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"A Jackson police official said an officer caught on camera hitting a man with a baton during an arrest at the Mal's St. Paddy's Parade acted appropriately given the \"volatile situation.\"While the man who was hit admitted he used a racial slur, Zach Magee, 22, said police went too far.Magee said he had gotten into a fight with strangers. Police stepped in moments later, and Magee was struck.The incident was caught on cellphone video that showed a drunken Magee mouthing off to police at the St. Patrick's Day parade in Jackson.Magee's father tried to talk him down, but he was pushed away moments before the baton can be seen being used on the video.\"They got me from behind in the back of the head with the night stick -- with his metal stick and split my head open about 5 inches,\" Magee said.Magee said police first approached while he was fighting with two other men. He said a Jackson police officer slapped cigarettes out of his hand. He admitted what he said to police landed him on the ground.\"'F you, n-----.' I guess that's what I said,\" Magee said. \"But they reacted to a racial slur inappropriately.\"Jackson Police Assistant Chief Lee Vance said Magee was charged with disorderly conduct, assault on a police officer and resisting arrest.\"This individual had been in a fight with two other people when police were called to that particular scene. When the officers got there, they tried to subdue him. He wanted to fight, so he subsequently got placed under arrest,\" Vance said. \"Officers had to take him to the ground and place him under arrest.\"Vance said from what he's seen on the video and in the police reports, the officers responded appropriately.\"It was a volatile situation involving an individual who was highly intoxicated, and due to his prior actions, apparently came to this event wanting to fight,\" Vance said.Vance said he doesn't believe the officer intentionally hit Magee in the head with the baton to intentionally do him harm.\"I think if you've ever been in a fight -- which I've been in lots of them -- sometimes what you swing at, you don't necessarily hit,\" Vance said. \"I think it was our officer's intention to get this guy under control so he could place him under arrest. I don't think there was any other motivation other than that.\"Magee said the injury required him to get eight staples in his head. His stepfather said police could have killed him.\"If all police (are) like that, then all our kids -- they're going to be in graveyards,\" stepfather Ayman Albataineh said.Magee admitted he needed to be arrested.\"I should have been arrested and not hit in the back of the head,\" Magee said.Magee's family has hired an attorney and plans to meet with officials in the Jackson Police Department's Internal Affairs unit."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.wapt.com/article/jpd-officers-caught-on-camera-making-arrest-acted-appropriately/2083152>