Man illegally "detains" black teen, accuses him of stealing own bicycle

A Florida teenager was bicycling to basketball practice early on the morning of June 9th when he was stopped by a man in a vehicle who told him "you're not going anywhere" and demanded to know why he was outside at that time of day. The man, Luis Santos, then got out of his vehicle and implied the teen was under some kind of arrest as he dialed 911.

Quote:

“You’re being detained,” the man says in the video that he recorded. He then gets out of his vehicle and detains the boy. “I’m sorry,” the teen says. “You’re sorry?” Santos asks. Later, Santos called 911 and said, “I have somebody breaking into cars. We have it on video.” When a 911 operator asks the teen’s race, the man replies, “he’s a Black guy.” The teen was never accused of that crime, the state attorney’s office said. “You stay right where you at!” the man yells at the teen, as heard on the 911 call. “I think he stole one of the bikes,” Santos said to the 911 operator. He later identified himself to the 911 operator as an off-duty officer. According to prosecutors, Santos also compelled the teen to put his hands up and held his hand near his pocket, perhaps attempting to indicate that he had a gun. “The victim was visibly shaken and hyperventilating when deputies arrived, with his hands still over his head,” Warren’s office said. “He reasonably believed his life may be in jeopardy if he tried to leave or even move. Santos had no lawful authority to restrain a person in a public place and his own recorded words establish that he was restraining the victim, by threat, against his will.” After the incident, a Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputy hooked up the teen’s bicycle and drove him to practice, Warren said.

Santos himself took video of the encounter; however, the video in fact does not show the teen "breaking into cars" or committing any other crime, and Santos is not a police officer. The video does, however, implicate Santos as committing false imprisonment, for which he was charged.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/30fwiNT