The Burlington Police Department is facing new charges of improper use of force after two officers pulled a Black 19-year-old to the ground and shocked him with a stun gun while responding to a call earlier this month.
The allegations of misconduct surfaced at a police commission meeting on Tuesday night. The commission, which provides oversight of police use of force, is investigating the incident, and has viewed body-worn camera footage from the encounter.
Commissioner Stephanie Seguino said at the meeting she was “deeply troubled” by the video. She felt officers had escalated the situation unnecessarily.
“I think this incident speaks to many of the concerns that this community has [around policing],” Seguino said.
Two officers, Oren Byrne and Meaghan O’Leary, encountered Mbyayenge Mafuta on the afternoon of Jan. 7 after receiving a call that an individual had tried to pry open a car window with a screwdriver in Burlington’s Old North End. Mafuta was walking alone a block away from the car.
The officers detained him forcefully. Byrne grabbed the 19-year-old as he tried to walk away. When he resisted, both officers pulled him to the ground.
As the situation escalated, O’Leary shocked him with a stun gun, according to police affidavits and commissioners’ accounts of body camera footage. She wrote in her affidavit that she used the stun gun “as [Mafuta] tried to push away from Officer Byrne.”
In the affidavits, police claimed that Mafuta, after being pinned to the ground, had punched O’Leary and grabbed Byrne’s neck. All three suffered minor injuries.
Commissioners said the alleged assaults were not visible in the body camera footage provided by the Burlington Police Department, though they said it was clear that Mafuta was fighting back against the officers. VTDigger was not immediately able to obtain and review the footage, or otherwise corroborate police accounts of the incident.
Mafuta was ultimately arrested and faces several charges, including two counts of aggravated assault of an officer, a felony.
He was also arrested by Burlington police three days later in a separate incident, for which police affidavits could not be immediately obtained.
A Burlington resident who witnessed the Jan. 7 incident filed a complaint against BPD, alleging an improper stop and an improper use of force.
As a result of the complaint, the police commission members requested a review of the body camera footage. They were provided bodycam videos from O’Leary and Byrne, though O’Leary’s camera fell to the ground shortly after the altercation began and showed little of the incident.
Commissioners said the footage was disturbing.
“It just weighed on me heavily,” commissioner Melo Grant said at the meeting. “My first instinct was that the officer moved a little bit too quickly to put his hands on this young man.”
“Within seconds” of getting out of the car, Grant said, Byrne had grabbed the teenager. “He wasn’t given a chance,” she said.
Grant said she thought the officers’ premature use of physical force amounted to a kind of profiling. She told VTDigger later that watching the footage had deeply affected her.
BPD does not deny that the officers initiated physical force against Mafuta. Acting police chief Jon Murad said Tuesday that “the officer has a right to physically stop the individual.” He said it was a “lawful detention.”
But Seguino said the incident was part of a historic pattern of officers’ treatment of young Black men in the city, particularly immigrants. “We are too quick to criminalize young people,” she said, and added that she felt the police response in this case did not take into account any potential trauma or mental distress.
In 2018, Mabior Jok, a Black man, was slammed and knocked unconscious outside a bar by Officer Joseph Corrow. He later sued the city. Three brothers, Jérémie, Charlie and Albin Meli, also sued after Officer Jason Bellavance threw Jérémie against a wall, and pulled Albin to the ground as he asked officers to stop.
For years, many in Burlington have demanded an end to policing that disproportionately targets Black people and other people of color. Some say the problem necessitates a wholly reimagined system of public safety.
The city, in response, has pushed through a number of reforms in recent months, most notably reducing its officer head count by attrition.
Yet recent data shows that Burlington police, like police across the country, have continued to use force against Black individuals at a rate far higher than white people.
Oversight concerns
Some on the police commission are demanding greater access to body-worn camera footage related to the Jan. 7 incident, some of which the Burlington Police Department has withheld.
This restricted footage was captured by officers who arrived at the scene following the arrest. On Tuesday, Murad said BPD will not release the footage because it is “not relevant” to the allegations at hand, and is part of an “ongoing criminal investigation.”
The footage in question includes interviews with witnesses, however — which some commissioners want to see. The police department’s refusal to release it, they say, undercuts the authority of the commission as an oversight body.
“I don’t think it’s right,” Grant said.
Seguino concurred. “We cannot provide our oversight role if information is withheld from us,” she said Tuesday.
“If we are given access to one video, we should be able to have access to others that put the incidents in context,” she continued.
Other commissioners said they thought Burlington PD was not withholding critical information. Reached by email, commissioner Randall Harp told VTDigger he believed he had viewed all relevant footage.
“I judged that the other [body-worn camera] footage would likely not be informative for resolving the questions that I had about the incident,” he said. “And so I did not request to view them.”
Still, he said, there was “no question” that the body had the authority to view all footage needed to evaluate a particular complaint.
These new oversight concerns have been raised at a time when the city has been heavily criticized for inadequate oversight of its police force.
Last month, Mayor Miro Weinberger vetoed a proposed ballot question that would have created an independent oversight body for the Burlington Police Department, which enjoys unique independence in its disciplinary decisions compared to other of the city’s agencies.
Such an oversight body is needed, its proponents say, because the current police commission lacks any disciplinary authority. Currently, the commission may investigate incidents of misconduct, but it can only recommend further action to the chief.
The proposed “independent community control board,” in comparison, would have been able to hand down such decisions. In an explanation for his veto, Weinberger said a disciplinary structure that bypassed the police chief was “a cause of deep concern.”
In recent weeks, Weinberger has also advocated for increasing the current cap on the police officer head count, which would reverse the 30% reduction in officers by attrition that activists pushed through last summer, spurred by protests against police violence.
Murad did not return a request for comment on the misconduct allegations, and did not say at Tuesday’s meeting whether any disciplinary action had been taken against any of the officers involved. For now, it is BPD who will have the final say.
Stay on top of all of Vermont's criminal justice news. Sign up here to get a weekly email with all of VTDigger's reporting on courts and crime.
"use" - Google News
January 29, 2021 at 06:46AM
https://ift.tt/3oqQGEx
Burlington police shock teen with stun gun in alleged improper use of force incident - vtdigger.org
"use" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2P05tHQ
https://ift.tt/2YCP29R
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Burlington police shock teen with stun gun in alleged improper use of force incident - vtdigger.org"
Post a Comment