If anyone needed to see a picture-perfect example of how ingrained police brutality against Black people is in the culture of policing, a video has gone viral showing a Dallas, Texas, police officer tasing a Black man who appeared to be handcuffed and had just shouted at onlookers to record the incident.
In the video, which was first posted on the Instagram account of Atlanta-based media network Punk Black, a Black man who identified himself as Michael Singleton is seen surrounded by officers at the Dallas Love Field Airport as he stood still with his hands behind his back. Singleton, who, according to SFist, is an executive chef based in Oakland, California, and Dallas, can be heard shouting at bystanders, “Somebody tape this. I didn’t do nothing. My name is Michael Singleton.”
One of the officers can be heard telling Singleton that he “has warrants,” to which Singleton responded by clarifying that he has a “traffic warrant.”
There were reportedly two people who filmed the arrest, one of whom was Musician Lizzy Ashliegh, who captioned the video: “This man said he was being framed and [asked] to film. I later overheard that a lady was misheard by the officers and they went straight into action when they assumed ‘white powder was involved.’ I hope what she really said goes back to the cops that took him away.”
So, it appears that the officers might have suspected Singleton of drug possession and/or distribution, of which he claimed he was innocent. Of course, none of that really mattered in the moment, because, while all of this is going down, Singleton is just standing there, hands pulled behind his back, showing no visible signs of resistance — which makes what happened next all the more confusing. (I mean, if you’re not well-acustomed to how commonplace it is for cops to default to excessive force, particularly when dealing with Black “suspects.”)
From SFist:
As Singleton is standing still with his hands pulled behind his back, police then take a step back and tase Singleton, who falls to the floor.
Witness: No! Why would y’all do this? He was just standing still!
Witnesses can be heard crying and panicking in the background.
Singleton: Oh my God! (to the crowd) My name is Michael Singleton. My birthday’s {redacted}. I’m Michael Singleton. (To the police) I have no warrants. I have a traffic warrant for {redacted}.
Police: That’s right. We’re trying to investigate it.
Singleton: No, you said I have cocaine! I’m not a drug dealer! {unintelligible}
Police: Calm down! Calm down!
Singleton is still on the ground being handcuffed.
Singleton: Hey, Man! I didn’t try to fight you. Why did you tase me?!
Police: You were … {unintelligible}
Singleton: I wasn’t {unintelligible}.. Somebody got me on tape.
Police: {unintelligible}
Even if one were the biggest “Back the blue” bootlicker on the internet, they would be hard pressed to find justification to ask, “Well, what happened before the video started rolling?” Everything you need to see is right in front of your eyes: a man is standing relatively still while asking the crowd to record him because he suspects the cops of malfeasance — and then one of the officers visibly vindicated his fears. Again, the officer had to know he was being recorded, not just because Singleton requested it, but because there’s a crowd of onlookers present, and everyone has a camera handy. How is one not supposed to suspect that the officer who tased an already surrounded and subdued man for no discernible reason was only comfortable doing it because that kind of excessive force is just regular-degular police work?
It’s unclear what happened to Singleton after the video ended, but SFist noted that it was also shared on fellow Oakland chef Edward’L’s Instagram account, and in the comments of that post, someone claiming to know the victim wrote: “Mike contacted me on FB tonight after I [shared] this post earlier. He is free and okay at the moment. The charges have been dropped including resisting arrest. He is lawyered up and it is in the courts hands now.”
SEE ALSO:
Jury Selection For Former Grand Rapids Cop Who Killed Patrick Lyoya Begins As Trial Looms
Alabama Judge Rules Cop Didn’t Prove Self-Defense In Fatal Shooting Of Black Man
Dallas Cop Tases Black Man Who Is Clearly Not Resisting Arrest In Viral Video
was originally published on
newsone.com
