Almost two years after Brent Cox was arrested for observing police in Jackson, Mississippi, a municipal judge found him not guilty.
Cox, who works for the American Civil Liberties Union, had been charged with interfering with an officer, failure to obey a lawful order and disorderly conduct.
In other words, he was arrested for “contempt of cop”.
The case was such an obvious sham that it’s appalling that it took this long for a judge to finally see the light. And this is considering that Cox had the full backing of the ACLU, a privilege that many of us who have been arrested under these circumstances don’t experience.
On September 14th, 2007, Cox noticed that two Jackson police officers were questioning a young man in front of a grocery store. He stood a short distance away and began observing the interaction. One of the officers noticed him and told him to go away. He told her he had the right to observe.
The officer responded by saying, “someone wants to get arrested,” according to a complaint Cox filed after the arrest. She ended up moving him about 60 feet away.
Once the officers had released the man they were questioning, Cox walked up to them and asked for their names and badge numbers – public information that almost every officer has a problem giving out.
The officers refused to give him that information and the female officer even covered up her badge, according to Cox’s complaint.
Meanwhile, the male officer demanded to see his license, which he handed over. The officer then ran a background search on him through dispatch.
A sergeant then pulled up to the scene who ordered him arrested.
Hopefully the ACLU follows through with a civil suit against the Jackson Police Department.