Police Officer Acquitted In Beating Of Dacari Spiers

On October 6, 2019, Black man Dacari Spiers was beaten with a baton by a San Francisco police officer. The officer and his partner claimed Spiers pushed them first and refused to comply. Now, whether that’s true or not, it’s a fact that an officer believed beating a man with a baton was an appropriate response to being pushed and, unfortunately, on Monday, a jury agreed.

According to SFist, Officer Terrance Stangel was acquitted on three out of four felony charges against him. Stangel was facing felony counts of battery with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury, and assault under the color of authority, the last of which the jury reported they were deadlocked on.

Now, let’s get into what happened.

Here’s What Happened To Dacari Spiers

In 2019, Stangel and his then-partner, Officer Cuahtemoc Martinez, answered a possible domestic violence call. According to Courthouse News, Martinex testified in early February that they spotted Spiers with his then-girlfriend, Breonna Richard, and that he thought she might be in danger so he and Stangel confronted him and he attempted to pull Spiers away. He also said his partner’s use of his baton was “necessary” because Spiers was resisting and shoving the officers.

Spiers, of course, told a different story.

From Courthouse News:

On Wednesday, Spiers told jurors he was consoling his girlfriend, who was upset that her wallet had been stolen, when Martinez came out of nowhere, failed to identify himself, started barking orders and grabbed him by the shoulders.

“It happened so fast,” Spiers said. “I was being grabbed.”

After Spiers appeared to shove both officers away, Stangel started beating the man with a metal baton. Spiers said he dropped to the ground, thinking that would make the beating stop. It didn’t.

“I was trying to stay from getting hit, but they kept hitting my legs,” Spiers said. “Every time I would stop another hit would come so I tried to stay away from it.”

During opening arguments Monday, Stangel’s attorney Nicole Pifari showed jurors a video of shadows on the ground which she said showed Spiers continuing to kick his legs at Stangel after he hit the ground. Pifari said Stangel had to keep using his baton to make Spiers stop resisting and kicking his legs.

OK, so did any of y’all get whooping as a kid? Because if you did, you know your legs reflexively kick up as soon as that belt starts swinging. It’s damn near an involuntary reaction—your body just does it. 

“When you were on the ground, were your legs moving?” Assistant District Attorney Hans Moore asked Spiers during his testimony.

“Yeah, from trying not to get hit,” Spiers replied.

As for Spiers allegedly pushing the officers, Stangel’s lawyer played a video showing Spiers’ hand extended toward Martinez during the altercation and asked if the video shows him pushing the officer.

“No, it appears he’s grabbing me, and I’m trying to get away from him grabbing me,” Spiers replied.

Spiers was also asked about another video in which he’s seen in an ambulance and heard saying he put his hand out and “pushed him back,” apparently referencing Martinez. Spiers said he was “discombobulated,” in pain, in shock, and on medication, at the time he made that statement.

“I don’t know what I said,” Spiers said. “I don’t even remember exactly what happened.”

So basically it seems like there was a lot of focus on whether or not Spiers pushed an officer and not nearly enough focus on the fact that beating someone with a baton is clear excessive force to use against a suspect who may or may not have pushed first.

Mind you, Spiers’ girlfriend testified that he never harmed her. But police were called by two witnesses who reported seeing a man grab a woman by her neck and drag her. During the trial, Spiers was asked about two prior domestic violence arrests, to which he testified that he was never convicted and that he never harmed Richardson. Spiers did, however, admit to being convicted on three separate assault cases that had nothing to do with his girlfriend except for one in which he said he beat a man while trying to protect her.

Of course, none of this really matters since Stangel wouldn’t have known about Spiers’ background at the time he was beating the hell out of him.

Courtroom News reported that Spiers “suffered a broken wrist and leg, which required surgery, along with several lacerations that required stitches.” According to SFist, Stangel testified that he “believed every single baton strike at the time was necessary.”

It’s worth mentioning that Spiers was awarded a $700,000 civil rights settlement that was approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in February.

Sometimes you can’t get justice in criminal court, so you make the system say “I’m sorry” with its wallet.

The end.