The Capitol Hill Police
Firedoglake has a brutal video of a minister attacked by Capitol Hill Police:
Capitol Hill Police “football tackled” Hip Hop Activist who was in line to enter hearing room for General Petreus’ testimony on Capitol Hill
Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., president of the Hip Hop Caucus, was attacked by six capitol police today, when he was stopped from entering the Cannon Caucus Room on Capitol Hill, where General Petreaus gave testimony today to a joint hearing for the House Arms Services Committee and Foreign Relations Committee on the war in Iraq.
After waiting in line throughout the morning for the hearing that was scheduled to start at 12:30pm, Rev. Yearwood was stopped from entering the room, while others behind him were allowed to enter. He told the officers blocking his ability to enter the room, that he was waiting in line with everyone else and had the right to enter as well. When they threatened him with arrest he responded with “I will not be arrested today.” According to witnesses, six capitol police, without warning, “football tackled him. He was carried off in a wheel chair by DC Fire and Emergency to George Washington Hospital.
Rev. Yearwood was examined for possible head and leg injuries then transferred to Central Processing. He has been charged with “assaulting a police officer.”
Rev. Yearwood said as he was being released from the hospital to be taken to central booking, “The officers decided I was not going to get in Gen. Petreaus’ hearing when they saw my button, which says ‘I LOVE THE PEOPLE OF IRAQ.’”
This is outrageous, and so I called the Capitol Police Office.
In polite and reserved tones, I explained who I was and why I was calling. “I was just going through the political blogs,” I said, “When I saw this hideous video of this Reverend Yearwood person being prevented from entering apublic hearing, after which six enormous policemen wrestled him to the ground and sent him to the hospital with a broken leg. The video clearly shows the man wasn’t doing anything to invite this kind of response.”
“He only had a sprained ankle,” the cop on the other end of the phone said. “There’s two sides to every story and you shouldn’t believe everything you see on tv.”
“You need to learn how to listen better,” I responded. “I’m not watching TV, I’m reading an article and watching eyewitness video to the incident. I want to know why this happened.” CLICK.
Now I was really angry: my taxes helps pay that man’s salary, and there is no way in Hell the public servant is going to treat ME like the hired help. So I called back.
“Capitol Hill Police.”
“Hello,” I said again. “I was just on the phone with you regarding yesterday’s incident with Reverend Yearwood. It was very disrespectful for you to hang up on me: I am a taxpayer and you are working in MY house. I’m going to register a formal complaint with…” CLICK.
Now I was boiling, so I called my Senator, Bob Casey, and explained th story to the staffer, who had not seen the video of the incident.
“He HUNG UP ON YOU?” said the receptionist. “He actually HUNG UP? No, that is not acceptable. I would be as angry as you are.”
“Well what do you propose I do?” I asked. “I ordinarily wouldn’t involve the Senator on a matter like this, but the video shows clear police brutality and unnecessary violence, and obviously I’m not going to get any satisfaction form the Capitol Police, who seem to think they can hang up on your consituents. My taxes pay for that. I mean, is this the treatment I can expect if I want to attend a public hearing? It was public wasn’t it?”
“Yes sir, it absolutely WAS a public hearing. This is what I want you to do: I want you to write us a letter detailing what happened, both the incident you were complaining about and the hanging up.”
“Will I get a real response?” I asked. “I’m not interested in a form letter.”
“And you deserve a response. Just state in the letter that you want a direct response and we’ll get one out to you.”
I thanked the staffer and placed a second call to Arlen Specter’s office. The guy on the other end was more harried, but once he absorbed both the story of the attack on Yearwood and the fact that the Capitol Police had hung up on a constituent, he advised me to do the same and told me I could expect a personal response.
This kind of behavior on the part of the police is flat out unacceptable: watch the video, and you’ll see that this man is making no violent moves, and while he is down repeatedly cries out “I’m not resisting”.
People have the right to go to a public hearing. The police do not have the right to selectively decide who has permission and who does not. The fact that this happened on your dime, my dime, and the country’s dime is just shameful, and I will not allow some glorified servant with a badge, a club, and a gun to walk around like some kind of motherfucking walking boss without some kind of response.
Not on my dime.
September 12th, 2007 at 10:53 am
I think this it’s fucking bullshit that they didn’t let him in, I think the way you were treated on the phone is unbelievable, and moreso I think it’s a great testament to modern American sheepishness that the people there didn’t put up more of a stink (although I will admit I watched it w/o sound, can’t at work).
However, I can’t help but point out that just before he gets excessively tackled — by what, five guys? — he does this little pump fake like he’s gonna run or something. Not to criticize or anything, as he’s clearly a much braver man than I, but sudden movements are a surefire way to trigger some chump cop’s animal instincts. I was a little disappointed as I wanted to see the guy do *absolutely* nothing wrong, but as soon as I saw him do that sorta jump, I was just like aw, come on, don’t give them a reason.
It by no means justifies their reaction. It just stands to remind that most of these cops are disrespectful, no account thugs just looking for an excuse.
September 12th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
i’m so glad you did that brendan. i fuckin’ cried when i saw that video, what this fucking country has come to.
and i didn’t see him do anything at all wrong.
however, this color brendan!!!! it doesn’t even work in reverse when you select it. i could hardly read the post.