There is "strong circumstantial evidence" that police covered up the 2000 beating of drug suspect Jerry Amaro III, who died a month after suffering broken ribs, according to confidential city documents obtained late Wednesday.Two other people also arrested in the same drug sting and put in a police car with Amaro later told investigators Amaro was "complaining constantly that he was in pain, and wanted to see a doctor and that (he) was sweating profusely, consistent with a painful injury," the document states. Amaro was denied immediate medical care.
The FBI is investigating Amaro's death, and police last week suspended a senior officer, Capt. Edward Poulson, with pay as his role in the matter is probed. Poulson is suspected of kicking Amaro and then ordering subordinate officers to lie about it.
Watch Ishmael Reed, Oakland poet laureate, talk about how police racially profile Black and Latino men just like Oscar Grant everyday.
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