Minnesota police officer's brutal arrest of driver was 'disturbing', ACLU says

A Minnesota arrest in which a driver was dragged from his vehicle and repeatedly punched and kneed by a police officer was a “disturbing and completely unnecessary” example of an excessive use of force, the state ACLU has said.

Video recently obtained by the Minnesota chapter of the ACLU shows Buffalo Ridge drug taskforce agent Joe Joswiak initiating a traffic stop with his gun leveled at the driver’s seat of the vehicle, shouting expletives at the driver, and violently removing him from the vehicle – seemingly before he had a chance to comply with the officer’s commands.

“I had no idea what was going on when I was approached and attacked by this officer,” Anthony Promvongsa, the man being arrested in the 2016 footage, told the ACLU.

Within six seconds of first ordering Promvongsa out for the vehicle, Joswiak had opened the driver’s side door and began pulling the man out, repeatedly kneeing him and throwing a number of punches.

The video was captured from a different officer’s dashboard camera. Shortly after the violent arrest of Promvongsa begins, the audio cuts out; the ACLU says it was intentionally shut off by the second officer as Joswiak hurled abusive language at the man.

“I did not even have the opportunity to take off my seatbelt before I was literally blindsided with this unnecessary attack,” Promvongsa said. “I immediately pulled over for the Worthington [Minnesota] squad car and before I knew what was happening I was beat and ripped from my vehicle. I know I am not the first person to have this type of traumatic experience with law enforcement in Worthington.”

He added: “This type of violence with community members has to stop. This encounter was demoralizing and has left me scared of future interactions with the police.”

Teresa Nelson, executive director of the ACLU of Minnesota, said that the branch was calling for an investigation of Joswiak’s behavior and “for him to be held accountable for his brutal attack on Anthony Promvongsa, up to and including termination and prosecution”.

“Thus far Agent Joswiak has received no punishment for this abhorrent treatment of Anthony,” Nelson said. “This sends a message that the department condones the officer’s behavior, which it should not.”

The incident began when an off-duty officer called in a report that Promvongsa was driving recklessly. Prosecutors charged Promvongsa, a Laotian American, with assault with a dangerous weapon (a motor vehicle), one count of fleeing an officer in a motor vehicle, possession of a small amount of marijuana and driving after revocation. His case is still pending, and no trial date has currently been set.

In a joint press release, local authorities called the video “one piece of evidence in a pending criminal case”.

“The video, viewed in a vacuum, shows only a short segment of the incident that is the basis of the criminal charges,” said the statement from the Buffalo Ridge drug task force, the Worthington police department and the Nobles County attorney’s office.

Joswiak did not immediately respond to a request for comment by the Guardian.

The accusation comes just days after another Minnesota officer, Jeronimo Yanez, was acquitted in the shooting death of Philando Castile.