NAACP says Seattle police kicking caught on video should be investigated as hate crime

NAACP says Seattle police kicking was hate crime

SEATTLE — The NAACP on Tuesday asked that prosecutors treat a Seattle police beating caught on video as a hate crime.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People also is asking for the Justice Department to intervene.

The department already asked the FBI to conduct a preliminary inquiry of the April 17 attack recorded by a freelance videographer.

It shows an officer using a racial epithet and kicking a suspect’s head and stepping on his hand. Another officer comes over and stomps on the man’s leg. He was taken down as a robbery suspect but later released when officers realized they had the wrong man.

A tearful Detective Shandy Cobane apologized Friday to the Latino community for his role and said the words he used “were offensive and unprofessional.”

Information from: KOMO-TV, www.komotv.com/