Two white SA police officers suspended after onlooker publishes video of them beating up an unarmed, naked black man:
The video was placed on the Facebook page of the Kensington/Factreton anticrime Forum by Nicole Petersen Speelman, who filmed it from her upper-story office window.
March 6 2014: She simply wrote: ' This happened today outside my work "
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=735430366468639
Two white Cape Town cops suspended over assault video
March 7 2014 Reuters Screen grabs from a video posted to Facebook show police officers assaulting a naked man in Riebeeck Street, Cape Town.
Cape Town - Two white policemen have been suspended after cellphone footage of them assaulting a man suspected of robbery in Cape Town caused public outrage after being posted online, senior officers said on Friday.
The SA police force is struggling to overcome a reputation for being heavy-handed and trigger-happy. An internal investigation is being conducted and criminal procedings have been brought against the two policemen.
“We condemn the behaviour in the strongest possible terms of what we witnessed in the video,” Arno Lamoer, the provincial police commissioner, told journalists.
He said the man, an unidentified foreign national who was naked, has not laid any charges against the policemen, who are seen punching and kicking him in the genitals, after answering a call-out on robbery complaint.
The man was released without being charged. Lamoer (strangely, because it's clearly seen on the video that they stripped off his underpants) said "it was unclear if the man was already naked or whether the police officers tore off his clothes while grappling with him on the road as people looked on.
In the footage, taken from an office block, a woman opens a window and shouts “police brutality” before an officer moves towards her.
Last year nine black policemen were charged with murdering a Mozambican taxi driver who was handcuffed and dragged behind a police vehicle in full view of bystanders.
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/cops-suspended-over-assault-video-1.1658210
JOHANNESBURG - Western Cape police are investigating an incident of police brutality in Cape Town.
Video footage shot by a bystander (publicly named on the facebook page of the Kensington/Factreton anti-crime Forum as Nicole Petersen Speelman, where she posted the video - but who had eNCA not to be identified) and posted on social network Facebook on Thursday shows two uniformed policemen kicking the naked man in the groin outside a car.
eNCA writes: "We will ensure that a decisive action is taken against those involved. We also would like to state it very clear that acts of brutality in any form, that are perpetrated against the community will not be tolerated by SAPS Management.
Speelman's footage shows three other men - presumably security personnel in the area - holding the man's arms, while the two SAPS officers take turns assaulting the (naked) victim as people walk by.
It is not clear what led to the assault. The bystander (Ms Speelman), who was at work at the time, said one of the policemen approached her workplace after she yelled at the police asking why the man was being assaulted.
She said a friend of hers was arrested for alleged police interference. The charge was dropped at a later stage.
http://www.enca.com/south-africa/footage-police-brutality-causes-stir
Nicole Petersen Speelman from De Doorns wrote on the Kensington/Factreton anti-crime Forum: https://www.facebook.com/groups/488871467868917/
"This happened today outside my work" https://www.facebook.com/nicole.speelman?fref=ts
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/cops-suspended-over-assault-video-1.1658210#.UxnvPs6hatM
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