There’s No Excuse for Beating Case--No, Not Even That

So the kid might have grabbed the cop’s testicles.

Sometimes, in defending their use of force, cops say a suspect reached for a weapon. In this case, 16-year-old Donovan Jackson allegedly reached for a set of jewels, according to the cop who punched him in the face.

Jackson, as you must know by now, was the subject of a Saturday altercation that was caught on videotape in Inglewood. I don’t know how much is paid out each year to settle brutality lawsuits in Southern California, but it might be cheaper to just buy every single resident a video camera so cops stay on their best behavior.

Even U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, never accused of being a civil rights activist, was disturbed enough by the video to open an investigation. Of course, that may have more to do with President Bush learning from the mistakes of his father, whose downfall arguably began with him ignoring the causes and results of the Rodney King riots 10 years ago.

Some readers--including several cops--were ticked off by my assessment of the Inglewood altercation in Wednesday’s column. I wrote that no matter what preceded the videotaped part of the incident, there was no justification for Jackson, a kid with no arrest record, being roughed up while his hands were cuffed behind his back.

An angry Inglewood cop e-mailed me to say I didn’t know the facts of the situation. I asked if he was referring to the jewel grab, which had been rumored, and he responded: “When someone has a handful of your testicles, and I speak from experience, yes it certainly does justify the punch.”

I’ll respond to that later.

My colleague Beth Shuster reports in today’s paper that Officer Jeremy Morse claims in the incident report that Jackson had him by the privates, and he was in “extreme pain.” Morse also reported that he then punched Jackson in the face.

I spoke to one of the Jackson family’s attorneys outside the federal courthouse Wednesday after they filed a complaint. Portasha Moore called the testicle claim utter nonsense and said it’s disputed by Jackson and his father.

All right. Let’s go to the video.

To set it up, Jackson’s father had pulled into a gas station, and Jackson had gone into the mini-mart for a bag of potato chips. When he returned, he saw police talking to his father about a lapsed registration. Police say a scuffle broke out when the boy refused to stand back. Jackson ends up on the ground in handcuffs, Morse has some blood on his head, and at this point, unbeknown to anyone, a witness begins videotaping.

We see officers stand Jackson up, his hands cuffed behind him, and then Morse suddenly lifts him off his feet and slams him face-first onto the trunk of the car. It’s after this, according to the sequence as laid out in the police report, that Jackson grabbed his privates.

I watched over and over, in slow motion, forward, reverse and every which way, and it is not clear whether Jackson grabbed Morse’s business or not. You simply cannot tell.

Jackson’s hands appear to be in a position where he could conceivably have grabbed the officer, even though he was handcuffed and face down on the trunk of the car. And Morse does appear to react angrily to something specific. After the first punch, in fact, it appears that he raises his hand to clobber Jackson again, but he’s blocked by other officers.

So let’s say, for the sake of argument, that Jackson did grab the officer. Does it justify a punch in the mouth?

The answer is no. If the officer feared the kid might reach for his service weapon, it would be understandable, but that’s not what we’re being told. And it’s fairly pathetic that four veteran officers couldn’t restrain a handcuffed, slightly built 16-year-old without one of them hauling off and punching him in the mouth.

Look, we’re all aware that police work is nasty stuff, that cops are underpaid, and that they’re unrealistically expected to solve all of society’s problems, as well as show up 10 seconds after we call for help. We know they put their lives on the line, and make split-second decisions that are easy for people like me to second-guess.

But they choose this work, and they do so knowing that in spite of the danger, pressure and threat of lawsuits from lottery-happy plaintiffs and attorneys, there’s a measure of pride in performing a difficult public service with integrity and professionalism, as most of them do.

Which brings me to my main point.

Forget the testicle allegation for a moment. What about what happened moments earlier? The video clearly shows a cop losing his cool.

Let me repeat: Morse picked a handcuffed boy up off his feet and slammed him into the car.

Even if Jackson did grab the cop’s privates after that, it might have been the desperate act of a terrified kid who feared he was about to become the next Rodney King.

Even the defensive cop who e-mailed me said of the body slam into the trunk: “I will not try to justify the action.”

Morse’s conduct was ugly, it was inexcusable, and with any justice, there will be no chance of a repeat performance.

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Steve Lopez writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at steve.lopez@latimes.com.