The man who took the video of Alton Sterling being shot to death by police has for all intents and purposes been fired from his job for posting the video on social media.
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Christopher LeDay was arrested at his job less than a day after he posted the video of Sterling being killed by police. He was working at Dobbins Air Force Base when the police showed up and took him into custody for alleged assault and battery. LeDay’s lawyer says these are trumped up charges that are false.“He never had a warrant for an assault,” his lawyer, Tiffany Simmons, stated. “My client has never had any criminal history.”
She went on to say, “They never showed a warrant for an assault to my client, in fact my client was held in DeKalb County Jail for at least 26 hours and they never produced a warrant.”
When his lawyer asked to see the warrant for his arrest, and the police failed to come up with one, she was told that he was being held for unresolved traffic tickets. DeLay paid the tickets and went back to work. Or at least he tried to. He was not allowed on the base due to “security clearance issues.”
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He had only been working on the base for six weeks, and according to him, his supervisor knew about the tickets at the time he was hired. “He should not be penalized or possibly retaliated against, he should not be embarrassed at his place of employment for doing what is right,” Simmons said.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time police have harassed those who have videotaped police killings. Ramsey Orta, who filmed Eric Garner’s chokehold death by police, was arrested at least five times after the killing. One of those times was for taping another police arrest; in that case, the police claimed that he got too close with his camera.
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