NAACP Leader Names 4 Officers in Beating Incident

A leader of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People named four officers Friday that he says were involved in last week’s videotaped beating of a black suspect, and he threatened to name 18 more if officials don’t do it first.

J. Whyatt Mondesire said the officers were identified on the television news crew’s video by several current and former officers.

“The public should know who is among the most lawless of the lawmen,” Mondesire, president of the NAACP’s Philadelphia chapter, said at a news conference Friday with the family of the suspect, Thomas Jones. “The entire force is not guilty of brutality. These men are.”

Almost two dozen officers kicked and punched Jones on July 12 after a police chase and shootout that was videotaped and broadcast nationwide.

Mondesire said the four officers he named were among the “most zealous,” and he said he would publish the rest of the names next week in his newspaper, the Philadelphia Sunday Sun.

Mondesire said he would be satisfied if the officers were charged or if city or police officials released the officers’ names and explained the status of the investigation.

Police spokesman Sgt. Roland Lee declined to comment, and neither he nor Cathie Abookire, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, would confirm the names of the officers Mondesire said were involved.

No officers have been charged. Police Commissioner John F. Timoney has said that those involved have been assigned to desk duty.

Jones, 30, remained hospitalized Friday with a low-grade fever and blood clot in his leg, and likely will be arraigned next week, Mondesire said.