10-27-2011, 01:13 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: NC
Posts: 3,887
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Looks like he got off easy
Quote:
SIOUX CITY -- Police Chief Doug Young on Wednesday defended the techniques officers used in the forceful arrest of a woman caught on video this summer.
"The altercation was escalating; the officer got slapped," Young said. "She tried to resist throughout the whole incident."
Young's comments were in response to a Sioux City police car dashboard camera video showing the arrest of Dacosta Daniels, 34, of Sioux City, on Aug. 8. The footage appeared online earlier this month and shows Daniels being pushed onto a police car hood and a scuffle as officers handcuff her. Daniels has said she was injured and may sue police.
Police initially wouldn't talk about specifics in the case, but the department on Wednesday posted its own version of the video, which includes a narration of the incident, online.
Young on Wednesday also elaborated about what sparked the confrontation. He said a plainclothes drug task force officer was in the neighborhood and saw Daniels in a car driven by Christopher Robinson, who "was known to have a barred license." Robinson and Daniels are engaged.
The arresting officer, Joshua Tyler, worked on the task force. The incident escalated when Daniels was taken out of the car and told not to use her cell phone. She refused, which touched off a struggle as Daniels was handcuffed. The footage shows Daniels being put in a headlock and struck in the side several times after she lunges toward Tyler.
Young, the chief, said the officers followed department guidelines on the use of force. He said the officers were trying to hold Daniels down on the hood.
"He's putting pressure on her shoulder area," he said, adding later, "Officers are trained to use some technique to gain compliance as the situation was escalating."
The incident was the subject of an internal police department investigation. It found no wrongdoing by officers.
Robinson in an interview denied that he was driving the car. He also said that he was inside a nearby house when police approached his fiancée and heard the commotion.
He said what happened wasn't warranted.
"If anybody else was assaulting anybody like that, they'd go to jail," he said, "but not them, because they're the police."
Asked why police approached the situation as they did, Young said Tyler saw Robinson driving and called another unit to stop the car.
He said officers were worried about Daniels communicating with people in the neighborhood on her phone. Young would not talk about whether the area was the target of drug surveillance.
Daniels did not return calls Wednesday. She faces charges of assaulting an officer, failure to obey a peace officer and interfering with official acts. Her first court date in the case is Nov. 4.
Read more: http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/news...#ixzz1c0zVqCJx
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