California Cop Attacks Man for Recording from Front Porch

A California cop with a history of abuse and fraud was caught on video abusing a man for recording in public.

Vallejo police officer David McLaughlin attacked a man named Adrian Burrell on January 22, who posted the video to his Facebook page Thursday.

The video shows McLaughlin had just pulled over Burrell’s cousin, who was on a motorcycle and pulled over in a residential driveway in front of Burrell’s house.

Burrell was standing on the front porch recording, at least 30 feet from both the cop and motorcyclist.

But McLaughlin still accused Burrell of “interfering” when the video proves it was the cop interfering with a citizen’s right to record. The cop also accused Burrell of “resisting.”

Burrell said the cop smashed his face against a wall and knocked his head against a pillar, causing a concussion before handcuffing him and placing him in the back of a police car.

It was not until Burrell informed McLaughlin that he was an honorably discharged U.S. Marine with no criminal record that the cop let him go.

But as Burrell explained in his Facebook post, “Military service does not warrant special treatment.”

According to CBS San Francisco:

McLaughlin has been a Vallejo police officer since 2014 and was previously in the Oakland Police Department. His twin brother, Ryan McLaughlin, is also a Vallejo police officer. Both brothers have previously been sued for alleged civil rights violations.

In 2014, David McLaughlin was named in a suit alleging that he and another officer pulled over Frederick Cooley without cause, held him at gunpoint and searched his car.

The complaint alleges they falsified a police report saying that Cooley was in possession of a controlled substance, but the Solano County District Attorney’s Office later abandoned those charges. The civil case was dismissed after Cooley died.

Officer David McLaughlin has also been involved in two shootings since joining Vallejo police. He and Officer Matt Komoda fired on a suspect who was allegedly driving at them before crashing into a parked car on Aug. 31, 2016. No one was injured.

On Aug. 2, 2017, Komoda and David McLaughlin were two of five officers who shot and killed Jeffrey Barboa after a pursuit into Richmond. Police rammed Barboa’s car to disable it. Barboa got out of the car with a machete and the officers shot him. His death was later ruled a suicide.

Burrell, who has since retained civil rights attorney John Burris, posted the following on Facebook.

I am a Black man born and raised in Oakland, California who was physically attacked by Vallejo PD officer David McLaughlin, last Tuesday. In researching my situation, I learned that Mclaughlin has been involved in lawsuits related to his brutality including the fatal shooting of on August 3rd, 2018.

Mclaughlin grabbed me, smashed my face against the wall and then swung my body, knocking my head into a wooden pillar causing a concussion. He put handcuffs on my wrists so tight they broke the skin and caused my fingers to go numb. All while telling me “stop resisting” to my reply, “I’m not resisting.”

I’m a Marine, and was honorably discharged when I completed my service. I have no convictions on my record; I’m not on parole or probation. I own my home, I was on the porch of this home when McLaughlin pulled his pistol on my cousin, saying my cousin looked like someone who he saw speeding earlier. My cousin was sitting on his motorcycle in front of my house. A gun had been pulled on him because he “looked like someone” the officer had seen speeding earlier. Obviously, the situation concerned me. From roughly 20 ft away, with a railing between myself and the officer, I started filming with my phone. You have the right to film a police officer in action as long as you’re not a threat or preventing him from doing his job. The officer told me to go in my house. I chose to stay on my porch and film because the situation was concerning. My camera panned and tilted, but I did not take one step off of the porch. At that point, officer Mclaughlin approached me as you see in the video.

He said I was going to jail and detained me in the back seat of his car. Would I have gone to jail if I weren’t a vet with no criminal record? When the officer realized I am a Marine, he told me if I wasn’t a vet I’d be going to jail. Does that mean that if I had not been a vet, he would have put me in jail for not breaking the law? Because I am a vet, does that mean my life is more valuable? Military service does not warrant special treatment. Lack of military service does not justify mistreatment?

Why holster your gun to come put your hands on me, if my cousin and I are a threat?

This unfortunate circumstance put me in a situation where if I was to defend myself, then I would have been a hashtag. Or worse, my death would have been ignored or excused on the premise of Mcglaughlin’s irrational fear.

Officer McLaughlin should not be allowed to continue abusing his power.

This is a true story and I feel it’s my responsibility to share it.

Police need better training on implicit bias. They need tougher disciplinary actions taken when patterns of misconduct become frequent and are being reported from multiple sources.

The Vallejo Police Department says it has launched an internal investigation. The officer was also wearing a body cam, so that footage will also be reviewed and hopefully released.

A California cop with a history of abuse and fraud was caught on video abusing a man for recording in public.

Vallejo police officer David McLaughlin attacked a man named Adrian Burrell on January 22, who posted the video to his Facebook page Thursday.

