Pittsburgh Department of Public Safety officials will review police conduct and procedures employed on Friday when officers arrested an East End man on drug and other charges Downtown. The encounter came amidst an increased police presence in the area, brought on by concerns about crime in the neighborhood.
Videos of the incident at Smithfield Street and Strawberry Way were posted to social media, sparking criticism from community members and advocacy groups.
The clips appear to show Jashon Martin, who is Black, on the ground surrounded by five or six officers attempting to handcuff him. In the video, an officer appears to punch Martin in the face multiple times before another officer reaches over in an apparent attempt to stop him. Later in the video, one officer is heard saying, “He’s reaching towards something.” Martin replies, “I’m not reaching towards nothing,” and another officer appears to hit Martin with his knee.
According to the criminal complaint later filed against Martin, police charged him with six counts, including resisting arrest, aggravated assault and drug charges. The complaint alleges that Martin was involved in drug deals that evening and concealed a weapon after fighting with another man. It also claims that “a fixed blade knife was recovered from the ground near where Martin initially resisted arrest.”
Police noted in the report that an officer “delivered a closed fist punch to Martin,” and, after Martin allegedly bit the officer’s fingers, punched him again several times.
The arrest prompted the Alliance for Police Accountability, the Black Political Empowerment Project and the NAACP Pittsburgh Branch to release a joint statement in which they condemned what they described as “excessive use of force by law enforcement officers against a Black male individual.”
“The videos circulating on various platforms vividly depict a scene where the officers employed extreme and unjustifiable force, raising serious questions about the proportionality of their actions as well as the violation of impeding the right of the public to video record,” the groups said in their statement. Such actions are in direct contradiction to the principles of justice, equality and the protection of citizens’ rights that should be upheld by those sworn to serve and protect our community,” the groups’ statement adds.
In response, Public Safety spokesperson Cara Cruz said “The Gainey administration, the Department of Public Safety, and City Council are taking this encounter and the considerable community concern it has generated extremely seriously and are reviewing all available video footage and gathering as much information as possible pertaining to the incident.
Cruz said in a statement that the department will commission “an independent use-of-force review to ensure that Pittsburgh Police are adhering to current policy, national best practices, and that the bureau's academy and in-service training continues to reflect its commitment to serving our communities in a safe, fair, and equitable manner.”
As of Monday, Cruz was unable to offer a timeline for the completion of the review or to identify who will conduct it.
When reached for comment, Olga George, a spokesperson for Mayor Ed Gainey’s office, referred WESA to Cruz’s statement and said more information would be shared soon.
Brandi Fisher, the president and CEO of the Alliance for Police Accountability, said “The brutality [shown in the video] was unnecessary.”
“Anyone the police encounter normally should be about to commit a crime or accused of committing a crime or in the act of committing a crime. That doesn't excuse brutality,” she said. “The community needs to understand that law enforcement exists to enforce the law, but it doesn't mean they get to enact justice on the streets.”
In a separate statement, NAACP Pittsburgh Branch President Daylon A. Davis said the use of the “knee-drop technique” in the video was “unacceptable, especially when you already have more than four officers on top of Mr. Martin.”
Both Davis and Fisher noted that an officer appeared to try to stop his colleague from punching Martin multiple times. That “seemingly [indicates] an acknowledgment of the officer using too much force,” Davis said in his statement.
The groups called on officials to release the officers’ body camera footage of the incident and asked for an urgent meeting with police leadership to address “not only the specifics of the incident itself but also the broader issues surrounding the conduct, training and oversight of officers involved in this incident.”
Fisher said discussions to plan such a meeting are ongoing.
