Responding to last week’s video of a Chattanooga officer punching and cursing a compliant man during a traffic stop, city council members on Tuesday demanded explanations and action.
“Someone had to see this. Someone must have thought it was justified,” Councilman Russell Gilbert said at the council’s evening voting session.
He called for an independent investigation by the district attorney’s office into the March 2018 incident. Police body-camera and dashcam video showed Officer Benjamin Piazza punching and cursing motorist Fredrico Wolfe.
The audience in the council chambers included members of the NAACP, retired state Rep. Tommie Brown and a couple of dozen local residents.
Local activist Marie Mott called it “crazy and insidious” that the council continues to let the Chattanooga Police Department investigate itself after multiple charges of excessive force up to and including two allegations of rape against one officer.