Philadelphia Police Beat Suspect

P H I L A D E L P H I A, July 13 -- Philadelphia police and community leaders are at odds over whether a videotape showing officers beating and kicking a suspect who allegedly shot a police officer, stole a police cruiser and was pursued while driving it, was a case of excessive police force.

The video, filmed from an ABCNEWS affiliate’s helicopter Wednesday, shows a group of Philadelphia police dragging 30-year-old Thomas Jones from a car and then beating and kicking him.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner John F. Timoney said the tape does not show the events leading up to the arrest, or that the suspect was still putting up a fight by biting one officer and reaching for their guns.

“There will be a fair and thorough investigation,” Timoney said today on ABCNEWS’ Good Morning America.

But community and religious leaders said today there is no doubt that the incident shows a case of excessive force, much like the 1991 beating of black motorist Rodney King by white police officers.

“It comes out of a history of violence and brutality in thisdepartment for over 30 years and that’s what Commissioner Timoneyand the black clergy and the NAACP have been resisting for a longtime,” said J. Whyatt Mondesire, president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

But Timoney said the King beating was an entirely different situation, in which billy clubs were used.

“For people to compare it to Rodney King is just outrageous,” Timoney told Good Morning America.

Race Not an Issue

The leaders insisted they don’t consider this a race issue. In the videotape, several African-American and white officers are seen stomping and jumping on the suspect, who is black.

“We are not questioning that this was a question of race,” said Rev. Vernal Simms, president of the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity. “We are concerned about the whole brutality issue.”