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Tensions at boiling point
Anthony Pleasant claims police officers grabbed him off his bike Sunday night and beat him so badly he wet his pants and ended up at the hospital.
Pleasant, 20, of West Philadelphia, said he suffered a fractured nose, head swelling, and multiple body bruises.
All because he disobeyed orders to stay off Pemberton Street, near 55th, while police officers approached a car with four men inside, he said.
"It's like open season on any black person — period," declared Pleasant's aunt Daveena Pratt.
The police report, however, says Pleasantattacked cops just trying to do their jobs on Philadelphia's mean streets.
Police are investigating Pleasant's allegations, spokeswoman Officer Tanya Little said.
His case is just one more dramatic example of how tensions seem to be at the boiling point these days, especially on Philadelphia's most crime-ridden streets.
Three cops have been shot dead in two years. In the wake of this weekend's slaying of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, cops conducted a massive manhunt for Eric Floyd, the last suspect in the killing, who was caught last night in Southwest Philadelphia.
Cops, who often face hardened criminals with guns, are on edge — seemingly more so than ever. But so are city residents, particularly young black men, who say they feel under siege since Liczbinski's murder.
The stress has been dramatized by a Fox News videotape of a police beating Monday night that has garnered national attention as the police force of 6,600 braces to bury Liczbinski tomorrow.
The tape shows more than a dozen officers repeatedly kicking, stomping and punching three suspects as they lay on the ground. The men — Brian Hall, 23; Dwayne "Lionel" Dyches, 24, and Pete Hopkins, 19 — were pulled over after their alleged involvement in a triple shooting in Hunting Park.
So far, six officers identified in the video have been taken off the streets pending an Internal Affairs investigation, police said.
Under his watch, Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said he won't turn a blind eye to any police officers who behave in a way that is not up to department's standards.
Ramsey made it clear that Licz- binski's death is not a reason for police to harm citizens unjustly.
"It's not [open season] and if anybody has a complaint or anybody is being treated inappropriately, they need to give us a call. Give me a call [at] 215-686-3357," Ramsey said at a news conference.
"We're not going to tolerate any kind of misconduct on the part of our officers. This is a difficult time for all us, but it's no excuse not to conduct yourself in a professional way, period."
Mayor Nutter said people are "devastated" and "outraged" over Liczbinski's slaying. About the police behavior caught on video, Nutter said, there's certainly no excuse for the behavior, but the activity didn't occur in a vacuum. He cited a triple shooting and a police chase that preceded the force used by police.
During a Tuesday-night bail hearing, relatives of the three men seen being beaten in the video let out a collective gasp when Bail Commissioner Timothy O'Brien set bail at $1 million for Hopkins and $300,000 for first-time offender Hall. Bail for Dyches was set at $500,000 yesterday.
"I'm in the majority of people who have absolutely had it — had it with shootings, had it with gun violence," O'Brien said. "We just had an officer executed."
Shirley Hopkins, mother of Pete Hopkins, wept and then fled the courtroom. Still, O'Brien appeared unmoved.
"Guess what? Enough is enough," O'Brien said. "People have put me here to do something about it, and I'm going to do something about it."
Those sentiments are being expressed again and again by citizens of all races in homes across the city.
Jay Quinn, 47, a SEPTA employee who grew up in the Philadelphia area, said the city has turned into "thugland" and citizens need to "line up behind" police. Yes, the officers meted out "a couple of extra hits" on the three shooting suspects, but people need to realize that police are "at their wits' end" in a city that's become a war zone, Quinn said.
"You're out here riding around and you're involved in a shooting and the cops pull you over and you got your ass beat," Quinn said. "You know what? Let me tell you something, when I was growing up, I had my ass kicked by the cops and I deserved it."
John McGrody, a vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police, showed little concern for the welfare of the suspects beaten by Philadelphia police officers.
"We're generally not dealing with people returning from a Tupperware party or the library," McGrody said. "They committed a felony in the presence of police."
Police officers have the "most dangerous job" in the city, he said, and the public shouldn't judge too harshly.
"Everybody has not seen the whole tape," he said, "but what's clear is that three gun-toting felons were fleeing an active shooting scene. Police officers respond with the use of force in the same way it's dealt to us. We're grateful none of our police officers were hurt."
However, it should be noted that police did not find guns either on the suspects or in their vehicle.
And for every citizen who sides with Quinn and McGrody, there is someone who disagrees — strongly. Chad Dion Lassiter, a professor at University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Social Policy and Practice, called the actions of the officers seen on tape "savage-like behavior that has historical underpinnings."
Such brutality only deepens the distrust and dislike many in downtrodden communities hold for police, Lassiter said.
