2 separate brutality complaints lodged against Chattanooga police
City police are investigating two separate complaints of excessive force after a videotape showed officers kicking a handcuffed suspect and a report that a homeless man was driven out of town and sprayed with tear gas. Police Chief Steve Parks said he restricted duties of two officers this week after seeing a convenience store surveillance video that shows a stun gun also may have been used on the handcuffed Georgia man after a Sept. 11 chase. Chattanooga lawyer Robin Flores filed an excessive force complaint on behalf of Jason McCollum, 26, of Dalton, Ga. McCollum reported suffering scratches and bruises when he was arrested on charges of public intoxication, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Flores told investigators that officers violated at least two departmental policies - using a stun gun on a handcuffed suspect and failing to get him follow-up medical treatment. Police officials also confirmed an internal affairs investigation of a complaint by Robert E. Williams, 43, that Chattanooga police put him in a patrol car, sprayed him with a chemical, told him he was "going to Georgia," and threw him out of the car in the Chattanooga suburb of East Ridge on Sunday night. Williams said he was driven out of town after officers were called a second time to a coin-operated laundry they had told him to leave. A Hamilton County deputy found Williams on the roadside near a park gate. East Ridge police arrived a few minutes later and filed a report saying Williams "displayed all the symptoms of being Maced." He was taken by ambulance to a hospital. [more]