http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-lawndale-stomping-video-investigation-20160613-story.html
Apparent head-stomping by officer is videoed, spurs probes of police
Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson on Monday asked for an investigation into the actions of two officers after a video on Facebook showed one officer struggling with a man and the other telling bystanders to back off, then appearing to stomp the struggling man in the head.
The video, showing an arrest that took place in the 3900 block of West Grenshaw Street, was posted Monday afternoon, apparently soon after the incident. By about 10 p.m., the video posted by someone using the name Terrance Hustlehard had been viewed more than 300,000 times and had been shared about 14,000 times.
Police News Affairs disclosed the investigation but did not provide details of the arrest. The office said charges were pending against the man in custody.
A police source said the two officers who are most prominent in the video were taken to Rush University Medical Center for treatment following the incident, one with a bite injury to a finger and choking injuries, the other with a bite to the arm.
"The Chicago Police Department holds its members to the highest possible professional standards with a priority on treating all Chicagoans with respect," the police said in a statement. "Upon viewing the video, Superintendent Johnson immediately asked the Independent Police Review Authority to investigate the matter while the department gathers more information about the case."
A spokeswoman for IPRA confirmed the investigation.
"We received information regarding the incident and the accompanying video and we launched an investigation into the incident last night," IPRA spokeswoman Mia Sissac said. "It's still very early on. We immediately went over to district (last night) to try and identify the officers and move forward from there."
The video, which lasts 1 minute and 28 seconds and apparently was taken with a smartphone, begins with a shot of a plainclothes officer on top of a man in a black shirt and blue jeans in the middle of a street. The man under him struggles to get up, and the officer briefly reaches back toward the back of his belt.
“He goin' shoot us!” someone yells, as the officer turns back to struggling with the man, who turns over onto his back, appears to elbow the officer and pushes the officer up with both hands. Several other people can be seen on the street and nearby parkways, as several cars are stopped in the street a few yards away.
The first officer looks around, again reaching for the back of his belt, and the camera pans to the right, where a second officer is seen yelling, “Get back, get back,” as he slams shut an unmarked police SUV.
“We didn’t do nothin’,” someone says.
“What the (expletive) you all doin’?” someone says, as the first officer starts yelling, “Don’t you bite me!”
The second officer begins calling for backup, giving the 3900 block of West Grenshaw as their location.
Someone asks if the second officer is calling for backup, and he replies, “Yeah, I am calling backup.”
“For what, (expletive)?” someone says. “Y’all scary as hell.”
The camera pans back toward the first officer and the man, still struggling, as the man appears to get his hand on the first officer’s throat. It’s at this point, about 39 seconds into the video, that the second officer appears to stomp the man in the head.
Several people cry out in protest as the second officer walks toward the camera, shouting, “Get the (expletive) back! Get the (expletive) back!”
“Hey, don’t worry about it. I’m fixing to whack your ass,” someone says in reply on the video.
The person with the phone backs up, showing a few people in the street, then focuses on the officers’ SUV for a few seconds before sirens can be heard and uniformed officers are seen running up to the scene.
“They put they knees in his face and everything,” someone says.
“Y’all some bitches! Y’all goin' die!” someone on the video shouts. “Y’all goin' end up dead!”
Around 1:15 on the video, a uniformed officer comes up to the person taking the video and appears to push a man in a white shirt back from near the two plainclothes officers.
Several people on the video try to explain to the uniformed officer what happened: “He just kicked him unconscious!” one shouts, as the uniformed officer tells them to get back. Police sirens and horns overwhelm most of what’s being said and the video ends.