Small town coverup of deputy’s use-of-force shows what can happen when there are no videos
All year, bystander footage of police violence has turned the names of small towns and cities into national headlines: North Charleston, S.C., McKinney, Tex.
But in one small city — Bainbridge, Ga. — there were no onlookers with cellphones filming a confrontation between Aaron Parrish and several sheriff’s deputies back in 2012.
Parrish said he was badly beaten in the encounter — grabbed from behind and pulled to the ground, put in a headlock that nearly choked him, hit with a flashlight until his face stung and he could barely remain conscious. At trial, he recalled hearing the flashlight’s batteries rattling in their tube as a deputy slammed it into his head. Parrish’s wife later said that her husband’s face was so disfigured by cuts and bruises that she didn’t recognize him when she picked him up from the sheriff’s office command center.
But when Parrish complained to the sheriff’s department about how he was treated, justice proved elusive.
It turned out that the deputy accused of beating Parrish was the Decatur County Sheriff’s son, Wiley Griffin IV.
Rather than discipline the deputy, the sheriff’s department issued a warrant for Parrish’s arrest.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/06/11/small-town-cover-up-of-police-brutality-shows-what-can-happen-when-there-are-no-videos/