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The Los Angeles Police Department in late August released a video of police violently arresting Alesia Thomas, a 35-year old mother of two. Thomas died shortly after being kicked violently in the groin by police officers during her arrest. The four officers and supervisor involved have been assigned to administrative duties at the police station.

Only two weeks earlier in Venice Beach, a bystander video showed four LAPD officers beating a 20 year old local college student named Ronald Weekley, Jr. Weekley was detained for allegedly skateboarding on the wrong side of the street and was later sent to jail after being charged with resisting arrest.

Just three days after the Venice incident, another video surveillance camera showed two LAPD officers slamming Michelle Jordan, a 34-year-old registered nurse, face first into the asphalt.

And, on August 28th a senior executive at Deutsche Bank, Brian Mulligan, filed a lawsuit for $50 million against the LAPD after he was beaten by officers back in May in an alleged case of mistaken identity. In an attempt to clean up the LAPD’s image and instill confidence in his department, Chief Charlie Beck is mandating community meetings for 21 police stations to discuss why police officers use force and how the various incidents of force are investigated. The LAPD has a long and sordid history of using excessive force that the department, under Beck’s leadership, is attempting to move beyond.

GUEST: Earl Ofari Hutchinson, President of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable

Visit www.laurp.org and www.thehutchinsonreportnews.com for more information.