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A Black man in Phoenix, Arizona, is suing the Phoenix Police Division after its officers arrested him simply because he requested questions on why he was stopped. The person’s federal lawsuit is backed by recorded proof that an officer ordered him to be positioned in handcuffs simply to show him a lesson about, properly, bruising a cop’s little blue ego if we’re being trustworthy.
In line with ABC 15 Arizona, on February 6, 2024, officers have been conducting an “intensive” operation in west Phoenix. They have been surveilling a person at a bus cease simply south of 83rd Avenue and Camelback Highway when one other man, William Kitchen, ran throughout the road to get to the bus cease and obstructed a thoroughfare, or no less than that’s what the officers declare. Both approach, officers responded to Kitchen crossing the road and allegedly obstructing the street by swarming the bus cease, handcuffing him, and looking out him as if he had dedicated a criminal offense way more critical than considerably recklessly working to get to a bus cease.
However it’s the dialog William Kitchen had with an officer after he was launched that exposes the sheer fragility of cops and their willingness to take a citizen’s freedom away simply because they felt their authority was being challenged.
From ABC:
That’s when Kitchen started asking Sgt. Meelhuysen, who was in plain garments, questions on what was taking place and why he had been stopped.
The interplay was recorded on officers’ physique cameras.
KITCHEN: What was the ARS code that you just stated I violated?
MEELHUYSEN: Arizona Revised Statute 13-2906A.
KITCHEN: Arizona Revised Statute 13-0926?
MEELHUYSEN: Shut sufficient.
KITCHEN: What was it? I need to have my legal professional take a look at it. I’ve Authorized Protect…I simply need to let know to have them take a look at the statute. What was the statute?
MEELHUYSEN: I simply instructed you.
KITCHEN: Do you might have your title and badge quantity? Can I’ve it please?
MEELHUYSEN: Renee [another officer], Renee. Put him again in cuffs. We’re reserving him. He’s getting booked for obstructing a thoroughfare.
KITCHEN: For saying I’m going to have my legal professional take a look at it?
MEELHUYSEN: No. Simply to indicate you it’s a respectable code. Looks as if you’re incredulous in regards to the code, sir. You’ll get educated when you might have your preliminary look with the choose.
KITCHEN: It’s freedom of speech. I’m allowed to ask what I’m…
MEELHUYSEN: Sure. Freedom of speech. You’re proper.
Kitchen spent an evening in jail, and it took him a number of months to get the costs dismissed.
“That was simply one thing that didn’t must occur,” Kitchen stated.
Nah, let’s hold it a buck — a white cop got here throughout an uppity negro whose angle he didn’t like so he determined to arrest him for asking questions he needed to know weren’t unlawful to ask.
“He actually simply requested questions, a core First Modification exercise, and acquired thrown in handcuffs for it,” stated Josh Carden, Kitchen’s civil legal professional. “[Officers] have been simply making an attempt to show him a lesson, an unconstitutional lesson.”
Additionally, simply in case you’re a type of bootlickers who truly wants to listen to a racial slur earlier than agreeing that race performed an element within the cops’ habits — video footage additionally signifies that these white cops weren’t of the “I don’t see colour” selection.
Extra from ABC:
In his lawsuit, he wrote that officers referred to as the opposite Black man on the cease “James Brown.”
Within the physique digicam footage offered to ABC15, one officer could be heard referring to one of many males as “homeboy.” The video additionally captured an officer saying one of many males seemed like DJ Jazzy Jeff.
Now, if you happen to’ve ever been a younger Black man coping with white cops earlier than, you understand it’s a fairly widespread follow for them to make off-the-cuff racially charged remarks which can be simply benign sufficient that they know they received’t get in bother for it.
“That’s not policing,” Carden stated. “That’s poor habits in my view.”
On high of all that, the lawsuit claims officers by no means had a respectable cause to cease Kitchen within the first place and that they really performed the sop “below false pretenses.”
First, let’s take a look at what officers wrote of their report, because it does arguably point out they have been making an attempt to make Kitchen’s alleged “crime” sound extra critical than it was.
“A SOUTHBOUND VEHICLE HAD TO ABRUPTLY SLOW DOWN TO AVOID A COLLISION WITH KITCHEN. A VEHICLE DRIVING NORTHBOUND IN THE WESTBOUND TURN LANE HONKED THE HORN TO ALERT TRAFFIC AND TO ATTEMPT TO GET KITCHEN OUT OF THE ROADWAY.”
Yeah — as a result of in the event that they merely wrote, “Someone honked whereas he was jaywalking,” then handcuffing him and arresting him would possibly appear to be a little bit of an overreaction.
Both approach, the lawsuit claims the police assertion was deliberately deceptive as a result of these automobiles talked about within the report have been truly pushed by the arresting officers themselves.
“I feel it’s to cover the truth that they don’t have any actual cheap grounds for placing my shopper in handcuffs and taking him to jail,” Carden stated. “They’ve acquired to give you one thing.” (That is nearly as good a time as any to remind of us that there’s by no means any cause to take a cop’s phrase at face worth.)
After all, in an ideal world, the body-cam footage can be all that’s wanted to show the plaintiff’s case, however on this world, it’s all the time an uphill battle to carry power-abusing cops accountable, particularly in the case of how aggressively they behave when coping with Black civilians.
What William Kitchen skilled was all too widespread, and we’re bored with it.
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