After weeks of online fury stemming for a viral video showing Virginia Beach police repeatedly tasering and pepper spraying a teenager during a traffic stop, the department’s chief finally called a press conference this week to address the issue.
But Chief Jim Cervera remained loyal to the Police PR Spin Machine, defending his cops under a cloak of “investigation,” even after acknowledging their use of the taser was “out of policy.”
He not only said nothing about what disciplinary actions the officers would face, if any, he skirted the teens’ accusations that officers tried deleting the video, which is a given considering it shows them tasering and torturing the teen in the back seat of a car. The cops were the epitome of thuggery the night of January 10.
The chief also refused to release the video from the cop’s taser gun – which may even show cops deleting the footage from the iPhone – if they didn’t delete that video as well.
The teen they tased, Brandon Wyne, was also charged with assault of a police officer, so perhaps they banged their knee as they climbed into the car to torture him.
According to [__WAVY:__](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/va-beach-police-chief-addresses-traffic-stop-video-incident)
> The 17-year-old was charged with assault on a police officer, obstruction of justice and marijuana possession. All of those charges still stand, according to Chief Cervera. However, even though he admitted officers violated department policy, Chief Cervera would not say what disciplinary action the officers will face.
> The fallout for the officer who fired the Taser can be anything from retraining to dismissal, Cervera said. The officer now has a legal opportunity to respond.
> Cervera also said their investigation determined an officer stopped the cell phone video recording the traffic stop, but said, “right now, we can’t determine if or when it was in fact deleted.” He said the department is going beyond what is normally done in an investigation to figure out if the video was deleted.
Going beyond what is normally does?
Sure, if you considering they usually do nothing when it comes to investigating their own for abusing the rights of citizens.
But even them going “above and beyond” as he said requires them and another investigate entity going through the entire phone as part of their forensic investigation, which becomes an even further invasion of privacy.