Earlier this month, video of an unarmed man being assaulted by police officers in Arizona set the internet on fire. Arizona police were responding to reports of domestic abuse in an apartment complex when they encountered Robert Johnson on the phone outside of an elevator. Although Johnson was not the suspect they were after, police became irritated when he would not sit down. They order him to a wall, which he leans against while the police demand that he sits. At that point, the officers began to beat Johnson unconscious and drag him into the elevator. The entire incident was caught on a surveillance camera.
According to Daily Mail, five of the six officers involved in the beating were placed on paid leave. Their names are Jhonte Jones, Rudy Monarrez, Ernesto Calderon, Robert Gambee and William Abbiatti. On Thursday, Johnson spoke at a press conference, stating, "I’m a family man, I’m a God-fearing person, I just want Mesa to be accountable to what they have done." The cops tried to justify the beating by claiming that Johnson would not listen to their commands, although he was not a suspect in their investigation. Police chief Ramon Batista immediately opened an investigation into the beating once the video game to his attention. "I didn't know anything about this, and the way I learned about this is because a member of the community sent me the video and said, "Hey, this looks very alarming, and I need you to look at it,"' stated Batista.