Police brutality activists have pointed out that cops sometimes act as
judge and jury as opposed to officers charged with the duty of upholding the law. A San Francisco cop caught is accused of taking the law into his own hands while confronting a homeless man who’d fallen asleep on a bus.
Video shows the officer kicking 36 year old Bernard Warren when he couldn’t get Warren to wake up. In addition to kicking Warren, Officer Raymond Chu also pepper sprayed the man.
“This sort of force was totally unnecessary. It was completely over the top,” said San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi. “If you find anyone sleeping on a bus, it’s reasonable to wake them up and ask [them] to leave. Sure, but is that reason to beat [someone] down?
Officer Chu was responding to a call on February 11 about a homeless person sleeping on a bus.
The San Francisco Bay View describes how the incident began:
Warren appears to have trouble standing and walking. Chu begins pushing him toward the exit. On his way off the bus, Warren, who has a slurred speech impediment, slowly mumbles over his shoulder to Chu, “Don’t touch me. I could beαt your αss.”
Chu becomes enraged, yells, “Dude, f*cking what did you say?” and shoves and kicks Warren off the bus; the homeless man staggers in the street.
As Warren walks away, Chu brandishes his police baton, yelling: “We done here? We done here? Yeah, keep walking.”
Then it gets worse when Chu begins chasing Warren and strikes the homeless man with a baton. Though the video shows Warren turned away from Chu and walking, the officer claims that Warren approached him with “clenched fists.”
“The baton strikes were again ineffective, and Warren was attempting to flee from the scene. I then used my department issued (pepper spray) and administered a 3 second burst to Warren’s eye area,” Chu wrote in his police report.
Warren was arrested for threatening an officer but released after several days.
Deputy Public Defender Andrea Lindsay says it was clear that Warren was never a threat to the officer.
Watch video of the incident below:
