(BBN Editors) Police brutality never happens in white communities and never will. Never do we see the abuse of police authority in rural, suburban or urban white communities. Elderly White women don’t get shot dead by law enforcement; White men don’t get dragged out of their car and pummeled with batons by a gang of police officers; young unarmed White men leaving a bachelor party don’t get gunned down by a barrage of police bullets, and White parents and couples never have to fear for their son, daughter, husband or wife while they go about the daily business of life. If the practice and policy of police brutality and racial profiling did happen in White communities, all hell will break loose.
This latest incident of excessive police force by Philadelphia police officers is an experience unique to communities of color. These incidents of excessive force – often deadly - would never happen in a white community. Never. And for that, the white community should feel privileged not to ever feel under attack and fearful of police officers.
On Philly.com Update on Police Brutality Case in Philadelphia.
By Joseph A. Slobodzian and Barbara Boyer of (Philly.com)
A Philadelphia police sergeant and five officers have been removed from street duty in connection with Monday night's violent arrest of three shooting suspects, an event that a Fox29 news helicopter recorded and that yesterday aired nationally on ABC News.
Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey and Mayor Nutter announced the restriction of duty at a news conference late yesterday afternoon in front of Police Headquarters.
Ramsey said that the five officers had been seen participating in the beating, and that the sergeant had been removed from duty "for failing to take supervisory action to intervene."
Their names were not released. Ramsey said other officers would likely be removed from duty as they were identified from the 11-minute video, which Fox29 first aired Tuesday morning.
The video, shot from a helicopter over the 4500 block of North Fourth Street in Feltonville, shows about 15 police officers participating in the beating or standing by the suspects' stopped sedan as the suspects are repeatedly kicked and punched.
A copy of the video and the department's evidence involving the six have been referred to the District Attorney's Office for possible criminal prosecution, Ramsey said.