It was another cop caught on video.
It took a couple of years, but a Chicago cop who fancied himself an Iraq war veteran and had racked up “hundreds and hundreds” of arrests in “challenging districts” in a few short years, was indicted for aggravated assault after a bystander’s video showed he whopped a man in the head with his metal baton.
Video evidence shows Jeremiah Smith following the orders of a peculiarly muscular cop, Brett Khan, when suddenly Khan flips into a rage and heads towards Smith.
As Smith continues walking away out of the street, Kahn wallops him in the head with a metal baton, which Chicago police have trained and authorized him to use in tougher neighborhoods “when the situation calls for it.”
What happens next might be even more peculiar than Khan’s physique: Smith was the one charged with the battery, resisting a police officer.
Rashaan Gordon, Smith’s attorney, expressed that it’s clear law that enforcement get ‘strong deference when they commit very evident crimes and bold misconduct.”
“Some of these experiences are experiences that are known by many communities that have been marginalized for years,” Gordon explained to reporters. “This stuff happens a whole lot. Under no stretch of the imagination do I think any charges would have been brought if there was not video present.”
Smith’s charges were eventually dropped.
During Khan’s indictment hearing prosecutors argued, “the victim did not attack, fight with officers, display any weapons, or commit any offenses prior to the defendant striking and arresting victim,” the prosecutor told Judge Sullivan, who watched the video in her chambers according to the Chicago Sun Times.
Assistant State’s Attorney Theresa Smith said, “that Kahn’s report contradicted the footage of the cellphone video.
Several other people were charged and arrested with resisting a police officer. One person’s case was thrown out and the other got 12 days in jail after pleading guilty. Another person who faced a drinking on a public way ticket also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two days in jail.
Khan said he believed Jeremiah Smith was trying to punch him and feared he would be “battered” by the small man walking away from him.
Jeremiah Smith suffered bleeding, a knot to his head and throbbing pain as a result of the blow, according to Sun Times.
