Cameraman Videotaping Police Beating Arrested in California

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, July 12, 2002

Cameraman Videotaping Police Beating Arrested in California

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The man who shot the amateur video of a white police officer beating a black teenager in suburban Los Angeles was taken into custody Thursday afternoon by the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

Michael Crooks, 27, was arrested outside CNN's Los Angeles bureau where he was scheduled for an interview. He was screaming as he was driven away by plainclothes officers, the CNN quoted witnesses as saying.

The district attorney's office said Crooks' arrest was unrelated to the videotape case and he was arrested on at least two previous charges from Placer County, northern California. The charges include petty theft and driving under influence of alcohol.

The surprise arrest came when the videotape taken by Michael Crooks has been played repeatedly on television, in which police officer Jeremy Morse of the Inglewood police department was slamming a handcuffed teenager boy, 16-year-old Donovan Jackson, onto the back of a police car before punching him once in the face.

After the disclosure of the tape, the Los Angeles grand jury started investigating the violent case, which prompted an outcry reminiscent of the response to the 1991 beating of black motorist Rodney King.

The grand jury hopes to get the original videotape shot by Crooks. Rejecting the district attorney's subpoena, Crooks did notappear before a grand jury investigating the police beating Thursday morning, citing he feared for his life after he shot the video last Saturday in Inglewood in southwestern Los Angeles suburban.

A question that hasn't come to a conclusion is what took place at the Inglewood gas station Saturday before Crooks started taping. ��

The video has caused public furor over police brutality and racial discrimination.

Jackson and his father Coby Chavis, who was stopped by police while driving a car with expired tag, filed a lawsuit on Wednesdayin a federal court, seeking unspecified damages from the city of Inglewood, the Los Angeles County and seven officers from two police departments.

Many compared the incident to the Rodney King case in 1991, in which black driver King was beaten up by four white police officers in Los Angeles at the end of a traffic pursuit. The acquittal of the police officers sparked the worst riots in modernUS history, leading 54 people dead and 1 billion US dollars in property damages.

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