On April 10, 2014, four months before Ferguson teenager Michael Brown was shot and killed by St. Louis area police, another 18 year old, Cortez Bufford, was pulled over by police in St. Louis for "making an illegal u-turn." Within a few minutes, a full-fledged scandal ensued and the the mayor of St. Louis has worked for months to keep it from the public.
The video is below, but let's break down the key facts. Let's start with the strange reality that all charges were dropped against Cortez Bufford. These charges were:
1. Police alleged that Bufford was a suspect in an area shooting.
2. Police alleged they saw marijuana in the car.
3. Police alleged they recovered an illegally owned gun from Bufford.
4. Police alleged that Bufford made an illegal u-turn.
5. Police alleged that Bufford kicked officers and resisted arrest.
Now, think for a moment, and ask yourself why in the world would all charges be dropped against a young black with all of those things stacked against him? If it doesn't add up, the video will make sense of it for you. At around 6:00 in the video, police force Cortez Bufford out of the car and begin assaulting him, kicking him, using their taser on him multiple times and even screaming for him to remain still while they tase him.
Head below the fold for more on this story and the video.
At 7:52 in the video, we get what may be the best national evidence ever that police are fully aware on how to manipulate dash cams and body cams to protect themselves from prosecution.
Officer Kelli Swinton approaches Burkemper’s patrol car. There is the sound of an opening car door, and she loudly declares: “Hold up. Hold up, y’all. Hold up. Hold up, everybody, hold up. We’re red right now, so if you guys are worried about cameras, just wait.”
The audio cuts out, and the video ends eight seconds later.
In response to an open records request, City Counselor Winston Calvert released the same video on Friday, plus views from other dash cams.
One shows that after Burkemper’s camera stopped, officers continued to huddle around Bufford. That camera shuts off, too, leaving a gap of more than two minutes before Bufford is seen on it again, stumbling and falling once as he’s taken to a police vehicle. Other videos show unrelated scenes and both Bufford and his passenger sitting inside vehicles.
Lawyers for Cortez Bufford now claim that Bufford was brutally assaulted once all of the cameras were turned off—leaving him hardly able to walk. No matter what happened, this much is clear—the officers on the scene believed it was in their best interest to turn the cameras off and they had their own language (we're red) for communicating when they were being filmed. This didn't seem to be the first filming rodeo for any of them.
For 10 months, the mayor of St. Louis and the St. Louis police have worked to conceal this video knowing full well that it creates a negative image of their department and their work to remain on the up and up with the public. Yes, dash cams and body cameras are essential, but if any video has ever proven the need for real policies on how they are managed, it's this.