San Diego County sheriff’s deputies were not going to take a chance on Marcus Boyd, an insurance broker who has operated an office in Imperial Beach for 17 years.
After all, the 51-year-old man maintains a practice of placing stun guns on every desk inside his office as protection against the random characters that sometimes walk into his business in the Southern California beach town.
Last week, Boyd, who is black, said he kicked an irate customer out of his office who was having a mental health episode after the man had called him a “f*cking n*gger.”
The man, who is white, called deputies and accused Boyd of threatening him with one of the stun guns after spotting it on his desk.
Based on that man’s word alone, deputies handcuffed Boyd for 20 minutes, refusing to allow him to show them video footage proving he did not threaten anybody.
Deputies said they could not risk releasing him for their “safety” even though they outnumbered the 5-foot, 6-inch man three to one at first with an additional three deputies arriving moments later.
“When they came in, they accused me of felony assault with a deadly weapon,” he said in a telephone interview with PINAC News.
“But when they released me, they accused me of displaying a weapon in a threatening manner which is a misdemeanor if it’s done in the presence of a police officer.”
So even after concluding their “investigation,” they were still insistent that the other man was telling the truth despite Boyd offering to show them the video that showed the real truth.
The incident took place Thursday as the man was insuring a new vehicle. Boyd said the man accused his company of committing a clerical error which resulted in him having to pay a $14 fee to the state.
“That happened a long time ago and he just wanted to be sure the car he registered two days ago that it wasn’t going to happen,” Boyd said who also said the man was mistaken that his company had erred.
The man began acting aggressively and Boyd at first thought he was under the influence of drugs but the man’s wife later told him he suffered from mental illness.
Boyd said he cannot release the man’s name or the video under privacy restrictions imposed by his job but he was willing to show the deputies except they were not interested in seeing it.
Boyd believes he would have been treated differently had he been white and numerous studies confirm that black people get treated much harshly within the criminal justice system.
He intends to file complaints against the department through the citizen review board and intends to address the Imperial Beach City Council.
“A 17-year business owner in a city that is two miles by two miles surely could have (been treated with) better community policing,” he said.
As far as the stun guns on his desks, Boyd provided the following videos showing a random woman walking in with a dog which then proceed to bark at his employee before the woman took some cards off a desk and walked out.
The above video of the incident has been condensed. The whole video of the detainment is the third video posted below.
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