It is both disturbing and refreshing that accountability for police violence often only comes after a story picks up media interest. Refreshing, because at least accountability is even approached at all. For decades, stories like that of a handcuffed Black man shown in witness video being attacked by a police dog were buried off-camera and easily overlooked. That is not happening after a recording featuring three Missouri police officers taking turns holding the man and controlling the dog was posted to Facebook last Monday and viewed some 8,700 times. That’s one single post. It was also picked up and shared on other social media sites by reporters, activists, and attorneys, including noted civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
“K9 dogs only attack on command, so it was NO accident when a K9 near St Louis viciously mauled a Black man multiple times while 3 cops stood & watched,” Crump tweeted on Sunday. “This cruel & unusual punishment is FAR TOO similar to the use of dogs against civil rights protestors in 1960s South!” The FBI has since launched an investigation into the violent arrest, which the applicable Woodson Terrace Police Department is assisting in, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Derk Brown, an on-air personality at 96.3 The Lou, shared the video with a warning about its graphic nature. "I was just tagged in a video of a disturbing arrest this morning at around 8:45am that took place in #WoodsonTerrance/#StAnn (#StLouisCounty)," he wrote in his Facebook post. "The video shows police allowing a K-9 dog to continue biting a man after he gave up and not resisting."
Warning: The videos in this story contain violent footage that may be triggering for some viewers.
Woodson Terrace Chief Randy Halstead said in an email the Post-Dispatch obtained that his department is “fully cooperating” with federal investigators and that St. Louis County prosecutors have requested information about the arrest, which happened in the St. Louis suburb at around 7:15 AM. Police were called to the area with a report of a break-in at a local business, officials said in a statement posted on Facebook. They said the man seemed to be on drugs and was placed under arrest when he threatened officers and proclaimed to be a “sovereign citizen.” Officials also said he didn’t comply with their commands, resisted arrest, and continued resisting even after they warned him that the police dog would be released.
“The suspect continued to resist, causing minor injuries to one of the officers so the K-9 was released and the K-9 gained control of the suspect’s foot,” police said in the statement.
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View the complete police statement:
A spokesman for St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell told the Post-Dispatch the office has not made a decision about whether to prosecute, and said the man who was attacked has not been charged. Bell told the newspaper he promises to conduct a “thorough review” of the encounter. Protesters who showed up outside the police department on Friday demanded the officers involved be fired and prosecuted after seeing the video. It began with police allowing the dog to bite the man’s foot while he’s restrained on the hood of a car. The dog is then shown biting the man for about 10 seconds before an officer tries to pull him back, but the dog continues gnawing at the man's foot. "Help," he yelled repeatedly. The dog continued biting the man even as officers arrested him, with the mauling lasting more than 25 seconds.
Michael Gould, a K-9 expert with more than 35 years of experience in handling police dogs, told NBC-affiliated KSDK the video is "problematic." "The fact of the matter is, it's a human reflex response, you can't have an 80-pound dog puncturing your skin and be compliant," he said. "It's virtually impossible."
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In an an editorial given the headline “Woodson Terrace officers keep Bull Connor's legacy alive,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s editorial board compares the attack to the tyranny of the 1960s and one Birmingham public safety chief, Bull Connor, who in the name of shutting civil rights protesters up allowed them to be brutalized by police dogs. “There was nothing so urgent in the Woodson Terrace arrest that prevented officers from trying alternative techniques so cooler heads could prevail,” the editorial board wrote. “The sole message seemed to be: If you as a Black person show the slightest resistance, here’s what we can do to you.”
“K9 dogs only attack on command, so it was NO accident when a K9 near St Louis viciously mauled a Black man multiple times while 3 cops stood & watched,” Crump tweeted on Sunday. “This cruel & unusual punishment is FAR TOO similar to the use of dogs against civil rights protestors in 1960s South!” The FBI has since launched an investigation into the violent arrest, which the applicable Woodson Terrace Police Department is assisting in, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Derk Brown, an on-air personality at 96.3 The Lou, shared the video with a warning about its graphic nature. "I was just tagged in a video of a disturbing arrest this morning at around 8:45am that took place in #WoodsonTerrance/#StAnn (#StLouisCounty)," he wrote in his Facebook post. "The video shows police allowing a K-9 dog to continue biting a man after he gave up and not resisting."
Warning: The videos in this story contain violent footage that may be triggering for some viewers.
Woodson Terrace Chief Randy Halstead said in an email the Post-Dispatch obtained that his department is “fully cooperating” with federal investigators and that St. Louis County prosecutors have requested information about the arrest, which happened in the St. Louis suburb at around 7:15 AM. Police were called to the area with a report of a break-in at a local business, officials said in a statement posted on Facebook. They said the man seemed to be on drugs and was placed under arrest when he threatened officers and proclaimed to be a “sovereign citizen.” Officials also said he didn’t comply with their commands, resisted arrest, and continued resisting even after they warned him that the police dog would be released.
“The suspect continued to resist, causing minor injuries to one of the officers so the K-9 was released and the K-9 gained control of the suspect’s foot,” police said in the statement.
Facebook Content
View the complete police statement:
A spokesman for St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell told the Post-Dispatch the office has not made a decision about whether to prosecute, and said the man who was attacked has not been charged. Bell told the newspaper he promises to conduct a “thorough review” of the encounter. Protesters who showed up outside the police department on Friday demanded the officers involved be fired and prosecuted after seeing the video. It began with police allowing the dog to bite the man’s foot while he’s restrained on the hood of a car. The dog is then shown biting the man for about 10 seconds before an officer tries to pull him back, but the dog continues gnawing at the man's foot. "Help," he yelled repeatedly. The dog continued biting the man even as officers arrested him, with the mauling lasting more than 25 seconds.
Michael Gould, a K-9 expert with more than 35 years of experience in handling police dogs, told NBC-affiliated KSDK the video is "problematic." "The fact of the matter is, it's a human reflex response, you can't have an 80-pound dog puncturing your skin and be compliant," he said. "It's virtually impossible."
YouTube Video
In an an editorial given the headline “Woodson Terrace officers keep Bull Connor's legacy alive,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s editorial board compares the attack to the tyranny of the 1960s and one Birmingham public safety chief, Bull Connor, who in the name of shutting civil rights protesters up allowed them to be brutalized by police dogs. “There was nothing so urgent in the Woodson Terrace arrest that prevented officers from trying alternative techniques so cooler heads could prevail,” the editorial board wrote. “The sole message seemed to be: If you as a Black person show the slightest resistance, here’s what we can do to you.”