A black female pastor is accusing two Chicago police officers of assault, according to CBS Chicago. Video of the incident, showing officers pepper spraying and dragging her as they laughed, was released April 28.
In 2013, Rev. Catherine Brown was driving down the alley outside her house when she was confronted with a police car speeding toward her, without lights or sirens. She honked her horn to alert the car of her presence, and Officer Morsi Murphy and Officer Jose Lopez jumped out yelling profanity, ordering her to move her car, and holding her at gunpoint.
Brown says she feared for her life, and called 911 repeatedly. On tapes of those calls, also obtained by CBS Chicago, Brown's screams are audible, as are those of her daughter, who was in the back seat.
CBS Chicago reports on the sequence of events:
Officer Morsi Murphy pepper sprays her and it hits her baby, too. Officer Lopez laughs [pictured in the video below]. Then Morsi Murphy gets on top of a parked car and draws her gun and points it at Brown. Another officer strikes the car with a metal wand. Brown is taken down and dragged from the car.
She describes what happened next.
They “beat me down to my underwear, pulled my skirt off me,” Brown says. “They beat me with the sticks and hit me with their boots in my head.”
According to CBS Chicago, Murphy and Lopez have received 40 complaints from local residents about their behavior.
Without the release of the dashcam video from the squad cars, Brown's story may have never been brought to light. Her accusations come amid mounting claims of corruption levied against the Chicago Police Department.
In November 2015, video of a white police officer shooting a black suspect 16 times in 13 seconds was released after being held by Chicago police authorities for 13 months. That suspect, Laquan McDonald, who was carrying only a 3-inch pocket knife, was walking away from the officer. Protests quickly erupted across the country calling for the resignation of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and top police officials.
Rev. Catherine Brown's story is but one among many. Thanks to the release of the dashcam video, we know this one.
Read more at CBS Chicago.
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