Police Brutality: Grand Jury Clears Philly Cops In Video Beatings


Police Brutality: Philadelphia police officers involved in the videotaped beating of three suspects after a car chase won’t be charged with crimes, according to a grand jury that found no excessive use of force. Officers considered the shooting suspects armed and dangerous, and in keeping with department policy did not beat or kick them once they were handcuffed, she said. “We found that the design of the force applied by the police was helpful rather than hurtful; the kicks and blows, in other words, were aimed not to inflict injury but to facilitate quick and safe arrests,” the grand jury said in the report, which followed a 14-month investigation. Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey fired four officers and disciplined four others after analyzing tape of the arrest, which he said gave the department “a black eye.” Ramsey stood by that decision Thursday, while the police union vowed a fight to overturn it. The aerial footage shows a swarm of officers descending on the car after a 2 1/2-mile chase, then smashing a window and pulling the men out to beat and kick them, in at least one case with a police baton. The suspects — Pete Hopkins, Dwayne Dyches and Brian Hall — have since been acquitted of the triple shooting earlier that night for which they were being pursued. All three suspects are black, but so are the majority of the 23 people on the grand jury, Abraham said. Most of the 18 city police on the scene were white. “It’s important not to form conclusions based on a