Richmond police released a videotape
yesterday of the May 30 incident in which officers tackled a young
woman and her boyfriend and pepper-sprayed several people in an angry
crowd. Seven people, all black, were arrested. The incident outside a
black-owned club on Orange Street led to allegations of excessive force
and racial profiling against the police. An internal investigation
found that proper force had been used in making the arrests. The tape,
made by a camera in a police cruiser, shows a portion of the arrest of
Natasha Miller, who was body-slammed by an officer. members of the
Justice Resource Center asked the U.S. Justice Department this week to
investigate the incident. [more]