Shocking video taken from a police car’s dashboard shows cops in Florida slamming a woman onto the car and the pavement. The police broke her orbital bone and her eye was swelled shut--all because they thought the woman was drinking under the influence.
The allegedly drunk 44-year-old Christine West was driving with three men when her car crashed into a house. Six officers responded to the crash.
West was taken out of the police car after she agreed to a breathalyzer test. The cops noticed that she had slipped out of the handcuffs slapped on her, and proceeded to use brutal force. Two officers slammed her face down on the car. They then mocked her, saying: “You went from a misdemeanor to a felony. Congratulations.” The police said West assaulted officers and a nurse, though those charges were dropped.
The State Attorney told the Tallahassee Democrat that the video was “very disturbing.”
The police are saying that an internal investigation is underway into the incident. “We understand that the video is disturbing to watch and it is for us too,” said Dennis Jones, the police chief in Tallahassee.
West’s attorney said they were going to go after the police for the incident. And Scott Maddox, the Tallahassee City Commissioner, wrote in an e-mail that the video showed “DISTURBING use of force against a completely non aggressive arrestee. It is my belief that the city of Tallahassee will soon face a liability lawsuit based on the content of the video.”