Police defend new video of suspect beaten with nightsticks

OKLAHOMA City police have defended the actions of two white officers caught on video hitting a black suspect more than 25 times with their nightsticks.

The footage came just days after a Los Angeles policeman was suspended after being filmed punching and choking a black teenage suspect.

The two Oklahoma officers are seen repeatedly hitting the suspect with their batons as he lies on the ground, apparently trying to avoid being handcuffed.

Officers Greg Driskill and EJ Dyer said they were attempting to arrest him on Monday afternoon for allegedly having sex with a prostitute in a van.

The arrest was filmed by Brian Bates, a self-described “video vigilante”, who films men soliciting prostitutes and calls police to have them arrested.

The FBI has been asked to investigate. In the video, 50-year-old Donald Reed Pete, who weighs about 300lb, is sprayed with pepper spray before being struck at least 27 times with the police nightsticks.

The officers said Pete was eating marijuana at the time in an effort to destroy evidence. The officers can be heard on their radios, calling on dispatchers to “step it up” in their efforts to get back-up to the scene.

A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said he did not know of any physical injuries to Pete that required treatment.

City Police Chief MT Berry defended Driskill and Dyer, who have both been police officers for about four years.

“Our investigation into the use of force is ongoing,” he said. “But the techniques I saw were those that our officers are taught at the academy. I did not observe strikes to areas of the body that are prohibited, such as the face or head.”

Pete was later arrested on numerous charges, including assault and battery of a police officer, destroying evidence and resisting arrest.

“I know there have been some associations made in the media between here and [the video-taped beating in] Inglewood,” Berry said.

“There are some big differences. Big differences. In California, the subject is handcuffed when the incident occurs. In our case, once the individual is handcuffed, the force stops.”

Meanwhile, the black 16-year-old who was slammed onto a car and punched by a white policeman on Saturday is suing the city of Inglewood, four of its officers, Los Angeles County and three sheriff’s deputies.

The federal lawsuit filed by Donovan Jackson seeks unspecified damages and alleges misconduct and violations of constitutional rights.

“We believe this is a seven-figure case,” said his lawyer John Sweeney.

The Inglewood Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said they had no comment.

Police and sheriff’s officials had said the teenager lunged at deputies and was combative, while the boy’s father, the driver of the car that was stopped, said his son co-operated.

The family’s lawyer, Joe Hopkins, said the teenager is developmentally disabled with no arrest record.

The teenager was booked for investigation of assault on an officer; his father was cited for driving with a suspended licence.