Dancing in public while black

Summer's here, but police in Alameda, CA are evidently not ready for a brand new beat.

Quote:

ALAMEDA, Calif. (KGO) -- Body camera footage released to the ABC7 I-Team shows an unarmed black man handcuffed and pinned to the ground by Alameda police after reports of him "dancing in the street." "I do this every day... please let me go," said Mali Watkins, a 44-year-old martial artist. "I was just dancing." It was May 23, before 9 a.m. on a Saturday. In an exclusive interview, Watkins told ABC7 he was handcuffed and pushed around by police for an hour. Here's a clip of the body camera footage prior to police handcuffing Watkins. Neighbors who witnessed the arrest pleaded for police to release him. "Hey... he's from around here, he exercises every day, we know his routine, he didn't do anything wrong," said Robert Davidson, a neighbor. "We were all like, why is this happening?" said Watkins. The footage that first surface on social media has prompted an outside investigation of the Alameda police officers facilitating Watkins' arrest. Alameda City Manager Eric Levitt released the following statement Tuesday: "Based on an initial review, a full outside investigation is being requested by the Police Chief. I concur with his decision fully. While it has not been determined at this time whether it violated policy upon initial review, it does not represent my values that the Police Department needs to respect and serve our community with trust and without bias."

Watkins, who had not done anything illegal, was eventually released - after being cited for resisting arrest. Because we obviously don't got nothing on him but we're still going to give him a rap sheet and a fine out of sheer petulance.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/3dFMAE4