Missing Tape?
Last month reporter Betty Pleasant from the Los Angeles Wave Newspapers revealed that the video tape of the LAPD beating of Stanley Miller had been edited by KABC-TV. She claims that the police beating continued on tape for an additional 8 minutes after the edited TV version is cut off. Pleasant explained:
- 'after Mr. Miller is on the ground, subdued, kicked and hit 11 times by Officer Hatfield, most of the swarming cops get off him. But the prone, handcuffed man is inexplicably jumped on again, like a loose football, by seven of the eight officers present, and kicked again by another one. At this point, Mr. Reiff can be heard on the tape yelling, "This guy must be resisting, they're slapping the crap out of him!"
- Then, the cop that kicked him the second time hauls a visibly dazed Mr. Miller up from the ground, kicks his legs apart and pats him down, obviously looking for weapons. The officer completes the pat-down and retrieves nothing. The cop came away from the pat-down empty-handed.
- In the meantime, Sgt. Angela McGee is standing behind and to the left of Mr. Miller and the kicking cop, busily counting and pocketing some dollar bills. She is preoccupied with the money in her hands and is not looking at what is happening with Mr. Miller nor at what the other officers are doing. If she had looked up, she would have seen her officers celebrating their capture with back pats, handshakes and high-fives. Reporter Reiff saw it and commented incredulously, "They're all high-fiving each other!"
- At this point, a bald-headed sheriff's deputy walks into the picture and exchanges words with Sgt. McGee and another officer, while the kicking cop takes a wobbly Mr. Miller by his right arm and begins leading him back down the grassy strip to the patrol car.
- During his lengthy walk to the car, a second officer takes Mr.
Miller by his left shoulder and joins the kicking cop in propelling him
down the grassy strip.'