Video shows two brothers being pulled over in case of racial profiling
Video shows two brothers being pulled over in case of racial profiling
A video taken by a Colorado Springs man showing him and his brother being handcuffed during a traffic stop has become the subject of a Colorado Springs Police Department investigation.
The footage captured on a phone shows one of the African American brothers, 23-year-old Benjamin Brown being placed in handcuffs and patted down.
His brother, Ryan Brown, 31, who was filming the incident was pulled from the car before being pushed to the ground during the March 25 traffic stop.
Benjamin and Ryan Brown will be represented in cases resulting from the videotaped stop by the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, as the legal director said the incident appears to be a case of racial profiling and ‘over-aggressive, over-zealous policing’.
During the YouTube video, which was posted on March 26 and has been viewed more than 37,000 times to date, the officer refused to answer why the brothers were stopped and to identify himself.
‘My brother is being put into handcuffs and were being pulled over for no reason. He still has not identified why he has pulled us over,’ Ryan Brown says in the footage.
‘Now I’m being perceived as a threat because we’re being pulled over for absolutely no reason,’ he continues.
As he is pulled from the car and pushed to the ground he continues to record the video while being heard saying ‘Do you see this? You see this? Excessive force…’ before the video abruptly stops.
Police internal affairs investigators have completed the initial fact-finding after Ryan Brown filed a complaint and shared the footage with police, department spokeswoman Catherine Buckley told The Associated Press on Monday.
She said the supervisors of the officers involved, who remained on active duty, were now reviewing the case.
Ryan Brown was ticketed for resisting and interference with a public official while Benjamin Brown was ticketed for compulsory insurance and obstruction of view — a charge his brother believes is related to a cracked windshield.
‘How many young white men are stopped for a cracked windshield, pulled from the car at Taser-point and patted down and arrested?’ Mark Silverstein, ACLU of Colorado legal director, told AP.
Silverstein said police must have a reason to search for weapons, and that Colorado Springs Police Department rules, like those of many other jurisdictions, require officers to explain why they are pulling someone over.
