Sterling Brown stungun arrest: Milwaukee police apologize to NBA player

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/24/sterling-brown-stungun-arrest-milwaukee-police-apologize-to-nba-player

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Milwaukee’s police chief, Alfonso Morales, apologized to NBA player Sterling Brown on Wednesday for a January arrest that started with a parking violation and escalated to include use of a stun gun, saying some officers had been disciplined.

Brown, a Milwaukee Bucks rookie, responded with a statement that described the incident as “an attempt at police intimidation” and said it “shouldn’t happen to anybody”.

Morales’ apology came as police released body-camera footage that showed how a simple interaction over an illegally parked car quickly escalated. City officials’ concern over the content of the video was apparent earlier this week when Mayor Tom Barrett said he found it concerning.

The video footage dates from about 2am on 26 January in a Walgreens parking lot. As Brown walks out of the store, an officer standing by Brown’s car asks him for his driver’s license. When Brown gets close to his car’s passenger door, the officer touches Brown and he tells the officer not to touch him.

“Back up! Back up!” the officer yells.

“For what? I ain’t did nothing,” Brown responds. He eventually shows the officer his driver’s license.

The conversation between the officer and Brown is testy as they wait for additional squad cars to show up. Brown says he has no problem with the officer’s questions and the officer responds that he touched him “because you got up in my face”.

“Really?” Brown responds in disbelief.

Brown, surrounded by four officers, is asked to take his hands out of his pockets. Almost immediately a scuffle ensues, with the officers swarming over Brown and one yelling “Taser, Taser, Taser!” Brown is heard groaning in pain on the ground.

Brown ultimately was not charged with anything.

Morales said at a brief news conference: “The department conducted an investigation into the incident, which revealed members acted inappropriately and those members were recently disciplined.

“I am sorry this incident escalated to this level.”

He left without taking questions. He did not identify the officers or say how they were disciplined.

Brown, in his statement, said: “What should have been a simple parking ticket turned into an attempt at police intimidation, followed by the unlawful use of physical force, including being handcuffed and Tased, and then unlawfully booked,” he said. “This experience with the Milwaukee police department has forced me to stand up and tell my story so that I can help prevent these injustices from happening in the future.”

Later in the video, the officer who had the initial interaction with Brown mocks him while talking to another officer about what happened, saying he thought Brown “was being an ass” and “trying to hide something”.

“And now he’s like, ‘I’m a Bucks player, blah, blah, blah. So what,” the officer says.

The video represents another setback for a department that for years has tried to rebuild its image and relationship with Milwaukee’s African American residents after several high-profile cases of police misconduct.

Fred Royal, the president of the NAACP in Milwaukee, said: “I find it disturbing that an officer would incite an argument over a parking citation.”

Last year, Milwaukee paid $2.3m to settle a lawsuit over the death of Dontre Hamilton, a mentally ill black man fatally shot by a police officer after the officer roused him from a park bench downtown. In 2016, the city paid $5m to settle a lawsuit by 74 black residents who said police illegally strip-searched them between 2008 and 2012.

In early May, police and prosecutors began investigating four officers who were involved in the violent arrest of a black man in a majority African-American neighborhood. Video from a bystander showed a group of officers kicking and punching the man on the ground while he was restrained. Police presented their body-camera footage of the encounter, which showed the man aggressively charging at officers and trying to punch them.