Alabama city says releasing this bloody secret video may cause riots

[Judi Lynn]

Lynda Edwards, Staff Reporter
Published July 26, 2022

Just hours before his nightmarish death, Joseph Pettaway enjoyed a joyful backyard barbecue celebrating his good work on his buddy’s cute but dilapidated pink house in Montgomery, Alabama. Cresta Circle was a poor but friendly neighborhood and the little home’s tall windows, wooden shutters and shade trees gave the house charm. Pettaway’s friend, James Jones, paid Pettaway to add sheetrock, paint and clear debris so that Jones could move his girlfriend and baby girl into the home. That July Saturday, Jones and his sweetheart grilled venison sausage and hosted a feast at the pink house for Pettaway, a coworker and some neighbors.

Pettaway, 51, grew up in a big, close-knit Black family. He lived with his mom just three blocks from Cresta and was popular in the neighborhood.

But on July 8, 2018, the unarmed Pettaway was mauled horrifically by a police dog inside the pink house. The dog ripped open Pettaway’s femoral artery. An autopsy photo shows a gaping thigh wound two and a half inches long and so deep, with bone visible.

In depositions, police officers near the attack agree that Pettaway did not break any law, didn’t resist arrest and didn’t argue with police.

More:
https://www.rawstory.com/joseph-lee-pettaway/

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Older story:

Judge won’t release bodycam of deadly police dog attack in Alabama
Updated: May. 19, 2022, 2:57 p.m.|Published: May. 19, 2022, 2:47 p.m.

A federal judge today denied a request to release body camera footage of a Montgomery police dog biting and killing Joseph Pettaway — but she did not rule out making the footage public later.

Chief U.S. District Judge Emily C. Marks denied a motion filed by attorneys for Pettaway’s family, which asked her to remove the confidentiality designation from the videos.

Pettaway, a 51-year-old Black man, bled to death after a police dog bit his thigh and tore his femoral artery inside a mostly empty house in Montgomery in 2018. Police said they got a call about a possible burglary, although Pettaway’s family says he had been helping fix up the small home and sometimes slept there.

Pettaway’s family is suing the city and several police officers, including the K-9 handler, Nicholas Barber, alleging excessive force, wrongful death and failure to provide medical aid. The family says they want the public to see the videos showing what happened when the city police dog named Niko fatally bit Pettaway.

More:
https://www.al.com/news/2022/05/judge-wont-release-bodycam-of-deadly-police-dog-attack-in-alabama.html

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Could ‘Jeopardize Police Safety’: Alabama Judge Blocks Release of Video Showing Police K-9 Mauling a 51-Year-Old to Death After a False Burglary Call

Posted by Nicole Duncan-Smith | June 3, 2022

A federal judge in Alabama denied a family’s motion to have footage released showing a police dog mauling their loved one until he died from those injuries. The officer believes making the footage public could “jeopardize police safety” and prompt “civil unrest.”



On Wednesday, May 18, Chief U.S. District Judge Emily C. Marks denied Joseph Pettaway’s family a motion asking her to remove the confidentiality designation from police bodycam videos of the deceased being bitten to death by a Montgomery Police Department canine.

While the family and their attorney believe releasing the footage will promote transparency surrounding the four-year-old case, the judge is standing with the city’s lawyers, who claim releasing the video will cause chaos.

Atlanta Black Star obtained the civil lawsuit filed by the Pettaway family in 2019 against the city and the police department for violating Pettaway’s Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

The claim alleges on Sunday, July 8, 2018, police engaged in excessive force when they allowed Niko, a dog on the force, to sink his teeth so deeply into the thigh of the man (even before verifying if he was a criminal) causing his wrongful death.

More:
https://atlantablackstar.com/2022/06/03/could-jeopardize-police-safety-alabama-judge-blocks-release-of-video-showing-police-k-9-mauling-a-51-year-old-to-death-after-a-false-burglary-call/

[mopinko]

1. that aint a good enough reason to suppress the truth.

wtf? this is a judge?

[ashredux]

11. It's Alabama.....Duh

[mobeau69]

2. Damn.

Montgomery Fucking Alabama.

[Ferrets are Cool]

3. Sue their fucking asses. It won't bring him back, but it might help the future.

Or not. It seems like they keep happening, no matter the lawsuits.

[Jirel]

4. I'm guessing this BS is going to provoke "civil unrest" just fine.

Them: "We won't show you the video because the way we killed this guy was so horrific that you'll riot."

Us: "Ok, thanks. Now we know we should riot."

[yardwork]

12. I mean, that's how I feel.

Sounds like a valid reason to riot, to me.

[Chainfire]

5. They misunderstand. It will not be the film, but the actions that will cause unrest.

They would prefer covering up brutality to fixing it.

[JHB]

14. It's not a misunderstanding

They know full well. It's a feature, not a bug.

[intheflow]

6. "Could lead to civil unrest" "The law is afraid of the public holding police accountable."

Last edited Wed Jul 27, 2022, 07:19 PM - Edit history (1)

Fuck these cops. Police dogs are exceptionally well-trained and the cops should never have given a sic command. They admit dude did nothing wrong and was cooperating with them and they sicced the dog on him anyway. Again: police dogs only attack on command. Who gave the command to attack Mr. Pettaway?

[stopdiggin]

17. you sure about all that?

Never heard of a 'police dog' f***ing up? You've been reading too much 'highly trained' propaganda. Level of training is subject to varying standard (not to mention the abilities and competence of individual 'handlers' at local level) - and the dogs are not (and never have been) infallible.

[intheflow]

18. No, I haven't.

It’s possible, but all the stories I’ve heard about K9 fuck ups was handler-instigated. Here’s a whole article from WaPo a couple years back: https://archive.ph/yKGRZ (paywall bypassed by using an internet archive).

[stopdiggin]

19. the idea/premise that animals

are almost infallible is just flatly erroneous.
(And, yes, the people around them are often deeply engaged, and ardent fans - and thus often among the biggest purveyors of these myths. But they're still myths.)
Animals screw up - and handlers (and owners) make excuses, and invent rationale.

from the article: "One deposition describes the video as showing K9 officer Nicholas Barber forced to strangle his dog into unconsciousness just to get the dog’s teeth unclamped from Pettaway’s flesh."

you still trying to portray this as 'well trained animal?'
think we're done here, buddy.

[Woodswalker]

7. I've never been crazy about using dogs thing. Just seems so Nazi

[Jade Fox]

9. +1

[AZLD4Candidate]

13. Police used to use Shepherd's but now most use Malonis [sp] because those dogs are more

aggressive.

Why not go full balls to the wall and use Tibetan Mastiffs?

[Thunderbeast]

8. How very uncomfortable for the City of Motgomery...

Ya know...stress and everything...

It's just so much easier when the "coloreds" just stay calm.

[Solly Mack]

10. K&R

Release the video.

[Roy Rolling]

15. Riot?

Man murdered in his own home by an attack dog from a cop? Murder via vicious animal? Riot? Ya think?

Where can I sign up?

[stopdiggin]

16. if the lawyers have the video

and can proceed with actions necessary, that satisfies one level of obligation and disclosure. That has already happened. Whether this footage should be shown on the 6 o'clock news (and uploaded to youtube) is something that probably ends up in a FOI ruling. (and are we sure that such a request is not already in train? in most jurisdictions it certainly would be.)