Police officer awarded $15 million after being savagely beaten by cops at his daughter's birthday party

On Wednesday, a federal jury awarded black New York City Police Department officer Larry Jackson $15 million dollars after he sued the NYPD for savagely beating and arresting him without cause while was at home celebrating his daughter's birthday party in 2010.

The lawsuit explains that at 1:40 AM, Jackson was finishing the barbecue he was holding for his daughter's birthday at his home in Queens, NY when he saw a man break a bottle in the street in front of his house. When Jackson confronted the man he noticed that the man was carrying a handgun. He then saw a group of 15-20 people walking towards him armed with sticks and bats. At this time Jackson's girlfriend, Charlene, called 911.

By the time the first officers arrived on the scene the group had dispersed and the only person left was Jackson. He attempted to make it clear to the officers that he was a cop, addressing them in police language and trying to explain the situation. At this time there were sounds of an altercation taking place in his home which prompted an officer to run inside. Jackson followed the officer into his home and from his doorway saw the officer standing over two of his party's attendees who were on the ground. When Jackson turned around he noticed another officer had deployed his baton, at which point the officer struck Jackson across the face with it. Jackson and the officer entered into a brief scuffle, and at one point Jackson collapsed onto his 82 year old grandmother who was knocked unconscious. What occurred next was a rampage.

As an estimated 70 police officers began descending on the scene Jackson was mercilessly beaten with batons and punches while he was held in a choke-hold. He was forced to the ground where officers continued beating him and digging their knees into his back. Officers responded to his pleas that he was having trouble breathing by pepper spraying him.

Finally a police officer asked, "Yeah, you motherfucking dirt bag, if you are really a cop, where is your ID?" Jackson, now handcuffed on the ground, told police officers it was in his front pocket. An officer then pulled the ID out of his pants and after realizing their mistake they "scattered".

Jackson, who was in severe pain, was bleeding profusely, and had suffered a fractured hand, was then detained by officers for 20 hours at a police precinct before finally being transported to a hospital.

After his ordeal Jackson attempted to seek redress through the police department's Internal Affairs Bureau and the city's Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, but his case was simply ignored by both organizations.

In this case the police beat up a cop, so it has now been publicized. We will never know how many times similar incidents have occurred to ordinary people.

And even though Jackson was a cop, the city's reaction has still been to deny and suppress this case as much as possible. None of the officers involved in the incident admit to any wrongdoing other than one officer who admitted to punching Jackson in the face because he felt "intimidated" by him. At the trial the lawyer representing the city argued that Jackson should feel "lucky" he was not charged with a crime himself. No officer has been charged with any crime and the city has vowed to appeal and overturn the settlement not because they deny that this incident took place, but rather because they feel that $15 million is "excessive".