"This is why people, especially African-Americans, are distrusting of police officers," he said. "This conduct happens often; it's just not recorded. We don't need our cops becoming legalized gangsters."
That's how Anthony Pleasant says he feels about police after his bike encounter with officers on Sunday.
"The cops just hit me relentlessly with their nightsticks. They were punching me in my head and stomping on me," Pleasant said. "It's not right for cops to go around and beat people and all the police commissioner can say is, 'We are going to offer police officers stress treatment.'"
Pleasant said as he rode his bike down Pemberton Street, he passed a group of officers questioning four men. The men were standing with palms against a car Pleasant recently sold.
The officers told him not to ride down the block again. But on his way home from the corner store at about 11 p.m., he decided to defy their orders, he said.
"I was thinking, 'I'm not bothering you. I'm not saying nothing to you. Who are you to tell me not to ride back down the block,'" Pleasant said.
That's when they beat him, he said.
Pleasant said he has witnesses — but what he doesn't have is a videotape. And police have their own version of events.
The police report says officers were questioning some men in a parked car at about 11 p.m. The officers asked who owned the car and an occupant pointed out Pleasant, who happened to ride by on his bike. An officer asked Pleasant to step off the bike and Pleasant punched the cop in the chest. After a brief struggle, officers arrested Pleasant and charged him with assaulting police. He was released on 10 percent of $8,000 bail, court records show.
Pleasant's case sounds similar to thousands of others that cross Lisa Neal's desk as a court reporter. Neal and her husband, Stephen, have worked hard to keep their sons out of trouble. They keep their sons — Michael, 20, and Brian, 14 — on a tight leash, she said.
They also know appearances matter, and it's important for her boys to set themselves apart from the thugs who live in her "high-crime West Oak Lane neighborhood," she said.
In her line of work, too many black faces become indistinguishable, she said.
Neal and her husband don't allow their sons to sag their pants, wear their hair too long or to use slang and profanity, she said. For years, they even picked out their clothes for them, she said.
If an [African-American man] looks ominous and scary to me and I'm a citizen, then imagine what they must look like to a police officer," she said of the typical attire of some troublemakers she's seen. While watching the video of Philadelphia police officers assaulting three suspects during an arrest, she said she felt hurt as a "black mother."
If that had been her sons, she would want to sue everybody under the sun, she said.
"I don't want police officers to get hurt, but I don't want my sons to get hurt either," she said. *
Pleasant, 20, of West Philadelphia, said he suffered a fractured nose, head swelling, and multiple body bruises.
All because he disobeyed orders to stay off Pemberton Street, near 55th, while police officers approached a car with four men inside, he said.
"It's like open season on any black person — period," declared Pleasant's aunt Daveena Pratt.
The police report, however, says Pleasantattacked cops just trying to do their jobs on Philadelphia's mean streets.
Police are investigating Pleasant's allegations, spokeswoman Officer Tanya Little said.
His case is just one more dramatic example of how tensions seem to be at the boiling point these days, especially on Philadelphia's most crime-ridden streets.
Three cops have been shot dead in two years. In the wake of this weekend's slaying of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, cops conducted a massive manhunt for Eric Floyd, the last suspect in the killing, who was caught last night in Southwest Philadelphia.
Cops, who often face hardened criminals with guns, are on edge — seemingly more so than ever. But so are city residents, particularly young black men, who say they feel under siege since Liczbinski's murder.
The stress has been dramatized by a Fox News videotape of a police beating Monday night that has garnered national attention as the police force of 6,600 braces to bury Liczbinski tomorrow.
The tape shows more than a dozen officers repeatedly kicking, stomping and punching three suspects as they lay on the ground. The men — Brian Hall, 23; Dwayne "Lionel" Dyches, 24, and Pete Hopkins, 19 — were pulled over after their alleged involvement in a triple shooting in Hunting Park.
So far, six officers identified in the video have been taken off the streets pending an Internal Affairs investigation, police said.
Under his watch, Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said he won't turn a blind eye to any police officers who behave in a way that is not up to department's standards.
Ramsey made it clear that Licz- binski's death is not a reason for police to harm citizens unjustly.
"It's not [open season] and if anybody has a complaint or anybody is being treated inappropriately, they need to give us a call. Give me a call [at] 215-686-3357," Ramsey said at a news conference.
"We're not going to tolerate any kind of misconduct on the part of our officers. This is a difficult time for all us, but it's no excuse not to conduct yourself in a professional way, period."
Mayor Nutter said people are "devastated" and "outraged" over Liczbinski's slaying. About the police behavior caught on video, Nutter said, there's certainly no excuse for the behavior, but the activity didn't occur in a vacuum. He cited a triple shooting and a police chase that preceded the force used by police.
