In Oklahoma City, a violent traffic stop reignites debate over police reform

OKLAHOMA CITY — The use of force by a police officer against an elderly resident during a traffic stop has sparked outrage and calls for accountability from the Oklahoma City Police Department, which is in the process of implementing reforms designed to curtail such incidents.

Prosecutors have charged Sgt. Joseph Gibson of the Oklahoma City Police Department with aggravated assault and battery after throwing Lich Vu to the ground during an October traffic stop, leaving him with a severe neck injury. He’s been released on bail and is on administrative leave. A trial date has not been set.

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Gibson stopped Vu on Oct. 27 for an “improper U-turn” that led to a collision with another vehicle.

Body cam footage released by police and the surveillance camera of a local business showed the two arguing for several minutes about the traffic accident. Vu is heard telling Gibson he won’t sign the citation and that he was “ready to go to jail.” Vu is seen touching Gibson with a flick of the wrist and telling him to “shut up.”

Gibson then grabbed Vu’s arm, spun him around and said “get on the ground.” Vu’s head hit the pavement.

Vu was hospitalized for more than a month with a broken neck, a brain bleed and orbital fracture. He went home with family the first week of December, his daughter, Teresa Vu, told PBS News.

The incident sparked outrage within the local Vietnamese American community, which boomed in the 1970s after the resettlement of thousands of refugees following the Vietnam War.

“As a community, we were hurt by this incident,” said Thuan Nguyen, president-elect of the Vietnamese American Community of Oklahoma. “Clearly they weren’t communicating well, but it should not have happened the way it did. We look to police for protection, instead we see this.”

The case has also renewed focus on the city’s police department. Two years ago, the city accepted 39 recommendations from an outside consulting firm to improve policing tactics. This included its de-escalation policy and more training in crisis response situations.

One recommendation on the list — No. 21 — was meant to address how officers respond to calls and mitigate conflict without escalation. The recommendation given to police was for there to be a “comprehensive community education plan” that allowed for information to be made clear for people with disabilities and those with limited English proficiency.

Oklahoma City Police spokesperson Valerie Litttlejohn told PBS News that implementation of all 39 recommendations has taken time but that Recommendation No. 21 has not been fully implemented yet. They aim to have the measure fully implemented next year.

Littlejohn said that in order to graduate from the police academy, all officers go through required training, including de-escalation education. She said Oklahoma City officers go through basic Spanish lessons and that there is a bilingual unit made up of several officers who speak different languages, including Vietnamese.

If no officer from the bilingual unit is available to respond to an incident, Oklahoma City officers also have access to a translation services hotline to call during stops.

In an Instagram post about her father’s condition, Vu’s daughter, Teresa, shared photos of his injuries from the incident and said he was already weak from bone cancer. She also said English was her dad’s second language, suggesting that the barrier played a role in the conflict.

“This is not how you treat someone that is 5’3″, 115 [pounds] with bone cancer after a car accident,” she wrote in the Oct. 28 post.

But the family fears the damage might be permanent.

“He suffers from a lot of confusion and is dizzy,” Nguyen said. “He may not be able to walk again.”

The Oklahoma City Police Department released the bodycam footage of Vu’s arrest on Nov. 8, in a post written in English and translated to Vietnamese.

“We want our community to know that this case is being thoroughly investigated, and the review process will take time to complete,” the post read. “We ask for your patience as we work to conclude this investigation.”

In charging documents filed Dec. 5, prosecutors included an affidavit from the officer conducting the department’s internal investigation. With feedback from the department’s instructors for de-escalation and defensive tactics, the officer concluded that Gibson’s use of force was “not reasonable,” considering Vu’s size, age, and the seriousness of the crime.

District Attorney Vicki Behenna said in a statement to local media that her office takes all use-of-force incidents seriously.

“We evaluate the law and the facts in each individual case,” Behenna wrote. “In this particular case determined the officer’s actions were an unreasonable use of force.”

Quỳnh Nhu Nguyen, 54, is a lifelong resident of Oklahoma City, whose “Asian District” was once known as “Little Saigon.” More than 20,000 people of Vietnamese descent are thought to live in the surrounding area.

While Nguyen has never had a personal incident with police, she fears this kind of encounter as she cares for her elderly parents.

“My dad doesn’t speak English very well,” Nguyen said. “He can get frustrated sometimes and it makes me worried about if he got upset in the wrong situation.”

Nguyen said the incident with Vu brought her tears as she watched footage of the officer slamming him to the ground. To her, it seemed like a simple misunderstanding.

“I had to go and have a talk with my dad after,” she said. “I told him, ‘You must keep your words to yourself if you are ever in that situation. It scares me to death thinking about what could happen.”

The Oklahoma City Fraternal Order of Police said it believes Gibson handled the incident with Vu “with professionalism” and that he followed de-escalation training protocol.

“It is very disappointing to see a police officer face felony charges for actions taken in good faith while serving in the line of duty,” the organization’s president, Mark Nelson, said in a statement. “We recognize the injuries that Mr. Vu sustained, and we are sympathetic to him and his family. However, we believe strongly that every detail of this incident matters and needs to be considered.”

“We are deeply concerned about the impact this charging decision will have on the ability of officers to rely on their training and professional judgment to preserve order and protect the public,” the statement read.

If convicted on aggravated assault and battery charges, Gibson could face up to five years in prison, or up to one year in the Oklahoma County Detention Center and could be fined up to $500.

To Thuan Nguyen, the charges brought against Gibson are a sign of justice.

He’s heard from members of his community and the incidents they’ve had with police over the years. He said he’s often had to respond to accidents on behalf of clients of his insurance firm, who are arguing with police about the fault of an accident or the reason for a citation.

He believes there’s a cultural bias at play in the treatment of Vietnamese people by police. But he wants to help change that.

His group is planning meetings about how to interact with police for the beginning of 2025. He’d love for some police officers to be there as well to learn about Vietnamese culture and how best to communicate or inform people of the law.

For Nguyen, this is an opportunity for change.