Video Shows 'Disturbing' Arrest of NBA Player

Cops disciplined for Sterling Brown incident
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 24, 2018 4:43 AM CDT

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has apologized to NBA player Sterling Brown for the "disturbing" way police treated him in a video released Wednesday. Police body-camera footage of the Jan. 26 arrest shows an officer becoming confrontational after finding the Milwaukee Bucks rookie's vehicle parked across two spots reserved for disabled drivers outside a Walgreen's around 2am, the Washington Post reports. Six more squad cars turn up at the scene after the officer requests assistance. Officers surround Brown, who is Tasered after police yell at him to take his hands out of his pockets. Brown, then 22, was arrested but not charged. Scratches could be seen on his face in a game later that day.

Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales said Wednesday that the officers involved "acted inappropriately" and had been disciplined, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports. The Bucks described the "abuse and intimidation" Brown suffered as "shameful and inexcusable." Brown plans a civil rights lawsuit. "What should have been a simple parking ticket turned into an attempt at police intimidation, followed by the unlawful use of physical force, including being handcuffed and tased, and then unlawfully booked," he said in a statement after the video was released, vowing to help "prevent similar incidents from happening to the minority community in the future." NPR notes that the Milwaukee police department was already being sued for alleged mistreatment of black residents. (More Milwaukee stories.)

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