The officer locks Dashawn McGrier’s arm and takes him down to the pavement, preparatory to letting loose a fuselage of blows, as his partner appears primed to snuff out any intervention

The officer, who has not been named, reportedly has a history with McGrier, the man seen being punched on the video.
A prior run-in in June ended with the officer charging McGrier with assaulting an officer, disorderly conduct, obstructing and hindering and resisting arrest, McGrier’s attorney Warren Brown told the Baltimore Sun.
Brown said that in both the June arrest and the incident on Saturday, the officer targeted McGrier without justification.The incident began when two officers, who were working a special cross borders crime initiative, encountered McGrier on the sidewalk, police said in a statement that did not identify McGrier by name.
After releasing McGrier, the two officers approached him again to give him a citizen contact sheet, which police issue as an acknowledgment that a citizen has had a particular encounter with an officer.
When McGrier refused to take the contact sheet or provide identification, the situation escalated.

“He knows his rights, and he felt as though his rights were being violated, and he took offense to that,” one witness said.

The BPD Office of Professional Responsibility and State’s Attorney’s Office are investigating the incident. It follows several years of tense relationships between police in Baltimore and parts of the community.
The 2015 death of Freddie Gray from spinal injuries suffered while in police custody sparked violent riots. None of the six officers charged in the matter were found guilty.
A 2016 Justice Department report excoriated the city for ‘long-standing discriminatory enforcement practices by Baltimore police that allowed for illegal searches, arrests and stops of African Americans for minor offenses.’
The city’s homicide rate has spiked dramatically in the aftermath of the riots over Gray’s death, ending 2017 at a record high.
Lt. Gene Ryan, president of the umbrella union that represents rank-and-file officers,  said he believed police commissioner Tuggle took “the appropriate action” by suspending the officer pending an investigation.
Ryan said there might be more to the story that he doesn’t know, but that “at first view” the video of the incident showed “inexcusable behavior” on the part of the officer that the department “can’t tolerate.” Contending that while officers are allowed to use force when individuals are resisting arrest,  in the video DashawnMcGrier did not appear to be acting in an aggressive manner.
“I’d like to believe that there is more to it, but obviously, it really makes us look bad,” Ryan said. “That’s something we don’t need right now. We don’t need another black eye.”
Brown said he hopes city officials take the matter seriously, because the treatment of his client is unacceptable.
“The animus, the hatred almost that you could see on the officer’s part, the way he just beat this guy down, was startling. It’s such an ugly act that has such a damning impact on the city as a whole, the police department, police-community relations,
” Brown said. “It’s not just an attack on my client, it’s an attack on the whole community.”