An attorney for the Arizona Conference of Police and Sheriffs (AZCOPS) is releasing videos refuting the Department of Justice’s June report, which claimed that the Phoenix Police Department violated the rights of suspects during various incidents. Steve Serbalik has issued five videos so far, revealing key details about the incidents that the DOJ selectively left out of its report.
One of the incidents involved an arrest for domestic violence, labeled U10. Serbalik explained in the video how the DOJ left out facts that exonerated the police officers. They were addressed in police reports, videos, and other data released by PPD to refute the report.
Serbalik said the DOJ report only discussed how officers responded to a report that a man was suicidal, omitting the events leading up to his arrest. The report claimed that the man “lost consciousness” due to how the officers handled him, and that “PhxPD officers use these dangerous compression restraints against people experiencing a behavioral health crisis who do not present a risk to officers or others.”
Serbalik said the report failed to mention that prior to the confrontation, four different people had called 911 to report a man assaulting a woman at a gas station who was crying for help. The incident was caught on surveillance video. The report also left out the fact that the woman had called the police earlier that day to report an incident with him and a neighbor, stating that she was afraid he was going to hurt her minor children and was known to carry knives. When they spoke with her, she had a bloody lip.
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