Five days after a videotaped beating by an Inglewood police officer sparked protest and criminal investigations, the city’s police chief, Ronald Banks, addressed the controversy for on Thursday, saying he was disappointed but rejected the suggestion that the incident was racially motivated. Banks urged Inglewood residents and others to reserve judgment on the case until an investigation is completed. But the police chief said any city official who voices a decision on the case too soon could jeopardize the investigation. ‘‘For public perception and maybe from a legal perspective it could create a problem,’’ he said. Banks referred to the past few days as the ‘‘siege of Inglewood Police Department.’’ Ralph Boyd, who heads the US Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, flew to LA to meet privately with Inglewood officials and others. Man who videotaped police beating arrested near LA LOS ANGELES: The man who videotaped a police beating near Los Angeles and then dodged a grand jury inquiry into the matter was arrested on Thursday. Mitchell Crooks was taken into custody on warrants issued in northern California. Authorities also served him with a subpoena to testify before the LA County grand jury. (Reuters) One of those whose testimony was sought by that panel was Mitchell Crooks, 27, the DJ who shot the videotape of the beating that now has aired across the US. Crooks was under subpoena to appear before the grand jury with his tape, but he did not appear as ordered, and instead was confronted by police outside CNN’s Los Angeles studios, prosecutors said. The videotape that Crooks shot has sparked angry protests and comparisons to the 1991 beating of Rodney King by several LA Police officers. In his news conference, Banks rejected comparisons between the King case and the one now confronting his department. (LATWP)
