In fairness, I don’t dismiss this version of events out of hand. Unprovoked police violence, while rare, isn’t unheard of, but William Bratton’s tenure as as head of LAPD was exceptionally well received by minority communities in Los Angeles. A consummate professional, Britton had zero tolerance for the kind of abusive police behavior Muhammed described to his police-hating audience.
The absence of video documentation is very suspect, as NOI are also trained to document these encounters, and given that the event involved a group of NOI members, it’s very likely that had the encounter taken place as described, one or more would have made a video recording to corroborate. These stories; some of which are sadly true, but many not, are the red meat that fuel the anger, ignorance and violence that have shaped the relations between the Nation of Islam and law enforcement. Today many LAPD Officers are themselves members of minority groups, and Tony Mo’s “Bull Connor” version of this encounter is an anachronism, to be charitable.
This false narrative goes all the way back to the 1972 shooting and killing of NYPD Officer Philip Cardillo who entered a NOI mosque when responding to a false “officer needs assistance” call. In another instance the NOI blamed the police and government when NOI members were convicted in the shooting murder of Malcolm X, while in Ferguson, they also peddled a false and inciting narrative that succeeded in fomenting violence. So their overall credibility in these matters is very suspect, to say the least.
I suspect that It’s far more likely Tony Mo was attempting to burnish his street cred by channeling the demagoguery of his mentors, Farrakhan, and the late Khalid Abdul Muhammed, to a receptive, predisposed audience.