Man files lawsuit for alleged Eastpointe police beating caught on video

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A lawsuit was filed against Eastpointe police, alleging a brutal beating against a black man while he was restrained in a chair.

That beating caused the man to lose vision in one eye - and it was caught on video.

"If you keep acting like a child, you're going to get strapped in that chair and you're going to stay there," an officer can be heard saying on the video. The date is August 10, 2015. Frankie Taylor has been picked up for drunk driving in Eastpointe - and that officer wasn't kidding.

On the video, you can see officers pick Taylor up and take him to the chair and try to restrain him, threatening to tase him. That's when another officer comes in, puts on gloves and strikes Taylor - repeatedly - knocking him unconscious.

"Stop resisting, stop resisting, stop resisting," said an officer inbetween every strike. Multiple officers are huddled around Taylor and that officer, with their backs to the camera. 

"The guy hit me so many times, it made me cry once I seen the tape [sic]," Taylor says. "I was knocked out."

Another concern for Taylor was how he was treated or, in this case, not treated after being struck in the head. Taylor says he wasn't taken to a doctor. Instead, he was transferred to the Macomb County Jail the next day. He eventually ended up at Detroit Receiving Hospital for surgery on his eye - an eye that had already had a lens replaced once.

"He has permanent loss of eyesight in one eye. His vision is severely compromised," says attorney James Rasor. "He has these horrible nightmares."

"I don't feel like that I was a threat to the officers to the point that they had to hit me until I was unconscious," Taylor says.

Attorney James Rasor alleges not only did Eastpointe police use excessive force on Taylor, they discriminated against him because he's black, refusing to let him make a phone call - even though he says white inmates were allowed to do so.

"You want to protect people from this type of brutality by police forces," says Rasor. "White folks were allowed to use the phone by police officers; even one who had urinated in his pants was allowed to use the phone. Frankie Taylor wasn't, and the only difference is that Frankie Taylor happens to be African-American."

"I wouldn't expect this from officers," says Taylor.

Rasor has filed suit in federal court. Eastpointe police say they can't comment on pending litigation.