Feds Probe SC Highway Cops for Bias

Dash videos reveal racial slurs, cars ramming suspects
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 21, 2008 1:16 PM CDT
Feds Probe SC Highway Cops for Bias
This frame from a dashboard video camera, released by the South Carolina Highway Patrol, shows a suspect fleeing from a state trooper's patrol car on June 24, 2007.    (AP Photo/ South Carolina Highway Patrol)

Dash-cam videos that show the South Carolina Highway Patrol ramming black suspects with patrol cars and using racial slurs have triggered a federal probe, the State reports. In one of the five incidents, a trooper sent a suspect flying with his cruiser and then told a fellow officer, "Yeah, I hit him. I was trying to hit him." The state's US attorney is investigating.
 

In another incident, a speeding Highway Patrol car pursued a suspect through a housing complex jammed with people and just missed hitting children. That car, too, struck the fleeing suspect. "My son is scared to go outside and ride his bike because he’s scared a police officer’s gonna come around that building and run over him,” said one boy's father, who demands an apology. (More South Carolina stories.)

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