The video shows McLaughlin had just pulled over Burrell’s cousin, who was on a motorcycle and pulled over in a residential driveway in front of Burrell’s house.

Burrell was standing on the front porch recording, at least 30 feet from both the cop and motorcyclist.

But McLaughlin still accused Burrell of “interfering” when the video proves it was the cop interfering with a citizen’s right to record. The cop also accused Burrell of “resisting.”

Burrell said the cop smashed his face against a wall and knocked his head against a pillar, causing a concussion before handcuffing him and placing him in the back of a police car.

It was not until Burrell informed McLaughlin that he was an honorably discharged U.S. Marine with no criminal record that the cop let him go.

But as Burrell explained in his Facebook post, “Military service does not warrant special treatment.”

According to CBS San Francisco:

McLaughlin has been a Vallejo police officer since 2014 and was previously in the Oakland Police Department. His twin brother, Ryan McLaughlin, is also a Vallejo police officer. Both brothers have previously been sued for alleged civil rights violations.

In 2014, David McLaughlin was named in a suit alleging that he and another officer pulled over Frederick Cooley without cause, held him at gunpoint and searched his car.

The complaint alleges they falsified a police report saying that Cooley was in possession of a controlled substance, but the Solano County District Attorney’s Office later abandoned those charges. The civil case was dismissed after Cooley died.

Officer David McLaughlin has also been involved in two shootings since joining Vallejo police. He and Officer Matt Komoda fired on a suspect who was allegedly driving at them before crashing into a parked car on Aug. 31, 2016. No one was injured.

On Aug. 2, 2017, Komoda and David McLaughlin were two of five officers who shot and killed Jeffrey Barboa after a pursuit into Richmond. Police rammed Barboa’s car to disable it. Barboa got out of the car with a machete and the officers shot him. His death was later ruled a suicide.

Burrell, who has since retained civil rights attorney John Burris, posted the following on Facebook.

I am a Black man born and raised in Oakland, California who was physically attacked by Vallejo PD officer David McLaughlin, last Tuesday. In researching my situation, I learned that Mclaughlin has been involved in lawsuits related to his brutality including the fatal shooting of on August 3rd, 2018.

Mclaughlin grabbed me, smashed my face against the wall and then swung my body, knocking my head into a wooden pillar causing a concussion. He put handcuffs on my wrists so tight they broke the skin and caused my fingers to go numb. All while telling me “stop resisting” to my reply, “I’m not resisting.”

I’m a Marine, and was honorably discharged when I completed my service. I have no convictions on my record; I’m not on parole or probation. I own my home, I was on the porch of this home when McLaughlin pulled his pistol on my cousin, saying my cousin looked like someone who he saw speeding earlier. My cousin was sitting on his motorcycle in front of my house. A gun had been pulled on him because he “looked like someone” the officer had seen speeding earlier. Obviously, the situation concerned me. From roughly 20 ft away, with a railing between myself and the officer, I started filming with my phone. You have the right to film a police officer in action as long as you’re not a threat or preventing him from doing his job. The officer told me to go in my house. I chose to stay on my porch and film because the situation was concerning. My camera panned and tilted, but I did not take one step off of the porch. At that point, officer Mclaughlin approached me as you see in the video.

He said I was going to jail and detained me in the back seat of his car. Would I have gone to jail if I weren’t a vet with no criminal record? When the officer realized I am a Marine, he told me if I wasn’t a vet I’d be going to jail. Does that mean that if I had not been a vet, he would have put me in jail for not breaking the law? Because I am a vet, does that mean my life is more valuable? Military service does not warrant special treatment. Lack of military service does not justify mistreatment?

Why holster your gun to come put your hands on me, if my cousin and I are a threat?

This unfortunate circumstance put me in a situation where if I was to defend myself, then I would have been a hashtag. Or worse, my death would have been ignored or excused on the premise of Mcglaughlin’s irrational fear.

Officer McLaughlin should not be allowed to continue abusing his power.

This is a true story and I feel it’s my responsibility to share it.

Police need better training on implicit bias. They need tougher disciplinary actions taken when patterns of misconduct become frequent and are being reported from multiple sources.

The Vallejo Police Department says it has launched an internal investigation. The officer was also wearing a body cam, so that footage will also be reviewed and hopefully released.

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Carlos Miller
Carlos Millerhttps://pinacnews.com
Editor-in-Chief Carlos Miller spent a decade covering the cop beat for various newspapers in the Southwest before returning to his hometown Miami and launching Photography is Not a Crime aka PINAC News in 2007. He also published a book, The Citizen Journalist's Photography Handbook, which is available on Amazon.

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