Jasmyne Cannick Talks About That Philly Police Beating Video
On Wednesday, Jasmyne Cannick — a noted Los Angeles civil rights activist and media professional — posted a just-released video on her blog of Philly police officers allegedly beating a young African-American man after stopping him for biking the wrong way on a one-way street.
Two-dozen police officers in 11 cars eventually showed up to the scene, beating and using a Taser on the man, a 22-year-old named Tyree Carroll, who could be heard screaming for his grandmother. Carroll is currently in jail without bail on several charges, including drug and assault allegations. (Philly Police released their own account of the incident this afternoon. See below.)
Philly Mag talked to Cannick today to get her take on the video, what happened, why it matters and what her role was in getting the word out.
Cannick, who frequently writes and makes television appearances to talk about the intersections of policing, race and politics, was contacted by Tyree’s family. It was a bystander witness who shot the scene, and the video had been kept from the public since the incident in early April.
“I was reached out to with the video, and I was really interested because in L.A. right now, there’s a similar case going on. So I thought I had to get it into the news media and make the public aware of this,” Cannick said.
That similar case involved a man named Clinton Alford who, back in October 2014, was pulled off his bicycle and beaten by an LA police officer, who is now charged with assault, according to the Los Angeles Times. After the incident, the LAPD confiscated equipment from a local business whose external cameras captured the interaction between the officer and Alford and was only this past April required by a federal judge to be disclosed to Alford’s attorney.
That’s where she decided she wanted to spread the news of what happened in Philadelphia.
Now, Cannick said, there’s an internal investigation in Philadelphia into the officers who allegedly beat Carroll. “Had the video not been made public, I don’t think the Philly police would have done anything about it,” she said.
“It really tells me how those cops felt about that young black man, calling him a ‘piece of shit’,” Cannick said. “It’s a whole systemic issue. It seems like every week there’s a new video being released showing police misconduct. There’s constant, unending abuse of blacks by police.”
And now Cannick wants to hear from the higher-ups in the Philly police department.
“I hope the folks in Philadelphia are paying attention to this.”
The police department is. Late Thursday afternoon, the department released a statement on the video — saying Carroll had been found with crack cocaine on his person, that he intentionally struck his own head on a protective shield in the police vehicle after being transported from the scene, and that he bit several officers during the struggle, requiring medical treatment.
According to police:
On 04-03-15 at approximately 11:44pm plainclothes officers assigned to the 14th district attempted to stop the defendant for a narcotics violation. As the officers stopped the defendant, he began to fight with the officers, biting one of the officers a total of three times (thigh, hand and arm). The defendant also bit another officer on the forearm during this arrest. Other responding officers arrived on location and were finally able to get the male into custody. 5.3 grams of crack cocaine was recovered from the defendant. The officers injured during this incident were transported to the hospital for the bleeding bite wounds that they sustained during the incident. The male was also transported to the hospital after intentionally striking his own head against the protective shield located in the police vehicle. Both the officers and the defendant were treated and released from the hospital without being admitted.
The information that we have at this time indicates that use of force reports were completed at the time of the incident, indicating the strikes and control holds attempted during the incident. At this time there is no indication that an electronic control weapon was used despite hearing the officer state “here comes the taser”. However, Internal Affairs will examine the electronic control weapons of all officers involved in this incident prior to making that final determination. The entire incident will be reviewed for any departmental violations that may have occurred during the incident.
No word on a timeline for the investigation.
