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   From: DEMI_GOD_@SHAW.CA   
      
   Man who videotaped cops beating LA teen arrested   
   LOS ANGELES - The man who videotaped a police beating near Los Angeles that   
   enraged black leaders and then dodged a grand jury inquiry into the matter   
   was arrested on Thursday as he prepared to grant a television interview.   
      
   Mitchell Crooks was taken into custody on warrants issued in northern   
   California for petty theft and drunken driving. Authorities also served him   
   with a subpoena to testify before the Los Angeles County grand jury.   
      
   Crooks' arrest was videotaped and broadcast on local KCAL-TV, showing   
   undercover officers hustling him into a sports utility vehicle with tinted   
   windows outside the studios of CNN as the 27-year-old man repeatedly   
   screamed for help.   
      
   Crooks had failed to appear on Thursday morning at Los Angeles Superior   
   Court, where the grand jury was meeting, after telling a local radio program   
   that he feared for his life.   
      
   "All we're doing is arresting him on the basis of a warrant," Los Angeles   
   County District Attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said. "If there had not   
   been a warrant, we would have escorted him to the grand jury."   
      
   "He is a witness and we need him to authenticate the tape recording,   
   otherwise its value in court would be greatly diminished," Gibbons said.   
   Crooks shot his videotape from a motel room across the street from the scene   
   of the incident in Inglewood, which abuts south-central Los Angeles.   
      
   Crooks called a KFI-AM talk radio show hosted by John Kobylt and Ken   
   Chiampou on Wednesday to discuss the case and said he was afraid that   
   officers would be "coming after" him for videotaping the beating of   
   16-year-old Donovan Jackson.   
      
   "I fear for my life," Crooks said. "They're going to kick my ass in a cell   
   and take turns on me, probably."   
      
   Deputy District Attorney Kurt Livesay, who was also a guest on the show,   
   then told Crooks over the air that authorities did not want to hurt him, and   
   asked that he give his address to investigators. Instead, Crooks hung up the   
   phone.   
      
   The videotape, first broadcast on Sunday, shows Inglewood Police Officer   
   Jeremy Morse picking up Jackson and slamming him face-first onto a patrol   
   car. Several seconds later, Morse is seen slugging Jackson in the face with   
   a closed fist.   
      
   The tape sparked cries of racism and comparisons to the incendiary 1991   
   beating of Rodney King, which was also videotaped. The acquittal of four Los   
   Angeles officers in that case led to the worst urban riots in modern U.S.   
   history.   
      
   Several local law enforcement agencies and the Federal Bureau of   
   Investigation were investigating the altercation between Jackson and Morse,   
   a three-year veteran of the Inglewood Police Department. U.S. Attorney John   
   Ashcroft sent his top civil rights deputy to Los Angeles on the case.   
      
   Jackson and his 41-year-old father, Coby Chavis, who was present during the   
   incident, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on Wednesday against the   
   officers involved in their arrest, the city of Inglewood and the County of   
   Los Angeles.   
      
   Black leaders, including congresswoman Maxine Waters, a Democrat who   
   represents the area, and Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn have called for   
   Morse to be immediately fired and brought up on state or federal charges.   
      
   But Morse's lawyer said that the 24-year-old officer had been condemned by   
   public officials before all of the facts were known or the probes even   
   begun.   
      
   "I think it's quite unfortunate that people who have sworn to defend and   
   uphold the Constitution would ignore the presumption of innocence and find   
   individuals guilty before there's even been a trial," attorney John Barnett   
   said. "I thought we stopped doing that a couple hundred years ago."   
      
   Barnett, who also represented one of the officers acquitted in King's   
   beating, said public officials were offering inappropriate assurances that   
   his client was guilty.   
      
   "This very same thing happened (in the King case)," he said. "That's why it   
   was such a big surprise when they were acquitted with tragic, tragic   
   consequences."   
      
   Barnett said that Morse lifted Jackson from the ground and heaved him onto t   
   he car because the teen had let his legs go limp in an effort to resist.   
      
   "After his hands were cuffed, Jackson was able to reach out and grab my   
   client's testicles," he said. "And on that occasion the punch was seen in   
   order to make that activity cease."   
      
   In Oklahoma, meanwhile, civil rights activists called for immediate   
   disciplinary action against two white police officers who were videotaped   
   beating a prone black suspect with batons.   
      
   The officers, Greg Driskill and E.J. Dyer, were to remain on regular duty   
   pending the results of a probe. Oklahoma City police have asked the FBI to   
   investigate. (Compiled from news reports)   
      
      
   --   
   As Benjamin Franklin advised, "Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.   
   Empty the coins of your purse into your mind, and your mind will fill your   
   purse with gold"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)