Judge handcuffed after refusing to stay in his car, UCLA says

[bemildred]

I predict we are going to hear more about this one.

An African American judge who has accused UCLA police of excessive force ignored officers' orders to stay in his car, UCLA officials said Monday.

David S. Cunningham III, a former Los Angeles Police Commission president, filed a complaint against the officers after they allegedly shoved him against his car, handcuffed him and locked him in the back seat of their police cruiser.

"During the course of the traffic stop, police officers instructed the driver to stay inside the vehicle and returned to their patrol car to run a routine license and registration check," UCLA said in a statement released late Monday afternoon. "Despite these instructions, the driver left the vehicle – an escalating behavior that can place officers at risk."

Cunningham "stood in the roadway" and refused to get back in his car, the statement said. As a result, he was temporarily handcuffed. He was released at the scene shortly after being cited for failing to wear a seat belt.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ucla-judge-handcuffed-20131125,0,4036838.story

[bemildred]

1. Judge accuses UCLA police of brutality

David S. Cunningham III is a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, former president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, and a onetime federal civil rights attorney.

But on Saturday morning, he found himself handcuffed in the back of a UCLA police car. Officers had pulled him over as he was driving his Mercedes out of his Westwood gym — because, the police said, he wasn't wearing his seat belt.

What happened next is a matter of dispute, but it ended with the African American judge yelling to a growing crowd in the heart of Westwood Village about police brutality.

Cunningham, 59, has now filed an excessive force complaint with the university, and his attorney said Monday that he believed race was a factor in how the judge was treated.

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-judge-ucla-20131126,0,3286857.story

[TreasonousBastard]

2. May have been, but a judge should know why...

you stay in your car at a police stop.

Could he perhaps have been pushing the issue?

[bemildred]

3. Sure, it's a conspiracy to get the poor naive cops. Lot's of judges like to do that. nt

[TreasonousBastard]

6. No need to get snippy-- all we know so far is...

that he refused the cop's order and the cops did what they often do when you dis them.

The rest remains to be seen.

[bemildred]

7. I'll get snippy if I want to.

All we know so far is they didn't get along.

[mynaturalrights]

4. dash cam video will be used

It might turn out that he was released because of who he was.
Where you and me would have been arrested and brought in for getting out of the car
and refusing orders to get back in.

[Agschmid]

5. Why do you feel...

You'd be singled out?

[mynaturalrights]

8. I don't think I would be

unless I got out of my car during a traffic stop .

[Agschmid]

9. Ok.