The cop had an attitude from the get-go, confronting Milwaukee Bucks basketball player Sterling Brown over a parking violation at 2 a.m. in a Walgreens parking lot.
Brown handed him an identification but the cop called for backup anyway, obviously not recognizing him as a local professional athlete not that it should have mattered because there was no need to call for backup in the first place.
But the cop was on a power trip, telling Brown that “I own this right here,” referring to the parking lot that is most likely owned by Walgreens.
Brown had already given him his identification and had told him his name twice, but the cop still had an attitude, apparently not even realizing Brown had told him his name.
More cops arrived and surrounded Brown. It was January 26 and temperatures were below freezing. And Brown had his hands in his pockets.
And that made the cops fear for their lives, so they ordered him to remove his hands from his pockets and when he did not do it immediately, they tackled and tasered him.
The same cop who started the confrontation can be heard telling another cop that Brown brought it all onto himself.
“If the guy hadn’t been such a dick it would have just been, ‘Hey, have a nice day.’ You know. But then I thought OK, he’s being an ass, he’s trying to hide something,” the officer says.
But Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales did not agree, disciplining that cop along with others involved in the arrest, telling reporters during a press conference Wednesday that the officers “acted inappropriately” and that he was “sorry this incident escalated to this level.”
However, he did not release their names, which is a mockery considering how often his officers demand the names of citizens.
Nevertheless, the [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel](https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/crime/2018/05/23/milwaukee-police-arrest-video-bucks-nba-player-sterling-brown/634862002/) obtained the names of two of the cops.
> Sources have told the Journal Sentinel two sergeants, Jeffrey S. Krueger and Sean A. Mahnke, were among those who received discipline.
> Krueger was promoted to a sergeant last year. He was one of dozens of officers named in a series of federal civil rights lawsuits alleging illegal body and cavity searches by Milwaukee police. He was not characterized as a ringleader and was dismissed from at least one of those suits.
> Last year, Krueger received a merit award after he and two officers arrested a shooting suspect. He joined the Milwaukee Police Department in 2006 and received about $100,000 in pay, including about $7,700 in overtime, last year.
> Mahnke joined the department in 2006 and was paid about $105,000 last year, including nearly $12,000 in overtime pay. Mahnke was praised by the department in 2012 after he got a confession from a teen shooting suspect who fled from a house party.
No charges were ever filed against Brown, who is now planning on filing a lawsuit.
“This experience with the Milwaukee Police Department has forced me to stand up and tell my story so that I can help prevent these injustices from happening in the future,” Brown said in a statement after his arrest.
“Black men shouldn’t have to have their guard up and instantly be on the defensive when seeing a police officer, but it’s our reality and a real problem. There must be mutual respect and both sides have to figure out how to accomplish this.”
Watch the [full video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPSpmk7S4eg) here. A shortened edited version can be seen above.
