A new petition demands body cameras for the San Francisco Police Department following the spread of a viral video showing officers detaining a man with one leg.
In the video, which was posted to YouTube and Medium on Monday by writer Chaédria LaBouvier, at least five uniformed SFPD officers can be seen restraining the man, who is handcuffed, right next to the BART train station stairwell across from the Bargain Bee store on Market Street.
At one point, LaBouvier can be heard saying: "What are you doing? ... Wait, you're on his prosthetic leg?" as officers ask bystanders to "back off." More officers can be seen arriving as bystanders shout, "He's done nothing wrong," and "Is that how you guys treat handicapped people?"
“I am a San Francisco resident, and it is unconscionable that the SFPD would treat a disabled person this way,” wrote petition author Julie Mastrine, Activism Marketing and Social Media Manager for Care2, where the petition is posted. “Yet I am unsurprised. Week after week, incidents of police brutality surface on the Web, illustrating a systemic pattern nationwide: state agents routinely brutalize nonviolent and vulnerable citizens, shattering their bodily autonomy, personal agency and integrity. This absolutely cannot continue.”
35,000 signatures are sought for the petition; as of this writing, there are 30,946.
