Police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, mistakenly arrested a Black couple for a crime they didn’t commit, yet still charged them with resisting arrest, prompting an investigation.
HuffPost reported that witnesses told law authorities two Black men and a woman carrying a child had fled toward an Applebee’s after being involved in a hit-and-run accident on a nearby highway around 11 p.m. on July 20.
Instead of locating the individuals they were seeking, the police incorrectly confronted a Black man dining with a woman and baby at Applebee’s, then forcibly handcuffed him. Later, the cops found the ones they were looking for in a restaurant restroom.
The authorities charged the two people who were dining with disorderly conduct, resisting an officer and obstruction. The woman was also charged with marijuana possession.
Activists in Kenosha have denounced the accusations and the detention. In a press conference on Wednesday, a group called Leaders of Kenosha, founded by Tanya McLean, urged residents to discuss the issue with their elected leaders.
“The police officers, it just did not appear that they were using good judgment,” McLean, the organization’s executive director, said at a press conference, HuffPost reported. “We want to know why police officers are not being respectful to community members here in this city. What is it that makes you feel as if you need to be so overly aggressive? So confrontational?”
After a Facebook user shared it on Aug. 4, a bystander’s video of the incident spread over social media. The person claimed, “Kenosha has been doing super shady stuff lately and [they’re] trying to cover this up.”
The interrupted patron declared, “I’m not doing sh*t!” on the spectator video. He shouted, “Let me the f*ck go!” as police surrounded him near a table. He clung to the crying infant as officials attempted to remove the baby from his arms.
One cop took the infant, and two more tackled the man. An officer struck the victim repeatedly near or on his head as he lay face down on the ground, and another held his hands behind his back.
The woman calls out for her crying baby in the background of the video.
According to HuffPost, police told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the man was detained as the crash was investigated. In defiance of officers’ orders, the man attempted to flee and was stopped. He resisted being held and that’s when the encounter caught on camera happened.
“Just a complete lack of regard for people that do not look like you, that don’t have that uniform on,” McLean told those gathered this week, according to HuffPost. “What is it that just frightens you? Because we know that when people are fearful, they act in irrational ways.”
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