America
'Cop tackled Indian grandfather in an improper manner'
By
By Arun KumarWashington, Sep 4
An Alabama police officer
accused of using excessive force against an Indian grandfather walking
in his son's neighbourhood used an improper method to subdue him by
slamming him down to the ground, a US court was told.
Appearing
as a prosecution witness at the trial of former police officer Eric
Parker, 26, in a Huntsville, Alabama federal court Thursday Capt. John
Stringer said that force is supposed to be proportional to the threat
and circumstances. Stringer, who oversees special operations, including
training, for the Madison Police Department, said during controlled
takedowns officers are supposed to decelerate the fall to minimise
injury, local Al.com reported.
Stringer said he watched the video of Parker's takedown of Patel that same day in February.
Asked
for his opinion on the technique Parker employed, Stringer testified "I
thought it was improper. I saw no indications of resistance, or active
resistance or aggressive resistance."
Stringer also said he did not observe any signs of flight or attack by Patel.
A
Madison dispatcher also testified that she searched through records of
past police calls that might have helped Officer Eric Parker support a
claim for probable cause to stop and slam down Patel.
Federal
prosecutors on Thursday replayed the calls between Parker and dispatcher
Angela Sharp. They argued that the search for probable cause after the
fact showed that Parker had "knowledge of guilt."
Parker faces a
federal charge of deprivation of rights under colour of law for the leg
sweep on Feb 6 that hospitalised Sureshbhai Patel, who had arrived from
India six days earlier to move in with his engineer son.
Patel, who does not speak English, was taking a morning walk when a neighbour called police to report a suspicious person.
Parker
and a trainee responded to the call. At one point, during a confused
exchange, Parker slammed Patel to the ground, leaving him in need of
emergency spinal surgery.
Prosecutors argued that Patel committed
no crime, presented no threat and did not pull away and as such
Parker's actions were unreasonable.
Parker's attorney has argued
that Patel was reaching for his pockets and jerking away as officers
frisked him, leaving officers to fear he might have a weapon.
Defence attorney Robert Tuten suggested that Patel by law should have had his green card on him at all times.
He
also argued Madison didn't provide adequate training for Parker and
that while it was unfortunate that Patel was injured, he said the
government did not prove Parker meant to hurt him.
"We can't punish Officer Parker because there was a language barrier," said Tuten.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])