“Handcuffing is sort of the law of demarcation where it takes a whole lot of justification to use force after somebody’s handcuffed, and it better be proportional to what a person did after somebody’s handcuffed,” said St. Paul-based attorney Paul Applebaum, who represented the man assaulted by Reiter in a civil suit against the former officer and the city of Minneapolis. “A police officer better have a good reason if he dumps a handcuffed suspect on his head.”
Reiter was named in a lawsuit brought two years before that event by community activist Al Flowers, who accused police of excessive force after saying he was punched repeatedly and kicked by officers before being dragged out of his home — all while in handcuffs.
Chauvin case shines spotlight on Minneapolis police history of mistreatment of handcuffed suspects
Libor Jany Star Tribune