Raleigh Police Protective Association: Officers 'acted appropriately' when arresting man in viral video

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- In a news conference Monday, members of the Raleigh Police Protective Association said officers 'acted appropriately' when arresting Frederick Hall, whose encounter with police was caught on video.

While the city does not officially recognize a police union, the Raleigh Police Protective Association is under the Teamsters organization.

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As a Teamsters representative, Rick Armstrong, a former Raleigh police officer, said he expects the city to back the officers involved.

"It's part of the process that the chief and the mayor come out and publicly support what these officers did and educate the public on the importance of listening to what police officers have to say when they ask you to do something," he said. "This would have not happened if this individual had listened to what these officers asked him to do. We would not be in this situation."

In the video, Hall can be seen swinging at officers, sometimes hitting them.

When one officer fired a taser, the swings kept coming.

Once on the ground, an officer could be seen kicking Hall.

Police say that only happened after he bit an officer's leg.

Court documents show he is accused of assaulting five officers -- injuring four of them.

He also faces a variety of other charges after police say he abandoned his car in the middle of the road. They also thought he might be impaired.

Over the weekend, his family said he has suffered from mental illness for years.

He has been arrested numerous times since 1991 and has been charged before with resisting arrest and assaulting police officers.

On Monday, a Raleigh detective, who is president of the Raleigh Police Protective Association, said he understands the public response on both sides of the issue.

"Those situations draw an emotional response from the community especially from people who are not from a law enforcement background who may not understand the full totality of the circumstances that they are viewing," said Matt Cooper.

"Sometimes they are viewing just a portion of the whole situation. And that's why we would like people to look at the whole situation from front to back, from beginning to end and then draw your own conclusions as to whether or not law enforcement acted appropriately."