Bronze medalist Fred Kerley of Workforce United States reacts after competing within the Males’s 100m Remaining on day 9 of the Olympic Video games Paris 2024 at Stade de France on August 4, 2024, in Paris, France. | Supply: Michael Steele / Getty
If the Olympics gave out medals for how briskly an individual can escalate a scenario from a very non-violent confrontation to a full-on use of extreme power, there are a large number of American cops who would win the gold each time.
Final Thursday, U.S. Olympic sprinter Fred Kerley was roughed up, tased and arrested by cops in Miami, Florida, and is now dealing with fees of battery, resisting officers and disorderly conduct, CNN reported. Nonetheless, police physique digicam footage seems to point out that it was an officer, not Kerley, who initiated pointless bodily contact, and it seems that the cops are taking part in that sport the place they go from zero to 10 in mere seconds after which cite a citizen for “resisting” just because he didn’t reply to their sudden aggression with good and rapid compliance.
From CNN:
Police later launched physique digicam footage of the incident. It exhibits Kerley, who received a bronze medal within the males’s 100m on the 2024 Paris Olympics, approached by cops. One officer raises a hand that pushes sideways in opposition to Kerley’s chest, Kerley bats the hand away, earlier than an arm pushes Kerley and an altercation begins.
It’s not possible to listen to what’s being mentioned as there isn’t any sound on the video till the bodily confrontation begins. A number of officers push Kerley to the bottom within the wrestle, and one seems to hit him a number of instances. Within the arrest file, police say two officers misplaced their footing and fell on their again and that Kerley fell on prime of considered one of them. An officer then deploys a dart-firing stun gun on Kerley who falls to the bottom after being hit.
The officers had been conducting an energetic, unrelated investigation, when Kerley approached them, involved about his car which was parked within the space, Christopher Bess, a spokesperson for the Miami Seashore Police Division, informed CNN.
Bess alleged that Kerley “disregarded lawful instructions and bodily pushed one of many uniformed officers” earlier than resisting the officers’ makes an attempt to detain him.
It ought to be alarming to folks how casually cops can current an outline of occasions that contradicts what folks can see with their very own eyes in recorded video. The bodily altercation didn’t begin with Kerley bodily pushing an officer; it began with an officer placing his hand on Kerley, and Kerley transferring that hand away. If that’s legally thought-about “batter” of an officer then it’s clear cops and civilians are held to 2 completely different units of legal guidelines.
Yale Sanford, Kerley’s protection lawyer, known as the physique digicam footage “obscene” in a press release to CNN in a press release, and he famous that his consumer represented his nation within the Olympics solely to be mistreated by regulation enforcement again residence.
“It simply goes to point out that irrespective of how laborious you’re employed, what number of medals you earn on your nation, and the way many individuals throughout the globe you encourage, in Miami Seashore, Mr. Kerley was handled like thousands and thousands of African Individuals, female and male, across the nation…with a scarcity of humanity, compassion, or respect,” Sanford mentioned.
“It’s necessary for our neighborhood and nation to concentrate on these actions by police so we are able to be sure this kind of habits is prevented sooner or later,” he added. Sanford additionally criticized the concerned cops when Kerley appeared at Miami-Dade County Court docket on Friday afternoon.
On a aspect be aware, Kerley had one other scheduled court docket look Saturday for an unrelated case by which he’s “dealing with fees of theft and home battery after his spouse alleged he circled his arm round her neck and impeded her respiratory throughout an argument in Could 2024, per an arrest file filed with the Miami-Dade Police Division, which additionally alleges that Kerley took away her cellphone and drove off,” in line with CNN.
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