Officers charged

Five Connecticut police officers were charged with misdemeanours yesterday over their treatment of a black man after he was paralysed from the chest down in the back of a police van. Randy Cox, 36, was being driven to a New Haven police station June 19 for processing on a weapons charge when the driver braked hard, allegedly to avoid a collision, causing Cox to fly headfirst into the wall of the van, police said. As Cox pleaded for help, saying he couldn’t move, some of the officers mocked him and accused him of being drunk and faking his injuries. Then, the officers dragged him by his feet from the van and placed him in a holding cell. The five New Haven police officers were charged with second-degree reckless endangerment and cruelty to persons. The officers turned themselves in at a state police barracks yesterday.