Birmingham police beating Five officers fired May 20th 2009


Five Birmingham police officers have been fired for a January 2008 beating of an already-unconscious suspect with fists, feet and a billy club, a battering caught on videotape…. until a police officer turned off the patrol car camera, city and police officials said today…. the suspect, Anthony Warren, didn’t even know he’d been beaten until the tape surfaced at his trial in March. Warren was ejected from the vehicle and knocked unconscious, and thought all of his injuries were sustained in the wreck. Police Chief AC Roper called the video “shameful.” Mayor Larry Langford said it was “disgusting.” Roper said the video shamed the police department and the citizens served by the department, saying it was especially troubling because these were seasoned, veteran officers. Roper hasn’t identified the officers. Four of them worked in the department’s Vice and Narcotics Unit; the fifth was a North Precinct patrolman.