Athar Haseebullah, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, responds to a question during a news conference at the ACLU of Nevada offices Friday, Jan. 19, 2024. With Haseebullah are Christopher Peterson, left, legal director of the ACLU of Nevada, and Quentin Savwoir, president of the Las Vegas branch of the NAACP.
Friday, Jan. 19, 2024 | 5:40 p.m.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada is demanding accountability from the Clark County School District over the actions of its police officers who the civil rights organization said lied about why they stopped several Black students outside a Las Vegas high school last year before an officer threw one of the teens to the ground and kneeled on his back.
Body-worn camera footage released Thursday after a judge’s order confirmed to the civil rights organization that “CCSD lied,” ACLU of Nevada Executive Director Athar Haseebullah said Friday.
“They lied about the basis for the stop of everyone involved in this incident,” Haseebullah said at a news conference. “They stated it was with respect to a firearm that was in the area. … There was no firearm on any of our clients. This was a B.S. justification to stop and accost children. And as you’ve seen from the video, the basis for the stop was because one student looked at this officer, Officer (Jason) Elfberg, in a manner that Officer Elfberg did not like.”
Police have said the viral February 2023 incident outside Durango High School in southwest Las Vegas was connected to follow-up on a weapons investigation in the area the previous day.
However, the bodycam video shows that when Elfberg, a lieutenant with the department, stopped a boy as he walked in the street, he did not ask about a gun or a fight.
“C’mere, man. You wanted my attention, you got it, bud. Come on over here,” he said.
In his written report, Elfberg explained how another officer, Sgt. Terence Bolden, said the teen was “moving about the crowd pointing at our vehicles, and talking to other juveniles. At one point, Bolden stated he thought he saw something in (his) pocket and that he believed (he) may have a weapon, due to his actions.” (The report later said that the teen was unarmed.)
Elfberg asked the teen for identification. “You wanted my attention bud, you got it now,” he said. “You want to keep looking at me and talking, you got my attention now.”
In other words, the basis for the stop that precipitated the other detentions, and the violent takedown, was because a 14-year-old “looked at the officer wrong,” Haseebullah said.
The ACLU, which is representing two of the teens involved in the incident, sued CCSD in April for the video and other records that CCSD was resistant to release.
The ACLU said withholding the records violated Nevada public records laws.
The School District cited statutory provisions, case law and district regulations to justify not releasing the records. The district also said the records were part of pending juvenile justice and employment matters.
In December, a Clark County District Court judge mandated the district to turn over the bodycam videos of six officers at the scene — totaling more than two hours of footage — plus the police report and other records.
“As communicated to the ACLU in March 2023, we offered to release redacted copies of the video to them, provided they obtained permission from their clients. However, they refused and instead filed a lawsuit demanding the video footage,” the district said in a statement Friday. “Under Nevada law, we are required to protect the identity and safety of minors and the rights of police officers. Those laws were upheld, and the release of the court-ordered video shows that the rights of citizens were honored and laws were followed despite the challenges of that day’s events near Durango High School.”
Christopher Peterson, the ACLU of Nevada’s legal director, said that if an officer detained someone to investigate a crime, they needed to investigate that crime or let the person go.
That Elfberg didn’t ask any of the three students he detained about a weapon undercuts the claim that they were stopped as part of a weapons investigation.
Elfberg’s camera recorded him promptly pursuing a second student, telling him “I told you to start walking, now you want to be a part of it. Now you’re a part of it,” as he brought him back to a patrol vehicle with the teen’s hands behind his back.
As he leaned the second teen against the hood, a third teen walked through the frame on the sidewalk, holding out his phone recording video. Recording an officer at a safe distance is legal.
The officer then followed him, and they exchanged words.
Elfberg asked the third teen, “You want next? Start walking.” The teen repeatedly said, “Don’t touch me.” Within seconds, Elfberg wrapped his arms around the teen from behind and took him to the ground, pinning him in the street gutter with his knees on the young man’s back.
The officer also shoved a teen who approached and yelled “back the (expletive) up” several times. He also pointed his pepper spray canister at the students.
Young voices out of frame repeatedly told Elfberg to get off the boy.
“Get your knee off him,” one yelled.
“Shut up and start walking,” he replied.
Peterson said that officers weren’t acting like they were in danger, but they needed to rein in Elfberg.
“Any danger in this situation was manufactured by Elfberg,” Peterson said. “It is only Elfberg who is yelling, it is only Elfberg who is detaining students, it is only Elfberg pulling out pepper spray.”
An internal investigation cleared Elfberg with no discipline. He remains on the force, a CCSDPD spokesman said Friday.
Peterson said police actions went against First Amendment speech rights and Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful detention.
He said the only way to get police accountability is for bystanders to question and record.
“Questioning the police is not escalation,” he said. “Demanding answers is not escalation.”
Quentin Savwoir, president of the Las Vegas branch of the NAACP, said the CCSD School Board needed to revise the use of force policy for district police, even though Superintendent Jesus Jara has said he did not intend to make any changes. Savwoir also said Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson needed to investigate the incident, CCSDPD officers to be better trained on the law and dealing with young people, and police unions must stop allowing a culture of aggression against youths.
“As a community, we have to stand up when someone is trying to tell us, ‘Oh, no, the sky is not blue, it’s purple,’ because that’s exactly what they’re trying to do, in this case,” he said. “‘I’m the deescalator.’’ No, you barbarically wrestled a kid to the ground and put your knee in his back and you’re trying to convince the entire valley that that’s not what happened.”
Peterson said the ACLU would continue to review the videos and records, and that another lawsuit was coming. Haseebullah said Friday morning that he and Peterson had watched the footage about a dozen times and found more issues each time.
“You have this officer screaming at this child, ‘You want next? You want next?’” he said. “Ask yourself: Is this the best use of the resources we have? Where’s the oversight by the School District?”
