The same Texas police department responsible for the murder of innocent and unarmed, 15-year old Jordan Edwards seems to have a little history. . . And it’s coming out. The Balch Springs Police Department is now investigating the leak of body camera footage that shows one of its officers using a taser on a handcuffed, unarmed Black man, on April 28, 2016.
Via Fox4News:
The body cam video starts with an officer responding to a call about a man waving a gun in a neighborhood. As the officer arrives, the video shows the suspect, 39-year-old Marco Stephenson, on his knees with his hands on his head. He appears to be complying with officer’s commands.
As officers approach Stephenson, a gun is kicked away that was later determined to be a BB gun. As officers are removing his backpack, he mentions spitting out a toothpick. The situation then escalates.
“Don’t pull away! You understand? You understand?” a sergeant on the video says as he’s tasing Stephenson. “Don’t pull away! You get it?! You get it?! Because I ain’t playing with you today! Do you understand?!”
“Yes sir,” Stephenson replied.
The sergeant using the taser is a supervisor. Chief Haber says the sergeant’s actions were questioned by his own officers.
“We looked at it. At the end of the day, they did the right thing,” Haber said. “They brought it to our attention.”
The police chief says the video was reviewed by the Texas Rangers, Professional Standards and the Dallas County DA’s Public Integrity Unit.
“We decided together that this was an administrative issue, not a criminal issue,” Haber said.
Not a criminal issue??? I’m sorry, but when your “administrative” issues result in pain and suffering to innocent and unarmed people, that is a crime and should be treated as such.
We’re keeping an eye on you, Balch Springs.
Peep the video:
https://twitter.com/shaunking/status/864659563210997760