Loading ...A CLOSER LOOK
I had an opportunity yesterday to take a closer at the video of the incident involving IMPD Officer Adam Chappell and the 17-year old he’s accused of hitting and kicking. Chappell has been charged with misdemeanor battery for his reported actions. Like many of you I watched the tape on my computer. The video is compressed so you can’t see a lot of detail. This time I watched it on a 36-inch screen and in VHS form.
From what I was able to gather, I’m still not sure Officer Chappell punched the 17-year old. You see Chappell and the other officers surrounding the suspect, and you see the Officer raise his arm and lower it in an aggressive motion, but you can’t tell whether he made contact.
The kick is clearer and the Chappell admits he did kick the suspect. However, here’s the rub. Kicking is apparently allowed under IMPD’s training. Aaron Sullivan, the President of the Fraternal Order of Police, tells me that under the way Officer’s are training, using kicking to subdue a suspect is allowed.
The big question now, is did Officer Chappell “knowingly or intentionally touch another person in a rude, insolent, or angry manner” as defined by statute. I’m still not convinced the officer was acting with any sort of malicious intent and if I were on a jury I would have a hard time convicting him. I have heard too much about his character from his fellow officers and they say he is not the type to act in a manner to abuse a suspect. And his demeanor on the full tape doesn’t indicate that either. Might things have been done differently? Sure. Hindsight is always 20-20. I would argue this all goes more to IMPD’s training than it does the Officer’s actions.
I also don’t think Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi is acting with any ill will or political agenda. He’s doing the job that Prosecutors do. If they think a crime has been committed, they file charges. And at the end of the day a jury will have to decide all this. However if I were on the jury, with the information I have now, I don’t think I could return a verdict of guilty.
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:50 am
Brizzi filing charges and dragging a good man through the horror of the mainstream media is an outrage! I can’t wait for the next caucus so I may vote against Brizzi.
It is not just “letting a jury decide” what Brizzi has done is, by virtue of a reckless decision, destroying a man’s character through the media. Can this officer ever get over the damage done by the media after his acquittal?
Next, the video I saw did not show any crime on the part of the police. Why didn’t Brizzi send this to a grand jury?
-Then, why hasn’t Kennth Ackles (D) Coroner been charged with crimes yet? (It sure has been a while since those search warrants were served.) Why hasn’t Monroe Gray been charged with Ghost Employment, Official Misconduct, Conflict of Interest? Why hasn’t Vern Brown been charged with Ghost Employment & Official Misconduct?
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:30 am
I tend to agree with your observations as well,Abdul.
The thing that I have such a hard time accepting is that it took over a month for this incident to be made public and charges filed.
Who was the police officer that shot the footage and what did that officer do with that tape after this incident?
In the right hands, this tape was worth a load of $$$ to our embattled Mayor.
So who shot the video and what did they do with after Black Expo?
Why the time delay?
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:39 am
Well, first of all I’ve never seen a $7,500 bond on B-Misdemeanor battery, in a situation where you’re taking someone with no criminal history and has absolutely zero flight risk. That seems odd. Plus he was in with some general population for upwards of 7 hours from what I’ve been told.
There was a road rage case a few years ago where two guys shot each other in front of Methodist. If I’m not mistaken they were both OR’d after they were released from the hospital. Charges were filed, the case was bifurcated, both plead self-defense and both ended up getting thrown out. If people can shoot each other in broad daylight with a dozen witnesses at 16/Illinois, this is nothing. They should treat him just like anybody else, which is nothing should have been filed in the first place. Though the city is very fortunate that he wasn’t hurt while in jail.
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:18 am
The IMPD shot the video themselves. To use for future training exercises and classes, we’re told. Admirable, but perhaps the academy’s coursework needs a compelte review.
The “we were taught to kick at the academy” defense is lame. When he kicked the detainee, the detainee was on the ground, clearly going no where. That kick was purely out of frustration and retaliation. Any jury would view it similarly. Did it rise to the level of crime. I doubt it, but…why did he do it at all?
If our taxpayer-funded academy is “teaching” this kind of action on their 1-4 scale, someone needs a knot jerked in their tail. Teaching stupid techniques is not a defense. These officers had mace and tasers…the officer’s hands were both free, and he could easily have pulled out his taser, calmly aimed it directly at any part of the detainee’s body, and jolted him into composure.
