Cleveland Ohio Deputies Abuse Inmate
Our last In the News post was regarding the new law in California pertaining to the release of documents and videos on officer misconduct. This video out of Cuyahoga County Detention facility is a perfect example of what law enforcement is trying to hide from the public. Cuyahoga County attempted to prevent the video from being released but fortunately, were unsuccessful.
In this video, Chantelle Glass, had been placed in jail for an unpaid traffic ticket. She admits to banging on the door of her cell, asking to be allowed to make a phone call to let someone know where she was. But as you can see from the video, Ms. Glass is completely compliant when the officers bring her out of her cell. That aside, you will see that before they even bring her out, at the 17 second mark in the video, one of the officers, Idris-Farid Clark, is already shaking his pepper spray in preparation to use it. What is not shown in the video is that Ms. Glass must have been compliant when the handcuffs were being placed on her since no one reacted in a way to indicate otherwise.
Ms. Glass is walked to a restraint chair and place in it. They begin strapping her in. One of the officers, Robert Marsh, has her lean forward so he can remove the handcuffs. He seems to be unable to from that position. Instead of having her lean forward more or scoot forward in the chair, he physically and aggressively forces her head down (see 1 m 12 s mark). She is not a slim woman so bending over like that may not have been easy for her. The officer’s actions are the first physical aggression yet Ms. Glass complies completely.
However, this is when you see a nervous or stress reaction start happening with Ms. Glass. At marks: 1 m 27 s; 2 m 1 s; 1 m 56 s; 2 m a s; 2 n 5 s: and 2 m 16 s, Ms. Glass swings her right leg a bit. At no time does it appear that she is attempting to kick the officers nor is the leg swung with force. At the 2 m 16 s mark it does appear that the tilt of the chair is concerning for her as she swings her leg more than she has previously but again, with no attempt to kick anyone.
Though nothing has happened yet, Clark takes out the pepper spray again and begins shaking it periodically in preparation to using it (see 1 m 55 s mark). At the 2 m 19 s mark Marsh goes to strap her left ankle. This is obviously disturbing for Ms. Glass how brings up her right leg again. It still does not appear that she is attempting to kick anyone but the action startles Marsh. He responds by punching her in the face. Now Ms. Glass truly does begin to fight her restraints and attempts to kick Marsh at which point Clark sprays the foam all over her face from a distance of inches.
Criminal charges have now been filed against the officers. See video below.