Joseph Harris, a police officer in Jonesboro, Arkansas, is out of a job after a police cruiser's dashcam filmed him violently beating a handcuffed detainee. The video shows the man restrained and behaving strangely after a possible fentanyl overdose; police are heard making disbelieving remarks and, untimately, Harris is seen to enter the back of the vehicle, then punch and elbow the man repeatedly in the face until he stops moving.
Jonesboro Police Chief Rick Elliott fired Officer Joseph Harris on Friday, the day after Harris was caught on his patrol car video punching, elbowing and slamming the car door on an inmate being transferred from a local hospital back to the county jail.
Elliott reviewed the video after receiving a complaint from the county sheriff's office about the incident. The department also posted the video on its YouTube page and announced the officer's firing.
"I was just shocked and appalled by (Harris') actions," Elliott told The Associated Press on Monday. "Based on that conduct, I'm not going to have it and I'm not going put up with it, and immediately terminated him."
It's not enough; Harris must be prosecuted. When Elliot says "Wrong is wrong. There's not really anything to investigate," he could not be more wrong. One thing worth investigating, for example, is how, exactly, an officer who had been suspended two years ago for using excessive force and is currently a defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit returned to service.
Here's the vid, embedded below.
