Area : AEN NEWS
Date : 10-17-95  22:03
From : alt@iquest.net
  To : All
Subj : Still no Officer Friendly

From: "Al Thompson" 
Originally to: news@aen.org
Organization: American Justice Federation
Original Date: Tue, 17 Oct 95 20:44:10 -0500

 Tape of Texas police spraying pepper gas at handcuffed
 black woman sparks outrage
 ---------------------------------------------------

 (c) 1995 Copyright The News and Observer Publishing Co.
 (c) 1995 N.Y. Times News Service

 DALLAS (Oct 17, 1995 - 20:54 EDT) -- Black leaders here
 heard an appeal for united action Tuesday following the
 broadcast of a police videotape in which three white suburban
 officers were shown gassing a handcuffed black woman inside
 a jail cell.

 The tape, aired on television Monday night, showed police
 officers in suburban Lancaster, Texas, spraying a can of
 pepper gas into a holding cell where they had just pushed
 Cynthia Gillespie, a 30-year-old mother and part-time student
 who had been arrested for using abusive language at a video
 store.

 On the tape, Gillespie is seen making a slight gesture of
 resistance. She can be seen twisting her wrists, handcuffed
 behind her back, as if to break an officer's grip. The
 officer is clutching the handcuffs and using them to steer
 her into the room.

 It is not possible to see on the tape what happened in the
 seconds after she was placed in the holding cell. The tape
 shows one of three police officers reaching calmly into the
 room and apparently spraying gas from a can about the size
 of a typical hair-spray container. A Lancaster city spokesman
 said Tuesday the gas used was pepper gas, which causes a
 severe burning sensation in the skin and eyes.

 Two separate police videotapes were made, one at the scene
 of the arrest by a camera in the police car and the second
 by a surveillance camera at police headquarters.

 "I can't believe the arrogance, that he would do that and
 know that they were being taped," said Dallas County
 Commissioner John Wiley Price, a prominent African-American
 leader who described the incident to a meeting of the city's
 black leaders Tuesday.

 Price said he was angered by what he considered Officer
 Dyson Ward Adams' light punishment -- a 15-day unpaid
 suspension, which he began serving the day the tapes were
 released.

 "We want him prosecuted on assault," said Price, who said
 he will push for state and federal investigations of the
 incident.

 The incident itself occurred in July but only became public
 knowledge after Dallas television station KDFW broadcast
 portions of the videotapes, which had been acquired by a
 Lancaster citizen under the Texas Freedom of Information
 Act.

 Gillespie was arrested after the manager of a Blockbuster
 Video Store complained she had used abusive language in an
 argument over the validity of her membership card, according
 to her lawyer and a city spokesman.

 Price said he knows Gillespie as a community volunteer and
 a member of a family that is well known in Dallas. All
 charges against her were subsequently dropped by a municipal
 judge in Lancaster, according to Donya Witherspoon, Gillespie's
 lawyer. Gillespie could not be reached for comment.

 In the tapes shown on television, a team of paramedics
 arrive within minutes after the gassing to help Gillespie.

 Her lawyer said the paramedics took her to a shower where
 she stood under the water for 45 minutes. A city spokesman
 said she was later taken to a hospital, where she was treated
 and released.


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