Copitalism: After Stomping on a Restrained Black Man's Head a Fired Cleveland Cop Gets His Job Back, Community Unable to Decline His Compulsory Service or Resist His Uncontrollable Conduct; Suit Filed

From [HERE] A Black man who was seen on police body camera video getting stomped on by an East Cleveland police officer has filed a lawsuit alleging the department has failed to turn over public records relating to the “brutal assault.”

Redrick Ward filed the lawsuit in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court on Thursday.

Ward’s attorney, David Nacht, said the suit was filed, “In order to bring to light the truth about the East Cleveland Police Department.”

“Not only does the city of East Cleveland have a terrible record with regard to police abuse of Ohio citizens, not only have they reinstated an officer, Nicholas Foti, who is on video kicking a handcuffed and face down citizen over and over in the head, but they withhold information and records that they are legally obligated to provide, information that belongs to the people of Ohio,” Nacht said. “ I believe the city’s efforts to withhold this information is part of a calculated strategy to sweep allegations of abuse and police brutality under the rug.”

East Cleveland Law Director Willa Hemmons  told the I-Team Friday that the attorney did not pay $20.25 for the public records and that’s why the information was not sent to him.

The excessive force incident happened on April 1, 2020. City officials learned about the matter in March of this year after a public records request was made for the video. The officer involved, Nicholas Foti, was fired but earlier this month an arbitrator ruled Foti should get his job back.

The incident began about 2 a.m. when officers saw Ward driving on the sidewalk, Gardner said. He noted that the pursuit speeds were “very slow,” and officers “believed him to be intoxicated.”

The video shows an officer telling a supervisor that Ward was going about 35 mph to as low as 10 mph during the pursuit with no traffic or pedestrians present.

“It is my opinion that the lag in time compromised the due process rights of the grievant,” attorney Bruce  B. McIntosh’s ruling stated. “Even though there were five officers at the scene, allegations of excessive force were not discovered for almost a year. It is hereby ordered that the grievant be returned to the city’s employ as an officer with the East Cleveland Police Department.”

Nacht said after they receive the public records, they plan to file a civil rights lawsuit in federal court.

“If he’s going that slow see if somebody can get in front of him with the stop sticks,” the supervisor said over the radio.

Shortly after, Foti got in front of Ward’s car and stopped it using the stop sticks on Euclid Avenue near Alvason Road, according to police records.

Officers surround the car and immediately smashed Ward’s driver’s window. It is not clear why that was necessary. Two police officers pulled him out and threw him face-first onto the road. The cops hold him face down in the street with a knee into his upper back ala George Floyd with the man’s hoodie over his head, appearing to smother him. At that point Foti comes up and kicks him in the head. In the video Ward is not seen resisting or moving much at all.

Ward shouted at the officers, and while it’s not visible, the body cam footage contains audio of the officers tasing Ward.

Foti then kicked Ward in the head, Gardner said.

Paramedics took Ward to University Hospitals for medical treatment, records say.

Gardner said his department found that no other officers violated the use-of-force policy in the encounter with Ward.

Garnder said the officer who punched Ward, as seen in the video, was trying to get Ward’s hands behind him so an officer could handcuff him, Gardner said.

“The investigation will hopefully show if officers were aware of officer Foti’s use-of-force and, if so, why they failed to report it,” Gardner said.

The encounter left Ward injured, and he now has a permanent scar on his head.

“I have difficulty imagining how the officer who engaged in the kicking could imagine why he had legal justification for it,” he said. “I viewed it as a lawyer: ‘What was the officer thinking when he did that?’”