“The public in Vietnam are very upset. This use of violence and abuse of power by police is unacceptable and should be swiftly and properly dealt with,” spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement posted on the ministry’s website on Tuesday.
Her ministry has told the Vietnamese consulate in San Francisco to verify the events of September 3 and take whatever measures are necessary to protect the student in question, Ho Phuong.
Four police officers were suspended after the grainy video, which can be viewed at http://www.mercurynews.com/bayarea-news/ci_ 13635707, showed them beating and tasering Phuong, San Jose’s Mercury News reported on Sunday.
A police spokesman told the paper the department had viewed a copy of the recording and opened a criminal investigation of the officers' conduct.
The video, a copy of which was obtained from the student’s lawyers, documents the use of excessive force as the 20-year-old student lay on the ground and posed no physical threat to the police officers who had gone to his residence following a disturbance call.
The San Jose State University math major was struck on the head with a baton, something that experts say is potentially fatal and should be used only when appropriate. Even after he was handcuffed, Phuong was hit with a baton at least once.
The reports filed by the police officers tell a different story and have Phuong refusing to comply with their orders and kicking violently as they tried to handcuff him.
While some local experts said the quality of the video recorded by Phuong’s roommate was too poor to reach any conclusions, others had no doubt.
“I don’t think you can watch that video and not be very concerned about what you’ve seen,” San Jose police chief Rob Davis told the Mercury in a telephone interview.
Davis, San Jose’s mayor and a city councilman said they would conduct a fair and thorough review of the case.
According to the newspaper, on September 3, Phuong and his roommate Jeremy Suftin got into a fight after Suftin slopped soap on Phuong’s dinner steak.
Phuong then picked up a steak knife and told Suftin, “In Vietnam, I would kill you for this!”
While Phuong’s threat merely elicited a laugh from the others present, Suftin took it seriously and called the police.
By the time the cops arrived, Phuong had dropped the knife and was not armed, eyewitnesses told the newspaper.
However, the police reports say Phuong ignored their commands, prompting them to push him into the hallway, force him to the floor and attempt to handcuff him.
Community leader Paul Loc Le, vice president of the Viet-American Voters of Northern California, said the arrest of Phuong was only the latest in a series of questionable incidents involving police and members of the Vietnamese community.
"Clearly, there's a pattern of excessive force being used on a minority group," he told the Mercury.
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Students launch signature campaign to support Phuong
Vietnamese students at the San Jose State University yesterday launched a week-long campaign to collect signatures protesting police violence and abuse of power to support police brutality victim Ho Phuong.
The petition will be submitted to the court at the opening of a lawsuit filed by Phuong against the San Jose Police Department in mid-November.
“Overseas students are very upset about police use of violence and abuse of power against Phuong,” said Thomas Nguyen, a university student.
Ha Pham, another San Jose State student, said it was okay for the police to respond to a report about someone threatened with being killed.
“But it is unacceptable that Phuong continued to be beaten after being handcuffed,” Pham said.
Phuong told Thanh Nien Wednesday he had asked a Vietnamese lawyer to represent him in this case and would have to get the latter’s permission before answering media requests.
Reported by Trung Bao |
Source: TN, Agencies |
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