with assault on police officers for this incident," Jesse Showalter, one of McAlpin's attorney, told ABC 15.
Arizona civil rights groups and disability advocates are calling for the charges against McAlpin to be dropped.
"Disgust is probably the best way I can say it," Sarah Tyree, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Arizona conference, told KNXV. "It's just another stark reminder of where we are."
The Phoenix Police Department launched an internal review of the incident on August 30, and Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell announced that she is personally reviewing the case as well because it "merits additional scrutiny."
Not everyone thinks the charges against McAlpin's deserve a closer look, though.
"While some in the media are making this incident about race and discrimination, it is really about 2 police officers in full Phoenix Police uniform driving fully marked police cars coming under immediate attack by someone who was alleged to have committed a crime," Phoenix Law Enforcement Association (PLEA) President Darrell Kriplean said in a statement to local media. "Our officers have the right to defend themselves against attack by utilizing reasonable and necessary force based on the circumstances presented at the time.
In the body cam footage of McAlpin's arrest, McAlpin's girlfriend arrives on the scene and can be heard telling officers, "Apparently you tasered him, and he has cerebral palsy. Good job."
"Yeah well, he bit me," one officer responds.
"Don't even bother with that ho," a female officer says.
None of the incident reports filed by officers mention McAlpin's disabilities.
The Justice Department will have its hands full.
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