Police riot in Maryland

Police in riot gear bash innocent sports fan and allegedly lie about it

THE FBI is investigating a shocking case of police brutality in which three cops wearing riot gear bashed a young, unarmed sports fan unconscious then allegedly lied about it.

The savage assault, caught on video, has been compared with the 1991 beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles. It left the victim, John McKenna, 21, needing eight stitches for a deep, bloody head wound.

Three agencies are investigating the assault and allegations the police, from a notoriously violent Maryland force, concocted criminal charges against the victim to cover for their own misconduct.

Video screened around the US yesterday shows student McKenna skipping down the street, celebrating his university's basketball match victory before he is confronted by a line of police on horseback. The footage, captured by another student, shows McKenna stopping within a metre of a horse.

Two riot police swoop and pin him to a wall, pounding him with their batons. A third riot officer joins in the minute-long beating, during which McKenna does nothing to physically provoke or resist the police.

The police allegedly then told him to keep quiet about his injuries because it would force them to fill out more paperwork. McKenna's lawyer, Chris Griffiths, said the official arrest report written by the officers alleged McKenna had "struck those officers and their horses, causing minor injuries". The report went further, claiming McKenna had incited the crowd of revellers and that the horses had caused his injuries.

But the video contradicts those statements and now, two days after prosecutors dropped charges against McKenna, the FBI is on the case.

McKenna's family said in a statement: "Some of these characters ought to go to jail, some ought to be booted off the force, and the remainder should be properly trained to discover that force is not always necessary, and brutality is always wrong."

Prince George County prosecutors are investigating whether they can press criminal charges against the police involved. The county's internal affairs unit is also investigating. Police Chief Roberto Hylton said he was "outraged and disappointed" by the incident. "There's a sense of urgency about this," he said.

Until last year, the Prince George County police department had been the subject of five years' federal oversight due to concerns about excessive force.

The FBI is probing possible breaches of federal civil rights laws.

Original report here. Video at link



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