Responding to accusations of police brutality and excessive force, Lieutenant Richard Gaines, spokesperson for State Center Community College District police, said the reports of police brutality are unfounded.
“I do not believe the officers did anything wrong,” Gaines said, despite videos recorded by eyewitnesses alleging that the police officers were unnecessarily rough with the suspects.
Gaines said he has contacted individuals with videos of the incident. “I asked some of those individuals to send me copies of the footage. I told them if my staff has done something wrong, I want to see it,” he said. However, the videos, recorded with cell phones, make it difficult to determine exactly what was happening.
The accusation of police brutality against the SCCCD police is related to an incident during the NAISA club celebration of Native American Indian Day on Sept. 24. According to several eyewitnesses, Gregory Moultrie was just carrying a skateboard, but police and school representatives stated that he was riding it when officers approached him. Witnesses claim that officers attempted to confiscate the skateboard, but the police report claims the initial attempt was simply to tell him to stop riding.
Mischelle Loscano, NAISA representative said when she became aware of the altercation, she immediately used the public address system to prompt people to use their camera phones and record the events. A clip of one such video is available at http://tinyurl.com/KMPH-Video
Many eyewitnesses describe the police actions as inappropriate. In an interview aired on KMPH Loscano stated, “It was not a pretty picture at all…I’d have to call it police brutality.”
This was not the first episode involving skateboarders and SCCCD police on the FCC campus. The Rampage reported an incident involving the confiscation of a skateboard back in October 2006. (See Archives Fall 2006 Issue 4 for full story) Unlike the previous incident which ended in a $16 fine and the return of the skateboard, last Friday’s escalated into two arrests and accusations of police brutality.
Lt. Gaines said the incident could have been avoided. “It would have been a non-incident if he had simply cooperated with the officer,” Gaines said.
According to the police report, Moultrie responded hostilely and the arresting police officers felt he would use the board as a weapon, prompting the officer to try to take it from him.
The situation further escalated when Moultrie resisted police attempts to take him into custody. Police claim that during the struggle, Moultrie grabbed an officer’s belt. According to Lt.Gaines, “The subject grabbed the officer’s baton out of his belt, which is a dangerous weapon. Luckily the weapon was dropped.” However, the baton was picked up by another individual and remains at large.
Making matter worse, while officers struggled with G Moultrie, his brother Demone Jamar Moultrie attempted to intervene, ignoring police instructions to keep his distance. “The brother of this first subject came up behind them and began getting too close to the officers and would not back away; he became another person of interest. He was delaying and obstructing,” said Lt. Gaines who added that this type of interference is a direct threat to the officers and puts them at risk.
When D Moultrie resisted and began to struggle with officers, they struck him once on the back of the leg with a baton and used pepper spray on him, both to no apparent effect. D Moultrie fled the scene and headed south west across the campus and parking lot. The SCCCD police requested aid from Fresno PD which intercepted and arrested him near the intersection of Van Ness and McKinley. The brothers now face charges of resisting arrest, battery, public intoxication, and violation of probation.