The Los Angeles district attorney will not file charges against a police officer who was videotaped hammering a car thief with a metal flashlight in June, the Los Angeles Times reports. In a decision that was criticized by black activists and Mayor James K. Hahn, prosecutors said they could not prove that the pummeling was criminal. The Los Angeles Police Department still could mete out discipline in the arrest of Stanley Miller, 37. His arrest after a high-speed 21-mile car chase and foot pursuit it was broadcast worldwide, one of a string of videotaped conflicts between police officers and black suspects dating to the 1991 beating of Rodney King.
A prosecutor in the current case said that the videotape “doesn’t tell the whole story,”
and that the officer believed the suspect was armed. “The amount of force used was minimal and reasonable under the circumstances,” said prosecutor R. Dan Murphy.
Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-miller4feb04,1,4610512.story?coll=la-headlines-california