Video of Champaign Arrest Leaked Online

A police video showing the arrest of a Champaign man in the University of Illinois Campustown area last June has been posted anonymously online. The footage raises questions about the use of force within the Champaign Police Department.

Taken from a police car's dash camera, the video runs for about an hour. It shows an officer pepper-spraying a college-age African American male.

At the start of the video, the young man is shown walking with a young woman on the evening of June 5. The man claims that the woman is his sister.

A squad car pulls up near them and a police officer detains the man. The man's attorney said he was ultimately ticketed for jaywalking and arrested for resisting police, but the resisting arrest charge was later dropped. Within about 10 seconds, the police officer who apprehended him pulls out pepper spray and shoots it at him.

The man is then handcuffed and led into a police car. In another camera angle from within the car, the man urges officers not to touch him. A police officer then puts his hands on the man's neck while he is still handcuffed, and pushes him down to the side of the car out of the shot of the video. After a few seconds, the officer exits the car.

"Take me to jail! Take me to jail!" the man said. "You have no reason to choke me."

The names of the officer and Champaign man arrested have not been released. Illinois Public Media has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the city of Champaign for the arrest record of the incident.

The young man's attorney, Mark Lipton, said both he and his client didn't want this video to surface. Lipton said they don't know who made it public. But Lipton said it is clear that police used excessive force.

"I guess I would hope this would affect police policies, procedures, and training," Lipton said. "I would hope that police would have exercised discretion and had the officer not made any stop for this rather minor jaywalking instant, we wouldn't be having this discussion today."

The Urbana Champaign Independent Media Center linked to the YouTube video Monday morning. The IMC's co-founder Danielle Chynoweth said it is the IMC's policy to allow anyone to publish content to its site. She noted that her group doesn't track the Internet addresses of its posters. Chynoweth said she thinks it is important that the public be allowed to see the video's content.

"This is basically a public venue in which people can post anything to the site," Chynoweth said. "The only decision that the IMC takes is whether or not to feature that. The IMC editorial group chose to feature that story. But any story can be posted by anyone, including any piece of video, audio, photography, etc."

Police department personnel investigated the case, and Chief R.T. Finney issued a finding that the officer's actions regarding 'use of force' were within police and training standards. Meanwhile, Champaign City Manager Steve Carter said a possible investigation of the arrest by state police could start later this week.

"These are very difficult circumstances, and we'll want to take a look at what's the right thing to come out of this for both of those," Carter said Sunday before the video was leaked. "So, the individual case needs to be resolved for sure. Wherever that leads us is where we need to go. "

Champaign Mayor Don Gerard said he is 'gravely disappointed' the police video was posted online, saying it is counteractive to anything the city is trying to achieve in terms of police-community relations. The mayor added that he is 'very confident' that state police will investigate the June 5 arrest.

"I hoping that despite (the video being released) that whatever actions the city and the state's attorney take aren't compromised," Gerard said.

Watch the police footage from the June 5 arrest