Two black brothers were victims of US police bias: ACLU

Two African-American brothers who were stopped by police and detained in a violent encounter that was caught on video in Colorado were the victims of racial profiling, a civil liberties group says.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado said on Tuesday it will represent Ryan Brown and his brother Benjamin Brown at the Colorado Springs municipal court.

The March 25 incident was recorded by Ryan Brown, who was the passenger in a car driven by his brother, Benjamin.

The video begins by showing footage of Benjamin being placed in handcuffs after a traffic stop in Colorado Springs.

Benjamin was ordered by police to exit the vehicle at Taser-point, immediately handcuffed, searched, held in the back of a police car, and finally issued a citation for a broken windshield, the ACLU's Colorado affiliate said.

Ryan was dragged from the car, forced to the ground and held at gunpoint, and now faces a criminal charge for "interfering with official police duties," the group said.

"What Ryan and Benjamin Brown experienced at the hands of the Colorado Springs police is sadly all too familiar for young people of color," ACLU of Colorado Legal Director Mark Silverstein said in a statement.

"No reasonable person could watch the video recording of the traffic stop and say that two white men would have been treated the same way," Silverstein said.

The ACLU of Colorado said Ryan Brown's repeated requests for the police officers to say why they were stopped were ignored in breach of the police department’s policy.

The incident comes as police departments across the United States are under increased scrutiny following a series of deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of white officers.

Large-scale protests have been triggered around the country against police brutality and racial injustice in the past year.

The recent unrest in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray, who suffered a fatal injury while in police custody, was the most violent in the country since the protests in Ferguson over the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown.

AHT/AGB

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