Human RightsNorth America

Handicapped black man humiliated by US police

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A shocking video shows a group of police officers in the US city of San Francisco in California violently detaining a half-naked black man with a prosthetic leg after mistaking his crutches for guns.

At least 14 police officers took part in taking down the homeless black man, said Chaédria LaBouvier, the journalist who filmed the incident and published it on Monday.

LaBouvier said that the man was violently held down by police officers for at least 30 minutes.

In the video, the homeless man is seen half-naked, his pants slipping off his legs because of the brutal struggle with the cops.

According to eyewitnesses, the police were responding to a call about a black man who was waving his sticks in the air, the “weapons” that turned out to be nothing but his crutches.

“These are my crutches. I use these to walk,” the man said in the video as the cops took them away from him.

At one point, one of the officers was clearly seen kneeling on the victim’s prosthetic leg to contain him.

Once the excessive use of force by officers became apparent and people gathered to witness the incident, the officers improvised a “blue wall” to prevent the journalist from filming.

The man repeatedly told cops he was in pain, asking about the brutal arrest by the police force.

“Is this what you do? Is this respectable? When I say no, is this what you do to me?” he was heard as saying in the video.

LaBouvier noted that the man was ultimately taken to a hospital against his will and police did not arrest or charge him for any crime.

Police brutality in the United States has raised nationwide debates amid a string of police killings of unarmed black men that has resulted in creating the Black Lives Matter movement.

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