Friday, September 22, 2006

is "fuck tha police" justifiable?

So a few weeks ago, Seattle DJ, DV-One caught a beatdown from local police for simply picking up his daughter. Here's a shortened report of what happened:

"On July 15, 2006 at around 7:30pm I went to memorial stadium to pick up my daughter (Andrea Christian) from her high schools football game at memorial stadium....

As I went over to the scene I noticed Andrea being held by the police in an arm lock and being shoved repeatedly against a parked car by a police officer, while another officer stood guard. I approached the scene and was immediately stopped by the female police officer who said I couldn't go over there with her hands outstretched blocking. I identified myself as the parent of the child being detained and the officer said 'so what!'....

The female officer then reached for her flashlight and pulled it out. I put my hands up, and backed off saying whoa, whoa, and she responded with 'oh so you're gonna hit me?' and immediately radio'd the all call 'officer assaulted' after sending the radio to other officers she proceeded forward rushing in toward me swinging, the officer detaining my daughter pulled out his firearm as more officers swarmed in. I turned my back avoid being shot, hit, or grabbed. I was then slammed to the ground by two officers, handcuffed, kicked in the head (approx 20x), body and limbs repeatedly, berated and tazed at least twice, while already subdued on the ground.

The kicking and stomping of my head and body continued while I was being handcuffed, ridiculed, and humiliated in front of my daughter and many onlookers. Another officer grabbed my hand while I was cuffed pushing my wrist down and shoving my arms upward in some type of judo move, while telling me he would break my arm for hitting his female officer. I was thenleft on the ground while being searched and stood over by several police. When I was brought to my feet my shoulder felt dislocated, my face was bloody, my eyes and head extremely swollen, and body bruised from the police beating.

The officers then asked me how I liked being tazed and if it 'felt good'. They then told me 'this is going to be another felony on your record' and 'you're going to prison now boy.' After that I was rushed to a nearby police car. I was sat down to watch the officer who originally detained my 14 year old daughter proceed to grab, slam, scream and continue to berate her, blame her for what happened to her father." (you can read the whole report here)

Obviously there are two sides to every story. The Stranger was able to obtain the arresting officer's report.

Here's the thing, though, the Seattle Police Department has a long and notorious history for brutal and unwarranted arrests, so sadly, it wouldn't surprise me if DV's account was an accurate portrayal of what went down. The ironic part in all this is that for as long as I've known DV, he has often urged kids to stay away from the perils of violence, taught DJ and b-boy workshops, amongst other community-based projects. Surely, he's doing more to keep neighborhood kids safe than what the police have done in the past.

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