Father Tased By Police While Picking Up His Kids, Because He’s Black
What’s that, everyone? You wanted more video examples of people being horrible fucking fucks? I mean, sure, if that’s how you want to spend your Fridays, I’m happy to oblige.
Actually, not really. I long for the day where I wake up and there isn’t an example of someone being awful to or abusing or terrorizing someone else. But today is not that day. Today is a day where there is a cellphone video of a black man being tased for the audacity of sitting in a public area and waiting for his kids.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWH578nAasM]
This actually happened in January, but according to Gawker, the St. Paul, Minnesota father’s phone was confiscated and held until recently, which is why the video is only coming to light now.
Chris Lollie, 27, walks through the First National Bank Building Skyway after being asked to leave a public seating area by a store employee. A female officer follows, demanding to know his name and his problem with the shopkeeper.
Lollie calmly tells her that he doesn’t have to give his name””he knows his rights””and that “The problem is I’m black. That’s the problem.”
“I’ve got to go get my kids.”
As they continue walking toward Lollie’s kids’ school, another officer””identified in the police report as Bruce Schmidt””approaches them.
This is where stuff starts to get ugly. The second officer is aggressive and combative as he starts threatening Lollie, telling him to put his hands behind his back or he will get tased. Eventually Lollie does get tased, and while the video is dark, you can hear the audio very clearly.
You can hear Lollie begging passersby for help, telling the cop that he has asthma, and screaming, “That’s my kids right there! My kids are right there!”
The officer tases him anyway, arrests him, and Lollie is charged with ‘trespassing, disorderly conduct, and obstructing legal process”. These charges have been dropped.
Excuse me, what?
Here is a man who can not be portrayed so conveniently as a thug or a miscreant. He is a father, who is waiting for his children, and is harassed for doing so. He is polite but assertive, and he is well within his rights to not show his identification for having the audacity to be a black man in public.
Chris Lollie was singled out because he was black, and he says as much to the officer who is demanding to see his I.D. She finds this laughable and scoffs at him, making her the fourth stranger I’ve wanted to slap across the face this morning. It’s the second officer who really drives the point home; Lollie remains respectful, and isn’t even allowed to explain himself, saying:
“You’re going to go to jail. I’m not your brother, I’m not here to argue with you. Put your hands behind your back.” He won’t tell Lollie why.
Sorry, but no. Not long ago some fedora’d douchebag was walking down a street in Colorado with a loaded rifle. Like Lollie, he was not breaking the law. Like Lollie, he refused to show his identification in accordance with his civil rights.
Unlike Lollie, he was not tased and cuffed, presumably in front of his own children.
Anyone want to guess why? Anyone? Anyone?
If you think race has nothing to do with this, please fuck off right to the moon. You’re either being willfully malicious or willfully ignorant. Wake up. You shouldn’t have to be a respectable, “acceptable” black person to avoid bodily harm, but clearly even that isn’t enough anymore.
In an update with the Twin Cities Daily Planet, Chris expressed this frustration himself, and noted that posting the video was difficult because it remains hard to watch:
”It hurts, it really does,” he said. ”Because no matter what ”” I could be the nicest guy in the world, talk with respect, I can be working, taking care of my kids, doing everything a model citizen is supposed to do ”” and still I get that type of treatment.”
‘Muricah, ya’ll.
(Image: Facebook)
