Video shows white officer kicking black man in face

[Jazzy]

The release of dashboard camera footage showing a white Dover officer kicking a black suspect in the head touched off new demands Thursday for law enforcement policy changes, bringing Delaware into a national conversation about police misconduct.

"We believe that the video demonstrates the need for large-scale reform of the Dover Police Department, specifically improvements to their use of force and internal affairs practices and supervision of their officers," said Kathleen MacRae, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware.

While this incident occurred before well-publicized incidents in Ferguson, Missouri; New York City; North Charleston, South Carolina; and Baltimore, where black suspects were killed by police, the indictment and release of the video here occurred nearly two years later.

Civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson said the Dover incident clearly shows mistreatment by law enforcement.

"What is clear is that a man who is down should not be kicked to unconsciousness," said Jackson, who appeared at protests and a funeral in Baltimore and Ferguson. "That is excessive force."

The footage is from the dashboard camera of a police car responding to a report of a fight at a Hess Service Station on U.S. 13. As the police car drives to the scene, a dispatcher is heard saying that one of the men in the fight was wearing a yellow shirt and a hat and had a gun.

About 2 minutes and 20 seconds into the video, the police car comes upon Dickerson, wearing a yellow hat and white shirt. Cpl. Thomas Webster IV appears first from the left, having arrived in another police car, approaching Dickerson with his gun drawn.

The officer driving the car with the dashboard camera then approaches. Responding to the officers' commands, Dickerson begins to lie face down on the ground. As he does, Webster kicks Dickerson once in the head.

Dickerson's baseball cap flies in the air and his limp body falls onto the asphalt. Dickerson, who was 30 at the time, was left unconscious and taken to Bayhealth-Kent General Hospital with a broken jaw.

No gun was found at the scene, and assault, theft and resisting arrest charges filed against Dickerson were dropped.

Webster was suspended with pay while the incident was investigated. A grand jury in March 2014 declined to indict Webster, who had been on the force for eight years. The U.S. Attorney's Office also found no civil rights violations.

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