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California Cop Outrages Citizens

Aired July 09, 2002 - 14:10   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's a case that's renewing sentiment from the Rodney King days. A California police officer caught on tape beating a black teenager.

The police officer, who has since been relieved from duty, indicates that the action was justified, but the victim's father says it was racially motivated.

CNN's Thelma Gutierrez now joins us from Inglewood, California with the latest on the investigation -- Thelma.

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Kyra. Inglewood police have launched an internal affairs investigation into this case. Now the allegations have raised the ire of people in this community, and today dozens of protesters gathered on the steps of the Inglewood city hall.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEMONSTRATORS: No justice, no peace! No justice, no peace!

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): They're calling for justice and they want action taken against the police officers involved in the beating. Community leaders want the immediate firing of officer Jeremy Morse.

Now he is the officer who was shown on the videotape. The controversial video was shot on Saturday by an amateur photographer. It shows Officer Jeremy Morse, a three-year veteran of the police force, picking up 16-year-old Donovan Chavis by the collar and belt and slamming him down on the police car. Seconds later you see the officer take a punch at Donovan's head.

JOE HOPKINS, CHAVIS ATTORNEY: It was totally unprovoked, just as the attack of this other kid that took place a few weeks earlier was unprovoked. Essentially, you got a 5'8" black male in an area where the police have license to do these things because the city of Inglewood is apparently not stopping them, and they don't need provocation. What they need is visually seeing a black male, and they have license to do what they want to do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUTIERREZ: The mayor of Inglewood is expected to hold a news conference later today, and the protest that was held earlier was peaceful. It was small, and thankfully there was no incidents. Now as for Donovan Chavis and his father Kobe (ph) says that he is having a very hard time coping with all of this. Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: Thelma, let's talk just for a minute about this. Let's go back to the days when you and I were reporters for another network, and you and I were there during this whole time of Rodney King and the relationship between the communities, among communities and the police.

Now, a number of years later, how is the community responding, and do you see sort of the same animosity building like we saw back during the Rodney King time?

GUTIERREZ: Kyra, that's a great question. There are many differences in this case. First of all, there were 20 officers in the Rodney King beating. Rodney King was beaten with a baton. In this case it was very different. The injuries are not the same, and you don't see the same kind of protest going on, the same kind of anger.

Clearly there is anger, and clearly there is concern about police brutality. Kyra, you and I have been on the street, people have said, you know, this is a very sensitive issue because they will tell you, and yesterday the family members said you know, you have brown and African-American people who have been exposed to this. This time it was just caught on videotape.

And so one of the family members said, "I wish I could express some outrage, but this happens so often. This time, though, the country is able to see it on videotape."

Again, in the protest, several dozen people very vocal about it. Coming out expressing their anger, but you're not seeing the same kind of thing that you did in the Rodney King beating, at least at this point.

PHILLIPS: And Thelma, you remember the Rodney King tape. There was a lot of tape previous to that stop that wasn't shown, and a lot of things were revealed from that. Do we know if there is tape prior? Was anything taped prior to the shot we see where the officers grab Chavis and throw him down on the police car?

GUTIERREZ: Well, from the tape that we actually saw, the tape that was released by the amateur photographer who was shooting it from that hotel room, no. He says that that is the point at which that tape begins. However, there was another tape, a surveillance tape from the Thrifty gas station, where all of this was occurring, and that tape, apparently, is in the custody of the sheriff's deputies.

They have not released that tape. So we don't know if there is anything on that tape that might have indicated how this whole thing started.

PHILLIPS: That will be interesting when that is released. All right, Thelma Gutierrez from Los Angeles. Thanks, Thelma.

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