*As they should be, Phoenix police are facing mounting backlash after the release of distressing body camera footage depicting the violent arrest of Tyron McAlpin, a 34-year-old deaf Black man with cerebral palsy. The footage shows officers brutally using a stun gun and delivering multiple punches to McAlpin, sparking outrage from civil rights advocates and the community.
The incident occurred on August 19 outside a Circle K convenience store in Phoenix, Arizona. Officers Benjamin Harris and Kyle Sue responded to a 911 call concerning a disturbance. The caller originally reported a white man causing trouble within the store. As officers arrived, they were misled by a bystander who accused McAlpin of being the aggressor.
Contrary to Harris’s assertions in the police report, claiming McAlpin aggressively lunged at him, the footage refutes these claims, The Guardian is reporting.
“His hands raised to deliver targeted punches at my face/head, and multiple swings with closed fists at my head.” Harris also claimed that McAlpin had a “fighting stance with his legs planted for stability and force delivery” and that McAlpin “made it clear to me in the moment that he was not simply assaulting me in order to get away but engaging in assaults to cause me harm and injury,” Harris wrote in his report.
Video of the incident shows the officers charging at a visibly unprepared McAlpin, who posed no immediate threat. McAlpin was then ordered to the ground, where the officers proceeded to use their stun guns on him four times and punch him repeatedly in the head and back.
Adding to the tragic nature of the situation, a woman identifying herself as McAlpin’s wife arrived on the scene, urgently explaining to the officers that her husband was disabled.
“He’s deaf and he’s got cerebral palsy. And I’ve been on the phone with him since Circle K,” the woman, who was later identified in the police incident report as Jessica Ulaszek, said. “I’ve been on the phone with him the whole time. He didn’t assault nobody,” she added. Ulaszek also asked the officers to let McAlpin know that she was on scene to which they responded, “No, he doesn’t need to know,” NBC reports.
When the woman informed them of McAlpin’s deafness and cerebral palsy, her pleas were disregarded, demonstrating a disturbing lack of compassion and understanding for the circumstance.
Tyron McAlpin’s attorney, Jesse Showalter, insisted that McAlpin was only trying to protect himself during the encounter, criticizing the officers for escalating the violence rather than de-escalating the situation.
He’s deaf. He couldn’t understand what they were doing. And he had done nothing wrong … Everything I see in that video is Tyron just trying to avoid being harmed by these officers and that only makes them increase the escalation and the violence that they’re using,” Showalter told ABC15.
Following the release of the footage, numerous voices have called for accountability and reform within the Phoenix police force.
Echoing this sentiment, Andre Miller, vice-president of the Arizona chapter of the NAACP, condemned the officers for their actions, marking it as a brutal assault driven by false allegations, reminiscent of deep historical injustices faced by Black individuals in America.
“This brutal assault was due to the false claims of a white citizen, reminiscent of many falsehoods like Emmett Till that have claimed the lives of black citizens in America … Tyron was not a suspect in an actual crime, he had not done anything wrong, and he also has communication challenges,” NBC24 reports.
The Arizona Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing also expressed deep dismay over the treatment of a disabled individual during this incident, highlighting systemic issues within law enforcement.
The American Civil Liberties Union highlighted the alarming nature of the footage, calling it a glaring example of racial bias and excessive force. The Phoenix police department announced that an internal investigation is underway, while Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell stated that she would conduct a thorough review of the case in light of the growing public outcry.
This incident follows a prior damning report from the Justice Department, which highlighted patterns of discrimination and excessive force employed by the Phoenix police against marginalized communities. As the community grapples with the implications of this violent arrest, many demand justice for Tyron McAlpin and accountability from law enforcement to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.
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