Policy

Cops in Iowa Beat Up Shoplifter After Hearing Her Boyfriend is Community Activist Who Has Worked with Cops on Racial Sensitivity Training

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Further grim proof that modern policing is very, very dangerous (to you and me), as a couple of cops in Davenport, Iowa, start whaling away on a woman (in front of her infant daughter) in back room of store where she was caught shoplifting.

Thomas Hawk / Foter / CC BY-NC

Video–warning, kind of disturbing–can be found at this CBS Local Chicago story. Excerpts:

A Chicago civil rights organization is investigating claims that a mother was unjustly beaten by police officers in Davenport Iowa after she was caught shoplifting….

Brandie Redell admits she was shoplifting at a Von Maur store in Davenport, Iowa, back in February, and putting clothes inside her 1-year-old daughter's stroller…

While store security has Redell turn over the things she's taken, two Davenport police officers walk in. Redell calls her boyfriend telling him to pick up their daughter. When one of the officer's hears Redell's boyfriend's name, he tells Redell, "This is going to get ugly, real quick."

Redell's boyfriend, James Gibson, is a community activist who had done some sensitivity training with the department when it comes to race and officers dealing with the public.

Redell recoiled in fear as one of the officers starts beating her. A store worker left the room quickly carrying Redell's one-year-old daughter. The beating lasted for one minute and five seconds…..

What happened to the officers?

 Following an internal affairs investigation, both officers were disciplined and both are still employed and back on the street, as Davenport, Iowa police officers.