your vehicle is not like that sit out no you sit up in Oklahoma City this police officer is on paid administrative leave and an investigation is underway after the local Vietnamese Community is up in arms about this video footage showing that officer slamming a 70-year-old Vietnamese man to the ground after the man merely refused to sign a traffic ticket following a wreck that he had with this woman I have to write you a ticket for improper yoube I don't know what to talk about I I didn't make you hey you are the police so you know how many times we are done sir no we're done arguing about this okay I don't if you don't sign this you go to jail that involves impounding your car too your vehicle is not like that sit down no you sit up get on the ground yeah I'm going to call an ambulance was that justified I'll give you my opinion and I'll back it up with the applicable case law for this jurisdiction let's go through [Music] it um the way that your vehicle was located I have to write you a ticket for improper U-turn whenever you complete a U-turn I didn't urn when hold on whenever you complete a U-turn you're supposed to be as far to that corner as possible okay they have the front of her why you know we I cannot [ __ ] be her okay well what you're seeing here is this Vietnamese man is being detained following some sort of traffic accident the other driver in the wreck is also in this parking lot standing off to the side you'll see her in a minute it's important to note here that this man is not under arrest he's being being issued a citation and he's arguing about it there's obviously a language barrier as you'll see the officer allows the situation to escalate into something it never should have you you are required to go as far away between you're not supposed to be between any cars you're supposed to be against that curb line okay I need you to sign with your finger it's not an omission of guilt yours a signing saying you'll take care of the citation for a ticket you're promising saying that you'll take care of it at a later date whether that be in court or if you take care of it outside of court I don't know what just talking about so I'm writing and issuing you a citation for improper U-turn yes sir eitting me and I got citation you don't I'm not riding a ticket for for her hitting you okay no she hitting me you see her I am not riding a ticket you see the evidence no okay I don't think that you're understanding what I'm what I'm saying here okay I understanding I told you she the the car the friend of her the whenever you make a U-turn I didn't I didn't make a U-turn sorry let let me clarify okay whenever you enter a little intersection thing like that you were not allowed to go side by side next to a car you have to go behind Vehicles hey you are the police yes so you know okay how many times we are done sir no we're done arguing about this okay I don't think we are we are not one we are not arguing about this okay I want to show you we argue in court we argue in court you take the phone and AR in court we don't argue on the side of the road we argue in court yes that's how it works because if not if you don't sign this you go to jail okay I don't want to take you to jail I'm ready to go to ja you ready to go to jail ridiculous okay that involves impounding your car too okay the officer is threatening to arrest the Vietnamese man for not signing the citation but take a look at this now he goes to the other driver and talks to her and he's issuing her a s itation as well let me know if you see differently but it appears to me that he does not require the other driver to sign her citation sir you got a ticket also your tag expired um so you're good to get out of here okay there's a report I'll get to you guys in a second wait there so sorry there's a this is the ticket there's a data at the bottom that you have to take care of it by and below that there's a phone number website address one of the three will say you where to take care of it and then there is a Cas number right there everyone's person vehicle insurance information on it okay okay so now I guess I just get my insurance to go after or take care of it yeah just call the insurance give him the case number thank you go Ahad can you roll me another unit I got this guy up here and a supervisor he's refusing to sign a ticket and he's uh wanting to go to jail the officer radio's dispatch for a backup unit to arrive and also calls for a supervisor saying that this guy wants to go to jail yet in just a few seconds he's going to violently take this man to the ground what possible reason did he have if he thought it was necessary to bring another officer there and bring a supervisor there just due to the circumstances why did he do what he did when he did there's no apparent reason that I can see that he could not have waited sir my HB we stay here waiting for go here we're not we not you turn W it doesn't matter about a U-turn or what that lane and I heard I heard she she bit she she hit us I understand that but you're not you see where that car is at whenever you enter that area that's what you're supposed to do you're not supposed to pull leave any space at all you're not supposed to leave any space at all you see that too yeah that's what you're supposed to do the way where your vehicle was located your vehicle is not like that sit no you up [Music] the I need ambulance yeah I'm going to call an ambulance look 12 R me fire a supervisor apparently in the officer's police report he claimed that he was basically assaulted by the man that the man hit him in the chest and then put his finger in his face and said shut up and that was why he was arresting him but what did we not see or not hear in that footage we never heard the officer telling the Vietnamese man that he was under arrest or that he was imminently about to be arrested there were no orders given to which the man did not comp comply there was no arrest communicated to which the man could have resisted the first thing that transform this into a routine encounter between a police officer and a driver involved in a traffic accident was the sudden and violent use of force by the officer the main case on police officer excessive force is the US Supreme Court case of Graham versus Connor now that has three factors to be considered but before we even get to that a general holding of Graham is that police officers cannot use violent Force against somebody who did not commit any serious crime and is not attacking them or resisting them or even evading them in any way and I think that's what we have here is just a sudden out of nowhere use of Violence by a police officer who has not even told somebody that he's under arrest has not even given an order to be obeyed but looking at the Grand factors here there are three factors one is the severity of the crime here as I said under all of the Graham cases when you're dealing with a nonviolent misdemeanor such as a traffic violation that is only going to justify a very minimal use of force in order to eff effectuate an arrest of somebody for the commission of that crime now the officer could say that well he was assaulted when the man touched him in the chest yeah okay all right let's move on to the second factor which is the most important whether or not there was an immediate safety threat now there is a language barrier but I didn't hear any verbal threats made while technically the man did touch his chest and he did tell him to shut up was that police officer in any danger would any reasonable police officer under those circumstances believe that he was in immediate danger somebody else was in immediate danger if he didn't suddenly and violently take that man down no even if he claimed he thought he was it's all on video and the video does not corrup that the third factor is whether or not the individual was resisting or evading arrest and that's where we get back to the fact that the officer never communicated to the Vietnamese man that he was under arrest it was violence first then communicating while you're under arrest secondly I don't think there's much of an issue whether or not this was excessive force violation of the Fourth Amendment but a police officer in a civil lawsuit can still be granted qualified immunity if the plain if in the case cannot point to some prior case law establishing a fourth amendment violation under similar facts Oklahoma is in the 10th federal circuit there's a couple of 10th circuit cases that I found and there's probably more out there but one is Casey versus city of Federal Heights from 2007 and in that case qualified immunity was denied in large part because the officer in that situation never did indicate to the subject that he was or would soon be under arrest this is where they say that the arrest was transformed from from a quote routine encounter only by the officer's use of violent force and in light of Graham and other case law a reasonable jury could very well find that the officer use of force was excessive and therefore unconstitutional and that's why qualified immunity was denied there's another case Pera versus Baka this is one that the Vietnamese man could point to in a lawsuit to get past qualified immunity just by itself and in that case they said that at the time of Mr perea's death it was clearly established law in the 10th circuit that the use of disproportionate Force to arrest an individual who is not suspected of committing a serious crime and who poses no threat to others constitutes excessive force so this is both a clear violation and also a clear denial of qualified immunity situation frankly I'm not sure why this would take so long to investigate it's right there on video perhaps this is one of those situations where they're just waiting to see if the community forgets about it well don't let them forget that's how you can help by sharing this footage informing people that this happened that this is not going to go away if this police officer would do this to a 70-year-old man what would he do to your son or what would he do to your grandfather subscribe both here and at the blog at the Civil Rights lawyer.com remember our rights don't end where your fear begins freedom is scary deal with it [Music]