Cyclist accuses S.F. police of brutality in stop over cell phone

A bicyclist says San Francisco police officers used excessive force after stopping him for allegedly using a cell phone in the South of Market neighborhood this month — an arrest that was partially caught on video and that has sparked an internal affairs investigation.

Donovan Reid was stopped while making a food delivery Jan. 3 for Postmates, he wrote on Facebook. The officer told him he was illegally texting, and Reid said he responded that he was actually using navigation.

Reid said that after he began recording the exchange on his phone, the officer told him to drop it. The officer then “grabbed my shirt collar and started punching me in my stomach,” Reid said. “He reached for his mace and impaired my vision and then began grabbing me by my neck and slamming me to the ground, placing his knee on my back.”

He was on his phone, riding his bike. Didn't have ID. pic.twitter.com/WzqZdK8lAX — Katherine Jarvis (@kej_v) January 4, 2016

Soon, Reid said, more officers arrived and “began holding my legs in the air and beating my legs, while telling me to stop resisting and keep my legs on the ground. I told him I couldn’t do that because someone is beating my legs and holding my legs in the air.”

A woman recorded the interaction, posting a 16-second video on Twitter. It shows Reid face down and screaming, and an officer is seen holding one of his legs and beating it with a baton.

Reid posted pictures of his bloody and bruised legs, as well as an x-ray showing what he said was a bone chip in his knee. He said he was taken to the hospital and issued two citations, which he posted on Facebook.

The alleged offenses were listed as disobeying a traffic order, battery on a peace officer and resisting arrest, as well as three traffic infractions of using a phone while bicycling, riding without brakes and riding without a visible rear reflector.

On Reid’s cell-phone recording, which was first aired by KPIX, an officer is heard asking Reid for his license, which Reid said he did not have at the time.

Officer Albie Esparza, a police spokesman, said that, in general, if a person being cited does not have identification, an officer has the right to detain the person.

“We cannot issue a citation to somebody who does not have identification,” Esparza said. “We’re not going to take someone’s verbal information and cite them because then we’re liable for misinformation. If we cannot identify you, we have to bring you to the station.”

Esparza said that internal affairs is looking into the allegations that officers used excessive force. The city’s Office of Citizen Complaints is also looking into the case.

“No officer likes to use force,” Esparza said. “But when you have to effect an arrest, force sometimes is necessary, and the California penal code authorizes officers to do so in order to do our jobs.”

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo