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A video of supposed police “brutality” during a physical arrest in Mesa looks more like a blooper reel, including one officer slamming what appears to be his personal vehicle into another car on his way to help fellow officers subdue a suspect.
Mesa Police Sergeant Tony Landato tells New Times that the officers involved are Mesa cops, but details are light at this point.
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He says that reports are still being completed and more details should be available this afternoon, but he can confirm that one of the officers was, indeed, involved in the vehicle accident that’s heard, but not seen, in the video.
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Landato says the officer in the accident was leaving a training session, when he saw a fellow officer fighting with the suspect.
While the video has racked up several thousand views on YouTube under the label of “police brutality,” the content of the video doesn’t seem to match the title, as the guy seems to be resisting the arrest for quite some time. The video’s above, so you can judge for yourself.
There are a couple things that might be highlighted at Mesa PD’s next training session, though, like the initial take-down attempts (to the cop’s credit, that guy looks a lot bigger) to the officer getting into a crash, to the initial officer on the scene apparently losing his Taser (the guy referred to as “old man” appears to hand it back right after the 1:23 mark).
We’ll let you know when we get more details.
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Follow Matthew Hendley on Twitter at @MatthewHendley.
