Troy

Michael Feit fiddled with his computer for a bit before the surveillance video finally played. The attorney and I then watched as police officers approached Lamont Lee as he stood on Congress Street on a cold March night.

At first, Lee spreads his hands along a wall with his back to the Troy officers. Then he seems to reach for a pocket, and that's when the arrest turns ugly.

The four white officers wrestle Lee, who is black, to the ground. The officers then kick, punch and knee him.

"It's a punching bag," Feit said as we sat watching Wednesday in his Albany office. "That's just vicious."

Despite Feit's running commentary, I tried to give the officers the benefit of the doubt. There's no audio on the video of the March 3 arrest, and the single camera angle makes it hard, at times, to tell whether Lee is obeying or resisting police orders.

But benefit of the doubt wasn't possible when, with Lee pinned on the sidewalk, an officer throws punches into his body before using his knee to drive Lee's face, it appears, into the sidewalk.

From my point of view, the force was clearly excessive — and tough to watch.

It is also difficult to give the Troy Police Department the benefit of the doubt, no matter how much we might want to, no matter how much we appreciate the difficulty of their job.

Lee's arrest is hardly the first troubling incident or accusation involving the department in recent years.

In fact, two of the four officers who arrested Lee have faced prior excessive-force accusations.

Officer Kyle Jones was named in a $3 million federal lawsuit by Brian Houle, who claimed Jones and other officers in 2012 delivered "an unwarranted beating" after the pair got into a dispute on Facebook. The city settled the suit for $60,000.

Officer Justin Ashe, meanwhile, was one of two officers found by a federal jury of using excessive force and violating the civil rights during the arrest of young black man in the emergency room at St. Mary's Hospital. John Larkins, a 2010 graduate of Saratoga Springs High School, was repeatedly tasered in the back of his head and neck.

"I thought I was going to die," Larkins said in a 2015 interview with the Times Union.

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Here are some other recent incidents involving Troy police:

In August, community unrest followed the police shooting of Dahmeek McDonald, an unarmed black man. The shooting is still being investigated.

Last June, the department's drug unit was placed on administrative leave, and the unit's leader has since been charged with nine misdemeanor counts tied to an alleged coverup of a warrantless search of a home.

In 2016, an arrest following a loud-music complaint led to a lawsuit claiming police brutality. That same year, the city settled a suit claiming false arrest and police brutality from a man whose "crime" was having an open can of beer.

In 2015, the city settled three separate civil rights lawsuits from black residents who claimed excessive force.

And then, of course, there's Edson Thevenin, the unarmed black motorist shot by police in 2016. A report by the state attorney general's office said the department "grossly mishandled" witnesses, "prejudged the outcome" of its investigation into the shooting, and "overlooked or ignored evidence."

In other words, they were guilty of a cover-up designed to protect one of their own.

In short, Troy police have faced a remarkable number of abuse allegations for so small a city. The claims show a troubled department with, at the very least, a history of treating residents with aggressive disrespect.

Don't they?

A spokesman for Mayor Patrick Madden on Wednesday called that "a gross mischaracterization." While declining to comment on the Lee arrest, John Salka added that "the administration and police department have made significant progress" toward building community trust.

The video Feit showed me suggests otherwise. He's asking police to investigate what he considers a savage beating.

Assistant Police Chief Daniel DeWolf said that Lee was not complying with officers during the arrest, but said the department is "looking into the allegations as we would with any such accusations."

Two weeks before Lee's arrest, Troy police got a fresh start, of sorts, when Chief Brian Owens took command of the department. At his swearing-in ceremony, Owens and Madden spoke of the need to balance public safety with civil rights. They talked about connecting with the community and about leading the department away from the scandals of the recent past.

Consider this a test of their commitment. If the video of Lee's arrest doesn't lead to disciplinary action for at least one of the involved officers, it is business as usual in Troy.

And the talk about building trust is another empty promise.