I’m not necessarily in favor of a criminal charge against this officer, but the community’s got to understand, there’s a wholesale attitude problem with some IMPD officers. Including their union president, who boldly told TV cameras Monday that we “didn’t understand” the whole Black Expo mentality, that there’s “not a safe palce anywhere that weekend.”
IF that were true, it shouldn’t be repeated. And it’s not true. Aaron needs a muzzle. And some common sense…maybe he learned too much from loud-mouthed Vince.
By the by, Abdul, your last guests this morning were hilarious. I laughed all the way back from Bloomington listening in my car. I thought that kind of fanatical silliness was reserved for late-night radio and TV, where few people can actually see/hear it. I had no idea carbon dating oysters was evidence of anything.
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:27 am
Brizzi is in a no-win position. If he HADN’T filed, then people would be yelling ‘coverup’ (even more than they already are). I’m no lawyer, but Brizzi filed charges because the teen’s counsel presented those charges to his office, right?
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:33 pm
I don’t feel safe during the last weekend of Black Expo. I’ve lived downtown for over 12 years and am urban pioneer. I’ve been harassed just walking down the street by blacks during black expo. My friends who work in restaurants hate working Black Expo.
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Help me out here. If the kid wasn’t resisting and he was just laying there, a kick from a booted foot would’ve knocked teeth out and broken his nose several times over. It didn’t. I wonder why?
The kid didn’t have to ‘go nowhere’ in order to hurt anybody on scene. All he had to do was grab somebody’s gun and it would’ve been a funeral instead. If he didn’t want to get hurt himself, he shouldn’t have continued to resist. And taunting anybody, including the police, is provocation, which is an infraction and suitable cause to pick somebody out of a crowd.
And if they had tased the child, then what? Police animals tase a young child at Expo! I’ve heard police critics say “why did they have to tase him? There were 4 of them there and only 1 of him, did it really require that kind of force?” A taser is further up the force scale than a kick. If you’d like to criticize the way the system works, that’s fine. What do you propose as a solution? Tripling the public safety tax so all police officers can go through years of training and become ninjas who never harm and never get harmed? I’ve got a solution that will save money, tell parents to start raising their children with some respect.
Or, (gasp), don’t go the Expo next year. Somebody told me that last year after the first couple of shootings people were still walking around like it wasn’t a big deal. That just makes no sense to me. I’m not going to go to a party where people are shooting up the neighborhood. And despite the ‘police brutality,’ I’m sure that won’t keep the wrong 10-15% of youth from coming back and causing a ruccus next year. Having witnessed both the Expo and the Indy 500, I can see how the arrests would add up about the same. However, The arrests during the Indy 500 occur over the course of the entire weekend (if not the month of May.) At Expo, there isn’t but one or two arrests for a week and a half, and then an unbelievable amount that last Saturday night. Why?
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:16 pm
I’m not saying the offender was without fault here. Far from it. It looks like he should be arrested for public drunkenness. And maybe resisting arrest, altho I’m told that one is hard to prove sometimes.
But he was not picked out of the crowd for that. His sole offense? “Flashing gang signs.” That is directly from the officer’s video statement. And if that was truly the only reason, the officer is guilty of poor judgment.
Jason, if the officer had tased or maced the offender, a “kick” wouldn’t have been needed.
A taze takes you out immediately, and enables officers to better restrain you.
Instead, our genius police academy teaches a 1-4 scale of perp rage, and induces officers to kick offenders.
I want the police academy manual outed. If it is as reported, it should be burned. Now.
If it is as reported, the officer was following polie department procedure, which puts the prosecutor in a difficult situation. I’m no Brizzi fan. In fact I can’t stand him. Do you really think he’d risk LEO ire by filing a baseless case?
Uh, that answer would be NO.
August 24th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
These thugs are a “self-solving”problem. give them all gus, theyll be gone in a few weeks.
good job ofcr. Chappal. I hope I get jury duty for your trial, you’ll walk.
File a lawsuit against the city for violating your civil rights, IMPD for loss of income, carl Brizzi for defamation by calling you a brutal cop, and IBE for hosting that thug in Indy to begin with.
December 14th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
NEVER TRUST IMPD iv been screwed SO many times by them its not funny. ALL of them are guilty and none of them care unless it means $$$cash$$$money$$$ NEVER TRUST NEVER FORGET THEY CAN DO ANYTHING THEY ARE ABOVE THE LAW my question is if someone was exicuted in full video range, while handcuffed the norm is NOT GUITY becase they are the police they are ALAWYS INNOCENT there is no such thing as a FAIR trial in indiana it is only what the police say