© 2010 – Report
COLLEGE PARK, Md. – After the University of Maryland men’s basketball team beat Duke on March 3, many students took to the streets to celebrate the big win.
Because the college town is infamous for its rioting after big sports wins, the town of College Park had many police officers on hand to control the rowdy crowd – many on horseback and in riot gear.
Recently, a video has surfaced from the celebration showing several Prince George's County police officers repeatedly beating an unarmed and apparently unthreatening University of Maryland student. The student has been identified as 21-year-old John McKenna who required eight staples in his head and suffered a concussion.
The video has created controversy since Prince George’s County police officers had charged McKenna with felony suspicion of assaulting officers on horseback. After the tape surfaced, the charges against McKenna were dropped.
“I saw the tape. I'm outraged. I'm disappointed in the actions of my officers that I saw on camera. That is not going to be tolerated,” said Prince George’s County Police Chief Roberto Hylton.
Because of the tape, Prince George’s prosecutors have started a criminal investigation on the three officers who took part in the beating.
Federal investigators will look at the tape to decide if any civil rights violations occurred.
(Raw video of the beating.)
For more information: Read the Washington Post story on the beating. Also, see the headlines below.
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Comments
This shows one thing, that PG Co cops do not discriminate.
lol
Regardless of what the student who was beaten may or may not have said, the officer who filed a blatantly false police report sworn to be true, needs to be criminally prosecuted to the fullest extent permissible for willfully committing perjury. Thank the Lord there is videotape evidence, or this entire incident would just be one more case of abuse ignored by the PG county police, who have DECADES of similar police brutality incidents to answer for. It's long past time that the entire PG country police force is re-organized from the ground up. Abuse of authority committed by those who are legally empowered with the use of deadly force CANNOT BE TOLERATED!
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