'Cancer growing': Cleveland prosecutor announces indictments for 11 police officers' 'unlawful conduct'
Eleven East Cleveland, Ohio police officers have been indicted "for incidents of unlawful conduct," The Daily Beast reports.
A press conference was held earlier this week, where Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley announced the indictments before showing video footage of the officers physically and verbally assaulting innocent Cleveland citizens.
"There has been a cancer growing in the East Cleveland police department," he said. "We are doing our best to remove every tentacle of that cancer so that this department can rebuild and grow."
The Daily Beast reports:
The disturbing footage showed an officer stomping on a suspect who was already being held on the ground by another officer; an officer kicking someone who was on their knees in the back; officers punching a suspect on the ground while yelling "Get his ass!" and then congratulating themselves for a "nice little ass whooping."
O'Malley noted, "People in these videos were giving up, they were showing their hands, they were not threats."
The current and former officers indicted include Nicholas Foti, Ian McInnes, Kyle Wood, John Hartman, Tristan Homan, Brian Stoll, Tyler Mundson, Laurice Mans, Brian Parks, Daniel Toomer, Tre Dehart Robinson.
According to WKYC News, the 11 indictments bring the total number of police officers indicted over the last seven months to 16.
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WKYC also reports, "seven of the officers facing charges are newly indicted, while four of the officers have been previously indicted" and are now facing new charges.
"The citizens of East Cleveland deserve better," O'Malley said.
"I think to any casual observer, those videos are appalling and a poor reflection of policing within our community and obviously criminal conduct," he said.
Watch the video below or at this link.
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The Daily Beast's full report is available at this link (subscription required). WKYC's report is here.
