New video footage from a February incident where a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy threw a transgender man to the ground during an apparent traffic stop, is once again raising concerns over the department’s use of force.
Emmett Brock says he was driving home from work on February 10, 2023 when he noticed a deputy, “berating a woman of color,” so he threw up his middle finger to the deputy as he was driving passed the incident. According to the LASD report, the deputy then pulled Brock over because he “saw an air freshener hanging from Brock’s rearview mirror.”
Brock then pulled over into a 711 parking lot and that’s when everything went down. As the deputy got out of his cruiser, he’s heard telling Brock, “Come here. I just stopped you.” In response, Brock said “No you didn’t.” That’s when the deputy grabbed Brock, before slamming him to the pavement. During the tussle, Brock is heard screaming “You’re going to f—-ing kill me,” and yelling for help. The video also captured the deputy hitting Brock in the head several times.
“He must’ve punched him eight to 10 times in the head, maliciously,” Beck said. “There was no reason for the contact. It was purely retaliatory.”
Minutes later, Brock was in the back of the LASD cruiser, facing charges of mayhem, causing serious injury to a deputy, resisting arrest and failing to obey a lawful order. According to Beck, the mayhem charge stems from allegations from the deputy, that Brock bit his hand during the melee, which the deputy said is what necessitated the punches.
Beck said that medical reports after the incident showed no evidence that the deputy had been bitten, and that claims that Brock bit the deputy didn’t come forward until after the surveillance footage from the 7-Eleven came to light. He also said he plans to prove that the interaction came in retaliation for Brock flipping the deputy off earlier, not from the concern over the air freshener.
“This deputy is a thin-skinned thug and what he did to this man on tape proves it,” Beck said.
As we previously reported, The LASD has recently faced criticism for two other use of force incidents. In one incident, a deputy was seen on video slamming a woman to the ground outside a Lancaster WinCo in June, while deputies were allegedly investigating a robbery. In the other incident, body camera footage showed an LASD deputy rearing back and punching a mother in the face while other deputies tried to take her newborn from her arms. While that incident happened in Palmdale more than a year ago, the body camera footage was just recently released.
FAFO
That deputy needs to be fired for acusing a man of biting him and jumping on him when he was innocent of doing anything that police officer is a thug!