During a Tuesday-night bail hearing, relatives of the three men seen being beaten in the video let out a collective gasp when Bail Commissioner Timothy O'Brien set bail at $1 million for Hopkins and $300,000 for first-time offender Hall. Bail for Dyches was set at $500,000 yesterday.
"I'm in the majority of people who have absolutely had it — had it with shootings, had it with gun violence," O'Brien said. "We just had an officer executed."
Shirley Hopkins, mother of Pete Hopkins, wept and then fled the courtroom. Still, O'Brien appeared unmoved.
"Guess what? Enough is enough," O'Brien said. "People have put me here to do something about it, and I'm going to do something about it."
Those sentiments are being expressed again and again by citizens of all races in homes across the city.
Jay Quinn, 47, a SEPTA employee who grew up in the Philadelphia area, said the city has turned into "thugland" and citizens need to "line up behind" police. Yes, the officers meted out "a couple of extra hits" on the three shooting suspects, but people need to realize that police are "at their wits' end" in a city that's become a war zone, Quinn said.
"You're out here riding around and you're involved in a shooting and the cops pull you over and you got your ass beat," Quinn said. "You know what? Let me tell you something, when I was growing up, I had my ass kicked by the cops and I deserved it."
John McGrody, a vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police, showed little concern for the welfare of the suspects beaten by Philadelphia police officers.
"We're generally not dealing with people returning from a Tupperware party or the library," McGrody said. "They committed a felony in the presence of police."
Police officers have the "most dangerous job" in the city, he said, and the public shouldn't judge too harshly.
"Everybody has not seen the whole tape," he said, "but what's clear is that three gun-toting felons were fleeing an active shooting scene. Police officers respond with the use of force in the same way it's dealt to us. We're grateful none of our police officers were hurt."
However, it should be noted that police did not find guns either on the suspects or in their vehicle.
And for every citizen who sides with Quinn and McGrody, there is someone who disagrees — strongly. Chad Dion Lassiter, a professor at University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Social Policy and Practice, called the actions of the officers seen on tape "savage-like behavior that has historical underpinnings."
Such brutality only deepens the distrust and dislike many in downtrodden communities hold for police, Lassiter said.
"This is why people, especially African-Americans, are distrusting of police officers," he said. "This conduct happens often; it's just not recorded. We don't need our cops becoming legalized gangsters."
That's how Anthony Pleasant says he feels about police after his bike encounter with officers on Sunday.
"The cops just hit me relentlessly with their nightsticks. They were punching me in my head and stomping on me," Pleasant said. "It's not right for cops to go around and beat people and all the police commissioner can say is, 'We are going to offer police officers stress treatment.'"
Pleasant said as he rode his bike down Pemberton Street, he passed a group of officers questioning four men. The men were standing with palms against a car Pleasant recently sold.
The officers told him not to ride down the block again. But on his way home from the corner store at about 11 p.m., he decided to defy their orders, he said.
"I was thinking, 'I'm not bothering you. I'm not saying nothing to you. Who are you to tell me not to ride back down the block,'" Pleasant said.
That's when they beat him, he said.
Pleasant said he has witnesses — but what he doesn't have is a videotape. And police have their own version of events.
The police report says officers were questioning some men in a parked car at about 11 p.m. The officers asked who owned the car and an occupant pointed out Pleasant, who happened to ride by on his bike. An officer asked Pleasant to step off the bike and Pleasant punched the cop in the chest. After a brief struggle, officers arrested Pleasant and charged him with assaulting police. He was released on 10 percent of $8,000 bail, court records show.
Pleasant's case sounds similar to thousands of others that cross Lisa Neal's desk as a court reporter. Neal and her husband, Stephen, have worked hard to keep their sons out of trouble. They keep their sons — Michael, 20, and Brian, 14 — on a tight leash, she said.
They also know appearances matter, and it's important for her boys to set themselves apart from the thugs who live in her "high-crime West Oak Lane neighborhood," she said.
In her line of work, too many black faces become indistinguishable, she said.
Neal and her husband don't allow their sons to sag their pants, wear their hair too long or to use slang and profanity, she said. For years, they even picked out their clothes for them, she said.
If an [African-American man] looks ominous and scary to me and I'm a citizen, then imagine what they must look like to a police officer," she said of the typical attire of some troublemakers she's seen. While watching the video of Philadelphia police officers assaulting three suspects during an arrest, she said she felt hurt as a "black mother."
If that had been her sons, she would want to sue everybody under the sun, she said.
"I don't want police officers to get hurt, but I don't want my sons to get hurt either," she said. *
