Video Emerges Of Ohio Police Officers Beating Restrained Black Man

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The Cleveland-area Cuyahoga County, Ohio, police department has a serious police misconduct problem on its hands considering in recent months, a full five of its officers have been indicted. Video has now emerged depicting what exactly went down in one of the cases, which involves two officers. Nicholas Evans and Timothy Dugan were caught on camera in late March of this year beating a black male inmate who was restrained in a chair, then leaving him there for over two hours instead of immediately seeking medical attention. Evans turned off his vest camera in an effort to conceal his and Dugan’s actions, but the assault they carried out was recorded on a wall camera.

Graphic video of the incident obtained by a local news outlet is below.

Both of them have pleaded not guilty and were placed under GPS monitoring at hearings back in April. The indictments condemning the officers allege that they “violated the inmate’s Fourth Amendment rights by using unreasonable and excessive force on him” and that they also “violated the inmate’s Fifth and 14th Amendment rights after they had beat him and caused a concussion.” These violations entail charges for both men of felonious assault, unlawful restraint, and interfering with civil rights. Because of him turning his vest camera off, Evans was also charged with tampering with evidence.

Besides these two unhinged attackers, Cuyahoga County police are facing the indictments of three more officers. Martin Devring has been charged with tampering of records, dereliction of duty, and interfering with civil rights for failing to provide adequate medical attention to an inmate who was lying motionless on the floor of the county jail last August and eventually died. Not only did Devring ignore the issue, he’s accused of filing records of mandatory check-ins on inmates that never really happened.

Besides the Devring case, back in July 2018, an incident unfolded that’s more than unsettlingly similar to the one involving the two officers in the newly released jail footage. At that same jail, officers Idris-Farid Clark and Robert Marsh attacked a restrained female inmate, which included Marsh striking her in the head and Clark spraying half a can of pepper foam on her face from less than half a foot away — which again, all unfolded while she was restrained. The officers involved have been indicted for interfering with civil rights, unlawful restraint, and assault.

Incidents along these lines have not at all only unfolded in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Routinely, other similar assaults have made national headlines across the U.S. For instance, a Michigan police officer repeatedly viciously punched a black teen who suffers from cerebral palsy and mental health issues while they were confined in the back of a police car.

In another recent incident that goes even further, a D.C. cop chased down and handcuffed a nine-year-old black boy who had, just to be clear, done nothing to warrant the police scrutiny whatsoever.

These incidents figure into a broader, ongoing portrait of police brutality in the United States that addressing has become a clearly partisan issue, with many on the right refusing to even recognize that a systematic problem exists.

Featured Image via screenshot