As residents of Centre County, we are shocked by the Dec. 6 incident between Dereck Raimey and the state police in Centre County. Despite the past five-year investment in training and public advocacy, these officers resorted to excessive force. This incident warrants further investigation and calls for the examination of policy and practice from our Attorney General and Governor Shapiro.
The violence demonstrated in the bodycam footage clearly calls for disciplinary measures of the abusive and unrestrained officer and training for the several officers on the scene that failed to intervene.
Last December in Boggs Township, in Centre County, a 46-year-old Black man from Tennessee named Derek L. Raimey was driving a vehicle with disabled symbol on the license plate. He was stopped by the state police after what the troopers claimed was a high-speed chase. Mr. Raimey had both of his hands out of his vehicle when it was stopped. The police officers shouted contradictory obscenity-laced commands at him. At least two troopers approached Mr. Raimey with handguns drawn. The trooper tried to pull Mr. Raimey out of the car while his seat belt was still fastened; one trooper punched him in the face, pulled him to the pavement and punched him several more times while on the ground. Mr. Raimey’s mugshot shows his left eye swollen shut. His public defender, Patrick Klena, confirms this. In the video, Mr. Raimey does not appear to be resisting, nor defending himself.
Have the state police restricted duty of this aggressive officer, or interviewed the other officers on scene that failed to intervene? An unarmed man was assaulted during a traffic stop. Residents of Centre County must demand that the “use-of-force” policy be reviewed, applied and investigated especially when unbecoming behavior is caught on the officer’s body cam prior to its deletion.
The Pennsylvania State Law Enforcement Citizen Advisory Commission (PSLECAC) makes recommendations along those lines: “that the Pennsylvania State Police require all criminal investigations of use of force incidents resulting in death or serious bodily injury, member-involved shootings resulting in death or serious bodily injury, and in-custody deaths involving its members be referred for investigation to an external agency that meets minimum accreditation standards for handling such investigations as recognized and recommended by the United States Department of Justice as best practices and as similarly mandated in other jurisdictions.”
Since the CLEAR Commission has no investigatory power, what such agency is appointed to carry out this directive other than the office of Attorney General?
We the citizens of Centre County implore the Attorney General Michelle Henry to hold the state police accountable and to hold the officer accountable for the unnecessary use of force against Derek Raimey.
Jesse Barlow is a former member of State College Borough Council. Terry Watson is the founder of Strategies in Justice. Both are members of Community & Campus in Unity, which was launched in the fall of 2014 as a way to bring together State College’s diverse population of people from our town and the campus of Penn State University.
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