Cops Beat Black Boy, Win Millions of Dollars

*sigh* The videotaped beating of a developmentally disabled teenaged African American boy by two white police officers in Los Angeles made headlines around the world in Summer 2002. Inglewood Police Officers Jeremy Morse and Bijan Darvish were caught on videotape slamming 16-year old Donovan Jackson on to a patrol car and beating the boy with their fists and a flashlight. Mitchell Crooks, the guy who serendipitously videotaped the incident, ended up getting extradited to a northern california county to serve time in jail for a previous unrelated burglary conviction. Last year, after two attempts (first time 7-5 to convict, then 6-6 deadlock) trying the officers for excessive and unnecessary force and other crimes led to hung juries, the District of Attorney dropped all charges.

Now, this week comes word that the two officers have successfully sued the City of Inglewood for millions of dollars. Darvish, who is still a police officer in the City of Inglewood, and who was found guilty of filing a false police report and suspended for 10 days, received $800 000. Morse, who was fired by the City of Inglewood and who now lives in Idaho, was awarded $1.6 million. An African American officer who was also at the scene of the incident received a 5-day suspension, but was not a party to the racial discrimination civil suit.

And people wonder why the Black community has a tense relationship with the police? Donovan Jackson's attorney, Cameron Stewart, who filed the federal lawsuit against all three police officers at the scene, expressed the thoughts of many (including yours truly!) when he was quote in the newspaper saying:

"Here's a guy that basically got off after being caught beating a
teenager on videotape. He was terminated, and rightfully so, and he goes and
files a lawsuit and is awarded over a million dollars?"