Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin responds to the violent arrest of a homeless man caught on camera, while the internal investigation into allegations of excessive use of police force continues.
The mayor spoke with us by phone from Washington D.C. on Tuesday.
Her response to the video: “disturbing and concerning” and says the City of Fresno now has a bit of a crisis on its hands.
After watching this violent arrest video, exclusively obtained by KSEE 24 News, Tuesday morning, Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin phones in to KSEE 24 News, to respond to what she saw.
Ashley Swearengin, Fresno Mayor: “I was really concerned. I think probably who saw the video had the same reaction. It was very disturbing.”
The mayor says she’s taking the incident very seriously.
An incident that is now under an internal investigation, being led by two sergeants with the Fresno Police Department, while the two Fresno Police Officers seen in this home video arresting 52-year-old Glen Beaty, remain on limited duty.
Mayor Swearengin: “At the same time, we�ve gotta look from a policy standpoint of putting an auditor in place and crafting something that really makes sense for the long haul.”
Dadfar Ighani, Witness: “He was 20 minutes on the floor, face down on the floor, it was muddy, it was rainy day.”
Dadfar Ighani owns the AM/PM on the corner of Blackstone and Bullard Avenues next to the vacant lot his family owns, where Beaty�s arrest took place.
Ighani describes Beaty as a peaceful man, who comes into his store daily for beer and cigarettes and says he wasn’t the kind of guy who went looking for trouble, and wasn’t bothering anyone before police arrived Monday to arrest him.
Ighani: “Glen was sleeping. He was completely asleep. The officers put on gloves, woke him up, Glen was sitting, he just lighted up a cigarette, he just was talking. Here comes another cops and another cops.”
Jerry Dyer, Fresno police chief: “We take these matters very very seriously, cause we know that the public trusts us to use force appropriately. They also trust us to do the internal affairs investigations in a very effective and thorough manner.”
But as this internal investigation moves forward, so does one involving three undercover Fresno narcotics officers, who were arrested and charged last week, in connection with an auto theft case.
Now, the attorneys representing at least two of the witnesses to Beaty�s arrest question the department’s ability to truthfully investigate its own officers.
Rick Berman, Attorney at Law: “We’ve asked the attorney general to conduct an investigation. The attorney general hasn�t paid two million dollars to homeless people within the last year. The attorney general is not under attack for his police officers being corrupt or acting improperly. The Fresno Police Department is and has a financial interest and reputational interest. They feel that the Fresno Police Department cannot fairly investigate their own people under these circumstances.”
Mayor Swearengin says her highest priority will be to meet with Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer and City Manager Andy Souza as soon as she returns from Washington D.C. on Thursday, to in her own words: �make sure this doesn�t happen again.�
The police report on this incident and the moments leading up to it still has not been released.
The Fresno Police Department says it will be made available Thursday.
By Preston Phillips