Are racist cops the reason videotape of the Josh Brolin bar fight has yet to see the light of day?

Back in July, Brolin, Jeffrey Wright, and 5 other crew members of the upcoming Oliver Stone biopic W were arrested down in Shreveport, Louisiana, for allegedly trying to impede police from breaking up a late-night bar brawl after the film's wrap party. Details surrounding the altercation have been sparse: in this week's New York, Brolin, who plays the movie's title role, says only, "What really happened, I can't talk about it, but it's pretty ridiculous. What I can say is that what went down was not good at all, and everybody involved knows that." Brolin's dad James has offered his own conspiracy theory, claiming, "There was no fight." The Shreveport police department has videotape of the entire incident, but the tape hasn't been released, nor will it likely be made public in the future. What gives?

According to sources in Shreveport who worked on the film and were present at the time of the fight, the problem is that some of Shreveport's finest can be heard dropping the n-bomb on the tape. (Wright, who plays Colin Powell in the movie, is black.) "There was definitely some questionable language thrown around," says the source. A spokesperson for the police department claims that the tape has been reviewed and that the officers involved were "professional" during the incident. (Wright, who was hit with a Taser, may disagree.) The local paper, the Shreveport Times, filed a motion seeking audio and video recordings from the arrest, but was unsuccessful in obtaining them. Huh. So the cops acted totally "professionally," while the Hollywood out-of-towners were so out of line that they had to be pepper sprayed in the face. And there's tape of the whole thing! Yet for some reason, the police won't make the tape public, and have deemed their internal investigation complete. We are sure there is nothing remotely incriminating on that tape at all!

Brolin and Wright are expected back in court on December 2nd. The Shreveport police department did not return a call seeking comment.