LA County Sheriff’s Dept. investigating beating of Black trans man

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is facing more outrage and rising concerns over its personnel’s use of force, after the video of a Black trans man was released over the weekend showing a violent arrest by a deputy over a minor traffic infraction that escalated.

“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department takes all use of force incidents seriously. The Department is investigating the information and allegations brought forward by Mr. Brock and his attorney. Unfortunately, we cannot comment any further at this time due to the pending litigation in this matter,” the the LASD said in a statement released Monday.

Emmett Brock, 23, a high school teacher, had pulled into the front parking spaces of the 7-Eleven on Mills Avenue in Whittier last February 10 at approximately half past noon, and as he exited his Black Honda Civic he was confronted by an LASD deputy, identified by the Los Angeles Timesas Deputy Joseph Benza.

The confrontation was caught on the deputy’s body cam as well as the convenience store’s video surveillance system. The audio of the arrest, captured by Benza’s body-worn camera, records the deputy telling Brock:

“Come here. I just stopped you,”

“No, you didn’t,” Brock replied.

“Yeah, I did,” Benza said and video shows he grabs Brock and violently slams him onto the parking lot.

“Oh, my god. What the fuck is happening,” Brock is heard saying.

Speaking with KTLA 5’s Carlos Saucedo, Attorney Thomas

Beck, who represents Brock, said that his client continued to struggle on the ground, screaming for help the entire time, yelling that the deputy was going kill him and that he was not resisting arrest. This was documented by the audio from both videos.

In the 7-11 video surveillance system footage, Benza is seen on top of Brock, pressing him into the concrete and punching him multiple times in the head. The altercation lasted around three minutes before Brock was cuffed and put into the patrol vehicle.

Beck told KTLA that the deputy’s official reason for pulling his client over was an air freshener hanging from the vehicle’s rearview mirror but that he believes the deputy became enraged after the 23-year-old flipped him off as he was driving by.

“The video speaks for itself. He was pounding at the kid’s head. He was diagnosed with a concussion later after he was released. This guy committed multiple felonies against my client, and he’s gotten away with it so far,” the attorney stated.

Brock and his attorney say that Benza used excessive force and that the traffic stop was solely because the deputy was enraged after Brock flipped him off.

Beck also told KTLA that the L.A. County Sheriff’s department has so far not launched an investigation into the arrest. “I mean, if there’s an investigation that needs to be con- ducted, you would talk to the people who would give you the information you need. They didn’t do it,” Beck said.

Brock, who was taken to the Norwalk Sheriff’s Station after his arrest says that when he informed Sheriff’s personnel of his gender identity, he became humiliated when they asked to see his genitals before deciding which holding cell to put him in.

The Times reported:

It wasn’t long before authorities asked Brock for a statement, during which he explained that he is transgender.

“So you’re a girl?” he said one jailer asked.

Brock said he wasn’t.

Then the man asked whether he had a penis — and Brock said he did.He explained what surgeries existed, and said that he’d been on hormones for years.

After one jailer asked for proof, Brock said, he spent a few awkward minutes in a bathroom showing her his genitalia and explaining the effects of testosterone.

Brock, who has since lost his job as a teacher and according to The Times, although he d been booked on three felonies and a misdemeanor, the LA County District Attorney ultimately decided to move forward with two misdemeanor charges: resisting arrest and battery on an officer. A judge reduced his bail from $100,000 to nothing.