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March 27, 2015

Michigan: Video Shows "Robocop" Beating Unarmed Auto Worker in the Head 
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Newly released video shows police in the Detroit suburb of Inkster
pummeling and tasing a 57-year-old, unarmed African-American auto
worker. The video shows Officer William Melendez approaching Floyd
Dent's car with his gun drawn. Another officer pulls Dent to the ground,
and Melendez places him in a chokehold and pounds him in the head 16
times. Dent said he thought he was going to die.

Floyd Dent: "I'm lucky to be living, you know, because I think they were
trying to do — they were trying to kill me, especially when they
choked me. I mean, I was on my last breath. I told the officer, 'Please,
I can't breathe.'"

Police claimed Dent threatened and bit them, although they have provided
no evidence. They also claim they found crack cocaine in his car, but
Dent says the drugs were planted, and his drug test came back clean.
Melendez, the officer who pummeled Dent, is nicknamed "Robocop," and has
been sued repeatedly for excessive force. During an earlier stint in
Detroit, he was indicted for leading a corrupt ring of officers who
planted evidence, although he was ultimately acquitted. In 1996, he and
a partner shot and killed unarmed African American Lou Adkins in a case
Detroit paid $1 million to settle.

 

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