Another police officer has been caught on a cell phone camera beating an unarmed person. San Jose officer Kenneth Siegel was called to an apartment where two roommates were fighting. He arrested Phuong Ho on assault charges. The officer claims that Ho resisted arrest but a third roommate photographed the arrest with his cell phone. It shows numerous hits with a metal baton. At least one of the hits occurred after another officer had placed Ho into handcuffs. While Siegel is beating Ho with the baton another officer is shooting him with a Taser.

Ho is a 20 year old Vietnamese-American student at San Jose State University. He got into a physical fight with a roommate after the roommate put soap on Ho’s steak.

This follows the killing of Oscar Grant by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle in nearby Oakland which was also photographed on cell phones. The shooting of Grant also occurred after he was in handcuffs. Mehserle is charged with murder. Likewise, a criminal investigation is being initiated into the shooting of Ho.

San Jose has a large Vietnamese-American community and many members of the community remain upset over the killing of a mentally ill Vietnamese-American, Daniel Pham, by a police officer in May.

Chicago mayor Richard Daley told the ABA conference this week that cameras in police cars will reduce the amount the city will have to pay out in damages for police malfeasance. He may be right. But let’s not forget the case of Raymond Bell who was arrested by Chicago police officer Joe D. Baker, a 23 year veteran of the force, for driving under the influence. According to Baker, Parker staggered when he got out of the car and could not stand on one leg for 30 seconds. The problem with this is that a camera mounted in the police car saw Bell walking straight and taking the field sobriety tests without problem. Case dismissed. While the article by Steve Chapman in the Chicago Tribune doesn’t mention it, I would not be surprised if Bell is a little richer at the expense of the Chicago taxpayers.

In a Hollywood, Florida case, Officer Joel Francisco ran into a vehicle driven by a Georgetown University student. According to the officer the woman was under the influence but the case was dismissed after the office was heard discussing on a police car video camera with four other officers how to put the blame on the student for the accident. All five were suspended. The accident, by the way, was Francisco’s seventh accident in a police car since 2000.

By the way, Mayor Daley is wrong when he says that the city should not be charged when the police harass citizens in response to rough language on the part of the citizen. The police need to be able to handle a little rough language. Daley ought to have a discussion and a mug of beer with Henry Louis Gates.

The point is not whether the use of cameras in police car will save the city money or cost the city money. Nor is it whether it will result in more convictions or less convictions. The point is that the use of cameras will result in the truth coming out and then we all win.