Confrontation raises questions about Boise police treatment of Black suspect | Opinion

We agree with interim Boise Police Chief Ron Winegar that a Boise police officer’s mistreatment of a Black Boise teenager was “not acceptable.”

But actions speak louder than words, and the Boise Police Department’s handling of the situation suggests that the officer’s actions were “acceptable.”

The officer is still on the force as a senior patrol officer, and whatever disciplinary action might have taken place is being kept a secret.

What’s clear, though, is that the officer, Tyson Cooper, unnecessarily escalated a situation that led to the injury of a 17-year-old whose only crime, it turned out, was walking after midnight and having cigarettes in his pocket.

That’s according to reporting by Idaho Statesman reporter Alex Brizee, based on a public records request that yielded body camera video footage of the November 2019 encounter and internal records.

There’s no question, watching the footage of the incident, that the two juveniles acted disrespectfully and were antagonizing Cooper that night.

But we expect police officers in a position of control and power to rise above such bad behavior whenever possible and not get baited by antagonism. Cooper’s reaction made a bad situation worse.

After Cooper asked whether the teens were breaking into cars and peeping into windows, one of the teens told the officer to “shut up,” which triggered Cooper into his unacceptable behavior.

Cooper placed his hand on the teenager’s neck and said, “You don’t tell me to shut up, you understand? You’re not big enough.”

And if the teen had been bigger?

From there, it escalated to Cooper handcuffing the teen and taking him to a patrol car, where the teen allegedly banged his own head into the car, leading Cooper to throw the handcuffed teen to the ground in an uncontrolled manner, causing him to hit his leg on a street sign.

Watching the video, we can’t help but think none of this would have happened had Cooper deescalated the situation instead of engaging in a petty battle of machismo with a 17-year-old.

Cooper previously taught use-of-force classes, a troubling fact, given how he handled the situation in November 2019.

The incident comes to light at a time when the city of Boise is investigating whether racist attitudes are pervasive within the department following revelations that a now-retired Boise captain, Matt Bryngelson, espoused racist views, which he expressed in writings and a video interview.

Bryngelson had just been promoted to lieutenant at the time of the Nov. 26, 2019, incident with Cooper and two Black teenagers.

Winegar contends that the officers were not racial profiling, yet he concedes that they were looking for Black males in a series of burglaries.

No other details of a description of the burglary suspects was given, but an assumption of guilt based on race is the kind of attitude that Bryngelson expressed.

“Whatever the worst crime of the day is, it’s usually either a Black person or a non-white,” Bryngelson said in a video interview that became public after he had retired.

Winegar said the Office of Internal Affairs investigated the incident and closed the case. Corrective action was taken, but details not disclosed.

Winegar told the Statesman that the department doesn’t plan to reopen the investigation just because it’s become a news story.

At the very least, though, it should become part of the investigation being conducted by the Steptoe law firm looking into whether Bryngelson’s attitudes infected the department.

The incident also highlights the desperate need for a strong, independent, effective Office of Police Accountability to investigate — and fully report — such incidents so that the public can maintain a level of trust in the Boise Police Department.