Of 68 cases of alleged police brutality tracked this year by the nonprofit investigative journalism organization ProPublica, officers were only disciplined in nine of them and charged in five. Disciplinary action was “unknown” in 13 cases even though video clips of all 68 incidents were included in the journalism organization’s database. ProPublica’s investigation follows the arrest of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis. In that brutal arrest, Floyd, a Black man, died when a white Minneapolis cop kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes. A summer of protests for justice and equality followed, which police predictably responded to with even more violence.
“Most departments refused to share details about their investigations, but we've continued following the cases over time,” ProPublica tweeted Sunday. “We have new updates to report in Seattle & Colorado Springs:”
The Colorado Springs case involved multiple police officers hitting a man identified as Justin Salmons while officers restrained him on June 1. Investigators ultimately decided to exonerate all officers, giving only two of the five involved “verbal counseling.” Video and investigation files ProPublica obtained revealed officer Robert Comstock fired pepper balls at Salmons; Officer Christopher Laabs pushed him to the ground; and Detective Andrew Rutter struck his leg.
Other authorities involved included Officer Robert Thymian and Sgt. Keith Wrede, who was shown in a Facebook live stream advocating to "KILL THEM ALL" one month after the incident. Wrede was suspended for 40 hours and lost $2,044 in pay as a result of that video, which was posted using a pseudonym, ProPublica reported. Wrede "expressed a high level of regret for ever making comments of that nature,” and he told investigators interviewing him that he had been listening to Metallica’s “Kill ‘Em All” before the video.
In the June incident, ProPublica reported:
“In response to a public records request from ProPublica, the department released more than 120 pages of officer narrative surrounding Salmons’ arrest. According to the narratives, civilian Justin Salmons cussed at officers, refused to leave an intersection and ‘made rude gestures towards officers involving his crotch and hands,’ and did not comply with an order to get on the ground before the arrest caught on video. The officer who stuck Salmons’ leg said he ‘aimed at his common peroneal nerve to gain compliance.’”
Salmons told ProPublica police started shooting pepper balls at him after he went to check on someone officers had been chasing and it made him “supremely angry.”
“Police are supposed to protect you,” he told the journalism organization.
Police officers across the country, however, have been the subject of thousands of complaints regarding accusations they mistook their role to protect and serve as a right to terrorize. In one case not included in the ProPublica database, viral video shows Seattle protesters pouring milk over the head of a 7-year-old boy who had been pepper-sprayed during a daytime anti-police brutality protest on May 30. Seattle's Office of Police Accountability, which viewed multiple videos from officers' body cameras, determined a sergeant pepper-sprayed the child while targeting a woman grabbing a police baton, and trying to push a police line backward. The accountability office determined the use of force was “lawful and proper,” in a case report updated December 4. It said in the report:
“The picture of the Child standing in the middle of the street, crying, with milk running down his face is anunforgettable image from these demonstrations. It shows an innocent child who was a victim regardless of thecircumstances. That the Child suffered this trauma is something that OPA is extremely sorry for and that no decisionin an administrative investigation can ever remedy. Notably, NE#1 expressed similar regret at his OPA interview.This is one of the hardest cases that I, as the OPA Director, have had to consider during my nearly three years inoffice. Certainly, there has never been a case that received as many complaints. On one hand, the Child suffered aclear wrong when he was affected with the pepper spray utilized by NE#1. On the other hand, NE#1 usedappropriate force to prevent Subject #1 from breaching the line and could not have known that Subject #1 wasgoing to duck and that the Father was going to bring himself and the Child directly behind her, putting them in theimmediate vicinity of the disturbance. This is not said to blame the Father, as OPA does not believe that any parentwould knowingly place their child in harm’s way. These are simply incontrovertible facts.”
In another case, ProPublica brought attention to Seattle officers shown restraining and beating a protester on May 29. The city's Office of Public Accountability (OPA) recommended one of the officers be disciplined for hitting a protester "with six to eight punches over six seconds" but considered another involved officer’s actions "reasonable, necessary, and proportional under the circumstances.” The difference between the two came down to a question of whether the officer’s actions were both consistent with policy and proportional under the circumstances, according to a closed case summary the OPA posted online. "Here, when evaluating the totality of the evidence, striking the Subject six to eight times simply did not mee these standards and in OPA's estimation, was excessive," the agency said.
RELATED: 7-year-old maced at George Floyd protest and Seattle police arrest man who filmed