Excerpts from Jackson’s other confrontations with police

The following are excerpts from confrontations last year between on-leave Hawthorne Police Sgt. Don Jackson and officers from three Los Angeles area law enforcement agencies. They are taken from videotapes made by Jackson.

INGLEWOOD: AROUND MIDNIGHT, DEC. 17

Jackson says he was driving home when he saw two white Inglewood police officers pull over a car containing a black couple and arrest the man for three outstanding traffic warrants. Jackson alleges that one of the officers pulled his pistol and, for no apparent reason, held it to the head of the man, who was behind the steering wheel. He says he got out of his car and began filming. The tape begins as as an unidentified officer approaches Jackson. The picture is dark and jumps around .

Officer: Why don’t you stand over there?

Jackson: (garbled)

Officer: Sir, I am conducting an investigation here and I’m ordering--

Jackson: (interupts) This is a camera. (chuckles)

Officer: I know what that is.

Jackson: You do? (Jackson claims he was pushed at this point) You’re stepping into me. You are invading my space.

Officer: You are interfering with a police officer.

Jackson: (apparently narrating for his recording) I’m backing up right now and I’m now 15 feet away.

Officer: You just stand over there and do what you have to do, or you’re going to go to jail for 148 P.C. (Penal Code), interfering with a police officer.

Jackson: I’m backing away from you. I’m nowhere near your (suspect) . . . Now go back and handle your call.

Officer: You don’t tell me what to do.

Jackson: I’m telling you. Now go back and handle your call. . . You left your investigation to challenge me.

Officer: You’re interfering with me . . . You just stay away from my back. You stay over there.

Jackson: . . . I’ll stay wherever I want to stay.

Other police cars arrive and Jackson is permitted to continue taping as officers mill about. At Jackson’s request, the 43-year-old Inglewood man arrested in the incident, who was later released after paying $526 in fines, filed a misconduct complaint with the Inglewood Police Department. Police Chief Ray Johnson said that the department is investigating the complaint and that he cannot comment on the allegation that one of his officer’s improperly pulled a gun.

The police chief said that Jackson had endangered himself and the officers by insisting on observing the incident. “Why should an officer watching two people in a car have to watch another person who shouldn’t really be there?” Johnson asked. “With a camera concealed at his side in the dark of night, they have no idea what that object is. It could well be a weapon . . . I think my guys did extremely well.”

WATTS: 6 p.m., APRIL

Jackson said he drove to the area in his father’s van to observe one of the periodic Los Angeles Police Department anti-gang sweeps, although he is unsure of the exact date. Accompanied by a black friend and by David Lynn of the Police Misconduct Lawyer Referral Service, which collects complaints against police, he parked the van in an alley. (Lynn, who is white, was in a car following Jackson last week when they conducted the “sting” against Long Beach police.) The tape starts as a white LAPD officer approaches the van.

Officer: . . . This van is illegally parked.

Jackson: This van is going to be moved, or you can cite me.

Officer: We also are going to identify the people inside.

Jackson: You can cite me for parking and I prefer that you go ahead and do that. Unless you have some other grounds to investigate this, I suggest that we be allowed to continue.

(The two argue about whether the passengers must present identification.)

Officer: If you have complaints, sir, I can get a supervisor here and he will explain it to you. Until that happens, I would like to get identification from you people inside.

Jackson: I don’t believe the passengers are under any obligation to ID themselves, not based on a vehicle that is illegally parked.

Officer: Sir, I’m asking you real nice. Please, I’d like to see some identification.

Jackson: . . . What law is he violating?

Officer: . . . You’re trying to use intimidaton tactics against someone doing his job.

(Jackson continues to argue that the two other men do not need to present identification . After several minutes, another policeman, and then a sergeant, arrive and speak to Jackson, who identifies himself as a Hawthorne policeman. After the LAPD sergeant and the first officer confer with each other, the officer returns to the van and tells Jackson that he will not get a parking ticket.)

Officer: Please move your van. Also, your seatbelt is hanging out of the door . . . Here’s your registration. Have a nice day.

Lawyers familiar with such issues say police are not supposed to ask for identification from passengers in a car stopped for a traffic violation unless there is “a public safety reason” to do so. LAPD spokesman Cmdr. William Booth said he believed the officers acted properly in dealing with the occupants of the van “in trying to determine why that vehicle is illegally parked with three or four people sitting in it.” Unless officers insist on learning the names of people in suspicious-looking vehicles, he said, they will miss identifying the perpetrators of many crimes.

MARINA DEL REY: EVENING, NOV. 9

Jackson said he was driving alone in his red Corvette when he was pulled over by two white Sheriff’s deputies. Because of the darkness, the images are unclear as Jackson films the two deputies.

Jackson: Why am I being stopped?

Officer: You don’t have a front license plate, sir.

Jackson: I don’t have a front license plate?

Officer: I could have sworn you don’t. We could be wrong. Hold on.

Jackson: I think you’re wrong and I think this is harassment and I think I don’t like it.

(Jackson steps from his car and a police flashlight illuminates his front license plate.)

Jackson: Don’t have a front license plate, huh? Well what does that look like?

Officer: It looks like a front license plate.

(At Jackson’s request, the officers identify themselves.)

Jackson: My name is Don Jackson.

Officer: How are you doing?

Jackson: Fine. Why did you stop me?

Officer: Can’t we make a mistake?

Jackson: It wasn’t because I’m a black man in a Corvette?

Officer: Of course not. We could pull over every other car if that was the matter.

The officers soon go on their way without citing Jackson. Capt. Ray Sanchez, commander of the Sheriff’s Department’s Marina del Rey station, said later that a protective “bra” on the hood of Jackson’s car had obscured the license plate.