After being beaten, tased, and maced, a San Diego man faces 4 felony charges and over 9 years in jail, but he says he was defending himself when he punched a San Diego Police officer in the face twice.
Police attacked Frederick Jefferson, 29, on February 3rd while they were trying to disperse protesters away from Chicano Park in Barrio Logan, reported 10News.
“I was walking down the street and the cops pulled up to me. Told me, ‘Get out of the road,’”Jefferson said.
Jefferson was leaving a pancake breakfast when he found himself walking down the middle of the street during a protest between two groups fighting over the historical significance of Chicano Park. San Diego Police set up barricades and had dozens of officers in Barrio Logan.
Jefferson told 10News that a San Diego Police officer asked him to get out the street, but Jefferson did not want to walk with the protesters.
“I’m like, ‘I’m not with that’…not with whatever’s going on. ‘I’m not with that’ because they were trying to steer me over to this huge crowd of people with all the cops,” he said.
Jefferson tried talking to the officers, but they did not want to listen.
“When they got out of the car, I continued walking,” he said. “I told them I said, ‘I’m just going to keep walking on’ and as I kept walking on they came up behind me.”
That is when police decided to assault the man for walking.
Jefferson said the officer grabbed his shirt and swung a billy club.
Jefferson said, “I was afraid that if this dude got back a hold of me he was going to go town on me with the billy club.”
“I swung and hit him to put distance between us and then he swung again and I swung again because I could not let this dude grab me.”
Jefferson broke bones in the officer’s face as he defended himself from an overly-aggressive officer.
“It was a very serious injury. It could have been much worse,” said San Diego Police Lt. Scott Wahl. Wahl also stated that Jefferson started fighting first.
Even though he was defending himself, Jefferson told 10News, “If he got injured like really badly like they’re saying, I’m sorry for that.”
Lt. Wahl sent 10News the statement after Jefferson’s interview:
“This defendant is charged with four felony crimes including force likely to cause great bodily injury on a police officer and resisting a police officer with force or violence. The facts and evidence in this case will become public as it moves forward. In the meantime, because this is a pending criminal case we cannot comment on statements made by the defendant.”
Jack Schaeffer, the president of the San Diego Police Officer’s Association was also reluctant to comment on the investigation.
He did however suggest that he does not consider Jefferson to be a person when he said, “The only person injured during Saturday’s protest was our officer.”
Watch the video below:
Source: http://truthfight.com/san-diego-man-faces-4-felonies-trying-defend-abusive-cops/