BERKELEY, MO — State Rep. Bruce Franks Jr. yesterday released body camera footage from a 2014 protest in Berkeley, Missouri, saying that he wanted to share the “unfiltered reality” of his and other protesters’ interactions with police that night. The footage shows Franks being beaten, kicked and sprayed with Mace by several officers. The footage was obtained as part of ongoing litigation by Franks against St. Louis County and several of its police officers, and appears to be edited, though to what extent isn’t clear.
Demonstrators had gathered on Christmas Eve to protest the fatal shooting of Antonio Martin, a black teenager killed by police hours earlier. The 18-year-old had been armed and drew his weapon first, police said, though he fired no shots.
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Police said a gun was recovered from the scene, but the officer who fired the fatal shots was not wearing his body camera and a camera in his police cruiser was not recording, according to the Post-Dispatch. Only three cameras at the gas station where the shooting took place captured what happened, all in low quality and from poor angles.
Martin was shot less than four miles from where another police officer shot and killed another black teenager, Michael Brown, only months before.
Police say protesters lit fires and threw bricks at officers at protests that broke out at the gas station after Martin’s shooting. Two officers suffered lacerations, while dozens of protesters were injured.
The video released this week shows several officers using Mace on Franks, brutally kicking and beating him with a baton while he was handcuffed on the ground.
“I’m not fighting,” Franks screams repeatedly as he appears to comply with orders from officers.
In the aftermath of the confrontation, the video shows at least one officer bragging about Macing and kicking a protester on the ground.
“That’s one of the f***ing white b***hes [that] caught me spraying everybody, so she’s on my a**. I’m hiding back here for a little bit,” an officer says as a woman yells at police for Macing protesters who were already subdued.
Franks identifies that officer, who is wearing the camera capturing the video, as St. Louis County Police Officer Timothy Anderer.
“I got a couple good licks in on somebody,” a second officer says.
Anderer replies: “Yeah, we all did.”
“Some guy was kneeling down, trying to get up, and I f***ing kicked him like there was no f***ing tomorrow,” the second officer replies.
“Did you get any stick time in?” a third unidentified officer later asks Anderer.
“No, but I went through a whole bottle of Mace,” Anderer responds, adding that he had ” a couple of good kicks” as well.
At that point, the unidentified officer raises his eyebrows and glances suggestively toward Anderer’s body camera.
“Okay,” Anderer says.
Watch the body camera footage here (Warning: Video contains violence and profanity):
Anderer and two other officers — St. Louis County Police Officer Stephen Owens and Bel-Ridge Police Officer Phillip Von Der Heydt — are named in a lawsuit filed by ArchCity Defenders, a legal advocacy group, on Franks’ behalf.
Franks said he had gone to the protest as a peacekeeper, to mediate between law enforcement officers and demonstrators. The suit alleges that Anderer, Owens and others violated his First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights through their “unreasonable and excessive” use of force.
According to the suit, Franks and other mediators were trying to create a buffer zone between protesters and police when Franks saw an unidentified officer reach for his gun. A protester yelled at the officer to get his hand off his weapon, and in response the officer grabbed one of the mediators.
Franks says he was trying to pull the mediator back to safety when Owens “pulled him violently to the ground.” While on the ground, Owens, Anderer and Von Der Heydt Maced, kicked and beat Franks, while screaming profanities at him, the suit alleges.
After Franks was detained, he says his requests for medical attention were ignored. He was charged with assault and resisting arrest, but that’s not what the video shows, and all charges were later dismissed.
“We can confirm that some of our police officers were involved in the protest shown in the video from 4 years ago in December of 2014,” a spokesperson for the St. Louis County Police Department told KMOX. “The protest turned violent, and subjects were taken into custody. Any use of force that occurred was documented and internal investigations were conducted as part of that review. We can not further comment on the actions taken by officers that night due to pending litigation.”
For Franks, that’s not nearly good enough.
“Since our goal was to facilitate conversations and manage tensions, we should have been able to partner with law enforcement officials present, but unfortunately that was not the case,” he said in a statement. “Instead, officers reacted with excessive force, even against peacekeepers, who raised concerns about their colleagues’ conduct, which is far too common.”
He said he is releasing the footage “not to fuel tension between law enforcement and civilians, but to give insight into the experiences of communities who are disproportionately subjected to police brutality,” adding that he hopes full transparency will highlight the need for reform.
Photo: A woman who says she was 18 year-old Antonio Martin’s girlfriend leaves a message on a makeshift memorial outside the gas station where Martin was shot and killed by a Berkeley police officer on December 24, 2014 in Berkeley, Missouri. Following the shooting, protesters gathered at the scene, leading to violent confrontations between officers and protesters. (Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)